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<ul class="summary-list"><li>North Korea floated another 720 trash-filled balloons into South Korea, local reports said.</li><li>Pyongyang says it is retaliation for activists sending anti-North Korean leaflets across the border.</li></ul>North Korea launched another 720 balloons across its border with South Korea Saturday night, carrying plastic bags full of cigarette butts, scraps of cloth, and waste paper.Pyongyang says it was retaliation for activists sending anti-North Korean leaflets and USB drives containing K-pop music across the border.South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20240602000753315">720 balloons carrying trash </a>were floated into the country, while Reuters quoted a figure of 600.Since last Tuesday, North Korea has sent up between 850 and almost 1,000 balloons across the demilitarized zone, spreading trash in the capital Seoul and other parts of the country.The trash balloons adds to a recent series of provocative steps by North Korea, including its failed spy satellite launch on Monday and a barrage of short-range missile launches on Thursday seen as an attempt to demonstrate the country's ability to preemptively strike its neighbor.The South Korean military advised citizens not to touch the balloons, warning of possible danger, said the Yonhap News Agency.The government in Seoul sent text alerts informing the public that unidentified objects from North Korea had been detected in the skies above the city and that the military was responding to them, <a target="_blank" href="https://apnews.com/article/north-korea-trash-balloons-leaflets-tensions-7a9b372462a8390f279e5288923a8da3">per the Associated Press.</a><div type="image" title="South Korean soldiers in uniform stand in the road, with two balloons atop a utility pole in the background." height="2400" width="3000" msid="110640858" hostid="261" sizebytes="453822"></div>Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Sunday denounced North Korea's launch of trash balloons as a "depraved provocation," adding that such actions were "unacceptable to the international community," said the Yonhap News Agency."The government will deal with them calmly, focusing on securing national safety," Han said.Sung Tae-yoon, director of national policy in the presidential office, said, "North Korea's ballistic missile provocations, GPS jamming, and trash balloons harm our people and threaten our security."<div type="image" title="FILE - This photo provided by South Korea Defense Ministry, shows balloons with trash presumably sent by North Korea, in South Chungcheong Province, South Korea, on Wednesday, May 29, 2024. North Korea launched more trash-carrying balloons toward the South after a similar campaign earlier in the week, according to South Korea's military, in what Pyongyang calls retaliation for activists flying anti-North Korean leaflets across the border. (South Korea Defense Ministry via AP, File)" height="1024" width="682" msid="110640860" hostid="261" sizebytes="66506"></div>South Korea's military deployed chemical rapid response and explosive clearance teams to recover debris from approximately 260 North Korean balloons <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-launches-trash-manure-balloons-south-korea-2024-5">discovered</a> across the country on Tuesday night.According to the military, this first barrage of balloons contained manure but no hazardous substances such as chemical, biological, or radioactive materials.South Korea's defense ministry confirmed the presence of fertilizer <a target="_blank" rel=" nofollow" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/north-korea-sends-balloons-filled-trash-waste-south-kim-jong-un-rcna154435">to NBC News</a>, not human excrement, which earlier reports had speculated — though the outlet said human feces were sent by North Korea in 2016.Some of the balloons were equipped with timers, suggesting that they were intended to release the trash in midair, AP reported.In a statement on Wednesday, Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, called the balloons "sincere presents" for South Korean "goblins of democracy who are crying for the guarantee of freedom of expression," <a target="_blank" href="https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2024-05-30/national/northKorea/Norths-Kim-Yojong-calls-fecesfilled-balloons-sincere-presents-for-goblins-of-democracy-in-South/2057993">according to a statement by state-run Korean Central News Agency on Wednesday.</a>

North Korea sends new wave of up to 720 trash-filled balloons into South Korea

<ul class="summary-list"><li>North Korea floated hundreds of balloons filled with garbage and feces across its southern border.</li><li>It had vowed retaliation after South Korean activists sent anti-Pyongyang leaflets over the border.</li></ul>North Korea floated balloons carrying garbage and feces into South Korea last week, officials in Seoul said.The obnoxious floating orbs were an apparent retaliation against South Korean activists who'd flown anti-Pyongyang leaflets and USB drives containing K-pop music over the border.Days before the balloons landed in South Korea, a North Korean official vowed retaliation via "paper and filth," <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/kim-jong-uns-balloon-barrage-bags-of-excrement-fly-into-the-south-9f19d3d6">The Wall Street Journal reported</a>.South Korea's military discovered the balloons near the border Tuesday and told residents to stay inside, according to the Journal.Roughly 260 balloons were ultimately found — the largest number ever sent, the <a target="_blank" href="https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20240529002256315?section=nk/nk">Yonhap News Agency reported</a>, citing South Korea's joint chiefs of staff. The countries have been feuding with messages sent back and forth via balloons for years.North Korea's latest barrage of balloons contained plastic, batteries, parts of shoes, and manure, an official with the joint chiefs of staff said, according to Yonhap.South Korea's defense ministry confirmed the presence of fertilizer <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/north-korea-sends-balloons-filled-trash-waste-south-kim-jong-un-rcna154435">to NBC</a>, not human excrement — though the outlet said human feces were sent by North Korea in 2016.The latest skirmish came after North Korea on Monday <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-blames-new-liquid-oxygen-engine-for-satellite-2024-5">failed to launch a spy satellite</a>, which exploded midair.South Korean media reported Russia was helping with the effort, with a number of its technicians <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-was-helping-north-korea-before-botched-satellite-launch-report-2024-5">entering the country</a> before the botched launch.

