natasha bertrand has more. >> reporter: a loud sonic boom was caused by u.s.6 fighter jets that were scrambling to intercept an aircraft that traveled over washington, d.c. and was unresponsive. the fighter jets were call nld, in coordination with the faa, to try to intercept this aircraft where the pilot was not making contact with the f-16 fighter jets. ultimately, the plane did crash in southwestern virginia. hour the defense department said the f-16s it did not actually shoot down that aircraft. now, according to norad which released a statement sunday that aircraft did fly over washington, d.c., essentially, violating the airspace. because the pilot was unresponsive, the faa worked with the pentagon in order to try to intercept this aircraft before it could potentially crash. the civilian aircraft was intercepted by 3:00 p.m. eastern time. and according to the pentagon, the plane crashed near the george washington national forest in virginia. there were four people on board this small aircraft. however, we do not yet know the conditions of those people at

cnn national reporter natasha bertrand is here with the development. natasha, is this a done deal?ris, we're told this is not finalized yesterday that cuba and china are in discussions. something that would concern u.s. officials because it would involve potentially hundreds of peoples liberation army troops being stationed on the island at any given time, conducting train with the cubans there. it's unclear what the u.s. can do at this point to deter any activity because the chinese/cuban partnership in terms of partnerships has been growing over the last five or six years. there's two paths that can take to minimize the impact on the u.s. the first, of course is basic diplomacy. talking to cuban officials, talking to chinese officials to figure out any type of way for the relationship to be tamped down. and the second is counterintelligence issues, something that the white house spoke to with john kirby, the national security council, saying, look, we have our ways of protecting our facilities or infrastructure from any spying. we're not getting into that, sufficed to say it's ve

cnn's natasha bertrand is joining us now.dicates that finally this offensive has begun? >> sara, they're seeing a lot of increased activity that is essentially out of the ordinary for what has been happening over the last several months including as you mentioned that intensified fighting over the last 48 hours and what they are seeing essentially is ukraine continuing to probe more actively russian defenses and try to figure out where there are gaps where they can punch through and essentially create momentum so that larger forces within the ukrainian military can move in and take more territory and they're seeing activity in the southeastern zaporizhzhia region between kherson and the zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that seems new and they're seeing increased ukrainian activity south of the city of donetsk in eastern ukraine that appears to be a new ox f offensive and the bottom line that we are hearing from ukraine officials and u.s. officials that it is not going to be something that is announced. it will be a series of

. >> cnn's natasha bertrand joins us now live from the pentagon.ls of why the pentagon decided don't do it again? >> reporter: the short answer is it seems they want to be consistent with what secretary austin had testified there. what had happened was this drag show at nellis air force base in nevada was slated to move forward and be performed today, june 1st, to mark the start of pride month. it has gone on for two years in the past so this was not seen as particularly problematic by the air force base. actually air force leaders did give it the go ahead. but then when pentagon leaders found out that it was scheduled to be performed today, they intervened this week we're told and told them that it could not move forward. according to the defense department, the reason for this is because, quote, hosting these types of events in federally funded facilities is not a suitable use of dod resources. as you see from that testimony that austin gave and that grilling that republican congressman matt gaetz gave him as well as mark milley, this has become

more now from cnn's natasha bertrand in washington. >> reporter: a loud sonic boom that was heard acrossashington, d.c. and virginia on sunday was caused by u.s. f-16 fighter jets that were scrambling to intercept an aircraft that traveled over washington, d.c. and was unresponsive, according to a statement from the north american airspace defense command. the fighter jets were called in in coordination with the faa to try to intercept this aircraft where the pilot was not making contact with the f-16 fighter jets. ultimately, the plane did crash in southwestern virginia. however the defense department says that the f-16s did not actually shoot down that aircraft. now, according to norad which will released this statement on sunday, that aircraft did fly over washington, d.c., essentially violating the airspace. and because the pilot was unresponsive, the faa worked with the pentagon in order to try to intercept this aircraft before it could potentially crash and cause any damage to civilians on the ground. the civilian aircraft according to norad was intercepted at approximately 3. 23 p

