China constructed a trap to catch U.S. and allied submarines and one of its own submarines reportedly got trapped, dooming 55 Chinese sailors to their death.
The Chinese PLA Navy submarine “093-417,” which is 351 feet long and armed with torpedoes, was traveling in the Yellow Sea near China&#8217;s Shandong Province when it encountered a chain and anchor obstacle.
“Intelligence reports that on 21st of August there was an onboard accident whilst carrying out a mission in the Yellow Sea,” a secret U.K. report stated, according to <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12589429/chinese-sailors-trap-yellow-sea.html">The Daily Mail</a>.
&#8220;Incident happened at 08.12 local resulting in the death of 55 crew members: 22 officers, 7 officer cadets, 9 petty officers, 17 sailors. Dead include the captain Colonel Xue Yong-Peng,” the report continued. “Our understanding is death caused by hypoxia due to a system fault on the submarine. The submarine hit a chain and anchor obstacle used by the Chinese Navy to trap U.S. and allied submarines.”
The submarine, surprisingly was reportedly not equipped with proper gas detectors.
The Type 093 submarine was <a href="https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/china/type-93.htm">reportedly</a> quieter than its predecessor, the HAN, and carried more advanced weapons, such as anti-ship cruise missiles and more modem torpedoes.
A British submariner explained to The Daily Mail:
<blockquote>
It is plausible that this occurred and I doubt the Chinese would have asked for international support for obvious reasons. If they were trapped on the net system and the submarine&#8217;s batteries were running flat (plausible) then eventually the air purifiers and air treatment systems could have failed. &#8216;Which would have reverted to secondary systems and subsequently and plausibly failed to maintain the air. Which led to asphyxia or poisoning. We have kit which absorbs co2 and generates oxygen in such a situation. It is probable that other nations do not have this kind of tech.
</blockquote>
China has not admitted any accident occurred, calling reports of the accident “completely false” and allegedly refusing to request international assistance.
Russia and China are apparently vis-à-vis submarines. “On December 12, 2022, the Russian state-owned Rosatom Corp. supplied 6,477kg of highly-enriched uranium (HEU) to China’s fast-breeder reactor CFR-600 on Changbiao Island,” the Eurasian Times <a href="https://www.eurasiantimes.com/chinas-highly-secretive-submarine-tech-to-be-demystified-with/">noted</a>, adding that a Chinese news article stated, “The weapons-grade plutonium it will soon produce could be used for warheads, but alternatively, commentators from the submarine research community have discussed the possibility that it could also be intended as fuel for future nuclear-powered submarines.”

CHINA-MILITARY-POLITICS

China Sets Trap For U.S. Submarines. Chinese Sub Reportedly Gets Trapped, Killing 55.

