Daily Briefing Saturday 21st February

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. Hello, this is your Times Radio Daily Briefing for Saturday the 21st of February with me, James Kitchen. The government is considering introducing legislation to remove Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from the royal line of succession.

0:46The former Duke's been questioned over allegations of misconduct in public office, but has always denied any wrongdoing. Andrew ceased to be a working member of the royal family in 2019 and was stripped of his royal titles last October, but he remains eighth in line to the throne. The constitutional historian Daniel Britton told Times Radio a precise bill could move through Parliament swiftly. People are looking for action. We might have had a lot of gestures, but I think people very much see that the Worrell family should be dealing with this and be seen to be dealing with this. So I think it will suit the palace and the government to have a piece of legislation.

1:25It will tidy things up, it will sort it and probably, with luck, get rid of the problem. Thames Valley Police is continuing its search of Andrew's former home in Windsor through the weekend. Meanwhile, Scotland Yard has asked his former and serving close protection officers to come forward if they ever saw any wrongdoing. Donald Trump has announced a worldwide 10 % tariff after the Supreme Court struck down a key plank of his economic agenda. Justices ruled the president had exceeded his powers when it came to the blanket reciprocal levies. The new universal tax will be enforced for 150 days, effective almost immediately, although some products will be exempt.

2:07Andrew Wilson is the Deputy General Secretary of the International Chamber of Commerce. Speaking to Times Radio, he warned the uncertainty is having a crippling effect. We should be careful not to assume we're now heading into a regime where there are lower tariffs on imports into the US. The administration has been very clear they're going to look to rebuild this through a variety of sectoral and country-level measures. So we could end up with a higher effective tariff rate and ultimately a more complex tariff regime that could be severely damaging for international commerce. Meanwhile, Mr Trump says he's considering a limited strike on Iran with the aim of forcing its leaders to curb the country's nuclear programme.

2:48The president warned the world would find out over the next probably 10 days whether a deal would be reached or Washington would take military action. Sumantra Meitra is a senior fellow at the Centre for a Renewing America Think Tank. Speaking to Times Radio, he warned the rhetoric was unpopular amongst Trump supporters. It's already fracturing the MAGA base in the United States. The idea that we can replicate something like Venezuela with Iran is absolute nonsense. You know, the size and scope and scale of the Iranian regime and the Iranian country and the manpower and the population, it's surrounded by, you know, mountains.

3:23You cannot have a ground invasion in that kind of scenario. You don't have any contact with the second tier of the regime, for example. A clinical trial into puberty blockers for children who are questioning their gender has been paused. According to the Department of Health, the medicine's regulator has raised new concerns. It says the issues need to be resolved, with trials in England proceeding only if scientific and clinical evidence conclude they're safe and necessary. The policing minister's warning playgrounds could become crack deaths if the Green Party's drug policies take hold. Sarah Jones' intervention comes as the Greens call for a public health approach to drug taking, with leader Zach Polanski saying the war on drugs is failing.

4:04His party is calling for drug possession to be decriminalised and replaced by a regulated market. Remember, you can follow the Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify and you can listen live to Times Radio Online.

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