ranking republican and has served in congress since 2008. our washington correspondent gary o'donoghue has more on the latest developments. the unprecedented removal of the speaker has left congress in chaos. they are taking a week off while they decide what to do next. one rebel was unrepentant. to do next. one rebelwas unrepentant.— to do next. one rebelwas unreentant. , ., , unrepentant. this was the right call the american _ unrepentant. this was the right call the american people - call the american people deserve a lead and speaker who will the tell the truth and the international community need to know the next speaker will be honest and won't go back on the word. ~ , , . , ., honest and won't go back on the word. , word. with republics and is focusina word. with republics and is focusing on _ word. with republics and is focusing on themselves - word. with republics and is| focusing on themselves the question of funding for ukraine which congress controls remains undecided. which congress controls remains undecided-— undecided. does worry me but i know there _ undecided. does worry me but i know there are _ undecided. does worry me but i know there are a _ undecided. does worry me but i know there are a member - undecided. does worry me but i know there are a member of. undecided. does worry me but i know there are a member of -- i know there are a member of —— number of majorities in the house and senate both parties who have said, they support funding ukraine. the president also asked _ funding ukraine. the president also asked to _ funding ukraine. the president also asked to be _ funding ukraine. the president also asked to be had _ funding ukraine. the president also asked to be had any - funding ukraine. the president| also asked to be had any advice for the next speaker, he could barely keep a straight face. while some candidates have begun the frantic process of gathering support, others have suggested an extraordinary alternative option. given the speaker does not have to be a member of the house. fix, speaker does not have to be a member of the house.- speaker does not have to be a member of the house. a lot of --eole member of the house. a lot of people have — member of the house. a lot of people have been _ member of the house. a lot of people have been calling - member of the house. a lot of people have been calling me l people have been calling me about that. we will do whatever is best for the country. congress has only agreed to fund the country for another six weeks and republicans are at each other�*s throats extending that has become much harder. earlier, my colleague caitriona perry spoke with catie edmondson, congressional reporter with the new york times. catie, we have two names in the ring now. are we expecting any others? i think we will have to wait and see. obviously representative kevin mccarthy, the former speaker, was ousted just last night. there are a number of lawmakers waiting to see if he might try to run again for that leadership post, and once he formally announced that he would not seek to become speaker again, the gates really opened but again, we are less than 2a hours out from that announcement, so more people could throw their hat in the ring but i think the bottom line is that no—one is really expecting a quick and easy election of a speaker next week. if you remember, it took kevin mccarthy 15 rounds of votes in order to win the speakership back injanuary so we potentially have a very long saga ahead of us still. will it be a similar process then? just what is going to happen next week? it will be a similar process. we understand that on tuesday lawmakers are going to come back from their districts, they will return to washington and republicans are going to have a sort of candidate forum for people running for speaker to put forward their vision for running the republican conference and we expect at the earliest, there could be a vote on wednesday and again we're going to see the same process that we saw for those of you who watched injanuary when kevin mccarthy was elected that lawmakers are going to have to stand up one by one on the house floor and say who they want to be speaker of the house. while this process is going on, the clock is still ticking on that stopgap measure to keep the government funded and open until mid november. can anything happen with that while there is no speaker? that's right, the stakes of this is notjust that you have a republican party at odds with itself right now, at least in the house, but we have again a stopgap funding bill that is going to run out in the middle of november and negotiations really should start as soon as possible in order to make sure the us government does not shut down next month. and you also have the house floor currently paralysed because the house does not have a leader. we have, as you mentioned, acting speaker, patrick mchenry, a congressman from north carolina but he's vested with the full powers of speaker. he is serving in a purely interim position and so many of the functions of the house of representatives, such as committee's ability to be move pieces of legislation onto the house floor are currently shut down until republicans can elect a speaker. it is there any sense of any side negotiations going on then in relation to trying to get