Evening briefing Monday 31st 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. Good evening. A number of Conservative MPs have returned to the backbenchers as Kemi Badenoch rejigs her top team.

0:39Dane Priti Patel's replaced as shadow foreign secretary and Stuart Andrew loses the health brief. The biggest change sees Sir Mel Stride ousted as shadow chancellor in favour of Andrew Griffiths. Harry Phibbs from Conservative Home said appointing Andrew Griffiths is a clear message on the direction of the Tory party. He's very much in the Thatcherite tradition of saying we believe in free enterprise, a small state, cutting bureaucracy, having focus on wealth creation rather than wealth redistribution. A lot of these arguments that Thatcher put forward so passionately, and even if people disagreed with her, which of course they did, they knew where she stood.

1:24Oil prices have surged by more than 3 % after the U.S. struck Iranian rocket launchers in the Strait of Hormuz. The attacks broke a month-long lull in the fighting. Tehran says it retaliated by hitting American military bases in Jordan. General Ben Hodges is a former commanding general of the U.S. Army in Europe. He says the Trump administration needs to rebuild trust back home. But what has to happen, John, is truthfulness. I mean, the White House, the Pentagon, they are never truthful in how they describe what's going on. And so, you know, after the IRGC forces have been destroyed 100 times, all of a sudden we see two rocket launchers that are getting ready to put mines back out into the straits.

2:08So I hear people say they trust the IRGC more than they trust the U.S. This is an incredible state of affairs. Detectives have revealed a woman found dead in a Liverpool park was in a black bin bag. A murder investigation is underway after the victim in her 70s was discovered in the walled garden of Stanley Park on Friday afternoon. It's thought her body had been there for weeks. Domestic abuse campaigners say the early release of offenders means women will be forced to take measures to protect themselves. The Prime Minister has barred hundreds of inmates from the early release scheme, but domestic abusers are not among them.

2:45The Ministry of Justice says they'll be monitored using tagging and curfews. Dame Vera Baird is the former Victims Commissioner for England and Wales. I want there to be clarity for victims. Everybody who's been listening to this over the past weeks, yes they are in, no they're not in, who is likely to be affected by who is in the early release scheme, will be really worried, stressed out of their mind now to know whether and when the person that was their adversary is coming out. And Lionel Messi has announced his retirement from international football with immediate effect. The 39-year-old captained Argentina to the final of last month's World Cup in New York, but he was unable to prevent his nation losing to Spain.

3:34Don't forget, you can set the Times Radio News Briefing as your news service on Alexa. 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.

4:18Discover more at pwc.co.uk