Media Today

[Rick Plant]

Titanic sub: Joe Biden watching search closely, says White House, as vessel has about 40 hours of oxygen left – latest updates

US President Joe Biden is “watching events closely” surrounding the missing submersible, the White House’s spokesperson John Kirby has said.

At a briefing, Kirby pointed to the ongoing search efforts by the US coast guard, Canadian officials and other agencies. The US navy is also on standby “should they be needed because they have some deep-water capabilities that the coast guard wouldn’t necessarily have”, he said.

Kirby added:

"All of us, including the President express our thoughts to the crew on board, as well as to the no doubt worried family members back on shore."



A former employee of Oceangate, the company that owns the missing sub and runs tourist expeditions of the Titanic wreck, voiced concerns about the safety of the sub as early as 2018, according to a report.

Court documents obtained by The New Republic show the employee, David Lochridge, was concerned about “the potential danger to passengers of the Titan as the submersible reached extreme depths”.

Lochridge was reportedly OceanGate’s director of marine operations at the time, “responsible for the safety of all crew and clients”. The documents allege that he was wrongfully terminated after he raised safety complaints over the sub, and claim that OceanGate terminated his employment “in efforts to silence Lochridge and to avoid addressing the safety and quality control issues”.

The documents allege that Lochridge “identified numerous issues that posed serious safety concerns, and offered corrective action and recommendations for each”. He was particularly concerned about “non-destructive testing performed on the hull of the Titan”, they say.

The court filings also allege:

The paying passengers would not be aware, and would not be informed, of this experimental design, the lack of non-destructive testing of the hull, or that hazardous flammable materials were being used within the submersible.

The case between Lochridge and OceanGate was settled out of court in November 2018.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live/2023/jun/20/titanic-submarine-rescuers-missing-titan-submersible-search-latest-news



Best and worst case scenarios to explain Titan’s loss of contact with surface

The missing submarine had enough oxygen to sustain those onboard for four days, but limited air is far from the only hazard



For an expedition as hazardous as the Titan’s descent to the Titanic, there is long list of onboard systems that need to be checked and a host of environmental hazards that must be identified and assessed before the voyage begins.

“When you are putting people in a potentially dangerous position like this you want to be absolutely sure everything’s checked through before getting under way,” said Stefan Williams, a professor of marine robotics at the University of Sydney. “We have an extensive checklist before we put anything in the water.”

What checks were performed before the submersible and its five occupants slipped beneath the waves are unclear, but standard checks and procedures were followed, the Guardian understands. These would have been absolutely crucial given the crushing pressure generated at 3,800 metres below sea level – the depth of water the Titanic came to rest in – and the real potential of getting lost: the site is nearly 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.

Industry insiders said pre-dive preparations would, or should, have included checks on the submersible’s structure and all of the vessel’s mechanical and electrical systems. These aim to ensure all is fine before the descent begins: that the hull is sound, the batteries are charged, there are no short circuits or electrical faults, that the thrusters work, that radio and acoustic communications are functioning, and that the submersible can drop the weights it carries when the time comes to resurface.

Further checks are needed to reduce risks at the dive site. The Titanic itself is a hazardous structure that a submersible could become caught in, but lost trawler fishing nets and other drifting materials either at or near the site can also present a danger of entanglement. An expedition would typically plan to keep a safe distance from the wreckage, though strong undersea currents can make this a challenge. The problem with getting entangled is there is often little that can be done from inside a submersible to work the vessel free.

The Titan was expected to spend two hours descending to the Titanic, a few hours exploring the site, and two more resurfacing. As the vessel plunged deeper, a real-time hull health monitoring system would have reported the strain on the hull, a carbon fibre structure that connects two titanium composite domes.

Contact was lost with the Titan one hour and 45 minutes into the expedition. By that time, experts believe it reached a depth of about 3,500 metres, where each square inch of the structure would have been subjected to a force equivalent to more than two tonnes. While the vessel was designed to operate down to 4,000 metres, and would have had a safety margin to go deeper, industry experts said other deep-sea vessels used steel or titanium alone to ensure their hulls could take the pressure. Carbon fibre is widely regarded as an untested material: when it fails, it can fail catastrophically.

When the Titan is submerged, communications with the support ship on the surface are conducted over an acoustic link. Crewed submersibles sometimes have two separate systems with independent power supplies: one an acoustic beacon that regularly pings the ship to reveal its location, and another that can carry short text-like messages. This ensures that if the main power supply fails, the beacon keeps working, allowing the surface ship to track the vessel. According to some reports, the Titan did not have an acoustic beacon and had become lost before.

