Daily Briefing Saturday 5th 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 Hello, this is your Times Daily Breathing for Saturday the 5th of July with me, James Kitchen. The Chancellor has warned ministers that tax rises in the autumn budget will be more challenging than the£40 billion package she imposed last year Rachel Reeves told Cabinet colleagues the decision to abandon welfare reforms meant taxes would have to increase to cover the cost She also called November's controversial rise in employers' national insurance contributions painful but low-hanging fruit Economists are warning the Chancellor may have to break Labour's manifesto pledge not to increase income tax national insurance, or VAT.

1:09Stephen Millard from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research told Times Radio there might be other options. Windfall taxes are never a good idea because they do affect investment. But then she could run the argument that we want to shift ourselves away from the production of oil and gas if we're going to get to net zero. So she could, rather than call it a windfall tax, sort of be very explicit about it being a green tax. There's always council taxes that can go up. The big question, though, is whether you can raise actually that much money via these other taxes. And that's the problem, I think, that the Chancellor is facing.

1:46At least 24 people have died after heavy rain caused flash flooding in Texas. Officials say as much as 10 inches fell in central Kerr County, causing the Guadalupe River to burst its banks. Boats and helicopters are also helping search for up to 25 children Who have been reported missing from a girls' summer camp The US President Donald Trump has called the situation terrible and shocking The Times' West Coast correspondent Kieran Southern Says there'll be questions as to why the state was caught off guard How, on the face of it at least, were they so unprepared? I was watching the local news in Texas tonight And interviews with people who had escaped and they described, you know, no warning at all, waking up at 3am, hearing thunder, heavy rain, and then next minute, floodwaters coming through the doors, coming through the walls.

2:37So it does seem that everyone was just taken completely by surprise here. Hamas says it views the latest Gaza ceasefire proposal positively, but is demanding further talks about how to implement it. Issues including aid, the presence of Israeli troops in Gaza, and options to extend the truce beyond an initial 60 days remain. The United States has been brokering the deal, which President Trump says is a final proposal. Greg Kulstrom is the Middle East correspondent for The Economist. There's no trust on the Palestinian side. Hamas does not believe that Israel is serious about ending the war. They want sort of binding guarantees from the Americans.

3:15They want Donald Trump to personally guarantee that the war is going to come to a permanent end. and I'm just not sure that Trump can give those sorts of guarantees. Liverpool players have arrived in Portugal to attend the funeral of Diego Jota and his brother Andre Silva. They died in Spain on Thursday after the Lamborghini they were travelling in veered off the road. And Oasis have ended a 16-year hiatus, kicking off their highly anticipated reunion tour in Cardiff. The Gallagher brothers appeared on stage to a deafening roar and even had a brief hand-in-hand moment. And remember, you can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and you can listen live to Times Radio Online.

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