Morning Briefing Friday 22nd 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. Hello, this is your Times Morning Briefing for Friday the 22nd of August with me, James Kitchen. Its understood asylum hotels across the country will be hit by a wave of anti-immigration protests this weekend.

0:45Dozens of demonstrations are expected after it emerged a record 111 ,000 people claimed asylum in the UK during Sir Keir Starmer's first year in office. Anti-racism groups are scrambling to coordinate counter-protests. They claim towns and cities could experience the most disruption since the riots last summer. The former Conservative Cabinet Minister Sir John Redwood told Times Radio Labour is failing in its pledge to smash the people smuggling gangs. When somebody turns up illegally, why aren't they interviewed? Why aren't they asked who they made the payments to? Why aren't we able to trace the money?

1:21Why aren't we able to say you are actually assisting criminals by paying money for what is obviously an illegal and unsafe boat trip by making this payment to this criminal group? One in four Labour members could back Jeremy Corbyn's party at the next general election. A new salvation survey found 28 % said they were considering supporting the former Labour leader's new left-wing pro-Gaza movement. The party is set to be launched formally in the autumn. Mr Corbyn announced the venture along with fellow MP Zahra Sultana in July with the aim of winning over disaffected Labour voters. Israel's Prime Minister says he's ordered talks to end the war with Hamas and free the remaining hostages in Gaza.

2:03But Benjamin Netanyahu stressed any conclusion must be acceptable to his country. It comes as classified figures from an Israeli Defence Forces database have reportedly revealed that five out of six Palestinians killed by Israeli forces have been civilians. Therese Patterson is from Uppsala University's Conflict Data Programme. If you use indiscriminate types of warfare like airstrikes and artillery against a densely populated area, it will result in high number of fatalities and a high number of civilian fatalities in particular. We have a large civilian population living in a very small territory with nowhere to escape, and Gaza City is just an extreme example of that.

2:45The Israeli government has shown that they're indifferent to the high number of civilian casualties as collateral damage and that they still think that the fight against Hamas is justified. In a separate development, the Foreign Office has summoned Israel's ambassador to London after plans were approved to effectively cut off the occupied West Bank from East Jerusalem. The government plans to reform exams to avoid teenagers repeatedly re-sitting maths and English GCSEs following a national review this autumn. The Times understands a functional skills test or a driving exam-style competency assessment is being considered as a replacement.

3:21Critics of the current RESIT system say it leaves hundreds of thousands of pupils low in confidence and without key qualifications. It comes as GCSE results suggest children in the South East are far more likely to achieve higher grades than those elsewhere. Teachers in the North East are putting it down to what they're calling deep-rooted structural inequalities. Rebecca Montecute is Research Director at the Social Market Foundation. A really large part of this is about the number of children who are living in poverty. If you're living in poverty, that's going to impact how well you're able to do in the classroom.

3:55It's also about access to schools. It's about the opportunities you see around you every day. It's about the support that your parents are able to give you. So there are lots of factors involved, but there's definitely a huge role for government in ensuring that those young people have the opportunities that they should have. And bosses at the UK's third largest steelworks say the move to wind up the business is irrational. Speciality Steels, part of the Liberty Empire, is now under government control after facing compulsory liquidation. Nearly 1 ,500 people are employed at its plants in South Yorkshire.

4:32And remember, you can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and you can listen live to Times Radio Online. This 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.

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