this is bbc news broadcasting in the uk and around the globe. our top stories. the honourable kevin mccarthy, having seemed a majority of the villas—boas cast is duly elected speaker of the house of representatives. after dramatic scenes in the us house of representatives, the republican kevin mccarthy is finally elected speaker — at the fifteenth attempt. it's not how you start it's how you finish, and we need to finish strong for the american people. the uk's prime minister is to hold crisis talks with health officials in an attempt tackle the ongoing challenges facing the nhs. a six—year—old boy has shot and injured his school teacher in the us state of virginia,

in what police say was not an accidental shooting. president zelensky welcomes the announcment of us military vehicles, as putin's unilateral ceasfire appears to have had little effect on the frontline. it's a huge weekend for the technology industry as the annual consumer electronics show gets under way in las vegas. votes cast is duly elected speaker of the house of representatives. hello and welcome to bbc news. the us house of representatives has a new speaker. after days of deadlock and dramatic scenes on friday night, the republican, kevin mccarthy, has finally been elected. it took four days, 15 votes, and numerous concessions, but the 20 or so rebels within his own party were eventually persuaded. this is how his election was announced.

representatives. thereforety hahn rablt kevin mccarthy of the state of california, having received a majority of the votes cast, is duly elected speaker of the house of representatives. applause well, kevin mccarthy addressed the house and vowed to put the country first. and now the hard work begin, what we do here, next week, next month, next year, will set the tone for everything that follows. tonight, i want to talk directly to the american people. as speaker of the american people. as speaker of the house my ultimate responsibility is not to my party, my conference, or even our congress, my

responsibility, our responsibility, is to our country. our north america correspondent david willis has been watching all of this. he says it's been a dramatic night. it has been a breathtaking few hours, hasn't it, and kevin mccarthy has finally got the votes he needed, on the 15th attempt, that was the 15th vote within the space of the last four day, and it was achieved round about midnight, just after the house had voted to adjourn until monday, because there weren't enough votes to secure kevin mccarthy's victory, then there came an intervention from one of the hard liners, matt gate, the florida congressman, he has been staunchly opposed to kevin mccarthy on a speakership. he believes he is way too mainstream and as a trump supporter himself he wants to lead the republican party in a different direction, along with about two

dozen other members of the current republican caucus, so, a vote was then taken to not adjourn the house and to have that 15th vote this evening, friday evening and that, with matt gates�* vote gave kevin mccarthy the majority needed by a single vote. it has come down to the wire, and kevin mccarthy has achieved his ambition, albeit the risk of considerable acrimony on the behalf of members of his party, he will become the 55th speaker of the house of representative, it is is a post he had long sought, sought after, and long campaigned for, and one that he, one particular point he said he deserved, given his record of public service, and his record in the republican party, but it is a poisoned chalice, because the last

few days have revealed just how divided the republicans are in the lower chamber that, divided the republicans are in the lower chamberthat, i divided the republicans are in the lower chamber that, i have a majority of what, ten votes, and it will be a very acrimonious congressional session, the next two years could be extremely trying for senior members of the republican party, not least of course, kevin mccarthy himself. david willis there. a six—year—old boy has shot and wounded a teacher at a school in the us state of virginia. police say the teacher — a woman in her 30s — suffered serious injuries in an altercation at richneck elementary school in the city of newport news. mechelle hankerson, the news director at whro public media in virginia has been following the story. we know the six—year—old child is in custody. we also know that the teacher is, has life—threatening injuries, that they are being treated for that, but nothing else has come from the police department.

i think parents are scared, especially initially, in some facebook groups, community facebook groups, parents were seeing a bunch of emergency vehicles racing towards the school, going towards there, and obviously it takes a bit of time to communicate what was going on, so i think there was a lot of fear, especially considering we, our area of virginia just experienced a mass shooting in november. the prime minister will hold emergency talks at downing street later this morning to try to tackle the huge challenges facing the nhs. senior doctors say the health service is on a knife edge, with many a&e units struggling to cope with record demand. our health correspondent jim reed reports. the nhs is under record pressure this winter, with queues of ambulances delayed outside hospitals, rising waiting lists and more front line strikes planned in the coming weeks. sue spent 16 hours in her local a&e, after turning up recently with chest pain.

