and pulp fiction star is now suffering from a type of dementia. and the deadline looms to see who might want to buy manchester united, with offers expected to come in from prospective owners in britain, the us and qatar. good morning and welcome to bbc news. the prime minister will hold talks with stormont leaders in belfast today, with hopes that a deal between the uk and the eu on northern ireland s brexit arrangement could soon be reached as early as next week. the current trading arrangement know as the northern ireland protocol was negotiated during brexit talks. it was put in place to deal with the fact that northern ireland is in the uk and the republic of ireland is in the eu. some goods passing from england, scotland and wales into northern ireland are getting checked when they cross the irish sea in order to keep an open order on the island of ireland. unionist parties argue that this places an effective border across the irish sea which undermines northern irel
also other diplomatic activity today. in brussels, foreign secretaryjames today. in brussels, foreign secretary james cleverly has been leading uk negotiators, meeting with the eu commission vice president, and this weekend rishi sunak is due to meet other european leaders in munich so you get the sense all of this is fuelling the expectation that a deal is close but the thinking in downing street and in the dublin government is that a deal isn t on the table just yet and there is still some way to go on this. , . ., ~ , ., we can talk now tojon tonge, professor of politics at liverpool university, and an expert on northern ireland. thank you very much forjoining us on bbc news. who needs to be persuaded of this and who is already on side and who isn t? mast persuaded of this and who is already on side and who isn t? on side and who isn t? most people are on site- on side and who isn t? most people are on site. the on side and who isn t? most people are on site. the nationalist -
of ireland is in the eu. some goods passing from england, scotland and wales into northern ireland are getting checked when they cross the irish sea in order to keep an open order on the island of ireland. unionist parties argue that this places an effective border across the irish sea which undermines northern ireland s place within the uk. the largest unionist party, the dup, is currently refusing to take part in the country s power sharing government unless its concerns about the protocol are resolved. our northern ireland correspondent chris page is following the talks in belfast. rishi sunak is trying to get everybody on to the same side. that s right. it s been a pretty early start this morning for rishi sunak. the first two parties he s seeing have already gone in, the