Pour certains, Jean-Claude Sindres reste un ex de Laura Smet. Le producteur français est avant tout un des plus proches amis du clan Hallyday.

Le 7 avril 2019, Jean-Claude Sindres a fêté son anniversaire, l’occasion pour lui de recevoir de nombreux messages et de touchantes attentions. Parmi elles, celles de Laeticia Hallyday. La maman de Jade (14 ans) et Joy (10 ans) a publié plusieurs vidéos d’un anniversaire remontant au 7 avril 2017 dans ses stories Instagram, dans lesquelles Johnny Hallyday apparaît en grande forme, quelques mois seulement avant sa mort, alors qu’il était pourtant déjà malade. Le Taulier s’est éteint le 5 décembre 2017, emporté par un cancer du poumon qui s’est généralisé.

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Pour les 43 ans de leur ami, Laeticia et Johnny Hallyday avaient organisé une grande fête dans leur maison de Pacific Palisades, à Los Angeles. Le couple avait invité un certain Kev Adams à se joindre aux festivités. L’humoriste et comédien de 27 ans est un ami proche de Jean-Claude Sindres. Éléonore, que Jean-Claude Sindres a épousée en mai 2016 à Los Angeles chez les Hallyday, mais aussi son ami David Guetta complètent la tablée.

En plus de ces vidéos, Laeticia Hallyday a publié un message à l’intention de son ami : “Joyeux anniversaire, mon ami aimant, de soutien, optimiste et très expressif. Je suis heureuse d’être à tes côtés. Tu apportes tant de lumière dans nos vies. Nous t’aimons à l’infini et au-delà.” Ces mots sont apposés sur une photo de Jean-Claude Sindres posant avec Laeticia Hallyday et ses deux filles.

Lancer le diaporama

Mon johnny je ne te remercierai jamais assez de m’avoir accueilli chez vous durant toutes ces annes, d’avoir t la pour ma femme et moi dans les moments importants de notre vie. Tu m’as encourag venir vivre Los Angeles pour une vie meilleure malgr la difficult d’tre loin des siens. J’ai eu la chance de vous trouver et je n’oublierais jamais tous ces merveilleux moments passs, proche de toi, de vous apprendre de cet amour inconditionnel que tu avais pour les tiens. Cette vido le jour de mes 43ans o tu me dis avec simplicit l’amour que vous me portez laeticia et toi, me va droit au coeur chaque fois que je la regarde. Sache de la haut, que je serais reconnaissant jamais pour toutes ces attentions et que je serais toujours l pour celles que tu aimais plus que tout au monde car je sais exactement ce que tu voulais qu’on fasse aprs ton dpart… les protger et faire en sorte qu’elles soient les plus heureuses possible. C’est ce que j essaie de faire au mieux, en esprant ne jamais te dcevoir. On t’aime aussi mon johnny… @lhallyday @jadehallyday @joyhallydayofficiel

Une publication partage par Jean Claude Sindres (@jcsindres) le 5 Dc. 2018 12 :12 PST

Tout est dit… @lhallyday #loveisallweneed

Une publication partage par Jean Claude Sindres (@jcsindres) le 15 Fvr. 2018 12 :24 PST

Best team best vacay best paradise….EVER … thank you @davidguetta @jessledon

Une publication partage par Jean Claude Sindres (@jcsindres) le 4 Avril 2019 9 :32 PDT

The House voted on Friday to get rid of a Trump administration rule that weakened regulation on a powerful greenhouse gas called methane.

The measure, passed by the House in a 229-191 vote, has already been approved by the Senate and will now head to the White House for President BidenJoe BidenSenate Republicans urge CDC to lift public transportation mask mandate AOC said she doubts Biden’s win would have been certified if GOP controlled the House Overnight Defense: Intel releases highly anticipated UFO report | Biden meets with Afghan president | Conservatives lash out at Milley MORE‘s signature.

Twelve House Republicans voted with all Democrats to eliminate the Trump-era rule.

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Lawmakers used a legislative tool called the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to get around a possible GOP filibuster in the Senate.

