How the World's Vital Undersea Data Cables Are Being Targeted (theguardian.com) 145
Damage to two undersea fiber-optic cables in the Baltic Sea this month points to growing vulnerability of critical submarine infrastructure, with German officials suspecting sabotage and Swedish police investigating a Chinese cargo vessel's involvement.
The incident highlights escalating risks to the global submarine cable network, which carries 99% of international telecommunications traffic through 530 cable systems spanning 850,000 miles. These garden hose-thick cables facilitate trillions in daily financial transactions and vital government communications.
Security experts warn that Russia has increased monitoring of undersea cables amid tensions over Ukraine. Taiwan reported 36 cable damages by foreign vessels since 2019, while Houthi rebels denied targeting Red Sea cables this year. Though most of the 100-plus annual cable faults are accidental, deliberate sabotage remains a concern. Repairs are costly, with new transatlantic cables running up to $250 million.
The incident highlights escalating risks to the global submarine cable network, which carries 99% of international telecommunications traffic through 530 cable systems spanning 850,000 miles. These garden hose-thick cables facilitate trillions in daily financial transactions and vital government communications.
Security experts warn that Russia has increased monitoring of undersea cables amid tensions over Ukraine. Taiwan reported 36 cable damages by foreign vessels since 2019, while Houthi rebels denied targeting Red Sea cables this year. Though most of the 100-plus annual cable faults are accidental, deliberate sabotage remains a concern. Repairs are costly, with new transatlantic cables running up to $250 million.
Pax Americana is over (Score:5, Insightful)
Any country wanting to keep their way of life should be investing more in patrolling the seas and their particular interests.
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The Pax Americana is ending because America is forfeiting the field.
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You want a stable world? Invest in making it stable. Relying on the USA to provide it was supposed to be a crutch until everyone was stabilized. Now... well, we have instability brought on by Israel, Russia, North Korea, and China because the USA got tired of dealing with it.
No worries though, strongly worded letters are being sent as we speak from the EU.
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Another way of putting it is that the USA's chickens are coming home to roost.... You reap what you sow... We told you so but you wouldn't listen... etc..
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Yeah, Business Insider is really known for their sick memes [businessinsider.com].
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The US Navy now has more admirals than ships.
You're off by a factor of fifty.
Re:Pax Americana is over (Score:5, Informative)
Navies are expensive, and the US Navy's ships are uber-expensive. So much that not even the US can afford a lot of warships anymore. The US Navy now has more admirals than ships.
251 active ships; 430 including both active or reserve (depending slightly on what you count). https://www.popularmechanics.c... [popularmechanics.com]
10 Admirals, 32 Vice-admirals, 64 Rear admirals (UH), and 104 Rear admirals (LH), out of 347,000 total personnel. https://www.statista.com/stati... [statista.com]
So, even counting all the various grades of admiral, no, the Navy does not have more Admirals than ships.
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Besides, it's not America's job to patrol everyone's backyard. European nations are more than capable of patrolling their own waters.
As a pan-global trade empire, it was in our best interests to keep the peace of the seas. Global trade (on which we rely) depends on safely shipping goods. Lost shipments increase costs. Higher shipping costs increase the cost to consumers of goods and reduce the profits of those manufacturing and selling goods.
Everything you buy will cost more without the protection of a strong navy. Everything you make or sell will net you less profit without the protection of a strong navy.
It was less expensive for u
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The US Navy now has more admirals than ships.
If you're going to lie, at least make it something that can't be disproven in 3 seconds of searching.
The total number of active duty flag officers in the Navy is capped at 151 [wikipedia.org], plus a smaller number of flag officers in the Navy Reserve.
There are ~470 ships [wikipedia.org] owned by the US Navy in the active or reserve fleets.
Care to try again?
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Re: Pax Americana is over (Score:2)
You're jumping to conclusions. You're SUPPOSED to, but you're falling for it, hook, line, and sinker.
Why don't you think it's the USA doing all this and blaming it on others?
It sounds like someone is preparing you for war. Not that THAT is really necessary - the USA is the most warring country on the planet.
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How long before the invasion of the Uns?
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One of my friends - a journalist for the shipping industry - did a review of "Piracy in the 1990s just after the Millennium. (Yes, we knew - a year early, since there was no Year Zero CE/ BCE.) The gist of it was that annual insurance payouts in the 1990s for piracy averaged about £50 million, with insured deaths in the range 80~100 every year. It was one of the minor, but significant, drivers away from having expensive-to-insure Brits/ Commonweal
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With 1,378,180 million in trade in 1990, that's practically zero. It's inconsequential. That was never a reason to move to lower costs. The reason to move to lower costs is - lower costs.
