Rescuers are digging using their bare hands as they work through the night to find survivors of earthquakes in Turkey which have killed at least 4,100 people. Thousands of buildings in Turkey and Syria were flattened on Monday after a series of tremors, including two measuring 7.8 and 7.5 in magnitude. There fears that there will be thousands more fatalities confirmed in the coming days, as emergency services battle to save people trapped under the rubble as temperatures plunge below freezing. Many of those unaccounted for nearly 24 hours later had been sleeping in their beds when the first quake struck in the early hours of Monday morning, with the shaking causing entire apartments blocks to buckle and collapse.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 7.8 quake struck at 4:17 a.m. local time. Scores of aftershocks followed, authorities said. Hours later, a 7.5 magnitude quake struck more than 60 miles away. https://t.co/EXzuBKjsXR pic.twitter.com/vwZyD8hlX8
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) February 6, 2023
State of the Union has Americans demanding answers from President Biden on top concerns https://t.co/4maDTwbS8F
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 7, 2023
➤GENERAL ADMITS U-S HAS 'AWARENESS GAP': A senior U.S. general responsible for bringing down a Chinese spy balloon said on Monday the military had not detected previous spy balloons before the one that appeared on Jan. 28 over the United States and called it an "awareness gap." The Pentagon said over the weekend that Chinese spy balloons had briefly flown over the United States at least three times during President Donald Trump's administration and one previously under President Joe Biden. Air Force General Glen VanHerck, head of U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command and Northern Command, said the latest balloon was 200 feet (60 meters) tall and the payload under it weighed a couple thousand pounds. He did not provide details on previous balloons, including where over the United States they flew. "I will tell you that we did not detect those threats, and that's a domain awareness gap," VanHerck said.