A blaze erupted aboard a container ship holding hazardous materials Friday night in the Port of Los Angeles, prompting the response of more than 100 firefighters. The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) says that as of 8:34 p.m. PT, all crew members are accounted for, with no injuries reported.
Newsweek reached out to the Port of Los Angeles via phone on Friday for comment and left a message.
Why It Matters
The fire at the Los Angeles port highlights ongoing risks in maritime shipping, particularly where hazardous materials and complex, multilevel cargo vessels are involved.
The event underscores the dangers firefighters face and raises questions about safety protocol for both ship crews and first responders at one of the nation’s busiest ports. The potential for environmental hazards and operational disruption makes this a matter of urgency for local officials and the maritime industry.
What To Know
A fire broke out aboard the container ship 1 Henry Hudson, docked at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro. According to the LAFD, the alarm was raised about 7:13 p.m., when smoke and flames were reported in several cargo bays. The crew reported the blaze at 6:38 p.m., LAFD says.
More than 100 firefighters responded, including marine units, and hazardous materials were identified within the affected areas of the vessel, based on the ship’s manifest.
“Fire can be seen outside the ship in several bays at this time. Hazardous materials have been identified in involved bays, per the ship’s manifest,” the LAFD said in an 8 p.m. update.
All firefighting personnel operated in encapsulated suits and utilized self-contained breathing apparatuses due to the added risk of toxic exposure, the department added.
At 7:58 p.m., an explosion rocked the mid-deck, resulting in power and lighting failures and impacting crane operations.
“Progress on fire containment is slow, but the ship’s height in the water is being monitored and has been noted stable (despite the large amount of water used for fire suppression),” LAFD said in an update.
” LAFD HazMat companies are monitoring air quality as suppression efforts continue on the ship’s sub-levels,” the fire department also noted.
This is a developing story that will be updated with additional information.
A man and woman were struck and killed by a train in Little River Monday night, Oct. 6, 2025, according to Miami police and firefighters.
Getty Images | Royalty Free
Two people were struck and killed by a cargo train in Little River on Monday night, Miami Police and Fire Rescue confirmed.
The man and woman were hit on the tracks near Northeast 71st Street and North Miami Avenue around 10:40 p.m., said Officer Michael Vega, a Miami police spokesman.
Lt. Pete Sanchez with Miami Fire Rescue added they were dead when paramedics arrived.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
This story was originally published October 6, 2025 at 11:57 PM.
David Goodhue covers the Florida Keys and South Florida for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald. Before joining the Herald, he covered Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of the University of Delaware.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed yesterday after a 948-foot cargo ship struck it departing the port, causing the governor to declare a state of emergency. What do you think?
“I’ve always said infrastructure is an unnecessary risk.”
Emil Flocchini, Cubist Landscaper
Hobby Lobby Announces It Muslim Now
“This never would had happened if not for the world’s insatiable lust for cargo.”
Kimberly Gara, Lunch Reviewer
“What is the 73 cents of taxes I pay to infrastructure even being used for?”
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, the global supply chain and US coastal infrastructure collided in the worst possible way. An enormous container ship, the Dali, slammed into a support of the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore, crumpling its central span into the Patapsco River and cutting off the city’s port from the Atlantic Ocean. Eighteen hours later, at approximately 7:30 pm Tuesday evening, rescuers called off the search, with six missing people presumed dead.
With the wreckage yet to be cleared, the Port of Baltimore—a critical shipping hub—has suspended all water traffic, according to the Maryland Port Administration, though trucks are still moving goods in and out of the area. Baltimore is the ninth busiest port in the US for international trade, meaning the effects of the crash will ripple across the regional, US, and even global economy for however long the 47-year-old bridge takes to fix—a timeline, experts say, that’s still unclear.
This will be a special pain for the auto, farm equipment, and construction industries, because Baltimore handles the most “roll on, roll off” ships on the US east coast—an industry term for those designed to handle wheeled cargo. The port has the special equipment to move these products, workers trained in how to use it, and, critically, a location within an overnight driving distance of the densely populated Eastern Seaboard and heavily farmed Midwest.
Almost 850,000 cars and light trucks came through the port last year. So did 1.3 million tons of farm and construction machinery.
Fortunately for the logistics industry, there are some alternative routes both for ships coming into port and trucks crossing the river. Two tunnels traverse the Patapsco, and could take some of the goods and people that once traveled across the Key Bridge, which was also part of Maryland Route 695. Nearby ports, including Norfolk in Virginia, Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, and Savannah in Georgia, should be able to accept many of the goods usually handled by Baltimore’s port.
But the shipping picture will get more complicated the longer the disaster takes to resolve. Ships haul big, heavy goods in large quantities across oceans, albeit relatively slowly—meaning changes to their routes and destinations can add a lot of time to a journey. If a ship is hauling a bunch of different cargos for a bunch of different industries, a holdup along the way causes a lot of people to be screaming for their supplies.
“Everybody right now is saying, ‘We’re just going to reroute, it’s going to be fine,’” says Nada Sanders, an expert in supply chain management at Northeastern University. “If this lasts a while, it’s not going to be fine. It’s going to impact prices.”
Bigger Ships, Same Bridge
The destruction of the bridge also underlines that boats are getting bigger. Trade transport volume across the seas has tripled in the last three decades. At nearly 1,000 feet long, the Dali is emblematic of the ballooning shipping industry.
The growth of boats is down to simple economics: The more goods you can cram on a ship, the more you save on costs. “The amount of cargo has increased tremendously,” says Zal Phiroz, a supply chain analyst at the University of California, San Diego. “This has been impacted to a great degree by Covid, and after Covid as well. The prices of cargo skyrocketed, the prices of containers skyrocketed. Everything just went through the roof.”
Though unsuccessful, the attack marks an intensification in the battle between the Houthis, which control large parts of Yemen, and a U.S.-led naval operation aimed at protecting commercial shipping in one of the most important global trade routes.
In recent weeks, Western navies have repeatedly responded to Houthi attacks against cargo ships traveling along the coast of Yemen that began soon after the October 7 attack by the Hamas militant group against Israel.
The Yemen-based group said it was conducting its attacks in solidarity with the Palestinian group. In response, Western militaries are now increasingly targeting Houthi weapons sites in Yemen.
On Friday, the Houthi rebels also struck an oil tanker with a missile, according to the ship’s operator Trafigura. The company said on Saturday that it was assessing the security risks of further Red Sea voyages after firefighters put out a blaze on the tanker, the Marlin Luanda.
Western warplanes and guided missiles roared through the skies over Yemen in the early hours of Friday in a dramatic response to the worsening crisis engulfing the region, where the U.S. and its allies are facing a direct confrontation with Iranian-backed militants.
The strikes against Houthi fighters are a response to weeks of fighting in the Red Sea, where the group has attempted to attack or hijack dozens of civilian cargo ships and tankers in what it calls retribution for Israel’s military offensive in Gaza. Washington launched the massive aerial bombardment of the group’s military stores and drone launch sites in partnership with British forces, and with the support of a growing coalition that includes Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, South Korea and Bahrain.
Tensions between Tehran and the West have boiled over in the weeks since its ally, Hamas, launched its October 7 attack on Israel, while Hezbollah, the military group that controls much of southern Lebanon, has stepped up rocket launches across the border. Along with Hamas and Hezbollah, the Houthis form part of the Iranian-led ‘Axis of Resistance’ opposed to both the U.S. and Israel.
Now, the prospect of a full-blown conflict in one of the most politically fragile and strategically important parts of the world is spooking security analysts and energy markets alike.
Escalation fears
Houthi leaders responded to the strikes, which saw American and British forces hit more than 60 targets in 16 locations, with characteristic bravado. They warned the U.S. and U.K. will “have to prepare to pay a heavy price and bear all the dire consequences” for what they called a “blatant aggression.”
“We will confront America, kneel it down, and burn its battleships and all its bases and everyone who cooperates with it, no matter what the cost,” threatened Abdulsalam Jahaf, a member of the group’s security council.
However, following the overnight operation, Camille Lons, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said there may now be “a period of calm because it may take Iran some time to replenish the Houthis stocks” before they are able to resume high-intensity attacks on Red Sea shipping. But, she cautioned, their motivation to continue to target shipping will likely be unaltered.
The Western strikes are “unlikely to immediately halt Houthi aggression,” agreed Jonathan Panikoff, a former U.S. national intelligence officer for the Near East. “That will almost certainly mean having to continue to respond to Houthi strikes, and potentially with increasing aggression.”
“The Houthis view themselves as having little to lose, emboldened militarily by Iranian provisions of support and confident the U.S. will not entertain a ground war,” he said.
