What went right this week: how to stop politicians lying, plus more

Now here’s an idea that feels of the moment: forcing politicians who lie to face the public in a vote-of-confidence referendum. 

It’s a proposal that’s being given consideration in Wales. Under recommendations put forward by the Welsh Senedd’s standards committee, politicians who deliberately deceive would face a referendum-style vote in their constituencies to decide whether they are sacked or can stay on. 

The proposal coincides with a new study by the University of Southampton, England, which highlights a crisis in trust in politics globally. “The decline of public trust in political authorities is central to the challenges facing democratic governments in many countries today,” said lead author Dr Viktor Valgarðsson. 

According to Hannah Blythyn (pictured), who chairs the Senedd’s standards committee, giving voters the power to sack lying politicians could help restore trust. “Toughening rules for members of the Senedd and candidates standing for election is critical at a time when public trust in our institutions is low,” she said.

The proposals are being considered by the Welsh government, which has previously committed to introducing legislation aimed at making lying in politics illegal by 2025. Read more about it here.

Image: Senedd Cymru

Climate sceptics often misleadingly frame decarbonisation as a drag on the economy, but fresh analysis of the Chinese economy weakened that argument even further this week.  

The research by Carbon Brief, a climate reporting website, showed that China’s clean energy sector supercharged the nation’s economy in 2024, overtaking real estate sales in value. 

The analysis found that ‘green’ technologies – including renewables, electric vehicles and batteries – were responsible for around a quarter of the country’s GDP growth last year. 

China invested 6.8tn yuan (£745bn) in clean energy in 2024, the research showed, which is just shy of the £890bn invested globally in fossil fuels. 

“Electric vehicle production was the most valuable sector overall, followed by clean power production, rail transportation, electricity transmission and storage,” said Carbon Brief, which predicted even more investment in 2025.

Image: Shanghai. Credit: Denys Nevozhai

Republican states are benefiting most from the US’s surging solar sector, which grew at record pace last year.

At least that’s according to a report by Cleanview, a research organisation that tracks renewables progress in the US. It found that the country added 47% more green energy capacity in 2024 than it did in 2023. 

The surge in capacity – enough to power around 3.6m homes – was attributed to the falling cost of renewables and former president Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which created incentives for investment in clean technologies. 

The report revealed that a quarter of the country’s solar capacity is in just one state, Texas, which voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump, who has halted support for renewables as part of his pro-fossil fuel agenda. 

Image: Kindel Media

Europe’s rail renaissance has reached the Baltics, where a new train line has linked the capitals of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. 

Until this week, it was impossible to travel by train between Vilnius and Tallinn – the capitals of Lithuania and Estonia – in a single day. But a new route has connected the two cities, along with Riga, the Latvian capital, meaning travellers no longer need to drive or take multiple coaches. 

The line comes amid a boom in rail travel in Europe, where new night trains and long-distance routes are enticing more travellers out of the skies. Eurail, a travel company, says it has seen demand for rail itineraries grow by 25% between 2022 and 2023, amid concern about plane emissions and growing interest in ‘slow travel’.  

Image: Ketut Subiyanto

Reintroducing wolves to the Highlands of Scotland could allow native forests to flourish and help the UK meet its climate targets, new research suggests. 

Scientists at Leeds University, England, said that bringing back the predators – which were wiped out in Scotland 250 years ago – would curb deer numbers, allowing woodlands to thrive. This would store an extra 1m tonnes of CO2 per year, they added.

“The climate and biodiversity crises cannot be managed in isolation,” said lead author Prof Dominick Spracklen. “We need to look at the potential role of natural processes, such as the reintroduction of species, to recover our degraded ecosystems and these in turn can deliver co-benefits for climate and nature recovery.”

Bringing back wolves is controversial, with many farmers fearing they would target livestock. “Wide-ranging stakeholder and public engagement would clearly be essential before any wolf reintroduction could be considered,” said the study’s co-author Lee Schofield, a farmer. 

The university’s findings are backed by evidence from Yellowstone national park, US, where reintroduced wolves changed the ecology of the park, boosting biodiversity. 

