Afternoon briefing Tuesday 11th August

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0:36Welcome to the Times Radio afternoon briefing on Tuesday 11 August. Andy Burnham says he is increasingly confident that the killers of PC Andrew Harper will not be released early from prison. The Times newsroom reporter Olly Cole has been reading the Prime Minister's latest announcement. In a lengthy statement on Facebook, the PM says he understands the depth of public concern about PC Harper's killers potentially being released in January and says he'll do everything in his power to minimise that possibility. Burnham says one solution would be to use women's prisons for male offenders. He also says he wants to increase the number of foreign offenders being sent back to their country of origin and he wants to look at IPP sentences which are indeterminate.

1:17He says he's asked the Justice Secretary, Alex Norris, to present new plans to Parliament early next month. PC Harper was dragged to his death behind a car in Berkshire in 2019. Jesse Cole and Albert Bowers were convicted of his manslaughter. Former Detective Superintendent Stuart Blake was the lead investigator. From their time in police custody through the initial remand hearings and then to the subsequent trial, there was no sense of any remorse at any point throughout that whole process, which was even more sickening. Bearing in mind, not long after their arrest, it became very apparent to them what it was that they were suspected of and eventually convicted of.

1:54So, no, I think that kind of says it all for me. The former president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, has been sentenced to death for crimes against humanity and war crimes. He's been convicted in absentia after fleeing Damascus for Moscow when his government fell in December 2024. His brother and cousin have also been sentenced for atrocities carried out during the regime's 14-year rule. More than 160 people have been killed after an earthquake in Colombia. The 7.4 magnitude tremor tore through the country's coffee-growing heartland. In Cali, home to about 2.2 million people, at least 85 were killed.

2:31Several of the top floors of one of the city's hospitals collapsed upon themselves. The UK Health Security Agency is warning of a significant impact on health and social care because of the heatwave. The Environment Agency says 45 million people are now living in an area affected by drought conditions. Almost three quarters of England is now in drought. There hasn't been a new reservoir since 1992, but Stuart Colville, Deputy CEO of Water UK, says some good news is on the horizon. We are now building 10 new reservoirs. The first one is already under construction. And there are other schemes as well, nine desalination plants coming forward and also schemes to move water around the country.

3:11And we're spending about£12 billion between now and 2030 to bring these schemes forward to supply water for the future. You can follow the Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

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