• The devastating Japanese attack began Sunday at 7:48 a.m., eventually killing 2,402 Americans and wounding many others, sinking four battleships and damaging many more.
• The Pearl Harbor attack spurred America into World War II. Here are photographs from the attack and its immediate aftermath.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

December 7, 1941 began as a perfect Sunday morning for the troops serving the US fleet at Pearl Harbor.

Under a early morning South Pacific sun, softball teams were lining up on the beach. Pitchers warmed up their arms, while batting rosters were finalized and the wives and kids came over from seaside church services.

They did not know that for hours the Japanese naval fleet and air forces had been speeding across the ocean toward America's Pacific base. There, like a string of pearls draped across the docks and waterfront, was the majority of America's naval might.

The devastating Japanese onslaught began at 7:48 a.m., eventually killing 2,402 Americans and wounding many others, sinking four battleships and damaging many more.

The Pearl Harbor attack spurred America into World War II, leading ultimately to Allied victory over the Japanese in the East and Nazis and other Axis powers in the West. And the country promised never to forget this day of infamy.

Here are photographs from the attack and its immediate aftermath.

Amanda Macias and Kamelia Angelova contributed to an earlier version of this story.

SEE ALSO: 'We were lucky': Pearl Harbor vet describes how he survived the infamous attack

On the morning of December 7, 1941, an attack planned by Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto to demobilize the US Navy was carried out.

Around 7 a.m., an Army radar operator spotted the first wave of the Japanese planes. The officers who received these reports did not consider them significant enough to take action.

The Japanese hit most of the US ships in Oahu before 9 a.m.

The Japanese also took the opportunity to attack military airfields while bombing the fleet in Pearl Harbor. The purpose of these simultaneous attacks was to destroy American planes before they could respond.

More than 90 ships were anchored at Pearl Harbor. The primary targets were the eight battleships in Battleship Row.

The USS West Virginia, left, was one of the battleships to sink during the attack. The Japanese successfully damaged all eight.

At about 8:10 a.m., the USS Arizona exploded as a bomb ignited its forward ammunition magazine. About half of the total number of Americans killed that day were on this ship.

Here's another picture of the USS Arizona sinking.

The USS Shaw, a destroyer, also exploded during the two-hour attack by Japan.

The damaged USS Nevada tried to escape down the channel toward the open sea but became a target during the second wave of 170 Japanese planes, hoping to sink it in the channel and block the narrow entrance to Pearl Harbor. The ship was grounded with 60 killed on board.

A Japanese plane hit by American naval antiaircraft fire was engulfed in flames. Fewer than 30 Japanese planes were lost in the attack.

About 190 US planes were destroyed, and another 159 were damaged.

Sailors at the Naval Air Station in Kaneohe, Hawaii, attempted to salvage a burning PBY Catalina in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

People in New York's Times Square bought newspapers with headlines like this one, "Japs Attack US." The US entered World War II after the surprise attack.

Salvage work soon began on the destroyers USS Cassin and USS Downes. The Japanese failed to damage any US aircraft carriers, which were surprisingly absent from the harbor.

About 10% of Japanese planes were lost on December 7, 1941.

The USS Oklahoma was considered too old to be worth repairing.

Here, a Marine holds a piece of shrapnel removed from his arm after the attack.

Sailors participated in a memorial service for the more than 2,400 Americans killed in the attack.

• Dozens of companies are partnering with US Customs and Border Protection to implement a new generation of surveillance technology along the US-Mexico border, according to federal procurement records.
• Those companies include longstanding defense contractors as well as newer Silicon Valley startups funded by the likes of Bill Gates and Andreessen Horowitz.
• While many of the companies already have contracts with US border patrol, they've also filed hundreds of applications to test out new, experimental surveillance technology along the border.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The US government and private contractors aren't just building a brick-and-mortar wall along the US-Mexico border — Silicon Valley-backed tech startups are also rolling out surveillance technology to build a "virtual fence" along the border.

The technologies, the companies have said, are designed to help border patrol agents spot and apprehend people entering the country illegally, as well as identify drug smuggling. Echodyne, a startup backed by Bill Gates, is a Border Patrol contractor and is testing a new generation of radar. Anduril, a startup founded by consumer virtual-reality pioneer and former Facebook executive Palmer Luckey, is testing a suite of surveillance services for CBP. Andreessen Horowitz-backed SkySafe markets surveillance drones and anti-drone technology — it doesn't contract with CBP, but has other contracts with the Pentagon to monitor the border. 

In addition to tech startups that have existing contracts with federal agencies, companies are privately testing out experimental radar and communication technology around the border. While existing federal contracts are made public, the experimental technology being tested is shrouded in secrecy. Their existence is only a matter of public record because powerful radio transmitters require an Federal Communications Commission license to operate.

In the last year alone, dozens of companies including SkySafe and Echodyne filed more than 1,000 applications to experiment with radar and communication technology along the border, according to a public database of FCC licenses. While the licenses reflect the number of radar and communication devices being implemented near the border, the FCC licenses don't provide details on the specific technology being implemented.

The flood of interest in border surveillance reflects companies' efforts to capitalize on an increase in federal funds being spent on the border under the Trump administration. The Pentagon has already demonstrated a willingness to fund unprecedented border projects in recent years, including a high-altitude surveillance blimp.

A spokesperson for Echodyne told Business Insider that in addition to its CBP contracts, its radar technology is being tested by other companies at the border, some of whom have separate CBP contracts. The spokesperson declined to name its clients or clarify how the technology is being used. A CBP spokesperson did not immediately comment on the record.

A SkySafe spokesperson told Business Insider that its technology is broadly meant to help combat drug trade near the border, but said the company doesn't comment on "specific deployments of our systems."

The proliferation of surveillance technology at the border represents a renewed interest in building a "virtual fence." The DHS spent over $1 billion on a contract with Boeing for border surveillance technology, but scrapped the project in 2011 after determining it was ineffective.

The government renewed its interest in a "virtual fence" in 2014, however, when it embarked on a new program dubbed the Integrated Fixed Tower system designed to help border patrol agents keep tabs on people and devices crossing the border. CBP has touted the system in the years since its rollout.

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• The CIA secretly bought a Swiss company that sold encrypted devices and rigged them to spy on clients, according to confidential documents published by The Washington Post and ZDF Tuesday.
• The company, Crypto AG, sold gadgets and software to spies, diplomats, military officials, and private companies for decades.
• CIA agents secretly listened in on all communications that used the company's devices, and the CIA's leaked report called it "the intelligence coup of the century."
• Crypto AG was dissolved in 2018, and the two companies that bought its assets deny any involvement with the CIA.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In leaked documents, newly published by The Washington Post and ZDF, the CIA describes how it pulled off "the intelligence coup of the century:" for decades, a company that sold encryption devices to more than 120 countries was secretly owned and operated by the CIA itself.

