Category Archives: High Seas

A few hours after the beginning of phase 2 of the health emergency, the Immuni app launch is still on the high seas. This was revealed by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who in an interview revealed that the launch of the application that will serve to trace the contacts of infected people is far away.

"Before the diffusion of Immuni throughout the national territory it is necessary to carry out tests and this requires technical times that cannot be compressed"explained the Premier, who still wanted to remember how participation in the program is absolutely voluntary and not mandatory.

"The App is on a voluntary basis, it will work alongside other contact tracing tools and is based on bluetooth. This choice allows to respect citizens' privacy", says Conte, for dispel citizens' doubts about confidentiality and data processing.

As explained in the Immuni decree of a few days ago, in fact, the application will be based on Bluetooth LE technology and not on GPS to identify users. Initially many had speculated on a launch already for tomorrow, as containment measures will be relaxed.

Immuni's data will be deleted by December 31, 2020, and apparently the technicians would have chosen the same approach as Apple and Google.

The rest is here:

The Immuni app is still far away, Conte: "it takes time, tests are needed" - InTallaght

Joe Goerge is not one to complain.

St. Joseph by-the-Seas new varsity football coach knows hes in the same boat as his colleagues as the coronavirus pandemic has put a stranglehold on all off-season workouts.

Hes also fully aware, of course, that all athletes that play a spring sport are being deprived of competing at all this time around.

But Goerge, who was named the Vikings new coach on Feb. 27 after spending the better part of the last 29 years in New Jersey, is at a bit more of a disadvantage on the gridiron because he would have been using this time getting to know what he has on his roster as the fall approaches.

"I met the kids when I was introduced to the school (in February), but that wasnt the entire team because not everyone could make it. Then, we had one chance to meet the entire team in the gym for about 35-40 minutes shortly after that,'' said Goerge, who, before heading to New Jersey, honed his craft as a head coach at Port Richmond HS between 1982-91. "The school closed shortly after that.

"Weve been keeping as much contact as possible with on-line meetings since.''

Fortunately for Goerge, he does have some things that will help ease into the transition, including the fact he retained six assistant coaches from former head coach Mike Coronas staff of a year ago.

"Of course, we have all the film from last year,'' he said. "And having the assistants from last years staff helps us a bit too because they know the kids and what theyre like.

"But, obviously, the off-season program is a time for evaluation and not being able (to run it) makes things harder.''

May is traditionally the month where high school teams are allowed on-the-field workouts, albeit without pads and helmets. One of the problems concerning Goerges situation is he uses an entirely different offensive system than Corona used.

Corona used a spread offense while Goerge is planning to install a triple-option offense, something hes used for the last 10-12 years.

"It would certainly be an advantage to be able to do walk-throughs to go over certain things like stances and starts,'' said Goerge, whose son, Jason, is his offensive coordinator and offensive line coach. "Theres obviously going to be different stuff (being put in) and this would be a time where coaches would be there every day.

"But, unfortunately, a hands-on type of approach is out for now,'' added the coach, who is still teaching through remote learning at South Brunswick HS in New Jersey. "We have a big team (Sea had over 80 players on its roster last season, including almost 60 underclassman) and wed like to put them through everything to see what we have and where theyll fit in in the big picture.''

Goerge, whose team has a nine-game, regular-season schedule that includes a season-opening, non-league contest against Brearly HS (N.J.) and games against each of Staten Islands other CHSFL schools, said official workouts dont commence until Aug. 21, if permitted.

For now, hell continue to monitor the coronavirus situation along with everyone else.

"It is what it is -- its the approach we have to take,'' he said. "Were going to keep the faith and keep pushing ahead.''

The rest is here:

HS football: Seas Joe Goerge makes the most of a tough situation as he gets acquainted with new team - SILive.com

India risks incurring the wrath of the global shipping industry and losing out to rivals such as China, the Philippines and Ukraine on seafaring jobs as the government dithers on a strategy to evacuate thousands of crew stranded on board ships at overseas ports, some of them several days after their contracts have ended.