North Korea launches an annoying tactic over the border: trash and manure balloons

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Seoul said North Korea sent another 350 balloons laden with garbage to South Korea on Tuesday.</li><li>It's the latest barrage in a back-and-forth psychological battle involving bizarre tactics.</li></ul>South Korea's military said on Tuesday that North Korea had sent a fresh wave of 350 balloons carrying bags of waste over the border, with over 100 landing in the Seoul area.It's the fifth time that Pyongyang has floated trash and scraps into Seoul since it began its launches in late May. <a target="_blank" href="https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20240625002300315?section=news&amp;input=rss">According to South Korean news agency Yonhap</a>, an estimated 2,000 garbage balloons have been sent over so far.They've been integral to a recently escalating series of mind games between Seoul and Pyongyang. Instead of rockets and gunfire, their war has played out in the last month through loud music and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-sends-wave-720-trash-filled-balloons-south-korea-2024-6">balloons floating over the border.</a>Key to the tit-for-tat psychological war has been North Korean defectors and activists in South Korea, who launch their own northbound balloons with snacks, pop songs, and anti-Pyongyang leaflets,Indeed, North Korea <a target="_blank" href="https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20240602-north-korea-launches-new-wave-of-trash-balloons-into-south-korea">blames an influx of propaganda leaflets from the south in May as the impetus for its first wave of dirty balloons.</a>The South Korean military, unable to stop the activists due to legal protections, has been responding separately — with gigantic loudspeakers on the border blaring news, weather reports, and music toward Kaesong.The entire affair hearkens back to the Cold War when Pyongyang and Seoul harassed each other with similar balloons and loud songs.Both sides say it's the other's responsibility to de-escalate, raising questions about how tensions might be resolved and fears that the back-and-forth may spill into open conflict.<h2 id="c331e27d-fe38-4c2c-aae1-aa098c05c904">Choco pies, K-dramas, and the Bible</h2>One of the first moves that seemed to recently anger Pyongyang came from the activist group Free North Korea Movement, which, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.seoul.co.kr/news/politics/2024/06/04/20240604003005">Seoul Shimbun</a>, sent 20 balloons on May 10 to North Korea carrying 300,000 leaflets and 2,000 USB sticks containing K-pop and trot-style music videos.North Korea's vice minister of defense, Kim Kang-il, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.chosun.com/politics/north_korea/2024/06/02/DJGBLJ37VRCWLKK6MC5LG4E4GI/">later threatened that South Koreans</a> would receive "vast amounts of toilet paper and waste" because of deliveries like these. The responding deluge of balloons from North Korea, <a target="_blank" href="https://apnews.com/article/north-korea-south-balloons-trash-a6ff0930aa0919db3dd7df9a2c4ddc49">some carrying manure and used toilet paper</a>, seems to have emboldened the activists.According to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.seoul.co.kr/news/society/accident/2024/06/24/20240624500125">Seoul Shimbun</a>, Park Sang-Hak, leader of the Free North Korea Movement, on Friday launched 10 balloons, along with 300,000 leaflets, 5,000 USB sticks containing episodes of Korean dramas, and thousands of $1 bills.<div type="image" title="During a previous attempt to send over bottles in 2018, North Korean defector activists empty bags containing rice, money, and USB sticks, on Ganghwa island, west of Seoul." height="5217" width="7825" msid="111260909" hostid="261" sizebytes="1248300"></div>Another activist group told the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/politics/defense/1143914.html">Korean daily Hankyoreh</a> that it had packed 500 bottles with rice and sent them over to North Korea, along with a copy of the Bible, movies, and TV show episodes.A photo of the group appears to show them throwing the rice bottles into the sea and toward North Korea from Ganghwa Island, located northwest of Seoul along the border.At least 10 other defector groups gathered materials this month to send to North Korea. Two groups told the Hankyoreh that they wanted to donate choco pies — a blend of marshmallows and cake that's a popular snack in South Korea.Though the activists' drops have deeply angered Pyongyang, it's unclear what South Korean authorities can do to control them.The national government introduced a law in 2020 that criminalized sending propaganda leaflets to North Korea, but it <a target="_blank" href="https://apnews.com/article/south-korea-propaganda-leaflets-kim-jong-un-b3e8c5dd05c50e1d91dafca807b91b35">was ruled unconstitutional over free speech concerns</a> and struck down in 2023.Meanwhile, Park said it's up to North Korea to make peace and that his organization has been sending "facts and truth, love and medicine" to its northern neighbors while Pyongyang has sent over trash."If Kim Jong-un apologizes directly within 2 to 3 days, we will also apologize," Park told Seoul Shimbun.