welcome to cnn this morning. i m amara walker. great to be with you. i m boris sanchez. several new developments following the military s shootdown of that suspected chinese spy balloon off a south carolina coast. the fbi now analyzing that wreckage as china sends a warning to the white house. our team coverage from this story is looking at multiple angles this morning. also, we have new details out of ohio on it that train derailment that sparked a massive fire. officials are saying the cars contained hazardous materials and the cleanup is underway. plus, banned by association. how facial recognition software is being used to keep some fans out of madison square garden. why some say this is a slippery slope. plus, the proposal that could soon cut major cities off from the colorado river. that s just ahead on cnn this morning. most of you are waking up to a much warmer weekend morning. it is sunday, everyone, february 5th. thank you so much for waking up with
hello, everyone. thank you for joining me this sunday. i m fredicka whitfield. a dramatic takedown and now a race to recover pieces of that suspected chinese supply balloon. the u.s. military shooting it out of the sky on saturday just off the coast of south carolina. you watched it with us live. president biden on wednesday ordering the balloon to be destroyed as soon as possible. his top military brass advising the president to wait until it was safely over the ocean. efforts are now under way to collect the fallen debris which will be taken to the fbi lab in quantico for analysis. the balloon had made its way across the country after first being spotted in montana on wednesday. its appearance over the u.s. and the military operation to take it down complicating the already tenuous relationship between the u.s. and china. beijing accusing the u.s. of overreacting and expressing strong dissatisfaction over the balloon s destruction. we have reporters around the world coverin
you re live in the cnn newsroom. i m jim acosta in washington. spy balloon down. a single missile took out a chinese spy balloon that floated across america s skies this past week. that dramatic sound just off the coast of south carolina earlier today. recovery efforts offshore are now under way as u.s. intelligence officials want to gain insight what china was up to. president biden said the order to shoot down the balloon came directly from him. on wednesday, when i was briefed on the balloon, i ordered the pentagon to shoot it down on wednesday as soon as possible. cnn has team coverage of this very tense moment in u.s./china relations. i want to start with warren lieberman who is over at the pentagon. what are you learning about the recovery effort that is gong on? i say sum that officials want to get their hands on it as quickly as possible. absolutelily. but the debris, what was left of the payload, the length of three school buses has fallen in 47 feet of water.
a russian lieutenant who fought in ukraine has fled putin s army and he s out front to talk about it. the lack of equipment, training, boiling rabbits for food, the atrocities he says were committed by russian fighters. you won t want to miss this interview. breaking news, the pentagon right now is tracking a chinese spy balloon flying over the u.s. president biden asking for military options. what are the chinese doing? plus, fbi agents investigating congressman george santos for allegedly scamming a veteran out of thousands of dollars meant for his dying dog. that veteran is out front tonight. what did he tell investigators about santos? and good evening. i m erin burnett. out front, a russian officer speaks out right here. constantine served on the front lines for three months and is now telling all. the former lieutenant is the most senior russian officer to speak publicly about what he saw and did in ukraine. you re going to see that interview in just a moment. he
promises kept. revenge as politics, or both? john berman here in for anderson. in a moment, he will be joined by representative alexandria ocasio-cortez to talk about what happened on capitol hill today. you will remember house speaker kevin mccarthy vowed last year that if republicans took the house, he would strip democrats adam schiff, eric swalwell and ilhan omar of committee assignments. so far he has bounced omar and swalwell and he voted along party lines to remove. the reason, anti-semitic statements which she subsequently apologized for making. at the same time, speaker mccarthy has a reinstated committee assignments for marjorie taylor greene and paul gosar, both of whom have close ties to the far right, including some white nationalists. the congresswoman, as you know, has compared masking rules to the holocaust. she apologized for that. she also posted on facebook a long ramble about california wildfire, solar power, spottings of what looked like laser beams and t