Glasgow and Edinburgh are going head-to-head to try to become the UK's first "net zero" city.
Both cities have now unveiled ambitious plans to cut greenhouse emissions to a neutral level.
Glasgow wants to reach the target "well before" 2045, while Edinburgh has set its target to 2030.
Scottish Power is helping Glasgow with its aims and says a "race to zero" is exactly what is needed to effect a significant change.
The company believes if inner cities can achieve the goal, then any location can.
Both bids exceed the Scotland-wide 2045 ambition announced by the Scottish government earlier this month.
Glasgow's plans include mass charging points for electric vehicles.
Glasgow City Council and Scottish Power say they will work on a range of programmes to help the city reach the target, including the power giant investing in electric buses.
Edinburgh's initiative will concentrate on local supply chains being redeveloped for "construction and refurbishment in low carbon design".
A "circular economy" could be created - focusing on local production, low waste and increased recycling. More renewable energy will be generated locally.
Net-zero is the point where the same volume of greenhouse gases is being emitted as is being absorbed through offsetting techniques like forestry.
Scottish Power chief executive Keith Anderson says Scotland was right to put itself at the front of the race to become net-zero.
Speaking on BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme, he said: "If this declaration kick starts a race to zero with other ambitious cities, like Edinburgh, because then we will all be winners.
"The prize is the future of our country and our planet.
"For Scotland to get to net carbon zero by 2045 the cities have to get there first. Edinburgh has announced plans to be more ambitious and we are working very closely with Glasgow council, so let's have some competition.
"A 'race to zero' is a good thing. It is a healthy thing and will create a better environment, cleaner air, so let's go on and start the race."
The move came after Nicola Sturgeon declared a "climate emergency" at the SNP party conference last month.
A week later the Scottish government said it would legislate to reduce greenhouse emissions to net-zero by 2045.
Advice from the Committee on Climate Change urged Scotland to set the target five years ahead of the UK as a whole because of its potential for planting trees.
Scottish Power said renewable energy capacity had to quadruple and electricity generation needed to double before Scotland could meet the target.
The terms carbon neutral and net-zero are often used interchangeably but there are differences.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most abundant greenhouse gas but there are others which the Scottish government counts and they are not all carbon-based.
Therefore, some climate change campaigners prefer the term net-zero as it includes not just CO2 and methane but also nitrous oxide, which is emitted during agricultural and industrial activities as well as from fossil fuels.
Simply being carbon neutral would not stop global warming because these other gases are also harmful to the atmosphere.
Perhaps an even better term would be "climate neutral".
Glasgow was the location of Scotland's first low emission zone (LEZ), which intends to phase out the dirtiest buses from the city centre over five years.
The UK's largest onshore wind farm, Whitelee, which is owned by Scottish Power, is on the outskirts of the city.
The focus is now expected to turn to other parts of the city's economy that can be decarbonised, such as transport and heating.
Among the issues they are expected to tackle is that of electric vehicle charging.
More than 70% of the city's residents living in flats are unable to charge electric cars as they have no off-street parking.
Scottish Power says it is planning a charging system where people can rapidly charge their vehicles away from home - at work or at public charging locations.
Sites for these locations are being assessed and the scheme could become a template for other UK cities facing similar problems.
Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken said: "We simply have to act now and the Glasgow city government will develop those partnerships necessary to get to where we simply have to be. We need to be a net-zero city. And we need to be the UK's first net-zero city."
Council heads in the capital have set one of the most ambitious targets globally - 15 years earlier than the Scottish government's ambition.
The council says it faces "tough choices" including replacing conventional gas boilers in properties with carbon neutral alternatives.
It will also become more difficult to access the city centre by car with priority given to cyclists, pedestrians and those using public transport.
Freight hubs could also be set up outside the city - allowing for low carbon alternatives to bring goods into the Capital.
There will be an increase in council and city generation of renewable energy including the "use of council land and property for micro-generation, support local groups to develop renewables projects and encourage innovation in adopting new technologies".
Waste services are also set for an overhaul. The council hopes to develop a new "energy recovery facility" to manage non-recyclable waste.
