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Why the discovery of a Chinese balloon in US skies is such a big deal

Tensions between the U.S. and China are on the rise again after the discovery of what the Biden administration is describing as a sophisticated Chinese espionage tool flying over the United States.

The discovery of a massive Chinese surveillance balloon over Montana, which hosts some nuclear silos, sparked a diplomatic crisis on Friday, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken quickly postponing a high-stakes trip to Beijing hours before he was set to leave. 

Senior U.S. officials across the Departments of State and Defense lodged complaints with their Chinese counterparts, underscoring the anger across the Biden administration.

Republicans in Congress slammed both China and the administration over the fact that the balloon had made it into U.S. skies, calling it a serious security breach. 

And from China, there was a sense of chagrin, with the nation issuing a statement accepting responsibility for a private balloon flying into U.S. airspace. Beijing said it regretted this had happened. 

The discovery is a severe incident, said Jacob Stokes, a senior fellow with the Center for a New American Security, and one that is testing how the U.S. and Chinese can cool tensions.

“I think this incident tells us what we already knew about the state of the U.S.-China relationship. The two powers are locked in an intense geopolitical rivalry, and that’s both the reason we need effective diplomatic engagement, and simultaneously, the major obstacle to those channels working effectively to avoid competition from spiraling out of control,” he said.

Some experts expressed caution at overstating the threat from the Chinese balloon.

“I don’t know exactly what the balloon is collecting but [if it] were important then it would probably have been shot down long ago,” Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project and associate senior fellow to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, told The Hill.

“That said, it’s the latest chapter in a global trend of an increasing number of unmanned aerial and underwater vehicles used by countries for intelligence collection.”

Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said Friday that the Pentagon expects the balloon will be over the U.S. for a few days. It is reviewing options over whether to destroy it, given concerns over falling debris.

It’s not the first time the U.S. has observed surveillance flights, U.S. officials said, but the timing of Blinken’s trip to Beijing and the balloon’s movements prompted a firmer response.

“It is appearing to hang out for a longer period of time, this time around, [and is] more persistent than in previous instances,” a senior defense official told reporters in a briefing Thursday night. That would be one distinguishing factor.”   

A U.S. official told the Washington Post that Chinese spy balloons had been observed in Hawaii last year and other times in the Pacific.

Timothy Heath, senior international defense researcher with the RAND Corporation, said surveillance balloons — the use of which stretches back to the Civil War — present a relatively cheap and hard-to-detect method of intelligence collection. 

“They can be hard to detect because there’s not a lot of metal on them, so radars will not easily find them… you can position them in a place and just keep them there. Newer technologies allow little motors to be attached so you can make adjustments to the position of the balloon and then they can just stay in a place for quite a while,” he said.

They hold an advantage over satellites which when discovered, are predictable given their orbital path, he said. 

“So these are reasons why China has taken an interest in balloons.”

Still, the balloon’s discovery over sensitive American military locations marks a serious provocation and comes at a time when U.S. and Chinese military tensions are extremely high, said Anthony Ruggiero, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former deputy assistant to the National Security Council.

“It’s possible China is trying to probe and see how this administration will react to something like this. It’s possible they are trying to test whether the Biden administration is distracted by the war in Ukraine.”

The U.S. views China as its main competitor on nearly every front – diplomatic, military, economic and ideological – and Blinken’s trip to Beijing was expected to manage these areas of fraught competition from spiraling into conflict. 

Among the most immediate concerns is avoiding a U.S. and Chinese military confrontation over Taiwan, where Washington fears Beijing is preparing an invasion of the self-ruled island within the next few years.

China has sided with Russia amid its military assault on Ukraine, has expanded its nuclear weapons stockpile and is generally seen as holding  ambitions to overtake the U.S. militarily, technologically and economically. 

Jim Townsend, who served as deputy assistant secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy during the Obama administration, described the Chinese surveillance balloon as operating in a “gray area” of conflict – activities security analysts describe as being provocative and disruptive, but below the threshold of kinetic military activity, challenging how the target can mount a proportional response.

“It’s the Chinese screwing with us,” he said. “They’re pushing us to see how we will respond.”

Republicans quickly seized on the Chinese balloon’s intrusion to hammer the Biden administration, accusing the Pentagon and President Biden of being soft on China.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said in a Friday appearance on “The Mike Gallagher Show” that it was “disappointing” the Pentagon “chose not to bring it down when it was over a sparsely populated area where they could have retrieved it.”

“If these things are flying over our airspace, and there’s an opportunity to bring them down, we’re going to do it,” Rubio said. “We’re not going to do it in a way that’s going to fall on a major city and kill anyone … [but] we have to make that pretty clear.”

Sen. Steve Danies (R-Mont.) sent a letter to the Pentagon Thursday night demanding answers about the balloon after it was spotted in Montana, where a major air force base, Malmstrom Air Force Base, houses nuclear missiles.

“The administration failed to protect our border and now has failed to protect our skies,” Daines tweeted.

Heath, of the RAND Institute, said it will be important to follow how the Department of Defense talks about Chinese surveillance and intelligence in the coming days, whether they will choose to disclose more information about Chinese tactics and motivations or provide an opening to resume diplomatic talks. 

“Are we going to see other follow-on disclosures of other things the Chinese are doing that signal that the U.S. government is actually moving in a more hardline direction?” he asked. “Versus if this appears to be a one off, and the U.S. government has signaled that it wants to resume talks and ease tensions, that would reveal a disposition that’s much more inclined towards reducing tensions.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Jordan subpoenas Garland, Wray over school board memo

Editor’s note: Virgin Islands Del. Stacey Plaskett is the top Democrat on a Judiciary subcommittee established by the GOP to examine the “weaponization” of the federal government. The information was incorrect in an earlier version of this story.