agreement on a longer term spending measure? no, i think house republicans, many of them were quite shocked actually, last night, to see kevin mccarthy toppled in the fashion that he was. there were a number of lawmakers who were crying, who were putting forward kevin mccarthy's name, that maybe he would run again for speaker, actually as he was telling lawmakers that he would not. so this is a series of events that got a number of republicans by surprise and it is a part of the reason why patrick mchenry elected to send everyone home so that they could regroup so i would not expect to see any substantial negotiations on that funding bill until there is a speaker elected. what will happen next for speaker mccarthy then? that is the question. he alluded — he did 50 minutes of a press conference taking questions from reporters last night, he said repeatedly that he believes he can serve america in some sort of position that is not speaker of the house but he did not allude to what he plans to do next. i asked a congressman who attended the private meeting that former speaker mccarthy spoke at last night, if mccarthy alluded to whether or not he would resign from congress altogether and the congressman said that mr mccarthy did not give any hints one way or another. there is some precedent for that, john boehner, when he was facing an ouster from hard right republicans, chose to resign and relinquish the speaker's gavel, rather than face an ouster vote like mr mccarthyjust did. there will be a new speaker of the house, whoever that is, it seems there is no apparent change to the polarised politics. former democratic leaders we saw today being asked to vacate their offices? that's right, two of the names you mentioned, who are currently in contention for becoming speaker, steve scalise, who is the current majority leader, from louisiana, as well asjim jordan of ohio, these are both very conservative men. i think most people would say temperamentally they are more politically conservative than mr mccarthy was and so i do not think anyone should really expect to see a change in tone with a new speaker when it comes to how the republican conference in the house of representatives operates. what is this going to mean for the aid to ukraine, the extra $24 billion that the president has asked for? we saw it had to be removed in order to get a deal at the weekend. that's right and it was removed because of that vote for house republicans, they see it as politically toxic. they hear from their voters when they go back home to their districts that many of them, particularly in very conservative, very right districts, are hearing that their voters do not want to see more american money sent to help ukraine fend off the russian invasion. and so it is hard to see a new speaker of the house wanting to put some sort of bill sending aid to ukraine on the house floor for a vote, in fact, several hard—line conservative lawmakers in the past few days were warning either speaker mccarthy at the time or whoever was going to become speaker that that was not a move that they should take and so you see a lot of republican and democratic lawmakers at the capitol who are strong supporters of ukraine quite worried at this juncture in time as in the future of new aid bills for ukraine. ok, catie edmondson is a congressional correspondent with the new york times, thank you forjoining us. thank you. president biden has warned that a �*poisonous atmosphere' in washington is threatening the country's aid to ukraine. he'll deliver a major speech on why funding is critically important for the united states and other allies. on thursday, he is set to receive a briefing from members of his national security team on ukraine. the us showed its continued support by sending ukraine more thani million rounds of iranian ammunition on wednesday. the us military said the ammunition had been seized last yearfrom iran backed fighters in yemen. but it is unlikely to make a major difference on the battlefield when long—range weapons and air defense systems are on the top of ukraine's wish list. against that backdrop, a new survey finds that while most americans still support funding ukraine, the number has been slipping. the chicago council on global affairs finds that 63% of americans support military aid to ukraine. that's still a majority of course, but it's down from 72% injuly 2022. a short while ago, i spoke with emily guskin, polling analyst from the washington post about these results. good evening to you. thank you so much forjoining us here in the programme. emily, these survey results appear to indicate that we are seeing some fraying of bipartisan support for us military assistance to ukraine. do we know what's behind that? it looks like the decline is really concentrated among republican voters as opposed to democrats or independents. they are down to 50% who support additional arms and military supplies to ukraine, where there are still a majority of democrats and independents who say the same. let's look a little more in terms of what's driving this. is this more indicative of what we've been seeing when it comes to ukraine's performance in its most recent counteroffensive on the battlefield? is it a case of domestic politics playing at home here in the united states and the messaging around