Evening briefing Monday 25th August

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 your Times evening briefing on Monday the 25th of August. I'm Laura Cook. At least 20 people, including four journalists, have been killed in an Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Gaza.

0:45The dead include staff from Reuters, AP and Al Jazeera. Israel has said it's opened an investigation. The Times Middle East correspondent Samer Al-Atrush explained what's understood to have happened. So far from what we gather, the journalists, there were several strikes according to eyewitnesses. It wasn't just one strike and it seems that, again this is preliminary, but it seems that the first strike killed some of the journalists and others were killed along with a member of the civil defence emergency worker when they came on the scene. A rise in violent crimes and sex offences against women and girls on trains has been described by rail bosses as an epidemic.

1:25The number of violent crimes rose by 5 % in the year to the end of March, while the number of sexual offences increased by 10%, according to the figures from the British Transport Police. The data shows most sexual offences take place during the evening rush hour period between five and seven in the evening on busy carriages. Within the last few minutes, authorities have confirmed three people have died in the helicopter crash on the Isle of Wight. Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabley has said four people in total were on board with one person currently in hospital in a serious condition. We can confirm that three people have died following the crash on the Isle of Wight this morning.

2:02Sakhir Starmer is facing pressure to take a more radical approach to the small boats crisis as the YouGov survey for The Times shows seven out of ten people believe he's handling the issue of asylum hotels badly. That number includes over half of Labour voters. In a bid to address concerns, Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, announced plans to overhaul the asylum appeal system to deport asylum seekers faster. Political correspondent Terry Stiasny says time will tell if those plans are enough. If this is successful, if people are going through the system more quickly, if the system seems to be more efficient, then I guess that maybe people will recognise that something has happened there.

2:39But yes, the moves have been quite slow. Yvette Cooper has been saying that what she wants to see is fewer appeals. But of course, you've got to remember that this government as well is dealing with a huge backlog of asylum claims. and at the moment, unless the system is changed, that processing, those legal processes, do take a while to go through the system. New figures show hundreds of shoplifting cases are going unsold every day in England and Wales. Nearly 290 ,000 cases were closed without a suspect last year, which is more than half of all reported incidents. The Met Police had the worst record, with 77 % of cases dropped with no one identified.

3:18Chair of International Chamber of Commerce UK Lord Bill Amoria, explain the effects of these crimes. When it comes to business, you rely on a safe environment. And the number one priority of any government has to be the security of their citizens. But it also means citizens feeling safe and secure on a day to day basis, whether you're in your home, and you're worried about being burgled or your car, or whether you're going to a shop or whether you have faith that people who commit crimes are going to be caught, going to be charged and going to serve whatever the punishment is. And you can follow the Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

3:59That's your Times Evening Briefing on Monday the 25th of August.

4:16Thank you.

4:45Investment? 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. Okay.