welcome to bbc news. i'm rich preston. our top stories: a speaker has not been elected. the longest race in more than 150 years: kevin mccarthy repeatedly loses the vote to be elected speaker of the house. deadly violence in mexico follows the arrest of a leader of an infamous drugs gang. the omicron covid subvariant rapidly spreading across the united states, the most transmissible yet. and prince harry alleges in his new memoir that his brother prince william physically attacked him. there is always been this

competition between us weirdly. hello. welcome to the programme. we begin in the united states. paralysis continues in the us congress. the republican leader in the us house of representatives, kevin mccarthy, has failed in his 11th attempt to get elected speaker of the house. the session has now been adjourned and voting will continue on friday. a small group within kevin mccarthy's own party has been derailing attempts to elect him. republicans took control of the house in november's midterm elections, but the deadlock has left the chamber unable to swear in members or pass legislation. gary o'donoghue reports. the total number of votes cast is 434. it hasn't taken this long to elect a speaker in more than 160 years,

and that was before the american civil war. now, into a third day, the deadlock remains. the republican leader still unable to get enough votes within his own party, but nor can anyone else. we are just going to keep working until we solve it. or maybe not. a speaker has not been elected. and while there's no speaker, the house can't do a thing — no committees, no legislation, no rules. a chamber utterly paralysed and locked into a seemingly endless loop. well, it's groundhog day. democrats who have voted for their leader solidly on every ballot have been quietly enjoying the spectacle. some rebels are even voting for people who aren't members of the house. donald john trump. for two nights, negotiations have gone long with little outcome. the 20 or so rebels have extracted multiple concessions

during this process. every one of them weakening the position for whoever ends up as speaker. that means this wafer—thin republican majority in the house will be hard to manage and the internal strife is set to continue for the next two years. eventually, pressure will go for some kind of compromise candidate among republicans, but no—one has any idea how long that could take. gary o'donoghue, bbc news, washington. we can now speak tojennifer kerns who's a republican strategist and host on the all—american radio network. shejoins us live she joins us live now from new york. thank you for making the time for us. as a republican strategist, you must be tiring of this, and dare i say be a bit embarrassed as well? there is no question, _ bit embarrassed as well? there is no question, it _ bit embarrassed as well? there is no question, it does - bit embarrassed as well? there is no question, it does tarnish l is no question, it does tarnish the brand a bit, but i still think that by and large we are better off in the democrat party who basically got

dictated to them who their leader would be. that was nancy pelosi dictating to her caucus thatjeffries was going to be the leader. as messy as it might be, we know liberty is messy, i will take that any day. i will be the party of choice any day rather than having dictated to our caucus. who the next leader is going to be. 50 who the next leader is going to be, ,, ., , who the next leader is going to be, , , , who the next leader is going to be. ,, , ., , be. so this is 'ust healthy olitics be. so this is 'ust healthy polities in — be. so this isjust healthy politics in action - be. so this isjust healthy politics in action for - be. so this isjust healthy politics in action for you, | be. so this isjust healthy i politics in action for you, is it? it politics in action for you, is it? , , ., ., it? it is. it is not that surprising _ it? it is. it is not that surprising when - it? it is. it is not that surprising when you | it? it is. it is not that - surprising when you consider the last time we had a gridlock like this over speaker of the house was 1856 in the midst of the civil war, and you look around the country, you look and see how divided the country is, and you look at how divided our party is. it is really not that surprising. i hope it doesn't go to a rounds as it did in 1856, but it is possible and we know that kevin mccarthy doesn't mind breaking records. i hold fast in my prediction that i gave you earlier this week that kevin mccarthy is not

leaving that chamber until he speaker of the house. i think that will happen in the next couple of days, probably by saturday. couple of days, probably by saturday-— couple of days, probably by saturda . , ., ~ ., saturday. let us talk about the small grows — saturday. let us talk about the small grows of— saturday. let us talk about the small group of holdouts - saturday. let us talk about the small group of holdouts who i saturday. let us talk about the l small group of holdouts who are voting against mr mccarthy. what do they want to get out of this? what is it in it for them and how can he appease them? look, there is really nothing left he can offer to appease them. the reports are tonight that he has brought that threshold down from five members being able to recall him tojust one member of members being able to recall him to just one member of the caucus being able to recall him if he becomes speaker. it is an incredibly generous concession from mccarthy, and i think it really speaks to the liberty and independence of our country that one person really can make a difference in that caucus, one person could call for a removal of the speaker. short of that i am not sure what else he can offer them. i think some of this has to do more with grandstanding and tv stardom and social media stardom and

