Daily Briefing Sunday 19th 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. Hello, this is your Times Radio Daily Briefing for Sunday the 19th of April with me, James Kitchen. It's emerged the biggest client of Peter Mandelson's lobbying firm was a Shanghai-listed business linked to the Chinese military.

0:46Leaked documents seen by the Sunday Times reveal Global Council received millions of pounds from the pharmaceutical company Wujiaptec. The disclosures come as senior government sources told the paper it was Lord Mandelson's foreign ties that led him to failing security vetting. Sakhir Starmer is preparing to justify his handling of the peer's appointment to Washington in Parliament tomorrow. The Sunday Times columnist Jason Cowley says the prime minister lacks rigor. What defines Keir Starmer is a lack of curiosity. Again and again, he either catches up with something too late, he delivers a speech and then withdraws certain phrases from it.

1:23He doesn't ask the right questions over Mandelson. He's not rigorous enough. Iran insists the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the U.S. president ends his blockade on Iranian ports. With the ceasefire expiring on Wednesday, Tehran claims to have received new proposals from Washington, while mediators from Pakistan attempt to arrange another round of direct negotiations. Speaking to Times Radio, the journalist and shipping author Rose George said seafarers are facing very challenging conditions. They're stuck on prisons, essentially. They can't get off. It was like during COVID they couldn't get off for months.

1:59But as someone said to me, look, at least in COVID they weren't drones and they weren't flinging missiles at us. It's a really terrible situation and all these people are just there because they need a job and they're doing their work. An arson attack in North London is being treated as an anti-Semitic hate crime. Members of the Jewish community previously used a building that was targeted in Hendon. A man was spotted fleeing the scene on Friday night when a bag containing three bottles of fluid failed to ignite. It's the fifth incident claimed by an Islamist group linked to Tehran in less than a month.

2:31The former head of security at Iran International TV, Roger McMillan, told Times Radio the group is using children recruited on social media. The attacks on March 13th in the Netherlands, that was a group of children that were involved, the youngsters, teenagers. The same as happened the other night when Iran International's officers were attacked. That was a 16-year-old, a 19-year-old and a 21-year-old. They had solo golders green attacks. Again, at least three young adults and teenagers. This is a pattern that is increasing. Authorities in Ukraine say a gunman who murdered six people in Kiev yesterday was born in Russia.

3:11One of those who died was a hostage he'd taken. 14 people were injured in the attacks, including a 12-year-old boy. The man was later killed by police. A man jailed for 17 years for a rape he didn't commit says there needs to be a fearless investigation into police following the real culprits conviction on Friday. Andrew Malkinson was wrongly convicted in 2003 after being picked out of an identity parade. Speaking to the Sunday Times, he's accused Greater Manchester Police of choosing to ignore evidence of his innocence. The force has apologised. Ministers are urging more young people to have their say about how to stay safe online.

3:49There have been 50 ,000 responses to a consultation so far, 6 ,000 of them from children. It closes in five weeks' time. A government summit in Sussex tomorrow will discuss how AI and technology are shaping childhood. Remember, you can follow the Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify and you can listen live to Times Radio Online.

4:19This episode of the Times Radio News Briefing is sponsored by PwC. AI is everywhere. In the news, in 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 experiment to scale. Discover more at pwc.co.uk.