The House Judiciary Committee fired off its first subpoenas under the leadership of Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), targeting a trio of Biden administration officials including Attorney General Merrick Garland over a short-lived memo dealing with threats against school board members.

The subpoenas, sent also to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, follow a series of more than 100 letters on the 2021 memo from Judiciary Republicans.

Garland signed the memo in October of last year, noting a “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff” amid broader discussion over COVID-19 policies and how issues like race and gender are addressed at school.

Though little resulted from the memo, Republicans have remained laser-focused on it.

The subpoena, reviewed by The Hill, asks for all communications between the entities and the National School Boards Association, which first wrote to DOJ asking for help in dealing with rising threats.

Jordan has repeatedly claimed the memo is a way for the Biden administration to label parents as domestic terrorists, though the FBI never charged a single parent in connection with the directive — something the chair pointed out in a recent appearance on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”

“The chilling impact on the First Amendment free speech is what we care about,” he said during the interview.

“School board writes a letter on Sept. 29th. Five days later, the Attorney General of the United States issues a memorandum to 101 U.S. attorneys offices around the country saying, ‘Set up this line that they can report on.’ … When have you ever seen the federal government move that fast?” he asked. 

Democrats immediately pushed back on the effort, accusing Jordan of peddling conspiracy theories in attacking a short-lived DOJ effort designed to respond to violent threats.

“The conspiracy theories underpinning today’s subpoenas have been debunked with facts time and time again, but Republicans do not want to be bothered by this inconvenient truth. There is no amount of documents that will satisfy the MAGA obsession with conspiracies,” said Del. Stacey Plaskett (V.I.), the top Democrat on a Judiciary subcommittee established by the GOP to examine the “weaponization” of the federal government.

The Justice Department declined to comment Friday, but Garland and Wray have previously taken numerous questions on the matter during appearances before Congress — something the FBI pointed to in pushing back on claims it had been unresponsive to Jordan.

“As Director Wray and other FBI officials have stated clearly on numerous occasions before Congress and elsewhere, the FBI has never been in the business of investigating speech or policing speech at school board meetings or anywhere else, and we never will be. Our focus is and always will be on protecting people from violence and threats of violence,” the agency said in a statement.

“We are fully committed to preserving and protecting First Amendment rights including the right to free speech. Attempts to further any political narrative will not change those facts.”

The memo has been a headache for the Justice Department and the National School Boards Association since shortly after its release.

The group sent a letter to the White House the week before Garland’s memo was released, laying out a spate of incidents at recent school board meetings, noting that some threats “could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”

The ensuing political storm caused the National School Boards Association to issue a statement saying its members “regret and apologize for the letter.”

“There was no justification for some of the language included in the letter. We should have had a better process in place to allow for consultation on a communication of this significance,” the group wrote later that month.

Jordan has suggested that the Biden administration coordinated with the National School Boards Association to craft the policy, accusing them without evidence during a prior Fox News appearance of encouraging a “pretext to go after parents.”

The initial letter from the National School Boards Association references a meeting with the White House and the Department of Education, and asks for the Justice Department to review whether the threats may violate a number of different federal laws.

The Justice Department memo fell far short of what the group was asking for, however, stressing “coordination and partnership” with local law enforcement over any legal review.

“While I am disappointed that Republicans have resorted to this type of aggressive arm-twisting and performative politics, I am confident that what they have asked for will once again disprove this tired right-wing theory,” Plaskett said in her statement.

Jordan’s numerous prior letters on the school board memo come after he pledged aggressive oversight of the matter, a posture he solidified by following though just days after the committee was formally constituted.

The Department of Education noted it responded to Jordan’s request for information just the day before being served with the subpoena.

“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,” it said in a statement.

The move was decried by Democrats, who noted that Jordan failed to respond to a subpoena he was issued by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.

“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,” Ian Sams, White House spokesperson for oversight, said in a statement.

“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.”

—Updated at 5:51 p.m. Lexi Lonas contributed.

Source: TEST FEED1

Five takeaways from an explosive January jobs report

The U.S. economy added 517,000 jobs in January, more than doubling Wall Street expectations and turning up its nose at prognosticators of an imminent recession.

The unemployment rate dropped to 3.4 percent, the lowest level since 1969. Analysts were expecting it to move in the opposite direction, ticking up to 3.6 percent.

The monthly jobs gain of 517,000 tops the average monthly gain of 401,000 for 2022, a year that already had strong job growth as the economy continued its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

Further revisions by the Labor Department showed that the economy added a half million more jobs in 2022 than previously recorded.

“Twelve million jobs added in the US in the past 24 months, with 5 million of those in the past 12 months. Yes, this is still mostly pandemic/recession recovery, but it’s an extremely rapid pace of growth even for a recovery,” University of Central Arkansas economist Jeremy Horpedahl wrote online on Friday.

Here are the top takeaways from Friday’s surprising jobs report.

Nobody was expecting this

January’s job numbers caught analysts by surprise.

“Today’s report is an echo of 2022’s surprisingly resilient job market, beating back recession fears. The Fed has a New Year’s Resolution to cool down the labor market, and so far, the labor market is pushing back,” Daniel Zhao, an analyst with employment company Glassdoor, wrote in an analysis.

