Evening briefing Thursday 4th 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 This is the Times evening briefing on Thursday 4th December. The Foreign Secretary says Vladimir Putin is still an active threat to British citizens after he was found responsible for the death of a woman in the wake of the Salisbury poisonings.

0:47Yvette Cooper has sanctioned Russia's spy agency, the GRU, after an inquiry into how Dawn Sturgis died. We will not stand for this kind of threat to British citizens and residents and that's why we're taking this further action on sanctioning these individuals, bringing them out of the shadows and escalating our action against Russian hybrid threats. Ms Sturges was 44 when she sprayed herself with the leftover nerve agent Novichok, which two Russian spies used to try to kill the former agent Sergei Skripal. The inquiry chair, Lord Hughes, says those spies are to blame. The conduct of Petrov and Bolshirov and their GRU superiors and those who authorised the mission, up to and including, as I found, President Putin, that conduct was astonishingly reckless.

1:37And they, and only they, their moral responsibility for it. Dawn Sturgis' family have criticised a lack of recommendations in the report. Four people have been arrested in East Sussex on suspicion of far-right terror offences. One is a 27-year-old woman from Hailsham. The others are three men from Eastbourne. Workers could get unlimited payouts for unfair dismissal in a deal to appease unions over changes to Labour's Workers' Rights Bill. Ministers want to ditch the£118 ,000 limit after going back on their manifesto promise to give workers protection from unfair dismissal on day one. Nigel Farage has demanded the BBC apologise for its output in the 1970s and 80s when asked about allegations he made racist comments as a schoolboy.

2:22The double standards and hypocrisy of the BBC are absolutely astonishing. At the time I was alleged to have made these remarks, one of your most popular weekly shows was the black and white minstrels. The BBC were very happy to use blackface. Oh and not just in the black and white minstrels, You did it. It ain't half hot mum as well. The Reform UK leader continues to deny racist and anti-Semitic behaviour, of which he's accused when he was at the South London private school, Dulwich College. Spain, the Netherlands and Ireland will boycott next year's Eurovision Song Contest because organisers are allowing Israel to compete.

3:02They're among a number of countries who've threatened to walk out over Israel's actions in Gaza and accusations the Israeli government tried to influence votes last year. And English and Australian cricketers have praised Joe Root after his first century in Australia. He finished the first day of the second Ashes Test 135 not out, despite wickets falling around him. It means England finished 325 for nine. England opener Zach Crawley, who was caught for 76, paid tribute afterwards. We were chuffed for him. We were nervous for him for a long while before that. And, you know, I think he was less nervous than us.

3:37I saw him in the change room. He's like himself. He's so humble. He's not trying to make too much of a deal of it, but I'm sure inside he's pretty delighted. Don't forget to subscribe to The Times News Briefing on Spotify or listen live to Times Radio online.

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5:14All rights reserved. Copyright 2026. McDonald's at the FIFA World Cup 2026.