Monday, February 6: Turkish Quake(s)
I'm sure Biden is sending all his strongest thoughts and prayers
A pair of powerful earthquakes rocked southeast Turkey and Syria yesterday, toppling buildings and sending panicked residents pouring into the streets on a cold winter night. The initial quake was a 7.8 tremor centered in southeastern Turkey followed by a 7.6 magnitude earthquake hours later yesterday. The earthquakes have claimed the lives of at least 2,000 thus far, and the toll is expected to rise sharply in the coming days. The first quake itself was felt as far as Cairo, and the aftershock has been reported across the region.
On the Syrian side of the border, the earthquake destroyed regions that are packed with ~4 million Syrian refugees, displaced from other parts of the country by the endless civil war. Many of these refugees live in decrepit conditions with little access to health care, hence the expected rise in the death toll. As the massive rescue operations unfold across Turkey, there are growing fears that people living in rural villages near the earthquake’s epicenter might not get help in time.
“Anywhere else in the world this would be an emergency. What we have in Syria is an emergency within an emergency.”
Mark Kaye, spokesman for the International Rescue Committee
The strongest earthquake to hit Turkey in more than 80 years is also likely to heap further economic hardship onto a region already struggling with a devastating humanitarian crisis and the fallout of the Syrian civil war. The US Geological Survey estimated that there was a high probability that damage from the earthquake could top $1 billion. Meanwhile, the Turkish lira fell to a new low before recovering slightly, and Turkey’s stock markets tumbled. It’ll be a long road to recover from this.
Side Items
Pray for Palestine (Actually Palestine this time): Israeli soldiers shot dead at least five Palestinian men during a raid in the Aqabet Jabr refugee camp in the eastern occupied West Bank. The camp has been under an Israeli siege, as described by Palestinians, for more than a week. The spokesman for Hamas, which governs the besieged Gaza Strip, Hazem Qassem said, “The continuous killings confirm the Israeli occupation’s great confusion in dealing with the escalation and expansion of resistance in all of the cities, camps and villages of the West Bank, and its inability to stop its escalation.”
Kyrie to Dallas: One of the stranger storylines from this NBA season has seemingly been resolved, as Kyrie Irving was mercifully traded to the Dallas Mavericks yesterday for two of their starters and a few future draft picks. Now Irving will have more time to do what he really loves, play conflict-free basketball and ask the hard questions, like, “what if JFK was actually a lizard person?”
The Grammy’s Occurred: Some people watched, I was not among them. Artists won awards, like Beyonce, who secured the title for most Grammy’s ever won by an artist. Sadly, the one prize that escaped her clutches was the coveted album of the year award. Instead, that award went to the posterboy for white mediocrity, Harry Styles, who took home the big prize with an album that I can honestly tell you I’ve never heard. Alas, that’s the delicate balance of mainstream music