Evening briefing Thursday 19th June

0:00Hi, I'm Katie Prescott from the Times Tech Podcast. AI is already changing business and medicine, but could it also change the way we look after our own health? In a special episode in Paid Partnership with Vitality, we look at how AI, wearables and everyday health data could help shift healthcare from treating illness to preventing it. Listen to the Times Tech podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

0:27Good evening. Britain is urging the US not to join Israel in its strikes on Iran. It's understood President Trump told senior aides late on Tuesday that he was approving a plan to attack Iran. The Wall Street Journal says he's holding off to see whether Tehran will give up its nuclear program. Times Radio asked Emily Thornberry, the chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, whether she'd support the UK backing the president's plan. Donald Trump was in the middle of negotiations with Iran over cutting its nuclear material and ensuring that it didn't have the ability to be able to build a bomb.

1:04And the Israelis attacked. And I think that the best thing to do is to try to de-escalate. And we can't, on the one hand, be saying de-escalate and then actively be involved. Chinese PhD student Zenhao Zhou has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for drugging and raping 10 women in London and China over a four-year period. A court heard the 28-year-old filmed nine of his attacks, which have haunted his victims. The Bank of England has decided to keep UK interest rates at 4.25%. It wasn't a unanimous decision, with three of the nine people involved wanting a cut. Speaking at the Times' CEO summit, the Chancellor said the bank's job is to help keep inflation in check.

1:48We respect independent economic institutions and the bank has got an incredibly important but difficult job to do and we want them to set the monetary policy that is appropriate for meeting the inflation target because we also saw in the last parliament a double-digit inflation which was so challenging for businesses. The committee said it thinks a gradual and careful approach to reducing borrowing costs continues to be the right course of action. Campaigners who want terminally ill people to be able to end their lives are making a final plea ahead of a vote tomorrow. MPs will debate and vote on the assisted dying bill with a result too close to call.

2:31Police hunting the murderer of an award-winning film director who was killed in her home have arrested a 66-year-old woman on suspicion of murder. Jennifer Abbott, who was 69, was found stabbed to death on Friday at her North London home, wrapped in a blanket on her bed with tape placed over her mouth. Hospital consultants have threatened to join resident doctors on picket lines this year. The British Medical Association says after an indicative ballot. The union said it had entered a formal dispute with the government over the pay of NHS consultants. It warned that the government risked having several groups of doctors on picket lines together later this year unless the health secretary agreed to provide a bigger pay increase.

3:16The UK has recorded its hottest day of the year with temperatures reaching 32.2 degrees Celsius in Kew in West London. An amber heat alert has been issued for all of England, lasting until early Monday. You can follow the Times News briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio Online.

3:39Hi, I'm Katie Prescott from the Times Tech Podcast. AI is already changing business and medicine, but could it also change the way we look after our own health? In a special episode in Paid Partnership with Vitality, we look at how AI, wearables and everyday health data could help shift healthcare from treating illness to preventing it. Listen to the Times Tech Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. At PwC, we optimise the systems that put your data to work so you can scale your AI from proof of concept to competitive edge and accelerate your tech evolution so you can redefine what's possible from blueprint to breakthrough we take you further with tech so you can out think outpace and outperform pwc so you can pwc refers to the pwc network and or one or more of its member firms each of which is a separate legal entity