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Malaysia says it does not recognise China's South China Sea claims | New Straits Times


The South China Sea has long been a source of tension, with several nations laying overlapping claims to its islands, reefs and surrounding waters. The sea is one of the world's busiest trade routes and is believed to hold vast reserves of oil, gas and other natural resources.

China claims almost the entire waterway under its "nine-dash line", asserting historical rights that extend deep into areas also claimed by Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Taiwan.

In 2016, an international tribunal in The Hague ruled that China's claims had no legal basis under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, a decision Beijing rejected.

in reply to psx_crab

Hey Malaysia, nice sino funded mega projects you have there... Would be a shame if things sort of dried up, y'know... A real shame...

Source: Malaysian

in reply to JeeBaiChow

Well, it's all a loan, in the end we still have to pay them back + interest

in reply to Sahwa

Sadly, the genocide in Gaza also made people forget about what is happening in Sudan, which is somehow worse.
in reply to thatonecoder

Before the genocide in Gaza qe didn't care that much about Sudan unfortunatly. All those countries preaching human rights do not care about neither too
in reply to Sahwa

I just read about this here:
france24.com/en/africa/2025102…

And here's the actual paper produced by Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, showing the satellite images. It's pretty damning: files-profile.medicine.yale.ed…




D.F.L.P.: ‘The U.S. plan may stop the war in Gaza […] but it will not create peace.’


The U.S. plan announced by President Trump, under the pretext of halting the aggression and creating conditions for a comprehensive settlement, was in reality a response to mounting global pressure — not a result of genuine conviction on the part of Israel and its partner, the United States, to end the humanitarian catastrophe.

Although the plan appears outwardly as an initiative to cease fire, its actual content reproduces the same Israeli standards that reduce the Palestinian cause to a mere “security issue” and ignore the root causes of the conflict — occupation, settlement expansion, displacement and the denial of the Palestinian people’s national rights.

[…]

The U.S. plan seeks to end the war in Gaza according to Israeli terms — but it does not aim to create lasting or genuine peace in the region.

The nations of the world, especially those supporting Israel, must avoid repeating past mistakes by ignoring the real cause of the conflict: the Israeli occupation.

Stability in the region can only be achieved through principles that have become clear to all nations, organizations and international bodies — foremost among them:

– Clear and explicit recognition of the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people, as stipulated in international resolutions.

– Restoration of the territorial unity of the State of Palestine between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and rejection of any separation between them.

– The departure of the occupation and its settlers and the dismantling of all settlements.

– The establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, on a unified and contiguous territory free of barriers or obstacles.

Majenrobe doesn't like this.



Pennsylvania voters retain three state Supreme Court justices, preserving Democrats' 5-2 majority


Pennsylvania voters approved the retention of three state Supreme Court justices, NBC News projects, preserving Democrats’ 5-2 majority on the battleground state’s high court.

in reply to silence7

Just treat whatever "advice" these things "give" as given by the person who made the decision to host them.

Should be simple.

Instead they are already being treated as some magic, not a tool inseparable from the owner, or as a living thing. It's idiotic.





Jeremy Scahill on Gaza “Ceasefire,” Talking to Hamas & Israel’s Doctrine of Dehumanizing Palestinians


cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/38241015

interview and transcript from Democracy Now!
Oct 27, 2025



Jeremy Scahill on Gaza “Ceasefire,” Talking to Hamas & Israel’s Doctrine of Dehumanizing Palestinians


interview and transcript from Democracy Now!
Oct 27, 2025




IDF releases full video of Hamas staging fake hostage remains recovery


The IDF publishes the full, 15-minute uncut drone video showing Hamas terror operatives staging the recovery of the remains of a hostage it returned to Israel last night, in front of the Red Cross.

The remains were identified as belonging to Ofir Tzarfati, whose body was recovered by the IDF in the Gaza Strip in December 2023, less than two months after his abduction during the Hamas onslaught.

“Contrary to Hamas’s claims of difficulties locating the bodies of the deceased hostages, yesterday Hamas operatives were documented removing body remains from a structure that had been prepared in advance and burying them nearby,” the IDF says.

“Shortly thereafter, the Hamas terror organization summoned representatives of the Red Cross and staged a false display of discovering a deceased hostage’s body,” it says.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-releases-full-video-of-hamas-staging-fake-hostage-remains-recovery/

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in reply to gedaliyah

The accusations may well be true, but if Israel wants anyone to believe anything they say about what happens in Gaza, they should allow journalists inside.
Questa voce è stata modificata (1 settimana fa)
in reply to gedaliyah

Sharing any Times of Israel link should be considered as propaganda posting, NGL.