The company, Crypto AG, was acquired by the CIA at the height of the Cold War. Through a classified partnership with West Germany's spy agency, the CIA designed Crypto AG's encryption devices in a way that let the agency easily decrypt and read all messages sent by the company's clients.

Some details of Crypto AG's coordination with US intelligence agencies had been previously reported — a 1995 investigation by The Baltimore Sun revealed that the National Security Agency reached an agreement with Crypto AG executives to secretly rig encryption devices. However, the newly-published CIA report unveils the full extent of the US' operation of Crypto AG.

For decades, Crypto AG was the leading provider of encryption services. It boasted hundreds of clients ranging from the Vatican to Iran, generating millions of dollars in profits. The CIA maintained control over the company until at least 2008, when the agency's confidential report obtained by The Post was drafted.

Crypto AG was liquidated in 2018, and its assets were purchased by two other companies: CyOne Security and Crypto International. Both have denied any current connection to the CIA, and Crypto International chairman Andreas Linde told The Post that he "feels betrayed" by the revelation.

"Crypto International and Crypto AG are two completely separate companies without any relationship," a spokesperson for Crypto International said in a statement to Business Insider. "Crypto International is a Swedish owned company that in 2018 acquired the brand name and other assets from Crypto AG ... We have no connections to the CIA or the BND and we never had."

A representative for CyOne Security did not immediately respond to Business Insider's requests for comment. 

In a statement to Business Insider, CIA press secretary Timothy Barrett declined to confirm or deny the report, saying the agency is "aware of press reporting about an alleged U.S. government program and do not have any guidance."

Crypto AG began selling encryption devices in 1940, marketing a mechanical device that was powered by a crank. The CIA reportedly purchased the company with a handshake deal in 1951, which was renewed with a secretive "licensing agreement" in 1960.

In the decades that followed, the CIA oversaw technical advances in Crypto AG's devices, shifting to electronic devices. The company reportedly contracted with Siemens and Motorola to modernize its gadgets.

The CIA's surveillance continued through the 1990s and 2000s, even as Crypto AG's revenue began to dwindle. It was ultimately dissolved in 2018 and sold for between $50 million and $70 million, according to anonymous current and former officials quoted by The Post.

Read the full report by The Washington Post and ZDF here.

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• Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt urged the United States government to get more invested in the ongoing tech race between China and the US.
• In an op-ed published Friday morning in the New York Times, Schmidt argued that the US has a tenuous lead over China on a variety of tech fronts, from AI to biotechnology.
• "The government needs to get back in the game in a serious way," Schmidt said.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who helped build the company into a global tech powerhouse, says the United States is in danger of losing the tech race to China.

"Americans should be wary of living in a world shaped by China's view of the relationship between technology and authoritarian governance,"he wrote in a New York Times op-ed published Friday morning. "Free societies must prove the resilience of liberal democracy in the face of technological changes that threaten it."

Schmidt says that the race between the US and China can't be won by the private market alone and that the US government "needs to get back in the game in a serious way."

To that end, Schmidt called on the federal government to set "national priorities across emerging technologies, with a special focus on research areas that could enhance our defense and security."

In particular, he called for the US government — particularly the Department of Defense — to focus on a handful of subjects he sees as critical: Artificial intelligence, biotechnology, quantum computing, and hypersonics.

Schmidt is no stranger to this argument — he's been making it in some form for the past several years.

"It's pretty simple. By 2020 [China] will have caught up. By 2025 they will be better than us. And by 2030 they will dominate the industries of AI,"Schmidt said in 2017, referring to a report from the Chinese government on its AI ambitions."Trust me, these Chinese people are good. They are going to use this technology for both commercial as well as military objectives, with all sorts of implications."

He also called on Congress to approve President Trump's defense budget proposal "for the highest level of defense R&D funding in over 70 years."The White House's 2020 budget proposal includes $705.4 billion for the DOD — a nearly $1 billion increase over 2019's budget. "The government should begin by setting out national priorities across emerging technologies, with a special focus on research areas that could enhance our defense and security," Schmidt said. 

Without those priorities, Schmidt argued, China's plans for tech dominance are likely to succeed.

"Ultimately, the Chinese are competing to become the world's leading innovators, and the United States is not playing to win," he said. "For the American model to win, the American government must lead."

SEE ALSO: Google's ex-CEO Eric Schmidt says the internet will split in two by 2028

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• There are now 550 sailors from the USS Theodore Roosevelt that have tested positive for coronavirus, according to the US Navy.
• On Saturday, 100 new cases from the carrier were reported, accounting for 75% of the Navy's total coronavirus cases worldwide.
• Over 90% of sailors from the aircraft carrier have been tested so far and 3,696 have been moved ashore.
• The ship's captain was removed from service earlier this month after his letter begging the Navy to take swifter action leaked to the press.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The number of sailors from the USS Theodore Roosevelt who have tested positive for coronavirus rose by 100 Saturday afternoon, CNN first reported. A total of 550 cases have now been linked to the ship.

The aircraft carrier, which is crewed by roughly 4,800 sailors, has been dealing with a coronavirus outbreak since three sailors tested positive on March 24. Over 3,000 of the sailors were taken ashore in Guam Friday and over 90% have been tested, according to the US Navy.

Cases linked to the USS Theodore Roosevelt now account for 75% of cases in the entire Navy.

Capt. Brett Crozier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt's commanding officer, was removed from his post on April 2 after a letter in which he urged the Navy to take decisive action to evacuate the carrier's crew had been leaked.

"The spread of the disease is ongoing and accelerating," Crozier wrote in his letter. "Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our Sailors."

Crozier's removal sparked outrage both within the Navy and throughout the US. Former Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly, the officer who removed Crozier, apologized and stepped down from his position Tuesday amid widespread backlash.

Morale has dipped in the wake of the episode, US Navy Vice Adm. Bill Merz told CNN Friday.

"There was lots of anxiety about the virus," Merz said. "I think we could have told them earlier what we knew ... I think we could have at least brought them in earlier and started having this dialogue up front."

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• US Patriot missile batteries are being removed from Saudi Arabia, and the greater Middle East, several news outlets reported Thursday night.
• The move could be in retaliation over Saudi Arabia's oil production or it could be due to officials no longer seeing Iran as a direct threat at the moment.
• Two Patriot missile batteries will be removed from Saudi Arabia, and two more will be removed from the rest of the region.
• The missiles in Saudi Arabia used to guard oil fields.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Two Patriot missile batteries that used to guard oil facilities in Saudi Arabia will be removed after disputes between the Trump administration and the country over oil production, The Associated Press reported Thursday night.

