If you find this podcast useful please give it a rating and review on iTunes by clicking here
5 Things You Need To Know, Today, on Friday 9th December 2022
5. The US is entering a legal battle with Xbox-maker Microsoft to block its plan to purchase the gaming firm behind hit titles such as Call of Duty.
Regulators cited competition concerns, saying they feared that if the deal went through, Activision Blizzard's games would stop being offered on non-Microsoft gaming consoles.
4. Thousands of people on the lowest incomes in over 300 postcode districts will receive a £25 Cold Weather Payment as temperatures plunge below zero.
Temperatures went as low as -9.1C (15F) in the Scottish Highlands and -8.9C in Cumbria, overnight figures showed.
3. British shoppers used cash in only 15% of transactions in 2021, half the level of the year before and down from nearly 40% before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The British Retail Consortium said government advice to go contactless during the pandemic, as well as a surge in online shopping, had accelerated an existing shift away from cash.
2. Postal workers at Royal Mail have begun a wave of strikes in the run-up to Christmas in a row over pay and conditions.
The walkouts involving 115,000 workers will hit deliveries across the UK, Royal Mail said.
1. The government is set to announce what it describes as one of the biggest overhauls of financial regulation for more than three decades.
The changes will be presented as an example of post-Brexit freedom to tailor regulation specifically to the needs and strengths of the UK economy.