Iran also upped the ante earlier this week by boarding and commandeering a Greek-operated oil tanker that was loaded with Iraqi crude destined for Turkey, intercepting it as it transited the Strait of Hormuz. The vessel, the St. Nikolas, was previously apprehended for violating sanctions on Iranian oil and its cargo was confiscated and sold off by the U.S. Treasury Department. Its Greek captain and crew of 18 Filipino nationals are now in Iranian custody, with the incident marking a sharp escalation in the threats facing maritime traffic.
Israeli connection
Washington and London are striving to distinguish their bid to deter the Houthis in the Red Sea from the war in Gaza, fearful that merging the two will hand Tehran a propaganda advantage in the Middle East. The Houthis and Iran are keen to accomplish the reverse.
The Houthi leadership claims its attacks on maritime traffic are aimed at pressuring Israel to halt its bombing of the Gaza Strip and it insists it is only targeting commercial vessels linked to Israel or destined to dock at the Israeli port of Eilat, a point contested by Western powers.
“The Houthis claim that their attacks on military and civilian vessels are somehow tied to the ongoing conflict in Gaza — that is completely baseless and illegitimate. The Houthis also claim to be targeting specifically Israeli-owned ships or ships bound for Israel. That is simply not true, they are firing indiscriminately on vessels with global ties,” a senior U.S. official briefing reporters in Washington said Friday.
Wider Near East crisis
The Red Sea isn’t the only hotspot where American and European forces and their allies are facing off against Iran and its partners.
In November, U.S. F-15 fighter jets hit a weapons storage facility in eastern Syria that the Pentagon says was used by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Shia militants it supports in the war-torn country. The response came after dozens of American troops were reportedly injured in attacks in Iraq and Syria linked back to Tehran.
Israel’s war with Hamas has also risked spreading, after a blast killed one of the militant group’s commanders in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, earlier in January. Hezbollah vowed a swift response and tensions have soared along the border between the two countries, with Israeli civilians evacuated from their homes in towns and villages close to the frontier.
All of that contributes to an increasingly volatile environment that has neighboring countries worried, said Christian Koch, director at the Saudi Arabia-based Gulf Research Center.
“There’s a lot at stake at the moment and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and others are extremely worried about further escalation and then being subject to retaliation,” he said. “Now, the danger of regional escalation has been heightened further, which could mean that Iran will get further involved in the conflict, and this is a dangerous spiral downwards.”
While long-planned efforts to normalize ties between the Saudis and Israel collapsed in the wake of the October 7 attack and the subsequent military response, Riyadh has pushed forward with a policy of de-escalation with the Houthis after a decade of violent conflict, and sought an almost unprecedented rapprochement with Iran.
“Saudi Arabia has had one objective, which is to prevent this from escalating into a wider regional war,” said Tobias Borck, an expert on Middle East security at the Royal United Services Institute. “It has attempted over the last few years to bring its intervention in the war in Yemen to a close, including through negotiations with the Houthis and actually from all we know from the outside, [they] are reasonably close to an agreement.”
The Western coalition is therefore a source of anxiety, rather than relief, for Gulf States.
“Saudi Arabia and UAE are staying out of this coalition because mainly they don’t want to have the Houthis attack them as they had been for years and years with cruise missiles,” said retired U.S. General Mark Kimmitt, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs. However, American or European boots on the ground are unlikely to be necessary, he added, because “our capabilities these days to find, fix and attack even mobile missile launchers is pretty well refined.”
Far-reaching consequences
At the intersection of Europe and Asia, the Red Sea is a vital thoroughfare for energy and international trade. Maritime traffic through the region has already dropped by 20 percent, Rear Admiral Emmanuel Slaars, the joint commander of French forces in the region, told reporters on Thursday.
According to data published this week by the German IfW Kiel institute, global trade fell by 1.3 percent from November to December, with the Houthi attacks likely to have been a contributing factor.
The volume of containers in the Red Sea also plummeted and is currently almost 70 percent below usual, the institute said. In December, that caused freight costs and transportation time to rise and imports and exports from the EU to be “significantly lower” than in November.
In one indication of the impact on industrial supply chains, U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla said Friday it would shut its factory in Germany for two weeks.
Around 12 percent of the world’s oil and 8 percent of its gas normally flow through the waterway, as well as hundreds of cargo ships. Oil prices climbed more than 2.5 percent following the strikes, fueling market concerns of the impact a wider conflict could have on oil supplies from the region, especially those being shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, linking the Persian Gulf with the Indian Ocean and the world’s most important oil chokepoint.
The Houthi attacks on the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest waterways, have already caused major shipping companies, including oil giant BP, to halt shipments through the Red Sea, opting for a lengthy detour around the Cape of Good Hope instead.
According to Borck, the impact on energy prices has been limited so far but will depend on what happens next.
“We need to look for two actors’ actions here. One is the Houthis, how they respond, and the other one is, of course, looking at how Iran responds,” he said. While Tehran has the “nuclear option” of closing the Strait of Hormuz altogether, it’s unlikely to do so at this stage.
“I don’t think the Strait of Hormuz is next. I think there would be quite a few steps on the escalation ladder first,” he added.
But Simone Tagliapietra, an energy expert at Brussels’ Bruegel think tank, warned that a growing confrontation with Iran could lead to tougher enforcement of sanctions on its oil exports. The West has turned a blind eye to Tehran’s increasing sales to China in the wake of the war in Ukraine, which has relieved some pressure on global energy markets.
A crackdown, he believes, “could see global oil prices rising substantially, pushing inflation higher and further complicating the efforts of central banks to bring it under control.”
However, Saudi Arabia and the UAE could help compensate for such a move by ramping up their own production — provided they’re willing to risk the ire of Iran.
Gabriel Gavin reported from Yerevan, Armenia. Antonia Zimmermann from Brussels and Jamie Dettmer from Tel-Aviv.
Laura Kayali contributed reporting from Paris.
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Gabriel Gavin, Antonia Zimmermann and Jamie Dettmer
On October 7, Hamas fighters launched a bloody attack against Israel, using paragliders, speedboats and underground tunnels to carry out an offensive that killed almost 1,200 people and saw hundreds more taken back to the Gaza Strip as prisoners.
Almost three months on, Israel’s massive military retaliation is reverberating around the region, with explosions in Lebanon and rebels from Yemen attacking shipping in the Red Sea. Meanwhile, Western countries are pumping military aid into Israel while deploying fleets to protect commercial shipping — risking confrontation with the Iranian navy.
That’s in line with a grim prediction made last year by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, who said that Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza meant an “expansion of the scope of the war has become inevitable,” and that further escalation across the Middle East should be expected.
What’s happening?
The Israel Defense Forces are still fighting fierce battles for control of the Gaza Strip in what officials say is a mission to destroy Hamas. Troops have already occupied much of the north of the 365-square-kilometer territory, home to around 2.3 million Palestinians, and are now stepping up their assault in the south.
Entire neighborhoods of densely-populated Gaza City have been levelled by intense Israeli shelling, rocket attacks and air strikes, rendering them uninhabitable. Although independent observers have been largely shut out, the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry claims more than 22,300 people have been killed, while the U.N. says 1.9 million people have been displaced.
On a visit to the front lines, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that his country is in the fight for the long haul. “The feeling that we will stop soon is incorrect. Without a clear victory, we will not be able to live in the Middle East,” he said.
As the Gaza ground war intensifies, Hamas and its allies are increasingly looking to take the conflict to a far broader arena in order to put pressure on Israel.
According to Seth Frantzman, a regional analyst with the Jerusalem Post and adjunct fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, “Iran is certainly making a play here in terms of trying to isolate Israel [and] the U.S. and weaken U.S. influence, also showing that Israel doesn’t have the deterrence capabilities that it may have had in the past or at least thought it had.”
Northern front
On Tuesday a blast ripped through an office in Dahieh, a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital, Beirut — 130 kilometers from the border with Israel. Hamas confirmed that one of its most senior leaders, Saleh al-Arouri, was killed in the strike.
Government officials in Jerusalem have refused to confirm Israeli forces were behind the killing, while simultaneously presenting it as a “surgical strike against the Hamas leadership” and insisting it was not an attack against Lebanon itself, despite a warning from Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati that the incident risked dragging his country into a wider regional war.
Tensions between Israel and Lebanon have spiked in recent weeks, with fighters loyal to Hezbollah, the Shia Islamist militant group that controls the south of the country, firing hundreds of rockets across the frontier. Along with Hamas, Hezbollah is part of the Iranian-led “Axis of Resistance” that aims to destroy the state of Israel.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Iran’s foreign ministry said the death of al-Arouri, the most senior Hamas official confirmed to have died since October 7, will only embolden resistance against Israel, not only in the Palestinian territories but also in the wider Middle East.
