Evening briefing Thursday 11th 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 Evening Briefing on Thursday 11th September. Leader of the Conservatives, Kemi Badenoch, says she wants to know why the Prime Minister offered Peter Mandelson his full backing, even after he said there was more to come on his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

0:49On Wednesday, Sir Keir Starmer said it was right that Lord Mandelson expressed his deep regrets over his association with the paedophile financier. But less than 24 hours later, Lord Mandelson has been sacked as Britain's ambassador to the US, with the Foreign Office saying new emails have come to light which show the true depth of their relationship. Former National Security Advisor Sir Mark Lyle-Grantz told Times Radio the timing is unfortunate. Because there's a new foreign secretary in place, there's a state visit coming up next week, and then the week after that there's the very tricky political issue between the United States and the United Kingdom if the Prime Minister goes ahead with the undertaking to recognise the sovereignty of an independent Palestinian state.

1:33Michael Martins used to be an advisor at the US Embassy in London. He's told Times Radio this won't affect Lord Mandelson's achievements in office. Ambassadors change, people rotate in and out of posts, but in practice, the relationship between the US and the UK is such a long-standing and deep and trusted relationship. A lot of that work won't be gone to waste. It'll be taken up by whoever comes next, and importantly, the diplomats that are in post in Washington will continue to work to advance UK interests. The UK branch of the right-wing campaign group Turning Point USA will hold a vigil for its co-founder in central London on Friday.

2:1031-year-old Charlie Kirk was shot dead while giving a talk at a university in Utah. Amy Koch is a former Republican majority leader of the Minnesota Senate. She told Times Radio everyone in the states has a role to play in turning down the heat in politics. It's for our leadership, of course, but it's for everyone in the American public to review and think about when they are opening their mouths, what are they saying and what kind of rhetoric is coming out that can incite people to acts of violence like we saw yesterday. The man's been arrested following a suspected arson attack at the office of the Labour MP, Sharon Hodgson.

2:44Emergency services were called out in Washington in Tynan Weir in the early hours of Thursday. The head of technology at Marks & Spencer is leaving the company. But bosses at the retailer insist her departure isn't linked to a major cyber attack. Katie Prescott from the Times Business Desk has more. Rachel Hyam has been the chief digital and tech officer for a year and staff were told today that she is leaving for a career break. That hack at M &S was really, really difficult for the business. It's cost them£300 million. But of course, other businesses have been hit too. Chelsea have been charged with 74 rule breaches by the Football Association.

3:22They relate to regulations surrounding agents when the club was owned by Roman Abramovich. They've got eight days to respond. You can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

3:58PwC 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. On Times Radio, you'll hear intelligent discussion and expert analysis on the big stories of the day and from the politicians making the political weather. Sometimes we need to send a message that this is not acceptable. We're the voice of the times in uncertain times. We currently hold the second most senior military position in the NATO alliance, and there are question marks about whether we will be able to keep that in the future.

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