suffering from a type of dementia. hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world. the prime minister rishi sunak is holding talks with northern ireland s political leaders in belfast today with hopes that a deal between the uk and the eu on northern ireland s brexit arrangement could 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, as the current deal prevents checkpoints 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 po
and the hard yards that we need to undertake to get this right. hello and welcome to the programme. we will be live in ireland tonight, asjoe biden makes the journey south to his ancestral home. we will be finding what came of his brief visit to belfast today, and what unionists made of the speech he delivered. we ll bring you more of that extraordinary conversation between the bbc s james clayton and elon musk. plenty to disect in that, including musk s confession he only went through with a takeover at twitter, because the judge would have forced him to do it anyway. and who controls the distribution of the abortion pill in america? the us government is in court this next hour, to appeal a decision in texas to suspend the licence. we will get reaction. lets start first with president biden and the speech he gave today marking the 25th anniversary of the good and friday agreement. a speech in which the us president held out the promise of huge us investment if and when stabl
prolonged and heavy and thundery. temperatures still below average for april but it shouldn t feel bad in the sunshine. a big change this weekend and next week, as south westerly winds start to move in and high pressure moves in, bring a long spell of settled weather and next week, for the first time this year, we should see temperatures hit the low 20s. thanks, chris. that s it. there s more analysis of the day s main stories on newsnight with kirsty wark, just getting under way over on bbc two. but the news continues here on bbc one, as wejoin our colleagues across the nations and regions for the news where you are. have a very good night. on northern ireland, celebrating 25 years of the good friday agreeent, and promising $6 billion of us investment if the dup gets back to power sharing. but is a return to stormont any closer following the visit? the president has had his say and left time bit without any return to power sharing how long can the status go on for? nick s at
once the new president, gustavo petro, takes office in august. mr petro, himself a former rebel, has become the country s first left wing leader after winning sunday s presidential election. now on bbc news, it s hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. after a painful divorce, you never know if the ex partners will be able to build an amicable relationship. for britain and the eu, it seems the brexit break up has left a legacy of mistrust and bitterness, which is overwhelming any desire for cooperation. northern ireland is currently what they re fighting over. the uk is refusing to stick to the divorce settlement and the eu is threatening legal action. my guest is the eu ambassador in london, joao vale de almeida. is this a fight where everyone gets hurt? joao vale de almeida, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. it s a pleasure to have you. i want to start with some words of yours from, actually, early in your posting here in london as eu ambassador. you
stick to the divorce settlement and the eu is threatening legal action. my guest is the eu ambassador in london, joao vale de almeida. is this a fight where everyone gets hurt? joao vale de almeida, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. it s a pleasure to have you. i want to start with some words of yours from, actually, early in your posting here in london as eu ambassador. you said, we have divorced. it s always complicated to divorce and it is difficult to find a new balance. well, many months have passed since then. why are you still failing to find a new balance? well, i have no personal experience of divorce, thank god, but i m told by friends that it s always complicated. and this one has proved to be complicated, to be very frank. it was a traumatic divorce, let s be clear. we sort of co existed together for almost. ..almost half a century, and then through a democratic process, which we fully respect, a decision was taken which is a serious one with a num