Illegal tackles in rugby

As dawn breaks in central Kenya, a helicopter lifts off in a race to find roosting locusts before the sun warms their bodies and sends them on a ravenous flight through farmland. Pilot Kieran Allen begins his painstaking survey from zebra-filled plains and lush maize farms, to dramatic forested valleys and the vast arid expanses further north, his eyes scouring the landscape for signs of the massed insects. The chopper suddenly swings around after a call comes in from the locust war room on the ground: a community in the foothills of Mount Kenya has reported a swarm. "I am seeing some pink in the trees," his voice crackles over the headphones, pointing to a roughly 30-hectare (75-acre) swathe of desert locusts. Reddish-pink in their immature -- and hungriest -- phase, the insects smother the tips of a pine forest. Allen determines that nearby farms are at a safe distance and calls in a second aircraft which arrives in minutes to spray the swarm with pesticide. On the … [Read more...] about Kenya’s locust hunters on tireless quest to halt ancient pest

Not only are there differences in views on policy, similar to the traditional colours representing the two parties, but the multidimensional crisis stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic has also created many unexpected factors in the 2020 US general election. In addition to electing a new president and vice president, US voters will select parliamentarians for the next term, accordingly, re-electing all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 out of the total 100 seats in the Senate, as well as voting for 11 positions of state governors and about 5,000 seats in state legislatures across the country. Currently, the Democrats are controlling the House of Representatives, while the Republicans hold a fragile majority in the Senate. The race to the two houses of Congress this year will reshape the dominant colour of US politics, with both the “elephant” and the “donkey” aiming to retain a majority in at least one house of Congress. In the US general election, the intense race to … [Read more...] about US general elections: Choosing the colour to win

The HCMC Department of Transport shared that the city aims at possessing a multi-means public transport system, including 8 metro lines, 3 tram lines, 6 bus rapid transit lines (BRT), and 200 regular bus lines, in order to meet the traveling demands of the community. Due to the dense population in HCMC, leading to the large number of private vehicles, urban traffic at the moment has to shoulder a heavy burden, and the average velocity of vehicles in the downtown is just 20-25km per hour. To tackle this problem, the municipal authorities have adjusted the planning of the urban transport system to implement the Transit Oriented Development (TOD) model. This model maximizes the link between residential, business, manufacturing areas and the existing public transport system. HCMC is going to apply this model along Metro Line No.1 (from Ben Thanh in the downtown to Suoi Tien in Thu Duc City), Metro Line No.2 (the first phase: Ben Thanh – Tham Luong in District 12; the second phase: … [Read more...] about HCMC suggested to pilot bus priority lane