Morning briefing Tuesday 8th July

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 8th July. It's the first day of French President Emmanuel Macron's three-day state visits to the UK.

0:43Sir Keir Starmer is expected to try to get him to agree to a one-in-one-out migrants' returns deal. It would see Britain send people who've arrived here on a small boat via the Channel Bag in exchange for accepting asylum seekers who've got the connection to the UK. Jack Blackburn is The Times' deputy diary editor. He says both sides are happy with the idea in principle, but that Mr Macron has a major concern. The French in particular worry that when these schemes are introduced, They seem to trigger what are called closing down sales amongst the gangs and so on who are organising these journeys across the channel.

1:16I.e. when these new measures are coming in, there's a sort of brief period before it's introduced. And they're very worried that this then creates a massive surge in people going across the channel. They're very keen to avoid that. U.S. President Donald Trump says there's been good cooperation with Israel's neighbours on helping Palestinians. He's had a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. Mr Netanyahu has suggested residents of Gaza could move to neighbouring nations. You know, if people want to stay, they can stay. But if they want to leave, they should be able to leave.

1:49It shouldn't be a prison. We're working with the United States very closely about finding countries that will seek to realise what they always say, that they want to give the Palestinians a better future. and those who, and I think we're getting close to finding several countries. The King has written to President Trump to express his profound sadness after flash floods in central Texas killed more than 100 people. Dozens are still missing after a month's worth of rain fell in just a few hours on Friday. Charles is said to have offered his deepest sympathy to those who've lost loved ones. 27 of those killed were children and staff at a summer holiday camp.

2:31Tara Haley is a journalist in Texas. Even though the tragedy occurred in one part of the state and we're a very large state, it touches people across the entire state because so many people, literally from the Panhandle across to El Paso, send their kids to these camps each summer. It's claimed criminal gangs are using drones to drop packages of up to 10 kilograms of drugs into jails. Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor says he wants to see the prison service really get a grip of the issue. The government says it's investing£40 million in boosting security at prisons in England and Wales.

3:05And the government will test its emergency alert system for a second time later this year. An alarm will go off on our phones at 3pm on September 7th. Some people said their devices didn't sound in the first test in April 2023. You can follow the Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

3:30This 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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