According to the AP, a US official said some fighter aircraft and around 300 troops who staff the two batteries will also leave the country. But two Patriot batteries at Prince Sultan Air Base in the Saudi desert, along with other air defense systems and jet fighters, will remain in the country.

Republicans accused Saudi Arabia of "exacerbating instability in the oil market," earlier this year when they ramped up oil production and slashed prices amid the coronavirus pandemic, the AP reported.

Saudi Arabia's move led to layoffs in some Republican-led states, and in March some Republican senators said if the country did not change it could lose US American defense support.

The Wall Street Journal also reported Thursday night that President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Saudi oil imports, and then said the issue had been resolved.

WSJ also reported that officials said the US is considering reducing other military capabilities, "marking the end, for now, of a large-scale military buildup to counter Iran."

Additionally, two other Patriot missile batteries will be sent back to the US from the greater Middle East region for "planned redeployment for maintenance and upgrades," the AP reported.

WSJ reported that the redeployment wasn't previously disclosed, but the AP added that the US has a limited supply of these systems that have to come back to the US for maintenance and upgrades.

Officials told the WSJ that the US was also considering reducing the US Navy presence in the Persian Gulf.

"Dozens of military personnel" were sent to the region after attacks on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, which the Trump administration blamed on Iran, according to WSJ.

According to the AP, it's not exactly clear to what degree the US decision to remove the missile system was because of the oil disputes or the struggle to parcel out the much-coveted Patriot systems.

"We're making a lot of moves in the Middle East and elsewhere. We do a lot of things all over the world, militarily we've been taken advantage of all over the world," Trump said about the move on Thursday, according to the AP.

The commander-in-chief added: "This has nothing to do with Saudi Arabia. This has to do with other countries, frankly, much more."

The Pentagon told WSJ after the report was published that they regularly move troops in and out of the region and reassess their forces. According to WSJ, some officials don't see Iran as an immediate threat at the moment.

Navy Cmdr. Sean Robertson, a Pentagon spokesman, told WSJ that "the Pentagon is engaged in a long-term effort to strengthen air defenses in the region."

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• Defense startups are in a precarious position as the US government leans toward cutting spending on emerging technologies amid the coronavirus-driven downturn, according to Founders Fund's Trae Stephens. 
• Stephens, who is also the cofounder of Anduril, is part of a group of 13 VCs who published an op-ed last week, asking the government to "give contracts, not lip service," to ensure startups survive the downturn.
• VCs say that the government's reluctance to give contracts to defense startups that are ready to go into production has the potential to kill the venture capital ecosystem around defense innovation.
• Startups have a history of butting heads with government agencies in order to  succeed in the defense industry — both Palantir and SpaceX have scored contracts in the tens and hundreds of millions, and yet both have sued their customers (the US Army and the US Air Force) in order to do so. 
• But in recent years, the relationship has grown less tense as the government has turned to Silicon Valley to grow its AI capabilities, among other things. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Silicon Valley's famous knack for creating billion-dollar startups has fallen short when it comes to unicorns in the military and defense sectors. And according to some VCs who invest in these startups, the problem is less about innovation than it is about the customer.

The Pentagon needs to do more to help startups flourish if it wants to benefit from the technology being cooked up in Silicon Valley, says Trae Stephens, a partner at the Founders Fund venture capital firm.

Stephens is part of a group of 13 high-profile venture capitalists who published an op-ed last week, asking the government to "give contracts, not lip service," to ensure startups survive the economic downturn. General Catalyst's Katherine Boyle, Lux Capital's Josh Wolfe, and 8VC's Joe Lonsdale (who also cofounded Palantir but is no longer involved in the company) were also among the op-ed's signatories. 

The VCs worry that a federal deficit expected to reach $3.7 trillion, which has placed the Department of Defense's budget under pressure, will prompt the US government to slash its spending on defense startups and focus its efforts on providing large contractors like Boeing with billions of dollars of support.

"It basically has the potential to kill the venture capital ecosystem around defense innovation entirely," says Stephens. If startups can't turn their ideas into commercial products, he says, "these companies are going to run out of runway."

Stephens, who started off his career working in the US intelligence community, has long watched the defense-tech space carefully. Before joining Founders Fund, where he takes a particular interest in startups operating in government, he worked at Palantir, which is known for its work with the CIA and the Army. He co-founded defense-tech's latest hot startup Anduril, and currently sits on the the Defense Innovation Board as a federal advisory committee member.

"The problem is that in the Pentagon, if you look back over the history of recessions, what it has really been [doing] is circling wagons around our large broken programs," Stephens said.

It's an approach that he says is at odds with Silicon Valley's 'fail fast' ethos — rather than cutting its losses on money-sucking ventures and pivoting to contractors that are able to operate cheaply, Stephens says that the Pentagon is more likely to do the opposite, and cut its ties with startups. 

Startups that have only one possible customer

Although defense startups can access small business loans for temporary relief, that's not enough money to keep venture-backed startups afloat if their sole customer (the US government) pulls away. 

Stephens, who has long bet on Silicon Valley's ability to bring the military to the 21st century, finds the Pentagon's stance slightly exasperating: it says it needs innovation from Silicon Valley, and to its credit, it does funnel small amounts of money to startups looking to pilot or prototype their products through initiatives like the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program.

But startups that have already gone through multiple years of research and development need government contracts to scale production. And venture capitalists, who get into the defense space to bet on the next Palantir, need to know that the startups they fund have a shot at making it to the market. 

"The DoD [Department of Defense] is coming to us and saying, 'are you going to continue backing capital into these companies, shy of a commitment from us?' And we're like, 'not really. That's not how this works,'" Stephens said. 

This might strike some observers as a plea for corporate welfare. The VCs who penned the op-ed however insist they're not calling for the government to subsidize dead-end technology.

"We are not advocating continuing to invest larger dollar amounts into never-ending, short-term pilots and prototypes," the op-ed said. "The key to sustaining the innovation base through this crisis and any future crises is transitioning the best of these companies and products into real production contracts."

A fraught relationship

While the Pentagon played an important role in the early days of Silicon Valley, acting as a major customer for integrated circuits and other technology, the rise of the PC and other business and consumer products allowed the tech industry to broaden its horizons.

