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The Northern Ireland Protocol was modified by something called the Windsor Framework, agreed between Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, and Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission. He said that Stormont would be able to apply a brake to new EU goods rules; the brake would allow the UK government to apply a veto. Goods from Britain for Northern Ireland would travel through a ‘green lane’ with fewer checks, and those that might move on into the EU through a ‘red lane’. The ban on importing British chilled sausages and seed potatoes would end. After announcing the agreement, Mrs von der Leyen was granted an audience with the King at Windsor Castle. Mr Sunak visited Northern Ireland. The New IRA said it had carried out the shooting in Omagh, in front of his son, of Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell, who was taken to hospital critically wounded.
Using information from 100,000 WhatsApp messages, the Daily Telegraph said that Matt Hancock, when health secretary, did not follow advice from Professor Sir Chris Whitty on testing ‘all going into care homes’ during the Covid pandemic. Ofgem announced that the energy price cap on the amount suppliers could charge would mean a reduction in charges for a typical customer from £4,279 in January to £3,280 in April, because of falling wholesale prices. At the same time, the government’s Energy Price Guarantee was raised from £2,500 to £3,000, meaning that it would still subsidise the average household by £280 a year. Britain would not follow the United States and EU in banning officials from using Chinese-owned TikTok, said Michelle Donelan, the Secretary of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology: ‘I think that’s a personal choice.’ Jennie Barber from Birmingham succeeded in court in making BA refund the price of tickets to Japan instead of giving her vouchers.
The food and farming minister Mark Spencer held a video meeting with Marks & Spencer and other supermarkets to see how they could replenish shelves with salad goods; most rationed tomatoes and cucumbers. Ocado’s annual pre-tax losses rose to £500.8 million. In a count on a night in autumn, 3,069 people were found to be sleeping outside in England, 26 per cent more than in 2021, according to the Department for Levelling Up. Teachers went on strike. Lady Boothroyd, who as Betty Boothroyd served from 1992 to 2000 as the only woman Speaker of the House of Commons so far, died aged 93. Sir Bernard Ingham, the Downing Street press secretary, 1979-90, died aged 90.
Abroad
Janet Yellen, the US Treasury Secretary, visited Kyiv and warned China against supplying Russia with arms. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that he planned to meet President Xi Jinping of China to discuss Beijing’s proposals on ending the war. President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus visited Beijing for talks. Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of Nato, said that Ukraine would become a member in the ‘long term’, but for now should ‘prevail as a sovereign independent nation’. The US Department of Energy was reported to have concluded with ‘low confidence’ that Covid was accidentally leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan. At least four people died and 48 were missing after an open-cast coal mine collapsed in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia.
Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villages in the West Bank, setting fire to dozens of houses and cars, after two settlers were shot dead by a Palestinian gunman near Nablus. Earlier the Israeli government and Palestinian Authority had announced a joint commitment to end a surge in violence. Police in Ecuador found 8.7 tons of cocaine in a shipment of bananas bound for Belgium. Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, signed a bill giving the state control over Disney’s Orlando theme parks: ‘There’s a new sheriff in town,’ he said. The US Marshals Service, which runs federal prisons and pursues fugitives, was hit by a ransomware attack.
A vessel that set off from Turkey, thought to have been carrying 200 migrants, broke apart off Crotone in Calabria and about 80 survivors were counted. More than 50,000 people were found to have been killed and 1.5 million left homeless in Turkey and Syria by the earthquakes of 6 February. Two trains collided in northern Greece, killing at least 36 people. The three main opposition parties called for Nigeria’s election to be rerun, alleging widespread irregularities. Antonio Tiberi, 21, a professional cyclist, was fined €4,000 for shooting dead the cat belonging to the post office minister of San Marino. CSH
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