Afternoon briefing Wednesday 14th January

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 your Times Radio news briefing for the afternoon of Wednesday the 14th of January. And ministers told Times Radio that the government is still committed to checking people's right to work digitally, though not through mandatory digital IDs.

0:49The initial plan announced by Sir Keir Starmer last September was to introduce ID cards on phones for everyone. Now they will be optional. Heidi Alexander denied this was a U-turn. We've always said that we would consult on the detail of how this would work. But whether it's a digital ID or whether it's scanning, for example, a biometric chip in a passport, we will still have mandatory digital checks on the right to work in the UK. A commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard has told State TV that the country is at its highest level of readiness to respond to any attack. Donald Trump said there would be very strong action if Iran executes protesters.

1:29The shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel has told Times Radio that the UK should be participating more in plans to debilitate the regime. This is a regime that has been weakened in the past 12 months and there is every, every prospect that change could come and we would welcome that change, as I said, because this is a regime that hurts our own country, takes our own citizens as hostages. We've got Craig and Lindsay Foreman right now in captivity in Iran. So there is more we can do. Funerals are taking place for some of the 2 ,500 reported to have died in the demonstrations against the regime.

2:06There's been a funeral procession outside Tehran University. The transport secretaries also told Times Radio that lessons have been learned from the ploughing ahead of HS2 and that railway lines need time to plan. The government's announced its intention to build a new line between Birmingham and Manchester, which would ease pressure on the West Coast mainline. But it's another variation on plans that have been floating around since 2014. Times Radio's business correspondent Dominic O 'Connell explains what the three stages will entail. The first is improvements in services in Yorkshire, just electrification and extra capacity of the existing lines.

2:40Second will be a new high-speed line from Manchester to Liverpool. Wait and see if that one happens. And then third, a new trans-pennine line, which was actually George Osborne's original flagship project. all the way from Manchester, Cotter Penines, to Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, York, and eventually all the way across to Newcastle. The chief constable of West Midlands Police has apologised after admitting that false intelligence that contributed to the banning of Israeli football fans from a European match in Birmingham was generated by AI. Craig Guildford wrote to the Home Affairs Committee to retract a previous explanation that some social media scraping was to blame for why a fake match was referenced in the intelligence.

3:18and readers of the Times and the Sunday Times have raised£870 ,000 for three charities in their Christmas appeal. Journalists, columnists and Times Radio presenters answered the phones back in December to receive the donations. The money will go to charities helping people rehabilitate after prison, one connecting young people with the elderly and another providing bikes to people in 28 countries. For more stories like this, listen throughout the day to Times Radio.

3:54This 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. So how do you get beyond the hype and deliver AI that powers reinvention and growth across your business? Strong foundations unlock AI's potential. That's why PwC takes you further with tech. strengthening the data quality, processes and workflows that shape how well AI performs. PwC turns innovation into implementation so you can accelerate from experiment to scale. Discover more at pwc.co.uk. When you're a maintenance engineer in a beverage manufacturing plant, you keep production lines moving and quality on track because there is no room for slowdowns.

4:45with Grainger's vast selection of high quality motors, sensors, belts, and hard to find parts. You can get what you need fast and all in one place. So nothing gets in the way of getting the job done. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com, or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done.