International

Five people have been killed in a medical plane crash in the US State of Nevada.Police said the plane crashed in a mountainous area in northern Nevada, killing five people, including a patient and a member of his family.The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said that it is sending a team to investigate the crash site.The National Weather Service (NWS) in Reno, Nevada, issued a winter storm warning for large areas in the State, with heavy snowfall, and winds of up to 105 kilometres per hour.

Heavy snow fell in southern California on Friday, as the first blizzard in a generation pounded the hills around Los Angeles, with heavy rains threatening flooding in other places.Breathless television weather presenters more used to delivering a same-every-day forecast of warm sunshine found themselves knee-deep in the white stuff as the region grappled with its worst winter storm for decades.Major roads were closed as ice and snow made them impassable, including sections of Interstate 5, the main north-south highway that connects Mexico, California, the Pacific Northwest and Canada.Authorities said there was no estimate of when it would be reopened."Dangerous and potentially life-threatening snow-related impacts are likely for mountain, desert, and foothill roadways in southern California," the National Weather Service (NWS) said."Multiple rounds of heavy snowfall coupled with strong winds will lead to blizzard conditions over some of the higher terrain and mountain passes."Areas very close to the Pacific Coast and also into the interior valleys that are not accustomed to seeing snow, may see some accumulating snowfall."Snow and high winds brought down power lines, knocking out the lights for over 100,000 customers in California, according to poweroutage.us.Television stations dispatched their presenters to mountain areas, where some reported on traffic misery and others chatted with gleeful children given the day off school.Social media platforms were inundated with pictures of varying amounts of snow in gardens in higher elevation areas, as residents marveled at the winter weather.Even the Hollywood sign appeared to be trying to muscle in on the action, with Jeff Zarrinnam of the Hollywood Sign Trust snapping a picture of a snowball he made at his nearby house."I've seen everything," he told the Los Angeles Times, but "it was quite a surprise" to find snow this low.Meteorologists were divided over whether it was technically "snow" and the NWS offered a Twitter tutorial for Californians struggling to put a name to the unusual white stuff spoiling the view of palm trees."Wondering what kind of frozen precipitation is falling from the sky in your area (assuming you are at a higher elevation)? Here is an informative graphic... that distinguishes between graupel and hail," NWS Los Angeles tweeted.Hail ("hard & solid") is "frozen raindrops of ice from thunderstorms," while graupel ("soft & wet") is "snowflakes that collect supercooled water droplets on the outer surface," the agency informed readers.Daniel Swain, a meteorologist at UCLA said a warming climate -- caused by humanity's unchecked burning of fossil fuels in the industrial age -- had changed the nature of winter precipitation in the area.He said last century, many more places might have seen snow in a storm event like this."Back in the 1940s there's records of heavy snowfall in the city of LA and of course, that seems almost unthinkable today," he said."The reality is that the fact that the climate is several degrees warmer in California than it used to make low (elevation) snow events less likely."

The US National Weather Service (NWS) warns of an enormous winter storm and a significant drop in temperature that will last for days and affect 48 US states.NWS said that the storm will affect 75 million state population, including the southern states, warning that the weather change will have immaculate danger, as the states will witness significantly extreme temperatures.US-based Al-Hurra Network said that it is predicted that snow will fall in some regions, and a strong cold front wave is arriving from Canada is heading south, adding that the temperatures will decrease in the states of Montana and Wyoming, and then the cold weather will settle continually in California.According to warnings released from some of the states, California will witness rain and snowfall, as well as a rare occurrence where snow will fall at low levels.Last night, a storm in California caused tree damage and power lines were cut for 88,000 people in the state, in addition to the closure of highways between states from Arizona to Wyoming, and the cancelation of more than 1,500 flights.The US Department of Transport said that a "major winter storm and multi-day closures are likely on Interstates and secondary roads throughout Wyoming".

