Daily briefing Saturday 29th August

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0:35This is your Times Daily Briefing on Saturday 29th August. Disaster response teams from the UK will arrive in Nepal later to help with recovery efforts following devastating flash floods. More than 600 people have died on the country's border with Tibet. 33 British nationals remain unaccounted for among the thousands still missing. Chris Haslam is chief travel writer for the Times. He told us how a nurse at a local hospital explained it's difficult to know the precise numbers of people not yet found. She said, don't believe the number of missing. She said, the problem is, is that the people who would be reporting their neighbours missing are missing themselves, so we're not getting the report.

1:12But clearly, as the waters are going down, people are beginning to emerge. Injured are being ferried out. My plan for the rest of the day is to see how far upstream I can get, see the extent of this disaster. The sad thing is, there's no guarantee that this won't happen next summer either. The Chancellor's first budget in October will have a glaring omission on defence spending. John Healy won't be setting a date for when the UK will meet the defence spending target of 3 % of GDP. He'll instead delay it until next year's spending review. This was the issue Mr Healy resigned over as Defence Secretary.

1:44And Kevin Schofield, political editor of HuffPost UK, reminds us of what was in his resignation letter. He said that the trajectory that the government were on at that time wasn't going fast enough. The government had failed to set out how they would hit the 3 % of GDP spending on defence by 2030. He's now the Chancellor. He's the guy who holds the purse strings. He's the guy who basically can decide how they hit that target that he demanded just two months ago. And now it's emerged that he's not going to do it at the first opportunity, which is the budget in October. Middlesbrough fans are being asked to pay their respects ahead of their match this lunchtime to the two police officers killed in a crash on the A66.

2:23Meanwhile, seven more people have been arrested as part of an investigation into organised crime in the area. Organisers of a Christian festival in West Sussex say they're heartbroken that a man has died and six others were injured yesterday. It's after a sign came down at the big church festival near Stenning. Six months into the US war with Iran, President Trump has claimed once again that Tehran is begging to make a deal. The comments come as pressure on the US president builds on Capitol Hill. Critics are increasingly asking why a war meant to last just six weeks is still continuing. Michael Rubin is director of policy analysis at the Middle East Forum.

3:00He told Times Radio about the reality of negotiations with Tehran. What Donald Trump says and his rhetoric is often detached from reality. If the Iranians are willing to make a deal, we're going to see that from the Iranians themselves. We do know that the Iranians are experiencing a great deal of economic pain. The real has fallen to more than$2 million to the dollar. When the Islamic revolution happened, it was$70 million to the dollar. Passengers travelling on East Midlands trains are being warned to expect disruption this weekend due to strikes. Services will be effected from 8 o 'clock tomorrow morning.

3:32And England go into day three of the second test against Pakistan with a lead of 261. They'll resume later on 81 for three, weather permitting. That's your Times Daily Briefing on Saturday 29th August.

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