Shipping companies using the Baltic Sea, one of the world’s busiest maritime routes, may face a new fee to help finance the

NATO is deploying eyes in the sky and on the Baltic Sea to protect cables and pipelines that stitch together the nine countries with shores on Baltic waters

There has been a sharp rise in damage to undersea cables in the Baltic, with at least 11 incidents reported since October 2023.

The attacks come as Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania prepare to cut on February 8 their electricity links to Russia and Belarus.

Swedish authorities boarded a Maltese-flagged ship seized in connection with the latest breach of cables running along the bottom of the Baltic Sea to begin an investigation into the matter, the country's security police said on Monday.

Russia has condemned the Western alliance for ramping up its naval presence in the so-called 'NATO lake' after alleged sabotage by Moscow-linked vessels.

An undersea data cable between Latvia and Sweden was damaged early on January 26, the latest in a series of similar incidents in the Baltic Sea in which critical seabed energy and communications lines are believed to have been severed by ships traveling to or from Russian ports.

Minister of Defense Hanno Pevkur (Reform) has floated the idea of a Baltic Sea shipping tax to fund the protection of undersea cables after a spate of breakages over the last 18 months.

This news roundup covers Haiti's planned elections despite security issues, returnees in Gaza facing dire conditions, shipping taxes for Baltic Sea protection, a deadly stampede in India, U.S. plans for migrant housing,

The RAF is providing RC-135 Rivet Joint and P-8 Poseidon MRA1 aircraft from the Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR)

Trump's freeze on U.S. aid impacts programs worldwide; a plane crash in South Sudan kills 20; Estonia proposes a shipping tax to protect undersea cables; India's Kumbh festival sees a deadly stampede;