|  | | June 13, 2022 | |
| | | After a weekend of nationwide protests demanding U.S. lawmakers pass new gun-control legislation, senators announced Sunday that they've reached a deal to pass new, incremental changes that the president said "reflects important steps in the right direction," but "does not do everything that I think is needed." What the bill promises to do: Provide "major funding to help states pass and implement crisis intervention orders (red flag laws) that will allow law enforcement to temporarily take dangerous weapons away from people who pose a danger to others or themselves," said Sen. Chris Murphy, D.-Conn., who helped spearhead the bipartisan effort. It would also set aside "billions in new funding for mental health and school safety, including money for the national build out of community mental health clinics," he said. And it aims to make sure that "no domestic abuser—a spouse OR a serious dating partner—can buy a gun if they are convicted of abuse against their partner," Murphy tweeted Sunday. It doesn't raise any buying ages to 21, but it does demand an "enhanced background check" for anyone purchasing a weapon under the age of 21, and it calls for a "short pause" in buying while going through that background investigation—referred to as an "enhanced review" that consults "state databases and local law enforcement." The new bill doesn't meet all of protesters' or Democratic lawmakers' demands, of course. "But it's real, meaningful progress," Murphy said. "And it breaks a 30 year log jam, demonstrating that Democrats and Republicans can work together in a way that truly saves lives." Notably, the current legislation has the support of 10 Republican senators, all of whom signed a letter endorsing the bill Sunday—along with nine Democrats and one Independent. That could give it just enough support to pass the upper chamber. Those signatories include: - Roy Blunt (R-Mo.);
- Richard Burr (R-N.C.);
- Bill Cassidy (R-La.);
- Susan Collins (R-Maine);
- John Cornyn (R-Texas);
- Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.);
- Rob Portman (R-Ohio);
- Mitt Romney (R-Utah);
- Thom Tillis (R-N.C.);
- Pat Toomey (R-Pa.)
- Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.);
- Cory Booker (D- N.J.);
- Chris Coons (D-Del.);
- Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.);
- Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.);
- Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.);
- Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.);
- Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.);
- And Angus King (I-Maine).
"The sooner it comes to my desk, the sooner I can sign it, and the sooner we can use these measures to save lives," President Joe Biden said in a statement Sunday. Reuters has more, here. Related reading: | | | | |  | Latest From Defense One |
| | | | It's Day 1 of Defense One's Tech Summit, so take a sec to register before it begins at 1 p.m. with a keynote interview with Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks. Today also includes a panel about lessons learned from Ukraine about the future of open source intelligence, moderated by one of your D Brief-ers.
Find the full agenda here; and we look forward to you joining us for at least a few of our five days of discussions! Ukraine latest: There might be a lot more river crossing attempts coming up soon, the British military warns in its latest assessment of Russia's Ukraine invasion on its 110th day. That's because "The key, 90km long central sector of Russia's frontline in the Donbas lies to the west of the Siverskyy Donets River," the Brits report. "To achieve success in the current operational phase of its Donbas offensive, Russia is either going to have to complete ambitious flanking actions, or conduct assault river crossings." And that would all seem to suggest that, "Over the coming months, river crossing operations are likely to be amongst the most important determining factors in the course of the war."
Rewind: Russia's military suffered several failed attempted crossings back in May, as several outlets covered shortly after imagery of the devastation surfaced on social media. It's unclear, however, if Ukraine has the weapons and manpower to halt what might lie ahead, if the British military is correct.
But Russia, too, continues to struggle with manpower issues, according to the Institute for the Study of War, writing Sunday evening off information from British intelligence. But that hasn't kept Russian forces from blowing up bridges linking Severodonetsk to Lysychansk across that fateful Siverskyy Donets River. These bridges were blown "in a likely attempt to cut Ukrainian ground lines of communication that run from Bakhmut to Lysychansk and Severodonetsk," ISW writes.
Meanwhile, China just leapfrogged Germany to become Russia's top energy importer since the invasion began in late February, the Associated Press reports from Berlin, citing new data from the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
The largest importers included: China (with €12.6 billion); Germany (€12.1 billion); Italy (€7.8 billion); the Netherlands (€7.8 billion); Turkey (€6.7 billion); Poland (€4.4 billion); France (€4.3 billion); and then India (€3.4 billion).
The biggest reductions in Russian energy came from Poland—which, along with the U.S., "made the largest dents in Russia's revenue," the report's authors write. After those two, Turkey, Spain, Italy, and Japan most sharply cut their Russian energy imports since the invasion began. But, "In relative terms, the most decisive countries in cutting Russian energy imports were the United States (-100%), Sweden (-99%), Lithuania (-77%), Egypt, Spain, Finland, Poland, Estonia, and Japan." Read the full report (PDF), here.
Recommended reading: Monkeypox has come to the U.S. military, with an American service member diagnosed with the West African variant in Stuttgart, Germany, Stars and Stripes reported late last week. The service member "was seen and treated at the Stuttgart Army Health clinic," the clinic posted on its Facebook page Friday.
The patient is now in isolation at an on-base residence, where a spokesman for U.S. European command said "the risk to the public is very low," Stripes' Jennifer Svan writes. This weekend in Idaho, more than two-dozen out-of-town, far-right extremists crammed into one vehicle with plans to riot. They were with the white supremacist group, Patriot Front; and they "dressed like a small army" as they tried to carry out a seven-page tactical plan at a Pride event in the city of Coeur d'Alene, according to the New York Times.
Police arrested 31 members packed inside a U-Haul van, which was tipped off to cops by a concerned citizen who spotted elements of the "small" army hopping in at an intersection. Authorities confiscated shields and shin guards, as well as at least one smoke grenade.
They had come from all across the country, including Texas, Utah, Colorado, South Dakota, Illinois, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon, and Virginia, according to police. Each now faces misdemeanor charges of "conspiracy to riot." More at the Times, here; or at Reuters, here. And lastly: Non-deployed U.S. Navy aviation units are observing a "safety pause" today, after at least three crashes in less than two weeks. Deployed forces will observe the pause "at the earliest possible opportunity," the Navy announced Saturday.
The break should be used to "review risk-management practices and conduct training on threat and error-management processes," according to the statement from Naval Air Forces. Tiny bit more to that one, here.
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