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TSB launching investigation into Polar Prince, support vessel for Titan submersible

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A large blue ship is seen pulling a large, white submersible, floating on the water, in a wide shot of the St. John's harbour.
The Polar Prince is seen here towing out the Titan submersible in St. John’s harbour, in what may be one of the last photos of the vessel before this week’s tragic, final descent. (Kenneth Sharpe/CBC)

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada says it’s launching an investigation into the operation of the Titan submersible by the Polar Prince support vessel off the coast of Newfoundland near the wreckage of the Titanic.

In a media release issued shortly after 4 p.m. NT on Friday, the TSB said the investigation is “in accordance with the Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board Act and international agreements.”

As the investigative authority of Canadian vessels, the TSB said it will conduct “a safety investigation regarding the circumstances of this operation conducted by the Canadian-flagged vessel Polar Prince.”

A team of TSB investigators is in to St. John’s to gather information, conduct interviews and assess the fatal incident that claimed all five lives of the crew members on board the Titan.

“In the coming days, we will co-ordinate our activities with other agencies involved,” the TSB wrote in its release. “This is all the information available at this time. Updates will be provided as the investigation progresses.”

Heading home

All Canadian rescue vessels involved in the search for the lost submersible Titan are now returning to base, after coming to the conclusion on Thursday that the sub and its five crew were lost.

It’s now time for those four Canadian ships to “regenerate search and rescue capability and prepare for future search and rescue events,” reads a statement from the Joint Rescue Command Centre.

The Polar Prince — a Newfoundland vessel tasked with towing the Titan submersible out to sea last weekend — is also coming home, after a harrowing week searching around the Titanic wreckage site.

It had also been carrying family members of some of the five missing crew.

The vessel is majority owned by Miawpukek Horizon, a company founded by the Miawpukek First Nation.

A man wearing a traditional vest with colourful patches and a tan-coloured shirt holds a piece of paper and speaks into a microphone.
Miawpukek First Nation Chief Mi’sel Joe says he wanted to be close to the search. He’s pictured here speaking to reporters at a news conference Wednesday at the waterfront in St. John’s. (CBC)

“It’s going to be rough on the [Polar Prince crew],” said Miawpukek Chief Mi’sel Joe on Friday. “They’re looking after the ship, they’re looking after themselves and they’re looking after the family that’s on board. My heart goes out to them. To all of them. It’s a loss of life, and it’s never easy on family.”

The U.S. coast guard believes the debris field for the Titan was found within 200 metres of the Titanic. It believes the submersible imploded under the pressure of the water on its way down, killing the five men instantly.

“The extent of Canadian assistance with recovery and salvage is currently being discussed,” reads the JRCC statement.

Pain is personal for Mi’kmaq chief

Joe understands the pain more than most. He lost his eight-year-old son in a drowning incident 53 years ago. Joe travelled to St. John’s this week to be close to the search, and couldn’t help but feel the pain of his own loss decades ago.

“I had a feeling of sadness. Heart-wrenching sadness for the family that was out there, and the family that was waiting for them to come home,” he said. “I know how that feels.”

Joe was supposed to be on the Titan for a previous expedition, but had to cancel due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He told CBC News he wasn’t sure if he’d have been able to withstand eight hours crammed inside the small seven-metre submersible, where crew members couldn’t even stand up.

“Now at this stage, I’m thanking my lucky stars that I didn’t do it,” he said.

 

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Trump and Musk solidify their bond with Texas trip for rocket launch

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WASHINGTON (AP) — For two weeks, Donald Trump has welcomed Elon Musk into his world. On Tuesday, it was Musk’s turn to play host to the president-elect.

Trump flew to South Texas to watch as Musk’s SpaceX launched a Starship rocket near the Mexican border. Trump listened intently as the world’s richest man explained how the test would work and demonstrated with a model. And then Trump squinted into the bright sky to watch liftoff.

It didn’t go perfectly -– the reuseable booster did not return to the launch pad as it had done on a previous test last month. Instead, the booster was directed to a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

But Trump’s presence at the launch was a remarkable display of intimacy between the two men, one with implications for American politics, the government, foreign policy and even the possibility of humans reaching Mars.

Musk spent around $200 million to help Trump beat Democrat Kamala Harris in the presidential race, and he’s been given unparalleled access. He’s counseled Trump on nominees for the new administration, joined the president-elect’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and been tapped to co-chair an advisory panel on cutting the size of the federal bureaucracy.