cnn's natasha bertrand is at the pentagon. eads were spinning among intelligence analysts over the weekend. >> reporter: that's right, jim. so u.s. intelligence officials did have some signal that prigozhin was planning a potentially major challenge to russia's military leadership but there were a number of things they were surprised by including, as you mentioned, the fact that they faced such little resistance when they actually went into rostov and pro he hadded with their march up to moscow. it was surprising to officials that russian troops didn't do more to sfiet back and they expected more bloodshed and violence over the course of those 36 hours or so. another thing that surprised them was this deal that belarus apparently hanged to strike with prigozhin. the u.s. officials were taken off guard by the fact that prigozhin -- or that lukashenko, the president of belarus, managed to play such a significant role in getting prigozhin to turn around. so these are the things that u.s. officials are now going back and annualizin

cnn's natasha bertrand is joining us now. what can you tell us about what these vessels can do? >> yes, sara. three new vessels have arrived on the scene including one that has side-scanning sonar capabilities and according to the national oceanic and atmospheric association that allows the vessels to map the sea floor and try to basically send and receive acoustic pulses that can help map the sea floor or detect objects really, really far, deep down in the ocean, and so what we're seeing right now is obviously an effort to figure out where this vessel might be and it is an all hands on deck effort and a number of agencies and multiple different entities with the department of defense are helping out with this effort including the navy, the air national guard and transportation command and canadian and u.s. planes are conducting flyovers. this is not just an american effort, but you have canadian and american planes. you have a french deep sea diving vessel that is mapping the sea floor trying to figure out whether they can detect anything and the navy has provide a fly away, de

nick robertson, natasha bertrand, thank you very much.ave more on the leader of the wagner group and how he became such a powerful force inside russia. i need it cool at night. you trying to ice me out of the bed? baby, only on game nights. you know you are retired right? am i? ya! the queen sleep number 360 c2 smart bed is now only $89999. plus, 48-month financicing on all smart beds. shop now only at sleep number with the freestyle know your glucose level and where it's headed without fingersticks. manage your diabetes with more confidence and lower your a1c. it's covered by medicare for those who qualify. ask your doctor about the freestyle libre 2 system. if we want a more viable future for our kids, we need to find more sustainable ways of doing things. america's plastic makers are investing billions of dollars in new technologies and creating plastic products that are more recyclable. durable. and dependable. our goal is a cleaner, healthier planet for generations to come. for a better tomorrow, we're focused on making plastics bett

natasha bertrand, thanks very much.'s get reaction from former defense secretary and former cia director leon panetta. director panetta, thank you so much for joining us. i first want to get your reaction to that new cnn reporting. are you surprised that this intelligence was held so closely, shared with so few? do you think prigozhin's planning should've been shared with more allies? >> no, i'm not surprised at all because it's obvious that it must've been a very sensitive source that provided this information. and if it had gotten out in some way, it could've not only jeopardized that source, but it could also have created problems within ukraine itself and certainly could've created problems with others as well who were involved in trying to put that intelligence together. so, i'm not surprised. i think we did the right thing in holding that tight. i'm sure it was provided to the president and to key officials at the top levels. and i'm sure they were kind of keeping their eye on whether or not prigozhin would certai

natasha bertrand, appreciate it. thank you.rman of the joint chief of staff, conducting in france, as he joins allies celebrating the 79th anniversary. oren liebermann is following generally, and he joins us now. what did the general tell you about the war in ukraine and the security challenges the u. s. is facing? >> anderson, this is a wide-ranging interview on ukraine, on china, on the challenges facing the defense department. of course as we stand here ready to celebrate and commemorate the d-day invasion that liberated europe, through a counteroffensive of its own here, we're waiting for another counteroffensive. and because of that, a lot of hope is still on ukraine. take a listen. >> there you go. >> general mark milley in normandy, marking the beginning of the largest counter offensive in modern european history, as the world waits for another counter offensive in ukraine. >> i think ukraine are very well prepared, as you know very well, the u.s. and other allied countries in europe are really around the world, providin

