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The captain of the 'Izmit Express' alerted the authorities in Vigo that some packages had been located abiard the ship, later confirming that it could be cocaine, although the amount found was not yet known. The Civil Guard and the Customs Surveillance Service (SVA) have searched the ship after docked in the port of Vigo on the morning of Nov 19, 2024, at the Guixar container terminal, after leaving Cartagena on Nov 8. The ship left the port again on Nov 20 en route to Malaga.

The captain of the 'Shtandart' hopes that the ship will be granted an exemption from the Russian sanctions, which will make it welcome in European ports again. The ship has been sailing outside Russia for almost three years. The captain does not want to return, but is not allowed to visit European ports. The wait is now on for the European Court, where an appeal against the sanctions has been filed. Since the sanctions against Russia, the ship is no longer welcome. Captain Vladimir Martoes is half Russian, half Ukrainian and has been living in Europe for 10 years. He previously stated that he is a fierce opponent of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He does not want to return to Russia with the ship, for fear that it will be seized and he himself will be arrested for his criticism of the regime. France currently tolerates the ship as long as it is at anchor and not moored in a port. It is currently in a bay near Bordeaux. The ship also sails with paying guests, which provides income. The volunteer crew members are all European and can go ashore with rubber dinghies to stock up on provisions. Bunkering with drinking water is a lot more difficult. This is done in ports where the ship is allowed to call occasionally, such as La Rochelle. The captain hopes for a permanent mooring, so that he can build up a life somewhere. The Zaans Erfgoed Association already approached the municipality of Zaanstad to arrange a permanent mooring for the 'Shtandart' in Zaandam, but was refused. The hope now is that the ship will soon fall under an exception clause: Russian ships with a humanitarian mission are welcome in European ports. The crew already set up a project for medical aid and aid to children in Ukraine, but Brussels did not see this as a humanitarian mission. The captain has objected to this, but no decision has been made yet.. Sailing under a different flag is not an option, because a Russian ship that changes flag at this time will not escape sanctions.

On Nov 18, 2024, staff of the Port State Control of the Port Authority in Oristano subjected the 'Halim M' to a PSC after its arrival from Alexandroupol, loaded with grain. The first checks carried out immediately revealed problems regarding the correct functioning of some on-board systems and lifeboats. Subsequently, the inspection continued with the simulation of a serious fire on board, which also led to the identification of problems with the emergency equipment and, in addition, to the observation that the crew members were not sufficiently prepared. The ship was therefore detained in port until the minimum safety conditions were restored and a further inspection with positive results has been carried ou. As a further measure, given the three detentions it has suffered in the last two years, the ship has been automatically banned from European Union ports for the next three months.

The C-Lion1 submarine cable between Finland and Germany was cut in the early hours of Nov 18, 2024. This was announced by the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Liikenne- ja viestintävirasto, Traficom). The president and CEO of the operator Cinia Group, Ari-Jussi Knaapila, stated that such damage does not occur without external influences,. To determine the cause, a repair ship must be on site. The departure of the 'Cable Vigilance' of the OMS Group Sdn is already being prepared in Calais. Such cable repairs usually take between five and 15 days. The German data center operator Hetzner Online has connected its data center park in Finland via the C-Lion1 and is a co-investor in the submarine cable project. The Sea Lion cable, which consists of eight pairs of fiber optic cables, was manufactured by the Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks (ASN) in Calais. The cable is 1,170 kilometers long and weighs 3,355 tons. It was delivered in Finland by the cable-laying ship 'Ile de Brehat'. The laying of the Cinia-C-Lion1 submarine cable began on Oct 12, 2015 in Helsinki and was successfully completed after three months when it reached its destination in Rostock. On Nov 18 at around 10 a.m. LT, the 218-kilometer-long BCS East-West submarine cable between Sventoji in Lithuania and the Swedish island of Gotland also failed, according to the Lithuanian landline and mobile operator Telia Lietuva, which belongs to the Swedish Telia Company. The country is connected to the Internet via three cables from Telia Lietuva. This limits the transmission capacity. The damaged cable is quite old and there have already been several disruptions. However, no cases of sabotage have been registered so far. The operator of the BCS East-West is the Swedish company Arelion, a Tier 1 network provider. This case is serious because the cables cross between Lithuania and Sweden and between Germany and Finland n an area of ​​just 10 square meters. Since both have been damaged, it is clear that this was not an accidental setting of a ship's anchor, but that something more serious could be going on. The German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius assumed it was sabotage and obvious that it was a hybrid action, before consultations of the EU defense ministers. He does not assume that the fiber optic cables were accidentally damaged by dropped anchors. Rather, it is "a clear sign that something is going on here."

The shipping company Maersk has reached a significant milestone in the shipping industry with the "Maersk Halifax" being the first large ship in the world to be successfully converted to a dual-fuel methanol propulsion. The conversion of the ship, which was completed in just 88 days at the Zhoushan Xinya shipyard on Nov 3, 2024, represents an important step in Maersk's efforts to make shipping more environmentally friendly and accelerate the transition to low-emission fuels. In addition to adapting the engine by the German manufacturer MAN Energy Solutions, the conversion also included the installation of new fuel tanks, a fuel processing room and a new fuel supply system. Due to the additional equipment, the hull of the "Maersk Halifax" was extended by 15 meters, increasing its capacity from around 15,000 to 15,690 TEU. With these measures, the ship is now ready to operate with methanol. After succesfully completing the sea trials, the ship has now resumed operations in the transpacific trade. This conversion is an important part of Maersk's long-term strategy to achieve net zero emissions by 2040.