Good morning. It is Sunday, February 5th. I'm Ali Valshi. We begin today with a big balloon,

a major metaphor and a geopolitical turning point in the wrong direction. Yesterday at 2.39 p.m. Eastern

Standard Time, a United States military F-22 aircraft flying at 58,000 feet used a single air-to-air missile

to shoot down what the United States says was a Chinese surveillance balloon, roughly six

nautical miles off the coast of South Carolina, well within U.S. territorial airspace.

The balloon crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, creating a debris field at least seven

miles spread out in relatively shallow water. The recovery is ongoing, and that includes Navy divers,

the Coast Guard, and other manned and unmanned salvage vehicles. FBI counterintelligence agents

are also on board the recovery vehicles. Officials say there's plenty to learn from the debris,

but they add that they've also

been studying the balloon since it first entered U.S. airspace in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska

on January the 28th. The balloon, which had maneuverability capabilities because of small

motors and multiple propellers, entered Canadian airspace on January 30th and then traveled

south through Canada,

crossing into the continental United States over northern Idaho on January 31st last Tuesday.

President Biden says he gave the order to shoot down the balloon on Wednesday, but on the

advice of his team decided against doing so while the balloon was above land, citing the risk of harming people

and infrastructure on the ground, with the order taking effect once the balloon was over water.

And of course, U.S. officials were spying on the spy balloon the entire time. The Pentagon

adds that the balloon had limited value in collecting intelligence and wouldn't provide anything

that Chinese surveillance

satellites can't also obtain. Both the U.S. and China are known to have several satellites

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