Afternoon briefing Thursday 1st October

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0:36This is The Times Morning News Briefing for Thursday 1st October. An early release scheme aimed at tackling prison overcrowding in England and Wales will see around 700 offenders freed today. The Justice Secretary Alex Norris told The Times the government had no choice as the alternative, which is prisons running out of space, would be much worse. Nick Hardwick is the former chair of the Parole Board and former chief inspector of prisons. He spoke to Times Radio. Even if they weren't doing these early releases, about 400 or 500 people would be released from prison today. That's just what happens on a normal day.

1:13And about 40 % of those would re-offend. That's what happens normally. We're simply not doing enough to reduce the risk that people re-offend. Israel's Prime Minister has praised the captain who helped prevent disaster after being stabbed by his co-pilot on a Dubai to Tel Aviv flight in a suspected terrorist attack. Benjamin Netanyahu said the suspected hijacking could have turned into another 9-11. Gabrielle Weininger is The Times' Israel correspondent. She says investigations have begun. Something went wrong in Fly Dubai because a pilot is not supposed to be from a country like Oman, which doesn't have relations with Israel.

1:54So how did that pilot land in Israel? How was he flying the plane that was supposed to land in Israel? well, he's not really supposed to touch down on Israeli territory. Something in the security checks went wrong. Fly Dubai is a low-budget airline. It's not El Al. It didn't go through the vigorous checks that El Al probably definitely does. The Conservatives say people aged under 25 who were fit to work should be unable to claim benefits if they haven't worked for six months. The party says unemployed people aged 16 to 24 need tough love and is proposing replacing universal credit for that age group.

2:27The Conservatives also say they want to look at whether the financial situation of someone's family should be taken into account to see whether parents should support their children instead. The Times' politics newsletter editor Stefan Boscher says means testing on that basis would be difficult. I remember last year when they were trying to, a slightly different issue, when they were trying to find ways to make the winter fuel allowance means test that, that they didn't have the technology or the models to do it in Treasury. I mean, a lot of this stuff, a lot of the data for this stuff doesn't really exist.

2:57And it's really hard. They have to go on, for instance, levels of taxation or the level of people who are receiving certain things already. So as a moral and political argument, I think that is one they'll be very happy to have. But in practicality, when you get to government, that'd be very difficult. And tributes have been paid to broadcaster and campaigner Dame Esther Ranson, who's died aged 86. After being diagnosed with incurable lung cancer in 2023, she became a vocal supporter of assisted dying. In a final message, Dame Esther said it was important the law catches up with what the country wants.

3:30Adrian Mills worked alongside her on the TV show That's Life. I will remember as one of the greatest British broadcasters this country has had, will ever have, and a total and utter campaign for the nation. There's more on these stories throughout the day on Times Radio.

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