Joe Biden in Belfast to mark 25th anniversary of Good Friday Agreement

US President Joe Biden has landed in Belfast at the start of an historic fourday visit to Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Mr Biden was greeted by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as he stepped off Air Force One at Belfast International Airport.

His visit marks the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement - a peace deal which helped end 30 years of violent conflict in Northern Ireland.

The White House hailed the “tremendous progress” since it was signed in 1998.

But Mr Biden’s trip is overshadowed by the fact that Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government is not functioning.

It collapsed last year when the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) - one of the biggest parties at Stormont - pulled out as part of a protest against post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland.

Mr Biden arrived in Belfast city centre at about 22:20 BST after making the journey from the airport in his presidential motorcade.

A huge security operation has been in place for most of Tuesday, with many city centre streets closed ahead of the visit.

Ahead of his arrival, Mr Biden said he was looking forward to marking the anniversary in Belfast and “underscoring the US commitment to preserving peace and encouraging prosperity”.

His trip to Belfast will be the first leg of a four-day stay in Ireland, during which he will also discuss his Irish roots and meet Irish relatives. His sister Valerie and his son Hunter are also accompanying the US president on the visit.

Mr Biden’s trip comes two weeks after MI5 said the terrorism threat level in Northern Ireland had increased due to a rise in activity by dissident republicans.

During an illegal parade by dissident republicans in Londonderry on Monday petrol bombs were thrown at a police vehicle but the violence was confined to one area and ended a short time later.

On Tuesday, police found four suspected pipe bombs inside the grounds of the City Cemetery in Derry. They believe they were to be used in a planned attack on officers after Monday’s parade.

The president’s spokesman said Mr Biden was “more than comfortable making this trip” in spite of the terrorism threat.

Mr Biden was expected to stay overnight at a Belfast hotel ahead of the main event of his visit to

Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes to go to prison end of April

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was sentenced to over 11 years in prison last year

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes will report to prison at the end of the month after losing a bid to remain free while she appeals against her convictions.

Holmes was sentenced to over 11 years in prison for defrauding investors in her blood testing start-up.

A federal judge on Monday said Holmes failed to prove her appeals process would lead to a reversal of her case.

She is scheduled to go to prison on 27 April.

Holmes had said she would raise “substantial questions” that could warrant a new trial. Her attorneys also argued she should remain free to care for her two young children, including one who was born this year.

But in the Monday ruling, US District Judge Edward Davila said Holmes had not proven her appeal would result in a new trial.

“Contrary to her suggestion that accuracy and reliability were central issues to her convictions, Ms Holmes’s misrepresentations to Theranos investors involved more than just whether Theranos technology worked as promised,” he said.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, had argued Holmes was a flight risk because she had booked a oneway plane ticket to Mexico during her trial.

Homes’ attorneys said she and her partner Billy Evans were planning to attend a wedding and hoped she would be acquitted.

The ticket purchase was “illadvised”, Judge Davila wrote in his ruling, though he added it did not constitute an attempt to flee.

“Booking international travel plans for a criminal defendant in anticipation of a complete defence victory is a bold move, and the failure to promptly cancel those plans after a guilty verdict is a perilously careless oversight,” he said.

Holmes was once hailed as the “next Steve Jobs” and said to be the world’s youngest self-made billionaire.

She launched Theranos after dropping out of Stanford University, but the start-up fell apart in 2018 after it was revealed its technology did not work. The blood-testing device was purported to be able to run a multitude of tests from just a few drops of blood.

The company’s infamous downfall was chronicled in a TV series, an HBO documentary and a podcast.

Holmes, who was found guilty of four counts of fraud last January, told the court at the time she felt “deep pain” for those misled by the scam.

She is expected to make one more bid to remain free during the appeals process - which could take at least a year - to a San Franciscobased court that she has asked to overturn her conviction.

The BBC has reached out to Holmes’ attorneys for comment.

Holmes’ former business partner, Sunny Balwani, was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison for fraud last year.

Northern Ireland, a speech at the new Ulster University campus in Belfast on Wednesday.

In that speech he is expected to emphasise the willingness of the US to help to preserve what he sees as the peace and prosperity gained since the Good Friday Agreement.

The president is also expected to talk about how the US administration can support Northern Ireland’s economy.

Mr Biden is also set to meet the leaders of Stormont’s five main political parties at some point during his brief time in the city.

There has been a huge police presence in the centre of Belfast since Monday afternoon and that will continue into Wednesday.

Michelle O’Neill, vicepresident of Sinn Féin, the largest party at Stormont, said President Biden’s visit would be a “special moment”.

“As we look back with pride at just how far we have all come, and all that has been achieved, we also look forward with hope, ambition, and opportunity for the next 25 years,” she added.

Former Irish ambassador to the US Daniel Mulhall said that while Mr Biden would have preferred to have spoken to politicians at a functioning Stormont assembly, his speech would be “very carefully crafted to get across the message that essentially America is here to help”.

Mr Sunak will not meet any of Northern Ireland’s political leaders while he is in Belfast to speak to the president, but a spokesperson said that did not mean he had given up on getting the DUP back into power-sharing.

Declan Harvey and Tara Mills explore the text of the Good Friday Agreement - the deal which heralded the end of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

They look at what the agreement actually said and hear from some of the people who helped get the deal across the line.

Ukraine war: Leak shows Western Special Forces on the ground

TheUK is among a number of countries with military special forces operating inside Ukraine, according to one of dozens of documents leaked online.

It confirms what has been the subject of quiet speculation for over a year.

The leaked files, some marked “top secret”, paint a detailed picture of the war in Ukraine, including sensitive details of Ukraine’s preparations for a spring counter-offensive.

The US government says it is investigating the source of the leak.

According to the document, dated 23 March, the UK has the largest contingent of special forces in Ukraine (50), followed by fellow Nato states Latvia (17), France (15), the US (14) and the Netherlands (1).

The document does not say where the forces are located or what they are doing.

The numbers of personnel may be small, and will doubtless fluctuate. But special forces are by their very nature highly effective. Their presence in Ukraine is likely to be seized upon by Moscow, which has in recent months argued that it is not just confronting Ukraine, but Nato as well.

In line with its standard policy on such matters, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has not commented, but in a tweet on Tuesday said the leak of alleged classified information had demonstrated what it called a “serious level of inaccuracy”.

“Readers should be cautious about taking at face value allegations that have the potential to spread misinformation,” it said.

It did not elaborate or suggest which specific documents it was referring to. However, Pentagon officials are quoted as saying the documents are real.

One document, which detailed the number of casualties suffered in Ukraine on both sides, did appear to have been doctored.

UK special forces are made up of several elite military units with distinct areas of expertise, and are regarded to be among the most capable in the world.

The British government has a policy of not commenting on its special forces, in contrast to other countries including the US.

The UK has been vociferous in its support of Ukraine, and is the second largest donor after the US of military aid to Kyiv.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the Department of Justice had opened a criminal investigation and he was determined to find the source of the leak.

Source: BBC