In addition to political influence, Musk could benefit personally as well. SpaceX, his rocket company, has billions of dollars in government contracts and the goal of eventually starting a colony on Mars. He’s also CEO of Tesla, which manufactures electric vehicles, and has battled with regulators over safety concerns involving autonomous driving.

“Trump has the biggest possible regard for people who break the rules and get away with it,” said William Galston, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank. “Musk has demonstrated extraordinary accomplishment in doing that.”

To top if off, Musk owns the social media company X, formally known as Twitter, which he has harnessed as an influential perch to promote Trump and his agenda.

“Stop the Swamp!” he wrote on Tuesday as he shared a warning that entrenched Washington interests are trying to undermine Trump before his inauguration.

Before the election, Musk rejected the idea that he was expecting any favors in return for supporting Trump in the presidential race.

“There is no quid pro quo,” he posted on X in September. “With a Trump administration, we can execute major government reform, remove bureaucratic paperwork that is smothering the country and unlock a new age of prosperity.”

However, Trump has not gone anywhere without Musk in the two weeks since beating Harris. Musk joined Trump at a meeting with House Republicans in Washington and sat next to him at an Ultimate Fighting Championship match in New York. The trip to Texas for the rocket launch was just Trump’s third time outside Florida since the election.

Much of Trump’s activity is happening with little public access for the press. Unlike his predecessors, he has opted against regularly making his travel plans or events open to journalists.

The relationship between Trump and Musk was not always so close.

Two years ago, Trump was mocking Musk in stump speeches and Musk was saying it was time for Trump to “hang up his hat & sail into the sunset.”

“Trump would be 82 at end of term, which is too old to be chief executive of anything, let alone the United States of America,” Musk wrote on social media.

But Musk swiftly endorsed Trump after the former president survived an assassination attempt in July. He quickly became a central figure in Trump’s orbit, appearing at times more like his running mate than Ohio Sen. JD Vance.

Trump started boasting about Musk’s accomplishments at campaign rallies, such as when Starship’s reusable rocket booster returned to the launch tower on a previous occasion and was caught by mechanical arms.

“Those arms grab it like you grab your baby, just like you grab your little baby. And it hugged it and just put it down, and there it was,” Trump said.

Musk was with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort on election night and has spent much of the two weeks since there. Trump’s granddaughter Kai Trump posted a photo of her with Musk at one of Trump’s golf resorts, writing that Musk was “achieving uncle status.”

Last week, Musk appeared in a golden ballroom at Mar-a-Lago, seated in the center of the room as a guest of honor at an event. Trump, in his remarks at the black tie event, said Musk’s IQ is “about as high as they can get” and praised him as “a really good guy.”

“He launched a rocket three weeks ago and then he went to Pennsylvania to campaign because he considered this more important than launching rockets that cost billions of dollars,” Trump said.

He joked about Musk’s constant presence at Mar-a-Lago, saying, “He likes this place. I can’t get him out of here.”

He added, “And you know what, I like having him here.”

Musk said of the election results: “The public has given us a mandate that could not be more clear.”

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Price reported from New York.



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AI photos showing girl students with nude bodies roil private school in Pennsylvania

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Images that depict the faces of girls with nude bodies have led to the departure of leaders from a private school in Pennsylvania, prompted a student protest and triggered a criminal investigation.

A juvenile suspect was “removed from” Lancaster Country Day School and his cellphone was seized by investigators in August, Susquehanna Regional Police Department Detective Laurel Bair said Tuesday.

It’s the latest example of how the use of artificial intelligence to create or manipulate images with sexual content has become a concern, including within school settings.

U.S. law enforcement has been cracking down on graphic depictions of computer-generated children as well as manipulated photos of real ones. The Justice Department says it’s pursuing those who exploit AI tools and states are racing to enact laws to address the problem.

A new Pennsylvania state law that takes effect late next month explicitly criminalizes making or disseminating AI-generated child sexual abuse material.

And police in South Korea are on a seven-month push to combat explicit deepfake content, with tougher penalties, expanded use of undercover officers and increased regulation of social media. Concerns in South Korea deepened after unconfirmed lists of schools with victims spread earlier this year.