Obiligatory old timey global internet article (Score:5, Interesting)
https://www.wired.com/1996/12/... [wired.com]
Neal Stephenson
The Big Story
Dec 1, 1996 12:00 PM
Mother Earth Mother Board
The hacker tourist ventures forth across the wide and wondrous meatspace of three continents, chronicling the laying of the longest wire on Earth.
Plan B? (Score:3, Insightful)
What are some other ways?
Re:Plan B? (Score:5, Insightful)
Hmm...maybe it's time to start widespread usage of Ham radios again...
Radio doesn't have near the bandwidth of cables.
The solution is redundancy, so if a few cables are cut, the others can take up the slack.
Also segmenting, so a damaged section can be swapped without replacing hundreds of kilometers of cable.
Re: Plan B? (Score:4, Interesting)
What problem would a modular system solve in a better way than the current approach with cable splicing boats?
https://www.wired.com/story/su... [wired.com]
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The solution is redundancy, so if a few cables are cut, the others can take up the slack.
It takes a LONG time to repair them and very short time to damage them, and bad actors can coordinate it so multiple cables are attacked at the same time. There are also only about 3 cable repair ships on the planet.
The real solution might have been to bury the cables deeper beneath the sea floor and make their locations secret. Still would not do much good against ground-penetrating radar and undersea torpedos a
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If you can get all the way down to replace a segment i would think the same divers could do fusion splicing. You just need to evacuate a chamber long enough to do the work. Not unlike underwater welding. Again this depends on the depth.
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A constellation of tethered hydrogen airships
"Oh the humanity!"
On the other hand, satellites seem to work quite well for rural areas, when you have the ability to launch a few thousand of them.
FUCK RUSSIA (Score:2, Flamebait)
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FUCK RUSSIA
What? All of them?! Can we just make it some of them & that'd be good enough?
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Re: FUCK RUSSIA (Score:2)
"appears to be".
Wow, you already convinced them, from just a news article based on suspicion.
You're being hoodwinked nicely. The question is, what from are they distracting you from...
Re: FUCK RUSSIA (Score:3)
Re: FUCK RUSSIA (Score:2)
Re: FUCK RUSSIA (Score:2)
Re: FUCK RUSSIA (Score:2)
Time to play hardball (Score:5, Insightful)
The ship itself flies a Chinese flag. That makes China responsible, and it's time to play hardball.
Re: Time to play hardball (Score:3)
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The ship itself flies a Chinese flag. That makes China responsible, and it's time to play hardball.
You want the USA to take illegal, unilateral action against its 3rd largest trading partner?
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Sure, if it is possible to prove that the ship was involved in cutting the cable. Merely being in the vicinity is not likely to be conclusive. They don't even know if the break was deliberate or accidental at present.
The Finnish security intelligence service (Supo) said it was “too early to assess the cause of the cable damage”
Re: Time to play hardball (Score:2)
Who decided their guilt? I must have missed that part.
Man, you Americans are so gullible.
Re:Time to play hardball (Score:5, Funny)
I know right! Hamas was just minding their own business, and out of *nowhere* Israel started attacking them. And the peace-loving Hezbollah fighters were busy with agricultural projects when Israel started blowing up their communications equipment. Hamas and Hezbollah have been begging for peace and confirming Israel's right to exist for months now. What ARE the Europeans and Americans thinking? Just because Israel happens to have become a close ally after Hitler tried to exterminate them, doesn't mean we should help them defend themselves. Ridiculous.
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So, you rely on opinion pieces from a debate. Interesting.
From your Platypus link:
But Hamas is an outgrowth of the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, which in 1988 released a charter laying out its basic principles, and those principles were quite shocking.[3] They were explicitly anti-Semitic, Islamist, and filled with conspiracy theories.
Maybe you posted the wrong link? Sorry, I won't give The Intercept my email address in order to gain access to your article.
Your document from archives.gov does *not* say what you purport that it says. The US didn't force the creation of Israel, but they did back it. The Palestinians got on the wrong side of WWI and WWII, and paid for it by losing control of the land of Palestine. All of Europe, and most of the world, was in a
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Isra
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You seem to have been reading some kind of alternative history., filled with alternative facts, as espoused by neo-Nazis, who have (like the original Nazis) always hated the Jews.
