June 20, Tuesday, 2023

1. The meteorological agencies of the United Nations and the European Union say 2022 was the warmest year on record for many countries in Europe. On Monday, the World Meteorological Organization and the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service released a report on the state of the climate in Europe last year. The report says in 2022 Europe’s average temperature was about 2.3 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average.
2. US and Canadian rescuers are searching for a missing submersible carrying five people on a tour of the Titanic shipwreck. In 1912, about 1,500 passengers and crew members perished when the British ocean liner hit an iceberg in the Atlantic and sank on its way to the United States. The tour to view the wreckage, located at a depth of about 4,000 meters off the Canadian coast, is operated by US company OceanGate and costs 250,000 dollars per person. The US Coast Guard said the craft lost contact with its support ship about an hour and 45 minutes after it began its dive on Sunday morning. 3. Japanese restaurant chains are accelerating moves to expand abroad. They are setting up branches and acquiring foreign businesses to tap rising post-COVID demand. The company that runs conveyor-belt sushi chain Kura Sushi earlier ditched plans to enter the Chinese market due to the pandemic. But it has revived its ambitions, opening an outlet in Shanghai this month. Kura Sushi is also quickening its pace of openings in the United States and elsewhere.