Afternoon briefing Friday 31st July

0:00This episode of the Times Radio News Briefing is sponsored by PwCWC. Staying competitive means getting ahead, not just keeping up. So how do business leaders cut through the noise and focus on what really matters? PwC takes you further with tech, from optimising the systems that put your data to work, to scaling AI from proof of concept to competitive edge. PwC helps you meet tomorrow's tech demands, so you can compete at a speed that rewrites the rules. Discover more at pwc.co.uk This is Times Radio's Afternoon Briefing on Friday the 31st of July. A senior advisor to the FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, has resigned over the controversial plan to sell off stakes in a World Cup company to private investors.

0:49Carlos Cordero said he opposed the plan unequivocally. Earlier, the Asian Football Confederation became the third global footballing body to reject FIFA's proposal. UEFA's 55 members also voted to boycott all FIFA-sanctioned tournaments, including the World Cup. Speaking to Times Radio, the former chairman of the FA, David Bernstein, says Infantino himself could now be forced to back down. FIFA, in the end, will withdraw this proposal, which I think is probably likely. Or it could be voted down within FIFA. Or, of course, there could be a no-confidence vote in Infantino now, because he really is bringing FIFA into disrepute.

1:27I mean, I think he's just gone too far. Hamas has said it won't implement the terms of a deal to dispose of its weapons until Israel approves a plan put forward by President Trump that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian government. In a post on social media, Trump claimed an historic agreement had been reached to disarm Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza. The success of any deal, however, is subject to Israel's military withdrawal from the territory. Noga Tanopolsky is an Israeli journalist in Jerusalem. Speaking to Times Radio, she said Israel won't withdraw its troops until Hamas has completely disarmed.

2:03We already have a top Hamas official speaking out today to Western media, and he's saying that Hamas did not agree to disarm and did not agree to lay down their arms. They simply, according to him, have agreed to put their weapons in some sort of storage facilities. Spain is sending army units to its North African enclave of Ceuta, amid its estimate that 49 ,000 migrants from Morocco had stormed the border over the past 24 hours. At least 18 people are now known to have drowned while trying to reach the territory. The First Secretary of State has told Times Radio that all regions will be treated equally, under what the Prime Minister says will be the biggest transfer of power from Westminster in a generation.

2:49Andy Burnham's plans to give England's regional mayors a share of local income tax and business rates will also allow the leaders of English strategic authorities to keep some cash from business rates generated in their own areas. Louise Haig said it's a huge statement of ambition and that a scheme of redress is already in place. There is already a way that the business rates retention is distributed to correspond with central funding formula to correct for that. So there will be a formula and funding position set out in the budget that corrects this. But as I said, we are the most centralised nation in the G7, and that has held back our growth and our productivity outside London in the southeast for too long.

3:29And a 44-year-old British man has been arrested in Cyprus, accused of conducting hostile surveillance at an RAF base on behalf of Iran's military. The Crown Prosecution Service says Rashad Sultanov, who's also an Azerbaijani national, will be charged under the National Security Act the first time an alleged offence under the legislation has been investigated in an overseas territory. There's more on these stories throughout the day on Times Radio. This episode of the Times Radio News Briefing is sponsored by PwC. AI is everywhere. In the news, in our hands, but return on investment, not so much.

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