Image source, Reuters

If you're just joining our coverage (or more likely just desperately trying to keep track of the machinations of the last few days), here's a quick summary of where we are at:

• Republican Kevin McCarthy is inching closer to becoming Speaker of the House of Representatives, the most senior position in the US Congress
• He has faced days of opposition from 20 colleagues from the right of his party, creating a deadlock in the House
• So far there have been 13 rounds of voting since Tuesday and no result, the first time in a century a Speaker has not been elected at the first time of asking
• The House cannot pass laws, launch investigations or even swear in members before a Speaker is elected
• But McCarthy has made progress towards reaching the needed majority this evening, winning over 14 of the holdout Republicans
• This leaves him just three short of the 217 people he currently needs
• The House is currently adjourned until 22:00 local time (03:00 GMT), while McCarthy presumably tries to drum up the final few votes
• There are reports two of the missing Republicans (who support McCarthy) are returning to Washington DC to help him get over the line, but this is yet to be confirmed
• If they do return it would raise the margin of victory to 218, but would also mean he would need only two opponents to flip their support to back him

Bernd Debusmann Jr
BBC News, on Capitol Hill

It's gotten very quiet in here all of a sudden. The House floor has been closed, and the lights have dimmed.

Some lawmakers are still in the hallway, but most people seem to have left in a hurry to get a few hours of rest before coming back tonight.

The late re-start, most have speculated, is to allow two absentee Republicans - Colorado's Ken Buck and Texas' Wesley Hunt - to return to Washington DC.

Both are McCarthy supporters. If they make it back - and two of the remaining dissidents flip their votes - McCarthy will get the 218 votes he needs and finally become House Speaker.

We've got a bit of a wait now to see what happens next in the battle for Speaker of the House. In the meantime, we've been hearing from Republican voters on the chaotic scenes of the past few days. First up is Rom Solene from Arizona.

The House of Representatives has voted to adjourn until 22:00 EST (03:00 GMT), by a margin of 220 to 212.

Holly Honderich, on Capitol Hill

Leaving the House chamber just now, Kevin McCarthy smiled and looked relaxed, telling journalists he was sure he’d be made Speaker this evening. "I'll have the votes," he said.

Asked how he expected to govern a Republican majority with so much dysfunction already, McCarthy gave a positive spin, saying these past four days of voting was a good thing for his caucus.

"Because it took so long to get this done, now we’ll know how to govern,” he said.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

With the latest round of voting, McCarthy has inched closer to winning the votes needed to be elected Speaker. Those last few holdouts will prove the hardest to win over, however.

That leaves the Republican leader and his team a few options for the remainder of the day.

They could move to adjourn for the week, taking the significant progress they made on Friday and heading into the weekend to try to twist – or break – a few arms ahead of the next gathering, which would probably take place on Monday.

They could press ahead, hoping that more voting will make the inevitability of McCarthy’s victory apparent to his opponents. With two absent Republicans congressmen arriving later in the day, his team would only have to convince two of the six holdouts to switch and end this extended legislative endurance test.

Or, of course, McCarthy could abandon his bid for the top job. That seemed like a possible outcome entering today’s balloting, as some of his supporters were beginning to grow restless.

At this point, however, the congressman must feel like victory is just within reach. While his opponents may be digging in for the long haul, he’s got a lot of motivation to keep up the fight now.

There will be a few minutes of delay, as a motion to adjourn the House until 22:00 EST (03:00 GMT) tonight is being considered.

The chair will count votes for about another 10 minutes - we will let you know what the outcome is as soon as we hear it.

The final votes for the 13th round are in and the results are as expected, with Kevin McCarthy gaining one vote on the previous round:

• Kevin McCarthy - 214
• Hakeem Jeffries - 212
• Jim Jordan - 6

Franz Strasser
BBC News senior video journalist

Image source, .

What has helped Kevin McCarthy throughout this process is the fact that no clear challenger emerged as the group of anti-McCarthy politicians struggled with who to put up to oppose him.

For a while Byron Donalds from Florida was their top choice but he lost votes as Kevin Hearn gained them.

