The Turkish government said November 1 that it is determined to ensure that Ukrainian food exports will continue despite Russia’s abandonment on the weekend of a deal, brokered by Turkey, which is designed to ensure free movement of shipments out of a key Black Sea port. [node:read-more:link]
Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested today that a deal brokered by the UN and Turkey to lift a naval blockade and permit embattled Ukraine to export grain might need to be reviewed. Saying that other foods and fertilizer were being sent to European Union states and Turkey rather than to poor countries, he also threatened to halt all energy supplies to Europe if the EU caps the price of Russian natural gas. [node:read-more:link]
Three ships laden with corn left Ukrainian ports today, the latest sign that a negotiated deal to export grain trapped since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly six months ago is holding. A first ship left Odesa earlier in the week for Lebanon and the latest are bound for Britain, Ireland and Turkey. [node:read-more:link]
The Canada Border Services Agency has confirmed that officers in Montreal have seized more than a dozen shipments of “dual use goods” destined for Russia but banned under Canada’s sanctions after the invasionof Ukraine. All involved “suspected links to the Russian military.” [node:read-more:link]
For the first time since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a shipment of 26,000 tonnes of Ukrainian grain left the Black Sea port of Odesa today under an internationally brokered deal to unblock agricultural exports. Sixteen loaded ships had been blockaded by Russia since February, prompting a UN warning of a looming international hunger catastrophe. [node:read-more:link]
Russia's state-owned Gazprom is halving natural gas shipments through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany, prompting political panic on both sides of the Atlantic. A U.S. official says the retaliation against western sanctions puts the west in “uncharted territory and has resulted in the administration’s global energy coordinator leaving for Europe today to discuss options. [node:read-more:link]
Lithuania has lifted a ban on rail transport of passengers and European Union-sanctioned freight to and from the Russian Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad which depends on the rail link. The moves comes after the EU clarified that its sanctions applied to road transport. [node:read-more:link]
Updated cybersecurity directives for U.S. oil and natural gas pipelines have been announced by the Transportation Security. Initial plans a year ago were widely criticized and now the CSA says consultations with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have resulted in more “technical countermeasures” designed to prevent threats discovered during extended research. [node:read-more:link]
A new Deloitte Canada report raises concerns about the potential of hacking control systems on the latest generation of increasingly connected vehicles. The report examines the implementation of cybersecurity measures and cites, among other things, last year’s hacking of a transport company's 25 automated vehicles. [node:read-more:link]
An agreement signed today by Ukraine and Russia could mean shipments of Ukrainian grain to international markets could resume in weeks. Mediated by the UN and Turkey, it would permit five million tonnes a month to be shipped from three Black Sea ports through a safe maritime corridor monitored by a multinational Joint Coordination Centre in Istanbul. [node:read-more:link]
The flight crew of a Toronto-based charter operation, Pivot Airlines, have been detained under poor conditions in the Dominican Republic after they reported finding 450 pounds of cocaine in the avionics bay of their Bombardier jet. Rather than thanking them, local authorities arrested them pending an investigation. [node:read-more:link]
Ottawa’s police service, international airport and a city council meeting evidently were targetted today by groups opposed to mandatory coronavirus vaccination. The police said their 911 and non-emergency lines were flooded with illegal calls. Meanwhile, protesters circled around the airport’s main access ring for two hours, causing ground traffic delays but not affecting aircraft departures or arrivals, and the council meeting was hacked briefly. [node:read-more:link]
The entire North American supply chain is being frustrated by a lack of U.S. Coast Guard icebreaking assets on the Great Lakes, according to a coalition of shipping interests. “The men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard do the best they can with the resources they are provided, says Jim Weakley, President of Great Lakes Maritime Task Force and the Lake Carriers’ Association. “Unfortunately, they do not have enough icebreakers to keep the system operating efficiently.” [node:read-more:link]
A Nuclear Waste Management Organization plan to ship thousands of spent reactor fuel rods in interim storage in four provinces to a proposed permanent storage site in Ontario has rekindled a decades-long debate about safety. With a decision on the location of the $23-billion project expected next year, scientists continue to study bedrock in the region where the deep geologic facility is likely to be located. [node:read-more:link]
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration reported Jan. 14 that FedEx wants to operate aircraft fitted with lasers as a countermeasure against missiles. The proposed system “deflects infrared laser energy toward an incoming missile, in an effort to interrupt the missile's tracking of the aircraft's heat,” the regulator explained. “In recent years, in several incidents abroad, civilian aircraft were fired upon by man-portable air defense systems.” [node:read-more:link]