As part of the police investigation into what the Lancaster Country Day School describes as “disturbing AI generated photographs,” a search warrant was used this summer to obtain an iPhone 11 linked to a 15-year-old, according to court records. The records do not identify the teen.

A woman told police that her daughter said a fellow student had been “taking photographs of students and using Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to portray the female juvenile students as being nude,” according to a probable cause affidavit used to apply for the search warrant.

Matt Micciche, then the head of the school, told police the school had received a complaint about the photos in November 2023 through the Safe2Say Something program but the suspect, identified by his initials, denied the allegations, according to Bair’s affidavit.

When some parents became aware of the photos in May, Bair wrote, they also learned that the “AI nude photographs” had been posted in a chat room.

Bair, leading the investigation because the suspect lives in the Susquehanna Regional Police Department’s territory, said there has been shock at the school “that this is even occurring and that it happened within their small community.” She declined to say how many girls had been shown in the images but added that more information about the case will likely be made public in the coming two weeks.

Erik Yabor, a spokesperson for Lancaster District Attorney Heather Adams, said Tuesday that Lancaster County prosecutors had no comment about the ongoing investigation.

A spokesperson for Attorney General Michelle Henry’s office said the agency was not able to talk about specific tips or reports made to the Safe2Say Something platform, which fields anonymous reports from students and others about safety threats.

“Generally speaking, our team intakes the tips and sends them to the respective law enforcement or school personnel for review,” Brett Hambright said. “We have confirmed that was done regarding the matter you inquired about.”

LNP in Lancaster reported that most of Lancaster Country Day’s high-school age students held a walkout on Friday, Nov. 8, marching around the campus and chanting, “Hear us. Acknowledge us. See us.” School was canceled on Monday.

LNP said the school indicated on Friday that it had “parted ways” with Micciche and that board president Angela Ang-Alhadeff had stepped down. The Associated Press left phone messages seeking comment with both of them on Tuesday. A letter addressed to the school community Monday by the Lancaster Country Day Board of Trustees said it was working to replace them and was “still in the process of finalizing the resolution to the case.”

“What we can say is that over the course of the past week the board was made aware of information that led us to the decision to resolve the matter,” the board wrote, including acting “in the best interests of the girls who have been impacted and in the best interest of the school long term.”

The school said counseling has been offered to students and the institution is reviewing reporting procedures, safety practices and other policies regarding student safety.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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SpaceX launches giant Starship rocket, but aborts attempt to catch booster with mechanical arms

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SpaceX on Tuesday launched another Starship rocket, but passed up catching the booster with giant mechanical arms.

Unlike last month’s success, the booster was directed to a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. The catch was called off just four minutes into the test flight from Texas for unspecified reasons, and the booster hit the water three minutes later.

Not all of the criteria for a booster catch was met and so the flight director did not command the booster to return to the launch site, said SpaceX spokesman Dan Huot. He did not specifying what went wrong.

At the same time, the empty spacecraft launched from Texas atop Starship soared across the Gulf of Mexico on a near loop around the world similar to October’s test flight. Skimming space, the shiny retro-looking craft targeted the Indian Ocean for a controlled but destructive end to the hourlong demo.

It was the latest test for the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket that SpaceX and NASA hope to use to get astronauts back on the moon and eventually Mars.

SpaceX kept the same flight path as last time, but changed some steps along the way as well as the time of day. Starship blasted off in late afternoon instead of early morning to ensure daylight halfway around the world for observing the spacecraft’s descent.

Among the new objectives: igniting one of the spacecraft’s engines in space, which would be necessary when returning from orbit. There were also thermal protection experiments aboard the spacecraft, with some areas stripped of heat tiles to see whether catch mechanisms might work there on future flights. Even more upgrades are planned for the next test flight.

Donald Trump flew in for the launch in the latest sign of a deepening bond between the president-elect and Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO.

SpaceX wants to eventually return and reuse the entire 400-foot (121-meter) Starship. Full-scale recycling would drive down the cost of hauling cargo and people to the moon and Mars, while speeding things up. The recycling of SpaceX’s Falcon rockets flying out of Florida and California has already saved the company time and money.

NASA is paying SpaceX more than $4 billion to land astronauts on the moon via Starship on back-to-back missions later this decade. Musk envisions launching a fleet of Starships to build a city one day on Mars.

This was the sixth launch of a fully assembled Starship since 2023. The first three ended up exploding.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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