political thinking helps to shape ours. once again, london and brussels are at loggerheads. once again come row between the uk and the eu is about the status of northern ireland. once again, politics in belfast is deadlocked, with unionists refusing to share power with sinn fein. my guess is someone whose life and career is based on your refusal to take sides in the political battle to stop it is a decision that has paid dividends for naomi long, who leads the alliance party, which won a record number of seats in the recent elections. brought up in one of the most fiercely loyal as parts of east belfast, she insisted that politics should not be defined by whether you want northern ireland to stay in the uk ought instead to be united with the rest of ireland. but does she and her party really represent anything more than simply none of the above? naomi long, from belfast, welcome to political thinking. hi there. do you everfind welcome to political thinking. hi there. do you e
Uk actionline. This is bbc news, the headlines. A crucial day in Donald Trumps Hush Money Trial in new york. His former lawyer Michael Cohen admits he lied to getjobs done for his former boss and intimidated reporters on the former president s behalf. The uk government says it will appeal against a ruling by a Belfast Court that parts of the rwanda policy should not apply in Northern Ireland. The bbc sees new evidence that the British Government was warned by its embassy in washington as long ago as the 1980s about the risks from contaminated american blood products. Turning now to a potential setback in the uk governments plan, to detain and remove Asylum Seekers to rwanda. Ajudge sitting in the high court in belfast has ruled it should not apply to Northern Ireland. Mrjustice humphreys ruled in favour of a challenge to the act saying that the law breaches Human Rights Protections guaranteed under post brexit arrangements. Rishi sunak has said the decision will not change the rwanda p
Great have you with us. How did they finally seal the deal . Yes. Great have you with us. How did they finally seal the deal . Finally seal the deal . Yes, this has been a nearly finally seal the deal . Yes, this has been a nearly twoyear finally seal the deal . Yes, this has been a nearly twoyear long been a nearly two year Long Acquisition Process which has been fierce with a lot of pushback. Cma is the last major hurdle they create. The major issue the cma had with the Activision Blizzard deal was odd to most others in the industry, their issue with the cloud Gaming Market. It is currently about i Gaming Market. It is currently about 1 of the total Global Gaming market which is 188 billion, cloud Gaming Market is about 127 billion, and the concern they had was Activision Blizzard was have a monopoly or unfair advantage with this acquisition and this is something that was a Head Scratcher for us. We are glad this has got through, Activision Blizzard got this route by making what we t
Was weaker than we expected in the Fourth Quarter of last year but we think the First Quarter of this year has been a bit stronger, which will lead the level of Economic Activity broadly when we thought it would be. 12 months Consumer Price inflation fell from 4 in december to 3. 2 in march, its lowest rate since december 2021. March, its lowest rate since december2021. 0. I march, its lowest rate since december 2021. 0. 1 higher than we expected in february. The decline was spread across food, core goods and services. Energy prices have also continued to contribute negatively to the Headline Inflation rate. As a lower 0fgem cap on Household Energy prices come into effect in april, we expect Headline Inflation to drop further to a level very close to target in the next few months. But we then expected to edge up months. But we then expected to edge up a again. This absence of data surprises is an indication that we are now getting back to more normal times, at least compared to the hig