Yes, Israel is blockading Gaza, not to cause famine, but to prevent Gaza from importing more weapons. Yes, Israel has bombed the vast majority of Gaza's civilian infrastructure, because Hamas keeps using Gaza civilians as human shields. Hamas purposely does its business in schools and neighborhoods, specifically to put IDF in a dif
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What would Israel have to do for you to change your mind?
Stop genital mutilation of children?
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Off topic? I don't get what that has to do with the Arab-Israeli wars.
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Nothing Israel can do, will change history. History is what it is. You seem to be confused about the facts of history that got us here.
Do I agree with Israel's strategy? No. It's time for them to look for a peaceful resolution and end the war. Do I understand their motivation for trying to obliterate Hamas and Hezbollah? Yes. Is their desire to defend themselves justified? Yes. Should they continue to establish new West Bank settlements? No.
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Change my mind about what?
Israel has a right to defend itself. That's not subject to change based on what Israel does now.
Israel was attacked and exercised its right to defend itself. That's also not subject to change based on what Israel does now.
Maybe you're asking about what would make me agree with you that Israel is committing genocide?
Well, if Hamas and Hezbollah laid down their arms and surrendered, and returned the remaining Israeli hostages, and Israel kept blowing up residential buildings and hosp
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Oh, I answered you all right, you seem to have ignored my answer.
>> If Hamas and Hezbollah laid down their arms and surrendered, and returned the remaining Israeli hostages, and Israel kept blowing up residential buildings and hospitals and schools, that would change my mind about Israel.
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What you responded to specified exactly that. If you're after something else, you need to be more precise with your question.
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Let me rephrase, since you seem to be having trouble understanding.
Israel would have to ignore a complete Hezbollah and Hamas surrender. That would be too far.
As it stands now, Hezbollah and Hamas continue to attack, in a war that they started without provocation. What did they expect, Israel to respond by asking them nicely to please not take hostages and kill civilians? These ruthless attackers brought this calamity on themselves. They have no one else to blame.
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It would help if you pointed out which assertions were "factually incorrect," it's hard to provide any kind of response to a nebulous statement like that.
Too far for me? How did I not answer that?
OK, here's a couple of things I hadn't thought of before.
- If Israel nuked Gaza, that would be too far.
- If Israel poisoned the entire population with Sarin gas, that would be too far.
Is that closer to what you were looking for? Maybe you could be a little more specific in your question.
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What exactly is being evaded? "Change your mind" is extremely open ended, and one exact situation where that would happen was listed. You want anything more specific, YOU need to be more specific.
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How much further than what they're doing at the moment? You know, bombing residential areas, killing entire families, bombing te
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So can you at least agree that Palestinian civilians have an equal right to live & be well
Yes, I agree with that.
bombing residential areas, killing entire families, bombing tent encampments
When Hamas uses residential areas, places where families live, and tent encampments for military operations, they are the ones responsible for the deaths that result from the actions of IDF. They are using civilians as human shields. If a hospital is used as a military operations center, it becomes a legitimate war target. If a tent encampment is used for military purposes, it becomes a legitimate target. No, you can't pin that on IDF or turn it into a war crime. It is Hamas that is c
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The IDF claims that ...Hamas uses residential areas, places where families live, and tent encampments for military operations...
The IDF have proven themselves, over several decades to be unreliable sources of information. They frequently make claims that they then fail to provide evidence for. They also present evidence, e.g. video recordings, that is heavily edited & that later turns out to be something quite different to what they initially claimed. Western media reports the initial claims & broadcasts with videos without any verification or investigation but then fails to broadcast retractions when the claims turn
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Which is more likely to be truthful? An organization (IDF) that insists that it doesn't target civilians, and produces video evidence to support its claims, or an organization (Hamas) that openly attacks and kills civilians, taking hostages, releasing video bragging of its exploits?
Your trust in Hamas is hypocritical. You accuse IDF of doing the things it denies, that Hamas does openly, and then you say IDF is the evil one. There's no reasoning with that kind of logic. That is messed up.
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Well for not trusting Hamas, you certainly repeat their propaganda as if it were true.
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2002 Jenin Refugee Camp Allegations
During the Second Intifada, the IDF claimed that their actions in Jenin were in response to heavy fighting against armed militants. Reports initially suggested widespread destruction and significant civilian casualties, with some alleging a massacre. A subsequent investigation by the United Nations concluded
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Character matters.
Hamas showed its character when it openly attacked and killed civilians, taking civilian hostages. Do you dispute that this happened? Are the Hamas-recorded videos not evidence enough for you?
An organization (Hamas) that is so depraved that it will openly target and kill civilians and take hostages, would not have a moral problem with using hospitals as military bases. So I have no reason *not* to believe IDF and news outlets when they say that Hamas was using hospitals as military bases.
