Government Update News

Anyone who has attended a writer’s conference has heard writers, editors, agents and publishers repeat the same mantra: “Show, don’t tell.” You can likely intuit what this means, but just to be clear, if you are writing a western thriller and you are describing a bar fight, it can’t be told matter-of-factly. The reader has to hear the crash of beer bottles against the bar’s mirror, feel the gunshots and root for the sheriff.What does this have to do with uncrewed maritime systems? A great deal.The U.S.

Just how much crude oil is leaving the Strait of Hormuz?U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright claims almost nine million barrels per day, but the companies that track vessel movements say at best it is about half this volume.The amount of crude leaving the Middle East via the narrow chokepoint matters, as it's this oil that goes to Asia, the top energy-consuming region that has been hardest hit by the fallout since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on February 28.Wright said on social media platform X on August 12 that "thanks to the coordinated efforts of the U.S.

Taiwan's armed forces carried out an anti-blockade drill during annual war games, using the navy and coast guard to simulate escorting a merchant ship, the defense ministry said on Thursday, as China steps up its maritime pressure.Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, has long been concerned that Beijing could try to choke off the island with a blockade or quarantine to force it into surrender.In June, China began holding what it calls "law enforcement" patrols off Taiwan's east coast…

The Canadian Coast Guard has remembered the 40th anniversary of the rescue of 155 Tamil refugees off the coast of Newfoundland.On August 11, 1986, Captain Gus Dalton and fellow fishermen found two lifeboats carrying 155 people fleeing violence and war in Sri Lanka near St. Shotts. Together with local fishing vessels, we launched a coordinated rescue effort.The CCGS Leonard J. Cowley played a key role in bringing the refugees safely ashore.“Forty years later, this rescue remains a powerful example of compassion…

The Secretary-General of the IMO, Arsenio Dominguez, has issued a statement following the death of seafarers on the Tihamah which was hit by a projectile off the coast of Al Mokha, Yemen.“It is with sadness and regret to know that, once again, innocent seafarers have lost their lives in an indefensible attack on international shipping. I offer my deepest condolences to the families of those involved.“It is particularly troublesome that the most recent attack has taken place in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden area.

A major Ukrainian attack on Russia's Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk hit warships at a naval base and forced two major grain terminals to halt operations on Wednesday, according to Russian and Ukrainian officials as well as grain industry sources.The Ukrainian attacks killed at least two people, including an 8-year-old child, regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said.Describing the attack as having "strategic significance", Ukraine's SBU security service said Kyiv's forces hit the Novorossiysk naval base with drones and missiles.

I first heard about the Jones Act from my father in 1976. He had just become part of the US maritime community and one day came home and started to tell me about the differences between the US maritime community and the Dutch maritime community. Two things stood out; the heavy US union influence and the Jones Act. My father despised unions, as a lifelong non unionized shipping company employee (but a very benevolent one, sponsoring employee vacation resorts and excellent employee housing, and later found to have one of the most generous pension plans one can imagine).

Taiwan's government has condemned "dangerous" planned Chinese navy drills with an Indonesian warship off the island's east coast, saying Beijing was trying to create a false impression to the international community that it controls those waters.China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, and in June began coast guard patrols off the island's east coast, causing anger in Taipei and concern in Washington and some other Western capitals.China's defense ministry said on Tuesday the drill…

Gasoline at $38 a gallon sold from cramped apartments. Diesel hawked on Instagram by a celebrity model to a reggaeton soundtrack. Six decades after Fidel Castro’s revolution, all of a sudden, capitalist cracks are appearing in Cuba’s communist energy sector.Under Washington’s crippling oil embargo against Cuba, an exception that allows U.S. firms to export fuel to private Cuban businesses has kickstarted a chaotic black market and pried the lid off an energy sector tightly controlled…

Russia has begun shipping crude oil via its Arctic sea route this year at a faster pace than a year ago, with seven cargoes carrying some 6 million barrels of crude already heading to Asia, according to three trade sources and LSEG shipping data.The Northern Sea Route, which links Russia's western ports with Asian markets through Arctic waters, is typically open from July 1 until October 1 each year.Russia is speeding up usage of the route as it enables its cargoes to reach China and other parts of Asia without transiting waters where tankers face inspections…

China's test of a nuclear-capable missile last month has exposed the limits of Pacific leaders' ambition to make the region an "Ocean of Peace", free from the crossfire of major-power rivalry.The July launch, China's first known ballistic-missile test into the Pacific since September 2024, was fired into the Pacific just hours after Fiji and Australia signed a major defense treaty, marking Fiji's first ever alliance.More than a month after the test, Pacific Islands foreign ministers were unable to agree on a collective statement condemning Beijing's missile test…

The Royal Australian Navy is reaffirming its commitment to reconciliation and strengthening partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with the launch of a new five-year plan.Launched on the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, the Djalkiri – Foundational Footsteps: Navy Indigenous Action Plan 2026-2031 outlines how Navy will deepen cultural understanding, bolster community partnerships and create opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.The plan includes actions to expand Indigenous recruitment and career pathways…

Iran said it was nearing a final pact with Oman defining new shipping lanes between them through the Strait of Hormuz but repeated that the U.S. must meet other conditions, including compensation and an end to sanctions and military threats, before the strategic waterway is reopened.A U.S. official told Reuters on Friday that Iran and Oman were close to a deal that could pave the way for restoring safe passage through the strait, a major conduit for oil and gas shipping before Iran blocked Hormuz in response to U.S.

