President Biden has made his first formal comments about the U.S. military’s downing of four objects flying over North America earlier this month. Biden said the first object shot down was a Chinese surveillance balloon that violated U.S. sovereignty — something he called “unacceptable” — but that the other three were not believed to be related to surveillance by a foreign power. Biden said Thursday he planned to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the surveillance balloon.

President Joe Biden: “This episode underscores the importance of maintaining open lines of communication between our diplomats and our military professionals.” 

A possible source for one of the yet-to-be-identified objects is the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade. The hobbyist club believes one of its $12 inflatable balloons may have been shot down by a Lockheed Martin F-22 firing a $400,000 Sidewinder missile over Canada’s Yukon Territory on February 11.