Afternoon Briefing Monday 6th October

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 6th October. The author Dame Jilly Cooper has died at the age of 88.

0:41The writer of racy novels, including Rivals, Riders and Polo, she sold more than 11 million copies of her books in the UK alone. Her agent confirmed she'd passed away after a fall yesterday. Her children say she was the shining light of their lives. She spoke to Times Radio a couple of years ago and said politicians could be a bit over-friendly. I used to live in a flat in Westminster. The MPs were always ringing up and saying, just come back from the house, darling. Just come back from the house. Come and have a drink. I've had a pasting over the milk bill. come and have a drink and they were all rand as anything in those days too.

1:12Did you have any liaisons with these gentlemen? No. I'm a good girl. French Prime Minister Sébastien Le Corneau has resigned after less than a month in the job. The Elysees Palace says President Macron has accepted his resignation. Le Corneau has stepped down just 14 hours after appointing his cabinet. Political rivals were threatening to topple his government. Times Radio's Andrew Neil says France is in political deadlock. The problem is that the French Parliament is really ungovernable at the moment. There are three large blocs and no two of them can come together to give a majority. So you now have a large bloc on the right.

1:49That's coalesced around Marine Le Pen's national rally. You've got a large bloc on the left, which coalesces around Mr Machelon, who is a kind of French Jeremy Corbyn. And then you've got what's left of Mr Macron's bloc in the centre. Former England's rugby union captain Lewis Moody says he's been diagnosed with motor neuron disease. The 47-year-old is part of the 2003 World Cup winning side. He was a combative, hard-hitting, open side flanker who gained the nickname Mad Dog. Talk Sports' Will Hobbs has been reflecting on his diagnosis. Doddy Weir we've lost. Rob Burrow we've lost. Ed Slater is suffering with MND.

2:28The Doddy Weir Foundation says there have been a few studies. There's no evidence of causation in the link between rugby and MND, yet the sample size is too small. However, this is another rugby player, another case of someone who's put their body through so much, and at the age of just 47, he's got a 17-year-old son, a 15-year-old son. The Tories are proposing cuts to mental health benefits, the civil service, foreign aid and green projects. They say such measures would save£47 billion a year. The Shadow Chancellor, Sir Mel Stride, has been addressing the party's conference in Manchester. We will bring down our spiralling welfare bill, completely overhaul our benefits system and put an end once and for all to the human tragedy of millions being consigned to a life on benefits.

3:16That is not just a financial imperative, it is a moral duty. They're also pledging a£5 ,000 national insurance rebate to help young people buy their first home when they start a full-time job. And you can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

3:52your 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. Hi, I'm Katie Prescott from the Times Tech podcast. For two weeks each summer, Wimbledon becomes one of the biggest sporting events in the world. But behind every match is a vast operation of data, digital tools, and live fan updates. In a special episode recorded the week before the championships, in paid partnership with IBM, I look at the technology behind the championships and how AI and data are helping fans follow the action in real time.

4:45Listen to the Times Tech podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you.