Evening Briefing Friday 24th July

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 Radio Evening Breathing for Friday the 24th of July with me, James Kitchen. Prison governors and probation officers could be given a veto on the release of inmates under possible changes to the early release scheme.

0:47The Times understands officials would be handed the power to block the release of a prisoner if they deemed the offender posed a danger to their victim or the public. It comes after the Prime Minister paused the policy, which would have led to more than 5 ,000 prisoners being freed to ease the overcrowding crisis. The former Solicitor General Lord Garnier told Times Radio successive governments have engaged in a sentencing arms race. Sentencing becomes a sort of macho thing that you must have minimum sentences, you must have longer maximum sentences and so on and so on. Because it is thought by people who know very little about the criminal justice system and prisons generally that the harder you go, the more likely it is that you'll satisfy the public and also cure the problem.

1:31You certainly don't cure the problem. A lawyer representing the families of the children murdered by the Southport killer has accused the 19-year-old of trying to manipulate the system. Axel Rudakabana has been transferred from Belmarsh Prison to Broadmoor Psychiatric Hospital. Chris Walker is director of serious injury law at Bond-Turner Solicitors, which represents the victims' families. Speaking to Times Radio, he said the out-of-the-blue update is highly distressing. There was no element of psychosis or schizophrenia or any other psychiatric condition when he was planning meticulously his attack two years ago.

2:07Why has it occurred now? Is it because he is manipulating the system so that he can have an easier life? Is he doing it so he can haunt the families at every anniversary? The Prime Minister has declared Number 10 North open for business as he officially unveiled his Manchester headquarters. Andy Burnham plans to work one day a week from Heron House, which is shared with GCHQ. He arrived in the city centre earlier to chair the first meeting of a revived National Economic Council of senior ministers, mayors and business leaders. The mayor of the North East, Kim McGuinness, was at the meeting and told Times Radio a sea change is now underway.

2:47Not all of this is about additional money. I think there are big things like house building, like infrastructure projects, where actually cash has been allocated, decisions have been made, but the system is too slow and it's too centralised and therefore things just don't get done in the way that people want to see them and they don't feel the change. And that's what today was about, really identifying what those blockers were and having the people in the room round the table together to make the decisions to just fix it. Irish police are questioning two people after finding what they call an extremely significant bomb in a car near the border with Northern Ireland.

3:24The vehicle was stopped as part of an intelligence-led operation targeting dissident Republicans. Authorities have described the device as highly sophisticated. A police boat has crashed into Westminster Bridge in central London. According to the Met, a number of officers entered the water but were pulled to safety. Five officers are injured and receiving treatment. The bridge has been closed to traffic. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from homes in southwest France as wildfires tear through the region. More than 87 square kilometres along the country's Atlantic coast have been destroyed.

4:02Remember, you can follow the Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify and you can 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. That's why PwC takes you further with tech, strengthening the data quality, processes and workflows that shape how well AI performs. PwC turns innovation into implementation so you can accelerate from experiment to scale.

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