The CRA allows Congress to target recently promulgated regulations, and such votes can not be filibustered. Democrats in Congress this week also used the CRA to eliminate two other Trump-era rules dealing with lending and employment discrimination. 

The Trump-era methane rule rescinded standards aimed at limiting methane emissions from oil and gas production, processing, transmission and storage. 

By voting to get rid of it, the legislators voted to restore 2016 Obama-era regulations that required companies to capture methane leaks. 

The Trump rule also got rid of limits for substances called volatile organic compounds from oil and gas transmission and storage.

The rule was also expected to set up an additional hurdle for regulating air pollution by requiring the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to determine that a substance contributes “significantly” to air pollution before it can be regulated.

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“Addressing methane is an urgent and essential step to mitigate climate change and the greatest and most cost-effective way to curb methane pollution over the next decade is through the fossil fuel sector,” said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, in a floor speech ahead of the vote. 

“The Trump action was a thinly veiled attempt to block regulation of the worst oil and gas industry actors at the expense of our health, our safety and our planet,” he added.

Methane is significantly more potent than carbon dioxide, though it doesn’t last as long in the atmosphere.

The EPA estimated that the Trump rule would have added 400,000 short tons of methane to the atmosphere through 2030. 

The vote to get rid of the Trump rule was backed not only by environmentalists, but also major players in the oil industry who say they support commonsense regulations on methane.

Opponents of the CRA effort, however, argued that the Obama methane rule would negatively impact small oil and gas producers.

“Small and medium-sized gas companies do not support this regulation,” said Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) in a floor speech. “It’s not because they’re interested in polluting, it’s because they don’t want to be duplicatively regulated from the wellhead to the market.”

Updated at 11:38 a.m.

Russia warned it will bomb British vessels next time they enter the Black Sea after firing warning shots at one on Wednesday.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned on Thursday that his country would no longer fire warning shots at British vessels that enter the waters near Crimea, Reuters reported.

“We can appeal to common sense, demand respect for international law, and if that doesn’t work, we can bomb,” Ryabkov said to Russian media.

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Future bombs would be placed “on target” and not just in the vessel’s path, according to Ryabkov.

The situation arose when a Royal Navy destroyer Defender traveled in the Black Sea in waters Russia claims belong to it but the rest of the world disputes its jurisdiction over the area.

The area is disputed because Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 from Ukraine in a move that is not recognized by most other countries.

“These are Ukrainian waters and it was entirely right to use them to go from A to B,” U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, according to Reuters.

Johnson said the ship was traveling from the Ukrainian port of Odessa to the Georgian port of Batumi and denies Russia’s account of the situation, claiming there were no warning shots or bombs by Russia and that the ship was in line with international law.

British Defense Minister Ben Wallace said Russia did use unsafe aircraft maneuvers close to Britain’s ship, Reuters noted.

“The Royal Navy will always uphold international law and will not accept unlawful interference with innocent passage,” said Wallace.

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Abigail Disney, heiress to the Walt Disney Company, argued Tuesday that the U.S. economy is in an “upside-down structure” in which some people are constantly working “to make ends meet,” while wealthy individuals are “sitting on their rear ends” while “not paying taxes.” 

Disney, a longtime proponent of a federal wealth tax, said in an interview on CNN’s “New Day,” said it “really is time for wealthy people to ask themselves some hard questions.” 

The granddaughter of Roy Disney and grandniece of Walt Disney said there has been a “long, long many generations ethos” in which wealthy families have taught their children to take advantage of the tax system in order to protect their assets. 

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“One of the assumptions was that you would work very hard in your lifetime to take what you inherited and turn it into more so that your children would have more than you had,” she said.

Disney went on to outline arguments she made in an op-ed published by The Atlantic last week, which followed a ProPublica report released earlier this month that set off a wave of calls for increased taxes on the wealthy. 