amara, victor. >> natasha bertrand, priscilla, thank you. wolf blitzer back with us from london.ure. we are seeing that this wasn't totally spontaneous. >> you are absolutely right, victor. amara, good morning to you as well. i want to talk about the intelligence leading up to the russian insurrection. our national security analyst the former assistant secretary over the department of homeland security julia kayan is joining us. ask you explain what goes into these intelligence assessments, why came as a surprise when u.s. and western officials had been watching prigozhin make preparations, clearly preparations for this kind of move? >> bs well, the surprise would have been about the exact timing. so a lot of intelligence gathering is either human intelligence rumors, t things t our people or people who are working for us are hearing on the ground. some of it will be signal intelligence, what we are picking up, thoughts, planning that is going on by the leadership of the wagner group in terms of what their capabilities and intentions are-. the exact date may not have been known t

we are joined by cnn's priscilla alvarez and natasha bertrand. natasha a, what is the u.s.mmunity watching out for right now? what are you learning? >> this community had actually picked up signs that prigozhin was planning a potentially dramatic military action against russian defense leaders. it was not clear what form that would take or when it would occur and the speed with which this happened on friday night into saturday did kcatch some u.s. and western officials off guard and resulted in emergency meetings convened on friday night and u.s. officials scrambling to figure out what was going on and crucially how far prigozhin would be willing to go. it was also unclear what prigozhin's ultimate aim was going to be. was he going to challenge putin directly or was he just challenging russia's military leadership. now u.s. officials are watching very closely to see how putin continues to react to these events because, obviously, this is one of the most serious challenges to his leadership that he has seen in 20 years of rule there. so u.s. officials are looking at does put

i want to go back to the united states and over to the pentagon where cnn's natasha bertrand is. tasha, wagner is a mercenary leader we were just talking about, he says this wasn't a coup attempt and specifically what he said is that this was a, quote, unquote, protest and what he's protesting is the idea that the russian military was trying to dissolve this wagner mercenary group and do so by july 1st. do your sources there at the pentagon in the military, in american military, believe that that's the case? >> well, dana, this does comport with u.s. officials understand broadly of what was motivating prigozhin in the days leading up to this rebellion. we did report over the weekend u.s. intelligence did see signs that prigozhin was plotting a potential major challenge to russia's military leadership and that was because of the fact that it appeared that russia's military leadership was preparing to use wagner and tried to absorb it within the russian military ranks. so what prigozhin is saying here essentially is that he did not want to overthrow the russian government. now, it i

natasha bertrand joins us from the pentagon. natasha, take us inside these cells. what this is about? >> reporter: it's unclear whether the recent drone attacks inside russia can be attributed to pro ukrainian sympathizers. u.s. officials believe that at least one attack for sure was contributed to these pro ukrainian operatives operating inside russia. that was the drone attack on the senate building on may 3rd. that was one of the more brazen attacks the groups have carried out we're told over the last several months. ukraine has been building and cultivating this network for months and they're really just now reaching the pinnacle of that operation we're told. they have established a lot of the infrastructure inside russia to be about to do this, recruiting people and getting them drones. we're told the ukrainians have, in fact, been providing these agents inside russia with drones. the ukrainians do have a pretty sophisticated drone manufacturing industry inside ukraine they ramped up since the war began. all this combined has allowed ukraine to take the war di

thank you for the reporting natasha bertrand. >> yes, and this audio recording from the russian revolt leader from evgeni prigozhin, and why don't we see pictures from him? where is he? that we will see if we can get answers to as we hear from president biden for the first time since the revolt. n? titan turkey. number one? the philly. oh, yeah, you probably don't want that t one. look, i'm not in charge of naming the subsbs. i brought in ensure max protein with 30g of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks. uh... here i'll take that. -everyone: woo hoo! ensure max protein with 30 grams of protein, one gram of sugar. enter the nourishing moments giveaway for a chance to win $10,000. more shopping? you should watch your spending honey. i'm saving with liberty mutual, mom. they customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. check it out, you could save $700 dollars just by switching. ooooh, i'll look into that. let me put a reminder on my phone. save $700 dollars. pick up dad from airport? ohhhhhh. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. l

