Author: The Nexus Report

[ad_1] Climate campaigners have declared a victory after the Bank of England said it would no longer accept bonds linked to one of the most polluting industries on the planet for key loan arrangements.The ban, which comes into force in October, marks a fresh crackdown on thermal coal, which is burned in power plants to create electricity, and has long been a target of green policy activists.The Bank’s new policy suggests that bonds linked to thermal coal are now too risky to sit on its balance sheet, as an international shift away from dirty fossil fuels towards greener energy could…

[ad_1] Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, was driving to work with his brother and two other passengers in Houston, Texas, when immigration agents began tailing his car. They pulled him over and fired a fatal shot through the open passenger-side window.Six days later in Biddeford, Maine, Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, 26, was driving around his neighborhood when agents stopped him at an intersection – right outside the laundromat where he’d often go with his three-year-old daughter – and shot him dead.The two killings in less than a week have unleashed waves of grief and outrage across the US. Demonstrators gathered in…

[ad_1] Andy Burnham is considering radical plans that could cut household energy bills by £130 a year and make running a heat pump cheaper than a gas boiler.In his speech on Friday as he became the new Labour leader, Burnham promised to reduce the price of “essentials”, and a cost of living package is expected to be one of his first announcements in Downing Street.The energy proposal, drawn up by the thinktank Nesta and being examined by Burnham’s team, would change the way household gas is charged and remove some policy levies from bills, at a cost of £3.2bn a…

[ad_1] The White House has backed Argentina’s footballers who displayed a banner supporting their country’s claim to the Falkland Islands after their World Cup semi-final victory against England.After Argentina’s 2-1 win in a fractious match in Atlanta on Wednesday, some players held up a banner that said: “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” – using the country’s term for the South Atlantic islands.Keir Starmer supported calls for Fifa to investigate the incident on Friday and appeared to back Spain in the upcoming World Cup final against Argentina on Sunday.But Andrew Giuliani, the head of the White House Fifa taskforce, defended Argentina’s players,…

[ad_1] Voters in São Tomé and Príncipe go to the polls for a presidential election on Sunday as one of Africa’s least populous countries seeks to burnish its democratic credentials.According to the National Election Commission, about 142,000 people are registered to vote in the tiny African state’s elections, approximately 15% of whom live in the diaspora.Since gaining independence from Portugal in 1975, the island country off Africa’s west coast has built a solid reputation for peaceful, competitive elections. But this year’s vote comes amid a tense political atmosphere and a lingering constitutional crisis.The president, Carlos Vila Nova, is running for…

[ad_1] As his time in Downing Street comes to an end, Keir Starmer has been joking with friends about what he might do after he stands down as prime minister.He has teased that he might take a cookery course. “He needs it, he only makes two meals,” one friend said. Another not entirely serious suggestion was cutting his father-in-law’s hedge in the expectation that if he did well, he could graduate to lawns.Another ally suggested he would climb some mountains – actual ones rather than the metaphorical ones than have impeded his political career over the last two years. Beyond…

[ad_1] When Cuba’s national grid collapses, as it did for the third time in 10 days on Tuesday, a collective groan spreads across its cities and people wonder, again, whether the island’s antiquated electricity system may soon become unrecoverable.The 777-mile Caribbean island of 9.5 million people has been sweltering under a six-month-long oil blockade imposed by the US, part of a pressure campaign to bring down its communist government. But the parlous state of Cuba’s infrastructure goes far further back.“The backbone of the system is still the big power plants,’ said Jorge Piñon, a senior energy researcher at the University…

[ad_1] Andy Burnham’s plan to scrap the government’s technology department has triggered an angry backlash from MPs, Whitehall officials and tech experts.The incoming prime minister has asked officials to draw up plans to abolish the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology as part of a wider Whitehall shake-up.The plans have not yet been signed off, but they are causing significant disquiet among experts inside and outside government.The backlash comes amid concerns in the Labour party about some of Burnham’s early decisions, including the likely appointment of Shabana Mahmood as chancellor.Matt Clifford, an adviser on AI to the outgoing prime minister,…

[ad_1] New South Wales police have declared a “critical incident” after a man died following a police pursuit in the northern rivers area, hours after the same man allegedly evaded Queensland police while armed with a gun.The 25-year-old from Queensland was found unconscious at the wheel of a vehicle, which had driven down an embankment south of Murwillumbah, about 2am on Sunday, NSW police said.According to statements by police in Queensland and NSW, the white Ford utility was first brought to the attention of Queensland officers when members of the public called to report “an armed man” on Robina Town…

[ad_1] Warnings of dangerous conditions are expected to remain in place on Saturday across swathes of the US, amid uncertainty about where the heavy wildfire smoke swirling from the Canadian province of Ontario and the US state of Minnesota will head next.Some parts of the US mid-Atlantic and north-east regions will continue to endure poor air quality until Saturday afternoon, where there is a high chance of thunderstorms, which could bring some reprieve from the poor air but come with other risks like flash flooding and high winds. Meanwhile, parts of the midwest and Great Lakes regions will continue to…