ProPublica reported that based on tax-return data received from an anonymous source, billionaires including Jeff BezosJeffrey (Jeff) Preston BezosDisney heiress slams billionaires, generational wealth: ‘An upside-down structure’ Civil rights groups urge lawmakers to crack down on Amazon’s ‘dangerous’ worker surveillance The tax code’s Achilles’ heel is surprisingly popular — and that’s a problem for taxing the rich MORE and Elon MuskElon Reeve MuskDisney heiress slams billionaires, generational wealth: ‘An upside-down structure’ NASA’s sudden interest in Venus is all about climate change Press: Even Jeff Bezos should pay income taxes MORE have paid little to no taxes in recent years. 

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Disney wrote in The Atlantic that the “naked fact of the matter is that not a single one of the documented methods and practices that allowed these billionaires to so radically minimize their tax obligations was illegal.” 

She said that some of the practices “are so downright mundane and commonly applied that most rich people don’t see them as unethical,” including “offsetting income with losses in unrelated businesses; structuring assets to grow rather than generate income, then borrowing against those growing assets for cash need.”

Disney said on CNN Tuesday, “The fact is that people are sitting on their rear ends on their couches earning and not paying taxes on money while people are going out every day to a job and working their butts off just to make ends meet.” 

“And that just seems like an upside-down structure,” she said. 

“There are people flying private aircraft right now who would rather be shot than get on a first-class seat on a normal airline because it would mean they would have to walk through an air terminal.” 

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“That is terribly dangerous to democracy, to society,” she argued. 

Disney, who two years ago said she had a net worth of $120 million, is part of a growing wave of people calling for the wealthy to pay more in taxes, a movement further reignited by the ProPublica report. 

Lawmakers and top U.S. officials have condemned the ProPublica report, which was based on confidential tax data, with Treasury Secretary Janet YellenJanet Louise YellenAs climate threats escalate, ESG needs an ‘R’ for resilience On The Money: Powell says pickup in job gains likely this fall | Schumer, Pelosi meeting with White House on infrastructure Powell says pickup in job gains likely this fall MORE calling the leak of tax filings a “very serious situation.”

Newly-installed Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is urging young people to get vaccinated, after the country reimposed some COVID-19 restrictions last week amid a spike in cases.

Bennett, during a government meeting on Sunday, pleaded with Israel’s youth to “talk to your parents and get vaccinated.”

“We don’t want to impose any restrictions: not on parties, on trips or anything like that. But specifically because of this, if you don’t want restrictions, go get vaccinated today,” Bennett added, according to The Associated Press.

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Israel on Thursday announced that it was reinstating its indoor mask mandates following the rise in coronavirus infections, particularly from the Delta variant.

The country recorded 113 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, according to the AP, which followed a four-day trend of more than 100 new cases per day earlier in the week.

Israel tracked 169 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, which was the highest number of new daily cases the country had seen in months, according to The Times of Israel.

The number of daily deaths reported, however, still remains close to zero.

Bennett also announced that the government tapped a special director to oversee the country’s border crossings in an effort to tame the spread of COVID-19 and other illnesses, according to the AP. The official will focus on Israel’s main international airport, among other avenues.

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He said Roni Numa, a former army general, will work to ramp up the country’s efforts “to prevent the entry of this virus and variants and other future viruses from around the world into Israel,” according to Reuters.

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The reinstatement of Israel’s mask mandate comes despite the country being a leader in the world vaccination effort.

The country has administered more than 10.6 million COVID-19 vaccines, according to The New York Times. At least 57 percent of the country is fully vaccinated.

The spikes in cases will also be one of the first challenges Bennett faces as prime minister after his government was approved earlier this month, ending long-time Prime Minister Benjamin NetanyahuBenjamin (Bibi) NetanyahuMORE’s 12-years of leadership.

The European Union is opening up nonessential travel from the United States and other countries.

The Council of the European Union issued a recommendation allowing member states to gradually lift travel restrictions and external borders for U.S. residents starting Friday.

The list will continue to be reviewed every two weeks, and will be updated as needed, the council said.

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In addition to the U.S., the Council also recommended gradually lifting travel restrictions on Albania, Australia, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, New Zealand, Republic of North Macedonia, Rwanda, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.

The bloc also recommended restrictions be lifted on China, subject to reciprocity. It further recommended lifting restrictions for Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao.

The EU closed off nonessential travel in the wake of the pandemic but is beginning to open back up due to the pace of vaccinations.

