Afternoon briefing Friday 17th October

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0:36This is the Times Afternoon Briefing for Friday the 17th of October. Senior government figures are looking to reverse a decision to ban Israeli football fans from a match against Aston Villa. Supporters of Maccabee Tel Aviv were blocked after Birmingham's safety advisory group said the game presented security concerns and the police said it was high risk. Violent clashes erupted between fans of the club and pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Amsterdam last year. Baron Austin, Ian Austin, is the son of a Jewish refugee and a Villa fan. He told Times Radio people should be able to attend normally.

1:10Maybe some of the fans did behave badly, but that often happens at football. That's not unusual. But the police are used to dealing with this. Look, I've been going to Aston Villa matches for decades. I go to football matches all over the country. You see the way the police operate. You see the way they segregate fans. Why can't a few thousand Maccabi Tel Aviv fans be able to come to Birmingham in safety? Donald Trump has announced he's to meet Vladimir Putin for a second face-to-face summit on Ukraine, this time in Budapest. The push to restart the stalled peace process comes as the US president is to meet with Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House today.

1:44The Ukrainian president is expected to ask for long-range Tomahawk missiles. Former Defense Secretary Sir Grant Shapps told Times Radio, Putin is weaker than we think. His military is actually weak. What he has is the ability to send millions of people to the meat grinder. You know, it doesn't really hold the cards. The problem is we're just not prepared always to simply stand up to Putin. These Tomahawk missiles would be a really big sign. And Putin knows this, which is why he is probably pushing now to have these conversations with Trump. The broadcasting regulator has sanctioned the BBC over a documentary on Gaza.

2:21Ofcom says the failure to disclose a link between the film's child narrator and his Hamas official father was a serious breach. A study has found public sector workers view Britain less favourably than the wider public. Researchers surveyed 8 ,000 people and found the views of NHS workers and then teachers diverged the most. 18 % felt the UK had done more harm than good compared with 12 % of the public. One of the authors is Simon Ruder from the behavioural science consultancy Arch 10. He told Times Radio the gap can reduce trust in the public sector. They're sufficiently distinct to the general public.

2:56What seems like a reasonable course of action is just different and might seem wrong or absurd to the general public. And I think that may explain why we have situations where a school thinks it's OK to send home a 12-year-old girl for wearing a dress that has the union flag on it. And the prestigious Sterling Prize for architecture has gone to a radical social housing building in London. Reba says the Appleby Blue Arms House creates an aspirational living environment for the low-income older people who live there. Judges praised the water features and rooftop gardens. You can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio Online.

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