This morning two quanta of good news squeaked out of the ether. First, it came out in the news that French military forces boarded and temporarily took control of the oil tanker Boracay off the French Atlantic coast city of Saint-Nazaire. The ship, also called Pushpa and sailing under the flag of the west African country of Benin, was intercepted September 28 and boarded by French military. The ship had days earlier left the oil terminal at the port of Primorsk on the Gulf of Finland near Saint Petersburg, Russia, allegedly headed for Port of Vadinar, India. This Vadinar facility is on the upper west coast of India and is the location of an oil refinery partially owned by Rosneft, a Russian oil company. As of the time of this writing the ship is near Gibraltar enroute to the Suez Canal at 11 knots. The severing of sea floor communications cables in the Baltic has been attributed to Russia-connected ships dragging their anchors and pulling the cables to the point of breakage. Apparently, the ship was observed departing from the Port of Primorsk.

The boarding of Boracay was good news because the ship is alleged to be part of the Russian ghost fleet quietly transporting crude oil contrary to international sanctions. French president Macron announced the ‘revelation’ that Boracay was part of Russia’s hybrid war against NATO, Europe and the USA. This follows the September 28 drone incursion of Copenhagen, Denmark recently. It is believed that a ghost ship launched the drones.

The ghost fleet oil tankers are typically quite old and not well maintained. The ships of Russia’s ghost fleet also tend not to be insured and therefore not allowed to enter many ports or canals. These ships are known to change their names and national flags to confuse observers. Because the Straits of Denmark are relatively shallow, oil supertankers are not allowed passage, so Russia’s fleet of oil tankers from Primorsk are of smaller size.

The other quantum of good news is that the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) decided to uphold the lower court’s decision and declined to hear the appeal of Ghislaine Maxwell’s challenge to her criminal conviction for recruiting and grooming teenage girls for sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein. Just when a person loses their faith in SCOTUS, they manage to make a sound decision. Hurray for SCOTUS on this one decision. Well done boys and girls of the court! I imagine a wave of well-deserved schadenfreude is sweeping parts of the country about now.