Afternoon briefing Wednesday 7th October

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1:27Kemi Badenok will promise a battle for the soul of the nation later as she closes the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham. The Tory leader will set out plans to cut inheritance tax and half employers' national insurance for young workers. The measures will be funded by more than£30 billion of proposed welfare savings. Speaking to Kate McCann on Times Radio Breakfast, the Conservative deputy leader Alex Burghardt was asked how much the national insurance cut would cost. So the policy is fully costed. We said that we will fund it by making cuts to welfare, to Whitehall and by cutting back on arm's length bodies.

2:09But what is the cost of it? I'm sorry, Kate, I've forgotten the cost, but I can tell you that it is fully funded and it is paid for. by reducing public spending in working-age welfare and from cutting costs in Whitehall. Meanwhile, Andy Burnham will delay a flagship review into welfare until after the budget because of concerns about the optics. Alan Milburn's report into NEETS, the number of those not in employment, education or training, was due to be published next week. Speaking to Times Radio, the CEO of Reid Recruiters, James Reid, said young people are facing a toxic society. What I see is a worsening situation for young people, particularly around jobs and opportunities.

2:50And they're really challenged and they're struggling. And we need, as a society, to look at it. And it's not just about employment. It's about health. It's about education. It requires a really holistic, bold and focused endeavour to sort it out. Because if the next generation doesn't get started, the whole society is in serious trouble. Andy Burnham's issued a message to Britain's Jewish community on the anniversary of the October 7th attack, saying, We stand with you against anti-Semitism. A number of pro-Palestine rallies are planned across Britain. Shani Zohar's sister, Bar Zohar, was murdered during the attacks three years ago.

3:30She told Times Radio her family needs answers. I want to see the people that are responsible for what happened actually get investigated in the right way. As a family member, we lost her sister in a brutal way. So I don't think that we can get, I mean, we can go silent and we can forget or say, you know, under the rug, we can't do it. We need answers. We need to know what happened. Vladimir Zelensky says 11 people have been killed in Moscow's latest attacks across Ukraine. 26 others were injured, including five children, in the strikes targeting the country's energy sector. The Ukrainian president claims the Russian army carried out the attacks as a birthday gift to Vladimir Putin, who turns 74 today.

4:20The American death row imme Krista Pike is said to be conscious and speaking nearly a week after surviving a botched execution in Tennessee. The convicted murderer was given two doses of a lethal drug by the U.S. state last Wednesday. Pike's lawyers say her recovery in hospital is medically unprecedented. A man's due in court later accused of murdering his GP wife who worked for the royal family in Norfolk. Dr Hannah Terry was found dead at a home in Dursingham, which is around a mile from the King Sandringham estate in the early hours of Sunday. 45-year-old Mark Cain's been remanded in custody.

4:57Remember, you can follow The Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify and you can listen live to Times Radio Online. Thank you.