hello and welcome to bbc news. us defence chiefs have identified what they say is a second chinese surveillance balloon, this time over latin america. the first balloon is floating across the us mid west. antony blinken, the us secretary of state, has cancelled a trip to beijing, and accused the chinese authorities of being irresponsible. china insists the balloon is a weather monitoring device which has blown off course. our north america correspondent, peter bowes, reports. a surreal but increasingly serious international row. this spec on this guy could be spying on the us. the chinese balloon that has been hovering over the country for several days. china insists it is a platform to conduct weather related research that has deviated from its root. beijing has apologised but the us state department says it stands by its assessment that the balloon is being used for surveillance. and defence officials now say there is a second balloon. we have seen reports of a balloon tran
chinese spy balloon is clurntly crossing latin america. something so unexpected to be what it is, where it is, that it left people asking questions like this. what planet is that? actually, that s a good question. it s not mars or venus. the balloon is the size of three buses. and surveillance equipment spotted yesterday over montana, drifted across nebraska and then into the midwest today. floating at about 60,000 feet apparently following the prevailing winds. in a moment, we ll take a look at where it could be heading next. today, china said it was, quote, civilian airship, a vehicle gone astray, and secretary blinken postponed his upcoming trip to beijing. any country that has its air space violated in this way would respond similarly, and i can only imagine what the reaction would be in china if they were on the other end. in the meantime, the pentagon is not ruling anything out when it comes to shooting it down. at this stage, what i can tell you is again, we
good evening, we begin with breaking news. the pentagon now saying a second chinese spy balloon is currently crossing latin america. that s on top of the one now floating somewhere over this country. exact whereabouts unknown. something so unexpected to be what it is where it is that it left people asking questions like this. what planet is that? actually, that s a good question. it s not mars or venus. the balloon is the size of three buses equipped with solar panels for power, and surveillance equipment. spotted yesterday crossing montana including over icbm sites. it drifted across nebraska spotted across missouri floating at 60,000 feet following the prevailing wednesday. in a moment we ll take a look at where it could be headed next. today china said it was, quote, civilian air ship, a weather research vehicle gone astray, and secretary of state blinken postponed his upcoming trip to beijing. any country that has its air space violated in this way i think would res
world. ahead on cnn newsroom, all eyes are on the sky. we re tracking the suspected chinese spy balloon flying across the united states. we ll have a live report on what the chinese are say ing about this incident. officials are advising people to stay indoors. if you go outdoors, be advised that exposed skin can get frostbite in as little as a few minutes. more than 20 million americans for impact from what wou could be the biggest cold snap of the season with windchills in new hampshire reaching negative 100 degrees fahrenheit. president biden previewing his platform for a possible 2024 reelection bid. this as the u.s. releases a blockbuster jobs number report. the u.s. military believes a suspected chinese supply balloon will finally leave u.s. air space in a couple days, or it could be sooner. some weather models show the winds pushing it out over the atlantic as early as today. the pentagon has been close let tracking the large object and concluded it s carrying a
following new details about that chinese spy balloon traveling across the country. new video into the cnn newsroom showing the balloon now hovering over asheville, and charlotte, north carolina in the last hour. and it could make it out to sea at any moment. the balloon was first spotted over montana on wednesday. china claims it s a civilian research vessel that blew offcourse, but the u.s. isn t buying that, calling the balloon s flight over u.s. soil an irresponsible act. secretary of state antony blinken postponing a planned trip to beijing in response. cnn s oren liebermann is at pentagon for us. oren, officials say the balloon doesn t currently seem to present a threat, but why is the pentagon also preceding with caution on it? reporter: so the pentagon has said for now that it will not be shooting this down, because of the risks from two different perspectives, first there s the risk to what s below, blow something up at 60,000 feet and that could be scattered over q