NATO deploys forces to Baltic Sea countering undersea cable sabotage
NATO launched “Baltic Sentry,” an operation to protect critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, following incidents of damage to undersea cables and pipelines. The alliance is deploying frigates, patrol aircraft and naval drones, with measures that could include boarding or impounding ships suspected of endangering infrastructure.
The operation is part of NATO’s response to rising sabotage concerns after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Finland recently accused a Russian tanker of damaging the Estlink 2 power line and telecom cables by dragging its anchor. Finnish President Alexander Stubb said Russia’s shadow fleet controls the vessel. He noted further investigation could confirm details.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson described the security situation in the region as uneasy. He said Sweden is not at war but is also not at peace.
Since 2023, at least ten undersea cables in the Baltic Sea have been damaged, affecting countries including Finland, Estonia, Germany and Lithuania. These cables and pipelines are vital for trade and energy links in the region.
NATO members highlighted the importance of safeguarding such infrastructure amid security concerns.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said NATO is targeting Russia’s shadow fleet with sanctions and other measures to protect critical infrastructure. Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs said it’s challenging to monitor the Baltic Sea due to the 2,000 ships crossing daily. He emphasized that NATO’s efforts in the Baltic Sea are meant to deter further incidents.
Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’ tanker seized over Baltic cable sabotage
Finnish authorities detained a ship suspected of damaging critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, including the Estlink-2 power cable and several undersea data lines. Finnish police and border guards boarded the vessel, the Eagle S, early Thursday, Dec. 26, and it’s now being held in Finnish waters.
The Eagle S, registered in the Cook Islands, is linked to Russia’s “shadow fleet” of fuel tankers. Finnish investigators allege the ship’s anchor damaged the Estlink-2 cable, which supplies electricity from Finland to Estonia, as well as other undersea cables.
These older vessels, often lacking Western-regulated insurance, are reportedly used to evade sanctions related to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Estonian officials have raised alarms over the incident. Prime Minister Kristen Michal called for enhanced monitoring and protection of critical infrastructure, saying such ships contribute to what he described as “Russian hybrid attacks.” Estonian President Alar Karis called the repeated damage to Baltic Sea infrastructure a “systemic threat.”
The European Union has expressed similar concerns. EU Foreign Policy Chief Kaja Kallas stated the Eagle S poses risks to both security and the environment, and announced plans for sanctions targeting Russia’s shadow fleet.
Repairs to the Estlink-2 cable could take up to seven months, according to officials. Despite the disruption, Estonian network operator Elering said the country’s energy grid has sufficient capacity to meet current demands. Investigations are ongoing as Finland, Estonia and NATO allies work to enhance security in the region.
This latest incident follows other damage to Baltic Sea infrastructure. In November, two data cables were severed, with European officials labeling the events as acts of sabotage. A Chinese vessel was detained after reportedly dragging an anchor that damaged cables connecting Germany, Lithuania and Finland.
The Kremlin declined to comment on Finland’s detention of the Eagle S. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov described it as a “highly specialized issue” beyond the Kremlin’s scope.
Meanwhile, NATO is expected to deploy new technology in 2025, including sea drones, to better monitor and protect underwater cables in the Baltic and Mediterranean seas.
Meta to build $10B global underwater internet cable: Report
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is reportedly planning to build a $10 billion underwater fiber-optic cable that will go around the world. The cable would help the company handle high user traffic and keep a high quality of service internationally.
The addition brings Meta in line with Alphabet, the parent company of Google. The company has a network of cables, some of which they own fully.
The technology news site TechCrunch reported that the new cable would be exclusively for Meta’s use. They planned the route for the cable to avoid areas they think face political and military tensions.
The reported route for the cable will take it from the East Coast of the U.S., across the Atlantic, around South Africa, up to India, above the northern part of Australia and across the Pacific to the West Coast.
Undersea cables play a key role in global fiber-optic internet. However, their locations can put them at risk. Cables in the Red Sea suffered damage from strikes by Yemen’s Houthi rebels earlier this year.
Now, authorities in Denmark are looking into cable damage caused in the Baltic Sea. Danish officials said a Chinese ship caused the damage earlier this month.
The officials accused the crew of the ship, which left from a Russian port, of intentionally dragging its anchor to cut underwater cables.
The TechCrunch report said Meta will likely share more details about its global project sometime in 2025. Officials said the project could take years to complete.
Digital assets including Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes will also be part of the new standalone company. In its press release, Comcast is referring to the company as “SpinCo.”
Comcast’s NBCUniversal division is keeping cable network Bravo, the NBC broadcast network, its Peacock streaming service, and all other assets, like NBC Sports and the Universal theme parks.
