Tag: Balloon

Ahead Of Event, ‘G20 Balloon’ Flies In Srinagar

[ad_1]
SRINAGAR: As Srinagar prepares to host an international event at the end of this month, a G20 air balloon has been seen flying over the city, catching the attention of passersby.
According to reports, the Tourism Department has launched the air balloon ahead of the event, which features the words “G20-2023 India.”
Secretary of Tourism, Syed Abid Rasheed Shah, stated that the balloon has been put up by the department as part of the branding exercise for the event.
In addition, several other measures and initiatives have been implemented as a prelude to the event.
Earlier, the Tourism Department organized a “G20 Model Summit” with students from different schools, colleges, and universities participating.
It is important to note that the Jammu and Kashmir government is working tirelessly to ensure that the G20 tourism group meeting in Srinagar is a great success and promotes Kashmir as a global tourism destination. (KNO)

[ad_2]
#Ahead #Event #G20 #Balloon #Flies #Srinagar

( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

May 5, 2023
Heart Home Multiuses Stainless Steel Kitchen Utensil Balloon Shape Wire Whisk, Egg Beater, Kitchen Tool, 20cm (Silver)

Price: [price_with_discount]
(as of [price_update_date] – Details)

[ad_1]
Heart Home balloon Shape whisk makes cooking much easier and more enjoyable. whisk Size is Perfect for pancake batter, beating eggs, whisking eggs, icing sugar mixture and melted chocolate fresh cream and for blending a small batch of vinaigrette and many more. The whisk has multiple wires for adding volume and quickly smoothing lumps from mixtures. Our kitchen whisk is made of high quality durable Stainless Steel and use highly-polished processing method to bring the dual rust resistance protection of Stainless Steel. Ergonomically designed for excellent balance and control-for a difference you can really feel in the hand. There is a hole at the end of the handle, so the whisk can be easily hanged on any hook with other kitchen tools. Please hang vertically after cleaning to avoid get water in the handle and rust. Our Stainless Steel whisk set is rust resistant, non stick and easy to clean. The Stainless Steel ends allow for easy hanging on any hook in your kitchen, allowing for easy storage. A must-have for home cooks and restaurant chefs.
Material : Stainless Steel
Product Dimensions: 20cm x 6cm
Multifunctional: Our balloon Shape whisk makes cooking much easier and more enjoyable. whisk Size is Perfect for pancake batter, beating eggs, whisking eggs, icing sugar mixture and melted chocolate fresh cream and for blending a small batch of vinaigrette and many more. The whisk has multiple wires for adding volume and quickly smoothing lumps from mixtures.
Strong & durable: Our kitchen whisk is made of high quality durable Stainless Steel and use highly-polished processing method to bring the dual rust resistance protection of Stainless Steel. Ergonomically designed for excellent balance and control-for a difference you can really feel in the hand.

[ad_2]
#Heart #Home #Multiuses #Stainless #Steel #Kitchen #Utensil #Balloon #Shape #Wire #Whisk #Egg #Beater #Kitchen #Tool #20cm #Silver

April 29, 2023
The military’s blame game over the Chinese spy balloon spills into the open

[ad_1]
The debate hinges on when Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sought U.S. Northern Command head Gen. Glen VanHerck’s military advice on the best way to handle the balloon. VanHerck told lawmakers during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday that he did not speak to Austin about the situation until Feb. 1 — five days after the intelligence community made top officials aware of its presence.
But Austin’s spokesperson says VanHerck gave his “iterative recommendations” throughout the crisis, and the Pentagon chief was in “frequent communication” with top generals about military options.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and other Republican lawmakers have repeatedly demanded answers from the administration about what top decision-makers knew about the balloon incursion and when they knew it. On Monday, Wicker slammed “inconsistencies” between Austin’s timeline of events and VanHerck’s.
“Recent testimony from General VanHerck has revealed glaring inconsistencies between NORTHCOM’s understanding of the timeline as compared to what Secretary Austin and Undersecretary Kahl have told the public,” Wicker said in a statement, referring to Pentagon policy chief Colin Kahl. “If the United States is going to learn from this national security event, then we have to have clear answers from the Biden administration.”
Republican senators also used Thursday’s hearing to blame the Biden administration for mishandling the crisis, with Wicker accusing Austin and President Joe Biden of delaying action.
“So on the fifth day, it is apparent that you took the right steps,” Wicker told VanHerck at the hearing. “But it’s also clear that you received no direction from the president of the United States or the secretary of Defense until the fifth day of this crisis, by which point the balloon had traversed Alaska and Canada and then reentered the United States.”
Republican lawmakers, and even some Democratic ones, have said the decision to allow the balloon to continue its trek showed weakness to China.
“I think it was a bad mistake to let a Chinese spy balloon float all across America,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). “I think that is a dangerous precedent set not just with China, but with all of our adversaries.”

