Connect with us

Published

on

Prince William and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg have teamed up to highlight the importance of tackling climate change.

The Duke of Cambridge and billionaire businessman Mr Bloomberg will be working together on the prince’s environmental initiative, called the Earthshot Prize.

Mr Bloomberg, whose estimated net worth is more than $60bn (£46.3m), has joined William’s initiative as a global adviser to the winners of the prize.

Undated handout file photo issued by Kensington Palace of the Duke of Cambridge at Alexandra Palace in north London, where the inaugural Earthshot Prize Awards will be held in October. The Duke of Cambridge has said the "amazing" entries in his Earthshot Prize competition should fill the world with "optimism and hope" as he announced the finalists. Issue date: Friday September 17, 2021. PA Photo. See PA story ROYAL Earthshot. Photo credit should read: Kensington Palace/PA Wire
Image:
The inaugural Earthshot Prize Awards will be held in October at Alexandra Palace

In an article for USA Today, the pair wrote: “An hour of change and challenge is upon us again, but this time the question isn’t whether we can reach the moon. It’s whether we can save the Earth.”

The prince and Mr Bloomberg described the prize as “a new call to action to the world”.

Mr Bloomberg, who founded the global provider of financial data Bloomberg LP, is the UN special envoy for climate ambition and solutions.

He was New York’s mayor between 2002 and 2013, running on a Republican ticket, but campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination last year.

More on Michael Bloomberg

He eventually dropped out a committed $100m (£ 77.2m) to helping Joe Biden defeat Donald Trump.

Democratic presidential candidate, Mike Bloomberg talks to supporters at a rally on February 20, 2020 in Salt Lake City, Utah
Image:
Mr Bloomberg has joined the duke’s initiative as a global adviser to the winners of the prize.

Mr Bloomberg tweeted on Tuesday that he was glad to take on the role of global adviser on the Earthshot prize.

“I look forward to drawing on my network of philanthropic, business and government leaders to help scale and replicate the winners’ solutions,” he said.

The £50m Earthshot Prize was launched by William in September and aims to recognise solutions, ideas and technologies that “repair the planet”.

It draws on former US president John F Kennedy’s Moon Shot project, which William and Mr Bloomberg say “created new jobs, launched new companies and spurred technological innovations”.

“The race to defeat climate change and protect the environment will be no different,” they wrote.

“The same steps that advance technology and cut carbon pollution also create jobs in new industries, while protecting public health and the natural resources we all depend on – changes that will benefit generations to come.”

Handout photo of Vinisha Umashankar with the solar-powered ironing cart she designed. The Duke of Cambridge has said the "amazing" entries in his Earthshot Prize competition should fill the world with "optimism and hope" as he announced the finalists. Issue date: Friday September 17, 2021. PA Photo. William launched the ambitious environmental prize to make a "positive personal" contribution in the fight against
Image:
One of the first finalists for the prize is Vinisha Umashankar, from Tamil Nadu, India. She has designed a solar-powered ironing cart

Every year from 2021 until the end of the decade, winners of the five Earthshot prizes will each receive £1m to be used for their ideas.

Entrants from around the world have been whittled down to 15 finalists, including a teenager from India who has designed a solar-powered ironing cart and the nation of Costa Rica, which has pioneered a project paying local citizens to restore natural ecosystems.

This year’s winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in London in October.

Subscribe to ClimateCast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Spreaker

Watch the Daily Climate Show at 6.30pm Monday to Friday on Sky News, the Sky News website and app, on YouTube and Twitter.

The show investigates how global warming is changing our landscape and highlights solutions to the crisis.

Continue Reading

US

Scottie Scheffler: Freak Christmas dinner injury forces world’s best golfer to undergo surgery

Published

on

By

Scottie Scheffler: Freak Christmas dinner injury forces world's best golfer to undergo surgery

The world’s best golfer has suffered a freak injury while cooking Christmas dinner, forcing him to undergo surgery.

Scottie Scheffler sustained a puncture wound after cutting the palm of his right hand on broken glass.

The world number one required surgery as small glass fragments remained in the palm after the accident.

The injury has forced him out of the first tournament of the season, next week’s The Sentry in Hawaii.

Scottie Scheffler. Pic: Reuters
Image:
Pic: Reuters

But the 28-year-old has been told he will recover in three to four weeks, and he hopes to be back in action at The American Express tournament in California on 16 January.

Scheffler won an Olympic gold and seven PGA Tour titles in the last year and was recently named PGA Tour’s Player of the Year for a third season in a row.

In May, he was arrested by police during the US PGA Championship after he was accused of trying to drive around a traffic jam caused by a fatal accident.

