• Weather and politics have made things worse after Turkey’s earthquake

💠 THE DAILY 360

Turkey’s earthquake was devastating enough. Weather and politics have made things worse.

THE CONTEXT

Turkey and Syria are grappling with the devastating aftermath of a 7.8 magnitude earthquake on Monday that destroyed cities and towns across a vast area of the two countries. The earthquake matched the size of the strongest-ever one to strike Turkey.

On Friday, the death toll from the earthquake passed 21,500, my colleague Nikhil Kumar reports, with officials warning that the number is likely much higher. The toll is now larger than that from Turkey’s infamous 1999 earthquake, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

LENSES

❄️ Climate: Bitter winter cold — including “freezing temperatures, rain and snow,” Nikhil writes — and aftershocks, along with the lack of shelter facing many survivors, have made relief more urgent than ever — but also more complicated and delayed.

🌍 Global: The Turkish city of Gaziantep, which is located right in the earthquake’s epicenter, is also home to “the largest refugee population on earth — survivors, most of them, of the brutal, decade-long Syrian civil war.”

🇸🇾 Syria: The areas of northern Syria hit by the earthquake “are largely controlled by different opposition and rebel groups, a legacy of the civil war that has raged for more than a decade in that country,” Nikhil writes. “Part of the northwest is controlled by Turkey, another by a rebel group with links to al-Qaeda; and the northeast is in the grip of Kurdish-led groups, backed by the U.S. and opposed by Turkey.” Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, who is under international sanctions, controls the rest of the country. The Assad regime has demanded that all aid come through Damascus, complicating aid deliveries to the northern regions held by rebel groups.

🇹🇷 Turkey: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been in power for two decades, faces an approaching election this year and harsh criticism of how his government has responded to the earthquake so far. A temporary block of social media this week affected people’s ability to share information about rescues and relief efforts.

📉 Economics: The disaster has also dealt a blow to Turkish financial markets. On Thursday, the ratings agency Fitch estimated that economic losses could reach more than $4 billion.

💠 NEWS IN CONTEXT

5 things we learned about Chinese spy balloons this week

One week ago, the nation was transfixed by a Chinese balloon flying over the U.S., and the Pentagon seemed to be downplaying the risks. One week later, U.S. officials have gone to great lengths to publicize the risks and describe what they say is a worldwide problem of such incursions by China. And on Friday, the U.S. went so far as to shoot down another flying object — this one the size of a car, according to the Pentagon — that was hovering over Alaska.

A lot has happened in one week.

The tables have turned in the Chinese balloon saga — the observer is now being observed. Since the balloon was shot down off the South Carolina coast on Saturday, Navy divers have already salvaged some of the remnants in the Atlantic. Those remnants, along with U.S. observation of the balloon while it was still in flight, have helped shed light on its mission. – Lili Pike, China Reporter

• Keep reading Lili’s story for more on what we’ve learned about China’s spy balloons.

💠 MORE FROM GRID

• Fashion’s reckoning with PFAS: The fashion industry has used so-called forever chemicals, known by manufacturers as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), because they help to make clothing water-repellent and stain-resistant. Many other consumer products companies also use PFAS, Khaya Himmelman reports. But studies have also shown that the chemicals can have permanent effects on our health — including liver damage and cancer. Read more on what we know about PFAS and the ongoing controversy.

• A “centrist” GOP position on abortion? The end of Roe v. Wade last year also brought an end to unity among “Republicans across the conservative spectrum” on abortion, Sophie Tatum reports. While those most opposed to abortion are seeking a total ban, others have also moved to support “heartbeat bills." “But the Republicans who say those options are too extreme have widely divergent ideas about what common-ground abortion legislation would look like,” she writes. See how some Republicans are trying to find a position that’s palatable to a wider swath of voters.

• Crypto’s missing from Super Bowl ads: Ahead of Super Bowl Sunday, revisit Benjamin Powers’ story from Wednesday on how crypto commercials are conspicuously absent in this year’s lineup after dominating it in 2022. (Last year’s game was even called the “Crypto Bowl.”) Learn more about what happened and what that says about the broader industry.

💠 MY READING LIST

• Elon Musk fires a top Twitter engineer over his declining view count (Platformer)

• Caroline Polachek Loves Mess (Vulture)

• A ‘Wild Boar’ trained by Yandex (Meduza)

• The Death of the Smart Shopper (The Atlantic)

💠 THE GRID GRAPHIC

💠 GRID’S MOST READ TODAY

• Estimated number of Russian troops killed and wounded in Ukraine is ‘approaching 200,000’

• The U.S. effort to arm Ukraine starts in Scranton, Pennsylvania

• Is an Arctic ‘Cold War’ coming? How climate change and the war in Ukraine are driving tensions.

• New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern was a global icon and historically popular leader at home. Why did she resign?

👋 That’s all for today. Have a great rest of your Friday. –Cameron

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