The positive statistics on jobs are being reflected in the personal stories of many workers and job seekers who are expressing an increased freedom to change their working situations.

Rocknide, a former nurse’s assistant who works now at Fedex and who declined to provide her last name, said she changed jobs during the pandemic so that she could spend more time taking care of her 3-year-old.

“I didn’t go back [to my previous job] because I didn’t have someone to watch my child [and] because it required longer time than the job I have now. Now it’s better because I just have to go work overnight, and during the day I can take care of my child,” the 15-year New York City resident told The Hill.

“I make less money now, but I have more time. I choose to make less money because I need more time with my child,” she said.

Maria Tompkins, a former logistics specialist in the TV production industry who recently started a new job in strategy for a tech company, said she was “lucky” to be able to switch careers.

“It was especially the job conditions” that made her want to change, she told The Hill in an interview. “For production in particular. With the pandemic and all the hoops we had to jump through to manage on-site film sets, and the workload just getting more and more crazy without a pay increase happening — that was huge.”

The report puts the spotlight on inflation

The red-hot jobs report is putting the spotlight on inflation, which has been falling since the middle of last year despite a persistently tight labor market.

Traditional economic thinking says that as unemployment goes up, inflation comes down, a relationship reflected in an economic model known as the Phillips Curve. That’s because wage costs are a significant — and often the dominant — force behind the price of goods and services.

But economists are starting to reconsider this relationship in light of falling inflation. The consumer price index (CPI) has dropped to 6.5 percent annually off a high of 9.1 percent last June. The personal consumption expenditures price index (PCE) has similarly fallen to 5 percent annually from 6.8 percent last year.

“The Phillips Curve is wrong,” former Federal Reserve economist and founder of Sahm consulting Claudia Sahm wrote in a December blog post. “Unemployment remains low, and inflation has come down notably. We are not yet at the Fed’s 2 percent target, but the progress is undeniable and without a recession.”

Wage growth is slowing even as jobs are booming

While high levels of employment may not be contributing to lower price levels, moderation in wage growth may be helping to bring inflation down.

Friday’s job report showed that over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 4.4 percent, down from 4.6 percent as measured last month. That’s the slowest rate since July 2021.

That moderation was mirrored in the employment cost index (ECI) reported by the Labor Department earlier this week, which came in under expectations at 1 percent. 

Unit labor costs have been tapering since the first quarter of 2021, putting the focus on profits instead of labor costs as a primary driver of inflation.

“The labor costs are a reminder of how much of current inflation is due to profits,” UBS analyst Paul Donovan wrote in a note to investors on Thursday.

The Fed has a tough call to make

Record-high employment paired with tapering wage growth and labor costs is a double-edged sword for the Fed, which has been raising interest rates since last March in response to rising inflation.

The Fed has hiked interest rates eight times in a row since last year, starting off slow at first and then ramping up to four consecutive 75-point hikes in the fourth quarter. It delivered its smallest rate hike this week of 25 basis points since tightening began and is expected to deliver another 25-point hike after its meeting in March.

It’s not clear what the Fed will do after that, but Friday’s powerful jobs number could be a sign to the Fed that more rate hikes are needed. It could even inspire a return to higher rate hikes.

In a statement released Wednesday, the Fed’s rate setting committee said it “anticipates that ongoing increases in the target range will be appropriate” and that it’s working to determine the “extent of future increases.”

The report is a win for Biden ahead of the State of the Union

President Biden took an early victory lap on the jobs report on Friday, telling reporters that his economic agenda “is working.”

“Put simply, I would argue that the Biden economic plan is working,” he said. “Even as the job market reaches historic highs, inflation continues to come down.”

Friday’s quick speech on the economy will likely serve as a prelude to next week’s State of the Union address, where Biden is expected to tout the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic as well as the drop in inflation.

“Inflation has now fallen for six straight months. Gas prices are down more than $1.50 a gallon since their peak, and food inflation is falling as well,” Biden said.

Biden also referenced the recent growth in gross domestic product (GDP), which was up at an annualized rate of 2.9 percent in the fourth quarter following a 3.2 percent uptick in the third. GDP finished off 2022 at a positive 2.1-percent growth rate even after contracting during the first and second quarters.

Source: TEST FEED1

Victoria Spartz passes on Senate run, to retire from Congress at end of term

Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) on Friday announced she will not run for Congress in 2024, retiring from the House and passing on a bid for Indiana’s open Senate seat.

“It’s been my honor representing Hoosiers in the Indiana State Senate and U.S. Congress and I appreciate the strong support on the ground. 2024 will mark seven years of holding elected office and over a decade in Republican politics,” Spartz, 44, said in a statement. 

“I won a lot of tough battles for the people and will work hard to win a few more in the next two years. However, being a working mom is tough and I need to spend more time with my two high school girls back home, so I will not run for any office in 2024,” she added.

Spartz, a Ukrainian-born lawmaker, has seen her profile rise over the last year over her support for the European nation against the ongoing Russian invasion. 

She has also been in the spotlight in recent weeks for voting “present” several times as Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) sought to lock down votes during a marathon, 15-ballot Speakership fight, as well as for initially vowing to vote against ousting Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the Foreign Affairs Committee, before McCarthy won over her and other holdouts.

The lawmaker will leave Congress after only two terms, having replaced former Rep. Susan Brooks (R-Ind.) in 2021. She previously served in the Indiana state Senate. 

The news means she will not join the battle to replace retiring Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) in the state’s upcoming Senate primary, which former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) also passed on. Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) is the clear favorite in the race, with both the Senate GOP campaign arm and former President Trump both endorsing him within the past week. 

