DUP ‘in position’ to return to Stormont – if government sticks to its word
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) are “in a position” to restart the executive in Northern Ireland after a near two-year absence – if ministers keep to the “agreed timeline” over a fresh deal on post-Brexit trade, their leader has said.
The power-sharing agreement between the main parties at Stormont collapsed in 2022, with the unionist party refusing to return over its opposition to the government’s deal with the EU – which left a trade border down the Irish Sea and additional checks on goods travelling between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Sinn Fein also won the election for the first time, meaning the return of executive would see Northern Ireland’s first nationalist first minister installed – Michelle O’Neill – with the DUP taking the deputy first minister role.
Politics live: Stormont set for historic first minister as post-Brexit deal struck
The DUP and UK government have been at loggerheads over trade arrangements and the impact of the direct border with the EU on the island of Ireland.
But in the early hours of Tuesday morning, it was revealed an agreement had now been reached, paving the way for the assembly to get up and running again.
Leader of the DUP, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, told reporters on Tuesday afternoon that the deal offered “further legal change that will be of real benefit to businesses in Northern Ireland [and] ensures that Northern Ireland benefits in full from UK free trade deals”.
He added: “These were key elements in our requirements in our negotiations from the government.”
The president of Sinn Fein, Mary Lou McDonald, told Sky News’ Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge that it was a day of “very great hope” and “some relief”, saying: “Of course there are some final matters to be concluded before the assembly is recalled, but it’s very positive here today in Belfast and right across Ireland.”
Sinn Fein’s Mary Lou McDonald (left) and the incoming first minister Michelle O’Neill (right). Pic: Sky News
Ms McDonald also pledged that her colleague, Ms O’Neill, held a “deeply sincere commitment to act as a first minister for all”.
She added: “We will look to find the common ground, the high ground… and so I would say to the unionists in particular to take heart from the fact that we now have the chance for change and a platform to advance everybody’s standard of living, everybody’s life experience.”
The full details of the deal have yet to be released, with Sir Jeffrey saying they were set to come tomorrow.
But he did reveal the so-called “green lane” for goods being sent across the Irish Sea would be replaced by the UK internal market system that “reflects the reality that the UK is part of the United Kingdom”.
The DUP leader continued: “Goods flowing within the UK will flow freely – that was our core, key objective, and I believe what we have secured is real change and everybody will be able to see it for themselves.”
EU throws Sunak a bone over NI
So the government has produced a rabbit out of the hat, just as we teeter on the edge of a deal to restore Stormont.
Suddenly they’ve revealed the fruits of months of secret negotiation with the EU, to change the legal text governing the way trade operates in Northern Ireland.
After some speculation that the UK was prepared to rewrite the rules unilaterally, it’s emerged that the EU not only knew, but were prepared to throw the UK government a bone in order to assist Rishi Sunak getting the Northern Ireland Assembly up and running.
Hard-line unionists will no doubt say it does not deal with the fundamental, quite existential questions raised by the Windsor Framework likely to play out over the next 20 years.
Nevertheless, the EU has been prepared to extend the range of goods it is content to see going into Northern Ireland without checks.
The change means the EU has agreed to expand the “not at risk” category of stuff that can use the goods Green Lane, which doesn’t require checks.
Supporters are claiming this means Northern Ireland can properly take advantage of free trade agreements struck by post-Brexit Britain.
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris says that it means a cut to food tariffs to goods like New Zealand lamb and Australian beef. We shall see.
Critically, politically, it has allowed Jeffrey Donaldson to strike a note of vindication against critics who say the “deal” the DUP has agreed to is meaningless.
“This demonstrates that the naysayers are wrong. There will be legal changes,” he trumpeted on social media.
This is further than many expected, and takes us even closer to a restoration of Stormont that feels closer than it has ever been so far.
The deal also has sign off from the EU, with a document being published from a joint committee with the UK showing the bloc was happy for more goods to head to Northern Ireland without being checked.
“We believe this represents a significant change,” said Sir Jeffrey. But he did appear to issue a thinly veiled warning to UK ministers.
