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Friday, June 23, 2023

6/23 WAKE-UP CALL: Doomed Crew Never Knew What Hit Them


A deep-sea submersible carrying five people on a voyage to the century-old wreck of the Titanic was found in pieces from a "catastrophic implosion" that killed everyone aboard, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Thursday, ending a multinational five-day search for the vessel. A robotic diving vehicle deployed from a Canadian ship discovered a debris field from the submersible Titan on Thursday morning on the seabed some 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic, 2 1/2 miles beneath the surface, in a remote corner of the North Atlantic, U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger told reporters.


The doomed Titanic sub would have imploded and killed its crew so fast the five people aboard “never knew it happened,” an expert in submersibles told The Post. Expert Ofer Ketter said the implosion would occur within a millisecond, if not a nanosecond, if something breached the hull of the vessel to cause a loss in pressure.

Debris that rescuers found near the Titanic shipwreck in the North Atlantic was “consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber” of the OceanGate Expeditions craft, according to the Coast Guard. The men aboard the Titan submersible, which was on a trip to the Titanic wreck, were OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush; Paul-Henry Nargeolet, considered a leading authority on the Titanic; Shahzada and Suleman Dawood, members of one of Pakistan’s richest families; and British aviator and explorer Hamish Harding. Even before the debris field was discovered, hopes of finding the group alive had dimmed due to the difficulties involved in finding and retrieving the submersible and the limited oxygen supply on board.

➤NAVY DETECTED SOUND OF IMPLOSION: A top secret military acoustic detection system designed to spot enemy submarines first heard what the U.S. Navy suspected was the Titan submersible implosion hours after the vehicle began its mission, officials involved in the search said. The Navy began listening for the Titan almost as soon as the sub lost communications, according to a U.S. defense official. Shortly after the submersible’s disappearance Sunday, the U.S. system detected what it suspected was the sound of an implosion near the debris site discovered Thursday and reported its findings to the commander on site, U.S. defense officials said. “The U.S. Navy conducted an analysis of acoustic data and detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost,” a senior U.S. Navy official told The Wall Street Journal in a statement. “While not definitive, this information was immediately shared with the Incident Commander to assist with the ongoing search and rescue mission.” The Navy asked that the specific system used not be named, citing national security concerns.


➤BIDEN HOSTS STATE DINNER: President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden turned the black-tie event with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi into a family affair with son Hunter (top right) and his wife Melissa, Joe's brother James, granddaughter Naomi and her new husband Peter Neal, and daughter Ashley among the guests.  The glamorous event was already overshadowed by controversy as Modi defended his regime's record on human rights and Biden faced pressure from his own Democrats to confront the prime minister on it. But Hunter's presence added to the tension, particularly since top House Republicans Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise, who are investigating the president's son, were also there. The president's controversial son worked the tent on the South Lawn of the White House where the state dinner took place.

➤WSJ JOURNALIST TO SPEND SUMMER IN RUSSIAN SLAMMER: A Russian court upheld the extended detention of Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter deemed by the U.S. to be wrongfully held, ordering that he remain in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison until at least Aug. 30. Gershkovich, smiling briefly and wearing a dark T-shirt and jeans, appeared in the courtroom inside a transparent box. On May 23, a Moscow district court judge granted a request from the Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, to extend Gershkovich’s detention while he awaits trial, a ruling that the reporter’s lawyers appealed. Gershkovich, a 31-year-old American citizen who was accredited by Russia’s Foreign Ministry to work as a journalist, was initially detained by agents from the FSB while on a reporting trip in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg on March 29. He is being held on an allegation of espionage that he, the Journal and the U.S. government vehemently deny. 

➤CNN FOR SALE? Speculation is growing that Warner Bros. Discovery will sell CNN in the coming year — and the struggling cable network’s former CEO Jeff Zucker has emerged as a possible suitor, sources told The Post. The 58-year-old Zucker is among the contenders to buy the ratings-challenged network, insiders say — despite the fact that he was ousted from the company more than a year and a half ago over his undisclosed relationship with former CNN flack Allison Gollust. Sources say Zucker sees a big opportunity at CNN ahead of the 2024 presidential election after ex-CEO Chris Licht’s strategy to revamp the network’s programming to appeal to a more centrist audience flopped, sending ratings and ad revenue tumbling.