natasha bertrand live at the pentagon now. sure this package will be a welcomed delivery in ukraine, natasha. >> reporter: absolutely, john. so this new presidential drawdown package will make the total in aid to ukraine, u.s. military aid to ukraine come to over $22 billion since the war began. it is expected to include new bradley and striker fighting vehicles which are really important for ukraine to continue to prosecute this counteroffensive especially because they actually lost some of those vehicles in the early days of the counteroffensive. the u.s. obviously trying to replace some of those now. they're also expected to fete more munitions for their patriot air defense systems as well as additional ammunition, which is something the ukrainians are always wanting for. it remains to be seen just how this rebellion by wagner group inside russia will affect russia's operation inside ukraine, because the wagner group had played a really instrumental role in ukraine, including in the speak of bakhmut and was among the more c

cnn's natasha bertrand is live for us at the pentagon with this story. more are you learning about this decision? >> yeah, boris, so this would have been the third drag show that nellis air force base would have hosted since 2021. it was abruptly cancelled this week when pentagon leaders intervened and ordered that it not move forward. now, all of this seems to stem from a commitment that secretary of defense lloyd austin maeld during a house armed services committee hearing back in march that the department of defense does not support or fund these kinds of drag shows on installations across the country. he was grilled on this by republican aept afternoon matt gaetz who questioned both him and chairman of the joint chiefs, mark milley, about why these drag shows were occurring on these bases in a way some conservative policymakers have argued is not appropriate. here is that exchange. >> at nellis air force base, you had the drag u nellis on june 17th. who funded these things, mr. secretary? >> listen, drag shows are not something that the department of

let's go over to natasha bertrand, she is at the pentagon for us tracking all of this. we know that the reporting is that u.s. intelligence had a sense in the days ahead that something could be happening, but still in seeing how it played out, did it surprise u.s. officials? >> reporter: that's right, kate. we reported over the weekend that u.s. intelligence officials did pick up some signals that prigozhin was perhaps planning a major challenge to russia's military leadership and that he was perhaps even massing weapons and equipment to prepare to actually move into russia and challenge russia's defense leaders, but there was some surprise about how this actually unfolded. namely, they were surprised that it wasn't bloodier. u.s. officials did expect that there would be a lot more resistance from russia's actual troops to russia's -- to the wagner troops that were entering the country and they expected that there would be a lot more blood shed. essentially they thought that there would be more of a fight put up by russia's troops to wagner's procession into russia and,

first natasha bertrand is in washington. kage i'm sure the ukrainians will say they need, natasha. >> reporter: yeah, john. this is something that ukrainians are desperate for at this time which is air defense because the russians are launching missiles across the country at a frantic rate. so ukrainians would like the f-16 fighter jets as well and that's going to be another topic of discussion with this meeting of around 50 allies to discuss what each ally can provide ukraine with at this pivotal moment. it's going to be important right now because of the fact that ukraine is in the middle of a major counter offensive and the defense secretary is expected to brief his counterparts on what ukraine needs right now and how to sustain the battle tanks that ukraine is using by the hundreds. of course, they have the patriot system that the u.s. has provided. and, of course, munitions for their rocket systems, these are all going to be important so that ukraine can maintain the initiative against the russians. defense secretary llo

chief international security correspondent with us nick paton walsh, national security reporter natasha bertrand. nick, i guess the question now is not only where prigozhin will take the forces back to, where are the field camps? and do we think he can survive this blatant challenge to putin? ? >> yeah. look, it's not really in putin's russia where you march your armed insurrection to where he claimed was 200 kilometers outskirts of the capital and say, you know what i don't really want to shed any blood here. i'm going to just turn around. clearly, i think we'll see more fallout from this. quite whether or not the president that vladimir putin treats with contempt half the time somehow magically parachuted into this and intervened to calm everybody down. we simply don't know. but at this point, obviously, you have prigozhin marching into the capital with what is presumably not a big enough force to military occupy is a bad idea. he certainly made his point throughout the day in which, i'm sure, the russian elite may have been wondering quite how saturday would indeed end. now there are various