Some 30,000 Indian seafarers, 70 per cent of whom work on cruise liners, are stranded overseas, awaiting repatriation to India.

As the pandemic spread rapidly, cruise line operators halted services and these luxury ships are either idling at ports or are on the high seas.

The cruise ships are not doing any business currently and thousands of crew members from different countries, were staying on board the liners.

A few days ago, most of the Filipino, Indonesian and Ukrainian seafarers were repatriated to their countries on chartered flights arranged by the cruise line owners, after the respective governments allowed them to return.

That leaves only the Indian crew on board, in the absence of a plan to facilitate their return and the ban on international flights from March 24.

The expenses of the remaining Indian crew is being borne by the owners of the cruise lines.

A poor impression

Now, that creates an impression, said Abdulgani Serang, general secretary-cum-treasurer of the National Union of Seafarers of India (NUSI).

When the cruise line owners are bleeding, they are definitely going to remember this when the situation turns around that India did not co-operate. They are spending lots of money on maintaining Indians on board their ships. Many of the seafarers are put up in hotels, somebody is paying for all that, Serang said.

They will give preference to Filipinos who, as it is, outnumber Indians as general-purpose staff. The shipping industry will give added preference to them because of the ease of doing business with a Filipino, the proof is there, he stated.

The Shipping Minister, Mansukh Mandaviya, held a video conference with seafarers unions and shipping companies a few days ago to discuss a way out, as demand grows for framing a so-called standard operating procedure (SOP) for seafarers stranded abroad, similar to the one finalised for crew change at Indian ports on April 21.

After some teething troubles, the otherwise well-defined SOP is taking effect in Indian ports. We now have to focus on the larger challenge of sign-on/sign-off in foreign ports. Seafarers and their families are running out of patience and its straining their mental health, said Captain Rajesh Unni, CEO and Founder of Singapore-based ship manager, Synergy Group.

Why cant the government make a SOP for seafarers sailing in foreign waters. Is it too difficult to start flights with better caution than start a railway service for migrant workers with no caution, says Mohammed Arif, a second engineer on a ship, hailing from Raipur.

As China and the Philippines implement a green channel for crew change, Indian seafarers say they should be prepared to sacrifice jobs.

By the time international flights operate from India, most Indian seafarers will be replaced by other nationalities, said Dhyan Ramakrishnan, a third mate working on board a ship.

Do we really want Indian seafarers to lose their market, our well-earned reputation from ages? Now is the only time to take action, Captain Mahadev Dhandhiya, a master mariner, urged the government.

Indian seafarers working on board cargo ships sailing in international waters are also facing a testing time.

The cargo ships are running; they are doing business, but the seafarers working on those ships have been asked to extend their contracts by 1-3 months, says Serang.

Having an extended contract will affect their physical and mental state of mind. Suppose an accident takes place because of the fatigue. The seafarer has been working on that ship for 11-12 months, saturation point will come, and in that mind frame, suppose anything happens, says Serang, making a strong case for bringing seafarers back to India.

All seafarers (stranded abroad) are struggling to join ships or go home, says the International Maritime Federation (IMF). They are waiting for the hub airport travel system, said the Federation, an association of Indian shipping entrepreneurs, crew managers and maritime training institutions.

The IMF is hoping that the Shipping Ministry will resolve the impasse as negative sentiments are high for the treatment given to Indian seafarers.

Serang said cruise line owners are willing to send them back, by chartering flights with their own money. But, if the Indian government is not going to take them in, if the government does not lift the ban on international travel, that is the problem, he said.

Cruise ship owners/ operators have already put in writing that they are willing to bear the cost of chartered flights. It will require some 10-15 flights because thousands have to come in. They will ensure that once the seafarers come in, the quarantine and other things will be taken care of. All these things they have put in writing, but permission is not being granted. That is not happening; that is the problem, Serang added.

Link:

Indian seafarers fear job loss as government dithers on crew change in foreign waters - BusinessLine

As economic lockdowns complicate efforts to bring electricity to every corner of the planet, one company is putting generation units on ships that can sit offshore and plug into local grids on short notice.