China

submarine

While the world was riveted by the tragic saga of the doomed Titanic submarine, a related drama played out on Instagram in the latest example of how every story seems to have a sordid social media angle.
On Thursday after a desperate days-long search, the Coast Guard confirmed the deaths of five passengers aboard a tour submarine headed to view the wreckage of the Titanic, saying the underwater vessel suffered a “catastrophic implosion.” Communication with the submarine was lost on Sunday, and U.S. Navy sensors detected a possible implosion in the area around the same time. Search crews have since found debris from the submarine near the wreckage of the Titanic.
As hope of finding survivors faded by the hour, over on social media, the stepson of one of the missing passengers seemed unbothered.
Brian Szasz, the stepson of British billionaire Hamish Harding who perished on board the submarine, ignited an outrage storm when he posted about attending a Blink-182 concert while his stepfather was missing at sea.
Szasz, a 37-year-old audio engineer based in San Diego, confirmed that he was Harding&#8217;s stepson in a Facebook post on Monday asking for &#8220;thoughts and prayers that the rescue mission will be successful.&#8221; Hours later, he posted a picture of himself at the San Diego concert.
&#8221;It might be distasteful being here but my family would want me to be at the blink-182 show as it’s my favorite band and music helps me in difficult times!&#8221; Szasz wrote.
He <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/titanic-sub-missing-billionaire-passenger-031100973.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">added</a> in a tweet to the Blink-182 band members that he was &#8220;devastated but coming to the San Diego show tonight so you guys can give me hope and cheer me up.&#8221;
Social media users and the media quickly reacted with disbelief and outrage. On Tuesday, Szasz responded by saying he is &#8220;not sorry.&#8221;
&#8220;Yes I went to @blink-182 last night,&#8221; Szasz posted on his Instagram Stories with a photo of him at the concert. &#8220;What am I supposed to do sit at home and watch the news? Not sorry this band has helped me through hard times since 1998.&#8221;
Szasz later <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/titanic-sub-missing-billionaire-passenger-031100973.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> his mom Linda &#8220;asked me to delete all related posts. Thanks for the support.&#8221;
However, Szasz dug himself deeper when social media users noticed that he had reacted to a crude post by an OnlyFans model.
On Wednesday as the search for his stepfather <a href="https://www.newsnationnow.com/travel/missing-titanic-tourist-submarine/missing-titanic-sub-oxygen-runs-out/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inched closer</a> to a harrowing oxygen level deadline, Szasz tweeted at OnlyFans model Brea, who posted a photo of herself in a bikini with the caption, &#8220;can i sit on u.&#8221;
&#8220;Yes please!&#8221; Szasz responded along with an emoji of a smiley face with hearts.
His OnlyFans tweet came just a half hour after Szasz asked his Twitter followers to &#8220;Please keep my family in your prayers!&#8221;
Szasz&#8217;s comment section was immediately <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2023/06/21/titanic-wreckage-missing-submarine-stepson-onlyfans-model/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">flooded</a> with people calling him out for responding to &#8220;thirst traps&#8221; and going to concerts while his stepdad was missing.
The situation caught the attention of an out-of-the-blue critic, rapper Cardi B, who gave Szasz a tongue-lashing for his behavior.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Cardi B speaks on billionaire lost on the submarine 👀 “I’d rather be broke and love” <a href="https://t.co/0ShQVDTE10">pic.twitter.com/0ShQVDTE10</a>
&mdash; My Mixtapez (@mymixtapez) <a href="https://twitter.com/mymixtapez/status/1671380811243835393?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 21, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Ay so one of the billionaires that&#8217;s missing underwater, on the submarine sh*t&#8230; One of the billionaires, they stepson is at a concert, right, a Blink-182 concert,&#8221; Cardi B said in an Instagram video she posted Tuesday. &#8220;People was like, &#8216;Uh what is he supposed to do, be sad at the house? Is he supposed to go look for him himself?&#8217; Yes. You supposed to be at the house sad. You supposed to be crying for me, you supposed to be right next to the phone waiting to hear any updates about me.&#8221;
The Daily Wire&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/finally-i-agree-with-cardi-b-3">Candace Owens</a> tweeted that she <a href="https://twitter.com/RealCandaceO/status/1671643220608942083?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1671718148528062465%7Ctwgr%5E0ec085514000e3024cf655b30d27c3bdefc25711%7Ctwcon%5Es3_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.dailywire.com%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D575749action%3Dedit">agreed</a> with everything Cardi B said about the &#8220;submarine stepson from hell.&#8221;
Cardi B responded with a GIF of a kangaroo giving the side eye.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://t.co/snReKedKdX">https://t.co/snReKedKdX</a> <a href="https://t.co/1EULArzUc2">pic.twitter.com/1EULArzUc2</a>
&mdash; Cardi B (@iamcardib) <a href="https://twitter.com/iamcardib/status/1671718148528062465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 22, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Szasz lashed out at Cardi B on Twitter, calling her a &#8220;pos trashy celeb&#8221; and accusing her of &#8220;trying to get clout off me and my families [sic] suffering.&#8221;
&#8220;Shame on you Cardi get some class!&#8221; Szasz said, adding a jab at Cardi B&#8217;s career.
“Cardi B we know all of your latest releases are trash but is your career this desperate for attention now??” Szasz tweeted.
Cardi B responded by throwing the clout accusation back at Szasz.
&#8220;The point was the whole world is praying for these people in the submarine and this man son is online shaking d**ks for girls off onlyfans and going to Blink 182 concerts,&#8221; she tweeted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The point was the whole world is praying for these people in the submarine and this man son is online shaking dicks for girls off onlyfans and going to Blink 182 concerts. You was looking for clout all along, nobody knew who you were until you said that was ya stepdad!!! This is… <a href="https://t.co/FQ8pfR55Ob">https://t.co/FQ8pfR55Ob</a>
&mdash; Cardi B (@iamcardib) <a href="https://twitter.com/iamcardib/status/1671648155723505665?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 21, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;You was looking for clout all along, nobody knew who you were until you said that was ya stepdad!!! This is why people you hate you spoiled brat billionaires yall so desensitize,&#8221; the rapper added.
Cardi B also threw a barb at YouTube gossip blogger Tasha K, who accused her of &#8220;posting guns&#8221; right after the fatal shooting of rapper Takeoff, her husband&#8217;s relative and bandmate.
&#8220;And Tasha K with your despicable a**.. to bring up Takeoff to prove a fake a** point is disgusting. I lost weight, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, me and my man STILL dealing wit that to to this day. I’m a rapper, we targeted all the time so of course I have guns for protection,&#8221; Cardi B <a href="https://twitter.com/iamcardib/status/1671652604194029570" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweeted</a>.
Szasz eventually deleted his Twitter account, calling the situation a &#8220;f***ing nightmare.&#8221;
On Thursday though, he took to Instagram to call Cardi B &#8220;a complete b****&#8221; who “has no idea what’s going on.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Stepson of billionaire lost at sea in the Titanic Submarine responds to Cardi B <a href="https://t.co/cyqsTAYeSb">pic.twitter.com/cyqsTAYeSb</a>
&mdash; Daily Loud (@DailyLoud) <a href="https://twitter.com/DailyLoud/status/1671965528791851012?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 22, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The exhausting social media drama became a lurid international story in its own right this week, competing for attention with the actual story, the ongoing search for the five missing explorers.
With rescue efforts coming to a tragic close and Szasz&#8217;s Twitter and Instagram accounts quiet now though, perhaps the rest of Harding&#8217;s family will be able to grieve in peace.