The retirement also means an open race to fill the 5th Congressional District seat, in addition to one in the state’s 3rd Congressional District, which Banks is leaving. 

Former President Trump won the district in 2020 with 57 percent to only 41 percent for President Biden. Spartz won the seat by only 4.1 percentage points in 2020, 50 percent to 45.9 percent, before expanding that margin to 22.2 percentage points last year.

According to the Cook Political Report, the 5th Congressional District is R +11, meaning the district performed 11 points more Republican than the nation did overall. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Blinken trip to China postponed over 'unacceptable' spy balloon

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed a trip to Beijing after a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon was detected in U.S. airspace, a senior State Department official said Friday.

Officials said the U.S. noted that China had issued a statement of regret, but described the balloon’s presence as a grievous violation that required a strong response. 

“We have noted the [People’s Republic of China] 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 that this has occurred,” the official said.

“After consultations with our interagency partners, as well as with Congress, we have concluded that the conditions are not right at this moment for Secretary Blinken to travel to China.”

The secretary had been set to leave for Beijing on Friday evening in a trip that was extensively planned since it was first announced after President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Bali in November at the G-20 summit.

But the detection of a Chinese surveillance balloon prompted a new assessment that the trip could not continue. The Senior State Department official said the secretary and the deputy secretary spoke with senior Chinese representatives in Washington on Wednesday night.

The official said the message from U.S. officials to Chinese officials was that the surveillance balloon was “an unacceptable and irresponsible incident.” 

The Department of Defense issued a public statement Thursday night that the surveillance balloon had been detected.

The State Department official said the secretary would look to travel to China “at the earliest opportunity when conditions allow,” but said that in the meantime the U.S. is maintaining lines of communication with the PRC to address concerns about the incident with the balloon. 

The official said that the State Department had assessed that a trip to Beijing under the tension of the surveillance balloon “would not be conducive or constructive” and that it would have “significantly narrowed the agenda that we would have been able to address.”

The official did not address what conditions would allow for the trip to be rescheduled. 

Source: TEST FEED1

GOP lashes out at Biden, Pentagon as Chinese balloon hovers over US

Republicans have seized on the news that a Chinese surveillance balloon is flying over the northern U.S. to cast President Biden and the Defense Department as failing to protect national security.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) quickly called for a briefing for the Gang of Eight, the top members of Congress who receive classified intelligence from the executive branch, expressing concern about the breach of U.S. airspace.

“China’s brazen disregard for U.S. sovereignty is a destabilizing action that must be addressed, and President Biden cannot be silent,” McCarthy tweeted.

Former President Trump called to “SHOOT DOWN THE BALLOON” on his social media platform Truth Social on Friday morning, echoing calls from multiple Republican lawmakers on Twitter.

“Biden should shoot down the Chinese spy balloon immediately,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) agreed on Thursday. “President Trump would have never tolerated this. President Trump would have never tolerated many things happening to America.”

The Pentagon on Thursday identified the aircraft as a “high altitude surveillance balloon” and said it would not shoot it down because falling debris would pose a risk to people on the ground.

China urged calm on Friday morning before denying those claims. In a statement, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it was a civilian research ship studying weather that blew off course.

Beijing expressed regret that the aircraft had entered U.S. airspace, saying the government “has no intention of violating the territory and airspace of any sovereign country.”

The U.S. has yet to respond to the Chinese claims. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has reportedly postponed a trip to Beijing to meet with his counterpart next week after the balloon was spotted.

Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) fired off an angry letter to the Pentagon on Thursday night after the balloon was reported by Defense officials as last seen over his state, where there is a major Air Force base housing nuclear missiles.

“I am demanding answers from the Biden administration about the spy balloon that flew over our airspace,” Daines tweeted. “The administration failed to protect our border and now has failed to protect our skies.”

Defense Department officials said the balloon posed no military or physical threat and said it was not collecting sensitive information.

But some Republican lawmakers tied the entry of the Chinese balloon into U.S. airspace to the issues plaguing the southern border.

“Let’s see — an open southern border and a Chinese spy balloon floating across the U.S.,” Sen. Erich Schmitt (R-Mo.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, tweeted Friday morning. “Maybe we should focus on America’s national interests.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Warner, Rubio call for 'immediate compliance' with request for Trump, Biden classified documents

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Vice Chairman Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) have sent a letter to senior Biden administration officials urging “immediate compliance” with their request to see classified documents seized at President Biden’s Delaware home and former Washington office and at former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

In the letter sent Thursday to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, the senators dismiss the Department of Justice’s argument that the documents can’t be shared because of its ongoing investigation into whether classified information was mishandled.  

Warner and Rubio want to review the classified documents that were seized as well as an assessment of the risk to national security if those documents were exposed to a foreign adversary. They say their request is “narrowly tailored.”

“As outlined in our prior letters, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is charged with overseeing counterintelligence matters, including the handling or mishandling of classified information,” they wrote.

“Without access to the relevant classified documents we cannot effectively oversee the efforts of the Intelligence Community to address potential risks to national security arising from the mishandling of this classified information,” they wrote.  

The letter follows one they sent to the senior officials in August 2022 requesting all documents seized at Mar-a-Lago and another sent in January requesting documents discovered at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. 

“As of this writing, neither of you have complied with these requests, citing the Department of Justice’s ongoing investigations of both matters,” Warner and Rubio wrote.  