The Israel Defense Forces are still fighting fierce battles for control of the Gaza Strip in what officials say is a mission to destroy Hamas | Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images
“We’re talking about the death of a senior Hamas leader, not from Hezbollah or the [Iranian] Revolutionary Guards. Is it Iran who’s going to respond? Hezbollah? Hamas with rockets? Or will there be no response, with the various players waiting for the next assassination?” asked Héloïse Fayet, a researcher at the French Institute for International Relations.
In a much-anticipated speech on Wednesday evening, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah condemned the killing but did not announce a military response.
Red Sea boils over
For months now, sailors navigating the narrow Bab-el-Mandeb Strait that links Europe to Asia have faced a growing threat of drone strikes, missile attacks and even hijackings by Iran-backed Houthi militants operating off the coast of Yemen.
The Houthi movement, a Shia militant group supported by Iran in the Yemeni civil war against Saudi Arabia and its local allies, insists it is only targeting shipping with links to Israel in a bid to pressure it to end the war in Gaza. However, the busy trade route from the Suez Canal through the Red Sea has seen dozens of commercial vessels targeted or delayed, forcing Western nations to intervene.
Over the weekend, the U.S. Navy said it had intercepted two anti-ship missiles and sunk three boats carrying Houthi fighters in what it said was a hijacking attempt against the Maersk Hangzhou, a container ship. Danish shipping giant Maersk said Tuesday that it would “pause all transits through the Red Sea until further notice,” following a number of other cargo liners; energy giant BP is also suspending travel through the region.
On Wednesday the Houthis targeted a CMA CGM Tage container ship bound for Israel, according to the group’s military spokesperson Yahya Sarea. “Any U.S. attack will not pass without a response or punishment,” he added.
“The sensible decision is one that the vast majority of shippers I think are now coming to, [which] is to transit through round the Cape of Good Hope,” said Marco Forgione, director general at the Institute of Export & International Trade. “But that in itself is not without heavy impact, it’s up to two weeks additional sailing time, adds over £1 million to the journey, and there are risks, particularly in West Africa, of piracy as well.”
However, John Stawpert, a senior manager at the International Chamber of Shipping, noted that while “there has been disruption” and an “understandable nervousness about transiting these routes … trade is continuing to flow.”
“A major contributory factor to that has been the presence of military assets committed to defending shipping from these attacks,” he said.
The impacts of the disruption, especially price hikes hitting consumers, will be seen “in the next couple of weeks,” according to Forgione. Oil and gas markets also risk taking a hit — the price of benchmark Brent crude rose by 3 percent to $78.22 a barrel on Wednesday. Almost 10 percent of the world’s oil and 7 percent of its gas flows through the Red Sea.
Western response
On Wednesday evening, the U.S., Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom issued an ultimatum calling the Houthi attacks “illegal, unacceptable, and profoundly destabilizing,” but with only vague threats of action.
“We call for the immediate end of these illegal attacks and release of unlawfully detained vessels and crews. The Houthis will bear the responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, and free flow of commerce in the region’s critical waterways,” the statement said.
The Houthi movement insists it is only targeting shipping with links to Israel in a bid to pressure it to end the war in Gaza | Houthi Movement via Getty Images
Despite the tepid language, the U.S. has already struck back at militants from Iranian-backed groups such as Kataeb Hezbollah in Iraq and Syria after they carried out drone attacks that injured U.S. personnel.
The assumption in London is that airstrikes against the Houthis — if it came to that — would be U.S.-led with the U.K. as a partner. Other nations might also chip in.
Two French officials said Paris is not considering air strikes. The country’s position is to stick to self-defense, and that hasn’t changed, one of them said. French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu confirmed that assessment, saying on Tuesday that “we’re continuing to act in self-defense.”
“Would France, which is so proud of its third way and its position as a balancing power, be prepared to join an American-British coalition?” asked Fayet, the think tank researcher.
Iran looms large
Iran’s efforts to leverage its proxies in a below-the-radar battle against both Israel and the West appear to be well underway, and the conflict has already scuppered a long-awaited security deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
“Since 1979, Iran has been conducting asymmetrical proxy terrorism where they try to advance their foreign policy objectives while displacing the consequences, the counterpunches, onto someone else — usually Arabs,” said Bradley Bowman, senior director of Washington’s Center on Military and Political Power. “An increasingly effective regional security architecture, of the kind the U.S. and Saudi Arabia are trying to build, is a nightmare for Iran which, like a bully on the playground, wants to keep all the other kids divided and distracted.”
Despite Iran’s fiery rhetoric, it has stopped short of declaring all-out war on its enemies or inflicting massive casualties on Western forces in the region — which experts say reflects the fact it would be outgunned in a conventional conflict.
“Neither Iran nor the U.S. nor Israel is ready for that big war,” said Alex Vatanka, director of the Middle East Institute’s Iran program. “Israel is a nuclear state, Iran is a nuclear threshold state — and the U.S. speaks for itself on this front.”
Israel might be betting on a long fight in Gaza, but Iran is trying to make the conflict a global one, he added. “Nobody wants a war, so both sides have been gambling on the long term, hoping to kill the other guy through a thousand cuts.”
Emilio Casalicchio contributed reporting.
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Gabriel Gavin, Antonia Zimmermann and Laura Kayali
Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets at Israel on Saturday in retaliation for the targeted killing of a Hamas leader in Beirut this week amid mounting fears of a larger regional war, according to media reports.
Hezbollah said in a statement Saturday that it targeted an Israeli air surveillance base in northern Israel with 62 missiles as an “initial response” to the suspected Israeli strike on January 2 that killed senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri in a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut. The Israeli military said around 40 rockets were fired from Lebanon at its territory.
Hasan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group, said earlier this week that the killing of al-Arouri will “not go unpunished.”
Israel’s military said it responded to the Hezbollah rocket attacks with a drone strike on “the terrorist cell responsible for the launches toward the area of Metula.”
The escalation comes as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has embarked on his fourth diplomatic tour of the Middle East as the Israel-Hamas war reaches its three-month mark and amid growing international criticism of Israel’s strategy. Yemen’s Houthi militants have also increased their attacks on cargo ships and fuel tankers in the Red Sea.
Blinken met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Saturday. U.S. officials said Blinken was seeking Turkish buy-in, or at least consideration, of potential monetary or in-kind contributions to reconstruction efforts and some form of participation in a proposed multi-national force that could operate in or adjacent to the territory, the Associated Press reported.
Turkey has been harshly critical of Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the prosecution of the war and the impact it has had on Palestinian civilians.
In addition, officials said, Blinken will stress the importance Washington places on Ankara ratifying Sweden’s membership in NATO, a long-delayed process that the Turks have said they will complete soon. Sweden’s accession to the defense alliance is seen as one critical response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who was in Lebanon on Saturday, warned that it was imperative to avoid the Israel-Hamas war growing into a regional conflict.
Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages, some of whom have been released.
Israel has for the last three months bombed the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, resulting in nearly 23,000 people dying and around 59,000 others being injured, according to the Palestinian enclave’s health authorities.
In another warning, the United Nations’ humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said on Friday that Gaza has become “uninhabitable” for its nearly 2.3 million inhabitants and repeated that “a public health disaster is unfolding” in the enclave.
They covered themselves with hazmat suits, gloves and masks and put plastic bags over their boots. That’s how dangerous the substance was that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers were examining Wednesday morning.
A cadre of agents — veterans who had seized fentanyl, heroin and other illicit narcotics in previous raids — dug deep, hands and boots in a sea of pungent material, before hitting pay dirt.
What agents said they found was almost 2 tons of methamphetamine and cocaine — valued at $10.4 million — buried within dozens of vats of fiery jalapeño paste. The cargo was seized from a commercial tractor-trailer near the Otay Mesa border.
“It was an extremely spicy situation,” Michael Scappechio, a CBP spokesperson, told The Times. “You never really know what you’re dealing with just in terms of dangerous narcotics and then you throw in there all that organic material; we had to break out the full PPE,” or personal protective equipment.
A 28-year-old man with valid border-crossing credentials was stopped Wednesday around 10:36 a.m. by agents while hauling his cargo. The individual was a Mexican national, according to Scappechio.
His electronic shipment manifest listed only vats of jalapeño paste among his consignment.
Customs officers decided to review the man’s haul.
In total, 349 packages of methamphetamine and cocaine weighing 3,684 pounds were seized.
(U.S. Customs and Border Protection)
“We won’t expose the reasons that led to the further examination,” Scappechio said, “but agent suspicion is often used.”
