balloon, the pentagon refusing to say whether they re considering shooting down what sure looks like a chinese fly balloon, officials telling cnn they haven t ruled it out either, meanwhile the balloon the size, by the way of three school buss is meandering along thousands of feet up in the sky. it was spotted twice on wednesday over montana and twice missouri today including in columbia missouri this very afternoon, where this exclusive footage was shot. now, the flying about 60,000 feet up 18,000 feet higher than a commercial airplane and the pentagon said there s another chinese spy balloon currently somewhere over latin america. we ll talk about what the heck is going on in the skies tonight here to help us figure this out. cnn tom foreman and animal coldnal layton, let me begin with you, tom at the magic wall, where has this balloon been and where is it going. if we trust what the military thinks about it where it s been was china, flying coming in over canada and drif
in theaters february 17th. ihop. let s put a smile on your plate. . hello i m victory for blackwell, i m allison, mounting concerns about the chinese spy balloon floating over the united states. secretary of state to anthony blending just postponed his high stakes trip to china hours before set to depart. moments ago, the pentagon said this is a surveillance balloon and man new or gently usedible, about the size of three busses was spotted over montana in recent days, the pentagon says it s now over parts of the central part of the country, moving at 60,000 feet over u.s. air space, the chinese are down playing this discovery. they claim it s a weather balloon that blew off course. for now, president biden is opting against the growing calls to shoot it down. . considering the size of the pay load on this, looking at the potential for debris and the impact on civilians on the ground or property damage, we assessed it. it does not pose a risk to people on the ground
it s the top of the hour in cnn newsroom. we re following multi-. concerns about that chinese spy balloon hovering over the u.s. secretary blinken just postponed his stop in china. the pentagon is about the size of three buses. it s huge. it was spotted soaring over montana at 60,000 feet. just moments ago the balloon was spotted over columbia, missouri. the national weather service tweeted these images of what they say is a large balloon in the kansas city area. despite growing calls to shoot it down, for now president biden is opting against that. the chinese are saying it s a weather balloon that blew off course. we re aware of the statement. the fact is we know it s a surveillance balloon. i can t be more specific than that. we know the balloon has violated u.s. air space and international law which is unacceptable. we ve conveyed this directly to the prc at multiple levels. john miller is here with us, cnn s intelligence analyst and kylie atwood. tell us abo
would ex ptend political capita to a very capable recognizance satellite program that gives them all the intelligence they need. reporter: but we ve heard the science excuse before from beijing when china tested a missile that went around the world in 2021 they claimed it was a routine spacecraft ex expe experiment. this is like tiktok. does anybody trust china? of course not. for good reason. reporter: china has spy satellites but they can t loitder over a big area like a balloon. the government will track the balloon as it makes its way across america. the u.s. response so far on the diplomatic front with antony blinken delaying the high stakes visit to beijing. conditions are not conducive for a constructive visit at this time. the decision to take this action, my planned visit is detrimental to the discussions we were planned to have. reporter: for where this goes from here. the pentagon says for now they re continuously tracking this balloon and determined it s
hello, everyone. i m kate bolduan. at this hour, we re tracking this massive winter storm sweeping across the united states. it is impacting the vast majority of americans today. just two days before christmas. the storm is bringing blizzard conditions. i mean i don t need to say it. you could see it. blizzard conditions and ice freezing rain and very strong winds to cities coast to coast. areas near the great lakes could see up to three feet of snow like buffalo. but the cold, record-breaking and life-threatening. more than 200 million americans are under windchill alerts. the storm has not knocked out power to at least a million customers so far and travel is starting to get back. more than 3700 flights have been canceled today and more than 2,000 others have been delayed. that is not even to speak of what the roads are like right now. we re going to get to. we have reporters stationed across the country. let s start with meteorologist al alice isson chinchar. up an dow