President Joe Biden says he gave his authorization to shoot down a Chinese high altitude balloon a day after he was first briefed on the suspicious device, which was hovering over sensitive US military sites, but defense officials convinced him to wait until it was safe for people on the ground.
The Chinese foreign ministry responded to the U.S. military shooting down its spy balloon over the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday by claiming without evidence that the balloon was a civilian object and that the country was extremely upset by the action.
Roya Rahmani, former Afghanistan Ambassador to the U.S., was invited to attend the State of the Union Address on Tuesday to draw attention to Biden’s withdrawal of troops from February 2020 to August 2021
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed his planned trip to Beijing after a Chinese surveillance balloon was spotted over the mainland of the United States.