Afternoon Briefing Thursday 27th November

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 Thursday, the 27th of November. Rachel Reeves has told Times Radio she won't allow anyone to write her obituary.

0:43Following a budget that's been characterised as one which penalises workers in order to boost spending on benefits, the Chancellor says she doesn't accept that her legacy will be an expanded welfare state. Lots of people have tried to write me off over the last 16 months and you're not going to write my obituary today. There's plenty more that I'm going to do to grow our economy and make working people better off. I took£150 of people's energy bills in the budget yesterday, and I'm not going to apologise for lifting the two-child limit. That lifts 450 ,000 kids out of poverty. Her budget will have no material impact on economic growth, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility.

1:21The director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Helen Miller, has told Times Radio the Chancellor has expanded her financial headroom, which is a positive move, but she says the budget could have been more enterprising. Big picture, this looks like a budget that was big on numbers, but actually perhaps not big enough on ambition. Given that growth is really the big underlying problem that we face, no one's going to fix that in a budget. But I think we should be expecting politicians to go harder and faster at that problem. The shooting of two National Guard troops near the White House in Washington, D.C.

1:56is being investigated by the FBI as an act of terror. The suspect is believed to be an Afghan national. President Trump has ordered every immigrant from Afghanistan who entered the U.S. under the Biden administration to be investigated. He says the thoughts of Americans are with the victims. The love of our entire country is pouring out for them as we are filled with anguish and grief for those who were shot. I am determined to ensure that the animal who perpetrated this atrocity pays the steepest possible price. The government has defended proposed changes to trial by jury. A leaked memo seen by The Times suggests juries be abolished in all but the most serious cases.

2:37There is a huge backlog. Minister of State in the Justice Department Sarah Sackman has told MPs why these changes are being considered. The oral adage rings true that in the current crisis justice delayed is justice denied. The system was simply not designed for a scenario where there are tens of thousands of victims facing agonising delays for justice. The vast majority of cases in our courts are already heard without juries. Around 90 % of all criminal cases are dealt with robustly, fairly, by magistrates with no jury. And you can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

3:17This 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

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