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- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vadmir Putin hold their first ever meeting in Vladivostoc; Putin expresses his support to positive efforts to ease tension in Korean peninsula.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin said that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wants to denuclearize but needs "security guarantees" to do so.
- Speaking after a high-profile summit with Kim, Putin said Russia favoured denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and Kim agreed, but said bilateral security guarantees were not enough.
- Putin said he didn't know if it was time to resume six-way talks with North Korea to end a standoff over its nuclear weapons program.
- The "six-party talks" had taken place between North and South Korea, the U.S., Japan, Russia and China in the early 2000s, but collapsed in 2009 when North Korea pulled out, saying it would resume its nuclear enrichment program in order to boost its nuclear deterrent.
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- UAE's flag carrier Etihad Airways has become the first airline in the Gulf region to operate a flight without any single-use plastics on board, in a bid to raise awareness about pollution on Earth Day (April 22)
- According to the Abu Dhabi-based national airline of the UAE, the flight EY484 landed in Brisbane on the day.
- The milestone flight is part of Etihad's pledge to reduce single-use plastic usage by 80 per cent not just in-flight, but across the entire organisation by the end of 2022, the airline said in a statement.
- Etihad identified that over 95 single-use plastic products are used across its aircraft cabins. Once removed from the Earth Day flight, Etihad prevented over 50 kilograms of plastics from being landfilled.
- Guests on board enjoyed replacement products including sustainable amenity kits, award-winning eco-thread blankets made out of recycled plastic bottles, tablet toothpaste and edible coffee cups while children were treated to eco-plush toys.
- As a result of planning the Earth Day flight, Etihad additionally committed to remove up to 20 per cent of the single-use plastic items on board by June 1, the statement said.
- By the end of this year, Etihad will have removed 100 tonnes of single-use plastics from its inflight service, the airline announced.
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- TikTok said it remains committed to "continuously enhancing" safety features for its 120 million users in India after the Madras High Court on Wednesday lifted ban on the short-video app.
- The Madras HC has lifted its earlier ban on the Chinese short-video app with the condition that the content hosted using it should be free from obscene videos of children and women.
- It also warned the company that if any controversial video violating its conditions is found posted using the app, it would be considered as contempt of court.
- The Madras HC had on April 3 directed the Centre to ban the Chinese app voicing concern over "pornographic and inappropriate content" being made available through such apps. After the Supreme Court refused to stay the Madras HC order, tech giants Google and Apple had removed TikTok from their app stores in India to prohibit further downloads of the app.
- "The work is never done on our end. We are committed to continuously enhancing our safety features as a testament to our ongoing commitment to our users in India," it said.
- E-mails sent to Apple and Google enquiring the duration it would take for the app to be restored on the app stores did not elicit any response.
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- Indian duo of Anjum Moudgil and Divyansh Panwar win Gold in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team event in the ISSF Shooting World Cup in China.
- Anjum Moudgil and Divyansh Singh Panwar on 25th April won the 10 m air rifle mixed team gold medal for India in the ISSF World Cup finals, Beijing.
- The Indian pair beat Chinese pair of Liu Ruxuan and Yang Haoran. This is Panwar's first gold medal at the World Cup while Moudgil had earlier missed out on a podium finish in the women's 10m air rifle event.
- Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary got India another gold in the 10m air pistol mixed team event. The pair finished with a score of 16-6.
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- Researchers in Munich have created transparent human organs using a new technology that could pave the way to print three-dimensional body parts such as kidneys for transplants.
- Scientists led by Ali Erturk at Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich have developed a technique that uses a solvent to make organs such as a human brain and kidneys transparent.
- The organ is then scanned by lasers in a microscope that allows researchers to capture the entire structure, including the blood vessels and every single cell in its specific location.
- Using this blueprint, researchers print out the scaffold of the organ and then load the 3D printer with stem cells which act as "ink" and are injected into the correct position making the organ functional.
- While 3D printing is already used widely to produce spare parts for industry, Erturk said the development marks a step forward for 3D printing in the medical field.
- Until now 3D-printed organs lacked detailed cellular structures because they were based on images from computer tomography or MRI machines, he said.
