Afternoon Briefing Wednesday 29th 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. Hello, this is your Times Radio afternoon briefing for Wednesday the 29th of July with me, James Kitchen. Andy Burnham says he would never forgive himself if he failed to tackle social care, accusing successive governments of a dereliction of duty.

0:47The Prime Minister said it was shameful that politicians had put point scoring ahead of fixing the system. Mr Burnham has announced he will bring forward the Casey Review into creating a national care service and seek to improve pay and progression in the sector. He also insisted a cross-party approach to finding solutions was the right thing to do. Speaking at a London care home, the PM said society needs to bring a fresh determination to solve the issues. We're all going to have to give and take here, aren't we, if we're going to get to a solution. We're all going to have to listen to each other, something we don't do particularly well in politics.

1:23Actually engage and listen to other perspectives. We're going to have to find common ground here. If this is to be a lasting solution, it requires common ground to be found. and then ultimately you would hope a new social consensus can emerge. The Prime Minister also said social and palliative care needs to be fixed before assisted dying is debated. He added he would stick to Labour's manifesto commitments on tax when asked how care reforms would be funded. Elsewhere, European nations are believed to be discussing boycotting the World Cup if Gianni Infantino pushes ahead with plans to sell off part of FIFA.

2:03The Times has revealed private investors would be invited to buy a minority stake in a new commercial arm, with concerns the move could lead to larger or more frequent tournaments. The Prime Minister has criticised the governing body, saying football belongs to the people, not investors, while the FA says it's deeply concerned. Sports and business professor David Weber told Times Radio there's a real lack of accountability. This degree of commercialisation, it's never been an issue where there's not enough money. It's where that money ends up. Is this money really going to go into the grassroots projects?

2:37Is it really going to go into developing and growing the women's game? It's a youth football. I'm not so sure about this. This stands to benefit Infantino. It stands to benefit political and economic and financial elites. The US says its forces in the Middle East have come under a surprise attack from Iran. In response, US and Saudi Arabian troops struck what they called Iran-aligned terrorists in Iraq. It follows yesterday's meeting between President Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. Firefighters in France have been working around the clock to contain wildfires and are braced for a sharp rise in temperatures.

3:144 ,000 more people have been evacuated from the Lacanau region near Bordeaux. Officials have told holidaymakers to stay away from the area. The Times' David Chazan is in Bordeaux. He says the fire is currently stable, but firefighters are taking no chances. The ground is peaty. That's the word the firefighters use to describe it. Yesterday, as we drove around, we saw row upon row of blackened trees. And every now and then on the ground, you would see a small fire just burning there. Those little fires are relatively harmless. But if you get a strong wind and sparks spread to other trees, then the whole thing can kick off again.

3:58Soldiers and emergency workers in Japan are continuing to search the rubble for survivors after yesterday's deadly earthquake. At least 13 people have died and many are missing after it hit the southwest of the country. Others were killed in an explosion at a shopping centre. Remember, you can follow the Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify and you can listen live to Times Radio Online.

4:32This 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. Hi, I'm Katie Prescott from the Times Tech Podcast, which is currently sponsored by IBM.

5:18IBM has worked with Wimbledon for more than 30 years, helping the championships use data and AI to create more engaging digital experiences for fans. That includes tools like Match Chat, which can answer questions during play, and Likelihood to Win, which uses live match data to offer near real-time predictions. It's a practical example of AI in action, helping fans follow the tournament more closely while showing how organizations can turn data into useful insight. To learn more about how IBM helps create smarter business, visit ibm.com.