“This transaction positions both SpinCo and NBCUniversal to play offense in a changing media landscape,” said Mike Cavanagh, President of Comcast. “Taken together, the entirety of NBCUniversal will be on a new growth trajectory, fueled by our world-class content, technology, IP, properties and talent – all working in concert with each other as an integrated media company.”
SpinCo will be led by Mark Lazarus, current Chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group, who will serve as the company’s Chief Executive Officer. Anand Kini, current Chief Financial Officer of NBCUniversal and EVP of Corporate Strategy at Comcast, will be its Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer.
Cavanagh previewed this move during an earnings call on Oct. 31.
“We are now exploring whether creating a new well-capitalized company, owned by our shareholders and comprised of our strong portfolio of cable networks, would position them to take advantage of opportunities in the changing media landscape and create value for our shareholders,” Cavanagh said. “We are not ready to talk about any specifics yet, but we’ll be back to you as and when we reach firm conclusions.”
Comcast said over the last twelve months, which ended Sept. 30, 2024, SpinCo generated approximately $7 billion in revenue. Comcast said it is targeting to complete the spinoff in approximately one year.
US and allies warn of increased Russian activities near undersea cables
Undersea cables, crucial to global communications, have recently become focal points of geopolitical tensions between Russia and the U.S. These cables, which sprawl across ocean floors, are vital for international data and power transfer, facilitating approximately $10 trillion in daily transactions.
U.S. officials, according to CNN, have observed a noticeable increase in Russian military activities near key undersea cables. These observations include the presence of surface vessels, submarines, and naval drones, heightening concerns about potential sabotage.
Intelligence reports suggest that Russia is enhancing its capabilities to disrupt these vital communication links. These actions could severely impact global communications, affecting private and government sectors, financial markets, and international energy distribution.
In response to the growing threats, NATO is actively funding a project to develop a system that would seamlessly reroute internet traffic to satellites should undersea cables be compromised by attacks or natural disasters. This initiative involves collaboration with researchers from the U.S., Iceland, Sweden and Switzerland.
It aims to ensure continuous internet connectivity amid global geopolitical tensions. The project also seeks to improve threat detection and the accuracy of monitoring undersea infrastructure.
The waters around Northern Europe have seen increased Russian military operations specifically targeting undersea cables and wind farms. Public broadcasters from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland have reported that Russia has been operating a fleet of suspected spy ships in these Northern European waters.
Through data analysis, intercepted radio communications, and intelligence insights, approximately 50 ships have been tracked over several years, mapping the seabed for potential sabotage.
The U.S. and its Western allies continue to monitor Russian ships patrolling near critical maritime infrastructure and undersea cables far from Russian shores. This heightened surveillance is part of a broader strategy to mitigate the risks associated with undersea cable disruptions.
The U.S. has stated that any sabotage of critical undersea infrastructure would represent a significant escalation in hostilities by Russia.
Trump agrees to ABC News debate with Harris, proposes 2 more
The debate is on. Former President Donald Trump has agreed to the ABC News debate with Vice President Kamala Harris and proposed two more. And bodycam footage has been released showing the police response to the assassination attempt during the former president’s rally in July. These stories and more highlight The Morning Rundown for Friday, Aug. 9, 2024.
Trump agrees to ABC News debate with Harris, proposes 2 more debates
Former President Donald Trump has recommitted to a debate with Vice President Kamala Harris after initially requesting a change of time and place given the change at the top of the Democratic ticket. Trump made the announcement during a news conference held at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Thursday, Aug. 8.
ABC News has confirmed Trump and Harris have agreed to debate on Sept. 10, setting up what is likely to be a high-stakes showdown in an already contentious election season.
His decision to debate on ABC marks a notable change of heart given it was just five days ago he announced the agreement with ABC was terminated. Trump originally suggested he would only debate if Harris appeared on Fox News on Sept. 4.
Trump is requesting Harris accept two additional debate proposals; one would be held on Fox and the other on NBC.
When asked by reporters if he will still do the ABC debate even if Harris turns down the idea of multiple debates, Trump said he didn’t know how that’s going to work and reiterated the need for multiple debates with a new Democratic presidential nominee.
As we saw in June, presidential debates have high stakes. President Joe Biden’s performance at his debate with Trump set in motion calls for his withdrawal and the eventual end to his re-election campaign.
The ABC debate was originally slated to be the second and final debate between Biden and Trump.
Harris released a statement saying she’s glad Trump committed to meeting her on stage.
Harris will be in Arizona for a campaign rally on Friday, Aug. 9. Trump will be in Montana for a rally of his own and fundraiser event.
