Court backlogs and early prisoner releases

How does a banana trigger a CIA backed coup Do AirPods herald the arrival of a new global order What do LED lights say about the future of humanity I'mt Conway, and in each episode of my new podcast, Stuff Matters, I take an object, crack it open, and reveal the world shaping forces hidden inside. This is economics told through the things we think we understand. Search Stuff Matters on your podcast app to listen and follow Sky News, The full story first King Charles has revealed his tax returns the first monarch to do so in history. The red warning for the heat wave has been extended in some parts of the UK until this evening Hello, you're listening to Cheatheet a ten minute podcast on the D's newews. It is Friday, the twenty sixth of June and I'm Kamali Melbourne. I'm Anna Jones. Also today, the Ministry of Justice warns it could take three hundred years to clear the court backlog as it confirms five thousand prisoners will be released early irst this morning, we should update you on the sad scenes coming out of Venezuela where we now know that at least two hundred and thirty five people have been killed by two earthquakes which hit the country. Within a minute of each other it's extraordinary, death toll is likely to be way higher than the two hundred and thirty five we note to be at the moment Thew two quakes, measuring seven point two and then seven point five hit the country late on Wednesday evening. It's actually a public holiday on the day that it happened. Now the second of those quakes is thought to be the biggest hit the country in more than a century And these earthquakes, Kamali are clearly an appalling tragedy for Venezuela. The number of dead and missing is shocking and we know those numbers are likely to rise as you say. Meanwhile, these are critical hours where rescue workers are trying to reach those trapped under collapsed buildings. So Venezuela needs a huge amount of help right now. and countountries around the world are lining up to offer assistance, including the US, who were, I think the first to offer help But it does come at a time of global cuts to aid budgets, including USAID, which impact the levels of support that are already on the ground, so that may make it harder to get the assistance where it's needed quickly enough And even before the earthquake struck Nearly eight million people in the country were in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the UN. That's twenty eight percent of the population already needing help even before these earthquakes struck. Yeah. Now the US, as you say, has offered assistance. Donald Trump has been on his social media site and also said as much that help will be on its way. there reported to be sending the USS Iwoima, which is actually used to take away the Venezuelan presresident Nicholas Maduro earlier this year in a strange twist of history. The U S, as we said, had removed lots of its USAid programs under Elon Musk and dodge. So the fact that the U.S have offered one hundred fifty million now and are sending ships to try and help is quite a reversal. And speaking of Elon Musk His site X was banned in Venezuela andann a couple of years ago. It's now reportedly been partially lifted, the UN demanding that social media sites will be allowed to be open to allow people to have access and connect with people across the world Sin Filtter, that's a group which monitor internet freedom within Venezuela, claim that the ban on X has been partially removed. The UN said that the government should fully restore access to social sites so people can get timely access to reliable information vital for the protection of lives and the safety as well as the well beinging of the general population. So the King has become the first monarch to release his tax returns in an effort to increase transparency. So we've got documents on the financial returns of the royal family and they show that it'll cost three hundred seventy million pounds to refurb Buckingham Palace But after that, King Charles and Queen Camilla will make Clarence house their London residence, ending a tradition which began with Queen Victoria way back in eighteen thirty seven. Yeah, and these accounts also reveal how the Mquy's core funding is going to double than the next three years, rising to one hundred million pounds by twenty twenty seven, twenty eight And that's as a result of any forly, which was agreed in Parliament, where the royal household will receive twenty point five percent Kown Eestate profits. That's up percent previously So lots of different financial documents to work our way through. And we all knew that the taxpayer funds the sovereign grant, which pays for the royal family's official duties. but now we've got details of the amount of money that the King and the Prince of Wales are paying back to the treasury in taxes. and it comes to a princely sum of about twenty million pounds in total last year Some people will praise the King's attempt at transparency over his finances, but there are some that are saying there's plenty that isn't known about how much money the royal family have got. We don't actually know how much overall wealth they've got. We don't know what investment portfolios they might have, and what returns those are giving them, We don't know how much money they've got in their bank accounts. transparency up to point, isn't it? And there might be some raised eyebrows as well at that big increase in the sovereign grant this year, which will cover amongst other things, this renovation of Buckingham Palace three hundred seventy million pounds that's going to cost. and yet the king and the quQeen aren't going to live there. It is going to carry on playing host to official ceremonies and lots of the royal duties that are carried out. It will still be home to that, but it won't be home to the king and we don't know if it'll be home to Prince William either when he becomes king Well the hot weather is continuing, as you're probably aware if you live in the south of the country, there's the rare red heat warning has been extended in London and parts of the southeast and the east of England to this evening at nine o'clock This follows the June heat record being broken. Yeah and it's caused so many issues, hasn't it, Kamali? We know about schools closing and people being