Search for sub enters desperation phase, India PM Modi's visit in context: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Search for sub enters desperation phase with final hours of oxygen remaining

The search for the missing Titanic sub has entered a desperation phase with the final hours of oxygen remaining, USA TODAY Politics Intern Miles Herszenhorn puts Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trip to Washington in context, Justice Samuel Alito is wrapped in the Supreme Court's latest ethics controversy, the FTC sues Amazon, and Gannett sues Google.

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Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Thursday, the 22nd of June 2023. Today, rescue efforts ramp up for the missing submersible with just hours of potential oxygen remaining. Plus, India's Prime Minister visits Washington, and there's a new ethics revelation on the Supreme Court.

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Rescue efforts to find the missing submersible and the five people on board in the North Atlantic are entering a final phase of desperation this morning. The vessel only has hours of oxygen remaining. When it set off around 6:00 AM on Sunday, the crew had a four-day supply of oxygen. That would expire at some point early this morning. Efforts in the search's final hours have shifted toward trying to prepare remotely-operated robots to explore the ocean's depths. The US Navy said in a statement yesterday that it was sending a specialized salvage system capable of hoisting heavy undersea objects like airplanes. And a French vessel has brought a deep sea robot that was expected to deploy early this morning. Maybe the biggest development this week came when a Canadian aircraft reported hearing a banging sound every 30 minutes. Though the sound has been difficult to place.

Meanwhile, we're learning just how dangerous the submersible was in the first place. I spoke with USA TODAY National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise for more. Welcome back to the show, Beth.

Elizabeth Weise:

Happy to be here as always.

Taylor Wilson:

You write that this missing submersible was surrounded by transparently extreme danger. Strong words. What kinds of risks are we talking about, Beth?

Elizabeth Weise:

You're going down that far, I mean, the pressure is such that you would be instantly crushed. There's no oxygen. You're not tethered to the surface. It's an experimental vessel, and it hasn't been through any sort of safety regulations. So you would only do this if you wanted an extreme experience and you were willing to put yourself in harm's way to get it.

Taylor Wilson:

There have been several lawsuits surrounding this company, OceanGate. What did these suits center on?

Elizabeth Weise:

The one that I found most interesting is from 2018, and this is where OceanGate's former Director of Marine Operations David Lochridge, he had complained about safety issues, and he was sued by OceanGate and then he countersued them back. And in his countersuit he named a bunch of serious safety concerns. This vessel has this 12 inch viewport, and his countersuit said that it had only been certified to a pressure of 1,300 meters, even though it was going to go down to 4,000 meters. So if the viewport buckles under the pressure it fills with water, so he was very concerned. He made these concerns known to the company, and then he was fired and given 10 minutes to clear out his desk. The suit, and then the counterclaim, were dismissed in November of 2018 after both parties settled, but we don't know what that settlement was.

Taylor Wilson:

And, Beth, adventurers die on expeditions every year. You mentioned Mount Everest in this piece. Is there a way that we as a society can better educate each other of these types of risks? Or is this just a matter of personal responsibility?

Elizabeth Weise:

There is a big difference between going on a kayaking trip and climbing Mount Everest, or going up into space or going in a experimental submersible deep at the bottom of the ocean. We spoke to Alan Fyall, who is a director of tourism marketing at the University of Central Florida, and he said there's two things that happen. One is just that people, when they go on vacation, I mean, and you're kind of in this hopefully relaxed zone where you try new things. I mean, I don't go ziplining every day at home, but I might do a zipline if I'm in Hawaii. So people are willing to eat different things, go different places, do things they normally don't do when they're on vacation. So there's a little bit of this kind of, "Well, I'm in vacation-mode. I'm open to new experiences." But that's really different from these kinds of super expensive, super extreme experiences. These things cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is not something that most people hearing this are ever going to do, but the professor in Florida said that that's part of the draw. It's something that very few people will ever do, and they know that it is potentially life-threatening and to a certain extent, that's part of the thrill.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, Elizabeth Weise, thanks as always.

Elizabeth Weise:

Happy to be here.

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Taylor Wilson:

President Joe Biden and congressional leaders will welcome Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi today. The right-wing Hindu nationalist leader is in the US for an official state visit. US officials have stressed the importance of the country's relationship with India, but Modi himself is a controversial figure. I spoke with USA TODAY Politics Intern Miles Herszenhorn for more. Thanks for hopping on 5 Things, Miles.

