evidence: News that the Pentagon is monitoring a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon in the skies over the continental United States raises a series of questions – not least among them, what exactly it might be doing. US officials have said the flight path of the balloon, first spotted over Montana on Thursday, could potentially take it over a "number of sensitive sites" and say they are taking steps to "protect against foreign intelligence collection." [...] According to Layton, the suspected Chinese balloon is likely collecting information on US communication systems and radars.