🏀FRENCH PHENOM HEADED FOR SAN ANTONIO: French basketball star Victor Wembanyama is going to San Antonio. As expected, the Spurs got him as their first pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. He’s widely regarded as the best NBA prospect since LeBron James. The baby-faced 19-year-old, who stands seven foot five, previously played for France’s Metropolitan 92.The Hornets took Brandon Miller of Alabama’s Crimson Tide for the number two pick. Scoot Henderson of the NBA G League Ignite was picked by the Portland Trail Blazers as pick three.
  • CHECK IT OUT: Click here for all of the picks from the first and second rounds of the NBA Draft.
⚾MLB ROYALS 6 RAYS 5: The major league-leading Tampa Bay Rays lost ace Shane McClanahan to mid-back tightness in a 6-5 loss to the lowly Kansas City Royals on Thursday night. McClanahan was looking to become the majors' first 12-game winner of the year before leaving with two outs in the fourth. The left-hander, 11-1 this season, gave up two runs, four hits and two walks in a 66-pitch outing. Maikel Garcia drew a walk from Pete Fairbanks (0-2) to start the ninth, then stole second and third. After Fairbanks got a pair of strikeouts, Garcia scored on MJ Melendez´s infield single down the first-base line to put the Royals ahead 6-5. The Royals stole seven bases overall.

⚾MLB TWINS 6, RED SOX 0: Joe Ryan pitched a three-hitter for Minnesota´s first complete-game shutout in five years and Byron Buxton became the first player in at least nine seasons to hit a pair of 460-foot home runs in a game in a win over Boston. Ryan (8-4) pitched his first complete game in 47 big league starts, striking out nine, walking none. Buxton hit a 466-foot home run in the first inning and a 465-foot drive in the third, his ninth multi-homer game as AL Central-leading Minnesota got back to .500 at 38-38.  Justin Garza (0-2), making his first career start as the Red Sox opener, took the loss.

⚾MLB MARINERS 10, YANKEES 2: Teoscar Hernández hit one of four early homers and Seattle teed off against Domingo Germán in routing New York and avoiding a three-game sweep. Touted rookie Bryan Woo (1-1) breezed into the sixth inning with a no-hit bid to earn his first major league victory. Kolten Wong hit his first home run for the Mariners before Ty France and Cal Raleigh also went deep against Germán (4-5). New York committed three errors in an embarrassing third inning. Germán gave up a career-high 10 runs - eight earned - and eight hits. He threw 93 pitches in 3 1/3 innings as his ERA soared to 5.10.  Reserve utilityman Isiah Kiner-Falefa pitched a perfect ninth inning for the Yankees and then hit a two-run homer in the bottom half.

⚾MLB PADRES 10, GIANTS 0: Manny Machado and Gary Sánchez hit three-run homers and San Diego ended San Francisco's 10-game winning streak. Blake Snell (4-6) won his third straight decision, striking out 11 and allowing three singles in six innings. Snell, García and Ray Kerr combined to retire San Diego´s last 13 batters in the Padres´ eighth shutout this season. Ha-Seong Kim added a solo homer for the Padres, who went 5 for 10 with runners in scoring position. Juan Soto had his fourth straight multi-hit game, going 2 for 3 with a walk and two runs. San Francisco batters struck out 14 times in the Giants´ seventh shutout loss.

⚾MLB SCORES:  
  • Braves 5 Phillies 1
  • D-Backs 5 Nationals 3
  • Guardians 6 Athletics 1
  • Marlins 6 Pirates 4
🏈LSU VACATES THREE YEARS OF WINS: Louisiana State University’s football team will vacate all of its wins from 2012 to 2015 after a review of violations from the NCAA’s Independent Accountability Resolution Panel. That means the Tigers are giving up 37 wins, including two bowl game victories, because offensive lineman Vadal Alexander was ineligible for his entire college career. Alexander was deemed ineligible because his father received embezzled funds from John Paul Funes, who pleaded guilty in 2019 of misusing donations to the Our Lady of the Lake hospital system. LSU self-imposed the penalty last year but it remained confidential until yesterday when the ruling was finalized. The LSU men’s basketball program will serve three years of probation under the ruling.
Vadal Alexander is now a guard for the St. Louis BattleHawks of the XFL.

⚾ACUNA AND OHTANI TOP MLB ALL-STAR FINALISTS: This year’s MLB All-Star vote is underway, and the top vote-getters in round one are Ronald Acuna Junior of the Atlanta Braves for the National League and Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels in the American League. That automatically gets them starting spots in the All-Star Game in Seattle on July 11.CHECK IT OUT: Click here for all the top vote-getters in round one.

🏌McILROY ACES IT AT TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP: Rory McIlroy hit the first hole-in-one of his professional career on the PGA Tour in yesterday’s round one of the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Connecticut. He finished with a 2-under 68, behind leader Denny McCarthy, who was 10-under 60.

➤TORNADO BLASTS MATADOR, TEXAS: A tornado killed at least four people in the north Texas town of Matador as a brutal heat wave continues in the region. The storm system that began late Wednesday caused an unusual mix of tornadoes, hurricane-force winds and softball-sized hail, according to the National Weather Service in Lubbock. The high winds swept through an area stretching from the Texas Panhandle to Houston.
  • In Colorado, a powerful hailstorm forced fans of the British singer-songwriter Louis Tomlinson to run for cover at Red Rocks Park near Denver on Wednesday. Nearly 100 injuries were reported. Six counties in the Denver region remained under a severe thunderstorm warning yesterday.


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