that? what have you been seeing? the survey was taken in september before this latest almost government shutdown and the pulling of the support, the us support for ukraine in the last bill. so it is not the most recent amount of data, it is from september. but we have heard more republicans speak up, far—right members of the party have mentioned several times that they want to pull back funding. we've seen americans divided, whether or not it is worth the $15 billion that we have provided so far, and that's higher among republicans, the majority of republicans say it's not worth the cost and the majority of democrats say it is worth the cost. this is a critical moment for ukraine now as it seeks further funding. how do you see this playing out then for ukraine, as president biden, as we know, seeks a further $24 billion of aid. we have got tumult in the house right now. do you think that these results show that ukraine does risk seeing dwindling support from some quarters? we are seeing that in the data that republicans are less supportive of sending aid to ukraine but we also see interesting data throughout. for example, the survey asked if americans had a greater responsibility to european countries. 66% say that europe should be equally responsible as the us to ukraine. just 3% of americans said that the us has greater responsibility and 30% say europe should be more responsible. so a majority of americans here really think there is a united front between the us and europe and we see that in time and time again in surveys that americans really like working together. there's also questions here about nato there is a lot of support for supporting nato and partner countries. recently we had the president of ukraine here in washington and at that time, we started to see some concerns emerging about how long this war will continue. did you also see that concern coming through from the poll respondents? yes, few expect a short end to it. 34% say the fighting will go on for over a year and another 34% said it will last for two or four more more years and 50% it will last five years or more, so there is not an optimistic view among americans that the war will end anytime soon. you mentioned zelensky visited the us recently and he still has a majority positive rating of the us unlike the president here, and he has 67% approval rating from americans, a favourable rating, rather, down from 81% he had in 2022, but still net positive and better than most american politicians enjoy their own ratings here, and that decreases among republicans as well, not among democrats or independents. emily guskin from the washington post, great to talk to you. thanks for being with us. thanks for having me. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. britain's prime minister has committed to raising the age that people can buy cigarettes by one year, every year. the idea is that smoking would eventually be phased out altogether, with those aged 14 today never able to buy tobacco. rishi sunak says there will be a vote in parliament on the issue. the idea was put forward by a government—commissioned review last year. opening arguments began in the trial of the so—called crypto king in new york on wednesday. in their opening statements, prosecutors said sam bankman—fried's empire was built on lies. the ftx founder is accused of scamming customers out of billions of dollars and using their money to illegally fund other ventures. he's pleaded not guilty to all the charges. storm koinu has made landfall at the southern tip of taiwan as a category four typhoon, generating record winds of up to 250km/h. that's around issmph. flights have been cancelled and schools have been shut. many workplaces have also been closed as heavy rain and winds sweep across the region. you're live with bbc news. more than 75,000 employees of one of the us�*s biggest healthcare providers have walked off thejob — prompting the largest healthcare worker strike in the nation's history. medical support staff, cleaners, technicians and pharmacists, working for kaiser permanente are on strike after the non—profit healthcare giant and unions failed to reach an agreement after months of talks over wages, outsourcing and staffing shortages. demonstrations are happening across the country form california to right here in washington, dc. the kaiser permanente strike is one of several labour strikes we've seen in the us in recent months. other high profile demonstrations have been led by the united auto workers and the actors' union. the us bureau of labour statistics reports that more than 300,000 workers went on strike through august this year alone. for more on the strike, i spoke earlier with the executive director of the coalition of kaiser permanente unions, caroline lucas. caroline, in a statement today, kaiser permanente said it had already agreed to a minimum wage increase of 25 dollars an hour in california, that they are aggressively hiring new staff. what's your response to what they put on the table? thank you so much for having me at this pivotal moment. we do acknowledge kaiser permanente has made a commitment to hire 10,000 new staff and they are close to that goal but their failure to create a comprehensive solution to the short—term staffing crisis is resulting in people leaving the industry