tour, has been to london, has been to paris, and now he will appeal to eu leaders more widely for more help withjets and long range eu leaders more widely for more help with jets and long range weapons to bolster kyiv s defences against the expected spring offensive. almost a year to the day that russia invaded ukraine. let s listen the welcome given to president zelensky in brussels. applause we are here today on this historic occasion to welcome the president of ukraine, volodymyr zelensky, to the european parliament. this is an extraordinary moment, an extraordinary moment, an extraordinary time. it has been almost one year since the brutal, illegal invasion of sovereign ukraine by russia. in all that time, mr president, your leadership has inspired your people, inspired every corner of the globe. when the world thinks of ukraine, they think of heroes, fighting the odds. of david beating goliath, they think of the icons of snake island, the warriors of mariupol, the libera
action in what will be the biggest ever nhs walk out in england. we are still hopefully on track and getting waiting lists below a year at the end of march. the more strikes we have, the more challenging that becomes. at the moment, ourstaff challenging that becomes. at the moment, our staff are working incredibly hard to get the waiting lists down. let us know how the strikes are affecting you and do you support them? you can get in touch with your thoughts on this story and the rest of the days news by contacting me on twitter @annitabbc or using the hashtag #bbc your questions we re bringing you special coverage of breaking news this hour a powerful earthquake which has struck northern syria and south eastern turkey, killing more than 640 people. the tremor had a magnitude of seven point eight, and struckjust before dawn. the epicentre was in the turkish province of gaziantep but buildings collapsed hundreds of miles away, and there are also reports of many casualtie
and turkey issues an international appeal for help. we ll be taking a look at how world leaders are responding. welcome to the programme. we begin in turkey and northern syria, where two powerful earthquakes have killed more than 2,000 people. many more injured and still missing. we ll look at the damage done and the rescue operations. first, let s see where this happened. the first earthquake had a magnitude of 7.8 the epicentre in turkey s gaziantep province. there have been almost 30 other shocks in the region, all powerful enough to magnify the damage. a second major earthquake 130km north of the first one. these pictures show buildings collapsing in south east turkey. the country has declared a state of emergency. here s president erdogan. translation: we do not know how far the number of dead and injured - will rise as debris removal works continue in many buildings in the earthquake zone. our hope is that we will recover from this disaster with the least loss of life
america s defence secretary says he s had a rare phone call with his russian counterpart in the aftermath of a collision between a russian fighter jet and a us drone. the race is now on to recover the wreckage of the unmanned aircraft. it s thought to be 1,200 metres deep in the black sea. russia has also said it will try to find the wreckage. meanwhile, america s top general said the whole incident was a result of russia s increasingly aggressive behaviour in the area. us defence secretary lloyd austin gave this update earlier. asi as i have said repeatedly, it s important that great powers be models of transparency and communication. and the united states will continue to fly and to operate were ever international law allows. and it is incumbent upon russia to operate its military aircraft in a safe and professional manner. 0ur diplomatic correspondent, james landale, has this report from kyiv. this is the kind of unmanned aircraft that crashed. an mq 9 reaper patrolling th