US jet shoots down fourth flying object after Pentagon says it flew near sensitive military sites and was risk to civilian aircraft

Published

3 years ago

February 13, 2023

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The US has shot down another unidentified object that it says flew near sensitive military sites and could have been used for spying.

It was downed over Lake Huron in Michigan at 2.42pm local time on Sunday on President Joe Biden‘s orders.

A US F-16 jet fired a missile at about 20,000ft amid concerns that its altitude and flightpath could endanger civilian planes.

Spy balloons and US tensions with China – join our live Q&A

It is the fourth incident in just over a week – and the third in as many days – after objects were shot down in Alaska and Canada on Friday and Saturday,

A senior US official, speaking anonymously, described the latest object as having “an octagonal structure with strings hanging off but no discernible payload”.

The four flying objects

On Friday 4 February, the US military downed a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the Carolina coast after it said had traversed sensitive military sites across North America.

On Friday 10 Friday, a second “car-sized” object was shot down over sea ice near Deadhorse, Alaska.

On Saturday 11 February, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ordered a US warplane to shoot down a third unidentified object that was flying high over the northern Canadian territory of Yukon.

On Sunday 12 February, a fourth unidentified object was shot down with a missile by US fighter jets over Lake Huron on the US-Canada border.

Authorities restricted airspace over the lake, near the Canadian border, before both US and Canadian jets were sent to intercept it.

Jets were also scrambled on Saturday after radar detected an object over Montana, but it could not be located and it was thought it could be an error.

However, the signal was picked up again by North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) on Sunday, the Pentagon said.

“Based on its flight path and data we can reasonably connect this object to the radar signal picked up over Montana, which flew in proximity to sensitive DOD [Department of Defense] sites,” said a statement.

“We did not assess it to be a kinetic military threat to anything on the ground, but assess it was a safety flight hazard and a threat due to its potential surveillance capabilities.”

Teams are trying to recover the object from the lake.

US Air Force general Glen VanHerck admitted he did not know what the last three objects shot down were or how they stay aloft.

However, he told reporters they were not the same as the Chinese “spy” balloon downed near South Carolina a week ago.

“We’re calling them objects, not balloons, for a reason,” he said – also refusing to rule out any explanation when asked if they could be extra-terrestrial.

A National Security Council spokesperson earlier on Sunday said the unidentified objects shot down over Alaska and Canada were “much smaller” than the Chinese balloon.

‘Object was cylindrical’

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said teams were searching for the object shot down over his country.

A US F-22 stealth jet brought it down on Saturday over the sparsely populated Yukon territory in the northwest.

“Recovery teams are on the ground, looking to find and analyse the object,” Mr Trudeau told reporters.

“There’s still much to know about it. That’s why the analysis of this object is going to be very important.”

Canada’s defence minister Anita Anand described it as cylindrical but smaller than the Chinese balloon.

It was flying at 40,000ft and posed a risk to civilian planes when it was brought down about 100 miles from the border at 3.41pm EST (8.41pm GMT), said Ms Anand.

The Pentagon said NORAD had spotted the object over the coast of Alaska late on Friday.

Jets were scrambled from the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and joined by Canadian CF-18 and CP-140 aircraft after the object crossed the border.

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The Pentagon said the US F-22 shot down the object using an AIM 9X missile “following close coordination” between the countries.

Mr Trudeau said the military would recover the wreckage and that he had spoken to President Biden and thanked NORAD for “keeping the watch over North America”.

Meanwhile, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has said the UK will conduct a security review following the latest development.

Analysis: China meets insinuations with accusations

Neither America nor Canada has officially confirmed where the shot down “unidentified objects” are from, but the insinuation that China is responsible feels pretty clear.

Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader no less, has said he thinks that’s “likely”

The Chinese are well aware of the accusations and thus there were a lot of questions today, not least how they would respond?

The answer was with defiance but no clear denial.

At a routine press conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the spokesperson Wang Wen Bin was asked multiple times whether he would confirm or deny that the crafts were Chinese.

He would not be drawn either way, his answer instead was an accusation.

An accusation that it is, in fact, America that’s the world’s most aggressive surveillance power, that it’s America that has questions to answer about illegal spying and, most notably, an accusation that America has sent more than 10 such spy balloons over Chinese territory since January 2022.

Such a claim is hard to assess as there was no further detail about when and where these alleged incursions happened and how China responded at the time, but the accusation alone is a clear sign that China feels hard done by over this issue.

Another sign of pressure, perhaps, are reports that China is preparing to shoot down an unidentified object over its airspace.

Such an action would no doubt raise eyebrows given the resolute condemnation of the American response as “trigger-happy” and “an obvious overreaction”.

Some form of face-saving retaliation is not out of the question but, for now at least, it’s a topic that China doesn’t want to engage with.

Multiple attempts to ask were met with a “referral to previous statements”, in other words, “no comment”.

He said: “The UK and her allies will review what these airspace intrusions mean for our security. This development is another sign of how the global threat picture is changing for the worse.”

Earlier this week, Beijing admitted that the balloon shot down off South Carolina had come from China but insisted it was a “civilian airship”.

It said it had strayed into US airspace and was for meteorological and other scientific research.

US

Former US vice president Dick Cheney dies

Published

11 hours ago

November 4, 2025

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Former US vice president Dick Cheney dies

Former US vice president Dick Cheney has died from complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease, his family has said.

In a statement, his family said the 84-year-old was surrounded by his wife Lynne, daughters Liz and Mary, and other family members.

The Republican was one of the most polarising vice presidents in US history under George W Bush from 2001 to 2009, and was a leading advocate of the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

In later life, he became a target of Donald Trump, especially after his daughter, Liz Cheney, became the leading Republican critic and examiner of Mr Trump’s actions surrounding the January 6 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol.

