Morning briefing Wednesday 15th October

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0:34This is your Times morning briefing on Wednesday 15th October. Aid will be restricted into Gaza as Israel tells the UN it will only allow 300 trucks a day. The Rafah crossing will also remain closed. Israel has made the decision after accusing Hamas of failing to hand over most of the remaining deceased hostages, as agreed under phase one of Donald Trump's peace plan. The US president said last night at the White House that the militants must disarm, or in his words, we will disarm them. Dr Sabri Saedam, a former Palestinian minister and advisor to President Mahmoud Abbas, said the state of Gaza, including heavy rubble and debris, could be stalling hostage returns.

1:15It's hard to dig deep to get the bodies. I'm not speaking for Hamas nor defending its position, but I know quite well that this is a matter of concern that needs heavy equipment involved, so maybe that's hampering. I'm saying maybe, but I'm not sure if there's any calculation towards the sabotaging process that's flowing. This is definitely going to damage Hamas further. The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will champion Britain as a place to invest as she heads to Washington DC for talks with the International Monetary Fund. It comes a day after the global body warned that UK inflation is set to be the highest among G7 nations, both this year and next.

1:52The same report forecasts the UK to have the second fastest growing economy in the G7. Giles Wilkes, former advisor to Theresa May on economic policy, says he remains optimistic. The government has shifted towards investing, and investing means that things like utility bills go up, which contributes to inflation. And as a result, the investment that we do will in some point in the future make us a more efficient economy. But in the short run, we all have to bear the pain of prices being higher, growth being a bit lower. So I'm still quite optimistic, because this is the kind of pain you need in a growth strategy.

2:27You take pain first and you get, hopefully, some gain later. The Home Secretary is expected to admit that Britain and other European countries don't have control of their borders. Shabana Mahmood is hosting counterparts from six Western Balkan countries and will warn the UK's failure to control its borders is eroding trust, not just in politicians but in the state itself. Household energy debt has hit an eight-year high before winter. Figures from USwitch suggest around 3.5 million households owe money to their provider, up 46 % from last year. Ofgem say they're working at pace on introducing a debt release scheme to help those struggling.

3:04Ministers are delaying a decision over whether to approve a Chinese super embassy in London amid a mounting backlash over the government's ties to Beijing. Steve Reid, the community secretary, is expected to announce that the decision, which was due next Tuesday, will be deferred until November. The delay has been revealed in The Times' political podcast, The State of It. Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin criticised the idea of a super embassy and questioned Dan Jarvis in the Commons. He seemed to be kind of saying that national security couldn't be an issue in a planning matter. Well, I mean, that's clearly ridiculous.

3:36If, as many of us believe, that this huge development of the Royal Mint in the City of London, which will be the largest single embassy in the whole of Europe, It is clearly ludicrous that we should be giving a nation, which the government says is a threat to our national security, such a gem of an embassy at the heart of the City of London. That's your Times Morning Briefing on Wednesday the 15th 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?

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