Our daily voyage around the world

🇫🇲 Three sailors were rescued from a remote Micronesian island after making a “HELP” sign. The trio was on a trip within Micronesia, a nation of 600+ islands in the Western Pacific, when they became stranded on an uninhabited island for over a week due to a malfunctioning boat. The men were discovered on Tuesday, after a US Coast Guard aircraft spotted their sign made from palm tree branches.

🇻🇳 A Vietnamese billionaire was sentenced to death in the country’s largest-ever fraud case. Real estate tycoon Truong My Lan received the sentence yesterday after being convicted of using thousands of ghost companies to embezzle $12.5 billion – or ~3% of Vietnam’s annual GDP – from the country’s largest bank between 2018 and 2022. Lan, who pleaded not guilty and blamed her subordinates for the crimes, said she plans to appeal the sentence. Another 85 accomplices are facing sentences ranging from three years to life imprisonment.

🇮🇱🇮🇷 Israel should expect a major Iran-backed attack in the coming days, per the US. American officials on Wednesday said intelligence reports show that an attack on Israeli assets by Iran or its proxies could be imminent. Tehran has threatened to retaliate against Israel for a strike on an Iranian diplomatic building in Syria last week that killed several top Iranian military officials. Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, the top US commander in the Middle East, is headed to Israel to discuss the possible Iranian attack.