WASHINGTON: Republican US lawmakers on Sunday criticized President Joe Biden for waiting days to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon as it floated over the United States, accusing him of showing weakness toward China and initially trying to keep the breach of US airspace undisclosed.
A US Air Force fighter jet on Saturday shot down the balloon off the coast of South Carolina, a week after it first entered US airspace near Alaska, triggering a dramatic spying saga that has further strained American-Chinese relations.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday the US military was able to collect “valuable” intelligence by studying the balloon, and that three other Chinese surveillance balloons had transited the United States during Donald Trump’s administration — a disclosure the Republican former president denied.
“We should have shot this balloon down over the Aleutian Islands. We should never have allowed it to transit the entire continental United States,” said Republican Senator Tom Cotton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, referring to the chain of small islands that arc off the coast of mainland Alaska.
Cotton told the “Fox News Sunday” program that he believed Biden had waited to disclose the penetration of US airspace because he wanted to salvage Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s planned diplomatic trip to Beijing, which ultimately was postponed.
“I think part of it is the president’s reluctance to take any action that would be viewed as provocative or confrontational toward the Chinese communists,” Cotton added.
Biden said on Saturday he issued an order on Wednesday to down the balloon after it crossed into Montana, but the Pentagon had recommended waiting until it could be done over open water to protect civilians from debris crashing to Earth from nearly twice the altitude of commercial air traffic.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said of the Republican criticisms: “they are premature and they are political.”
The Defense Department in the coming week will brief the Senate on the suspected Chinese spy balloon and Chinese surveillance, Schumer told a news conference on Sunday.
NUCLEAR MISSILE SITES
Republican Representative Mike Turner, chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, said the panel also was set to receive a briefing on the spy balloon this week, though the exact timing has not been determined.
Turner said the balloon traveled unhindered over sensitive US nuclear missile sites, and that he believed China was using it “to gain information on how to defeat the command and control of our nuclear weapons systems and our missile defense systems.”
“The president has allowed this to go across our most sensitive sites and wasn’t even going to tell the American public if you hadn’t broken the story,” Turner told NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. “There was no attempt to notify Congress, no attempt to put together the Gang of Eight (a bipartisan group of congressional leaders). I think this administration lacks urgency.”
Republican US Senator Marco Rubio, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told the ABC News program “This Week” that he would ask administration officials what future preparations have been made to prevent such an incident.
Rubio also said China was trying to send a message that it could enter US airspace, adding that he doubted that the balloon’s debris would be of much intelligence value.
Trump on Sunday disputed Austin’s statement that Chinese government surveillance balloons transited the continental United States briefly three times during his presidency.
“China had too much respect for ‘TRUMP’ for this to have happened, and it NEVER did,” Trump wrote on social media.
Speaking on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” show, Trump’s former director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, also denied such balloon incidents.
China on Sunday condemned the US action against what Beijing called an airship used for meteorological and other scientific purposes that had strayed into US airspace “completely accidentally” — claims rejected by US officials.
“China had clearly asked the US to handle this properly in a calm, professional and restrained manner,” China’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “The US had insisted on using force, obviously overreacting.”
Republicans criticize Biden for waiting to shoot down Chinese balloon
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Republicans criticize Biden for waiting to shoot down Chinese balloon
- “China had too much respect for ‘TRUMP’ for this to have happened, and it NEVER did,” Trump wrote on social media
Man accused of burning woman to death on a New York City subway train is set to be arraigned
- Prosecutors say Zapeta lit the New Jersey native on fire on a stopped F train at Brooklyn’s Coney Island station on Dec. 22. Zapeta then fanned the flames
- The killing has renewed discussion about safety in the nation’s largest mass transit system even as crime in the subway remains relatively rare
Sebastian Zapeta, 33, will appear in Brooklyn court in connection with the killing of Debrina Kawam, 57.
