April 17, 2026

A month and a half into the war between Iran and the US and Israel, Michelle Wiese Bockmann has seen one constant: disappearing ships. This is not unusual in the Strait of Hormuz, says Bockmann, a senior maritime intelligence analyst at Windward AI who has been tracking shipping across the globe for 30 years. For…

It’s called Minamitorishima, and it’s a small atoll in the Pacific Ocean. It is one of the most remote islands in Japan’s vast archipelago, so much so that it lies nearly 2,000 kilometers southeast of Tokyo. Yet from the depths of the surrounding seas may come a tremendous gift for the country’s economy. It is…