Daily briefing Sunday 12th April

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 Daily Briefing on Sunday, the 12th of April. J.D. Vance, the U.S. Vice President, says Iran's nuclear program remains the main crunch point between Washington and Tehran.

0:46Talks in Pakistan lasting 21 hours finished without an agreement. Iran says America is making unreasonable demands. Meanwhile, Washington says two of its Navy destroyers have been through the Strait of Hormuz looking for mines. Former Royal Navy commander Tom Sharp was asked on Times Radio about Iran's ability to insert mines into the waterway. We know they can do offensive, discrete mining operations, but we also know they've got perhaps up to 5 ,000 free-floating, indiscriminate mines that they can push off the back of these converted fishing boats. And that then closes the straits. Now, everything suggests that we're still not going to do that.

1:23They still want those Chinese and Asian vessels leaving. but they have I reckon quite a lot of this still left in the locker should they need it. Reform UK would be very close to a parliamentary majority if a general election was held today winning 324 seats according to a new survey. The poll by More in Common for the Sunday Times also suggests that more than half the Labour cabinet would lose their constituencies and it says the Green Party would quadruple its seats rising from 5 to 22. The Labour health secretary West Streetings told Times Radio what he thinks of Zach Polanski's party. I think the Greens have gone way off to the left.

1:58They've got lots of those, a lot of that crank support that Corbyn mobilised around Labour. It's not going to do them any favours. I think it will turn people off, but we've just got to take them on on that basis and just not let them live rent-free in our heads would be my advice to Labour colleagues. Fish and chips, fried chicken nuggets and jam donuts will be banned from school dinners in England. Under new rules to be announced tomorrow, desserts will have to contain at least 50 % fruit. It means the end of the jam roly-poly. Author and British dessert advocate Karen Burns Booth says it's a dark day for sweet treats.

2:30We're in danger of actually losing a lot of our culinary heritage. As somebody who's travelled to loads and loads of countries all over the world, one of the things that stands out is that people are proud of their culinary heritage. And lots of the things that you mentioned that may not be on school dinners going forward really do represent one of the best genres of British cooking, which is the pudding. And the four Artemis II astronauts are being given a hero's welcome during an event held in their honour in Houston. NASA says their mission will pave the way for a new era of space exploration.

3:04Christina Cook had this message. I may have not learned, I know I haven't learned, everything that this journey has yet to teach me. But there's one new thing I know. Planet Earth, you are a crew. Thank you.

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