Prosecutors say Zapeta lit the New Jersey native on fire on a stopped F train at Brooklyn’s Coney Island station on Dec. 22. Zapeta then fanned the flames with a shirt before sitting on platform bench and watching as Kawam burned, they allege.
Prosecutors say Zapeta confirmed to police he was the man in surveillance photos and videos of the fire but said he drinks a lot of alcohol and did not recall what happened.
Zapeta, a Guatemalan citizen who authorities say entered the country illegally after being deported in 2018, faces multiple counts of murder as well as an arson charge. The top charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.
He was previously arraigned on a criminal complaint, but in New York, all felony cases require a grand jury indictment to proceed to trial unless a defendant waives that requirement.
Prosecutors with Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez’s office announced Zapeta had been indicted in late December.
Zapeta’s lawyer didn’t respond to an email seeking comment Monday evening.
The killing has renewed discussion about safety in the nation’s largest mass transit system even as crime in the subway remains relatively rare.
Transit crime is down for the second straight year, with a 5.4 percent drop last year compared to 2023, according to data released by police Monday, which also showed a 3 percent overall drop in major crimes citywide.
Still, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a Monday news conference discussing the statistics that riders simply “don’t feel safe.”
In response, she said the department will surge more than 200 officers onto subway trains and deploy more officers onto subway platforms in the 50 highest-crime stations in the city.
“We know that 78 percent of transit crime occurs on trains and on platforms, and that is quite obviously where our officers need to be,” Tisch said. “This is just the beginning.”
Powerful Tibet earthquake, near Nepal, kills at least 53
- 6.8-magnitude quake measured at 10km depth with Tingri as epicenter
- Southwestern China, Nepal and northern India are frequently hit by quakes
BEIJING/Katmandu: A magnitude 6.8 earthquake rocked the northern foothills of the Himalayas near one of Tibet’s holiest cities on Tuesday, Chinese authorities said, killing at least 53 people and shaking buildings in neighboring Nepal, Bhutan and India.
The quake hit at 9:05 a.m. (0105 GMT), with its epicenter located in Tingri, a rural Chinese county known as the northern gateway to the Everest region, at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles), according to the China Earthquake Networks Center. The US Geological Service put the quake’s magnitude at 7.1.
At least 53 people had been killed and 62 injured on the Tibetan side, China’s state-run news agency Xinhua reported.
Southwestern parts of China, Nepal and northern India are frequently hit by earthquakes caused by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.
A magnitude 7.8 tremor struck near Katmandu in 2015, killing about 9,000 people and injuring thousands in Nepal’s worst ever earthquake. Among the dead were at least 18 people killed at the Mount Everest base camp when it was smashed by an avalanche.
Tuesday’s epicenter was around 80 km (50 miles) north of Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain and a popular destination for climbers and trekkers.
Winter is not a popular season for climbers and hikers in Nepal, with a German climber the lone mountaineer with a permit to climb Mount Everest. He had already left the base camp after failing to reach the summit, Lilathar Awasthi, a Department of Tourism official, said.
Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) said the tremors were felt in seven hill districts bordering Tibet.
“So far we have not received any information of any loss of life and property,” NDRRMA spokesman Dizan Bhattarai told Reuters. “We have mobilized police, security forces and local authorities to collection information,” he said.
Many villages in the Nepalese border area, which are sparsely populated, are remote and can only be reached by foot.
AFTERSHOCKS, DAMAGE
The impact of the temblor was felt across the Shigatse region of Tibet, home to 800,000 people. The region is administered by Shigatse city, the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama, one of the most important figures in Tibetan Buddhism.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said all-out search and rescue efforts should be carried out to minimize casualties, properly resettle the affected people, and ensure a safe and warm winter.
Villages in Tingri reported strong shaking during the quake, which was followed by dozens of aftershocks with magnitudes of up to 4.4.
Crumbled shop fronts could be seen in a video on social media showing the aftermath from the town of Lhatse, with debris spilling out onto the road.