<h2 id="98cbd7f1-f918-4d22-a207-98fc4d01d63a">North Korea's response: Mickey Mouse, parasites, and Hello Kitty</h2>North Korea <a target="_blank" href="https://www.seoul.co.kr/news/politics/diplomacy/2024/06/03/20240603001005">has warned that it</a> would start "intensively distributing toilet paper and waste 100 times the amount and number of cases found" if the propaganda leaflets kept showing up.It previously said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20240602-north-korea-launches-new-wave-of-trash-balloons-into-south-korea">in early June</a> that it would cease its garbage balloon campaign — after sending over about 1,000 of them — as long as the leaflet deliveries stopped.With the activists appearing to ignore that condition, North Korea's balloon launches resumed.Seoul's military chiefs told <a target="_blank" href="https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20240625002300315?section=news&amp;input=rss">South Korean news agency Yonhap</a> that the contents of the latest balloon-lifted bags weren't toxic. However, authorities analyzing dozens of the drops said some contained filthy, discarded items and even parasites like roundworms.Several bags were filled with dirty counterfeit clothing featuring Hello Kitty, Winnie the Pooh, and Mickey Mouse. Others had clothing donated from South Korea that was returned ripped up or cut with scissors, <a target="_blank" href="https://m.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20240624050621">The Korean Herald reported.</a><div type="image" title="A piece of North Korean clothing depicting Hello Kitty." height="424" width="911" msid="111260907" hostid="261" sizebytes="61216"></div><a target="_blank" href="https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20240602028300061">South Korean media reported</a> that some of the balloons descended upon cars and residential areas in Seoul, with one vehicle's windshield smashed by the garbage. Police said authorities weren't clear on whether the driver could receive compensation for their damaged car.<h2 id="7253d9f7-5383-4f52-9292-bc8748053ed1">South Korea's military: BTS hits and Samsung news</h2>South Korea's leaders have so far responded by resuming the old practice of blasting messages and music to North Korea over the border."We will install loudspeakers against North Korea today and carry out the broadcast," a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20240609-seoul-says-it-will-resume-loudspeaker-propaganda-campaigns-against-north-korea-south-korea-pyongyang">president's office spokesperson said on June 9.</a>These massive loudspeakers are meant to project sound up to six miles from the border, where the North Korean city of Kaesong is located while keeping disruption minimal for South Koreans.But <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/south-koreas-loudspeakers-face-questions-over-reach-into-north-2024-06-17/#:~:text=South%20Korea%20resumed%20loudspeaker%20broadcasts,2015%20dispute%20over%20the%20broadcasts">Reuters reported</a> on June 17 that the effectiveness of the loudspeakers is being questioned internally, since tests from 2017 show they sometimes only had an effective range of three miles.<div type="image" title="South Korean soldiers dismantle loudspeakers that were set up for propaganda broadcasts near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Paju on May 1, 2018." height="3000" width="4500" msid="111260908" hostid="261" sizebytes="315432"></div>Still, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=echWFzGRjUM">national broadcaster KBS</a> reported that the speakers have been broadcasting songs from the popular K-pop group BTS in the hopes that North Korean soldiers and residents might hear the hits.According to <a target="_blank" href="https://apnews.com/article/north-korea-south-loudspeaker-trash-balloons-kpop-460f4e3d6a036a26595891210287924c">The Associated Press</a>, the loudspeakers have been playing songs like "Butter" and "Dynamite," news on South Korean conglomerate Samsung, and weather reports.North Korea, for its part, has threatened in the past to destroy the speakers with military strikes.The use of loudspeakers, like balloons and leaflets, dates back to the Korean War in the 1950s. Both Korean governments agreed in 2018 to stop their broadcasts, <a target="_blank" href="https://apnews.com/article/0710bd31216f4b488524599d75e7f241">promising to dismantle them in a move toward peace.</a>But the deal, sealed by the <a target="_blank" href="https://perma.cc/QK27-F3LJ">2018 Inter-Korean Summit</a>, appears to be in shambles as the summer begins.<a target="_blank" href="https://apnews.com/article/north-south-korea-loudspeakers-propaganda-fb14ce673d33a3945d5abc10114d242d">On June 10,</a> a day after it announced the resumption of its broadcast tactics, South Korea said it detected that North Korea had also reinstalled its loudspeakers.