filling the organised campaign with a of cash and maybe even being considered for a 2024 nod, and that is the other speakers. think about this. lauren biber has no room to talk about how many votes kevin mccarthy needs. she does barely won election byjust over 500 votes. she wouldn't have done so without the $2 million of campaign cash that kevin mccarthy as gop leader helps flood into her race when she fell behind, so some of these folks are very ungrateful for what has been done for them. they would not be on the floor having this conversation if it weren't even for kevin mccarthy. weren't even for kevin mccarthy-— weren't even for kevin mccarth. , a, _ mccarthy. this has already damaged _ mccarthy. this has already damaged as _ mccarthy. this has already damaged as you _ mccarthy. this has already | damaged as you suggested earlier the image of unity in the republican party. if, as you predict, kevin mccarthy does end up speaker of the house, does that make it harder for him to do hisjob moving forwards? for him to do his “ob moving forwardsah for him to do his “ob moving forwards? ~ ~ ., ., forwards? well, i know that he is very aware — forwards? well, i know that he is very aware that _ forwards? well, i know that he is very aware that there - forwards? well, i know that he is very aware that there is - forwards? well, i know that he is very aware that there is a . is very aware that there is a faction of the republican party

thatis faction of the republican party that is more of the tea party movement, and i came up through the tea party movement in the country, i did one of the first tea parties in the country in 2009. but i think kevin has set it up so he has perfect accountability to his members. he has also i think been very generous, his committee assignments with folks that he has been offering to folks, and so i think the time is up. i understand that the conservative wing of the party, being a conservative myself, but it is time really ought to put up or shut up. they need to come if they want to succeed, they need to put up a second, backup candidate and ensure that person gets the 218 votes. a short of that, they need to step in line and get behind mccarthy because he clearly is the one with the 91% of the vote. they only have 9% of the vote. they only have 9% of the vote. something has to give here and i think it will give in the next 48 hours or so. {lilia in the next 48 hours or so. 0k, jennifer. _ in the next 48 hours or so. 0k, jennifer. inc— in the next 48 hours or so. 0k, jennifer, inc your _ in the next 48 hours or 50. ok, jennifer, inc your insights.

in the next 48 hours or so. 0k, jennifer, inc your insights. —— thank you for your insights. let's get some of the day's other news. ukraine has dismissed an announcement by president putin of a 36—hour ceasefire to coincide with russian orthodox christmas. president zelensky said the truce was an attempt to stop ukraine's military advances and allow russian forces and equipment to move closer to ukrainian positions. the ceasefire is due to come into effect at midday on friday. a new study says around half of the world's glaciers are likely to disappear by the end of the century because of climate change. it estimates 49% will vanish even if global temperature rise is limited to 1.5 degrees celsius above pre—industrial levels, the ambitious goal set at the paris climate conference in 2015. damar hamlin has shown "remarkable improvement" and is awake and communicating three days after going into cardiac arrest during an nfl game. hamlin remains in critical condition, but doctors are pleased with his progress.

the nfl have also confirmed the game he was taken ill in won't be replayed. let's cross the border to mexico now where three members of the country's security forces have died and 18 people have been admitted to hospital in the northwestern state of sinaloa. violence has broken out across the state following the arrest one of the leaders of an infamous criminal gang. 0vidio guzman—lopez is the son of the notorious drug lord dubbed �*el chapo'. the arrest comes just days before us presidentjoe biden is due to visit mexico for a summit next week. azadeh moshiri reports. el chapo's drug cartel is fighting back and now the state of sinaloa is locked in battle. the notorious drug lord is serving a life sentence in the united states. now, after six months of careful surveillance, mexico's armed forces have captured his son, 0visio guzman—lopez.

