Author: CNN

Washington
CNN
 — 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed his upcoming trip to China in response to the flying of a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the United States, in what marks a significant new phase in the tensions between Washington and Beijing.

Blinken, who was due to depart Friday night for Beijing, said at a press conference Friday that the high-altitude surveillance balloon flying over the continental United States “created the conditions that undermine the purpose of the trip.” He informed China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, in a call Friday morning that he was postponing.

“In my call today with Director Wang Yi, I made clear that the presence of this surveillance balloon in US airspace is a clear violation of US sovereignty and international law, that it’s an irresponsible act, and that the (People’s Republic of China) decision to take this action on the eve of my planned visit is detrimental to the substantive discussions that we were prepared to have,” Blinken told reporters Friday.

Blinken said that the US is confident the balloon over the US is a Chinese surveillance balloon, and the Pentagon said Friday evening that there is another Chinese spy balloon that is currently transiting Latin America.

“We are seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America. We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon,” Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said in a statement to CNN.

It is unclear exactly where over Latin America the balloon is, but a US official told CNN that as of Friday evening, it did not appear that balloon was currently heading to the United States.

The Chinese foreign ministry claimed Friday that the balloon spotted over the US was a “civilian airship” used mainly for weather research that deviated from its planned course. The statement from a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry was the first admission that the airship originated in China.

“It is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes. Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course. The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure,” the Chinese foreign ministry said.

“The Chinese side will continue communicating with the US side and properly handle this unexpected situation caused by force majeure,” the statement added, using a legalistic term to mean circumstances beyond China’s control.

A senior State Department official said that the US has acknowledged China’s “statement of regret” but that the presence of the balloon in US airspace was “a clear violation of our sovereignty as well as international law, and it is unacceptable that this has occurred.”

“In this current environment, I think it would have significantly narrowed the agenda that we would have been able to address,” the official added.

A US military official said the incident is serious because of the “audacity” of the Chinese government, rather than any intelligence gain. While existing satellites are able to gather similar amounts of information, the timing of the spy balloon – right before the planned Blinken trip – and the fact that it is flying right over the continental US contribute to the seriousness of this moment, this official said.

The Pentagon assesses that the balloon will be remain over the US for a few days, a spokesman said Friday. The balloon was spotted in Missouri on Friday and is moving toward the East Coast.

It could exit the East Coast as early as Saturday morning, based off of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather model.

Two US defense officials also told CNN that the balloon is expected to reach the East Coast and then pass out to sea in the southeast, near the Carolinas. One of the officials said it could exit the East Coast on Saturday.

“Once we detected the balloon, the US government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information,” Blinken said Friday. “We communicated with the PRC government directly through multiple channels about this issue. Members of my team consulted with our partners in other agencies, and in Congress. We also engaged our close allies and partners to inform them of the presence of the surveillance balloon in our airspace.”

The decision to postpone Blinken’s trip was made after high-level conversations between Blinken, President Joe Biden and other top national security officials, according to people familiar with the matter.

White House officials had viewed US-China relations as improving in the weeks following Biden’s meeting in November with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Blinken’s trip was to be the culmination of more robust talks between Washington and Beijing in the two months since the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.

In the lead-up to Blinken’s trip, officials said it was possible that Biden and Xi could speak again at some point in the next several months.

But Biden has been sensitive to criticism from Republicans and others that he is too soft on China. And while he agreed with Pentagon recommendations not to shoot down the balloon because it posed a threat to people on the ground, he did want to demonstrate some type of response.

Officials also believed the timing of the balloon could throw off Blinken’s agenda in Beijing and did not necessarily want his visit to become solely about the incident.

Blinken still intends to travel to China “at the earliest opportunity when conditions allow,” the State Department official said, though the official did not elaborate on what conditions the US is watching for.

Blinken said at his press conference Friday that he would visit Beijing “when conditions allow.”

Earlier this week, the State Department summoned China’s charge d’affaires in Washington, Xu Xueyuan, “to deliver a very clear and stark message” regarding the discovery of the spy balloon, a second US official told CNN. That message was conveyed directly by Blinken and Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, according to the senior State Department official, who said “that same message was delivered at senior levels in Beijing.”

