Afternoon briefing Thursday 10th September

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 your Times Radio News Briefing for the afternoon of Thursday 10th September. The government has been accused of using delaying tactics in response to figuring out why so many flights were affected by a technical issue on Tuesday.

0:48The Shadow Transport Minister Greg Smith said he thought the timescale of figuring out what went wrong was too long. Is the minister not embarrassed? A report by the 16th of September into recess. Six months to then fully diagnose the problem. That's not good enough. A third failure deserves immediate action, not delaying tactics. The government has a considerable say in how Nats operates. The Aviation Minister Keir Mather said he will ask questions to the National Air Traffic Services and the Civil Aviation Authority about contingency planning. Experts are saying the NHS now faces twin crises of extremely hot summers and very challenging winters.

1:287.2 million patients were seen in A &Es in June, July and August this year, the highest ever total for summer. The former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has told Times Radio he approves of the government's sanctions on Israeli businesses in the West Bank. The former Labour cabinet minister under Blair and Brown was asked whether Andy Burnham made the right decision to sanction Israel for planning to build more on occupied territories. Yes, I do. And I'm struck, by the way, that President Trump has been quite quiescent on those sanctions. And just to say that the idea of sanctioning Israel in terms of trade for its illegal settlements was something that I and some colleagues looked at 20 years ago, but Tony Blair would never have agreed to it.

2:16Meanwhile, ministers have been accused of ignoring official advice that the sanctioning of Israeli settlement businesses is unworkable. A source told The Times the advice from the embassy in Tel Aviv was that it was not possible in the final weeks of Sir Keir Starmer's administration. Kemi Bates and Ox said she does not agree with a tourist tax due to be discussed later by government. The Conservative leader says people are already overtaxed. It would be paid by visitors to popular towns and cities who are staying the night. The Times' newsroom reporter Olly Cole has more. The fee will be charged as a percentage of the cost of an overnight stay, which the government argues will protect budget holidays, but the amount is expected to be uncapped, allowing mayors across England to set their own rate.

2:57Similar tourist levies already exist across Europe and in parts of Scotland and Wales, with the revenue used to fund local services. In England, mayors would decide how to invest the money raised from the tax. But there is a warning from hospitality groups such as UK Hospitality, who say that an uncapped and expansive holiday tax could price working families out of a British holiday. They point to analysis by Oxford Economics, suggesting a 5 % levy fully realised by 2030 could cost 33 ,000 jobs and increased tax for holidaymakers by£1.6 billion. The John Lewis partnership has reported losses of£89 million in the six months to August.

3:34The chairman said the losses reflect a continued investment in transforming the company, a more challenging trading environment and the increased costs of doing business. And Primark is going to do online home delivery ahead of planning to float on the London Stock Exchange. For more stories like this, listen throughout the day to Times Radio. 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?

4:12Strong 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