Morning briefing Saturday 24th 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. Good morning. Prince Harry says British soldiers deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect. It's after Donald Trump wrongly claimed NATO troops weren't on the front line in Afghanistan.

0:44The Duke of Sussex served there and has joined widespread political criticism of the US president. The PM says Trump should apologise. Simon Diggins served as the UK defence attaché in Kabul from 2008 to 2010. We've got somebody in the White House who doesn't share the values, is dismissive and even contemptuous of the responsibilities and responses of other NATO countries. And we now need to find our own way forward to look after ourselves. And I think that's the key thing that comes from this. Sikir Starmer has been forced to pull his Chagos Island bill in the wake of an American backlash over the deal.

1:25The legislation was expected to be debated in the House of Lords on Monday, but it's now been delayed after the Conservatives warned it could violate a 60-year-old treaty with America, enshrining British sovereignty over the group of islands. Henry Smith is a former Conservative MP and former chair of the Chagos All-Party Parliamentary Group. Well, I do welcome any delay to this Chagos Islands surrender. It's completely unnecessary. It was an advisory judgment made by many countries that are enemies of Britain in the international court, the likes of China, Iran, Russia and so forth, who said that we should give the islands to Mauritius.

2:04It's non-binding. The Chagossian people weren't asked about their own self-determination for the future of their islands. But the government says it remains committed to the deal. Andy Burnham has until five o 'clock this afternoon to decide if he'll put his name forward to be Labour's candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election. The party's rules mean he'll need permission from its ruling body because he'd need to stand down as mayor of Greater Manchester. Andrew Gwynne's resignation from the Commons on Thursday opened the vacancy in the seat. The president of Ukraine says it's too early to say how well discussions went between Russia, Ukraine and the US about ending the war.

2:46Discussions in Abu Dhabi continue later, with the White House describing yesterday's first round involving all three as productive. Ukraine's top military intelligence chief will join today's session. And the Home Secretary is to be handed powers to intervene in failing forces. Government ministers have limited powers to intervene with forces who are failing to fight crime, and the public have little oversight over their local police. New powers to allow the Home Secretary to send crack squads into failing forces to turn them around and sack chief constables. The Home Secretary is set to announce the largest reforms to policing since the police service was founded two centuries ago.

3:30Don't forget you can set the Times Radio News Briefing as your flash briefing on Alexa. This 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.

4:12Discover more at pwc.co.uk.

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