How to set up a decentralized game/chat server


I've been kicking around the idea of running a server for games and chat woth some of my friends, but worry about everyone getting cut off when there's a disruption.

I've started looking into kubernetes out of curiosity, and it seems like we could potentially set up a cluster with master nodes at 3+ locations to hose whatever game server or chat server that we want with 100% uptime, solving my concerns.

Am I misunderstanding the kubernetes documentation, and this is just a terrible idea? Or am I on the right track?

in reply to pory

Try it out. You can try element and jitsi its free. Just test some matrix server with element web client and try out jitsi at their site.

For the self hosted instance yes I think you need a domain and subdomains.

Questa voce è stata modificata (3 settimane fa)
in reply to passenger

I don't pay for a domain and don't intend to start doing so. Using "someone else's server" removes the only reason I'd want to use element/matrix/whatever else.


Hamas, diminished but not destroyed, reasserts itself in Gaza


Hamas has violently sought to reassert its authority over the Gaza Strip in the wake of the Israel military’s partial withdrawal, but questions remain over the group’s future and efforts to rebuild.

Since the ceasefire came into effect a week ago, the militant group has deployed armed police officers on streets from where Israeli forces have withdrawn, clashed with rival clans, directly fired upon and killed Israeli troops in multiple incidents, and staged at least one public execution of suspected collaborators.

As Hamas continues to demonstrate its presence, Israeli security officials and experts on Gaza agree it has been badly diminished but not thoroughly destroyed, and will count with new recruits propelled to join after tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians were killed by Israeli fire.

in reply to MicroWave

This sounds like utter bullshit. Meanwhile the Israelis murder hundreds, and their stated goal is a maximally lethal attack, and nothing else. Israels just want to kill. They are a ridiculously shitty people in control of American media and politics.


Anti-foreigner sentiments are on the rise as Japan faces a population crisis


Outside a train station near Tokyo, hundreds of people cheer as Sohei Kamiya, head of the surging nationalist party Sanseito, criticizes Japan’s rapidly growing foreign population.

As opponents, separated by uniformed police and bodyguards, accuse him of racism, Kamiya shouts back, saying he is only talking common sense.

Sanseito, while still a minor party, made big gains in July’s parliamentary election, and Kamiya's “Japanese First” platform of anti-globalism, anti-immigration and anti-liberalism is gaining broader traction ahead of a ruling party vote Saturday that will choose the likely next prime minister.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/anti-foreigner-sentiments-politicians-rise-japan-faces-population-126139879

in reply to olbaidiablo

That party is minority. So yeah, fuck them. But what about the rest of the people in the country? There are many well intentioned folks in Japan, some of them have some xenophobic beliefs, but that doesn't mean they'll all never learn.
in reply to fodor

I know for a fact that there are well meaning Americans too. But, sadly, they elected the current fascist regime.


How to keep track of system temps and hardware health indicators via dashboard with a proxmox installation?


Recently I added a new HDD to my proxmox system, and I started to realize the HDD was running warm. Was thinking for a second, and having a dashboard with temps and general hardware health would be useful for the server, but I do not find a solution from within proxmox to do this.

Does anyone here added this kind of dashboarding in a proxmox installation? And if so, how or what did you use?

in reply to philpo

I did know about zabbix before, and I actually did try to install it before using the proxmox helper scripts page. Somehow, by the end I got a blank page. Hence I made this post to see more alternatives.

I do know zabbix is super recognized in this area. I just did not install it successfuly on my previous attempt

Questa voce è stata modificata (1 settimana fa)
in reply to ZeDoTelhado

Tbh, I have given up on Proxmox Helper Scripts for more demanding things recently as I had similar issues.

You can use the fully packed VM appliance or iso as well. Or Docker.

Or,tbh,try the manual install,it's somewhat straight forward. If you need help let me know.




Abigail Spanberger elected Virginia governor in a historic first that boosts Democrats ahead of 2026


Democrat Abigail Spanberger won the Virginia governor’s race Tuesday, defeating Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears to give Democrats a key victory heading into the 2026 midterm elections and make history as the first woman ever to lead the commonwealth.

