The first of a fleet of zero-emissions buses have started taking passengers around Londonderry.

It’s part of Translink’s plan to make Derry one of the first cities in the UK to operate a fully zero-emission bus service.

A mix of single and double-deck vehicles – 38 in total – will be phased into service over the coming weeks.

Translink’s Alan Young said it showed the company’s commitment to the Foyle Metro service and the environment.

Translink said it plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 and operate a zero-emissions fleet across all of Northern Ireland by 2040.

In 2022 Northern Ireland’s first electric buses were rolled out in Belfast.

Leaders of the eight Amazon rainforest countries are gathering on Tuesday for the first time in 14 years, with plans to reach a broad agreement on issues from fighting deforestation to financing sustainable development.

The summit of Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) members in the Brazilian city of Belem could agree to a regional pact to stop deforestation by 2030, end illegal gold mining, and cooperate on cross-border policing of environmental crime.

Leaders are expected to announce the final agreement, known as the Belem Declaration, late on Tuesday afternoon.

Presidents from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, and Peru are in attendance, while Ecuador, Suriname and Venezuela sent other representatives.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, previously expected to attend, on Monday announced that he was cancelling his public agenda on medical advice because of an ear infection.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pledged on the campaign trail last year to convene the summit, as part of his bid to restore Brazil’s environmental leadership after deforestation soared under his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.

A Brazilian government source, who was not authorized to speak to the media, said the Belem Declaration will likely include financing mechanisms for sustainable development, provisions for including Indigenous leaders in policymaking, and shared strategies for tackling deforestation.

Whether an agreement can be reached on ending deforestation by 2030 will likely hinge on Bolivia, where destruction has soared recently due to fire and rapidly expanding farming.

The agreement is also likely to outline channels for sharing technology and for municipal governments to exchange best practices, the source said.

ACTO Executive Director Carlos Lazary said the final agreement may include Brazil’s plans for a regional center in Manaus where Amazon countries can coordinate police operations.

The European Union recently passed a law prohibiting companies from importing beef, soy, cocoa and other products linked to deforestation.

On Wednesday, Amazon countries will meet with leaders of the Congo, the DRC and Indonesia, looking to issue a joint statement from the world’s three major rainforest basins.

Norway and Germany, which have funded Amazon preservation, and France, which controls the Amazon territory of French Guiana, will also participate.

China’s foreign ministry on Tuesday repeated its call for the Philippines to tow away a grounded warship – a rusted-out World War Two relic used as a base – from a disputed shoal, after Manila told Beijing it would not abandon the area.

The dispute over the Second Thomas Shoal in South China Sea came after Manila accused China’s coast guard of “excessive and offensive actions” against Philippines vessels.

“China once again urges the Philippine side to immediately remove the warship from Second Thomas Shoal and restore it to its unoccupied state,” China’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

China has communicated to the Philippines on the Second Thomas Shoal issue “many times” through diplomatic channels, but its goodwill and sincerity have been “ignored”, it added.

The Chinese coast guard released a video on Tuesday showing its ship spraying the Philippine vessel with a water cannon on Aug. 5 as what it described as a “warning”, adding that it has exercised “rational restraint” at all times.

The video showed the water cannon spraying near the smaller Philippine vessel without hitting it.

Jonathan Malaya, assistant director general of the Philippines’ National Security Council, repeated comments he made on Monday, saying, “The Philippines will never abandon our post in Ayungin Shoal”.

“We urge China not to escalate matters by water cannons or military-grade lasers, which places Philippines lives at risk, but by sincere negotiations and other diplomatic means,” he added.

The Edmund Pettus Bridge is a historic bridge which is a great symbol of momentous changes that occurred in the US, located in the city of Selma, the State of Alabama, within the United States of America.

The name of the bridge comes from the former Confederate brigadier general, US Senator from Alabama of the Democratic Party and the Grand Dragon of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan, Edmund Winston Pettus.

This big steel through arch bridge was built by the T. A. Loving Company between 1939 and 1940, and the dedication took place right after its completion.

The large central part of the bridge has a span of 76 meters (250 feet), and there are nine large concrete arches that support the bridge and roadway, carrying the US Route 80 Business.

Nonetheless, the most important historic moment took place in 1965, when there was a march that began on 7 March which was part of the Selma to Montgomery Marches.

On that historic day, which is a great symbol for the African American community in the US, there were between 525 and 600 people who marched for civil rights in their country.

Led by John Lewis from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Reverend Hosea Williams from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), who were followed by Bob Mants from the SNCC and Albert Turner from the SCLC, the march went as it was supposed to be, according to the plan, until the marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

As they were planning to march to the state capital Montgomery, they encountered a wall of state troopers and county posse after crossing the bridge, when after a short word exchange between the commanding officer John Cloud and Reverend Hosea Williams, the troopers began to shove the demonstrators, knocking many to the ground and beating them with nightsticks.

Then, another detachment of troopers fired tear gas, and mounted troopers charged the crowd on horseback. In total, there were 17 hospitalized marchers and another 50 who were being treated for lesser injuries.

There were plenty of televised images that circled the country, which caused a roused support for the Selma Voting Rights Campaign, and the day nowadays is known as the Bloody Sunday.

Today, the bridge has become one of the most hallowed places in America’s civil rights history, and there is a movement for the bridge to be renames as Edmund Pettus had been supporting the slavery and racism in the South, and even was fighting during the Civil War.

According to some residents in Selma, Alabama, the name change won’t cause an improvement of the race relations, but will bring some intense situations.

It was already attempted for the name to be changed in 2010 which failed, however, probably it is is better for the bridge to be left as it is and its history to speak, or if not, then one name that would signify the best solution would be Bridge of Equality.

It should be mentioned also that on the 50th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday, the US President Barack Obama, together with other U.S. political figures such as former U.S. President George W. Bush and Representative John Lewis and Civil Rights Movement activists such as Amelia Boynton Robinson, led a march across the bridge, showing how far the American society has come with hope that there will be no more racial differences.