Since then, startups have had a history of butting heads with government agencies in order to succeed in the defense industry — as Stephens argues, the only 2 venture-backed startups in the sector that have attained multibillion dollar valuations since the Cold War are Palantir and SpaceX. (Stephens' company Anduril, currently valued at $1 billion, may eventually join the ranks). 

Although both Palantir and SpaceX have both scored contracts in the tens and hundreds of millions, both have only gotten to that position by suing their customers (the US Army and the US Air Force) for initially failing to consider the two companies for contracts. 

But in recent years, the relationship has grown less tense as the government has turned to Silicon Valley to grow its AI and automation capabilities, among other things. Organizations like the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) have awarded contracts to commercial startups to provide products like satellite technology and cybersecurity.

Silicon Valley has largely responded in kind. Although Google employees protested to force the company to drop its contract with the Pentagon, that project was quickly snapped up by Palantir. Scores of smaller startups have meanwhile been pitching themselves to investors like Stephens. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has reinvented himself as a liaison between the Pentagon and Silicon Valley. And accelerators like the Washington DC-based Dcode have also cropped up to help startups navigate government contracts. 

As the coronavirus downturn has turned up the pressure on VCs, the Pentagon says it has stepped up funding for private space companies at an early stage. "DIU is positioned to address new or expended prototype efforts involving commercial technology quickly," the DIU's space portfolio head Mike Bratow told CNBC. 

Still, Stephens says that in order to keep private sector dollars in the field, the government needs to ramp up support even further, and ensure that it continues to give contracts to the startups ready to go into production.

Once venture capitalists know that a startup has some guarantee of succeeding, "the money will follow," Stephens said.

SEE ALSO: Segment, the $1.5 billion data analytics startup taking on Oracle and Salesforce, has cut 10% of its total staff amid the downturn

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• The US Navy mocked Iran after it fired missiles at a replica US aircraft carrier on Tuesday and Wednesday.
• The Navy posted a photo on its social-media account of a dummy ship with the caption, "Iran builds target ship. They're experts at that."
• Iran dragged a mock US vessel into the Strait of Hormuz in an apparent show of force toward the US.
• The US has the most powerful carrier fleet, with 11 aircraft carriers. Iran has none. 
• The drill came amid heightening tensions between the two countries.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The US Navy mocked Iran after its paramilitary forces fired underground missiles at a dummy US aircraft carrier on Wednesday.

The photo, posted on the Navy's Instagram account, featured a replica aircraft carrier built by Iran, along with the caption: "Iran builds target ship. They're experts at that."

The US's naval fleet is unparalleled in the rest of the world, outranking every country both technologically and in terms of size, with an armada of 11 aircraft carriers. Iran has no flattops.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard instead relies on large groups of small low-tech seacraft to launch swarm attacks, as demonstrated on the US mock-up vessel that was pulled into the Strait of Hormuz over the past couple of days.

"We cannot speak to what Iran hopes to gain by building this mock-up, or what tactical value they would hope to gain by using such a mock-up in a training or exercise scenario," Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, a spokesperson in the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, which oversees operations in the Middle East, told The Associated Press.

"We remain confident in our naval forces' ability to defend themselves against any maritime threat," she added.

The drill appeared to be an attempted show of force against US ships, which Iran has previously built replicas of and fired missiles at. 

"What was shown today in these exercises, at the level of aerospace and naval forces, was all offensive," Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami of the Revolutionary Guard told Iranian state TV, according to the BBC. 

The exercises initially put US bases on heightened alert of a threat, but the "incident lasted for a matter of minutes, and an all clear was declared," a military statement said, according to Reuters.

The drill comes as tensions between the two countries have been simmering after a US drone strike killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani in January.

Mia Jankowicz contributed to this report.

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The defense sector has been one of the worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic, not least because of huge cuts to government spending. At the end of October, the sector's average price-to-earnings ratio hit a 20-year relative low against the European market, according to JPMorgan.

But sentiment on the sector started to turn last month when UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the country's biggest defense investment since the end of the Cold War.

Johnson has promised an extra £16.5 billion in addition to the annual budget, which is almost £41.5 billion, or $55.4 billion, for this financial year.

The announcement of the UK's increased spending, combined with the outlook for Europe and the US, has fed into JPMorgan analysts' positive view on the defense-and-aerospace sector.

As part of JPMorgan's Europe and Global equity outlook released Monday, the equity analyst David Perry provided insight into the sector exploring the current state, the outlook for 2021, and a few key stock picks.

The UK, the eurozone, and the US play a key role in the sector's outlook. This new report provides insight into how JPMorgan views all three markets.

The UK equity market has been upgraded to neutral, despite what analysts describe as the "worst-performing equity region" this year.

"We continue to believe that FTSE250 is a better opportunity than FTSE100, and prefer UK domestic plays vs exporters," the JPMorgan equity analyst Mislav Matejka said. "Overall though, while we expect the UK equity market to be higher next year, we do not think it will be outperforming eurozone, or global peers."

The US has also been rated neutral, while the eurozone has been rated overweight.

"Eurozone tends to do better when value outperforms, while the US is heavily tilted towards quality/ growth style," Matejka said. "We argued at the start of November that market participation would broaden into value, which should, in turn, support the better performance of eurozone versus the US."

Defense outlook

In addition to the UK's decision on defense spending, political developments in three countries in particular have made JPMorgan more optimistic on the sector:

1. France announced plans to increase defense spending in 2021 by 4.5%.

2. Germany has awarded numerous major defense contacts.

3. If Republicans maintain control of the US Senate in January's runoff elections, the resulting political gridlock would make major cuts to defense spending unlikely.

Civil aerospace outlook

On the civil aerospace side, JPMorgan's analysts are less optimistic.

The International Air Transport Association expects the global airline industry to incur materially bigger losses both in 2020 and 2021 than ever before, something that will affect the civil aerospace industry, which provides hardware and software to the airlines.

Many investors are willing to look past 2020 and 2021 and toward a 2023 and 2024 recovery. But JPMorgan points to three reasons for investor caution:

1. There is no guarantee things will be back to normal in the space of a few years.

2. "Airlines have incurred huge debts in 2020-21, and perhaps beyond, and this makes it much harder for them to pay for maintenance and new aircraft," Perry said.

3. Some civil aerospace companies burned billions of dollars in cash in 2020, which weakened their balance sheets.

Based on the positive outlook for the defense market and the more negative view on the civil aerospace sector, here are the analysts' top two picks to buy and one to avoid at all costs:

Stock Picks

1. BAE Systems

Ticker: BA

Rating: Overweight

Price target: £6.20

Potential upside (as of 11/30): 19%

Analyst commentary:"On November 12th BAE held a CMD is which it passionately argued that it expects several years of top line growth, some expansion of EBITA margins, and much improved cash conversion. The improved cash conversion is driven by lower pension deficit funding (largely over by 2022) and improved working capital practices."

