Latest news with #Guillot
Miami Herald
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Ukraine Crisis Could Spark ‘Direct' Russia-US Confrontation-NORAD Commander
The war in Ukraine could escalate into a direct confrontation between the U.S. and Russia, according to the Pentagon. General Gregory Guillot, the head of the U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) issued the warning to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee. In a written statement to U.S. lawmakers, Guillot said that more than three years on from the start of Russia's full-scale invasion there are "several plausible pathways" in the which the war could escalate into a direct military conflict with the United States. Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin for comment. The specter of escalation has hung over the war in Ukraine since Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion in February 2022, especially given the repeated nuclear threats issued by Moscow. Guillot also referred to other adversaries such as Iran and North Korea, highlighting the security and defense issues for the Trump administration as it seeks to end the war in Ukraine and combat countries seeking to challenge the U.S. military in the future. Guillot addressed lawmakers from the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. In a written statement presented to the committee, Guillot said the probability of a direct conflict between the U.S. and one of its key rivals is increasing. The statement said that while China, Russia, North Korea and Iran seek to avoid armed conflict with the U.S., they might try to capitalize on the perception of a Western decline to challenge American power, which could risk miscalculation. Guillot then said that in the fourth year of Russia's invasion of Ukraine there are several ways that the war could escalate into a direct military conflict with the United States. The U.S. general also referred to other conflicts that threaten to involve the U.S. such as the war in the Middle East sparked by Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that threatens to embroil the U.S. in a direct conflict with Iran and its proxies. Guillot said tensions in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea carry a constant risk of escalation into armed conflict between China and the United States, with "consequences that could span a generation." He said strategic cooperation between and among the U.S.'s four main adversaries had grown substantially since the beginning of the Ukraine War, increasing the risk that war with one could quickly expand into war with an enemy coalition. General Gregory Guillot: "As Russia's brutal and misguided invasion of Ukraine enters its fourth year, there remain several plausible pathways by which the war could escalate into a direct military conflict with the United States." Russian media outlets reported Guillot's comments, which come amid anticipation over negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, whose president Volodymr Zelensky has said he would be in Turkey on Thursday ready for direct talks with Putin, who has not committed to attending. Related Articles Russia Parcel Bomb Plot Uncovered in NATO StateBrazil's Lula Tells Putin: 'Go to Istanbul and Negotiate, Dammit'Russian Award Ceremony Sparks Outrage Among ChristiansRussia Deploys FSB's 'Presidential Regiment' to Key Ukraine Fortress Town 2025 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.
Newsweek
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Newsweek
Ukraine Crisis Could Spark 'Direct' Russia-US Confrontation—NORAD Commander
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The war in Ukraine could escalate into a direct confrontation between the U.S. and Russia, according to the Pentagon. General Gregory Guillot, the head of the U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) issued the warning to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee. In a written statement to U.S. lawmakers, Guillot said that more than three years on from the start of Russia's full-scale invasion there are "several plausible pathways" in the which the war could escalate into a direct military conflict with the United States. Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin for comment. General Gregory Guillot is seen during a U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee nomination hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on July 26, 2023. General Gregory Guillot is seen during a U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee nomination hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on July 26, It Matters The specter of escalation has hung over the war in Ukraine since Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion in February 2022, especially given the repeated nuclear threats issued by Moscow. Guillot also referred to other adversaries such as Iran and North Korea, highlighting the security and defense issues for the Trump administration as it seeks to end the war in Ukraine and combat countries seeking to challenge the U.S. military in the future. What To Know Guillot addressed lawmakers from the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. In a written statement presented to the committee, Guillot said the probability of a direct conflict between the U.S. and one of its key rivals is increasing. The statement said that while China, Russia, North Korea and Iran seek to avoid armed conflict with the U.S., they might try to capitalize on the perception of a Western decline to challenge American power, which could risk miscalculation. Guillot then said that in the fourth year of Russia's invasion of Ukraine there are several ways that the war could escalate into a direct military conflict with the United States. The U.S. general also referred to other conflicts that threaten to involve the U.S. such as the war in the Middle East sparked by Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that threatens