The Justice Department replied in a letter dated Jan. 28 that it had to “maintain the confidentiality” of the investigation and must balance the intelligence committee’s desire to review the documents with the “integrity of law enforcement operations.”  

Warner and Rubio, however, argued in their most recent letter “the Department alone does not decide this balance.”  

They point out that their request is not unprecedented and that “in other investigations involving the mishandling of classified information the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence have accommodated the legitimate oversight needs” of their committee.

“As we expressed previously, in light of the substantial public interest, the need for bipartisan and responsible oversight of these matters is at its highest,” they wrote.   

Source: TEST FEED1

Beijing confirms balloon is Chinese, says entry into US airspace was unintended

Beijing confirmed on Friday that a high-altitude balloon traveling over the northern U.S. is Chinese and said its entry into American airspace was unintentional.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the balloon is a civilian airship used primarily for meteorological research.

“Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course,” the spokesperson said. “The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure.”

U.S. defense officials confirmed the presence of the balloon on Thursday, identifying it as a “high-altitude surveillance balloon” and noting that they were fairly confident it belonged to China. 

The balloon, which was first spotted over Montana on Wednesday, is still hovering over the U.S., as officials have held off on shooting it down over safety concerns.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning initially said on Friday that they were looking into the reports and noted that Beijing “has no intention of violating the territory and airspace of any sovereign country.”

Source: TEST FEED1

US adds stunning 517K jobs to start 2023

The U.S. labor market clocked a shockingly strong month in January, adding 517,000 jobs and dipping down to 3.4 percent unemployment, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department.

The numbers blow past expectations. Analysts were projecting an increase around 185,000 jobs and for the unemployment rate to edge up to 3.6 percent. In December, the unemployment rate dipped back down to 3.5 percent and added 260,000 new jobs, according to revised figures released Friday.

The gain of 517,000 new jobs tops the monthly average gain of 401,000 for 2022, a year that already had outsized job growth.

Growth was strongest in the sector of leisure and hospitality, which added 128,000 new jobs compared to a monthly average of 89,000 in the sector last year.

The data also showed that average hourly earnings rose by 0.3 percent, or 10 cents, to $33.03 an hour as wage pressures in the economy continued to moderate. Over the past 12 months, earnings have increased by 4.4 percent, compared with 4.6 percent as measured last month.

Wage growth, while still well above pre-pandemic levels, has now slowed to lowest annual rate since July 2021. Lower wage growth coupled with stellar job gains and low unemployment is a strong sign for the Federal Reserve as it attempts to quash inflation while avoiding a recession.

Prices were up 6.5 annually in December, according to the Labor Department’s consumer price index (CPI).

The January jobs number is subject to an annual population correction by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that may have influenced the data. Due to the correction, the December and January jobs numbers are not directly comparable, and some economists have been putting up warning signs about this.

“Not to be too negative here, but I really don’t believe 500K. Would bet non-trivial measurement error there,” Adam Ozimek, an analyst with advocacy organization Economic Innovation Group, wrote online after the release of the data.

The numbers come after a strong report on jobs openings from the Labor Department earlier in the week, showing a jump of 5.5 percent in December to more than 11 million open jobs.

The ratio of job openings to unemployed workers jumped back up to a near-record of 1.9, meaning that there are nearly two job openings in the U.S. for every job seeker.

Updated at 9:08 a.m.

Source: TEST FEED1

The Hill's Morning Report — McCarthy gets first big win as Speaker

Editor’s note: The Hill’s Morning Report is our daily newsletter that dives deep into Washington’s agenda. To subscribe, click here or fill out the box below.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) persuaded at least three GOP holdouts on Thursday to change their positions and vote to eject a three-term Democratic colleague from membership on an influential committee (The Hill).

McCarthy is having a tougher time pulling fellow GOP members together for an as-yet blurry strategy to achieve significant budget savings that Republicans want while figuring out what to do about additional borrowing to pay the nation’s bills, which conservatives oppose, report The Hill’s Aris Folley and Mike Lillis.  

The news media described Thursday’s vote as a whip test, watching closely as the Speaker, who a month ago needed 15 ballots to assemble a sufficient number of Republicans to win the top job, worked behind the scenes to smooth objections from colleagues by offering modest concessions. Republicans voted to remove progressive and past critic of Israel Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

House Democrats supported Omar, who delivered an emotional floor speech before the vote, which left many of her colleagues in tears (NBC News).

“I am Muslim. I am an immigrant and, interestingly, from Africa. Is anyone surprised that I’m being targeted? Is anyone surprised that I am somehow deemed unworthy to speak about American foreign policy?” Omar said.

With a party-line vote of 218-211, the Speaker achieved his long-expressed goal to remove the congresswoman from the panel. Republican Rep. Dave Joyce (Ohio) voted “present.”

Many Democrats denounced the House resolution — aimed at Omar’s past antisemitic remarks, for which she apologized — as political retribution after the Democratic-led House in 2021 voted to strip Republican firebrands Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Paul Gosar (Ariz.) of committee assignments after colleagues said they openly promoted violence against liberals.

“It’s not about accountability. It’s about political revenge,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) told reporters ahead of the GOP vote.

Republican members in both chambers who are eyeing the complex battle over budgeting and the nation’s rising debt say there is uncertainty surrounding their party’s plan to leverage a win from President Biden and Democrats. 

McCarthy’s future as Speaker could turn on how he pacifies the lower chamber’s right flank while satisfying the demands of more moderate members, not to mention House appropriators.

