This is literally a conversation I have had with a specific friend several times this year.

www.wsj.com Exclusive | Chinese Ship’s Crew Suspected of Deliberately Dragging Anchor for 100 Miles to Cut Baltic Cables Bojan Pancevski 7 - 9 minutes

A Chinese commercial vessel that has been surrounded by European warships in international waters for a week is central to an investigation of suspected sabotage that threatens to test the limits of maritime law—and heighten tensions between Beijing and European capitals.

Investigators suspect that the crew of the Yi Peng 3 bulk carrier—225 meters long, 32 meters wide and loaded with Russian fertilizer—deliberately severed two critical data cables last week as its anchor was dragged along the Baltic seabed for over 100 miles.

Their probe now centers on whether the captain of the Chinese-owned ship, which departed the Russian Baltic port of Ust-Luga on Nov. 15, was induced by Russian intelligence to carry out the sabotage. It would be the latest in a series of attacks on Europe’s critical infrastructure that law-enforcement and intelligence officials say have been orchestrated by Russia.

“It’s extremely unlikely that the captain would not have noticed that his ship dropped and dragged its anchor, losing speed for hours and cutting cables on the way,” said a senior European investigator involved in the case.

The ship’s Chinese owner, Ningbo Yipeng Shipping, is cooperating with the investigation and has allowed the vessel to be stopped in international waters, according to people familiar with the probe. The company declined to comment.

The damage to undersea cables occurred in Swedish waters on Nov. 17-18, prompting that country’s authorities to open a sabotage investigation. Russia has denied wrongdoing.

Investigators have established that the ship dropped anchor but remained under way in Swedish waters on Nov. 17 at around 9 p.m. local time. The dragging anchor cut the first cable between Sweden and Lithuania shortly afterward, according to two people familiar with the investigation.

During that time, the ship’s transponder, which charts its movements on the so-called Automatic Identification System, shut down in what is known as a “dark incident” in marine traffic jargon. The ship then continued even as the dragging anchor greatly reduced its speed, according to satellite and other data reviewed by investigators.

Investigators say that at around 3 a.m. the following day, having traveled about 111 miles, the Yi Peng 3 cut the second cable between Germany and Finland. Shortly afterward, the ship started zigzagging, raised anchor and continued. Danish Navy ships then set out to pursue and intercept the Yi Peng 3, ultimately forcing it to anchor in the Kattegat Strait, which connects the Baltic and the North seas.

A review of the vessel’s anchor and hull showed damage consistent with having dragged its anchor and severed cables, people familiar with the investigation said.

“Given the mild weather conditions and manageable wave heights, the likelihood of accidental anchor dragging appears minimal,” according to an analysis prepared for The Wall Street Journal by Kpler, an analytics company that provides real-time data on international shipping.

While such incidents have been handled confidentially in the past, the damage to the internet cables last week quickly prompted public interventions from top European leaders.

The crew of Yi Peng 3, which is captained by a Chinese national and includes a Russian sailor, hasn’t so far been questioned, according to people familiar with the probe, but a member of a Danish pilot ship briefly boarded the ship before it was anchored in the Kattegat Strait.

Several Western law-enforcement and intelligence officials said they didn’t think the Chinese government was involved in the incident but that they suspected Russian intelligence agencies were behind the sabotage.

“These are absurd, unsubstantiated accusations,” the Kremlin press office told the Journal. The same Western officials who point fingers at Russia were silent when Ukraine blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines, the press office said in reference to the 2022 sabotage of the conduit for Russian gas to Europe.

“I would like to reiterate China’s consistent support working with all countries to maintain the security of international submarine cables and other infrastructure in accordance with international law,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters on Wednesday.

The Chinese bulk carrier is now guarded by a small flotilla of North Atlantic Treaty Organization ships belonging to Denmark, Germany and Sweden.

Previously neutral, Sweden is one of the newest members of NATO, having joined the military alliance in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Under international maritime law, NATO ships can’t force the Yi Peng 3 to sail into one of their ports. Swedish and German authorities are negotiating with the ship’s owner to obtain access to the vessel and question its crew.

German police also dispatched the Bamberg, a patrol vessel, to investigate one of the incidents with underwater drones. Swedish and Danish ships have also examined the sites on the seabed.

European authorities must tread carefully because of their commitment to the freedom of navigation and upholding international law that underpins global trade, according to several European politicians, as well as security and law-enforcement officials familiar with the probe.

Since the launch of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has been accused by Western officials of waging a shadow war on NATO territory in Europe to destabilize the West, including orchestrating attacks on undersea pipelines and data cables in the Baltic and the Arctic.