Reuters was able to confirm the location from nearby buildings, windows, road layout, and signage that match satellite and street view imagery.
There are three townships and 27 villages within 20 km (12 miles) of the epicenter, with a total population of around 6,900, Xinhua reported. Local government officials were liaising with nearby towns to gauge the impact of the quake and check for casualties, it added.
Tremors were also felt in Nepal’s capital Katmandu some 400 km (250 miles) away, where residents ran from their houses.
The quake also jolted Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, and the northern Indian state of Bihar which borders Nepal.
So far, no reports of any damage or loss to property have been received, officials in India said.
Canada’s Liberals look for a new prime minister as Trump threatens tariffs and an election looms
- A new Canadian leader is unlikely to be named before Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20
TORONTO: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation after facing an increasing loss of support both within his party and in the country.
Now Trudeau’s Liberal Party must find a new leader while dealing with US President-elect Donald Trump’s threats to impose steep tariffs on Canadian goods and with Canada’s election just months away.
Trudeau said Monday he plans to stay on as prime minister until a new party leader is chosen.
He could not recover after Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, long one of his most powerful and loyal ministers, resigned from the Cabinet last month.
Trudeau, the 53-year-old scion of Pierre Trudeau, one of Canada’s most famous prime ministers, became deeply unpopular with voters over a range of issues, including the soaring cost of food and housing as well as surging immigration.
What’s next for Canada?
A new Canadian leader is unlikely to be named before Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20.
The political upheaval comes at a difficult moment for Canada. Trump keeps calling Canada the 51st state and has threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on all Canadian goods if the government does not stem what Trump calls a flow of migrants and drugs into the US — even though far fewer of them cross the border from Canada than from Mexico, which Trump has also threatened with tariffs.
Trump also remains preoccupied with the US trade deficit with Canada, erroneously calling it a subsidy. Canada’s ambassador to Washington, Kirsten Hillman, has said the US had a $75 billion trade deficit with Canada last year. But she noted that a third of what Canada sells to the US are energy exports and that there is a deficit when oil prices are high.
If Trump applies tariffs, a trade war looms. Canada has vowed to retaliate.
When will there be a new prime minister?
The Liberals need to elect a new leader before Parliament resumes March 24 because all three opposition parties say they will bring down the Liberal government in a no-confidence vote at the first opportunity, which would trigger an election. The new leader might not be prime minister for long.
A spring election would very likely favor the opposing Conservative Party.
Who will be the next prime minister?
It’s not often that central bank governors get compared to rock stars. But Mark Carney, the former head of the Bank of Canada, was considered just that in 2012 when he was named the first foreigner to serve as governor of the Bank of England since it was founded in 1694. The appointment of a Canadian won bipartisan praise in Britain after Canada recovered faster than many other countries from the 2008 financial crisis. He gained a reputation along the way as a tough regulator.
Few people in the world have Carney’s qualifications. He is a highly educated economist with Wall Street experience who is widely credited with helping Canada dodge the worst of the 2008 global economic crisis and helping the UK manage Brexit. Carney has long been interested in entering politics and becoming prime minister but lacks political experience.
Freeland is also a front-runner. Trudeau told Freeland last month he no longer wanted her to serve as finance minister but that she could remain deputy prime minister and the point person for US-Canada relations. An official close to Freeland said Freeland couldn’t continue serving as a minister knowing she no longer enjoyed Trudeau’s confidence. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The person added it’s far too early to make declarations but said Freeland would talk to her colleagues this week and discuss next steps.
After she resigned, Trump called Freeland “totally toxic” and “not at all conducive to making deals.” Freeland is many things that would seem to irritate Trump: a liberal Canadian former journalist. She is a globalist who sits on the board of the World Economic Forum. Freeland, who is of Ukrainian heritage, also has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine in its war against Russia.
Another possible candidate is the new finance minister, Dominic LeBlanc. The former public safety minister, and a close friend of Trudeau, LeBlanc recently joined the prime minister at a dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. LeBlanc was Trudeau’s babysitter when Trudeau was a child.
