China has high-altitude balloon programme linked to army, White House says

Published

2 years ago

February 14, 2023

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The White House has determined that China has a “high-altitude balloon programme” for intelligence gathering.

It comes as tensions are mounting between the US and China after the US shot down a fourth unidentified object over North American airspace.

It was downed over Lake Huron in Michigan at 2.42pm local time on Sunday on President Joe Biden’s orders and came after objects were shot down in Alaska and Canada on Friday and Saturday.

John Kirby, the national security council coordinator for strategic communications, said on Monday that the US is still working to “better understand” foreign intelligence collection efforts.

“We were able to determine that China has a high-altitude balloon programme for intelligence that’s connected to the People’s Liberation Army,” he said at a news conference.

He says the balloons have provided “limited capabilities” but in the future as technology advances, it could become “more valuable to them”.

Mr Kirby says because the US cannot “definitively” identify what the risks of the balloons are, they reacted out of “an abundance of caution”.

Mr Kirby said the objects were not manned and there were no signs they had manoeuvring or propulsion capabilities.

He added: “We did assess that their altitudes were considerably lower than the Chinese high-altitude balloon and did pose a threat to civilian commercial air traffic.

“And while we have no specific reason to suspect that they were conducting surveillance of any kind, we couldn’t rule that out.”

He said the missions were “conducted successfully and safely”.

Efforts are under way to recover what remains of the objects to understand what they are, but the ones in Alaska and Canada are in remote terrain, making it more difficult to find them.

Outside of recovery operations, NORAD (North American Aerospace Defence Command) is continuing to monitor the situation, Mr Kirby said.

‘No indication of aliens’

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, also addressing the media at the news conference, emphasised that the American people should hear “there is no indication of aliens” from the White House.

She joked with the journalists gathered for the briefing: “I loved ET the movie, but I am just going to leave it there.”

Elsewhere, US defence secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters from Brussels that the “safety and security” of the American people is President Joe Biden’s “number one priority”.

He said: “I want to reassure Americans that these objects do not present a military threat to anyone on the ground. They do, however, present a risk to civil aviation, and potentially an intelligence collection threat. And we’ll get to the bottom of it.”

He added that the US has not been able to “definitively assess what these recent objects are”.

‘Very serious situation’

Earlier, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the invasion of North American airspace is “a very serious situation” and is being taken seriously.

He said the issue will be part of discussions when he meets US President Biden.

Mr Trudeau said search and recovery efforts for the object shot down by a US fighter jet over Yukon territory on his orders on Saturday were under way, but the weather was posing some challenges in the search for debris.

“Obviously there is some sort of pattern in there, the fact we are seeing this in a significant degree over the past week is a cause for interest and close attention,” he said.

ET jokes aside, this could escalate very easily

There was a joke about ET from the White House podium today.

But beyond the bemusement, even amusement, over these UFO shoot-downs, there is a very serious side to this.

We know one of the four “objects” was Chinese. The balloon shot down off South Carolina was claimed by Beijing as a “weather balloon”. It’s possible, even probable, that the others were Chinese too; all part of an attempt by China to fish for intelligence or simply to test America’s red lines.

Here’s the concern though. The Chinese will want an opportunity to retaliate, at the very least for the shooting down of their “weather balloon” last weekend. You can see how this could easily escalate. The Americans routinely operate surveillance aircraft in the Pacific region.

At the White House, an official said repeatedly: “There is no US surveillance aircraft in Chinese airspace.” But he wasn’t answering the question he was asked. Does the United States have any surveillance aircraft in airspace claimed by the Chinese?

China claims a vast swathe of maritime territory off its southern coast – within what Beijing calls a “nine dash line” that stretches well into Filipino and Malaysian waters.

If American aerial surveillance activity is taking place in that area, or over Taiwan (also claimed by China as its “renegade province”) then they could now be at vastly increased risk of being shot down. The ultimate concern would be that a manned aircraft is shot down by one side or the other as part of an escalation or miscalculation.

What we know so far about the flying objects:

On 4 February, the first object, described by US officials as a suspected Chinese “spy” balloon, was shot down off the Carolina coast;
On 10 February, a second object, described as being “about the size of a small car” was spotted by NORAD near Alaska and downed;
Just a day later, on 11 February, a third object, again unidentified, was tracked entering US airspace over Alaska before drifting over Canada and was shot down;
On Sunday, US officials confirmed another unidentified object had been shot down by fighter jets over Lake Huron on the US-Canada border near Michigan;
A US F-16 jet fired a missile at about 20,000ft at the latest object amid concerns that its altitude and flightpath could endanger civilian planes;
A senior US official, speaking anonymously, described the latest object as having “an octagonal structure with strings hanging off but no discernible payload”;
Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said teams were searching for the object shot down over his country.

US

Trump’s tariffs hit the West’s busiest port – with traffic down by nearly a third

Published

16 hours ago

May 10, 2025

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Trump's tariffs hit the West's busiest port - with traffic down by nearly a third

Driving south from Los Angeles along the coast, you can’t miss the San Pedro port complex. Dozens of red cranes pop up from behind the freeway.

The sound of industry whirs as containers are unloaded from hulking ocean liners on to waiting lorries and freight trains that seem to never end.

The port of Long Beach combines with the port of Los Angeles to make the busiest port in the western hemisphere.

The colourful metal containers contain anything and everything, from clothes and car parts to fridges and furniture. Around $300bn of cargo passes through here every year and 60% of it is from China.

But at the moment, it’s far less busy than usual. Traffic is down by a third, compared with this time last year.

In the closest part of the mainland United States to China, this is Donald Trump‘s new tariffs policy in action, the direct result of frozen trade between the two countries.

