back in december, the optimism of the ukrainian forces was fading. there were fears it would be a bad winter and the russians were targeting generating stations and heating plants. but ukrainian engineers worked like crazy to restore power. and anyway, the winter wasn t that bad. now some military experts in the west are even daring to suggest that the russian army might simply collapse over the next few months. who knows? president xi jinping of china has presented himself as a deal maker in the war, but his proposals have so far been pretty vague and, perhaps not surprisingly, much more favourable to his friend vladimir putin than to ukraine. there s less noise about a chinese invasion of taiwan, but many taiwanese leaders think it ll happen by 2029. in the us, since december, ex president trump has been accused of various crimes and been sued successfully for one of them. yet his popularity with the republican party has soared, while his main rival, ron desantis, has faded
back in december, the optimism of the ukrainian forces was fading. there were fears it would be a bad winter and the russians were targeting generating stations and heating plants. but ukrainian engineers worked like crazy to restore power. and anyway, the winter wasn t that bad. now some military experts in the west are even daring to suggest that the russian army might simply collapse over the next few months. who knows? president xi jinping of china has presented himself as a deal maker in the war, but his proposals have so far been pretty vague and, perhaps not surprisingly, much more favourable to his friend vladimir putin than to ukraine. there s less noise about a chinese invasion of taiwan, but many taiwanese leaders think it ll happen by 2029. in the us, since december, ex president trump has been accused of various crimes and been sued successfully for one of them. yet his popularity with the republican party has soared, while his main rival, ron desantis, has faded
jets to ukraine. we start with the devastating earthquakes which have rocked southern turkey and northern syria and are now known to have killed more than 11,700 people. turkey s president erdogan has been defending his government s response to the disaster on a visit to some of the worst affected areas. we ll have more on that shortly. but first, with the search operations ongoing in the rubble of collapsed buildings, dramatic pictures continue to emerge of rescues in both countries. cheering. this was the moment that rescuers hauled a boy onto a stretcher moments after he was rescued from the rubble two days after the earthquake. there were also cheers ofjubilation at being able to save his life. there have been other glimmers of hope in an otherwise grim landscape of devastation and death. our correspondent, anna foster, has been in the village of karamanmaras. i was watching them take bodies out of here last night and again this morning. it is pulling aside all of this
many of whom were already in dire need of humanitarian aid. our other main story this hour ambulance workers join nurses taking strike action in what is the biggest ever nhs walkout in england over pay disputes. we have been discussing this coming year from april s pay with the unions. we have the process through the pay review body. it s an independent process and we re keen to get the evidence that reflects the pressure that the nhs has been under in the wider context in terms of inflation. the head teacher of one of the uk s top private schools has been found dead, along with her husband and 7 year old daughter. a former girlfriend of the influencer andrew tate tells the bbc he encouraged her to work for his adult webcam company and was controlling and manipulative. and beyonce breaks records at the grammys and harry styles picks up album of the year at the music awards. good afternoon. rescue efforts continue after powerful earthquakes struck southern turkey and syria