In this photo illustration, the Instagram logo is displayed

Titanic Sub Tragedy Marred By Stepson’s Sordid Social Media Drama

Titanic Sub Tragedy Marred By Stepson's Sordid Social Media Drama

Cardi B

Facebook

Instagram

OnlyFans

Readers Pass

Social Media

Titanic

A veteran Navy sub technician and contractor released a video Tuesday that detailed what he called the “ridiculous and unsafe” design decisions of the Titan submersible. 
Aaron Amick has spent more than 20 years aboard U.S. Navy submarines, according to his <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-amick-9538a4171/?challengeId=AQGAVYrMwUKBFgAAAYjpTPPp8CgdwQr9TDnkRYMYyUuuqmhsvk7z3HpIJNw-KjeiVEo0x4cJT9uzrtH9BSbSWuw4rJu_fdmPsw&amp;submissionId=f4392360-e259-6b17-ef68-27c3a5d4271f&amp;challengeSource=AgH_hGK9tAcnQgAAAYjpTR0ch2xVA44Hdj9eHk0mMHG4upoFpg5_2-X4FhLG1fg&amp;challegeType=AgGKB4wv9HzbrQAAAYjpTR0f36YSX3YhpSQu69ljzCvl8W79qfOZwzE&amp;memberId=AgES1UuhjSj7XAAAAYjpTR0ihWtviP9bVs6GPJeAdLIA-l8&amp;recognizeDevice=AgFRl_KaZyuhXQAAAYjpTR0mz_JzxKIRRIZMp51FnvOxhx0DqwWj">LinkedIn profile</a>. In the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dka29FSZac">video</a>, Amick analyzes every aspect of the vessel, from its launchpad to its control mechanisms, to discuss what most likely happened to the submersible during its final voyage. 
Amick has shared his knowledge of the technical aspects of submarines over the past four years on his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@SubBrief/featured">YouTube channel</a> “Sub Brief,” which has nearly 200,000 subscribers. His latest video “The Titan Tragedy” is nearing two million views.
Amick argues that the lack of ways to monitor and scrub the gases inside the vessel was &#8220;ridiculous and unsafe,&#8221; with the sub having no way to remove toxins without surfacing and unscrewing the 17 bolts that sealed the submersible.
 “In all the displays that I see from their public website, there&#8217;s no indication of oxygen levels and other toxic gas levels like CO2 and carbon monoxide … you need to be aware of those levels.”
Scrubbing CO2 and other gases from the atmosphere of the submarine is a critical part of designing a sub, according to Amick. “Did they just keep pumping oxygen into the capsule so they could keep the CO2 and oxygen levels in a proper ratio?&#8221;
&#8220;If they were just adding oxygen to the environment, that creates a high-oxygen environment. What happens when you&#8217;re locked inside a capsule with a high oxygen environment and you&#8217;re operating electronics? Well, you burn up,” he said.
Amick also argues that OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, despite claiming that aviation technology inspired his sub designs, forgot a key lesson from the Apollo 1 disaster. 
“Three astronauts lost their lives doing a systems check on the launch pad while they were bolted into their capsule,&#8221; Amick said. &#8220;There was a fire that started in there, and they were alive when the fire started, and they reported it to the control center, and said ‘Get us out of here, get us out of here!&#8217; Before they could get the bolts off, the astronauts had passed away. This is a very important lesson learned that apparently, Stockton didn&#8217;t learn from or at least forgot, because he&#8217;s locking people into this submarine with no way for them to quickly get out themselves in the case of an emergency.”
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Amick also suspects that the submersion depth of 4,000 meters advertised on the OceanGate website was probably most likely not properly tested and only tested theoretically with mathematical analysis, which although useful, could ultimately miss many crucial factors that manual tests would catch. 
If the advertised depth of 4,000 meters was indeed incorrect, Amick explains that the carbon fiber material that the sub as made out of would most likely have been “shattered,&#8221; with the sub being completely crushed by the high pressure of the deep sea.
This “construction defect” could have easily been a result of the “young, inexperienced technicians” that Rush desired. Rush said he wanted young college graduates, including surfers, rather than “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/boss-of-titanic-sub-company-didnt-want-50-year-old-white-guys-on-his-team">50-year-old white guys</a>” designing and constructing the submersible. Amick said, “You have to have subject matter experts at some point in the chain.”
Amick further critiques the controller used to pilot the submarine, explaining that the fact that it is a controller is not necessarily the issue, but the fact that it is wireless can lead to massive issues. “What happens if the batteries die? Do you have an extra set?&#8221; he asked. &#8220;Do you always put fresh batteries in on every dive? Did you bring extra batteries? Is there a USB port that in a pinch you could plug the controller into? Did you bring a spare and does that spare sync properly if the primary controller doesn’t work?”
Amick ends the video on a somber note, saying (before OceanGate announced the demise of the 5 passengers) that these design flaws most likely meant the death of the passengers and that he hopes that his video provides closure to the families of those lost in the submersible.

