Morning briefing Wednesday 29th 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 Times Radio's morning briefing on Wednesday, the 29th of July. I'm Daryl Jackson. The Prime Minister will outline a new initiative later to reform social care and create a new national care service modelled on the NHS.

0:48The Times also reports that Andy Burnham is inviting Kemi Badenoch and Sir Ed Davey for talks on creating a new funding model. That's to provide elderly people with free nursing care at the point of need, rather than facing hugely expensive bills. Nadra Ahmed, chair of the National Care Association, told Times Radio it's crucial to focus on social care. There are people who are going without care right now. We've got tens of millions of unpaid carers who are subsidising the state. It's just not fair. We have got to move it forward. And if we are looking at a form of taxation, let's be honest, the national insurance is there and it funds the NHS.

1:32But let's have a look at this now. The U.S. military says the Iranian Revolutionary Guard launched multiple ballistic missiles from Iran on U.S. forces based in the Middle East overnight. U.S. Central Command says all of them were successfully intercepted. Overnight, the U.S. conducted retaliatory strikes with Saudi Arabia's armed forces in Iraq against militant groups aligned with Iran. Yesterday, Donald Trump met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks at the White House. Frank Lowenstein, former U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East, explained to Times Radio why there was no joint press conference as usual.

2:10And that's because I think they really do have very different agendas here. Trump wants to wind down this war for a myriad of reasons. And it's now I would like to escalate, if at all possible. So, yeah, I think that they have some common ground on preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. That's sort of the lowest common denominator. But beyond that, I think we have very different agendas at this point. The Green Party leader says he made an inadvertent mistake over a social media image but will not apologise to Nigel Farage. The image, which Zach Polanski shared on Instagram and then removed, showed a man wearing a T-shirt with a picture of a guillotine and the words, We're only making plans for Nigel.

2:45Reform UK has reported Mr Polanski to the police. Think tanks urged Andy Burnham to raise taxes or cut public spending to fund new cost of living and defence commitments. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research has warned there's no scope for extra government borrowing. It says the government will be squeezed by more persistent inflation as a result of the Iran war. Alice Wright is money reporter at The Times. With the recent change in government under Andy Burnham, there's been hints that perhaps he will raise the highest rate of income tax, currently 45%, up to 50%. There's also been a lot of talk about potential wealth tax.

3:29We've got mansion taxes looming on the horizon in the next few years. Ever more falling into the net of inheritance tax. Victims and survivors of the attack on a Southport dance class will be remembered two years on later. Three young girls were killed at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, eight other children and two adults were physically injured in the attack. A three-minute silence will be held in the town at 3pm. And you can hear more on all of those stories throughout the day on Times Radio.

4:23PwC 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. Do you keep hearing podcast ads like this one, for example, but always wonder how you actually get involved with them for your own brand or organization? Well, it's easier than you think. We're Acast, and we give you the platform to do it all yourself. Browse thousands of popular podcasts, choose the shows that match your perfect audience, set your budget, and launch.

5:05And if you want a hand, our podcast specialists are there to help you launch with confidence. This is podcast advertising without barriers. Get started at acast.com slash advertise.