Morning briefing Monday 4th 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 the Times Morning Briefing for Monday the 4th of August. Universities will be barred from accepting foreign students if they fail to prevent their courses being used as a backdoor for migrants claiming asylum in the UK.

0:48A fresh government crackdown will target universities with higher numbers of international students who don't start their studies or continue to the end. The plans are expected to be announced next month. Marley Morris is Associate Director for Migration at the Institute for Public Policy Research. he's explained more of the background to Times Radio. We know from what's been briefed and from the immigration white paper that the government are concerned about the number of people who are on student visas who then go on to claim asylum. We know that of the total number of people claiming asylum in 2024, around 15 % were on student visas.

1:29Hundreds of seriously ill children will be evacuated from Gaza and treated by the NHS under plans to be announced within weeks. It's understood up to 300 young people will be allowed to enter the country and receive free medical care. James Smith is an emergency physician who worked in Gaza for two and a half months. He's told Times Radio that getting injured children out of the territory is easier said than done. The process is somewhat convoluted. There are, of course, processes that the Palestinian healthcare workforce have to go through to determine that a patient needs care that is now no longer available in Gaza.

2:06As the destruction of the healthcare system continues, that number of people, of course, continues to grow. A man has died after falling during an Oasis concert at Wembley. Witnesses described horrendous scenes after he fell from an upper tier during the band's reunion tour on Saturday night. Thousands of motor finance customers could be in line for payouts with the regulator to consults on a compensation scheme. The Financial Conduct Authority's case relates to discretionary commission arrangements, where brokers and dealers receive more commission for increasing the amount of interest without telling buyers.

2:41According to NHS England, less than a third of resident doctors chose to strike during last week's industrial action. Nurses have now voted against accepting a pay offer of 3.6%. Talks between the Health Secretary Wes Streeting and the Nursing Union could start this week. Spectator journalist Ross Clark has told Times Radio why he thinks a nurse's strike is inevitable. The nurses had a couple of days of strikes, but they then settled. They then had to watch as the junior doctors were given a 22 % pay rise when Labour came to power. What sort of message did that send? It sent the message that trade union militancy pays.

3:23And weather warnings are coming into force with Storm Flores expected to cause severe travel disruption. A yellow warning for wind has been issued for northern parts of the UK. The warnings have been upgraded to amber for much of Scotland. And you can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

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