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OceanGate Expeditions listed a job posting for a submersible pilot on its web site while a frantic search and rescue mission was underway for five missing tourists in the doomed Titan bound for the Titanic wreckage site. Social media was abuzz on Friday after screenshots of the ad, which was posted before the Coast Guard announced on Thursday that all five people aboard the Titan had perished, were widely circulated. OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush was among the five people who died in the Titan submersible. The passengers included 61-year-old OceanGate boss, Rush, as well as Titanic specialist Paul-Henri Nargeolet, UK billionaire explorer Hamish Harding and Pakistani billionaire and mogul Shanzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Sulaiman. Filed under missing titanic sub , social media , TikTok , twitter , 6/23/23.

Warnings over the safety of OceanGate’s Titan submersible were repeatedly dismissed by the CEO of the company, email exchanges with a leading deep sea exploration specialist show. In messages seen by the BBC, Rob McCallum told OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush that he was potentially putting his clients at risk and urged him to stop using the sub until it had been classified by an independent body. Mr McCallum told the BBC that he repeatedly urged the company to seek certification for the Titan before using it for commercial tours. Mr Rush founded OceanGate in 2009 and the company offered customers a chance to experience deep sea travel, including to the wreck of the Titanic, on board Titan for a price of $250,000. Experts have questioned the safety of Titan and how private sector deep-sea expeditions are regulated.

Enormous crowds of worshippers thronged Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, on Friday for the biggest hajj pilgrimage in years, with more than two million expected to brave the scorching Saudi Arabian heat. The hajj is among the five pillars of Islam and must be undertaken by all Muslims with the means at least once in their lives. The hajj rituals begin late Sunday at the Grand Mosque in Mecca. The hajj and year-round umrah rituals generate an estimated $12 billion annually. Umer Karim, a doctoral researcher focusing on Saudi foreign policy at Britain’s University of Birmingham, said hosting the hajj is a matter of prestige and a source of political legitimacy for Saudi rulers, the custodians of the holy sites.

California is partnering with Mexico to help find professional boxers owed pensions from a little-known state retirement plan, with two dozen former fighters located in recent weeks and pledges to identify more. The efforts follow a Times investigation that found most boxers owed benefits from the California Professional Boxers’ Pension Plan were unaware that the 40-year-old program existed or had little information about how to apply. The California State Athletic Commission, which administers the pension plan, said it estimates that at least a quarter of the 200 boxers currently owed benefits had a last known address in Mexico. Officials with the Consulate General of Mexico in San Diego and Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they are helping California locate boxers using identity documents filed in Mexico and abroad to ensure those entitled to money receive it. The World Boxing Council, which is in Mexico City, is also working with the athletic commission to find boxers who are owed pensions.