Afternoon briefing Tuesday 16th September

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 the Times Afternoon Briefing for Tuesday 16th September. A United Nations Commission has concluded that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.

0:43It cites the scale of the killings, aid blockages, forced displacement and the destruction of a fertility clinic as its evidence. The chair of the commission, Navi Pile, says Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is one of those responsible. We named the three individuals that we felt were responsible. and we said, and the one is the prime minister, the other the president and the third is the former minister of defence. And we said that since they acted as agents of the state, then the state of Israel is responsible. Israel has, however, categorically rejected the accusations, citing its right to self-defence following the attacks of the 7th of October.

1:27Prime Minister Netanyahu has also confirmed a powerful operation has been launched in the territory, designed to seize control of Gaza City. Earlier, his defence minister Israel Katz threatened that Israel's military would not hold back in its mission. The Prime Minister is facing further questions about his leadership after acknowledging he knew about emails between Lord Mandelson and the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein before he defended his US ambassador in the Commons. Zakir Starmer is today facing a three-hour emergency debate on his handling of a scandal that has added to questions among Labour MPs and ministers about whether he'll lead his party into the next election.

2:05Oliver Wright is the Times policy editor. He says Starmer may be saved by a lack of unity over who could replace him. Who's going to sort of suddenly make all their problems go away? The sort of mechanism to get rid of a Labour leader is much harder than it is with the Conservatives. You've got to have 80 people willing to put their name behind an alternative candidate. And despite the very real problems that Starmer has at the moment, I just don't see that happening right now. The Prime Minister has welcomed some of the families of those who lost loved ones in the Hillsborough disaster to Downing Street.

2:35It's to mark the introduction of the Hillsborough law to Parliament, which the government says will end the culture of cover-ups. 97 Liverpool supporters were fatally injured during the 1989 FA Cup semi-final, but it took 27 years for an inquest to rule that fans were not responsible. Steve Rotherham is the Metro Mayor of the Liverpool city region. Labour in power can make permanent legislative change that is positive for the country. I think it demonstrates just what I'm trying to do as a Labour metro mayor and my other colleagues across the country who are in power. It's not just about the prime minister.

3:10It's about the values and principles about what you stand for. And a former Conservative health minister has defected to Reform UK. Maria Caulfield, who served as the MP for Lewis in Sussex for nearly a decade, becomes the 13th formatory to join Nigel Farage's party. The announcement of her defection follows that of sitting MP Danny Kruger to defect yesterday and head up reform's work to prepare for governments. You can follow the Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio Online.

3:43This 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. Discover more at pwc.co.uk. Hi, I'm Katie Prescott from the Times Tech Podcast, which is currently sponsored by IBM.

4:30IBM has worked with Wimbledon for more than 30 years, helping the championships use data and AI to create more engaging digital experiences for fans. That includes tools like Match Chat, which can answer questions during play, and Likelihood to Win, which uses live match data to offer near real-time predictions. It's a practical example of AI in action, helping fans follow the tournament more closely, while showing how organizations can turn data into useful insight. To learn more about how IBM helps create smarter business, visit ibm.com.