Source: JPMorgan Cazenove

2. Thales

Ticker: EPA:HO

Rating: Overweight

Price target: €91.00

Potential upside (as of 11/30): 14%

Analyst commentary:"Even if we look out to 2023E, we see that Thales is trading a major discount to French A&D companies like Airbus and Safran. Thales has a good mix of businesses: c50% of sales from defense provide stability (and some growth) and the other 50% of sales offer exposure to an improving economy post COVID-19. Management is confident that in the next three years it will deliver organic sales growth, improving EBITA margins and better cash conversion."

Source: JPMorgan Cazenove

3. Rolls-Royce

Ticker: RR

Rating: Underweight

Price target:£0.50

Potential downside (as of 11/30): -50%

Analyst commentary:"RR remains the weakest company in the European A&D sector. In Civil Aero it derives most of its sales from log haul international travel, the segment that will be the slowest to recover from COVID-19. Despite raising £2bn in new equity in 2020, RR still has the weakest balance sheet in the sector. It plans to raise a further £2bn from disposals in the coming year or so, but there is no guarantee of success here. We believe there is still a meaningful risk of another equity raise in the next 12-18 months."

Source: JPMorgan Cazenove

There has never been anyone quite like late US Air Force Brig. Gen. (ret.) Chuck Yeager, a truly legendary figure in aviation.

Yeager, who died Tuesday at the age of 97, led a life full of unbelievable heroics and achievements epic enough to warrant having a book, "The Right Stuff," and a movie of the same name made about him.

His wife, Victoria Yeager, tweeted late Tuesday evening that her husband's life was "an incredible life well lived," adding that "America's greatest pilot" and "a legacy of strength, adventure, & patriotism will be remembered forever."

In a statement on Yeager's passing, NASA said his death "is a tremendous loss to our nation."

"Gen. Yeager's pioneering and innovative spirit advanced America's abilities in the sky and set our nation's dreams soaring into the jet age and the space age," the statement from NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine read. 

Here are 9 of the amazing things Yeager did in his life.

In 1944, while fighting in World War Two, Yeager became the first in his flight group to make "ace in a day" by shooting down five enemies in a single mission.

That same year, Yeager also scored one of the first air-to-air victories of the war against a German Messerschmitt ME262 jet fighter.

On October 14, 1947, Yeager was the first person to break the sound barrier by flying an X-1 at Mach 1.07. At the time, he had two broken ribs which he sustained from falling off a horse two days before the flight.

After a North Korean pilot defected to South Korea, Yeager tested his MiG-15 and became one of the first American pilots to fly that aircraft.

In 1962, Yeager became the first commandant of the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School, and over in late 1963/early 1964 he set a record for completing five flights in the NASA M2-F1 lifting body.

On June 22, 1969, Yeager was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and became the vice-commander of the Seventeenth Air Force.

In 1986, Yeager drove the Chevrolet Corvette pace car for the 70th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 at the age of 63.

On October 14, 2012, the 65th anniversary of his breaking the sound barrier, Yeager broke it again at the age of 89.

To celebrate his 90th birthday, Yeager went skydiving in 2013.

An earlier version of this post was written by Jeremy Bender. It has since been updated by Ryan Pickrell to include information on Yeager's death.

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President Donald Trump pressured House Republicans on Tuesday to reject an essential defense bill over his longstanding feud with tech companies. 

"I hope House Republicans will vote against the very weak National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which I will VETO," he tweeted on Tuesday morning. "Must include a termination of Section 230 (for National Security purposes), preserve our National Monuments, & allow for 5G & troop reductions in foreign lands!" (An initial tweet, which he removed, misspelled "troop" as "troupe.")

The statement comes ahead of the House's scheduled vote on Tuesday on the $740.5 billion spending package, known as the NDAA. The legislation is considered "must-pass" as it covers funding for all aspects of the military, from national security programs to troops' pay. 

Trump has threatened to veto passage of the NDAA unless it includes an unrelated provision to repeal Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, an internet law that provides social media companies protections to control content-regulation on their platforms.

The president aims to terminate the law as part of his battle against Silicon Valley giants Twitter and Facebook, for what he describes as censorship against conservatives on the sites.

Many Republicans have echoed the concern and have grilled the tech leaders at congressional hearings, though both Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg have pushed back on claims that the platforms suppress conservative users. Democrats have also hammered the social media companies for enabling misinformation to spread online. 

Yet both parties appear united in their call to pass the annual defense bill without Trump's consideration to revoke Section 230.

"For 59 straight years, the NDAA has passed because Members of Congress and Presidents of both parties have set aside their own policy objectives and partisan preferences and put the needs of our military personnel and America's security first," House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith, a Democrat, and ranking member Mac Thornberry, a Republican, said in a statement last week.

"The time has come to do that again," they added.

The Senate is also expected to hold its vote on the bill this week, and leaders are likewise rejecting Trump's bid against the internet law. 

"First of all, 230 has nothing to do with the military," Senate Armed Services Chairman Republican Jim Inhofe said, according to Reuters. "And I agree with [Trump's] sentiments. We ought to do away with 230, but you can't do it in this bill. That's not a part of the bill."

Trump has increased his attacks on tech companies since the election, as both Twitter and Facebook have been labeling his misleading or false posts on the 2020 race with warnings intended to prevent misinformation.  

On Thanksgiving, he went on a Twitter rant calling for the termination of Section 230 and declaring conservative discrimination on the site after the hashtag #DiaperDon trended.

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The Republican-controlled Senate on Friday passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a $741 billion defense bill, with a veto-proof majority. GOP senators overwhelmingly supported the legislation despite President Donald Trump's threats to veto it. 

"The Senate just passed the National Defense Authorization Act," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a tweet after the vote. "This annual bill will unlock the training, tools, and cutting-edge equipment that our servicemembers and civilian employees need as they bravely defend American lives and American interests."

The bill, which provides appropriations to the Defense Department and defense-related activities in other federal agencies, was approved in an 84 to 13 vote. The Democratic-controlled House also passed the defense bill with a veto-proof majority. 

Friday's Senate vote sets up a potential showdown between Trump and Congress in the final days of his presidency. If he decides to make good on his threat, it appears that the bill has enough support in both chambers to override Trump's veto — in what would be a first for him. 

