Daily briefing Saturday 25th 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. This is the Times Daily Briefing for Saturday 25th October. A member of the Home Affairs Committee says the mistaken release of an asylum seeker who was jailed for sexual assault represents a systemic failure in the management of prisoners.

0:49Harash Gubatu was supposed to have been transferred to an immigration detention centre to await deportation. Instead, he was released from Chelmsford Prison without an escort and given£76 to cover a freed inmate's first week of expenses. The government has been accused of putting predators back on the streets. Speaking to Times Radio, the Liberal Democrat MP Paul Kohler also called for a public inquiry. There's a crisis of confidence in our criminal justice system. This clearly plays into that narrative and that's why it's a shocking thing to have happened. We need to actually recruit staff and keep staff, which means actually having a proper career structure, which we clearly don't have at the moment.

1:27Far too many prison officers are leaving at the moment. That needs to be addressed. Rachel Reeves is likely to confirm an increase in the living wage, despite a warning from businesses that she risks pricing jobs out of existence. The Chancellor is expected to announce an increase of 4 % to an hourly rate of£12.70 in next month's autumn budget in an attempt to improve living standards. The government will also look to extend the living wage to those people aged between 18 and 21. Julian Jessop, a fellow of the Institute of Economics Affairs, says he has concerns. I think we're stretching the boundaries of what is possible without having loads of unintended consequences.

2:05So obviously the money to pay these high wages has to come from somewhere. Some of that might be from lower profits, but even that isn't costless for the rest of the economy. But it's increasingly likely that more of it will come from higher prices, smaller wage increases for other workers, or from fewer jobs. Britain and the EU will agree a deal to use frozen Russian assets for Ukraine's defence by the end of this year. It comes after Sakhir Starmer, in his address to the Coalition of the Willing on Friday, said the Russian President Vladimir Putin is the only person who doesn't want to stop the war.

2:40Jürgen Hart is a German MP and chair of the Bundestag's Foreign Affairs Committee. The German assessment is that only a strong Ukraine will bring us to a point where Putin is able and willing to negotiate on a fair ways, because only if he has to take into consideration that probably it might become a never-ending story or failure for him, then he might start to negotiate to end that war. The Times has learned the two men accused of spying for China discussed how they could bring about a regime collapse in Beijing by passing on disinformation. According to text messages that undermine the prosecution's case, Chris Cash and Christopher Berry apparently joked about passing red herrings and trolling the Chinese.

3:26The case collapsed last month, prompting a political controversy over whether Beijing was considered an enemy under the Official Secrets Act. You can follow the Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

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