Indigenous peoples patrolling the Peruvian Amazon equipped with smartphones and satellite data were able to drastically reduce illegal deforestation, according to the results of an experiment published Monday.

The study, which appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), showed that recognizing indigenous people's rights to their territory can be a powerful force against the climate crisis, the authors said.

Main photo: Indonesia’s Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto, left, with President Joko Widodo in October 2019.  AP

Singapore/Jakarta | Hundreds of high-ranking retired military officers have taken Indonesia’s Minister for Defence Prabowo Subianto to court in an effort to resolve a long-simmering dispute over land.

The Chinese contractor has said it cannot start work on Kalanki-Maharajgunj section until the electricity poles are removed. The work is already delayed by a year.

The second phase of Ring Road widening work involving the 8.2 km Kalanki-Maharajgunj section is still in limbo as the high-voltage power lines in the Samakhusi area have yet to be shifted.

The Department of Roads blames the Nepal Electricity Authority for the delay.

A cyclone, known as Jobo, made landfall near Dar es Salaam in late April. By this point it had weakened to a tropical depression and impacts were, thankfully, minimal.

Land-falling tropical cyclones are rare in Tanzania so past events are outside the memory of most. It had even been suggested that Cyclone Kenneth, which occurred in 2019, was the first tropical cyclone to make landfall in Tanzania. The largest impacts of cyclone Kenneth were felt further south where at least 38 lives were lost and almost 35,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.