Spanberger’s victory will flip partisan control of the governor’s office when she succeeds outgoing Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

Also Tuesday, Democrat Ghazala F. Hashmi won the lieutenant governor’s race and will succeed Earle-Sears. Hashmi is the first Muslim woman to win a statewide office in the U.S.

Spanberger, a former congresswoman and CIA case officer, won with a campaign emphasizing economic issues, a strategy that may serve as a model for other Democrats in next year’s elections as they try to break Donald Trump’s and Republicans’ hold on power in Washington and gain ground in statehouses.

https://apnews.com/article/virginia-first-female-governor-earlesears-spanberger-01f9854a94fdab6e5719096664ee9be1



How Israel repeatedly violated Gaza truce before strikes killed 100 Palestinians


By MEE staff
Published date: 29 October 2025 13:05
GMT

Meanwhile, Israel has violated multiple aspects of the agreement, including maintaining restrictions on aid, keeping the Rafah crossing closed and carrying out repeated air strikes.

In just under three weeks, Israeli forces have killed 211 people since the ceasefire began.

Medical supplies, fuel and other essential goods remain severely limited in the Palestinian enclave.



How Israel repeatedly violated Gaza truce before strikes killed 100 Palestinians


cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/38234808

By MEE staff
Published date: 29 October 2025 13:05
GMT

Meanwhile, Israel has violated multiple aspects of the agreement, including maintaining restrictions on aid, keeping the Rafah crossing closed and carrying out repeated air strikes.

In just under three weeks, Israeli forces have killed 211 people since the ceasefire began.

Medical supplies, fuel and other essential goods remain severely limited in the Palestinian enclave.



How Israel repeatedly violated Gaza truce before strikes killed 100 Palestinians


By MEE staff
Published date: 29 October 2025 13:05
GMT

Meanwhile, Israel has violated multiple aspects of the agreement, including maintaining restrictions on aid, keeping the Rafah crossing closed and carrying out repeated air strikes.

In just under three weeks, Israeli forces have killed 211 people since the ceasefire began.

Medical supplies, fuel and other essential goods remain severely limited in the Palestinian enclave.




France demonstrates ostentatious modernization


France formally puts into service a new version of the M51.3 sea-based ballistic missile. The official press release of the development company ArianeGroup reports the completion of ten years of work and the successful passage of tests.

However, behind this official picture lies a less confident reality. The long ten-year cycle of creating a missile, comparable to the service life of an entire generation of equipment, raises questions about the pace of modernization. Statements about "improving reliability" rather indicate the elimination of shortcomings of previous models than breakthrough capabilities.

The mention that the equipping of submarines will begin only “as new missiles become available” indicates a delayed and protracted process. This gives the impression that the project is still more on paper and in the form of individual units than in the form of a fully deployed combat force.

The official press release from the development company, ArianeGroup, announces the completion of ten years of work and the successful completion of tests.

However, behind this official picture lies a less confident reality. The long ten-year cycle of rocket development, which is comparable to the lifespan of an entire generation of technology, raises questions about the pace of modernization. The claims of "increased reliability" are more about addressing the shortcomings of previous models than about achieving breakthrough capabilities.

The mention that the equipping of submarines will begin only “as new missiles become available” indicates a delayed and protracted process. This gives the impression that the project is still more on paper and in the form of individual units than in the form of a fully deployed combat force.

Therefore, the announced adoption appears more as a demonstration of intent to maintain the image of a nuclear power than as a significant improvement in France's strategic capabilities.



Azure is having issues


At work everything is down. Hows your day going?
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in reply to mesa

Critical support to the brave mujahideen fighters hosting Lemmy from an independent web server setup.


NYC early voting ends with record turnout, shattering 2021 stats (polls close at 9pm eastern)


Early voting has ended in New York City, and the initial numbers show the highest early voting turnout for a non-presidential election in the city.

The New York City Board of Elections reported 735,317 early voting check-ins over the past nine days. That's more than four times the total from the 2021 mayoral race, which reported only 169,879 early voting check-ins for the general election.

New Yorkers have been showing up and showing they care about who leads the city.

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/nyc-early-voting-2025-turnout/






EU seeks 'urgent solutions' with China over chipmaker Nexperia


cross-posted from: lemmy.zip/post/51986495

The European Union says China's curbs have already forced some of the bloc's companies to halt production and have inflicted economic harm.



in reply to Lee Duna

Argentinians should take a very close look at what the USA has done with Puerto Rico... it'll be 10x worse with Argentina
in reply to Jhex

From what I understand Argentina looks down
on the rest of Latin America so they probably won't

in reply to Karna

I'm most surprised that they removed SMART tooling. My primary pool is still spinning rust for the foreseeable further. And I just retired a drive based on SMART testing and TrueNAS's alerting.
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in reply to Chingzilla

It sounds like smart tests are still there, they just use a different scheduling model.

