Brazil is bracing for a historic court decision which could remove the most popular leader in modern Brazilian history from an election he is currently poised to win – and may prove devastating to the leftwing Workers’ party he founded. Nerves are stretched taut ahead of Wednesday’s appeals court decision, in which three judges will decide whether or not to uphold the conviction of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on corruption and money laundering charges.

Lula – who is still hugely popular after his 2003-2010 two-term presidency – is currently the early favourite in October’s presidential election. Porto Alegre’s rightwing mayor Nelson Marchezan asked for the army to protect the city from thousands of Lula supporters expected to descend. The Workers’ party president, Gleisi Hoffmann, said last week that for Lula to be arrested, “they will have to kill people” – although she later qualified the remark. Authorities have closed airspace over the court, sealed off the surrounding streets, and plan to deploy helicopters, elevated observation platforms and even rooftop sharpshooters.(theguardian)…[+]

The world’s first fully electric, emission-free and potentially crewless container barges are to operate from the ports of Antwerp, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam from this summer. The vessels, designed to fit beneath bridges as they transport their goods around the inland waterways of Belgium and the Netherlands, are expected to vastly reduce the use of diesel-powered trucks for moving freight.

Dubbed the “Tesla of the canals”, their electric motors will be driven by 20-foot batteries, charged on shore by the carbon-free energy provider Eneco. The barges are designed to operate without any crew, although the vessels will be manned in their first period of operation as new infrastructure is erected around some of the busiest inland waterways in Europe.

In August, five barges – 52 metres long and 6.7m wide, and able to carry 24 20ft containers weighing up to 425 tonnes – will be in operation. They will be fitted with a power box giving them 15 hours of power. As there is no need for a traditional engine room, the boats have up to 8% extra space, according to their Dutch manufacturer, Port Liner. About 23,000 trucks, mainly running on diesel, are expected to be removed from the roads as a result. At a later date, six larger 110m-long barges, carrying 270 containers, will run on four battery boxes capable of providing 35 hours of autonomous driving. Their use alone could lead to a reduction of about 18,000 tonnes per year of CO2, it is claimed.(theguardian)…[+]

Cape Town residents may lose piped water to their homes within two months if they do not act to counter the effects of the worst drought to hit South Africa’s second city in almost a century. Local authorities have warned four million people that if they do not reduce consumption by “day zero” – 12 April – they will have to queue at 200 standpipes for daily rations of 25 litres (6.6 US gallons).

The city, which attracts millions of tourists every year, has enforced strict waste controls, including prosecuting homeowners who use more than the 87-litre daily limit. However, the measures have not been enough, forcing local officials to bring forward “day zero” by nine days. “Due to a drop in the dam levels of 1.4%, day zero has, as of today, moved forward to 12 April,” the deputy mayor, Ian Neilson, said in a statement on Tuesday. Every day that consumption exceeded 500m litres, the last day of normal water supply drew closer, he said.(theguardian)…[+]