Daily Briefing Saturday 1st August

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 the Times News Briefing for Saturday 1st August. The future of FIFA's boss Gianni Infantino is under threat after he was forced to scrap his plans to sell off a stake in the World Cup to private investors.

0:47The plans had provoked a proposed boycott of FIFA's competitions by European countries, outrage from the Asian and North American footballing federations and opposition from senior figures inside FIFA. A senior UEFA official said that trust had been shaken in his leadership. Infantino is seeking re-election for a fourth term as president. The vote takes place in March next year. But football finance expert Stefan Borson told Times Radio the FIFA boss is in trouble. He's going to be very fortunate to survive the next few days, I think. To try and win an election to get a term out to 2031, which looked inevitable just weeks ago, I think is now going to be a huge challenge for him.

1:28And even if he does survive, I think what's going to happen is quite significant change within the way that FIFA is operated, the way that member states vote, and how the money is distributed around the world. Most of the 60 ,000 migrants who crossed into the Spanish territory of Theota have returned to Morocco. The Spanish Interior Ministry have said 53 ,000 migrants have returned, although it's believed at least 77 of the people who arrived by land and sea have died. The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited Teotihu yesterday and called the people arriving an attack on Spain's national integrity.

2:05David Sharrick is a reporter for The Times in Spain. He said Sánchez is being diplomatic. He blamed it all on mafia gangs, human smugglers. But really, when you take a cold look at that, it doesn't adequately explain what happened. and it was noticeable that Sánchez also avoided making any criticisms of the Moroccan government, which is clearly culpable in this. There's a new mayor of Greater Manchester. Labour's Bev Craig won a convincing victory over reform Sian Astley after second preference ballots were counted, taking some two-thirds of the vote. The Green Party finished third and the Conservatives ended up in fifth place with fewer votes than Restore Britain.

2:53Turnout for the election was low at 25%. Journalist Lucy McLaughlin explained why. I think there are a few reasons for that. I would say one, when this vacancy occurred, there are laws in place that means it needs to be filled within 35 working days. You definitely do also have kind of, I think, voter apathy and fatigue. For some voters in Greater Manchester, this could be their third time hitting the polls since February. And then you've also got the unfortunate timing. It's the middle of the summer holidays. people are away. At least nine people have been killed in an overnight Russian missile and drone attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

3:29Ukraine's state emergency service said that at least 28 others, including children, had been injured in the second major attack in the past 24 hours. President Zelensky is repeating his call for more US air defence systems. Yesterday, the US President Donald Trump said that discussions were still ongoing over letting Ukraine produce their interceptor air defence missiles. You can hear more on these stories throughout the day on Times Radio.

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