Morning briefing Tuesday 26th May

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 on Tuesday 26th May. Social media is as harmful to children as smoking. That's the message being issued by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.

0:45They've released a landmark report warning of an epidemic of harm in children continuously exposed to hateful, addictive and grossly distressing content online. The report, seen by The Times, says doctors have witnessed cases where children have joined suicide pacts or killed family pets after watching content online. The Times Health editor is Eleanor Haywood. So it's the voice of the medical profession and they've just highlighted the scale of harm being done to children by online content. And the report makes a really distressing reading. Doctors saying that more than half of them say that on a weekly basis they're seeing a child or a young person either in A &E or in GP surgery who's come to harm as a result of either social media or something they've seen online.

1:31The government's consultation on social media harm closes today. Peter Murrell, who was the SNP's chief executive for 22 years, is behind bars after pleading guilty to embezzling more than£400 ,000 from the party. He was remanded in custody after he admitted using the money to buy items including a motorhome, two cars and luxury goods. Nicola Sturgeon, the former First Minister who announced in January last year that she and Murrell had decided to end their marriage, said she had no knowledge or suspicion whatsoever that he was using SNP funds for personal purposes. Angus McNeill is a former Independent and SNPNP.

2:08And for Nicola Sturgeon to somehow walk away from all this, from the stuff that was around her house, from the stuff that she was meant to be governing as a party, and don't think that Nicola Sturgeon was some sort of naive innocent. Nicola Sturgeon had become the First Minister of Scotland. Nicola Sturgeon had been hellsack. Nicola Sturgeon knew about budgets. Nicola Sturgeon was telling people not to look or to raise questions about the SNP's finances or telling everybody things were fine. The US has carried out strikes again on southern Iran. The American military says the actions were taken in self-defence in order to protect troops from threats posed by Iranian forces.

2:44Meanwhile, Donald Trump is demanding that several countries in the Middle East normalise diplomatic relations with Israel to achieve peace. He wants to make it mandatory for them to sign the Abraham Accords. Barbara Leaf is former Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs under the Joe Biden administration. Even the Iranians are complaining publicly about this cycle of on-again, off-again tweet storms and so forth and changing. There's no mention of discussion of the ballistic missile drone arsenal, limits being put on that, or on dealing with regional proxies. The UK has experienced its hottest May Day ever with temperatures forecast to rise even further later on hit a record-breaking 34 degrees Celsius in the south of England yesterday And there's more on these stories throughout the day on Times Radio

3:41This 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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