Evening briefing Thursday 7th May

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 the 7th of May. Two men have been found guilty of spying for China.

0:41They've also been found guilty of surveilling dissidents in the UK. 38-year-old Peter Wye was working at Heathrow as a Home Office immigration official, while 65-year-old Bill Wen worked at the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office in London. Both are found guilty of assisting a foreign intelligence service. More details from Times reporter Ali Mithib. The court heard that the spying surveilled a number of dissidents, The most prominent of which was Nathan Law, who is an exiled politician who led the student protest movement. And he was the subject of several spying operations, most notably a failed attempt to follow him home after he gave a speech at the Oxford Union in 2023.

1:23A group of prominent British Muslims say not enough is being done within their community to challenge what they describe as horrifying levels of anti-Semitism in the UK. In a letter being published in The Times, community leaders and counter-extremism experts say the response to rising anti-Jewish hatred has been weak and underwhelming. The letter was organised by the government's former counter-extremism commissioner, Dame Sarah Khan. We're talking about an important religious minority in this country who feel frightened, who feel that very few people care about them. I mean, how many times have we heard from prominent Jewish organisations and voices that they feel the anti-racism movement in this country just does not view Jews as a minority community that deserve that protection.

2:06They're not viewed as being, you know, that anti-Semitism is a form of racism. The World Health Organisation says five of eight reported cases of Hanta virus have now been confirmed. Three people have died. The cruise at the centre of the outbreak is now making its way to Tenerife with all remaining passengers asymptomatic. Two British nationals who've returned to the UK are self-isolating while also showing no signs of the disease. Dr Assel Sartbeva, Associate Professor in Chemistry at the University of Bath, is working on a hantavirus vaccine. She's told Times Radio the virus, which is spread by rodents, could cause a pandemic.

2:43There hasn't really been a vaccine before, an effective vaccine against hantan disease before. It's one of the potential pandemic diseases, and that's why it was important to start working on this vaccine. That's what we started doing two years ago in collaboration with two other groups around the world. So it's very much an international endeavour. And a new species of wasp has been named in honour of Sir David Attenborough ahead of his 100th birthday tomorrow. The Chilean insect was discovered via a specimen at the Natural History Museum. Sir David has released a short message. I had rather thought that I would celebrate my 100th birthday quietly, but it seems that many of you have had other ideas.

3:26I've been completely overwhelmed by birthday greetings from preschool groups to care home residents and countless individuals and families of all ages. And you can follow the Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online. 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.

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