In Port Everglades, coast guard offloads record drug haul
The U.S. Coast Guard achieved a milestone with the offload of a record 76,140 pounds of illicit narcotics, valued at $473 million, at Port Everglades on Monday. This marks the largest quantity of drugs offloaded in Coast Guard history.
Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton’s crew offloaded approximately 61,740 pounds of cocaine and 14,400 pounds of marijuana, preventing an estimated 23 million potential lethal doses from reaching the United States.
“The U.S. Coast Guard in partnership with our federal, DoD, and international partners are offloading 61,740 pounds of cocaine, and this represents a significant victory in the fight against transnational criminal organizations,” said Rear Adm. Adam Chamie, Coast Guard Southeast District commander.
“The potential 23 million lethal doses of cocaine seized by the U.S. Coast Guard and our partners, are enough to fatally overdose the entire population of the state of Florida, underscoring the immense threat posed by transnational drug trafficking to our nation,” Chamie added.
The contraband resulted from 19 interdictions in international waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea between June and August 2025. The operations involved multiple Coast Guard assets and international partners, including the Royal Netherlands Navy ship HNLMS Friesland and U.S. Navy vessels USS Cole and USS Minneapolis Saint-Paul.
Against Russian signal jamming, baltic states seek to fight back
NATO’s easternmost member states are grappling with a sharp rise in radio and satellite interference, with Baltic governments accusing Russia of positioning equipment for electronic warfare close to their borders.
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Baltic Sea region has registered widespread signal jamming, including of the Global Positioning System or GPS, which has affected air and maritime communications.
But authorities in the Baltic states say it’s significantly escalated in recent months, with the Estonian regulator saying that 85 percent of flights in the country now experience disruption. They’ve also reported a rapid increase in intentional transmission of faulty coordinates, a practice known as spoofing.
U.S., EU lock in trade agreement
The United States and the European Union on Thursday locked in a framework trade deal reached last month that includes a 15 percent U.S. tariff on most EU imports, including autos, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and lumber.
In a 3-1/2-page joint statement, the two sides listed the commitments made, including the EU’s pledge to eliminate tariffs on all U.S. industrial goods and to provide preferential market access for a wide range of U.S. seafood and agricultural goods.
Washington will take steps to reduce the current 27.5 percent U.S. tariffs on cars and car parts, a huge burden for European carmakers, once Brussels introduces the legislation needed to enact promised tariff cuts on U.S. goods, it said.
U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the deal on July 27 at Trump’s luxury golf course in Turnberry, Scotland after an hour-long meeting that followed months of negotiations.
Container shipping rates keep dropping
Drewry’s World Container Index decreased 4 percent to $2,250 per 40ft container this week, marking the tenth consecutive week of decline as the market continues to stabilize following a period of high volatility.
The market turbulence began after US tariffs were announced in April, which triggered rate surges from May through early June. Subsequently, rates saw a heavy decline until mid-July, when the downward trend began to lose momentum.
Transpacific routes experienced notable decreases this week, with Shanghai–Los Angeles rates falling 3 percent to $2,412/FEU and Shanghai–New York rates dropping 5 percent to $3,463/FEU. According to Drewry, the accelerated purchasing phase by US retailers that created an early peak season has concluded, with retailers now scaling back procurement in response to a slowing US economy and increased tariff costs.
Over Nord Stream Pipeline attacks, Ukrainian man arrested
A Ukrainian man has been arrested in Italy on suspicion of coordinating the 2022 attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, German prosecutors said on Thursday, marking a breakthrough in an episode that sharpened tensions between Russia and the West.
Seen by both Moscow and the West as an act of sabotage, the explosions severely damaged three pipelines carrying gas from Russia to Europe, prompting a major escalation in the Ukraine conflict and squeezing energy supplies on the continent. No one has ever taken responsibility for the blasts.
The arrest comes just as Kyiv is engaged in fraught diplomatic discussions with the United States over how to end the war in Ukraine without giving away major concessions and swathes of its own territory to Russia.
Successive Ukrainian governments had seen the pipelines as a symbol of, and vehicle for, Russia’s hold over European energy supplies that Kyiv argued made it hard to act against Moscow ever since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
US coast guard operates two polar icebreakers in Arctic simultaneously
U.S. polar icebreakers Healy and recently acquired Storis are currently operating to the north of the Aleutian Island chain in the American Arctic. This marks the first time since spring 2013 that the Coast Guard has deployed two icebreakers to the region at the same time.
Based on AIS data the two vessels briefly met up around 100 nautical miles northeast of Unalaska. They were also joined Alex Haley, a medium endurance cutter. Healy is now steaming north to continue its annual Arctic science mission with Storis expected in Dutch Harbor by August 27.
The newly commissioned Storis arrived in the Arctic from Juneau after a stopover in Seward. Meanwhile Healy is returning to the High Arctic after a visit to Kodiak and Dutch Harbor.