Biden declares in State of Union America is ‘unbowed, unbroken’

By Zeke Miller & Seung Min Kim

Fears grow for untold numbers buried by Turkey earthquake

By Mehmet Guzel, Ghaith Alsayed & Suzan Fraser

The Associated Press

NURDAGI, Turkey—Rescuers raced against time early Wednesday to pull survivors from the rubble before they succumbed to cold weather two days after an earthquake tore through southern Turkey and war-ravaged northern Syria. The death toll climbed above 7,700 and was expected to rise further.

The last two days have brought dramatic rescues, including small children emerging from mounds of debris more than 30 hours after Monday’s pre-dawn quake. But there was also widespread despair and growing anger at the slow pace of rescue efforts in some areas.

“It’s like we woke up to hell,” said Osman Can Taninmis, whose family members were still beneath the rubble in Hatay, Turkey’s hardest-hit province. “We can’t respond to absolutely anything. Help isn’t coming, can’t come. We can’t reach anyone at all. Everywhere is destroyed.”

In Syria, residents found a crying newborn still connected by the umbilical cord to her mother, who was dead. The baby was the only member of her family to survive a building collapse in the small town of Jinderis, relatives told The Associated Press.

Search teams from nearly 30 countries and aid pledges poured in. But with the damage spread across several cities and towns—some isolated by Syria’s ongoing conflict—voices crying for help from within mounds of rubble fell silent.

The backdrop of the annual address was markedly different from the previous two years, with a Republican speaker sitting behind Biden and GOP lawmakers in the audience preparing to scrutinize both his administration and his policies. He sought to reassure the nation that his stewardship of the country has delivered results both at home and abroad, as he also set out to prove his fitness for a likely re-election bid.

The challenges for Biden are many: economic uncertainty, a wearying war in Ukraine, growing tensions with China and more. And signs of the past trauma at the Capitol, most notably the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol, were unavoidable, with a large fence encircling the complex as lawmakers and those in attendance faced tighterthan-usual security measures.

Rather than rolling out flashy policy proposals, the president set out to offer a reassuring assessment of the nation’s condition, declaring that two years after the Capitol attack, America’s democracy was “unbowed and unbroken.”

“The story of America is a story of progress and resilience,” he said, highlighting record job creation during his tenure as the country has emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Biden also pointed to areas of bipartisan progress in his first two years in office, including on states’ vital infrastructure and high tech manufacturing. And he says, “There is no reason we can’t work together in this new Congress.”

“The people sent us a clear message. Fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict, gets us nowhere,” Biden said. “And that’s always been my vision for the country: to restore the soul of the nation, to rebuild the backbone of America—the middle class—to unite the country.”

“We’ve been sent here to finish the job!”

The president took to the House rostrum at a time when just a quarter