EDIT: looks like you are right, the scheduling and results interfaces are being removed. The migration is for existing tests only. It will still generate alerts for failed smart tests

Questa voce è stata modificata (1 settimana fa)



Almost A Fifth Of Airbus A220s Are On The Ground Amid P&W Engine Issues


Airlines are taking drastic steps to solve the problems plaguing the worldwide A220 fleet.



Messages in a bottle from WWI soldiers found on Australian coast


Messages in a bottle written by two Australian soldiers in 1916 have been found more than a century later on the country's south-western coast.

The cheerful notes were penned just a few days into their voyage to join the battlefields of France during World War One.

One of the soldiers, Pte Malcolm Neville, told his mother that the food on board was "real good" and that they were "as happy as Larry". Months later, he was killed in action at the age of 28. The other soldier, 37-year-old Pte William Harley, survived the war and returned home.

The bottle was found earlier this month on the remote Wharton Beach, near Esperance in Western Australia, by local resident Deb Brown and her family.

in reply to HellsBelle

…especially for Marian Davies - Pte Neville's niece - who remembers her uncle leaving to go to war and never returning.


How old is she?? They said the notes were written in 1916. If she was old enough to remember her uncle leaving, let’s say 4 at the time, she’d have to be 113 today. Of course that’s possible but wow, what are the chances of finding a living supercentenarian relative with a memory of the author of a 109-year-old letter in a bottle?

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in reply to Thunderbird4

I think the BBC has made the wrong assumption when cribbing from ABC or another news source.

Ms Brown has tracked down the great-nephew of one of the soldiers, Private Malcolm Alexander Neville, who came from Wilkawatt in South Australia.

He said his aunt, who was now 101, always told stories over the years of "Uncle Malcolm" and how he never returned home from the war.


I guess she, born in 1924, had heard a lot of stories from her parents or other families about him.


in reply to themachinestops

It would be very based if Ben & Jerry would name their ice cream "Israel is Committing Genocide", "War Crimes by Israel", and "Oh look! The World is Enabling Genocide of the Palestinian people".


Readdeck vs Wallabag?


These are both essentially selfhosted replacements for Pocket.

Anyone try them and have experiences to share? The feature set seems similar.

EDIT: From the comments I'm seeing so far it seems that as of now they are indeed very similar!

Questa voce è stata modificata (1 settimana fa)
in reply to Jediwan

I host Wallabag, besides the features already mentioned here, two others I use frequently and are crucial to my workflows are the following integrations:

  • Koreader integration, so I can access my articles on any ereader
  • Logseq integration, so that all read articles and highlights/annotations are synced with my knowledge base
in reply to procrastinare

Thanks it looks like Readdeck has Koreader integration too. Will look into Logseq.


How often do you update software on your servers?


Or asked the other way around: How long do you keep your servers running without installing any software updates?

update means something like

sudo dnf update

or something ....
apt-get upgrade
apt-get update
in reply to PlanterTree

Automatic daily updates for system packages. Automatic daily container updates with watchtower. I normally have things pinned to a reasonable major or minor release, so I do manual upgrades for new OS release branches and usually pin to a major version for Docker containers but depends on the container.
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in reply to Fair Fairy

This would be a GREAT time to post some links to videos about it on Peertube.
in reply to Fair Fairy

Very strange, cause as the first reply to the top comment says, it’s NOT Microsoft requesting these takedowns. Why are Google taking the videos down without Microsoft asking them to?


Plasma 6.5 is now in Debian Testing/Forky


A maintainer's anouncement when it was uploaded to unstable/Sid

Plasma 6.5 uploaded to unstable and building. Most common architectures are already there and more niche ones are coming.

deb.li/plasma

Expect the migration to testing/forky somewhere next week.


I checked the packages and they have all migrated to 6.5, as of today.



Luxury brands turn on the charm in China to kindle nascent spending recovery of wealthy individuals


cross-posted from: lemmy.sdf.org/post/44853303

Archived

As Chinese shoppers dip toes back in the luxury pool, brands are targeting economically resilient high-earners with distinctive, personalised experiences as their focus shifts more to market share than growth.

