Evening briefing Wednesday 1st October

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0:36This is the Times Evening Briefing for Wednesday 1st October. The ringleader of a grooming gang in Rochdale that used two teenagers as sex slaves has been jailed for 35 years. 65-year-old Mohammed Zahid gave the troubled schoolgirls lingerie from his market stall in return for sex. Six other men also received lengthy sentences for the rapes, carried out between 2001 and 2006. Liz Fell is from the Crown Prosecution Service. None of the defendants have shown the slightest remorse for what they have put the survivors through. By maintaining their denials and refusing to accept responsibility, they forced these brave women to relive the abuse they suffered at their hands over a five-month trial.

1:18Baroness Moan's husband says it's a travesty that a judge ruled his company breached a government contract to supply surgical gowns during COVID. The Department of Health is demanding PPE MedPro payback nearly£122 million, saying it provided 25 million faulty non-sterile gowns. The Chancellor Rachel Reeves says she's pleased with the judgment. The PPE provided by that company was not up to the standards and that's why we have pursued this in the courts to get the money back. Anyone who got a government contract either during Covid or at other times where the contract was not being fulfilled, we will come after that money.

1:56That is taxpayers' money and it belongs in our public services. Volumentary authorities say they won't comment on claims that Nigel Farage's security has been cut. Reform UK's policy head Zia Youssef says it's been inexplicably cut by 75 % and the Prime Minister would be squarely responsible if anything happened to Farage. It's after Sir Keir Starmer called the party's immigration policy racist. Brennan Cox is the widower of murdered MP Joe Cox. He told Times Radio some in 2016 asked him if Farage was responsible after his wife's death. The person that carried out that attack was responsible for her death.

2:30Now, what politicians do have a responsibility for is making sure that they use their words in a way that doesn't create an environment where those kind of things become more likely. You can't hold politicians account for actions of every individual, but you can hold them accountable for the atmosphere that they create. Prosecutors in Germany say they've arrested three men they think were preparing an act of serious violence. They say the suspected Hamas operatives were found to have AK-47 assault rifles and ammunition. Mobile phone and internet services have returned to Afghanistan, hours after the United Nations called for connectivity to be restored.

3:07After three days of chaos, the Taliban government says there were technical reasons for the outage, denying it was intentional. And Channel 4 has won the rise to broadcast the Oxford and Cambridge boat race, one of the oldest amateur sporting events in the world. The crown jewel of the rowing calendar gained record viewing figures this year. Remember, you can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio Online.

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