this is bbc news — welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm lewis vaughanjones and these are the latest headlines... aid agencies call for better access to the earthquake disaster zones from turkey to syria as the number of people killed in both countries rises to nearly 25,000. over on that side of the border there is the constant sound of sirens, of heavy machinery, of people working. there is none of that here. down there are small children removing the rubble. people are still being pulled out alive from under the rubble in turkey, more than 120 hours after the first earthquake struck. the un aid chief calls the scale of the disaster — and the response to it — unprecedented. what is so amazing is that people are still coming out of the rubble alive six days in. so it's shocking, it's also, in a perverse sense, quite heartening.

in other news, us fighterjets shoot down an unidentified aircraft over alaska after president biden gave the order to "seek and destroy". troops are trying to salvage the wreckage. three people have been arrested following clashes with police, outside a hotel providing refuge for asylum seekers on merseyside in north—west england. hello and welcome to the programme. we are going to start, of course, in turkey and syria, with the latest on the earthquakes there.

the united nations aid chief has described the earthquake in turkey and syria as the worst natural disaster to hit the region in a century. he has been speaking to our correspondence there, outlining some of the details, saying it was the worst natural disaster in a century. we can take you live now to present are again giving an address there. we are keeping and cross what he is saying. if he says any new lines or new details we will bring them to you a little later. right now i want to bring you to the difference between the aid response in turkey and in syria. quentin sommerville, our correspondent, is in harem in the north—west idlib province of syria, which is rebel—controlled. he found little sign of a relief effort, with local people, including children, left scouring through rubble for survivors. this is the town of harem in north—west syria. there is a bit of activity here, but nothing like you

this is the town of harem in north—west syria. there is a bit of activity here, but nothing like you see there in terms of activity on the other side, on the turkish side of the border. the border is literally just across that hill. the people here have lost about 700 buildings. another 4,000 or so are unsafe. so they are living in tents and if we just swing around here you can perhaps see the internally displaced people's camp that has been set up over there. they are also telling us that in terms of foreign aid, they have received next to nothing. some spanish doctors made it to some of their hospitals, but nothing else. the contrast here with what is going on in turkey is astonishing. over on that side of the border there is the constant sound of sirens, of heavy machinery, of people working. there is none of that here. down there are small children removing the rubble. while the international community isn't here, it is being left to small boys to remove the rubble from these broken buildings and to try and find bodies. and it is bodies they are trying to find now because they say that the time for looking for survivors has passed here, that that passed 2a hours ago. this is mainly a recovery mission, they are no longer rescuing people and the reason they are no longer rescuing people

is because the aid just didn't come quick enough. the extraordinary words there from quentin sommerville. 0ur chief international correspondent, lyse doucet, has been speaking to the un humanitarian chief, martin griffiths, on a visit to the turkish city of kahramanmaras. martin griffiths, you have seen so many disasters in so many different parts of the world. how does this compare? i think it is the worst natural disaster i have ever seen. and it is also the most extraordinary international response, as you know. we have more than 100 countries who have sent people here, so there's been an incredible response. but there is a need for it, as we see behind us. and what is so amazing is that people are still, as you know, lyse, coming out of the rubble alive six days in. so it is shocking. it is also, in a perverse sense, quite heartening. heartening in what way?

well, the response. the response. the fact that the people with great expertise who got here very quickly, committed, working day and night to do what is needed. that is remarkable and i hope that when we launch our appeals for both turkey and syria in the next day or so that we will get the generous donor response as well. what do they need the most now? what they need the most now is to come to a conclusion as to when they call off the rescue efforts, which is a really difficult question because of who is left behind. then, i think, as tedros from the who has said, really worried about medical next, particularly in north—west syria, where we have cholera already. but medical facilities here are obviously overwhelmed, as you know, so there is a huge need for urgent medical care, mobile clinics, field hospitals. i think the united kingdom is sending in a field hospital, for example. and then the period of humanitarian aid, the next

three months, for which we are appealing, which will cover shelter, livelihoods, food, nutrition and health care. and so, to give people a sense, those people who have had to leave their homes, that there is a stable future, a waiting room, even in this awful time. do you think there is a stable future awaiting them? you know how hard it is to raise money in a world where there is one disaster after another. well, i think it is going to be very difficult. it is going to be very difficult because there are a lot of needs on both sides and i think, as president erdogan has said, it is going to take a year to rebuild some of the houses... that is optimistic. i think it is optimistic. and in syria it is going to be much more difficult. the challenge about syria is it was bad enough in the north—west, as you know... the last rebel held area of syria. the last rebel—held area. ..bad enough before this and then all this came.

