Our daily journey around the world

🇹🇷🇸🇾 A series of powerful earthquakes struck Turkey and Syria yesterday. The initial 7.8-magnitude earthquake was one of the most powerful to strike the region since at least the 1600s. After the first earthquake hit, there were more than 60 aftershocks, including a 7.5-magnitude tremor. At least 5,000 people were killed, with tens of thousands of others injured and thousands of buildings destroyed, per local officials – and the WHO says the death toll could rise further in the coming weeks. The search for trapped victims is still ongoing, with over 2,500 people rescued as of last night. Initial estimates put the economic damage from the earthquake at around $1 billion.

🇬🇧 UK healthcare workers staged the biggest strike in the 75 year-history of the National Health Service yesterday. Tens of thousands of nurses and ambulance service staff walked off the job as part of an ongoing pay dispute, with workers seeking raises of at least 2.5% above inflation (which stood at an annual rate of 9.2% in December). Though the UK government says such a raise would be unaffordable and cause more inflation. Yesterday’s strike came less than a week after half-a-million public sector workers – including 300,000 teachers – participated in a similar mass strike.

🇨🇳🎈 China confirmed its ownership of a suspected spy balloon currently over Latin America. Chinese officials claimed the balloon is a civilian weather airship that had been blown off course by bad weather – an explanation virtually identical to the one it provided for the balloon over US airspace last week. Separately, US General Glen VanHerck told reporters yesterday that the Pentagon previously “did not detect” three suspected Chinese spy balloons that flew over American airspace during the Trump administration, but was later made aware of them through other means.