The US and Canada have called off searches for three unidentified objects that were shot down last weekend, as investigators begin analysing the last of the debris collected from first Chinese “spy” balloon shot down at the start of the month.
Authorities did not manage to locate any debris from the three unknown objects, they confirmed.
The US military said late on Friday that, alongside federal agencies and Canadian partners, they had used a variety of capabilities, including airborne imagery and sensors, surface sensors and inspections, and subsurface scans, during their search operations.
US President Joe Biden said this week that “nothing right now suggests the objects were related to China’s spy balloon”.
He added that the US intelligence community believed they were most likely balloons linked to private companies, recreation or research institutions studying weather or conducting scientific research.
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Thursday: Shot down flying objects ‘not related to China’
The third object was shot down over Canada’s mountainous and sparsely-populated territory of Yukon in the northwest.
Despite Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calling the analysis of the debris from the object “very important” last week, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police also announced on Friday its decision to end search efforts.
“Given the snowfall that has occurred, the decreasing probability the object will be found and the current belief the object is not tied to a scenario that justifies extraordinary search efforts, the RCMP is terminating the search,” it said in a statement.
Recovery efforts for theChinese surveillance balloon shot down off the South Carolina coast two weeks ago concluded on Thursday, and “air and maritime safety perimeters have been lifted”, the US military’s Northern Command said in a statement.
It confirmed that the last of the balloon’s debris was heading to an FBI laboratory in the southeastern US state of Virginia for analysis.
Image: A US navy sailor searching for debris with an underwater vehicle off South Carolina
“It’s a significant amount [of recovered material], including the payload structure as well as some of the electronics and the optics, and all that’s now at the FBI laboratory in Quantico,” said National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby, who added that the US had already learned a lot about the balloon by observing it when it was in the air.
“We’re going to learn even more, we believe, by getting a look at the guts inside it and seeing how it worked and what it was capable of,” he told a White House news briefing.
Counteroffensive officials will use the Chinese balloon’s priority sensors, electronics and other elements collected to determine how Beijing might have gathered and transmitted surveillance information.
China has insisted that the balloon, which was the size of a small car and spent a week flying over the US, was used for meteorological and other scientific research and had been blown off course.
China’s top diplomat Wang Yi said on Saturday that the US’s handling of the balloon incident had been “unimaginable” and “hysterical” – an “absurd” act that violated international norms.
“There are so many balloons all over the world, so is the United States going to shoot all of them down?” Yi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said at the Munich Security Conference.
In his speech on Thursday, President Biden said: “Make no mistake, if any object presents a threat to the safety and security of the American people, I will take it down.”
Soulja Boy has been arrested and charged with possession of a firearm during a traffic stop.
The rapper, whose real name is DeAndre Cortez Way, was a passenger in the car that was stopped in the Fairfax area of Los Angeles early on Sunday morning, the LAPD said.
“A passenger was detained and police arrested DeAndre Cortez Way for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm,” the statement added.
Possessing a firearm as a convicted felon is a felony.
The 35-year-old was booked into jail in the LAPD’s Wilshire Division shortly after 6am. It is not clear if he has since been released.
Police did not provide information on what prompted the traffic stop and who else was in the vehicle with Way.
Soulja Boy is yet to publicly comment on the incident.
Soulja Boy is best known for his 2007 hit Crank That, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks and landed him a nomination for best rap song at the Grammys.
The rapper was arrested and charged with a felony in 2014 for carrying a loaded gun during a traffic stop in LA.
In April this year, the Chicago hip-hop artist was ordered to pay more than $4m (£3m) in damages to his former assistant after being found liable for sexually assault, as well as physically and emotionally abusing them.
Police in Tennessee have discovered 14 improvised explosive devices in a man’s home as they were arresting him, the local sheriff’s office said.
Officers were executing a warrant in the home of Kevin Wade O’Neal in Old Fort, about 45 miles (70km) east of Chattanooga, after he had threatened to kill public officials and law enforcement personnel in Polk County.