The 2 Koreas are poised for a summer of weird warfare, with poop balloons, blaring K-Pop songs, and floating $1 bills

<ul class="summary-list"><li>South Korea has resumed live-fire drills after seven years.</li><li>South Korea previously paused the drills due to a 2018 military accord, which North Korea is accused of violating 3,600 times.</li></ul>The South Korean military resumed live-fire drills on border islands Wednesday after a seven-year pause. The exercise follows a failed North Korean missile test and a flurry of other activity and comes as the two countries battle with balloons.North Korea conducted a suspected hypersonic missile test Wednesday morning, but it is believed to have exploded in midair. The launch came as North Korea expresses frustration with the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-aircraft-carrier-south-korea-north-korea-russia-putin-kim-2024-6">trilateral drills</a> between the US, South Korea, and Japan, for which a US Navy aircraft carrier is present.Not long after, South Korea restarted its own firing drills on the border islands of Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong.The South Korean Marine Corps <a target="_blank" href="https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20240626006251315?input=tw">told</a> Yonhap News Agency the drills were "defensive" and noted that the military will work to enhance "firepower operations capabilities and the completeness of the military readiness posture through regular maritime firing exercises."The South Korean drills involved multiple rocket launchers, anti-tank missiles, and K9 howitzers.Earlier this month, South Korea suspended a 2018 inter-Korean military accord it signed with North Korea, which banned drills, among other activities, from occurring in specified areas, including the border islands. North Korea had violated the accord roughly 3,600 times prior to South Korea's suspension.But now the drills are back. Earlier this month, a US supersonic B-1B Lancer bomber conducted the aircraft's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-supersonic-bomber-flew-first-korea-bombing-drill-in-years-2024-6">first live-fire bombing run</a> on the peninsula in seven years.<div type="image" title="soldiers examine various objects" height="3460" width="5028" msid="111295630" hostid="261" sizebytes="2322842"></div>As North and South Korea engage in various military activities, they have also been escalating tensions with balloons.Hundreds of balloons filled with trash, among other things, have been floating from North Korea toward South Korea since May, and in response, Seoul activists have been flying balloons with leaflets and speakers toward North Korea.CNN's Mike Valerio, who got ahold of one of the balloons, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/26/world/video/south-korea-north-balloons-activists-valerio-live-06263aseg2-cnni-world-fast">said that the speakers</a> have been playing an "anti-Kim Jong Un anthem." South Korean activists have a long history of sending anti-Pyongyang balloons into the North that have also carried <a target="_blank" href="https://ips-dc.org/koreas-balloon-war/">money</a>, thumb drives, and ChocoPie desserts.There's also been high-level diplomatic activity lately. After North Korea and Russia signed a new agreement that aligned their strategic interests and established a mutual defense pact, South Korea signaled it was re-evaluating some of its current positions, including on sending weapons to Ukraine.The North has been <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-south-korea-weapons-are-fueling-war-in-ukraine-2024-6">fueling Russia's war with its own shipments</a>, while South Korea has offered its support indirectly. South Korea has, however, expressed dissatisfaction with closer ties between Russia and North Korea."The government clearly emphasizes that any cooperation that directly or indirectly helps North Korea increase its military power is a violation of UN Security Council resolutions and is subject to monitoring and sanctions by the international community," South Korea's presidential office said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reuters.com/world/south-korea-says-will-reconsider-providing-weapons-ukraine-yonhap-says-2024-06-20/">in a statement</a>.

South Korea's military fires on border islands for the first time in 7 years as a North Korean missile fails and the balloon war rages on

<ul class="summary-list"><li>My daughter made me realize the trash around us when she was a toddler and would pick it up. </li><li>One day she made me stop the car to grab a deflated balloon so an animal wouldn't eat it. </li></ul>My 5-year-old daughter Kai scurried around a bus stop in Finland, picking up <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.insider.com/i-dont-give-out-party-favors-at-my-kids-birthday-2022-5">candy wrappers and plastic</a> bottles and dumping them in the waste bin. We were visiting family, and here she was, cleaning the sidewalk. I simultaneously wanted to shout, "Good for you!" and "Don't pick that up!"Before Kai was born, I recycled, voted for environmental candidates, and tried to reduce my <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.insider.com/how-to-cut-your-carbon-emissions-2019-4">carbon footprint</a>. But Kai helped me <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.insider.com/paris-trash-garbage-collectors-france-strike-2023-3">see the trash</a> I was stepping over each day. When she was a toddler, she grabbed a tissue from a parking lot, which I pried out of her hand, saying, "No. That's yucky."<h2>She kept picking up trash</h2>At home, we talked about cool animals and their habitats, and one of our favorite picture books was "<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=500abbdc53022bef76e09dc706ec4dd14fc739cf48e67367db4c562867599eff&amp;postID=6463d294cc5fc272c1b734ac&amp;site=in&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fbookshop.org%2Fp%2Fbooks%2Fbag-in-the-wind-ted-kooser%2F18463695%3Fean%3D9780763630010">Bag in the Wind</a>," an ecological parable that followed a plastic bag after it blew out of a landfill. While Kai couldn't verbalize the disconnect between my words and actions, she could feel it. She persisted in picking up trash, and I began carrying hand sanitizer. When we attended a climate march, she took a basket and removed litter as we walked.It didn't surprise me that she threw away rubbish in Finland — nor was I surprised at the passing strangers who smiled at us. Adults always appreciated her environmental actions. When Kai started a roadside cleanup near her kindergarten, adults were again impressed. But what I've come to feel is ambivalence.<h2>People praised her</h2>Our project began when Kai spotted a deflated balloon in an empty field. We had recently read about how <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.fws.gov/story/2015-08/balloons-and-wildlife-please-dont-release-your-balloons">animals can mistake balloons for food</a>. "Stop," Kai said, and I pulled over. As we picked up the balloon, we could see the whole field was covered in trash. "Can we come back and clean it?" Kai asked.Each Friday, we picked up beer cans and cardboard boxes, Styrofoam containers, and plastic water bottles. After we filled two bags, we stopped for the day. The next week, we cleaned the same 30 feet, picking up a familiar assortment of trash and returning home hot and overwhelmed. Our arms were scratched from brush, and it seemed we would never get ahead of those who threw trash out car windows.When I posted photos of Kai's project on Facebook, friends praised her efforts. They — like me — admired her determination to create a better world. So why did I feel something close to irritation?<h2>Why are we making kids clean up our mess?</h2>It had nothing to do with her cheering squad, I realized, and everything to do with the planet we adults are leaving for children. Plastic is <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.npr.org/2022/10/24/1131131088/recycling-plastic-is-practically-impossible-and-the-problem-is-getting-worse">not easily recycled,</a> and plastic pollution is so ubiquitous that microplastics have been discovered in the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/22/microplastics-revealed-in-placentas-unborn-babies">placentas of babies</a>. We have created a mess. Children picking up our trash is not a feel-good story. It's the opposite of one.When the pandemic hit, our cleanup project ended, and we haven't restarted it. Kai is now in third grade, and on Fridays, she's usually biking with friends after school, which is as it should be. She's still passionate about the environment and hopes to become a marine biologist one day and study sharks. She has many years to decide, years in which adults will hopefully get serious about solving <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=d6b7b0c4610ab68b718b52caa5d3dd52f32cfbfe529c5041065aeb0a13d0be1a&amp;postID=6463d294cc5fc272c1b734ac&amp;site=in&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalgeographic.com%2Fenvironment%2Farticle%2Fplastic-pollution">plastic pollution</a>. We shouldn't leave children with a diminished planet and expect them to save it.The last time our family was at the beach, Kai played while I walked along the shore, picking up golf balls, a broken hair dryer, plastic bottles, and polypropylene wrappers. Most memorably, though, Kai spotted an octopus, and our family watched it move from one tidal pool to another, a reminder of a magical world worth protecting.Sari Fordham is a writer, professor, and environmental activist. She is the author of a monthly newsletter, "<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.sarifordham.com/newsletter">Cool It: Simple Steps to Save the Planet</a>," which she designed for busy people who care about the climate crisis.