Council leader Adam McVey said: "We are quite clear the 2030 target should be the target for this organisation and this city - but with a hard limit of 2037.
"I think it's important that this organisation responds to the challenges we all recognise they are incredibly serious. I think it's important that we as a city take our responsibility seriously."
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Theresa May is giving MPs another chance to vote on Brexit in early June - whether or not the government and Labour have reached a deal by then.
A vote on the bill that would pave the way for Brexit was "imperative" if the UK was to leave the EU before MPs' summer recess, Downing Street said.
Labour sources say they will not back the bill without a cross-party deal.
If Mrs May's plan is defeated, Number 10 said the UK is set for no deal or for Article 50 to be revoked.
That is because the EU will not grant a further extension beyond 31 October, says BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith.
Attempts to find a cross-party compromise began after the PM's Brexit deal was rejected three times by MPs.
But government sources have told the BBC that there would not be a further attempt if the plan is rejected.
The vote - which will take place when MPs return from half-term recess - would bring the withdrawal agreement into UK law via the Withdrawal Agreement Bill.
The prime minister has negotiated a withdrawal agreement with the EU, which MPs have effectively rejected three times in Commons votes.
The prime minister and Mr Corbyn met on Tuesday evening to discuss the ongoing talks.
Number 10 described the discussions as "both useful and constructive".
A spokesman said Mrs May had made clear the government's "determination to bring the talks to a conclusion and deliver on the referendum result to leave the EU".
A Labour party spokesman said Mr Corbyn had "raised doubts over the credibility of government commitments, following statements by Conservative MPs and cabinet ministers seeking to replace the prime minister".
He also said the Labour leader had called for "further movement" from the government and that the prime minister's team had agreed to bring back "further proposals tomorrow".
Bringing the EU Withdrawal Agreement Bill forward would allow the prime minister to push ahead with her ambition of delivering Brexit before the summer - despite the lack of agreement so far in the cross-party talks, said BBC political correspondent Iain Watson.
Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay said: "It is now time for Parliament to make a decision, reflecting the manifestos of both the Conservative and Labour parties at the last general election and to deliver Brexit in the way that the public were promised."
In the 2017 general election, the two main parties promised in their manifestos to respect the result of the Brexit referendum.
International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said that if MPs do not vote for the government's Brexit plan next month, then it will "take us to either the potential of revocation of Article 50 or leaving without a deal".
He said MPs will have to decide "if they want to vote for Brexit or not".
Brexiteer and Conservative MP Steve Baker said bringing the bill forward "over the heads" of DUP MPs - on whom the government relies for a majority - would "eradicate the government's majority".
"What is the government thinking?" he asked.
DUP Westminster leader Nigel Dodds said: "If the prime minister brings the withdrawal bill to the Commons for a vote, the question will be, 'What has changed?'.
"Unless she can demonstrate something new that addresses the problem of the backstop, then it is highly likely her deal will go down to defeat once again."
The backstop is the controversial part of the withdrawal deal that aims to ensure an open border on the island of Ireland if the UK leaves the EU without securing an all-encompassing deal.
It's not exactly the same thumbs up or thumbs down that another meaningful vote would be. That is a straightforward yes or no to the divorce deal that the prime minister negotiated with the EU.
This time, it will be the Withdrawal Bill which is a whole tome of new laws that will be needed to take us out of the European Union.
The draft of that bill is still being kept under wraps. Very, very few people have seen it. It's much more detailed than just a vote on the agreement would be.
Of course, that gives people more things to object to.
Although Theresa May might have pleaded in cabinet that people on all sides have to move away from absolutism, and move to a mood of compromise, there's not much sign of it.
As and when that bill actually emerges, that may well - in the words of one cabinet minister - make things worse before they can get better.
The UK needs to pass a law to implement the withdrawal agreement - the part of the PM's Brexit deal which will take the country out of the EU - in UK law.
This is a requirement under the terms of previous Brexit legislation passed last year.
The legislation would make the citizens' rights part of the agreement directly enforceable in UK courts, and set their relationship with the EU's Court of Justice.
It will also allow ministers to make "divorce payments" to the EU foreseen under the current deal, and give effect to the so-called backstop plan for the Irish border.
