Latest news with #icebreaker
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
US Coast Guard unveils first polar icebreaker in more than 25 years
PASCAGOULA, Miss. - The U.S. Coast Guard's newest polar icebreaker is officially operational, which the agency says will bolster its Arctic operations. The 360-foot-long icebreaker departed from its assembly port in Pascagoula, Mississippi and was headed to Seattle, where it will be based until renovations are completed at its homeport in Juneau, Alaska. Icebreakers clear passages through icy waterways in both the Arctic and Antarctic, and are known to aid in search and rescue missions as well as support scientific research operations. Similar-sized ships are known to break up ice that is upwards of 21 feet thick, due to their reinforced hulls and bows, with engines capable of producing a significant amount of horsepower. "The vessel is manned with a hybrid crew consisting of military cuttermen and civilian mariners. This is the second vessel in Coast Guard history to bear the name Storis. The original Storis, known as the 'Galloping Ghost of the Alaskan Coast,' had a storied history conducting 64 years of icebreaking operations in Alaska and the Arctic before being decommissioned in 2007," the agency said in a statement. Antarctica's 'Doomsday Glacier' Is Melting Away Differently Than Scientists First Thought The USCGC Storis will join the USCGC Polar Star and the USCGC Healy as part of the Polar Security Cutter Program. Both of the other icebreakers have faced challenges due to their age, with the Healy recently experiencing a significant fire, while the 50-year-old Polar Star was taken out of service for necessary repairs. "Our national security interests in the Arctic have also never been more critical, demonstrated by the joint Russian and Chinese naval and air task forces that have operated off Alaska's coastline these past two years. Since coming to the Senate, I've been working relentlessly to wake up our federal government to the strategic importance of this region," Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan previously said in a statement. World's Largest Iceberg On Possible Collision Course With Island In South Atlantic Ocean The Coast Guard says its fleet of large icebreakers must double or even triple in size to meet growing operational demands. "Russia has 55 icebreakers and is in the process of building more. By 2025, China, which has no sovereignty over any Arctic waters, is set to surpass the United States' icebreaker fleet. The Alaska congressional delegation has long since recognized this as a competitive disadvantage in the Arctic and advocated for additional resources to bolster the USCG icebreaker fleet," Alaskan legislators previously stated. The newly acquired vessel is expected to support missions later in the year, although a specific deployment schedule was not article source: US Coast Guard unveils first polar icebreaker in more than 25 years
The Independent
21-05-2025
- The Independent
The Arctic adventure so thrilling I forgot to look for the northern lights
I'd assumed Swedish Lapland would mean stylish chunky knits and chic fur hats, but I've just been strapped into a bright orange survival suit that consumes everything but my face. I'm an oversized traffic cone turned Teletubby – but thus goes the fashion when gloating in icy Arctic waters. I'm in Sweden 's far north, trying to pre-empt a northern lights no-show by diving (literally) into more Earthly adventures. Basing myself around coastal Luleå (with help from specialist holiday company The Aurora Zone, I soon find I can swim, sled and sauna without ever driving much more than an hour. And the northern lights I'd travelled to see? A distant memory. The tourist-friendly icebreaker ship I'm on does just that as it plies the frozen waters of the Bothnian Sea: it carves a pool of inky black water… and in plop the lurid tourists, fully waterproof. I feel both weightless and safe as I bob on my back like an untethered buoy beneath the pewter clouds. Only it's hard to cling to any meditative state for long because I'm laughing so much. My friends and I flounder with our oversized, cartoon hands, unable to stop giggling at our cumbersome, human-highlighter selves. I clamber onto an ice shelf and bounce back in with a splash, gurgling happily. An ice bath without any of the agony, this wholesome, silly dunking delivers a hit of wellness I'd not anticipated. Back on board, calm comes in a different form: the hissing crack of the 50-metre-thick ice beneath the hull is surprisingly like ASMR. Pale fissures snake across the crystalline surface before they gape wide in grizzly grins. Larger chunks capsize and upend, the beauty and power of their Haribo-sweet interior – gelatinous blue topped with white – is momentarily exposed before they sink to the depths like drowned spectres. Later that day at the Arctic Bath hotel, we step into a menthol-scented wooden room where 'sauna master' Sven promptly roasts us to within an inch of our lives. The perfumed water sizzles furiously on the rocks as Sven wafts a large red fan; he's a flamenco dancer, bullfighter and torturer all rolled into one as he moves the increasingly hot air around the sauna. Sweat bursts from my every pore like a confetti gun. When I am finally allowed outside for phase two of the ritual, a cold plunge feels incredibly welcoming. Though not for long. My language is as blue as my skin, as I'm stabbed repeatedly by the -1°C water. And then I'm out, marching around the pool in a bid to reanimate, like a prisoner released for yard exercise. Before it's back into the sauna to repeat the experience. Twice. Of course, one doesn't need to be in the freeze to enjoy the Arctic's adventures. I have a whale of a time trying my hand at ice fishing. I don shoe grip spikes and stride off like a modern-day Shackleton across the solid sea. Armed with a hand drill, I churn down into the thick whiteness, lower a fishing rod baited with a wriggling maggot into the hole, and wait for what seems like a very long time. Eventually, success strikes. Our guide guts the snared perch with aplomb, slicing it open, peeling off the skin and plucking out entrails as we watch with morbid fascination before he places it reverently inside a smoking tin to cook. I pause my angling to feast on the fresh catch – it's gently charred, tender and delicious – but return only to find some aquatic blighter has nibbled the worm right off my rod and scarpered. Survival talents are further tested when I head out for a wilderness skills afternoon. Equipped yet again with an unflattering 'outfit', I clamp into snowshoes – it's like walking on grippy frisbees as they clunk and flap – and make my way into the forest. Our guide points out the Arctic's edible secrets as we wander – blueberries, lingonberries, juniper and even wild rosemary (but don't eat that unless hallucinations are your thing). Spruce is great for tea, he says, as is Old Man's Beard – a plant signifying the air's purity. Luckily, a brew is on the agenda – provided we make the fire first. We're taught how to split birch logs, assemble them like Jenga, position scraped bark on top and use a nifty flint tool to spark our DIY stove alight. Before long, the fire is roaring and a little kettle burbles storybook-style, producing a tasty infusion that Twinings should probably investigate. We're even taught what a female moose's mating call sounds like – part baby mewling, part cat in pain. Fortunately, the cacophony is courtesy of our guide's horn, not a lovesick cow. He's got a special whistle to mimic bird calls, too – Sweden 's answer to Snow White. My fantasy of gliding over the white stuff in a sleigh finally becomes a reality when we take a snowmobile-pulled sled over a frozen lake. Everything in me screams to get off the ice – surely it'll crack at any minute? But no, this ice is thick and the worrisome puddles of water are simply melting snow sitting on the surface. After all, travelling this way is a standard commute here; I regularly spot locals zooming past on snowmobiles. Admittedly, it's not quite as smooth as I'd imagined – I don't exactly feel like a serene heroine from a 19th-century Russian novel as I bump along. And ideally, the soundtrack would be husky barks instead of a rumbling engine… and I'd be enrobed in furs rather than a snowsuit, but then life isn't all Doctor Zhivago (thank goodness). So yes, style-wise, the trip's been a letdown – but the adventures? Anything but. Who needs the Northern Lights when the real magic is right in front of you?
CTV News
14-05-2025
- CTV News
Naval facility in Canadian Arctic stalled by ‘concerns' with jetty
Canadian Coast Guard Capt. Victor Gronmyr looks out over the ice covering the Victoria Strait as the Finnish icebreaker MSV Nordica traverses the Northwest Passage through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago in 2017. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Wall Street Journal
11-05-2025
- Science
- Wall Street Journal
To Dominate the Arctic, Trump Needs Ice-Breaking Ships. Finland Wants to Help.
HELSINKI—Smashing ice is straightforward—except when it is more than 10 feet thick and you're using a ship, even one designed for the job. If an icebreaker's hull is the wrong shape, the ice bends but doesn't break. Without the right paint, the ship grates against the ice like sandpaper. Spin the propellers too fast or too slow and deflected chunks of subsea ice can make the ship reverberate like a gong.
