good saturday morning, everyone. and welcome to cnn this morning. i m amara walker. and i m boris sanchez. all eyes on the sky this morning as a chinese spy balloon continues drifting over the united states. where it is expected to go and why the white house has not ruled out shooting it down. and a brutal blast of dangerously cold air sweeping across the northeast. in some places it will feel like 50 to 60 degrees below zero. where we re seeing the cold air and when things will start to warm up. plus new developments in the tyre nichols case, why another officer is out of a job and why some first responders are now losing their licenses. plus important new testimony in the alex murdaugh trial, twists in the case and what it could mean for murdaugh s defense, coming up on cnn this morning . hi, everyone. if you are not keeping track, it is saturday. not time to go to work for most of you. february 4. thanks for waking up with us. i m amara walker in atlanta. an
around. to those reasons, the decision was made let it go for now, but the pentagon said if this risk being ins, increases, they could change that calculation and could shoot it down. of course what we re watching for is when it travels out over the ocean because then you no longer have the risk to the conti continental united states. there is already pressure from republicans on capitol hill to take that action. there has not been a specific response to the pressure coming from the hill to shoot it down and take a more hard line against it, but what we have seen the pentagon already rejeblreject the chinese claim that it was simply a weather balloon blown off course. pentagon saying this is a surveillance balloon, it has the ability to maneuver and loiter. that is what the pentagon told us at a press conference yesterday. and that is what we re watching as they continuously monitor this thing as it goes from where we saw it thursday up over montana out toward the east