“Members like me are pushing them for more specifics,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) told reporters on Wednesday. “Everybody agrees that we should quickly get to a point where we have some specifics in mind of how this would work so that we just put some fiscal brakes on when we raise the debt [limit].” 

Vox: Republicans kicked Omar off the Foreign Affairs Committee to get revenge on Democrats. McCarthy on his own last week removed California Democrats Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

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LEADING THE DAY

➤ ADMINISTRATION

🚨The Pentagon on Thursday said a suspected Chinese high-altitude spy balloon has been flying over the United States conducting surveillance this week, but was not shot down out of concern among top generals that debris could cause damage below. The balloon was observed on Wednesday over sparsely populated Montana. The state is home to several U.S. nuclear missile silos. ​​The Defense Department is taking undisclosed “mitigation steps” to prevent Beijing from gathering additional intelligence (The Washington Post). Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told journalists on Friday that Beijing is “learning about the verification of the matter,” adheres to international laws and has no intention of violating any country’s airspace (South China Morning Post).

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with President Xi Jinping of China during a trip that begins on Sunday. He will be the first U.S. secretary of state to meet the Chinese leader in nearly six years and the first of Biden’s Cabinet secretaries to visit China. Biden and Xi agreed in Bali, Indonesia, in November that they should find ways to stabilize the turbulent U.S.-China relationship. Blinken’s visit marks a new phase of stepped-up engagement between the two countries following a very difficult period that was further complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will visit China later this year. Yellen met Liu He, the top Chinese economic official, in Zurich last month (Financial Times).

🇺🇸 Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday is likely to touch on gun violence, police reform, the economy and the war in Ukraine, all issues at the forefront of Americans’ minds. A new Marist poll, meanwhile, shows that more than 60 percent of Americans believe the state of the country is not strong (The Hill). Newly elected Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R), a former Trump press secretary and daughter of a former Arkansas governor, will deliver the Republican response to the State of the Union address (Fox News).

The Hill: Here are the guests invited to Biden’s speech.

West Wing turnstile: On Thursday, Biden announced that White House economic adviser Brian Deese is leaving his position later this month (The Washington Post). A successor has not been named; Deese told MSNBC on Thursday that “the president has not made any decision on that front.”

➤ POLITICS

Biden and Vice President Harris are off to Philadelphia today, a rare joint trip for the two leaders that will be a mix of touting accomplishments and looking ahead to 2024, write The Hill’s Alex Gangitano and Brett Samuels. At the Belmont Water Treatment plant, they will announce $500 million in federal funding for Philadelphia water upgrades and lead service removal (6ABC).

The White House has stepped up its efforts to show off its work from the first two years in office as it sharpens its message ahead of an expected re-election announcement this spring. David Thomas, former deputy director of legislative affairs for former Vice President Al Gore, said seeing Biden and Harris together “reinforces that they are a ticket.”

“People like to see the president and VP together. There’s comfort in knowing that they work together well and they have a good relationship,” Thomas said.

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Biden comes to Philly to cast past accomplishments as a case for 2024 success.

The only real point of contention for the Democratic National Committee’s winter meeting in Philadelphia this weekend is a proposed overhaul of the 2024 presidential primary calendar. The DNC on Saturday is expected to approve a new lineup for the party’s presidential primaries, deferring to Biden, who has championed South Carolina’s primary opening on Feb. 3, with New Hampshire and Nevada jointly following three days later, Georgia coming next on Feb. 13 and Michigan two weeks after that (WMUR).

The New York Times “The Daily” podcast: A revolution in how Democrats pick a president: Iowa’s caucus could be replaced with South Carolina’s primary as the party’s first test of candidates. 

A coalition of left-leaning activist groups, including local groups in Arizona, have filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee accusing Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) of improperly using Senate staff for personal errands, The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports, in a sign that Sinema will likely face a nasty reelection race if she decides to run for a second term.  

▪ Deseret News: Why Arizona’s Senate race could split Democrats.

▪ CNBC: Sinema pulls in cash from Wall Street, real estate titans as she mulls reelection bid.

▪ AZ Central: Sinema led rival Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) in fundraising, but he topped her after she left Democratic Party.

▪ Politico: Arizona Republicans fear they may blow it again. Sinema’s party switch has opened the door, but the fear is their candidate may walk into the frame.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday endorsed Rep. Adam Schiff (D) in California’s high-profile Senate primary, backing the former House Intelligence Committee chairman — on the condition that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) opts not to run again.

“If Senator Feinstein decides to seek re-election, she has my whole-hearted support,” Pelosi said in an email to Politico. “If she decides not to run, I will be supporting House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, who knows well the nexus between a strong Democracy and a strong economy.”

Feinstein, who is 89, is widely rumored to be planning to retire at the end of her term, and Schiff is not the only California Democrat expected to throw his hat in the ring as a potential successor. Rep. Katie Porter was the first to announce her candidacy, and Rep. Barbara Lee has privately told colleagues she intends to seek the seat. Also expressing interest is Rep. Ro Khanna, who has said he’ll consider a bid “over the next few months.”

Florida Democratic leaders will meet later this month to elect a new party chair in what many Democrats see as the first step in trying to reclaim Florida’s status as the nation’s premier swing state. The Hill’s Max Greenwood and Amie Parnes report that the state party is trying to revive after an unsparingly brutal midterm election cycle and GOP dominance in what is increasingly labeled a red state. For the Democratic Party, it’s a steep climb.

The Washington Post: Republicans rally around conservatives who lost their elections.

