Afternoon briefing Tuesday 16th June

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 News Briefing on Tuesday 16th June. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance has suggested there is more work to do before the long-term reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is finalized.

0:46His words appear to contradict comments from Donald Trump, whose claim to the shipping lane will be completely opened by Friday. Trump also says the Iran deal is all signed. He's been speaking at the G7 summit in France. The biggest thing is they will not have a nuclear weapon. And that's the reason I got in. and that's the reason I agreed to sign. And we originally had, Marco was with me and they originally wrote that we will not develop a nuclear weapon. I said, no, no, you're not going to develop and you're not going to buy either. So that took another couple of days of time. Thames Water could be on the brink of being temporarily nationalised.

1:27The Environment Secretary, Emma Reynolds, has a proposed£10 billion rescue deal for the company could lead to an undue burden on consumers. Over the last 15 years, we've seen underperformance of Thames Water, pollution incidents and repeated failures. I have written to Ofwat to set out my early concerns that the creditor's proposals don't do enough to protect consumers and the environment. Thames Water has almost£20 billion of debt. The Science and Technology Secretary has told Times Radio the social media ban for under-16s will be enforced by social media companies and not the firms which make the smartphones.

2:05There are concerns that teenagers could be stopped from watching useful content. Liz Kendall was asked why a 15-year-old should not watch something educational on YouTube. I've thought hard about some of the benefits that are available from social media companies, but I think these are outweighed by some of the risks. I think if companies want to provide purely educational content in some other format, we want to make sure that that is not included in the ban. A councillor in Kent has told Times Radio about his decision to leave Reform UK, just seven months after defecting to reform from the Conservatives.

2:45Robbie Lammas has made a public apology to Tory leader Kenny Badenock. He's been explaining what he sees as a fundamental problem in Nigel Farage's outfit. The Conservative Party is like a family where everybody kind of knows the base level of what you agree with and the policy arguments are like spats, like what we're having for dinner. In reform, the glue is grievance alone. So you don't actually know what people truly believe in. And there are factions and tribes within reform. It's not coherent. You can follow the Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online. This episode of the Times Radio News Briefing is sponsored by PwC.

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