IOLKOS II

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is on a mission to weaken China's global network of ports and bring more strategic terminals under Western control, according to three sources familiar with the plan.The drive is part of the most ambitious effort to expand U.S. maritime influence since the 1970s and is designed to address growing fears in Washington that it would be at a disadvantage to China in the event of a conflict.Trump administration officials believe the U.S. commercial shipping fleet is ill-equipped to provide logistical support for the military in time of war and Washington's dependence on foreign ships and ports is excessive, the people said.

A landmark agreement to curb billions of dollars in subsidies contributing to overfishing came into force on Monday, the World Trade Organization said - a move activists hailed as a step towards helping global fish stocks recover.It was the first agreement to take effect at the WTO since 2017 after years of stalled debates and infighting on top of, more recently, a surge in U.S. tariffs that left some critics asking whether the Geneva-based body had a future.The formal ratification by Brazil, Kenya, Tonga and Vietnam on Monday meant the deal, first agreed in 2022, now had the required support of two thirds of members, a WTO spokesperson said.

The United States will be able to use planned defence facilities in Western Australia that are to help deliver nuclear-powered submarines under the trilateral AUKUS nuclear submarine deal, Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Sunday.Australia will spend A$12 billion ($8 billion) to upgrade facilities at the Henderson shipyard near Perth, as part of a 20-year plan to transform it into the maintenance hub for its AUKUS submarine fleet, the government said on Saturday.The AUKUS pact, sealed by Australia, Britain and the U.S. in 2021, aims to provide Australia with attack submarines from the next decade to counter China's ambitions in the Indo-Pacific region.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday lifted a six-month emergency rule in Rivers State, reinstating Governor Siminalayi Fubara and other officials, after saying that a constitutional crisis that had paralysed governance had been resolved.The emergency rule, imposed on March 18, followed a standoff between Fubara and the state legislature that disrupted budget approvals and left the government in limbo. Tinubu said the measure was necessary to prevent anarchy.Rivers State, located in the oil-producing Niger Delta, is an important hub for Nigeria's crude exports. Militants have previously targeted pipelines in the region, affecting output and revenue.

Poland has urged European Union member states that are still buying Russian energy to end those imports by the end of 2026 and will offer them help towards that effort, Energy Minister Milosz Motyka said on Wednesday.The Druzhba oil pipeline delivers Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia, which continue to buy energy supplies from Russia after other EU nations cut ties following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.The European Commission will propose speeding up the phasing out of Russian fossil imports, the EU executive head Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday after a call with U.S. President Donald Trump.