OceanGate

Sub Veteran Details Titan’s Possible Catastrophic Design Failures In Viral Video

Sub Veteran Details Titan's Possible Catastrophic Design Failures In Viral Video

Disasters

Rescue

Submersible

World

YouTube

The co-founder of the company whose submersible imploded on a voyage to view the wreck of the Titanic defended onetime partner Stockton Rush, who was one of five who died aboard the craft and who many are blaming for ignoring repeated safety warnings.
Film director James Cameron, among others, have slammed Rush, the CEO of OceanGate, in the wake of this week&#8217;s tragedy. But Guillermo Söhnlein, who started the company with Rusk in 2009 and left four years later, said much of the criticism is coming from people who don&#8217;t have all the facts.
“In this kind of community, there are completely different opinions and views about how to do things, how to design submersibles, how to engineer them, build them, how to operate in the dives,” Söhnlein <a href="https://twitter.com/TimesRadio/status/1672168990058381314?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> U.K.&#8217;s Times Radio. “But one thing that’s true of me and the other experts, is none of us were involved in the design, engineering, building, testing or even diving of the subs. So it’s impossible for anyone to really speculate from the outside.”
Cameron, who directed the iconic 1997 movie &#8220;Titanic,&#8221; said Rush should have known the Titan&#8217;s carbon-fiber would ultimately be insufficient to handle the pressure of the deep sea.
“You don&#8217;t use composites for vessels that are seeing external pressure,&#8221; Cameron said. &#8220;They&#8217;re great for internal pressure vessels like scuba tanks, for example, but they&#8217;re terrible for external pressure. &#8230; They fail over time, each dive adds more and more microscopic damage. So, yes, they operated the sub safely at [the] Titanic [wreck site] last year and the year before, but it was only a matter of time before it caught up with them.&#8221;
The submersible lost contact with the surface early Sunday, sparking an international rescue effort. But hopes dimmed as experts said oxygen aboard the craft was running out and finding and recovering it from a depth of 12,500 feet could prove nearly impossible. Then, on Thursday an underwater remotely operated vehicle spotted wreckage of the submersible, indicating it had imploded under the 6,000-pounds-per-square-inch pressure of the North Atlantic depths.
Söhnlein insisted that his former partner was committed to safety.
“I was involved in the early phases of the overall development program during our predecessor subs to Titan, and I know from firsthand experience that we were extremely committed to safety and risk mitigation was a key part of the company culture,&#8221; he said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
“We were extremely committed to safety and risk mitigation was a clear part of company culture.”
OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Söhnlein says regulation is ‘sparse’ for submersibles going as deep in the ocean as the Titan did. <a href="https://twitter.com/gsohnlein?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@gsohnlein</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/Chloetilley?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ChloeTilley</a> <a href="https://t.co/VgAq9MHSqd">pic.twitter.com/VgAq9MHSqd</a>
&mdash; Times Radio (@TimesRadio) <a href="https://twitter.com/TimesRadio/status/1672168990058381314?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 23, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Meanwhile, Samad Dawood, the brother of Shahzada Dawood and uncle of Suleman Dawood, who both died in the incident, told <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/live-updates/missing-titanic-tourist-submersible/oceangate-cofounder-defends-development-of-submersible-100335216?id=100224153&amp;cid=social_twitter_abcn" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ABC News</a> their deaths have left his family in anguish.
“This is beyond what you could ever imagine in terms of the kind of hardships and struggle that we&#8217;ve had. I think what we&#8217;ve seen is enormous tragedy and devastation and a lot of emotions. Obviously we were hoping to hear some good news about the rescue and them coming back. It was heartbreaking to find out that that&#8217;s not the case.”
&#8220;We&#8217;re deeply grateful for all the support and the love and the effort that the people have made, working tireless nights being optimistic in giving a sense of hope, giving that transparency to us,” he continued. “But obviously we were devastated as a family &#8230; that we couldn&#8217;t get them back safe.”

