Morning briefing Tuesday 30th December

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 on Tuesday 30th December. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his meeting with Donald Trump in Florida yesterday was very productive.

0:45Progress in the Gaza ceasefire deal dominated the talks with Donald Trump, saying he wants to move to the second phase of his Middle East peace plan. Jonathan Huronoff is the Israel international spokesperson for the United Nations and explained one of the key impediments delaying the move to phase two from Israel's point of view. We still have a hostage that hasn't been returned and Israel made a commitment that we will return every single hostage, living and deceased, stolen from us on October the 7th, back to the family for proper and dignified burial. And that unfortunately hasn't happened once.

1:22And hopefully if that happens as soon as possible, once we retrieve that body, we can talk about the next phase. An internal inquiry has been launched by the Foreign Office into the unacceptable failure of officials to spot abhorrent social media posts from Allah Abdel Fattah. Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, admitted deep distress had been caused to Jewish groups by government statements that welcomed the British-Egyptian political activist's arrival in the UK. They included a Boxing Day tweet from Sir Keir Starmer, saying he was delighted that Vata had been allowed to travel to Britain.

1:58As he is a dual British citizen, the Conservatives and Reform have both suggested he should have his citizenship stripped for the posts. Harjip Singh is an immigration lawyer and told us how he may qualify for the revocation of his citizenship. They have to be a national security threat, or they could technically also be an avid supporter, a loud supporter of terrorism, or involved in terrorist activities, someone who's definitely going to be a national level threat, as was decided in the case of Shamima Babu because she went off to join ISIS. Over a thousand people have been recognised for their work and achievements in the New Year's Honours list.

2:36Sir Keir Starmer has said that the list celebrates the very best of Britain, people who put the common good ahead of themselves to strengthen communities and change lives. Recipients include Sir Idris Elba and members of the England Euro winning football team, including manager Serena Vigman, who gets an honorary damehood. Carl Portman has been made an MBE for teaching chess to prisoners and told us that chess provides life skill training for people. It disciplines the mind to think before we move, which is a great analogy for life, not just on the chess board. And the decisions we make in chess and in life, we're responsible for.

3:14We can't take those moves back. You know, we have to stand by them. So, you know, this idea of smart decision-making is really fundamental to the work that I've been doing in chess in prisons. There's more on these stories throughout the day on Times Radio.

3:32This 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.

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