Former President Trump on Thursday raised the nightmare scenario for Republicans in the 2024 presidential election: He might refuse to endorse the party’s nominee if he loses his primary race. The former president’s warning, made on conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt’s show, comes as he escalates efforts to try to scare off or damage potential party rivals who are maneuvering ahead of their own possible campaign launches (CNN).

“It would depend. I would give you the same answer I gave in 2016 during the debate. … It would have to depend on who the nominee was,” Trump said.

Back in 2015, Trump threatened a third-party White House run if the Republican National Committee was unfair to him during the 2016 primary season (The Hill).

One of the Republicans expected to jump into the 2024 race later this month is former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who served as U.N. ambassador under Trump. The Hill’s Niall Stanage asks five key questions about Haley as she prepares to enter the race, from her appeal to voters to what would happen if fellow South Carolinian, Sen. Tim Scott, also threw his hat in the ring.

Documents: FBI was expected to search former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana home for classified documents with his consent (The Hill).

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ INTERNATIONAL

In Kyiv, air raid sirens sounded today during a visit to Ukraine by European Union leaders but there were no immediate reports of fresh missile strikes after the sirens (Reuters). “There will be no let up in our resolve. We will also support you every step of the way on your journey to the EU,” European Union chairman Charles Michel wrote on Twitter on Friday morning under a picture of himself on a central Kyiv square.

The U.S has agreed to send longer-range bombs to Ukraine as it prepares to launch a spring offensive to retake territory Russia captured last year, officials said Thursday. The new weapons will have roughly double the range of any other offensive weapon provided by Washington, and the ground-launched small diameter bombs will be part of a $2.17 billion aid package it is expected to announce today. The package also, for the first time, includes equipment to connect all the different air defense systems Western allies have rushed to the battlefield and integrate them into Ukraine’s own air defenses, to help it better defend against Russia’s missile attacks (ABC News).

As his military pressed its eastern campaign with missile strikes on a key Ukrainian military hub, Russian President Vladimir Putin used a speech in the city once called Stalingrad on Thursday to invoke the Soviets’ defeat of the Nazis in a decisive World War II battle and vow that Russia would be victorious. His remarks came as Ukrainian officials warned that Moscow was opening a new offensive aimed at capturing more of eastern Ukraine, which could give Putin his first significant battlefield success in months (The New York Times).

“We are again and again being forced to resist the aggression of the collective West,” Putin said. “The legacy of generations, values and traditions — this is all what makes Russia different, what makes us strong and confident in ourselves, in our righteousness and in our victory.”

▪ The Washington Post: Who’s sending what to Ukraine: A new wave of Western weapons, explained.

▪ Reuters: Ukraine’s new weapons will force a Russian shift.

Spiraling violence between Israelis and Palestinians and fierce opposition on the Israeli street to proposed judicial reforms are overshadowing a unique moment of alignment between Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding Iran. As The Hill’s Laura Kelly writes, the administration has effectively ceased diplomacy with Tehran to rein in its nuclear program, making coordination between the U.S. and Israel — which could include a military option — to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon more urgent. Netanyahu is also pushing for the U.S. to be at the center of opening relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, the pathway to which is increasingly clear as the Biden administration has toned down criticism of the kingdom over its positions on oil production and human rights concerns. 

▪ The New York Times: In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a Pope and a nation revitalize one another.

▪ The Washington Post: Canadian Parliament votes unanimously to accept 10,000 Uyghur refugees.

▪ The New York Times: A U.S. ambassador finds himself on hostile ground in Hungary. David Pressman, a gay human rights lawyer, has been accused by pro-government media of undermining traditional values, violating diplomatic conventions and meddling in the judiciary.

OPINION

■ Here are the ways the debt limit fight could end. Most are terrible, by The Washington Post editorial board. https://wapo.st/3Ygt4ow

■ Wealth taxes have always been a bad idea, by Allison Schrager, Bloomberg Opinion columnist. https://bloom.bg/3HyMsX0

■ The South also rises: How the Korean nuclear threat could gradually, then suddenly, lead to war, by Andrew Latham, opinion contributor, The Hill. https://bit.ly/3DC3gLE

WHERE AND WHEN

📲 Ask The Hill: Share a news query tied to an expert journalist’s insights: The Hill launched something new and (we hope) engaging via text with Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack. Learn more and sign up HERE.

The House will convene at noon on Monday.

The Senate meets at 11 a.m. for a pro forma session.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 8:30 a.m. Biden and Harris will travel to Philadelphia where they will announce federal funding for water and lead pipe upgrades during a visit to the Belmont Water Treatment Plant at 3:15 p.m. They will join the Democratic National Committee winter meeting at 5:15 p.m. for a reception at the Sheraton Philadelphia Hotel and deliver speeches at 6 p.m. Biden will travel from Philadelphia to Wilmington, Del., to spend the weekend. The vice president will return to Washington tonight.

The secretary of state will meet with South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin at 1:30 p.m. They will answer press questions at 2:45 p.m. 

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra will travel to Charlotte for an event with North Carolina Democratic Reps. Alma Adams and Jeff Jackson to highlight the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act on health care and drug costs, including insulin. They will hold a press conference at a Black-owned drug store, Doc’s Pharmacy. 

Economic indicator: The Bureau of Labor Statistics at 8:30 a.m. will report on employment in January (data that analysts are eager to review).

First lady Jill Biden will fly to San Diego this afternoon to visit the Family Health Centers clinic to highlight federal support for access to cancer screenings and early cancer detection efforts for underserved communities. In the evening, she will speak to the crew and families of the USS Gabrielle Giffords combat ship in San Diego as part of the White House Joining Forces program.  