as well so within kaiser permanente, within our coalition, at the same time they have hired 10,000 new healthcare workers, almost 4000 have left so we need solutions that do notjust bring people in the door but retain them for the long—term. what would that look like? what would see workers essentially come back to work and say this is good enough? frontline healthcare workers have a couple of simple request and that is that kaiser permanente executives listen to the solution for short staff increases and that executives provide the levels necessary to deliver safe and effective patient care and that kaiser executives provide a workplace safe and acceptable for their workers. why do you think this is happening now specifically? without stereotyping, many healthcare workers we know they often go the extra mile for their patients, so what has pushed them to this point that they are prepared to walk off the job? that is such an important point and i will say that no healthcare worker goes into healthcare because they want to be on strike. they want to be to the bedside of their patients. throughout the pandemic, they went the extra mile day in and day out for their patients which is why many healthcare workers worked 10—30 hours of overtime because they do not want the patients harmed by the lack of staff and in some cases because sometimes healthcare workers cannot make and meet on 40 hours of week of work. people are burnt out. people cannot do it any longer. they have been sounding the alarm for months and saying we do not feel safe and we do not feel we are providing the level of care we feel good about and something has to change and kaiser executives have not acted with the urgency needed. and here we are with 75,000 front line healthcare workers on strike outside of kaiser hospitals and clinics instead of inside with patients. patients will be wondering, how does this impact me? what should they expect? right now we have tens of thousands of frontline workers in front of kaiser clinics, so when you go to kaiser clinics you will see hundreds of people outside with signs, talking about the need for patient care. if you are a patient who needs care, absolutely frontline workers are saying go get the care you need but we are also telling kaiser permanente that the long—term solutions are keeping, retaining, and attracting, meaningfully investing in staff to keep folks on the job. this is not a crisis that happened due to the strike. people are out on strike because there is a healthcare cross going on for years exacerbated in the last six months, causing patients to wait for appointments, critical testing, and to be seen by their doctors. something else that will perhaps come front of mind for patients is, if this progresses, if you are unable to come to a deal which ultimately sees higher wages, will those costs be passed on then to patients potentially? kaiser can afford to do right by both their patients and by their workers. this is the largest not—for—profit hospital system in our country, an organisation that although it is not—for—profit, made $3 billion in the first six months of the year. an organisation that pays executives $16 million. this is not a question of resources but a question of priorities. you've wrapped up day one of this strike. it's been slated for three days. if you don't go further with those negotiations, could the strike potentially run longer than three days? the strike is scheduled to end at 6am saturday morning, that is the 10—day notice we provided kaiser which we are legally required to provide. healthcare workers won't stop advocating, they can't afford a stop advocating for meaningful solutions, but they will do so not from the strike line but from back at the bargaining table. caroline lucas there. italian authorities are still trying to identify all of the 21 victims of tuesday's deadly bus crash in venice. the electric bus crashed through a bridge barrier, and plunged almost 15 metres or 50 feet, before bursting into flames. dna samples are being used to confirm the identities of those who were not carrying personal documents. officials say three children including a baby were among the dead. pope francis has warned the world is collapsing due to climate change and may be nearing breaking point. at the start of a three—week summit of catholic church leaders, the pope criticised global decision—making bodies for being ineffective, as well as calling out climate deniers. our religion editor aleem maqbool has more from the vatican. it has been an eventful day here at vatican city. it started with pope francis presiding over mass here in saint peter's square and then the beginning of synod, a major gathering of catholics from around the world, mainly bishops but some laypeople as well and for the first time women, who will be spending the next 26 days considering some of the key questions about how the catholic church moves forward and then at lunchtime, pope francis published a major document on climate change. it is an issue that the pope has talked about throughout the ten years of his papacy. in fact, in 2015 he publish an encyclical, that is the highest level of document that a the pope can publish, on the issue of environment where he called for much more to be done. this really was an assessment of what has