Afternoon Briefing Wednesday 30th 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. Welcome to the Times Afternoon Briefing on Wednesday 30th July. Arab and Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey, have signed a declaration calling on Hamas to release all the hostages it's holding, disarm and end its rule of Gaza.

0:4817 countries plus the 22-member Arab League and the entire European Union have backed a seven-page text. It was agreed at a United Nations conference on reviving the two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians. Political analyst Arya Kovler has told Times Radio it's a significant development. Specifically, it does take the time that the statement signed by many Arab nations to condemn the October 7th attacks, say that Hamas cannot retain control over Gaza and they need to also disarm. That's a really big deal. It represents a shift in policy for many Arab countries around this new position.

1:22I think you can see kind of the flip side of Keir Starmer's announcement yesterday, you know, putting pressure on Hamas. Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines are among areas in the Pacific region under tsunami warnings after a huge earthquake hit eastern Russia. Four metre high waves were recorded off the country's far eastern coast after the tremors hit the Kamchatka Peninsula. Heath Mayo, who's in Hawaii on holiday, has been speaking to Times Radio. It would have been around 3.30 or 4 hour time. We heard, my wife and we have our eighth month baby with us on vacation here. we were headed down to Tunnels Beach, which is a little past Hanalei Bay to snorkel.

2:02And that's when our phones hit with the alert that a tsunami was coming to find safe ground. And then, of course, we heard the sirens start to blare around the island, which was sort of surreal. The British Medical Association has accused NHS England of being reckless during the five-day strike by resident doctors, which finished at 7am. Hospital chiefs tried to keep as much regular care going as possible. Chair of the BMA Council, Dr Tom Dolphin, has told Times Radio that was wrong. I think what's happened this time is that the NHS England has been a little bit reckless to some extent about insisting that hospitals try to continue as much planned elective care as possible.

2:41And the reason I say that is because the hospitals need to make sure, of course, that the emergency and urgent care goes ahead. Patients on the wards, et cetera, get looked after. To do that safely on strike days when you're going to have potentially up to half of your medical workforce not there, you've got to release those senior doctors from the planned care to go and do that emergency and urgent care. Details on the number of appointments, procedures and operations postponed because of the walkout will be published later this week. And Broad Street in Birmingham has been closed and diversions are in place as Ozzy Osbourne makes a final journey through his home city later.

3:15Fans are preparing to line the street to see the heavy metal star's hearse ahead of his funeral. It'll stop at Black Sabbath Bridge where tributes have been left since his death last week at the age of 76. Michael Sullivan saw the band play 82 times. We have lost an icon. We have lost a family member. He had a connection with his fans, his stage presence, everything about him. We knew this thing was going to happen sometime, but you were never prepared. And you can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

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