Afternoon Briefing Monday 3rd 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 Radio afternoon briefing for Monday 3rd August. Times Radio understands the English FA will withdraw its support for the re-election of Gianni Infantino as the president of FIFA.

0:45It follows the decision of the Welsh FA this morning. Infantino's plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to the highest bidder was broken by the Times. Ben Jacobs is talk sports football correspondent. It could come down to money in certain strong territories for Infantino, particularly Africa. He's likely to win the vote if he can show funding and development, and with it being one member, one vote, that's what Infantino's reliant upon, that the vast majority of these FIFA members want a FIFA president that can keep giving them investment. The new Labour Education Secretary is signalling big changes to the school curriculum.

1:22Lucy Powell has told The Times that pupils are in a straitjacket after being forced to prioritise academic subjects. She's also accused the Tories of contributing to the number of people not in education, employment or training. Chris Philp, the Shadow Home Secretary, has told Times Radio that Labour is getting this badly wrong. This is crackpot nonsense from Lucy Powell. It's absolutely bananas. It was a triumph of the last government, and Michael Gove in particular, that his reforms introduced higher standards in schools. English schools, it was only England because in Wales and Scotland they didn't do this, but in England we shot up the international league tables for maths, for languages, for science.

1:58We now compete with South Korea, with Singapore, with Scandinavia, and the Shanghai city region. Reform UK says it's willing to talk to Rupert Lowe after he offered to unite the right at the next election. The restored Britain leader says the two parties can find a common way forward to take on Andy Burnham. The Great Yarmouth MP was expelled from reform in March last year amid accusations of bullying staff and party officials, which he denies. Reform UK's Home Affairs spokesman Zia Youssef says he's willing to have a conversation. We'd encourage everybody who shares the values, who want mass deportations, who want a secure border, who want law and order, who want British people to come first to get behind reform.

2:38But having said that, as Nigel said, of course we're willing to engage and talk to people from other parties, and that would include Rupert, yeah. Amber heat health alerts have been issued for large parts of England. Temperatures could reach 35 degrees today. The south-east could be hotter than some Greek islands. Forecaster John Hammond says the UK is becoming brighter. Our climate is getting a whole lot sunnier. One reason for that, actually, is the fact that we've cleaned up our air. There are far fewer pollutants in the lower atmosphere, far less soot, far less sulfates from car emissions.

3:11And that's actually causing less cloud. And that, unfortunately, is accelerating global warming. You can follow the Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online. This 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.

3:52PwC turns innovation into implementation so you can accelerate from experiment to scale. Discover more at pwc.co.uk