Afternoon briefing Wednesday 11th 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. This is your Times Radio News Briefing for the afternoon of Wednesday, the 11th of March. The Chancellor said the sooner the conflict in Iran de-escalates, the better for the UK economy.

0:44As a result of the attacks, oil tankers and cargo vessels are stuck travelling through the Strait of Hormuz, south of Iran. Rachel Reeves told the Treasury Committee why ships were being stalled. At the moment, the issue is not so much insurance products, but the safety of captains and crews of those vessels. but we're working closely with both our allies in the Gulf and in the G7 and also with the insurance industry to ensure that as quickly as possible we can get those movements going again. Japan has announced that it is going to release 15 days' worth of oil reserves ahead of an expected decision from the International Energy Agency that it will release millions of barrels of oil from its reserves to help with demand and prices.

1:31In the Strait of Hormuz, 20 people have been rescued from a Thai ship hit by unknown projectiles, but three crew members remain missing. Thailand's transport ministry said an explosion occurred and caused a fire in the engine compartment where they'd been working. Three cargo vessels have been hit in the last 24 hours. Director of Policy at UK Chamber of Shipping, Peter Aylott, told Times Radio it's ongoing. The attacks on shipping remain indiscriminate, continue in the way that they've been following in the last 11 days since the conflict started. And obviously, from the Chamber's perspective, we feel very strongly about the seafarers that are stuck on board those vessels in the Persian Gulf, unable to be repatriated, unable to have crew changes, unable to sail, and very worried about what's going on at the moment, as you might imagine.

2:18The organisers of the annual Al-Quds pro-Palestine march in London this Sunday have said a police ban on the events will not go unchallenged and that they will still hold a static protest. The Home Secretary signed off the Met's decision to stop the march, who said it was a power it used rarely, but that the protest posed unique risks with extreme tensions between different factions, given the situation in the Middle East. The Islamic Human Rights Commission says this is a politically charged decision, not one taken for the security of the people of London. Documents relating to the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US will be released this afternoon.

2:54Sir Keir Starmer has come under fire in recent months for choosing the former Labour minister, despite his relationship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein after he was convicted. Political editor of the Times, Stephen Swinford, says there won't be thousands of documents, but there will be important ones. This is stuff directly in the run-up to his appointment. So the key thing that everyone will be looking out for is what was called the Cabinet Office's due diligence report into Lord Mandelson. And what that was essentially is, what did Keir Starman know about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein before he appointed him as ambassador?

3:26and it turns out we think it is quite a lot. Famous figures from British history will no longer appear on future banknotes, including the removal of Winston Churchill. The Bank of England's decided to go for the theme of wildlife as it isn't divisive. For more stories like this, listen throughout the day to Times Radio.

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