🌏 Deadly Earthquake Hits Turkey And Syria, Mexico's First Woman In Space Taking Country To A New Space Era And More

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More than 36,900 people have died after an earthquake struck Turkey and Syria on Monday Feb. 6.

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck at 4:17 a.m local time in the south-eastern Turkish city of Gaziantep and felt throughout northwest Syria.

A second earthquake and multiple aftershocks were felt throughout the day and endangered rescue missions.

Tens of thousands of people have been injured and WHO officials expect the number of casualties to rise by “eight fold”.

Aerial views show cities and villages completely destroyed.

Videos shared on social media showed the moment entire buildings collapse to the ground.

“It was like the apocalypse,” a Syrian man told Reuters.

“There were 12 families under there. Not a single one came out. Not one,” another man from Aleppo, Syria, said.

The disaster comes as Syria continues to face a humanitarian crisis from an ongoing civil war.

The European Union and the UN have mobilized and sent rescue teams to Turkey and Syria.

Turkey’s President Recep Erdoğan has announced a seven day mourning period and declared a three month emergency state for 10 Turkish provinces.

More On The Turkey-Syria Earthquake

🇹🇷 A Turkish dad refused to let go of the hand of his dead daughter, who had been buried under rubble, and it’s absolutely heartbreaking.

🇸🇾 A video of a young boy celebrating with rescue workers who pulled him out from under rubble has provided a much needed glimpse of hope as the death toll from the Turkey-Syria quake rises by the day.

🇸🇾 A seven-year-old Syrian girl who shielded her younger brother reportedly for 17 hours while they were trapped under rubble have been rescued safely along with her brother.

Also Happening Around The World

🇦🇺 Australia’s central bank has announced the country’s new $5 note, which previously featured Queen Elizabeth II, will not include King Charles III but a design honoring Indigenous culture and history instead.

🇻🇦Pope Francis has openly called laws that make it illegal to be LGBTQ a “sin” and an injustice, saying that God loves LGBTQ people.

As a young girl, Katya Echazarreta dreamed of going to space, and in 2022, her dream became a reality when she became the first Mexican-born woman to travel to space.

Now she hopes to inspire others like her and grow Mexico's aerospace industry.

Echazarreta was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and moved to the US when she was seven years old.

Graduating from UCLA as an electrical engineer, she has worked on several NASA space projects, including Perseverance, the first rover sent to Mars to find life.

Later on, the 27-year-old engineer was chosen among 7,000 candidates by the space organization, Space For Humanity, to be part of Jeff Bezo's Blue Origin program, a project aimed to make space flight more accessible.

In June 2022, she travelled to space as part of a six person crew and made history as the first Mexican-born and youngest American woman to travel to space.

Echazarreta understands Mexico lacks the same opportunities as other countries and hopes to create them for future engineers.

“To me, it was sad to talk to engineers that studied the same degree as me, and they are fixing mobile phones, washing machines, or they dropped engineer, and now they are paramedics or driving an Uber. I understand this reality,” she told Reuters.

In December, she addressed the Mexican Congress to work on a bill that will "open the doors to Mexico's new space era".

The bill hopes to regulate the aerospace industry in Mexico and even allow private companies to launch rockets in the country.

“I would love to see a mission to space composed of Mexicans, selected and trained in Mexico,” she said.

The pet fish of Japanese YouTuber, Mutekimaru, have gone viral after they “illegally” spent their owner’s money while gaming.

Mutekimaru – whose channel is known for letting his fish control and play games – had left his fish alone to play on Jan. 16.

The fish, who can play using a visual controller that translates their movements into button inputs, were then captured on a live stream buying items from the Nintendo Store while playing the video game streaming Pokemon Violet on his Nintendo Switch.

The fish first found their way to the homepage and changed Mutekimaru’s registered nickname.

After that, they proceeded to the Nintendo eShop and revealed Mutekimaru’s credit card information to the hundreds of viewers watching.

Since Mutekimaru had all his personal details and credit card information saved on the device, the fish logged in and added 500 yen (US$3.85) to the account.

The fish then launched the Nintendo Switch Online, redeemed a new Nintendo Switch Sport character and downloaded the Nintendo 64.

In their final move, the fish placed the Switch into sleep mode and were unable to do more damage.

Realizing the fish’ mischief afterwards, Mutekimaru contacted customer service to ask for a refund, showing video proof that the fish were using his account and spending his money unintentionally.

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