Karpowership is marketing floating power plants across the developing world, where governments are seeking extra voltage to power hospitals and other facilities to keep the lights on during the coronavirus pandemic.

Vessels can hook into an onshore grid quickly, sidestepping the red-tape and construction issues involved with building a traditional power plant. And these ships come with their own fuel -- liquefied natural gas and fuel oil tapping into markets that are currently oversupplied.

We can deploy them in less than 30 days, Zeynep Harezi, chief commercial officer of Kapowership, said by phone from her office in Istanbul where the ships are designed.

The generators on the ships can produce between 36 megawatts to 470 megawatts of electricity and are already fully financed. While the ships use fossil fuels and present a challenge to the global drive for cleaner energy, they remain among the few solutions for feeding power to remote areas.

Such ships can work well in places with high barriers for onshore power stations or that lack access to gas pipelines, the International Gas Union said in its annual LNG report. Theres also risks: high cost and upfront capital requirements. Also, floating power plants concepts compete with more traditional units that run on liquid fuels, renewables and nuclear power, which may receive governmental support over LNG, the report said.

The concept of a fully integrated floating re-gasification and power plant may be a more realistic solution to grant easy access to clean electricity production, the IGU said. Such fast track projects, built and commissioned at reputed shipyards, may materialize in the near future.

Karpowership has the biggest fleet of the vessels. Starting from the first ship for Iraq, which took three years to build in 2010, it now operates 25 such ships in 11 countries from Mozambique to Cuba to Indonesia. Coronavirus hasnt slowed work, opening some opportunities for new markets instead.

The company converts existing dry bulk vessels, buys engines in bulk and builds them one after another, almost like a production line, Harezi said.

The technology for the power plant is internal combustion engine, rather than more typical turbines. While more expensive to build, they are cheaper to maintain and better suited for countries in hot climates with unstable grids, which are often in desperate need for power to avoid blackouts.

At 8 cents to 10 cents a kilowatt-hour, Karpowership provides a power ship, a floating storage and re-gasification unit for LNG and, if required, the fuel itself.

If the customer asks to procure LNG on our behalf, we collect offers like regular players, she said. We make it as transparent as possible.

The ship can use LNG or fuel oil. Some start with the latter and then switch. The company targets for its power ships to be operating at 80% LNG-to-power by 2025.

Since traditional power plants on land can take six years or more to complete, floating units have a distinct advantage and can appear in under three months to deal with a surge in demand. While these ships often are initially thought as a bridge solution until something more permanent can be built, some of the ships stay long-term, she said.

Karpowership is building 4,000 megawatts of new capacity on 20 ships, aiming to double the fleet size in the next three to five years, both in terms of megawatts and number of ships.

And as the coronavirus pandemic keeps large swaths of economies on lockdown, Harezi said, her teams living and working on power ships for three months or more present a natural quarantine environment.

See the article here:

Mobile power plants take to the high seas, sidestepping red tape involved with traditional plants - NNY360

Kapowerships Kaya Bey powership. Photo: Kapowership

ByAnna Shiryaevskaya (Bloomberg) As economic lockdowns complicate efforts to bring electricity to every corner of the planet, one company is putting generation units on ships that can sit offshore and plug into local grids at short notice.

Karpowership is busy marketing floating power plants across the developing world, where governments are seeking extra voltage to power hospitals and other facilities to keep the lights on during the coronavirus pandemic.

Vessels can hook into an onshore grid quickly, sidestepping the red-tape and construction issues involved with building a traditional power plant. And these ships come with their own fuel liquefied natural gas and fuel oil tapping into markets that are currently oversupplied.

We can deploy them in less than 30 days, Zeynep Harezi, chief commercial officer of Kapowership, said by phone from her office in Istanbul where the ships are designed.

The generators on the ships can produce between 36 megawatts to 470 megawatts of electricity and are already fully financed. While the ships use fossil fuels and present a challenge to the global drive for cleaner energy, they remain among the few solutions for feeding power to remote areas.