to embroil the U.S. in a direct conflict with Iran and its proxies. Guillot said tensions in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea carry a constant risk of escalation into armed conflict between China and the United States, with "consequences that could span a generation." He said strategic cooperation between and among the U.S.'s four main adversaries had grown substantially since the beginning of the Ukraine War, increasing the risk that war with one could quickly expand into war with an enemy coalition. What People Are Saying General Gregory Guillot: "As Russia's brutal and misguided invasion of Ukraine enters its fourth year, there remain several plausible pathways by which the war could escalate into a direct military conflict with the United States." What Happens Next Russian media outlets reported Guillot's comments, which come amid anticipation over negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, whose president Volodymr Zelensky has said he would be in Turkey on Thursday ready for direct talks with Putin, who has not committed to attending.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Athens couple out $9,000 after contractor never finishes job
ATHENS, Tenn. (WATE) — A couple in Athens has taken every step possible to get the contractor they hired to return and finish the work he started three months ago. Johnny and Amy Guillot realize now that they made a mistake by paying their contractor upfront. They paid the contractor more than $9,000, but the couple says he's never worked a full day and has come up with a lot of excuses. He did start the job, which was supposed to take less than a week, but then he quit and hasn't returned. Bean Station sewer project gets $1.5 million in state funding Amy Guillot and her husband operate a canine obedience and training business. The couple also boards dogs of all sizes at their home. They hired a contractor to lay flooring in their hallway, but it is now coming apart. They also paid him to install a new ceiling in their basement, add four new light fixtures and add structures to level the floor above their basement. None of this work was done. Dip in the Guillot's basement celling (WATE) 'He was supposed to relevel the entire upper floor of the house. So we got gaps up there. Here you can see that there is a dip. And significantly, this dips really good. This area is part of the main concern on both sides of the basement,' said Amy Guillot. There is new flooring in the bedroom and down the hallway. The workmanship is questionable, though. Amy Guillot pointed to incomplete work. Gov. Bill Lee issues first-ever veto to reject bill making it easier to deny parole 'We're missing baseboards. Not done, not complete. In here, well, we've got a hole in the wall. He never put all of the baseboards up. All these baseboards are lying all over the place. It's kind of like a jigsaw puzzle of baseboards that belong everywhere,' said Amy Guillot. Missing baseboards on Guillot's floors (WATE) Gap in the Guillot's flooring (WATE) Hole in the wall of the Guillot's home (WATE) Baseboards stacked inside the Guillot's home (WATE) Baseboards stacked inside the Guillot's home (WATE) Flooring popping up at the Guillot's home (WATE) 'We just wanted someone to put some flooring in for us and have the job done. That was it. It was that simple. He said he could do it in three to four days,' said Johnny Guillot. The contract was signed in February and the couple paid him everything upfront. 'He hasn't been here in over a month,' said Amy Guillot. 'Unfortunately, this floor here is coming apart already because it is not complete. There is supposed to be some trim work right there. He did not put a transition at the top of the stairs. Since he never did that there is nothing pushing against the floor to keep it in place, so it is popping up pretty good.' The contractor is Jerry Gardner from Decatur. He calls his business Home Improvement. 'Amy sent many messages to him and said, 'Hey, are you coming today?' 'Yes, I'm on my way.' Never shows up and that's happened numerous times,' said Johnny Guillot. Buddy's Bar-B-Q reopens on East Magnolia Avenue after 2024 fire The couple said Gardner claims to be licensed and insured. 'Amy Guillot explained,' Amy Guillot explained. 'He will not furnish the insurance. When I asked him about the license, he said he has a business license.' They sent a demand letter on April 14, giving Gardner 10 days to respond. He didn't. Demand letter sent to Gardner by Amy and Johnny Guillot. 'At this point, I don't know anymore. I don't know, I want him to come finish the job, considering that it is not even good work,' said Amy Guillot. She wrote about her experience with Gardner on Facebook. 'I have had several people who have come forward after I made a post on social media. I was shocked because numerous people came forward to tell me they were having the same problem,' she said. She has tried to get in touch with Gardner for weeks. 'I'm blocked. He will not take my call. He will not answer my messages,' said Amy Guillot. So, we called Jerry Gardner on our phone, thinking maybe he'll answer. He didn't. We left a message on Gardner's other phone. There's been no response. 'I really prefer that we just get the materials so we can move on and hire someone else. Maybe some part of a reimbursement, so we can pay someone else to do the job correctly,' said Amy Guillot. READ: More top stories on The Guillots have filed a complaint against Gardner with the state Department of Commerce and Insurance. They have also sent one more demand letter to him. When hiring a home improvement contractor, payments are made in stages, with a deposit upfront ranging from 10% to 25% to secure the contractor's services and materials. Remaining payments are made at specific project milestones, and the final payment is typically due after the project is complete. In this case, the project is far from being finished. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WATE 6 On Your Side.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
