In his first major interview since becoming Prime Minister of the Uk Keir starmer has told the bbc the government is going to have to be unpopular. Speaking on sunday with Laura Kuenssberg he said the only way to change the country was to do difficult things now even though he Knows they are unpopular. Our political correspondent Georgia Robertsjoins us. The decision to end Winter Fuel parents is among the earliest of those difficult decisions this government has taken. Mps will vote on this next week and we Know several are planning to make their unhappiness Known but this morning Keir Starmer defended those plans on Winter Fuel. Lets hear him talking about that. About that. This is really tou h, about that. This is really tough. I about that. This is really tough. I do about that. This is really tough, i do get about that. This is really tough, i do get to about that. This is really tough, i do get to staff. | about that. This is really| tough, i do get to staff. I Know tough, i do g
experts and commentators to guidance through the day. welcome to viewers on bbc one northern ireland and viewers on bbc news, this is a stormont special, in which history is about to be made. let s cross to parliament buildings. talk is through the significance as you see it as to what will happen. i through the significance as you see it as to what will happen. it as to what will happen. i don t think ou it as to what will happen. i don t think you could it as to what will happen. i don t think you could understate - it as to what will happen. i don t think you could understate the l think you could understate the symbolic significance today here after 100 years of northern ireland, we are going to get our first nationalist republican first minister here and we have had 11 other leaders in northern ireland, so this will be a significant moment is notjust because titles matter, michelle o neill will have a new title, but we will see within the assembly chamber that visual
over 3% in december. we spoke to investment manager shanti kelemen. she told us the fall in shop prices is a positive development, as the bank of england weighs up when it can start cutting the cost of borrowing. i think it s absolutely good news. i mean, one quirk of psychology is that even though inflation isn t going up because prices arejust sort of constant, it might not feel a lot better because the price is still higher than it was two years ago. with the changes and how people are expecting the future to unfold, the interest rates people pay our mortgages have already fallen a bit, similarly the rates the government is paying for borrowing are also coming down a bit from last year, so that in itself will provide a little bit of relief, even before the bank of england changes interest rates. but will that downward trend in shop price inflation continue? we all know about the supply chain disruptions in the red sea. and the picture could be further complicated from toni
we start tonight in washington, where talks to avoid a us debt default have been described as productive, but there s still no deal. presidentjoe biden and speaker of the house kevin mccarthy led negotiations on raising the debt ceiling to ensure the us can continue to pay its bills. biden and republican congressional leaders now have just ten days to avoid a default. president biden said: kevin mccarthy spoke outside the white house, and the bbc s nomia iqbal was watching. he said the meeting was productive. he said the tone was good. he appeared in an upbeat mood and he said there was still a way to go before they make a compromise. he did say that he believed the president does want to make a deal. bear in mind, we are fast approaching the deadline, and if a deal is passed, it would take more than a week, or about a week, to get through congress. the speaker appeared confident that would happen. i never wanted to be here. i do not like the idea that you govern by chaos, yo
also meeting with british prime minister rishi sunak. the bbc has been speaking to twitter s owner, elon musk. the last minute, unexpected interview came about after the bbc objected to a new tag describing it as government funded media on its main twitter account. in the interview the billionaire agreed to change this to publicy funded. he also defended the site s policing of hate speech and the mass sackings of staff and described taking over the social media firm as painful. do you have any regrets about buying twitter? i think it was something that needed to be done. it s been quite difficult. i would say, the pain level of twitter has been extremely high. this hasn t been some sort of party, so, it s been really quite a stressful situation in the last several months, not an easy one. so it s been quite painful, but i think at the end of the day, it should have been done and were there many mistakes made along the way? of course. and james clayton explained how the in