MPs will be able to vote on amendments to the bill, and this could allow ministers to make good on any compromise they reach with Labour in the cross-party talks.
If the bill is introduced in the first week of June it will come seven days after the European Parliament elections - which Education Secretary Damian Hinds has acknowledged could be "difficult" for the Conservatives.
A state visit by US President Donald Trump and a by-election in Peterborough will also take place that same week.
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Glasgow has unveiled plans to become the first UK city to reduce its greenhouse emissions to net-zero.
The city wants to reach the target before 2045, beating the Scotland-wide ambition announced by the Scottish government earlier this month.
The plans include mass charging points for electric vehicles.
Net-zero is the point where the same volume of greenhouse gases is being emitted as is being absorbed through offsetting techniques like forestry.
Glasgow City Council and Scottish Power say they will work on a range of programmes to help the city reach the target.
They hope the announcement will fire the starting gun on a "race to zero" with other cities like Edinburgh.
The move came after Nicola Sturgeon declared a "climate emergency" at the SNP party conference last month.
A week later the Scottish government said it would legislate to reduce greenhouse emissions to net-zero by 2045.
Advice from the Committee on Climate Change urged Scotland to set the target five years ahead of the UK as a whole because of its potential for planting trees.
Scottish Power said renewable energy capacity had to quadruple and electricity generation needed to double before Scotland could meet the target.
The terms carbon neutral and net-zero are often used interchangeably but there are differences.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most abundant greenhouse gas but there are others which the Scottish government counts and they are not all carbon-based.
Therefore, some climate change campaigners prefer the term net-zero as it includes not just CO2 and methane but also nitrous oxide, which is emitted during agricultural and industrial activities as well as from fossil fuels.
Simply being carbon neutral would not stop global warming because these other gases are also harmful to the atmosphere.
Perhaps an even better term would be "climate neutral".
Glasgow was the location of Scotland's first low emission zone (LEZ), which intends to phase out the dirtiest buses from the city centre over five years.
The UK's largest onshore wind farm, Whitelee, which is owned by Scottish Power, is on the outskirts of the city.
The focus is now expected to turn to other parts of the city's economy that can be decarbonised, such as transport and heating.
Among the issues they are expected to tackle is that of electric vehicle charging.
More than 70% of the city's residents living in flats are unable to charge electric cars as they have no off-street parking.
Scottish Power says it is planning a charging system where people can rapidly charge their vehicles away from home - at work or at public charging locations.
Sites for these locations are being assessed and the scheme could become a template for other UK cities facing similar problems.
Scottish Power chief executive Keith Anderson says Scotland was right to put itself at the front of the race to become net-zero.
"It is our hope that this declaration kick starts a race to zero with other ambitious cities, like Edinburgh, because then we will all be winners," he will tell the All Energy Conference in Glasgow later.
"The prize is the future of our country and our planet."
But he will say that the target will not be met if "we keep inventing ways to block new renewable capacity".
"Onshore wind in particular has suffered as a consequence and the time has come for a fundamental rethink.
"We've been able to compensate to some extent by racing ahead with large offshore wind projects, but quadrupling capacity can't rely on putting all our eggs in one renewable basket.
"We've said very clearly we will aim to invest £6 billion in renewable capacity by 2022. The easier it is to do this, the quicker we all get to net-zero."
All of the electricity Scottish Power generates for its customers comes from nearly 40 onshore and offshore wind farms across the UK.
Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken said: "We simply have to act now and the Glasgow city government will develop those partnerships necessary to get to where we simply have to be. We need to be a net-zero city. And we need to be the UK's first net-zero city."
The announcement was welcomed by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
"Today's announcement between Scottish Power and Glasgow City Council - to make Glasgow the UK's first net zero city - is a very welcome step.
"Reaching our goals will need exactly this kind of partnership approach - with Government, business, local authorities and citizens all playing their part."
Vodafone has announced that its 5G network will go live on July 3rd, making it the first UK carrier to set a hard date for the launch of its next-gen mobile network. The service will be available in seven cities at first, and Vodafone plans to release four handsets and one home router on its network in the coming months. The operator says that prices for its 5G plans will be the same as their 4G equivalents, and will announce the new price plans next week.