The truck was moved from the border to the nearby screening facility, where a K-9 unit then screened the cargo and alerted agents for a full inspection.
There, they poured out barrel-sized drums of jalapeño paste, removing 349 suspicious packages from the vats. About 3,161 pounds of methamphetamine and 523 pounds of cocaine were extracted from the haul.
The driver was turned over to the Department of Homeland Security for arrest and processing while the CBP seized the drugs and trailer.
Never underestimate the power of a dog’s nose.
“Our K-9 teams are an invaluable component of our counter-narcotics operations, providing a reliable and unequaled mobile detection capability,” said Rosa Hernandez in a statement. The Otay Mesa port director said the CBP had stepped up its efforts “to secure communities and stifle the growth of transnational criminal organizations, one seizure after another.”
Last month, San Diego’s field office seized more than 14,000 pounds of narcotics at California’s land borders.
But what’s going to happen to all that jalapeño paste?
Scappechio said he couldn’t say for certain but noted that the agency was “not going to hold organic material for too long” before destroying it. He did say the owner could petition to retrieve the property.
“Since the jalapeño paste was laden with dangerous drugs,” Scappechio said, “I wouldn’t hold my breath.”
BRUSSELS — In early August, Bulgarian officials spotted something they weren’t sure was legal.
Barrels of Russian oil were arriving in the country priced above a $60 limit allies had adopted to sap Moscow of critical revenue for its war in Ukraine.
Bulgaria was in an unusual position among its partners. It had been given an exemption to European Union sanctions barring most imports of Russian oil, ostensibly to ensure the country wouldn’t face acute energy shortages even though the EU’s broader policy aimed to crush Russia’s main cash artery following its full-scale assault on Kyiv.
But could Bulgaria still import Russian oil if it was above the price cap? Customs officials in Sofia wanted to know for sure, so they reached out to EU officials asking for “clarification,” according to a private email exchange dated August 4 and seen by POLITICO.
The answer: Let it in.
“Crude oil imported based on these derogations does not need to be at or below $60 per barrel,” came the EU’s reply.
Green light in hand, Bulgaria proceeded to import Russian crude exclusively above the price cap from August until October, according to confidential customs data seen by POLITICO. The shipments were worth an estimated €640 million, according to calculations by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) think tank. The cash went to Russian energy firms, which pay the taxes helping fill the Kremlin’s war chest.
The sanctions gap is emblematic of the broader flaws that have corroded the EU’s attempt to stymie the billions Russia earns from energy exports. Roughly a year after adopting the initial penalties, legal loopholes have combined with poor enforcement and a mushrooming parallel trade to keep Moscow’s fossil fuel revenues flowing, and feeding almost half of Vladimir Putin’s war-hungry budget.
Russian oil is likely winding up as fuel in Europe via new routes. Enforcement across the Continent is scattered and reliant on inconsistent data. And a whole new black market has sprung up to insure, ship and hide Russia’s fuel as it travels the world.
The sanctions, in other words, have come up short. Russia’s oil export earnings have dropped just 14 percent since the restrictions were imposed. And in October, Russia’s fossil fuel revenues hit an 18-month high.
It also appears the EU has run out of steam to do much about it. The latest EU sanctions package, set to be finalized at a leaders’ summit this week, is mostly focused on administrative tweaks that experts say will do little to curb widespread evasion. Absent are any efforts to drop the level of the oil price cap further.
“The whole sanction mechanism works only if you keep adopting on a regular basis decisions that close loopholes and impose new sanctions,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told POLITICO. “Every actor in the world has the capacity to adapt.”
The Bulgarian oversight
The reason behind Bulgaria’s price cap loophole is arguably a clerical oversight.
When the EU wrote the G7 nations’ price cap into law, officials expressly forbade EU shipping firms and insurance companies from trafficking Russian oil above the $60 threshold to non-EU countries. The aim was to squeeze the Kremlin’s revenues while keeping global oil flows steady.
But officials never thought to impose similar rules on shipments to EU countries, partly because Brussels had banned Russian seaborne crude oil imports that same day.
Except for Bulgaria.
The backdoor has meant millions in extra revenue for Moscow. According to CREA, Russian oil export earnings from Bulgarian sales between August to October — a third of which came from sales above the price cap — raised around €430 million in direct taxes for the Kremlin. All Russian-origin shipments delivered during this time — priced between $69 and $89 per barrel — relied on Western help, including from Greek ship operators and British and Norwegian insurers.
And it was all technically legal.
The situation “reveals that Bulgaria has aided Russia to exploit this glaring loophole to maximize the Kremlin’s budget revenues from these oil sales without any apparent benefits for Bulgarian consumers,” said Martin Vladimirov, a senior analyst at the Sofia-based Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD) think tank, which has studied the issue.
More broadly, Bulgaria’s exemption from the Russian oil ban has been lining the pockets of both Russia’s largest private oil firm, Lukoil, which dominates Bulgaria’s fuel production with its sprawling Black Sea refinery, and the Kremlin itself.
More broadly, Lukoil’s crude oil imports to Bulgaria raked in over €2 billion in export revenues for Russia since the sanctions went into effect in February, according to a new CREA and CSD analysis. And the Kremlin has made €1 billion in direct taxes from the sales, POLITICO revealed last month.
There is now mounting pressure to mend these money-making fissures.
Bulgaria has vowed to cut short its opt-out from the Russian oil ban by six months, provisionally moving the deadline up to March.
And Kiril Petkov, the former prime minister who leads one of two parties controlling Bulgaria’s current governing coalition, told POLITICO the price cap workaround should “absolutely” be closed too. He vowed to pressure the government and ask the European Commission, the EU’s executive in Brussels, to do so, while insisting that Bulgaria is accelerating its efforts to shake off its Russian energy ties, unlike nearby countries like Slovakia.
Bulgaria proceeded to import Russian crude exclusively above the price cap from August until October, according to confidential customs data seen by POLITICO | Robert Ghement/EPA-EFE
“We do not like the $60 loophole that was created by the EU Commission derogation,” Petkov said. “We don’t want Putin to receive any euro that he doesn’t have to.”
The Bulgarian case “highlights one of the many loopholes that make sanctions less effective at lowering Russian export earnings used to finance the Kremlin’s war chest,” according to Isaac Levi, who leads CREA’s Russia-Europe team.
Bulgaria’s finance ministry and Lukoil didn’t respond to requests for comment.
‘Not all rainbows and unicorns’
A major challenge is poor monitoring and enforcement.
In October, a report commissioned by the European Parliament found EU sanctions enforcement is “scattered” across over 160 local authorities, while capitals have “dissimilar implementation systems” that include “wide discrepancies” in penalties for violations.
That assumes you can find a breach to begin with. Even those involved in shipping oil get only limited access to information on trades, according to Viktor Katona, chief crude analyst at the Kpler market intelligence firm.
Insurers, for example, rely on a single document from firms buying and selling oil cargoes pledging the sale is not above $60 per barrel, which amounts to a “declaration of faith,” he said.
The EU’s upcoming 12th package of sanctions is trying to crack down on this problem with new rules forcing traders to actually itemize specific costs. The goal is to prevent buyers from purchasing Russian oil above the limit and then hiding the extra costs as insurance or transport fees. But few in the industry have high hopes the added paperwork will stop the workaround.
Several EU countries with large shipping industries are also reluctant to tighten the price cap, making things even trickier. During the latest round of sanctions, Cyprus, Malta and Greece once again raised concerns over calls to strengthen the restrictions, according to two EU diplomats, who like others in the story were granted anonymity to speak freely.
A diplomat from a major maritime EU nation said stricter sanctions would only push Russia to use more non-Western operators to ship oil. Instead, the diplomat argued, the focus should be on broadening the countries adhering to the price cap. Currently, the G7, the EU and Australia are on board.
“It would be stupid to push for price caps, and then other shipping registers do not abide by it because they are not EU members,” the diplomat said, adding that “all that will be achieved is the total destruction of the shipping industry.”
Meanwhile, EU countries are still allowing Russian oil cargoes to cross their waters on their way elsewhere.
CREA research on behalf of POLITICO found that 822 ships transporting Moscow’s crude transferred their cargo to another ship in EU territorial waters — the majority in Greek, but also Maltese, Spanish, Romanian and Italian waters — since the oil sanctions kicked off last December. The volumes were equivalent to 400,000 barrels per day.
A Commission spokesperson defended the EU sanctions, noting Russia has been forced to spend “billions of dollars” to adapt to the new reality, including on new tankers, and its oil extraction and export infrastructure as Western demand shriveled.
That has caused “serious and ongoing economic and policy consequences,” the Commission spokesperson said. And CREA did find that the oil price limit has stripped the Kremlin of €34 billion in export revenues, equivalent to roughly two months of earnings this year.