US-CANADA-TITANIC-SUBMERSIBLE

OceanGate Co-Founder Defends Doomed CEO’s Actions: Impossible To Speculate From The Outside

The effort to rescue the passengers on the Titan, the submersible whose debris was found at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, likely cost millions of dollars — and OceanGate Expeditions, the company responsible for the expedition, likely will not pay for it.
Over the four days the rescue effort was conducted, airplanes, boats, and submersibles were utilized in the attempt, including Canadian P-3 Orion, P-8 Poseidon, and CP-140 Aurora aircraft as well as their vessels Horizon Arctic and Glace Bay. The French ship L&#8217;Atalante joined in the effort, as <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/06/22/cost-of-us-coast-guard-search-for-titanic-sub/70342718007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">did</a> three C-130 aircraft and three C-17 transport planes from the U.S. military.
Chris Boyer, the executive director of the National Association for Search and Rescue, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/22/us/titanic-submersible-search-rescue-costs.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> the rescue mission would “probably cost millions.”
“It’s no different than if a private citizen goes out and his boat sinks,” retired Admiral Paul Zukunft, who led the U.S. Coast Guard from 2014-2018, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/06/21/titanic-sub-coast-guard-search/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a>. “We go out and recover him. We don’t stick them with the bill after the fact.”
“The Coast Guard’s default,” he added, “is we will always launch for safety of life at sea — and always holding out hope that they do rise to the surface, we launch a rescue swimmer, and they’re all recovered and live to see the next day.”
The U.S. Navy also sent a winch system named the Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System (FADOSS) to the area of the sunken submersible; it is capable of retrieving objects as deep as 20,000 feet, but the system had to be welded onto a boat, which could take 24 hours.
In the end, the extra time needed may not have mattered, as reports on Thursday indicated that the passengers may have died early in the expedition when the submersible imploded, killing them instantaneously.
On Thursday, the United States Coast Guard <a href="https://twitter.com/USCGNortheast/status/1671907901542211584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1671907901542211584%7Ctwgr%5Ecbfebb9adb1227d0cfd8b029851173bec1af7999%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.dailywire.com%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D574887action%3Dedit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> that a remote-controlled vehicle deployed by the Horizon Arctic had found debris from the Titan. “A debris field was discovered within the search area by an ROV near the Titanic,” USGC Northeast said in a statement. “Experts within the unified command are evaluating the information.”
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“A debris field implies a break-up of the submersible &#8230; that really sort of indicates what is the worst-case scenario, which is a catastrophic failure and generally that&#8217;s an implosion,” marine scientist and rescue expert David Mearns <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/debris-field-discovered-within-search-area-near-titanic-us-coast-guard-says-12906735" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Sky News.
“The only saving grace is that it would have been immediate — literally in milliseconds — and the men wouldn&#8217;t have known what was happening,” Mearns added.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/passengers-aboard-dismantled-titanic-sub-likely-died-in-milliseconds">Passengers Aboard Doomed Titanic Sub Likely Died &#8216;In Milliseconds&#8217;</a>

