Morning Briefing Monday 18th 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. This is a Times Morning Briefing on Monday the 18th of August. Stein, Darrell Jackson. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky will be supported at talks with President Trump in Washington today by seven European leaders, including Sakhir Starmer.

0:48The aim is to try and protect Ukraine from being steamrolled into accepting far-reaching Russian demands for peace. US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff has said Vladimir Putin has agreed to allow Ukraine's allies to offer it a NATO-like security guarantee as part of an eventual deal to end the war. Nicholas Williams, Senior Associate Fellow of the European Leadership Network, told Times Radio that could be problematic. In the Cold War, there was something called the Western European Union for European countries who had an Article 5-like guarantee to each other, but it didn't function because it wasn't backed up by credible military structures, planning and capabilities.

1:32Well, the Times' Gerry Scott told us that the European leaders have been saying that Ukraine's leader must be involved in any future peace talks. There is obviously a lot up in the air here. There are various moving parts. But what does seem clear is that Europe is going to show a united front in Washington. It is a big delegation going there. It's going to be a big show of support. And the people I'm speaking to tell me that actually, more than anything, that kind of picture, that family photo will be more impactful anything. In other news, Rachel Reeves is preparing to strip back environmental protections in an effort to boost the economy by speeding up infrastructure projects.

2:11The Chancellor is considering reforms which would make it far harder for concerns about nature to stop development. She says that's crucial to restoring growth and improving living standards. John Elledge is a journalist who specialises in planning and infrastructure and told Times Radio there are lots of examples where developments have stalled because of nature. Delays to building Epps Fleet Garden Village because there's some former industrial wasteland there that's kind of home to a particular kind of spider that's a bit rare. There've also been other stories of a dangerous road in East Anglia where there's been loads of fatalities but improvements have been kind of delayed because it's the habitat of a rare snail.

2:50I'm not saying nature isn't important, obviously it is, but it does kind of feel a lot like the balance is off. Patients in England can get checks, tests and scans done out of hours at 100 community-based diagnostic centres, which are now open 12 hours a day, seven days a week. The government says extending the hours for the centres is increasing access to health services and speeding up diagnosis. Some 7.2 million tests and scans have been delivered since July 2024. and new figures show eight pubs a week shut their doors for good across the uk over the first half of the year at a time of rising tax and labor costs industry bosses say it's heartbreaking and highlights the need for supportive tax measures from the treasury in the autumn budget official government statistics show 209 pubs were demolished or converted for other uses over the six months to june and you can hear more on all of those stories throughout the day this This episode of the Times Radio News Briefing is sponsored by PwC.

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