NICO MIDDLE EAST LTD

The IMO Net-zero Framework agreed at MEPC 83 last week is the first in the world to combine mandatory emissions limits and GHG pricing across an entire industry sector.   The measures include a new fuel standard for ships and a global pricing mechanism for emissions.  These measures, set to be formally adopted in October 2025 before entry into force in 2027, will become mandatory for large ocean-going ships over 5,000 gross tonnage, which emit 85% of the total CO2 emissions from international shipping.

Beijing increased its tariffs on U.S. imports to 125% on Friday, hitting back against U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to hike duties on Chinese goods and raising the stakes in a trade war that threatens to up-end global supply chains.China's retaliation intensified the economic turmoil unleashed by Trump's tariffs, with markets tumbling further and foreign leaders puzzling how to respond to the biggest disruption to the world trade order in decades."Recession risk is much, much higher now than it was a couple weeks ago," said Adam Hetts, global head of multi-asset at Janus Henderson.

Taiwan prosecutors on Friday for the first time charged a Chinese ship captain with intentionally damaging undersea cables off the island in February, after a rise in sea cable malfunctions alarmed Taiwan officials amid tensions with China.Prosecutors say the man was captain of the Chinese-crewed Hong Tai 58, registered in Togo, which Taiwanese authorities detained after suspecting the ship had dropped anchor near an undersea cable off southwestern Taiwan, damaging it.The prosecutors' office in the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan said they had charged the ship's Chinese captain, whom they identified only by his family name, Wang, with being responsible for damaging the cable.

The US Coast Guard is coordinating with local, state and federal agencies in response to the helicopter crash in the Hudson River that occurred Thursday afternoon in New York City near the Holland Tunnel.The tourist helicopter crashed into New York City's Hudson River, killing all six aboard, including three children, Mayor Eric Adams said.The victims were believed to have included a family from Spain and the pilot, the mayor said at a briefing.Response boat crews from Coast Guard stations New York, Sandy Hook and Kings Point, and Cutter Bonito have been deployed to the incident.

The Trump administration imposed sanctions on Iranian oil trading networks on Thursday, including on a China-based crude oil storage terminal linked via a pipeline to an independent refinery, just days before direct talks between the U.S. and Iran.The sanctions came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. will hold direct talks with Iran on Saturday in Oman. President Donald Trump said on Monday that Iran would be in "great danger" if the talks were unsuccessful.The U.S. imposed sanctions on Guangsha Zhoushan Energy Group Co, LTD that it said operates a crude oil and petroleum products terminal on Huangzeshan Island in Zhoushan, China.