Last month, the Council signed off on a set of criteria that would allow nonessential travel to the region. EU members preliminary agreed on Wednesday to lift restrictions on the U.S.

The Council’s recommendation is not legally binding, and each member state is still responsible for implementing the recommendations.

Under the recommendation, even travelers who have not been fully vaccinated will be able to travel for nonessential reasons. However, member states will still be able to require COVID-19 testing and quarantine guidelines.

But some countries have already opened up to travelers. Spain began allowing vaccinated Americans to travel on June 7, and Greece has also said it will allow vaccinated tourists to travel.

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Europe’s top court ruled Tuesday that platforms are not liable for copyright violations on content uploaded by third parties unless the companies fail to take sufficient action.

The decision came in a combined cases against YouTube by music producer Frank Peterson and against file-hosting company Cynado by publisher Elsevier.

The court concluded that “online platforms do not themselves make a communication to the public of copyright-protected content illegally posted online by users of those platforms unless those operators contribute, beyond merely making those platforms available, to giving access to such content to the public in breach of copyright.”

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Platforms can still be liable if they fail to deploy tools to tackle copyright violations or if they provide tools for illegally sharing content.

A spokesperson for YouTube said the platform is “a leader in copyright and supports rights holders being paid their fair share.”

“That’s why we’ve invested in state of the art copyright tools which have created an entirely new revenue stream for the industry,” the spokesperson added in a statement to The Hill. “In the past 12 months alone we have paid $4B to the music industry, over 30% of which comes from monetised user generated content.”

European Union rules exempt platforms from liability if they remove infringing content after being notified about the violations.

The EU last year added a rule requiring platforms to install filters to block users from uploading copyrighted material, although many of its member nations have yet to implement the law at the national level.

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Welcome to Hillicon Valley, The Hill’s newsletter detailing all you need to know about the tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. If you don’t already, be sure to sign up for our newsletter by clicking HERE. 

Welcome and Happy Wednesday! Follow our cyber reporter, Maggie Miller (@magmill95), and tech team, Chris Mills Rodrigo (@chrisismills) and Rebecca Klar (@rebeccaklar_), for more coverage. 

The tech world had its eyes on the House Judiciary Committee (for most of the day — and night) as members marked up the bipartisan antitrust agenda that targets Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon. The meeting continued well into the evening, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle raising concerns over the implications of the bills that aim to rein in the power of tech platforms. 

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Meanwhile, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) blocked a Senate vote on President BidenJoe BidenSchumer vows to advance two-pronged infrastructure plan next month Biden appoints veteran housing, banking regulator as acting FHFA chief Iran claims U.S. to lift all oil sanctions but State Department says ‘nothing is agreed’ MORE’s nominee to lead a key federal cybersecurity agency until Vice President Harris arrives at the U.S.-Mexico border later this week, and a former cybersecurity titan killed himself after Spanish authorities approved his extradition to the United States. 

LONG ROAD TO REVAMP: An hours-long House Judiciary Committee markup Wednesday created unusual bipartisan alliances both for and against a package of bills targeting some of the country’s biggest tech companies.

The committee had advanced two of the six bills as of early Wednesday evening, with proceedings expected to stretch late into the night.

The six bills aim to revamp antitrust laws, giving the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Justice Department greater authority to rein in the power of tech giants.

Lawmakers did not firmly support or oppose all of the bills, with some crossing the aisle at times.

Read more here. 

 

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Speaking of antitrust: Sen. Amy KlobucharAmy KlobucharHillicon Valley: Tech antitrust bills create strange bedfellows in House markup | Rick Scott blocks Senate vote on top cyber nominee until Harris visits border | John McAfee dies Klobuchar questions Amazon, Alphabet over smart-home devices Schumer vows next steps after ‘awful’ GOP election bill filibuster MORE (D-Minn.) wants to know more about how Amazon and Alphabet approach interoperability in connection with their smart-home devices and protect the user data that they collect. 

In letters sent to each of the tech giant’s CEOs Wednesday, the chair of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee overseeing antitrust said that testimony by the companies’ attorneys during a hearing last week had left her with worries.

