in the vatican. and looking ahead to the inevitably stressful cooking of christmas dinners we get tips from a chef from inside his restaurant kitchen. hello and welcome to bbc news. an icy blast is affecting nearly 250 million people in the us and canada, as one of the most severe winter storms in living memory takes hold with snow blizzards, strong winds and freezing temperatures. at least 19 people have died. more than 1.5 million american households and businesses are without electricity and thousands of flights have been cancelled. the us state of montana registered a record breaking low of minus 45 celsius. the bbc s nomia iqbal reports. for much of america, this is the coldest christmas eve. millions of them had plans to get away for the holidays. but the powerful bomb cyclone has thrown everything into chaos, causing car accidents, destroying power lines, leaving millions without electricity. the warning is, don t travel unless you need to. don t travel under these
as he holds his christmas eve mass in the vatican. and looking ahead to the inevitably stressful cooking of christmas dinners we ll be getting tips from a chef from inside his restaurant kitchen. hello and welcome to bbc news. an icy blast is affecting nearly 250 million people in the us and canada, as one of the most severe winter storms in living memory takes hold with snow blizzards, strong winds and freezing temperatures. at least 19 people have died. hundreds of thousands of american households and businesses are without electricity and thousands of flights have been cancelled. the us state of montana registered a record breaking low of minus 45 celsius. nomia iqbal reports. for much of america, this is the coldest christmas eve. millions of them had plans to get away for the holidays. but the powerful bomb cyclone has thrown everything into chaos, causing car accidents, destroying power lines, leaving millions without electricity. the warning is, don t travel unle
bowel cancer campaigner dame deborah james, host of the bbc podcast you, me and the big c, has died at the age of a0. and a shock first round defeat for the seven time wimbledon champion serena williams in herfirst singles match ina year. hello and welcome to the programme. world leaders are to hold talks on the future direction of nato in the wake of russia s invasion of ukraine. the british prime minister, borisjohnson, will call on member states to increase their military spending because he believes threats will only continue to grow. the leaders received an early boost after turkey dropped its opposition to finland and sweden joining the alliance. our europe editor katya adler reports from madrid. it s taken weeks of negotiations, but sweden and finland are now well on their way to becoming nato members after they signed an agreement with turkey to counter threats to each other s security. applause ukraine of courses on everyone s minds here. but so is the wider security
let s get down to business. as promised, we have more for you on the nato summit that will be getting under way in a few hours time. where, as you ve been hearing, finland and sweden have joined the alliance after turkey dropped its opposition against their membership. so, two of the hot topics at the summit are deciding whether russia or china is the biggest threat to world stability currently, and how to share the combined costs of defence security. members are expected to meet the nato target of spending 2% of gross domestic product on defence. the uk presently spends 2.1% of its gdp on security, but there have been calls for an increase after russia s invasion of ukraine. michael rowe is vice president of aerospace and defence at frost & sullivan. good morning to you, michael. first of all, finland, sweden joining nato. what does that mean in money terms? good morning- mean in money terms? good morning. when mean in money terms? good morning. when you - mean in money