happened since then and it was pretty bleak and he did not mince his words. he was critical of global governing bodies, saying they were ineffective. he did praise some of the agreements that have been made at initiatives like the cop meetings, but said that often the recommendations were very vague, there were not enough sanctions for those countries who did not abide by the agreements. he was critical of politicians who denied climate change and acted too slowly to, in his words, risk looking like they were doing diversionary tactics rather than actually doing what was right for the globe. but he was also critical of individuals, particularly in the west, where he said the lifestyle — and he talked about the us in particular — meant that climate change was still a perilous issue to deal with and unless there was a change in that lifestyle, then things were heading in a very bleak direction. and he talked about the fact that already, some of the impact of climate change was irreversible and the need for much more urgency of dealing with the issue. and before we go, items belonging to the late james bond actor sir roger moore have gone on auction in london. nearly 200 treasures went under the hammer. they included the tuxedo worn by the actor in the film a view to a kill, plus signed movie posters and personal effects. also on offer were ties and cuff links owned by the famously debonair actor, and even his british passport. the auction was headed by moore's son, geoffrey to mark the 50th anniversary of the actor's first outing as bond in 1973's live and let die. moore died in 2019 aged 89 from lung cancer. a portion of the proceeds from the sale will be donated to charity. thats all from us here in washington. thank you for watching. i'm helena humphrey. we leave you with these live pictures of london as we hand off to our colleagues there. stay with bbc news. hello there. some of you may be forgiven for thinking that summer has returned this weekend. yes, for some of you, the weather is set to get a lot warmer. but before you get there, at the moment, cloud is thickening to our west and we have rain on the way as well for quite a few. now we're starting to see rain edge into northern ireland. that's going to be turning steadier and heavier over the next few hours, but some patches of rain also for the southwest of scotland, the north—west of both england and wales. with extensive cloud around, it's a mild start to thursday morning, with temperatures into double figures widely. but across the northern half of scotland, with some clearer skies here — we're starting on a chilly note. now, through thursday, this low pressure is the system that's bringing the rain. so it's going to be quite windy. you can see some fairly tightly packed isobars there. the rain at its heaviest in the morning across northern ireland. that wetter weather then swings across scotland, northern england, wales and some damp weather too, for the midlands for a time, east anglia and southern parts of england probably staying dry until after dark, with some bright spells coming through the cloud. and for many areas of the uk, temperatures are running above average. now eventually you might see a little bit of rain thursday evening trickling down across parts of southern england and east anglia, but it won't really amount to very much. on into friday's forecast, we've got another zone of rain pushing into western scotland. the rain now clearing further southwards as this ridge of high pressure starts to build in, and that should mean that the weather becomes increasingly dry. there'll be a bit more sunshine to go around and those temperatures are creeping up — 22 in london, while the average for this time of the year in the capital is 16 degrees. now, the process of that high pressure really starting to flex its muscles continues into the weekend. pushing the band of rain ever further northwards across scotland where it could be quite wet across northern areas of scotland on saturday. otherwise, lots of sunshine around and those temperatures climbing. well, we could see highs of 26, maybe a 27 this weekend in the very warmest areas. certainly those temperatures are a long, long way above average. and if we look at temperatures in october — now, we often see the highest temperatures in a month getting to the low 20s, but it's quite rare to see temperatures up to 26 or 27. that would make it one of the hotter days that we've seen in october in this country. voiceover: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk from brussels. i'm stephen sackur. in an era of great power, rivalry and increasing hostility, eu leaders profess confidence in the ability of their bloc to compete with the us and china. butjust how well positioned is europe to safeguard its own prosperity and security? well, my guest is the eu economy commissioner, paolo gentiloni. are internal divisions over economic policy, migration and the rise of populism undermining the credibility of the eu? commissioner paolo gentiloni, welcome to hardtalk. my pleasure. let me begin by some words written in the economist magazine very recently. "gloom," they said, "is now spreading across the continent." you're economy commissioner. the european economy is struggling. are you gloomy? well, the economy is struggling. i'm not gloomy.