cnn's natasha bertrand joins us now with this exclusive reporting. first of all, great job on the reporting. second of all, what do we know about these cells that are set up to sabotage russia? >> yes, sara, what we know is that these cells are made up of pro ukrainian sympathizers and trained in warfare and that these attacks are more brazen over the last few months. there is a steady drum beat of the fuel depot ps and rail lines and the officials have noticed a more drone attacks and this is the pro ukrainian agents who are carrying out these attacks are attributed to the sabotage drones, and it is that we are told that they are given drones by the ukrainians and they have a well honed drone smuggling routes between ukraine and russia they may have allow the drones to give them to the partisans here. it is an interesting window into how ukraine is bringing war to russia directly, sara. >> thank you, natasha. >>> and now, russia has claimed that it has thwarted what is a large ukrainian defensive there in donesk. moscow says that the ukrainian force

natasha bertrand, cnn, washington. >>> republicans on capitol hill seem to be of two minds about audio recordings purportedly made by a foreign national who allegedly bribed then vice president joe biden and his son hunter. many republicans are demanding answers from the fbi about the supposed tapes. and simultaneously admitting they don't know if the tapes even exist. sara murray explains . >> reporter: a bold and unsubstantiated claim from a senior senate republican. >> the foreign national who allegedly bribed joe and hunter biden allegedly has audio recordings of miss conversations with them. 17 such recordings. >> reporter: even prompting members of his own party to pump the brakes. >> i'm not aware that we have verified that those recordings exist. >> reporter: senator chuck grassley says a foreign national has audiotapes of joe biden and his son hunter biden related to an alleged bribery scheme when biden was vice president. it is in an fd 1023. >> these recordings were allegedly kept as a sort of an insurance policy for the foreign national in case that he got into a tight spot

cnn national security reporter natasha bertrand is joining us now.arning about the information that's been compromised. >> yeah, brynna, what we're hearing is they are essentially still investigating what's been taken by the russian cyber criminals, but what the department of agriculture is telling us that they do understand that a small number of employees have had their data taken and that those employees will be contacted for any kind of data protection steps that they need to take. they say it doesn't seem overly significant at this point and they are still looking into it and we also have, of course, the department of energy locking into the breach of two different nurse inside the d.o.e. we have oregon and louisiana, the motor vehicles department, millions of people in those two states have had their data compromised, real anyone with a driver's license now has their data posed because of this hack, and we also have the office of personnel management which says that it is investigating a breach. cnn reported last week, of course, that the russi

includes the white house, which is closely monitoring all of the situation, joining us now, cnn's natasha bertrand joining us from the pentagon and pra sill la alvarez is over at the white house for us now. natasha, what more can you tell us, first of all, about what u.s. and western officials know about this current very dramatic historic situation that is unfolding? >> well, we don't know a whole lot at this moment. they're watching closely to see how things unfold in the next 24-48 hours and importantly watching how long wagner can keep this up before they run into supply shortages. but broadly, the administration as well as swern officials were caught offguard by how fast this all escalated because they of course have been watching closely the deteriorating relationship between prigozhin and the russian ministry of defense, with prigozhin repeatedly accusing the russian military of depriving his troops and of russian troops inside ukraine with key ammunition and other equipment and essentially living them there to die. but they didn't know at what point this would reach this tipping point and

natasha bertrand joining us live from the pentagon. natasha is the air force base already hosted two drag events in the past. third time is not the charm here. why the about-face from the pentagon in 2023? >> yeah. this would have been the third drag show that they would have hosted in celebration of pride month. they have done this numerous times before. but this year the pentagon actually stepped in to cancel it. it had already been approved by air force leaders and it was set to move forward. but when secretary defense lloyd austin found out about it, the fact it was moving forward, he stepped in and he ordered that it be canceled. now, this obviously comes at a moment when these kinds of drag shows are becoming politically contentious with conservative policymakers, republicans on the hill arguing that the military bases should not be hosting these events because they should not be essentially using taxpayer money to fund them. and we should play a clip from the house arms services committee hearing on march 29th when representative

with drones including the one that hit the kremlin last month that got so much attention on natasha bertrandng reporting that you have for us this morning. tell us what you learned. >> there has been a steady drum beat of explosions and fires in russia over the last year targeting oil depots, fuel depots, railways, pipelines. officials noticed marketed inc increase in those kinds of attacks and how brazen they've become beginning, of course with, that drone attack on the kremlin last month. u.s. officials are now telling us that they do believe that ukraine has agents and sympathizers inside russia that are carrying out the attacks on ukraine's bee half. not only that, but also that ukraine has actually given them drones in order to carry out these acts of sabotage. now, there are still a number of questions here including whether all of the drone attacks that we have seen over the last several weeks inside russia have been carried out by these pro ukraine sympathizers and agents. it's unclear whether that is the case at this point. but what u.s. officials believe is that attack on the kreml

