Morning briefing Friday 30th 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 30th January. Ministers are set to follow in the EU's footsteps and add Iran's revolutionary guards to its list of banned terror groups alongside al-Qaeda, Hamas and Islamic State.

0:48The Home Office has said new legislation will allow the IRGC to be prescribed, something that comes as the group suppresses anti-government protests which have been taking place across Iran. Benham Ben Taliblu is Senior Director of the Iran Programme at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies think tank. Before the guns and bombs and bullets start flying, lawfare and legal tools and economic tools and political tools and diplomatic pressure will be brought to bear. What really defines Europe, the West, America, from much of the world, is these laws, these institutions. And adversaries of those laws and institutions shouldn't be shocked to find themselves on their other side.

1:25Sir Keir Starmer says he'll build a more sophisticated relationship with China and has opened the door to a visit by President Xi. The Prime Minister also said he respectfully raised human rights issues. Former Business Secretary Sir Vince Cable visited China during his time in the coalition government. Mr Starmer is really doing what Mr Carney was doing from Canada, what Macron has been doing in France, which the Chancellor of Germany will be doing in a few weeks' time, which is to balance our relationships, given that the Trump administration is behaving in a very rogue, unpredictable way, that we need to have more business-like relations with China.

2:04Volodymyr Zelensky says he expects Russia to implement a deal announced by Donald Trump to stop airstrikes on Ukrainian cities. The US president says he personally asked Vladimir Putin to halt attacks for a week because of cold weather. Anita Powell is a reporter in the US. It's hard to say whether this is going to hold. We know that President Trump has made the request and that he does consider himself to have a close personal relationship with the president of Russia. There's a new picture hanging up in the White House of President Trump and President Putin on the tarmac in Alaska. He's hung that up in a very public place in the White House.

2:39So he clearly holds the Russian president in high esteem. So this is really going to come down to the word of these two men, I suppose, in whether this is implemented. A review has found that a surgeon caused severe harm and pain to children during surgeries at Great Ormond Street Hospital. The hospital's report found Yasser Jabbar left unclear notes and Oprah relied on junior staff while treating hundreds of children. Paul Gallagher is a health journalist. When parents go down the legal route and complain about NHS staff, surgery, operations that have gone wrong, the NHS doesn't tend to admit fault straight away.

3:15It does tend to fight these things out in court, perhaps only coming to a settlement just before it gets to the court action itself. Ultimately, it needs to strengthen the whistleblowing policies. it needs to have a much more open culture of listening. A new report says the BBC is guilty of shoehorning diversity into shows like Doctor Who, making them feel preachy and inauthentic. The report commissioned by the corporation found large parts of the audience believed it tried too hard to represent diverse groups in its programming. There's more on these stories throughout the day on Times Radio.

3:58This 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. Quick question. When was the last time a display ad changed your mind?

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