Evening briefing Friday 19th September

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 News Briefing on Friday 19th September. A man's been jailed for sexual offences against 41 children after posing as a teenage boy online.

0:42Times Radio's Amelia Beltrou has more. Stuart Latham tricked children on Snapchat, pretending to be a 14-year-old boy to get indecent images with a promise for cash or gift cards in return. The 22-year-old, who's from Wigan, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for offences including blackmail and sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl. Her friend told the court how he'd taken the child in her. In total, he was convicted of 49 charges relating to 41 victims. Estonia says three Russian fighters entered its airspace without permission and stayed for 12 minutes. The country's foreign minister says there'd already been four previous violations this year, but caught today's unprecedentedly brazen.

1:25Poland and Romania have also complained about Russian drones in recent days. A British couple imprisoned for months by the Taliban in Afghanistan have been freed. Peter and Barbie Reynolds, who were in their late 70s, had lived in the country for 18 years and had been held in a maximum security prison in Kabul. The Times' World Affairs editor Catherine Philp says the Taliban had never explained the reason behind their detention. I think it's just as likely that this was some sort of diplomatic pressure from the Taliban on Britain. We've seen this kind of behaviour before from certain governments when they want to sort of make a point.

2:04But the Taliban have been under enormous pressure of late because they've lost all their funding from America with the closure of USAID. So they are in the business of bridge building right now. I think that's what we're seeing here. Two ambulance service workers have been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter following the deaths of six people in Wiltshire. Police say they detained a man in his 30s as well as a 59-year-old woman following an investigation launched in 2023. President Trump is said to be backing a proposal by Tony Blair for a new international authority to run Gaza after the Israeli military's occupation of the territory ends.

2:42The Times of Israel is reporting the US president has instructed the former prime minister to secure support for the initiative across the Middle East. Khan Ross is a former senior diplomat. Gazans are of course desperate and they are desperate for the killing to stop. Whether they see this plan as credible, I'd rather doubt. Blair is not trusted by Palestinians and there aren't enough Palestinians on the body that he seems to be planning would govern Gaza. In my view, that should be a Palestinian body. An assisted dying in England and Wales has moved a step closer after the legislation passed the second reading stage in the House of Lords.

3:19If passed, the law would give terminally ill adults with less than six months to live the right to end their life. A select committee will now scrutinise the bill and report back in November before the bill moves to the next stage. And David Gate, you can follow the Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online. This episode of the Times Radio News Briefing is sponsored by PwC. AI is everywhere. In the news, in our hands, but return on investment, not so much. So how do you get beyond the hype and deliver AI that powers reinvention and growth across your business? Strong foundations unlock AI's potential.

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