One person was killed and 13 others were injured in an explosion at a metal plant in Ohio, located in the US Midwestern region.The US media quoted local authorities as saying that the explosion occurred in a factory producing copper alloys in the Oakwood Village, which caused a huge fire, killing one person and injuring 13 others, who were taken to hospital.Firefighters indicated that investigations are underway to ascertain the cause of the accident.This is not the first time that the state of Ohio has witnessed a massive fire this month. On Feb 3, a train carrying a chemical substance derailed, which caused a huge fire and the evacuation of hundreds of people. The train was carrying vinyl chloride, a chemical used in the plastic industry.

US President Joe Biden on Monday made a surprise trip to Kyiv, promising increased arms deliveries for Ukraine and unflagging support ahead of the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of the country.Air raid sirens rang out across the capital as Biden met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on what is the US president's first visit to the country since Russian troops invaded on February 24, 2022.Uniformed Ukrainian military officers lined the street just outside. Biden and Zelensky walked over and together laid a wreath at the Wall of Remembrance for the fallen heroes of the Russian-Ukrainian war, as a military salute played and the two presidents stared down in silence for a few moments.Biden promised increased arms deliveries for Ukraine and vowed Washington's "unflagging commitment" in defending Ukraine's territorial integrity."I will announce another delivery of critical equipment, including artillery ammunition, anti-armour systems, and air surveillance radars to help protect the Ukrainian people from aerial bombardments," he was quoted as saying in a White House statement.Ukraine is estimated to be burning through thousands more shells each month than the EU defence industry is currently able to produce.Zelensky hailed Biden's visit as a key sign of support."Joseph Biden, welcome to Kyiv! Your visit is an extremely important sign of support for all Ukrainians," Zelensky said on Telegram in English.

At least 19 people have died due to floods and landslides caused by heavy rains along the coast of southeast Brazil's Sao Paulo state, the Brazilian authorities announced.The storm mainly affected the municipalities of Sao Sebastiao, Ubatuba, Bertioga, Guaruja, Ilhabela and Santos.In Sao Paulo state, television and social media footage from the town of Sao Sebastiao on Sunday showed entire neighbourhoods under water, debris from hillside houses swept away by mud, as well as flooded highways and cars destroyed by fallen trees.Sao Paulo state Governor Tarcisio de Freitas declared a state of emergency in five towns along the coast.His government said 566 people had been displaced or made homeless.Carnival events were canceled in Sao Sebastiao, Ubatuba, Ilhabela and Bertioga."Our rescue teams are not managing to get to several location; it is a chaotic situation," said Felipe Augusto, Sao Sebastiao's mayor."We are working at nearly 50 residences that collapsed under the force of the water and there are still people buried," he told GloboNews.More than 100 firefighters were working on the scene, with the aid of helicopters, according to local media.Weather forecasts show heavy rains are set to continue in Sao Paulos coastal area, challenging rescue workers and raising the prospect of a higher death toll.

Facebook and Instagram owner Meta will launch a paid subscription service starting at $11.99 a month allowing users to verify their accounts, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Sunday, following a similar move by Elon Musk at Twitter.Meta Verified, which will roll out first in Australia and New Zealand this week, will let users "verify your account with a government ID, get a blue badge, get extra impersonation protection against accounts claiming to be you, and get direct access to customer support," Zuckerberg said."This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services," he wrote in a statement posted to his Facebook account.There would be no changes to accounts on Facebook and Instagram that are already verified, the company said, adding that only users who are over the age of 18 will be allowed to subscribe. The service is not yet available to businesses.Musk's initial attempts to launch a similar service at rival social media network Twitter last year backfired wildly with an embarrassing spate of fake accounts that scared advertisers and cast doubt on the site's future.He was forced to briefly suspend the effort before relaunching it to muted reception in December.Meta's announcement comes as the social media behemoth grappled with financial difficulties over the past year, announcing in November that it would lay off 11,000 employees or 13 percent of its staff -- the largest worker reduction in the company's history.The layoffs are part of a wave of redundancies announced by Silicon Valley giants in recent months, as the once unassailable sector faces economic gloom.Meta is also under pressure for making a huge gamble on the metaverse, the world of virtual reality that Zuckerberg believes will be the next frontier online.Investors last year punished Meta, sending the company's share price down by an astonishing two thirds over 12 months, but the stock has recovered some of the ground in 2023.Zuckerberg has remained optimistic about Meta's future.Earlier this month the company reported its first annual sales drop since it went public in 2012, but the fall was less brutal than expected.The company also recently announced that the number of daily users on Facebook hit two billion for the first time.st/bgs