Others point out that teething issues are normal — it’s the first time the EU has deployed sanctions at such a scale.
“Let’s be fair … all of the sanctions measures are unprecedented, so there’s an element of learning by doing it, as well,” said one of the EU diplomats. “We don’t live in a perfect world: it’s not all rainbows and unicorns.”
Deep dark waters
Instead of accepting the tough rules designed to drain its finances, Moscow has sparked a sanctions circumvention arms race, looking for loopholes as part of what one senior Ukrainian official has described as a “cockroach strategy.”
To ensure it can sell its fossil fuels at whatever price it can get, in violation of the oil price cap and other restrictions, Russia has presided over the creation of a parallel shipping market that, through a mixture of law-breaking and law-bending, is lining the pockets of its state energy firms and oligarchs.
A “shadow fleet” of aging tankers has emerged, mysteriously managed through a network of companies that obscure their ownership, frequently trading their cargo of fuel with other ships at sea. To help them escape the jurisdiction of Western sanctions while meeting basic maritime requirements, a cottage industry of murky insurance firms has sprung up in countries like India.
“When they were introduced, the sanctions seemed to be having an effect for a very short time. But now the state of play is most of the sanctions that have beeninplace have not really worked — or they’ve been very limited in terms of what they’ve been able to do,” said Byron McKinney, a director at trade and commodity firm S&P.
As Russian trades move increasingly away from Western operators and traders, that makes tracking them even more difficult, said Katona, the Kpler oil analyst.
“Every single” Russian type of oil now trades above the price cap, he said, while CREA estimates only 48 percent of Russian oil cargoes were carried on tankers owned or insured in G7 and EU countries in October.
“It’s like coming to a party and telling everyone not to drink alcohol, but not coming to the party yourself,” Katona said. “How do you make sure that no one’s drinking?”
At the same time, countries like India have increased their imports of cheap Russian crude by 134 percent, CREA found, processing it and then selling it everywhere. That means European consumers could unknowingly be filling up their cars with fuel produced from Russian crude, bankrolling Moscow’s armed forces at the same time.
The waning West?
The EU is well aware of the problem.
“Unless you have big players like India and China as part of it, effectiveness sooner or later fades away,” conceded one senior Commission official.
“It shows us the limits of what the tools of Western players can achieve at a global level,” the official added, noting it’s “a lesson in how much the [global] power balance has changed compared to 10 or 20 years ago.”
Expectations are low, however, that India or China — or Turkey, another critical shipping country — will come around to the price cap any time soon.
And back in Brussels, political leaders seem to be throwing up their hands. When EU leaders gather for their summit on Thursday, the sanctions package they’re expected to endorse will do little to stanch the flow of Russia’s energy cash, omitting any measures targeting Russian oil or lowering the price cap.
Until such steps are taken, Russia’s finances won’t truly wither, said Alexandra Prokopenko, an economist and nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.
“The oil price is now the only real channel of transmission for external risk,” she said. “Russia will feel extremely bad if the average price on its oil is $40 or $50 per barrel — that would be painful for its budget and for Putin’s ability to finance expenditures.”
Getting to that point, however, was never going to be easy.
“The Russian economy was quite a big animal,” Prokopenko said, “that makes it hard to shoot it with a single shot.”
Victor Jack and Giovanna Coi reported from Brussels. Gabriel Gavin reported from Yerevan.
Claudia Chiappa contributed reporting from Brussels.
Cycling is one of the best form s of exercise. A cargo bicycle not only helps keep you and your family healthy, but also saves you money, reduces your carbon footprint, and helps you avoid the maddening traffic. You can choose from a variety of cargo bikes as per the requirements of you and your family. Here’s all the info you need to get started on living a healthier lifestyle. ~ Ed.
There’s a new preferred mode of family transportation in town, and it comes with fewer wheels, lots of advantages, and much more fun. Cargo bikes, or bicycles with the ability to carry large loads like extra passengers or groceries, are a growing trend for families on the go. Parents can easily accommodate multiple children and all their stuff for daily errands, trips to and from school, and family adventures without the need for fossil fuels or additional car payments.
Benefits of Cargo Bikes for Families
There are multiple benefits of using cargo bikes. Here are the ones that have the most impact on your life.
Experience Eco-friendliness and a Healthy Lifestyle
Setting children up for lifelong success by teaching them about the importance of an active, eco-friendly lifestyle is a precious gift. Traveling on cargo bikes makes it easy for parents to lead by example. An electric cargo bike is powered by renewable energy and gets children excited about exploring the outdoors.
Enjoy Versatility and Practicality
Cargo bikes are versatile and practical for the daily needs of a family. With the substantial cargo areas offered by many models, it is easy to fit multiple children on a single cargo bicycle. This high load capacity allows families to get where they are going quickly and efficiently while avoiding common travel woes like heavy traffic, expensive parking, and extended pickup or drop-off lanes at school.
Create An Active Lifestyle for The Whole Family
Even though an electric cargo bike has motors to assist on hills and long rides, it is still a great workout. Kids riding along will learn the value of staying active by example until they can reach the pedals on their own bicycles.
Save Money on a Second Vehicle
Cars are expensive. The cost of a second vehicle can add up quickly with payments, tags, insurance, upkeep, and fossil fuels. For most families, an electric bike with cargo can replace an expensive second car. With more cities and towns adapting roads for cargo bikes, it is becoming easier for families to travel together on an electric cargo bike for all their daily tasks.
Variety of Cargo Bike Models
You’ve a lot of options when it comes to buying a cargo bike. Here are some to get you started.
Electric Cargo Bike Types and Applications
A variety of cargo bikes, such as front-facing bucket designs or long-tail bikes, are available for families. Each model offers different advantages for families, ranging from extra cargo capacity, travel miles per charge, and seating availability.
Style and Design
Parents with young children may prefer front-facing bucket cargo bikes for more opportunities to interact with each other during the ride. Families with older children can use a long-tail cargo bike’s speed and battery life to travel to more places faster. No matter which style or design a family chooses, cargo bikes are a great way to bond with children and share daily adventures.
Choosing the Perfect Cargo Bike
When searching for the perfect cargo bike, families will need to consider a few different things, such as:
Family Size and Requirements
One option to consider is how big a family is and what their needs are for an electric cargo bike. Some cargo bike models can fit up to four children, while others are only equipped for two. Another thing for a family to consider is how far they will travel each day to gauge the importance of a more powerful motor or longer-lasting batteries.
Types of Cargo to Transport
Cargo bikes are made to carry heavy loads, but who or what a family plans to transport will determine which cargo bicycle is right for them. If a family intends to transport mostly children, they may lean towards a front bucket design, while families with fewer children and the need to carry heavy cargo when running errands may prefer a sleeker style that fits their requirements.
Features and Functional Characteristics
Different cargo bikes offer varying features and functional characteristics. Additional weight on any cargo bicycle will change the way it handles. A stronger motor will determine how far a family can go on one charge. Weight limits will limit how many children can ride per bike. These are all features a household should consider when deciding on the perfect electric cargo bike for their family.
Wrapping Up
Adding an electric cargo bike to a home comes with so many benefits. It doesn’t matter if a household is trying to save money, reduce its environmental impact, find more time together, get rid of a second car, avoid city traffic, or break away from the never-ending barrage of computer screens, a cargo bicycle is a great opportunity to achieve all that and more. Purchasing an electric bike with cargo-carrying ability is not a temporary experiment that will end up collecting dust in the garage. It is a new, better way of life that will change so much more than how a family gets from place to place.
Over to you
Do you already have a cargo bike or plan to buy one? Share your tips and experiences in the comments below.
Disclaimer: Though the views expressed are of the author’s own, this article has been checked for its authenticity of information and resource links provided for a better and deeper understanding of the subject matter. However, you’re suggested to make your diligent research and consult subject experts to decide what is best for you. If you spot any factual errors, spelling, or grammatical mistakes in the article, please report at [email protected]. Thanks.
Ukraine’s security service blew up a railway connection linking Russia to China, in a clandestine strike carried out deep into enemy territory, with pro-Kremlin media reporting that investigators have opened a criminal case into a “terrorist attack.”
The SBU set off several explosions inside the Severomuysky tunnel of the Baikal-Amur highway in Buryatia, located some 6,000 kilometers east of Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian official with direct knowledge of the operation told POLITICO.
“This is the only serious railway connection between the Russian Federation and China. And currently, this route, which Russia uses, including for military supplies, is paralyzed,” the official said.
Four explosive devices went off while a cargo train was moving inside the tunnel. “Now the (Russian) Federal Security Service is working on the spot, the railway workers are unsuccessfully trying to minimize the consequences of the SBU special operation,” the Ukrainian official added.
