Morning Briefing Friday 2nd January

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 on Friday 2nd January. Families are still waiting for information about the identities of the victims of the Swiss ski resort bar fire more than 24 hours after the blaze was extinguished.

0:46The president of Switzerland has warned it will take time for the identities of most of those killed to be established. It's thought at least 40 people have died and more than 100 have been injured. Rob Stewart represents the Cromontana tourist office and has been speaking to Times Radio. Clearly, it's New Year's Eve celebrations all across the country. In Switzerland, New Year is a huge event. I have spent New Year's Eve in Swiss ski resorts over the years, and it's a big party. People go out to party. They party until the early hours of the morning. That is very normal. And what is not normal is for an incident like this to happen.

1:24Swiss flags will be flown at half-mast for five days. Zeran Mamdani has been sworn in as New York City's new mayor, the 34-year-old Democrat, is the first Muslim leader of America's biggest city and the youngest mayor in generations. Jim Kennedy is a former Democrat strategist who lives in New York. He says he's going to tax the wealthy, but I think he really needs to crack down on fat rats, not just fat cats, because you can only squeeze the wealthy for so much and you're going to end up taxing the middle class and you're going to end up costing jobs. If you raise the minimum wage up to like$30 an hour, that's going to lead to layoffs.

2:00and if you raise the taxes too high, then people will just move elsewhere and then you're going to cut your tax base. Parents whose children have moderate mental health and developmental needs are set to be stripped of their legal right to certain supports. It's part of plans being considered by ministers designed to stem the soaring cost of provision. Steve Chalk is from the Oasis Charitable Trust, which runs schools across England. If schools took this over, of course, teachers know every child really well And they know each child's needs, which means that they're best placed to make an application that makes sense and speaks the language of the local council.

2:40More than 41 ,000 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats in 2025. That's almost 5 ,000 more than the previous year. It marks the second busiest year on record for crossings, with poor weather in late November and early December, meaning the number of small boat arrivals didn't surpass the previous record of 46 ,000 in 2022. There are weather warnings for snow and ice in place across the UK. The Met Office says there could be disruption in northern Scotland later and people might get cut off. Yellow alerts are in place for Northern Ireland and parts of Wales along with central and southern England.

3:17And there's more on these stories throughout the day on Times Radio.

3:28This 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.

4:18Always finds the best travel deals, picks the right cards, and somehow ends up in first class for the price of coach. Smart travel is like that friend, but in podcast form. They cover things like which travel cards earn their keep and which are just heavy, shiny metal. And the smartest ways to book flights without playing Guess the Cheapest Day. Travel smarter and spend less. With help from NerdWallet, follow smart travel wherever you get your podcasts.