Page 240 - Patrick Ryder News Today

UPDATE, FEB. 3 AT 4:06 PM:

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will postpone his planned trip to Beijing after the U.S. detected a Chinese surveillance balloon hovering over Montana.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) raised dire alarms over the Chinese surveillance balloon traveling across the country and floated the notion that it may carry something nefarious such as a bioweapon.

Did it fly over Washington State, and what is it doing now?

China said Friday that a balloon spotted over American airspace was used for weather research and was blown off course, despite U.S. suspicion it was spying. The discovery further strained already tense relations between Beijing and Washington.

Pentagon says it decided not to shoot it down over concerns of hurting people on the ground

Presence of the balloon in our airspace is a violation of our sovereignty, says State Department official

China acknowledged Friday that a high-altitude balloon spotted this week over Montana does in fact belong to Beijing, but it referred to the airship as a civilian device.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday postponed a trip to China just hours before he was set to depart after a high-altitude Chinese surveilla

The Chinese balloon spotted over Montana is expected to remain over the United States for "a few more days," according to the Pentagon