Titanic tourist submersible disappear on an expedition to explore the famed shipwreck

Titanic Sub Rescue Effort Cost Millions — And OceanGate Likely Won’t Be Paying For It

Money

A wealthy prospective passenger who ultimately declined to go on the ill-fated Titan expedition <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12225963/Tycoon-gave-seats-doomed-Titanic-sub-Pakistani-businessman-teenage-son.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush insisted that the trip was “safer than flying in a helicopter or even scuba diving.”
Jay Bloom revealed texts starting in February show him discussing the trip and Rush offering him a discounted price of $150,000, down from the previous price of $250,000.
“My son’s friend researched what could go wrong and put a little scare in him,” Bloom texted Rush the morning of February 3. “I’m trying to talk him down. He’s excited to go but concerned about the danger.”
“I’m happy to have a video call with him. Curious what the uninformed would say the danger is and whether it’s real or imagined,” Rush responded.
&#8220;A sperm whale attacks the sub or a giant whale grabs it and compromises the hull. Really stupid stuff,&#8221; Bloom responded.
“Yeah very stupid the pressure is over 100 million pounds no sperm whale or squid is ever going to mess with the sub,” Rush wrote. “While there&#8217;s obviously risk it&#8217;s way safer than flying in a helicopter or even scuba diving. There hasn&#8217;t even been an injury in 35 years in non-military subs.”
In the aftermath of the tragedy, Bloom wrote on Facebook, “I am sure he really believed what he was saying. But he was very wrong. &#8230; He was absolutely convinced that it was safer than crossing the street.”
Bloom referenced the recent death of actor Treat Williams, 71, who died on June 12 after his motorcycle smashed into an SUV.
“RIP Stockton and crew,” Bloom continued. “As for Sean and I, after this right on the heels of losing Treat Williams, another friend of 25 years and former business partner, we are going to take a minute to stop and smell the roses. Tomorrow is never promised. Make the most of today.”
Rush spoke with CBS News reporter David Pogue on his podcast &#8220;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/5niNsr3iDOEnDUxSi98jTq?si=7afea5aa494a45ea&amp;nd=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Unsung Science</a>&#8221; in 2022 about a prospective trip to see the legendary shipwreck some 12,500 feet below the Atlantic surface off of Newfoundland.
Rush spoke of the dangers involved in his work, saying, “There’s a limit. At some point, safety just is pure waste. If you just want to be safe, don’t get out of bed, don’t get into your car, don’t do anything. At some point, you’re gonna take some risk and it really is a risk-reward question. &#8230; I think I can do this just as safely by breaking the rules.”