to be honest with you, i was just, i wanted to get out. ijust wanted to get out, because i felt i was safer at home than in the hospital. i didn�*t feel confident — not that they didn�*t know what they were doing, there just wasn�*t enough people to do what was necessary. today�*s meeting, called the nhs recovery forum, will involve ministers from both the health and treasury departments along with nhs bosses, council leaders and medical experts. downing street said it has been called to discuss four key issues — gp services, emergency care, waiting lists and delays discharging patients into social care. speaking yesterday, the prime minister said that the demands on the nhs were currently enormous. in particular this winter, what we want to do is make sure we move people out of hospitals

into social care, into communities. that is one of the most powerful ways we can ease some of the pressures on a&e departments and ambulances that are waiting too long. labour criticised the timing of the meeting, saying health experts had already been sounding the alarm for months, while the liberal democrats described it as "too little, too late." the latest nhs data for england shows ambulance crews facing record delays at a&e, while the number being treated forflu and covid in hospital has also been rising sharply. jim reed, bbc news. president zelensky has welcomed a decision by the us to supply ukraine with armoured fighting vehicles for the first time. he said they were exactly what the country needed. the americans will also provide surface—to—air missiles, armoured personnel carriers and artillery systems under a package of assistance worth more than three billion dollars. it follows a decision

by germany to give ukraine a0 armoured troop carriers. is being celebrated today in ukraine/ today in ukraine. millions of people across the country are celebrating orthodox christmas, one of the most important days in the ukrainian calendar, and this is an important day here, at kyiv�*s pechersk lavra monastery. this is the seat of the ukrainian orthodox church, which has ties to russia, and today for the first time in history the christmas service here is being led by leaders of the orthodox church of ukraine, which is an independent church. it gained independence four years ago. so this is a moment that is being celebrated here, it is a very significant moment. some people have said this is a christmas miracle. some people who are here today told us they believe this is the day that is marking ukraine�*s independence from the russian church. this day is obviously happening as the war continues. president putin announced

a unilateral ceasefire to allow people, in his words, to celebrate orthodox christmas in parts of the country where fighting is happening. now some ukrainian officials say that russian forces have continued to attack ukrainian positions in some parts of the country, especially in the east of the country, and the ukrainian authorities had dismissed this announcement by president putin as cynical propaganda, but i think for those gathered here today, this is a moment of reflection, to mark an important day, orthodox christmas. let�*s look at some of the day�*s other news. thousands of california residents are without power after the state was hit with high winds, heavy rains and flooding. the rain has fallen on areas that were already saturated from a new year�*s eve storm. several more rounds of storms are expected this weekend and next week. mexico�*s president has defended the capture of a drug cartel leader,

ovidio guzman, which triggered unrest in sinaloa state. andres manuel lopez obrador said the security forces acted responsibly during the operation, in which nearly 30 people died. chinese fintech giant ant group will no longer be controlled by its founder, billionaire jack ma. the announcement follows authorities cracking down on china�*s tech sector and leaders, which led to billions being sliced off the value of companies. train passengers are facing yet another day of severely disrupted services as rail workers continue their second 48—hour strike of the week. it�*s the fifth consecutive day of industrial action by either rmt or aslef members. helena wilkinson has the latest. another day, and yet more disruption for rail passengers. services across the network will once again be severely disrupted. the dispute over pay, jobs and working conditions has been going on for months.

now, train drivers, represented by the union aslef, have been offered a pay rise in a bid to stop the strikes. the deal includes a backdated pay rise of 4% for 2022 and a 4% increase this year. we want to get round the table and finalise. that�*s why we have put this offer out with the reforms that we are looking for, so we can expediate those talks and try and deliver something that will allow those strikes to finish once and for all, and get our customers our back with us, and making sure that we protect the railway for the future. but aslef has told the bbc its officials haven�*t seen the offer yet. last month, the rmt union rejected proposals involving the same pay offer, which was conditional on changes to working practises. on monday, there will be meetings between the rail minister, industry representatives and union leaders.

