Morning briefing Monday 12th October

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1:23This is Times Radio's morning briefing on Monday the 12th of October. Ukraine says Russia has launched fresh strikes on a power plant in the Kharkiv region. It comes after Donald Trump claimed that an agreement was in place to stop the two countries attacking each other's energy infrastructure. The Kremlin is yet to comment. Cedric Leighton is a military analyst for CNN and a former U.S. Army colonel. He's told Times Radio that a ceasefire may be wishful thinking from the U.S. president. I think in many ways President Trump wants to wish these kinds of things into reality. And, you know, in some ways you kind of have to admire the idea of trying to make things real that aren't real, except the problem is in real life that doesn't work that way.

2:09One person has been killed and 11 injured in a second strike on the international airport in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Another attack over the weekend killed at least 12 people. Iran-backed Houthi rebels say they were behind the strikes. The Orange Orders League or Challenge to the decision to ban its parade along a mainly nationalist road in Portadown will be heard this afternoon. The march was given the go-ahead, but Galvaki Road residents blocked the route, leading to a standoff. The Northern Ireland secretary then stopped it on Friday night. Russell Brand goes on trial today at Southwark Crown Court in London.

2:44The 51-year-old comedian has pleaded not guilty to seven charges of rape, indecent assault and sexual assault. They relate to six women and span a 10-year period from 1999 to 2009. The trial is expected to last between 10 and 12 weeks. Ministers are paying out sickness benefits to almost 2 million people without knowing whether they still qualify. It could amount to billions of pounds a year. A Times investigation reveals that more than two-thirds of claimants who should be reassessed have yet to be seen. Daisy Eastlake is a political reporter at The Times. No matter what the actual answer is to why it's kind of gone wrong, it's kind of obvious that it has gone wrong and that there are lots of problems kind of baked into the system.

3:28I mean, this is only the first of a range of stories that we're doing as part of the welfare inquiry, but they all kind of illustrate this point that the welfare system is failing people. Britain's leading economic think tank is warning the Chancellor that higher inflation threatens to derail the government's spending plans. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, John Healy now faces a£35 billion choice between raising taxes and cutting public spending. Economist Vicky Price has told Times Radio more about the rising costs. There's been a lot of inflation, a lot of increases in costs that the public sector is facing.

4:03We have quite a lot of unions, including, as we know, in the NHS, which have not been getting increases in real terms that they think they deserve. And, of course, we have public services that need to be kept at a certain level. They all cost money. There's more on all these stories throughout the day on Times Radio.

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