Reuters World News - What the historic Northern Ireland deal really means

Episode Date: February 28, 2023

What Rishi Sunak’s high-stakes gamble means for Northern Ireland. Brits in search of better teeth hit by cost of living crunch. End of the Mouse House’s special status. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a very significant step forward. It marks a turning point for the people of Northern Ireland today. And I very much hope as a result of this, they can look forward to a better future. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak strikes a deal with the European Union over Northern Ireland. Our Dublin team breaks down what the agreement means for trade and Sunak's political future. And in Budapest, the cost of living crisis starts to bite Brits travelling overseas in search of better teeth. It's Tuesday, February 20. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes.

I'm Kim Vinal in London. First, the latest news from around the world. Russian war planes in action over Bakhmuts. Moscow is trying to encircle the Ukrainian city and claim its first major victory in months. 400 miles to the west, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made a pit stop in Kiev. As we mark one year since the beginning of this full-scale invasion, the message I bring you from President Biden is simple. America will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes. Yelan had a private meeting with President Zelensky in which she says she commended him for his resolve in the face of Russia's unprovoked war.

Then it was on to the money. She brought with her news that the U.S. has transferred the first 1.2. billion dollars from the latest $10 billion aid package promised by Washington. No more special status for the Mouse House. In Florida, Governor Ronda Santos officially signing legislation that revokes Walt Disney World's special tax status. Disney loses self-governing status. The state of Florida is the new sheriff in town.

The new law strips Disney of much of the control it had over its sprawling Orlando theme parks. It's seen by many as retaliation for the company's opposition to the state's don't say gay law. The move by DeSantis, a contender for the 2024 Republican nomination, is an unusual attack on the corporate world by a conservative candidate. Political scientist Nathaniel Birkhead tells Reuters, the governor will need to carefully balance capitalizing on the U.S. culture wars without alienating the GOP's traditional base. Ultimately, this is bad for business.

Disney is a big business, and though the Republican Party is now positioning itself, or this fringe of the Republican Party is positioning itself against business, which is contrary to the very goals that the Republican Party has long held. And so this is delicate that you don't want to get close, but they can't burn themselves on the stove at the same time. Now to markets where consumer resilience is a buzzkill for investors. Strong housing data and business spending have made markets increasingly wary that borrowing costs will keep wrong.

rising. U.S. consumer confidence figures out later will be scrutinized for households view on the economy and inflation. So far, all the data is pointing to a higher for longer rates outlook. In currency markets, sterling is down slightly against the dollar after jumping 1% overnight. The pound got a big boost from Britain's deal with the European Union on Northern Ireland. Investors abetting the agreement will brighten the outlook for the wider UK economy. Let's stay with that deal between London and Brussels. We can now say that goods will throw freely, smoothly across the UK internal market, that we've protected Northern Ireland's place in our union,

that we've safeguarded sovereignty for Northern Ireland's people. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak there standing side by side with EU Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen. The two finally agreeing terms that end a festering post-Brexit dispute of a Northern Ireland trade. Dublin Bureau Chief Podrard Halpin watched the historic press conference and is here to break it down. After they had struck the deal with EU and British flags in the background was striking, we've not seen that kind of warm relationship between two sides in quite some time. We also saw an EU promise to include British scientists in a very valuable EU research programme.

So we saw this immediate sign of a thaw in the previously frosty relationships. The deal today is it's good for business. it seeks to remove a lot of the paperwork and checks on goods moving from the rest of the UK to Northern Ireland that were introduced in the original deal. Some companies have said they were unable to provide a full range of products to Northern Ireland because the number of checks were just too onerous. But will the deal be enough to satisfy pro-British parties in Northern Ireland and break political deadlock there?

The Good Friday Agreement ended conflict in the region, but Northern Ireland doesn't have a functioning government. And what are the political risks for Sunak? British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has undertaken a fairly high-risk strategy in looking to secure this improved deal without angering the wing of his party that's most wedded to Brexit. A victory for Sunak would strengthen his hold on a Conservative Party, which has basically eaten itself alive in recent years over their deep ideological divisions around Brexit. So Sunak's real challenge in making this deal a success lies.

in Northern Ireland. From here, all eyes are on the Democratic Unionist Party. They're the largest Unionist Party in Northern Ireland and everyone wants to know whether they will ultimately accept this deal. That could take a number of days while they pour over the details of what is a 100-page document and approaching the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. The future of Perry sharing may hinge on that decision. My name is Port Alpin. for Roiders in Dublin. Now I'm based here in London and the Brits aren't exactly famed for their smiles.

Long waiting lists and sky-high prices drive some Brits and others to seek dental or other medical treatments abroad. But the medical tourism industry has taken a bruising, first from COVID-19 and now a cost-of-living crisis. Joanna Kaczynska recently visited a surgery in Budapest. She filed this report from her interview with Attila Knott, the head of Creative Dental,

and the British patients traveling across Europe to save on their teeth. I am at Creative Dental. I just met with one patient named Bob, and he told us a little bit about his lifelong experience and trouble with his teeth. Basically, he didn't have a set of teeth that grew in the way that you're supposed to, and he just spent

tens of thousands of pounds on a procedure here. My name is Ivan. Hello, hello. Let's go inside. You go through it in your mind in terms of should I be spending that amount of money.

But having had to live with my teeth as they were from way back when I was right young, I've always wanted to find the best way. Hey, my name's Linda. Linda Frohock. I'm from the UK and I'm happy to be here in Budapest, being a long-standing client here, started 11 years ago out of necessity to come because I haven't got the confidence in the UK doctors

or medical profession there and the cost was too prohibitives. I did have doubts. I doubted whether or not we could afford it because of cost of inflation in the UK, food, petrol, you know, mortgage, etc. And salary is not going up to, you know, equate to that. But finding £8,000 versus £30,000 is probably easier. Yeah, still easier. There's a surgery across the street that was meant to be built just for dental surgeries. Business isn't returned to where it was before.

So they're converting the entire building, which is about four stories, into more general surgeries in order to kind of make up for the fact that they don't have enough dental clients anymore. The second facility that we saw was just another, a second dental building, which is also standing completely empty. Atillo was showing me the brand new aquariums and all the new exotic fish that he bought that no one gets to see because no one goes to that building, because they simply don't have the clients that they had before the pandemic to fill those dental slots. I'm hearing it from everywhere from all my agents, a different part of the continent, that people are more cautious. They think twice to spend at once big money, like dental treatment

money, they would have to pay 10, 20, $25,000, which is relatively lots of money, but still, much less if they would spend it in their own country. So it's been tough for them, and now, as of this year, they have to start paying back their loans, the kind of loan freeze that was in place. that was put forth by the government to help businesses during the pandemic has been cancelled. So now stuck with these facilities that they have to run. They also have to pay for electricity, for buildings that aren't in full use. So these are just some of the issues that creative is facing now.

I'm Joanna Pluchinska, reporting from Budapest, Hungary. That's it for this edition of Royce's World News. We'll be back on Wednesday. In the meantime, you can find more trusted news at Reuters.com.