OK To Shoot Down Cartel Drones Flying Over Border Sought By NORTHCOM Boss
The general in charge of defending U.S. skies from drone incursions wants the authority to be able to shoot them down near the Mexican border. Current law greatly restricts U.S. military counter-drone responses, which you can read more about in our deep dive here. Air Force Gen. Gregory M. Guillot testified to the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that since President Donald Trump took office, he 'proposed…a change to the rule of force.' It would 'allow us to shoot down or bring down drones that are surveilling over our deployed and mobile troops…not just that are in self-defense, but anything that's surveilling and planning the next attack on us within five miles of the border.' 'Because they're mobile,' U.S. troops on the border are not allowed to take down drones under current law, Guillot, the commander of U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) and the joint U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), added. His testimony came as Mexican drug cartels have been steadily increasing their use of weaponized uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), as well as unarmed types for surveillance and smuggling. The issue has been so concerning that the U.S. Army recently deployed ground-based radars along the border to help spot and track drones as part of the continued build-up of U.S. military support there. You can read more about that in our in-depth story here. The Trump administration has made border security one of its major priorities. The issue of drones flying over the border is not new. As we have reported in the past, pilots have reported seeing and having near misses with them in the skies near Arizona ranges and military bases for years. Guillot also repeated his call to enable all Continental U.S. bases to take action against drones. He also wants to increase the range those actions can take place. At present, only about half of the 360 bases in the U.S. – considered 'covered installations' – even have permission to defend against drones. 'We're working with the services and with the [Defense] Department to increase not only the capability but also to expand the authorities,' Guillot explained. 'We have to knock out not only aircraft or UAS that are a direct threat, but also that are surveilling over the installation. I'd like to even see it expanded beyond the installation to ensure they can't see anything sensitive on our bases.' Expanding the perimeter where counter-drone actions can take place also increases the chances of identifying and capturing the drone operators, Guillot explained. Guillot testified that he wants increased ability to take action granted under a federal law known as '130(i).' The subsection of Title 10 of the U.S. Code (10 USC 130i) covers current authorities for the 'protection of certain facilities and assets from unmanned aircraft,' including through the use of kinetic and non-kinetic capabilities. It contains a number of specific stipulations and where and when those authorities can actually be employed, which you can read more about here. Any change in those authorities, which Congress is considering, would be on top of the Pentagon's counter-drone strategy released in the last days of the Biden administration, which you can read more about here. As we previously reported, the U.S. is not fielding kinetic and directed energy capabilities, such as laser and high-power microwave weapons, surface-to-air interceptors, and gun systems, to defend domestic bases and other critical infrastructure from rapidly growing and evolving drone threats. Instead, the focus is on electronic warfare and cyber warfare, and other 'soft-kill' options, at least for now. The legal and regulatory hurdles limiting how and when counter-drone systems of any kind can be employed within the homeland are confusing even to the military and first responders. Amid the frenzy of drone sightings reported over U.S. military and power facilities that we were the first to report about last November, runways at Stewart Airport in upstate New York were shut down because of a drone incursion in December. The airport is also home to an Air National Guard Base. 'Several very, very sizable drones came within 25 feet of our C-17 fleet,' said U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan during Tuesday's hearing. Ryan said there was confusion at the time about how to respond. Base officials 'still don't have full clarity on authorities,' Ryan stated, adding that Stewart also lacks 'the tech and some of the other support pieces that they need.' During the drone incursions over Langley Air Force Base in December 2023, which The War Zone was the first to report on, base officials were not given the authority to respond, the Congressman representing that district stated during the hearing. The drones over Langley 'weren't trying to hide anything,' said U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA). 'I felt bad for the base commander because he wanted to do something and wasn't getting backing from folks up the chain of command. We had a bunch of resources there where we could do things. None of those were used. If it wasn't for NASA Langley next door, we wouldn't even have the sensors to be able to sense those unmanned aerial systems…' That lack of response sent the wrong message to foreign adversaries who observed it, Wittman complained. 'I believe that our adversaries are probing, trying to figure out what we can do, what we can't do, and that's very telling to them what they saw that day or what they saw over that month,' he explained. 'It was very telling to them that there wasn't the type of reaction that was necessary.' In the wake of the Langley incursion, NORTHCOM asked for and received 'responsibility to synchronize the DOD and if necessary, inter-agency response to counter UAS incursions,' Guillot told Wittman. 