“On the basis that the government continues to deliver the strength of the agreed timeline that we reached with them, then we will be in a position to convene a meeting of the assembly and proceed with the restoration of the political institutions,” he said.
Sir Jeffrey also confirmed that along with the civil service, Northern Ireland parties from all sides had already been meeting to discuss the issues at hand, including an ongoing dispute over public sector pay.
Earlier, the UK government’s Northern Ireland Secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, welcomed the agreement, telling reporters: “I believe that all the conditions are now in place for the Assembly to return, and I look forward very much to the restoration of the institutions at Stormont as soon as possible.”
He also did not reveal specifics of the deal – saying other parties needed to be briefed first – but confirmed a financial package of £3.3bn will be available to the incoming executive.
However, Ms McDonald said: “The north of Ireland has been underfunded for a very, very long time.
“Although the headline figure of £3bn sounds like a lot, the reality is that it is still going to be a huge, huge challenge to fund this place correctly.”
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Meanwhile, in her interview with Sky News, the Sinn Fein president also said “the days of partition are numbered”.
Ms McDonald’s party wants to see Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland united as one country – unlike the unionists, who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK.
She told Sophy Ridge: “The reality is that so long as Ireland is partitioned, we will face very, very significant economic challenges and disadvantages here in the North and all along the border.”
Lawmakers in the US states of Minnesota and Alabama filed companion bills to identical existing bills that if passed into law, would allow each state to buy Bitcoin.
The Minnesota Bitcoin Act, or HF 2946, was introduced to the state’s House by Republican Representative Bernie Perryman on April 1, following an identical bill introduced on March 17 by GOP state Senator Jeremy Miller.
Meanwhile, on the same day in Alabama, Republican state Senator Will Barfoot introduced Senate Bill 283, while a bi-partisan group of representatives led by Republican Mike Shaw filed the identical House Bill 482, which allows for the state to invest in crypto, but essentially limits it to Bitcoin (BTC).
Twin Alabama bills don’t explicitly name Bitcoin
Minnesota’s Bitcoin Act would allow the state’s investment board to invest state assets in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and permit state employees to add crypto to retirement accounts.
It would also exempt crypto gains from state income taxes and give residents the option to pay state taxes and fees with Bitcoin.
Source: Bitcoin Laws
The twin Alabama bills don’t explicitly identify Bitcoin, but would limit the state’s crypto investment into assets that have a minimum market value of $750 billion, a criterion that only Bitcoin currently meets.
26 Bitcoin reserve bills now introduced in the US
Introducing identical bills is not uncommon in the US and is typically done to speed up the bicameral legislative process so laws can pass more quickly.
Bills to create a Bitcoin reserve have been introduced in 26 US states, with Arizona currently the closest to passing a law to make one, according to data from the bill tracking website Bitcoin Laws.
Arizona currently leads in the US state Bitcoin reserve race. Source: Bitcoin Laws
Pennsylvania was one of the first US states to introduce a Bitcoin reserve bill, in November 2024. However, the initiative was reportedly eventually rejected, with similar bills also killed in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.
Related: North Carolina bills would add crypto to state’s retirement system
Montana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Wyoming are the five states thathave rejected Bitcoin reserve initiatives. Source: Bitcoin Laws
According to a March 3 report by Barron’s, “red states” like Montana have faced setbacks to the Bitcoin reserve initiatives amid political confrontations between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.
Additional reporting by Helen Partz.
Magazine: Financial nihilism in crypto is over — It’s time to dream big again
Update (April 3, 5:43 am UTC): This article has been updated to add information on the STABLE Act and GENIUS Act.
The US House Financial Services Committee has passed a Republican-backed stablecoin framework bill, which will now head to the House floor for a full vote.
The Committee passed the Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy, or STABLE Act, with a 32-17 vote on April 2, with six Democrats voting in favor.
The bill was introduced on Feb. 6 by committee Chair French Hill and the chair of its Digital Assets Subcommittee, Bryan Steil — reportedly drafted with the help of the world’s largest stablecoin issue, Tether.
