TENAGA DUA

Ukraine has asked the International Maritime Organization to send a monitoring mission to ports in the southern Odesa region amid intensified Russian attacks, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Wednesday.In recent weeks, Russian troops have ramped up missile strikes on Ukraine's southern port infrastructure and damaged a total of four foreign-flagged civilian vessels since Oct. 6."Amid increased Russian terror, Ukraine has officially appealed to the International Maritime Organization to immediately send an international monitoring mission to the ports," Sybiha told a briefing in Odesa after meeting his counterparts from the Nordic-Baltic Eight group.

Massachusetts Maritime Academy (MMA) officially took custody of its new training ship Patriot State during a handover ceremony on October 11.The vessel is the second of five being built by Philly Shipyard under the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration’s (MARAD) National Security Multi-Mission Vessel (NSMV) program, designed to provide a purpose-built, state-of-the-art training ships for the nation's state maritime academies.During the handover ceremony, Rear Admiral Ann Phillips, MARAD Administrator, officially signed the NSMV over to the Academy and to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

A German warship operating as part of the United Nations' UNIFIL peacekeeping mission shot down a drone off the coast of Lebanon on Thursday, the German defense ministry told Reuters, as unease builds over the safety of the U.N. troops in the country.UNIFIL positions have come under fire in Lebanon since Israel launched a ground operation against Hezbollah militants on Oct. 1, raising alarm among European governments participating in the mission."The corvette brought an unidentified unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) into the water in a controlled crash," the spokesperson said, reporting no damage to the German vessel or its crew.

Ships carrying Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Asia are returning to the longer routes around Africa's Cape of Good Hope rather than those along the Arctic shore as the winter season begins, LSEG data showed on Thursday.Russia's new Arctic LNG 2 project also lacks enough ice-class gas carriers to continue navigation along the Northern Sea Route, although some such tankers still sail it.According to LSEG data, the conventional gas tanker LNG Megrez loaded at Yamal LNG plant on Oct. 2 and started its voyage around Africa to Asia with arrival set for Nov. 13.Seapeak Yamal, which loaded gas from the plant on Oct.

Australia said on Wednesday it would invest billions of dollars over the next two decades to expand a shipyard in Western Australia that would become the maintenance hub for its nuclear-powered AUKUS submarine fleet.The government will make an initial investment of A$127 million ($85 million) over three years to upgrade facilities at the Henderson shipyard near Perth, Defense Minister Richard Marles said in a statement."The Defense Precinct at Henderson will optimize Australia's shipbuilding and sustainment industry while supporting continuous naval shipbuilding in Western Australia and Australia's nuclear-powered submarine pathway," Marles said.