US action hero Bruce Willis has been diagnosed with untreatable dementia, his family said Thursday, less than a year after he retired from acting because of growing cognitive difficulties."Since we announced Bruce's diagnosis of aphasia in spring 2022, Bruce's condition has progressed and we now have a more specific diagnosis: frontotemporal dementia," a statement said."Unfortunately, challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces. While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis."Today there are no treatments for the disease, a reality that we hope can change in the years ahead."As Bruce's condition advances, we hope that any media attention can be focused on shining a light on this disease that needs far more awareness and research."

An earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale struck on Wednesday the US state of Alaska, while no warnings were issued about the possibility of a tsunami.According to the US Geological Survey, the epicentre of the earthquake occurred 204 km southwest of the city of Adak, at a depth of 38 km.There have been no reports of material or human damage due to the earthquake so far.Alaska is located above the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area where tectonic plates meet, and the friction of which leads to strong seismic and volcanic activity.

Three people were killed and five others wounded Monday when a gunman opened fire on a university campus in the United States, before fleeing the scene, local police said.The suspect opened fire inside a building at Michigan State University shortly after 8 pm local time, said Chris Rozman, interim deputy chief of campus police.The gunman then moved on foot to a nearby building where more shots were fired."There are three confirmed fatalities," Michigan State University police said in a statement on Twitter. "This is in addition to the five victims who have been transported to the hospital."Some of the wounded had suffered life-threatening injuries, Rozman told reporters.Police released a photo of the suspect, a man wearing red shoes, a denim jacket and a baseball cap."We currently have hundreds of police officers and law enforcement officials -- state, local and federal -- on campus working in a coordinated effort to ensure the safety of campus and identify and apprehend the suspect," Rozman said.Police responded quickly to the scene and students and staff were ordered to shelter in place.Officials said all campus activities will be canceled for the next 48 hours.Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer was briefed on the shooting and said police were working to secure the area."Let's wrap our arms around the Spartan community tonight," she wrote on Twitter, referring to the university's athletic logo.School and university shootings are alarmingly common as part of a broader wave of gun violence in the United States, where the proliferation of firearms has soared in recent years.

President Joe Biden and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Friday at the White House that the two biggest countries in the Americas have successfully seen off attacks on their democracies and will now work together on fighting the climate crisis."Both our nations' strong democracies have been tested," Biden told Lula, and "both in the United States and Brazil, democracy prevailed."Meeting in the Oval Office, Biden and Lula expressed solidarity over their similar paths.Biden defeated Donald Trump in 2020, but two months later a mob of Trump supporters stormed Congress believing his conspiracy theory that he'd been the real election winner.In Brazil, Lula defeated right-winger Jair Bolsonaro and took office this January, but a mob of Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings shortly after."We have some issues on which we can work together," Lula told Biden. "First is to never again allow" the anti-democratic mob attacks.Amazon financing?Biden and Lula stressed their mutual commitment to saving the Amazon rainforest and fighting global warming -- efforts that Bolsonaro and Trump both sidelined.Biden said their "shared values... put us on the same page, particularly, especially, when it comes to the climate crisis."However, it's not clear whether the Biden administration will agree to contribute to the Amazon Fund, an international scheme to finance anti-deforestation efforts in Brazil."I think they will," Lula told reporters. "I not only think they will, but I think that it's necessary they participate."However, he then said that in the talks "I didn't specifically discuss an Amazon Fund. I discussed the responsibility of rich countries to assume responsibility to fund countries with rainforests and not only in Brazil."Lula told Biden in the Oval Office that during his earlier presidency, between 2003-2010, he had committed Brazil to drastic reductions in the deforestation of the world's largest rainforest, which is often described as the "lungs of the world" for its massive greenhouse gas absorption.However, "in the last few years, the rainforest in the Amazon was invaded by political irrationality, human irrationality, because we had a president who sent people to deforest, sent gold diggers into the Indigenous areas," he said, referring to Bolsonaro.Biden has made US leadership on fighting climate change one of his own main priorities -- starting by putting the United States back into the Paris climate accord after Trump exited the historic deal, which aims to slow global warming.

