Senators to receive briefing on China after fourth object shot down

 Senators are scheduled to receive a classified briefing on China on Wednesday, days after the U.S. shot down an “unidentified” object over Lake Huron — bringing the number of downed objects to four in about a week.

It will mark the second briefing in one week, after a spy balloon linked to Beijing was downed off the South Carolina coast last weekend. 

Also this week, Senate committees are set to hold a number of hearings on topics ranging from protecting children online to cryptocurrency and the Federal Aviation Administration. The chamber will also vote on a number of judicial nominations.

The House is out of session this week.

Senate briefing on China

All senators will receive a classified briefing on China from the Pentagon on Wednesday. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) first announced the briefing last weekend, shortly after a Chinese spy balloon had been shot down off the Carolina coast.

Since then, however, three more unidentified objects have been downed by the U.S. military — one over Alaska on Friday, another over Canada on Saturday at the direction of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and, on Sunday, a fourth over Lake Huron.

Schumer on Sunday, after being briefed by national security adviser Jake Sullivan, told ABC’s “This Week” that “they believe” the second and third objects were balloons, though significantly smaller than the first Chinese spy balloon.

The fourth object was shot down at 2:42 p.m. Eastern on Sunday at the direction of President Biden and based on the recommendation of military officials, according to the Pentagon. The object was flying roughly 20,000 feet above Lake Huron, the Pentagon said, which is far lower than the previous three objects.

“Its path and altitude raised concerns, including that it could be a hazard to civil aviation,” the Pentagon said. Officials are now working to recover the object to learn more, according to Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder.

Melissa Dalton, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and hemispheric affairs, on Sunday said the increase in aerial objects being spotted — and shot down — could be because of enhanced radar systems.

“In light of the People’s Republic of China balloon that we took down last Saturday, we have been more closely scrutinizing our airspace at these altitudes, including enhancing our radar, which may at least partly explain the increase in objects that we’ve detected over the past week,” she told reporters during a briefing.

“As we learn more about these objects, and certainly the PRC balloon, we’re going to enhance our understanding of the characteristics of them. That will perhaps enable us to look back at prior instances that were potentially overlooked,” she added.

Tuesday’s briefing comes after Biden administration officials briefed House and Senate lawmakers behind closed doors last week. Emerging from the meeting, Democrats largely supported the Biden administration’s response to the Chinese spy balloon, while Republicans argued that officials should have downed it immediately instead of allowing it to travel across the continental U.S. to the Atlantic Ocean.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), however, broke from his party and defended the administration’s reaction.

Senators started weighing in Sunday afternoon, after the fourth object was shot down.

“The lack of communication from the Biden administration regarding the closing of Montana airspace last night and the recent shoot-downs that took place over Alaska and Canada is unacceptable,” Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) wrote in a statement.

“President Biden owes Montanans and the country an immediate and full explanation,” he added.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) thanked the military for “for shooting down the object above Lake Huron” on Twitter.

Senate hearings

A number of Senate committees are scheduled to hold hearings this week.

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday will hold a hearing on online child safety and privacy, zeroing in on risks, threats and harms facing kids online.

The event, titled “Protecting Our Children Online,” will feature testimony from a social media reform advocate and an official from the American Psychological Association, among others.

Also on Tuesday, the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on cryptocurrency.

Titled “Crypto Crash: Why Financial System Safeguards are Needed for Digital Assets,” the policy director of the Duke Financial Economics Center, a visiting scholar from the Georgetown Institute of International Economic Law and a professor from the Vanderbilt University Law School are slated to testify.

On Wednesday, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on system failures with the Federal Aviation Administration’s NOTAM system. Billy Nolen, the acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, is slated to testify.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3855279-senators-to-receive-briefing-on-china-after-fourth-object-shot-down/

Truck driver detained after reports multiple pedestrians struck in Brooklyn ‘rampage’

 A man driving a U-Haul truck hit at least eight pedestrians in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Monday, authorities said, before police stopped the vehicle and took the suspect into custody.

New York Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Keechant Sewell told reporters that officers ended the driver’s “violent rampage” through the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn and stopped the truck near the entrance to the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel to Manhattan.

“A man driving a U-Haul went on a rampage in Bay Ridge. … Several people were hit and badly injured. We have no idea of motives at this time but this wasn’t an accident,” said New York City Council Member Justin Brannan.

The eight victims are at area hospitals, according to Sewell, who said two are in “critical condition” and two are in “serious condition.” One of those injured was a police officer.

