10 things you need to know today: June 20, 2023

A TV shows Secretary of State Antony Blinken meeting with China&#039;s President Xi Jinping

Antony Blinken talked with Xi Jinping for about 35 minutes

(Image credit: GREG BAKER / AFP via Getty Images)

Jump to category:

1. Tourist submersible missing on dive to Titanic wreck site
2. Blinken, Xi talks yield 'progress'
3. Russia starts new trial for jailed opposition leader Navalny
4. Trump tells Fox News' Bret Baier he was too busy to return classified documents
5. 5 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes after West Bank raid
6. Judge orders Trump not to disclose sensitive information
7. British lawmakers endorse report saying Boris Johnson lied about Partygate
8. IndiGo airline makes record order for Airbus planes
9. 1.5 million lose Medicaid coverage
10. Tropical Storm Bret heads toward Caribbean islands

By Harold Maass, The Week US

published 20 June 2023

1. Tourist submersible missing on dive to Titanic wreck site

The Canadian and U.S. coast guards launched a rescue mission Monday after a submarine on a tourism expedition went missing on a dive to see the wreckage of the Titanic about 435 miles off the southeastern coast of Canada, and about 900 miles off Cape Cod. The vessel carries a four-day oxygen supply. OceanGate Expeditions, which operates the Titanic trips, said it was "mobilizing all options" to rescue the vessel, which has five people on board, including British billionaire Hamish Harding. The U.S. Coast Guard said the mother ship lost contact with the submersible Sunday about an hour and 45 minutes into its dive to the Titanic wreckage, in water 13,000 feet deep.

China and the United States said Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese President Xi Jinping made "progress" toward easing tensions between Washington and Beijing, agreeing to stabilize relations but falling short of a breakthrough on opening military communication lines. Blinken talked with Xi for about 35 minutes in the Chinese capital on the second and final day of his trip to China, the first by a top official in the Biden administration. Blinken said the U.S. and China, which have clashed over Taiwan, the South China Sea, trade, and other issues, still have work ahead to keep relations from spiraling into conflict. "We have no illusions about the challenges of managing this relationship," Blinken said.

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Russia on Monday started a new trial against jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is serving a nine-year sentence for parole violations and now faces allegations of extremism that could keep him imprisoned for up to 30 more years. Navalny is accused of creating an extremist network and financing extremist activities. Navalny, 47, a leading critic of President Vladimir Putin, was arrested in 2021 after returning from Germany, where he was treated after a poison attack he blamed on Russia. The Kremlin denied involvement, but the investigative outlet Bellingcat and Russian news site The Insider published a 2020 report implicating Russian agents. The new trial comes as Moscow intensifies a crackdown on Putin critics following Russia's Ukraine invasion.

Former President Donald Trump acknowledged Monday in an interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier that he kept classified documents after the National Archives asked for them back. Trump, facing a 37-count indictment accusing him of willfully hoarding and hiding national security secrets, did not deny asking employees to falsely claim he had returned all the records. "Before I send boxes over, I have to take all of my things out," Trump told Baier. "These boxes were interspersed with all sorts of things," like "golf shirts, clothing, pants, shoes... And I was very busy." Trump also clashed with Baier over his false 2020 election claims and insisted that while many former officials in his administration oppose his reelection, more "love" him.

Israeli forces clashed with Palestinian militants in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Monday. At least five Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded, Palestinian health officials said. Seven members of the Israeli security forces were wounded. Israeli soldiers were conducting an arrest raid targeting Palestinians suspected of recent attacks against Israelis when a powerful explosive device and other weapons disabled several Israeli armored vehicles near Jenin. Israel then sent in an Apache attack helicopter that fired on Palestinian gunmen as other Israeli forces worked on getting the damaged vehicles out. Experts said this appeared to be the first deployment of an Israeli helicopter gunship in the West Bank since the second Palestinian uprising two decades ago.

A federal judge on Monday ordered former President Donald Trump not to disclose any sensitive information in connection with the criminal charges filed against him over his handling of classified documents. Special counsel Jack Smith had requested the protective order to safeguard government secrets as the case is prosecuted. Smith wanted to make sure that neither Trump nor his co-defendant, his valet Walt Nauta, disclose any sensitive information their legal teams get hold of during the discovery process, when prosecutors will have to share evidence with the defense. Under the order, only people involved in Trump's defense or otherwise authorized by the court can have access to the material.

Britain's House of Commons on Monday voted overwhelmingly, 354 to 7, to endorse a committee report that concluded former Prime Minister Boris Johnson lied to lawmakers about parties in his office that violated his own pandemic lockdown policies. The censure over the so-called Partygate scandal strips Johnson of his lifetime access to Parliament. Theresa May, Johnson's predecessor as prime minister and a fellow Conservative, said it was "important to show the public that there is not one rule for them and another for us." House of Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt, also a Conservative like Johnson, said before the vote that lawmakers should "do what they think is right." "This matters because the integrity of our institutions matter," she said. Johnson has denied intentionally misleading Parliament.

Indian airline IndiGo announced a record order for 500 Airbus A320 aircraft on Monday on the first day of the Paris Airshow. The deal, valued at $55 billion before adjusting for bulk order discounts, would be the biggest single airline purchase in history. With the new order, IndiGo has committed to buying 1,330 planes from Airbus, the European rival of U.S. aircraft maker Boeing. IndiGo said the new planes would help it reduce its operating costs and increase the fuel efficiency of its fleet. India is the fastest growing G-20 economy, and its airline market, with a rush of first-time flyers since pandemic restrictions ended, could soon replace China as the industry's main source of growth.

About 1.5 million people have lost Medicaid health coverage in recent weeks as some states cut back now that the coronavirus public health emergency is over. Most of those who have lost coverage were dropped because they didn't complete paperwork for a required eligibility review. The Biden administration said it was wrong to deprive so many people of coverage in such a short period. The biggest cuts have come in Florida, which has dropped several hundred thousand people. Half of those dropped in May were in Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia.

Tropical Storm Bret, the second named storm of this summer's hurricane season, formed over the central Atlantic Ocean on Monday and could intensify to hurricane strength by Wednesday. Bret's top sustained winds were 40 miles per hour early Tuesday. It is barreling west toward the eastern Caribbean. The storm is expected to hit the Lesser Antilles on Thursday or Friday as a hurricane, bringing a risk of flooding from heavy rainfall, hurricane-force winds, and dangerous storm surge and waves. People in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands also were urged to prepare for a possible strike. Forecasters said it was too early to predict where Bret might be headed after that.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.