natasha bertrand joins us now. >> we're told that u.s. aircraft that crashed in southwest virginia. the fighter jets did not shoot this plane down and that the aircraft crashed for unknown reasons. it's not clear, for example, if it violated air space around washington, d.c., and if that's why the jets went after it. we are told that think did not physically shoot that aircraft down. the u.s. military aircraft caused a sonic boom because of the speeds they were traveling at when they were chasing the aircraft. we reported earlier that the aircraft that was ultimately downed was a citation that crashed in virginia. the sonic boom was so loud that people across washington, d.c., and the areas heard it and we have video of that. so obviously it sounded very, very loud to a lot of residents around d.c. wondering what that could have been. according to the faa which released a statement about this aircraft that did crash in southwest virginia, this was an aircraft that took off from elizabeth tim municipal airport in tennessee and was bound fo

thank you, natasha bertrand, live in washington.ng the fate of the man involved in the 2018 shooting in a synagogue with the largest shooting in u.s. history, and the jury will decide if the man should be put to death. danny freeman has been following this case in pittsburgh, and we heard the closing arguments and now the jury is deliberating. >> that is right, john. we have learned that the jury is back to court and started to deliberate at 8:40 this morning. we heard the powerful and intense statements from the prosecution, and much shorter and muted arguments from the defense. the prosecution started first by arguing that october 27th, 2018 was a normal day here in pittsburgh, especially for the members of the tree of life synagogue and other congregations there, and it was rainy and overcast, but otherwise normal until, i will quote here robert bowers turned a sacred house of worship into a hunting ground. the prosecution further said that bowers killed the jewish people there just because they were jewish. throughout the prosec

let's start with cnn's natasha bertrand. if you can, update our viewers on where things stand with this situation. it caught a lot of people by surprise here in the washington, d.c., area a few hours ago. >> yeah, let's walk folks through the series of events. a lot of things appeared to happen around the same time. around 3:00 p.m. there was a loud sonic boom that was heard across d.c., maryland, virginia. it was very, very loud and it was unclear what exactly that was. and then the faa released a statement saying that a small aircraft had actually crashed in southwest virginia. it was unclear whether those two things were connected. but the pentagon then -- but then we learned according to u.s. officials that u.s. f-16 fighter jets were scrambled to essentially chase that small aircraft that had crashed in southwest virginia for reasons that are unclear at this point. it is not known whether that aircraft actually violated d.c. air space or whether it was just too close or whether the pilot was unresponsive and that caused

na a natasha bertrand join us us. >> there has been a steady drum beat inside russia of these attacksting oil depots, railways, other facilities that are useful for the russians for their war effort in ukraine. and now we're learning that those mysterious attacks may have been carried out by the sabotage cells that ukraine has actually cultivated inside russia over the last several months and even year, ever since the war began. we are learning that u.s. officials and western officials believe that these are a mix of pro-ukrainian synthesizers as well as agents who are pretty well trained in this kind of warfare, and that u.s. officials actually believe that that attack, that drone attack on the kremlin that happened last month, that was actually carried out, u.s. officials believe, by those pro-ukrainian operators inside russia. we are also learning that they're getting drones from the ukrainians. it is unclear how the ukrainians are getting those drones into russia. but we do know they have a well-established drone manufacturing industry inside russia, and they're somehow smuggling

cnn's natasha bertrand has more on this for us today. maybe the tip of the iceberg here. >> reporter: exactly. we still don't know the full extent of this cyber attack, which has affected hundreds of companies across the u.s., federal agencies, major universities, including johns hopkins and georgia's state-wide university system, and companies around the world. and what we are told by federal officials is that it doesn't appear right now like these hackers have been able to take anything from u.s. government agencies that is significant. but they're still investigating here. so, what seems to have happened, just to take a step back, is that there is a file transfer software that many, many companies and entities in the u.s. and around the world use to transfer files. and what happened was hackers actually found a vulnerability in that software. so, that allowed them to kind of burrow in and take advantage and hack all of these different entities and companies. in terms of who's responsible, we're told that it is a russian cyber criminal