i think we can raise consciousness and money, just as we have seen the response here. we'll see. we'll see how those appeals go. but at least the agencies we are working with, the international agencies, the ngos and national ngos, we all know each other well, we have been working together for a long, many years in this region. that is an advantage. there's been a lot of criticism of the un across the border in syria, particularly in idlib province, they are saying, "you are letting politics get in the way of humanitarian relief because you're not there on the ground." distant whistling. distant shouting. well, we're not there on the ground, as you know, because the security council is only allowed a cross—border resolution these many years, which provides for un aid to go through a single crossing and to be delivered to the organisations there. this is not new. this is eight years old. why does that have to be there? why should the humanitarian needs

to be hostage to the gridlock of the people are asking, "why should the humanitarian needs to be hostage to the gridlock of the security council, where russia and china vetoed the un?" that is a long story, it is to do with the syrian government's claims for sovereignty, but i want to say this on that issue. i don't think it is right to give up hope that we will get access. we are looking very, very actively and firmly and hard for opening up two more crossing points... through turkey into... through turkey into the north—west, yes. in the coming days we are going to put a resolution before the security council. if anybody wants to veto it, let them do so. the case for those two additional crossing points is a black and white humanitarian case. this is not politics and people who say we are playing with politics, that is not fair. that was martin griffiths from the united nations. lets it to let take

you back live to turkey, this is president adam gannon of turkey speaking, we heard him talking earlier saying that a state of emergency has been declared to try and deal with the looting and unfortunately we have had an update on the number of deaths now to over 25,000. we'll be keeping our eyes and ears on present and again and any more details, we will them to a little later on in the programme. now i want to go to the latest on the war in ukraine. you may remember earlier in the last days and weeks president zelensky has been calling for fighterjets. we have an update on that. poland's president has cast doubt on whether his country can provide ukraine with the fighterjets that kyiv says it needs to win the war with russia. andrzej duda said any decision would have to be taken collectively by nato. in an interview for tomorrow's sunday with laura kuenssberg programme on the bbc, mr duda warned that by giving jets to ukraine, poland would end up weakening its own military defences.

translation: we think that this requires a decision by the allies l anyway, which means that we have to make a joint decision. also, due to the fact that there is a very serious need for maintenance of f—i6s, if they were to be deployed somewhere, it is not only about the jets. you also need maintenance and technical background, technical servicing and so on and so forth. so it is not enough just to send a few planes, a fewjets. and a problem that we are facing, at least in poland, is as follows. we have some jets, but they are fewer than 50, so as a matter of fact, this is our only stock of jets that we have. this poses a serious problem if we donate even a small part of them anywhere because i don't hesitate to say that we have not enough of these jets. we would need many more of them. a decision today to donate any kind ofjets, any f—i6s, to donate them outside poland is a very serious decision and it is not an easy one for us to take.

next the united states is trying to recover the debris of an unidentified object which was shot down as it flew over alaska's north coast. a pentagon spokesman said the object was unmanned and about the size of a small car. it comes almost a week after the us military brought down what it says was a chinese spy balloon. jon donnison reports. it's almost a week since the us military shot down what it said was a chinese spy balloon off the coast of south carolina. now the pentagon says fighterjets like these have intercepted another unidentified object, this time in the skies above alaska. we have no further details about the object at this time, including any description of its capabilities, purpose, or origin. the object was about the size of a small car, so not similar in size or shape to the high

altitude surveillance balloon that was taken down off the coast of south carolina on february 4th. defense officials say this latest object had been flying at around 40,000 feet close to an area called prudhoe bay, much lower than last week's balloon. a military transporter plane, as well as helicopters, have now been sent to try and recover the debris. the biden administration came under a great deal of political criticism, particularly from republicans in congress and elsewhere, for not dealing with that last balloon more quickly. and i think it's no surprise that when they found an opportunity to take a shot at whatever this was over alaskan waters, they did so, presumably one consideration being that this was to avoid the potential circus of yet another foreign object transiting the continental united states for days or weeks. wreckage of last week's balloon has now been recovered, and is being analysed by us intelligence.

