rocked two countries. more than 2,200 are dead in turkey and syria. thousands more injured. we ve got the latest details. a new republican criticism this morning of how the biden administration handled the suspected chinese spy balloon drifting for days over the u.s. before the military shot it down over the weekend. all this as president biden red december to address the nation tomorrow. a huge night for a star-packed grammy awards. that s bad bunny. we ll tell you who made history. we begin with that breaking news, a deadly catastrophe unfolding right now in tour key and syria. two powerful and devastating earthquakes striking jurs hours apart. 7.92 earth kwair quake near the city of gaziantep in turkey. that number only expected to rise as the tremors toppled buildings across the region. take a look at this moment. look at this. this whole building just comes down in the city just outside the epicenter collapsing in a matter of seconds. bystanders fleeing the scene
it is sunday, february the 5th. i am ali velshi. we begin today with a big balloon! a major metaphor and a geopolitical turning point in the wrong direction. yesterday, at 2:39 pm eastern standard time the united states military f 32 aircraft flying at 15,000 feet used a single air to air missile to shoot down what the united states says was a chinese around balloon. roughly six nautical miles off the coast of south carolina, while within u.s. territorial airspace. the blue crafted to the atlantic ocean creating a debris field at least seven mile spread out in monthly shallow water. the recovery is ongoing. that includes navy divers, the coast guard, another manned and unmanned savage vehicles. fbi counter intelligence agency are also on board the vehicles. officials say there is plenty to learn from the debris. they add they have also been studying the balloon since it first entered u.s. airspace in the lucian islands of alaska on january the 28. the balloons, which had mane
we begin this hour with breaking news. right now, thousands of flights in the u.s. are delayed or cancelled after a major outage overnight to an faa computer system that provides safety updates for pilots normal flight operations are slowly resuming after the faa lifted a ground stop about an hour ago. the domino effect of the pause is being felt throughout the country. according to flight aware, more than 4,000 flights are delayed. over 800 are cancelled. the white house directed the department of transportation to investigate. the president himself saying he has spoken with the transportation success tear pete buttigieg about getting to the bottom of it. joining us now is ann tone ya hilton. what s the latest after the outage? reporter: there s a lot of travelers who have been checking their phones for hours. this is due to everything you just described. this is a critical function that gives an important realtime safety information. it alerts them to abnormal, unusual
at its peak last summer, but still higher than the start of presidency for president biden. jose. thank you so much. time for a check of headlines beyond our borders. in chile raging wildfires are responsible for at least 24 deaths and more than 500 injuries. in just the past week, fires have burned more of the country than they typically do in an entire year. iranian state media reports that iran s supreme leader approved a pardon for tens of thousands prisoners including some arrested in anti-government protests. it s part of a yearly pardon that happens before the anniversary of the islamic revolution. as you can remember, the pardons come with caveats. the state news agency says that prisoners don t qualify if they are dual nationals charged with spying for foreign agencies or being affiliated with groups hostile to the islamic republic.
or commuting the sentences of tens of thousands of prisoners. that includes many people who were arrested in connection with the recent anti government protests in the country, after the death of 22-year-old, mahsa amini, which the announcement cited was, quote, of the result of the incitement propaganda of the enemy. amini died in a hospital under suspicious circumstances last september after she was arrested for allegedly violating the country s strictly enforced islamic dress code for women. while law enforcement said she suffered a heart attack, witnesses said that amini had been beaten by the police. her death triggered large-scale protests across iran and caught the attention of the international community, as iranian officials tried to downplay amini s death and violently crackdown on protesters. four men were publicly hanged for taking part in the protests, and last november, iran acknowledge knowledge that around 300 people have been in connection with the protests. human righ