Ukraine’s security service has not publicly confirmed the attack. Russia has also so far not confirmed the sabotage.
“On the Itikit — Okusykan stretch in Buryatia, while driving through the tunnel, the locomotive crew of the cargo train noticed smoke from one of the diesel fuel tanks. The train was stopped, and two fire extinguishing trains were sent from nearby towns to help. The movement of trains was not interrupted, it was organized along a bypass section with a slight increase in travel time,” Russia’s state railroad company RZHD said in a statement on Thursday.
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
NICOSIA — A sea corridor from Cyprus to supply humanitarian aid to Gaza is creating some formidable logistical challenges and could require innovative fixes ranging from landing craft to a large floating platform, where ships can unload containers.
For now, the only aid route into the war-shattered coastal enclave is over land from Egypt at Rafah, but there is an increasing diplomatic push to use ships as they could deliver 500 times more aid than trucks. Israel’s Ambassador to Cyprus Oren Anolik has called the seaborne corridor a “positive initiative” but warns “there are plenty of details that need to be sorted out and discussed.” Egypt is also in favor.
The main practical challenges include the dangers posed by the war and the fact that Gaza’s port is too tiny to dock large freighters.
The idea is that international humanitarian aid will be sent and stored in Larnaca on the south coast of Cyprus, which is only 210 nautical miles from the conflict zone. It will then be inspected, with Israeli involvement, and loaded for delivery.
Afterwards, there are three scenarios on how aid can safely reach Gaza, taking into consideration the lack of port facilities: short, medium and long term.
The short-term scenario could be implemented immediately, if Israel agreed to a cease-fire, Cypriot officials explained. Aid would be transferred from Larnaca close to Gaza with large cargo ship and then offloaded to its shores via landing crafts. Cyprus has already been approached by some countries to offer this delivery method.
Under the medium-term scenario, a floating platform would be constructed for unloading containers of humanitarian aid.
The long-term scenario involves building enclosed port in the area.
Another alternative included in the Cypriot proposal, is aid being distributed via a port in Israel and then being taken to a northern entry point into Gaza. At the moment this is appears a remote prospect as Israel is reluctant for any aid to pass through its territory.
Aid reaching Gaza could be distributed by the United Nations using its network.
The European Commission, European Investment Bank, and Gulf countries have approached Cyprus to help fund the project, while others, like Greece and the Netherlands, offered practical assistance.
Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos traveled to Israel last week with a team of experts to discuss the practical dimensions of the scheme.
The idea is that international humanitarian aid will be sent and stored in Larnaca on the south coast of Cyprus, which is only 210 nautical miles from the conflict zone | Amir Makar/AFP via Getty Images
The idea of a sea corridor had been swirling some 12 years ago, when there were thoughts about an alternative to a seaport in Gaza, but nothing eventually materialized.
“Perhaps rather than a measure of immediate relief, it could be an initiative well worth considering for the day after the end of the war and during the phase of reconstruction,” said Harry Tzimitras, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo Cyprus Center.
As Tzimitras explained, the crossing in Rafah is currently being used for the passage of around 100 lorries per day, while the need is for 400. This cannot be done because the scanners have not been upgraded and they can only cope with a limited number of checks.
“Unless there is a structure on the ground for the receipt and effective distribution of the aid, there’s no point in flooding the place with more humanitarian aid at this juncture,” he added.
Another scenario floated by the U.K. is airlifting aid using its bases in Cyprus.
“Precious Cargo” is the second mission in Modern Warfare 3. Several of the main campaign missions have collectible items and weapons to find. This gear doesn’t carry over between missions, but, once you’ve collected it, you can change your loadout both during the mission and any time you replay it.
Our Modern Warfare 3 guide will show you all of the weapon locations and item locations in “Precious Cargo.”
All ‘Precious Cargo’ weapon and item locations in MW3
There are 21 weapons and items to find in the “Precious Cargo” mission.
1. MTZ-556
Image: Sledgehammer Games/Activision
You’ll find the MTZ-556 assault rifle in the Shadow Company shipping container just east of the starting location.
2. Silenced WSP Swarm
You’ll find the Silenced WSP Swarm SMG in the same shipping container as the MTZ-556 above.
3. Recon Drone
Image: Sledgehammer Games/Activision
Back outside, turn to the right. A little east of the container, you’ll find an open container with the Recon Drone field upgrade inside.
4. Silenced Rival-9
Image: Sledgehammer Games/Activision
Hop onto the boxes just to the right of the Recon Drone’s container. Climb up to find another orange crate with the Silenced Rival-9 SMG inside.
5. Heartbeat Sensor
Image: Sledgehammer Games/Activision
Head back to the first container and turn south to find another Shadow Company container. Inside, you’ll find the Heartbeat Sensor field upgrade.
6. Silenced Expedite 12
Image: Sledgehammer Games/Activision
From the Heartbeat Sensor, head south and take the first left. Turn right immediately and you’ll find the Silenced Expedite 12 shotgun in a crate on the second row of shipping containers.
7. 556 Icarus
Image: Sledgehammer Games/Activision
Head east along the bottom of the map and watch for a small building on your left. Get past the guards and you’ll find the 556 Icarus light machine gun in a crate in the northwest corner.
8. Snapshot Pulse
In the northwest corner of the same room, you’ll find the Snapshot Pulse field upgrade.
9. PILA
Image: Sledgehammer Games/Activision
Back outside, look for a ladder on the south-facing wall. Climb to the roof to find the PILA launcher.
10. Munitions Box
Image: Sledgehammer Games/Activision
Keep heading east across the bottom of the map to reach the tower — where you’ll find the manifest for this mission’s objective. On the ground floor, head into the garage to the southeast to find the Munitions Box field upgrade.
11. RPK
Image: Sledgehammer Games/Activision
Continue up the tower to the third floor. In the room across from the Harbormaster’s Office, you’ll find a crate against the window with the RPK light machine gun inside.
12. Pulemyot 762
Image: Sledgehammer Games/Activision
Inside the Harbormaster’s Office, there’s a hallway leading to the southwest. Head through it to find a crate with the Pulemyot 762 light machine gun.
13. Explosive Victus XMR
Image: Sledgehammer Games/Activision
Continue up the stairs to the roof and take a left to find the Explosive Victus XMR sniper rifle (and a good perch to clear out some baddies).
14. Silenced ISO Hemlock
Image: Sledgehammer Games/Activision
From the roof, look to the northeast and you’ll find another building standing on its own. The Silenced ISO Hemlock assault rifle is in the crate inside.
15. Signal 50
Image: Sledgehammer Games/Activision
From that building start working back to the west. A little to the north, you’ll pass by one of the automated gantries. Climb up it to the catwalk on the northern side (not quite the very top of the gantry) to find the Signal 50 sniper rifle.
16. Hybrid STB 556
Image: Sledgehammer Games/Activision
Drop off the gantry heading southwest and you’ll find another small building. Head to the room on the north side to find the Hybrid STB 556 assault rifle.
17. BAS-B
Image: Sledgehammer Games/Activision
Exit the building and climb onto the shipping containers heading west. You’ll find the BAS-B in an orange crate on the top of the northern edge of the stacks of shipping containers.
18. GS Magna
Image: Sledgehammer Games/Activision
Continue along the tops of the shipping container heading west. Just before you reach the edge of the map, look for a small open area on the ground. You’ll find the GS Magna handgun in a small orange crate.
19. Incendiary Bryson 800
Image: Sledgehammer Games/Activision
When you first board the ship, cut to the north (port) side as you work forward. Stay on the deck level and take the first door on the left that you come to. You’ll find the Incendiary Bryson 800 shotgun in a small room there.
20. RGL-80
Image: Sledgehammer Games/Activision
Keep heading east toward the bridge. When you enter, take the first door on the left to find a crate with the RGL-80 launcher inside.
21. KVD Enforcer
Image: Sledgehammer Games/Activision
A little further into the ship, you’ll find the Control Room with the GPS trackers on a long table. Go through the first door on the left to find the KVD Enforcer sniper rifle.
Western efforts to undermine the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine through a price cap on Russia’s all-important oil income are falling short. Hopes that Moscow could run out of cash for weapons and soldiers’ salaries are fading, industry insiders warn, as Russia sells its oil exports well above a $60-per-barrel price cap imposed by the G7+ nations, boosted by strong Chinese and Indian demand.
Russia’s main crude blend, Urals, broke through the cap imposed by G7+ countries on the open market in June, and has since pushed above $80 per barrel last month. It is currently trading at around $75 a barrel.