Cotton and Wicker will have a chance on Tuesday to press Austin himself on the timeline when he joins Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley for a Senate Armed Services hearing on the Pentagon’s budget request.
New details have emerged about the timeline.
While VanHerck told lawmakers he was first made aware of the balloon on Jan. 27, a DoD official said that intelligence officials did not immediately convey a sense of alarm, as they had briefed Northern Command on the Chinese surveillance balloon program a few months earlier. However, it was the first time they had detected such a craft in this location. It was heading toward Alaska; previous balloons had taken equatorial routes. The official was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations.
VanHerck told lawmakers on Thursday that he spoke with Milley on the evening of Jan. 27 about his plan to send armed fighter jets to intercept the object the next day. But given that it did not display “hostile intent,” he did not have the legal authority to shoot it down, he explained to senators; that rested with Biden or Austin.
Northern Command, working with the intelligence community, put together a prediction of the balloon’s route, but at the time they did not believe it would travel across the entirety of the continental United States, the DoD official said.
On Jan. 28, VanHerck officially notified Milley and Austin via classified email that the balloon had entered U.S. airspace, he told lawmakers. He also tasked his team with developing options to take out the balloon if the president or defense secretary chose to do so, he said.
Overnight into Jan. 29, the balloon left U.S. airspace and entered Canada. Northern Command continued monitoring the inflatable, in coordination with the Canadian government, and VanHerck provided updates via email to Austin and Milley every 12 hours, he said.
However, Austin did not ask the general for his recommendation until 7 a.m. on Feb. 1, the first time the two had spoken by phone directly since the incursion, the DoD official said. At that point, the general advised the secretary not to shoot it down because it was flying over land and there was a significant risk of damage to civilians in crashing the inflatable. Instead, VanHerck recommended waiting until the balloon was over water to take it out.
“He was prepared at every moment to provide a recommendation, and always provided as asked, the options and recommendations when asked,” the DoD official said. “They could have asked for it every hour.”
Austin’s office had a different narrative. A spokesperson said the secretary expected VanHerck and other military leaders to continuously provide recommendations, and the general did so throughout the crisis.
“As was the case here, the secretary expects and relies on his commanders to provide recommendations on a range of issues continuously,” said Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh. “Gen. VanHerck provided his iterative recommendations and updates to the chairman and secretary throughout.”
Like VanHerck, Austin was notified about the presence of the balloon heading toward U.S. airspace by his senior military assistant on Jan. 27. Austin, who was set to leave for South Korea and the Philippines on a previously scheduled trip on Jan. 29, began receiving daily updates from Northern Command, which immediately began to develop options to “better characterize the incursion” in conjunction with the Canadian military, she said.
Singh added that the general did not tell Austin and Milley that he was looking at options to take down the balloon — should the president direct that course of action, or if the balloon became a threat to air traffic — until Jan. 29.
On Jan. 31, the balloon re-entered U.S. airspace over northern Idaho. Biden, through his national security adviser, then directed the military to develop options to shoot down the balloon. At that point, Austin, through Milley, asked for those options from the commanders, Singh said.
The next day, from the Philippines, Austin convened a meeting with Milley, VanHerck, Kahl and other senior military commanders to review the options to take down the balloon safely “while closely monitoring its path and intelligence collection activities,” Singh said.
After this point, Feb. 1, the timelines are consistent. That day, VanHerck scrambled F-22 fighter jets from Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, to be in place should the president decide to order a shootdown of the balloon, which at that point was flying over Montana.
VanHerck and Milley recommended that if Biden were to direct a shootdown, it should happen over water to minimize the risk to civilians and infrastructure from falling debris. At that point, Biden gave the military the order to take out the balloon as soon as that risk could be mitigated.
Austin returned from his trip Feb. 2 and convened a meeting with senior military officials again on Feb. 3 as they developed a plan to shoot down the inflatable. Ultimately, the military took out the balloon with a Sidewinder missile shot from an F-22 off the East Coast.
[ad_2]
#militarys #blame #game #Chinese #spy #balloon #spills #open
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 28, 2023
Austin, Biden accused of delaying action on the Chinese spy balloon