Vodafone is the first of the UK’s four major operators to announce a specific date, but its 5G network might not be the first to actually arrive. EE has said that it plans to launch its 5G network this summer, without a firm date. That could change soon, however, as the operator has said it will make a 5G announcement at the OnePlus 7 launch later today. Meanwhile, Three will launch its network in the second half of this year, while O2’s network will be available before the end of the year.
At launch, Vodafone’s 5G network will be available in seven cities; Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool and London. By the end of the year, the operator plans to add 12 more cities — Birkenhead, Blackpool, Bournemouth, Guildford, Newbury, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Reading, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Warrington and Wolverhampton — for a total of 19 cities. Outside of the UK, Vodafone will offer 5G roaming across Germany, Italy, and Spain.
Four 5G phones will be available for the new network soon. The first of these, the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G, will go on sale starting next week, while the Huawei Mate 20 X (5G) and Samsung S10 5G will be available to preorder later this month. Vodafone also says that Huawei’s 5G foldable handset, the Huawei Mate X, will be available this summer, and that a 5G home router called the 5G Gigacube will also be available. Pricing of these handsets and router is due to be announced next week, and they will initially be available to use on 4G networks before the July 3rd switch on date.
A July launch for Vodafone’s network means the UK’s first next-gen mobile network could arrive months after the US. Verizon’s 5G network was switched on in the beginning of April in parts of Chicago and Minneapolis, but at the time we found that coverage was very limited when we tried it for ourselves. There was also only one 5G device available at the time. Verizon also chose to charge $10 extra for 5G over 4G, while Vodafone customers will get access to the new network at no extra charge. So while the UK has had to wait longer than the US for its first 5G network, at launch it will be available in more cities, with more devices, and at no extra cost over 4G.
Chevon Brown was 21 when he decided to take his car for a spin - despite the fact he was a learner driver with no insurance.
When he saw flashing blue lights in his rear view mirror, he says, he panicked. Instead of slowing down, he sped up, reaching speeds of 115mph.
The police chased him through the streets of Oxford for around five minutes. Chevon drove through red lights, on the wrong side of the road, and across front gardens, before he was arrested.
He was sentenced to 14 months in prison for dangerous driving and driving with no insurance.
The judge told him it had been a "terrifying catalogue of driving" and anyone coming out of the flats where his car crossed the gardens "would not have stood a chance".
Chevon eventually served eight months. He hoped he would serve his time and go back to working as a barber in his father's shop.
He had no idea that his actions - which he puts down to "stupidity" - would result in him being removed from the UK, the place he calls home.
In February, Chevon was sent back to Jamaica, the country he left aged 14.
Chevon came to the UK on a Jamaican passport to live with his father, and had indefinite leave to remain.
But the government can deport foreign nationals if they have been sentenced to prison for at least 12 months. Nearly 45,800 foreign offenders have been deported since 2010.
Since returning to Jamaica, Chevon says he doesn't feel safe. "I am nervous walking down the street," he says. "Anything could happen - every day people die here."
According to UN data, Jamaica had a murder rate of 47 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2016. In the UK, the rate was 1 per 100,000.
The Guardian recently reported that five men were killed in Jamaica after being deported from the UK during the past 14 months. British MP David Lammy responded by asking the government to "press pause" on all deportations to Jamaica.
Chevon, now 23, says he often hears gunshots in Jamaica and occasionally sees people walking the streets brandishing knives.
He says he's scared, "no longer makes plans" for his life and often thinks about "why this happened" - at the same time blaming himself "every single day" for his mistakes.
"I miss working," he says. "I miss my family and I class England as my home. All my plans, everything I wanted to do with my life is over there."
He also says comments from Home Secretary Sajid Javid were unhelpful.
When Chevon was deported - on the first such flight since the Windrush scandal - Mr Javid said the deportees had committed "very serious" crimes.
Jamaican media reported the comments, which Chevon says made people "think I'm a murderer or a rapist... a menace to society".
