• A UK-led coalition is using AI to track Russia's shadow fleet, the British Ministry of Defence said.
• The operation, involving 10 countries, comes after damage to major undersea cables in the Baltic.
• Finland said evidence suggests a Russia-linked ship dragged its anchor to sever the cables.

A UK-led coalition of European countries has deployed AI to track Russia's shadow fleet and detect possible threats to underwater cables, after suspected sabotage incidents in recent months.

On Monday, the UK's Ministry of Defence said that the Joint Expeditionary Force's operation, dubbed Nordic Warden, has been using AI to evaluate data from several sources, including the Automatic Identification System, which ships use to share their real-time locations.

In the event of a potential threat, it said the system would monitor the suspect vessel in real time and issue a warning, which will be communicated to both NATO allies and participating countries.

The UK's Defense Secretary John Healey said AI would allow them to monitor "large" sea areas using a "comparatively" small number of resources.

"Nordic Warden will help protect against both deliberate acts of sabotage as well as cases of extreme negligence which we have seen cause damage to underwater cable," Healey added.

The UK MOD didn't respond to a request for comment, but in its news release said that there were 22 areas of interest, including parts of the English Channel, the North Sea, the Kattegat Sea, and the Baltic Sea.

It said the operation's launch came after reported damage to a major undersea cable in the Baltic.

Over the past two months, several undersea cables in the Baltic Sea have been damaged, including the BCS East-West Interlink cable, the C-Lion1 telecommunications cable linking Finland and Germany, and the Estlink 2 electricity cable connecting Estonia and Finland.

Last week, Finnish officials said they found a 60-mile trail on the seabed that suggested the Eagle S — a Russia-linked tanker — could have been responsible for slicing a cluster of valuable data and power cables.

Edward Hunter Christie, a senior research fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs and a former NATO official, told BI that AI will help NATO identify suspicious ships among the vast majority of legitimate commercial activity in the region.

Neither Russia's shadow fleet nor any other country for that matter, "even the Chinese," can afford to lose ship after ship trying to damage cables, he said, pointing to Finland's seizure of a Russian-linked vessel last week.

"Russia needs its shadow fleet," he added, "that's how it earns its oil export revenues."

It was close, though!

The Milwaukee Brewers took at a no-hitter into the 7th inning against the Cincinnati Reds on Friday night, with Gavin Lux eventually smacking a 2-out single into CF to keep that measure of futility off their ledger for the time being.

The Reds, you’ll recall, entered play on Friday having lost a trio of consecutive games by the score of 1-0, their shutout streak in single-run games the first such instance in Major League Baseball history since the 1960 Philadelphia Phillies. They even ran that to some 35 innings during Friday’s game...

...but the Reds scored a run on Friday! Two, even! An 8th inning rally saw Christian Encarnacion-Strand launch a deep fly ball to the warning track in left-center to plate a run via sac fly while Jeimer Candelario followed with an RBI-single down the RF line. That cut into an existing 3-0 Milwaukee lead, leaving the Reds trailing 3-2 with the 9th inning left to play.

Was there a run-scoring inning streak to be found in the 9th?

No.

Reds lost, 3-2, and fell to 2-6 on the season - once again tied for last place in the National League Central.

Tony Graphanino

Box score & WPA chart via FanGraphs

Other Notes

• Numerous members of the team’s coaching staff were sent back to the team hotel in Milwaukee prior to the game tonight due to illness, including manager Terry Francona. Matt McLain was also a late scratch with a ‘hamstring’ issue, though he did show up in the 9th inning for a pinch-hit appearance (thankfully).
• Saturday’s matchup between these two clubs will feature Brady Singer and Elvin Rodriguez starting for their respective clubs, with first pitch set for 7:10 PM ET. It’ll be on FanDuel Sports Ohio, but it’s also being broadcast on FS1 nationally.
• Tunes.