Evening briefing Wednesday 3rd 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 Wednesday 3rd September. The Prime Minister has defended Angela Rayner after she admitted underpaying stamp duty on a new flat.

0:44The Deputy Prime Minister says she got incorrect tax advice about her constituency home in Greater Manchester, which is in the hands of the trust which provides for her disabled son. At Prime Minister's questions, Sir Keir Starmer says he's very proud to sit alongside his deputy. She has explained her personal circumstances in detail. She's gone over and above in setting out the details, including Mr Speaker. including Mr Speaker yesterday afternoon asking a court to lift a confidentiality order in relation to her own son. I know from speaking at length of the Deputy Prime Minister just how difficult that decision was for her and her family.

1:21Ms Rayner has referred herself to the standards advisor and hasn't ruled out resigning if she's found to have broken the ministerial code. Conservative leader Kemi Bainok says Ms Rayner's position is untenable. Mr Speaker I'm not sure we would have heard all that sympathy if it was the Conservative Deputy Prime Minister. I remember when the Prime Minister said the tax evasion is a criminal offence and should be treated as all other fraud. If he had a backbone, he would sack her. Nigel Farage has told US politicians the UK has sunk into an awful authoritarian situation over free speech. The Reform UK leader has brought up the arrest of the father tech creator, Graham Linehan, at the congressional hearing.

1:59You will be doing us and yourselves and all freedom-loving people a favour if your politicians and your businesses said to the British government, you've simply got this wrong. At what point did we become North Korea? Well, I think the Irish comedy writer found that out. A senior Democrat described Mr Farage to his face as a far-right pro-Putin Trump sycophant. Graham Linehan says he's suing the Met Police over his arrest. The Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, says his officers have been put in an impossible position and blamed successive governments. An imam has been charged with allowing two children to marry each other.

2:3752-year-old Ashraf Osmani is due in court next week over an alleged ceremony at a mosque in Northampton involving two 16-year-olds. Vladimir Putin has been caught on a microphone talking to China's Xi Jinping about organ transplants to delay ageing and even achieve immortality. The Chinese leader appears to laugh in response to that comment. The Russian president is in Beijing, along with a host of other world leaders like Kim Jong-un of North Korea for a major military parade. Professor Rana Mitter, a China specialist from Harvard, explains how Washington will see today. A sense of disappointment that having tried to woo Putin, the Americans see that essentially the Chinese are able to bring Putin and Kim Jong-un right up there on the viewing stand at Tiananmen Square.

3:20That message of the three of them, I think, is one of the ones that really Beijing wants to project as being leaders of a new anti-liberal global order. And Radiohead have confirmed their first tour for seven years. They'll play four nights at the O2 in London in late November and will also play in Madrid, Bologna, Copenhagen and Berlin. Don't forget to subscribe to The Times News Briefing on Spotify or listen live to Times Radio online.

3:52This 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.