Thursday, November 28

Happy Thanksgiving!

The controversy around last week's incident involving fiber-optic cables in the Baltic Sea has continued, and the European Union and the United States now have contrasting views on the cause of the incident.

Last Sunday, a fiber-optic cable connecting Lithuania and Sweden was found to be severed, while a second cable connecting Finland and Germany was damaged on Monday. Thankfully, the severed cables were not an integral part of the communications of the aforementioned countries, with minimal effect. Internet speeds in Lithuania were temporarily slowed down before the online traffic was redirected, but there was very little effect on internet connection in Germany, Finland, and Sweden. Read more about the original incident here.

The severing of two cables in the Baltic Sea on Sunday and Monday led to serious skepticism from officials in the affected countries, with strong beliefs that the damage was due to sabotage. Anchors from ships can be a problem, though, as cargo ships dragging their anchors can sever buried cables on the seafloor. Boris Pistorius, Germany's minister of defense, clearly told media that they believed the damage was sabotage and enforced his belief that it was not a ship anchor, but he avoided explicitly mentioning a suspect of the sabotage.

While Russia was the initial primary suspect, the possibility of China as the culprit later came into focus. Previous incidents with ships dragging their anchors to cut through fiber-optic cables had been traced back to China in the past, and the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3 was in the area at the time of the incident. A Danish Navy ship stopped the Chinese vessel a day after the second cable was severed, and it has been stuck there in the Kattegat Strait since then. Ships from all over the European Union have constantly surrounded Yi Peng 3 as suspicions of sabotage from member countries continue, but the United States believes that sabotage was not a factor in the incident.

It is still unknown whether the severing of the cables was intentional or not, and there is strong evidence on both sides of the claim. Last year, a Chinese ship was seen dragging its anchor in the Baltic Sea, severing a gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia, but the ship escaped by entering international waters before it was caught by navy ships. However, on the other side of the argument, Russia and China could have nothing to do with the incident, as anything from an earthquake to an underwater landslide to a strong ocean current to even human activities like fishing or oil and gas activities can damage fiber-optic cables. Whether the incident was done on purpose or not is still under investigation, making this an ongoing, developing story that will be mentioned in future articles.

Fact of the Day (Reader's Digest): Over 248 million turkeys are raised in the US every year, and a large portion of those turkeys are eaten on Thanksgiving. However, two turkeys are pardoned by the United States president-- this year, President Joe Biden pardoned "Peach" and "Blossom." They are now headed back to their home in Minnesota, where they will live out the rest of their days at an agricultural center.

Quote of the Day: The more you practice the art of thankfulness, the more you have to be thankful for. (Norman Vincent Peale)

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Guttural (adj)- A guttural sound -- such as speech, laughter, or a grunt -- is formed or pronounced in the throat.

In a Sentence: Her friends always found her deep, guttural laugh to be highly contagious.