[ad_1]

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) ripped Biden and Austin, accusing them of delaying action.
“So on the fifth day, it is apparent that you took the right steps,” Wicker told VanHerck. “But it’s also clear that you received no direction from the president of the United States or the secretary of Defense until the fifth day of this crisis, by which point the balloon had traversed Alaska and Canada and then reentered the United States.”
But Defense Department spokesperson Sabrina Singh disputed the assertion, noting that Austin had been communicating with Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley and VanHerck to develop options earlier than the discussion on Feb. 1. The Feb. 1 call was scheduled by the secretary’s team because Austin wanted to review those options, Singh said.
The comments on Thursday shed new light on the Biden administration’s handling of the incursion, from the balloon’s detection near a remote island chain off Alaska until it was shot down by an Air Force F-22 on Feb. 4. They reveal that the military was prepared to shoot down the balloon as soon as it was detected on radar as it flew over a remote island chain off Alaska, but did not have the legal authority to do so until days later.
A senior Defense Department official noted that VanHerck did not initially recommend shooting down the balloon, and that it was the general’s preference to observe it instead. Austin pushed the commander to consider “kinetic options,” said the person, who was granted anonymity in order to describe internal deliberations.
Critics have accused the administration of mishandling the incident, specifically faulting the decision to not eliminate the balloon as soon as it was spotted and instead wait until it was over water a week later. Lawmakers, especially Wicker, have also pressed the Pentagon to answer specific follow-up questions about the decision process and about previous balloon incursions over the past few years that have only recently come to light.
“So all that was needed on January 28 was to pull the proverbial trigger?” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) asked during the hearing.
“Yes,” VanHerck responded. “Had they had hostile intent or hostile act, I had the authority and I would have made that decision. So you’re exactly correct. [At] that point, it was not my decision to make to pull the trigger.” In the case of a direct threat to the homeland, VanHerck has the legal authority to take the shot, he explained. Without that determination, that authority resides with the Pentagon chief or the president.

“If the administration’s policymakers thought they had legal justification to shoot it down off the coast of Carolina, surely they have legal justification to shoot off the coast of Alaska,” Cotton followed up. VanHerck responded: “My assessment is the legal basis would have been the same for either place.”
VanHerck also used his appearance on Capitol Hill to fill in other details from the initial timeline. A senior Defense Department official told reporters in early February that the president asked for military options when he was notified on Jan. 31. VanHerck on Thursday said he did not present options to Austin until 7 a.m. on Feb. 1.
That same day, Feb. 1, Biden told the military to take out the balloon, which was flying over Montana after leaving Canadian airspace. The military scrambled F-22 fighter jets at the time in case the decision was made to shoot it down. But top generals ultimately advised the president to wait until the craft was over water because of the risk to people on the ground from falling debris.
VanHerck said that if he had been asked to provide options to Austin or the president earlier, while the balloon was still over Alaska, he would have been prepared to do so, he said.
VanHerck said the intelligence community first made him aware of the balloon on Friday, Jan. 27. He spoke with Milley that evening about his plan to send aircraft to intercept and assess the craft the next day.
The military’s North American Aerospace Defense Command detected the balloon on radar the next day, Jan. 28, VanHerck said. That same day, the general sent two F-35 and two F-16 fighter jets — all of them armed — to intercept the balloon, he said in response to questioning by Cotton.
Also on the 28th, VanHerck officially notified his chain of command, sending classified emails to Milley and Austin’s military assistant, he said. He did not have any direct communications with Austin at the time, and does not know when Biden was notified.
At the time, the military assessed that the balloon did not present a threat, VanHerck said, explaining that “hostile intent would be maneuvering to an offensive advantage on platform and airplane or shooting missiles or weapons would be a hostile act.”
The next day, on Jan. 29, VanHerck advised Austin and Milley “that he was looking at options to engage the balloon should that be directed or if the balloon became a threat to safety of flight,” according to Singh. After the balloon re-entered U.S. airspace on Jan. 31, the president, through national security adviser Jake Sullivan, directed the military to “refine and present options to shoot down the balloon,” she said.
The hearing comes almost two months after the Chinese surveillance balloon first emerged over the U.S. Since then, lawmakers on Capitol Hill have pressed Biden officials for more details on what led the administration to shoot down the inflatable, what it’s learned from its debris and what more it plans to do to track aerial objects floating in American airspace.
Both Republicans and Democrats have said they are still waiting for answers to their questions despite several rounds of briefings — some of them classified — with the administration.
The questions being raised on Capitol Hill are not solely focused on the surveillance balloon — they are also about the existence of hundreds of unidentified aerial phenomena, which are flying objects that have not been classified as balloons or other surveillance tools.
An office inside the Pentagon known as the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office is conducting a review of those objects, some of which may be owned by foreign governments. Lawmakers want to know whether the U.S. has the capability to not only track those objects but to analyze them in near real-time.
[ad_2]
#Austin #Biden #accused #delaying #action #Chinese #spy #balloon
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 24, 2023
Marco Rubio and Roger Wicker say they still don’t have answers from the Pentagon on the sequence of events that alerted Joe Biden to last month’s Chinese spy balloon.