CBS News reports that NYPD’s Bomb Squad swept the vehicle as a precaution and cleared the rear of the truck.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) was briefed on the incident Monday, according to an update from his press secretary. The spokesperson noted that “there are no additional credible threats at this time.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) also said she was briefed, and that her team is now working with the NYPD as the investigation continues.

The Associated Press noted that the incident comes as a jury begins considering whether Sayfullo Saipov, an Islamic extremist who killed eight people on a New York City bike path in 2017 by hitting them with a truck, should be sentenced to death.

“At this time, we have no indication that there was any terrorism involvement in this incident,” Sewell said, though she noted the investigation is ongoing as NYPD processes multiple scenes. Sewell added that authorities would be investigating any possible ties to Monday’s incident and the 2017 attack.

While Brannan said that while the truck driver “was clearly running people down intentionally,” the council member added that there is no intelligence to suggest that the incident was “any kind of coordinated terrorist attack.”

The NYPD said that the suspect is a single male, but did not release further details and withheld his name.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3855863-truck-driver-detained-after-reports-multiple-pedestrians-struck-in-brooklyn-rampage/

'Nearly 1 in 3 high school girls report they seriously considered suicide': CDC data

 Thirty percent of female high school students have seriously considered suicide in the past year, according to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) Data Summary and Trends Report published on Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). For male high school students, 14 percent of respondents said they had seriously considered suicide.

The survey results highlight the building crisis in youth mental health.

Overall, 29 percent of respondents said they felt they had poor mental health in the past month and 42 percent said they experienced “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” in the past year.

The CDC conducts the YRBS every two years, with this current report covering data from 2011 to 2021. The survey includes questions covering sexual behavior, substance use, experiencing violence, mental health and suicidality.

The percentage of teen girls who persistently felt sad or hopeless increased, up from 36 percent in 2011 to 57 percent in 2021. For teen boys, 21 percent in 2011 admitted to persistent sadness or hopelessness and this increased to 29 percent in 2021.

Overall, 22 percent of respondents said they had seriously considered attempting suicide. A large proportion of youth who identify as LGBTQ+, nearly half at 45 percent, said they had considered suicide and 37 percent said they had made a suicide plan.

The report highlights that alcohol and marijuana use is trending downward. Sexual activity is also trending downward for youth in terms of the percentage of individuals who have ever had sex, the number of partners and percent who say they are currently sexually active.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/mental-health/3856019-nearly-1-in-3-high-school-girls-report-they-seriously-considered-suicide-cdc-data/

US shot down objects because of possible surveillance capabilities

 The White House on Monday said that the uncertainty of the surveillance capabilities of the three objects in U.S. airspace over the weekend led to President Biden’s orders for the military to shoot them all down.

“We don’t think — we don’t know for sure whether they had a surveillance aspect to them, but we can’t rule it out. So, there was a little bit, there was enough uncertainty there that again, out of an abundance of caution, doing the prudent thing, the president directed that they get taken down,” national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.

He added that they were not manned, were being driven by the wind, and differentiated them from the Chinese spy balloon, saying in that situation, “we knew exactly what that thing was.”

“We knew what it was trying to do,” he added. “And we saw it.. as it slowed down, sped up, maneuvered a little bit, trying to get a look at what we believe to be sensitive military sites.

He said that officials have not definitively assessed what the three objects are and have not assessed whether there was a direct threat to people on the ground, but reiterated that the military “acted out of an abundance of caution.”

Kirby noted that the three objects have fallen into remote areas and that it will take time to collect debris from them. 

“We’re going to do everything we can to find them and that will tell us a lot,” Kirby said, adding that the U.S. still does not know who owns the three objects.

The three objects were shot down by the U.S. military roughly one week after the U.S. shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina. The first object was shot down on Friday off the northern coast of Alaska, the second was shot down on Saturday over frozen territory in northern Canada, and the third was shot down on Sunday over Lake Huron.

Kirby on Monday also said that the three objects were shot down because they posted a potential risk to civilian air traffic, reiterating what officials said over the weekend to explain the moves.

The object shot down on Sunday was about 20,000 feet high and the objects shot down were both about 40,000 feet high, Kirby outlined.

“The real risk to safety of flight was a problem,” he said.

https://thehill.com/homenews/3856055-us-shot-down-objects-because-of-possible-surveillance-capabilities/

U.S. companies face more pain as expected 'earnings recession' looms

 

U.S. companies' earnings woes are likely to extend beyond the weak fourth quarter, as a booming labor market weighing on margins looks set to hurt results in the first half of this year.

    Expectations for U.S. earnings to decline in the first and second quarter come amid weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter results for 2022, which Credit Suisse estimates will be the worst earnings season outside of a recession in 24 years.