as attempts to find a solution continue, it�*s passengers whose lives have been disrupted, and today they are being told to only travel if absolutely necessary. helena wilkinson, bbc news. i�*m joined now by our political correspondent, damian grammaticas. what is your spence of what could come out of this emergency meeting? —— spence. i come out of this emergency meeting? -- sence. ., �* _ come out of this emergency meeting? -- sence. ., �* -- spence. i wouldn't say so emergency _ -- spence. i wouldn't say so emergency meeting, - -- spence. i wouldn't say so emergency meeting, it - -- spence. i wouldn't say so emergency meeting, it is . -- spence. i wouldn't say so i emergency meeting, it is more -- spence. i wouldn't say so - emergency meeting, it is more a sort of summit if you like of the prime minister, the health secretary steven barkically who has arrived a short time ago and bosses, leader, heads of parts of the nhs, so the

state health sector and the private health sector, we have had people like providers of social care, as well, coming in, and one of them on the way in was saying, their organisation provides 70,000 beds for elderly people, those who need social care and what they see as the value of today is being in the room as sort of end providers, who are often not part of discussions ability how to deal with the big issues facing the health service, often it is those who control the money and purse strings who buy services, so there is going to be an hour orbit more of exchange on different each of the different areas, so social care on emergency care, on front line general practise, as well, and i think the idea then, the government wants to do is share best practise and try to galvanise ideas about reform, but, the big question is, that this isn�*t really going to address thele

current immediate pressures on the health service, the opposition say this is a talking shop, and that it is 13 years of mismanagements that has brought the health service to this point, so they say, this is too little too late.— little too late. there has been criticism from _ little too late. there has been criticism from my _ little too late. there has been criticism from my nhs - little too late. there has been| criticism from my nhs leaders little too late. there has been - criticism from my nhs leaders over the past few days that money promised by the government to free up promised by the government to free up beds, to get people out of hospitals who don�*t need to be in there has come too late, one wonders again as you say, that is the crisis point, the crunch point we are at now, what they can do in the immediate term to address that. well, clearly, the, that is a crisis that the health service is sort of enmeshed in at the minute this is more about sort of structural and longer term things, and the big issue, politically the government faces, apart from being seen to try and tackle the current issue is the sort of the big politics done eneath it. the problem they face with a

deeply overstretched discontented workforce in the nhs who say that conditions are not, they have problems with condition, problems with being overworked, low pay and what they want to have addressed are pay levels, they say the health system simply isn�*t recruiting enough staff do the things they need to do. this is not discussing that, the government will sit down with unions but it is still saying it will not talk about pay right now, it will talk about future terms and conditions and needs, but the unions are saying strikes due next week and in the weeks following will go ahead unless the immediate concerns are discussed. thank you. prince harry is facing more criticism over claims made that he killed 25 taliban fighters during his service as a helicopter pilot in afghanistan. in his memoir "spare", he describes them as "chess pieces removed from the board".

0ur reporter zoie 0�*brien is at buckingham palace and shejoins me now. welcome to you, it seems that we have probably heard as much from this book as we are going to now, with details explained and splurged over newspapers all over the world, but still no word from buckingham palace from the royal family on this?. ~ , ,., , palace from the royal family on this?. ~ ,,., , ., this?. absolutely, well, with all the revelations, _ this?. absolutely, well, with all the revelations, the _ this?. absolutely, well, with allj the revelations, the unexpected revelations in this book, it does seem to be calling those taliban fighters chess pieces, that has really upset many people, especially in the military community, some say they are very disappointed. we have heard from ex—colonel tim colin, he is a retired commanding officer and he says it isn�*t the done thing, prince harry has badly let the side down and you never count notches on the the but of your rifle. we have heard from senior leaders in the