Is it too late for the Liberals?
Recent polls suggest the Liberals’ chances of winning the next election look slim. In the latest poll by Nanos, the Liberals trail the opposition Conservatives 47 percent to 21 percent.
“Trudeau’s announcement might help the Liberals in the polls in the short run and, once a new leader is selected, things could improve further at least for a little while but that would not be so hard because, right now, they’re so low in the polls,” said Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal.
“Moreover, because Trudeau waited so long to announce his resignation, this will leave little time to his successor and the party to prepare for early elections,” Béland said.
Many analysts say Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre will form the next government. Poilievre, for years the party’s go-to attack dog, is a firebrand populist who blamed Canada’s cost of living crisis on Trudeau. The 45-year-old Poilievre is a career politician who attracted large crowds during his run for his party’s leadership. He has vowed to scrap a carbon tax and defund the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Powerful Tibet earthquake near Nepal kills at least 32
- Magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck near one of Tibet’s holiest cities
- Tremors also felt in Nepal, Bhutan and Northern India
BEIJING: A magnitude 6.8 earthquake rocked the northern foothills of the Himalayas near one of Tibet’s holiest cities on Tuesday, Chinese authorities said, killing at least 32 people and shaking buildings in neighboring Nepal, Bhutan and India.
The quake hit at 9:05 a.m. (0105 GMT), with its epicenter located in Tingri, a rural Chinese county known as the northern gateway to the Everest region, at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles), according to the China Earthquake Networks Center. The US Geological Service put the quake’s magnitude at 7.1.
At least 32 people had been killed and 38 injured on the Tibetan side, China’s state-run news agency Xinhua reported.
The impact of the temblor was felt across the Shigatse region of Tibet, home to 800,000 people. The region is administered by Shigatse city, the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama, one of the most important figures in Tibetan Buddhism.
Villages in Tingri reported strong shaking during the quake, which was followed by dozens of aftershocks with magnitudes of up to 4.4.
Crumbled shop fronts could be seen in a video on social media showing the aftermath from the town of Lhatse, with debris spilling out onto the road.
Reuters was able to confirm the location from nearby buildings, windows, road layout, and signage that match satellite and street view imagery.
There are three townships and 27 villages within 20 km (12 miles) of the epicenter, with a total population of around 6,900, Xinhua reported. Local government officials were liaising with nearby towns to gauge the impact of the quake and check for casualties, it added.
Tremors were also felt in Nepal’s capital Katmandu some 400 km (250 miles) away, where residents ran from their houses.
“We felt a very strong earthquake. So far we have not received any report of injuries or physical loss,” said Anoj Raj Ghimire, chief district officer of Solukhumbu district in Nepal, at the foot of Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain.
“We have mobilized police and other security forces as well as locals to collect information about the damage,” he added.
The quake also jolted Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, and the northern Indian state of Bihar which borders Nepal.
So far, no reports of any damage or loss to property have been received, officials in India said.
Southwestern parts of China, Nepal and northern India are frequently hit by earthquakes caused by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.
A huge quake in China’s Sichuan province in 2008 killed almost 70,000 people, while a magnitude 7.8 tremor struck near Katmandu in 2015, killing about 9,000 people and injuring thousands in Nepal’s worst ever earthquake.
US records first human bird flu death: health authorities
- The patient, aged over 65, had been hospitalized for a respiratory ailment, and was the first serious case of human infection of the H5N1 virus to be detected in the United States
WASHINGTON: The first human death linked to bird flu has been reported in the United States, health authorities in the state of Louisiana said Monday, adding that the patient was elderly and suffered from other pathologies.
The patient, aged over 65, had been hospitalized for a respiratory ailment, and was the first serious case of human infection of the H5N1 virus to be detected in the United States. Despite this death, the public health risk posed by bird flu remains “low,” the statement said.