encouraged to work from home, but firefighters as well are battling a five hundred square meter wildfire on Tintwistle Mor as well. The London Ambulance service has recorded the highest ever number of life threatening emergencies six hundred and forty two in total in its history on Wednesday, which is a really stark figure And also it's not just the UK, of course. We mentioned the situation in France as well yesterday, but countries across Europe really struggling. In France, the countryes recorded its highest ever temperature. officials in Paris have now taken the decision to ban people from drinking alcohol outside in the open air in an attempt to not add to the fifty heat related deaths that the countryes already suffered. Yeah. And the World Health Organization says that In the past four years, some two hundred thousand people have died across Europe as a result of heat now, of course it a population of five hundred and fifty million. So it's a small number. but they do say All of those deaths were entirely preventable if mitigation in place. So here attempts to limit Children's exposure at least to the heat are being put in place. S thousand schools are to be shut or finished early today in large parts of the south of England and into Wales. And just anecdotally, my son's school, the parents WhatsApp group, there's lots of conversation around getting air conditioning units to be purchased for the schools. and I know from conversations that I've had as well that some schools have already been able to fund that and are getting those units put in we're clearly was going to become a regular occurrence for many summers to come. We've been warned that it could take the UK three hundred years to deal with the backlog of criminal court cases if there aren't reforms to jury trials. I mean, it's an extraordinary figure. It's obviously not they're suggesting that they should take that long, but it's an idea of just how big the problem is. Sarah Sakman, Justice Mister, made the claim following the latest data showing a five percent increase to the backlog from March this year in comparison to a year ago. So overall, there were eighty thousand sixty one outstanding cases in the Crown Court backlog at the end of March and outstanding cases in magistrates courts peaked at three hundred seventy thousand seven hundred twenty two, That's up eleven percent on the previous twelve months. So let's just give you a little bit more on what the government is proposing then Their plans that some feel are controversial, are to halve the number of trials going before juries in England and Wales. That plan is working its way through Parliament at the moment in the form of the Cts and Tribunals bill. The figures also showed record numbers of victims are waiting more than a year for their case to be heard by crown courts in England and Wales with ne quarter of those being for sexual crimes. So not only have they gone through a horrendous experience, they then have to wait and have the stress of a trial hanging over them for a protracted period of time. Which is one of the main arguments actually made when these recommendations were accepted by the government. The review, of course was led by Sir Brian Levison who a name will be familiar to many people from the way back from the Levison review. he looked at the court system and recommended this. Now it is controversial because although Sir Brian is behind it, of course it's his big idea and the Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy was behind it as well. The Bar Association, the Bar Council of Britain that represents barristers has been against this idea. So the government have had some difficulty in trying to make this argument and get it through and get it agreed by people. There's been some disquuiet within the Labour Party, within the government and wider society. And also we're hearing today as well, that we are having another one of these early releases prisoners from five thousand. prisoners to be released early to try and free up space within the prison estate. And of course, that is always a controversial idea. Many people remember the pictures of the early release of prisoners a year or so ago and how it feels as if people who have been sent to prison haven't finished their sentence are then being released. But for the government they will say Absolutely essential. The prison estate is running at like ninety eight percent capacity, which is completely unsustainable course and no more space is going to become available anytime soon because the prison building programe is as slow as you can imagine. and it's not keeping pace with the number of people that are being sent to prison. So the idea is that these people who are really sturdy will be released on street licens and, they will be tagged, they willll be closely monitored and they're hoping that sort of technology can keep up with the fact that they're out of prison, but that their probation officers. to keep a close eye on them. Now it's an issue that's going to of course persist as they continue these early releases. I'll be interested to hear what the new Pime Minister has to say about all of this. As I said, the reforms to the justice system have been controversial for the outgoing Prime Minister, not been popular with parts of the Labour Party, so what will the new man coming in who are likely to be, is it going to be Andy Benham?'ll have to say about it. I think it will be Andy Benham. Come on, we've got time to squeeze in a little football round before we go. but unusually the last week or so. We're not starting with the World Cup But rather, the pending transfer record for a British player with the midfielder Elliot Anderson on his way to Manchester City from am Notingam Forest There are two upset Melbournes this morning for this news. mee as a forest fan and also my dad is a United fan. He wanted Ellie Anderson to go to Manchester United. He's going to go across the city to Manchester City. It's a record for one hundred sixteen million pounds. It's reported, of course that he's going to go for which Forest is pretty good business. They bought in for thirty five million they're going send for that much more. So it's nice profit. So good luck to Edie Anson. Sorry to see you go, but nice to have that money for the Reds. justust on the World Cup as well