Morning Briefing Wednesday 20th 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. Good morning. The government's asylum accommodation scheme has been thrown into doubt after the High Court ruled that migrants must be removed from an Essex hotel.

0:40The ruling follows weeks of violent protests sparked by the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl. Epping Forest District Councillor Holly Whitbread says they tried everything before the legal route. It's a great frustration across the whole of the UK with the use of hotels as asylum accommodation. so we may well see protests elsewhere. And I've always said as long as these protests are peaceful and they're from genuine local people, it's one way of making a point. But as a councillor, what we've done is taken this legal action and prior to that we tried to do everything we could democratically and diplomatically to try and negotiate with the Home Office, but they didn't listen.

1:19All ministers are now braced for a wave of applications by local authorities to close migrant hotels after Epping's ruling. Rachel Reeves is drawing up plans to hit the owners of high-value properties with capital gains tax when they sell their homes. It's as she attempts to fill a£40 billion hole in the public finances. The Chancellor's considering using the autumn budget to end the current exemption from capital gains tax on primary residence properties. Justin Greening is a former Treasury Minister. They're always going to come up with ideas about how you can raise tax, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're politically sensible or viable.

1:54And I think floating these in the press is also really dangerous. There are some comparatively good economic indicators of confidence coming back into the economy over the last couple of weeks. These are the kinds of things that the consumers really start to make them think, hang on a minute, maybe I won't move. Maybe it's not worth getting that extension done if it takes my home over this threshold that I might be looking at pay tax on. Donald Trump has admitted Vladimir Putin may not want a peace deal with Ukraine. The US president also reiterated he would not send any American troops to Ukraine as part of an agreement.

2:28Instead, Mr Trump claims British, French and German soldiers could be sent. Vladimir Omelyan is a former Ukrainian minister. He now fights for the Ukrainian army and has concerns around security guarantees. We've got many of them in the past and none of them worked. When we were taking away our nuclear weapons, we were guaranteed by the United States, not only US but also China, by Russia even, that Ukraine can feel absolutely secure. And if anybody threats Ukraine, those guarantees are standing with Ukraine. Russia was the first to attack Ukraine. And Israel says it will respond to a new Gaza ceasefire plan that's been accepted by Hamas by Friday.

3:13The proposal involves a 60-day truce and the release of half the hostages. But Avalon Levy, former spokesperson for the Israeli Prime Minister, says it's not going to be enough. Netanyahu doesn't want a ceasefire that pauses the war. He wants to end the war with all the hostages home and with Hamas disarmed and removed from power so it can never launch a destructive war like this again. And way too late, the whole world is demanding the same from Hamas. So I think there's a fear that if Israel accepts a temporary ceasefire to get half the hostages out, That dooms the rest of the hostages because Hamas is going to use them as leverage to try to survive this war and get guarantees that it can remain in power.

3:52Don't forget you can set the Times News Briefing as your news service on Alexa. 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? 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.

4:33Discover more at pwc.co.uk.