TOP NEWS

Destinus, the Swiss start-up founded by Mikhail Kokorich in 2021, aims to build a hypersonic aircraft powered by liquid hydrogen by 2030. The Spanish Ministry of Science has allocated grants totalling 27 million euros to support the idea. The first tranche of 12 million will be used to create an infrastructure in the Madrid area for the development of the propeller, while the remaining 15 will allow for further research into hydrogen engines, which present several complications.

The Spanish ministry's investment in liquid hydrogen technologies slows down the initial mistrust of the new technology. The Italian company Sea has announced that it will build a plant for the production of liquid hydrogen by 2024, which will primarily serve the airport's ground vehicles. The bet on the future of aviation based on liquid hydrogen is serious.

Following their phone conversation on Thursday, US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron “agreed on the importance of continuing to engage” China in efforts to put an end to the conflict in Ukraine.

According to a statement from Macron’s office, the French president updated Biden on “the results obtained” during his trip to Beijing in the first week of April, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping for several hours.

The French statement added: “China had a role to play in contributing, in the medium term, in ending the conflict in accordance with the principles and aims of the United Nations charter.

Top commanders of the Indian Air Force began deliberations on national security challenges and ways to bolster India's overall air power on the first day of a three-day conference on Wednesday.

Officials said the commanders will also carry out a comprehensive review of the security situation along the border with China and Pakistan and the force's preparations to deal with any contingency.

The commanders will hold wide-ranging deliberations on the IAF's plans for the future with an aim to bolster its combat capabilities.

Six mobile phone towers owned by Pakistani and Chinese firms were allegedly set ablaze by the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLA) in Dasht tehsil of Kech district in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. These mobile towers were reportedly located along the route of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Balochistan.

In Kech, Balochistan’s Dasht Kambel, Jan Muhammad Bazar, Print Bazar, and Zarin Bug neighbourhoods, the BLA also attacked mobile towers of the Chinese business “Zong” and the Pakistani company “Ufone”. In a statement, the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLA) asserted that all the equipment in the towers had been burned and destroyed.

China is reportedly undertaking surveys in the Indian Ocean in order to increase the size and impact of its naval presence in the region.

These surveys are thought to be part of a larger plan by China to establish the dominance of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy in the Indian Ocean region.

India and other countries in the region are concerned about China’s expanding naval presence in the Indian Ocean. Some observers have asserted that China’s ultimate objective might be to build a military base of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) nearby.