voice—over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. in february 2023, two powerful earthquakes hit southern turkey and northern syria. more than 56,000 people were killed. almost half of them lived in turkey's hatay province. across the earthquake region, 1.5 million people lost their homes. hundreds of thousands have left but some stayed.

and new construction plans have angered locals. our world has been following the women who chose to stay, to rebuild their lives and their community. ayfer has lived in antakya, in hatay province, her whole life. it's been two months since the earthquake.

85% of antakya's infrastructure was destroyed when the 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck. it forced a million people to leave the region, but ayfer has decided to stay with her husband and two sons.

in the first months after the earthquakes, ayferjoined volunteer organisations to hand out aid.

she also organised community gatherings to bring villagers together. as survivors struggled to build new lives, their children's

education became a casualty of the quake. for months, there were no lessons at all. most children now go to makeshift schools. in september, damaged buildings in the village start to be torn down. ayfer's son's school was among them.

the school was one of 300,000 damaged buildings across the earthquake region that needed to be demolished. so far, this has created 210 million tonnes of rubble. samandag is a town 20km west of the city of antakya. it's one of the region's key agricultural areas. singing.

it's also one of 18 locations where authorities have dumped the rubble from the earthquake. it created dust which, according to some experts, contains deadly toxins like asbestos. injune, the ministry of environment, urbanisation and climate change said it was effectively managing dust and asbestos and focusing on keeping both people and the environment safe.

one—third of the people here relied on agriculture to make a living. most of that revenue has now gone.

sings. three months after the earthquakes came a bitter election campaign. many had blamed president erdogan for the state's slow response, but he held on to power. who's to blame and what to do about it are likely to feature heavily in this year's local elections. some of the rebuild is taking place on the outskirts of antakya in the village of dikmece. meryem lives here with her husband and two children in a container in their garden.

some construction is happening, but it's limited and controversial. new laws after the earthquake allowed authorities to take over local land for rebuilding, including meryem's olive lands.

toki, the housing development administration of turkey,

and the ministry of environment say it's a legal way to speed up the urgent rebuilding process in areas hit by the earthquakes.

when diggers arrived in dikmece, local people clashed with the police brought in to keep order. the people of dikmece have now filed lawsuits.

they claim the land was taken from them unfairly. the court stopped the construction work but let it restart two weeks later. there's still no final decision. it's been ten months since the earthquakes. an estimated 165,000 families are still living in container villages across the region, including meryem's childhood friend ipek.

almost a year since the earthquake, more homes are being built in meryem's village.

more women in the region have started to join the protests.

saturday brought a split with sunshine for scotland and ireland and fresher air than friday but still mild. for the next few days it will stay predominantly mild and blustery with thicker cloud coming. 0n with thicker cloud coming. on saturday, looming large on the atlantic, the rain coming in for sunday. cloudierfor for sunday. cloudier for northern ireland for sunday. cloudierfor northern ireland and scotland and northern england as well. some of that rain pushing southwards towards lincolnshire but the wettest weather reserved for parts of western and southern scotland with warnings in force. potential rain for northern ireland but cloudier than saturday than it

is for northern england. further south, is for northern england. furthersouth, misty is for northern england. further south, misty and murky around the coast and the hills. likely less sunshine than a saturday but it is mild. slightly windier day with gales to the north. the northern isles should stay in if the brighter, showery, colder weather with showers still coming. the warning run through saturday evening and overnight so wait for much of thunder and there will be some snow as it hits the cold weather. for most are predominantly mild night sunday into monday. frost in the north and east and away the snow is falling. rain continues to fall through monday. a good couple of inches at lower levels. double if not triple over the higher ground. really very wet. flooding impacts but remaining mild. temperatures are normally around 17. brisk

wind further south and cloud laden westerly. some drizzle around over the coast and hills. by tuesday, the cold air taking hold further north, wintry showers, possibly to lower levels. a today with thicker cloud for parts of northern england, northern ireland, in. aftera northern england, northern ireland, in. after a colder start, we should see this next area of low pressure. that could pose a risk of snow into the northern edge and some rain further south. an ongoing battle between the chilly air, and that milder atlanticare air in the south. 0nce and that milder atlanticare air in the south. once that clears away, still colder in the

north. —— atlantic. this next area of low pressure with a big question. you can see tightly packed isobars and once it clears out of the way, that is when we see the cold arctic air pushing southwards towards the end of next week at the beginning of the following week. milderairwrapped beginning of the following week. milder air wrapped around the area of low pressure but potentially colder arctic air but the uncertainty lies in exactly where that area of low pressure is going to spin up and how far north. at the moment it looks as if we are said to see a spell of chilly weather as we head towards the end of next week between now more rain. warnings on the website.

live from washington, this is bbc news. the us and uk carry out more strikes on iran backed houthi positions in yemen — as washington continues its military response to the deaths of three us soldiers and houthi attacks on ships in the red sea. northern ireland's devolved government is restored after a two—year hiatus. sinn fein's michelle 0'neill makes history as stormont�*s first irish nationalist leader. presidentjoe biden saunters to victory in south carolina, where democrats held their first primary election of the year. hello, i'm sumi somaskanda. we start the programme in the middle east, where the us and uk have led fresh coalition strikes

against the iran—backed houthis in yemen.