hello and welcome to bbc news. at least 60 people have been killed in winter storms across the united states and canada. president biden has approved an emergency declaration allowing federal support for new york state. the city of buffalo has borne the brunt of the arctic conditions. it lies in the great lakes region and near the canadian border 27 bodies have been recovered there; and more are expected to be found in cars buried in the snow. blizzards have blocked roads and brought down power lines making it hard to get food and medicine. sean dilley reports. forfive days, blizzard conditions have disrupted life and travel across america. dozens of deaths have been reported, more are expected in the coming days. emergency services are among those struggling with the weather. a quarter of a million homes and businesses are estimated to have been hit by power cuts on christmas eve and christmas day. the impact of the storm has stretched from canada to the mexican border.
next? chief among them, when will congress have a new speaker of the house? plus damar hamlin remains in critical condition in the hospital. we ll talk to his high school football coach. a monster storm is hammering california right now. san francisco s mayor joins us live, as they prepare and are handling what they re going to do about the latest deluge. this is what we re watching at this hour. thank you for being with us. i m kate bolduan. 24 hours later, we have no speaker of the house and no clearer view when that would be decided. very soon the house is supposed to attempt to convene. kevin mccarthy incests he will not be dropping out of the race, and insists he can get to 218, despite failing to secure support in three votes. it is the first time in a century that the house did not elect a speaker on the first round of voting. at the heart of this mess is a small group of conservatives, about 10% of the republican conference, all of whom want more power, all of
of security which could have been a breach of the material code and is now back. aside from that, she is outspoken, she has talked about her obsession over the rwanda migration alessi ministerial code. she is somebody not afraid to speak her mind and some in parliament see her as potentially a bit of a liability. it will be insuring to see how that unfolds. and there is also michael gove, making a return to cabinet in the key role as levelling up secretary. levelling up something we heard a lot about under boris johnson, not so much under liz truss, so does that signal rishi sunak works into that as the centrepiece policy for his government? centrepiece policy for his government? centrepiece policy for his covernment? , , . ~ government? levelling up his back. is this the new government? levelling up his back. is this the new prime government? levelling up his back. is this the new prime minister- government? levelling up his back. is this the new prime minister try .
it s been a busy afternoon in downing street dominic raab is back as justice secretary and deputy prime minister james cleverely stays as foreign secretary ben wallace remains defence secretary and michael gove looks set to return to government. grant shapps a big supporter of rishi sunak. grant shapps a big supporter of rishi sunak. stay with us in downing street for all the appointments so far. welcome to downing street where the new prime minister, rishi sunak has started to assemble his new cabinet with a number of appointments into the top jobs in government. let s into the top jobs in government. run you through v so let s run you through what we know so far. let s run you through what we know so far. jeremy hunt who took as chancellor after kwasi kwarteng was sacked following the fallout of the mini budget remains in post at the treasury. dominic raab is back in government a key supporter of rishi sunak. he is back asjustice secretary and reappointed depu
reporter: all of these options are thorny. if they go to another round of balloting, it s not clear i would be surprised if mccarthy were able to peel off the number of people that he needs from this 20 no vote coalition on his side to actually become speaker on this next ballot. what we are hearing is that the mccarthy team could go for a motion to adjourn until tomorrow. you are right, that would buy them time. it would save them another round of embarrassment if he were to lose on this fourth ballot. as i was walking over here, i tried to find some key members of that 20 no vote coalition to ask if they would support that motion to adjourn. right now, democrats have said they will not represent republicans do that. they are whipping against that motion. republicans would have to go it alone. they would not be able to pass that motion to adjourn unless some of these 20 republicans were also on board and supportive of it. i talked, for example, with congressman andy bigg