Good morning from Istanbul. Big fires in Turkey's south have prompted evacuations: www.reuters.com/business/env...

Satellite data screenshot from Copernicus fire locator this morning

Mid press-scrum on the Ukraine-Russia peace talks today, about an hour after I found out I’d been laid off due to budget cuts at @wgbh.org and @theworld.org We’re living through interesting times. Will miss covering it with some of the best people I’ve ever met.

Ukrainians say they are unable to respond to Russian proposal today, because they only received it during the meeting a couple of hours ago. “We will provide an evaluation when we are ready to do it.”

Following Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Istanbul today, coming on the heels of a weekend full of drone attacks. Ukrainian delegation is asking for an unconditional ceasefire of at least 30 days, exchange of all prisoners of war, and the return of Ukrainian children taken to Russia.

Wanted to explain another social media silence. Or maybe all of them – over the past six years of living in Turkey.

www.durriebouscaren.com/post/on-prot...

For years, NPRmageddon has been this legendary Twitter feed that makes apocalypse-themed images of public radio people, I've secretly always wished they would find me but I wasn't really in a newsroom and i am HONORED you guys, thank you 😅❤️ (They don't have a BlueSky maalesef)

Before you ask -- I've always cooked at home, I didn't change my workouts.

What changed was my budget. The cheapest foods in Turkey are fresh fruits and veggies from the market. Dry beans and lentils. Meat, beer and cheese were too pricey to buy regularly. So I adapted.

Heard your timeline needed a cleanse 😘

'Earthquakes don't kill people -- buildings kill people,' one survivor told me. Everywhere we went, even in the hardest-hit areas, we would see the ruins of collapsed buildings directly next to apartment blocks that survived. The solution here is clear.

Every time I go back to the earthquake zone, I'm blown away by the resilience of people. How life returned to the rubble and communities began to rebuild. Local projects to help kids process loss -- like a surf camp in Hatay. But this is not a feel-good story.

Officially, at least 55,000 people in Turkey and Syria died in the Feb. 6 earthquakes -- the death toll is likely much higher. It left millions homeless overnight. As families mourned the dead, they struggled to find shelter, living in their cars and building makeshift tents.

Some tunneled in to the rubble themselves -- rescuing friends, family, neighbors, strangers. They salvaged farm equipment, used hatchets or their bare hands. Some could still talk to people trapped in the rubble, at least for a couple of days. Then their voices went silent.

February 6, 2023. For days, families sat outside the ruins of their homes, burning their belongings to stay warm, waiting for rescuers to extract their loved ones from the rubble. Even if they were dead, one woman told me -- she didn't want her family to be alone.

Just a little love letter from an Istanbul winter ❄️

Hi BlueSky! I’m a reporter for @theworld.org, producing segments from Turkey, Iran and beyond. You can also find me on Instagram @durriethekid. Let me know what you’d like to learn about, and welcome to my little piece of Istanbul 💜