Afternoon briefing Friday 21st 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. This is Times Radio's afternoon briefing on Friday the 21st of August. The fiscal squeeze facing the new Chancellor, John Healy, ahead of his inaugural budget, has been exposed, with official figures showing government borrowing unexpectedly increasing to£1.8 billion last month.

0:51The Office for National Statistics said borrowing was£700 million higher than it was a year ago, an increase of more than 68%. The financial analyst Danny Hewson says it represents the latest economic challenge of Andy Burnham's premiership. the hope that has come in after Andy Burnham with this Burnham bounce. But yeah, we've got this long rundown to the budget. And what we've seen in the last couple of years in terms of UK economic growth is there's a real slowdown at the back end of the year. It's sort of front loaded growth as businesses start to think about whether or not they should hire people.

1:26And we've got vacancies down at a five year low. Economists fear the impacts of the El Nino weather phenomenon will have a detrimental effects on global economies. It's because extreme weather events and low rainfall have forced officials at the Panama Canal to reduce shipping through what is a critical route for international trade. Fresh water is required to operate the man-made waterway that provides a vital shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. A former communications secretary at Buckingham Palace says Prince Harry and his family will have to adapt their handling of the press when they return to the UK.

2:02The King has made it clear that his heir, the Prince of Wales, and the future of the monarchy remain his priority. The Times has also learned there are no plans to provide the Sussexes with any taxpayer-funded armed police protection. Simon Lewis served under the late Queen Elizabeth. He says the press guidelines will be blurred by Prince Harry's status as a non-working royal. If I was advising them, I would say expect that if you are in public, you will be public property and you have to get used to the fact that the UK operates in a very different way to the US. So as a family, I'm absolutely certain, and we had this with the young princes when I was at the Palace, that the press will respect their privacy.

2:40They will not take the same view when they see the Sussexes out and about, either on public or quasi-public duties. France claims it stops two small boats a day from reaching Britain, amounting to a prevention rate of 61 % of attempted channel crossings in the three months since the signing of a New Deal on the patrolling of beaches. The UK Home Office says the tactics employed by the French police are becoming more effective. John Vine is a former chief inspector of borders and immigration. It is a small but effective force and basically what the Home Office is saying is, look we're getting on top of this and I think they're doing that in the face of some recent headlines which give people cause for concern.

3:24The Conservatives however claim the number of people prevented from crossing the channel was down by half over the past year. And researchers found that one person is prosecuted every week for driving in the wrong direction on a motorway in England and Wales. The press association found that 31 people were charged over the past 30 weeks. Cases include drivers reversing along carriageways and driving back towards missed exits. There's more on these stories throughout the day on Times Radio.

3:58This 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.