World

15 JULY 2020 The Gulf of Guinea off West Africa is increasingly dangerous for commercial shipping, accounting for just over 90% of maritime kidnappings worldwide. Meanwhile ship hijackings are at their lowest since 1993, the IMB said. In total, IMB’s Piracy Reporting Centre recorded 98 incidents of piracy and armed …

24 JULY 2020 For years, scientists have been gripped by the existence of a strange anomaly weakening Earth’s magnetic field. It’s located in the midst of the South Atlantic ocean, extending all the way from South America to the west coast of southern Africa. This giant, puzzling expanse of reduced magnetic intensity …

23 JULY 2020  Despite reporting steep declines in the most recent quarter, Chinese shipbuilding is showing signs of recovery, possibly with the aid of the Chinese government, as the shipbuilding industry continues its competition with Korean shipbuilding. For the first six months of 2020, China reported a nearly 11 percent …

20 JULY 2020  Norway has received permission from the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) to proceed with a $2.4 billion investment in two large-scale carbon capture facilities, along with the infrastructure needed to transport and store the CO2 in subsea reservoirs. It is the largest single state aid award ever …

18 JULY 2020  Nine Japanese companies have started the Ship Carbon Recycling Working Group as part of Japan’s Carbon Capture & Reuse (CCR) Study Group. The Working Group aims to explore the feasibility of the concept of utilizing methanation technology for zero-emission ship fuels. Carbon recycling, a method used to …

15 JULY 2020 Asian waters accounted for a third of the shipping industry’s total losses at sea globally last year, even as shipping losses continued their declining trend, says marine specialty insurer Allianz Global. In their annual Safety & Shipping Review, Allianz tallied 41 total losses reported around the world in …

10 JULY 2020 The coronavirus doesn’t just target our lungs. A growing body of research shows that COVID-19 is linked to potentially fatal brain damage and neurological problems. According to a study published Wednesday in the journal Brain, some coronavirus patients experience brain swelling that’s accompanied by episodes of delirium. Other patients develop nervous-system disorders like Guillain-Barré …

09 JULY 2020 Slashing greenhouse gas emissions would probably not yield visible results until mid-century, researchers have said, cautioning that humanity must manage its expectations in the fight against global warming. Even under optimistic scenarios in which carbon pollution falls sharply, climate change will continue for decades, they reported Tuesday in the …

08 JUL 2020  On Tuesday night, the livestock carrier Talia finally received permission to transfer 50 rescued migrants to the custody of Maltese immigration officials. The Talia was on a ballast voyage off Libya on Saturday when she diverted to rescue 52 migrants in a drifting boat. A surveillance plane operated by rescue NGO …

07 JULY 2020 The Earth’s magnetic field flips, every few hundred thousand years or so on average, which means magnetic north becomes magnetic south and vice versa (the planet doesn’t actually turn upside down). New research suggests this change of direction can happen up to 10 times faster than previously …