U.S. Navy sailors recovered the remains of the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina after it was shot down.

Foreign Affairs: “Since the start of the crisis, hard-liners have tightened their grip on the reins of power. This faction opposes engagement with the West and does not wish to return to the 2015 nuclear deal. At home, it favors isolationism and tight control of the social and political spheres. Abroad, it favors aggressive regional policies and increasing collaboration with Russia.”

“Far from chastened by the protests, in other words, the regime that is now emerging from the initial phase of the unrest is even more intransigent and potentially aggressive than ever before.”

Washington Post: “With North Korea threatening to strike the South with nuclear weapons and no sign of a return to denuclearization talks, South Koreans are increasingly debating whether they can still trust the United States to protect them in case of war on the peninsula.”

“The shifting geopolitical landscape around South Korea in the past year — an unprecedented number of missile launches from North Korea, Russia’s nuclear saber-rattling and growing fears that China will invade Taiwan — has prompted South Koreans to take a sober look at their security dependence on the United States.”

“Tankers in Iran’s ‘ghost fleet’ have switched to carrying Russian oil since western curbs on Moscow intensified in December, as the Kremlin turned to sanctions-busting techniques pioneered by Tehran,” the Financial Times reports.

“At least 16 vessels that formed part of the ‘ghost’ network that allowed Iran to breach U.S. sanctions have begun to ship Russian crude oil over the past two months.”

“Ukraine’s battle against Russia is consuming ammunition at unprecedented rates, with the country firing more than 5,000 artillery rounds every day — equal to a smaller European country’s orders in an entire year in peacetime,” the Financial Times reports.

“The dramatic shift to a war footing is creating a supply chain crisis in Europe as defence manufacturers struggle to ramp up production to replenish national stockpiles as well as maintain supplies to Ukraine. Nearly a year since Russia’s invasion, the pace of demand for ammunition and explosives is turning into a test of Europe’s industrial production capacity in a race to re-arm.”

Former prime minister John Major says Britain made a “colossal mistake” when it left the European Union, Bloomberg reports.

Said Major: “There are three great power blocs in the world today. United Kingdom is not one of them. There is America, there is China and there is the European Union.”

He added: “It is those strategic issues which make me believe we should be in Europe and that we have made a colossal mistake in leaving.”