B
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Protocol I: The use of human shields is prohibited. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org].
Attacks on civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, is allowed if the warring party is using the hospital population as human shields. https://opiniojuris.org/2016/1... [opiniojuris.org].
I think your opinion is only accepted by those who unquestioningly support Hamas.
Oh look, Hezbollah and Israel have declared a truce! https://www.npr.org/2024/11/26... [npr.org] It is possible. If Hamas wants a truce, there is a way to end the violence.
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Again, I'm not talking about Hamas. I'm talking about the political leadership & the armed forces of Israel. So far, you haven't produced any counter-arguments. Other than dismissing &/or excusing independent observations of war crimes & repeating IDF talking points that have been shown to be unfounded, you haven't addressed anything I've said. Trying to
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If you don't see my response as a counter-argument, you're not reading what I wrote.
There is no question that Hamas has been using human shields. At least, no question among responsible journalists. Do you deny this?
There is no question that Hamas targeted civilians. Do you deny this?
When a warring party does these things, they lose the moral right to cry foul when the other side attacks civilian infrastructure, in pursuit of military objectives.
You are a hypocrite. You excuse Hamas of the very same war cri
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BTW, Israel's minister of finance has recently called for the population of Palestine to be halved. It's been all over the press. Haven't you read it? Or is that what you're defending & want to happen?
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Human Rights Watch (HRW) labeled Israel's actions in Gaza as "massive, deliberate forced displacement" of civilians. The report suggests that this forced movement of around 1.9 million Pal
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Re: "Hamas started this war." -- Hamas wasn't established until 1987. The Israelis marched 750,000 Palestinians from their family homes in 1948. This is what I mean when I say that you're factually wrong. What you claim about Israel & Palestine doesn't have much to do with actual recorded historical events of the past few de
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When I say "arguably" it's because there is significant debate on this topic, as outlined here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] There is no similar debate about Nazis being antisemitic.
World War II was a war of empire building, to be sure. But it was also a war of Nazis (and their friends) against the Jews. Hitler did his best to kill as many Jews as he could, and succeeded in killing 6 million of them. The US and its allies responded by creating the nation of Israel, in land that had previously been occu
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You're arguing in favour of a government that recently called for the population of Palestine to be halved. It's that bad. This really is Nazi-level extreme. This is "Warsaw Uprising" type hi
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The ICJ prosecutor has alleged war crimes. That is not the same as a conviction. And the same prosecutor issued warrants for the remaining living Hamas leaders, but you apparently can only see one side of the coin. War has two sides, it's awful, *every* war has some war crimes. Only someone with extreme antisemitic views would compare Israel to the Nazis. There is NO comparison, it's not even close.
Yes, some people in Israel's government do have extreme views. Having extreme views, is not the same as actua
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Re: "That is not the same as a conviction." - For there to be a conviction, there'd need to be a trial. You're setting an impossible standard. What are they supposed to do, invade Israel & arrest their leadership?
Re: "Hamas not only holds genocidal views, but blatantly flouted international law and carried them out, against civilian Isra
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You seem unable to distinguish between acts of terrorism in resistance against a brutal occupation & threat of genocide against them, i.e. Hamas, & persistent policies (over decades) that are intended to wipe out an entire population, i.e. the Israeli regime
Sorry, there is no justification for intentionally attacking civilians who are going about their daily lives. And your contention that Israel is carrying out "a brutal occupation & threat of genocide against them" is propaganda line, not a truth that can be supported by an intellectually honest observer.
To compare Israel to the Nazis, is absurd. The Nazis marched millions of Jews to gas chambers. There is no comparison in terms of scale or disregard for the value of human life. The Jews were not attacki
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I strong indicator of fabricated versions of events is lack of flexibility & the tendency to repeat the same information over & over again. Law enforcement & lawyers exploit this tendency when they're interviewing witnesses, suspects, defendants, etc.. You story doesn't pass basic thresholds for story authen
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You didn't actually respond to my comments. Deflection is a sign that there is no logical argument.
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Perhaps. And you are willfully racist. Yes, antisemitism is racism.
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From that Wikipedia page:
Nakba denial has been described as still prevalent in both Israeli and US discourse and linked to various tropes associated with anti-Arab racism. In 2011, Israel enacted a law colloquially referred to as the Nakba Law that authorized the withholding of state funds from organizations that commemorate Israel's Independence Day as a day of mourning. In May 2023, following the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas made the denial of the Nakba or 1948 expulsion a crime punishable by two years in jail.