“I am deeply concerned about competition and the future of innovation related to connected home devices,” Klobuchar wrote.

Read more here. 

 

CISA DIRECTOR SPEEDBUMP: Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) on Wednesday blocked a proposed unanimous consent vote on President Biden’s nominee to lead the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) until Vice President Harris visits the U.S.-Mexico border later this week.

Scott made clear on the Senate floor that he is not opposed to Jen Easterly serving as the director of CISA, but that the block is meant to hold the Biden administration accountable for addressing migration concerns at the southern border. 

“This isn’t about Ms. Easterly, this isn’t about cybersecurity,” Scott said. “I am here today because families in my state of Florida and across our nation deserve accountability, and President Biden has shown a total lack of accountability when it comes to addressing the border crisis.”

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Gary PetersGary PetersHillicon Valley: Tech antitrust bills create strange bedfellows in House markup | Rick Scott blocks Senate vote on top cyber nominee until Harris visits border | John McAfee dies Rick Scott blocks Senate vote on top cyber nominee until Harris visits border Harris casts tiebreaking vote to confirm OPM nominee MORE (D-Mich.) brought up both Easterly’s nomination and the nomination of Robin Carnahan to serve as administrator of the General Services Administration for a vote Wednesday. Carnahan’s nomination was unanimously approved by the Senate. 

Read more about the nominations here.

 

JOHN MCAFEE DEAD: Antivirus software pioneer John McAfee died by apparent suicide in a Spanish prison on Wednesday, police sources told El País. 

McAfee, the creator of the McAfee antivirus software, was reportedly found dead in his cell on Wednesday, with the Catalan Justice Department saying it looked like a suicide. His death came shortly after a Spanish court approved his extradition to the U.S. to face tax evasion charges.

Read more here.

 

FBI ON THE MONEY: FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday told a Senate panel that a request for a $40 million increase in its cybersecurity budget for the upcoming fiscal year would go in part towards combating increasing and damaging ransomware attacks.

“Our budget request, the enhancements we requested, include 155 positions and $40 million for cyber, and a huge part of that will be going very much to the ransomware campaign that we are working on,” Wray testified to the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies. 

Wray noted that the FBI is currently investigating over 100 types of ransomware variations, each of which he said had “scores and scores of victims,” and that enhancing the FBI’s ability to address ransomware attacks is a top priority.

Read more here. 

 

NEW ELECTION SECURITY FUNDS (MAYBE): The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday included $500 million for election security grants in one of the proposed appropriations bills for next year. 

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The proposed fiscal 2022 Financial Services and General Government bill would give $500 million to the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to distribute to states and territories to help address election security concerns. This includes moving to voting machines with voter-verified paper ballots and improving election administration. 

The EAC would be given 45 days to distribute the funds once the bill is signed into law.

Read more about the election security funding fight here.

 

AMAZON UNION FIGHT 2.0: The International Brotherhood of Teamsters will vote Thursday on a resolution recognizing unionizing Amazon as one of the organization’s top priorities.

As part of an initiative called “The Amazon Project,” the Teamsters will create a special Amazon-focused division that will assist workers interested in organizing, according to a copy of the resolution reviewed by The Hill. Vice first reported on the resolution, which is expected to pass easily.

That project would be the most ambitious effort yet to organize the e-commerce giant, which is the country’s second-largest private employer and has been hiring at staggering rates since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Read more here. 

 

THE KIDS (MAY NOT BE) ALRIGHT: The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood is launching a new campaign to advocate for children’s online protection under a rebrand with the name Fairplay, the organization announced Wednesday. 

The watchdog, founded in 2000, said it is changing its name to Fairplay to better reflect the shifting nature of its work with the rise of social media and tech platforms. 

“In the more than 20 years we have advocated for children, childhood has been transformed by smartphones, tablets, and an overwhelming array of apps and games designed to hook kids, monopolize their attention, and mine their personal information for profit,” Angela Campbell, professor emeritus of Georgetown Law and chair of the Fairplay board of directors, said in the announcement. 

Read more about the campaign. 

