Selfie image shows US pilot flying over Chinese ‘spy balloon’

TheUS Department of Defense has released an image taken by an airman as he flew over the Chinese balloon shot down earlier this month.

The selfie was taken from the cockpit of a U-2 spy plane as military leaders tracked the high-altitude balloon’s progress over the continental US.

Beijing has maintained that the balloon was a weather ship blown off course.

But Washington says the balloon was part of a sprawling Chinese intelligence collection programme.

As the balloon flew over US territory, at least two planes gathered information on its features and trajectory.

A senior State Department official said earlier this month that fly-bys revealed it “was capable of conducting signals intelligence collection operations”.

Officials first became aware of the balloon when it crossed into Alaskan airspace on 28 January.

Fighter jets belonging to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) - a joint operation between the US and Canada - identified the foreign object, but the military did not shoot it down at the time.

Officials explained they could not shoot the balloon down over land because its size and likely debris field posed a threat to civilians on the ground.

One defence official told US lawmakers earlier this month the balloon was as tall as the Statue of Liberty and had “a jetliner-size payload”.

The image released on Wednesday was taken the day before the balloon was shot down off the coast of South Carolina on 4 February. The photo has reportedly “gained legendary status” inside the Pentagon.

The balloon was said to be hovering at 60,000 feet (18,200m) in the air.

U-2 planes routinely fly at altitudes

Japan’s mystery ball removed from the beach

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 last Friday.

Pieces of the debris, including its payload, have been recovered and are being studied, the Pentagon’s deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said.

Lebanon central bank governor faces corruption charges

Lebanon’s central bank governor

Riad Salameh has been charged with money laundering, embezzlement and illicit enrichment, the state news agency says.

Public prosecutor Judge Raja Hamoush has also filed charges against Mr Salameh’s brother Raja and an adviser, according to the National News Agency.

The brothers deny any wrongdoing.

The judge’s move follows an 18-month investigation into allegations that they embezzled $300m (£249m) from the Banque du Liban between 2002 and 2015.

Riad Salameh - who has led the bank for 30 years - has faced intense scrutiny over his role in Lebanon’s economic collapse since 2019.

The country is experiencing one of the most severe and prolonged depressions the world has seen, with its currency losing more than 90% of its value against the dollar and the annual inflation rate soaring to 170% last year.

That has left more than 80% of the population living in poverty and struggling to afford food and medicine.

Before the crisis, Mr Salameh was widely praised for having kept the Lebanese pound stable and the banking system afloat despite years of political turmoil.

The National News Agency reported on Thursday that Judge Hamoush had charged Riad Salameh, Raja Salameh and his assistant Marianne Howayek with embezzling public funds, forgery, illicit enrichment, money laundering, and violation of tax law.

It provided no further details, but said the judge had referred the case file to Beirut First Investigative Judge Charbel Bou Samra, “demanding that they be interrogated and that the necessary judicial warrants be issued against them”.

Riad Salameh told Reuters news agency in a text message that the charges were “not an indictment” and promised to co-operate with the judicial process.

“I am respectful of the laws and of the judicial system and will abide by the procedure, and as you know one is innocent till proven guilty by a court of law,” he wrote.

He has previously dismissed the accusations as part of an effort to make him a scapegoat for Lebanon’s economic collapse. Source: BBC

Ametal sphere that washed up on a beach in Japan, perplexing locals and setting off widespread speculation, has been removed, according to local media.

Pictures showed a heavy lifting machine picking up the huge sphere.

Local officials in Hamamatsu said that it will be stored “for a certain period of time” then “disposed of”.

But many have also questioned why Japanese officials have not come out and clearly said what it is.

Interest in the object - dubbed “Godzilla egg”, “mooring buoy” and “from outer space” - started earlier this week after a local alerted police upon noticing the unusual object on the shore.

Police, and even a bomb squad, were sent to check out the object.

Authorities cordoned off the area and conducted X-ray exams which did not reveal much more - other than confirming the object was safe.

Now it has been removed.

“I think everyone in Hamamatsu City was worried and curious about what it was about, but I’m relieved that the work is over,” a local official told Japanese media.

Many also questioned on social media why Japanese officials have not explained what it is. Others have voiced embarrassment at the whole episode.

“I can’t believe officials from a country surrounded by ocean don’t recognise a ball buoy,” read one tweet.

“OMG! It’s a steel mooring buoy people. I’m embarrassed to be Japanese,” said another.

Hamamatsu’s local civil engineering office said it “considers it to be a foreign-made buoy”.

Prof Mark Inall, an oceanographer at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, said he knew what it was “instantly”.

“It’s very recognisable,” he told the BBC. “We use (them) to keep instruments floating in the ocean.”

They often wash up on the coast of Scotland, he added.

While Professor Inall said he was surprised that the metal sphere was not identified more quickly, he acknowledged that the general public wouldn’t necessarily have known what it was.

“It could be confused for a World War 2 mine ... but those would have spikes sticking out of them,” he said.

He added that the objects can float in the ocean for decades, and can lose their markings and get rusty when they wash ashore.

The buoys can break free from their anchorage either in a violent storm or from being pulled by a big fishing vessel, Professor Inall said.

The Japanese authorities’ response to the metal sphere was as curious as the object itself.

The mysterious ball washed up amid a heightened sense of nervousness here. Last week Japanese media was discussing the ramifications of North Korea’s recent missile activity.

On Saturday an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) landed in Japan’s territorial waters. On Monday, North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan after the United States held joint exercises with East Asian allies.

There’s also the issue of China’s spy balloons. On Wednesday, Japanese and Chinese officials held security meetings in Tokyo for the first time in four years, where Japan expressed concern about the surveillance balloons.

Last week the government here said at least three unidentified flying objects spotted over its territorial skies between 2019 and 2021 were “strongly suspected” to have been Chinese.

Beijing denied allegations of espionage and urged Tokyo to stop following Washington’s lead in exaggerating Chinese threats.

Given this tense undercurrent of geopolitical events and perceived threats from its neighbours, the flurry of speculation in Japan is understandable.

“Given the recent events ... I could understand there’s an interest in an unidentified floating object,” Professor Inall said.