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Japan Says Past Aerial Objects Likely Chinese Spy Balloons

FILED - 04 February 2023, US, Myrtle Beach: Chinese spy balloon is pictured shortly before it was shot down by an F22 military fighter jet over Surfside Beach in South Carolina. Photo: Joe Granita/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
FILED - 04 February 2023, US, Myrtle Beach: Chinese spy balloon is pictured shortly before it was shot down by an F22 military fighter jet over Surfside Beach in South Carolina. Photo: Joe Granita/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Japan Says Past Aerial Objects Likely Chinese Spy Balloons

FILED - 04 February 2023, US, Myrtle Beach: Chinese spy balloon is pictured shortly before it was shot down by an F22 military fighter jet over Surfside Beach in South Carolina. Photo: Joe Granita/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
FILED - 04 February 2023, US, Myrtle Beach: Chinese spy balloon is pictured shortly before it was shot down by an F22 military fighter jet over Surfside Beach in South Carolina. Photo: Joe Granita/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

A fresh analysis of unidentified aerial objects that flew over Japan's airspace in recent years "strongly" suggests they were Chinese spy balloons, according to Tokyo's defense ministry.

"After further analysis of specific balloon-shaped flying objects previously identified in Japanese airspace, including those in November 2019, June 2020 and September 2021, we have concluded that the balloons are strongly presumed to be unmanned reconnaissance balloons flown by China," the defense ministry said in a statement late Tuesday.

It said it had "strongly demanded China's government confirm the facts" of the incident and "that such a situation not occur again in the future".

"Violations of airspace by foreign unmanned reconnaissance balloons and other means are totally unacceptable," it added.

Japanese media said Wednesday that government officials are now weighing relaxing rules on shooting down aerial objects that violate its airspace, AFP reported.

At the moment, weapons can only be used in case of a clear and present danger, Kyodo news agency reported.

"This case, I think, raises worries for us that may be a huge hole in Japan's defense," ruling party security policy chief and former defense minister Itsunori Onodera told a meeting Wednesday.

Japan said last week it was re-analyzing a series of incidents involving unidentified aerial objects in light of a Chinese spy balloon shot down by the United States after crossing US territory.

In the wake of the incident, the US military adjusted radar settings to detect smaller objects and discovered three more unidentified craft that President Joe Biden ordered shot down -- one over Alaska, another over Canada and the third over Lake Huron off Michigan.

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World

Macron Says Wants ‘European Approach’ in Dialogue with Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia February 9, 2026. (Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool via Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia February 9, 2026. (Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool via Reuters)
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Macron Says Wants ‘European Approach’ in Dialogue with Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia February 9, 2026. (Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool via Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia February 9, 2026. (Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool via Reuters)

French President Emmanuel Macron has said he wants to include European partners in a resumption of dialogue with Russian leader Vladimir Putin nearly four years after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

He spoke after dispatching a top adviser to Moscow last week, in the first such meeting since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

"What did I gain? Confirmation that Russia does not want peace right now," he said in an interview with several European newspapers including Germany's Suddeutsche Zeitung.

"But above all, we have rebuilt those channels of discussion at a technical level," he said in the interview released on Tuesday.

"My wish is to share this with my European partners and to have a well-organized European approach," he added.

Dialogue with Putin should take place without "too many interlocutors, with a given mandate", he said.

Macron said last year he believed Europe should reach back out to Putin, rather than leaving the United States alone to take the lead in negotiations to end Russia's war against Ukraine.

"Whether we like Russia or not, Russia will still be there tomorrow," Suddeutsche Zeitung quoted the French president as saying.

"It is therefore important that we structure the resumption of a European discussion with the Russians, without naivety, without putting pressure on the Ukrainians -- but also so as not to depend on third parties in this discussion."

After Macron sent his adviser Emmanuel Bonne to the Kremlin last week, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday said Putin was ready to receive the French leader's call.

"If you want to call and discuss something seriously, then call," he said in an interview to state-run broadcaster RT.

The two presidents last spoke in July, in their first known phone talks in over two-and-a-half years.

The French leader tried in a series of phone calls in 2022 to warn Putin against invading Ukraine and travelled to Moscow early that year.

He kept up phone contact with Putin after the invasion but talks had ceased after a September 2022 phone call.

World

Seven Killed in Gold Mine Accident in Eastern China, State Media CCTV Reports

Gold mine in China (archive-Reuters)
Gold mine in China (archive-Reuters)
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Seven Killed in Gold Mine Accident in Eastern China, State Media CCTV Reports

Gold mine in China (archive-Reuters)
Gold mine in China (archive-Reuters)

Seven people were killed in a gold mine accident in China's eastern Shandong province, and authorities were investigating, state-run CCTV reported, sending shares of the mine owner, Zhaojin Mining Industry, down 6% on Tuesday, Reuters said.

The accident occurred on Saturday when a cage fell ‌down a mine ‌shaft, CCTV reported ‌late ⁠on Monday ‌night.

The emergency management and public security departments were investigating the cause of the accident, and whether there had been an attempt to cover it up, the ⁠report added.

The mine is owned by ‌leading gold producer Zhaojin ‍Mining Industry, according ‍to the Qichacha company registry. Shares ‍of the company were down 6.01%, as of 0525 GMT. A person who answered Zhaojin's main phone line told Reuters that the matter was under investigation and ⁠declined to answer further questions.

China's emergency management ministry on Monday held a meeting on preventing accidents during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday. It announced inspections of mines, chemical companies, and other hazardous operations. Also on Saturday, an explosion at a biotech company ‌in northern China killed eight people.

World

Still a Long Way to Go in Talks on Ukraine, Russia's Lavrov Says

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting with Tanzanian Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation Mahmoud Thabit Kombo (not pictured), in Moscow, Russia, 09 February 2026. EPA/RAMIL SITDIKOV / POOL
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting with Tanzanian Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation Mahmoud Thabit Kombo (not pictured), in Moscow, Russia, 09 February 2026. EPA/RAMIL SITDIKOV / POOL
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Still a Long Way to Go in Talks on Ukraine, Russia's Lavrov Says

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting with Tanzanian Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation Mahmoud Thabit Kombo (not pictured), in Moscow, Russia, 09 February 2026. EPA/RAMIL SITDIKOV / POOL
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting with Tanzanian Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation Mahmoud Thabit Kombo (not pictured), in Moscow, Russia, 09 February 2026. EPA/RAMIL SITDIKOV / POOL

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that there was no reason to be enthusiastic about US President Donald Trump's pressure on Europe and Ukraine as there was still a long way to go in talks on peace in Ukraine, RIA reported on Tuesday.

Here are ‌some details:

The ‌United States has ‌brokered ⁠talks between Russia and Ukraine ‌on various different drafts of a plan for ending the war in Ukraine, but no deal has yet been reached despite Trump's repeated promises to clinch one.

* "There is still a long way to go," Lavrov ⁠was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.

* Lavrov said that ‌Trump had put Ukraine ‍and Europe in their places ‍but that such a move was ‍no reason to embrace an "enthusiastic perception" of the situation.

* Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said that any deal would have to exclude NATO membership for Ukraine and rule out the deployment of foreign troops in Ukraine, Izvestia ⁠reported.

* At stake is how to end the deadliest war in Europe since World War Two, the future of Ukraine, the extent to which European powers are sidelined and whether or not a peace deal brokered by the United States will endure.

* Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine, triggering the biggest confrontation between ‌Moscow and the West since the depths of the Cold War.