in the last hour, the president of the united states has arrived in belfast for a four day trip to mark the 25th anniversary of the good friday agreement. president biden, who has strong family ties to the republic of ireland, sees the 1998 agreement, which helped end northern ireland s decades long violent conflict known as the troubles, as part of his own political legacy. speaker president biden says he looks forward to reiterating america s commitment to preserving the peace. tomorrow, he ll deliver a speech at ulster university, speaker before travelling to the republic of ireland for the remainder speaker r of his four day visit. the trip will also celebrate his own family s roots in the republic. he ll attend events in louth and mayo, where he will visit his ancestral homes. there ll also be official engagements in dublin. he ll then leave for america on friday. our ireland correspondent, emma vardy, is in belfast, where air force one has just touched down. emma. joe b
the biggest strike disruption on the railways this year. 0nly around 11% of the usual saturday timetable will be able to run. members of four unions are taking part in the strike in a long running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions. 0ur transport correspondent, katy austin reports. another train strike and it s the biggest yet. karen from staffordshire is running the london marathon tomorrow to fund raise for the hospital where she had breast cancer treatment. news of the strike meant she had to make other plans to get there. so for me, this just blew everything apart. i couldn t even begin to think of how we would get there. so ijust worried, until we knew what our plan was, ijust panicked, just worried about it. the red lines on this map are the only parts of the rail network which do have services today. where trains are running, they started a lot later than usual and they ll finish a lot earlier than normal as well. there are no trains running between london and some
could the emergency services have done more to save lives after the manchester arena bombing? a report is due out shortly. the migrant crisis in kent the home secretary visits dover and manston to see for herself what s happening there. and why soaring energy bills mean many swimming pools and fitness centres could be forced to close this winter. i ve been going, what, ten years or more. peter has been coming 16. and coming up on the bbc news channel. it s crunch time in the t20 world cup group stages as pakistan dig deep to claim a vital victory over south africa to avoid elimination. good afternoon. within the last hour, interest rates have gone up by three quarters of a percentage point the biggest increase for more than 30 years. it pushes the base rate up to 3% as the bank of england tries to control inflation. it s the eighth rise in a row, meaning higher mortgage bills for many homeowners. meanwhile, the bank has also warned the uk could be on course for its longes