Morning briefing Tuesday 13th October

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1:23This is The Times morning briefing for Tuesday 13th October. Andy Burnham has told MPs it would be a dereliction of duty to turn down a closer relationship with the EU. The UK-EU summit will take place on November 20th after being postponed because of Sir Keir Starmer's resignation. Andy Burnham says agreements are on the table and could add the equivalent of£10bn per year to the economy by 2040. The little editor of the HuffPost is Kevin Schofield. I distinctly remember him during the Makerfield by-election saying that the result of the referendum in 2016 had to be respected and that he wasn't looking to reopen it.

2:02And then lo and behold, he wins that seat, he becomes Prime Minister and now he's not saying he wants to reopen it, but he's not ruling it out. He's certainly dangling the prospect of Brexit being reversed. Donald Trump has accused Europe of continuing to buy oil and gas from Russia while also defending his decision to purchase millions of tonnes of diesel from Vladimir Putin. Posting on Truth Social, the president wrote President Zelensky said that Ukraine needed to feel the same unity from America as from its European allies. Meanwhile, the Kremlin says talks are continuing over a 60-day pause in attacks on energy targets in both countries.

2:42Ecia Vasylenko is a Ukrainian MP for the opposition Golos party. Well, this was a majorly ridiculous announcement. It came as a surprise. It came as a surprise to Ukrainians and to President Zelensky. Several minutes after the announcement went through the social media, we had air raids in Kiev with information that Russia would be targeting energy infrastructure. And, of course, in Kharkiv, one of the power plants was hit. Leading clinicians have written to the Education Secretary warning that children are presenting earlier and more severely with physical and developmental health issues as a result of tablets, laptops and interactive whiteboards.

3:22They also warn about the impact it might have on children's sight. Professor Sonia Livingstone is Professor of Social Psychology at the London School of Economics. There is some research that children find it easier or enjoy learning to read or learning to kind of explore things on a screen. They can kind of take their own pathways through the information. They can be sometimes more creative using a screen than they can with a book and pen and paper. But on the other hand, for that to happen in every lesson, for that to be the kind of default way of learning, we don't have evidence that that's beneficial.

3:59The actor R.J. Mitt, best known for his role as the defiant son of Walter White in the drama series Breaking Bad, has died at the age of 34. He died in Brownsville, Texas. No immediate cause of death was provided. There's more on these stories throughout the day on Times Radio.