International Maritime Organisation Elects 40-Member Council To Shape Global Maritime Governance

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

December 2, 2025

Overview

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has unveiled its newly elected 40-member Council, underscoring a balanced representation of nations integral to global shipping, trade, and maritime regulation. This decisive move reinforces the IMO’s commitment to fostering international maritime collaboration.

Diverse Maritime Perspectives

The Council remains structured into three distinct categories. Category (a) comprises nations with major interests in international shipping services, including China, Greece, Italy, Japan, Liberia, Norway, Panama, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In parallel, Category (b) brings together key players in global seaborne trade, with Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the United Arab Emirates at the forefront.

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Cyprus’s Strategic Position

Positioned within Category (c), Cyprus alongside other nations such as Bahamas, Belgium, Chile, Egypt, Finland, Indonesia, Jamaica, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Peru, the Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, and Türkiye, highlights those States with specific maritime interests. For Cyprus, this election solidifies its status as a prominent flag State and an influential participant in shaping maritime policy. The country’s Deputy Ministry of Shipping has consistently emphasized the critical nature of this representation for advancing priorities in safety, decarbonisation, and seafarer welfare.

Looking Ahead

As the Council prepares to convene for its 136th session on December 4, key decisions, including the selection of its Chair and Vice-Chair for the 2026–2027 biennium, lie ahead. Immediately following the Assembly, the newly elected Council will embark on its inaugural act: the appointment of its Bureau for the forthcoming two-year term, setting the course for continued strategic oversight in global maritime affairs.

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Google Cloud Outage Disrupts Banking And Digital Services Across The UK

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

October 20, 2026

A power outage at a Google Cloud data centre near London disrupted services across the UK on Tuesday, affecting banks, businesses and other digital platforms. Google said the incident was caused by a power event at its cloud operations, with full recovery expected by around 1300 GMT.

The disruption began at 0608 GMT and affected Google Cloud services in the europe-west2 region, which is hosted in London. In an initial update, the company reported elevated error rates and intermittent network failures across multiple services as engineers worked to restore operations.

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Banking Services Hit By The Disruption

Revolut was among the most visibly affected companies, with customers reporting problems with ATM withdrawals, bank transfers and card top-ups. A source close to the matter linked the issues to the Google Cloud outage.

Traditional banks also reported disruptions. Lloyds said some customers were experiencing problems with its app and online banking, while HSBC confirmed difficulties accessing its services. HSBC added that it was monitoring the situation and noted that other organisations were affected as well.

Disruption Spreads Beyond Finance

Downdetector, which tracks online service disruptions, recorded hundreds of reports involving other businesses, including property website Rightmove and the Royal Mail postal service. The reports suggested that the outage was affecting multiple parts of the UK’s digital economy.

The incident highlights the risks facing businesses that depend on shared cloud infrastructure. Even a temporary failure at a single provider can disrupt services across several sectors, from banking and payments to logistics and consumer platforms.

Companies Reassure Customers

Revolut said it had been working to resolve the issue since it was identified and apologised to affected customers. The company also confirmed that customers’ money and data remained safe.

As cloud platforms underpin an increasing share of digital commerce, the outage illustrates how disruptions to critical infrastructure can spread far beyond the provider itself, affecting businesses and customers across the economy.

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