Jim Jordan, who always voted for McCarthy himself, was the early top choice and after eight rounds of not receiving a single vote is now back on the scoreboard.

That's round 13 done and McCarthy is still short of the majority of votes he needs to become the next Speaker of the House.

We're waiting on the official tally but the unofficial results are:

• McCarthy (Republican): 214

• Jeffries (Democrat): 212
• Others: 6

Jake Sherman, founder of Punchbowl News, is reporting that two Republicans - Ken Buck and Wesley Hunt - will return to DC tonight to vote for McCarthy.

This will get McCarthy closer, but not quite close enough. With both Buck and Wesley voting for him, McCarthy will still need one more holdout to flip to his team.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from New York

Congressman David Trone had a pretty good excuse not to show up to work today: he was having surgery this morning, according to his office.

But just as a 13th ballot began, the Maryland Democrat tweeted he had returned to the Capitol, still wearing his hospital-issued socks.

"Time to vote for Hakeem Jeffries!" he wrote.

Shortly after, he was on the House floor with his arm in a sling, declaring his vote for Jeffries. His colleagues gave him a standing ovation.

Since he voted for the Democratic leader, Trone's presence likely won't have an impact on the Speaker's race.

But it does show how seriously Democrats take their obligation to show up for these votes. Any absence would lower the threshold McCarthy needs and make it easier for him to win. And right now, Democrats aren't inclined to lend a hand.

Andy Harris from Maryland, one of the remaining holdouts, just flipped his vote for McCarthy.

Just moments before, he was having an animated conversation with New Jersey’s Chris Smith, one of the most senior members of the House of Representatives.

Another member, Gary Palmer, had been speaking to him as well.

If they were, in fact, lobbying for McCarthy just now even as the voting went on, it seems to have worked.

While another Republican holdout just flipped, enough of McCarthy's opponents have held firm that it's unlikely he can win on this ballot.

Five Republicans voted for another candidate for Speaker.

McCarthy needs to whittle that number down to only four on a future ballot to win.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
BBC News, on Capitol Hill

Several of the Republican lawmakers who flipped their votes over to Kevin McCarthy today have just held an impromptu news conference in the National Statuary Hall.

Among them in Byron Donalds, who went from being a Speaker nominee himself to voting for McCarthy.

While details of the behind-the-scenes negotiations that have taken place are sparse, Donalds said that he now trusts McCarthy to do "the job necessary to lead our conference".

The flipped votes are a "show of good faith" that they're willing to make negotiations, he said.

He also cast a positive light on the last four days, telling us that it is "monumental" for Americans to see a "real" deliberative process in action.

Maryland's Chip Roy, for his part, declined to answer questions about the talks, but did say that getting spending under control was a significant part of it.

After what is beginning to resemble a turning of the tide, Kevin McCarthy has made inroads into securing enough votes to become Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Fourteen of his Republican colleagues flipped their vote to approve him (at the 12th time of asking), so how many more does he need to win over?

In short, he needs to convince three more of the seven continuing to vote against him.

As it stands, McCarthy has 213 votes, just short of the majority required to be appointed Speaker by the rules (in this case 216).

For much of this week he has needed 218, as there were 434 members of the House present for the first 11 votes. But this has now fallen by three, as three congressmen are no longer present - so 431 lawmakers are now voting in total.

The Republican party's renegades - now down to seven representatives - have not nominated anyone else as Speaker. This is a first.

It may mean progress is happening, but it may mean nothing at all. Members can vote for people who have not been nominated.

Indeed - Lauren Boebert, one of the holdouts, just voted for Representative Jim Jordan.

The 13th round of voting is underway.

You know the score by now - the Democrats are now nominating Hakeem Jeffries, the congressman who is taking over as party leader from Nancy Pelosi.

But what happens next is far more important. Will Matt Gaetz or Lauren Boebert nominate another Republican as a contender to McCarthy?

Right, here we go again. McCarthy is being nominated for a 13th time after securing 213 votes.

Will this be the last?

After some confusion over the exact number of votes cast (431), we have the 12th round's final results:

• Kevin McCarthy - 213
• Hakeem Jeffries - 211
• Jim Jordan - 4
• Kevin Hern - 3