Daily briefing Saturday 13th 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 Daily Briefing on Saturday the 13th of September. It's emerged Downing Street, found out about emails Peter Mandelson sent to Jeffrey Epstein before the Prime Minister defended him in Parliament.

0:47The Times has learnt the government got hold of those emails on Tuesday, two days before Sir Keir Starmer sacked Lord Mandelson as the British ambassador to Washington. In the intervening period, he said he had confidence in Lord Mandelson at Prime Minister's questions. Times Radio's political editor Anima Hylova says the anger of Labour MPs is focused on the PM's closest advisor. There is a lot of anger building towards his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, questions about whether or not he advised Keir Starmer to defend him. There is currently no confirmation either way on that. We just don't know.

1:21But the political pressure is now increasingly mounting on the chief of staff from within Parliament. Former US diplomat Frank Levin told Times Radio it's not in anyone's interests for the issue to come up during Donald Trump's state visit to the UK next week. There's a range of trade issues both governments have to deal with. There's Russia and Ukraine. There's the future of NATO. So there are a number of serious substantive issues. And I don't think the UK is going to say, let's talk about the scandal. And Donald Trump certainly has no appetite for it as well. The widow of the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk has promised to continue his movement in her first public comments since his killing.

1:58The evildoers responsible for my husband's assassination have no idea what they have done. They should all know this. If you thought that my husband's mission was powerful before, you have no idea. You have no idea what you just have unleashed across this entire country. Erica Kirk's speech was released by Turning Point, the conservative activist group Mr Kirk set up at the age of 18. A 22-year-old man is now in custody in Utah after a 33-hour manhunt. Donald Trump is calling for the death penalty. The next stage of Labour's deputy leadership election begins this morning. The Education Secretary Bridget Philipson and the former leader of the House of Commons Lucy Powell now have two weeks to get the backing of 5 % of constituency Labour parties or three affiliated unions and groups.

2:54The Metropolitan Police has drafted hundreds of reinforcements to London with two major protests planned A demonstration led by the far-right activist Tommy Robinson will take place in the heart of the capital and is expected to draw thousands of people. There will also be a counter-protest AstraZeneca has paused£200 million of planned investment in its research site in Cambridge The money was announced in the budget in March last year and was set to create 1 ,000 jobs And the Bank of England has confirmed to Times Radio the Governor, Andrew Bailey, uses AI to cut down his speeches. Conservative MPs have warned Mr Bailey about using the software.

3:32The bank says he uses it to make sure he keeps his speeches short enough for time-limited slots. Don't forget to subscribe to the Times News Briefing on Spotify or listen live to Times Radio online.

3:50This 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.

4:37IBM 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.