[ad_1]

Marco Rubio and Roger Wicker were not satisfied with earlier briefings.

[ad_2]
#Marco #Rubio #Roger #Wicker #dont #answers #Pentagon #sequence #events #alerted #Joe #Biden #months #Chinese #spy #balloon
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 8, 2023
Pentagon releases selfie taken by US pilot of Chinese spy balloon

[ad_1]
Wshington: The US Department of Defense (DOD) has released a selfie image taken by an American pilot which shows the suspected Chinese spy balloon that was shot down earlier this month.
The selfie, taken by the pilot of a U-2 spy plane, shows the shadow of the aircraft on the balloon and a clear image of the latter’s payload as it crossed across the continental US, CNN reported.
The suspected spy balloon, which was first spotted by the US on January 28, was shot down on February 4 by an American F-22 fighter jet.
The officials waited until the “strange object” was safely over water before shooting it down.
The balloon was retrieved off the coast of Myrtle Beach in South Carolina on February 5.
A senior State Department official said earlier this month that fly-bys “revealed that the high-altitude balloon was capable of conducting signals intelligence collection operations”.
The image, which was released on Wednesday was taken the day before the balloon the shot down, has reportedly “gained legendary status” inside the Pentagon, reports the BBC.
The balloon was said to be hovering at 60,000 fee in the air. U-2 spy planes routinely fly at altitudes over 70,000 feet, according to the Air Force.

The single-seater reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft, nicknamed the Dragon Lady, were previously flown by the CIA.
Pilots are required to wear full pressure suits similar to those worn by astronauts.
Recovery efforts for the balloon’s scattered remnants in the Atlantic Ocean ended on February 17.
Pieces of the debris were transferred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory in Virginia to be studied further, reports CNN.
Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said in a briefing on Wednesday that the payload of the balloon had been recovered.
[ad_2]
#Pentagon #releases #selfie #pilot #Chinese #spy #balloon
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 23, 2023
So that crazy selfie with the spy balloon? It’s real.

[ad_1]

CNN first reported that the photo had been taken and had quickly gained “legendary status” in military circles.
The high-altitude surveillance aircraft had been sent up as the balloon traversed the U.S., and the Pentagon later cited imagery taken by the pilots to say the airship was “capable of conducting signals intelligence collection operations.”
An Air Force fighter jet shot the balloon down on Feb. 4 and “the majority of the balloon, including the payload, was recovered,” said Singh.
The Pentagon wrapped up search operations in the area off South Carolina last week and referred reporters to the FBI for details on what was recovered.
After the initial Chinese balloon incident, three other unidentified objects flying over North America were destroyed by U.S. forces just within a little over a week. Those objects were not believed to be from China or to pose a national security threat. The U.S. military did disclose, however, that they’ve observed Chinese surveillance balloons flying over the Middle East and Afghanistan in recent years.
President Joe Biden was criticized by Republicans for how the administration handled the Chinese balloon incident, including waiting until it was over water before destroying it. However, lawmakers passed resolutions condemning China for the balloon.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Wang Yi, director of China’s Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference last week about the situation and the consequences of Chinese surveillance of the U.S. Blinken stated on NBC that Wang offered no apology.
Wang publicly condemned the U.S. at the conference for the country’s response to what China claims was a weather monitoring device and accused the U.S. of warmongering.

