Evening briefing Monday 4th August

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0:34This is the Times evening briefing on Monday the 4th of August. Winds from Storm Floris have been battering the northern half of the UK. Claudia Rowans, a travel writer for the Times and Sunday Times, she says Scotland has been worst hit. There have been widespread flight cancellations, train cancellations, roads are blocked, some key bridges are closed, so it is not a fun time to be travelling. Thousands of homes and businesses across Scotland and the Republic of Ireland have been without power. Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting his security cabinet this week to discuss the future of the war in Gaza.

1:10The Israeli Prime Minister says he wants to work towards his plan to defeat Hamas, following its attacks on October 7th, and free the remaining hostages. The number of potentially illegal sewage spills into rivers and seas in England could be higher than previously thought. Spills are allowed on days of heavy rainfall, but figures seen by The Times suggest they happened on 6 ,000 occasions in two months on so-called dry days when they're not permitted. The previous best estimate was around 6 ,000 a year. Adam Vaughan is Environment Editor for The Times. This is really indicative of water companies not having kept up a population group, not having spent enough money getting rid of blockages in sewers, making sure there's enough capacity.

1:52And I guess the significance of it all is probably the bunch of fines coming down the track from the Environment Agency when they determine how many of these were illegal. Water companies say they're working to end raw sewage spills as quickly as possible. England head coach Brendan McCullum says the dramatic two-all draw with India was as good a test series as he's ever been a part of. The visitors took four wickets on the last day to win the final match by six runs at the Oval and deny England the series win is captain Ben Stokes. I guess from a cricket fan's point of view, you sort of go 2-2 is probably fair.

2:26Obviously we're disappointed now to have not got the result that we wanted to give us a series win. so there's obviously that you know disappointment a little bit of frustration there as well from everyone veteran radio presenter james wail has died he was 74 and had kidney cancer james pioneered the late night radio phone-in and more recently had a show on talk in 2024 he was awarded an mbe for his services to broadcasting and charity if i have a few more months that will be great if i have until next christmas or this coming christmas will be nice wouldn't it but if i die tomorrow I've had an amazing time and I married an amazing lady.

3:04James Whale there. Don't forget you can follow the Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

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