translation: they were arrested while carrying weapons that belonged exclusively to the mexican army and the air force. moments after his arrest, cells that are part of his criminal group set up 19 roadblocks and armed attacks in different parts in the city of culiacan. the governor's warning residents to shelter in place, warning there is a danger across the city of culiacan. even a plane scheduled to fly from the city was hit by bullets before taking off. the mexican defence minister has said us officials assisted with the surveillance operation. el chapo's son has been on america's radar for some time. the state department says he and his brother joaquin have overseen around 11 methamphetamine labs in the state of sinaloa. he also oversaw the murder of informants, a drug trafficker and even a popular

mexican singer who had refused to sing at his wedding. we of course have closely been following the violence in parts of mexico, namely in sinaloa, over the past few days, there has been reports of gunfire, roadblocks and fires throughout the cities of culiacan, los mochis in sinaloa, mexico. this isn't the first time the cartel has taken hold of the area. he was arrested before in october 2019, but the president ordered his release to put an end to the violence that broke out. this time, the same question hovers over officials — how far are they willing to go to keep hold of el chapo's son? azadeh moshiri, bbc news. now, there have been further revelations by prince harry about his life in britain's royal family. his new book isn't due out until next week,

but parts of it have already been made public after it was accidentally put on sale early in parts of spain. it contains a series of claims and deeply personal stories about his family, including an allegation his brother prince william physically attacked harry in 2019. here's our royal correspondent nicholas witchell. i don't know how staying silent is ever going to make things better. so says harry in the latest trailer for the interview he's given to itv, setting out his grievances against his family — grievances which are to be set out in startling detail in his book, spare, to be published worldwide next tuesday. the guardian's new york correspondent has obtained a leaked copy of the book, and in it, he says, harry gives details of a physical attack on him by his elder brother. it evidently happened in 2019 at harry's home inside kensington palace. according to this account, the brothers had an angry confrontation.

william called meghan "difficult", "rude" and "abrasive". harry said william was "parroting the press narrative." then, according to the guardian account... harry, it appears, has no regrets about sharing private family moments. he is challenged by tom bradby in the itv interview. wouldn't your brother say to you, harry, how could you do this to me, after everything, after everything we went through, wouldn't that be what he would say? he'd probably say all sorts of different things. some people will say you have railed against invasions of your privacy all your life, but the accusation will be, here are you invading the privacy of your most nearest

and dearest without permission. that will be the accusation. that will be the accusation from the people that don't understand or don't want to believe that my family have been briefing the press. so amid all these attacks on his family, what does harry see as his future? if you are invited to the coronation, will you come? there is a lot that can happen between now and then, but, you know, the door is always open. the ball is in their court. there's a lot to be discussed and i really hope that they are willing to sit down and talk about it. for now, neither buckingham palace nor kensington palace are making any comment. nicholas witchell with that report. stay with us on bbc news. still to come, top of the class: the award from global tech giant microsoft to a special needs college that uses technology to transform students' lives. the japanese people

are in mourning following the death of emperor hirohito. thousands converged on the imperial palace to pay their respects when it was announced he was dead. "good grief" — after half a century of delighting fans around the world, charlie brown and the rest of the gang are calling it quits. the singer, paul simon, starts his tour of south africa tomorrow _ in spite of protests and violence - from some _ black activist groups. they say international artists should continue to boycott south africa _ until majority rule is established. . around the world, people have been paying tribute to the iconic rock star, david bowie, who sold 140 million albums in a career that spanned half a century. his family announced overnight that he died of cancer at the age of 69. the world's tallest skyscraper opens later today. the burj dubai has easily overtaken its nearest rivals.

this is bbc news. the latest headlines: for an historic eleventh time, hardline us republicans have prevented their own party's candidate, kevin mccarthy, from being elected speaker of the house of representatives. deadly violence has erupted in the mexican state of sinaloa following the arrest of the son of the drug baron "el chapo" guzman. the covid omicron subvariant, xbb.1.5, is causing concern among scientists after its rapid spread in the united states in december. the world health organization says it's the most transmissible omicron subvariant that's been detected so far. the new variant was estimated to account for over 40% of covid—19 cases in the united states in the last week of december. that's up from just under 26% in the previous week, according to data from the us centers for disease control and prevention.

