Afternoon briefing Thursday 28th May

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 the Times Radio afternoon news briefing on Thursday the 28th of May. The government's work czar is calling for a whole system reset, else risk a lost generation of young people.

0:47Figures from the Office for National Statistics show more than a million 16-24 year olds are not in education, employment or training. And Alan Milburn says that'll only keep increasing unless there are major reforms. He's told Times Radio an out-of-date welfare system is partly to blame. We're spending£25 on benefits and only£1 on employment support. But there's equally problems in the school system. It tends to be focused on getting a kid an educational qualification. They haven't been gifted the attributes in school that are going to be important in the workplace. The health system similarly tends to diagnose people, put them on a path to benefits rather than on a path to work.

1:28Helen Dickinson is from the British Retail Consortium. She's told Times Radio taking on young people has become too expensive. Just last year with the increases in the national insurance and the living wage, the cost of employing a full-time young person rose 10%. We have a lot of regulations in the pipeline like the Employment Rights Act that implementation may well undermine further those entry-level opportunities. Ministers say they'll use Mr Milburn's report to drive change. The Prime Minister is under pressure from his Cabinet to rethink Labour's net zero agenda. Sir Keir Starmer is opposed to North Sea drilling, saying it wouldn't lower bills, but the Times has been told some ministers are worried the wider economic benefits of domestic oil and gas production are being ignored.

2:15A teenage victim of one of two rapes in Hampshire has told Times Radio she's terrified to leave the House. The sentences given to three boys who carried out the attacks will be looked at by the Court of Appeal, after the Attorney General said he feared they were too lenient. The teenagers were all spared jail and instead given community orders. Times Radio has been told enough is enough when it comes to the resident doctors' pay and jobs row. BMA members in England have announced a walkout next month. They're 16th since March 2023. Matthew Hopkins is from the NHS Alliance, which represents some of the health services leaders.

2:49He wants independent arbitrators to intervene in the dispute. Our members are now feeling that every time this happens, it's adding further burden for staff, for the taxpayers, and as I said, most importantly, for our patients. The BMA says it needs to act in order to protect the NHS in the long term. And German player Laura Siegmund says she came to the French Open to play tennis, not to put on a fashion show. She lost her first round match to Naomi Osaka, whose Grand Slam outfits have become a major talking point. You can follow The Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

3:27This 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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4:45All rights reserved. Copyright 2026. McDonald's at the FIFA World Cup 2026.