Daily briefing Sunday 6th 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. Welcome to the Times radio briefing on Sunday, the 6th of September. U.S. Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have arrived in Kiev, where they're holding talks with Volodymyr Zelensky.

0:44They spent three hours with Vladimir Putin in Moscow yesterday. A White House official says those talks were substantive. Kurt Volker, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, has told Times Radio he doubts anything will be achieved. No one wants more than me to be proven wrong, but I think this whole thing is a charade. The Russians have no intention of ending the war, negotiating in good faith, of coming to a conclusion or a ceasefire. They want to keep fighting and they want to subjugate Ukraine as part of the Russian Empire. The Ukrainians know that, and yet they don't want to be seen as the party that is saying no or blocking anything.

1:25Thousands of elderly people are being admitted to hospital after suffering reactions to cocktails of medicines. Almost 8 million people in the UK are prescribed five or more drugs to take daily, while 2.2 million take 10 drugs a day. Low blood pressure and dizziness are among the side effects. Sunday Times health editor Sean Linton says a new approach is required. There are many members of our society now heading into 80, 85, 90 plus years, and they need a different type of health care. They need something that's more holistic, more targeted to them. Does a 90-year-old need to be on a statin that may increase their risk of falls?

2:05These are difficult challenges and discussions that you have to have with families and patients. As voters go to the polls in Germany today, the AFD could become the first far-right party to take power at a state level since World War II. It's been leading surveys in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt for months. The Times' Berlin correspondent Oliver Moody says it's potentially a big moment in German history. It's tremendously significant. The country has not, since its democracy was refounded after the Second World War, had a radical right-wing party that was remotely capable of winning government at state level, let alone leading the polls nationally.

2:45This is completely unprecedented since 1945. The Chancellor, John Healy, will make a big speech on the economy tomorrow. He'll be setting out his vision for growth. He and Andy Burnham agreed to the broad themes over a takeaway curry and beers in a Downing Street garden in the summer. The Tories' new shadow Chancellor Andrew Griffith has told Times Radio there is now a clear economic dividing line between Labour and the Conservatives after Andy Burnham said Britain began to go wrong in the 1980s. I do not agree with the Prime Minister that our best days were in the 1970s. I grew up in the 1970s.

3:20I remember doing my homework by candlelight. I don't want the national British automotive sector to be dominated by British Leyland and the sort of products that they put out. You can follow the Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online. 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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