Borrowing energy from black holes would offer a highly efficient way to navigate our galaxy, an astronomer says. Potential targets include Proxima Centauri, a system some four light-years away with several exoplanets, including one Earth-like body orbiting in the habitable zone.

We know how to stop solid minerals converting to a liquid state mid voyage – so why does it still happen? By Susan Gourvenec.

A ship’s markings may look like hieroglyphs, but to industry insiders they tell an important story. By Erin Van Rheenen .

China calls it the project of the century but is it a power grab or an opportunity for all? Carrie Gracie hears the stories of eight people on its path.

A Norwegian container ship called the Yara Birkeland will be the world’s first electric, autonomous, zero-emissions ship. With a capacity of up to 150 shipping containers, the battery-powered ship will be small compared to modern standards (the biggest container ship in the world holds 19,000 containers, and an average-size ship holds 3,500), but its launch will mark the beginning of a transformation of the global shipping industry. This transformation could heavily impact global trade as well as the environment.

It’s midnight on the North Atlantic, where a massive container ship receives the latest weather report. There’s a nasty storm brewing ahead. Quietly, the ship changes course and speed, to skirt the worst of it and ensure an on-time arrival at its destination. The ship’s owners and the harbormaster at its next port of call are advised of the revised route. And as it nears shore, the giant ship must correct course once again, this time to steer clear of a fishing vessel off its starboard bow.

In a partnership with Boeing, Amazon's first cargo plane will take to the skies on Friday, Aug. 5. The company will use Prime Air to deliver goods to Amazon Prime members. Amazon unveiled its first branded cargo plane Thursday, one of 40 jetliners that will make up Amazon's own air transportation network of 40 Boeing jets leased from Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings and Air Transport Services Group Inc., which will operate the air cargo network. Amazon’s first branded cargo plane, Prime One, will take to the skies over Seattle’s Lake Washington for its inaugural flight Friday afternoon...

The editor asked for my thoughts on the idea that the ‘shipping cycle’ might become a thing of the past, thanks to improvements in our ability to process data. My mind went back to 1979, when the idea of ‘research’ into shipping supply and demand was still relatively new.... By Andrew Craig Bennett.

“Pressed by the Philippines at the Tribunal and under diplomatic pressure from maritime Asean claimant states such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, China saw fit to cash in some of its patron-client ties with Cambodia and Laos, two small mainland Asean states, for diplomatic backup.” By Thitinan Pongsudhirak.

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