professor saad omer is director of the yale institute for global health. he joins us from connecticut. professor, thank you for being with us. what do we know about this new subvariants and how it behaves mosehle we know this is a new subvariants that is spreading rather quickly. and spreading rather quickly. and the reason — spreading rather quickly. and the reason it _ spreading rather quickly. and the reason it is _ spreading rather quickly. fific the reason it is spreading quickly as it is more transmissible than the previous variants. and there could be two reasons for that. the one reason which is almost certain is that it is awaiting immunity induced by the infection people have had from previous variants as well as the earlier versions of the vaccine —— avoiding. we may also be in a situation where this virus, irrespective of immunity, is inherently more transmittable, although those tra nsmittable, although those data transmittable, although those data are emerging. so that is the concern. that has led to a little bit of an uptick in

hospitalisation as well and that hasn't, as yet, translated in increased deaths, which always have a lag, but several of us are not that short there will be at least a corresponding magnitude of increase in mortality. at those aspects remain a bit uncertain stop by different variants have emerged in different ways with different side effects in different side effects in different people, what are the general side effects and symptoms of this subvariants? this is a subvariants that impacts people and have a variety of respiratory symptoms that can range from less severe, like a runny nose, etc, to severe fatigue and so forth. there are a range of symptoms, let previous variants. and, frankly, while at a population level there is this overlapping but sometimes the constellation

of symptoms, the individual level it is hard to predict which kind of variant you have based on just the symptoms. haifa based on 'ust the symptoms. how aood our based on just the symptoms. how good our current _ based onjust the symptoms. how good our current vaccines when it comes to prevention against this new subvariants? so it comes to prevention against this new subvariants?- this new subvariants? so the best evidence _ this new subvariants? so the best evidence suggests - this new subvariants? so the best evidence suggests that l best evidence suggests that vaccines, especially those who have been boosted with the recommended doses are very effective and remain effective against the more severe outcomes, like mortality, like death, like icu admissions and hospitalisation as well. they are less effective overall againstjust are less effective overall against just the transmission of infection. but there is some evidence that there is some protection against symptomatic disease and even to some extent the new studies that came out, for at least the more recent variants there was protection against transmission. but the new variants, i think, the way it will pan out is that the vaccines will remain and the

signs indicate remain effective against severe outcomes signs indicate remain effective auainst severe against severe outcomes with signs indicate remain effective auainst severe against severe outcomes with less protection against transmission.- less protection against transmission. ., , ,., transmission. 0k, professor saad omer. _ transmission. 0k, professor saad omer, thank _ transmission. 0k, professor saad omer, thank you - transmission. 0k, professor saad omer, thank you very l transmission. 0k, professor- saad omer, thank you very much. my saad omer, thank you very much. my pleasure. tens of thousands of mourners gathered in the vatican for the funeral of the former pope, benedict xvi. the service in st peter's square was attended by roman catholic clergy and members of european royalty. it was conducted by the current pope, francis. our religion editor aleem maqbool reports. before the largest church in all christendom, in front of a crowd of 50,000, he was brought for one final time, to spontaneous applause. applause it was, of course, the last occasion the two popes were together, one presiding over the funeral of the other. during his homily, pope francis used biblical references in which he appeared to compare benedict tojesus.

translation: we want to do this with the same wisdom, _ tenderness and devotion that he bestowed on us over the years. together we want to say, father, into your hands we commend his spirit. in the crowd were an estimated 4,000 members of the clergy, and many who admired the pope emeritus as a theologian and intellectual. although, of course, pope benedict wasn't a sitting pope when he died, a lot of the rituals, a lot of the liturgy, are those that we've seen through the ages of papal deaths. unusually, though, at this funeral prayers are being set for both the previous pope and the incumbent one. there was a final farewell blessing. inside the coffin with pope benedict, a deed detailing his achievements.

it included a line about his role in tackling abuse. that's upset many of his critics. but as the service ended, others chanted that benedict should immediately be made a saint. away from public gaze in a crypt, cardinals accompanied him in burial. many, many of the cardinals who are here were a bit on the older side, and will have known him intimately. so there was a kind of final salute, which was a privilege for me to be a part of. the 265th pope over 2,000 years, benedict xvi, in the resting place he chose for himself. aleem maqbool, bbc

news, at the vatican. a college in south—east england that teaches adults with special educational needs has been classified as a centre of excellence by a global tech giant. microsoft has awarded the college so—called showcase status for the way it uses technology to transform the lives of its students. 20% of those who attend go into paid work, compared with just 5% across the country. peter whittlesea has this report. do you know what this is? no. let's find out. the phone in skye's my pocket is a powerful computer. she has additional needs but with a little help she is learning how to use everyday apps that can help to read. today they are practising on a menu. this site is great. where are you going to go first try it out? the wetherspoons.

