Evening briefing Monday 22nd 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. Hello, this is your Times Evening Briefing for Monday the 22nd of September with me, James Kitchen. France is preparing to join Britain, Canada and Australia in recognising a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in New York.

0:46The Foreign Secretary, Evette Cooper, has described the UK's decision as an historic and moral step, insisting it keeps the hope of a two-state solution alive. But the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, warns recognition gives a huge reward to terrorism. The author of Prisoners of Geography, Tim Marshall, told Times Radio the consequences are unknown. The consequences that could flow from it are a peaceful, democratic Palestine that builds institutions and roots out corruption and puts an end to violence and lives in peace with its neighbor. There is the possibility that they have not built strong institutions under very difficult circumstances.

1:24This may embolden the radicals in Israel to push for faster settlement building and possibly even annexation of the West Bank. Meanwhile, the Foreign Secretary has accused Russia of risking a direct armed confrontation with the UK and its NATO allies. Drones launched by Moscow have been shot down over Poland and Romania in recent weeks, before three jets were intercepted in Estonia's airspace on Friday. Yvette Coopers told the UN Security Council that British planes will confront those flying into NATO skies. At best, these latest acts are dangerous and reckless. At worst, they are a deliberate attempt to undermine the territorial integrity of sovereign nations and European security.

2:11The Kremlin's denied deliberate violations. Nigel Varage has promised to abolish indefinite leave to remain in Britain within 100 days of his party taking power. The Reform UK leader announced his government would force all migrants holding permanent settled status to reapply for visas with tougher rules. The party also unveiled plans to ban non-British citizens from accessing welfare, claiming the package of proposals would save£234 billion, although it's since emerged there would be a carve-out for EU citizens. The former Conservative Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng told Times Radio Mr Farage is capitalising on successive governments having failed on migration.

2:48He's going to try and squeeze as much benefit, milk this issue as much as he can. And he does that by doing the kind of press conferences that we saw today. Fairly clear, but quite extreme policy statements. And of course, we're playing his game by repeating them and debating what he's saying. So it's very clever politics. I don't think he can really deliver. He talked about thousands of deportations. I'd be very interested to see how that would happen. Four charities have dropped the Duchess of York as their patron over a gushing apology she sent the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein soon after publicly disowning him.

3:24The children's literacy charity, Julia's House Hospice and the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation all say Sarah Ferguson's continued association would be inappropriate. Prevent breast cancer has also removed her. And body care is disappearing completely from the high streets. administrators haven't been able to find a buyer for the beauty chain. That means its final 56 stores will shut this week with the loss of a further 444 jobs. And remember, you can follow The Times 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.

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