Such ships can work well in places with high barriers for onshore power stations or that lack access to gas pipelines, the International Gas Union said in its annual LNG report. Theres also risks: high cost and up-front capital requirements. Also, floating power plants concepts compete with more traditional units that run on liquid fuels, renewables and nuclear power, which may receive governmental support over LNG, the report said.

The concept of a fully integrated floating re-gasification and power plant may be a more realistic solution to grant easy access to clean electricity production, the IGU said. Such fast track projects, built and commissioned at reputed shipyards, may materialize in the near future.

Karpowership has the biggest fleet of the vessels. Starting from the first ship for Iraq, which took three years to build in 2010, it now operates 25 such ships in 11 countries from Mozambique to Cuba to Indonesia. Coronavirus hasnt slowed work, opening some opportunities for new markets instead.

The company converts existing dry bulk vessels, buys engines in bulk and builds them one after another, almost like a production line, Harezi said.

The technology for the power plant is internal combustion engine, rather than more typical turbines. While more expensive to build, they are cheaper to maintain and better suited for countries in hot climates with unstable grids, which are often in desperate need for power to avoid blackouts.

At 8 to 10 cents a kilowatt-hour, Karpowership provides a power ship, a floating storage and re-gasification unit for LNG and, if required, the fuel itself.

If the customer asks to procure LNG on our behalf, we collect offers like regular players, she said. We make it as transparent as possible.

The ship can use LNG or fuel oil. Some start with the latter and then switch. The company targets for its power ships to be operating at 80% LNG-to-power by 2025.

Since traditional power plants on land can take six years or more to complete, floating units have a distinct advantage and can appear in underthree monthsto deal with a surge in demand. While these ships often are initially thought as a bridge solution until something more permanent can be built, some of the ships stay long-term, she said.

Karpowership is building 4,000 megawatts of new capacity on 20 ships,aiming todouble the fleet size in the next three to five years, both in terms of megawatts and number of ships.

And as the coronavirus pandemic keeps large swathes of economies on lockdown, Harezi said her teams living and working on power ships for three months or more present a natural quarantine environment.

With assistance fromJessica Shankleman.

Read more:

Floating Power Plants Are Taking to the High Seas - gcaptain.com

1716: For as long as men have set sail, they have told stories about the seaof its women, of its treasures, of its beasts and of her. Shes been given many names by the sailors who have traveled her waters. Calypso, Amphitrite, Ursula, Melusine. A goddess, a queen, a witch, a daughter. In all of these, she is the sea, and the sea is a cruel mistress.

Get ready for a rollicking ride on the high seas with a bunch of hardened pirates and a fanatical Captain in The Isle of Gold, by Seven Jane. At first glance, I assumed this would be a quick little read as the book clocks in at a mere 237 pages. Instead, The Isle of Gold turned into a meaty escape that combined the best of pirate lore and seafaring mythology in one fun story.

Our narrator is Merrin Smith, and on page one she is disguised as a man in order to gain berth on the infamous Riptide, helmed by the even more infamous Captain Erik Winters. Merrins goal is simple: she wants to find out who she is and where she came from. As an orphan, she was dropped on the island of Isla Perla and sent to work in the kitchens of a brothel. Isla Perla is a typical pirate inhabited Caribbean islandloud, dirty, and filled with brothels and fighting miscreants. Yet its not lawless. Captain Winters rules along with his love, the mysterious and beguiling Evangeline Dahl. But Dahl has disappeared, and Winters has made it his lifes work to bring her back. So hes setting sail for the fabled Ogygia, the surreptitious Isle of Gold where Calypso had held Odysseus prisoner. Aka, Bracile. And Merrin believes that place holds the key to her identity.

Merrin is drunk as a skunk as she stumbles into the tavern to apply as a shipmate for the journey. Mr. Brandon Dunn, the ships quartermaster, is suspicious of him from the start and it seems she wont even make it out of the tavern. However, Captain Winters makes an appearance and shes hired to sail with a bunch of men who want nothing to do with her. She is still disguised as a man and no one seems the wiser but her inexperience at sea doesnt endear her to the crew. Luckily, Dunn discovers that Merrin can read and so shes sent to the Captains quarters to help him figure out the best route to the fabled island.