Source: Financial Services GOP
The bill would provide rules around payment stablecoins, a crypto token tied to a currency such as the US dollar, and aims to ensure issuers give information about their business and how they back their tokens.
During an earlier markup session, the committee’s leading Democrat, Maxine Waters, who later voted against the bill, criticized her Republican peers for “setting an unacceptable and dangerous precedent” with the STABLE Act.
She said President Donald Trump could use the bill to allow his family’s stablecoin to be used in government payments, and argued the bill validates Trump “and his insiders’ efforts to write rules of the road that will enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else.”
In late March, the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial crypto venture launched a stablecoin, World Liberty Financial USD (USD1). Meanwhile, the US Housing Department, which oversees social housing, was reportedly looking to experiment with using stablecoins for some of its functions.
Stablecoin GENIUS Act also weaves through Congress
Other stablecoin-related bills are also working their way through Congress, including the Republican-led Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins, or GENIUS Act, which lays out oversight and reserve rules for issuers.
Related: Crypto has a regulatory capture problem in Washington — or does it?
The US Senate Banking Committee voted through the GENIUS Act in an 18-6 vote on March 13, after Senator Bill Hagerty, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, updated it following consultation with the Committee’s Democrats.
Before the vote, Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said the updated GENIUS Act made “significant improvements to a number of important provisions” in areas such as consumer protections and authorized stablecoin issuers.
Both the STABLE Act and GENIUS Act will now wait until debate time on the floor of the House and Senate, respectively, before they head for a floor vote.
Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett reported on X that two unnamed crypto lobbyists said there is likely to be “a coordinated push behind the scenes over the next few weeks to get the two bills to mirror each other, as there are still some differences between them.”
Doing so would “avoid having to set up a so-called conference committee which is formed so members from both chambers can negotiate to create a final version of the bill everyone agrees on,” she added.
Magazine: How crypto laws are changing across the world in 2025
Tulip Siddiq has told Sky News her “lawyers are ready” to handle any formal questions about allegations she is involved in corruption in Bangladesh.
Asked whether she regrets apparent links with the Bangladeshi Awami League political party, Ms Siddiq said “why don’t you look at my legal letter and see if I have any questions to answer… [the Bangladeshi authorities] have not once contacted me and I’m waiting to hear from them”.
The London MP resigned as a Treasury minister in January after being named in several corruption inquiries in Bangladesh.
In her first public comments since leaving government, Ms Siddiq said “there’s been allegations for months on end and no one has contacted me”.
Last month, the interim leader of Bangladesh told Sky News the MP had “wealth left behind” in the country “and should be made responsible”.
Lawyers acting for Ms Siddiq wrote to the Bangladeshi Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) several weeks ago saying the allegations were “false and vexatious”.
The letter said the ACC must put questions to Ms Siddiq “by no later than 25 March 2025” or “we shall presume that there are no legitimate questions to answer”.
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Staff from the NCA visited Bangladesh as part of initial work to support the interim government in the country.
In a post online today, the former minister said the deadline had expired and the authorities had not replied.
Sky News has approached the Bangladeshi government for comment.
The allegations against Ms Siddiq are focused on links to her aunt Sheikh Hasina – who served as the prime minister of Bangladesh for 20 years.
Ms Hasina was forced to flee the country in August following weeks of deadly protests.
She is accused of becoming an autocrat, with politically-motivated arrests, extra-judicial killings and other abuses allegedly happening on her watch. Hasina claims it’s all a political witch hunt.
Electrocuted on their genitals and mouths sewn up: Inside Bangladesh’s ‘death squad’ jails
Ms Siddiq was found to have lived in several London properties that had links back to the Awami League political party that her aunt still leads.
She referred herself to the prime minister’s standards adviser Sir Laurie Magnus who said he had “not identified evidence of improprieties” but added it was “regrettable” Ms Siddiq had not been more alert to the “potential reputational risks” of the ties to her aunt.
Ms Siddiq said continuing in her role would be “a distraction” for the government but insisted she had done nothing wrong.
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