More from US

Spectators wore Free Scottie t-shirts and one wore an orange jumpsuit. Pic: Matt Stone-USA TODAY Sports via Reuters
Image:
Scheffler’s arrest became a major story at the US PGA Championship. Pic: Matt Stone-USA TODAY Sports via Reuters

Just hours later, he was released and allowed to return to Valhalla Golf Club in Kentucky to play his second round of the tournament.

Criminal charges against Scheffler were later dismissed due to a lack of evidence and a police officer who arrested him was disciplined for not having his bodycam on at the time of the incident.

Continue Reading

US

Man indicted on murder charge after sleeping woman burned to death on New York City subway

Published

on

By

Man indicted on murder charge after sleeping woman burned to death on New York City subway

The man accused of burning a woman to death on a New York subway train has been indicted on murder and arson charges.

Sebastian Zapeta is accused of setting a sleeping woman on fire and then fanning the flames with a shirt, which caused her to be engulfed by the blaze.

He allegedly sat on a platform at Brooklyn’s Coney Island station, opposite the stopped train, and watched as she burned to death.

Authorities are still working to identify the victim.

Zapeta, 33, has been charged with one count of first degree murder, two counts of second degree murder and one count of arson in the first degree.

After a brief hearing in which the indictment was announced, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said: “This was a malicious deed. A sleeping, vulnerable woman on our subway system.”

Mr Gonzalez said police and medical examiners are using fingerprints and advanced DNA techniques to identify the victim, while also retracing her steps before the murder.

“Our hearts go out not only to this victim, but we know that there’s a family,” he said. “Just because someone appears to have been living in the situation of homelessness does not mean that there’s not going to be family devastated by the tragic way she lost her life.”

Police officers patrol the F train platform at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue Station, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Image:
Officers patrol the platform where the woman died. Pic: AP

Zapeta was initially charged with murder and arson in a criminal complaint earlier this week.

Such filings are often a first step in the criminal process because all felony cases in New York require a grand jury indictment to proceed to trial, unless a defendant waives that requirement.

Zapeta was not present at the hearing. The most serious charge he is facing carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole and the indictment will be unsealed on 7 January.

More US news:
Pizza delivery woman stabs pregnant customer
Judge warns Jay-Z’s lawyer over rape case

Zapeta is a Guatemalan who entered the US illegally having already been deported in 2018, officials say.

He was taken into custody last Sunday, after three children called 911 when they recognised him from an image shared by police.

During questioning, prosecutors say he claimed not to know what happened, and noted he consumes alcohol – but did identify himself in photos and videos showing the fire being lit.

Continue Reading

US

Pizza delivery woman stabs pregnant customer over $2 tip, police say

Published

on

By

Pizza delivery woman stabs pregnant customer over  tip, police say

A pizza delivery woman stabbed a pregnant customer over a $2 tip, authorities in the US say.

Brianna Alvelo, 22, is charged with attempted murder after allegedly stabbing the woman multiple times at a motel in Kissimmee, Florida.

The victim, her boyfriend and her five-year-old daughter were staying at the Riviera Motel to celebrate a birthday and ordered Marco’s pizza on Sunday, according to a court document reported by Sky News’ US sister outlet NBC News.

Alvelo delivered the pizza which cost around $33 (£26) and was asked to provide change for a $50 bill but did not have the change, the affidavit said.

The woman then searched for smaller bills and in the end gave Alvelo a $2 tip.

Brianna Alvelo
Pic:Osceola County Jail
Image:
Brianna Alvelo Pic: Osceola County Jail

She told police that some time later she heard a loud knocking on the door. A man and a woman wearing masks and all black forced themselves into the room when she opened the door, she said.

The man brandished a silver revolver and demanded that the woman’s boyfriend go into the bathroom and the other person, believed to be Alvelo, pulled out a pocketknife, the document said.

As the woman turned to shield her child she felt a strike on her lower back, she said.

She then “threw her daughter onto the bed and attempted to pick up her phone”, the affidavit said, but Alvelo grabbed it and smashed it.

Alvelo then “began striking her multiple times with the knife”, according to the affidavit. The man who had the gun then yelled it was time to go, stopping the assault, it said.

Read more from Sky News:
Trump criticises Biden for death row decisions
Stranded astronauts send Christmas message

The woman received 14 stab wounds and discovered she was pregnant while being treated in hospital.

Alvelo is charged with attempted murder, home invasion with a firearm, kidnapping and aggravated assault, according to court records.

A man alleged to have accompanied Alvelo during the incident has not yet been identified.

Continue Reading

Trending