Chevon said it is difficult to make friends or find work. His dad, Vance Brown - who says he is "worried sick" about his son - sends money to Chevon and the family he stays with, as well as providing for his other young children in the UK.
The government, which does not officially monitor returnees, says it only returns "those with no legal right to remain in the UK" - if they and the courts "deem it is safe to do so".
But immigration lawyer Jacqueline McKenzie says the government should revisit its rules. She refers to a Home Office review written by Stephen Shaw, a former prisons and probation ombudsman.
"For low-risk offenders, it seems entirely disproportionate to tear them away from their lives, families and friends in the UK, and send them to countries where they may not... have any ties," the review said.
He recommended that "the Home Office should no longer routinely seek to remove those who were born in the UK or have been brought up here from an early age".
Oswald Dawkins is president of the National Organization of Deported Migrants (NODM), a non-profit organisation which supports deportees upon arrival in Jamaica, and receives funding from the UK government.
He said the UK should take more care to "look at each individual case" to consider the ties to both countries, as many deportees leave families and careers behind.
While he doesn't dispute that countries have the right to control their borders, he says: "The UK should not deport people en masse.
"There are persons who have returned without any strong family contact and for quite a number of them, all their families are in the UK - including children."
The Home Office said it works with "a number of non-governmental organisations" that provide support for returnees.
It added: "We are committed to ensuring safe and dignified returns and reintegration is a key part of that."
The Jamaican High Commissioner was contacted for comment.
LONDON (Reuters) - European elections will be difficult for Britain’s governing Conservatives, their education minister said on Sunday, after the party slumped into fourth place in an opinion poll and a new Brexit Party took top spot.
Almost three years since Britain voted to leave the European Union, the country’s Brexit process has become mired in chaos with Prime Minister Theresa May’s inability so far to get a deal through parliament fuelling anger among voters.
With little movement in talks between the government and the opposition Labour Party to try to end the impasse in parliament, an election to the European Parliament on May 23 will offer a new opportunity for voters to show their discontent.
And both of Britain’s main parties, which are deeply divided over how to leave the EU, are set to be punished by frustrated Britons, with the Conservatives losing votes to the new Brexit Party, led by veteran eurosceptic campaigner Nigel Farage.
“I don’t think anyone is in any doubt these are going to be difficult elections for us ... for some people this is the ultimate protest vote opportunity,” education minister Damian Hinds told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
With the March 29 deadline for Brexit rapidly becoming a distant memory, Britain is increasingly divided between those who want the country to leave the EU abruptly with no deal and those who hope to avert Brexit - options neither big party back.
According to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer newspaper, Farage’s newly formed party is on 34% before the European election, with Labour in second place on 21% and the Conservatives back in fourth on 11%.
May’s government hopes that Britons elected to the European Parliament will not need to take their seats, still wanting to get a divorce deal passed by parliament before the end of June.
But talks with Labour to try to secure what ministers describe as the “stable majority” in parliament to get the deal, or Withdrawal Agreement, ratified, have yet to find a breakthrough which would offer the government opposition votes.
Labour policy chiefs offered little optimism that an agreement was in the offing, and Gavin Williamson, who was sacked by May as defence minister this month, said the talks “can only ever end in tears” in the Mail on Sunday newspaper.
Jon Ashworth, Labour’s health policy chief, said the party’s negotiators were “not getting very far” in trying to persuade the government to adopt its Brexit plan, which envisages a permanent customs union - something that is anathema to many pro-Brexit Conservatives.
Labour’s trade policy chief Barry Gardiner told Sky News one of the “big sticking points” was that there was no guarantee that any successor to May would “actually deliver on it”.
May is under pressure from some Conservatives to quit office sooner than her pledge to resign after the first phase of the Brexit process is complete, prompting ministers and other hopefuls to pronounce their leadership ambitions.
But other ministers said now was not the time to force May out, arguing her departure would do little to change the arithmetic in parliament, which has already rejected her deal three times.
“This is about the maths in our parliamentary party and indeed in parliament itself,” Hinds said.
“No one should be under any illusion that just changing the person in that position would change the parliamentary reality.”
Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Keith Weir
