Since 2013 China has been creating 55 billion tons of artificial rain a year. The country is now embarking on its biggest rainmaking project ever.
In terms of the plan, announced this month, Chinese authorities intend to force rainfall and snow over 1.6 million sq km (620,000 sq miles), an area roughly three times the size of Spain.
According to media reports, the government will use new military weather-altering technology developed by the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. The country plans to build tens of thousands of combustion chambers on Tibetan mountainsides. The chambers will burn a solid fuel, which will result in a spray of silver iodide billowing towards the sky.
“More than 500 burners have been deployed on alpine slopes in Tibet, Xinjiang and other areas for experimental use. The data we have collected show very promising results,” an unnamed researcher told the Morning Post. “Sometimes snow would start falling almost immediately after we ignited the chamber. It was like standing on the stage of a magic show,” he said.
The Tibetan plateau is vital to the water supply for much of China and a large area of Asia. Its glaciers and reservoirs feed the Yellow, Yangtze, Mekong, and other major rivers that flow through China, India, Nepal, and other countries.
Conservatives on the Supreme Court on Monday upheld Ohio’s method of purging voters from the rolls after they miss elections, a move that challengers of the law said would disproportionately remove poor and minority voters.
In 2000, the UK passed the Terrorism Act 2000 – one of the most draconian pieces of legislation in its history. Now, the state wants even more power.
Counter-terrorism and border security bill 2018
The Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Bill 2018 is a dangerous new development apparently aimed at further criminalising speech and dissent in the UK. It was first revealed on 6 June, with no debate. Its second reading is scheduled for 11 June 2018.
A select group of some of the world’s richest and most powerful people is getting together this week for the annual Bilderberg Group meeting, attracting controversy and conspiracy theories due to its elite and secretive nature.
This year’s gathering, which will be the 66th annual meeting of the mysterious group, takes place in Turin, Italy, between June 7-10. The meeting will be attended by American and European business leaders, current and former government officials, politicians, university professors, think tank analysts and even some journalists — but don’t expect them to talk about it in public. What happens at the Bilderberg meeting stays at the Bilderberg meeting.
Topping the agenda will be the challenges of “populism in Europe,”“inequality” and the “future of work.” The group will also discuss the scourge of “fake news” and a “post-truth” world, as well as the state of play in the US before the 2018 midterm elections and US world leadership more generally. The list of topics also includes “Russia,” but it provides no further detail.
Some have pointed out that Turin is an appropriate location for this year’s meeting, given Italy’s recently installed anti-establishment government and a wave of populist uprisings across the European Union, which has worried those in favor of maintaining the status quo. Others have noted the irony of a group of billionaires and politicians holding a secret meeting in a fancy hotel to discuss inequality.
Among the 2018 attendees are former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) David Petraeus, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Governor of the Bank of England Mark J. Carney, CEO of Ryanair Michael O’Leary and CEO of Airbus Thomas Enders.
Orangutans face complete extinction within 10 years, animal rescue charity warns
Burning forests to make way for plantations to support the world's insatiable demand for palm oil is one of the main causes of the astonishing decline in numbers of this species
An emaciated orangutan and her child – named Mama Anti and Baby Anti – are rescued by volunteers ( International Animal Rescue )
Orangutans will be extinct from the planet within 10 years unless action is taken to preserve forests in Indonesia and Malaysia where they live, a conservation charity has warned.
The Bornean orangutan was officially listed as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) last month, joining the only other kind, the Sumatran orangutan, in that classification.
In just 25 years, more than a quarter of Indonesia's forests – 76 million acres, an area almost the size of Germany – have disappeared.
From bullying to isolation – for young people who are coming to terms with their gender and sexuality – life can become a struggle to find acceptance without judgement. There’s a wider debate about proposed changes to the law which would allow people to change their legal gender, without a doctor’s medical diagnosis – but there’s a more fundamental need too – for support. Anja Popp has been to meet two trans teenagers who are turning to online networks – where they can feel normal in a society which often makes them feel anything but.
A Lush store displays the campaign against undercover police spies. Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA
The cosmetics retailer Lush has removed posters highlighting the misconduct of undercover police from the windows of all its stores after saying that shop staff had been intimidated by former officers.
The chain told of the posters’ removal on Thursday, saying it needed to protect staff in its 104 stores. The move came less than a week after it started the campaign to publicise the alleged wrongdoing of undercover officers who had infiltrated political groups.
The Lush campaign was criticised by the home secretary, Sajid Javid, and others, as being anti-police, poorly judged and potentially damaging to large numbers of officers who had nothing to do with the alleged wrongdoing.
As part of the campaign the retailer put up posters of a model dressed both as apoliceman and an activist, with the slogans “Police have crossed the line” and “Paid to lie”, alongside fake police tape.
There have been allegations that people disliking the campaign have been going into stores and intimidating staff to make them take down the posters. On Saturday, a day after the start of the campaign, Lush said some of its branches had removed the posters following “intimidation of our shop staff from ex-police officers and unhelpful tweets from those in high office”.
Lush said in a statement on Thursday: “For the safety of our staff we have suspended the window.” It is unclear if the posters will be reinstated or replaced with another image at a later stage in the campaign, which is due to end on 18 June.