 

On tap this week:

-The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will discuss a massive new energy proposal during a hearing Thursday that includes multiple sections to enhance grid cybersecurity. 

-The House Small Business Committee will hold a hearing Thursday on implementation of the Department of Defense’s program to increase cybersecurity across the defense industrial base.

 

An op-ed to chew on: The Department of Energy can be a model for diverse startup pipelines

 

NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB: 

David Dobrik Was the King of YouTube. Then He Went Too Far. (RollingStone / E.J. Dickson) 

How Twitter hired tech’s critics to build ethical AI (Protocol/ Anna Kramer)

FBI Hacking and Tech Contracts Are Vanishing from the Web (Motherboard / Joseph Cox) 

Happy Thursday and welcome to Overnight Defense. I’m Ellen Mitchell, and here’s your nightly guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond. CLICK HERE to subscribe to the newsletter.

THE TOPLINE: The House on Thursday voted to repeal the 2002 authorization for the Iraq War in what lawmakers are framing as a first step in a broader effort to claw back presidential war powers.

The House voted largely along party lines, 268-161, to scrap the 2002 authorization for the use of military force (AUMF), with supporters of the repeal arguing the nearly 20-year-old law is outdated and no longer necessary.

Only one Democrat, Rep. Elaine LuriaElaine Goodman LuriaOvernight Defense: House votes to repeal 2002 Iraq war powers | Pentagon leaders press senators to reimburse National Guard | New pressure on US-Iran nuclear talks House votes to repeal 2002 Iraq war powers Omar feuds with Jewish Democrats MORE (Va.), voted against scrapping the authorization, while 49 GOP lawmakers did vote to repeal it.

Background: The war authorization was initially passed by Congress to allow the U.S military to go after former President Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq, though it has occasionally been used to bolster the legal rationale for other military engagements in recent years.

The House previously voted to repeal the 2002 AUMF last congressional session, but the effort went nowhere in the Senate, which at the time was controlled by Republicans.

The argument for repeal: “Repeal can prevent our country from entering another protected protracted engagement under this outdated authority,” Rep. Barbara LeeBarbara Jean LeeOvernight Defense: House votes to repeal 2002 Iraq war powers | Pentagon leaders press senators to reimburse National Guard | New pressure on US-Iran nuclear talks House votes to repeal 2002 Iraq war powers Overnight Defense: Biden, Putin agree to launch arms control talks at summit | 2002 war authorization repeal will get Senate vote | GOP rep warns Biden ‘blood with be on his hands’ without Afghan interpreter evacuation MORE (D-Calif.), the sponsor of the repeal bill, said Thursday. “We can’t afford to leave this in place indefinitely. For two decades, it has been in place. This is our opportunity to restore our constitutional role.”

Mounting support: On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Charles SchumerChuck SchumerFive takeaways on the Supreme Court’s Obamacare decision Senate confirms Chris Inglis as first White House cyber czar Schumer vows to only pass infrastructure package that is ‘a strong, bold climate bill’ MORE (D-N.Y.) announced his support for repealing the 2002 AUMF and vowed to hold a vote in his chamber this year.

The Biden administration has also come out in support of repealing the 2002 AUMF, with the White House saying in a statement this week it backs Lee’s bill because “the United States has no ongoing military activities that rely solely on the 2002 AUMF as a domestic legal basis, and repeal of the 2002 AUMF would likely have minimal impact on current military operations.”

Read the full story here.

 

PENTAGON LEADERS PRESS SENATORS TO REIMBURSE GUARD

Failure to reimburse the National Guard for its months-long deployment protecting the Capitol would be detrimental to the guard’s readiness, top Pentagon leaders warned Thursday.

“It will impact their ability in the near term to be able to train and adequately prepare the guard for its future, for its current responsibilities,” Defense Secretary Lloyd AustinLloyd AustinOvernight Defense: House votes to repeal 2002 Iraq war powers | Pentagon leaders press senators to reimburse National Guard | New pressure on US-Iran nuclear talks Top US general: Chinese military has ‘ways to go’ before it can take Taiwan Pentagon leaders press senators to reimburse National Guard for Capitol deployment MORE told the Senate Appropriations Committee when asked what the effects will be if Congress does not approve funding before its August recess.

