iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 3h

I mention this because I have a database that I can use to look up ships, managers etc . If you have an IMO number or MMSI from a ship that interests you you can ping it over to editor@maritimewatch.eu

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 8h

The US is weighing sanctions relief for shadow-fleet tankers to cut record freight rates. Insurers would still be bound by EU and UK sanctions, so EU listings may be the main barrier left. breakbulk.news/us-eyes-shadow-fleet…

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 9h

Great job do you analyse which ships have no signal and why this might be?

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 10h

Don’t panic! The British Socialist government will save VdL when UK rejoins (just kidding). Also: the impenetrable machinations of the Euro Parly will seem totally irrelevant when the continent is at war (sadly, no joke).

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 10h

Emissions trading is a tough sell when the economic squeeze is on.

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Clear break between EU and US sanctions: Washington no longer lists Russia-controlled ships and has paused sanctions on Russian diesel. The EU just listed nearly 1,600 targets, including Russia's main shipyards. Yet EU-owned tankers still carried 22% of Russia's oil exports in September (Windward).

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Not all “shadow fleet” tankers are ageing rust-buckets. This one spent five years in the Western fleet, inspected 11 times and never detained. Then in 2023 she changed name, flag and owner in a single month, before getting droned. . A short film from the Mariel database. maritimewatch.eu

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

The Commission has ruled that an EU law preparing for first contact with aliens is "manifestly frivolous". No citizens' initiative, then. Any visitors will have to face the unanimity rule like everyone else.

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

The European Parliament's transport committee went looking for a picture of a fast European train and chose Russia's Sapsan. Sanctions don't cover stock photos, apparently.

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

The EU sanctioned the tanker Dakar in July. Now the 22-year-old is heading west on Russia's Arctic route with MTBE transferred off Yeosu. Brussels is listing 1,646 more names; ships keep moving. gcaptain.com/sanctioned-22-year-old…

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The "shadow fleet" is simply the normal commercial fleet in Asia, as you can see from cargoes shipped from South Korea. Western Russia sanctions were designed to be followed by the world, but weren't.

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Ukraine has designated 868 ships; 303 are on no EU list. One is CELESTE I, called 'unsanctioned' by the Guardian. It fed fuel to EU-listed CHONGCHON off South Korea before that tanker sailed for Vladivostok. Its Shanghai owner is on no sanctions list. Via @koryodynasty.bsky.social @theguardian.com

Pinboard graphic headed 'Ships in the news. CELESTE I: unsanctioned?' Subtitle: The Guardian called it unsanctioned. Ukraine designated it in December 2025. Card 1, early August 2026, off Yeosu, South Korea: CELESTE I transfers about 26,000 tonnes of fuel to the tanker CHONGCHON, which then sails for Vladivostok (source: The Guardian, 6 Oct 2026). Card 2, CELESTE I, IMO 9250488: Barbados flag since May 2026, DNV class, owner and manager Winwell Shipping, P&I West of England (recorded 1 Sep 2026). Ukraine designation 13 Dec 2025. On no EU, UK or US list. Card 3, CHONGCHON, IMO 9294123: listed by the EU in Oct 2025, also by the UK, Switzerland, Canada and Ukraine; Russian class since Nov 2025; at Vladivostok 26 Aug 2026. Card 4: on 23 Dec 2025, ten days after Ukraine's move, CELESTE I was inspected at Quanzhou, China, still under Winwell. Card 5, Winwell's EU paperwork: EU emissions-reporting certificate for CELESTE I valid to 30 June 2027; inspected in Barcelona, 10 Apr 2025. Note: A Ukrainian designation binds only in Ukraine. CELESTE I is on no EU, UK or US list. The tanker it supplied is. Sources: The Guardian; Equasis; Ukrainian presidential decree; EU, UK, US, Swiss and Canadian sanctions lists; EU THETIS-MRV; Paris MoU; Tokyo MoU via OpenSanctions. maritimewatch.eu, 6 October 2026.

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

South Korean ports loaded 176,000+ tonnes of fuel for Russia’s far east in July–August, per the Guardian. Three of the seven tankers are under UK and EU sanctions. Is EU sanctions policy working? www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/…

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Of note from the newest member of the EU list: Google, Apple and Amazon each get more meetings with EU officials than any single European company. So much for Brussels being irrelevant — Big Tech out-lobbies Europe's own industry on its home turf. @lauramdubois.ft.com

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Of note on the EU list today: the US has formally told the Council of Europe it is leaving GRECO, the anti-corruption monitoring group. Only two countries have ever left before — Russia and Belarus. @profjacob.bsky.social

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

As a Brit living in the EU: Burnham will set out options for UK-EU ties, No 10 won't rule out rejoining, and the chosen one would go to voters at the next election. I accepted 2016 because people voted for it. If they vote to go back, I'll accept that just the same.

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Of note on the EU list today: Kallas says EU naval Operation IRINI has boarded six suspected shadow-fleet tankers. These are flag checks under UNCLOS Art. 110, not seizures: papers are collected, and none has been reported detained. Arrest is up to national authorities. @kajakallas.bsky.social

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Worth reading from @jorgeliboreiro.bsky.social: Brussels has written to capitals asking them to keep cutting gas and electricity demand, with storage “exceptionally low” going into winter. No immediate shortage, says the letter, but prices could change that. As the post puts it: very 2022.