China may respond to the US shooting down its alleged spy balloon after warning of "serious repercussions", but analysts say any move will likely be finely calibrated to keep from worsening ties that both sides have been seeking to repair.Regional analysts and diplomats are closely watching China's response after a US fighter jet shot down the balloon - which Beijing says was an errant weather-monitoring craft - in the Atlantic off South Carolina on Saturday._________________________________Read alsoColombia says 'object' spotted overhead after Chinese balloon warning_________________________________China on Sunday condemned the attack as an "over-reaction", saying it reserved the right to use the necessary means to deal with "similar situations", without elaborating.Some analysts said they will be scrutinising the seas and skies of East Asia for signs of tension, given growing deployments of ships and aircraft from China and from the United States and its allies.But while bilateral tension has risen in the past few days over the balloon incident, Beijing and Washington have been seeking to improve ties.The discovery of the balloon in the upper atmosphere above North America prompted the United States to postpone a visit to Beijing this week by Secretary of State Antony Blinken. That trip had resulted from a November summit between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping.Both sides are widely seen as keen to stabilise relations after a turbulent few years, with the Biden administration leery of tensions descending into conflict and Xi eyeing a recovery for the world's second-largest economy after a severe Covid-19 slump.The path of rebuilding US-China relations likely remains on track, said Zhao Tong, a senior fellow at the China office of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a visiting researcher at Princeton University."The two sides still have a shared strong interest in stabilising and responsibly managing the bilateral relationship," Zhao told Reuters.Collin Koh, a security fellow at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, predicted China would continue to respond vigorously to US military reconnaissance patrols but stop short of confrontation.Even in calmer moments, Chinese forces actively shadow US military patrols, particularly at sea, amid tensions over Taiwan and the disputed South China Sea, say regional military attaches."Against manned platforms we might expect China to exercise restraint, but against unmanned ones it becomes more uncertain - especially if Beijing believes that it's possible to contain fallout since it involves no crew," Koh said.He noted China's seizure of a US underwater glider deployed by an oceanographic research ship off the Philippines in December 2016. The Chinese navy later returned it to a US warship.Christopher Twomey, a security scholar at the US Naval Postgraduate School in California, said any Chinese response would be limited. "I'd expect they'd protest moderately but hope to sweep this under the rug and reinstate progress on senior-level visits within months," Twomey said, speaking in a private capacity.Zhu Feng, executive dean of the School of International Studies at Nanjing University, said US officials should stop "hyping" events to ensure a smooth return to the normalised communications they earlier requested from Beijing.Zhu expressed hope "the two governments can turn the page as soon as possible so that Sino-US relations can return to an institutionalised channel of communication and dialogue".Some analysts are watching Chinese state media and online activity for hints at any clamour for a tougher response, as China's mainstream state media have stuck to reporting official statements.On China's heavily censored social media, there was little evidence that nationalistic anger was being stirred up over the incident, with many netizens asking what the fuss was over one balloon."Now, China can retire its satellites!," one user joked.

Colombia said an "object" had overflown its territory after Washington warned that a suspected Chinese spy balloon similar to the one shot down off the US coast had been spotted over Latin America.Colombia's Air Force said the object with "characteristics similar to those of a balloon" was detected on Friday and "monitored until it left the national air space."The object flew at an altitude of 55,000 feet (17,000 meters) and an average speed of 25 knots (46 kilometers per hour), said an air force statement Saturday, adding it "did not constitute a threat to national security and defense or to aviation security."_________________________________Read alsoChina has reasons to keep cool after US downs balloon _________________________________The air force said it was conducting investigations in coordination with other countries and institutions "to establish the origins of the object."A US fighter jet on Saturday shot down what it said was a Chinese balloon off the coast of South Carolina, denouncing an "unacceptable violation."The craft spent several days flying over North America, ratcheting up tensions between Washington and Beijing, which said it was a weather balloon blown off course.Another suspected Chinese balloon was seen over Latin America, the Pentagon said Friday, without providing details.

An earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale struck on Sunday the province of Coquimbo in northern Chile.The National Seismological Center of the University of Chile stated that the epicentre of the earthquake occurred 28 km from the city of La Serena in the region, at a depth of 68 km.So far, there have been no reports of causalities or material damage due to the earthquake.In 2010, a massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck central Chile, killing at least 500 people and triggering a tsunami.Chile is exposed to frequent earthquakes due to its location along the Ring of Fire.

The death toll in forest fires raging through Chile has risen to 22.The National Disaster Prevention and Response Service in Chile said that there were 251 active fires, 80 of them out of control.At least 24 people have been injured.The fires, sparked by a devastating heat wave, have threatened several rural towns, destroying at least 88 homes and sweeping through 47,000 hectares (116,000 acres) of forest, officials said.Some 2,300 firefighters and 75 aircraft have been deployed in the region.The heatwave, with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius, prompts fears of a reoccurrence of the 2017 disaster when widespread fires left 11 people dead and nearly 6000 injured, and destroyed more than 1,500 homes.

The US military on Saturday shot down a Chinese balloon off the country's east coast, American media reported, hours after President Joe Biden vowed to "take care" of the device.Fox News and CNN reported the operation after three southeastern airports were temporarily shut down earlier in the day amid what the Federal Aviation Administration called a "national security effort."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday scrapped a rare Beijing trip aimed at easing escalating tensions between the two global powers, after the Pentagon said that China sent a balloon over the United States.Moments before the decision, China issued a rare statement of regret and blamed winds for blowing over what it called a civilian airship.But President Joe Biden's administration described it as a maneuverable "surveillance balloon" that was on Friday floating over the central United States.With the rival Republican Party already on the offensive, Blinken postponed his two-day visit that would have started Sunday.__________________________________________Read alsoChinese balloon flies over the United States, Pentagon saysChina says balloon over US is civilian vessel blown off course___________________________________________"We have noted the PRC statement of regret but the presence of this balloon in our airspace is a clear violation of our sovereignty as well as international law and it is unacceptable," said a senior US official, referring to the People's Republic of China.The official said Blinken would still go ahead with his visit to Beijing once "conditions are right.""Candidly speaking in this current environment, I think it would have significantly narrowed the agenda that we would have been able to address," the official told reporters.Blinken would have been the first top US diplomat to visit China since October 2018, signaling a thaw following intense friction under former president Donald Trump.Last month, Blinken said he would use the trip to help establish "guardrails" to prevent the relationship from escalating into all-out conflict.Republican lawmakers quickly pounced on the balloon incident, casting Biden -- who has largely preserved and at times expanded Trump's hawkish policies on China -- as weak."President Biden should stop coddling and appeasing the Chinese communists. Bring the balloon down now and exploit its tech package, which could be an intelligence bonanza," tweeted Senator Tom Cotton, a prominent hardliner who had urged Blinken to call off his trip."Shoot down the balloon!" added Donald Trump on his Truth Social media platform.The Pentagon said Friday the balloon was heading eastwards over the central United States, adding it was not being shot down for safety reasons.After initial hesitation, Beijing admitted ownership of the "airship" and said it veered off course due to wind."The airship is from China. It is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes," said the statement attributed to a foreign ministry spokesperson."The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure," it said, using the legal term for an act outside of human control."The Chinese side will continue communicating with the US side and properly handle this unexpected situation."A US defense official said earlier that Biden had asked for military options but that the Pentagon believed shooting the object down would put people on the ground at risk from debris.The balloon has "limited additive value from an intelligence collection perspective," the defense official told reporters on condition of anonymity.The United States is also widely believed to spy on China, although generally with more advanced technology than balloons.The northwestern United States is home to sensitive airbases and nuclear weapons in underground silos.Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said Friday that the balloon was traveling at 60,000 feet (18,000 meters) -- far above the altitude used by commercial aircraft."We know that it's a surveillance balloon... We're monitoring and reviewing options," he added.Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who was visiting the Philippines, held discussions with top Pentagon officials after the balloon was detected.In the Philippines, Austin this week agreed to expand the US military presence, weeks after a separate troop deal with another regional ally, Japan.The US military moves show that the United States is preparing for potential conflict over Taiwan, the self-governing democracy China claims as its own, despite diplomatic efforts.Biden held a surprisingly cordial meeting in November with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a summit in Bali, where they agreed to send Blinken to Beijing.A US military officer recently told his forces to be ready for war with China."I hope I am wrong. My gut tells me we will fight in 2025," Air Mobility Command chief General Mike Minihan wrote in a memo, saying that US elections in 2024 would also "offer Xi a distracted America."