After my daughter made me stop the car to pick up trash so an animal wouldn't eat it, I realized adults need to clean up their own mess

Jeff Chiu/APInstagram founder Kevin Systrom.<ul class="summary-list"><li>Instagram founder Kevin Systrom once removed employees' trash cans from their desks because he hated how cluttered the company's offices looked. </li><li>That's according to Bloomberg reporter Sarah Frier's new book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TFB4R2S/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1">"No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram."</a></li><li>The book delves into Instagram's history and company culture, including a time in 2015 when Systrom, fed up with Instagram's less-than-aesthetically-pleasing office space, had wilted employee anniversary balloons cut down, desk clutter removed, and trash cans nixed altogether. </li><li>Much has changed since then: Instagram now has gorgeous office spaces in places like New York and Menlo Park, California, and Systrom has left the company altogether. </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul>Instagram founder Kevin Systrom has long been obsessed with visuals, and that obsession reportedly included the look of Instagram's offices - even down to the trash cans. That's according to the new book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TFB4R2S/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1">"No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram"</a> by Bloomberg reporter Sarah Frier. Frier's book chronicles the early days of Instagram, its acquisition by Facebook, and the founders' eventual departure. The book delves into Instagram's culture at the hands of then-CEO Systrom, and his frustration at the state of Instagram's offices at the time. The company had been acquired by Facebook in 2012, and Systrom's goal - and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's promise - was to keep the company as separate as possible under the Facebook umbrella.But in 2015, Systrom was embarrassed by how the office looked worn, messy, and cluttered - that it didn't reflect the "craft, beauty, and simplicity" that the Instagram app was all about. Employee desks were disorganized, work anniversary balloons were wilting over employees' desks, and the individual-sized trash cans at each employee's desk were filled with trash.Systrom had all of it removed, even going so far as to nix the trash cans altogether, according to Frier. The incident reportedly sparked annoyance, hashtags, and constant jokes among employees, who thought Systrom's obsession with the look of the office was "a demonstration of peak preciousness," according to Frier, and a distraction from the actual work that needed to get done. Employees started bringing it up during company Q&amp;As, came up with the hashtags "#trashcangate" and "#binghazi," and one employee dressed up as a trash can for Halloween, according to Frier. A spokesperson for Instagram did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment. Much has changed at Instagram since the trash can incident of 2015. The company has opened beautiful, highly curated office spaces in places like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-new-york-city-headquarters-photos-2018-6">New York,</a> <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/17/instagram-opens-a-san-francisco-office/">San Francisco</a>, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-new-office-photos-2016-10">Menlo Park</a>, complete with living walls, gelato stands, and Instagrammable backdrops. And Kevin Systrom has stepped down as Instagram's CEO - he, along with cofounder Mike Krieger, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kevin-systrom-instagram-ceo-life-rise-2018-9">left the company in 2018</a> after there were reportedly growing tensions with Zuckerberg. Since Systrom's departure, Adam Mosseri has stepped in to lead Instagram. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/intelligence/stories-slide-deck?IR=T&amp;itm_source=businessinsider&amp;itm_medium=ctgr_bii&amp;itm_term=ctgr_leadgen&amp;itm_content=instagram&amp;itm_campaign=stories-slide-deck"></a> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-covid-19-social-distancing-looks-from-maxar-satellite-2020-3">How social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic looks from a satellite</a></h3>

Instagram's founder was reportedly so obsessed with how the company's offices looked that he had employees' trash cans removed to avoid clutter

