Al Jazeera / Major earthquake in Turkey, Syria kills at least 500 people

• A major earthquake of magnitude 7.8 struck central Turkey and northwest Syria, killing more than 500 people and injuring hundreds as buildings collapsed across the region, triggering searches for survivors in the rubble.
• The earthquake struck at 4:17am local time (01:17 GMT) on Monday, as people were sleeping, at a depth of about 17.9km (11 miles). It was also felt in Cyprus and Lebanon.
• Turkey’s Vice President Fuat Oktay said 284 people had been killed and 2,323 people were injured, as authorities scrambled rescue teams and supply aircraft to the affected area while declaring a “level 4 alarm” that calls for international assistance. Footage on broadcaster CNNTurk showed severe damage to the historic Gaziantep Castle.
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Twitter that “search and rescue teams were immediately dispatched” to the areas hit by the earthquake. He also spoke by telephone with the governors of eight affected provinces to gather information on the situation and rescue efforts, his office said in a statement.
• The Guardian / Destruction strikes at night as huge earthquake rocks Turkey and Syria – in pictures

Financial Times – Roman Olearchyk / Ukraine to replace defence minister in first major reshuffle since invasion

• Ukraine defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov is set to be replaced by Kyiv’s head of military intelligence, legislators in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s party said on Sunday. 
• The planned reshuffle was meant to move Reznikov to another senior government position, according to several MPs, but the lawyer-turned-politician said he would reject the shift. Maj Gen Kyrylo Budanov will become minister of defence, lawmakers said. 
• The change will be put to a vote in Ukraine’s parliament over the next few days, reports suggested. If confirmed, it would be the biggest shake-up in the Zelenskyy administration since Russia’s president Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24 last year.
• David Arakhamia, parliamentary head of Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party, said: “War dictates personnel policy. Time and circumstances call for strengthening and regrouping.” “Oleksiy Reznikov is being transferred within the government to the position of minister for strategic industries to strengthen military-industrial co-operation, which is absolutely logical, given his expertise,” Arakhamia said. He pointed to Reznikov’s experience over the past year in securing weaponry from Ukraine’s western backers.

South China Morning Post – Kawala Xie / China lodges complaint with US over balloon downing

• China lodged a formal diplomatic complaint with the US representative in Beijing on Sunday after Washington shot down its balloon, saying the action would “seriously hamper” the progress that has been made on stabilising bilateral ties.
• The foreign ministry statement issued on Monday morning said foreign affairs vice-minister Xie Feng lodged “solemn representations” to the US embassy in Beijing on behalf of the Chinese government after the civilian airship was “attacked” by US forces.
• “What the US has done has seriously affected and damaged both sides’ efforts and progress in stabilising China-US relations since the Bali meeting,” Xie said, referring to talks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden during the Group of 20 summit in November.
• “China resolutely opposes and strongly protests this and urges the US not to take further actions that harm China’s interests, and not to escalate or expand the tensions.”
• Financial Times – Gideon Rachman / How the spy balloon popped a US-China rapprochement

Financial Times – Michael Fathers, Benjamin Parkin and Farhan Bokhari / Pervez Musharraf, president of Pakistan, 1943 – 2023

• After seizing power in 1999, General Pervez Musharraf proclaimed himself Pakistan’s “chief executive”. Over the next decade, he likened himself to a range of historical leaders, including Kemal Atatürk, Napoleon Bonaparte and Abraham Lincoln. He believed he was Pakistan’s saviour, and maintained that only his military approach could rescue the country from a self-serving political establishment. 
• The general, who has died aged 79, set out to free Pakistan from the “sham democracy” of its civilian elite, and to restore the nation’s economy. During nearly 10 years in power between 1999 and 2008, he championed “enlightened moderation”, a term he dreamt up to marry Islam and secularism and justify his rule. But his strategy failed, and he resigned in disgrace in 2008. He spent most of his final years practically confined to his Dubai home, in self-imposed exile. 
• Musharraf came to power in a bloodless military coup in 1999 that began as he circled over Karachi in a civilian airliner running short of fuel. He had learnt on board that he had been sacked by the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif and would not be allowed to land. But a fellow general took control of the airport, and the army ushered in Pakistan’s fourth era of military rule in the 52 years since its creation. 
• His seizure of power was welcomed at the time as a way of ending widespread corruption and Sharif’s increasing authoritarianism. But the goodwill began to evaporate after a legally suspect referendum in 2002 gave Musharraf five years in office as president.

Our opinion reads for today:

• Project Syndicate – Helmut K. Anheier / Germany’s reckoning
• Foreign Affairs – Andrei Kolesnikov / How Russians learned to stop worrying and love the war