- Erturk's team plan to start by creating a bioprinted pancreas over the next 2-3 years and also hope to develop a kidney within the next 5-6 years.
- The researchers will first test to see whether animals can survive with the bioprinted organs and could start clinical trials within 5-10 years, he said.
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- In Sudan, Army rulers have said, they had reached an agreement on most demands made by protest leaders after the two sides held a meeting in Khartoum.
- Lieutenant General Shamseddine Kabbashi, spokesman of the ruling military council, told this to reporters after a meeting between the Council and the Alliance for Freedom and Change. The spokesman did not elaborate on the demands.
- The alliance has been demanding that the Council hand over power to a civilian administration.
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- The world’s first malaria vaccine has been rolled out in Malawi to protect 360,000 children under two in Malawi, Kenya and Ghana in Sub-Saharan Africa from the mosquito-borne disease that causes 435,000 people global deaths each year.
- The RTS,S/AS01 (trade name Mosquirix) is an injectible recombinant protein-based vaccine acts against P. falciparum, the most prevalent malaria strain in Africa.
- The vaccine prevents four in 10 cases of malaria in children who received four doses over a four-year period, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). The WHO welcomed the pilot programme by the government of Malawi.
- Children under five years are at the greatest risk of death, with at least 250,000 children dying of the disease in Africa each year.
- With India reducing malaria cases by 24% in 2017 over the previous year using conventional methods, such as to “test-treat-track” all cases and distributing free insecticide-treated bed nets in endemic areas, the vaccine is unlikely to be made part of India’s public health programme, say experts.
- In the sharpest global reduction in malaria in a year, cases India fell from 1,087,285 cases in 2016 to 844,558 in 2017, according to the World Malaria Report 2018.
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- Global warming has made more than twice ocean dwellers disappear in comparison to land dwellers from their habitats, a study discovered.
- The greater vulnerability of sea creatures may significantly impact human communities that rely on fish for food and economic activity.
- The research was conducted on nearly 400 species from lizards, fish to spiders. The details were published in the Journal of Nature The greater vulnerability of sea creatures may significantly impact human communities that rely on fish and shellfish for food and economic activity.
- The authors combed through worldwide research on nearly 400 species from lizards and fish to spiders. They calculated safe conditions for 88 marine and 294 land species as well as the coolest temperatures available to each species during the hottest parts of the year.
- "We find that, globally, marine species are being eliminated from their habitats by warming temperatures twice as often as land species," said lead author Malin Pinsky.
- The researchers found that marine species are, on average, more likely to live on the edge of dangerously high temperatures. Additionally, many land animals can hide from the heat in forests, shaded areas or underground, a luxury not open to many sea animals.
- The loss of a population can deplete the species' genetic diversity, have cascading impacts on their predators and prey and alter ecosystems that benefit human society.
- The study notes that ancient extinctions have often been concentrated at specific latitudes and in specific ecosystems when the climate changed rapidly. Future warming is likely to trigger the loss of more marine species from local habitats and more species turnover in the ocean.
- "Understanding which species and ecosystems will be most severely affected by warming as climate change advances is important for guiding conservation and management," the study says.
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- Former Army chief Dalbir Singh Suhag has been appointed as India's next high commissioner to Seychelles, a country which is of strategic importance to India in the Indian Ocean region.
- "He is expected to take up the assignment shortly," the Ministry of External Affairs said while making the announcement.
- General (retired) Suhag was the Army chief from July 31, 2014, to December 31, 2016. He was also part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka in 1987.
- His appointment as Indian High Commissioner to Seychelles comes amid deepening military ties between India and the island nation.
- India is developing Assumption Island in Seychelles as a naval base to expand its footprint in the strategically-key region where China has been trying to enhance its military presence.
- An agreement to develop the island was inked in 2015 between India and Seychelles.
- In June last year, Seychelles President Danny Faure visited India during which both countries agreed to work together on the Assumption Island project.
- Before his visit to India, there were reports from the island nation that it was cancelling the pact with New Delhi to develop the naval base in Assumption island.
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