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A US Air Force B-1B Lancer joined South Korean forces for a live-fire training exercise.</li><li>The training involved dropping 500-pound bombs at a range in Korea.</li></ul>A US supersonic bomber joined South Korea's Air Force for a live-fire training exercise, conducting runs with 500-pound bombs.It's the first time the B1-B Lancer, a conventional, long-range penetrating strike bomber with a substantial payload capacity, has dropped live munitions on the Korean peninsula since 2017, when the US regularly sent the aircraft into the area in response to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-sitting-pretty-as-russia-china-vie-for-attention-2024-1">North Korean provocations</a>.The US Air Force released information on the training on Wednesday, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.dvidshub.net/news/473079/us-rok-air-forces-conduct-live-munitions-training-with-b-1b-f-15ks-pilsung-range">writing</a> that a B-1B Lancer from the 37th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron at Anderson Air Force Base in Guam joined South Korean F-15Ks Slam Eagles "for live munitions and close air support training at the Pilsung Range, Republic of Korea."The bomber, along with the South Korean military aircraft, "successfully released live GBU-38, 500-pound joint direct attack munitions, simultaneously striking multiple simulated targets."A video shared online showed some of the bombing elements of the training exercise. "Today's integration with the Republic of Korea demonstrated the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/b-1-bomber-message-iranian-proxies-us-air-force-colonel-2024-2">ability of our B-1 fleet</a> to conduct precision targeting and strike with live weapons in an unfamiliar location," said Lt. Col. Christian Hoover, 37th EBS commander."The partnership with ROK allows us to support National Security objectives through the speed, flexibility, and readiness of our strategic bombers," he said.After the live-fire bombing exercise at Pilsung, the Lancer linked up with US Marine Corps F-35Bs, US Air Force F-16s and KC-135 Stratotankers, and South Korean aircraft "for air-to-air training over the western region of South Korea."The follow-on exercises combined fourth- and fifth-generation jets with a bomber element. The 7th Air Force said that the event was a "powerful deterrent to potential aggressors."<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-next-north-korea-crisis-could-come-this-year-2024-5">North Korea, a constant challenge</a>, has continued work on its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-using-ukraine-test-site-nuclear-missiles-south-korea-2024-1">illegal weapons programs</a> and has been frequently carrying out missile launches since 2022. More recently, it has engaged in provocations against South Korea, including <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-sends-wave-720-trash-filled-balloons-south-korea-2024-6">sending balloons filled with manure and trash</a> into the neighboring country. South Korea vowed to bring retaliatory action.<div type="image" title="U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer from the 37th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron receives a bird bath at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, June 3, 2024, in support of a Bomber Task Force mission." height="3256" width="5883" msid="110744630" hostid="261"></div>The exercises are the first time the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/b1-bomber-presence-asia-required-2016-9">B1-B Lancer</a> has dropped live munitions on the Korean peninsula since 2017. At that time, North Korean weapons testing and provocations prompted US and South Korean forces to regularly fly in the area, conducting training exercises to deter North Korea.At that time, North Korea was ramping up its missile testing, pursuing a variety of weapons developments that caused alarm bells to sound across the region. A year earlier, North Korea twice tested a nuclear weapon, and then it did so again in 2017. That same year, the North Koreans <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-claims-it-has-successfully-tested-its-first-ever-icbm-2017-7">test-fired their first intercontinental ballistic</a> missile. The country <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-likely-nuclear-targets-us-icbm-2017-7">tested another one</a> a few months later.In the wake of the earlier <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-intercontinental-ballistic-missiles-work-north-korea-2017-7">ICBM tests</a>, which occurred over the summer, then-President Donald Trump <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-trump-missile-threat-guam-fire-fury-2017-8">threatened North Korea</a> with "fire and fury." Amid these rising tensions, the B-1Bs were highly active on the peninsula.In July 2017, just days after North Korea's first ICBM test, two B-1Bs, as well as US and South Korean fighter jets, "practiced attack capabilities by releasing inert weapons at the Pilsung Range," what was then called US Pacific Command said.Then, a month later in August, the US military flew four F-35B fighter jets and two B-1B bombers alongside four South Korean F-15 jets over the Korean peninsula in a show of force response to the launch of a North Korean missile over Japan.And in September, in response to another North Korean missile launch over Japan, two B-1B Lancer bombers joined other US, South Korean, and Japanese aircraft "in a sequenced bilateral show of force over the Korean peninsula," PACOM <a target="_blank" href="https://www.pacaf.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1314027/japanese-korean-and-us-aircraft-conduct-show-of-force-in-response-to-north-kore/">said</a>.In October, US Air Force B-1Bs carried out mock missile launches off both coasts of South Korea, and then a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-f-22-b-1b-simulated-bomb-run-north-korea-2017-12">live-fire exercise was executed</a> in December, when a Lancer took part in a massive air drill.

A US supersonic bomber dropped 500-pound bombs in its first live-fire bombing drill on the Korean peninsula in 7 years

