Vox Sentences - The search for China spy balloon debris

Downed spy balloon increases US-China tension; devastating earthquake kills thousands in Turkey and Syria.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Jariel Arvin.

Surveillance balloon inflates US-China tension

Peter Zay/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

• US Navy divers worked to recover debris from a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon on Monday that was shot down off the Atlantic coast after flying over sensitive military sites. [Bloomberg / Daniel Flatley, Jenny Leonard, and Iain Marlow]
• US military officials hope to salvage enough material from the wreckage to determine the balloon’s purpose and surveillance capabilities. [BBC / Sam Cabral and Madeline Halpert]
• China accused the US of overreacting and damaging efforts to ease strained tensions; Beijing insists the balloon was conducting meteorological research when it flew off course. [Associated Press / Emily Wang Fujiyama]
• Several Chinese balloons flew over the US during the Trump administration. The trips were never reported because officials thought they were brief and insignificant. [NPR / Greg Myre]
• The strong responses show how poor relations have become — a problem US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s now-postponed Chinese trip sought to improve. [Vox / Jen Kirby]

Catastrophic quakes kill thousands in Turkey and Syria

• At least 2,600 people died and thousands more were injured after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Turkey and Syria Monday — one of the region’s most devastating earthquakes in a century. [Vox / Jen Kirby]
• The region suffered aftershocks, including a second 7.5 magnitude quake. [CNN]
• The earthquake was particularly deadly because of fault lines in the area. Also, the powerful tremors began during the early morning hours when people had little warning. [BBC / Pallab Ghosh]
• Emergency workers in both countries battled frigid temperatures as they searched for survivors in the rubble of thousands of collapsed buildings. International governments have also sent teams and offered assistance. [New York Times]

📍 If you read just one story

Vox’s Kelsey Piper explains how to help — and how not to — in the aftermath of a natural disaster [Vox / Kelsey Piper]

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This week mark’s the 30th anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act, and a renewed push for a paid leave program at the federal level. [Vox / Li Zhou]

• Authorities will release toxic chemicals into the air from five derailed tanker cars near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border that have been at risk of exploding since Friday. [USA Today / Ashley R. Williams] 
• A neo-Nazi leader and his girlfriend were arrested and charged with planning an attack on Baltimore power stations. [Washington Post / Rachel Weiner and Jasmine Hilton] 
• Just 37 percent of Democrats want President Joe Biden to seek a second term in 2024, according to AP-NORC polling released Monday. [AP / Josh Boak and Hannah Fingerhut]

“There’s doubt on both sides and that’s partly what’s so interesting about all of this. I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle of all of this.”

[Iain Boyd, a professor of aerospace engineering sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, on the surveillance balloon / BBC]

Hullaballoon

The balloon crisis is blown up. Politico’s Alex Ward deflates it for us.

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