Firms like LVMH and Hermes increasingly offer intimate dinners and large-scale shows, as well as stores with private shopping areas and exclusive elevator access for the VIPs they bet will help end a post-pandemic sales slump.

[...]

Luxury brands have accompanied earnings reports with comments offering glimmers of hope for Chinese retail, spurring a rally that has added nearly $80 billion to European luxury stock valuations. Still, few expect the sales surge of the pandemic years, and with U.S. policies rewriting global trade, China's economic trajectory is far from certain.

[...]

To encourage spending, perks such as intimate dinners with creative directors and celebrity ambassadors have become common.

[...]

STOCK MARKET RALLY IS GIVING WEALTHY CONFIDENCE TO SPEND

[...]

"Especially for the target customers of luxury, you can expect that those people probably have a retail equity account, so they are seeing the benefits of the stock market rising and feeling more confident to spend more,"[said Bruno Lannes, senior partner at Bain in Shanghai].

[...]

Luxury brands that invested during the downturn are likely to win market share as spending stabilises, even if revenue does not significantly grow, said Jacques Roizen, managing director of China consulting at Digital Luxury Group.

[...]

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/luxury-brands-turn-charm-china-kindle-nascent-spending-recovery-2025-10-27



China added almost one billionaire a day in 2024


cross-posted from: lemmy.sdf.org/post/44852111

Archived

China has witnessed a sharp rise in the number of ultra-wealthy individuals over the past year, driven by a robust stock market and the rapid growth of “new economy” sectors, according to the Hurun Research Institute.

The institute’s latest China Rich List recorded a total of 1,434 individuals, each with a net worth of at least 5 billion yuan (US$702 million, an increase of 340 people, or 31%, from the previous year. Collectively, their wealth reached 30 trillion yuan, marking a 42% surge compared with last year.

[...]

The Hurun list, first published in 1999, tracks billionaires across mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

“To the surprise of many, the number of people on the Hurun rich list this year has reached an all-time high, largely driven by a strong rally in the stock markets,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of Hurun. “The emergence of new faces in the technology sectors and growing exports propelled an expansion of the billionaires’ club.”

[...]

Stock market rally fuels billionaire boom

Chinese stock exchanges have seen significant gains over the past year, reflecting renewed investor optimism in industries such as electric vehicles (EVs), biotechnology, and computing. As of September 1, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange surged 54% year on year, the Shanghai Composite Index rose 36%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbed 42%.

[...]

https://www.moneycontrol.com/world/one-new-billionaire-every-day-why-china-is-seeing-a-remarkable-surge-in-ultra-rich-individuals-article-13637701.html

in reply to AllNewTypeFace

"Socialism with Chinese characteristics" sure looks a lot like capitalism to me.


2 Killed, Over 20 Injured in Floating Crane Collapse in Annexed Sevastopol




Gaza: Civil defence agency says at least 50 killed in Israeli strikes


[quote]Israel’s strikes also wounded some 200 people, The agency said 22 children were among those killed, as well as women and elderly, Israel began carrying out air strikes on Tuesday after accusing Hamas of attacking Israeli troops in Gaza and viol
Israel's strikes also wounded some 200 people,

The agency said 22 children were among those killed, as well as women and elderly,

Israel began carrying out air strikes on Tuesday after accusing Hamas of attacking Israeli troops in Gaza and violating the truce. While Israel did not say where its troops were attacked, Hamas has said its fighter had "no connection to the shooting incident in Rafah" and reaffirmed its commitment to the US-brokered ceasefire.

in reply to solo

We all know it, let's just say it: Orange and Nettanyahoo is going to wipe Gaza completely out of existence and build a pedo paradise beach for rich pedophiles.
in reply to comeonitsnotlike

I think this is gonna fail spectacularly if that's what they hope to achieve.

The rest of the world exists and is against it. The EU, Russia, China, the rest of the Muslim world, i.e. all of the counties around Gaza and elsewhere are all against it.

There's no way for them to succeed without destabilising the middle east further and going into bigger wars with the Muslim countries and face all kinds of sanctions from the rest of the world.

Questa voce è stata modificata (1 settimana fa)
in reply to falseWhite

The EU who is lying about stopping arming Israel and has zero sanction on the state of Israel itself. Russia who don't have a bad relation with Israel? China who is a big trading partner with Israel?
in reply to mrdown

Do you really think Russia and China and all the Muslim countries would be okay with this land grab by the USA in the middle east?

