Last Friday, Enildo Altamar and his neighbours looked up into the clear morning sky above Arroyo de Piedra, near Colombia’s Caribbean coast, and saw a white orb floating above them, a smaller version of the moon. “We are used to seeing drones in the area as they monitor local mines but they fly around, whereas this thing was massive and just hung in the air,” Altamar said. Soon his phone was pinging with messages from panicked friends in surrounding towns asking what the mysterious object could be. As if in…
Tag: US national security
Downed balloon one of a ‘fleet’ of Chinese surveillance devices, US alleges
China has a “fleet” of surveillance balloons of different shapes and sizes, which it has deployed over five continents, US officials have claimed. The allegations on Wednesday came as salvage work continued off the South Carolina coast for the debris from a high-altitude Chinese balloon a US jet fighter downed on Saturday after it had crossed the whole of the continental US. “We’re not alone in this,” said the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken. “We’ve already shared information with dozens of countries around the world both from Washington and…
‘Hot air’: Marjorie Taylor Greene in State of the Union balloon stunt
Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared to tee up a State of the Union stunt on Tuesday, patrolling the halls of Congress with a large white balloon in reference to Republican criticism of Joe Biden over his handling of a flight over US territory by a Chinese surveillance dirigible. “Just an innocent white balloon everybody,” the Georgia extremist said, hours before Biden’s address to Congress, attempting to keep aloft the balloon saga which ended when it was shot down off the Carolinas on Saturday. Greene did not discuss the Pentagon disclosure that…
White House rejects Republican fire over wait to down Chinese spy balloon
The US transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, on Sunday rejected Republican criticism of Joe Biden over an eight-day wait to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon which flew over US military sites. “The president gave instructions to have it shot down in a way that was safe,” Buttigieg told CNN’s State of the Union, of the operation off the Carolina coast on Saturday. “The debris field that was created by this balloon which was shot down, it’s about seven miles long. And so any time the military is considering an…
The Biden doctrine: Ukraine gaffe sums up mixed year of foreign policy
Joe Biden marked his first anniversary in office with a gaffe over Ukraine that undid weeks of disciplined messaging and diplomatic preparation. The president’s suggestion that a “minor incursion” by Russia might split Nato over how to respond sent the White House into frantic damage limitation mode. Officials insisted Biden had been referring to cyber attacks and paramilitary activities and not Russian troops crossing the border. That failed to entirely calm nerves in Kyiv and other European capitals, especially as Biden also raised eyebrows by predicting that Vladimir Putin would…
Work on ‘Chinese military base’ in UAE abandoned after US intervenes – report
US intelligence agencies found evidence this year of construction work on what they believed was a secret Chinese military facility in the United Arab Emirates, which was stopped after Washington’s intervention, according to a report on Friday. The Wall Street Journal reported that satellite imagery of the port of Khalifa had revealed suspicious construction work inside a container terminal built and operated by a Chinese shipping corporation, Cosco. The evidence included huge excavations apparently for a multi-storey building and the fact that the site was covered in an apparent attempt…
China increasing nuclear arsenal much faster than was thought, Pentagon says
China is expanding its nuclear force much faster than US officials predicted just a year ago, highlighting a broad and accelerating buildup of military muscle designed to enable Beijing to match or surpass US global power by mid-century, according to a new Pentagon report. The number of Chinese nuclear warheads could increase to 700 within six years, the report said, and may top 1,000 by 2030. The report released on Wednesday did not say how many weapons China has today, but a year ago the Pentagon said the number was…