With fourth-quarter 2022 earnings estimated to have fallen from a year ago, a subsequent decline in the first quarter of 2023 would put the S&P 500 into a so-called earnings recession, a back-to-back decline in earnings that hasn't occurred since COVID-19 blasted corporate results in 2020.  

Fourth-quarter results are in already from 344 of the S&P 500 companies, and the quarter's earnings are estimated at this point to have fallen 2.8% from the year-ago period, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Most strategists expect little improvement for the season, and analysts now forecast S&P 500 earnings falling 3.7% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2023 and 3.1% for the second quarter.

"What's clear is the speed with which the 2023 numbers are falling is just worse than (usual)," said Jonathan Golub, chief U.S. equity strategist & head of quantitative research at Credit Suisse Securities in New York.

The darkening earnings picture bolsters the case for investors who believe the stock market's early-year rally is unlikely to last, adding to worries over how high the Federal Reserve will need to take interest rates in its fight to keep inflation on an easing trajectory.

The S&P 500 notched its biggest percentage weekly decline since mid-December last week, though the index is up about 7% for the year to date.

"The reality for equities is that monetary policy remains in restrictive territory in the context of an earnings recession that has now begun in earnest," wrote analysts at Morgan Stanley, including Michael Wilson, the bank's U.S. equity strategist, in a Monday report.

Recent results and guidance from some of the most heavily weighted names in the tech-related space like Alphabet, Amazon.com and Apple have been among the most memorable disappointments this earnings season.

Golub and other strategists say a tight labor market that is pressuring margins for companies as a key reason for the decline in earnings, and expect these costs to remain stickier than other pressures.

The recent blowout U.S. jobs report for January, which showed job growth accelerating and the lowest unemployment rate in 53 and a half years, has bolstered that view, while also stirring worries that strong job growth could lead to more rate increases from the Federal Reserve.

The central bank last year embarked on its most aggressive policy tightening since the 1980s in response to soaring inflation.

"If you look at revenues, they're coming in fine," Golub said. "So you say, well, then what's the problem? Margins are collapsing from really high levels."

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/EBAY-INC-4869/news/U-S-companies-face-more-pain-as-expected-earnings-recession-looms-42975052/

DHS Hires Outside Legal Counsel Ahead Of Possible Mayorkas Impeachment

 by Samantha Flom via The Epoch Times,

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has hired outside legal counsel in anticipation of potential impeachment proceedings against DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

“The Department of Homeland Security has retained outside counsel to help ensure the Department’s vital mission is not interrupted by the unprecedented, unjustified, and partisan impeachment efforts by some Members of Congress, who have already taken steps to initiate proceedings,” a DHS spokesperson told The Epoch Times in a Feb. 10 statement.

“DHS will continue prioritizing its work to protect our country from terrorism, respond to natural disasters, and secure our borders while responding appropriately to the over 70 Congressional committees and subcommittees that have oversight of DHS.”

Articles of Impeachment

Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) filed three articles of impeachment against Mayorkas on Jan. 10, charging that the DHS secretary had committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” and violated his oath of office by failing to maintain operational control of the border as outlined by the Secure Fence Act of 2006; willfully providing “perjurious, false, and misleading testimony” to Congress; and “slandering” Border Patrol agents by supporting false claims that they had used whips on illegal immigrants.

Last week, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) introduced his own resolution to impeach Mayorkas, echoing Fallon’s assertion that the DHS chief had been derelict in his duties and adding that his actions had “subverted the will of Congress” and the Constitution.

“Every day Secretary Mayorkas remains in office America becomes less safe,” Biggs contended in a Feb. 1 statement.

“Secretary Mayorkas is the chief architect of the migration and drug invasion at our southern border,” he continued.

“His policies have incentivized more than 5 million illegal aliens to show up at our southern border—an all-time high figure. Instead of enforcing the laws on the books and deporting or detaining these illegal aliens, the vast majority of them are released into the interior and never heard from again.”

Further holding that Mayorkas has allowed deadly drugs like fentanyl to pour across the U.S.–Mexico border, Biggs added: “It’s clear Secretary Mayorkas has committed high crimes and misdemeanors. His conduct is willful and intentional. He is not enforcing the law and is violating his oath of office. For these reasons, Secretary Mayorkas should be impeached.”

Biggs was the first member of Congress to introduce articles of impeachment against Mayorkas in August 2021, though at that time, the Democrats controlled the House. Now that the Republicans hold a slim majority, however, the move may have enough support to proceed.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/dhs-hires-outside-legal-counsel-ahead-possible-mayorkas-impeachment

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