Miles Herszenhorn:

Happy to be here. Thank you.

Taylor Wilson:

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting Washington today. What does he have planned during the visit?

Miles Herszenhorn:

Prime Minister Modi arrived in Washington yesterday evening, where he met with President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden. But the big affair is today when he delivers an address to a joint session of Congress and later has a state dinner at the White House with President Biden.

Taylor Wilson:

Why is the US relationship with India so strategically important?

Miles Herszenhorn:

It's important to remember the context behind Prime Minister Modi's visit. Just last weekend US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in China where he met with many senior Chinese officials, including President Xi. The United States has been looking to counter China's influence for quite some time, viewing China as a major global superpower. So Prime Minister Modi's visit to Washington is a clear attempt by the Biden administration to strengthen those ties with India in order to counter China's rising influence.

Taylor Wilson:

And, Miles, do Democrats and Republicans stateside differ at all with what they want the US-India relationship to look like?

Miles Herszenhorn:

Actually on this issue, Democrats and Republicans are aligned in the sense that they both agree that the United States needs to do more to counter China's rising influence in the world. And they believe that a strong partnership with India can go a long way to countering that, both from a political standpoint, but also from an economic standpoint.

While for the most part Democrats and Republicans are aligned on the importance of Prime Minister Modi's visit to Washington and forging the stronger ties. Notably Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a progressive Democrat, said that she'll be boycotting the joint address to Congress today because of concerns about Prime Minister Modi's record on human rights.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah. So piggybacking off of that, Modi is a controversial figure both in India and abroad. Can you just outline some of the major criticisms of him?

Miles Herszenhorn:

There are a few major criticisms. Many have drawn attention to human rights abuses in India, specifically in the Indian controlled Kashmir, but also there have been criticisms of a rollback of democracy under Prime Minister Modi's tenure. There are serious concerns about a rollback of democracy in India, and there are really strong concerns about press freedoms.

Taylor Wilson:

Miles Herszenhorn, thanks so much.

Miles Herszenhorn:

Of course, thank you.

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Taylor Wilson:

It's the latest in a series of ethics revelations involving the Supreme Court. Justice Samuel Alito acknowledged this week that he flew to Alaska for a fishing trip on a private jet in 2008 that belonged to a hedge fund manager who repeatedly brought cases before the High Court. Alito, who's one of the court's most senior conservative justices, defended the trip in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, which itself was a response to a ProPublica piece. ProPublica reported that Alito accepted the Alaska flight from Paul Singer, a billionaire whose entities went before the court at least 10 times in recent years. Alito did not disclose the jet travel and did not recuse himself from cases tied to Singer. The latest revelations follow a series of stories in ProPublica earlier this year, revealing private jet trips and luxury yacht travel that Justice Clarence Thomas accepted from GOP donor Harlan Crow. ProPublica reported that Crow also purchased property from Thomas and his family, none of which was reported on annual disclosure forms.

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The Federal Trade Commission sued Amazon yesterday for allegedly engaging in a years-long effort to enroll customers without consent into Amazon Prime and making it difficult for them to cancel their subscriptions. In the complaint, the agency accused Amazon of using deceptive designs known as "dark patterns" to deceive customers into enrolling in Prime. The FTC argues that Amazon's practices violated the FTC Act and a law called the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act, which Amazon disputed.

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And on the same beat but closer to home, our parent company, Gannett, has filed a lawsuit in federal court against Google for the monopolization of advertising technology markets and deceptive commercial practices. In an op-ed, Gannett CEO and Chairman Mike Reed wrote that the suit, "seeks to restore fair competition in a digital advertising marketplace that Google has demolished." The US Department of Justice filed its own ad tech lawsuit against Google earlier this year, and last week the European Union's Competition Authority filed a related ad tech case. Both the DOJ and EU are seeking a breakup of Google's ad tech business, in addition to monetary damages and fines.

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us every day of the week right here, wherever you get your audio. And if you have any comments, you can reach us at podcasts@usatoday.com. I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sub search enters critical stage, FTC sues Amazon: 5 Things podcast