“For the month of May, we expect that we’ll be down about 30% from where we were in May of 2024,” Noel Hacegaba, the port of Long Beach chief operating officer, tells Sky News.

“What that translates into is fewer ships and fewer containers. It means fewer trucks will be needed to transport those containers from the port terminal to the warehouses. It means fewer jobs.”

‘We’re barely surviving’

Helen Andrade knows all about that. She and her husband, Javier, are both lorry drivers. Helen only got her license in the last few years, so when work dries up, she is likely to be impacted first.

“I’m lying awake at night worrying about this,” she says.

“We’re barely surviving and we’re already seeing work slowing down. In my case, there are two incomes that are not going to come in. How are we going to survive?”

Helen adds: “I’m scared for the next two weeks, because over the next two weeks, I’m going to see where this is going, whether I have saved up enough money, which I know that I have not.”

In Long Beach, one in five jobs is connected to the port. But what happens in the port doesn’t stay here.

The shipments reach every part of the country and already, a shortage of certain items imported from China and price hikes are taking hold.

A short drive away is downtown LA’s toy district, a multicultural area consisting of a dozen streets of pastel-coloured buildings, home to importers and wholesalers of toys, much of which is imported from China.

One woman in a toy warehouse is reading a Chinese newspaper. She points to a headline about the 145% tariffs.

“I can’t afford this, I can’t afford this, I’m going to have to put prices up,” she says, exasperated.

Empty shelves

Around the corner is a party shop, selling gift bags and wrapping paper. There are empty shelves which would otherwise have been full.

“These empty spaces are where we stopped importing from China because the tariffs are too high,” says the owner, Jacob Mok.

He tells Sky News: “I’ll keep watching China and America negotiations. I hope as soon as possible they reach a deal because this is very hard for us.”

Jacob is not alone. The impact is being felt throughout the supply chain.

US trade secretary Scott Bessent will meet his Chinese counterpart in Switzerland this weekend.

Pressure is growing on Mr Trump’s team to strike a deal with China and do it quickly.

US

From Chicago’s south suburbs to Rome: Dolton’s faithful say ‘Bob’ was the boy destined to be pope

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16 hours ago

May 10, 2025

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From Chicago's south suburbs to Rome: Dolton's faithful say 'Bob' was the boy destined to be pope

He was the boy from the small town with big dreams of becoming pope.

Robert Prevost, or “Bob” as they knew him in Dolton, south Chicago, was the youngest son of Louis, a teacher, and Mildred, a librarian.

Devoted in their faith, they were prominent figures in St Mary’s Church.

Scott Kuzminski remembers “Millie”, the chorister, with the “voice of an angel”, and her son with a calling on his life.

“Some children dream to be the top soccer player, or rich or something, and he dreamed he was going to be the Pope,” he said.

The railroad runs through this sleepy suburb, now destined to become a place of pilgrimage.

That’s an answer to prayer for Kathleen Steenson, who believed from childhood that her church would give the world a pope.

She said: “Our faith in this little parish is so strong… and in my little mind, I thought, the next pope has got to come from here because we’re such a great little community.”

St Mary’s Church, where the Pope served as an altar boy before entering the priesthood, is derelict now, symbolic of the challenges.

But to many, this is holy ground, illuminated by the colours cast by the sun shining through the stained glass.

And at the Cathedral of the High Name in the heart of Chicago, there’s a renewed sense of optimism.

“It’s a miracle and a great blessing,” a man leaving a celebratory mass for the new pontiff told me.

A woman, who had also been in the congregation, added: “I hope that he can help people to see beyond the divisions of the country and remember the poor.”

“It’s not just the virtues that he extols,” said another man, “I’m hoping he’ll bring inspiration to all of us to preach love and that the people in Washington will listen.”

Earlier this year, Cardinal Prevost, as he was then, questioned President Trump’s stance on immigration and vice president JD Vance’s interpretation of Christianity.

Leo XIV is the first Pope from North America, but spent years as a missionary in Peru, South America.

And it’s his pastoral heart that’s giving cause for hope in a deeply divided America.

US

Lawyer for Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs claims there was ‘mutual violence’ between him and ex-girlfriend

Published

16 hours ago

May 10, 2025

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Lawyer for Sean 'Diddy' Combs claims there was 'mutual violence' between him and ex-girlfriend

A lawyer representing Sean “Diddy” Combs has told a court there was “mutual” domestic violence between him and his ex-girlfriend Casandra ‘Cassie’ Ventura.

Marc Agnifilo made the claim as he outlined some of the music star’s defence case ahead of the full opening of his trial next week.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of
transportation for prostitution. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.

Ms Ventura is expected to testify as a star witness for the prosecution during the trial in New York. The final stage of jury selection is due to be held on Monday morning.

Mr Agnifilo told the court on Friday that the defence would “take the position that there was mutual violence” during the pair’s relationship and called on the judge to allow evidence related to this.

The lawyer said Combs‘s legal team intended to argue that “there was hitting on both sides, behaviour on both sides” that constituted violence.

He added: “It is relevant in terms of the coercive aspects, we are admitting domestic violence.”

Ms Ventura’s lawyers declined to comment on the allegations.

US District Judge Arun Subramanian said he would rule on whether to allow the evidence on Monday.

Combs, 55, was present in the court on Friday.

He has been held in custody in Brooklyn since his arrest last September.

Prosecutors allege that Combs used his business empire for two decades to lure women with promises of romantic relationships or financial support, then violently coerced them to take part in days-long, drug-fuelled sexual performances known as “Freak Offs”.

Combs’s lawyers say prosecutors are improperly seeking to criminalise his “swinger lifestyle”. They have suggested they will attack the credibility of alleged victims in the case by claiming their allegations are financially motivated.

The trial is expected to last around eight weeks.