The balloon was spotted over Montana where 100 intercontinental ballistic missiles are buried in missile silos at Malmstrom Air Force Base.

Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said the US government has been tracking the balloon for several days as it made its way over the northern United States, adding it was “traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday that Biden was advised by military leaders not to shoot down the balloon because of the risk to safety and security of the people on the ground.

Officials told CNN that the US hasn’t ruled out shooting down the balloon, once it is deemed safe to do so. However, no decisions have been made yet, the officials said.

According to a defense official, US Northern Command is coordinating with NASA to determine the debris field if the balloon were to be shot down.

While the balloon’s current flight path carries it over “a number of sensitive sites,” a senior US defense official said it does not present a significant intelligence gathering risk. The balloon is assessed to have “limited additive value” from an intelligence collection perspective, the official added.

Ryder said the suspected surveillance balloon is currently moving eastward and is over the central United States. He added that the US military will not get into “hour-by-hour” updates on the location, but said the public can look up and see it.

“The public certainly has the ability to look up into the sky and see where the balloon is,” Ryder said.

The balloon has a “large payload underneath the surveillance component,” he added, comparing it to a basket under a blimp. He also said that what makes this surveillance balloon different from other similar balloon activity in the past is the “duration and the length of which it has been over US territory.”

The substructure beneath the balloon, believed by officials to be the steering and surveillance apparatus, is roughly 90 feet, according to a defense official – about the length of three city buses.

The balloon carrying that substructure is significantly larger and taller, the official said.

Biden was first briefed on the incident on Tuesday and has continued to receive updates, Jean-Pierre said.

Staff for the congressional intelligence leaders were briefed Thursday afternoon, and Pentagon State Department officials briefed leadership staff and national security staff on Friday, the official added. The administration has “also provided additional detail in writing.”

There are also efforts to brief lawmakers behind closed doors next week when Congress returns.

Congress has been briefed on China’s “surveillance balloon activities” in the past, the official said, including a briefing for “key committees” that took place “last August,” per the official.

Ryder reaffirmed on Friday that the Defense Department knows the surveillance balloon floating over the northern US is Chinese and said that it “has the ability to maneuver.”

“The balloon is maneuverable, clearly its violated US air space, and again we’ve communicated that fact to the (People’s Republic of China),” Ryder said. He did not indicate any details on how it can be maneuvered.

Sources familiar with the matter previously told CNN that the balloon’s movement relies primarily on the jet stream. Ryder added on Friday that the balloon “has changed its course which, again, is why we’re monitoring it.”

China can control the surveillance balloon to an extent, for example, by turning on and off the surveillance gear inside of it, the sources said.

Pentagon officials said they did not believe the balloon had surveillance or intelligence-gathering capabilities above and beyond Chinese spy satellites in low earth orbit, but unlike satellites that pass rapidly over a location every 90 minutes, a spy balloon can loiter over a spot and gather more of a “pattern of life” of a particular site, the official said.

In the past, the US has simply allowed balloons like this to waft away, without taking any action or publicizing their presence over the US, the sources said. It is also not the first time a surveillance balloon has appeared over the United States.

The US official said there were similar incidents with suspected Chinese surveillance balloons over Hawaii and Guam in recent years. On Thursday, a senior defense official said, “Instances of this activity have been observed over the past several years, including prior to this administration.”

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN
 — 

No charges will be filed against the Ohio police officers who shot and killed a man who had been suspected of burglary while cleaning out his dead grandmother’s home, Hamilton County Prosecutor Melissa Powers announced Friday.

Police alleged the man, 28-year-old Joe Frasure Jr., drove a minivan toward them during the incident, which took place early Monday in the Cincinnati suburb of Wyoming. That account has been disputed by his relatives, who say he didn’t drive at them but that he was just there to clean out his dead grandmother’s apartment.

Body camera footage of the incident was released on Friday, but it is not conclusive. It shows the moment three officers arrived at an apartment complex in Wyoming, responding to a 911 call of suspected burglary.

