Evening briefing on Wednesday 30th July

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0:34This is your Times evening briefing on Wednesday 30th July. Air traffic control in the UK has suffered a failure grounding planes and causing significant delays. Although within the last few minutes air traffic control provider Nats said it has restored the system and is in the process of resuming normal operations. Passengers stuck on planes on the tarmac had been told their flights could be delayed for more than three hours. Ben Clatworthy is the Times' transport and travel correspondent and explains what's been happening. There is an issue with higher airspace in the UK. This is run by NAT, the UK air traffic controller.

1:11This is affecting all outbound flights across the UK. Now, the issue is at the Swanwick control centre in the south. It is specifically affecting the London area. However, as a result of that, and the fact that it is in the higher airspace, it means there are delays across the country. It's affecting all international flights. Palestine Action has been granted permission to challenge the government's ban. The High Court has ruled the protest group can proceed with a legal challenge against its controversial designation as a banned organisation under UK terrorism laws. Crime correspondent Danny Shaw told Times Radio what the group's co-founder, Huda Amore, was arguing.

1:50She claimed that the ban was authoritarian, an abuse of power, and also that it had a chilling effect on freedom of speech. and there have been over 200 arrests since the ban was introduced. What they were arguing at the court today was that they wanted a full legal hearing to test the lawfulness of that ban and the High Court has agreed that there should be a full court hearing to determine whether that ban is lawful or not. A volcano has erupted in Russia's far east following a massive earthquake off its Pacific coast early this morning. Tsunami alerts remain in place in Papua New Guinea and other Pacific islands, though warnings in Japan and Hawaii have been downgraded.

2:32Ilan Kelman is Professor of Disasters and Health at University College London. Given the huge size of this, it is enormous. It has to be taken seriously, and it was. What it also shows is the fact that people did respond to the warnings means that a tsunami does not have to become a tsunami disaster. And so we try and avoid that phrase natural disaster, just saying they're disasters, because no matter how big the earthquake, no matter how big the tsunami, we can and should act to save lives and help people through it. A woman has died and a nine-year-old girl is in a serious condition after a crash between a car and a limousine in Northamptonshire.

3:11It happened near Kettering at around quarter past ten last night. Two men who are 53 and 22 years old have been arrested and remain in custody. And the population of England and Wales grew by more than 700 ,000 in the year to June 2024. It's the second largest increase in more than 75 years, largely fuelled by immigration. Natural change, that's the difference between births and deaths, accounted for only a small proportion, according to the Office for National Statistics. You can follow the Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio Online. That's your Times Evening Briefing on Wednesday 30th July.

3:58This 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 On Times Radio, you'll hear intelligent discussion and expert analysis on the big stories of the day and from the politicians making the political weather.

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