Morning Briefing Tuesday 19th 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

0:36This is your Times News Briefing for the morning of Tuesday, the 19th of August. Donald Trump insists the U.S. will provide security guarantees for Ukraine as part of any peace deal with Russia, and the Kremlin will accept them. The U.S. president has held crunch talks with Vladimir Zelensky at the White House. Viseker Starmer and other European leaders are rallying around. We can work a deal where we're working on a peace deal while they're fighting. They have to fight. I wish they could stop. I'd like them to stop. but strategically that could be a disadvantage for one side or the other. The U.S.

1:07President called Vladimir Putin after the meeting and says arrangements are underway for the Russian and Ukrainian leaders to meet. Vladimir Zelensky says he's ready for such a meeting as part of efforts to bring the war in Ukraine to an end. We don't have any day. We just confirmed after this productive meeting with the President and then with all our colleagues and partners, we confirmed that we are ready for a trilateral meeting. And if Russia proposed to the President of the United States bilateral and then, we will see that. He was speaking after a meeting with other European leaders of the White House who were hosted by President Trump.

1:46The American president met Vladimir Putin on Friday in Alaska. Hamas said it had agreed to a new proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza with the release of hostages. The deal, proposed by mediators Qatar and Egypt, requires a Palestinian militant group to release 10 living hostages, which accounts for about half of those still held, and 18 dead hostages in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire with Israel. Gershon Baskin is an Israeli analyst and co-director of the Alliance for Two States. He explained to Times Radio what would be expected on the Israeli side. Israel released something like 1 ,500 Palestinian prisoners, a majority of them being from Gaza, and including about 200 Palestinian prisoners who are serving life sentences for murdering Israelis.

2:33Pensioners will make up a quarter of the adult population within the next 50 years because of improvements in life expectancy. An official review into the state pension age said that the number of people of state pension age or over was expected to rise by 55 percent to 19.5 million by 2075. The state pension age is 66 and is due to rise to 67 between next year and 2028. The review will look at whether the state pension age should be linked to life expectancy. Sir David Attenborough has named the first eaglet to fledge a golden eagle nest in Scotland. He's been called princeling by the veteran naturalist and broadcaster, meaning young prince and symbolizing new hope.

3:12It comes as part of the South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project, which aims to increase the population of the species. A survey has suggested that more than a quarter of parents go without food to ensure they can afford school uniforms for their children. Nearly half of 2 ,000 parents polled in England say they used credit cards to pay for it, while more than a third reported using buy now pay later schemes. A government bill currently making its way through the House of Lords is proposing to cap the number of branded uniform items required in England. The council is expected to hear later today whether it's been successful in stopping asylum seekers from being housed at an Essex hotel.

3:49Epping Forest District Council is seeking an interim injunction preventing migrants being accommodated at the Bell in Epping, the scene of recent widespread protests. Lawyers for the hotel argue it would set a dangerous precedent for High Court due to issue its judgments later. And it understood that a woman charged with selling Friend star Matthew Perry the drug that killed him has agreed to plead guilty. The actor died from a ketamine overdose in October 2023, aged 54. Jasmin Sanger is the fifth and final defendant to strike a plea deal, meaning she avoids trial. Prosecutors say she's accepted five federal criminal charges, including providing the substance that led to his death.

4:29And that's your Times News Briefing.

4:40This 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. Discover more at pwc.co.uk