Evening briefing Friday 14th August

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0:35This is Times Radio's evening briefing on Friday the 14th of August. 19 homes have been destroyed and another 18 damaged by a huge wildfire in Stourbridge in the West Midlands. Fire chiefs say crews are dealing with 37 blazes around the country. The Prime Minister has now suspended sales of disposable barbecues amid concerns they pose a significant risk during the heatwave. Andy Burnham has been visiting Stourbridge and has promised additional support for fire services. He says the hot and dry conditions have left the UK in serious danger. Please, everybody, take the greatest of care. In fact, don't light anything in an outdoor space right now.

1:15Britain is a tinderbox right now. And please just have that in your mind. We're going to go into the rest of a weekend that is a difficult weekend. This is not over by any means. We've got 37 fires smouldering around the country, so it could be more. So please bear that in mind. The parliamentary watchdog has resumed its investigation into Nigel Farage following his victory in the Clacton by-election. The Reform UK leader triggered the contest after resigning his seat amid scrutiny over his finances. The Standards Commissioner is investigating whether he should have declared a£5 million gift he received before the 2024 general election.

1:53Times Radio has been out on the streets of Clacton to find out how people voted yesterday. Nigel, because he's going to be the next Prime Minister and he's going to put this country straight. I voted for Count Benface. I think the election as a whole is just a complete farce in the beginning. I thought that Ben was a joke. Farage is a joke. So I had no choice but to vote for an independent. A man in the US has pleaded guilty to federal stalking charges over the killing of a healthcare CEO in New York in 2024. Luigi Mangione told a court he shot United Healthcare boss Brian Thompson as he left a hotel.

2:30The 28-year-old still faces a separate state trial on a second-degree murder charge, which he previously denied. He'll be sentenced in December. A second passenger train has derailed in less than 24 hours, this time at Wickford in Essex. No injuries have been reported. It follows yesterday's derailment near Lewis in East Sussex, which left two people seriously hurt. Investigators are still working to establish what caused the Lewis crash, which happened on the hottest day of the year. One possibility being examined is whether the prolonged heatwave affected the track. Rail expert Christian Walmore told Times Radio the extreme conditions could provide a clue as to what went wrong.

3:10My most suspicion is that the Lewis one is probably more likely to do with the embankment actually getting so dry that it began to sag a bit. and consequently the train that went over it buckled the rails because they were no longer supported by the embankment and that may well have been the cause of the incident. Builders renovating a house in Belgium have found a stash of gold worth£7.6 million sealed inside its walls. The construction workers were drilling to lay new sewage pipes in the property when they discovered the treasure. There's more on these stories throughout the day on Times Radio.

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