As Merrin adjusts to life on the sea, she starts to truly enjoy herself. She gets a sense that she belongs here amongst the rough men of the Riptide. There is Mister Clarke the ships doctor, whose gluttony has him bringing his own store of meat on board. Jomo the cook, whose African backstory is fascinating. Rounding out the cast is Tom Birch, who causes no small amount of problems for Merrin as she finds herself becoming more and more attracted to him.

The lazy days at sea soon turn into peril as the Riptide makes its way across the Atlantic towards Bracile. And reaching that destination will test everyone on board with Merrin being a key that she could never have imagined. Here The Isle of Gold turns to mythology and at once you feel as if Odysseus himself is breathing over your shoulder reading a story that sounds so familiar.

The Isle of Gold is escapist storytelling at its best. Merrin details the saga as if she is reclining in a soft, leather chair next to a blazing fireplace and you are her captive audience. Its lyrically descriptive and took me out of this world so much I could smell the salt air and hear the creak of the ship. Seven Jane blends piracy and mythology splendidly and I thoroughly enjoyed the time I took delving into itit makes me want to search out more pirate-themed stories. The Isle of Gold was a lot of fun, even if there was nary an Arrrrgh to be had. If youre looking to forget whats going on outside your door, taking a journey on the Riptide may just the answer youre looking for!

More here:

The Isle of Gold by Seven Jane - coastalbreezenews.com

EXCLUSIVE: Discovery Channel is set to launch All On The Line, a new high-stakes reality series on the high seas that follows two fishing boats and their crews off the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Its set for premiere on May 22 at 9 pm ET/PT on Discovery Channel.

Production had wrapped on the series before coronavirus brought a halt to most TV and film production in mid-March.

All On The Line focuses on the fishermens quest to snag the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna, considered one of the most valuable fish in the world where prices can reach as high as $20K for a single catch. This also means a tight quota to avoid overfishing and encourage sustainability, something that can be reached at any moment and send fishermen home empty handed. To win big, fishermen must reel in the biggest tuna as fast as possible. But theres a catch: each boat is allowed one catch per day and must reel them in by hand, resulting in a backbreaking battle that can last for hours. With the livelihood of their families on the line and generations of tradition behind them, these families of fishermen will rely on each other and work together towards a shared goal.

Following two fishing boats, the Julia Nicole, helmed by Dan Smith Sr. and his 18-year-old son Danny Jr., and the Subdivider, led by fisherman Johnny Johnson, All On The Line spotlights the special dynamic between these two groups and their ability to band together in an industry that otherwise demands fierce, sometimes cutthroat, competition.

You can watch a preview clip below.

All On The Line is produced for Discovery by Raw TV. For Raw TV, Dimitri Doganis and James Bates are executive producers and Chris Lent is Showrunner. For Discovery, Carter Figueroa is executive producer and Paola Espinosa is associate producer.

All On The Line joins Discoverys hugely popular Deadliest Catch franchise, also set on the high seas.

See the original post:

Discovery Greenlights All On The Line Reality Series For May Premiere - Deadline

In response to the global spread of COVID-19, several regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) have suspended the requirement that vessels fishing in their waters have independent observers onboard. RFMOsmultinational bodies that oversee many of the fisheries on the high seastook the step to limit the potential exposure of fishers, observers, and inspectors to the virus.

While observers remain on shore, independent data on catch, bycatch, fishing effort, and compliance with conservation management measures will go uncollected, which means less reporting of key scientific and enforcement data and an increased chance that illegal fishing activity will go undetected.

In response to these decisions, 19 conservation organizations sent a letter to the heads of the five tuna RFMOs and the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean, detailing several actions that fisheries bodies should take to mitigate the loss of the observer data. These steps include urgently developing and implementing robust electronic monitoring (EM) programs. Such programs involve using cameras, gear sensors, and GPS to provide high-quality fishing data, cost-effectively, which allows remote review of fishing activity with minimal human contact and leads to more accurate self-reporting by fishing vessels.

