Afternoon Briefing Thursday 2nd 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 Thursday 2nd July. Andy Burnham will be forced to find almost£7 billion of cuts covering schools, hospitals, roads and energy to pay for increased defence spending.

0:49Downing Street has confirmed that various departments are yet to finalise where those cuts will fall. This is on top of the£4.7 billion that Burnham's Chancellor will have to find at the next budget for defence. But the Skills Minister, Jackie Smith, has told Times Radio this is normal practice. It is not unusual to set a trajectory for spending. I mean, it's quite unusual in terms of the scale of the resource that we're devoting rightly to defence. But it's not unusual to set out plans so that people have a clear view of the investment that the government is going to make. And then to do the detail of where that money is going to come from at a budget.

1:26Obese people in middle age now have a similar risk of a heart attack to those who are slim and healthy because of the rollout of statins, which lower cholesterol. The drugs are now taken by 8 million adults in the UK. But Professor Brian Williams from the British Heart Foundation says lifestyle changes are still required. We're having to medicalise a very large number of people because of the increasing frequency of obesity. And of course what that medicine won't do is it won't reduce the risk of the other consequences like the increased risk of cancers and other diseases associated with obesity such as diabetes.

2:01An independence review has found that the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which examines potential miscarriages of justice, needs to urgently improve. A report criticises delays, overloading interns and not checking their work properly. It follows criticism of the handling of Andrew Malkinson's wrongful rape conviction. Dame Vera Baird is the interim chair of the CCRC and says there are key lessons to be learned. Actual people who make the decision to send the case to a commissioner saying it should go to the Court of Appeal or it should not, that their work is checked at every stage so that we're assured that their decision-making is accurate, we will put that in place.

2:44And England's may have beaten DR Congo with two excellent late goals from Harry Kane, but something more challenging is coming at 1am on Monday. They will play Mexico at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, which is more than 7 ,000 feet above sea level. That's one of the reasons why Mexico have lost only two of 89 competitive games played there. England's manager Thomas Tuchel says it'll be extremely tough. We will not be ready. Body cannot adapt in three days' time. It's just impossible. We need 12 days' time, 14 days' time. We don't have it, so it is a big disadvantage, of course. Let's see how much travelling takes, if it would be as smooth as here in the US.

3:22So I think there will be a lot, a lot of obstacles. We play against the home nation. We play in altitude. We play in heat, so in humidity. Yeah, they will throw it at us. 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, 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.

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