<ul class="summary-list"><li>In 2013, I started a list of over 500 books that I wanted to read.</li><li>Before long, I only let myself read books from the list and felt trapped by it. </li></ul>In 2013, I made a seemingly simple decision: I started a list of books I wanted to read. I had just finished my final semester of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/grad-school-scholarships-grants">graduate school</a>, had my first full-time job, and was getting married — I was finally going to enter the echelon of adulthood.So when I, a person in my 20s with a wealth of time on my hands because I was no longer scrambling between graduate school and three part-time jobs, stumbled across a listicle of 50 <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/books-that-will-make-you-more-well-rounded-2017-4">books every young adult should read</a> in their 20s, I opened a spreadsheet in Google Docs and added all 50 to the list. This was a mistake.I have always been a completist to a fault. If I pick up a book and begin reading, I will finish that book, regardless of whether I like it or not. If I start a TV show, I will watch every episode in every season before starting something new. (I watched eight seasons of "Below Deck" religiously, unsettling my husband over my dedication to the task, until free Peacock access disappeared on my TV. I've since learned to choose my TV shows very carefully.)<h2>I'm a librarian and feel like I have to read everything</h2>I can't choose books the same way. I am a writer, but I am also <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/work-decimated-office-socializing-the-solution-could-be-libraries-2023-9">a librarian</a>. Reading is my literal job. I have to keep up with trends so I can see how my writing can enter the conversation; I need to know about all the new books so I can make apt recommendations to my patrons.Though my demurely-titled "Reading List" started with those 50 books I just had to read in my 20s, it soon ballooned to include award-winners from each new year, collections from "Best Of" lists, and occasionally, a book that I might actually like to read. Ten years later, the list had grown to include over 500 titles, and I had become strangely bound to it, only allowing myself to read titles from the list (and occasionally sneaking new things on that I desperately wanted to read just to follow my own arbitrary rules).Intellectually, I understood that this was madness. But by then, I had <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/decided-raise-kids-family-near-grandparents-pros-and-cons-2024-1">moved away from my family</a> into a new city in a new state. I found our country to be a monumental disappointment in more ways than one. A pandemic had begun, and made time contract and expand in unexplainable ways. We were already living in madness, so what was so wrong about me escaping into the madness of believing I would ever reach the end of this list?The list was a comfort. I didn't have to decide what to do next — in some ways, having a list felt like a way of maintaining a sense of order. I could go down it, one by one, filling my creative mind with all the recommended reads of the last 10 years. I kept track on my Goodreads account, attempting to complete a challenge of reading <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/10-best-non-fiction-books-of-2020-coronavirus-reading-time-2020-12">100 books a year</a> (a number I never actually met that made me feel like a woeful failure come each December).<h2>I learned my habits might be due to OCD</h2>I have seen a handful of therapists about my habit of completion. One said I likely had a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/health/mental-health/types-of-ocd">mild form of OCD</a>, another considered it a childish habit I would eventually grow out of (I'm 36), and the last agreed that it was likely OCD mixed with ADHD mixed with anxiety and was likely an acquired form of self-soothing in a world that is unpredictable, uncertain, and possibly doomed. Yes, she agreed with me that the world was possibly doomed. This is how I knew she was the therapist for me."How do you choose what to read next?" she asked."I just go down the list.""Okay," she said. "What would happen if you just threw away the list?""Oh," I said. "I can't do that."I couldn't do that because if I threw away the book list, I would have to make a conscious choice. Making a conscious choice would require being confronted by the reality of life. And the current reality of life was terrifying and full of things I couldn't control, and more questions I didn't want to consider — did I want to have children? <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boreout-tiktok-workplace-phenomenon-opposite-burnout-still-harmful-workers-2023-9">Did I like my work</a>? Was I actually satisfied with the shape of my days? I'd spent the last 10 years reading, but did I actually remember what I'd read? In most instances, no.I turned 36 this year. I've come to an unsettling conclusion that I might now be in the back half of my life, and I, terrifyingly, don't remember the majority of what I've read because the point wasn't in the experience, the point was in the completion. Two years ago, I successfully swore off <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/health/mental-health/doomscrolling">social media doomscrolling</a> and was so darn proud of myself for it. Turns out, I transferred all that doomscrolling into my creative life, dissociating now with my books.<h2>When I lost my book list, I actually felt free</h2>Two months ago, I reorganized my cloud account where the list was kept. I don't know what happened, but the list got lost in the shuffle. I tried to restore it, searched all the trash cans, hit the undo button — but it was gone.Strangely, I did not panic like I thought I would. Ever since my therapist had introduced the idea of throwing the list away, I had fantasized about the moment but never actually committed to it. Now, regardless of how it had happened, the moment was here. The list was dead. And with it, I was free.In a testament to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/can-i-go-to-therapy-if-im-not-depressed-2017-11">my therapist's prowess</a>, I paused. I didn't read anything for several days. Finally, I went to a bookstore. I browsed the aisles and let myself be drawn in by the covers. I picked up one title that looked interesting, and I allowed myself to buy it.The loss of the book list proved to be a harbinger of things to come; I returned all the overdue books stacked on my nightstand back to the library without reading them first, leaving a clean, clear space of open opportunity. Quieter and quieter my days became until there I was — my own voice in my own head once again, in all her anxiety. I liked her.I will always be a completist. Know thyself, as they say. Thus, I declare this the year of re-reading <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-read-books-goal-app-new-years-resolution-2023-5">books I've loved</a> in the past without worrying that I'm not spending my time reading something new. I will roam bookshelves again and stumble upon something that looks amazing and devour it because I want to, not because I have to.And I, along with many others, am saying goodbye to the <a target="_blank" href="https://thewalrus.ca/goodreads-is-terrible/">toxicity of Goodreads</a>, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-changes-book-publishing-marketing-author-careers-2023-5">performance of Booktok</a>, and the competitive urge to read quantitatively, rather than creatively. Books and stories are not simply content to be binged like a bad meal. They are our art.What thoughts might bubble up given the space to make decisions in the moment? What inspiration will find its way into my clear and open mind? Maybe I'll make a list.

I started a list of books to read and it grew to over 500. I felt trapped by it, and when it got lost, I felt free again.