Bodycam video released of police response to Trump assassination attempt
It’s been nearly a month since the assassination attempt on former President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. Within that month, questions have been swirling leading to multiple investigations and hearings on Capitol Hill and a change in leadership at the Secret Service.
Now, there is new information directly through the lens of Butler police bodycam. It shows officers responding to the reports of a threat on top of the unsecured building where the shooter propped himself up to take aim.
In newly released body camera video, there is footage of the moments leading up to the shooting, but it’s the audio in the immediate aftermath of the shooting that is providing further confirmation of a major security lapse.
The incident left one rally goer dead and Trump shot in the ear in a near-fatal hit.
The public search for accountability has led to agencies across local, state, and federal levels to finger-point and shift the blame. There are still several ongoing investigations into how it happened in the first place and how to prevent it from happening again.
U.S., Egypt, Qatar call for renewed Israel-Hamas ceasefire discussions
The U.S., Egypt and Qatar are calling for Israel and Hamas to resume cease-fire talks, calling them “urgent.” Fears are growing over a widening Middle East war following high-profile assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders. The U.S., Egypt and Qatar have been mediating cease-fire discussions since they began.
They want the talks to take place in either Doha or Cairo next Thursday, Aug. 15.
Early Friday, Aug. 9, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated Israel will take part in those discussions. Hamas’ newly chosen leader has not indicated if the terror group is willing to join.
Columbia University COO’s home vandalized with antisemitic imagery; 3 top admins resign over antisemitic texts
Inverted triangles, which have been used by Hamas to identify Israeli targets and Nazis to tag prisoners during the Holocaust, were painted on the entranceway to Cas Holloway’s apartment building.
Columbia confirmed the resignations of the school’s dean of undergraduate student life, associate dean for student and family support, and vice dean and chief administrative officer after it came to light they exchanged antisemitic messages during an on-campus event about Jewish life at the school.
Paramount laying off 15% of U.S. workforce
Media conglomerate Paramount is laying off 15% of its U.S. workforce. The layoffs, which will impact around 2,000 staffers, are part of Paramount’s bid to cut $500 million in annual costs ahead of its merger with SkyDance Media.
Paramount says it also plans to write down $6 billion worth of its cable television networks.
Steph Curry leads Team USA to rally past Serbia; Noah Lyles wins bronze in 200-meter after testing positive for COVID
The U.S added to its Olympic medal count on Thursday, Aug. 9. Team USA now has a total of 103 medals so far as the Paris games wind down.
The men’s basketball team will be hoping to bring home gold against host France in the final. Steph Curry, Kevin Durant and LeBron James led the team to a come-from-behind victory over Serbia on Thursday after being down 17 points, winning 95 to 91.
On the track, it was not the result American sprinter Noah Lyles was hoping for in the men’s 200-meter final. Lyles, who won his first Olympic gold on Sunday, Aug. 4, in the 100-meter, finished third this time behind Letsile Tebogo of Botswana and USA teammate Kenny Bednarek.
Lyles was taken away in a wheelchair after crossing the finish line. It was later revealed he had been diagnosed with COVID-19 two days earlier.
The USA track and field organization said it followed all Olympic protocols to allow Lyles to compete.
The track star said he is proud of himself to have been able to still win a bronze medal. He posted on Instagram, “It is not the Olympics I dreamed of, but it has left me with so much joy in my heart.”
Streaming looking more like cable with price hikes, bundling
Streaming services were once seen as the modern alternative to cable. The services were cheaper, ad-free and tailored to specific interests for viewers looking to cut the cord.
But with rising prices and streamers putting their attention to ad-supported tiers, it is getting more difficult to tell the difference between streaming and cable. Some even began calling the streaming industry “Cable 2.0.”
According to research from the online platform Bango, the average American has 4.5 total subscriptions, including audio, fitness and news apps, as well as these streaming services.
Subscriptions to these streaming platforms cost the average customer in the U.S. $1,000 per year. Meanwhile, the Financial Times reported the average cable plan costs around $83 per month, or $996 a year.
Price hikes for streaming seem to be just part of the process nowadays. NBC Universal recently announced a price hike for its Peacock service will go into effect just before this summer’s Paris Olympics.
Analysts at UBS Securities said Netflix users should prepare for another price hike this year following one last October.
Bloomberg reported Warner Bros. Discovery is planning to hike the price of its Max platform soon, as well.
As more media companies look to make a profit on their streaming services — and battle the reigning king of streaming, Netflix — they are turning to each other for help.
Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery announced their Disney+, Hulu and Max streaming services will soon be offered in one bundle.
