Daily Briefing Saturday 18th October

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. Hello, this is your Times Daily Briefing for Saturday the 18th of October with me, James Kitchen. The royal family is facing growing calls for greater transparency following Prince Andrew's decision to give up his titles, including the Duke of York.

0:46The family of Virginia Dufresne have called the move vindication for survivors everywhere. She'd accused the prince of sexual assault, which he's always denied, while her posthumous memoir will be published next week. He's been under increasing pressure over his links with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Times' royal editor Kate Mansi says this is a real punishment for a man obsessed with status. He has clung to that Duke of York title even in the email that we mentioned in which he says we'll play some more again soon to Jeffrey Epstein. He says we're in it together. He signs off with Andrew, HRH, Duke of York, KG for Knight of the Garter.

1:23These are titles that mean so much to him. Actually, the fact that he can't use them and no one will ever call him the Duke of York again is a real punishment for Andrew. It's understood the prince's former wife, Sarah Ferguson, will no longer use her title of the Duchess of York, but the pair will continue to live at Royal Lodge on the Windsor Estate. Vladimir Zelensky hasn't ruled out the possibility that he can secure long-range Tomahawk missiles from the US, adding that he believes Putin is afraid of the consequences. In an interview with NBC's Meet the Press, Ukraine's president discussed some of the details of his meeting with Donald Trump last night.

2:00The Republican strategist Matthew Bartlett told Times Radio the threat of the missiles is being used as diplomatic leverage. After the first meeting with Putin in Alaska, he was only emboldened on the battlefield, becoming even more vicious in Ukraine. And President Trump has now dangled the options of arming Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles, which could strike further into Russia. Yes, this appears to have piqued the interest of Putin, prompting him to call President Trump and to call for an additional meeting. The Israeli military says the body of a hostage handed over by Hamas to the Red Cross last night has been identified as Eliyahu Margulit.

2:39The 76-year-old was abducted from the horse stables he worked at in a kibbutz during the October 7th attacks. His daughter, who was also taken hostage, was released during a temporary truce. The Home Secretary says ministers are doing everything in their power to allow Maccabi Tel Aviv fans to support their team at Aston Villa. West Midlands Police has classified next month's Europa League fixture as high risk. The Israeli team's fans clashed with pro-Palestinian protesters in Amsterdam last year. Downing Street says it's looking into providing extra resources. Sue Sim is the former Chief Constable of Northumbria Police.

3:15Because of the tensions probably from the community surrounding the Aston Villa football ground mean that it is singularly too great for one police force to be involved with. They will be thinking these resources should be better used on neighbourhood policing, on other issues. They should have appealed to the Home Office in the first instance to ask for additional resources. And a protest against government plans to introduce mandatory digital IDs will take place in central London later. Organisers say the march is also in response to Labour's surveillance laws and restrictions on the right to protest.

3:58Nearly three million people have signed an online petition calling for the policy to be scrapped. And remember, you can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and you can listen live to Times Radio Online.

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