Afternoon briefing Friday 19th December

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 Hello, this is your Times Afternoon Briefing for Friday the 19th of December with me, James Kitchen. Vladimir Putin says Moscow is ready for peace and wants to end its conflict with Ukraine.

0:45Speaking to a Russian television audience, he added he doesn't think Kiev is ready for negotiations. It comes after EU leaders agreed to give Ukraine a£78 billion interest-free loan to help its war effort over the next two years. The deal was struck after talks that went through the night, but Europe stopped short of using frozen Russian assets to support Kiev. Dr Jenny Mathis is a senior lecturer in international politics at Aberystwyth University. Speaking to Times Radio, she said she didn't see any signs of the Russian president making any compromises. I think he would love it if the Ukrainians gave him everything he's asking for.

1:22And he would love it if Ukraine supporters stepped back and decided, you know, it was all getting a bit too much for them. But in terms of him being willing to make any kind of real compromises or concessions to try and get a negotiated peace, So far, absolutely no sign of it. He just keeps reiterating the same points again and again. The trade minister has told Times Radio no individual will be harmed or compromised after hackers reportedly linked to China access thousands of confidential documents in an unprecedented foreign office breach. It's believed the Beijing-linked cybergang Storm 1849 targeted government service in October, but the breach was hushed up.

2:00The gang reportedly accessed personal information understood to possibly include tens of thousands of visa details. Speaking to Times Radio, Sir Chris Bryant confirmed the hack, but not its source. We are very confident that in the investigation that we've done so far, that nobody, no individual will have been harmed or compromised by what has happened. There certainly has been a hack, I can say that. I'm not able to say whether it is directly related to Chinese operatives or indeed the Chinese state. New figures from the ONS reveal government borrowing surged by£10 billion year-on-year, reaching£132 billion, the second highest on record.

2:43Ian King is The Times' business columnist and markets commentator. Well, tax take was up£26 billion so far this year, but government spending is up by£55 billion. and that is why the public finances continue to deteriorate. And of that$55 billion extra spending,$15 billion of that was in benefits. So it kind of points to the benefits crisis that we currently have as a country as well. Democrats have released fresh images from Jeffrey Epstein's estate as the US Justice Department prepares to publish the full files later. They feature young women with prose from the novel Lalisa written on their skin.

3:21Bill Gates, Woody Allen and Steve Bannon are among the high-profile men in the pictures, but there's no suggestion of any wrongdoing. The U.S. defense attorney and Cornell Law School professor Randy Zellin told Times Radio the saga has become politically motivated. How in God's name does this further anyone's interests? It's almost like children, as opposed to the most powerful people in this country, if not on the planet, who one would think should be by now above this nonsense and more concerned about the affairs of our country domestically and abroad. And the Pope has named Richard Moth as the new Archbishop of Westminster, making him the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

4:05The bishop succeeds Cardinal Vincent Nicholls, who's held the role since 2009 and stepped down at the age of 80. And remember, you can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and you can listen live to Times Radio Online.

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