All the three streamers’ offerings — including content from HBO, HGTV, ABC, CNN and more — will be packaged together.
Sounds like a cable TV package, doesn’t it?
The bundle will be available in the U.S. starting in the summer, though the streamers have not shared a price yet. There will be versions with ads and without.
Cable TV’s survival chances as streaming gobbles up live sports
Since people first started cutting the cable cord more than a decade ago, broadcast and cable networks have clung to two facets of live television for dear life: News and sports.
In 2023, every major news agency has an online presence. CNN just announced a streamed version of the network live on Max. And in more bad news for linear TV, sports are now all over these streaming platforms.
DirecTV lost NFL Sunday Ticket to YouTube, Paramount+ carries local CBS NFL games, and Amazon Prime has “Thursday Night Football.” And all of that is just for the NFL, the most profitable league in the United States.
Max started streaming live sports just in time for MLB playoffs, and now the NBA has a big decision to make: Cable or streaming? The broadcast rights expire after next year’s season.
Are streaming services about to achieve the big payday that’s so far largely eluded them? Is it the end of linear TV? Michael Pachter joins Straight Arrow News to discuss. Pachter covers Netflix, FuboTV and Amazon as the managing director of equity research with Wedbush Securities.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Broadcast contracts come up every decade or so. Do you think NBA to Netflix is a real possibility?
A: I don’t. I don’t think Netflix will ever dedicate enough cash to win those rights. I think, unfortunately, all the leagues are looking for maximum dollars. And I think they’re far less interested in reaching the maximum audience.
Netflix will just never pay as much as linear broadcast. There’s a possibility somebody like Max, like Warner Brothers Discovery, would pay that much. But I don’t see Netflix competing at all.
Q: The NBA may want to divvy up broadcast rights amongst a few bidders. Do you think that’s an area where streamers are going to be able to compete?
A: Able to, sure. Disney can do whatever it wants, and Warner Brothers Discovery, who’s debt laden, already has NBA rights, so they certainly can change how those rights are broadcast.
I think the sad thing is that they’re going to cut out a chunk of the audience. We have this in Los Angeles, with Spectrum having the rights to Dodgers broadcasts, so fewer people were able to see their home team.
It’s really lame of Warner Brothers Discovery to think that they’re going to shift broadcast rights from linear television to a subscription streaming service, because you’re going to take away from people who would otherwise watch it, the ability to see that stuff, and then impose a fee.
All that does is exacerbate the issue that they already face, which is cord-cutting. Their lifeblood is not streaming; their lifeblood is retransmission fees. So if they suddenly tell me the only reason I have cable is no longer a reason to have cable, they make it very, very easy to cut the cord.
I think they’re going to do it. I think they’re immensely stupid. And I think that they’re going to end up just sealing the fate of cable and driving people to cut the cord.
What is served by making “Thursday Night Football” only available through Amazon Prime? There’s just a giant chunk of households who have cable TV, and certainly have rabbit ears so they could watch a game on ABC or NBC, who either can’t afford Prime or don’t choose to be Prime members.
By definition, it’s probably about 40% of households who lost access to “Thursday Night Football.” That’s just stupid. The more they do that, the NFL is going to hurt itself, because it’s going to have fewer and fewer fans if all of its broadcasts go to streaming. And the NBA is going to hurt itself.
I already have a problem with my streaming services just trying to remember what channel anything I watch is on. I predict that all of this stuff is going to end up being consolidated by cable TV. They’re going to see the light, they’re going to say, “You can’t even get Max unless you have a cable subscription.” That’s a smarter way to run the business.
Disney is not going that way. Disney is trying to split ESPN off as a separate subscription. Really dumb. And again, I think [Bob] Iger probably has 100 IQ points on me. He’s a pretty smart man. Really stupid about streaming.
Q: Do you think local rights are going to be linear TV’s saving grace, in that the cord will never truly be cut off?
A: Linear TV has two things going for it that you really can’t get elsewhere. That’s live sports, any live sports. So long as live sports are available exclusively on linear TV, there’s a reason to subscribe. And the second is live events that we care about: “Academy Awards” or “American Idol” or “The Bachelor.”
Each has a different constituency. I’ve never watched “The Bachelor,” but I used to watch “American Idol,” and I remember back in the day when we all went to the office, I didn’t want anybody to tell me who got booted off the night before, because I had recorded it and I wanted to watch it the next day. That’s how we feel about live sports as well.
Q: Do you think Amazon’s decision to make the “Thursday Night Football” deal will be a financial winner?
A: Oh, absolutely not. Absolute zero. They’re an interesting company, because they only do streaming to reinforce the value of a subscription to something else.
