Evening briefing Thursday 30th July

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 Welcome to the Times Radio Evening Briefing on Thursday 30th July. European nations are threatening to boycott the World Cup.

0:41That's if the head of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, goes ahead with plans to sell stakes in the tournament to private investors. The decision was taken at a crisis meeting of UEFA's 55 member nations. It comes on the 60th anniversary of England winning the World Cup in 1966. The Times' sports editor, Tom Clark, says it's momentous. This is about as strong as they could get. Every single member nation, all 55, it's a unanimous decision, we believe, taken at this meeting to say to FIFA, we're off, we're out. If you keep going, we will not be in the World Cup. Which, when you consider the recent World Cup, with the teams that were in the finals and semi-finals and made a long way to the quarter-finals, even largely made up of European nations.

1:24A major incident has been declared as a wildfire burns close to the Sizewell B nuclear power plant in Suffolk. Video footage shows a blanket of smoke over land nearby. The plant is just three miles south of the blaze, while residents and holidaymakers have been evacuated. Chris Bowden was holidaying in the area and was evacuated last night. I was staying in a static canvary. My car was parked outside. I couldn't even see the car. The smoke was that thick. So we then had to head off. Before I did that, so earlier in the evening, I did see both the National Trust, the RSPB and the Fire Service were on site with rotavators and with tractors and with diggers.

2:06So what they were trying to do is stop the fire moving towards the villages of Dunwich and Westleton. A drought has been declared across the whole of Wales. This month is on course to be the driest July in Wales since records began 190 years ago. Hot weather is forecast to continue for some time, but forecaster John Hammond says some wet weather is on the way. I'm sticking my neck out here. I think there will be some significant rain through the next week. Not enough, of course, but every drop helps. The charts do indicate that we will see somewhat lower pressure than we've seen for some time.

2:42Where and when that rain falls, I think probably through late Monday into Tuesday, it's one to watch. And three migrants have died near Dunkirk after their boat capsized after getting into trouble. Their deaths follow one of the busiest days this year for Channel Crossings. Hundreds of people are thought to have made the journey yesterday. The Times' Home Affairs editor Matt Dathan has just returned from northern France. Three women were found unconscious by the French rescue boat that was called out just off the coast of Dunkirk. And that boat was actually one of these so-called taxi boats which had come from elsewhere on the northern French coast to come and pick up migrants on the Dunkirk beach.

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