and what will you be able to do now with that at wetherspoons? to read the menu and see what i want to eat. next one down it is. the work carried out at oaks specialist college in tunbridge has impressed microsoft so much it's given the college showcase status for the way it embraces technology to change lives. they think so differently and so inevitably about how they can empower their students in the use of technology out in the world for day—to—day living activities. using these tools to be able to help give dignity back to the students to navigate their world and do that in a traditional sense. hello, sally. at oaks, they very much embrace the world of work. the college has a fully functioning supermarket to train students.

they believe the award and backing of microsoft will give companies the confidence to employ their students. so we utilise some of the apps that microsoft have, for example, such as lens, and whereby a lot of people might use that as a pocket scannerfor a pdf, we work with our young people to use the immersive readerfunction. they can read a bus stop or atjob placement, it may be that they read signs to be able to direct themselves to the relevant place. and thanks to the training, jake is about to start work as a hospital porter. i am really, really excited, just to know different people, and learn off them and help them out. alexa, read the instructions. in the next project is using smart speakers linked to smart appliances to help students live independently.

peter whittle see, bbc south—east today, tom burridge. that is all from us on the bbc news —— there is more from us on the bbc news website. you can reach me on twitter. i'm @richpreston. hello there. the weather's going to calm down a bit on friday, but we've got more wet and windy weather to come this weekend. another area of low pressure, weather fronts to eventually push in from the west. this weather front has brought some heavy rain and gusty winds. that area of low pressure is where we've got the strongest of the winds in scotland. even first thing in the morning, it's very windy through the central belt of scotland, but the strongest winds will be in northern parts of the country, gusting 60 or 70 miles an hour. and we've also got a lot of showers coming into scotland. that band of rain sweeping away from england and wales will be followed by clear skies and temperatures early in the morning, 6—7 degrees. lots of showers, though, to begin with in scotland, very windy start, but the winds do moderate. the showers become fewer and we'll see some sunshine. other parts of the uk seeing some sunshine, especially in the morning, but tending to cloud over a bit more in western areas in the afternoon.

a little bit of rain coming into the south—west of england and south wales as well. a breezy day, a mild day, temperatures 9—12 degrees on friday afternoon. but there is this band of rain here coming into western areas during the evening. itjust gets wetter and maybe windier again during the evening. and that band of rain pushes its way eastwards overnight. strong southerly winds are likely. it's going to be a very mild night, of course, with that cloud and rain. temperatures in southern parts of the uk, perhaps no lower than 11 degrees. but we start the weekend with some rain. it's going to be a very unsettled weekend. quite windy as well. blustery winds to come, bringing some rain or some showers as well. and we've got that rain to start with, then, across much of scotland, england and wales. it's going to shuffle its way eastwards, it's going to hang around into the morning, perhaps into the afternoon across east anglia and the south—east. following that, the winds pick up again around these western coasts. we're going to find lots of showers feeding in. some of those will be heavy. some sunshine in between the showers and temperatures still on the mild side, 8—11 degrees. second half of the weekend, we're dominated, really, by this low pressure.

it's going to hang around for a while. it's approaching the north—west of scotland. it will be very windy here saturday night into sunday morning, and around that area of low pressure, we've got these strong and blustery winds. that's going to feed in some sunshine, but we're also going to find quite a few showers. some of those could be heavy and thundery and it's just about cold enough for a little bit of snow over the tops of the mountains in scotland. temperatures will be a shade lower on sunday, around 7—9 celsius.

this is bbc news. the headlines: paralysis continues in the us congress with the republican leader in the house, kevin mccarthy, failing in his 11th attempt to get elected speaker. the session has now been adjourned and voting will continue on friday. a small group of republicans has been derailing attempts to elect him. three mexican security personnel have died in the northwestern state of sinaloa in violence that broke out following the arrest of a leader of an infamous criminal gang. 0vidio guzman—lopez is the son of the notorious drug lord dubbed �*el chapo', who's serving a life sentence in a us jail. there have been further revelations by prince harry about his life in britain's royal family. his new book isn't due out until next week, but parts of it have already been made public.