Evening briefing Wednesday 29th 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 Good evening. Andy Burnham has put assisted dying bill on hold until care is fixed. The Prime Minister says there'll be difficult decisions on tax as part of social care reform.

0:43A review into the sector has been brought forward. Anna Dixon is Labour MP and chair of the APPG on carers. Too many people don't really understand what it is. And until you find that yourself or a loved one needs care and support, You don't know that it's just not part of the NHS, which is a lot of what people do assume. And then it's a real wake-up call when you suddenly find the eye-watering costs, particularly of 24-7 nursing care or residential care, and how quickly you can burn through your family's assets. Half of England is in drought following record low rain and high temperatures. Seven areas are affected, including the whole of London, the West Midlands and Devon and Cornwall.

1:29Most water companies have already implemented measures to save water, including hosepipe bans. Farmer Gareth Wynne-Jones told Torque this is one of the most challenging periods they've faced. This is a pretty, pretty intense time now because, you know, there's not a lot of rain in the forecast either. Let's not forget our job is to produce food to feed people. So it's really, really important that we can keep carrying on our job because there's going to be food shortages, there's going to be food inflation. Even the European Union are telling people now to store up on canned food and water and things.

2:07Growing wildfire risks in European countries could see all of Europe on fire by the start of August, an EU agency has warned. Fires in Spain and France have forced hundreds of thousands from their homes. Soraya Betty was evacuated from hers in France last week. On Friday morning in Bordeaux, it felt like we were far from the fire and mostly people from the coast were affected by it. And just in the span of a few hours, we went from having a full bright blue sky to streets totally filled with smokes and hashes raining from the sky. UEFA will held an emergency meeting tomorrow after FIFA president Yanni Infantino Santino told its 211 member associations they only have 53 days to sign up to his sell-off proposals.

2:56He said each association will get$40 million if they do. Private investors would be invited to buy a minority stake in a new commercial arm. The Times' chief sports reporter is Martin Ziegler. He has more. They could give all this extra money to the national associations if they wanted to, without involving private investors and all the consequences that happens. So why aren't they doing that? The answer to that, I think, is this is a way of FIFA's president and close circle of people within the organisation who have secretly done this scheme to basically enrich themselves. You can follow the Times Radio news briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

3:43This 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. On Times Radio, you'll hear intelligent discussion and expert analysis on the big stories of the day and from the politicians making the political weather.

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