Russia and China were even bigger trading partners with the USA. But that didn't stop Russia invading Ukraine. Or USA and China starting a trade war.

"China rejects Trump's plan to ‘take over’ Gaza, displace millions of Palestinians"
aa.com.tr/en/americas/china-re…

"Trump's Gaza plan sparks global outrage, with Hamas, PLO, Russia, and world leaders condemning it."
tribune.com.pk/story/2526669/g…

"The European Union said on Wednesday that it acknowledged US President Donald Trump's comments on wanting to "take over" of Gaza but insisted its commitment to a two-state solution."
dw.com/en/middle-east-trumps-g…

Questa voce è stata modificata (1 settimana fa)
in reply to falseWhite

You still believe empty condemnations? Not a single country said what happen if Israel ignore those condemnation

Do you really think Russia and China and all the Muslim countries would be okay with this land grab by the USA in the middle east?


Unfortunatly they don't care. Gaza is not Iran who control the straight of hurmuz which would hurt China and Russia a lot if it fsll under the usa and Israel

Israel already stated multiple time the intention of full extermination of gaza so where is the Russian and China economical sanctions on Israel. Why the arab keep having secret relation with the terrorist state of Israel?

The EU is also bullshitting where are the sanctions on the state of Israel? Why germany, french , the UK still sell weapons to Israel?

Here the latest betrayal of an arsb country
thecradle.co/articles/israeli-…

Questa voce è stata modificata (1 settimana fa)

in reply to cm0002

China is moving away from Nvidia and their CUDA so even if Western "AI" crashes, it's not the end of the "AI" entirely. They also have insane amount of wasted green energy at the moment which they can use with no impact on supply for other uses.
Questa voce è stata modificata (2 giorni fa)


Lakshmi Mittal’s energy venture bought Russian oil transported on blacklisted ships


Tap for article [h1]Lakshmi Mittal’s energy venture bought Russian oil transported on blacklisted ships[/h1][h2]Indian refinery received at least four crude shipments this year worth almost $280mn on sanctions-listed vessels[/h2] [img]https://images.ft.c

::: spoiler Tap for article

Lakshmi Mittal’s energy venture bought Russian oil transported on blacklisted ships

Indian refinery received at least four crude shipments this year worth almost $280mn on sanctions-listed vessels


The Samadha engaged in ship-to-ship transfers with four US-sanctioned vessels © Planet Labs, European Space Agency

Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal’s energy joint venture in India has bought Russian oil transported on sanctions-listed vessels, according to an analysis of satellite imagery, shipping data and customs records by the Financial Times.

The Guru Gobind Singh Refinery in Punjab, a major oil refinery co-owned by the long-term UK resident’s Mittal Energy, received at least four crude shipments worth almost $280mn this year which had been transported most of the way from Russia on sanctions-listed ships.

The oil was transported on the US-blacklisted vessels between July and September from the Arctic port of Murmansk to as far as the Gulf of Oman. The final leg of the journey into India was undertaken on the Samadha, a tanker that is not on US sanctions lists, though it was blacklisted by the EU.

All of the ships involved in the process sought to conceal their behaviour with a combination of deceptive practices, either shutting off their transponders or using them to broadcast false positions.

It is not known who arranged for the oil to be transported on the sanctioned tankers, nor if HPCL-Mittal Energy Limited (HMEL) — the entity that owns the refinery — was aware of the use of the vessels.

Emily Kilcrease, a director at the Centre for a New American Security and a former US trade and security official, said: “If I were advising the buyer, I would want to make sure that you had enough visibility in the full transport chain to make sure that you’re not one hop or two hops from a sanctioned activity.”

Map showing the maritime path of the Russian submarine Belgorod (IMO: 9412359) from Murmansk to the Gulf of Oman between August and September 2025.

Best known as the executive chair of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest integrated steel and mining group, Mittal has built a globe-spanning business empire. The billionaire, who has sat on the board of Goldman Sachs since 2008, told associates earlier this year that he intends to leave the UK over changes to its taxation rules.

The revelations about the shipments come as the US is seeking to raise the pressure on Indian companies not to buy Russian oil. Washington last week imposed sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, Moscow’s two leading oil producers, in an effort to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to engage in negotiations with Ukraine.

HMEL is a joint venture between part of the Mittal group and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, an Indian state company, with each holding a 49 per cent stake. The remaining 2 per cent is in the hands of financial institutions, according to the company.

