Afternoon briefing Wednesday 6th 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 6th May. Zach Polanski has said he used the wrong word when he described himself as a spokesperson for the British Red Cross when he actually held some fundraising events.

0:47Following an article in The Times on his background, he's told the BBC he would go on stage and speak for them about the amazing work they do, but accepts he was not a spokesperson. Meanwhile, Cabinet member Pat McFadden has told Times Radio the Green Party leader has been too tolerant of anti-Semitism. The Work and Pensions Secretary told Times Radio's Kate McCann what he would advise Zach Polanski to do. To root it out, just have no tolerance of this at all. Do you think he's been too tolerant? Has he been too tolerant? Yes, I do. We ended up in a position where we were investigated by the Equality and Human Rights Council for this.

1:25That was a low point in the history of the Labour Party, but credit to Keir Starmer. From the moment he was elected leader, he said that culture was gone. We were going to turn the page. The Greens are threatening several Labour local council seats in tomorrow's local elections. The final poll from YouGov on the Welsh Senate election tomorrow suggests that Plaid Cymru is on course to be the largest party. Labour's vote share is projected to fall to just 12%, which would be their worst major election result in Wales in more than a century. But Plaid would still need them to form a majority. The MRP poll puts reform second on 34 seats.

2:03The US and Iran are closing in on a one-page memo to end their war, according to news outlet Axios and Reuters. Their sources include two US officials and a Pakistani source involved in the peace efforts. It would set about a plan to end the war and set a framework for more detailed nuclear negotiations. Three patients with Hantavirus on board a cruise ship have been evacuated, according to the World Health Organization. One of them was a close contact of someone on the ship who had died. The vessel was due to stop at the Canary Islands, but its leader is opposed to the idea. Job opportunities for graduates this March dropped by more than a third since last March.

2:41The total number of graduate vacancies fell to 10 ,500 in March, close to the record low of 9 ,300 in January. Times Radio's business correspondent Dominic O 'Connell explains why. If you talk anecdotally to companies, they're all talking about AI and what they're going to do to their hiring. And if you talk to people who are looking for jobs, graduates who are looking for jobs, they say AI has turned it into a nightmare on both sides of the job interview. However, it's also worth saying that companies have cut back hiring because they're a bit worried about the UK economy and they're not quite sure whether they should be hiring or not.

3:15Britain's three largest unions are unlikely to back Angela Rayner if she challenges Sir Keir Starmer to become leader of the Labour Party. The Times understands that senior figures in Unite, Unison and GMB have signalled that they may not back the former Deputy Prime Minister if she runs against Andy Burnham. Rayner rose through Unison's ranks to become its most senior official in the north-west of England before becoming an MP. For more stories like this, listen throughout the day to Times Radio.

3:47This 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.

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