'During that time we conducted three assistive responses where we can use our new responsibilities to bring capabilities on a base similar to what you saw at Langley.' He did not elaborate where or when those responses took place. NORTHCOM later told us Guillot was referring to Edwards Air Force Base,Vandenburg Space Force Base and Picatinny Arsenal. While it is up to the military services and installations to defend the bases from drones, NORTHCOM is looking to surge counter-drone equipment to assist them in what Guillot calls 'flyaway kits' that include counter-drone equipment and the personnel to operate it. 'We don't have those kits yet, but we're in the process of acquiring' them, he told committee members. Guillot's testimony and statements by legislators further highlight concerns about dangers posed by drones that The War Zone has been making for years. We laid out a detailed case through dozens of reports that adversaries were taking advantage of the lack of aerial domain awareness over and above the homeland. The issue has been complicated by the fact that unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), are also tied up in this deeply. You can read all about this here. Congressional interest in mysterious UAS flying in the skies was further fueled by the so-called Jersey Drone craze. It began with sightings over Picatinny Arsenal and spread throughout the region to the point where the FBI fielded more than 5,000 reports. TWZ saw no evidence of large-scale drone incursions over New Jersey, with a chronic issue of people reporting normal aircraft as mysterious drones being glaringly apparent. The Biden administration repeatedly stated that there was no foreign connection to any of these flights. The Trump administration ultimately told the public that these drones were largely FAA-authorized or research-related. During this period, U.S. air bases in England experienced a week-long spate of drones flying overhead, which The War Zone was also first to report. The origination of those drones and identity of their operators remains publicly unknown. The Congressional reaction to Guillot's testimony seemed to heavily favor giving him more authority to shoot down drones near the border as well as all U.S. military installations. Given our long and leading interest in this topic, we will continue to monitor that progress. Contact the author: howard@
CBC
06-03-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Canada looking to help develop sensors for 'Golden Dome' missile defence, U.S. general tells conference
Canada's participation in U.S. President Donald Trump's planned "Golden Dome" missile-defence system for North America is limited to research involving the detection of incoming threats, the U.S. commander for NORAD told a defence conference on Wednesday. Gen. Greg Guillot told the annual Conference of Defence Associations Institute annual forum in Ottawa that he and his staff are excited about the proposal, which broadly falls within existing plans to modernize continental defence. Last month during a visit to Washington, Defence Minister Bill Blair acknowledged that Canada was interested in participating in the plan, saying safeguarding the skies "makes sense." U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order at the end of January mandating the creation of an "Iron Dome for America," which would be a "next-generation missile defence shield for the United States against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles and other next-generation aerial attacks." The Pentagon this week re-christened the "Iron Dome" proposal as the "Golden Dome" and a reference was made in Trump's Tuesday joint address to Congress. During recent testimony before a committee of the U.S. Senate, an American lawmaker indicated he'd received positive signals about Canada's participation, which in this country is politically significant because of the decades-long moratorium on involvement in Washington's anti-ballistic missile program. Precisely how involved Canada might be has never been explained. There is an effort underway to modernize NORAD, the decades-old binational aerospace defence pact. Both the United States and Canada intend to install modern over-the-horizon radar stations, seabed-based sensors to detect ballistic missile-carrying submarines in the Arctic and launch a new series of satellites to peer down at potential threats. "I'll tell you that Canada is very involved with us in talking primarily about the sensor domain awareness dome that needs to feed the rest of the Golden Dome," Guillot said. The missile defence system would have several components, starting with sensors to detect incoming threats and a variety of interceptors to knock down either the cruise or ballistic missiles. Guillot said NORAD has put its proposals to the Pentagon. Those plans will eventually be scrutinized by the U.S. Congress and the Canadian Parliament. There was no reference — in either Guillot's speech, nor the question-and-answer session with retired Canadian general Tom Lawson — to the political tension over Trump's threats to annex Canada through economic force. Blair, who spoke at the conference before Guillot, was asked to square how the government proposes to become more deeply involved with U.S. defence plans at time when the nation's sovereignty was under threat. "I square because it's in our national interest to defend our country," Blair said. "And we have a responsibility, first of all, to defend Canada, but we also have a responsibility to our continental neighbours in the United States to make sure that we are prepared to do our part." He said the Americans are talking about a significant new investment and Canada has a role to play in that, certainly in domain awareness throughout the entire Arctic. "That is our sovereign territory," he said, adding that Canada has to know what's going on in the region, whether it's in the air, under the sea or on land.
