Morning Briefing Wednesday 5th November

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

0:35This is your Times Morning Briefing on Wednesday, the 5th of November. The Democratic nominee Zohra Mandani has won the New York mayoral race. More than 1.7 million people have voted, marking the biggest turnout for mayoral election in the city for the last 30 years. In electing Mandani as the first Muslim mayor of New York, voters rejected increasingly dire warnings from Republicans, including President Trump, that he represented a serious threat to the city. Spencer Critchley is a Democratic strategist and former communications advisor to Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. While he likes Mamdani, he told Times Radio he does have his concerns.

1:14I think he's also a very good symbol of the ideological confusion among Democrats. And it's a confusion that's existed for a long time. I think you could trace it back to the 19th century, frankly, but it's really coming to a head now. And that's a confusion between the liberal left and the illiberal left, which ultimately is descended from Karl Marx. This is not to say that Mamdani is a Marxist, but there is a way of thinking about leftist politics that is descended from Marx. Elsewhere, Democrat Abigail Spanberger has won Virginia the governor's race. At least four people have been killed and 11 injured after a cargo plane crashed and burst into flames in Kentucky.

1:53The aircraft owned by delivery giant UPS was carrying tens of thousands of tons of fuel. It came down after takeoff from Louisville International Airport. Two people on the ground are missing. Betsy Rue is from Metro Council District 21. My heart goes out to everybody at UPS because this is a UPS town. The intern in my office works overnight at UPS to pay for college. We all know somebody who works at UPS and they're all texting their friends, their family, trying to make sure everyone is safe. Sadly, some of those texts are probably going to go unanswered. The Chancellor is laying the ground for a 70-style tax increase.

2:34Rachel Reads' decision to set out the parameters of her budget in a statement from Downing Street was highly unusual. She signalled she'd be prepared to be the first Chancellor in five decades to raise the basic rate of income tax and everyone needed to do their bit. This isn't about re-litigating old choices. It's about being honest with the people about the consequences that those choices have had. Shadow Business Minister Harriet Baldwin told Times Radio she's on borrowed time. I do think the Chancellor should resign. I think that she was a central plank of her general election pitch to voters was that there were going to be no taxes on working people.

3:11For her to then bring in taxes on working people, on top of the fact that last week she was found out in terms of not having a licence on her rental property, This is someone who is professionally throwing up chaff at the electorate. A major review into workplace sickness says the UK is sliding into an avoidable crisis. The report by former John Lewis boss Sir Charlie Mayfield found ill health among workers cost British employers around£85 million a year. The Sudanese government has warned genocide is unfolding in Darfur with thousands of people thought to have been killed. The city of Al-Fashir fell to paramilitaries last week.

3:51According to the Famine Review Committee, famine conditions are occurring in El Fashe in North Darfur and Kaguli in South Kordofan. UNICEF's Sudan representative Sheldon Yert says the towns have been cut off because of one main reason. Conflict prevents access. It prevents access to people to markets and prevents aid agencies like UNICEF and our partners for getting to where they need to go. Sudan is a food-rich country. There's no reason to have famine here. But there is famine in selected parts of the country because of the war, because of the conflict. That's your Times Morning Briefing on Wednesday 5th November.

4:46This 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. This is Kat and Nat from Kat and Nat Unfiltered and this episode is sponsored by Michaels, your destination for all things birthday parties.

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