Morning briefing Tuesday 11th August

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 Tuesday the 11th of August. The Prime Minister was said to be increasingly confident he can prevent the early release of two of the killers of PC Andrew Harper.

0:47The Times has learned that Andy Burnham has told the Justice Secretary Alex Norris to draw up plans to ensure Jesse Cole and Albert Bowers would not be freed early under existing plans designed to ease prison overcrowding. Officials at Number 10 had earlier warned it would be impossible to exempt the two men from the early release scheme. Speaking to Times Radio, the crime and policing commentator Danny Shaw highlighted one potential solution. There are 2 ,700 people serving sentences for under 12 months. The government has introduced a law under the Sentencing Act which basically bars the courts from passing sentences, prison sentences of under 12 months, unless there are exceptional circumstances because they think short prison sentences don't work and they're ineffective.

1:31Well, why don't you free those 2 ,700 people? The chair of the National Heat Risk Commission is urging the Prime Minister to take more direct action in response to the environmental and economic effects of an exceptionally hot and dry summer. Almost three quarters of England is now in drought, meaning 45 million people are living in an affected area. The National Farmers Union is warning that continued dry weather could lead to some food shortages. Speaking to Times Radio, Emma Howard Boyd, who's also a former chair of the Environment Agency, urged Andy Burnham to address the immediate and longer-term issues.

2:08The impacts that we're seeing in farming right now, potentially weaving their way through to higher costs later this year. A lot of the investment farmers will want to make in terms of being able to store water, you need to get that done in advance of the next period of rainfall. and the farmers can use that throughout these periods of drier weather. 132 people are now known to have died after yesterday's powerful earthquake in Colombia. A state of emergency has been declared. Colombia's president is calling for unwavering unity in the face of adversity. England is on the verge of becoming one of the first countries in the world to eliminate hepatitis C, with deaths from the virus having reduced by more than a third in the last decade.

2:57Initiatives including A &D blood tests and free at-home testing have helped to find people who were previously undiagnosed. And the sprinter Amy Hunt won Great Britain's first gold medal at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham last night. A silver medalist at the Paris Olympics and last year's World Championships, the 24-year-old from Lincolnshire claimed her first senior international title in the 100 metres. At the end of the day, it's all about getting the gold. and no matter the execution and how far back I was at maybe 30, I'm not going to remember that in a few years' time.

3:30I'm just going to remember that I came away with a fabulous gold. But yeah, they were so incredibly special for me, this being the first Europeans in the UK and also a track that I've run at so much growing up. Earlier, Britain took silver in the mixed 4x400m relay behind Norway. There's more on all of these stories throughout the day on Times Radio.

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