evidence: Joe Biden has dangled a $6bn (£5bn) carrot in front of Northern Ireland’s leaders with a promise to boost the country’s economy with US investment if power sharing is restored. In a thinly veiled message to the Democratic Unionist party, which has been boycotting the devolved government for more than a year, the US president told an audience in Belfast that American investors were ready to "triple" the $2bn already invested. [...] He urged the DUP to return to power-sharing arrangements at Stormont and said an "effective devolved government … is going to draw even greater opportunity in this region".