Afternoon Briefing Monday 16th March

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. Welcome to the Times Radio afternoon briefing on Monday the 16th of March. Sikistama says a decision on how to reopen the Strait of Hormuz may be some time away.

0:43Donald Trump has demanded that seven countries help to unblock the waterway on Iran's southern border, which carries a fifth of the world's oil. But the Prime Minister says it's not an easy thing to do and needs a coalition of countries. It is a discussion. We're not at a point of decisions yet. And I want to really stress that. It is obviously a difficult question. That goes without saying in relation to how you safeguard maritime traffic through the straits. Everybody knows the geography and the risks. There are no decisions having been made. It'll have to be something which is agreed by as many partners as possible is my strong view.

1:17He says the government will give£53 million to support people who use oil to heat their homes. And he says 92 ,000 British nationals have now returned to the UK from the Middle East on commercial and charter flights. Donald Trump says that militarily Iran is almost defeated, but Fred Pleitgin, a correspondent with CNN, has been to Tehran and says the regime is extremely resilient. The impression that we got is after the first couple of days and that big decapitation strike that happened that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and I think around 40 commanders and senior politicians, that they've reconstituted themselves, that the system is multilayered and that the system is geared towards survival.

1:57So essentially what they're saying is that you can decapitate another layer and another one is going to come back. And that certainly seems to be what we're seeing on the ground also. The main airport in Dubai stopped flights earlier after a drone hit a fuel tank nearby. It's the third such incident at the airport since the war began. Reporter Sally Lockwood is there. I've received messages from eyewitnesses. One resident who was woken at around half three in the morning by a really loud bang and he said he watched what he described as an inferno for around four hours before hearing another loud blast.

2:33Two people have died after an outbreak of meningitis in Canterbury. 13 cases have been reported at the University of Kent. This student, Kelly, is taking up the offer of antibiotics. I only found out about it last night, and emails from the uni only came through very late last night. So it's definitely scary that it had to go this far until we were actually told about it, but I do think it's good that they're doing something still, especially with antibiotics that could be offered to anyone rather than a selected amount of people. So it's good, but I definitely think that I'd rather be told a lot earlier than we had.

3:08The University of Kent says the safety of students and staff remains its highest priority and it's working closely with public health teams. And you can follow The Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

3:30in 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 experiments to scale. Discover more at pwc.co.uk.