Cameron on the submersible:Â Director James Cameron, who made the movie “Titanic” and has made 33 dives in submersibles to visit the Titanic’s wreckage at the bottom of the North Atlantic, says there were fatal flaws in the construction of the submersible Titan, which imploded during a dive to the Titanic’s wreckage on Sunday killing all five on board. Cameron says that chief among the flaws is that it was made using carbon fiber material, which he says may be fine for airplanes but does not have the strength needed for repeated dives to depths such as where the wreckage of the Titanic lies. The Coast Guard reported that five major pieces of the submersible were seen on the ocean floor near the Titanic.
Section of I-95 reopening:Â A temporarily rebuilt section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia was scheduled to be opened to traffic at noon today, ahead of the previously announced planned weekend opening. An elevated section of the highway collapsed on June 11 when a tanker truck caught fire underneath it and the heat from the fire weakened the steel holding up the roadway. There were fears that the interstate would be closed in Philadelphia for months, disrupting travel and deliveries along the East Coast.
3M in PFAS settlement:Â 3M, based in St. Paul, Minnesota, has agreed to pay up to $10.3 billion over the next 13 years in a settlement of lawsuits filed by several water companies. The money will help public water systems eliminate contamination from PFAS chemicals. The fluorocarbon chemicals do not degrade and have been detected in drinking water. 3M has been one of the manufacturers of the chemicals that have been used in the manufacture of products such as nonstick cookware, packaging and firefighting foam. Mike Roman, 3M’s chairman and CEO, said that 3M will cease all PFAS production by the end of 2025.
Modi’s visit: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ends his visit to Washington today. There was a state dinner in his honor at the White House last night. The Biden Administration has been criticized, as was the Trump Administration before it, for supporting Modi. He has been chipping way at democracy in India to increase his own power. He has engaged in human rights violations, attemped to eliminate the free press and sided with Russia in its war against Ukraine.
Mercenary rebels:Â The head of a mercenary force Russia hired to fight in Ukraine, Yevgeny Prigozhin, accuses Russia’s top military leaders of lying to President Vladimir Putin and the Russian people about Russia’s casualties and progress in the war. Prigozhin is refusing to follow an order to sign a new contract with Russia’s Defense Ministry that would keep his forces fighting on Russia’s side in Ukraine.
Defamation lawsuit:Â Stephen Richer, a Republican election official in Arizona’s Maricopa County, has filed a defamation lawsuit against Republican Kari Lake, who was defeated for governor in 2022. He accuses Lake, her campaign organization, and a nonprofit that supported Lake of falsely claiming that he sabotaged the election to cause her and other Republican candidates to lose.
Cover photo by Gage Skidmore / Flickr Creative Commons
