Evening briefing Friday 10th 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. This is the Times afternoon briefing for Friday the 10th of April. One man has died and 27 are in hospital after a tourist bus carrying British passengers has crashed in the Canary Islands.

0:46It happened around lunchtime in Playa de Santiago and it's thought the passengers were on the way to a boat tour. Three of the most seriously injured patients have been transferred to the neighbouring island of Tenerife for treatment. European airports could experience fuel shortages and severe disruption within weeks. Industry body ACI Europe, which represents airports within the EU, has told the bloc that if traffic doesn't resume through the Strait of Hormuz, systemic jet fuel shortage could become a reality. Lars Jensen from Vespucci Maritime told Times Radio even if the strait reopened tomorrow, the disruption will be long-lasting.

1:23This is not like putting a parcel on an airplane. Cargo vessels move at the same speed as a moped. So even if, hypothetically, everything open tomorrow, It will still be a month before oil finally starts to arrive at its destinations again. We're going to look at domino effects over the next month, where the supply situation on oil product is actually going to get worse, even if the strait opens tomorrow. J.D. Vance has said he's looking forward to negotiations between the US and Iran, but warned Iran not to play us. Speaking before leaving Washington for Pakistan, the vice president said the US would extend the open hand if Iranians were willing to negotiate in good faith.

2:03The Prime Minister says any Middle East peace deal must stop Iran charging a toll to ships in the Strait of Hormuz. He had been speaking at the end of a tour of the Gulf where he described the state of a US-Iran ceasefire as fragile. Sir Keir Starmer confirmed he discussed military logistics with Donald Trump and said he was fed up with the President's actions and their impact on the UK. Sir Peter Westmacott, former British ambassador to the US, said the Prime Minister's reaction was understandable. I think the Prime Minister was both initially fed up with the way in which he was expected to, if you like, join a conflict which he'd not been consulted about, and then secondly, this impact on the British economy and the global economy of the consequences of that conflict.

2:48A domestic abuser has been jailed in a landmark case after being found responsible for his wife's suicide. Lee Milne has been sentenced to eight years in the first such case in Scottish legal history. Kimberley Milne took her own life in Dundee in 2023 after years of abuse. And the co-founder and owner of Leon has opened his company's books to the Times after accusing the government of totally killing the restaurant industry. John Vincent says for an average restaurant with£1.3 million sales, he was paying an extra£70 ,000 per year in rates and national insurance. Speaking to Times Radio earlier this week, he said restaurants are done.

3:28This is actually a complete and utter disaster, this government. I have people calling me in tears every day, saying they've owned restaurants for 40 years and now they're going under. In America, there's 6 % sales tax to 7 % sales tax. In the UK, it's 20 % VAT. In America, 6 % of total expenditure is rent. Here, it's about 15%. So when you add all that up, it is impossible now to run a hospitality business. You can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

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