That means Russian President Vladimir Putin can keep the war going for longer: Strong oil revenues allow Moscow to purchase more arms and bolster the civilian economy. Isolating Russia from global markets has been a key pillar of the U.S. and EU strategy to counter the invasion, along with supplying weapons to Ukraine. Russian spending plans reveal that it will allocate a third of its annual budget to defense next year, indicating its top brass are confident they can outlast and outspend the West.
Besides higher prices, Russia is also selling more crude by volume, with seaborne exports rising 10 percent last month to 3.37 million barrels a day — well above the pre-war average of 3.1 million, according to data from commodities giant S&P.
“The price cap has absolutely failed,” Fotios Katsoulas, lead analyst for tanker shipping at S&P, told POLITICO from London. “Across the market we expect that all of the cargoes of Russian barrels are now trading above the price cap.”
The high prices are driven by a strong global market, he said, with benchmark Brent crude flirting with $100 a barrel in recent weeks. With benchmarks so high, Russian crude offers a tempting discount even at $80 or more.
Russia has been working to actively subvert the sanctions, taking advantage of a “shadow fleet” of aging tankers willing to carry oil in violation of the sanctions — often obscuring their ownership and even hiding the true origin of their cargo.
“New companies have been established in the [United Arab] Emirates, India, China and so on, increasing the tonnage they control, buying older vessels, not operating under Western insurance providers,” said Katsoulas, arguing the move means they’re effectively immune to the consequences of violating the price cap. China and India are now the largest destinations for Russian seaborne crude, followed by Turkey.
A senior economist at one major trading firm, granted anonymity to speak frankly on sensitive regulatory issues, warned there is little Western policymakers can do to enforce the rules without overheating an already frothy market.
“The U.S. administration probably will prefer to not penalize freight and insurance companies involved in breaking the $60 limit because that would risk even higher crude oil prices,” the trader said.
You can leave your cap on
A spokesperson for the European Commission acknowledged that there had been “recent fluctuations in oil prices above the G7+ price cap level,” but insisted “this does not mean that the price cap is not working.”
“To continue the successful enforcement of the oil price caps across the international coalition, it is indeed vital to counter Russian attempts to undermine its functioning,” the official added, pointing out that the bloc has sought to target rogue ship operators in its 11th package of sanctions against Moscow in May.
Strong oil revenues allow Moscow to purchase more arms and bolster the civilian economy | Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
Maria Shagina, a sanctions researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, cautioned against giving up on the price cap. Instead, “we now need to make sure the cap is watertight, that the mechanism is more robust than it is now.”
“Tighter enforcement would make a difference to the Russian budget — when there was more compliance from January through to August we saw Russian revenues drop 50 percent year on year and they struggled to cope with social spending and war-related spending,” Shagina said. “Now the cap is failing, but it hasn’t ultimately failed. If we tighten the screws we can bring it back to life.”
That could be difficult without the U.S. Last month, five diplomats from EU countries told POLITICO that despite growing awareness that the restrictions aren’t functioning properly, there is little appetite among the bloc’s governments to change it. “The Americans have said from their point of view that it’s working,” said one envoy, with another pointing out that little would change without U.S. support for tighter rules.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s top economic adviser, Oleg Ustenko, used an interview with POLITICO in August to urge the West to both tighten the cap to just $30, and to close a “loophole” that allows countries like India, Turkey and China to export fuel refined from Russian crude to the global market without restrictions.
Responding to a request for comment, the U.S. State Department said that “the coalition continues to watch market conditions closely” and argued that current measures have already “rendered the Russian military-industrial complex unable to produce and maintain critical equipment for operations in Ukraine.”
KYIV — An overnight naval drone attack against a Russian tanker in the Black Sea signals a potential new front in the Ukraine war, with Kyiv delivering its strongest message to date that it is willing to target Moscow’s all-important shipments of oil and fuel.
The battle for supremacy in the Black Sea is ramping up fast, with massive implications for global energy and food security. The attack on the tanker off Crimea came only a day after another Ukrainian marine drone — a flat, arrowhead-shaped vessel packed with explosives — targeted a Russian naval base near the port of Novorossiysk, badly damaging a warship.
“The tanker was damaged in the Kerch Strait during an attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported on Saturday. “The crew is safe, the Maritime Rescue Center informed us. The engine room was damaged. Two tugboats arrived at the scene of an emergency with a tanker in the Kerch Strait, the question of the towing vessel is being resolved,” it said.
Russia’s Federal Marine and River Transport Agency reported it was a SIG oil and chemical tanker — a ship whose owner, St. Petersburg-based company Transpetrochart, was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2019 for supplying jet fuel for Russian forces in Syria.
Tensions are rising in the Black Sea after Russia last month announced it was withdrawing from the U.N.-brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative and started attacking Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea coast and on the Danube River with missiles, destroying tens of thousands of tons of Ukrainian grain.
After those attacks and the blockade, Ukrainian officials issued a statement in July that Russian vessels will be no longer safe in the Black Sea. Kyiv’s defense ministry said in a statement that such vessels “may be considered by Ukraine as carrying military cargo with all the corresponding risks” from midnight Friday.
On Saturday, Kyiv announced a “war risk area” around Russian ports on the Black Sea, specifically citing the ports of Novorossiysk, Anapa, Gelendzhik, Tuapse, Sochi and Taman. The declaration will be in effect from August 23 “until further notice,” it said.
‘Completely legal’
Marine Traffic, an online maritime tracking site, has the latest position of the SIG tanker fixed near the Kerch Strait “at anchor.”
Russia’s Marine and River Transport Agency reported all 11 crew members on board were safe and that the tanker was struck in the engine room near the waterline on the starboard side, presumably as a result of an attack by a marine drone. By morning, the water pouring to the engine room has been staunched, and the vessel was afloat, Russian official said.
Ukraine almost never directly takes responsibility for these kinds of attacks. However, Vasyl Malyuk, head of the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, has previously claimed responsibility for the attacks on the Crimean bridge and hinted that there will be more similar attacks soon.
“Anything that happens with the ships of the Russian Federation or the Crimean Bridge is an absolutely logical and effective step in relation to the enemy. Moreover, such special operations are conducted in the territorial waters of Ukraine and are completely legal,” Malyuk said in a statement on Saturday.
“So, if the Russians want that to stop, they should leave the territorial waters of Ukraine and our land. And the sooner they do it, the better it will be for them. Because we will one hundred percent defeat the enemy in this war.”
Waters near Russian-occupied Crimea and the Kerch Strait are Ukrainian territorial waters, according to international maritime law.
“Since 1991, Russia has systematically used the territorial waters of Ukraine to organize armed aggressions: against the Georgian people and against the people of Syria,” the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in a social media post on Saturday.
“Today, they terrorize peaceful Ukrainian cities and destroy grain, condemning hundreds of millions to starvation. It’s time to say to the Russian killers, ‘It’s enough.’ There are no more safe waters or peaceful harbors for you in the Black and Azov Seas,” the ministry said.
Six Leopard tanks have left Spain and are on their way to Ukraine to ramp up its military capacity, Reuters reports.
The tanks have been loaded onto cargo vessel on Friday and will be shipped by sea to Poland, according to the news agency.
At the end of February, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced that he would send a total of 10 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. He faced opposition from far-left Podemos, the junior partner in his ruling coalition, which has warned this will only escalate the war and has instead pressed for peace talks.
Western allies have been ramping up the supply of military hardware to Ukraine as it prepares to face a potential renewed Russian offensive this spring. Germany hesitated for months on whether to send its tanks to Ukraine, eventually giving in to international pressure.
Now, leaked U.S. cables revealed that alongside Spain, also Germany, Norway, Portugal, Greece and Finland are planning to send tanks to the invaded country.
The model of tank Spain is shipping is among the older ones the country possesses, German media outlet ZDF said. The Western European country owns almost 350 Leopard 2 tanks in total.
Oil and gas giant Shell must donate more than $1 billion in unexpected profits from the potential sale of its assets in Russia to help rebuild Ukraine, according to a top Kyiv official.
In a letter to CEO Wael Sawan, dated April 18 and seen by POLITICO, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s economic adviser Oleg Ustenko called on Shell to share with Ukraine any profits from a potential Russian buyout of the British firm’s stake in a Siberian fossil fuel venture.
“If completed, this sale would represent the transfer of more than $1 billion in Russian cash into Shell’s accounts. That would be blood money, pure and simple,” Ustenko wrote.
“We call on Shell to put any Russian sale or dividend proceeds to work for the victims of the war — the same war that those assets have fuelled and funded,” he added.
Following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, Shell announced it would exit the Russian market and write off up to $5 billion of assets and investments in the country as a result.
