Morning Briefing Wednesday 25th June

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1:01to buy 12 F-35As at£80 million each. The Prime Minister's at a NATO summit at The Hague, where leaders are expected to commit to boosting defence spending to 5 % of GDP. Alex Plitsis is a former Pentagon official and our senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. Speaking to Times Radio, he said European leaders are hedging against a more isolationist America. We've seen an isolationist trend within the Republican Party in the United States. If you look at the vice president's stance, it's probably a little bit more, even more isolationist conservative than the president himself. So the president being, you know, 80 term limited, he's not the future of the party in literal biological terms.

1:39But those that come after him and are in the inner circle have that same policy view. So if you're looking long term, right, that looks to be the trend that things are going. And so I think European leaders are going to try to hedge against that. Donald Trump has lashed out at The New York Times and CNN after a leaked intelligence report revealed U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities only set the country's nuclear program back by a few months. The preliminary report appears to dispute the president's claims of a spectacular military success that totally destroyed Iran's nuclear capability.

2:09Well, Mr. Trump has now accused the media outlets of demeaning one of the most successful military strikes in history. Nisan Rafati is a senior Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group in Washington. He says the confusion proves military action alone is not a long-term solution unless the U.S. wants to keep on playing whack-a-mole. Ultimately, the ideal solution is a negotiated settlement where Iran agrees to more stringent verification. In the U.S., expectation ends enrichment on its soil, which Iran has thus far rejected. And that combination of restrictions that are substantial and verification that is robust ultimately gets you further along the military strikes that can do a lot of damage but aren't a perfect answer.

2:57Meanwhile, Mr. Trump says the ceasefire between Iran and Israel is in effect after having an exceptionally firm conversation with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Yesterday, the president criticized both countries, swearing in front of live television cameras and accusing them of breaking the truce. Mr Netanyahu has hailed an historic victory, which he says will stand for generations. And Rachel Reeves has warned Labour MPs they will devastate the government if they vote against controversial welfare reforms next week. More than 100 Labour-backed ventures are launching a rebellion against plans to cut Britain's£80 billion sickness benefits bill.

3:35The Chancellor told MPs defeat would damage Zakir Starmer's authority to such an extent it should be treated as a confidence vote in the government. One of the backbench rebels is Clive Betts. Speaking to Times Radio, he accused ministers of not listening. Why, for example, didn't they start this whole process with, we have got challenges, we know that the welfare bill is rising, we know the number of people claiming certain types of benefit is going up exponentially, we're not sure it's delivering the right results. Let's have a major conversation, both internally in Parliament and externally, about what the issues are and what we can do to sort them out.

4:14And remember, you can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and you can listen live to Times Radio Online.

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