that this was a civilian research balloon that was blown off course. pat ryder says the spy balloon is maneuverable and and has changed course. he has not said if the chinese government is still controlling its direction. right now we assess it will probably be over the united states for a few days. the balloon is flying at 60,000 feet, which is higher than most war plans can fly. the u.s. does not fly spy planes or balloons over mainland china according to a senior u.s. defense official. there s been questions about why the military advised the president add shooting down the chinese spy balloon for now. one u.s. official said to me there s a lot of empty space in montana but there s a lot of schools. it is not unpopulated. what happens when this balloon, which is carrying heavy equipment and is the size of at least two school buses lands on someone s home or on a kindergarten the officialing added.
meteorological research balloon. and it then went on to say, quote, the airship deviated from its planned course. the chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into u.s. air space. and went on to say in this statement that it would the chinese government would continue communicating with the u.s. to help resolve this issue. i have to stress how unusual it is for the chinese government to essentially issue a form of an apology. for example, the chinese government is still standing behind the years of its zero covid policy where it shut down the economy, large parts of the economy and locked citizens in their homes and neighborhoods for months at a time. it s still saying that was the right thing to do, even though it put a lot of damage on the economy and onto ordinary chinese people. so the fact that it s coming ford and kind of saying this, again, i have to stress how
through a very tough year. and i ve been working congress pretty hard. so, i know there may not be an appetite immediately to dive into another controversial issue. by the way, that was aboard air force one, something that does not happen very often, but we can talk about that. a five hive foot cross kicked off a controversial battle between church and state will remain standing after the supreme court gave its approval. a lower court had found that the world war i memorial cross violated the constitutional ban on government endorsement of religion since it was on public land in california s mojave desert. but they agreed to let it stay. and scientists in australia are trying to salvage millions of dollars of equipment after a space balloon attached to it crashed during takeoff. this is not going well. to. the research balloon was