Evening briefing Friday 29th May

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 Times Radio's evening briefing on Friday the 29th of May. The Defence Secretary has suggested that more RAF fighter jets could be deployed to Romania to bolster NATO's eastern flank.

0:45It comes after a Russian drone crashed into a block of flats, starting a fire in which two people were injured. John Healy said Moscow's war on Ukraine was spreading beyond its borders and that the UK will help support NATO air policing. John Foreman, the former defence attaché to the British embassies in Moscow and Kyiv, spoke to Times Radio. If these things are happening more and more often and air defences aren't adequate, then we obviously need to bolster air defences down the eastern flank of NATO. The action was taken after the incursions into Poland, but I always thought that Romania was probably a bit weak.

1:18If the British want to bolster their position down there, they'll probably go ahead and do it. But I think there's other questions, what about Ukrainian air defences? How do we, NATO and the Allies, help Ukraine shoot these things down before they get to NATO? Four RAF typhoons are already in Romania. A man accused of selling a potentially lethal chemical online has admitted 14 counts of aiding suicide in a court in Canada. Police think 60-year-old Kenneth Law sent 1 ,200 packages to people in more than 40 countries. The poison's been linked to the deaths of 112 people in the UK, but prosecutors here won't be charging Law.

1:53They say it's unlikely they'll be able to extradite him because of double jeopardy laws. Retired police officer Tom Warfield worked on the case. He told the Times investigative podcast Poison, the Canadian Postal Service gave him the addresses of anyone law sent packages to. Our people spend the whole weekend trying to get a hold of every police, every country, through a police database called CPIC, which sends messages around the world saying a person in the UK has a suicide packet, this is the address, you've got to go knock on the door. President Trump has said in a Truth Social post that the US Navy is lifting its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

2:32The US president insisted Iran must agree to end all nuclear ambitions and says that he's making a final decision on a possible peace deal. The leader of the Conservative Party has criticised Sir Tony Blair in an open letter in the Times. Kemi Badenoch called the former prime minister's legacy a country run by HR and said the Labour government champions his worst ideas. Here's Times Radio's newsroom reporter, Olly Cole. The Tory leader says Tony Blair is right to ask Labour MPs to focus on a proper political project and increase our economic and military strengths, but says that the current Labour government is not the vehicle to drive that change.

3:11Throughout the letter, Baden-Ock attacks Rachel Reeves' decisions to increase employers' national insurance and tax farmers and family businesses, and questions Ed Miliband's climate policies. As she turns to where the country stands now, she says the Blairite legacy is that the entire country is now run by HR, accusing the Labour government of junking Tony Blair's best ideas and championing his worst. AI will be used to help border officials work out how old asylum seekers are. It's feared some are pretending to be children, as being under 18 can sometimes impact whether a claim's successful or not.

3:45Social workers are urging ministers not to take shortcuts, saying mistakes can cause major safeguarding issues. There's more on these stories throughout the day on Times Radio.

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