plus more firepower for ukraine, the u.s. about to approve longer range missiles to counter russians on the battlefield. and too cold for school, classes in big cities like boston and buffalo canceled with the coldest windchills since the 1980s about to take hold. it is friday, welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i m christine romans. right now chinese spies could be watching you from above from a high altitude spy balloon. the pentagon says they have been tracking this balloon about the size of three buss for days. people on the ground in montana at any didn t know what to make of it at first. there is the moon. all right. and then there is that. what planet is that? that sighting raises two big questions, what is it doing here and what does the biden administration plan to to about it. we get more from oren liebermann at the pentagon. reporter: for several days now the u.s. has been tracking this surveillance balloon over northern u.s.,
as high as commercial aircraft but lower than surveillance satellites. the size of three buses. two flights were diverted for safety. military leaders considered but ultimately decided against wthe president s decision to shoot it down. but the idea that was under conversation shows how seriously u.s. officials and the president were taking the idea of a chinese spy balloon floating over the u.s. you mentioned what it was flying over. right. montana. the air base, has icbms there. something that china would naturally be interested in taking a closer look at. it happened before? it happened over u.s. territory before. here is something i want to note in terms of surveillance capabilities. this was not a big jump in what china is able to do. why? because china is flying spy satellites over the u.s. after 90 minutes as they orbit the earth and they have at least equal surveillance capabilities. they are highly advanced. in terms of what china could gather from this ballo
and the latest on what china is saying about that balloon hovering over the u.s. and president biden is going to speak following a new jobs report that smashed expectations. 517,000 jobs added in january and nearly three times the forecast. we will bring you reaction live. and a life-threatening deep freeze headed to the northeast, and millions are bracing for once-in-a-generation sub-zero temperatures. china is confirming that the balloon floating over to the u.s. is theirs, and it is not a spy balloon as the pentagon says, but it is a civilian airship used for research are the words of the foreign ministry, and it is said to be the size of three buses. china says it accidentally drifted off course. and the sources says that china cannot manually control it, but how did it get there in the first place? the continental u.s. is a big target. yes, what happens next is the big question. the pentagon says it is not a military or physical threat to the people on the ground
really developing. it is not known what the chinese is trying to do with this thing despite the apology issued this morning. the chinese government saying it is wayward weather research balloon. let s get to it, and even more mounting at the hour. and first to kiley adwood who is here with me. what are you hearing from the state department about blinken s trip now being postponed, kiley? we just got off of the phone with the senior white house official, and they they this balloon is violating international law and sovereignty. and this morning, secretary blinken called his counterpart and said that the conditions are not right for this trip. so it is a last-minute cancellation. we don t have a date for when is going to be replanned. i asked what are the conditions for this trip to be rescheduled, and they would not say. they said that china regrets this, but what the united states is clear on is their assessment, that it is a chinese spy balloon, and it is over u.s. territo
floating above the continental united states, and we don t know what data it s collecting. you can see it right there on your screen and it s visable to people on the ground in montana. at least it has been since wednesday. today beijing confirmed it is theirs, claiming it is a, quote, unquote, civilian research air ship that went off course, but minutes ago, the pentagon flatly rejected that claim, calling it a surveillance balloon. secretary of state antony blinken s upcoming trip to china has now been postponed. the pro vocative move is inflaming a u.s.-china relationship already on the brink with tensions over everything from taiwan to tiktok. cnn s natasha bertrand is here to break it all down for us. natasha, there is so much to talk about here. so let s start at the beginning. what do we know about this balloon? yeah. so here, just to get a sense for the scale of this thing, this is the balloon, and what we know about it is that it is the size of about three busses.