“Whether he was driving intentionally to run the officers over or whether he was trying to flee, we will never know for sure,” Powers said at the Friday news conference.

Powers said Friday that officers administered care until paramedics arrived, and Frasure Jr. was taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

Family members told CNN on Thursday that Frasure Jr. was at the building cleaning out the apartment of his recently deceased grandmother. But at the news conference, Powers said that the building was vacant and people were only permitted to be in the building to clean stuff out during the daytime.

All three officers who responded to the call are on paid administrative leave, Powers said. The officers’ names have not been released. The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the shooting.

The half-brother of Frasure Jr., Joseph L. Frasure Jr., told CNN on Friday that the family is “extremely angry” after seeing the bodycam videos. “I want justice,” he said, “I’m going to keep protesting, I do not want this swept underneath the rug,”

Law enforcement officers responded to a 911 call shortly after 12:30 a.m. on Monday that reported two or three people were trying to break into an apartment in the city, police in that city said in an earlier news release.

When officers arrived, they “encountered possible suspects” at the rear of the building who they say “disregarded repeated commands from the officers,” according to the release.

Relatives of Frasure Jr. previously said they want more details from authorities about what happened during the incident.

“I want answers,” Frasure Jr.’s mother, Lisa Fisher, told CNN affiliate WLWT earlier this week. “I want the body cam and everything.”

Officers initially saw Frasure Jr. at the complex with his father, 52-year-old Joseph Frasure Sr., Powers said on Friday.

When officers arrived at the scene, Frasure Jr. was in a vehicle and did not obey commands to get out, Powers said, echoing a statement made by Wyoming Police Chief Brooke Brady earlier this week.

Roughly three minutes after arriving on-scene, officers can be seen in the body camera footage near the minivan and heard shouting at the two men to “put your hands in the air,” and “stop.”

The bodycam videos show multiple angles of Frasure Jr.’s father initially putting the car in reverse, away from the direction of the officers, crashing into a tree and then putting the car in drive and accelerating as officers ran.

Brady said in her video statement that Frasure Jr. was in a minivan that reversed at high speed, hit a tree, and then “accelerated rapidly at our officers.”

One officer can be heard on the body camera footage shouting to Frasure Jr. to “get out of the car” as it was reversing.

Four gunshots can then be heard, the video shows, as the minivan crashes into the side of a building.

Officers shot the minivan in three places, and shot Frasure Jr. once in the head, Powers said.

Two of the three Wyoming officers on scene fired shots toward the minivan, striking Frasure Jr., according to a statement from the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office.

Frasure Jr. was transported to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where he died on Tuesday, the Hamilton County prosecutor’s office told CNN.

“Our officers answer calls like this every day to protect the public and to stop crime,” Brady said in her video statement, urging patience as the investigation moves forward. “The work they do is hard and it requires them to make split-second decisions, just as they did in this case.”

But family members insist Frasure Jr. did not mean to harm the officers – and had a valid reason to be at the complex.

He was with his father and sister to clean out the apartment of his deceased grandmother, his half-brother, Joseph, told CNN.

Joe Frasure Sr., his father, told WLWT that his son was not driving toward the officers.

“I don’t care what they say – it was not pointed at them,” Frasure Sr. said.

CNN
 — 

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan on Friday subpoenaed the Department of Justice, the FBI and the Department of Education for documents as part of its investigation into whether a Justice Department strategy to address threats against teachers and school officials was abused to target conservative parents.

The flurry of subpoenas are the first from the Judiciary’s subcommittee dedicated to investigating the alleged weaponization of the federal government and are an early indication that the newly minted chairman intends to aggressively pursue its probe into the Biden administration’s response to rising tensions and threats of violence surrounding school board meetings.

The subpoenas set a document deadline of March 1. The panel sent the subpoenas after initially sending letters to the agencies for voluntary cooperation on January 17.

The allegations being investigated date to 2021, when protests and some violence erupted at school board meetings across the country. Most of the anger came from conservative parents who wanted to repeal mask mandates, opposed anti-racism courses and had concerns about LGBTQ policies.

