Afternoon briefing Monday 6th July

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 on Monday 6th July. England are into the World Cup quarterfinals after beating Mexico 3-2 7 ,000 feet above sea level.

0:46In comes the corner, it's an inch wing at Pigford, punches it away, referee blow your whistle! He has! England have won! They've laid bare the curse of the Azteca! Jude Bellingham scored two goals in less than two minutes in the first half before Mexico pulled one back a few minutes later. England were then down to ten men for the majority of the second half after Gerald Kwanzaa was sent off for a rash challenge. Harry Kane scored both a penalty and conceded one in the second half. But England held on for the win. Captain Kane was a little hoarse at the end. Yeah, it was a crazy game. We had to fight.

1:27We had to fight something. and yeah I've just been sitting there I can't really talk but yeah all the occasion the team everything against us we found a way. They next face Norway on Saturday. The royal family is denying reports that Prince Harry will be staying at Buckingham Palace during his visit to Britain this week. The palace says he's missed a deadline to accept the king's invitation. Times Radio's Olly Cole has the background on this. Just 24 hours before Prince Harry's trip gets underway, there seems to have been a breakdown in communication between him and the king. It's understood that Charles offered accommodation to Harry at the palace, but the response was that this was not suitable.

2:08Harry's previously turned down an offer to stay there on the grounds that it wasn't secure enough. A request was received later that day to accept the offer, but the hospitality and staffing provision was no longer available. The palace says Harry's missed the deadline to accept the king's invitation. Sir Keir Starmer is preparing to face down a possible rebuke from Donald Trump on defence spending at the NATO summit beginning tomorrow. The US ambassador to NATO says the president expects allies to step up immediately on defence funding. Seating is alphabetical, so Starmer will be next to Trump.

2:42The Sunday Times' Mark Urban says the UK has been plummeting down the defence spending league table. To go back to the 2014 NATO summit, which was held in Wales, in fact, I went along to that. And that was a moment where David Cameron, because of what was going on in Crimea and Ukraine was trying to get the Allies to go up to 2 % of their economic output. Now at that stage I think Britain was number three. There were only four countries in all of NATO that spent that sort of money on defence. Well now Britain is number 12. And Sky is buying ITV's terrestrial TV channels and its streaming platform in a deal worth up to£1.6 billion.

3:22Times Radio's business correspondent, Dominic O 'Connell, explains what it could mean for the rest of the business. There are two halves to the ITV business. There's ITV Studios, which makes the programmes like Correlation Street, but also lots of other programmes for lots of other customers, not just for ITV. And then there's the broadcast, but the rest of it, ITV, media and entertainment. And Sky, which is owned by America's Comcast, has been talking to ITV about buying that bit of it. Leaving ITV Studios as a standalone production company, which is likely to be extremely attractive to all kinds of potential bidders, US, European.

3:56So maybe this is a breakup which sees the end of the independent ITV. The deal will need regulator approval. 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, the 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.

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