CNBC
09-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
The U.S. and China are set for icebreaker trade talks. Here's what to expect
The stakes are high for the U.S. and China's icebreaker trade talks this weekend as the outcome could reset the future of economic relations between the world's two largest economies. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer are scheduled to meet with Chinese lead economic representative and Vice Premier He Lifeng in Switzerland on Saturday. Analysts say a comprehensive deal is unlikely to come out from a single meeting, however, they are hopeful that a partial rollback of the sky-high tariffs will be on the table. Both sides have been looking for a pathway to de-escalation, as the economic toll of tariffs have become increasingly difficult to ignore. The U.S. economy contracted 0.3% in the first quarter this year amid mounting concerns that the economy will slip into a recession with higher inflation and unemployment. And while the Chinese economy grew a better-than-expected 5.4% in the first three months this year, major banks have slashed their full-year growth forecasts for the country to just around 4% — below the government's target of around 5%. Trump still might have more to lose, as the Chinese political system grants the country's leadership a "higher pain threshold" and a "greater degree of control over macro policy support in the short term," said Dan Wang, China director at political risk consultancy firm Eurasia Group. Vice Premier He's main mission will simply be seeking clarity on what Trump wants and assessing whether the U.S. intends to hurt China's interests, Wang said. In what appeared to be a confidence boost ahead of the meeting, China released trade data that showed its exports surged 8.1% year on year in April on the back of a jump in shipments to Southeast Asian nations, shrugging off the 21% drop in outbound goods to the U.S. And on Friday, China's Commerce Ministry launched a "special operation" to combat the smuggling of strategic minerals, including gallium, germanium, antimony, tungsten and medium and heavy rare earths. Without naming specific entities, the ministry framed the operation as "a crackdown on overseas entities that had colluded with domestic illegal personnel" to bypass the export control rules it had ratcheted up earlier this year. "It serves as a useful reminder of the leverage China possesses as the negotiations are set to get underway in Geneva," said Stephen Olson, a visiting senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and a former U.S. trade negotiator. China is the world's largest producer of several critical minerals crucial to making semiconductors, defense equipment and clean energy. As part of the retaliatory measures against Trump's tariffs announced last month, China has increased export controls of the metals. "The sharpest arrow that China has in its quiver would be to restrict U.S. access to critical minerals that can't readily be sourced elsewhere," Olson said. High on Washington's agenda is securing the removal of China's export restrictions on rare earths used to make magnets, Bloomberg reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. Another potential pressure point for Trump is China's vast holdings of U.S. Treasuries, which could pose risks to financial market stability, said Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University. Beijing is likely to further trim its nearly $800-billion stockpile of U.S. government debt if it wants to turn up the heat on Trump, said Wu. Despite market speculation that China might unload its Treasury holdings to hit back at tariffs, a significant sell-off could also backfire. Such a move might strengthen the yuan, undermining China's export competitiveness, and lead to substantial losses on its dollar-denominated assets. A partial reversal of tariffs is one of the most likely outcomes of the meeting, according to analysts who remain are split on the extent of any adjustments and the pace of de-escalation. Robin Xing, chief China economist at Morgan Stanley, projects that effective U.S. tariff rates on Chinese goods could be lowered from the current 107% to a terminal rate of 45% by year-end. Similarly, Tianchen Xu, senior economist at Economist Intelligence Unit, expects the U.S. and China to scale back their mutual weighted average tariff rates of around 50% in the near term. That's still elevated compared to the tariff rates of 10.9% on Chinese goods and 16% that China had imposed on American products before Trump returned to office, according to Xu's estimates. In recent days, senior U.S. officials have sounded an optimistic tone over the upcoming talks, saying they could ease the trade barriers that Trump raised last month. "De-escalating, bringing those rates down to where they could, where they should be, I think it's Scott Bessent's goal," Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick told CNBC Friday. "And that's what the president hopes is a good outcome, is a de-escalating world where we go back to each other and then we work on a big deal together." During a White House press conference on the signing of a trade deal with Britain, Trump said of the Switzerland meeting, "I think we're going to have a good weekend with China." The U.S. president then said in a post on social media platform Truth Social on Friday, that "80% Tariff on China seems right! Up to Scott B." Chinese officials, on the other hand, have struck a firmer tone, reiterating the country's demand for the Trump administration to cancel all unilateral tariffs on China. A spokesperson for the Commerce Ministry said Wednesday that "China will not sacrifice principle to reach [a] deal with U.S.," while repeating that Washington must "rectify its wrongdoing" by removing all unilateral tariffs. During the upcoming talks, China could still offer some "sweeteners," such as promises to step up its crackdown on fentanyl flows, said Xu, which could lead to a near-term removal of the 20% fentanyl-related tariffs Trump imposed. Both sides have sought to temper the economic pain from the exorbitant tariffs, exempting the levies on a range of goods, including consumer electronics, semiconductors and auto parts. China reportedly exempted import duties on select pharmaceuticals, microchips and aircraft engines from the United States. It has also created a "whitelist" of U.S. goods that will be exempted from extra levies, according to Reuters. However, attempts to achieve a more comprehensive deal, similar to the Phase One deal signed during Trump's first term, will likely be "lengthy and unproductive," said Xu, as both sides have shown little appetite for compromise over respective strategic priorities and economic red lines. "We severely doubt the possibility of the U.S. and China reaching something close to the Phase One trade agreement reached in 2020—a model that has been discredited in the eyes of senior US officials," Xu added. China had alleged it fulfilled the terms under the Phase One trade deal that Trump struck with Beijing during his first presidential term, while claiming the U.S. violated certain mandates in the agreement. The deal required China to boost purchases of U.S. goods by $200 billion over a two-year period, but Beijing did not meet the targets as the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