With that backdrop, the National School Boards Association wrote to President Joe Biden asking for federal help to address the violence and threats against school administrators. The group said that “these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism” and encouraged the Justice Department to explore which laws, possibly including the Patriot Act, could be applied.

The group soon apologized for “some of the language” in its letter. But it quickly drew backlash, particularly among conservatives.

Attorney General Merrick Garland had issued a memo in response – which didn’t cite the letter, compare parents to “terrorists” nor invoke the Patriot Act. It merely told the FBI and federal prosecutors to step up collaboration with state and local law enforcement on the issue.

According to a report Jordan released last year, emails show that the Biden White House consulted with the NSBA on the letter before the group made its letter public. An independent review by NSBA concluded, however, that there was no “direct or indirect evidence suggesting the Administration requested the Letter” or reviewed the contents before the letter was sent.

Other emails also show that the Justice Department sent an advance copy of Garland’s memo to the NSBA.

The FBI later established a “threat tag” to internally track cases about school board threats under the same categorization. Republicans have seized on the “threat tag” to accuse the FBI of carrying out Biden’s desire to stomp out conservative speech at school boards. But the creation of an internal database does not mean the FBI initiated any sort of crackdown against parents.

Judiciary Republicans are requesting Garland provide a paper trail of the DOJ’s communications with the White House, intelligence agencies and members of the National School Boards Association about alleged violence at school board meetings.

The subpoena also calls for a number of documents relating to Garland’s directive for FBI and US attorneys’ offices to meet with federal, state and local law enforcement partners to discuss strategies for addressing the issue, focusing specifically on what meetings took place and what recommendations were made.

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment. Three days after Jordan’s voluntary request to DOJ, a department official responded to the Ohio Republican that “we share your belief that congressional oversight is vital to our functioning democracy” and encouraged the committee to prioritize its document requests to elicit efficient responses, according to a letter obtained by CNN.

The FBI subpoena specifically demands that Director Chris Wray produce a variety of documents, including communications related to meeting with US attorneys’ offices and “establishment of the Department of Justice’s task force.”

Wray is also told to hand over all documents related to formal and informal recommendations created or relied upon by FBI employees in accordance with Garland’s October 2021 memo.

The FBI said in a statement that the bureau “has never been in the business of investigating speech or policing speech at school board meetings or anywhere else, and we never will be,” adding that “attempts to further any political narrative will not change those facts.”

“The FBI recognizes the importance of congressional oversight and remains fully committed to cooperating with Congress’s oversight requests consistent with its constitutional and statutory responsibilities. The FBI is actively working to respond to congressional requests for information – including voluntary production of documents,” the FBI statement read.

Jordan’s subpoena to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona called on the Education Department to hand over any documents or communications related to a letter the National School Boards Association sent in September 2021.

Jordan’s subpoena also called for any files related to Viola Garcia’s appointment to the National Assessment Government Board. Garcia was the president of the National School Boards Association and was one of two individuals who signed the September 2021 letter to Biden.

An Education Department spokesperson told CNN that “the Department responded to Chairman Jordan’s letter earlier this week. The Department remains committed to responding to the House Judiciary Committee’s requests in a manner consistent with longstanding Executive Branch policy.”

CNN has reached out to Garcia for comment.

On Thursday, a day before the subpoena, the Education Department told Jordan’s team that the department played no role in crafting the letter from the National School Boards Association.

“I would also like to reiterate – as the Department has repeatedly made clear – that the Secretary did not request, direct any action, or play any role in the development of the September 29, 2021, letter from the NSBA to President Biden,” Gwen Graham, assistant secretary for legislation and congressional affairs at the Education Department wrote in a letter obtained by CNN. Graham added that an independent review for counsel retained by the NSBA did not find any connection between the letter and Garcia’s appointment.

Republicans gave Democrats on the committee a heads up that these subpoenas were coming, a source familiar told CNN. Democratic Del. Stacey Plaskett of the US Virgin Islands, the highest-ranking Democrat on the subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government, said the subpoenas were underpinned by “conspiracy theories” and said she is confident that what the Republicans have asked for “will once again disprove this tired right-wing theory.”