HMEL and Mittal did not respond to requests for comment.

HMEL’s Guru Gobind Singh Refinery

The Guru Gobind Singh Refinery owned by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited-Mittal Energy Limited (HMEL) © HMEL

Before last week’s US sanctions, western allies of Ukraine had already imposed a price cap aimed at limiting the profits Russia was able to reap from the trade. Oil tankers that did not comply or used various deceptive shipping practices have also been sanctioned by the EU, UK and US.

India has become one of the biggest importers of Russian crude after Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, profiting from discounted prices as western buyers turned away.

Russia has exported an average of 5mn barrels a day of seaborne crude this year, with 1.7mn b/d of the total being purchased by India, according to data analytics group Kpler. The next largest share headed to China.

Kilcrease said: “The major consumers of this oil really want [it]. They’ve been willing to take a certain amount of risk of coming into the US Treasury’s sights.”

The four deliveries identified by the FT all followed a similar pattern, with the Samadha repeatedly heading in and out of the port of Mundra in Gujarat, western India, to pick up the oil brought to the area on the sanctioned ships.

According to its transponder signals, the Samadha was simply travelling back and forth from Oman, where it would moor and load. After a pause, it would then broadcast that it was sailing back to India.

The vessel, however, was often not where it claimed to be. Satellite images analysed by the FT throughout this period and compared with transponder data show that, once the Samadha left port, it often sent a falsified position that disguised its true location.

While it claimed to be on these shuttle runs to Oman, the Samadha was actually meeting the other ships further offshore. Each of the four journeys included a meeting with another ship caught on satellite images. \
\
Each image shows a large, grey vessel, consistent with the Samadha, at anchor in the Gulf of Oman, lined up side-by-side with another tanker. This position suggests a ship-to-ship transfer of goods.

The vessels appear to be the Belgorod, Danshui, Dignity and Primorye — all of which had been added earlier to sanctions lists by the US. The images of the vessels match other images of these ships obtained by the FT.

TankerTrackers, a maritime intelligence company, confirmed the identity of the ships during their monitoring of the Gulf of Oman — an area that they usually surveil for ship-to-ship transfers involving Iranian oil.

In each case, the sanctions-listed ships sailing from Murmansk went “dark” as they approached the Gulf of Oman, switching off their transponders for between three and six days, the exact window during which each photographed transfer took place. They turned them back on again shortly after.

The dates of the Samadha’s journeys also match customs records filings, seen by the FT, made by refinery owner HMEL to Indian authorities for purchases from Varda LLC, a St Petersburg oil supplier. Three of the forms explicitly name the Samadha as the carrier.

The filings also report that the four shipments had a total value of $277mn.

The records also indicate that all of the shipments were for two grades of Arctic oil — Novy Port and Arco. In January, the US targeted Russia’s Arctic oil business with sanctions, announcing curbs on tankers and other infrastructure affecting Arco and other grades.

Guru Gobind Singh refinery, located in the Bathinda area of Punjab, is the 10th largest in India, able to process 11.3mn tonnes a year. At Mundra, the crude shipments were deposited into a 1,000km-long pipeline to the inland refinery.

The FT was unable to contact the Samadha’s registered owner and manager, Erika Freight Limited, a company about which almost nothing is known beyond its relationship with the vessel.

The Samadha has since been placed under sanctions by the UK. Its owner shares a registered address in the Seychelles with 13 other so-called shadow fleet vessels — ships against whom it is difficult to enforce sanctions because their ownership is opaque.

The FT was not able to reach Varda LLC in St Petersburg, which does not have any online presence and does not list any contact details in Russian corporate records.

Cartography by Aditi Bhandari
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in reply to Lee Duna

Visible from space... If you zoom in enough with a powerful telescope maybe. Surely this would not be visible to the naked eye from the space boundary. Otherwise everything literally under the sun would be "visible" from space.
in reply to Victor

I understand the sentiment, however, I think the scale of mans inhumanity here is all the scale we need to see.
in reply to MrSulu

Exactly, and that's why the title, "visible from space", makes such a disrespectful spectacle of the whole thing.
in reply to Victor

I wonder if that’s the only way it’s visible. Like, I would expect to hear some reference to reporters or their accounts of events if there were any. There are unfortunately a lot of options right now for war journalists and given the 18 month siege, I could see it being difficult for them to really get there.