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POLITICO Pro Morning Energy and Climate UK: Pylon politics — PAC’s back — Inflation and net zero

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:48 GMT

Presented by SSE By CHARLIE COOPER and ABBY WALLACE PRESENTED BY View in your browser or listen to audioSNEAK PEEK— The U.K.’s grid infrastructure needs an overhaul to meet clean power targets. The problem? Pylons aren’t popular. — The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is hearing evidence today on the U.K. smart meter rollout.— Inflation ain’t budging. What does this mean for net zero?Good Thursday Morning and welcome to POLITICO Pro Morning Energy and Climate UK. Days are getting shorter again after Wednesday’s solstice— so here’s a sparkling update to try and keep everyone’s mood up. As always, please send all your thoughts, musings, tips and critique to [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected]. Or talk to us on Twitter: @hargraver; @charliecooper8; @abby_wallace3. If you are not already a Pro subscriber and would like a free trial of this newsletter, sign up here.DRIVING THE DAYWHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT: ...

Celtics’ initial trade for Kristaps Porzingis reportedly breaks down after Malcolm Brogdon injury concerns raised

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:48 GMT

Deal or no deal? The Celtics were still reportedly trying to get one done as midnight passed on Wednesday night.A blockbuster three-team trade between the Celtics, Wizards and Clippers that would have sent 7-foot-3 big man Kristaps Porzingis to Boston appeared to be close to completion as of late Wednesday afternoon. But at 10:22 p.m. Wednesday, ESPN reported that those trade talks had suddenly broken down, leaving uncertainty if a deal would get done.The initial framework of the trade – which was first reported by The Athletic – would have sent Porzingis to the Celtics, Malcolm Brogdon to the Clippers and players and draft compensation to the rebuilding Wizards. Brogdon, who makes $22.5 million next season, and Danilo Gallinari, who reportedly opted in to his $6.8 million option for next season, were part of the deal to match salaries in a return for Porzingis.NBA reporter Marc Stein reported that the trade collapsed after the Clippers raised concerns about Brogdon’s injury status....

Division over Carlsbad Unified School District plan for diversity, inclusion

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:48 GMT

CARLSBAD, Calif. –  The Carlsbad Unified School District is divided over a plan to incorporate more diversity and inclusion into the district.The planning process for the district’s “diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging” plan dates back more than two years. More than 50 public speakers signed up to weigh in on the topic Wednesday night.“Panic. I don’t think it’s based in any true sense of understanding,” said Ejehan Turker, a Carlsbad Unified parent in support of the plan, speaking about those opposing it.“We should be spending our money on education, not on DEI programs that cost $420,000,” said David Menard, pastor at Mission Church in Carlsbad.Dozens of school district parents and people part of the larger Carlsbad community filled the district meeting, prepared to sway the board to vote one way or the other. Students stage walkout over Carlsbad school district’s refusal to fly Pride flag “We’ve certainly had concerns about it from the beginning, in terms of some of the ...

Turkish central bank faces key test on economic turnaround after Erdogan’s reelection

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:48 GMT

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The Turkish central bank faces a key test Thursday on turning to more conventional economic policies to counter sky-high inflation after newly reelected President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave mixed signals about an approach that many blame for worsening a cost-of-living crisis.It is the bank’s closely watched first interest rate-setting meeting since the longtime leader named internationally respected officials to head the bank and the finance ministry. While a sharp rate hike is expected, it’s not clear if it will be enough to ease market concerns.The appointments were seen as a sign that Turkey would change course and abandon Erdogan’s unorthodox belief that lowering interest rates fights inflation. Traditional economic theory says just the opposite, and central banks around the world have been rapidly raising rates to combat spikes in consumer prices — including a likely rate hike Thursday by the Bank of England.Erdogan — a self-declared “enemy” of high b...

In Europe’s empty churches, prayer and confessions make way for drinking and dancing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:48 GMT

MECHELEN, Belgium (AP) — The confessionals where generations of Belgians admitted their sins stood stacked in a corner of what was once Sacred Heart Church, proof the stalls — as well as the Roman Catholic house of worship — had outlived their purpose. The building is to close down for two years while a cafe and concert stage are added, with plans to turn the church into “a new cultural hot spot in the heart of Mechelen,” almost within earshot of where Belgium’s archbishop lives. Around the corner, a former Franciscan church is now a luxury hotel where music star Stromae spent his wedding night amid the stained-glass windows.Across Europe, the continent that nurtured Christianity for most of two millennia, churches, convents and chapels stand empty and increasingly derelict as faith and church attendance shriveled over the past half century.“That is painful. I will not hide it. On the other hand, there is no return to the past possible,” Mgr. Johan Bonny, bishop of Antwerp, to...