Trump has objected to a provision in the bill opening the door to rename military bases commemorating Confederate leaders. More recently, the president has demanded that bill repeal Section 230, a part of the Communications Decency Act providing liability to social media companies regarding content posted by third parties on their platforms. Trump has accused social media companies like Twitter and Facebook of being biased against conservatives.

But Section 230 has nothing to do with national defense, and Republicans have been urging Trump to support the defense bill. The NDAA has passed in Congress without much opposition for 60 consecutive years. 

Ahead of the House vote on the bill earlier this week,  Trump tweeted: "I hope House Republicans will vote against the very weak National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which I will VETO. Must include a termination of Section 230 (for National Security purposes), preserve our National Monuments, & allow for 5G & troop reductions in foreign lands!"

It's unclear if Trump will follow through and veto the bill given the overwhelming support for it in Congress. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider. 

Trump has issued eight vetoes during his presidency and none have been overridden. 

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A massive cyber attack reportedly executed by a Russian intelligence agency put thousands of companies and US government agencies at risk of being spied on or having data stolen for up to nine months.

The software firm SolarWinds was breached earlier this year when hackers broke into its system and inserted malicious code into one of its software platforms. Customers who updated their software from March to June added the malware to their networks, giving the hackers a backdoor into their systems.

SolarWinds has hundreds of thousands of clients across the globe, including government agencies and most Fortune 500 companies. The company said up to 18,000 of its customers downloaded the software update that contained the malicious code.

Investigating the extent of the cyberattacks may take years, but some organizations have already emerged as compromised, meaning the hackers had potential access to their networks. But it will take long-term investigations for some firms and agencies to determine what data, if any, were stolen or manipulated.

Here's a list of the major US agencies and firms that were reportedly breached:

Department of State

The State Department is among the US agencies said to have been breached, The Washington Post first reported. Russians had also hacked into part of the department's system in 2014.

Department of Homeland Security

Reuters first reported the breach at the Department of Homeland security, the agency responsible for cybersecurity, border security, and, recently, the distribution of the coronavirus vaccine. The department's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency also oversaw the secure presidential election last month.

National Institutes of Health

The Post also reported the National Institutes of Health, housed in the Department of Health and Human Services, was also compromised. Reports emerged in the summer that the SVR, a Russian intelligence agency, had targeted the COVID-19 vaccine research.

The Pentagon

Parts of the Pentagon, the headquarters of the Department of Defense, were breached, an unnamed US official reportedly told The New York Times. The official said the extent of the attack was unknown.

Department of Energy

Politico reported the Energy Department, including its National Nuclear Security Administration, was subject to the cyber attack. In a statement, a spokesperson said the breach was "isolated to business networks only," and did not impact national security functions of the department, which includes managing the nuclear weapons stockpile.

Department of the Treasury

The Treasury Department, which manages national finances, was among the first confirmed breaches of the federal government, Reuters reported. Hackers were reportedly spying on internal emails, but the extent of the attack is still unknown.

Department of Commerce

The Commerce Department was also one of the first agencies to have confirmed a breach. Sources told Reuters hackers also appeared to be spying on department emails.

State and local governments

Sources told Bloomberg that up to three state governments were hit by the attack, though they did not name which states. The Intercept reported that the network of the city of Austin, Texas was also breached.

Microsoft

Microsoft confirmed Thursday it was compromised in the cyberattack. Reuters initially reported the breach may have made the tech giant's customers vulnerable, but Microsoft denied this. The company said there is no evidence its products or customer data were targeted.

FireEye

FireEye, one of the world's leading cybersecurity firms, announced on December 8 that its systems had been hacked by a nation-state, marking the first discovery of the sweeping cyberattack.

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A Biden administration official said that US intelligence only has "low to moderate confidence" in prior claims that Russia offered to pay bounties to militants for killing American troops.

The New York Times last year reported that American intelligence found that Russian operatives offered the bounties to Taliban-linked militants — a conclusion military officials laterdisputed.

"The United States intelligence community assesses with low to moderate confidence that Russian intelligence officers sought to encourage Taliban attacks on US and coalition personnel in Afghanistan in 2019 and perhaps earlier," a senior administration official told The Daily Beast. "This information puts a burden on the Russian government to explain its actions and take steps to address this disturbing pattern of behavior."

The Biden Administration's sanctions against Russia announced on Thursday were not tied to the supposed bounties, a senior administration official told reporters, including The Daily Beast.

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1. 'Balls to the walls' (also, 'Going balls out')

Meaning: To go as fast as one possibly can.

From military aviation where pilots would need to get their aircraft flying as fast as possible. Their control levers had balls on the end. Pushing the accelerator all the way out ("balls out"), would put the ball of the lever against the firewall in the cockpit ("balls to the wall").

When a pilot really needed to zoom away, they'd also push the control stick all the way forward, sending it into a dive. Obviously, this would put the ball of the control stick all the way out from the pilot and against the firewall.

2. 'Bite the bullet'

Meaning: To endure pain or discomfort without crying out

Fighters on both sides of the American Civil War used the term "bite the bullet," but it appears they may have stolen it from the British.

British Army Capt. Francis Grose published the book, "Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue" in 1811 and used "chew the bullet" to explain how proud soldiers stayed silent while being whipped.

3. 'Boots on the ground'

Meaning: Ground troops engaged in an operation

Credited to Army Gen. Volney Warner, "boots on the ground" is used to mean troops in a combat area or potential combat area.

After the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the term saw wide use and has ceased to refer exclusively to military operations. It can now be used to refer to any persons sent out to walk the ground in an area. It's been employed in reference to police officers as well as political canvassers.

4. 'Bought the farm'

Meaning: To die

Thought to date back to 1950s jet pilots, the phrase quickly spread to civilian circles. There is no clear agreement on exactly how the phrase came about.

It could be from war widows being able to pay off the family farm with life insurance payments, or farmers paying off their farms with the damage payout they'd receive when a pilot crashed on their land, or the pilots who wanted to buy a farm after they retired being said to "buy the farm early" when they died.

5. 'Caught a lot of flak'

Meaning: To be criticized, especially harshly

Flak is actually an acronym for German air defense cannons. The Germans called the guns Fliegerabwehrkanonen. Flieger means flyer, abwehr means defense, and kanonen means cannon.

Airmen in World War II would have to fly through dangerous clouds of shrapnel created by flak. The phrase progressed in meaning until it became equated with abusive criticism.

6. 'FUBAR'/'SNAFU'/'TARFU'

Meaning: Everything about the current situation sucks

All three words are acronyms. FUBAR stands for "F---ed up beyond all recognition," SNAFU is "Situation normal, all f---ed up," and TARFU is "Things are really f---ed up." FUBAR and SNAFU have made it into the civilian lexicon, though the F-word in each is often changed to "fouled" to keep from offending listeners.

