Afternoon Briefing Wednesday 10th 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

0:36This is your Times afternoon briefing for Wednesday 10th September. Poland's Prime Minister says it's closer to armed conflict than at any time since the Second World War, following the intrusion of Russian drones into its airspace overnight. Sir Keir Starmer has also called Russia's actions extremely reckless. A large number of the drones came from Belarus and were shot down by NATO planes. Poland has called for urgent talks with allies. The European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament that everyone knows what President Putin means by diplomacy. Yesterday there was a missile attack on a village in Donetsk targeting people waiting to pick up their pensions.

1:15More than 20 were killed. And just today we have seen a reckless and unprecedented violation of Poland and Europe's airspace by more than 10 Russian Shahid drones. Europe stands in full solidarity with Poland. Peter Mandelson has admitted that he did continue to associate with convicted child sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein after he was convicted. Emails suggest that Lord Mandelson, Britain's ambassador to the US, was discussing business dealings with him. He's spoken out. I regret very, very deeply indeed carrying on that association with him for far longer than I should have done. And I regret very much that I fell for his lies.

2:01I fell and accepted assurances that he had given me about his indictment, his original criminal case. He was speaking to The Sun's new YouTube channel, Harry Cole Saves of the West. Nearly 200 arrests have been made in France this morning during protests. Riot officers use tear gas to clear demonstrators from railway stations, roads and other strategic points in Paris and other major cities such as Lyon. The head of the watchdog which regulates the police says the bar is too low in terms of recording hate speech. They're only meant to be noted down if there is a real risk of the speech causing significant harm or a criminal offence.

2:38Sir Andy Cooks told Times Radio that he thinks documenting hate speech should be scrapped if a crime hasn't been committed. The police were getting it wrong on too many occasions in relation to what was a non-crime hate incident and what was an actual criminal offence. We saw many offences when we went into a number of forces where they'd been recorded incorrectly, where they'd been over-recorded. And I think for police officers in the society we have at the moment, there is a fear that if they undercook it, then they will be criticised for it. For more stories like this, listen throughout the day to Times Radio.

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