In the event of a major power failure, the Titan should have dropped its weights, resurfaced, and made immediate radio contact with the support vessel – provided the radio communications had a separate power supply. If an incident onboard the vessel knocked out all the electrics, the submersible could be adrift on the surface and awaiting rescue.

US and Canadian ships and aircraft have been scrambled, but the bus-sized Titan will be hard to spot in such a vast area of ocean. If the Titan has surfaced, the danger for the crew is not over: the hatch appears to be bolted from the outside, meaning those inside will still need to rely on emergency oxygen to breathe.

One grim possibility is a fire in the cabin. The air in a submersible tends to be enriched with oxygen, making fires more risky. For this reason, petroleum-based skin creams and makeup are typically banned in deep dives, but fires can still take hold and swiftly produce smoke that intoxicates those on board. An emergency ascent should still be possible, however.

If the vessel has become stricken on the seafloor, only specialised deep-sea submersibles and sonar equipment have a good chance of finding it. The Titan embarked with enough oxygen to sustain the pilot and crew for four days, but limited air is not the only issue. If the vessel had lost power, temperatures inside the cabin would have quickly fallen to a frigid 4C, Williams said.

The scenario most feared is that the vessel suffered a catastrophic failure. At such depth, a hull breach would be devastating. “If something’s gone wrong, there’s a good chance it’s gone very wrong,” said Williams. “If the pressure vessel has failed catastrophically, it’s like a small bomb going off. The potential is that all the safety devices might be destroyed in the process.”

Such a fate would probably trigger signals in military hydrophones that are deployed throughout the world’s oceans. When an Argentine submarine was lost in 2017, hydrophones off Ascension Island and the Crozet Islands detected an acoustic signal consistent with a catastrophic failure of the submarine. “Just knowing where the vessel is is a big consideration,” said Williams. “The best case scenario is that the vessel has popped up and can be found visually or with radar.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jun/20/missing-titanic-submarine-best-and-worst-case-scenarios

[Rick Plant]

Republican officials in Texas and Mississippi mock and deny our climate crisis. They also refuse to update their power grid to prevent blackouts during a severe heatwave. Now residents in both states are without power and air conditioning in the sweltering heat before Summer even started. And yet, these people sweating it out in the heat will keep voting against their own interests. That's what you call ignorance.


Sweltering heat tests Texas’ power grid as thousands in the South are without electricity after storms

In the capital of Mississippi, some residents said they had been without power and air conditioning for almost 100 hours.

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas’ power grid operator asked residents Tuesday to voluntarily cut back on electricity due to anticipated record demand on the system as a heat wave kept large swaths of the state and southern U.S. in triple-digit temperatures.

On the last day of spring, the sweltering heat felt more like the middle of summer across the South, where patience was growing thin over outages that have persisted since weekend storms and tornadoes caused widespread damage.

In the Mississippi capital, some residents said Tuesday that they had been without power and air conditioning for almost 100 hours, which is longer than the outages caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Entergy Mississippi, the state’s largest electric utility, said its crews had worked 16-hour shifts since Friday, but some officials expressed doubts about its preparedness.

High temperatures in the state were expected to reach 90 degrees on Tuesday.

“The delay in restoring power has caused significant hardship for their customers and it is unacceptable,” said Brent Bailey, a member on the Mississippi Public Service Commission, the state’s energy regulator.

The request by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which serves most of that state’s nearly 30 million residents, was its first of the year to cut energy consumption. ERCOT said it was “not experiencing emergency conditions,” but it noted that the state set an unofficial June record on Monday for energy demand.

In the oil patch of West Texas, temperatures in San Angelo soared to an all-time high of 114 degrees on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.

Many Texans have been skeptical of the state’s grid since a deadly 2021 ice storm knocked out power to millions of customers for days. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has said improvements since then have made the grid more stable, but those improvement efforts continue to draw scrutiny.

In neighboring Oklahoma, more than 100,000 customers were eagerly awaiting the restoration of power and air conditioning following weekend storms that downed trees and snapped hundreds of utility poles. Officials say at least one person in Oklahoma has died because of the prolonged outages, which could last into the weekend for some residents.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday declared a state of emergency because of the weekend’s storms, citing damage from the weather and “numerous” downed power lines.

