Daily briefing Saturday 7th February

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 Radio Daily Briefing on Saturday 7th February. The Times understands Angela Rayner has been telling friends she warned Sir Keir Starmer not to appoint Peter Mandelson ambassador to Washington and says the Prime Minister ignored her.

0:47Ms Rayner's interventions this week, including leading a rebellion against the government to release Lord Mandelson's vetting, have renewed leadership speculation. Peter Edwards, former editor of Labour List, says this latest briefing will go down badly in Downing Street. The timing of Angela Rayner's comments or her comments to friends will be particularly unwelcome in Downing Street because obviously it's been Keir Starmer's worst week in office by a long way. It's just at this moment that Angela Rayner, who was exited from Deputy Peeam's office at haste, decided to put something out in the media through friends that cast her in a favourable light.

1:20So to me, it's a shame because it's Labour turning in on itself. Allies of the Prime Minister say it's completely untrue he's considering quitting. The UK is reinforcing bases in Cyprus with fighter jets amid fears of a war between the US and Iran. That is, despite negotiators from Washington and Tehran meeting in Oman yesterday, Former US official for the Gulf, Kirsten Fontenrose, doesn't expect much from those talks. Both countries are staying on the same positions they've had since the beginning of time. So the US says we must talk about more than the nuclear program. Everything's on the table.

1:53And when we talk nuclear, no enrichment. Iran is saying nothing else is on the table, only nuclear. And we're going to be willing to limit enrichment and say no to weaponization. But we're not willing to forego a nuclear program fully. Donald Trump says negotiators will meet again next week. Analysis suggests two-thirds of local authorities will be forced to raise council tax because of government cuts. Changes proposed by Angela Rayner when she was Communities Secretary will see money pulled away from central London and the home counties and redistributed to areas of the north and to outer London.

2:27Up to 100 councils are expected to apply for exceptional financial support, which could include hiking tax by more than 5%. A 15-year-old boy has been charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm and possession of a bladed article after a teacher was attacked at a school in southwest Wales. The teacher's been discharged from hospital since the incident in Pembrokeshire on Thursday afternoon. Donald Trump has refused to apologise for posting a video which showed Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. For about one second at the end of the video, which was about false allegations of vote rigging, the Obamas are shown with their heads superimposed onto the bodies of monkeys.

3:00Mr. President, a number of Republicans are calling on you to apologize for that post. Is that something you're going to do? No, I didn't make a mistake. I mean, I look at a lot of thousands of things. I looked at the beginning of it, it was fine. And certainly it was a very strong post in terms of voter fraud. Nobody knew that that was at the end. The only black Republican senator, Tim Scott, called it the most racist thing he'd seen out of Donald Trump's White House. And the US Vice President J.D. Vance was booed at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Milan. Protesters in Italy are opposing US immigration agents on his security detail.

3:38There was also a negative response to the Israeli team earlier in the evening. Don't forget to subscribe to the Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify or listen live to Times Radio Online.

3:52This 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 You've got social dialed in. Search is doing its thing.

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