Connor O’Brien contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
#crazy #selfie #spy #balloon #real
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 23, 2023
Telangana: ISRO research balloon crashes into paddy fields in Nagarkurnool

[ad_1]
Hyderabad: Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) research ballon that was sent to space crashed into paddy fields in Nagarkurnool on Sunday.
Panic prevailed among residents in the area after the 800-kg plastic balloon machine hit the village ground in the Tarnikal village in Kalwakurthy Mandal.
The research apparatus was reportedly sent to space on Friday by ISRO and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) to collect weather data.
Following the crash, the villagers alerted the local police, who in turn spoke to ISRO officials.
Tata Institute Research officials took charge after reaching the spot on Sunday evening and began a probe into the accident.
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Institute research related “balloon” equipment falls from sky into the agricultural fields in Kalwakurthy mandal in Nagarkurnool district yesterday as told by local police #Nagarkurnool pic.twitter.com/jP337kejhl
— Sudhakar Udumula (@sudhakarudumula) February 20, 2023
Subscribe us on

[ad_2]
#Telangana #ISRO #research #balloon #crashes #paddy #fields #Nagarkurnool
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 21, 2023
John Kirby: Don’t be surprised by China’s balloon ‘bluster’

[ad_1]
Wang has heavily criticized the Biden administration shooting down the Chinese spy balloon as a “weak” and “near-hysterical” response that amounted to an “excessive use of force.”
The discussion between the two leaders was “a forthright, very candid exchange” which “laid bare our deep concerns about what they did,” Kirby told Fox host Shannon Bream.
He maintained that the manner in which the Chinese balloon was shot down allowed the U.S. to collect its debris.
“Now we have that debris, and we’re going to exploit that debris. We’re going to learn more about this system,” Kirby said.
The U.S. downed the surveillance balloon off the coast of the Carolinas earlier this month, after it crossed the continent over the course of a week.
“We acted accordingly, and believe me, the message was clearly sent to China this is unacceptable,” Kirby said Sunday.
Since then, the administration has directed three additional objects to be shot down, but those are now believed to have been benign, Kirby said earlier this week. “Nothing right now suggests that they were related to China’s spy balloon program or that they were surveillance vehicles from any other country,” President Joe Biden added on Thursday.
[ad_2]
#John #Kirby #Dont #surprised #Chinas #balloon #bluster
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 19, 2023
Blinken meets Wang Yi in Munich, says Chinese balloon programme ‘exposed’ to world

[ad_1]
Washington: Amidst strained ties over an alleged Chinese spy balloon, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and raised “the unacceptable” violation of American sovereignty and warned that Beijing’s material support to Moscow over Ukrainian war would attract sanctions.
The meeting on Saturday between the two top American and Chinese diplomats took place on the margins of the Munich Security Conference.
“The Secretary directly spoke to the unacceptable violation of US sovereignty and international law by the PRC high-altitude surveillance balloon in US territorial airspace, underscoring that this irresponsible act must never occur again,” State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said.
“During the meeting, Blinken made clear the United States will not stand for any violation of our sovereignty, and that the Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon programme which has intruded into the airspace of more than 40 countries across five continents has been exposed to the world,” he said.
Blinken also raised the Russia-Ukraine war during the meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
“On Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine, the Secretary warned about the implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia or assistance with systemic sanctions evasion,” Price said.
Blinken condemned the ICBM test by North Korea as the latest destabilizing act carried out by Pyongyang, and emphasized the need for responsible powers to respond to such significant international challenges.
During the meeting, Blinken reaffirmed there had been no change to the longstanding ‘One China’ policy of the US, and he underscored the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, the spokesperson said.

“The Secretary reiterated President Biden’s statements that the United States will compete and will unapologetically stand up for our values and interests, but that we do not want conflict with the PRC (People’s Republic of China) and are not looking for a new Cold War,” Price said.
Blinken underscored the importance of maintaining diplomatic dialogue and open lines of communication at all times, he said.
[ad_2]
#Blinken #meets #Wang #Munich #Chinese #balloon #programme #exposed #world
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 19, 2023