In October last year, a Chinese-registered vessel called Newnew Polar Bear cut the Balticconnector gas pipeline and a telecommunication cable connecting Finland and Estonia with its anchor, according to people familiar with the investigation into the case. Some officials briefed on the investigation said Russian sailors were aboard the Chinese ship at the time of that incident.

Newnew Polar Bear was allowed to proceed toward Arctic Russia because authorities in Sweden, Denmark and Norway didn’t want to halt the ship without sound legal backing, according to officials.

But in the case of Yi Peng 3, the Danish Navy decided to intervene quickly to stop the ship after the second cable was damaged, people familiar with the investigation said.

Yi Peng 3 had operated solely in Chinese waters from December 2019 through early March 2024, when it suddenly changed its pattern of operation, said Benjamin L. Schmitt, senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.

The Chinese ship then started carrying Russian coal and other cargo, making calls in Russian ports such as Nakhodka on the Sea of Japan, several trips to the Port of Murmansk in the Barents Sea and a trip to the Baltic Sea. At present, the ship is loaded with Russian fertilizers, according to Kpler data.

“While this alone is not enough to provide evidence of Russian involvement, the fundamental change in the ship’s operating region to Russian ports after years operating solely in Chinese waters should be a key area of investigation for European authorities,” Schmitt said.

Write to Bojan Pancevski at bojan.pancevski@wsj.com

Just beat it

Having done remote support in the past, there is often a delay and especially with scrolling it is difficult to control, so I always ended up doing the side bar thing as well.

Control panel is also a quirky one, because it is sorted alphabetically from left to right and then from top to bottom in the display language. So the control panel items are very often in a different place because Microsoft.

I did learn most of the control panel shortcuts because of that though, which still comes in handy sometimes. I even had a printed out cheat sheet for it.

This reminds me of a book called "Boerenpsalm" (Farmers psalm) by the Belgian author Felix Timmermans. It's about a farmer whose son dies and his daughter in law, of whom he never approved, still lives with him at the farm. They gradually grow closer and get romantically involved, but the farmer can't believe he's that lucky, which leads to some drama (it's been a very long time since I read the book or watched the movie). Anyway, it's frowned upon now as it was then (the book takes place at the end of the 19th century), but also a thing of all times.

Imo, when 2 people love each other, who are we to judge?

To answer your question though, yes, it would be awkward. I actually can't imagine being in that situation, to be honest.

The song is called "The ecstasy of gold" but the movie is "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly". Still, that was an impressive description.

Edit: Seems my memory failed me and it's not the ecstasy of gold, as others have pointed out.

Yea, it's a pretty weird obsession

My personal favorite will probably always remain the Mass effect trilogy.

A friend of mine has an outdoor cat. He didn't adopt it or anything, it just started living in his garden. The cat is quite small, smaller than it should be, but it's quite cuddly. However, the second you stop scratching her ears or cuddling her, she turns into a demon bitch from hell. She will hiss at you and even attack you, just because you stopped petting her. My friend is genuinely terrified of that cat.

As long as they don't leave a quorum behind.

Wouldn't that be covered by warranty though? 3 months is a pretty short period.

I don't think there will be a spot open, but at least that will give him time to fix that awful haircut.

Doing neither, as these things are well documented and demonstrably true, but believe whatever you want to believe.

Pretty sure any pastry chef will strongly disagree with that. If anything, baking is the cooking activity most akin to an exact science. The amounts need to be carefully measured, the temperatures need to be exactly right (e.g. Italian merengue), the baking time needs to be correct to the second for some dishes (lava cake).

Yes, the measures can change based on the flour or its substitutes (ground pistachio for example), but the processes involved require an equal amount of precision.

A lot of chefs call cooking an art, but baking a science.

In France, but also Belgium and the Netherlands, you have a very malcontent population of 2nd or 3rd generation offspring (mostly male) of migrants who feel left out by the system and take any opportunity to cause chaos. It are these kids who set cars alight, not the protestors.

Often when there is a truly large protest, they are there to "fight against the system" by getting into fights with the police and burning cars and just causing overall mayhem.

Based on all the replies this seems both are getting what they want out of it, so I don't see an issue. Not every marriage needs to be a love match, but it does seem like there is some of that, so even better.

I do understand your moral reservations as it seems a bit cynical, but in the end it's her life and she and any kids they might have are basically set for life.

If you can see an F-22, you weren't the target.

When you click on "What!?" it's the same text but capitalized.

Now watch them go back up in two years once reckless deregulation starts to kick in.

Nato has had advanced drone capabilities for a long time now, but was mainly focused on stealth and reusability rather than mass production. I know drone swarms to accompany stealth fighters and navy ships have been in development for some years now, but the mass use of disposable drones is not something there was a real need for. But I have no doubt that modern infantry training will start including drone usage and tactics, if that isn't the case already.