Evening briefing Friday 30th January

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 Radio evening briefing on Friday the 30th of January. The US government has released millions of pages of legal files about Jeffrey Epstein, which include a number of serious allegations against Donald Trump.

0:46Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche insists that he didn't receive any instructions from the White House about that release. We did not protect President Trump. We didn't protect or not protect anybody. I mean, I think that that we that there's a hunger or a thirst for information that I do not think will be satisfied by the review of these documents. And there's nothing I can do about that. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor also appears in the files. The Times' royal editor Kate Mansi has more. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor appears to invite Jeffrey Epstein to visit him at Buckingham Palace a month after the paedophile financier was released from house arrest.

1:23So this was his first conviction. He says, delighted for you to come here to BP. and then he added come with whomever and I'll be here. The president and the king's brother have always denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein. The documents also suggest Epstein sent£10 ,000 to Peter Mandelson's husband to pay for his osteopathy training. China is lifting sanctions against five current and former British MPs and two members of the House of Lords. Sir Keir Starmer told Times Radio he was duty-bound to bring that up when he met the Chinese leader in Beijing on Thursday. President Xi said to me what that means is that all parliamentarians are free to travel to China.

2:02It underscores the point that I've been making all along, which is it's only by coming and engaging and having a leader to lead a discussion that you can both take the opportunities which have been really material in this visit, but also raise the sensitive issues. The MPs and peers say that they shouldn't be a bargaining chip to lift sanctions on Chinese politicians involved in human rights abuses. It's understood the government will not be lifting those sanctions in exchange. A Sudanese asylum seeker has been jailed for 29 years for murdering a hotel worker in the West Midlands. Deng Chol Majek followed Rhiannon White to a railway station in Walsall and stabbed her with a screwdriver 23 times.

2:41He's believed to have arrived in the UK on a small boat less than three months before that attack. A driver has been jailed for at least 37 years for murdering a man and mowing down others in a drunken rampage in the West End in London. Prosecutors say Anthony Gilhenny targeted people for racist and homophobic reasons when he drove at them on Shaftesbury Avenue on Christmas Day 2024. The government is open to increasing the number of EU citizens let into the UK by scaling up a youth mobility scheme, and is despite previous promises of a hard cap on numbers. Schitt's Creek star Catherine O 'Hara has died at the age of 71.

3:18She won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for playing the show's eccentric, overly dramatic mother Moira after a career of character parts in cult comedies like Beetlejuice and Home Alone. And in tennis, Novak Djokovic has reached the Australian Open final by beating the defending champion Yannick Sinner in a four-hour, five-set match. In order to win his 25th Grand Slam, the 38-year-old now needs to beat the world number one Carlos Alcaraz, who earlier played for five and a half hours himself in the longest semi-final in Australian Open history. Don't forget you can subscribe to The Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify or listen live to Times Radio online.

3:56This 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. Discover more at pwc.co.uk. Quick question. When was the last time a display ad changed your mind?

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