Point of no return . We reach them all the time.
They become thresholds basically.
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Finland recovers ship’s anchor close to damaged Baltic Sea pipeline
Investigators seeking to establish whether it came from a Chinese container vessel and have not ruled out sabotage
Jon Henley Europe correspondent
Tue 24 Oct 2023 13.06 EDT
Finnish investigators have recovered a large ship’s anchor from near the spot where a Baltic Sea gas pipeline
was extensively damaged and are seeking to establish whether it came from a Chinese container vessel.Finland’s central criminal police (KRP) said on Tuesday that the anchor, weighing 6 tonnes and missing one of its prongs, had been lifted from the seabed using a navy crane. Deep drag marks were found on both sides of the fractured pipeline.The country’s National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), which
last week said inquiries were focused on the Hong Kong-flagged, Chinese-owned NewNew Polar Bear, told reporters in Helsinki on Tuesday that the container ship was missing a front anchor.

The anchor recovered by the Finnish navy near the gas pipeline. Photograph: NBI/Reuters
Efforts had been made to contact the vessel, whose movements closely coincided with the pipeline damage, but had so far proved unsuccessful, the NBI said, adding that the investigation was now focused on whether the damage was deliberate.The NBI chief, Robin Lardot, said: “The next questions are about whether it was intentional, negligence, poor seamanship, and that’s where we get into whether there could be a motive for what’s going on. It’s too early to answer that at this stage.”
Helsinki
confirmed the damage to the Balticconnector gas pipeline and parallel Estlink data communications cable between Finland and Estonia on 11 October, two days after operators shut the pipeline down after a sudden drop in pressure.Investigators subsequently said they suspected the damage was caused by “an external force” that was “mechanical, not an explosion”. The state security intelligence service said the involvement of a state actor “cannot be ruled out”.
Chinese ship is focus of investigation into damaged pipeline, Finland says
Read moreFinland
joined Nato earlier this year after abandoning its longstanding policy of non-alignment in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the transatlantic alliance has pledged a “united and determined response” if the pipeline damage was caused by sabotage.
Balticconnector’s operators have said it will take at least five months to repair the pipeline and it is unlikely to come on stream again until April 2024 at the earliest. Finland relies on gas for about 5% of its energy supplies.
cont.
Please seat yourself.
I like the very things you hate.