Russian CosmoCourse company, which specializes on space tourism, plans to conduct engine test for its domestically developed spacecraft in Moscow Region this autumn, the company’s CEO Pavel Pushkin tweeted.

Reliance Industries, India’s largest petchem player, is launching a project to use plastics in road construction, amid growing concerns over pollution in the country of 1.3 billion whose major cities are often plagued with smog and litter.

Egypt’s 100 millionth person is expected to be clocked up on the official statistics agency’s digital counter in central Cairo in February. The pressures with rising populations are acute, because 97% of its people live on just 8% of its territory, crowded along the Nile.

The Church of England’s pension fund has shifted 600 million pounds ($789 million) into a new equity index that invests in companies deemed to be making progress towards the targets of the Paris climate agreement.

British airline easyJet has moved a step closer to commercial electric flying on short-haul routes after its partner said it would begin development of engines for its electric narrow-body aircraft.

Scientists estimate the oceans could provide more than two thirds of the animal protein needed to feed the world in future. Cultivating food from the ocean generally has a lower impact on the climate than land-based agriculture. The greatest potential gains lay in expanding the cultivation of bivalves like mussels, scallops and clams.

Most major railway stations in India will use facial recognition to fight crime by the end of 2020, a senior official said, in a move that digital rights campaigners warned could breach people’s privacy in the absence of stringent laws.

Adidas will launch new fabrics made from recycled polyester and marine plastic waste and expand the product lines that use them after the success of shoes made with the Parley for the Oceans initiative, the sportswear firm said.

Fourteen French local authorities and six campaign groups have asked a French court to order oil major Total to sharply reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, campaign groups said.

Microplastics caused by washing machines are hard to remove from the ocean. A promising new method to collect such microplastics has been devised using acoustics to gather them in water by researchers at Shinshu University.