Now let’s talk about titan, the submarine that dove into the titan red site on sunday and went missing. I told you about this this week and now there’s an update and unfortunate one i’m afraid. The submarine imploded in the depths of the atlantic ocean with all five people on board. What’s worse, reports in the us view within 24 hours of disappearance that the submarine had imploded and is a chorus of experts claiming that this was an accident waiting to happen here’s one.
This is the titan submarine. It embarked on a 4,000 meter dive to the titanic shipwreck on sunday last week with five crew members on board including a british billionaire and a french adventurer. But within two hours of this dive, the submarine vanished. It had gone missing, all communication suddenly stopped and no further sign of life was detected. This led to a days long search and rescue operation until today’s grim discovery. The submarine faced a catastrophic implosion and all five crew members have died. 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 sea floor. The rov subsequently found additional debris in consultation with experts from within the unified command. The debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber. Family members were informed there had been no survivors, but the bodies of the deceased crew members may never be found. And as the world continues to grieve and tributes pour in, ocean gate is under fire. Titan submarine is owned by ocean gate, a private company that offers an expedition to the wreck of the titanic for $250,000 a seat. And this is what the co-founder had to see. Well, i can’t speculate on what’s going on currently right now. What i do know is regardless of the sub, when you’re operating at depths like 3,800 meters down, the pressure is so great on any sub that if there is a failure, it would be an instantaneous implosion. And so that if that’s what happened, that’s what would have happened four days ago.
Now investigation is still underway, but one person says that the us already knew that the sub had imploded. We are talking about hollywood filmmaker james cameron, the director of the 1997 oscar winning film titanic. He claims to have received the information within 24 hours of the disappearance, saying that the submersible had imploded when it lost communication with its mothership. Listen in. We got confirmation within an hour that there had been a loud bang at the same time that the sub was that’s comms were lost. A loud bang on the hydrophones, loss of transducer or transponder, loss of comms. I knew what happened. Sub imploded. I sent emails to everybody. I know i said we’ve lost some friends. The sub is imploded. It’s on the bottom in pieces right now. I sent that out monday morning. His statement comes after reports claim something similar that secret us navy underwater microphones detected the titan sub’s implosion several days ago. But more than questions about rescue secrecy, there are questions about safety. There is a long list of concerns about the company’s safety record.
There is a lawsuit, a letter from industry leaders and comments from the company’s own ceo, one of the missing crewmen. All of these point to potential issues with the titan submersible. So while the investigation brings conclusive results and issues are overcome, scientists have urged to halt titanic trips. We need to put a stop to all trips to the titanic. This is what we did when a shuttle challenger exploded. We shut down the entire us space program. We need to do at least that now. Whether we find the vessel and determine what went wrong with this vessel. The question is after the titan tragedy, will explorers continue to embark upon their misguided adventures sealed in the ocean gate submarines? Let’s start our next story with a question or a few questions. Have you ever taken an exam that you were not prepared for? One for which you do not study enough. And just before that exam begins, you send a desperate plea to the heavens above, hoping for some divine intervention, praying that the gods bail you out just this once. If you identify with this, then you will understand the plight of the chinese. Why? Because there has been a sudden spike in religiosity among them, especially the youth. Young people in china are flocking to temples. Is this for faith? The chinese are facing a slew of troubles. The biggest being economic slowdown. The after effects of the pandemic and rising unemployment. So naturally, young chinese adults are anxious. They have degrees with them, but no jobs. The youth unemployment rate rose to more than 18% in the first two months of this year. And despite the xi government trying to put a spin on it, the existential anxiety among the youngest only growing. What’s unique about this situation? After all, no one seeks out god more than the trouble. The deeper the crisis, the more fervent your prayers, most of us have been there. But china is a unique case because the chinese communist party, which rules this country, is officially atheist. So god is persona non grata for them. The state