ELSEWHERE

➤ TECH

A year of rising interest rates and falling stock prices has shaken the tech industry, and tens of thousands of layoffs from Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and dozens of other companies have made it clear: Silicon Valley’s golden age is over. Speeches about austerity have replaced the free-flowing stock grants and workplace perks. On Wednesday, Facebook parent company Meta called 2023 the “year of efficiency” and said it would remove layers of middle management in an effort to make decisions faster and be more productive.

“We closed last year with some difficult layoffs and restructuring some teams. And when we did this, I said clearly that this was the beginning of our focus on efficiency and not the end,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said. His comments came as the company posted its third straight quarterly revenue decline (The Washington Post).

Nationwide, layoffs hit a more than two-year high in January as tech firms cut jobs at the second-highest pace on record to brace for a possible recession. The layoffs impacted 102,943 workers, a more than twofold jump from December and an over five-times surge from a year earlier (Reuters).

▪ MarketWatch: PayPal, Salesforce cut hundreds more employees as tech layoffs continue.

▪ Fortune: Meta may have spent more than $88,000 per person when it laid off 11,000 in 2022.

▪ Vox: Where will all the laid-off tech workers go?

➤ PANDEMIC & HEALTH

The White House on Thursday announced new investments aimed at families with children who have cancer (The Hill), outlining a series of efforts aimed at reducing deaths and augmenting support for patients. The National Cancer Institute will launch a public-private partnership for data integration for research, education, care and clinical trials, called CC-DIRECT, to help families find care for a child diagnosed with cancer and information about research initiatives such as clinical trials and optimal treatments.

🐟 When humans sheltered in place for weeks early in the coronavirus pandemic, they allowed what was already a fairly sedentary lifestyle for many people to descend into endless hours spent in front of screens and awaiting food deliveries. Yet in the realm of couch potatoes, The Washington Post reports, we’re amateurs.

A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences describes a species of fish washed by floods into dark Mexican caves has been essentially sheltering in place for the last 160,000 years, undergoing genetic changes that reset its metabolism. Over thousands of generations, the Mexican cavefish has adapted to life huddled away in the fish equivalent of a dingy den with little light or food — and it might prove a blueprint for how we humans could evolve too.

▪ The Hill: White House outlines new investments to help families with kids fighting cancer.

▪ The New York Times: GoodRx leaked user health data to Facebook and Google, the Federal Trade Commission says.

▪ The Washington Post: Long-term exposure to pollution linked to depression, study finds.

A group of congressional lawmakers on Thursday called on Biden to reinstate the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy to a Cabinet-level position in order to better address the overdose epidemic in the U.S. In their letter, the Congress members commended Biden for prioritizing the opioid epidemic in his State of the Union address last year (The Hill).

“Overdose deaths increased almost 60 percent between 2019 and 2021, and from September 2021 through August 2022 (the most recent twelve-month period available) more than 107,000 Americans died from overdoses, equal to 293 deaths every day,” the lawmakers said. “Tragically, overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45.”

Information about the availability of COVID-19 vaccine and booster shots can be found at Vaccines.gov.

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,109,687. Current U.S. COVID-19 deaths are 3,452 for the week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (The CDC shifted its tally of available data from daily to weekly, now reported on Fridays.)

THE CLOSER

And finally … 👏👏👏 Bravo to this week’s Morning Report Quiz winners! As February begins, our puzzle homed in on fresh headlines about endings.

🥇Many talented trivia masters went 4/4: Pam Manges, Nicholas Ginimatas, Jerry Leonard, Brent Tracy, David Letostak, Lisa Addona, Frank Ballmann, Michael Cutler, Barbara Maher, Tim Mazanec, Bill Grieshober, Linda Macklin, Stephen Dimino, Dan Mattoon, Jeremy Serwer, John van Santen, “Kiddoc,” Glen Smith, Frank Yoakum, Stan Wasser, Greg Best, Candi Cee, Richard Baznik, Ted Kontek, Patrick Kavanagh, Paul Muraca, Jeff Gelski, Terry Pflaumer, John Wheby, Catherine Hicks, Tim Burrack, Cliff Grulke, Amanda Fisher, Harry Strulovici, William Say, Richard Fanning, Linda Muse, Jim Dykstra, Lori Benso and Frank Hatfield.

🥇More winners this week! Tim Abeska, Mark Roeddiger, Manley Glaubitz, Jack Barshay, Kathryn James, Joan Domingues, Peter Sprofera, Tom Chabot, Bob McLellan, Joe Atchue, Robert Bradley, Jane Heaton, Paul Harris, Ki Harvey, Lou Tisler, Luther Berg, Steve James, Rick Pilonhome, Michael Palermo, Jerry LaCamera, JA Ramos and Stuart Babendir. 

They knew that the Biden administration announced the U.S. pandemic public health emergency will conclude in May.  

Famed quarterback Tom Brady, after retiring and un-retiring last year, said in a Twitter video released on Wednesday, “I’m retiring for good.” He’s 45. (The New York Times unretired its copy from last year and published it on Thursday.) 

The last Boeing 747, aviation’s 50-year-old workhorse, rolled out of the company’s Washington state manufacturing plant as No. 1,574 on Tuesday (The New York Times). 

TV celebrity Dr. Phil this week announced a surprise spring finale for his daytime show after a 21-year run (he appears to have in mind a prime-time new beginning with an unidentified network).

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