they want to do the same with whatever they find in alaska. meanwhile, chinese officials have accused the us of political manipulation and hype. jon donnison, bbc news. you are watching bbc news. we just have to pause there, as we said goodbye to our viewers watching around the world, but here in the uk thank you very much for your company and we are going to continue with that story because there are many questions that remain unanswered. you can speak to shashankjoshi, who wejust saw injohn you can speak to shashankjoshi, who we just saw injohn adonis and's report there, the defence editor at the economist. we heard your initial response there and i will get you to expand on that, you used the word circus and wanting to avoid it. is that still your thoughts behind the shooting down herewell, i don't want

to be entirely unfair on the biden administration. h0 to be entirely unfair on the biden administration.— administration. no doubt one calculation — administration. no doubt one calculation will _ administration. no doubt one calculation will have - administration. no doubt one calculation will have been - administration. no doubt one - calculation will have been political and the desire to avoid display and spending days over the united states and that palpable appearance that the us government was ineffective and impotent in the face of a foreign intelligence object hanging above montana, hanging above nuclear sites. but of course there are the considerations as well. one of them is that this balloon or this object when it was spotted by ground radar a couple of days ago was overwater and they could take the shot over water. they didn't have to wait for it to leave you territorial us oil before shooting it down in this case and it has landed on frozen water off alaska. so there were safety considerations that were not present in the same way. and of course the other factor was the altitude of this object, i should continue saying object, was also very different. it was much lower than the chinese balloon we saw last week. i think it was about 40,000

feet, which is higher than most commercial airliners fly, but it is within the range that a civilian jet could fly and you do get some planes above that altitude, i believe, so this posed more of a direct safety risk to air traffic over the united states than at first chinese balloon did, which was so high it was only going to affect any stray you to pilots all starring weather balloon operators in the area. i pilots all starring weather balloon operators in the area.— operators in the area. i see, they are two plausible _ operators in the area. i see, they are two plausible reasons - operators in the area. i see, they are two plausible reasons behind | operators in the area. i see, they - are two plausible reasons behind the difference in actions on these two occasions. ijust wonder, do we tend to learn a great deal about what is recovered from these types of operations? recovered from these types of operations?— recovered from these types of operations? recovered from these types of o erations? ~ , , . ., operations? well, it is difficult to say because _ operations? well, it is difficult to say because there _ operations? well, it is difficult to say because there are _ operations? well, it is difficult to say because there are so - operations? well, it is difficult to say because there are so few - operations? well, it is difficult to - say because there are so few modern presidents for this kind of thing. i will give you an old cold war precedent, though, which i think it's always interesting. when the eisenhower administration launched by balloon flights over the soviet union, a lot of them were shot down and not only did the soviets recover some of the payload and materials,

in one famous case they used the unexposed film from one of the balloons, which was developed by us intelligence and used by us intelligence and used by us intelligence and used by us intelligence and they repurposed it to take photographs of the moon on one pair lunar probes, which i think is a fascinating example both of recycling, but also how you can recover useful materials. what is interesting in this case, unlike the balloon last week, is that it has fallen, as i said, on foreign ground. us officials are saying it has broken into a number of pieces, which of course is an interesting puzzle in itself, whether that suggests a balloon or some other kind of object, but what it does mean they should have more of the degree of the payload than they did with the last balloon last object and it should be more accessible and more available for them to analyse. fascinating. shashankjoshi, thank you very much for talking us through that. thanks. we are going to come back to the uk now. detectives are questioning three

people arrested on suspicion of violent disorder after clashes outside accommodation for asylum seekers on merseyside. crowds gathered near the suites hotel in knowsley last night, where a police van was set on fire. nick garnett reports. flames light up the dark as a police van is set on fire. initially peaceful, eventually violent, the protest called after claims about the behaviour of some people staying at the hotel towards young girls living locally. some rooms at the suites hotel have been used to house people seeking asylum. but as fighting broke out between protesters, counter—protesters and the police, all those inside could do was watch what was happening below as officers tried to restore calm. stones, bottles and bricks rained down. hundreds of protesters were involved. a number of arrests were made for public order offences and criminal damage. eventually, after more officers were drafted in and local roads were temporarily closed, police were able to disperse the crowd. well, this is what the van looks like now. now the police are withdrawing,

things have calmed down and the roads are being cleared. but rebuilding relationships here — well, that's going to take a lot longer. as most police withdrew from the area and the roads were cleared of debris, half a dozen vans with officers and police dogs spent the night inside the hotel gates to make sure things remained calm. nick garnett, bbc news, knowsley. earlier, i spoke to migration policy expert zoe gardner. she told me about the challenges of housing asylum seekers in appropriate accommodation. we need to remember that this is a decision made by this government in 2020 as a covid safety measure to move people out of the ordinary asylum accommodation that had been used up until then and into hotels. and it is a deliberate political choice to continue to house people in hotels. everybody who works with refugees knows about their needs