Testifying alongside Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark MilleyMark MilleyOvernight Defense: House votes to repeal 2002 Iraq war powers | Pentagon leaders press senators to reimburse National Guard | New pressure on US-Iran nuclear talks Milley downplays report of 1,900 lost or stolen military firearms Top US general: Chinese military has ‘ways to go’ before it can take Taiwan MORE added that a lack of reimbursement for the guard will have a “significant negative impact on their ability to maintain their readiness.”

Deployment details: Thousands of National Guardsmen from around the country deployed to Washington, D.C., for nearly five months to shore up security at the Capitol after the Jan. 6 insurrection by supporters of former President TrumpDonald TrumpChinese apps could face subpoenas, bans under Biden executive order: report Kim says North Korea needs to be ‘prepared’ for ‘confrontation’ with US Ex-Colorado GOP chair accused of stealing more than 0K from pro-Trump PAC MORE.

At the height of the deployment, nearly 26,000 guardsmen were deployed to the nation’s capital from all 50 states, three territories and D.C. That dropped to 2,300 troops in March before all remaining guardsmen went home in May.

The cost of the deployment was estimated at $521 million.

A disconnect: A House-passed bill to bolster Capitol security included funding to reimburse the guard for the deployment.

But the Senate is still crafting its own version of a Capitol security bill, so the guard has yet to be reimbursed for the deployment.

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Other stresses: In addition to the Capitol deployment, the National Guard has been stretched thin over the last year helping during the COVD-19 pandemic, including by administering tests and vaccines.

Guardsmen were also deployed around the country to help local law enforcement respond to civil unrest, to assist after hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters, and to bolster cyber defenses and local poll workers during last year’s elections.

More coverage of the hearing:

— Pentagon leaders see ‘medium’ risk of terrorists regrouping in Afghanistan

— Top US general: Chinese military has ‘ways to go’ before it can take Taiwan

— Milley downplays report of 1,900 lost or stolen military firearms

 

NEW PRESSURE ON US-IRAN NUCLEAR TALKS

The outcome of Iran’s presidential election on Friday is likely to pose a significant challenge for the U.S. as it pushes Tehran to reenter the 2015 nuclear deal.

The Biden administration is intent on bringing the U.S. back into the Obama-era deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), that former President Trump exited in 2018.

U.S. officials have stressed that weeks of indirect talks with Iran in Vienna are proving productive and meaningful, but Iran’s presidential contest has loomed over the discussions.

It’s complicated: Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said last week that the presidential elections have “complicated” a lot of progress on reaching an agreement.

“We’ll see where everything goes,” she said during an event with the German Marshall Fund.

Read the full story here.

 

ON TAP FOR TOMORROW

The Hudson Institute will hold a virtual discussion on “The Future of America’s Defense Industrial Base,” with former Undersecretary of Defense for acquisition and sustainment Ellen Lord; and former Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary for industrial policy Jeffrey “Jeb” Nadaner, at 12 p.m. 

 

ICYMI

— The Hill: VA warns of increased number of homeless vets with end of eviction moratoriums

— The Hill: US Embassy in Afghanistan on ‘immediate’ lockdown over COVID-19 surge

— The Hill: 30-year CIA veteran to run espionage operations

— The Hill: Former Iranian president calls on US to stop ‘meddling’ in Middle East

— The Hill: Cyber concerns dominate Biden-Putin summit

— The Hill: Opinion: Rethinking DHS to prioritize human security and homeland services

— The Hill: Opinion: Biden’s budget doesn’t ‘get’ importance of the Coast Guard

— Defense One: Pentagon Works to Sharpen Definition of ‘Extremism’

— Stars and Stripes: Milley pushes back on stolen weapons report, pledges transparency to Congress

— The New York Times: Elite Afghan Forces Suffer Horrific Casualties as Taliban Advance

The U.S. government has encountered more than 140 of what it calls unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), more commonly known as UFOs, according to an unclassified intelligence report released Friday.