White House spokesperson for Congressional Oversight Ian Sams said in a statement to CNN, “Chairman Jordan is rushing to fire off subpoenas only two days after the Judiciary Committee organized, even though agencies already responded in good faith seeking to accommodate requests he made. These subpoenas make crystal clear that extreme House Republicans have no interest in working together with the Biden Administration on behalf of the American people and every interest in staging political stunts.”

Since the uproar at school boards became a major political issue in late 2021, Republicans have pushed the baseless narrative that Biden, Garland and Wray have weaponized federal law enforcement to attack innocent parents who care about education.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy falsely claimed that “Biden used the FBI to target parents as domestic terrorists.” Jordan has said Garland tried “to use federal law enforcement tools to silence parents.” This claim even came up in the GOP response to last year’s State of the Union. These claims have been repeatedly debunked by fact-checkers from CNN and other outlets.

For his part, Garland has aggressively pushed back against Republicans’ accusations. He previously testified to Congress that the Justice Department isn’t using counterterrorism resources against parents and said it was ridiculous to equate “angry” parents to “terrorists.”

When GOP senators grilled Wray about the “threat tag” matter at an August hearing, he defended the FBI.

“The FBI is not going to be in the business of investigating speech or policing speech at school board meetings,” Wray said. “We’re not about to start now. Threats of violence, that’s a different matter altogether. And there, we will work with our state local partners, as we always have.”

CNN
 — 

Allowing athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete at the Paris Olympics could lead to a large-scale boycott and render the Games “pointless,” Poland’s sports minister said on Thursday.

The remarks come after Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia accused the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of advancing special exemptions allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete at the Games.

In a joint statement, sports minsters from the four nations said such actions would enable sport “to be used to legitimize and distract attention from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.”

Last week, the IOC outlined a multi-step plan for Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate at the Paris Olympics and the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, arguing that “no athlete should be prevented from competing just because of their passport.”

Kamil Bortniczuk, Poland’s Minister of Sport and Tourism, told Reuters: “I’m convinced that a meeting that is planned for February 10 will reach a conclusion of over 30 or maybe 40 sports ministers – including those from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and Japan – to decisively reject the idea to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in the Games.

“Considering this, I don’t think we will face tough decisions before the Olympics and, if we were to boycott the Games, the coalition we will be a part of will be broad enough to make holding the Games pointless.”

Russian and Belarusian athletes are currently banned by many sporting federations following a previous recommendation from the IOC.

Last week the IOC said that Russian and Belarusian athletes would compete as neutral athletes if they were to participate at the Olympics.

The move has been commended by the office of the high commission of Human Rights, which said: “We urge the IOC to adopt a decision in that direction and to go further, ensuring the non-discrimination of any athlete on the basis of their nationality.”

And on Thursday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre did not object to individual athletes from Russia or Belarus competing at the Olympics, as long as it is “absolutely clear” that they are not representing their mother countries.

However, the IOC has come under strong criticism from Ukrainian tennis player and Olympic bronze medalist Elina Svitolina, as well as former boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko, who won a gold for Ukraine at the 1996 Olympics.

“We must stick to banning Russian and Belarusian athletes, sending a strong message worldwide that we are united in the sanctions imposed against Russia and Belarus and that there are consequences for the heinous acts of their governments,” said Svitolina.

This week, responding to comments made by Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak, the IOC decried “defamatory statements” that it said “cannot serve as a basis for any constructive discussion.”

When CNN contacted the IOC regarding a potential boycott, it pointed towards a statement on its website about solidarity with Ukraine and sanctions against Russia and Belarus, which said: “Threatening a boycott of the Olympic Games goes against the fundamentals of the Olympic Movement and the principles it stands for.

“A boycott is a violation of the Olympic Charter, which obliges all NOCs to ‘participate in the Games of the Olympiad by sending athletes.’ As history has shown, previous boycotts did not achieve their political ends and served only to punish the athletes of the boycotting NOCs.”