China said on Friday an "airship" that is flying over the United States is for civilian meteorological and other scientific purposes and voiced regret that it strayed into US airspace.US officials said on Thursday that a Chinese Spy balloon has been flying over the United States for a couple of days, in what would be a brazen act just days ahead of a planned trip to Beijing by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.______________________________________Read alsoBlinken scraps rare Beijing trip over China balloon______________________________________In a statement late on Friday, China's foreign ministry also said that it would continue to maintain communications with the United States to properly handle the unexpected situation."The airship is from China and is civilian in nature, used for meteorological and other scientific research. Due to the influence of westerly winds and its limited control capability, the airship deviated from its intended course," it said."China regrets that the airship strayed into the United States by mistake due to force majeure. China will continue to maintain communication with the US side to properly handle this accident," it said.

Balloon has been flying over United States for couple of daysPentagon advised Biden against shooting it downF-22s mobilized at Montana airportCanada reports "potential second incident"China 'verifying' situation, warns against speculation, hypeA Chinese balloon has been flying over the United States for a couple of days, US officials said on Thursday, in what would be a brazen act just days ahead of a planned trip to Beijing by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.Fighter jets were mobilized, but military leaders advised President Joe Biden against shooting the balloon out of the sky for fear debris could pose a safety threat, advice Biden accepted, US officials said.The United States took "custody" of the balloon when it entered US airspace and had observed it with piloted US military aircraft, one of the officials told reporters on condition of anonymity.Separately, Canada's defense ministry said a "high-altitude surveillance balloon" was detected and that it was monitoring a "potential second incident", without giving further details, adding that it was in frequent contact with the United States.___________________________________Read also:China says balloon over US is civilian vessel blown off courseBlinken scraps rare Beijing trip over China balloon___________________________________The news initially broke as CIA Director William Burns was speaking at an event at Washington’s Georgetown University, where he called China the "biggest geopolitical challenge" facing the United States."The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now," Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Patrick Ryder told reporters. "The balloon is currently traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground."Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Beijing was "verifying" the situation."I would like to emphasize that until the facts are clarified, speculation and hype will not be helpful to the proper resolution of the issue," she told a regular daily briefing in Beijing on Friday, adding that China abides by international law."China has no intention of violating the land territory and airspace of any sovereign country," Mao said.US officials said they raised the matter with their Chinese counterparts through diplomatic channels. "We have communicated to them the seriousness with which we take this issue," a US official said.One US official said the balloon was assessed to have "limited additive value from an intelligence collection perspective."Blinken is expected to travel to China next week for a visit agreed to in November by Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping. It was not clear how the discovery of the balloon might affect those plans.US Senator Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate intelligence committee, said the balloon was alarming but not surprising."The level of espionage aimed at our country by Beijing has grown dramatically more intense & brazen over the last 5 years," Rubio said on Twitter.Republican Senator Tom Cotton called for Blinken to cancel his trip.Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he would request a "Gang of Eight" briefing, referring to a classified national security briefing for congressional leaders and Republican and Democratic leaders of the intelligence committees.Relations between China and the United States have soured in recent years, particularly following then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan in August, which prompted dramatic Chinese military drills near the self-ruled island.Since then, Washington and Beijing have sought to communicate more frequently and prevent ties from worsening.US military leaders considered shooting down the balloon over Montana on Wednesday but eventually advised Biden against it because of the safety risk from debris, the official told reporters.The Billings, Montana, airport issued a ground stop as the military mobilized assets including F-22 fighter jets in case Biden ordered that the balloon be shot down."We wanted to make sure we were coordinating with civil authorities to empty out the airspace around that potential area," the official said."But even with those protective measures taken, it was the judgment of our military commanders that we didn't drive the risk down low enough. So we didn't take the shot."Defense expert John Parachini estimated the size of the balloon was equivalent to three bus lengths.Billings resident Chase Doak, who filmed it on Wednesday, said at first he thought it was a star."But I thought that was kind of crazy because it was broad daylight and when I looked at it, it was just too big to be a star,” he told Reuters.One of the officials said the flight path would carry the balloon over a number of sensitive sites, but did not give details. Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana is home to 150 intercontinental ballistic missile silos.A separate US official said the balloon had been tracked near the Aleutian Islands and Canada before entering the United States.Such balloons typically operate at 80,000-120,000 feet (24,000-37,000m), well above where commercial air traffic flies.

