We're hearing the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is considering meeting with China's top foreign policy official Wang Yi.

Bloomberg is reporting the meeting could take place at a security conference this week, according to its sources.

The meeting would be the first in-person talks since the US shot down a suspected Beijing spy balloon, which China claims was a weather balloon gone astray.

Earlier this month, Blinken - the US's top American diplomat - abruptly cancelled a trip to Beijing, which would have been the first high level US-China meeting there in years.

Aiden Johnson
Reporting from the White House

We’re currently waiting for the daily White House press briefing to start.

Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre usually handles these briefings alone. But, today, the White House tells us that she will be joined by John Kirby, the spokesman for President Biden’s National Security Council.

The last time Kirby joined in a press briefing was on Friday, when he announced that a floating object had been shot down over the coast of Alaska. So today, people here in the briefing room are waiting to see what updates he has on these UFOs.

Journalists are waiting for the daily White House press briefing to begin in less than 10 minutes.

You can stream it live at the top of this page.

Image source, Getty Images

“Hundreds of weather balloons are released every day” says Michael Bohnert at the US Rand Corporation. “They create a high level of clutter, and while there is a degree of tracking to ensure they don’t endanger civilian aircraft, they’re not routinely tracked”.

What appears to have changed last week is the method used to detect them. US radar systems had previously been set up to monitor threats such as aircraft and missiles.

But over the past few days, the US Defense Department says it has recalibrated its detection systems to look for smaller objects in the sky, moving at slower speed and lower altitudes.

These changed "filter" settings are what the US says may be the reason they have been able to pick up such objects over the past few days.

Bohnert adds that "based on global reporting, including pictures of similar balloons, in other countries since about 2020, there does appear to be a significant uptrend in events involving similar balloons”.

But he suggests that “predicting the movements and understanding the origin of balloons may not have been a priority before the recent incidents.”

Image source, Reuters

Colorado Senator Michael Bennet, who sits on the Intelligence Select Committee, says Americans deserve to know more about the objects' impact on their national security.

“The American people deserve timely answers about the objects that were shot down over Lake Huron, Alaska and Canada this weekend," he said.

"We need to understand the nature of the threat to our national security.

"As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I expect to be briefed on these incidents early this week.”

No briefings have been reported at this time.

Image source, Reuters

On 4 February, the US shot down a balloon in its airspace they claimed was being used for surveillance by the Chinese. China said it was a weather balloon gone astray.

But what would China have to gain from using a balloon - one of the oldest forms of surveillance - instead of a satellite?

Experts say a balloon can be fitted with modern technology like spy cameras and radar sensor, while they are less expensive and easier to deploy than drones or satellites.

The balloon's slower speed also allows it to loiter over and monitor its target for longer periods.

But a satellite's movement, on the other hand, is restricted by its orbital pass.

Some analysts have suggested the balloon could be way for Beijing to send a signal to Washington.

"The balloon was to send a signal to the Americans, and also to see how the Americans would react," said one.

You can read more here.

There are many questions the public wants answered - and the first information we get today could come at the routine White House press briefing.

Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will be joined by National Security Council (NSC) coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby.

Kirby will likely be peppered by questions about the weekend's incidents and what the NSC knows about the objects that were shot down.

The briefing is currently scheduled for 13:00 local time (18:00 GMT).

We may also hear from Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau today, though no times have been announced.

Are you in North America? What do you want to know?

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Image source, Reuters

The emergence of UFOs over North American skies is part of a pattern of authoritarian states like China and Russia increasing their intelligence surveillance activities against Nato, the alliance’s secretary general has said.

Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels earlier that this ramping up of spying included the increased use of cyber capabilities, satellites and also balloons.

He said the increase highlights the importance Nato maintaining its vigilance over its airspace and called for a greater sharing of intelligence between the military alliance’s members to better.

Image source, EPA

One of the most compelling theories for why these mysterious objects are being shot down - the US government is paying more attention and looking harder for them.

Following the incident with the alleged Chinese spy balloon earlier this month, the American government has made its radar and other monitoring systems more sensitive.

“We have been more closely scrutinising our airspace at these altitudes, including enhancing our radar, which may at least partly explain the increase,” assistant secretary for homeland defense Melissa Dalton told reporters.

Similarly, an official told the Washington Post newspaper "it was like a car buyer unticking boxes on a website to broaden the parameters of what can be searched"

But he said it was unclear whether this was producing more hits - or if the new incursions are part of a more deliberate action.

Image source, Getty Images

The unidentified flying objects that were shot down by the US over the weekend has world leaders and their citizens questioning if they are possibly being observed from the skies.

When pressed by a reporter on if the UK faced a similar threat of spy balloons, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak repeated a familiar phrase.

He said the government will do "whatever it takes" to keep the country safe from the threat of spy balloons.

He said he couldn't comment on national security matters or reveal if there were any balloons in UK airspace, but assured the public of the country's "quick reaction alert force which involves Typhoon planes, which are kept on 24/7 readiness to police our airspace, which is incredibly important".

Sunak said he is in constant touch with allies on the matter.

While you will be seeing a lot of headlines focusing on the fact the US have not “ruled out” whether these UFOs could have extra-terrestrial origins, these possibly distract from the true mystery of these objects.