In Louisiana, more than 51,000 electricity customers were still without power Tuesday because of the storms that damaged more than 800 structures around Shreveport alone, according to Mayor Tom Arceneaux. Officials said more than a dozen major transmission lines were still awaiting repairs

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/sweltering-heat-tests-texas-power-grid-thousands-south-electricity-rcna90301

[Rick Plant]

Time running short as search for Titanic sub focuses on undersea sounds
https://www.reuters.com/world/searchers-detect-undersea-sounds-hunt-missing-titanic-sub-2023-06-21/


What might have happened to the Titanic exploration sub?

The search continues for a submersible that disappeared on a trip to view the wreckage of the Titanic. Five people are on board. The Coast Guard in Boston says the sub lost contact Sunday, about an hour and 45 minutes into its dive. Butch Hendrick is the president and founder of Lifeguard Systems, which conducts dive training for public safety officers. He joined CBS News to talk about the search.

Watch:

Oceangate whistleblower expressed safety concerns over missing Titanic sub - BBC News

A whistleblower previously voiced concerns over the safety of the missing Titanic submersible, court documents claim.

The 2018 documents reveal that an Oceangate employee raised issues about the safety and design of the vessel, named Titan.

Contact with the miniature sub, which has five people on board, was lost on Sunday as it made a 3,800m (12,467 ft) descent to the Titanic wreck.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Live updates: Missing Titanic sub crew believed to be dead after 'catastrophic implosion'
https://www.cnn.com/americas/live-news/titanic-missing-sub-oceangate-06-22-23/index.html


The Titanic Submarine Suffered 'Catastrophic Implosion,' Crew Is Dead, OceanGate and Coast Guard Say

“The debris field is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel.”



The sea exploration company OceanGate now believes that the five people aboard the Titan submersible “have sadly been lost,” the company said in a statement released Thursday. The Coast Guard added that they believe there was a "catastrophic implosion" that destroyed the submarine.

The search for the Titan, which was first reported missing on Sunday, had garnered international attention as onlookers hoped that the sub could be rescued before the passengers ran out of oxygen. On Thursday, however, the U.S. Coast Guard said it had discovered a “debris field” close to the Titanic shipwreck, which those aboard had been on their way to view.

“The debris field is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel,” a spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard said at a press conference Thursday.

The passengers included OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, billionaire Hamish Harding, deep sea explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood.

“These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans,” company representatives said. Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.”

The catastrophe has led to questions around the creation, development, and promotion of OceanGate’s submersibles, and expeditions.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjvj4b/the-titanic-submarine-suffered-catastrophic-implosion-crew-is-dead-oceangate-and-coast-guard-say

[Rick Plant]

According to Texas Republicans, having a water break is called "woke", so they are banning cities from mandating water breaks for workers that have to be out in the extreme Texas heat. The Republican insanity continues. Just another example of people voting against their own interests.   


ACLU of Texas @ACLUTx

A U.S. postal worker and a utility lineman both died this week in Texas from working in extreme heat.

Meanwhile, Gov. Abbott just signed #HB2127 banning cities from mandating rest and water breaks for certain workers.

Abbott is once again putting Texans in harm’s way.

https://twitter.com/ACLUTx/status/1671962847058829313


ABC News @ABC

A new Texas law that overrides city and county ordinances will also eliminate protections currently in place for workers, such as mandated water breaks, even in extreme heat, according to critics.

New Texas law will get rid of water breaks for outdoor workers amid extreme heat

https://abcnews.go.com/US/new-texas-law-nullify-local-ordinances-protecting-outdoor/story?id=100272286&cid

https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1671902719710318596


Texas Governor Greg Abbott Signs Bill Overriding Local Water Break Laws for Outdoor Workers

Some worry that it's a major setback for workers’ rights and that it'll be difficult to obtain such protections again under the state’s conservative legislature.



Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott has signed a law overriding labor ordinances that mandate water breaks for construction workers, during a week when many parts of the state are reaching temperatures of more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

House Bill 2127 was signed into law by Abbott on June 13 and is set to go into effect on September 1. Both Austin and Dallas previously passed laws ensuring construction workers received a 10-minute break for every 4 hours of work. However, HB 2127 will require that cities and counties follow state labor codes, as opposed to local codes, meaning that these laws, in addition to many other local Texas labor ordinances, would be overturned on September 1.

