Evening briefing Monday 13th 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 Evening Briefing for Monday the 13th of April with me, James Kitchen. The parents of the Southport killer have been criticised in the first phase of the public inquiry into the attacks.

0:45Its chair found the murders of three girls at a dance class in 2024 could have been prevented if they'd alerted authorities to his increasingly erratic behaviour. Sir Adrian Fulford also highlighted critical failures in information sharing between agencies. The Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, told MPs Axel Rudikabana's referrals were treated individually. They should have been seen as a cumulative and compounding risk. The perpetrator did not receive the correct interventions and his autism diagnosis meant that professionals focused far too much on his vulnerability and far too little on the threat that he might pose to others.

1:24Donald Trump's warned Iranian attack ships will be eliminated if they approach a naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran says American restrictions on international waters amount to piracy, warning no port in the Persian Gulf or Gulf of Oman will be safe while Iran's are under threat. Speaking outside the Oval Office, President Trump said the U.S. can't let a country blackmail the world. We've been called this morning by the right people, the appropriate people, and they want to work a deal. They would like to work a deal. We don't need other countries, frankly, but they've offered the services.

1:58We'll let it be known probably tomorrow. Has the lockdown started, sir? Yeah, started. 10 o 'clock. But speaking to Times Radio, the former U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, Jeffrey Feltman, said the president has no plan. He's making it up as he goes along. And the Iranians do have a plan, which is to outlast us. They may be outgunned, they may be outnumbered, but they believe that they have political endurance that will outlast the American political endurance. Sakhir Starmer has announced he'll convene a summit of leaders this week to help ensure freedom of navigation in the strait. The Prime Minister also said the Israeli bombing of Lebanon was wrong and should stop now.

2:35Meanwhile, the President has doubled down on his criticism of Pope Leo, accusing him of being wrong on law and order. Earlier, the pontiff said he'll continue to speak out against war after Mr Trump accused him of being terrible for foreign policy. Associate editor of the Catholic Herald, Dr Gavin Ashenden, says the Pope was unwise to get involved. I think there's always a problem when the church exceeds its boundaries and begins to move from speaking ethically and morally and phidistically into issues of foreign policy. It has been done extremely carefully. A US judge has dismissed Donald Trump's$10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal.

3:15It's over an article claiming the president's name was in a 2003 birthday book given to Jeffrey Epstein. The president has a fortnight to decide whether to put forward an amended version. Hungary's new prime minister insists his government will do everything to start a new era. Peter Magyar says he'll work every day and every hour of the day to improve the country's security and development. Gregory Roos is director of the Europe and Russia and Eurasia programs at Chatham House. What has really made him stand out is absolute rejection of corruption and also the criticism of the tightened grip of the government on the media and the judiciary, which had become too obvious to many voters at a time when inflation was on the rise, where commodity prices were on the rise, where energy prices were on the rise.

4:04And remember, you can follow The Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify and you can listen live to Times Radio Online. This 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.

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