That included a 27.5 percent stake in the Sakhalin-2 project, a major oil field and offshore gas drilling venture in the Russian far east. The company wrote down around $1.6 billion for its stake in the site, and the Kremlin’s move to nationalize the venture in July last year raised concerns the firm would lose its capital.
However, Russian business media reported earlier this week that the government signed off on a trade in which the country’s second-largest gas producer, Novatek, would buy out Shell’s stake for 95 billion rubles — currently worth around $1.16 billion. Shell has previously said it is not involved in any negotiations on the issue.
Shell declined to give a public comment, but pointed out that the company is not actively engaged in any business with ongoing operations inside Russia, is not party to any current negotiations for the sale of a stake in Sakhalin-2 and has no clarity over what would happen to the proceeds from such a sale.
“We appreciate that as of this moment, Shell may not have a choice on whether to accept this offer,” Ustenko conceded in the letter, but maintained there is an “overwhelming” moral case for donating any such profits.
Rebuilding from the rubble
According to NGO Global Witness, the funds would amount to more than a tenth of the total repair bill for attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which a U.N. report last week warned could be as high as $10 billion.
“It would be egregious if Shell kept this money,” said Louis Wilson, who leads Ukraine policy at the NGO. “This is money they’ve told the world they’ve written off as a loss and it’s money that comes straight from the Russian oil and gas sector. Shell has already set a precedent that profits from the war should go to Ukraine.”
In March 2022, the energy firm said it would donate $60 million to humanitarian causes in Ukraine following an outcry over its decision to purchase a cargo of Russian crude to be refined into petroleum products. While the trade did not contravene sanctions at the time, Shell admitted “it was not the right decision” and apologized.
In an interview with POLITICO last month, Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko urged major energy companies to donate excess revenues to his country.
“A lot of energy companies get enormous windfall profits due to the war,” he said. “I think it would be fair to share this money with Ukraine. To help us to restore, to rebuild the energy sector.”
That idea is getting some support from EU countries — although the final decision of whether to send cash to Ukraine is up to companies and their shareholders.
Ukraine’s farmers played an iconic role in the first weeks of Russia’s invasion, towing away abandoned enemy tanks with their tractors.
Now, though, their prodigious grain output is causing some of Ukraine’s staunchest allies to waver, as disrupted shipments are redirected onto neighboring markets.
The most striking is Poland, which has played a leading role so far in supporting Ukraine, acting as the main transit hub for Western weaponry and sending plenty of its own. But grain shipments in the other direction have irked Polish farmers who are being undercut — just months before a national election where the rural vote will be crucial.
Diplomats are floundering. After a planned Friday meeting between the Polish and Ukrainian agriculture ministers was postponed, the Polish government on Saturday announced a ban on imports of farm products from Ukraine. Hungary late Saturday said it would do the same.
Ukraine is among the world’s top exporters of wheat and other grains, which are ordinarily shipped to markets as distant as Egypt and Pakistan. Russia’s invasion last year disrupted the main Black Sea export route, and a United Nations-brokered deal to lift the blockade has been only partially effective. In consequence, Ukrainian produce has been diverted to bordering EU countries: Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
At first, those governments supported EU plans to shift the surplus grain. But instead of transiting seamlessly onto global markets, the supply glut has depressed prices in Europe. Farmers have risen up in protest, and Polish Agriculture Minister Henryk Kowalczyk was forced out earlier this month.
Now, governments’ focus has shifted to restricting Ukrainian imports to protect their own markets. After hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Warsaw in early April, Polish President Andrzej Duda said resolving the import glut was “a matter of introducing additional restrictions.”
The following day, Poland suspended imports of Ukrainian grain, saying the idea had come from Kyiv. On Saturday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, after an emergency cabinet meeting, said the import ban would cover grain and certain other farm products and would include products intended for other countries. A few hours later, the Hungarian government announced similar measures. Both countries said the bans would last until the end of June.
The European Commission is seeking further information on the import restrictions from Warsaw and Budapest “to be able to assess the measures,” according to a statement on Sunday. “Trade policy is of EU exclusive competence and, therefore, unilateral actions are not acceptable,” it said.
While the EU’s free-trade agreement with Ukraine prevents governments from introducing tariffs, they still have plenty of tools available to disrupt shipments.
Neighboring countries and nearby Bulgaria have stepped up sanitary checks on Ukrainian grain, arguing they are doing so to protect the health of their own citizens. They have also requested financial support from Brussels and have already received more than €50 million from the EU’s agricultural crisis reserve, with more money on the way.
Restrictions could do further harm to Ukraine’s battered economy, and by extension its war effort. The economy has shrunk by 29.1 percent since the invasion, according to statistics released this month, and agricultural exports are an important source of revenue.
Cracks in the alliance
The trade tensions sit at odds with these countries’ political position on Ukraine, which — with the exception of Hungary — has been strongly supportive. Poland has taken in millions of Ukrainian refugees, while weapons and ammunition flow in the opposite direction; Romania has helped transport millions of tons of Ukrainian corn and wheat.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Poland’s Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki | Omar Marques/Getty Images
Some Western European governments, which had to be goaded by Poland and others into sending heavy weaponry to Kyiv, are quick to point out the change in direction.
“Curious to see that some of these countries are [always] asking for more on sanctions, more on ammunition, etc. But when it affects them, they turn to Brussels begging for financial support,” said one diplomat from a Western country, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Some EU countries also oppose the import restrictions for economic reasons. For instance, Spain and the Netherlands are some of the biggest recipients of Ukrainian grain, which they use to supply their livestock industries.
Politically, though, the Central and Eastern European governments have limited room for maneuver. Poland and Slovakia are both heading into general elections later this year. Bulgaria has had a caretaker government since last year. Romania’s agriculture minister has faced calls to resign, including from a compatriot former EU agriculture commissioner.
And farmers are a strong constituency. Poland’s right-wing Law & Justice (PiS) party won the last general election in 2019 thanks in large part to rural voters. The Ukrainian grain issue has already cost a Polish agriculture minister his job; the government as a whole will have to tread carefully to avoid the same fate.
Autonomous cargo transport company receives FAA Certificate of Authorization for long-range flight and will begin testing its last-mile and middle-mile logistics service
Press Release –
Jan 24, 2023 06:00 PST
SAN FRANCISCO, January 24, 2023 (Newswire.com)
– Just 21 months after receiving $5.1 million seed funding and with only nine months from concept to first flight, MightyFly is unveiling the next generation of its aircraft, the MightyFly Cento.
The Cento is a hybrid, electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) aircraft with a cargo capacity of 100 lbs (45 kg), a range of 600 miles (965 km) and a max speed of 150 mph (240 km/hr).
With eight electric vertical lift fans, one forward propulsion propeller, and a high wing carbon fiber airframe, the fully loaded Cento weighs just 355 pounds (161 kg). It measures 13.1 ft by 16.7 ft (4 m by 5 m) taking up a total area that is less than two compact cars.
The Cento is equipped with a 6 ft by 1 ft by 1 ft (1.8 m by 0.30 m by 0.30 m) internal cargo bay able to carry 96 small USPS packages. Cargo is loaded and unloaded by a conveyor belt that operates autonomously.
Because the Cento is equipped with a hybrid powertrain, it does not require recharging between flights. An internal combustion engine recharges the aircraft’s battery while in the air, enabling it to perform multiple consecutive deliveries.
“The traditional hub-and-spoke distribution model doesn’t serve everyone,” said Manal Habib, MightyFly CEO and co-founder. “We need to be able to adapt to various cargo volumes and expedited timing. Medical companies, just-in-time manufacturing, and retailers that now provide same-day delivery need a faster and more affordable way to get their goods and perishables to the final destination.”
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has granted the MightyFly Cento a Special Airworthiness Certificate and a Certificate of Authorization (COA) for long-range flights. This allows the company to operate in a larger airspace (230 square miles) to test the transition from hover to forward flight at medium and high altitudes (up to 5,000 feet).
MightyFly has also been granted an SBIR award by the U.S. Air Force. With no required ground-charging infrastructure and long-range capability, both afforded by its hybrid propulsion, the Department of Defense is in support of its development for military applications.
About MightyFly
MightyFly is enabling faster and more efficient logistics with autonomous, hybrid, eVTOL cargo transport aircraft for businesses and governments. Founded in 2019, with backing from At One Ventures, 500 Startups, Global Founders Capital, Graph Ventures, Halogen Ventures and Side Door Ventures, the company is operating under an FAA Special Airworthiness Certificate and Certificate of Authorization. MightyFly is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and was named a “Top Supply Chain Startup to Watch” in 2022 by Business Insider. To see its second-generation eVTOL autonomous aircraft and learn more about its end-to-end expedited logistics services, go to www.mightyfly.com.
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