Of the 144 such encounters since 2004, just one was identified with high confidence while the others remain a mystery, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said in a report sent to Congress.

The report offered several possible explanations for the sightings, including airborne clutter, natural atmospheric phenomena, top secret U.S. government programs and foreign adversary systems. But it also left open the door to “other” explanations.

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“There are probably multiple types of UAP requiring different explanations based on the range of appearances and behaviors described in the available reporting,” the report said.

“Although most of the UAP described in our dataset probably remain unidentified due to limited data or challenges to collection processing or analysis, we may require additional scientific knowledge to successfully collect on, analyze and characterize some of them,” it added.

The report offered a rare public accounting of what the government knows and what it doesn’t in an area that has long captured the public imagination, particularly for those seeking signs of extraterrestrial life.

But while UFOs and aliens are sometimes synonymous to the public, the one sighting the U.S. intelligence community was to identify had a much more pedestrian explanation: “a large, deflating balloon,” according to the report.

The nine-page unclassified assessment came at the direction of lawmakers who inserted the requirement for the report into last year’s intelligence authorization bill amid an uptick in UFO sightings by U.S. military aviators.

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“For years, the men and women we trust to defend our country reported encounters with unidentified aircraft that had superior capabilities, and for years their concerns were often ignored and ridiculed,” Senate Intelligence Committee vice chair Marco RubioMarco Antonio RubioOvernight Defense: Intel releases highly anticipated UFO report | Biden meets with Afghan president | Conservatives lash out at Milley US intel report confirms more than 140 UFO sightings Haley courts Republicans after losing Trump’s favor MORE (R-Fla.), who championed the reporting requirement, said in a statement Friday.

“This report is an important first step in cataloging these incidents, but it is just a first step,” he added. “The Defense Department and Intelligence Community have a lot of work to do before we can actually understand whether these aerial threats present a serious national security concern.”

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark WarnerMark Robert WarnerOvernight Defense: Intel releases highly anticipated UFO report | Biden meets with Afghan president | Conservatives lash out at Milley US intel report confirms more than 140 UFO sightings The Hill’s 12:30 Report – Presented by Facebook – Biden helps negotiate bipartisan infrastructure deal MORE (D-Va.) similarly said in his own statement that Friday’s “rather inconclusive report only marks the beginning of efforts to understand and illuminate what is causing these risks to aviation in many areas around the country and the world.”

Public interest in and acceptance of the existence of UFOs has peaked in recent months as anticipation for the ODNI report built up. Interviews where military pilots described seeing objects in the sky that they said defied explanation, as well as leaked video, stoked imagination further.

Friday’s report said that of the 144 cases, 18 involved observers reporting “unusual UAP movement patterns or flight characteristics.”

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“Some UAP appeared to remain stationary in winds aloft, move against the wind, maneuver abruptly, or move at considerable speed, without discernible means of propulsion,” the report said.

The unusual flight characteristics “could be the result of sensor errors, spoofing or observer misperception and require additional rigorous analysis,” the report added.

Most of the sighting happened over U.S. military training and testing grounds, but the report said that is likely “collection bias as a result of focused attention, greater numbers of latest-generation sensors operating in those areas, unit expectations, and guidance to report anomalies.”

Still, the report said the phenomena represent a flight safety issue and possible national security concern, particularly if they are “sophisticated collection against U.S. military activities by a foreign government or demonstrate a breakthrough aerospace technology by a potential adversary.”

In a separate statement on the report, the Pentagon said it “takes reports of incursions – by any aerial object, identified or unidentified – very seriously, and investigates each one.”

Following the report, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks directed the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security to develop a plan to formalize the work currently being done by a Pentagon task force formed last year, according to Pentagon press secretary John Kirby.

“This plan will be developed in coordination with various DOD components, including the military departments and the combatant commands, and with ODNI and other interagency partners,” Kirby said in a statement. “The plan will establish procedures for synchronizing collection, reporting and analysis of UAP; provide recommendations for securing military test and training ranges; and identify requirements for the establishment and operation of a new follow-on DOD activity to lead the effort, including its alignment, resources, staffing, authorities, and a timeline for implementation.”

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