Morning briefing Thursday 23rd 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. This is Times Radio's Morning Briefing on Thursday the 23rd of July. Prison bosses say chaos across England and Wales is inevitable after the Prime Minister's decision to suspend plans for the early release of more than 5 ,000 inmates.

0:49Andy Burnham had announced he was reviewing the programme after the revelation that two of those responsible for the death of a serving police officer in Berkshire seven years ago were due to benefit from the changes. Enver Solomon is the chief executive of NACRO, the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders. He says prison governors and managers responsible for calculating new release dates are now seeking clarity from the government. Any system where there's the potential of reaching overcrowding levels and capacity levels, there needs to be headroom and there needs to be proper planning.

1:26And I think the government needs to carry out this review and ensure that there's clarity to prison governors and to probation staff so that the system isn't left in limbo for too long. The United States and Saudi Arabia have signed a landmark agreement on peaceful nuclear cooperation, paving the way for a long-term partnership on civilian nuclear energy. The deal could enable Saudi Arabia to develop uranium enrichment capabilities, but officials in Washington insist the agreement meets the highest safety standards and will strengthen economic ties. Jeffrey Price is a former special counsel to the US Department of Defense.

2:06Speaking to Times Radio, he said there are no guarantees that Saudi Arabia won't embark on its own nuclear weapons program. The safeguards here are, for instance, not nearly at the level of the safeguards that the United States obtained with the UAE in 2009. That was considered the gold standard, and it made a firm commitment not to enrich or reprocess. It seems like Saudi Arabia is going to make neither. That would have been a lot better from a non-proliferation standpoint. The NHS in England has approved what has been described as a life-changing drug for thousands of people with multiple sclerosis.

2:43Pampradine is the first medicine designed specifically to help adults with MS walk more freely, and it will initially be offered to around 5 ,000 eligible patients who will take the drug for up to four weeks. Andy Burnham will today meet with Scotland's First Minister John Swinney and his Welsh counterpart Ryn Abjoeth during his visit to Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games The three leaders will attend the opening ceremony at the city's Hydro Arena where they will be joined by the King and Queen And as Scotland gets ready to host the Games for a fourth time Times Radio's Callum MacDonald says Scottish independence could well be on the agenda Andy Burnham, the Master of Devolution It could be a great sort of display, I suppose, of soft power and influence.

3:29Will Andy Burnham try to talk John Swinney down from any sort of pursuit of independence over this term? And drop-off fees at the UK's airports have increased by a third on average over the last 12 months. Analysis by the RAC found that Gatwick and Stansted topped the price table at£10. In contrast, none of the top 10 airports in the EU charge for drop-offs. There's more on these stories throughout the day on Times Radio.

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