Morning briefing Tuesday 18th 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

0:34This is The Times Morning Briefing for Tuesday 18th August. The Times is reporting that ministers are considering plans to block the release of P.C. Andrew Harper's killers by barring everyone who's committed a type of manslaughter from being let out of jail early. It's likely to include the majority of the 470 people who are serving sentences for manslaughter and are eligible to get out of jail. Those who committed other forms of manslaughter, like gross negligence or voluntary manslaughter, will still be released under the plans. Ian Aitchison is a former prison governor. What are the bereaved families of people who've been affected by gross negligence manslaughter to make of this?

1:11Is their bereavement somehow worth less than the people who've been affected by what we hear in the Times the new tweak is going to be? Where do we draw the line? The Children's Commissioner for England says a growing number of children are becoming, in her words, intoxicated by extremism and violence online, but little is being done to help them. She's called on the government to introduce restrictions on social media use for under-18s after the publication of a report today saying that children are being drawn into radicalisation. Ghaffar Hussain is a former Prevent counter-terror officer. The perverse thing is that the incentive structure of online platforms is to have the most shocking content.

1:50If your model is to monetise engagement, then you want shocking content. You want the most extreme attention-grabbing things. But unfortunately what's happening now is that what's happening online is evolving so quick and the machinery of government with its legislation and training people is a much slower beast. Andy Burnham is expected to delay a decision on two North Sea oil and gas projects because of concerns about the optics of approving new drilling during a summer of heatwaves and wildfires. Consultations around the Rosebank oilfield west of Shetland and Jackdaw of Aberdeen have now ended.

2:25Lord Daniel Hannan is the Director-General of the Institute of Economic Affairs. If we are trying to bring forward a transition from fossil fuels to other alternative sources of energy, it makes sense to start by cutting out the dirtiest and most expensive fossil fuels, the revenue from which goes to the dodgiest dictatorships. So it makes no sense at all to start by cutting out fossil fuels which are extracted in a remarkably clean and green way comparative to others and whether revenue would go to a democracy, i.e. us. The ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is now the deadliest in the country's history.

3:09More than 2 ,000 people have died with confirmed cases nearer to 5 ,000. the DRC's Public Health Institute has reported 101 new cases in the last 24 hours. There's more on these stories throughout the day on Times Radio.

3:44The 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.