The Army actually used SNAFU for the name of a cartoon character in World War II propaganda and instructional videos. Pvt. Snafu and his brothers Tarfu and Fubar were voiced by Mel Blanc of Bugs Bunny and Porky the Pig fame.

7. 'Geronimo'

Usage: Yelled when jumping off of something

"Geronimo" is yelled by jumpers leaping from a great height, but it has military origins.

Paratroopers with the original test platoon at Fort Benning, Georgia yelled the name of the famous Native American chief on their first mass jump. The exclamation became part of airborne culture and the battalion adopted it as their motto.

8. 'Got your six'

Meaning: Watching your back

Military members commonly describe direction using the hours of a clock. Whichever direction the vehicle, unit, or individual is moving is the 12 o'clock position, so the six o'clock position is to the rear.

"Got your six" and the related "watch your six" come from service members telling each other that their rear is covered or that they need to watch out for an enemy attacking from behind.

9. 'In the trenches'

Meaning: Stuck in a drawn out, tough fight.

Troops defending a position will dig trenches to use as cover during an enemy attack, reducing the chance they'll be injured by shrapnel or enemy rounds.

In World War I, most of the war occurred along a series of trenches that would flip ownership as one army attacked another. So, someone engaged in fierce fighting, even metaphorical fighting, is "in the trenches."

10. 'No man's land'

Meaning: Dangerous ground or a topic that it is dangerous to discuss

"No man's land" was widely used by soldiers to describe the area between opposing armies in their trenches in World War I. It was then morphed to describe any area that it was dangerous to stray into or even topics of conversation that could anger another speaker.

However, this is one case where civilians borrowed a military phrase that the military had stolen from civilians. "No man's land" was popularized in the trenches of the Great War, but it dates back to the 14th-century England when it was used on maps to denote a burial ground.

11. 'Nuclear option'

Meaning: A choice to destroy everything rather than give in on a debate or contest

Used most publicly while discussing fillibusters in the Senate, the nuclear option has its roots in — what else — nuclear warfare.

In the Cold War, military leaders would give the commander-in-chief options for the deployment and use of nuclear weapons from nuclear artillery to thermonuclear bombs.

In the era of brinksmanship, use of nuclear weapons by the Soviets or the US would likely have ended in widespread destruction across both nations.

12. 'On the double'

Meaning: Quickly, as fast as possible

Anyone who has run in a military formation will recognize the background of "on the double."

"Quick time" is the standard marching pace for troops, and "double time" is twice that pace, meaning the service member is running. Doing something "on the double" is moving at twice the normal speed while completing the task.

13. 'On the frontlines'

Meaning: In the thick of a fight, argument, or movement

Like nuclear option, this one is pretty apparent. The front line of a military force is made up of the military units closest to a potential or current fight.

Troops on the frontline spend most days defending against or attacking enemy forces. People who are "on the frontlines" of other struggles like political movements or court trials are fighting against the other side every day.

This is similar in usage and origin to "in the trenches" above.

14. 'Roger that'

Meaning: Yes

This one is pretty common knowledge, though not all civilians may know why the military says, "Roger that," rather than "yes." Under the old NATO phonetic alphabet, the letter R was pronounced, "Roger" on the radio.

Radio operators would say, "Roger," to mean that a message had been properly received. The meaning evolved until "roger" meant "yes." Today, the NATO phonetic alphabet says, "Romeo," in place of R, but "roger" is still used to mean a message was received.

15. 'Screw the pooch'

Meaning: To bungle something badly

"Screw the pooch" was originally an even racier phrase, f-ck the dog. It meant to loaf around or procrastinate. However, by 1962 it was also being used to mean that a person had bungled something.

Now, it is more commonly used with the latter definition.

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Countries from around the world are sending reinforcements to assist in the search for a Indonesian naval submarine that went missing on Wednesday.

The 53-person crew was participating in a torpedo drill north of Bali but failed to relay the results of the drill, an Indonesian Navy spokesperson told Reuters. Hadi Tjahjanto, the commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces, said the submarine lost contact with the military at 4:30 a.m. local time on Wednesday.

Several rescue ships from Malaysia and Singapore are due to arrive in the region sometime between Saturday and Monday, according to the Associated Press. Singapore's defense minister said a medical team was added to one of its rescue ships.

Other countries, including the United States, France, Germany, Russia, Turkey, and South Korea, also offered aid to the Indonesian military.

Rajnath Singh, the Defence Minister of India, said in a statement that he sent the Indian Navy's Deep Submergence Rescue Vessel and the Indian Air Force to scope out the area to see if a rescue would be possible.

But the submarine may be unsalvageable if it descended too deep into the sea. The Indonesia navy believes the sub sank to a depth of 600 to 700 meters, but experts previously told Insider that most rescue crews and systems cannot operate past 600 meters.

"They can go deeper than that because they will have a safety margin built into the design, but the pumps and other systems that are associated with that may not have the capacity to operate," Frank Owen, the secretary of the Submarine Institute of Australia, told the AP. "So they can survive at that depth, but not necessarily operate."

Oxygen aboard the submarine is scarce and every hour spent looking for the submarine is one less hour of available breathable air. The submarine used in the training operation, the German-made KRI Nanggala-402, was only equipped with 72 hours of oxygen, Indonesian officials reported.

That would mean the crew could run out of air by early Saturday morning local time, which would be Friday evening ET.

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A a National Security Council official falling sick yards from the White House is being connected to similar instances that have affected US officials in Cuba and China, according to CNN. 

The network reported that the NSC official — who was not named — fell ill in November 2020 on the Ellipse, a large lawn to the south of the White House.

CNN cited unnamed official sources for its report.

It is one of two incidents on US soil that are being looked at as potential cases of "Havana syndrome"— a mysterious set of unexplained symptoms that have suddenly struck US officials in Cuba and China since 2016. 

The issue has worried the US government for years, but has usually been reported abroad. Sources told CNN that the fact that two suspected cases have taken place domestically is has worried them. 

The second US incident concerned a White House staffer who was walking her dog in Virginia in 2019, when she heard a high-pitched noise in her ears that was followed by an intense headache, according to GQ. 

Very little is known for sure about the phenomenon, and investigators are treating these two instances only as suspected cases. 

The phenomenon was first reported by a diplomat at the US embassy in Cuba, who heard a loud, piercing sound in one ear that was followed by a loss of balance and nausea, according to a report from the National Academies of Sciences in December.