taliban, they say they may have been your enmy opinion but these were people with families to go home to, now, harry has written he isn�*t ashamed, he is not ashamed of what he did, but he is not proud of it either, now no statements have been issued by buckingham palace or kensing o on the palace today, that is not unusual, and although we have probably heard as much from the book as we are going to hear, it will continue this weekend, because there are a number of prerecorded interviews that prince harry has done to promote the book, in which he could expand on what has been written, we know that the first of thoseis written, we know that the first of those is going to go out tomorrow evening, at 9.00 with itv and itvx. in that interview he said he does want reck sill caution with his family but he wants truth and accountability and in that interview and the clips we have seen, he casts doubt on whether he will be at the

king�*s coronation in may saying a lot can happen between now and then, we know that interviews with american network also go out on monday morning, of course then a decision will feed to be made by the palace, by the royal family over whether or not they will respond to anything that comes out in the interviews as well. qm. anything that comes out in the interviews as well.— anything that comes out in the interviews as well. two men were executed by hanging on saturday for allegedly killing a security official during protests that engulfed the country following the death of 22—year—old kurdish iranian woman mahsa amini in september last year. three others have been sentenced to death in the same case, while 11 received prison sentences. although the executed men have been accused of killing basiji militia men, we cannot confirm they did indeed kill them. the trials are highly politicised, and the defendants are not granted choice of their own legal representation. bbc monitoring iran analyst khosro kalbasi isfahani is with us. welcome to you, what more do we know

about what has happened there and these hangings?— about what has happened there and these hangings? these two men were executed this — these hangings? these two men were executed this morning, _ these hangings? these two men were executed this morning, their - these hangings? these two men were executed this morning, their court - executed this morning, their court cases have been described as rushed, a sham trial, by amnesty international international that had no... these two men were deprived of the right to pick their own lawyer, the right to pick their own lawyer, the families have been campaigning to get them to choose their own lawyers, one of these men had gone on hunger strike, he was on hunger strike when he was executed this morning. and his family have been pleading tojust get morning. and his family have been pleading to just get a chance to meet him before his execution. his parents were literally outside the prison when he was executed this

morning, and they were deprived this right at the last moment. this is the whole case, the whole trial, we don�*t have access to the evidence, the judicial system don�*t have access to the evidence, thejudicial system in iran has released some videos of the scene that allegedly shows the killing of a militia man, but, we haven�*t seen any proof of showing these men were involved in that incident. in addition to that, the judicial system has used their own confessions, but rights groups have long documented that islamic republic uses forced confessions and torture tainted confessions to solicit these confessions against political prisoners. thank you for updating us there. it�*s a huge weekend for the technology industry as the annual consumer electronics show —

known as ces — takes place in las vegas. it�*s chance for thousands of companies to display their new gadgets in the hope of securing investment — but this year all russian firms have been banned from taking part, while some ukrainian ones have been paid to attend. 0ur north america technology reporterjames clayton has spoken to some of them about the difficulties of trying to start a company when your country is at war. ukraine has spent nearly a year now facing attacks across the country. bombings, the targeting of infrastructure and blackouts. so how do you run a tech company at a time of war? well, 12 ukrainian companies have come here to las vegas to prove that it can be done. ces is the biggest tech show in the world, a chance for these start ups to attract investment. this is the ceo of g—mac, a home security company. it is a sort of amazon ring on steroids.

multi—tone sound siren with an annoying effect not only stops a criminal, but wakes up the neighbours and informs everyone about the intrusion within a 100 metre radius. the device can spray tear gas into a room if it detects an intruder. but, he says, almost all of his staff are now fighting on the front line, and some have have been killed. we lost five people. five people? yes, from our team. and obviously that must be devastating for you, how does that affect the company? it motivates us to support their families. he is now looking to move production to the us. ardem is a programmer who founded a kitchen design set up. based near kyiv, he struggles to find electricity to power his computer. sometimes i am limited by the battery of my computer, so what i do, i go to a gas station, because they have a generator and they allow you to charge your computer or take coffee, so i try to somehow charge my computer. so you were working from a gas

