Longtime Doctor Who writer and showrunner Russell T Davies has criticised the new BBC director general over comments he made about an AI-generated episode of the show. Matt Brittin told a Royal Television Society conference in September that he had been sent a pretty good 50-minute unofficial Doctor Who episode. That's a clumsy thing to say in an industry where he's got writers and artists and it specifically affects people, they're the first to take the blow, Davies told BBC Radio 4's The Media Show. Addressing criticism he has received, Brittin told a staff meeting last week he was attempting to make a point around the pace of change while stressing he believed in human creativity. The director general joked he had got into trouble over what he had said, but added: I was just trying to make the point: Look at the pace of change and what this stuff can do.

Rachel Jupp is a bold choice for the BBC's director of news. She is a well-regarded high flier who has impressed in her roles at Panorama, Newsnight and Channel 4 News. She is currently the BBC's director of news documentaries and long form journalism. But she hasn't been in that role for long and hasn't spent years leading huge teams of people (BBC News' global newsroom has around 4,500 staff). A lack of that kind of experience might have been problematic in the past.

Image caption, Jupp is a former deputy editor of BBC Two's Newsnight and has also served as Panorama's editor Rachel Jupp has been appointed the new director of BBC News, nearly a year after the previous CEO resigned. Deborah Turness announced last November that she would step down from the role following the fallout over how Panorama edited a speech by President Trump. Jupp is a former deputy editor of BBC Two's Newsnight and has also served as Panorama's editor, but left several years before the controversial Trump episode aired. Jupp said she was honoured to be asked to lead BBC News, while the corporation's director-general Matt Brittin described her as an outstanding editorial leader. The appointment comes as the BBC continues to make sweeping cuts to its news division.

Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK. Can AI Actually Be Slowed Down? Today, can governments work together to regulate AI, after growing safety fears in the industry? Donald Trump, has seemingly dismissed calls for government intervention made over the weekend. The President cited the AI race with China, saying "whoever wins AI, wins." So is there anything the UK government can do?

Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK. Will Reform Have To Give Their Mega Donations Back? After Reform's £72 million record donations, we're looking at whether they'll be allowed to keep the money. Legislation is going through Parliament that could limit the amount of money foreign donors can give, and be applied restrospectively, but Robert Jenrick has said the recent donations were entirely in line with the law. And there's been a shift in tone from tech bosses since the concerns about AI raised by researchers this week. We look at what a more controlled future for AI might look like.

Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK. Is China Replacing Workers With Robots? Today, we discuss China's £14.7bn investment into AI and robotics in the hopes of overtaking the US as the world leader in innovation. China has two million robots already working in factories, and is investing heavily in the hopes that one day they could bridge gaps in an already sluggish economy. What can these robots do?

BBC seeks to subpoena Trump's family members in Panorama lawsuit The BBC has sought to subpoena members of Donald Trump's family for documents and testimony as it defends against the US president's $10bn (£7.4bn) defamation lawsuit against the broadcaster. Court filings show that representatives for the BBC's legal team attempted in May to serve subpoenas to the president's son Donald Trump Jr., his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner. The president is suing the BBC over an episode of Panorama that edited together two different sections of a speech he gave before the 2021 Capitol riots. The BBC has previously apologised for the edit but denied it was grounds for defamation. Judge grants Trump's request to delay handing financial records to BBC In the latest filing, the BBC's lawyers argue Trump's family members have personal knowledge of his intentions in delivering the speech, making their testimony and documents relevant to the president's defamation claim.

The Download: a startup has a solution for AI's groupthink problem Plus: Scientists say they have built a cell from scratch for the first time. LLMs are stuck in a groupthink groove. This startup is trying to get them out. Open up your chatbot of choice--Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini--and type "Give me a random number between 1 and 10." You're going to get 7. Almost always. That won't work every time--but if it did for you, you may wonder if I have superpowers. The truth is that most large language models are stuck in a rut.

Oracle shed about 21,000 roles globally in the last year as the US technology giant reshapes its business around artificial intelligence (AI), the firm's latest annual report shows. The software and cloud computing firm says it had around 141,000 full-time employees as of 31 May 2026, down from about 162,000 workers at the same time last year. The deployment of AI technologies across our operations have resulted, and may continue to result, in reductions to our workforce, the report says. The cuts, which amount to about 13% of Oracle's workforce, are part of a wider trend among tech firms as they spend hundreds of billions of dollars on building AI infrastructure like data centres. Amazon and Facebook-owner Meta have cut thousands of job in recent months as they invest heavily in AI.

Do you know your'sweat score'? One of the biggest controversies of the 2026 World Cup so far has been the hydration breaks, which - while not entirely new - are for the first time occurring twice during every match in the tournament. The breaks aren't really about hydration, some spectators say. They're just an opportunity for certain broadcasters to show more ads, they break up the natural flow of games, and are unnecessary in air conditioned stadiums. Whether or not you agree with these complaints, there's no doubt that hydration itself is an increasingly prominent point of discussion worldwide.