and knows about their needs and their welfare has been asking the government to move people out of hotels. it is a completely inappropriate form of accommodation for them and now it has become a target for organised far right violent thuggery like these awful scenes we saw last night and we have to imagine how terrified the men, women and children in that hotel who have and children in that hotel — who have escaped in many cases situations of war and violence and persecution — must have felt. it is absolutely unacceptable. this kind of behaviour is justified by rhetoric that comes right from the top of our government and i really hope that they will take this moment to take stock of what has happened, what this hostile rhetoric and hostile policy—making has led to and to change tack completely. 0k, well, we don't have anyone from the government to put their point of view right now and i'm sure they would distance themselves from any such link between them and any far right movements. i want to go back to what you said about the difference in the type of accommodation. you said previously they were housed in a different way. just flesh that out a bit. so, asylum seekers have

traditionally been housed in pretty low quality accommodation, it has been a problem for a long time, but at least they were dispersed around the country into communities and housed in flats and accommodation of that kind. now, what has happened on top of the move into hotels in the last few years is that the rate of making decisions on asylum claims has slowed right down. currently in the uk we make about as many decisions in the space of a year as a country like france or germany makes in about one month, so what that has meant is more and more people are stuck for really, really long periods in this sort of initial, supposedly temporary asylum accommodation, which is now being, hotels are being used for that purpose, so... one possible solution, as far as you can see, is actually more resources, more money, to speed up the process?

yes, but it will be a transfer of resources, really. so it costs thus far, far more to house people in these so it costs us far, far more to house people in these hotels for the long term, where they are not allowed to work, to study, to start integrating and rebuilding their lives in safety in our communities, so it would be a money saving scheme, actually, to transfer those resources into faster and better policy decision—making within the asylum system, a functioning system where people could just get through that process and not end up trapped in this awful limbo situation where they are at risk from these gangs. and further money is being wasted on, they have paid £120 million for what essentially turned out to be a press release with the rwandan government saying that they would take on asylum seekers. we are wasting millions and millions on repeated deals with the french to build a fence or patrol another beach. these have been failed policies. i don't know how many millions and billions of pounds we have poured into them over the last decades, but again and again and again we build another fence,

we pay for another patrol and the numbers of people who come in don't change because ultimately people will always seek safety in the uk, so what we need to do is change where we are putting those resources so that it is a system that functions for everybody. 0ur our thanks choose zoe gardner for that and the bbc has contacted the home office for a response. should vaping products be regulated in the same way that cigarettes are? things like plain packaging and being kept out of sight behind the counter? well, the local government association certainly thinks so. the local government association has reported a rise in the number of shops illegally selling e—cigarettes to children. david fothergill is chair of the local government association's community wellbeing board — hejoins me now. thanks for coming on the programme. good afternoon, nice to be with you. what is the problem, as you see it, with vaping products and selling them? �* , ,

with vaping products and selling them? 3 , ~ . with vaping products and selling them? 2, . ., with vaping products and selling them? . ., , them? let's be clear about this, vain them? let's be clear about this, vaping products _ them? let's be clear about this, vaping products are _ them? let's be clear about this, vaping products are actually - them? let's be clear about this, vaping products are actually a i them? let's be clear about this, i vaping products are actually a very good way to get yourself off smoking and we would encourage people to stop smoking and move to vaping, thatis stop smoking and move to vaping, that is a really good alternative with less risks. but if you are under 18 and you are coming to vaping as a lifestyle choice, really, but seems to be completely the wrong thing to do. first of all, it is illegal and second of all, the marketing of these products does encourage youngsters to adopt them and ultimately it is a way into smoking, ratherthan and ultimately it is a way into smoking, rather than a way out. so ou smoking, rather than a way out. so you want changes to the way they market it? we you want changes to the way they market it? ~ . ., , ., ., , market it? we certainly do. clearly, it is illegal. — market it? we certainly do. clearly, it is illegal, but _ market it? we certainly do. clearly, it is illegal, but we _ market it? we certainly do. clearly, it is illegal, but we do _ market it? we certainly do. clearly, it is illegal, but we do have - market it? we certainly do. clearly, it is illegal, but we do have to - it is illegal, but we do have to tackle the marketing of them, so what we would like to see is then moved into plain packaging, that they are moved away from the counter and shop windows and some of these products are really highly attractive colours, they have cartoon characters on them, they are very sweet, they are fruity and they are even bubble gum flavour, so we would like to see them moved behind the counter, plain packaging with clear labelling telling people just