station to try and do your start up? actually many people do this. mariana works for a company that makes crockery from old coffee beans. based near kharkiv, they�*ve had to move 500 miles east to lviv after the war started. we had a lot of missile attacks and a lot of rockets, so it was a real danger to be there, that is why we relocated to lviv. there are no commercial flights out of ukraine. many of these entrepreneurs have taken days to get here, but they are hoping it will be worth it if they can secure investment from western backers. you know, it�*s very hard in ukraine to do your business. first of all, it is hard to find investors in ukraine because all our investors and big companies, they try to support army, they try to support ukrainian people, so it is very hard to find some investors in ukraine. ukraine is a country that has showed innovation on the battlefield.

fighting against a much larger military force has often taken ingenuity. this group of entrepreneurs are trying to show that innovation isn�*tjust limited to the battlefield. james clayton, bbc news, las vegas. marine biologists in argentina have returned two green turtles to the ocean who were rescued after they became entangled in fishing nets, with one of the pair of endangered creatures excreting plastic ingested from the sea. this is one of two green turtles rescued at sea in argentina they were rescued after being found entangled in fishing nets. translation:— entangled in fishing nets. translation: , ., translation: the turtles arrived, the were translation: the turtles arrived, they were put _ translation: the turtles arrived, they were put in — translation: the turtles arrived, they were put in pools _ translation: the turtles arrived, they were put in pools and - translation: the turtles arrived, they were put in pools and their. they were put in pools and their swimming was measured to check it was normal. luckily it was. they are herbivores so we fed them and one

began to defecate plastic, luckily not too much. much. they spent time in rehab. we took blood samples for blood counts, the results showed that one of them had a high level of white blood cells and some parameters that indicated a slight degree of anaemia. we treated wit a mix of a haveit anaemia. we treated wit a mix of a have it can complex and iron. and now it is time to go home. back at sea, where they belong. thanks for watching on bbc news. the weather will stay windy today and it has been a wet start as well, particularly across scotland, england and wales, brighter conditions are going to spread in from the west with a mixture of sunshine and showers more generally this afternoon, the area of low

pressure is here, that has been bringing the wet weather, this area of cloud is the rain band sweeping eastwards across scotland, england and wales, what follows is the brighter showery conditions, but, and wales, what follows is the brightershowery conditions, but, it has been a windy start to brighter showery conditions, but, it has been a windy start to the brightershowery conditions, but, it has been a windy start to the day, particularly to the coast of south—west england where we have had a gust of 65mph and 5a over the north york moor, so far the strongest winds have been ahead of this rain band, that will continue to clear through, but then we get a second swathe of strong winds working into the north—west later on, with gales late in day in the north—west. it will stay blustery and lots of showers in the west. not too many for east scotland, eastern england one the main band of rain has cleared through. quite mild. eight to 11 degrees. showers continue to feed in overnight and it will stay windy and it is the wind that mean it�*s a frost—free night. temperatures about four to eight degrees celsius. tomorrow, the same area of low pressure is still on the

chart, it has dragged its feet and is working to the north of scotland. again, it will be a blustery day, it is another day of sunshine and showers really, so some lengthy dry spells where the sun will be out, but a few showers round as well. for the most part the showers blow through quickly on the strong winds, but again we could have lengthier spells of rain closer to that area of low pressure in the north—west of scotland where it will be particularly gusty, inland gusts into the �*30s, it will be another blowy day, and those temperatures not changing too much, highs ranging between seven and ten degrees, or so. monday, the low pressure pulls away northwards, it weakens a bit so it won�*t be as windy, a few showers round with lengthier spells of rain in the north—west, a bit of snow up over the scottish mountains, mostly above 600 metre and that means there will be some snow in the scottish ski resort, generally the weather pattern stays unsettled so expect

rain at times e generally pretty mild as well. that is the latest.

this is bbc world news, the headlines... having received a majority of the votes cast, kevin mccarthy is truly

elected