Categories: Politics

US Shoots Down Suspected Chinese Spy Balloon Over Atlantic, Reports Say

The big balloon was recorded over Montana earlier this week.
Chase Doak/video screenshot by Eric Mack/CNET

The United States shot down on Saturday what it says was a Chinese spy balloon after the object drifted over the US for several days and then sailed out over the Atlantic Ocean, according to a number of media reports.

The US military had been tracking the balloon all week, with the Pentagon saying that President Joe Biden was first briefed about it on Tuesday. Earlier in the week, when the balloon was over Montana, the Pentagon advised against shooting it down over concerns about the danger from falling debris.

China said Friday that the balloon was primarily used for meteorological research and that its entry into US airspace was unintended and regretful. But US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the same day that his department was “confident” the balloon was being used for surveillance. Blinken canceled his planned weekend trip to Beijing.

More to come.

Share

Recent Posts

OpenAI tightens AI rules for teens but concerns remain

OpenAI says it is taking stronger steps to protect teens using its chatbot. Recently, the…

2 hours ago

700Credit data breach exposes SSNs of 5.8M consumers

Data breaches tied to financial services companies are no longer rare, but they still hit…

21 hours ago

AI takes on return fraud as holiday returns surge

Data from Happy Returns, a UPS-owned reverse logistics company, shows that nearly one in every…

1 day ago

Pornhub hit by massive user data leak exposing 200 million records

Pornhub is dealing with fresh fallout after the hacking group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for a…

2 days ago

5 Best apps to use on ChatGPT right now

ChatGPT has quietly changed how it works. It is no longer limited to answering questions…

2 days ago

Apple patches two zero-day flaws used in targeted attacks

Apple has released emergency security updates to fix two zero-day vulnerabilities that attackers actively exploited…

3 days ago