what the risks are and that would, we believe, would be less attractive to youngsters under 18 from buying the products. and presumably there is evidence to back up that that happened with cigarettes and that did make a difference? of course. there is legislation there, it is illegal to sell these products, but they are still being sold. 15% of those that have acquired them from newsagents and 20% from supermarkets, so they are still being sold, but we need to make sure they are less attractive and accessible so they don't become a loose laid—back lifestyle choice for the youngsters and make sure they don't then want to go into the shops to acquire them.— don't then want to go into the shops to acquire them. another part of the arc ument to acquire them. another part of the argument at — to acquire them. another part of the argument at the _ to acquire them. another part of the argument at the time _ to acquire them. another part of the argument at the time of _ to acquire them. another part of the argument at the time of cigarette i argument at the time of cigarette packaging that somehow making it plain packaging, less visible behind the counter added to the attraction of the product that was kind of being hidden.— of the product that was kind of being hidden. of the product that was kind of bein: hidden. ~ ~ ., , being hidden. well, i think that is an argument. _ being hidden. well, i think that is an argument, but _ being hidden. well, i think that is an argument, but i _ being hidden. well, i think that is an argument, but i am _ being hidden. well, i think that is an argument, but i am not- being hidden. well, i think that is an argument, but i am not sure i being hidden. well, i think that is an argument, but i am not sure itj being hidden. well, i think that is l an argument, but i am not sure it is the one that wins this one because

clearly at the moment what we have got is products that are highly attractive to children, and eighteens, they are very sweet flavours, they are fruit flavours, they are bubble gum flavours, they are attracting youngsters into this market place. and we not saying that vaping is wrong. people need to be able to access vaping products because if they want to get off smoking, this is a really, really good way to do it, but we have to stop the youngsters getting into it the only way we can do that is by making the packaging less attractive. 0ur colleagues in anti—smoking will help, say that they should be a single tax use on vaping products, we have not gone that far, but we do believe that could also be something that would persuade young children and teenagers to not get into it. {lilia teenagers to not get into it. ok, fascinating- _ teenagers to not get into it. ok, fascinating. david _ teenagers to not get into it. ok, fascinating. david fothergill, thank you very much for coming on the programme. just before i go, we will get the weather now with ben rich. good afternoon. sunshine is in relatively

short supply today. there is a bit of brightness out there. this was the scene earlier on for one of our weather watchers in northumberland. north—east england and eastern scotland, seeing some of the best of the sunshine because all of this cloud is feeding in from the west. so it's where you've got a bit of shelter to the east of higher grounds that you have the best chance of seeing some brightness. this is how we end the afternoon, with temperatures in parts of eastern scotland, north—east england, up to 13 degrees, but it is mild elsewhere, despite those fairly large amounts of cloud. a few brighter breaks here and there. and then overnight there will continue to be large amounts of cloud, the odd spot of patchy rain and drizzle, but where we do see clear spells for any length of time, perhaps most especially in the north—east of scotland, and maybe parts of east wales and south—west england, there could be a patchy frost, but most of us will see temperatures above freezing. now as we head into sunday, high pressure will still be with us. the centre of the high perhaps starting to drift a little further eastwards and that will allow the breeze to pick up a little bit across western and northern parts, which should help to break up the cloud and give a little more in the way of sunshine through parts of south—west england, wales, northern ireland

and across scotland, particularly in the north—east of scotland, actually, seeing some sunny spells during the day, and there's confirmation of those slightly stronger winds in western and northern parts. further south and east, i think the cloud will be quite hard to shift. the winds will be that bit lighter, but it is going to be mild temperatures of 10, 11 or 12 degrees. now as we head on into monday, our area of high pressure still with us, but it continues to drift a little further eastwards. this frontal system trying to push in from the west. it's going to take a while to do so. and in the meantime, on monday, we'll have a southerly wind. and as that wind becomes a bit more of a feature, well, the cloud should tend to break up a little more. so we should see more in the way of sunshine on monday. still feeling mild, 9 degrees in aberdeen, 12 in london and in plymouth. and then as we head deeper into the week, well, there's some uncertainty about the timing, but it does look like that frontal system in the west will eventually shift eastwards, bringing some rain, probably most likely from wednesday onwards. and once that front has moved through, we will see further wet weather at times as we end the week.

but throughout it is going to stay mild with temperatures generally between 10 and 13 degrees.

this is bbc news. i'm lewis vaughanjones and these are the headlines...

aid agencies call for better access to the earthquake disaster zones from turkey to syria as the number of people killed in both countries rises to more than 25,000. the united nations estimates the earthquakes may have left nearly 5.5 million people homeless in syria. the government there says it will allow aid to be delivered to rebel—held parts of the country. despite the odds, people are still being pulled out alive from under the rubble in turkey, more than 120 hours after the first earthquake struck. us fighterjets shoot down an unidentified aircraft over alaska after president biden gave the order to "seek and destroy". troops are trying to salvage the wreckage. three people have been arrested following clashes with police, outside a hotel providing refuge for asylum seekers on merseyside in northwest england.