does recognize five religions though, buddhism, taoism, islam, catholicism and protestantism. But china is among the world’s least religious countries. It has the most number of non-believers, almost close to one billion. But the chinese to be turning to god in their moment of crisis is not a routine matter. What has changed, you may ask. After china reopened and dropped its stringent covid lockdown rules, both this and taoist temples have become a popular destination for the young. And temples anywhere in the world are usually not youth hotspots. But disillusioned chinese are hot footing it to these places of worship in search of solace. People hopping in china is now a trendy activity. The lama temple, or yongi palace in beijing, is a tibetan buddhist temple. It is now among the most visited in the country. The lama temple sees a football of around 40,000 visitors every day. This has been happening since early march. And it’s not an isolated case. Compared to last year, visits to temples across china have surged by more than 300% in 2023. What’s more, millennials and gen z make up half of these numbers. Remember, most of them would have had an atheist or marxist education. So it’s going against the grain. Meanwhile, temples are now wooing the young. Some have opened one of a kind coffee shops inside their premises. Others offer immersive experiences with the help of meta-mursing ai technologies. It’s not like the youth are looking to become monks or nuns though. What they’re looking for is an antidote to the pressures of life. And religion seems to be providing them a safe haven. For the unemployed young chinese adults, life seems to be stuck in buffering. With the xi government and its policies letting them down, they’re now looking for some cosmic support to intercede on their behalf or at the very least lend a patient here. So is china retrospectively legitimizing god? So the chinese communist party’s public disavowal of god to the youth’s newfound theological love.
It is quite a leap of faith. In march, the beijing news published an opare. It urged the youth to work harder at their jobs rather than train to deities. The state media have also criticized so-called buddhist socialities for allegedly flaunting their wealth at temples. But this has not stopped the religious awakening of china’s millennials and gen z. They suddenly love for everything god adjacent. It’s not simply a matter of experience though. It seems more like a shield for the youth in the battlefield of modern life. So temple run is likely to continue in jobless china. Speaking of economic challenges, let’s talk about turkey. President rachapar perivdwan is having a change of heart and ankara has taken a major u-turn. What are we talking about? Let’s start with the latest. Turkey’s central bank has raised interest rates from 8.5% to 15%. That’s almost double. It’s the first rate hike since december 2020. It has caught both the market and experts by surprise. The size of the rate hike was not expected although the direction was expected because after mahehmei shumshik was appointed when he mentions that there is nothing but to return to rationality, there is going to be transparency and consistency. We assume that turn to rationality implied a turn to orthodox policies. And with a 40% inflation, if you want to implement orthodox policies, what you have to do is tight monetary policy. Basically the central bank in turkey has made borrowing more expensive. You just talked about it. The higher the interest rate, the more expensive borrowing becomes. This is simple economics. The bank says this is a gradual process to bring down inflation and to bring it down to 5%, which is quite an ambitious target. But why is ankara doing all of this and all of a sudden? I’ll give you some context. Turkey’s economy is in a mess and it’s been like that for quite a while now, especially under president erdogan. Inflation, unemployment, weakening currency, it’s all breaking records. Look at the numbers. As of may this year, inflation was more than 39%. At its peak last year, it was more than 85%. The highest in 24 years, 85% inflation, unemployment was more than 10% in april this year, april 2023. And turkey’s currency, the lira, has lost more than 80% of its value against the us dollar in the last five years. The economic crisis in the country is severe to say the least. Next question. How did they end up here? Time for a story. You see the two e’s of turkey, erdogan and economy have had a love hate relationship. When he became prime minister in the year 2002, erdogan inherited a broken economy. Gradually, he tried to fix it. The result was this. Poverty and unemployment plunged. Inflation that was once in triple digits came down to 5%. And this helped him gain popularity over the years. But then things changed. Erdogan changed. After 2016, he was the president of turkey then in 2016 to a coup attempt to overthrow him was spoiled. An emergency was imposed. And if around this time, the things began going south for the economy. Analysts call it a whole of its own making.
