Evening briefing Monday 8th December

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 evening briefing on Monday 8th December. A nurse who objected to sharing a female changing room with a transgender doctor has won a claim for harassment.

0:43Sandy Peggy was suspended after complaining about having to share changing facilities with Dr Beth Upton, a male who identifies as a female at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy. Other allegations, including of discrimination, were dismissed. Solicitor Margaret Gribbon says comments will be made about the judgment later this week. Safe to say that our preliminary thoughts are that aspects of the judgment are hugely problematic for women leaving the onus on them to object when their privacy, dignity and safety are violated when men are given access to single-sex spaces. Sir Keir Starmer says negotiations to end the war between Ukraine and Russia are at a critical stage.

1:28He's been hosting Volodymyr Zelensky in Downing Street. The leaders of France and Germany were also there in a show of European solidarity. The US is urging Ukraine to accept a peace deal despite concerns the measures heavily favour Moscow. MEP Tobias Kremer is a former German diplomat. He's told Times Radio that Europe has to assert itself. What Chancellor Merz, along with Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron, really want to do is to reclaim Europe's place at the table, because we all know that if you are at the table, it will be problematic. And we see we can't rely on the Americans doing the heavy lifting for us.

2:04We have to do that ourselves. but I think we only get there if we finally use the levers we have. The Times has discovered that the think tank Labour Together is asking party members about who should take over from Sir Keir Starmer. The group which ran Starmer's leadership campaign has asked local Labour parties for their views on who has the best chance of leading Labour to victory at the next election. Kevin Schofield, the political editor of HuffPost UK, says he's not surprised. You can't really speak to any Labour MPs now about any subject and it comes up, Keir Starmer's future. was actually speaking to a Labour MP earlier on about something entirely unconnected and he was throwing it forward to possible scenarios about this issue we were discussing.

2:43And he said just in passing, but of course we'll probably have a different Prime Minister by then. We're talking about at some point next year. So it's an open discussion. And the EU could be about to ban words like sausage and burger to describe plant-based foods. The European Commission is mulling the change and could decide as soon as Wednesday. Under the proposed rules, calling them vegan or vegetarian wouldn't be enough to get around the restrictions. More details from EU correspondent Jack Parrock. If this naming change comes into place, then it could really, really affect what you see on UK supermarkets.

3:16Essentially, the European Parliament voted 335 of their MEPs, which was a majority, voted in favour of ending calling a vegetarian burger a burger. So instead it would have to be called a vegetable-based patty or something like that. And you can follow The Times 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.

3:58That'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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4:58McDonald's at the FIFA World Cup 2026.