To help the RFMOs design and implement an effective EM program, The Pew Charitable Trusts commissioned California Environmental Associates Consulting to produce a report that lays out the choices that fisheries managers face when considering EM. The reportRoadmap for Electronic Monitoring inRFMOsdiscusses how those organizations should implement an EM where there is a wide range of vessels, gears, fishing locations, catch compositions, and international stakeholders.

The report includes recommendations on several key elements of an effective EM program design:

In light of the impacts that COVID-19 has had on fisheries oversight, it is now clearer than ever that RFMOs need to embrace electronic monitoring. Although there may be challenges in developing an EM program, those issues are solvable. Using the report, RFMOs can develop well-designed EM programs to scale up coverage of their fisheries, increase transparency on the high seas, and be better prepared for future circumstances that might limit onboard observation.

Jamie Gibbon is a manager and Esther Wozniak is a senior associate with The Pew Charitable Trusts international fisheries team.

See the original post:

International Fisheries Managers' Pandemic Response Highlights Need to Expand Electronic Monitoring - The Pew Charitable Trusts

Winston Churchills truism that Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma remains as acute as it was when he articulated it during an October 1939 BBC radio address. It verges on impossible to forecast what Moscow will do tactically. What it will do strategically, however, is more intelligible and thus more predictable.

Perhaps, added the future prime minister, there is a key to the riddlenamely Russian national interest. Seeing Nazi Germany overrun southeastern Europe or the Black Sea basin would be contrary to the historic life-interests of Russia. He delicately avoided mentioning that the Soviet Union and Germany were fresh off conquering and partitioning Poland under a secret pact, doing so the month before Churchill took to the airwaves. Had he included the invasion in his catalog of Russian interests, he would have seen that it made perfect sense to Soviet leaders to seek a strategic buffer in Poland. It advanced the national interest as the Soviets reckoned it.

Anyway, its worth asking how Moscow interprets Russias historic life-interests eighty years hence. What do Russians want today?

Its a question thats ripped from the headlines yet feels like a throwback. In recent years, Russian warplanes have resumed their Cold War practice of buzzing American ships or aircraft that venture into any sea or airspace that Moscow considers a Russian preserve. The Black Sea has been a favorite arena for mock combat, as Churchill might have prophesied judging from his BBC address. U.S. Navy destroyers cruising there have repeatedly filmed Russian planes making close, unsafe passes. The crew of USS Donald Cook must have felt singled out: the ship endured harassment in both the Black Sea and Baltic Sea.

But Russian aviators seem to have taken routine probing of United States and allied air defenses uptempo since the coronavirus swept the globe. Twice in recent weeks, for example, Russian aircraft have passed within twenty-five feet of U.S. Navy P-8 surveillance planes over the Mediterranean Sea. Twenty-five feet is a hairs breadth in aviation terms, as a Chinese fighter jock found out in 2001 after colliding with a U.S. EP-3 surveillance plane over the South China Sea and plunging to his doom. A longstanding agreement between Washington and Moscow proscribes such hotdogging for fear it will provoke an armed clash.

Nor do close-quarters encounters exhaust the spicy news out of the Russian military. For example, the New York Times carried an intriguing story about the ultra-deep-diving submarine Losharik, which suffered a fire sixty miles off the Norwegian coast last year. Fourteen Russian sailors perished in the blaze, which seems to have ignited in the nuclear-powered boats battery compartment. Theres far more to the story than human drama, though. The New York Times notes that Losharik is far from your ordinary submarine. Naval historian extraordinaire Norman Polmar estimates that the boat can dive to a maximum depth somewhere in the neighborhood from eighty-two hundred to twenty thousand feet.

No manned sub in the U.S. Navy inventory approaches even Polmars lower figure. Americans deploy unmanned underwater vehicles when they want to plumb the oceans deepest recesses. Loshariks hull is evidently built around a series of titanium spheres housing the control room, living spaces, and machinery spaces. Spheres are strong when made of stout materials. Hence the boat can voyage to the bottom of the sea without being crushed by extreme pressure. Why bother building such a craft? Well, the official account out of Moscow depicted its mission as scientific in nature. That Losharik was undertaking research when it caught fire is plausible, true or not. Humanity has much to learn about the underwater realm.