In fact, economy had become such a big issue, even in the elections this year, the one which erdogan won only narrowly. Voters had little hope that things would change if he came back to power. I’m not sure what to expect. I think things will get worse because foreign currency and gold prices are on the rise and the economy is bad. It won’t be a problem for the rich, but life will become more difficult for those with lower incomes and pensioners. And now he’s back in power and he’s trying to undo the damage he did to the economy, which brings me to the next question. What did erdogan do to the economy? Simply put, lack of planning and excessive control, excessive control on the central bank. You see, the central bank is responsible for monitoring and keeping all key economic metrics under control. When things go south, this bank tries to take measures to contain. Let’s take the current example. To contain inflation, you’re hiking interest rates. This is the conventional wisdom. You make borrowing expensive. The circulation of currency falls. So demand and prices of goods goes down. Eventually, inflation goes down. To tackle high inflation, hiking interest rates is a key starting point. But what did turkey do? The exact opposite. When inflation was rising in the country, they cut interest rates. From 19% in 2021, they lowered rates to 8.5% in march. Why? Because erdogan, apparently he hates the idea of hiking interest rates. He calls himself an enemy of this idea. And rising rates, quote unquote, the mother of all evil. So he tried solving inflation by cutting interest rates. And because erdogan believed in that, he forced the central bank to play ball. Hence the mess. Now he’s taking a u-turn to clean up this mess. And he’s looking for allies who will help him out. Meet mehimat simsek, an economist and former deputy prime minister of turkey. He’s from erdogan’s party. And he’s been handpicked as finance minister to get the economy back and track. His appointment has raised eyebrows because he believes that everything that erdogan is against. Perhaps the president realizes how great the situation is, which is why he’s given this man and the central bank a free hand. But turkey’s problems won’t go away immediately. It will take time to fix what the president broke. Biden may be basking in the success of prime minister modi’s visit. As it wraps up today, he’ll have to work on his domestic challenges and top of the list is economy. The last few months have been all about the economy in the us. You may remember the debt ceiling drama. Only last month, president biden had to cancel the court summit to deal with the debt ceiling issue. So economy is clearly one of his bigger challenges. They have been fears of recession in america. The projections differ, but they all point to one direction. The pain is not going away in a hurry. When biden met the press after holding talks with prime minister modi, he did not waste the opportunity to highlight what he’s doing about it and how engagements with india will help america and american families.
For example, the air india deal with going. It could create one million american jobs across 44 states. Biden’s message for the middle class and his core water base is clear. He was trying to work for them. They’ve suffered the worst of america’s economic pressures for months. There was crippling inflation in the us. Everything was getting more and more expensive. That seems to have cooled off for now. Ex are cheaper. So is gas. But does that mean the worst is over? The us fed chair says no, it’s not. That’s the head of their central bank. This is what he said. Biden has moderated somewhat since the middle of last year. Nonetheless, inflation pressures continue to run high and the process of getting inflation back down to 2% has a long way to go. This has been a long battle for the us federal reserve. They have raised interest rates multiple times, 10 hikes in 14 months. And that’s a lot. Central banks hike interest rates to cool the economy. How does that work? The more interest rates mean higher borrowing costs. So consumer will immediately spend less and one spending falls, demand falls too. And it leads to a dip in the price of everyday goods. So lower inflation. Now for the us fed, the hikes were a desperate attempt in attempt to get prices back to normal. They may have skipped one rate high last week, but the war is not over yet. What does that mean? They simply put there could be more rate hikes in america in the month of may. Us inflation rate was 4.1%. That’s the lowest it has been since march 2021. But it remains nearly double of 2%. 