Reuters World News - A catastrophic end for the Titanic sub

Episode Date: June 23, 2023

A vast search for a missing tourist submersible ends after pieces of it were found on the ocean floor. We look at the double standards on the high seas. President Biden seeks to bolster ties with India. Team USA’s prospects in the Women’s World Cup. Plus Beijing swelters, Russia’s squatting diplomat and the suit that makes the metaverse a full-body experience. *Editor's note: this episode has been republished to correct Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's title. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt-out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, a grim conclusion to an underwater search that's gripped the world. Authorities find debris from the missing submersible, which they believe was lost as a result of a catastrophic implosion. We have the latest. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wraps up his whirlwind tour through Washington, plus a suit that makes the Metaverse a full-body experience. It's Friday, June 23rd. This is Reuters World News, with everything you need to know,

from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Kim Vennel in London. A fatal end for the five adventurers on an expedition to the Titanic. This morning, an ROV or remote-operated vehicle from the vessel Horizon Arctic discovered the tail cone of the Titan submersible, approximately 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic on the seafloor. U.S. Coast Guard rare admiral John Morgan there. The debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber.

Upon this determination, we immediately notified the families. US military censors picked up indications of a possible implosion on Sunday, around the time that the sub lost communications. This week, questions over the Titan's safety have resurfaced. Parts of the submarine that I'd seen in the testing in the Bahamas just seemed a bit shoddy. They're using industrial piping for ballast. They're using an Xbox controller for the steering. Chris Brown, a friend of billionaire Hamish Harding, who was aboard, says he was concerned by what he saw several years ago.

What really did it for me was they flatly refused to get any form of certification. The international interest. and massive rescue effort have many drawing comparisons to what happened when a fishing boat carrying hundreds of migrant passengers sank near Greece last week. Jonathan Saul covers the global shipping industry. So Jonathan, this was five people versus hundreds. Is there a double standard at work here?

There are so many factors at play which would demarcate the difference between what's happened off the Atlantic coast and then the Mediterranean. There are political considerations, but also with regards to the area next to the Titanic, it's much simpler because it's a single craft and it's involving perhaps two nation states. With the wreck, there are all kinds of issues there to do with jurisdiction, member state countries, whether it's Greece, whether it's the Coast Guard involved, whether it's other parties that would intervene. And as a consequence, there's also the potential question of political will and appetite. While the convention itself on search and rescue would say that you have to come to the assistance of ships or boats and distress, it's a lot more complicated when you're dealing with multiple people involved and also searching and locating and then taking action. And this is one of the sort of gray areas that's come up is that who's actually responsible for picking up the dead and dealing with them? There are no answers to this, only questions and possible solutions, but nobody for sure knows the,

full extent of what's actually at play and who is responsible. Here's what else we're across today. One of the main supply routes for Russian occupation forces in southern Ukraine has been cut. Ukrainian missiles struck one of the few bridges linking the country to the occupied Crimea Peninsula on Thursday. Beijing is sweltering. Temperatures in the Chinese capital are set to hit 104 degrees Fahrenheit, or 40 degrees Celsius on Friday. They reached 105 degrees Fahrenheit the day before, making it the hottest June

day on record. A Russian diplomat is squatting on the contested site of a proposed Russian embassy in Canberra. Australia passed a law this month preventing Russia from moving its embassy to the site, which is close to Parliament and the Chinese embassy. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he wasn't worried about the diplomatic squatter. National security threat that was represented by a Russian embassy on site are not the same as some bloke standing on a blight of grass on the site. And are we really going to see Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg slug it out? The billionaires have been sparring online about a cage fight.

Apparently, Musk has a move called the Walrus, where he lays on top of an opponent and does nothing. It's time now for the markets with Kamel, Krimmins and Kamel. We've got some good news this morning. We do. Zambi has clinched a deal to restructure more than $6 billion worth of debt it owed to other governments. And this is positive because it sets a precedent for other countries who are struggling to service their debts. Also, the World Bank has agreed to let countries hit by disaster pause repayments on their loans.

So, yeah, some positive news on markets. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's White House visit was full of pomp and circumstance. But both Biden and Modi walked into the meetings with some big asks. Our White House correspondent Trevor Honeycutt explains the deals that have been struck and what comes next. So Trevor, what did Modi get out of this visit? So there were a number of agreements. They're buying armed drones from a US company. They're letting US Navy ships dock for repairs in India.

There is a huge new semiconductor plant that's being built in Gujarat, which is the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They're easing the process for Indian workers to renew their visas to stay in the U.S. And they're also agreeing to do a joint mission between the two countries to the International Space Station next year. Washington has been frustrated with India's close ties to Russia. But it doesn't look like Biden really changed Modi's mind on Moscow, right? So Joe Biden is taking a very, delicate approach here. India has a longstanding relationship with Russia in terms of buying military

equipment from them and doing drills with them. And now they're huge buyer of Russian oil. And that's helping Moscow wage war in Ukraine. And so, you know, Biden would like to see India be closer to U.S. policy on that issue. Biden would also like to see India take a stronger stance on issues related to China as well. And that's very much a work in progress. The Women's World Cup kicks off in less than a month in Australia and New Zealand, or soccer, as we call it, down under. The U.S. team has dominated the world stage.

But as Amy Tennery is here to explain, victory isn't a shoe-win for Team USA, which just announced its squad. There are some familiar faces. You're going to see Alex Morgan and Megan Rapino returning. for their fourth World Cup, but there's actually also a ton of newcomers. 14 of the 23 players are going to travel to their first World Cup ever. And that includes 18-year-old Alyssa Thompson. She just graduated from high school.

And now she's flying halfway around the world to compete against the best players on Earth. The U.S. is the team to dethrone. What are the chances of winning the whole thing? They are the top-ranked team in the world. But let's be clear, no. team, male or female, has ever won three World Cups in a row. So what they're trying to do right now is unprecedented. Last fall, the U.S. was handed their first three straight losses since I think 1993. I believe it was England and Spain and Germany. Those are three of the best teams in the

world and they're going to put up a heck of a fight down under. Imagine putting on a bodysuit, which allowed you to truly feel every move you make. when immersed in virtual reality. Well, the technology is basically here. And the mechanical engineering student designers say the meta suit's use goes far beyond VR headsets. Reuters Stuart McDill is the reporter on the story. So, Stuart, how does this work?

Basically, it's a normal suit, a jacket and pair of trousers. But what the students at ETAG Zurich have done is designed these fantastic, special little synthetic, human muscles and they've inserted them in certain places in the suits and trousers. So there's a whole row of these little muscles up the thighs and shins of the trousers and on the arms and shoulders of the jacket, which means that when these muscles contract and expand, much like a human muscle would, we can feel it. Are there other uses for the suit? They've already realized very early on

that this has healthcare, wellness, movie industry, all sorts of applications. One healthcare application that they highlighted is for Parkinson's users. One of the problems they suffer from is something called muscle freeze or gait freeze, where the muscles simply stop responding to messages from the brain. Well, if you're wearing a suit that could recognize when you're suffering from gate freeze, it could automatically give you that stimulus, that prod that you need to wake up the leg muscle. That's it for this edition of Reuters World News. We'll be back over the weekend with a special episode looking at the state of LGBTQ rights around the world. And remember to make sure you know what's going on in the world,

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