But Loshariks ability to prowl the seafloor gives the Kremlin less benign options as well. Options like cutting transoceanic cables that provide internet connectivity, connect up the worlds financial institutions, and on and on. Severing an antagonists communications is a time-honored opening move in the war. Great Britain cut the telegraph cables connecting imperial Germany to the world at the outset of the Great War a century ago. Information and disinformation warfare is a field of combat Moscow likes to bestride. Losharik supplies a weapon for waging it.

Loshariks crew could also attack Western anti-submarine sensors strewn across the seabed in the Greenland-Iceland-U.K. gap and other narrow passages. Puncturing Western navies monitoring capability would clear a transit corridor for Russian Navy boats into the North Atlantic high seas or other operating grounds, where detecting, tracking, and assailing them is far harder than in confined quarters. In short, the Losharik disaster shines a spotlight on yet another Russian implement for making mischief at Western expense.

All is not rosy for Moscow, though. The Russian armed forceslike all armed forceshave to live within their means. Russia depends heavily on exporting oil and natural gas, so low energy prices constrict its national income and thus its ability to afford pricey armaments. Prices have been low for some time and have run off a cliff amid coronavirus lockdowns. Just this week, for instance, the news broke that the Severnoye Design Bureau, a division of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, has halted the development of a nuclear-powered destroyer and a bulked-up variant of the Russian Navys Admiral Gorshkov-class frigate. Summarily canceling two marquee projects cant be good tidings for Russian sea power.

In fact, Russian weapons acquisitions invert the pattern from the Cold War, when the Soviet military was vast in numbers but backward in technology. Quantity, believed Soviet chieftains, boasted a quality all its own. Modern-day Russia prefers to invest in small numbers of high-quality armaments at the expense of quantity. Whether Russian mariners, aviators, and soldiers can compensate for the resulting shortfall in mass remains in doubt. Quantity isnt everything. But if the lynchpin of strategy is to deliver more combat power than the foe at the scene of combat at the decisive time, a few impressive platforms may not suffice. Quantity still matters.

So much for the roundup of Russian defense news. How to make sense of Russian motives underlying the news? Well, two millennia ago Thucydides posited that fear, honor, and interest represent three prime movers impelling human actions. Start with the Russian national interest, as Churchill did in 1939. Peacetime military strategy is an armed conversation with opponents, allies and friends, and prospective allies and friends. The conversation is about relative power and weakness. Not just pugilists but spectators decide the outcomes of peacetime confrontations between armed forces. Whoever most observers believe would have won in wartime tends to come out ahead in peacetime. Shaping perceptions, then, is armed conversationalists goal.

General George S. Patton explained the logic in his famous address to the Third Army: people flock to a winner and scorn a loser. Buzzing ships or warplanes might cow U.S. crews over time, rendering them risk-averse. Thats one audience for Russian antics. But the Kremlins true aim is to project an image of power and resolve, molding perceptions in capitals that matter. Shaking confidence in U.S. military might dishearten political leaders and ordinary citizens in countries where Moscow covets influenceNATO members, former Soviet republics, and former Eastern Bloc states in particular. If U.S. allies and friends come to disbelieve in their superpower protector, they will prove increasingly pliant when Russia demands something. Patton would instantly grasp the reasoning behind Russias playground hijinks. They could help the Kremlin get its way.

Fear blends with the Russian thirst for honor. During the 1990s Moscow watched as the West intruded into the former Soviet space and, in some cases, made allies out of former Soviet republics or Warsaw Pact clients. NATO waged war in the Balkans, a region Russians have long regarded as a sphere of interest, etc. Events fanned Russias ingrained paranoia about Western martial endeavors around its periphery, and there was little Moscow could do about them during that chaotic phase in Russian history. It only seems natural for Moscow to reassert itself in its near abroad now that it sports the wherewithal to do so.

