this was the moment he arrived at the prime minister s residence in rome, where he was greeted by italian president sergio mattarella. shortly after this, he met italian prime minister giorgia meloni. she s been one of ukraine s more vocal backers, although polls suggest that italian people overall are opposed to sending ukraine more weapons. as are some of her coalition partners. live now to the bbc s sofia bettiza in rome. out, members of the rmt union are back on picket lines. another 24 hour strike at their long running dispute, with live now to the bbc s sofia bettiza in rome. president zelensky has had a meeting with his counterparts. this private meeting lasted for 25 minutes and some of these things discussed were economic functions against russia, the kidnapping against ukrainian children, and they need to set up. after the meeting, president zelensky said i want to thank italy each italian one by one for to show italy s continued support for ukraine. quite a few sym
in south africa. hello, i m celia hatton. welcome to the programme. it s believed that a convoy of buses carrying 300 american civilians has left the sudanese capital, khartoum, bound for the coastal city of port sudan 800 kilometres to the east. it s the first evacuation from sudan involving americans who are not diplomats. the operation is taking place under the protection of us armed drones flying overhead. as washington ramps up its evacuation plans, many other countries are winding down, having already repatriated thousands of their nationals. journalists in port sudan say the quayside is packed with hundreds of yemenis and syrians waiting to board ships that will take them to saudi arabia. a ceasefire announced by the two rival military factions in sudan has not held and there s been heavy fighting in khartoum and the western darfur region. one of the generals, who leads the rapid support forces, the rsf, the paramilitary force fighting sudan s army, has told the bbc
were killed in turkey and syria by massive earthquakes as the search for survivors continues. cheering. dramatic footage emerges of one success. a family of six are pulled alive from the rubble, in the syrian city, of idlib. many in turkey say the government isn t doing enough as the president sees the destruction for himself, and counts his country s dead. as of now, unfortunately the number of deceased is 8,574. the number of injured is 49,133. the number of collapsed buildings is 6,444. hello there. welcome to bbc news. president volodymyr zelensky has met king charles at buckingham palace. the ukrainian leader is in the uk on a surprise visit. this is the moment of that historic meeting. a warm handshake before conversation with king charles iii. a little earlier during lunch time, the president addressed the pa ct westminster pact westminster hall. in his address he said he was confident that the effect of winning the war will be a warning to future enemies, he s now lef
we begin in france, where unions will be staging strike action today against the government s pension reform plans. the government is aiming to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 years. today marks the sixth day of strikes and protests since mid january, and unions say it will be the biggest yet with workers across a range of sectors expected to mobilise. teachers, gas and electricity workers, train drivers, and industrial workers are all expected to join. part of the french government plan is also to raise the minimum pension to 1,200 euro a month, which is over 550 euro higher than the current minimum figure. but unions want more due to rising inflation. let s go live to paris now and talk to tomasz michalski associate professor of economics at the hec business school in paris. we spoke about these injanuary but they are still continuing into march. but they are still continuing into march. , , . , , into march. the public support is there for into march. the public