Evening Briefing Tuesday 18th August

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. Hello, this is your Times Radio Evening Briefing for Tuesday the 18th of August with me, James Kitchen. The number of benefits claimants who aren't expected to look for work now outnumber job seekers by almost three to one.

0:46More than half of the record 8.4 million people claiming universal credit were in the no work-related requirements category in May. That's compared with 1.6 million required to search for work. According to government figures, the proportion with no requirement to work has risen from 46 % last summer to 51%. The Prime Minister says he supports Kyiv 100 % after the Kremlin warned the UK would face consequences for British drones being used in Ukrainian strikes The Russian embassy in London accused Britain of acting as an accomplice in terror attacks Adding the more involved the UK becomes, the higher the price it will pay Speaking to reporters this afternoon, Andy Burnham insisted he would not be deterred We are providing support so that Ukraine can defend itself.

1:36And that's been the British position all the way through this conflict. We are not fair-weather friends. We will be there in Ukraine's hour of need. Domestic abuse campaigners are warning against the possible early release of prisoners convicted of voluntary manslaughter. Ministers are considering barring all offenders convicted of unlawful manslaughter from the scheme in a bid to prevent the killers of PC Andrew Harper being freed. But many domestic abusers are convicted of voluntary manslaughter, which is an intentional killing mitigated from a murder charge. Mark Zuckerberg is expected to give evidence in a federal trial in California examining whether Meta's social media platforms harm children.

2:19Four U.S. states claim Facebook and Instagram were deliberately designed to keep young people hooked. Mehta rejects the accusations and insists it's proud of protections the sites have introduced for teenagers. The Prime Minister says he's not embarrassed by his exchange of messages with someone posing as Donald Trump's chief of staff. The Times' newsroom reporter Olly Cole says governments are increasingly vulnerable to these kinds of incidents. Given the fact that we constantly have a lot of both state actors and also sort of pranksters, people who hack and do cybercrime for fun at this and constantly threatening the government, there is more and more possibility of this happening.

3:01Now Andy Burnham says he's not embarrassed about it. He says the messages were essentially pretty much nothing to write home about and nothing of particular note and indeed he flagged it to security teams here and they've spoken to colleagues in the White House. Emergency services in Sussex are responding to reports of four people getting into difficulty in the water close to Shoreham Fort. Pictures show numerous ambulances and a helicopter on the water's edge. Police have closed part of the A259, with officers urging the public to stay clear of the area. Meanwhile, Britain is facing a dual threat of flash flooding and lingering wildfire risk this week.

3:38That's according to the National Fire Chiefs Council, which says brief downpours would do little to dampen the threat of further fires. Wisley in Surrey has gone 61 days without rain, while drought conditions still grip the whole of Wales and most of England. Remember, you can follow The Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify and you can listen live to Times Radio Online.

4:07This 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 you've got social dialed in search is doing its thing so why do your marketing results look the same as six months ago that's because you're fishing in the same pond as everyone else.

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