And for the record, the causes of the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight:
During the 1948 Palestine war in which the State of Israel was established, around 700,000 Palestinian Arabs, or 85% of the total population of the territory Israel captured, were expelled or fled from their homes. The causes of this mass displacement have been a matter of dispute, though today most scholars consider that the majority of Palestinians were directly expelled or else fled due to fear.
Causes of the exodus include direct expulsions by Israeli forces, destruction of Arab villages, psychological warfare including terrorism, dozens of massacres which caused many to flee out of fear, such as the widely publicized Deir Yassin massacre, crop burning, typhoid epidemics in some areas caused by Israeli well-poisoning, and the collapse of Palestinian leadership including the demoralizing impact of wealthier classes fleeing. Many historians consider that the events of 1948 were an instance of ethnic cleansing.
So now you're not only arguing in favour of brutal, genocidal policies & human suffering, but also arguing that an historical event didn't happen &that something else happened in its place, even when it's well-defined & referenced in a website as uncontroversial as Wikipedia. Isn't this the kind of
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the Nakba Law that authorized the withholding of state funds from organizations that commemorate Israel's Independence Day as a day of mourning
I don't have the slightest problem with this law. It's not that different from laws in the US that withhold state funding for schools that teach the Bible.
I do disagree with the 2023 revision, that goes too far. But it has nothing to do with the Israeli occupations and wars between 1948 and 2023, and it was not itself a trigger for the current Hamas war.
As for the expulsion itself, I do agree Israel was wrong if Israel expelled Palestinians based solely on their race. But if those Palestinians were (or had
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Yes, 6 million Jews slaughtered, that's a depth I won't sink to, but apparently you're OK with that.
And your point about the 700,000 Palestinians is a straw man. Of course I'm not OK with that, to the extent that it's true.
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Well said.
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You'd think Palestinians would know when to throw in the towel.
Instead they keep poking the beast, and wondering why it didn't turn out any better than the last time.
The majority of Palestinians are not part of Hamas, which is the part that's poking the beast.
You might ask why they don't overthrow their government before it destroys them, but first take the log out of your own eye, coward.
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OK, I'll rephrase that.
The article you cited is a debate between two opinionated partisans. That's not a reliable source.
The rest of my post stands.
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It's a well known fact that Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that he makes sure Hamas gets funded as part of his strategy against Palestine.
If you can't figure out how to google, LMK.
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Google is great, isn't it!
Yes, I found this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Upon a visit to Israel from Turkish Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz and Turkish lawmaker Feyzi baaran [tr] in 1998, it was revealed that Netanyahu suggested Turkey support Hamas. Netanyahu said, "Hamas also has bank accounts for aid in banks, we help them too, you [Turkey] can help too.
Also from that article:
Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas... This is part of our strategy – to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.
BUT if you follow the source links, you find that this statement is quoted in opinion pieces that are unfriendly to Natanyahu. Netanyahu flatly denies saying this, ever. https://time.com/7008852/benja... [time.com].
I haven't found any unbiased source that confirms he said this.
So yeah, if you listen to Netanyahu's critics, you'll get a very bleak picture of him. Of course.
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I haven't found any unbiased source that confirms he said this.
There is no such thing as an unbiased source.
HTH [wikipedia.org]
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OK yes you are correct, there is always some kind of implicit bias, however small. However, some sources at least try to be truthful.
Your Wikipedia article does not establish that Netanyahu allowed aid into Gaza "as part of his strategy against Palestine." It only establishes that he has been accused of this. He himself denies that he ever said such a thing, and no one that I can find, has shown that he did.
Accusations don't prove anything.
So? (Score:2)
What if they'r eactually cutting out the NSA-placed splitters?
Hmmm (Score:2)
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what are you on about? Just standard Yankee blathering or was there a relevant point?
Just on about triggering people, and pissing a logged in person to drop to waste of sperm Anonymous Cowards is the cherry on top. Thank you for participating.
Missed angle? (Score:2)
Is there any reason to believe that this was deliberate and not the usual stupidity?
I mean I had to deal with BIFFs regularly - Backhoe Induced Fiber Failures. I've also read about lines being severed accidentally when ships do something stupid, typically with their anchor. Apparently, ships have been stupid enough to drag their anchor for hundreds of miles in the past. As for it being Chinese - there's a lot of Chinese ships today, and perhaps there are "skill" issues.
Re: Missed angle? (Score:2)
There's nothing to say it was actually them, yet.
Some people just want to shoot anything moves - never mind any actual proof.