Afternoon briefing Wednesday 13th 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 your Times Radio news briefing for the afternoon of Wednesday 13th May. Wes Streeting has told allies he is preparing to resign and trigger a Labour leadership contest as soon as tomorrow.

0:46One of the sources who spoke to the Times said if Starmer's supporters think this is over, they're going to be disappointed. The Health Secretary met with the Prime Minister this morning for less than 20 minutes in Downing Street. He would need 81 Labour MPs to all support him alone to challenge the leadership. News of this broke just minutes before the King's speech, in which the King read out the government's agenda for the next year in the Houses of Parliament. It was announced that the government will go ahead with digital IDs and introduce laws to rebuild closer ties with the EU. My ministers will seek to improve relations with European partners as a vital step in strengthening European security.

1:28It will continue to promote long-term peace in the Middle East and the two-state solution in Israel and Palestine. In other news, China's said its capability to crush any attempt at independence in nearby Taiwan is unbreakable, ahead of the arrival of Donald Trump to Beijing today. A spokesperson for their Taiwan Affairs office said the island is part of China and has never been and never would be a country. The US supplies Taiwan with arms and the territory will be discussed during two days of meetings this week between the US president and the Chinese president Xi Jinping. More than 70 million attempts to access child sexual abuse imagery have been intercepted around the world via warning messages in the last two years, according to a charity.

2:14The Lucy Faithful Foundation says tech companies, including Meta and Google, have deployed warning messages that tell people they are about to click on illegal images. They say it's equivalent to more than 95 ,000 warnings triggered a day. The Princess of Wales is making her first solo overseas trip since her cancer recovery Kate has not travelled abroad for a major visit since 2022 She'll do a two-day visit to Reggio Emilia near Bologna which pioneered an educational approach focused on being child-led For more stories like this, listen throughout the day to Times Radio

2:51This 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

3:50collectible cup a steal by henry who pulls his own collectible cup collect one of nine legendary cups with a fifa world cup meal at participating mcdonald's for a limited time while supplies last all rights reserved 2026 mcdonald's at fifa world cup 2026