We signed up for Amazon for free shipping, period. And the only person who churns out of Amazon and quits is the person who finds that they didn’t buy enough stuff to justify that $120 a year. So if you go three or four months without ordering something on Amazon, you might say, “This just isn’t worth it.”
But if you watch a TV show every month, just one, or an NFL broadcast, they think that’s enough that you’ll say, “I can’t give this up.” So I think it’s smart for anti-churn. But they can produce a lot of content for the price that they’re paying for “Thursday Night Football.” They can produce literally dozens of television shows if they want. I think they’re trying to make a splash.
Q: To that end, is that why you say you don’t see Netflix ponying up a large amount of money to get into sports, because they could use that money to create so much more content?
A: Yeah, I think Netflix might have been leaning that way at one point. They aired a Chris Rock live special last year. They made a big deal about it, and then you never heard about it again. They never put out any data about how few people actually tuned in by appointment.
Netflix is not by-appointment TV, period. It is catch-up TV. And it’s antithetical to what Netflix is, to its mission, to turn themselves into by-appointment TV. They drop all episodes of every season when the show comes out, and they refuse to move off of that. So why is that important? Because people don’t want to tune in every week to catch the next episode.
Hulu is by-appointment TV, HBO is by-appointment TV, not Netflix. So they’re the last guys in the world that should be doing live broadcasts of anything. And as dumb as I think everybody in streaming is, Netflix guys are the smartest guys in the room. So I think they are smart enough not to overpay for something that won’t resonate with their customers.
Q: NFL’s broadcast agreement doesn’t end until 2033. I’m curious how you see the streaming and linear landscape a decade from now, when those rights are back up.
A: I’m pretty infamous, notorious, for having a sell on Netflix into 2011 and keeping it until 2022. I was convinced that streaming was a race to the bottom, and was convinced that either the broadcast guys would shun Netflix and pull their content, or they would try to compete and pull their content. The latter happened, but it didn’t happen till 2019, and it didn’t become obvious till 2021.
So I’m making the same kind of prediction here about sports. I actually think, in the next 10 years, you’re going to see a reconsolidation of streaming with cable, because I think the constituents that lose, which are anybody who is in broadcast and anybody who creates content for broadcast, are going to figure out that a monthly $100 cable bill plus an add-on $15 for HBO is better than $15 standalone for HBO.
There’s $115 in the ecosystem to pay for content if we keep people subscribing to cable. And even if they replace cable with $40 or $50 or $60 worth of streaming, there’s less money for everybody to get paid.
So I think that the sports leagues are going to figure out that they lose money if that ecosystem shrinks. The money in a consumer’s pocket is not going to the talent that creates the experience. So the NFL is not going to make as much money, and studio actors and writers aren’t going to make as much money.
The ultimate solution is a reconsolidation. We all have a cable system with a Netflix button on our remote. That should be automatic. We should have a Disney+ button. We should have an integrated program guide that helps old people like me figure out what show they were watching and where it is. And we don’t have that right now.
Broadcast, cable television viewing drops to historic low in July
According to Nielsen data, broadcast and cable television made up less than half of TV viewing for the first time in July 2023. The two forms of linear television combined for just 49.6% of viewership. The TV viewing breakdown looked like this:
Streaming: 38.7%
Cable: 29.6%
Broadcast: 20%
Other: 11.6%
The share of broadcast and cable television viewing dropped 3.6% and 2.9% respectively in July. Year-over-year, broadcast viewership has fallen 5.4%, with cable TV dropping 12.5%.
The 38.7% of television viewership that streaming brought in was a record high, rising 25.3% year over year. YouTube and Netflix alone had nearly as many viewers as broadcast television. Some of the notable streamers for July include:
YouTube: 9.2%
Netflix: 8.5%
Hulu: 3.6%
Amazon Prime Video: 3.4%
Disney+: 2%
“An array of new original programs arrived on streaming platforms in July, including The Witcher and The Lincoln Lawyer on Netflix, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan on Prime Video and The Bear on Hulu, but acquired content was the stand-out for the month,” Nielsen said. “Suits, streaming on Netflix and Peacock, and Bluey on Disney+ were the most watched programs in July, accounting for 23 billion viewing minutes.”
The Nielsen numbers came as streaming services appear to be changing its strategy from collecting subscribers to shoring up profits with high prices. Disney recently announced that it’s hiking Disney+ prices for the second time in less than a year, increasing the monthly cost of its ad-free plan $3 to $13.99.
Hulu, which Disney holds a majority stake in, will also increase the monthly cost of its ad-free subscription by $3 to $17.99. Max, Paramount+ and Peacock have also made similar announcements in 2023.
