Morning briefing Friday 28th November

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 Morning Briefing for Friday the 28th of November. A Labour MP has told Times Radio the Prime Minister's U-turn on workers' rights is disappointing after Sakia Starmer scrapped a manifesto commitment to give workers the right to claim unfair dismissal from their first day of employment.

0:53The move to change the qualifying period from 24 months to day one was abandoned in an attempt to get controversial employment legislation through the House of Lords. Workers will now have to have been in their job for at least six months to qualify. The Labour MP Clive Efford said he was disappointed that the government had bowed to pressure, but is hopeful the day one protection will be re-examined in the future. There's a long time to go through this parliament, and it may be something that the government might want to return to in the future. All I would say is that I was there when we brought in the minimum wage, and all the arguments that were made about the employment bill were made about the national minimum wage.

1:33It was going to cost jobs. It was going to put businesses out. It was going to wreck the economy. And it did none of those things. One of the two members of the U.S. National Guard who was shot in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday has died. Sarah Beckstrom, who was 20, was shot at close range, having volunteered to work in the American capital over the Thanksgiving holiday. President Trump confirmed her death while on a call with U.S. service members. Sarah Beckstrom of West Virginia, highly respected, young, magnificent person. Started service in June of 2023. She's just passed away. Incredible person.

2:14Outstanding in every single way in every department. It's horrible. A second soldier, Andrew Wolfe, who's 24, remains in a critical condition. Russia's President Vladimir Putin says he will maintain his country's war on Ukraine if Kiev forces fail to retreat from the territories they hold. Putin did not specify the areas in question, but Moscow has said that it wants Ukraine to give up all control over four regions in the south and east of the country. A peace plan brokered by Washington last week suggested that the Luhansk and Donetsk regions should be recognised as de facto Russian. Matthew Savile is the Director of Military Sciences at RUSI, the Royal United Services Institute.

2:59He says the Kremlin is attempting how best to stage manage a land grab. The line that they are trying not to cross is for any blame in the breakdown of talks to be transferred across to them. They want to make it look like the Ukrainians are the ones that are being unreasonable. I think the Ukrainians are the ones who want to engage in good faith but demonstrate that Russia is the party to these negotiations who is being disingenuous. And campaigners hope the farm where Robert Burns wrote Auld Lang Syne can be saved with an international fundraising appeal seeking to raise£12 million. Scotland's Bard built Ellisland Farm near Dumfries himself as a home for his wife and children in 1788.

3:42You can follow the Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

3:51This 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. Granger knows when you're a procurement manager for an office park, you're not managing one building, you're managing all of them.

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