After arresting the 54-year-old, officers noticed “something smouldering” in the bedroom where he was found.
Image: Kevin Wade O’Neal. Pic: Polk County Sheriff’s Office
On closer inspection, they discovered an improvised explosive device and evacuated the house until bomb squad officers arrived at the scene.
Fourteen devices were found inside the property – none of which detonated.
Image: Improvised explosive devices were found in Kevin Wade O’Neal’s home. Pic: Polk County Sheriff’s Office
Image: Kevin Wade O’Neal’s home in Old Fort, Tennessee. Pic: Polk County Sheriff’s Office
O’Neal was charged with 11 counts of attempted first-degree murder, corresponding to nine officers and two other people inside the property when the suspect tried to detonate the devices.
He also faces 14 counts of prohibited weapons and one count of possession of explosive components.
Donald Trump says he has ordered two nuclear submarines to be positioned in the “appropriate regions” in a row with former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.
It comes after Mr Medvedev, who is now deputy chair of Russia‘s Security Council, told the US president on Thursday to remember Moscow had Soviet-era nuclear strike capabilities of last resort.
On Friday, Mr Trump wrote on social media: “Based on the highly provocative statements of the Former President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, who is now the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, I have ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that.
“Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
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Trump: ‘We’re going to protect our people’
Speaking outside the White House later in the day, Mr Trump was asked about why he had moved the submarines and replied: “We had to do that. We just have to be careful.
“A threat was made and we didn’t think it was appropriate, so I have to be very careful. So I do that on the basis of safety for our people. A threat was made by a former president of Russia and we’re going to protect our people.”
The spat between Mr Trump and Mr Medvedev came after the US president warned Russia on Tuesday it had “10 days from today” to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine or face tariffs, along with its oil buyers.
Moscow has shown no sign that it will agree to Mr Trump’s demands.
Trump’s move appears to signal a significant deterioration in relationship with Putin
Normally it’s Moscow rattling the nuclear sabres, but this time it’s Washington in what marks a dramatic escalation in Donald Trump’s war of words with the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.
More importantly, it appears to signal a significant deterioration in his relationship with Vladimir Putin.
The US president’s patience with the Kremlin was already at its thinnest earlier this week, when he shrank his deadline for progress towards a peace deal from 50 days to 10.
But Russia’s lack of outward concern with this stricter ultimatum – which has swung from dismissive to (in Medvedev’s case) insulting – seems to have flicked a switch.
For this is the first time Trump’s pressure on Moscow has amounted to anything more than words.
We don’t know where the subs are, or how far they had to move to get closer to Russia, but it’s an act that sits several rungs higher than the usual verbal threats to impose sanctions.
How will Russia respond? I’m not sure Vladimir Putin has ever caved to an ultimatum and I doubt he’ll start now.
But I don’t think he’ll want the situation to deteriorate further. So I suspect he’ll make another offer to the US, that’s dressed up as a concession, but in reality may prove to be anything but.
It’s a tactic that’s worked before, but the stakes have suddenly got higher.
On Thursday, Mr Medvedev reminded Mr Trump that Russia possessed a Soviet-era automated nuclear retaliatory system – or “dead hand”.
Mr Medvedev, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was referring to a secretive semi-automated Soviet command system designed to launch Russia’s missiles if its leadership was taken out in a decapitating strike.
He made the remarks after Mr Trump told him to “watch his words” after Mr Medvedev said the US president’s threat of hitting Russia and its oil buyers with punitive tariffs was “a game of ultimatums” and added that “each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war” between Russia and the US.
Image: Dmitry Medvedev. Pic: Reuters
Mr Medvedev served as Russia’s president from 2008 and 2012, when Mr Putin was barred from seeking a third consecutive term, but then stepped aside to let him run again.
As deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, he has become known for his provocative and inflammatory statements since Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022.