So warlike one-upmanship helps Russia burnish its image as a virile political and military force after the traumatic 1990s. It holds fear at bay while earning new respect. Or as Thucydides might put it, provoking small-scale armed encounters in which U.S. forces remain passive slakes Moscows thirst for honor. Fear, honor, interest; primal motives drive moderns the way they drove the ancients. But dont rule out other motives, either. Thucydides doesnt claim that fear, honor, and interest are the only motives that animate human beings, just three of the strongest. There are others.

Such as merriment. Its hard for even a casual observer of Russian president Vladimir Putin to escape the impression that hes having a blast. He takes delight in causing trouble for the West, even apart from sober concerns such as fulfilling national interests, warding off threats, or repairing wounded national honor. Politicians who find the game of statecraft fun enjoy an edge over those who feel burdened by it. Putin plays a weak hand welland gleefully.

Follow this link:

Why Warlike One-Upmanship Works to Russia's Benefit - The National Interest

Rohingya refugees whose relatives, including children, have been stranded for weeks on cramped boats have urged international governments to act before they perish at sea.

Two boats carrying around 500 people were last spotted off Bangladesh about a week ago, but are believed to have returned to the high seas. The refugees on board, who were fleeing desperate conditions in camps in Bangladesh, had attempted to reach Malaysia but appear to have been turned away. Bangladesh has also said it will not allow the boats to dock.

Mohammed, a father who has lived in the camps in Bangladesh since 2017, when more than 700,000 Rohingya fled a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar, believes his 13-year-old son is among those stranded. His son went missing 51 days ago, but later phoned to say that he would be taking a boat with friends to Malaysia.

Mohammed has since seen a video, shared on Facebook, in which he recognised his son onboard a packed boat. He looked hungry and he had become very thin, Mohammed said. There is no way to get information about the boat. Whether he is alive or not is totally unknown.

After two and a half years living in the sprawling camps in Coxs Bazar, where about 1 million Rohingya refugees are sheltering, Mohammed said he believes his son had become desperate. He cannot access education here in the camp. There are no jobs, theres no available income here for our boys, he said.

He had not known that his son planned to make the journey, he added.

Mohib Ullah, chairman of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, a community group, said he was aware of at least 20 families who were missing relatives. Every day families are coming and crying in my office, he said. They are people of the camp, so they have a right to return to the camp.

Among those fearing for their loved ones is Razaul, who believes his brother, his sister-in-law and their two children, aged six and eight, are also at sea. He went to visit them in March and was told by neighbours that they had left to go to Malaysia. They have been missing for 53 days.

I have only one message. My question to the UN and to the government of Bangladesh and others is to allow the boats to come in, he said. They can save their lives.

Last month, the Bangladesh authorities rescued a separate ship, allowing about 400 emaciated people, mostly teenagers, to come ashore after spending two harrowing months at sea.

Passengers were starved and beaten by traffickers, according to the charity Mdecins Sans Frontires, which treated survivors. More than 70 people may have died on the boat, it has been reported, though no official death toll has been announced. One of the survivors told the Guardian after disembarking, that, as the boat ran out of both food and water, the bodies of other refugees were thrown into the sea.

It is believed that as many as three boats remain stranded, though their location is unclear.

Rohingya refugees, who are unable to return to Myanmar and desperate to escape the hopeless conditions in Bangladesh, are preyed upon by traffickers who charge large sums in exchange for the promise of a better life in Malaysia.

Mohib Ullah fears those on board may be abused by traffickers. It is too bad, too bad to explain what we are hearing from people, he said of the conditions on other ships.

Right groups accuse Malaysia, where there has been a rise in xenophobic rhetoric, of using Covid-19 as an excuse to turn back refugees. The country has recently turned away at least two boats.

Bangladeshs foreign minister, Abdul Momen, has also refused to rescue the boats. The country was already doing far more to support Rohingya than others in the region, he said last week.

Amnesty International said governments should stop pointing at one another and act quickly. Countries must immediately begin search and rescue operations for the boats, said Saad Hammadi, the groups south Asia campaigner, who called on leaders to show compassion before those on board die at sea.

The rest is here:

Let the boats in: Rohingya refugees plead for stranded relatives to be saved - The Guardian