“In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who was a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Mr Cheney said in a TV advert for his daughter.

“He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He is a coward.”

Last year he said he was voting for Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, to be president against Mr Trump.

Mr Cheney survived five heart attacks and declared in 2013 he woke up each morning “with a smile on my face, thankful for the gift of another day”.

His family’s statement said: “For decades, Dick Cheney served our nation, including as White House Chief of Staff, Wyoming’s Congressman, Secretary of Defense, and Vice President of the United States.

“Dick Cheney was a great and good man who taught his children and grandchildren to love our country, and to live lives of courage, honor, love, kindness, and fly fishing.

“We are grateful beyond measure for all Dick Cheney did for our country.

“And we are blessed beyond measure to have loved and been loved by this noble giant of a man.”

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Zohran Mamdani: ‘Trump’s worst nightmare’ could be about to show how to take the fight to the president

Published

17 hours ago

November 4, 2025

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Zohran Mamdani: 'Trump's worst nightmare' could be about to show how to take the fight to the president

Zohran Mamdani calls himself “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare”. They are the words of a man living the dream.

It’s because the 34-year-old is the headline act in Tuesday’s referendum on Trump 2.0. A statement night in US politics, as Americans – some, at least – deliver a verdict on what they’ve seen so far.

Of four electoral contests across the US – including in California, New Jersey and Virginia – the race to be New York mayor is the most compulsive and consequential.

The polls have Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, as the frontrunner. If he wins, it would signify big change in the Big Apple.

Read more: Who is Zohran Mamdani?

Born in Uganda to Indian parents (he moved to the US aged seven), Mamdani would become New York’s first Muslim mayor.

He is a democratic socialist whose supporters will see victory as laying down a template for taking on Trump, even if the party’s old guard is sceptical.

An effective campaign has focused on the costs and quality of life in New York, promising universal childcare, a rent freeze, free bus travel and grocery shops run by the city.

So why is he controversial?

The message has resonated with New Yorkers squeezed on affordability, but his payment plan is open to question.

Mamdani plans to raise $9bn by raising taxes on the wealthy and on corporations, but he would face a struggle to gain the necessary consent of the New York State legislature and governor.

Mamdani’s politics are pegged to the “progressive” left wing of his party, and his campaign success plays into the Democrats’ quandary around a longer-term comeback strategy.

The politics that succeed in New York don’t necessarily resonate nationwide, and a party establishment has been reluctant to embrace Mamdani.

Democrat Chuck Schumer, Senate minority leader, has declined to endorse him at all.

Party management aside, he won’t have been impressed when Mamdani was arrested outside Schumer’s Brooklyn home as part of a 2023 protest calling for a ceasefire following Hamas’ October 7th attack on Israel.

Mamdani has been a staunch critic of Israel and, in the past, has advocated defunding the police, decriminalising prostitution and closing New York City jails.

His background and Islamic faith are threaded through opposition attacks. He has been criticised for refusing to denounce the phrase “globalise the intifada”, used by pro-Palestinian activists.

Subsequently, he said he would “discourage” the term and would combat antisemitism through actions as well as words.

It hasn’t stopped his Republican rival, Curtis Sliwa, claiming Mamdani supported “global jihad”.

Andrew Cuomo, running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani, has labelled him “the most divisive candidate I have ever experienced in New York”.

Trump gives Cuomo an endorsement – of sorts

Cuomo, the former New York governor who resigned over sexual harassment allegations, is Mamdani’s closest contender who has received support – of sorts – from Trump.

The president, who falsely labels Mamdani a communist, said on Truth Social on the eve of the election: “Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice.

“You must vote for him, and hope he does a fantastic job. He is capable of it, Mamdani is not!”

At a rally the same night, Mamdani fired back to say: “The MAGA movement’s embrace of Andrew Cuomo is reflective of Donald Trump’s understanding that this would be the best mayor for him.

“Not the best mayor for New York City, not the best mayor for New Yorkers, but the best mayor for Donald Trump and his administration.”

The Republican spin on the prospect of a Mamdani victory is that it would reflect a move towards radical extremism by the Democratic Party.

Trump has even suggested he may withhold federal funds from New York if Mamdani wins.

In time, Democrats would need to interpret and apply the lessons of a Mamdani victory. But more than anything else, they need a win to feel a pulse in a party undergoing an identity crisis.

One battle after another

The same applies to Tuesday contests for governor in New Jersey and Virginia, fascinating in terms of the vote winners and vote breakdown.

What will be the verdict, nine months in, of people who turned to Trump at the last election? Will he hold onto the Latino vote, given his immigration policy, ICE raids, and other orders?

In California, Tuesday sees a redistricting vote to counter Republican gerrymandering elsewhere. If backed by the public, the plan will increase the number of winnable Democratic seats in the House of Representatives.

It is the initiative of California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom.

If he wins the day, his party will be enhanced and so will he, as the potential party nominee for president come the election in 2028.

US

Is this the week everything changes for the Democrats?

Published

17 hours ago

November 4, 2025

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Is this the week everything changes for the Democrats?

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Donald Trump sits down for an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes – the programme he sued successfully for $16m just four months ago.

All the while, his poll numbers are at an all-time low due to the government shutdown, as hundreds of thousands of federal workers remain unpaid and food benefits for millions of people run out.

And is this the week the real Democrats stand up? Their favourability numbers are also dire, but will the emergence of a firebrand left-wing mayor in New York City, in the shape of Zohran Mamdani, and a handful of positive off-year election results on Tuesday be the spark they desperately need to counter Trump’s MAGA agenda?

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