Almost no information about the three most recent objects shot down over the US and Canada over the weekend, beyond their vague shape, size and appearance has been disclosed.

Asked about the three objects, US Northern Command Commander General Glen VanHerck said he wasn’t going to “categorise them as balloons” and the US was “calling them objects for a reason”.

"What we are seeing is very, very small objects that produce a very, very low radar cross-section," he explained, adding that there was no indication of any threat.

"I will let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out," Gen VanHerck said when asked if it was possible the objects are aliens or extra-terrestrials."I haven't ruled out anything at this point.

"But it’s important to note another defence official later said the military had not seen any evidence that the objects were extra-terrestrial.

For anyone who's just catching up with the mystery of the objects appearing over North America, our security correspondent Gordon Correa has summarised how it all began for you in less than 60 seconds.

If you'd like to see his summary of this surreal story, watch below:

Image source, EPA

Meanwhile, as the diplomatic and military row over these UFOs rumbles on, China's foreign ministry has claimed the US has flown balloons into its airspace more than 10 times in the past year.

"It's not uncommon as well for the US to illegally enter the airspace of other countries," spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters at a regular press briefing.

He said these breaches of its airspace had taken place "without any approval from Chinese authorities".

"The first thing the US side should do is start with a clean slate, undergo some self-reflection, instead of smearing and accusing China," Wang added.

He said Beijing had responded to the incursions in a "responsible and professional" manner.

For its part, Washington has firmly denied the allegation it is using balloons to spy on China.

While some information about the initial balloon shot down over the US has been released, little has been publicly disclosed about the three UFOs downed over the weekend.

Alaska: The second object was shot down on Friday 10 February off the coast of northern Alaska. Officials said it was "the size of a small car" and had been flying 40,000ft (12,000m) in the air as it travelled in the direction of the North Pole without any system of propulsion or control.

Yukon: The next day a similar "high-altitude airborne object" was taken out on US and Canadian orders over the Yukon Territory in north-western Canada.

It is still not clear what these two objects were and reports give a mixed picture.

Michigan: These were followed on 12 February, when a fourth (and so far final) object was shot down near Lake Huron in the state of Michigan. Defence officials described it as an octagonal structure with strings hanging off it.

They said it was blown up "out of an abundance of caution" because it posed a hazard to civilian aviation due to the altitude it was flying at.

Image source, .

Image source, Reuters

As we’ve been reporting, the first object shot down by the US has been alleged to be a balloon spying for China - but what do we know about it?

The large high-altitude object was spotted on 28 January as it passed over Alaska's Aleutian Islands, an archipelago in the northern Pacific Ocean between the US and Russia.

It was then tracked entering Canadian airspace before emerging over the western US state of Montana, which is sparsely populated and home to one of only three nuclear missile silo fields in the country.

Image source, US Fleet Forces Command

On 1 February, photos taken by shocked residents in the city of Billings first brought the public's attention to the high-altitude object after it had already cause the shutdown of their local airport.

The US said it was over 200ft (60m) tall and was equipped with multiple antennas, solar panels and surveillance equipment capable of intercepting telecommunications.

But officials at first declined to shoot it down due to concerns about the damage falling debris could cause, so it was allowed to drift across the continental US for days until it was shot down by an F-22 fighter jet off the coast of South Carolina on 4 February.

A large portion has already been recovered and is being analysed by FBI agents, while recovery crews are using boats and mini-subs to reach further equipment from the balloon - submerged 47ft (14m) below the Atlantic Ocean.

• 4 February: US military shoots down suspected surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina. It had drifted for days over the US, and officials said it came from China and had been monitoring sensitive sites

• 10 February: US downs another object off northern Alaska which officials said lacked any system of propulsion or control
• 11 February: An American fighter jet shoots down a"high-altitude airborne object" over Canada's Yukon territory, about 100 miles(160 km) from the US border. It was described as cylindrical and smaller than the first balloon
• 12 February: US jets shoot down a fourth high-altitude object near Lake Huron "out of an abundance of caution"

Image source, .

Image source, Reuters

The emergence of UFOs over North American airspace hit the headlines when it emerged a suspected Chinese spy balloon was shot down off the coast of South Carolina on 4 February, after hovering over the US for days.

US officials said it originated in China and had been used to monitor sensitive sites like military bases, while the Chinese government denied the object was used for spying and claimed it was a weather monitoring device that had blown astray.

Following the incident there were angry diplomatic exchanges and a variety of espionage allegations from either country, ratcheting up tensions between Washington and Beijing.

Since that first incident, American fighter jets have shot down three further high-altitude objects over the weekend, one over Northern Alaska, another over nearly Yukon in Canada and a third in the Great Lakes region of the US.

Little is known about the objects that has been publicly disclosed, and efforts to recover debris for analysis are ongoing.

Welcome to our live coverage of the mysterious appearances of UFOs, shot down by the US government over the skies of North America, thanks for joining us.

Four objects have been taken down by fighter jets in the US and Canada in recent weeks, amid allegations of Chinese government spying and inevitable speculation about extra-terrestrials.

One of the four objects has been confirmed to be a suspected Chinese spy balloon but the US military says it doesn't know much at all about the other three at this stage.

Stick with us for the latest news as we wait to hear from the White House and Pentagon about these mysterious objects.