i want to bring in our national security reporter, natasha bertrand, joining us from the pentagon. u.s. forces believe pittsrigozh had been planning this for some time. >> my colleagues and i did learn that u.s. intelligence officials had been tracking the potential for yevgeny prigozhin to conduct some kind of major challenge to russia's military leadership. and they actually briefed congressional leaders known as the gang of eight on these potential plans by prigozhin this week. it is unclear to u.s. officials and was unclear at the time that they briefed congressional leaders what exactly that would look like. would prigozhin actually take his forces and storm a russian city. they simply did not know at the time how this challenge to russian military leadership would actually take place because, of course, they have been monitoring closely over the last several months this ongoing power struggle between prigozhin and russian military leadership, and there have been threats back and forth between the two groups. but it was never clear just how far prigozhin would take this. now w

. >> cnn's natasha bertrand is live from the pentagon.d a proposal to meet with austin at the shangri-la conference. these comments from austin are remarkable. >> yeah, they come days after a chinese fighter jet intercepted a u.s. reconnaissance plane over the south china sea in a way that u.s. officials say were aggressive and dangerous. it got so close to that u.s. aircraft that the aircraft could feel the turbulence from the wake that have fighter jet. that aircraft was manned. so austin here is really reiterating the need for china and the u.s. to have military-to-military channels open so if something like this happens and there is a collision, there needs be a channel so the countries can avoid a miscommunication that could spiral out of control. as of right now, china continues to refuse to reopen the military-to-military channels even though the defense department has been pressing them for months to reopen those lines of communication. >> we will take it. appreciate it. thank you. >>> "that '70s show" actor danny masterson found

and cnn national security reporter natasha bertrand. nic, first to you.wered prigozhin's principal challenge here which is the war is unnecessary and it is because of his defense chiefs wanting to go to war, he didn't blame putin per se for it, but it has come at the expense of russian soldiers, potentially more than 100,000, potentially 200,000, have there have been shortages of ammunition and training, and everything about this war has been wrong, in essence. this is the thrust of what prigozhin is saying. putin has treated prigozhin as a security threat, that he is going to shut down, treasonist is the language that he used, but that doesn't answer prigozhin's point, and there are russian citizens, particularly those who have lost loved ones, brothers, families, fathers, sons, who want answers, is this war worthwhile, and that's a question that i know from having conversations with people in moscow today that is still out there waiting to be answered. so i think that is an issue for him. but the question for prigozhin clearly is how much support can he

cnn's natasha bertrand is tracking this and joins us now. how is the u.s.litary branches have been invoked to search for this vessel, including the navy, the new york air national guard and transportation command. as sara just mentioned, the navy has provided this deep submersible object essentially, a roving object, that can lift things off of the sea floor very deep inside the ocean that weigh up to 60,000 pounds, it is called the fly away deep ocean salvage system. that is going to be very key if they do actually recover this submarine and if they can ultimately try to bring it to the surface, that is going to be very instrumental in that. of course, they are still trying to figure out whether that is even possible and where this vessel even is. the navy has been in touch with the coast guard about these banging sounds and actually we just heard from a senior coast guard official earlier this morning who said they have enlisted some navy experts to try to figure out what those sounds might be because those navy experts have the scientific expertise to tr

cnn's natasha bertrand has more information. agencies might be affected. >> the exact number of government agencies impacted by this is still unclear, but the cybersecurity agency said it is providing support to several federal agencies that experienced intrusions affecting their move it application and they are working urgently to understand impacts and ensure remacy's mediation. move it is a file transfer software that hackers found a vulnerability in earlier this year and they began exploiting that in late may. progress, which is the u.s. firm that owns the move it software, urged victims to update their software packages and issued security advice. the department of energy is the only federal to confirm publicly it was hit saying in a statement that records from two of its entities were compromised and that the department is investigating the incident. now, the hackers have used this vulnerability to target not only federal agencies but also state governments and as you said academic institutions, johns hopkins, university a