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Of note on the EU list today: Sweden holds 2.34% of the EU population, enough on its own to hand Chat Control's opponents a blocking minority in the Council. The two parties that could lead its next government won't say how they'd vote. @brusselsrecord.com

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

EU treaties: 'Any European State' may apply. Morocco tried in 1987 and was turned down as non-European. Canada, rereading that sentence very slowly. @spignal.bsky.social pitched Canada-joins-the-EU two years ago to make a dull brief less dull.

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Fitting: a special Brussels–Berlin train to get Europe's rail people to InnoTrans, their big trade fair. Now for a regular one. Of note on the EU list today, from @jonworth.eu's #CrossBorderRail file.

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Brexit's long tail: Sweden is still deporting Brits who lived there before Brexit, even though the likely incoming government has promised new laws to give them a second chance. @lisaocarroll.bsky.social met one man hours after he was removed.

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Sunday in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: SPD 37, AfD 36, and the CDU on 6%. If the final poll holds, that is the CDU's worst regional result. An EPP party in single digits next to an AfD in the mid-30s is a Brussels story too. Via @europeelects.bsky.social

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Brussels says the offer to Canada "is not against anyone". @nvondarza.bsky.social has the sharper read: to a US president claiming control over the Western Hemisphere, any EU embrace of Ottawa looks like a threat. The geopolitical holiday is over, and the Commission should have known it.

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The drums of war: Belarus has tank battalions drilling beside the Suwałki Gap until Friday and calls it "purely defensive". The night before the drills began, a drone from Belarus crossed into Lithuania and was shot down by Italian jets. Vilnius has protested. No word yet from Warsaw.

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Unusual: a Flemish MP was taken to hospital this morning after getting stuck in the parliament toilet all night, local press reports. Rescue services broke down the bathroom door which had a “defective” lock. The MP suffered from breathing difficulties as a result of the drama. Get well soon!

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Agree, the fact that she hardly ever gives interviews and doesn’t enjoy press conferences or pressing the flesh is clearly a factor here. In reality EC presidents do not need a public profile. VdL has garnered huge power without one.

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Of note on the EU list today: the GRU's European arson contractors were recruited off Facebook by a salsa teacher in Petrozavodsk. €100 to photograph a target, $3,000 to burn one. Romania's was a gas regulation station serving 25,000 consumers. @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

From the EU list: Trump's 'divide and rule' in reverse. Instead of threatening tariffs on a single EU member state, he is offering to lift them for one, Ireland. Worth watching whether the bloc holds its line on trade. @nvondarza.bsky.social

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Of note on the EU list today: the EU-UK reset summit slips again, to late November at best, amid tension over 'Made in Europe' rules and with UK industry under strain. The reset keeps colliding with Brussels' buy-European turn. @simonusherwood.bsky.social

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Of note on the EU list today: the AfD's Sachsen-Anhalt winner Ulrich Siegmund tying rearmament to 'remigration' and deportations — and @manuelmueller.foederalist.eu reading it as a promise of civil war. This, not the Trump map, is the story German politics will be about next week.

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

The path to full replacement of journalists by Ai is open and only dependent on more compute, better context, a decline in hallucinations and social acceptance. This is partly because human journalists are vacating areas where Ai struggles, such as fact-checking, phone calls and source development.

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

Starting to change my mind on this. After Macron’s public attack on X and continued dawn arrests on X users for opinion crimes in Germany (plus EU fines), the chance of a Europe-wide X takedown is no longer trivial.

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Canada can’t join the EU because member states have to be European! Morocco applied in the 1980s and was rejected for this reason. Unless of course you ignore the rules or change them, which would open the door to a huge EU enlargement

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

If the British government acts stupidly, the British people can kick them out at the ballot box. EU citizens cannot kick out the European Commission.

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

The Romania elections cancellation story has been largely ignored by western media but thanks to JD Vance us now on the agenda to the point where Macron has been forced to respond publicly.

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

The UK didn’t give up the USA to indigenous Indians!

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Didn’t the UK give up the USA? Didn’t Spain give up Cuba? Didn’t France give up Algeria (which was considered an integral part of France)?

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Fact checking, when newspapers were print-only, used to be part of the job of sub-editors. With the digital revolution these jobs were scrapped and subs told to rewrite and lay out only. Fact-checking should be in-house, not outsourced. The “back bench” should make a comeback.

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

Since Brexit the EU has dropped British English in favour of American English. Words like “finalized” now pop up across all EU docs. Some of this is unintentional, but when British diplomats were in the room they made sure they edited out that nonsense:)

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

Will the EU take down X as some politicians want? The chance must be close to zero. In any transatlantic trade war Europe has much more to lose, and Europeans are pretty dependent on US tech.

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

Netflix should do a Narcos-like series based on Belgium’s losing battle with organised crime. The bad guys would be Turks who would constantly complain about the weather.

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

The main role of the federal government is to agree to new taxes and create more national debt. The former can be tricky, the latter is easy

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Fun fact: Belgium hasn’t had a federal government for six months. Hardly anyone has noticed.

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Justin Stares @justinstares.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Do you really need to take your phone into your yoga class? Can’t you leave it in your locker?

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