this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2024
147 points (97.4% liked)

Europe

1681 readers
417 users here now

News and information from Europe πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί

(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)

Rules (2024-08-30)

  1. This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
  2. No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
  3. Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
  4. No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism.
  5. Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
  6. If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
  7. Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in [email protected]. (They're cool, you should subscribe there too!)
  8. Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
  9. No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)

(This list may get expanded when necessary.)

We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.

If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.

If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the mods: @[email protected], @[email protected], or @[email protected].

founded 6 months ago
MODERATORS
 

finland's transmission grid company fingrid announced that estlink 2 disconnected from the grid at 12.26. the power transfer of the connection was 650 mw when it disconnected.

xin xin tian 2 left st petersburg on christmas eve, and according to marinetraffic it is on its way to port said in egypt.

fingrid is currently investigating where the connection was lost. for now it is not certain whether the connection was lost on land or if something happened to the submarine cable. it is also not known whether the xin xin tian 2 vessel had anything to do with the power cable fault.

read also xin xin tian 2 moved near the power cable – this is what is now known about the power connection between finland and estonia being cut – nothing is ruled out, all stones and stumps are being turned and we will see what caused it [the outage]. yes, that [sabotage] is also considered an option, fingrid's control room manager arto pahkin told iltalehti earlier.

There have been other recent incidents of sabotage involving Chinese and Hong Kong-flagged cargo ships in the Baltic Sea.

In November, the Chinese cargo ship Yi Peng 3 was suspected of severing two critical telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea. In October last year, the Hong Kong-registered NewNew Polar Bear cargo ship was linked to damage to the BalticConnector gas pipeline.

οΏΌοΏΌ Indicative map of the locations of the Estlink cables between Estonia and Finland. il/aleksi nissilΓ€, openstreetmap Article edited on 25.12.2024 at 21.58: The power transmission of the connection has been clarified based on a Fingrid press release.

top 21 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Capitalisation matters.

The context should tell people it's obviously megawatts, but a gentle reminder how capitalisation matters; "mw" isn't a SI unit technically, as the SI system capitalizes units which are named after people, so W for watt, named after Watt.

Lowercase m is the prefix for "milli-", meaning 1/1000th. Uppercase M is for "mega-" as in 1 000 000.

So 650 MW.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Third cut cable by a ship from russia (or with russian captain).

Scandinavians: "We just don't know what happened!"

If this was dragged off with an anchor or similar it's a fucking declaration of war.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Not that I want to defend Russians hereβ€”but at surface-level, this appears to be the second Chinese ship in a row to do something like this.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I don't think that the flag is likely all that relevant.

Assuming both (a) this was the result of a ship dragging an anchor over the cable as it crossed over and (b) the severing isn't accidental, Russia could have just paid off someone on the ship to drag an anchor. They wouldn't need to involve the Chinese government.

Like, think of those cases in 2024 where Russian intelligence sought out and paid off criminals in Europe to perform acts of sabotage, mostly arson. The people involved were nationals of other countries in Europe, but it's not like they're acting as agents of the state whose nationality they hold. They're just willing to take some level of personal risk for money.

EDIT:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-68899130

Like, the ~~three~~ five guys in that incident were British, but that's not really the relevant factor -- that doesn't mean that 10 Downing Street is involved.

[–] yarrage 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

With a Russian captain again as well?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

I don't actually know where the information about the Russian captain is coming from.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The previous Chinese ship suspected of internet cable sabotage had a russian captain.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago

It's just that they fly a flag of convenience, but the crew, apparently is mostly Russian.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It's one thing to know and another one to speak out loud.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

I feel we are way beyond that point.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Sounds like Europe is going to have to get tough on China or else Chinese ships are going to keep doing this.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Pretty sure it's just Russia behind this. They are trying to get Europe to alienate China too, which would naturally make China align more with Russia. Even if it were China behind this, we cannot fight an economic war against China, it's just not doable.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago

It’s both, but China is the bigger partner of the two.

You cannot appease China enough to make them side with you.