Afternoon briefing Monday 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. Welcome to the Times afternoon briefing on Monday the 18th of August. Donald Trump has said on social media that Volodymyr Zelensky can end the war with Russia almost immediately if he wants to.

0:46Zelensky is due at the White House at 6pm UK time. Seven European leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer, are going too. Vladimir Putin wants the whole of the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine. The Sunday Times' Mark Urban says the Ukrainians are in a weaker position than they were earlier in the conflict. If you look at the first year, year and a half of the war, Zelensky was the guy who was against a ceasefire. On the basis, he said at the time that it will just freeze in the Russian gains and allow them to keep what they've illegitimately taken. Now, Zelensky is the guy who wants the ceasefire.

1:22And that tells you where the relative advantage is on the battlefield and, of course, to an extent, in the Oval Office. Former British ambassador to Ukraine, Lee Turner, has told Times Radio there are two main things the European leaders must stress. The first would be the importance of the principle that international borders must not be changed by force. This is a blindingly obvious bedrock of all of our security arrangements to which President Trump inexplicably seems to pay no attention. And then the other thing that they'll be wanting to talk about is security guarantees. Rachel Reeves is preparing to strip back environmental protections in an effort to boost the economy by speeding up infrastructure projects.

2:07The Chancellor is considering reforms that would make it harder for concerns about nature to stop development. She says that's crucial in restoring growth and improving living standards. John Elledge is a journalist who specialises in planning and infrastructure. He's told Times Radio there are lots of examples where developments have stalled because of nature. delays to building ebbs fleet garden village because there's some former industrial wasteland there that's kind of home to a particular kind of spider that's a bit rare there've also been other stories of a dangerous road in east anglia where there's been loads of fatalities but improvements have been kind of delayed because it's the habitat of a rare snail i'm not saying nature isn't important obviously it is but it does kind of feel a lot like the balance is off Delulu and trad wife are among 6 ,000 words newly added to the Cambridge Dictionary.

2:58Delulu means delusional while a trad wife is a stay-at-home mum. There's also skibbity, which is described as a word that can have different meanings, including cool or bad, and snackable, explained by Wendelin Nichols from the dictionary. Small pieces of content that are easily consumed. It's a bit like a soundbite only if you're reading it. It's commonly used in journalism. It's used across marketing as well. It's come into the business world, really. And you can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

3:36This 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.