Morning briefing Thursday 4th September

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 the Times Morning Briefing for Thursday the 4th of September. The emergency services in Portugal say several foreigners are among the 15 people who were killed after a derailment at the famous Gloria Funicular Railway in the nation's capital, Lisbon.

0:50A further 18 people were injured when a rail car crashed as it descended one of the city's most popular tourist attractions. Catarina Fernandes Martins is a journalist in Lisbon. Speaking to Times Radio, she suggested the maintenance of the railway may have been a factor. An accident in that same funicular happened in 2018. It wasn't so severe. So we're now discussing who's to blame. Lisbon is in shock right now and so the conversation is still very much about how can we provide care for those who are injured. The Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, has not ruled out resigning if the independence advisor on ministerial standards finds she had broken the rules.

1:34Solari Magnus is expected to interview Rayner in the next few days before issuing a report next week. Rayner's admitted that she failed to pay a£40 ,000 tax bill on a new flat in Sussex. Her future could rest on her claim that she was told by a lawyer when she bought the property that she did not have to pay additional stamp duty. Jennifer Nadel is a political commentator and the co-founder of Compassion in Politics. The very fact that she has attracted this attention to herself should require her resignation. But I think her position will become completely untenable if the inquiry finds that she has acted deliberately in breach of the standards that are expected.

2:16And it's right that we expect high standards from those who lead. Rayna said she had part-funded the purchase by selling her remaining stake in her family home in Greater Manchester. Some of her interest in the home had already been sold to a trust that was set up to help fund the care for her son, who has lifelong disabilities. Speaking to Times Radio, the Conservative MP John Glenn said Rayner is, nevertheless, facing claims of hypocrisy. Many people have individual situations which command a great deal of sympathy, but what we're talking about here is the Deputy Prime Minister not paying the tax due whilst increasing everyone else's taxes, and that is going to get even worse in the next three months.

2:56A hacker who is connected to a group that recently targeted Marks & Spencer and other retailers has claimed responsibility for a cyber attack on Jaguar Land Rover. The carmaker said its operations were severely disrupted after it was forced to shut down its IT systems this week. A hacker on a Telegram channel associated with the Scattered Spider Collective has posted what appear to be logs from the company's internal network. And the Scottish Government is urging Westminster to commit to holding another referendum on the country's relationship with the rest of the UK if a pro-independence majority is elated next year.

3:33The First Minister, John Swinney, said earlier this year that another vote would require an SNP majority. You can follow the Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio Online.

3:51This 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.

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