diver exploring the clear waters of the Gulf of Thailand

OceanGate CEO Told Customer Titan Expedition Was Safer Than Scuba Diving

Stockton Rush

This article is adapted from today’s Morning Wire Afternoon Update. To listen to the podcast version, click <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/authorities-dont-know-whats-causing-underwater-banging-as-experts-rush-to-determine-if-sounds-came-from-titanic-sub" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sub Search Update</a>
As time is running out for the passengers on the Titan submersible that went missing near the wreckage of the Titanic, a last-ditch effort involving heavy machinery and submarines arrived in Newfoundland on Tuesday night. Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips has more:
<blockquote>Officials say they may be closing in on the missing sub after a sonar beacon picked up “banging&#8221; sounds underwater coming in 30-minute intervals from a location near the Titanic wreckage. Last night, three Air Force C-17s reportedly landed at a cargo terminal in St. John’s, Newfoundland, carrying heavy-duty search equipment, including unmanned vehicles capable of diving 19,000 feet underwater. The journey to the area where Titan is thought to be submerged takes 15 hours. Officials say the craft has under 24 hours of oxygen remaining, with the emergency air supply expected to run out on Thursday morning. </blockquote>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/durham-appears-to-squeeze-schiff-zinger-into-trump-russia-probe-testimony" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Durham Speaks</a>
Special Counsel John Durham appeared before the House Judiciary Committee to talk about his report criticizing the FBI for how it conducted its investigation into alleged links between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia. Durham said there was not enough credible evidence to open an investigation into Trump. The special counsel received a round of applause when he responded to House Democrat Steve Cohen of Tennessee who told him his reputation would be damaged by the report.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Special Counsel John Durham gives a PERFECT response to an angry tirade by Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen:
&quot;My concern about my reputation is with the people who I respect and my family and my Lord, and I&#39;m perfectly comfortable with my reputation with them, sir.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/Cp7XBBQuJp">pic.twitter.com/Cp7XBBQuJp</a>
&mdash; RNC Research (@RNCResearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1671523842395897856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 21, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/06/21/schools-students-reading-math-test-scores-decline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Math And Reading Scores Tank Nationwide</a>
Math and reading scores for American school children are at their lowest point in decades, here to tell us more is Daily Senior Editor Ashe Short. 
<blockquote>The National Assessment of Educational Progress released its annual report based on Data from the N-A-E-P federal standardized test, last fall. The test focused on basic reading skills, and according to The New York Times, it found that 13-year-olds scored an average of 256 out of 500 in reading. Then in math, the same age group scored 271 out of 500. The data hasn’t been that low for reading since 2004, and the math scores are the lowest they’ve been since 1990. While the pandemic appears to have accelerated this learning loss, the year prior to the pandemic also shows concerningly low test scores for both these categories.</blockquote>
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<a href="https://www.expressnews.com/news/weather/article/no-nighttime-cooling-texas-heat-wave-18161494.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Texas Heatwave</a>
A massive record-setting heat wave is straining the Texas power grid and now operators are advising Texans and others across the south to conserve energy to avoid blackouts. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, has asked its customers to continue to be frugal in their energy use as temperatures top 100 degrees and the heat index skyrocketed to 125. No blackouts have hit the state so far, but the grid has experienced such events in previous extreme weather conditions during both summer and winter. The high temps are expected to last throughout the week.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hunter-biden-privately-settles-child-support-dispute-with-mother-of-his-ignored-4-year-old-daughter-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hunter Baby Mama Drama All Settled?</a>
According to a new report, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hunter-biden-reaches-plea-deal-over-tax-crimes-report">Hunter Biden</a> settled his child support dispute with a 32-year-old Arkansas woman he met at a Washington, D.C., strip club and fathered a daughter with. 
According to the New York Post, a source close to the president’s son says Lunden Roberts, the mother of Biden’s 4-year-old daughter Navy, agreed to have her child support payments cut from $20,000 following Biden’s deposition last week. The final terms of the settlement are still being determined, according to Roberts’ lawyer Clint Lancaster, who declined to confirm a <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/jun/20/lunden-roberts-agrees-slash-hunter-biden-child-sup/">report</a> that his client agreed to $5,000 monthly payments. Lancaster told the Post, quote: “The case is sealed, and these are financial terms that should never be disclosed.”
<a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/sorority-doubles-down-on-admission-of-male-student-urges-court-to-dismiss-frivolous-lawsuit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sorority Implies Members Are Bigots For Not Wanting A Man To Join</a>
The national sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma requested this week that a lawsuit be thrown out after 7 members at the University of Wyoming sued the sorority for admitting a male student into its Wyoming chapter. The sorority claims that it is a “frivolous” lawsuit driven in part by anti-transgender sentiment.
To listen to the audio version of this podcast, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/morning-wire/id1576594336" target="_blank" rel="noopener">click here</a>. And for more in-depth discussion of the biggest stories of the day, listen to the latest full episode of Morning Wire every morning.

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Wednesday Afternoon Update: Sub Search Continues, Durham Speaks, Math And Reading Scores Plummet Nationwide