Some supporters of the law argue that Texas’ patchwork of inconsistent local ordinances has negatively impacted businesses. Opponents, however, worry that it's a major setback for workers’ rights and that it'll be difficult to obtain such protections again under the state’s conservative legislature.

“If you just address worker safety and do it in a consistent manner, then that should be good for business,” Texas state Rep. Maria Luisa Flores (D-Austin) told The Washington Post. “You don’t want your employees dying from heat illness because that impacts your business. I think employers should be some of the folks that are for worker protections.”

According to a lengthy joint study published by NPR and Columbia Journalism Investigations (CJI), government data shows that Texas had the most deaths due to high temperatures of any state between 2011 and 2021, with at least 53 on record. Now, with fewer breaks, some worry that the number will rise.

https://nowthisnews.com/news/texas-governor-greg-abbott-signs-bill-overriding-local-water-break-laws-for-outdoor-workers

[Rick Plant]

The Republican party needs to clean house and get rid of these radical MAGA lunatics who are only in Congress to get attention and cause chaos. We've never seen anything like this before and none of these people are qualified to hold a government position. 

House Republican Strategy of Elevating Unstable Clown People Reveals Itself to Have Downsides
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/06/marjorie-taylor-greene-and-lauren-boebert-clash-on-house-floor.html

Lauren Boebert accuses Marjorie Taylor Greene of spitting on her lip
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-lauren-boebert-b2361947.html

[Rick Plant]

Coon Rapids home explosion damages 2 other houses

City officials say one person was pulled from a home explosion Wednesday afternoon in Coon Rapids, Minnesota.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

BREAKING: Richard Engel on reports of attempted coup on Putin in Russia
https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/breaking-richard-engel-on-reports-of-attempted-coup-on-putin-in-russia-184441925759


Putin in crisis: Wagner chief Prigozhin declares war on Russian military leadership, says ‘we will destroy everything’

Russia’s FSB security service opens criminal case against mercenary boss, as he vows to steamroll over anyone who gets in his way.

Vladimir Putin is facing a major military crisis after Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin declared war on Moscow’s own defense ministry, claiming Kremlin officials had killed thousands of his soldiers.

In a statement issued Friday night, the FSB security agency said it had “legally and reasonably begun criminal proceedings” against the Wagner Group warlord “for the organization of armed insurrection.”

Prigozhin, meanwhile, claimed he had pulled his troops back from Ukraine and into Russia’s Rostov, and vowed: “If anyone gets in our way, we will destroy everything!”

POLITICO could not verify the claim that Wagner troops had entered Rostov and Prigozhin did not present evidence of the massive troop movements he claimed were underway. But in the early hours of Saturday morning, videos began circulating on social media that reportedly showed unidentified armed men dressed in camouflage entering Rostov-on-Don, the administrative center of the Rostov region, and seizing government buildings.

The feud between Prigozhin and Russia’s ministry of defense has been building for months but now appears to have boiled over.

What we know so far

- Russia’s FSB security agency said it has opened a criminal case against Prigozhin “for the organization of armed insurrection.”

- Prigozhin claimed his troops have moved into Russia’s Rostov, and vowed: “If anyone gets in our way, we will destroy everything!”

- Videos have circulated on social media reportedly showing unidentified armed troops entering Rostov-on-Don, the administrative center of the Rostov region, and seizing government buildings.

- The governor of Rostov warned residents to stay indoors.

- Russia’s defense ministry said Ukrainian forces are “taking advantage of Prigozhin’s provocation” on the front lines around Bakhmut.

- Prigozhin claimed around 100,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the war on Ukraine.

- Putin has been briefed on the situation, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, according to Russian state media.

- Prigozhin’s move comes after he claimed 2,000 Wagner men were killed as a result of strikes ordered by Russia’s Ministry of Defense

According to Russian state media, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Putin is aware of the rapidly unfolding situation and “all necessary measures are being taken.”

“Prigozhin’s statements and actions are actually the calls for the beginning of an armed civil conflict on the territory of Russia and are a ‘stab in the back’ for Russian servicemen,” officials added.

The move comes after Prigozhin accused Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of having hidden “colossal” failings on the battlefield from Putin, claiming that 2,000 Wagner men were killed as a result of strikes ordered by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

In a later statement on Telegram, Prigozhin called Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff of the Russian Armed Forces and the overall commander of the war on Ukraine, “criminals” who had “who destroyed around 100,000 Russian soldiers.”

