Daily briefing Sunday 31st August

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 the Times News Briefing for Sunday 31st August. It's emerged that Prince Andrew stayed in contact with Jeffrey Epstein half a decade later than he'd previously admitted. The Sunday Times has obtained emails from the disgraced financier to the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, where he says the Duke of York was the source of information about a potential business opportunity. It came months after Virginia Dufresne had waived her anonymity to accuse both Andrew and Epstein of coercing her into having sex. is the Sunday Times' Whitehall editor, Gabriel Pogrant. Andrew's own claims on this front have already been squarely challenged, but this puts in a whole different order of magnitude in terms of the discrepancy between his statement and what the facts appear to show.

1:20A new poll of teenagers for the Sunday Times shows nearly 70 % of girls say anxiety has led them to skip school. It flags mental health problems and lower life satisfaction among the more than 1 ,100 16 - and 17-year-olds questioned. The poll, carried out by More in Common, also suggests more than one in five would vote for Jeremy Corbyn's new left-wing party, knocking Labour's lead just as the voting age is reduced. The Education Secretary is calling on parents to do more to tackle children's behaviour and school attendance. Bridget Philipson says more needs to be done to support white working-class children who have higher levels of absence and suspensions.

1:58Police in London say five people were arrested as masked men attempted to storm a hotel near Heathrow Airport. Two officers were injured as around 500 anti-asylum protesters marched on three hotels. But with more demonstrations expected today, Sue Russo from the group Epping for Everyone told Times Radio, Division is chipping away at a sense of community. The safety that people talk about since the asylum seekers have come, it's felt more unsafe subsequently because of the protests, not before. You know, we have to remember that these asylum seekers have been here for five years. Yemen's Houthi rebel groups say their prime minister has been killed in an Israeli airstrike.

2:42Ahmed al-Rahawi, as well as several of his ministers, died in the capital Sana 'a on Thursday. Israel's defence minister called it a crushing blow to the Iran-backed group. The Times' correspondent Gabrielle Weineger in Tel Aviv says the Houthis have been hitting Israel over the Gaza war. So they've been attacking not only Israeli territory with bombs and missiles, but also, as we know, the vital maritime routes and shipping belonging to Americans and other international groups who have seemed to have supported Israel in their war against Gaza. So they've been attacking really since late 2023.

3:16and we can see Israel starting to respond much stronger in recent weeks. And Donald Trump is said to be planning a rebranding of the Department of Defense. The Wall Street Journal reports it could be renamed the Department of War. It comes after the US president said on Monday that would sound stronger. A White House spokeswoman says the military will focus on offense and not woke ideology. You can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio Online.

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