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">David Cova/Courtesy of House of YesHouse of Yes founder Kae Burke</div></div></div><ul><li>Artists Kae Burke and Anya Sapozhnikova are the founders of Brooklyn's wildest, weirdest club, House of Yes</li><li>The duo got their start working and performing at now-legendary New York warehouse parties, Rubulad and The Danger</li><li>Their craziest night out involved attending both warehouse parties and streaking, water balloons, a surprise marriage, and a trip to Coney Island</li></ul> Kae Burke and Anya Sapozhnikova are veterans of the New York City nightlife scene, to put it mildly.The two artists moved to New York over a decade ago as fresh-faced 19-year-olds and threw themselves into the colorful and strange Do-It-Yourself party and art scene that has dominated Brooklyn since the early 2000s. Now they run the successful Brooklyn nightclub House of Yes, which they describe as "the weirdest nightclub possible." Party-goers encounter trance and house DJs, aerialists, circus performers, marching bands, burlesque dancers, magicians, and tarot card readers - often all on the same night.House of Yes, in Burke's words, is place of "cartoon logic" where "anything is possible." In their first years in the city, Burke and Sapozhnikova were underage. They weren't able to go out to bars or clubs and the only way they were allowed to go to parties was by working them.At the time, the DIY-party scene was dominated by Rubulad, an underground warehouse party <a href="http://www.nonsensenyc.com/features/rubulad.html">started in the early 1990s by artists Chris Thomas and Sari Rubinstein</a> that Burke described as a disorienting place "where you have no idea what you are there for" and anything goes. Burke and Sapozhnikova got their start working at Rubulad. At around the same time, the next generation of Brooklyn warehouse parties began, <a href="http://www.thedanger.com/ill.html">The Danger parties</a> organized by Will Etundi. The Danger parties, according to Untapped Cities, were a "<a href="https://untappedcities.com/2010/09/26/danger-warehouse-party-busted/">throwback to '80s New York</a>, where there were simply less rules." In the case of one party in 2010, that meant "a four floor warehouse party with hot tub, circus swings, art and film installations, and ten simultaneous live acts." Burke and Sapozhnikova's craziest night in New York was when The Danger and Rubulad parties happened on the same night, and they decided to go to both.The duo had recently lost their home, the first House of Yes, <a href="http://www.brooklynvegan.com/a-fire-the-hous/">a rundown loft in Ridgewood, to a fire</a>. Feeling mischievous because they hadn't been hired that night (they sometimes worked the parties), the two decided it was their mission to sabotage The Danger party. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Courtesy of House of YesHouse of Yes founders Kae Burke and&#xa0;Anya&#xa0;Sapozhnikova</div></div></div>They started the night by filling and tying enough water balloons to fill a garbage can, which they then hid from the party organizers. They had also made a bunch of masks out of black and white stripes with the eyes cut out and put them in a cardboard box at the party. After a few hours at the party, they told all their friends to meet, put their clothes in the box, and put on the masks. Burke said she ran through the party recruiting friends, acquaintances, and complete strangers to join her and Sapozhnikova's prank. Over time, Burke said, "you develop this community of fellow people who party and work at parties and everyone is open."Masked streakers - Burke and Sapozhnikova included -ran around the party naked disrupting the dancing partygoers and the performances. After it was over, the duo decided to head to Rubulad to see what was going on for a few minutes. They ended up staying until sunrise.When they got back to The Danger, inebriated, they remembered the water balloons. After tracking the trash can down from the security guards, who had been moving it all night, they dragged it out to the yard where everyone still at the party was hanging out. Lots of the streakers were still naked. Burke and Sapozhnikova began throwing the water balloons at the partygoers, who then joined in on the water balloon fight. Some began throwing other objects back at the duo. "For a minute or two, there was this moment where the sky was full of objects flying through the air," Sapozhnikova said.Then amidst the crowd, their friend Aaron Goldsmith decided that he needed to perform an impromptu marriage ceremony for Burke and Sapozhnikova.The night (morning?) ended with the two getting on a train to swim in the ocean off Coney Island. By the time they got there at 10 AM, they were ready to go home."The journey there is more important than dancing in the waves," Burke said.The sense of "vibrant play," spontaneity, and mischief is the essence of what Burke and Sapozhnikova try to offer at House of Yes, Sapozhnikova said. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jim-rickards-interview-global-financial-crisis-gold-fed-2017-11">We talked to an economist who predicted the Great Recession about the next financial crisis</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

You Searched For "trash filled balloons" and got 9 results

North Korea sends new wave of up to 720 trash-filled balloons into South Korea

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North Korea launches an annoying tactic over the border: trash and manure balloons

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South Korea's military fires on border islands for the first time in 7 years as a North Korean missile fails and the balloon war rages on

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After my daughter made me stop the car to pick up trash so an animal wouldn't eat it, I realized adults need to clean up their own mess

Sari Fordham

Instagram's founder was reportedly so obsessed with how the company's offices looked that he had employees' trash cans removed to avoid clutter

Avery Hartmans

A US supersonic bomber dropped 500-pound bombs in its first live-fire bombing drill on the Korean peninsula in 7 years

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I started a list of books to read and it grew to over 500. I felt trapped by it, and when it got lost, I felt free again.

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The founders of Brooklyn's wildest club describe the craziest night out of their lives

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