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&#8220;CBS Sunday Morning&#8221; correspondent David Pogue <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/06/21/1183229884/oceangate-titanic-submersible-deep-sea-tourism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> NPR on Tuesday that he had been forced to sign a rather comprehensive waiver before he was allowed to travel aboard the Titan submersible last year.
The Titan, which is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/desperate-last-ditch-attempt-to-rescue-titanic-sub-begins" target="_blank" rel="noopener">currently missing</a> with five people aboard, is a custom-built submersible vehicle about the size of a minivan that was made to travel the 2.4 miles down to the undersea wreckage of the RMS Titanic — and Pogue was one of the few who was initially offered a chance to make the trip.
&#8220;When we boarded the surface vessel, we signed waivers that would curl your toes,&#8221; Pogue told NPR&#8217;s &#8220;All Things Considered,&#8221; adding, &#8220;It was basically a list of eight paragraphs describing ways that you could be permanently disabled or killed. There&#8217;s not much you can do if something goes wrong.&#8221;
At the time, Pogue <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/titanic-visiting-the-most-famous-shipwreck-in-the-world/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">described</a> some of the paperwork in greater detail: &#8220;If all went well, I would be spending about 12 hours sealed inside on a dive to the Titanic. Not gonna lie; I was a little nervous, especially given the paperwork, which read, &#8216;This experimental vessel has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body, and could result in physical injury, emotional trauma, or death.&#8217; Where do I sign?&#8221;
&#8220;It seems like this submersible has some elements of MacGyver jerry-riggedness. I mean, you&#8217;re putting construction pipes as ballast,&#8221; Pogue said to OceanGate CEO <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/boss-of-titanic-sub-company-didnt-want-50-year-old-white-guys-on-his-team" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stockton Rush</a> as the journey began.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t know if I&#8217;d use that description of it. But, there are certain things that you want to be buttoned down,&#8221; Rush replied. &#8220;The pressure vessel is not MacGyver at all, because that&#8217;s where we worked with Boeing and NASA and the University of Washington. Everything else can fail, your thrusters can go, your lights can go. You&#8217;re still going to be safe.&#8221;
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Pogue also got to experience firsthand something going wrong aboard the Titan. After his trip to the Titanic was shelved due to rough water, the CBS crew was offered the chance to dive to the Continental Shelf instead and see shark breeding grounds — but once the submersible was in the water, things did not go exactly as planned.
&#8220;Our dive in the OceanGate submersible had made it down only 37 feet when floats came off the platform. And that wasn&#8217;t supposed to happen. The mission was scrubbed,&#8221; he recalled. &#8220;I was crushed. My diving adventures were over.&#8221;
Others aboard the surface vessel did eventually make the dive to the Titanic wreckage — and returned safely to the surface.

RMS Titanic Expedition

‘We Signed Waivers That Would Curl Your Toes,’ Says CBS Reporter Who’s Been Aboard Missing Sub

'We Signed Waivers That Would Curl Your Toes,' Says CBS Reporter Who's Been Aboard Missing Sub

The founder of the company whose submersible became lost on a dive to view the wreckage of the Titanic, sparking a frantic, deep-sea rescue effort that has riveted people around the world, once declared he didn’t want to hire “50-year-old white guys” on his team even if they were seasoned submariners.
Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, is aboard the submerged vessel along with billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, French explorer Paul-Henry Nargeolet, and British businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman. Since the 22-foot craft lost contact with the surface early Sunday, critics have come forward to blast the company&#8217;s safety practices. But Rush was previously adamant that he values youth over experience when it comes to assembling his crews.
“When I started the business, one of the things you’ll find, there are other sub operators out there, but they typically have gentlemen who are ex-military sub-mariners, and they — you’ll see a whole bunch of 50-year-old white guys,” Rush told Teledyne Marine representatives before the expedition began. Teledyne Marine made the sonar systems and the navigation systems for the vessel.
“I wanted our team to be younger, to be inspirational,” he continued. “And I’m not going to inspire a 16-year-old to go pursue marine technology, but a 25-year-old who’s a sub pilot or a platform operator, one of our techs, can be inspirational. So we’ve really tried to get very intelligent, motivated, younger individuals involved because we’re doing things that are completely new.”
“We’re taking approaches that are used largely in the aerospace industry as related to safety and some of the preponderance of checklists, things we do for risk assessments, things like that that are more aviation-related than ocean-related,” he declared. “We can train people to do that; we can train someone to pilot the sub. We use like game controller so anybody can drive the sub.”
Aaron Amick, founder of Sub Brief, who <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@SubBrief/about">served</a> as a U.S. Navy contractor and provided strategic and policy level consultation for domestic and international clients on cleared Navy projects, played the call from Rush in a video explaining some of the problems the beleaguered vessel may have faced as it has reputedly sunk to a depth of 12,000 feet below the surface.
“You don’t want to only hire young college graduates that you would then train to inspire the next generation,” Amick opined.  “You have to have subject matter experts at some point in the chain. And I’m not talking about the vice-admiral that’s on the board of directors &#8230; but you don’t seem to have a subject matter expert that’s from the submarine community, that could maybe talk about some of the problems.”
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Boss Of Titanic Sub Company Didn’t Want ‘50-Year-Old White Guys’ On His Team

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