the bill moved a step closer last night, passing through the house of representatives on wednesday, but the clock is ticking. and do you know your o s from your e s, your g s from yourj s? the pressure mounts in washington, as the final of the national annual spelling bee gets under way. i ll put our panel to the test. but first the legal challenge launched by the government. it s over demands from the covid public inquiry that ministers whatsapp messages from the pandemic are released. in a letter, the cabinet office said it was doing so with regret but that the request goes beyond the remit of the inquiry. a deadline for the government to submit the messages passed at 4pm this afternoon, but the inquiry says it instead received notice of legal action. in response, borisjohnson said he was happy to hand over unredacted material if asked. let s talk about it with the panel, and, jim, what do you make of this? because the government here is saying we are not going to ha
by stating he d already given the cabinet office all relevant material. here s our political correspondent ben wright our political correspondent leila nathoo is in westminster. whether all the documentation as for has been handed over yet. do we know yet? an hour after that deadline we still haven t heard from the government or the inquiry itself as to whether any of the documents ask for have been handed over. so, we are still in a bit of a waiting game to understand whether the deadline was met or not. just to recap, for viewers about this. the covert inquiry is the big inquiry been doing and lots of work behind the scenes. it hasn t held public hearings yet but is has been after official records from the government as part of its work and it does ask for borisjohnson what s up messages and diaries during the course of the pandemic during the course of 2020 and 2022. in order to be able to assess the governments handling of the endemic. the cabinet office has resisted the
hello and welcome to bbc news. the latest series of tornadoes to have ripped through parts of the united states has left at least 11 people dead. they were killed in the states of arkansas and illinois. dozens have been injured and tens of thousands have lost power. some pictures coming through to us in the last couple of hours show the extent of the damage to homes in this residential area in the state of illinois. the picture is no better in arkansas, where you can see homes have been completely flattened and businesses forced to close after devastating damage. the governor there, sarah huckabee sanders, has declared a state of emergency. sancha berg reports. dozens of storms and tornadoes left a trail of destruction. two of the fiercest touched down in the southern state of arkansas, tearing off roofs, bringing down power lines, sweeping through homes with incredible force. the volume of itjust seems rather intense and it was extremely dangerous. it came through a set of d
at least 18 people are now known to have died, as storms and tornadoes ripped through the united states, causing vast devastation. hardest hit were tennessee, arkansas and indiana. in illinois, one person was killed when a theatre roof collapsed over people who were listening to a heavy metal band. the storms came a week after a tornado devastated a town in mississippi. sancha berg reports. dozens of storms and tornadoes left a trail of destruction. two of the fiercest touched down in the southern state of arkansas, tearing off roofs, bringing down power lines, sweeping through homes with incredible force. the volume of itjust seems rather intense and it was extremely dangerous. it came through a set of double doors and ploughed through my house. out of my front door, which had steel bars in front of it. several people have been killed, dozens injured, in this state alone. the governor declared a state of emergency. today has been a very hard day for the state of arkansas. bu