Afternoon briefing Tuesday 16th December

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 afternoon briefing on Tuesday 16th December. The BBC says it will fight a$10 billion lawsuit brought by Donald Trump.

0:42It's over how the corporation's Panorama documentary edited the president's speech before the Capitol riot on January 6th 2021. The BBC has admitted it made a mistake and the president has accused it of fake news. And the conservative shadow chancellor Mel Stride told Times Radio Donald Trump has a point. The BBC has spliced together two pieces of audio from Donald Trump which were actually spoken almost an hour apart. It's very difficult not to describe that as fake news. It does seem to be that figures of£10 billion are going to be way, way wider the mark in terms of where this finally lands.

1:16But the BBC has a lot to answer for because at the end of the day, the people picking up the tab here will be the licence fee payers. The lawsuit amounts to more than the BBC's annual revenue. Labour Minister Stephen Kinnock has encouraged the corporation to stand firm. Separately, the government has paved the way for the BBC to run adverts and launch its own subscription service like Netflix as part of a consultation on its future. ministers are starting the charter renewal process, which sets out the BBC's mandate for the next 10 years. Nearly 4 million people were claiming personal independence payments in England and Wales at the end of October.

1:49Those new figures are revealed on the same morning its announced unemployment rose to 5.1 % in the three months to October, the highest level since the pandemic. On top of that, regular earnings growth fell. Times Radio's business correspondent Dominic O 'Connell explains what we can read into those figures. That the economy is slowing, which we kind of already know as well, and that employment is slowing with it, particularly, I think, in industries like retail and hospitality. But having not had to worry about unemployment because the job market was quite hot and ran very hot after the pandemic, it is now a big issue.

2:21And if you cast your mind back to the budget, the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast an average unemployment rate of 5 % over the next five years. The Work and Pension Secretary, Pat McFadden, says it's a sign of the scale of the challenge facing the government. Donald Trump has suspended a£31 billion tech agreement signed with the Prime Minister during his state visit to the UK. The deal was meant to enhance cooperation on areas like AI, quantum computing and nuclear energy. It's been suspended over disagreements over how to implement a wider trade deal, with the US reportedly trying to put pressure on the UK for concessions.

2:55And Australia and England's cricketers will wear black armbands during the third Ashes test in Adelaide after the Bondi Beach terror attack. Australia captain Pat Cummings, who lives near Bondi and will play for the first time this series, says he was horrified to see what happened. His opposite number, Ben Stokes, and some of England's players were in their team room when news of the attack broke. It does put things into a lot of perspective when you see things like that happen and for everyone that it's affected, while our hearts go out, to everyone really. It's just a horrible thing to see happen.

3:32Flags at the Adelaide Oval will fly at half-mast during the third Ashes Test, which starts overnight. Don't forget to subscribe to the Times News Briefing on Spotify or listen live to Times Radio online.

3:59In 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.

4:58to book flights without playing Guess the Cheapest Day. Travel smarter and spend less with help from NerdWallet. Follow Smart Travel wherever you get your podcasts.