After this, three CIA officers based in the same embassy building experienced similar sensations. Other symptoms include pain in both ears, dizziness, tinnitus, vertigo, and difficulty thinking.

The National Academies of Sciences report found that 40 State Department staff in Cuba and China had experienced similar and lasting symptoms, as Axios reported. 

The cause is not agreed on, but the CIA, the State Department and most recently the Pentagon have launched investigations into it, according to CNN.

Lawmakers on the Senate and House Armed Services Committees were briefed on the issue earlier in April, the network said. 

There have been multiple explanations offered for the syndrome, including a form of mass psychogenic illness or even — as some researchers have noted— that the piercing sound closely matches that of a cricket.

An early explanation was that it was the impact of some sort of sonic weapon, but the National Academies of Sciences study said in December the most likely explanation was the use of high-frequency microwaves. The report also noted that Russia has conducted significant amounts of research into the technology. 

President Donald Trump blasted Cuba in an address in the Rose Garden in 2017, accusing the country of "sonic attacks." Cuban officials called his accusations "science fiction" in response, Reuters reported. 

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When Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the graduates of the United States Naval Academy on Friday, she became the first female commencement speaker in its 175-year-history.

At the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland, Harris told the graduates that they would be taking "an oath to support our Constitution and defend it against all enemies."

"No matter what changes in our world, the charge in this oath is constant," she emphasized.

Harris spoke of the immense challenges that graduates would face, including the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and cybersecurity threats.

She called climate change "a very real threat to our national security" and lauded the graduates for being part of the future for tackling the issue.

"I look at you and I know you are among the experts who will navigate and mitigate this threat," she said. "You are ocean engineers who will help navigate ships through thinning ice. You are mechanical engineers who will help reinforce sinking bases. You are electrical engineers who will soon help convert solar and wind energy into power, convert solar and wind energy into combat power."

She told the graduates that they would be critical in securing the country's infrastructure.

"Foreign adversaries have their sights set on our military technology, our intellectual property, our elections, our critical infrastructure," she said. "The way I see it, midshipmen, you are those experts on the issue of cybersecurity."

She added: "We must defend our nation against these threats. And at the same time, we must make advances in things that you've been learning, things like quantum computing and artificial intelligence and robotics, and things that will put our nation at a strategic advantage. You will be the ones to do it because the United States military is the best, the bravest, and the most brilliant."

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Harris also praised the military officers who have helped vaccinate Americans across the country.

The vice president's speech comes as the Pentagon accelerates the timeline for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, which will likely occur in mid-July, up from an earlier projected date of September 11, 2021, the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

She told the graduates that the September 11, 2001, attack "shaped your entire life, and it shaped our entire nation," and said that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the fabric of American society.

"If we weren't clear before, we know now: The world is interconnected," she said. "Our world is interdependent. And our world is fragile."

Harris also gave a nod to female graduates only 46 years since Congress mandated that women could be admitted to service academies.

"Just ask any Marine today, would she rather carry 20 pounds of batteries or solar panels, and I am positive, she will tell you a solar panel — and so would he," she laughingly said.

She then paid respects to the late Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a graduate of the academy, whom she called "a great and courageous American."

McCain, who passed away in August 2018, is buried at the US Naval Academy Cemetery in Annapolis.

"Most people don't know he wanted to be buried next to his best friend who he met on the yard, Admiral Chuck Larson," she said. "That is the ultimate example of what I mean, in it together."

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden gave his first commencement address as commander-in-chief at the US Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut.

"No class gets to choose the world into which it graduates, and demands and the challenges you're going to face in your career are going to look very different than those who walked these halls before you," he told the graduates. "You chose, as a class motto — 'We are the future.' I don't think you have any idea how profound that assertion is."

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Sen. Marco Rubio mocked Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Thursday for wearing a mask and face shield upon arriving in the Philippines.

"Our @SecDef is vaccinated," Rubio wrote in a tweet alongside a video that showed Austin deplaning. "But he arrives in the Philippines wearing a mask AND a face shield."

"Embarrassing COVID theatre," he continued.

The Philippines requires anyone in public places to wear a mask and a face shield, according to the US Embassy in the Philippines. Some of the people Austin is greeted by in the video are wearing masks and face shields as well.

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The Philippines is also facing a surge in COVID-19, prompting authorities in Manila to impose tighter coronavirus restrictions this week. Reuters reported Tuesday that the Philippines recorded its highest single-day increase in COVID-19 cases in more than six weeks. The country has the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia, after Indonesia, according to The New York Times.

Rubio's home state of Florida is dealing with its own COVID-19 surge. The state leads the US in COVID-19 cases, and has the highest number of residents hospitalized with COVID-19 per capita, according to data compiled by the Times. It also has the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases per capita, after Louisiana.

Austin met with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte during his visit. After the meeting, Duterte reversed a past decision to withdraw from a defense pact with the US, the Visiting Forces Agreement, the Associated Press reported. The VFA allows the large-scale combat exercises between the US and Philippines forces, which have occasionally sparked concern from China.

"Our countries face a range of challenges, from the climate crises to the pandemic and, as we do, a strong, resilient US-Philippine alliance will remain vital to the security, stability, and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific," Austin said. "A fully restored VFA will help us achieve that goal together."

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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Sunday ordered six US commercial airlines to help transport American and Afghan evacuees, activating a little-known program called the Civil Reserve Air Fleet.

The plan calls for the deployment of 18 airplanes: three each from American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Air Lines and Omni Air; two from Hawaiian Airlines; and four from United Airlines, according to a Pentagon statement.

The planes will not fly into the Kabul airport but will be used to transport people who have already left Afghanistan, the Pentagon said. The Department of Defense "does not anticipate a major impact to commercial flights from this activation."

American and Afghan evacuees have been sent from Kabul to countries sprawled over the Middle East, Central Asia and Europe.

Delta Airlines' chief of operations John Laughter said in a statementon Sunday that the company is "proud to pledge Delta people and our aircraft in support our country's relief effort."

This is the third time the reserve air fleet has been used in its 70-year history, signaling the dire situation to assist American citizens and Afghan refugees. The previous times the US deployed civilian aircraft was during the Iraq war from 2002 to 2003 and the Gulf war from 1990 to 1991. 

The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan's capital Kabul a week ago, triggering a collapse of the US-backed Afghan government. Since then, the US has been scrambling to evacuate thousands of Americans as well as Afghans who assisted the US government over the 20-year war.

Austin told ABC News on Sunday that the US is working to get every American out of the country.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CBS News on Sunday that over the past 24 hours, the US evacuated 8,000 people from Afghanistan.

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