In an audio recording posted just after 5 a.m. Rostov time, Prigozhin repeated his threat that his troops would destroy anything that stood in their way. “Once again I’m warning everyone: we will … destroy everything around us. You can’t destroy us. We have goals. We are all ready to die. All 25,000 of us.”

In response to Prigozhin’s allegations, Moscow issued a strong denial and a procession of generals have lined up to urge Wagner fighters to stand down.

In one video appeal, Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseev, first deputy chief of the general staff of the armed forces, said Prigozhin does not have the authority to give orders. “This is a state coup,” he insisted, “come to your senses!”

Meanwhile, the Deputy Commander of Russian forces in Ukraine Sergei Surovikin — known as “General Armageddon” — urged Wagner to hold its positions and not to turn on its own allies. “Stop the columns, return them to the points of permanent deployment,” he pleaded.

Russia’s defense ministry issued a statement in the early hours of Saturday morning, warning that Ukrainian forces are “taking advantage of Prigozhin’s provocation” on the front lines around the key battleground town of Bakhmut, which Wagner troops previously held. Moscow’s top brass also said the 35th and 36th brigades of Ukraine’s Marine Corps “are on the starting lines for offensive operations.”

In a tweet in the early hours of Saturday, Ukraine’s defense ministry said: “We are watching.”

Rolling the dice

Earlier Friday, the Wagner Group founder questioned Moscow’s rationale for launching its invasion of Ukraine, saying that “the Armed Forces of Ukraine were not going to attack Russia with NATO,” and that “the war was needed for a bunch of scumbags to triumph and show how strong of an army they are.”

In a bombastic video statement he called the Russian military leadership “evil” and vowed to march for “justice,” threatening anyone who stood in his way.

In a second message released on his Telegram channel in the early hours of Saturday morning, Prigozhin said that “at the current time, we are entering Rostov,” in Russia, adding that conscripts had been sent to turn Wagner Group fighters back. However, he went on to claim, those guarding the frontier had greeted his troops with open arms.

“If anyone gets in our way, we will destroy everything!” Prigozhin vowed.

In a post on his Telegram account, Vasily Golubev, the governor of the Rostov region, said: “The current situation requires the maximum concentration of all forces to maintain order. Law enforcement agencies are doing everything necessary to ensure the safety of residents of the area. I ask everyone to stay calm and do not leave the house without the need.”

Russian state media said checkpoints have been erected in Rostov-on-Don, close to the souther border with Ukraine. At the same time, unnamed officials told news agency TASS that security has been tightened in Moscow with national guard units deployed to keep the peace. Unverified videos purport to show armored vehicles parked on the streets of the capital.

Russian state media also said Moscow’s Red Square will be closed to the public on Saturday, claiming the reason for the closure was because an event was to be held there.

Speaking to POLITICO, Colonel Philip Ingram, a former British military intelligence officer and ex-NATO planner, said that it was “too early to tell” if a coup was underway. “Clearly Moscow is worried and has activated a defense plan — Prigozhin is trying to push something focused on Shoigu, but it could be many things.”

According to Ian Garner, a Russia expert and author of a new book on the fallout of the war in Ukraine, the Wagner chief has overplayed his hand. “Prigozhin has rolled the dice, and now the state is going to do away with him for good,” he said.

“I suspect Prigozhin’s chances of launching a successful coup are slim. The state can offer everything he does — money, freedom, prestige — without him. Why would the Wagner fighters side with Prigozhin in a battle to the death?” Garner said.

Death knell for Wagner

The chaos amounts to a death knell for the Wagner Group, which has been active not just in Ukraine but also in Africa, according to one analyst.

“Whatever this is, it is definitely the dismantling of Wagner,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, a political analyst and founder of the R-Politik consultancy firm, on her Telegram channel.

“This is the end of Prigozhin and the end of Wagner. An important moment: many within the elite will hold it against Putin that things have come this far and that the president did not react sooner. That’s why this entire story is also a blow to Putin.”

In his increasingly unhinged voice memos on Telegram, Prigozhin also claimed a Russian military helicopter had opened fire on a convoy of his troops — and that Wagner had shot it down.

U.S. National Security Council spokesperson on Russia Adam Hodge said: “We are monitoring the situation and will be consulting with allies and partners on these developments.”

Meanwhile, the Kremlin published a pre-recorded video of President Putin in honor of Youth Day.

https://www.politico.eu/article/putin-in-crisis-as-wagner-chief-prigozhin-declares-war-on-russian-military-leadership/