Afternoon briefing Tuesday 26th August

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0:36This is the Times afternoon briefing for Tuesday 26th August. Nigel Farage has warned that the small boats crisis is a threat to public order, claiming the arrival of migrants is an invasion. The Reform UK leader has been setting out his ideas for dealing with the issue, including mass deportations. He says if reform comes to power, they'll reform the Human Rights Act and quit the Refugee Convention. What really bothers me is, and you've seen this from the Bell Hotel onwards, the growing concern with justifiable, justifiable evidence that women and girls are far less safe on the streets than they were before this began.

1:16So it's all about whose side are you on? Whose side are you on? Are you on the side of the British people or international treaties? The Times' political editor Stephen Swinford was watching Mr Farage's speech. He believes that he has a shot at number 10 and so he and those around him have come up with a very aggressive plan which they claim will do exactly what he said was impossible, deporting hundreds of thousands of people. So I guess what has changed is proximity to power. And he thinks that what the British electorate are looking for is a much more draconian package. A major manhunt is underway in the Australian state of Victoria after a man's alleged to have shot dead two police officers.

1:57He's now taken his family hostage and fled into bushland after the incident in a small town four hours from Melbourne. The suspect is reported to be part of the conspiracist Sovereign Citizen Movement. Families of Israeli hostages in Gaza have taken part in large demonstrations, pressing their government to make a deal with Hamas to release hostages and end the war. It comes amid international anger over the deaths of medical workers and journalists and a double strike on a hospital in Gaza yesterday. Political analyst Arie Kovla is in Jerusalem. The mainstream media channels have covered this as a very serious incident, something that shouldn't have happened.

2:35And we haven't seen, as we've seen at other points throughout this war, the kind of mainstream Israeli media rallying around the government narrative, but rather saying this is really bad. Akira and the Ministry of Defence has begun using artificial intelligence to avoid more data leaks from its sensitive databases. An Australian firm is using AI tech to crawl through documents and spreadsheets and place security tags that prevent emailing or printing the most important. It follows revelations in The Times of major MOD breaches that put thousands of lives at risk. And the latest series of the Duchess of Sussex's Netflix programme has been released.

3:10Across eight episodes, viewers can delve into Meghan's life. The Times' royal editor, Kate Mansey, has been watching. It's a lot less about her. She doesn't talk about the royal family at all. She seems to have put that in the past, you know, there's no criticism there. or anything kind of juicy in that respect. But she does say she misses one thing from the UK. Sadly, it's not Times Radio. It's Magic FM. She likes the nostalgic pop music, apparently. You can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

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