Image: Gary Kramer

Researchers claim to have identified the “roadmap” that cancer cells use to leave a tumour and spread around the body – a development that “paves the way for treatments that will tackle cancer before it can spread”.

A decade-long study led by the Institute of Cancer Research London revealed how cancer cells are altered by their surroundings, enabling them to change their shape and break out of a tumour.

The breakthrough, they say, means that aggressive tumours that are likely to metastasise can now more easily be identified at an earlier stage – allowing clinicians to tailor treatment sooner.

“Our research has uncovered the roadmap that cancer cells follow to break out of a tumour, enabling it to cause a secondary tumour elsewhere in the body,” said lead researcher Prof Victoria Sanz Moreno. “Now that we understand this roadmap, we can look to target different aspects of it, to stop aggressive cancers from spreading.” 

Image: National Cancer Institute

Collecting water from fog could provide some of the world’s driest cities with a sustainable source of drinking water.

That’s the conclusion of a new report which examined the potential for ‘fog harvesting’ in the city of Alto Hospicio on the edge of the Atacama Desert, Chile. It’s one of the driest places in the world but is often enveloped by thick fog. 

That fog is an untapped resource according to researchers at Universidad Mayor, Santiago. They examined the potential of an existing low-tech system for harvesting fog – namely a fine mesh suspended vertically between two – for meeting the city’s water needs.  

Researchers estimated that 17,000 sq m of mesh would harvest enough water to meet the weekly water demand of 300,000 litres that is currently trucked into Alto Hospicio’s slums. Such systems are already used, albeit on a small scale, in Morocco.  

“Fog water collection in arid regions addresses immediate resource challenges in harmony with nature and represents a transformative step towards equitable and sustainable cities in the face of global water scarcity,” read the study. 

Image: Valle de la Luna, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. Credit: Vinícius Henrique Photography

Hydrogen has been billed as the future of home heating for years but has yet to live up to its promises. That could be about to change, however, after Scotland cut the ribbon on a collection of newbuild hydrogen homes.  

Located in Levenmouth on Fife’s east coast, the demonstration homes show how hydrogen can provide heating and cooking experiences similar to natural gas. 

Hydrogen emits only water vapour and can be produced using renewables but has been hampered by high costs and a lack of infrastructure for storage and transportation.

The H100 Fife project offers a proof of concept that could pave the way for similar developments, says SGN, the gas company behind it. 

“We believe that H100 Fife can act as a catalyst for regional decarbonisation,” said SGN’s CEO Simon Kilonback. “This project is also far more than just a hydrogen for home heating trial and will provide key evidence to support the development of the hydrogen economy, whether that be production, storage, distribution or operations.” 

Image: Alexandra Koch

A serene image of a mother humpback whale accompanying her calf to the surface of the ocean has been declared the overall winner of the annual Underwater Photographer of the Year award. 

The shot was taken by Spain’s Alvaro Herrero López-Beltrán who captured the scene in French Polynesia. “For me, this photo is one that shows a mother’s love for her calf, communicating both the fragility and beauty of our oceans,” he said. 

Peter Rowlands, a judge for the UK-based competition, said: “This delicate yet powerful study of a mother and calf’s bond says all that is great and good about our world. We face our challenges, but the increasing populations of humpback whales worldwide shows what can be achieved.”

Winning the British Underwater Photographer of the Year category was David Alpert’s shot (main image) of a curious seal off the coast of Lundy Island, Devon. 

Image: Alvaro Herrero López-Beltrán/Underwater Photographer of the Year award

Discarded fishing nets pose a grave danger to marine life, but not if the UK’s ‘ghost net’ hunters have anything to do with it. 

Around the country a growing network of volunteer divers are slipping beneath the waves to salvage abandoned fishing gear that may otherwise have trapped sea creatures.

Positive News caught up with some of them off the coast of Brighton. “When a crab is stuck in the net but then you get it free and it scurries off – that’s a great feeling,” said one volunteer we spoke to.

Read the full story here.

Image: Murray Ballard
Main image: David Alpert/Underwater Photographer of the Year Award