Morning briefing Wednesday 14th January

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0:35This is the Times Radio morning briefing for Wednesday the 14th of January. Donald Trump has promised protesters in Iran that help is on its way as he urges them to topple the regime. The US president hasn't given details of what form that help may take. He's been reacting to days of violence that's believed to have left thousands of people dead and tens of thousands more detained. Mahmoud Amiri Mohadam is spokesman for the Iran Human Rights Group. He told Times Radio they've confirmed hundreds of deaths so far. The brutal crackdown is even worse than we could imagine. You know, we have heard about injured people who have been shot in the head, like in the summary executions.

1:17There is also grave danger of execution of detained protesters. Here, and a£45 billion overhaul of rail infrastructure in the north of England is being set out by ministers, including eventually a new Birmingham to Manchester train line. The long-delayed Northern Powerhouse Rail scheme will first see existing links upgraded and a new line between Liverpool and Manchester. With construction starting in the 2030s, it aims to cut journey times and improve productivity in cities across the north. The NHS is to be blocked from offering training jobs to foreign doctors unless no British doctors have applied.

1:54A bill introduced to the Commons yesterday will require health trusts to favour graduates from Britain or Ireland to address high competition for training roles. The British Medical Association has welcomed the move, but it's understood the Health Secretary could scrap it if resident doctors call more strikes next month. Sir Keir Starmer will face MPs for Prime Minister's questions later, amid scrutiny of the latest government U-turn. Plans for mandatory digital ID to prove employment rights have been abandoned, with government sources saying the scheme will instead be used to allow voting, opening of bank accounts and registration of births and deaths.

2:29But opposition parties have accused ministers of lurching from one disaster to another. Laura Emily Dunn is a former advisor to Theresa May. It's the U-turn government because we're seeing it policy after policy, time after time. Are they facing backlash that we don't know about internally? So I think politically it's really interesting. I think this will be one of the questions that Prime Minister's questions that the opposition will go in hard on. But it just shows that the government, you know, they're having a tough time. An Israeli arms firm has lost its controversial bid for a£2 billion British Army training contract.

3:03Elbit Systems faced delegations from whistleblowers, including accusations it broke business appointment rules. The company denied wrongdoing. An MOD insider has told the Times a rival consortium, led by the American defence firm Raytheon, has instead been chosen. And the company behind a Chinese app for those who live alone called Are You Dead has announced a name change and a price increase. China's second most popular paid app is to be renamed Demoomu for global users who worry they might die alone. You can follow the Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio Online.

3:42This 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 You've got social dialed in. Search is doing its thing.

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