welcome to belfast and the lyric theatre where tonight, the play agreement will mark a moment 25 years ago that changed every aspect of life here in northern ireland forever the signing of the good friday or belfast agreement. it brought peace to northern ireland, but it has been an imperfect peace. the agreement guaranteed power sharing in government between nationalist and unionist communities. but for more than a third of its lifetime, there hasn t been a sitting government at stormont. these halls at the lyric have captured huge moments of symbolism both big and small. ten years ago, martin mcguinness, northern ireland s former deputy first minister, a former ira commander, shook hands with queen elizabeth here, a moment that would have once been unimaginable. and it is moments like that that people will be looking out for this evening when president biden arrives. here in northern ireland, words matter, and people will be looking to president biden s speech to see ho
hello, welcome to bbc news. let s start with that story causing major shock waves today, the boss of one of the largest business groups, the cbi, has been fired after an investigation into complaints about his conduct at work. to ny danker will leave the group with immediate effect. tony danker will leave the group with immediate effect. he apologised in the wake of the allegations over his behaviour towards a female employee. our business correspondent emma simpson has more. this story has absolutely rocked the cbi. tony stepped aside last month as an investigation got under way, but the report into what happened hasn t actually been published. it was done by an independent legal firm. so we don t know the full details. at the cbi said today that it related to specific complaints about workplace misconduct. it determined that tony s conduct fell short of that expected of the director general. so, he s been sacked with immediate effect. but he s clearly not happy about it bec
here in the uk, anne in the uk, keast butler has been appointed as the director of gchq the uk s intelligence, security and cyber agency. she will be the first woman to hold the top position at gchq. she will succeed sirjeremy fleming, who injanuary announced his decision to step down after six years in the role. the british government will announce new measures to reduce the number of smokers in the population to below five percent. one million smokers will be given a free vaping starter kit to encourage them to give up tobacco products. while pregnant women will also be offered up to £400 to stop smoking. the free vape policy which is being called swap to stop would be the first of its kind in the world. vincent mcaviney reports. despite a raft of measures in recent years, like the indoor smoking ban, increased duties and plain packaging with graphic health warnings, some smokers are still struggling to quit. but the government has
heightened tension between the us and china as those two powers are trying to bolster their military power here in the indo pacific. here in the uk, anne keast butler has been appointed as the director of gchq - the uk s intelligence, security and cyber agency. she will be the first woman to hold the top position at gchq. anne keast butler is currently serving as deputy director general at mi5 and will be the first woman to hold the top position at gchq. she will succeed sirjeremy fleming, who injanuary announced his decision to step down after six years in the role. beijing has been shrouded in a layer of thick dust after sandstorms hit the chinese capital. authorities have issued a yellow alert warning, that s the third highest of china s four tier colour coded weather warning system. the city s air quality index also showed levels of serious pollution. beijing has regular sandstorms in march and april as it is near the gobi desert. a dozen provinces across the country are also forec