Morning briefing Monday 8th June

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 Times Radio's morning briefing on Monday the 8th of June. I'm Daryl Jackson. Iran has fired missiles at Israel in the first attack since a ceasefire was announced in April.

0:45Israel says the missiles were intercepted and its military is preparing for further action. Tehran had warned it would respond after Israel carried out strikes on Beirut, claiming it was targeting a Hezbollah command centre. Sir Robin Niblett, foreign affairs analyst and former director of Chatham House, told Times Radio he expects Israel to retaliate. It sounds, at least from the reports I've seen so far, that there have not been any casualties. Obviously, that would have a certain impact. But everything is about deterrence. Everything is about showing that your threat is worse than the other person's threat.

1:20So I would be very surprised if Israel does not strike back somehow very soon. Well, Israel says it did conduct strikes early this morning against military targets in western and central Iran. The leaders of the UK, Ukraine, France and Germany have discussed the urgent need to ramp up production of defensive weapons and deep strike capabilities for Ukraine. Prime Minister Sakir Starmer hosted Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky along with the French President and German Chancellor at No. 10 last night for talks on the war. The leaders called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree an immediate and complete ceasefire.

1:58Alexander Mareshko, chair of Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Committee, told Times Radio what should happen now. Ukraine and our allies, we need to think how to make Putin negotiate in earnest, how to bring him to the negotiating table. And finally, one of the crucial issues which also need to be dealt with is about how should our allies, including the UK, keep President Trump engaged in the negotiation process, how to prevent him from walking away from these negotiations. Sir Keir Starmer is preparing to announce a ban on harmful social media platforms for under-16s. It would mark a departure from a focus on solely banning features such as infinite scrolling and set off debates over which platforms are exempt.

2:43Senior government sources say the Prime Minister has hardened his approach after speaking to bereaved parents and surveying evidence from Australia, which put in place a blanket ban in December. Emily Darlington, a Labour member of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, told Times Radio a complete ban isn't the answer. We also need to understand that young people right the way through to two years old are spending time online. So what's appropriate? How much of that would damage their sleep? When it damages their sleep, it damages their mental health. So are we looking at curfews, giving parents information about time limiting at different ages and different brain development types?

3:21that is a much more sophisticated but actually a much better way of protecting young people online. And it's claimed employers are increasingly hiring temporary workers because of low confidence in the economy and greater cost pressures. Research by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation showed a big increase in the availability of candidates for jobs last month. Redundancies, fewer job opportunities and concerns over job security reportedly pushed up the number of people looking for work. and you can hear more on all of these stories throughout the day on times radio

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5:06We'll be right back. Rights Reserve 2026 McDonald's at FIFA World Cup 2026.