News of the World

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U.S. military shoots down 'object' flying in territorial waters over Alaska

The U.S. military shot down an "object" that was flying in territorial waters over Alaska, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Friday afternoon during a White House press briefing.

"I can confirm that the Department of Defense was tracking a high altitude object over Alaska airspace in the last 24 hours out. The object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight. Out of an abundance of caution and the recommendation of the Pentagon, President Biden ordered the military to down the object. And they did. And it came in inside our territorial waters," Kirby said.

F-22 Shoots Down “Object” Flying High Over Alaskan Waters

The U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) first detected the object on February 9 and tracked it using a ground radar. Fighter aircraft were subsequently sent to intercept and attempt to identify it. NSC spokesperson Kirby said the relatively small size and slow speed of the object, together with the initial intercept taking place in darkness, limited what information could be quickly gleaned.
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Significant debris is now reportedly sitting atop of sea ice and efforts are now being made to recover if for analysis.

He also said the object did not appear to be readily maneuverable or have a substantial payload. Ryder said the object was "about the size of a small car."
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It remains to be seen whether this object is another balloon that can be tied to an expanisive Chinese high-alitude balloon surveillance program that has been reportedly been conducted for years around the world. At the same time, it underscores the new attention being given to such objects, many of which appear to have been largely ignored in the past.
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"As an Alaskan, I am so angry. I want to use other words. But I’m not going to," Lisa Murkowski, a Republican Senator from Alaska, told reporters following a classified briefing on that incident yesterday. "It seems to me the clear message to China is: ‘We got free range in Alaska.'"
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UPDATE
At 1:45 P.M. EST Friday, a two-ship of F-22 Raptors out of Elmendorf Air Force Base flew up to meet the object, traveling at about 40,000 feet and one of them fired an AIM-9X missile that destroyed it, Ryder told reporters.

Ryder disagreed with any assertion that the President reacted to political pressure.
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Pilot observations determined that the object was unmanned, Ryder said.
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“However, given the fact that ... this object was operating at an altitude that posed a reasonable threat to civilian air traffic, after consultation with the Secretary and the President, of course, the president on our advice gave the order to take it down we took it down.”
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The area covered by the restrictions is to the northwest of the town of Deadhorse and Prudhoe Bay, where a major oil field is located. It is also near the now-defunct Bullen Point Air Force Station, which the U.S. Air Force had operated until 2007.
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ABC News has now reported that the "object" shot down off the coast of Alaska was "cylindrical and silver-ish gray," according to an unnamed U.S. official. "All I say is that it wasn't 'flying' with any sort of propulsion, so if that is 'balloon-like' well – we just don't have enough at this point."

Pence FBI search lasted 5 hours, recovered one additional classified doc

The FBI search of former Vice President Pence's Indiana home lasted five hours and resulted in one document with classified markings and six additional pages, not marked classified.

"Following the discovery and disclosure of a small number of potentially classified documents that had inadvertently been transported to his home in Indiana, Vice President Pence and his legal team have fully cooperated with the appropriate authorities and agreed to a consensual search of his residence that took place today," Pence adviser Devin O'Malley told Fox News Digital.

"The Department of Justice completed a thorough and unrestricted search of five hours and removed one document with classified markings and six additional pages without such markings that were not discovered in the initial review by the vice president's counsel," O'Malley continued.

Oil prices jump after Russia announces it will slash production

Oil prices spiked on Friday after Russia announced that it would slash its crude output in March by 5%.

Russia’s deputy prime minister, Alexander Novak, announced on Friday that Moscow will reduce its crude production by 500,000 barrels a day next month following a wave of Western sanctions imposed on its oil trade.
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Brent crude prices surged shortly after the announcement, hitting $85.21 a barrel. Prices later eased to $84.77 a barrel – up about 1.75%.

The sanctions against Russian oil include a December agreement by the European Union to cap prices at $60 a barrel and a partial ban on seaborne crude imports. Western nations are seeking to drain President Vladimir Putin's war chest as the Kremlin's war in Ukraine drags into its second year. The penalties caused Moscow's oil and gas revenue to tumble by about 50%.

Fetterman hears voices like the teachers in 'Peanuts' after stroke
struggles to adjust to Senate life

Newly elected Sen. John Fetterman has described his severe hearing disability as causing him to hear the voice of the teacher from the "Peanuts" cartoon when listening to people speak, the New York Times reported.

Fetterman suffered a stroke in May 2022 while campaigning for Pennsylvania's open Senate seat, causing him to have cognitive issues, including a problem with auditory processing.

The senator, who is in the hospital after experiencing lightheadedness Wednesday, has also struggled to adjust to life in the Senate, given the challenges of recovering from his stroke and the need for technological tools to help him conduct conversations with staff and colleagues.

Fetterman has to carry around a closed captioning device that types out what is being said to him so that he can have conversations, since he cannot fully understand the spoken word on his own.

Before moving to Washington, D.C., Fetterman's office was equipped with closed captioning tablets. There are now wired screens in the Senate chamber where closed-captions are typed out for him by professional broadcast captioners.

 Is that really something a senator should be going through? I mean, if a senator isn't suited for the job, he should quit and take care of his or her health issues. And there's the possibility Fetterman suffers another heart attack at work based on the stress the current situation could cause. Especially after the FBI and the White House have been heavily criticized for their actions... or even lack of them.