Morning briefing Monday 16th February

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 Times Radio's morning briefing on Monday the 16th of February. I'm Daryl Jackson. Children could be banned from using social media as soon as this year under powers announced by the Prime Minister.

0:46The government's promised it will immediately introduce curbs on the use of social media after a consultation concludes this summer. Measures could include a ban on its use by under-16s, the introduction of phone curfews or restricting addictive design features such as infinite scrolling. Ria Freeman, a social media trainer and expert, told Times Radio it is a very concerning time. The way that social media has exploded, I think the integration of AI in more of our day-to-day activities and that does filter into social media. I think it is a very challenging time to be on social media whether you're an adult or a child.

1:24But I do still wholeheartedly believe that the opportunities that social media can give us means that banning it outright is not the right move. Sir Keir Starmer is under pressure to investigate whether there are links between his government and the Labour Together think tank, which is accused of paying a lobbying firm to investigate journalists at the Sunday Times. It's after stories about the think tank's failure to declare more than£700 ,000 in donations. They paid an American lobbying firm£36 ,000 to carry out the investigation in 2023. John Harrington, editor of PR Week UK, told Times Radio he found this surprising.

2:03It's not unusual for any organisation to hire a PR agency to do a bit of investigation onto journalists in terms of what type of questions they might want to ask. The idea that they would look into their personal background in some kind of alleged sort of mudslinging, mudraking kind of way, I think is very unusual. So yeah, always surprised. The head of Britain's armed forces and his German counterpart have said there is a moral case for rearming against the threat of Russia. Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton made the case for investing more in defence alongside Germany's chief of defence.

2:37The pair said they were speaking not as the military leaders of two of Europe's largest military spenders, but as voices for a Europe that must now confront uncomfortable truths about its security. U.S. television journalist Savannah Guthrie, whose mother Nancy has been missing for more than two weeks, has renewed her plea for help to find her mother. She says her family still have hope and again pleaded for her mother's return and appealed for the public's help in solving the case. Nancy Guthrie was last seen on January 31st when family dropped her off at her home in Arizona. It's never too late and you're not lost or alone and it is never too late to do the right thing.

3:23And we are here and we believe and we believe in the essential goodness of every human being. There's more on these stories throughout the day on Times Radio. 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. PwC turns innovation into implementation so you can accelerate from experiment to scale.

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