Afternoon Briefing Wednesday 17th September

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 Evening Briefing on Wednesday the 17th of September. Donald Trump has been welcomed to Windsor Castle for a day of pageantry to start his second state visit.

0:44Free church arms!

1:03That's the masked bands of the household division playing the Star Spangled Banner. the American national anthem to kick off the President's visit. He's been accompanied by the King throughout the day to lay a wreath at the tomb of Queen Elizabeth II and watch a ceremonial parade of marching bands from both the United States and the UK. The Queen and the Prince and Princess of Wales have also been entertaining the President and his entourage at Windsor. The Sunday Times' Royal Editor Roya Nikas says the President seems to be happy. He's laying it on thick, so as soon as the Prince and Princess of Wales went to greet him off Marine One, the helicopter, The first thing he said to the princess was, you're beautiful.

1:39And he went to inspect the guard. And it was a funny moment where he and the king emerged from the end of a very long row of soldiers. And Charles cracked a joke and went, mind the sword, and cracked him up. And then Donald said, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. And he literally is beside himself. He is loving it. The state banquet is taking place at St George's Hall. The visit has been taking place within Windsor Castle's walls with no public interaction. There's an anti-Trump protest in London. These people explain why they've attended. We're meant to live in a so-called free Western democracy, but we're seeing a backside into authoritarianism led by Donald Trump.

2:15We have got an unelected billionaire whose children will take over as head of state in our country, and America has an elected corrupt billionaire. So it seems a nice coincidence of two wrongs in the world. We're rolling out the red carpet for this generation's Hitler, and I don't say that lightly. History's not going to look kindly on this. We didn't have to give him a second state visit. That was a choice. In other news, the Home Office has failed to deport migrants to France under its one-in-one-out returns policy for a third day running. It's raised concerns about the Home Office's defence of the policy in the courts.

2:48The Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, says she will fight to end vexatious last-minute appeals. A former Labour councillor has been charged over the Westminster honey trap scandal. It emerged when people in Westminster were contacted by someone calling themselves Charlie or Abby with one MP admitting to being scammed into sending sexually explicit images of himself. 28-year-old Oliver Steadman, who was arrested last June, has been charged with blackmail and communications offences in relation to five victims, including MPs. And the Mayor of London's officials suppressed taxpayer-funded research which suggests low-traffic neighbourhoods don't encourage people to drive less.

3:24Sasadik Khan has repeatedly said they reduce traffic, but research from the University of Westminster suggests that is not the case. Transport for London chose not to publish the report and says the research didn't offer new enough insights to continue funding it. Don't forget to subscribe. 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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