2% is the rate that the fed considers healthy 2% inflation. Right now it’s more than double of that. Now it has eased a bit, but there’s another problem that persists. The crisis within the housing sector commercial real estate is struggling in america. Thousands of offices are empty in top cities, the lights of new york los angeles and san francisco. Going by one claim in new york alone, vacant office space could fill more than 26 empire state buildings. The golden days of buying and flipping houses for money is also over. Investors are losing money on one in every seven homes that they sell. Imagine that one in seven. It’s the highest rates in 2016. Also why are so many offices empty? Because people are not coming back to work. So workplaces are ending their leases and moving to smaller offices. The us economy is losing steam and it did not happen overnight. A series of events led to this. At the beginning of this year, multiple american banks failed. We’ve been telling you about this. Then came the layoffs. The tech industry, which is a key economic driver slash jobs by the thousands. The us stock market has flat lines. So everyone is nervous. President biden needs to revive the spirits. And that’s why he needs india for the big ticket orders and to shore up his own economic record. And i know it sounds ironic. The world’s biggest economy needs a hand from a developing power. But that’s what it has come down to. You need steady friends sometimes to get through the hard times. Meanwhile, a few as diplomatic standoff has broken out between australia and russia, a russian diplomat is squatting just next to the australian parliament house is occupying land meant for a new russian embassy in canberra. The land is just a stone throw away from the parliament and on it stands a small box like structure, which is where the russian diplomat is living. He refuses to leave and tensions between moscow and canberra are escalating. Australia is pushing for a new law in fact to resolve all of this because the mysterious russian diplomats presence has not just sparked off a diplomatic face off, but also a national security concern. Our next report tells you more. This is the site where a new russian embassy was supposed to be built in australia’s capital of canberra. Today, it wears a deserted look. There’s not much activity around here, except for a lone russian wolf, a russian diplomat who is squatting on the land and the small building like structure it houses. He is seen emerging out of the building occasionally for smokes. And while this is just one russian man, he has sparked a wider diplomatic standoff between australia and russia. Apparently, he is protesting australia’s decision to scrap a lease agreement with moscow, one that allowed the russians to build a new embassy at the site. Australia had granted the land to russia on a lease in 2008. Here’s how australia’s prime minister anthony albenizi has described the man. The national security threat that was represented by a russian embassy on site are not the same as some bloke standing on a blader grass on the site that we don’t see really as a threat to our national security. A bloke. That’s how anthony albenizi described the russian diplomat. But prime minister albenizi might just be underestimating the threat this russian diplomat poses. You see, the man enjoys diplomatic immunity, which means australia cannot take action against his squatting. And if it does, that would trigger an unprecedented diplomatic crisis with russia.
Moscow could respond in a number of ways, expelling australian diplomats or even snapping diplomatic ties with australia altogether. Because remember, russia isn’t very happy about what’s happening in canberra. Here’s what kremlin spokesperson, the mithri pescov said and i quote, unfortunately for us, australia continues to move zealously in the wake of the authors of the russo-fobic hysteria that is now going on in the countries of the collective west. Australia is trying to be a standout amongst these countries. This is yet another unfriendly action by australia. We will take that into account. If there are any issues that would need cooperation, we will behave accordingly. Russia has also approached australia’s high court. It is challenging the australian government’s plan to pass laws that would prohibit moscow from building the embassy. In its appeal, russia claims it has already spent $5.5 million on construction of the new embassy. But the australian government seems confident, saying russia is acting as expected. Russia’s primary argument is that australia is breaking the law. Here’s how australia’s prime minister reacted to that allegation. We don’t expect that russia is in a position to talk about international law given their ejection of it so consistently and so brazenly with their invasion of ukraine. But why is australia so concerned about a russian embassy? It says the russian embassy would pose a threat to australia’s national security. Considering how close the embassy is to the parliament. The principal problem with the proposed second russian embassy in canberra is its location. This location sits directly adjacent to parliament house. The government has received clear national security advice that this would be a threat to our national security. That is why the government is acting decisively today to bring this long-standing matter to a close. The fear is that russia will use the embassy to spy on australian lawmakers. As for the man squatting on the land, australia’s police is hesitant to act. How the legal battle between australia and russia plays out remains to be seen. But australia’s decision to scrap the embassy leaves and the emergence of a russian squatter have certainly raised tempers in both moscow as well as canberra. And now it’s time for vantage shots. Images that tell the story. Ahead of hodge pilgrims performed friday prayers at mecca’s grand mosque in saudi arabia.