In the questions and answers statement, the IOC said the participation of Russian or Belarusian athletes at Paris 2024 “has not been discussed yet.”

CNN
 — 

“SNL” cast members hit on celebrity guest host after finding out he’s single, researchers find inspiration to create a robot and an eight-year-old boy encounters a scary moment in the Great Barrier Reef. These are the must-see videos of the week.

See ‘SNL’ cast members hit on Michael B. Jordan after they find out he’s single

During Michael B. Jordan’s “Saturday Night Live” monologue, multiple female cast members informed him that they were interested.

Video: This tiny shape-shifting robot can melt its way out of a cage

Researchers took gallium and embedded it with magnetic particles to create a robot that can melt and move. Their inspiration? A sea cucumber.

8-year-old boy proudly shows off the fish he caught. See the scary moment that followed

Manni Alam accrued millions of views on his TikTok channel after posting his encounter with a shark in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia.

Suspect flips stolen cop car onto tracks as train approaches. See what happened next

Atlanta police officers rescued a man, who had stolen a patrol car, seconds before a train struck the vehicle.

See what Punxsutawney Phil predicted on Groundhog Day

The legendary weather watcher woke up and saw his shadow this year, calling for six more weeks of winter..

CNN
 — 

No need to be all shook up about Austin Butler’s continuing to sound like Elvis Presley.

According to Dave Bautista, who costars with Butler in the forthcoming “Dune” sequel, Butler’s Elvis accent is not a part of their new movie.

“I don’t know who this guy was, but it’s not Austin Butler. It’s not Elvis,” Bautista told USA Today of Butler’s character in the film. “His voice is different, his look is different. Everything about his demeanor is terrifying.”

Bautista also called the new Oscar nominee “just the sweetest guy you’ll ever meet.”

Butler has been a bit of an awards season darling, while people have observed the actor continues to sound like the legendary singer in interviews after starring in Baz Luhrmann’s film, “Elvis”

After winning that award the actor said in the press room, “I don’t think I sound like him still.”

“But I guess I must because I hear it a lot,” Butler said. “I often liken it to when somebody lives in another country for a long time. I had three years where that was my only focus in life, so I’m sure there’s just pieces of my DNA that will always be linked to him.”

World-famous fashion designer Paco Rabanne has died at the age of 88.

His death was announced Friday in a statement shared on the Paco Rabanne Instagram account.

“The House of Paco Rabanne wishes to honor our visionary designer and founder who passed away today at the age of 88,” the message read. “Among the most seminal fashion figures of the 20th century, his legacy will remain a constant source of inspiration.”

It added: “We are grateful to Monsieur Rabanne for establishing our avant-garde heritage and defining a future of limitless possibilities.”

Paco Rabanne with models Carmen Kass and Mini Anden at Paris Fashion Week in 2000. Credit: Victor VirgileGamma-Rapho/Getty Images

The Spanish designer, born Francisco Rabaneda Cuervo, founded his eponymous fashion house in 1966 and courted both praise and controversy for his creations. His debut couture collection, “12 Unwearable Dresses in Contemporary Materials,” set the tone for years of boundary-pushing design, favoring unconventional materials and production methods.

Rabanne in his Parisian atelier in 1996. Credit: Eric Robert/Sygma/Getty Images

He was known for his metallic ensembles —notably his chain-mail minidresses — and Space Age aesthetic. Jane Fonda famously donned his designs in the 1968 film “Barbarella,” which opens with a zero gravity striptease by the star in one of the looks he crafted as costume director.

Spanish fashion and fragrance company Puig acquired Paco Rabanne in 1987. The designer retired from fashion in 1999.

Puig’s president Jose Manuel José Manuel Albesa remembered his “radical, rebellious spirit,” in a statement, saying “there is only one Rabanne.”

He was made Officer of Legion of Honor in France, the country’s highest decoration, in 2010.

Seoul, South Korea
CNN
 — 

News that the Pentagon is monitoring a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon in the skies over the continental United States raises a series of questions – not least among them, what exactly it might be doing.

