NEWS HOPE BUILD A TACKLING ONLINE HATE P28 FOR KIDS! FOR RARE WILDLIFE 2.6 MILLION+ TORTOISE CAMERA READERS* P12 P13 Issue 781 £2.25 4 – 10 June 2021 HELPING THE UK GROW NEWS I SPORTS I ENTERTAINMENT I INTERVIEWS I PUZZLES I COMPETITIONS MAKE IT RAIN! iStock COULD hot countries control the weather to make it rain? by editor in chief Nicky Cox A team of scienti sts from the UK’s droplets inside the clouds big enough so The WWF charity says two-thirds of the University of Reading came up with the that when they fall out of the cloud, they world’s people could face water shortages That’s the questi on being asked by idea in 2017. Dr Keri Nicoll, one of the key survive down to the surface,” says Nicoll. by 2025. Other countries like China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where scienti sts, said they found that when cloud To test out the theory, Nicoll and her America are also funding science projects a harsh climate means only around 10cm droplets were zapped with an electrical team joined up with the University of Bath to see if they can change the weather. of rain falls in a year, mainly in winter. charge, the smaller droplets were more to build four 2m-wide aircraft with charge However, there are questi ons The UAE is one of the hott est countries likely to join together and grow to emitt ers to zap the clouds. over whether increasing rain in one on the planet – with daily summer become big raindrops. They carried out early testi ng in the UK place might take precious water temperatures over 40ºC – and it needs The size of the raindrops is and Finland but now the experiment is away from somewhere else. more fresh water. It is now experimenti ng important, says Dr Nicoll, because in being completed in Dubai (above). with using catapults to launch drones places like the UAE, which has high clouds As climate change causes the planet to What do you think? Should into clouds. The job of the drones is to and high temperatures, droplets oft en heat up, causing droughts in some places we try to control the weather? zap droplets in the clouds with an electric evaporate as they fall. and fl oods in others, there is a growing Vote at fi rst.news/polls charge to try to make it rain. “What we are trying to do is to make the interest in how to control the weather. *First News readership is 2,626,625. Source: Opinion Matt ers 2020. First News is the widest-read of all children’s publicati ons audited in the UK. First News supports children’s chariti es, see p17. 2. QUICK NEWS FirstNews Issue 781 4 – 10 June 2021 3. BIG NEWS FirstNews Issue 781 4 – 10 June 2021 ZOO FUND CLOSED SHELL MUST RADIOACTIVE REDUCE EMISSIONS Getty RHINO PLASTIC FOUND QUICK NEWS Media/Caladan Oceanic Verola TO READ YOURSELF AND SHARE WITH FRIENDS IN DEEP OCEAN The Government’s £100m fund HORNS A CLIMATE scienti st has become one of the fi rst people to explore the world’s to support zoos during the SCIENTISTS in South Africa are third deepest undersea trench – but instead of strange deep sea creatures, he Dr Deo Florence Onda pandemic has ended, but almost planning on injecti ng harmless only found plasti c waste. 90% of the fund has not been Getty radioacti ve material into rhino Climate scienti st Dr Deo Florence Onda, spent. Only £12m of the Zoo TINY PIGS ARE BACK AIRSHIP TRAVEL horns to discourage poachers. and Victor Vescovo, an explorer from private Animals Fund has been awarded explorati on company Caladan Oceanic, A company developing aircraft says its Oil company Shell has been told It’s thought that radioacti ve or is due to be granted. Of 300 descended more than 10,500m under the airships are an eco-friendly alternative by a court in the Netherlands material could be picked up by existi ng licensed zoos in the UK, just 34 surface into the Emden Deep, part of the to short-haul flights. UK-based Hybrid that it must do more to cut its scanners in airports across the globe have been given money, while Philippine Trench. Air Vehicles (HAV) say that one of its emissions. The court ruled that – making it harder for poachers to 23 applications for funds are Together, they found plasti c bags, teddy bears, Getty Airlander ships could carry up to 100 Shell needs to reduce its CO smuggle the horns. still being worked out. Jamie 2 passengers while reducing carbon The structure of a rhino’s horn clothes and packaging. Dr Onda said that at one emissions by 45% by 2030. The Media/Caladan Oceanic Verola Christon, from Chester Zoo, point he saw “white material fl oati ng around”. emissions by 90%. It has proposed ruling marks the first time a means that it’s very unlikely that any said the lack of cash awarded “I was saying: ‘Victor, that’s a jellyfi sh’. We a number of short-distance routes company has been legally told of the radiati on will end up in the was “extremely frustrating” went there and approached… and it was just Pygmy hog numbers are said to be that could be available from 2025. to meet the Paris Agreement on rhino itself. and had slowed the zoo’s a plasti c bag. booming again. The tiny pigs – which These include Liverpool to Belfast, climate change, which aims to James Larkin, a professor involved global conservation work. “Seeing [the trench] for the fi rst ti me was are only 25cm (10in) high – were once Oslo to Stockholm and Seattle to keep global temperatures less with the scheme, said that he “doesn’t a privilege as a human being. common in India, Nepal and Bhutan, Vancouver. HAV says its flights would than 2°C above pre-1900 levels. want to kill anyone”, and that the plan “But being a witness to the extent of polluti on, but after years of their habitats being take roughly the same time as planes is simply to “decrease demand for and being a witness to the [seriousness] of the £4M SEWAGE FINE destroyed, they were believed to be when you include getting to and from rhino horn and also make it easier plasti cs problem from the surface to the bott om Utility company Thames Water has extinct. A breeding programme was the airport. They have a much smaller to track”. NEW JAB APPROVED of the ocean, is another thing. been fined £4m after millions of started in 1971 after a small group carbon footprint though, and would Rhino horns are very popular in “It’s my responsibility to tell people their litres of sewage flooded a park and was rediscovered, and there are now be faster than alternatives like ferries. A new COVID-19 vaccine by Janssen Asia’s illegal markets, where they can garbage doesn’t stay where they put it. It goes Plasti c bags were found river in New Malden. The incident thought to be more than 400 in the has been approved for use in the UK. sell for over £50,000 per kilogram. on the deep sea fl oor somewhere else and it will sink.” occurred in 2016 when a sewage wild. Project director Parag Deka said: Unlike the other approved vaccines, In the last ten years, 9,885 rhinos treatment works couldn’t cope “It’s very important for me to save this those getting the Janssen jab will only have been killed by poachers. during a storm. Almost 50 warning species from extinction. We should all need one shot instead of two. The UK alarms were ignored, causing a mess look for a purpose in life. When I got has ordered 20m doses of the new that took 30 people almost a month involved in this project, I realised this vaccine that will arrive later this year. to clear. Gary Waddup, from the can give me that purpose.” AirVehicles/Twitter RECORD-BREAKING Environment Agency, said that better management “could have prevented HAIR-RAISING this catastrophic incident”. CAT ART RECORD SELF-DRIVE TRIAL EVEREST CLIMBERS CHILD GENIUS Electric vehicles that drive themselves are being trialled in Cambridge. Three bus-like Auto-Shuttles will be used around the city. They can carry ten iStock people and a safety operator will be catsy.of.wokingham/Instagram inside just in case. The vehicles can travel at 20mph (32km/h) and have a A mysterious artist going by the name range of 100 miles (161km) between of Catsy (Banksy but with cats!) has charges. Transport Minister Rachel G e tt y been winning fans in Wokingham Maclean said such vehicles could with their simple black cat artworks. provide “safer, greener and more TO joegrisamore/Facebook kashequest/Instagram £10 The cats have been popping up all reliable transport services” in the UK. WOW! over town, with Catsy saying they are simply “trying to spread smiles with the aid of some friendly cats”. MONEY TO HOWL! Tsang Yin Hung in Nepal’s A two-year-old has become the A man with the Guinness World LANCASHIRE arti st Jamie capital, Kathmandu youngest member of Mensa in the PLAY GAMES Record for the tallest fan mohawk Holman has paid 150 people £10 US. Mensa is a high-IQ society, which now holds the record for the tallest iStock each to howl like a wolf at a bus A TEACHER from Hong Kong has become the fastest woman to climb to basically means it’s for really smart Good news if you’re an adult in the US spike mohawk too.