President Donald Trump has extended for 90 days a waiver allowing foreign-flagged ships to transport oil and other commodities between U.S. ports, but imposed new limits after shipbuilders and their allies in Congress argued the policy was undermining the domestic maritime industry, the White House said.The extension, finalized on Monday, comes as the war with Iran disrupts global crude flows and pushes up fuel costs, increasing pressure on the administration to find ways to ease…

U.S. officials on Monday said they are working closely with foreign investors to identify gaps in the U.S. manufacturing supply chain and to help small- and medium-sized businesses scale up to meet rising demand as foreign investments surge.Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Chris Pilkerton and Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler told Reuters that U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on foreign imports and deregulation were fueling foreign investments in manufacturing…

The U.S. government has sold for scrap two sanctioned oil tankers that were seized in the days after Washington's raid on Venezuela, Lloyd's List reported on Monday.Dubai-headquartered vessel recycling firm Global Marketing Systems purchased the tankers last month for an undisclosed sum, according to the report.The sale included the Era, previously operating as Marinera and Bella 1, and the Lileo, previously sailing as Galileo and Veronica, the report said. The tankers will be demolished in scrap yards in India.“The U.S.

Romanian army divers destroyed two Gerbera-type drones drifting in the country's Black Sea exclusive economic zone near the offshore gas project Neptun Deep, Defence Minister Radu Miruta said on Tuesday.The NATO state shares a 614-km (382-mile) land border with Ukraine and has seen Russian drones repeatedly breach its airspace over the last four years, as well as mines floating in the Black Sea across key trade and energy routes.In July, Romanian F-16 fighter jet pilots shot down…

A few months ago, I authored an article for Marine News focused on just one of the many successful features of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (“OPA 90,” Pub. L. No. 101-380 (1990)) — Alaska’s regional citizen advisory councils (RCACs). The Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet RCACs were established under OPA 90 to work with oil and gas industry interests on behalf of the surrounding communities to ensure safe operations and community buy-in. I was heartened by the positive responses I received from friends…

When the EXXON VALDEZ ran aground in Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989, it was an action-forcing event that led to what was the most substantial overhaul of our federal oil spill prevention, preparedness, and response regime in the Nation’s history. But the event that really got policymakers and experts started thinking about such a sweeping re-rack of federal law actually occurred a decade earlier—the Ixtoc One blowout in Mexico’s Bay of Campeche in 1979.If Ixtoc sounds eerily similar to the Macondo blowout (i.e.…

German energy company RWE said on Thursday that it had reached a $1.22 billion agreement with the Trump administration to cancel three offshore wind leases in U.S. waters and to direct the funds to LNG and natural gas power plant projects.The arrangement is the fifth, and largest, the administration has entered into this year as part of its wide-ranging effort to stop development of U.S. offshore wind projects, which U.S. President Donald Trump regards as costly and ugly. His…

Ukraine and Russia accused each other of lethal attacks on Sunday, as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Moscow was targeting global food security by striking Odesa's seaport.Three people were killed and 37 wounded in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, where a multi-storey apartment block was hit, while authorities in Russia's Belgorod said five were killed and 25 wounded by a Ukrainian drone attack.Zelenskiy said Odesa's seaport had been damaged by a strike. Local authorities said dozens of drones and missiles hit the southern seaside city…

The U.S. Coast Guard coordinated the rescue of 22 crew members from the Marshall Islands-flagged vehicle carrier Min Jiang Kou after the ship experienced a fire approximately 630 miles south of Costa Rica on Thursday.At 1:09 p.m., Coast Guard Southwest District watchstanders received an Inmarsat distress alert indicating an engine room fire onboard. Watchstanders established contact with the ship’s manager, who reported the crew activated the vessel’s carbon dioxide fire suppression system…

Ships are passing smoothly through the Turkish straits to the Black Sea despite heightened concerns about safety, two Turkish government officials told Reuters on Sunday.On Saturday, Bloomberg News reported that Ankara had restricted commercial ship traffic entering the Black Sea following attacks on vessels there, including Turkish-owned ships.Turkey has issued repeated warnings to Moscow and Kyiv over the attacks in the Black Sea, urging the warring sides to take measures to ensure navigational safety in the area.On Saturday…