US officials have said the flight path of the balloon, first spotted over Montana on Thursday, could potentially take it over a “number of sensitive sites” and say they are taking steps to “protect against foreign intelligence collection.”

But what’s less clear is why Chinese spies would want to use a balloon, rather than a satellite to gather information.

This is not the first time a Chinese balloon has been spotted over the US, but this seems to be acting differently to previous ones, a US defense official said.

“It is appearing to hang out for a longer period of time, this time around, [and is] more persistent than in previous instances. That would be one distinguishing factor,” the official said.

On Friday, Beijing claimed the balloon was a “civilian airship” used mainly for weather research that deviated from its planned course. The statement, by a spokeperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, is the first admission that the airship originated in China since the Pentagon revealed it was tracking the balloon on Thursday.

See expert’s warning about shooting down suspected spy balloon

Using balloons as spy platforms goes back to the early days of the Cold War. Since then the US has used hundreds of them to monitor its adversaries, said Peter Layton, a fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute in Australia and former Royal Australian Air Force officer.

But with the advent of modern satellite technology enabling the gathering of overflight intelligence data from space, the use of surveillance balloons had been going out of fashion.

Or at least until now.

Recent advances in the miniaturization of electronics mean the floating intelligence platforms may be making a comeback in the modern spying toolkit.

“Balloon payloads can now weigh less and so the balloons can be smaller, cheaper and easier to launch” than satellites, Layton said.

Blake Herzinger, an expert in Indo-Pacific defense policy at the American Enterprise Institute, said despite their slow speeds, balloons aren’t always easy to spot.

“They’re very low signature and low-to-zero emission, so hard to pick up with traditional situational awareness or surveillance technology,” Herzinger said.

And balloons can do some things that satellites can’t.

“Space-based systems are just as good but they are more predictable in their orbital dynamics,” Layton said.

“An advantage of balloons is that they can be steered using onboard computers to take advantage of winds and they can go up and down to a limited degree. This means they can loiter to a limited extent.

“A satellite can’t loiter and so many are needed to criss-cross an area of interest to maintain surveillance,” he said.

According to Layton, the suspected Chinese balloon is likely collecting information on US communication systems and radars.

“Some of these systems use extremely high frequencies that are short range, can be absorbed by the atmosphere and being line-of-sight are very directional. It’s possible a balloon might be a better collection platform for such specific technical collection than a satellite,” he said.

Retired US Air Force Col. Cedric Leighton, a CNN military analyst, echoed those thoughts.

“They could be scooping up signals intelligence, in other words, they’re looking at our cell phone traffic, our radio traffic,” Leighton told CNN’s Erin Burnett.

Intelligence data collected by the balloon could be relayed in real time via a satellite link back to China, Layton said.

Analysts also noted that Montana and nearby states are home to US intercontinental ballistic missile silos and strategic bomber bases.

US officials say they have taken actions to ensure the balloon cannot collect any sensitive data. They decided against shooting it down because of the risk to lives and property by falling debris.

And if the US could bring down the balloon within its territory without destroying it then the balloon might reveal some secrets of its own, Layton added.

But maybe there are no secrets or spying involved. This could be just an accident, with the balloon blown off course or Chinese operators losing control of it somehow.

“There’s at least some possibility that this was a mistake and the balloon ended up somewhere Beijing didn’t expect,” Herzinger said.

The coastline of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, will be getting a new addition in 2026: the sparkling exterior of Bentley Motors’ first residential building, rising above a skyline full of luxury condos and hotels.

At approximately 749 feet tall, Bentley Residences is currently set to be the tallest US oceanfront building, according to a spokesperson for the project. Designed by Sieger Suarez Architects, which is also delivering the forthcoming Waldorf Astoria Residences Miami, the 63-story building will feature 216 units with sweeping ocean views, a slew of amenities, and an elevator designed to take residents up to their doorstep while seated inside their cars.

“People buy single-family homes so they can have their car parked in their garage, so they can get up and walk into their unit,” said the architecture firm’s president, Charles Sieger, in a video call. “You really can’t do that with high-rises. So we’re trying to break that mold.”