Bank of England is set to hike rates to battle inflation. That means pain for borrowers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:48 GMT

LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England is poised to raise borrowing costs again on Thursday to combat stubbornly high inflation, which has failed to come down from its peak as quickly as expected.Though the consensus among analysts is that the central bank will raise its main interest rate by a quarter-percentage point — hitting a new 15-year high of 4.75% — there are concerns, certainly among borrowers, that it may opt for a bigger half-point increase. That larger hike would be particularly painful for people with loans, especially the 1.4 million or so households in the U.K. that will have to refinance their mortgages over the rest of the year.Central banks around the world, from the U.S. Federal Reserve to European Central Bank, have been rapidly raising interest rates to bring down inflation first stoked by supply chain backups tied to the rebound from the pandemic and then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Turkey’s central bank also was expected to raise rates Thursday in what cou...

Shifting S. Africa coal plant for clean energy needs millions in loans; experts say that’s a problem

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:48 GMT

MIDDELBURG, South Africa (AP) — Plumes of heat-trapping pollutants last billowed from the giant stacks of Komati Power Station in October, when the coal-fired plant that fed South Africa’s hungry electrical grid for more than half a century was shut down to make way for a solar, wind and battery storage plant.Converting Komati to be part of the clean energy revolution is seen as an important test case for coal-reliant South Africa, the world’s 16th-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and developing nations elsewhere. It’s supported by $497 million, most of it from the World Bank.The problem, energy experts say, is that almost all that money is in the form of loans that can be difficult for developing nations to repay. And that risks hobbling the global effort to cut emissions and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels to stave off the worst effects of climate change.For South Africa, which needs an estimated $38 ...

Britain marks the Windrush anniversary with the story of its Caribbean community still being written

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:48 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Seventy-five years ago, a ship landed at Tilbury Dock near London, carrying more than 800 passengers from the Caribbean to new lives in Britain.The arrival of the Empire Windrush on June 22, 1948, became a symbol of the post-war migration that transformed the U.K. and its culture. The term “Windrush generation” has come to stand for hundreds of thousands of people who arrived in the U.K. between the late 1940s and early 1970s, especially those from former British colonies in the Caribbean.Windrush Day is being marked on Thursday with scores of community and official events, including a reception hosted by King Charles III. Charles commissioned portraits of 10 Windrush passengers for the royal collection as a reflection of “ the immeasurable difference that they, their children and their grandchildren have made to this country.” There also is a national church service, a Windrush flag flying over Parliament and a set of commemorative stamps from the Royal Mail.Behind th...

Ambitious Saudi plans to ramp up Hajj could face challenges from climate change

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:48 GMT

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia has ambitious plans to welcome millions more pilgrims to Islam’s holiest sites. But as climate change heats up an already scorching region, the annual Hajj pilgrimage — much of which takes place outdoors in the desert — could prove even more daunting. The increased number of pilgrims, with the associated surge in international air travel and infrastructure expansion, also raises sustainability concerns, even as the oil giant pursues the goal of getting half its energy from renewable resources by 2030.Next week, Saudi Arabia hosts the first Hajj pilgrimage without the restrictions imposed during the coronavirus pandemic. Some 2.5 million people took part in the pilgrimage in 2019, and around 2 million are expected this year.Under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s wide-ranging plan to overhaul the kingdom’s economy, known as Vision 2030, 30 million pilgrims would take part in the Hajj and Umrah — a smaller, year-round pilgrima...

Judge to weigh suspending Wyoming’s first-in-the-nation ban on abortion pills

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:48 GMT

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming’s first-in-the-nation ban on abortion pills will come before a state judge Thursday as the court considers whether the prohibition should take effect as planned July 1 or be put on hold pending the outcome of a lawsuit.While other states have instituted de facto bans on the medication by broadly prohibiting abortion, Wyoming in March became the first U.S. state to specifically ban abortion pills. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in April that access to one of the two pills, mifepristone, may continue while litigants seeking to overturn the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of it.Two nonprofit organizations in Wyoming, including an abortion clinic that opened in Casper in April; and four women, including two obstetricians, have sued to stop Wyoming from curbing access to the abortion pills. On Thursday, Teton County Judge Melissa Owens will hear arguments about what should happen as the lawsuit plays out.Wellspring Health Access, Wyoming’s ...