Boeing bid farewell to the iconic 747, delivering the final plane to Atlas Air on Tuesday afternoon and marking an end of an era when the first-ever "jumbo jet" ruled the skies.Thousands of Boeing employees - including some of the so-called "Incredibles" who developed the jet in the 1960s - watched the last delivery of the historic plane, which brought air travel to the masses and represented an indelible slice of Americana.The event at the mammoth manufacturing plant was capped off by a celebrity appearance by John Travolta, who recounted learning to fly the 747-400 as an ambassador for Qantas Airlines. "[It was] the toughest program that any commercial pilot will ever have to endure,” said Travolta, who called the jet the "most well thought out and safest aircraft ever built.”Known as the "Queen of the Skies," the 747 was the world's first twin-aisle jetliner, which Boeing designed and built in 28 months and Pan Am introduced in 1970."It's the airplane that redefined the industry and redefined air travel," said Guy Norris, co-author of "Boeing 747: Design and Development Since 1969."British billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson, who was inspired to start an airline with a single Boeing 747 after getting stuck on a delayed flight, earlier on Tuesday called it a "wonderful beast" as he bid farewell.Boeing's Everett, Washington, facility has been the 747's production site since the plane's conception. Built in 1967 to produce the mammoth jet, it remains the world's largest manufacturing plant according to Boeing.But after five decades, customer demand for the 747 eroded as Boeing and Airbus developed more fuel efficient two-engine widebody planes. When Boeing confirmed in July 2020 that it would end 747 production, it was already only producing at a rate of half an aircraft a month.Boeing delivered five 747s in 2022, while in 1990, the peak delivery year of the bestselling 747-400 version, Boeing delivered 70 747s.As different sections of the last 747 - the wings or fuselage structures, for example - were complete, the production line "just slowly started to shut down," said Kim Smith, Boeing's vice president and general manager for the 747 and 767 programs.Smith said all 747 program workers were transferred to other jobs or voluntarily retired.The last 747 rolled out on Dec. 7, capping the program at 1,574 total. The plane has since completed inspections and flight tests, flying to Portland over the holidays to get a paint job. The plane will fly off on Wednesday morning to Atlas’ headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio.While Boeing also builds the 767 and 777 in Everett, the company has yet to decide which program will permanently take over the 747 production bay, which is currently being used for 787 inventory and 777X work, Smith said.Boeing will remain tied to the 747 through the aftermarket business and the Air Force One replacement program, which Boeing won in 2018.The heir apparent to the 747, the 777X will not be ready for delivery until 2025, but Boeing Chief Executive David Calhoun focused his goodbye on that future: "The 777, the next plane to dominate this space, displaced all its competition just like that - and we haven’t even introduced the best version.”