Morning briefing Thursday 9th October

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 Thursday 9th October. Israel and Hamas have agreed to pause fighting in Gaza and begin releasing hostages and prisoners under the first phase of a peace plan brokered by President Trump.

0:48Announcing a major breakthrough in the two-year war, Trump said all the Israeli hostages held in Gaza would be released very soon and that Israel's forces would withdraw to an agreed-upon line. Matthew Bartlett is a Republican strategist who worked at the State Department during Trump's first term. You can't overstate just how significant this is. This has been two years, starting with a horrific terrorist attack in Israel, then a massive invasion and war where innocent lives have suffered on both sides. So to now hopefully put that down and to now start talking about peace. War is sometimes easy.

1:28Peace is very difficult. Hamas and Qatari officials said in separate statements that the agreement, which follows days of high-level negotiations in Egypt, will also allow for the entry of aid into Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners. Speaking to The Times, Gina Abercrombie Winstanley, who is the president of the Middle East Policy Council, listed a number of things which still have to happen for this to have a lasting legacy. Hostages returned food, aid, reconstruction materials going into the Gaza Strip immediately. And then, of course, the disarmament and the withdrawal have to be worked out.

2:07But that means that the negotiators really have to stick to it. President Trump has to stick to this. The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he would convene Israel's government to approve the agreement. Relatives of hostages and former hostages reacted with joy to the news. There had been rumours Trump was being considered as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in making this happen. It's now an idea backed by Jonathan Harunov, Israel's spokesperson to the United Nations. He definitely deserves to be in conversation around the Nobel Peace Prize for all of his tremendous efforts, not just in the Middle East, but other peace-building efforts elsewhere in the world.

2:49In other news, Kemi Badenoch enjoyed a standing ovation after announcing a raft of new policies in her speech at the Conservative Party conference. One of the key pledges was her commitment to abolish stamp duty, which by her own reckoning would cost£9 billion. The Conservatives insist it is fully costed. Former Liberal Democrat adviser Jo Phillips told The Times it may bring new confidence to her leadership. The general public still have more faith in the Conservative Party to manage the economy than they do in any of the other parties. So there's that sort of, you know, basis, if you like. And maybe, you know, if she's got a bit of confidence and she's got a bit of support, perhaps she can relax and begin to look like a woman who's comfortable in her own skin and try and engage a bit better.

3:39Sakir Starmer is set for face-to-face talks with Narendra Modi on the second and final day of his trade mission to India. Alongside the new trade deal between the two nations, the two prime ministers are expected to discuss the Indian leader's relationship with Russia and the long-term detention of a British citizen. There are 125 business representatives on the trip with Sakhir, which seeks to build on the momentum from the UK-India trade pact, signed in July, among them Michelle Ovens, founder of Small Business Britain. The trade agreement is not just about tariffs. It's also about friction, about the paperwork, the bureaucracy, making things a bit easier, less regulatory hurdles, that people can start to trade with India much faster and they can do it much more smoothly as well as without the tariffs in place.

4:32And three British universities have made the top 10 in global rankings. Oxford has been named the best in the world for the 10th year in a row, with Cambridge joint third and Imperial eighth. The list was compiled by Times Higher Education magazine. And that was your morning briefing for Thursday the 9th of October. 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.

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