The new Bentley Residences is set to open in 2026 on Sunny Isles Beach, Florida. Credit: Courtesy Bentley Residences Miami

The “Dezervator” — the patented vehicular elevator system named after the building’s developer Dezer Development — first appeared in the nearby Porsche Design Tower, which was also designed by Sieger Suarez Architects.

The four lifts, which rise at 800 feet per minute, each feature a hydraulic system that uses RFID tags to automatically load each vehicle onto the elevator — with the driver and passengers inside — and then directly to their floor.

Each unit of Bentley Residences comes with a private garage. Credit: Courtesy Bentley Residences Miami

At first, Sieger said, they thought the elevator ride would feel like a roller coaster due to the speed, but that wasn’t the case when he tried it himself. “It was actually disappointing because you’re sitting in a comfortable car… and you hardly even sense you’re moving that quick.” he added.

Translating automobiles to homes

In many ways, the Porsche Design Tower, which opened in 2016, laid the blueprint for this project, Sieger said. Both adapt the finer aesthetic details of the brand’s vehicles to residential complexes and aim to replicate the benefits of single-family homes in a sky-high tower, from ample private outdoor space to in-unit garages. In Bentley Residences, each apartment’s “garage” has room for up to four cars, as well as electric-vehicle charging capabilities.

Units also have enormous outdoor spaces with a private heated swimming pool and full kitchen. Credit: Courtesy Bentley Residences Miami

Meanwhile the condo’s interiors also nod to Bentley’s distinctive style. The grippy texture of the cars’ metal shift knobs, for instance, are applied to bathroom faucets, while deep walnut shades, high-polish finishes and textured leathers are used throughout the property.

“A lot of it has to do with bringing the nature of the finished materials that they use in the cars, scaling them differently,” Sieger said of adapting the brand aesthetic. (Bentley has already experimented in the interior design space, with its own home furnishings line).

Finishings in the condos are meant to evoke the details of the brand’s luxury cars. Credit: Courtesy Bentley Residences Miami

While shared amenities cover a sprawling 20,000 square feet and include restaurants, bars, a fitness center, spa, game room and movie theater — with seats resembling a Bentley car interior — each condo has plenty of creature comforts, too. There’s a sauna in the master bathroom, Atlantic-ocean views, and a massive balcony space that includes a private heated swimming pool and outdoor kitchen.

“Most apartments don’t have balconies that are particularly usable,” Sieger said, noting that, in this case, some of the outdoor spaces are “about half the size of the unit.” It’s also partially enclosed by glass to help keep the wind out even at the highest floors.

Though the building won’t welcome residents for another three years, the units are already being sold, with prices currently starting at $5.25 million, and two penthouses priced at over $30 million each (or around $60 million as one combined unit). Construction is expected to start this spring.

CNN
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Three bodies found Thursday in the Detroit area are believed those of three rappers who have been missing for almost two weeks, a spokesperson for the city of Highland Park said.

The bodies were found in Highland Park, roughly 6 miles northwest of Detroit, Highland Park spokesperson LaKisha Brown said.

Michigan State Police, who are leading the investigation into the bodies, have not confirmed their identities. Victims were found in an abandoned Highland Park apartment complex, they said Thursday evening.

“As of now we haven’t confirmed the identity of any victims inside or a manner of death,” officials with Michigan State Police Second District tweeted. “Please remember all victims have families and we don’t have the luxury of guessing on their identity and then retracting if we didn’t get it right. Once information is confirmed we will update (on Twitter).”

State police said a homicide task force, troopers, and workers from their forensic lab were part of the investigation team at the complex.

Forensic scientists from the state police lab were making their way into the building and beginning to gather evidence, state police said Thursday evening. “The building is in very poor condition and rat invested which is slowing progress.”

Armani Kelly, 28; Dante Wicker, 31; and Montoya Givens, 31, who are all associates, were supposed to perform at a club in Detroit on January 21, but the performance was canceled, police have said. Activity on their cell phones stopped early on January 22, according to authorities.

A car connected to at least one of the three was found in the city of Warren, which is only a few miles from Highland Park, on January 23, Detroit police had said.