here is the national security spokespersonjohn kirby. we were able to determine that china has a high altitude programme for intelligence collection that is connected to the people s liberation army. it was operating during the previous administration but they did not detected. we detected it. we tracked it. and we have been carefully studying it to learn as much again. we know that these prc surveillance balloons have crossed for dozens of countries on multiple continents around the world. including some of our closest allies and partners. turning to the situation in turkey and syria now, and seven days after the huge earthquake hit, turkish rescue workers say some survivors are still being pulled from the rubble of collapsed buildings. but the number of confirmed deaths has now risen above 37,000 and it s feared the final total could be much higher.
or extra terrestrial life being involved. here is the national security spokespersonjohn kirby. we were able to determine that china has a high altitude programme for intelligence collection that is connected to the people s liberation army. it was operating during the previous administration but they did not detected. we detected it. we tracked it. and we have been carefully studying it to learn as much again. we know that these prc surveillance balloons have crossed over dozens of countries on multiple continents around the world. including some of our closest allies and partners. emily harding is deputy director and senior fellow of the international security programme at the center for strategic and international studies. she told me we have to keep an open mind about the flying objects. it s very important to separate what we know from what we suspect or only know a little bit about. what we definitively know is quite a bit about the chinese balloon
earthquake and also president lula of brazil is visiting, but it was complete dominated once it was revered by the white house spokespersonjohn kirby revered by the white house spokesperson john kirby that around 1:30pm eastern time here in the us, this high altitude object was shot down. it was travelling at 40,000 feet, which was lower than the chinese spy balloon. that was floating across america last week, it was smaller in size, but we are being told that. they are not saying it was not a spy balloon, but they are not see either way at the moment. we got more details, but have a listen to the white house spokesmanjohn kirby. we re calling this an object because that s the best description we have right now. we do not know who owns it, whether it s state owned, or corporate owned or privately owned. we just don t know. we don t know, as i said, state owned, we don t know if it s state owned. and we don t understand the full purpose. we don t have any. we don t have any information