Evening Briefing Thursday 12th March

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 Thursday the 12th of March with me, James Kitchen. A base housing British and American troops in Iraq has been hit by Iranian drones.

0:42marking the third successful strike against UK forces since the start of the Iran war. It's understood some American troops were injured, but there were no British casualties. The Times' foreign correspondent Richard Spencer is in Iraqi Kurdistan. He says London and Washington believe Russia is providing Tehran with intelligence. Beyond that, of course, there is a great cooperation between Iran and Russia on various military aspects. Russia supplies Iran with air defense system. And likewise, Iran, of course, has been sending these Shahid drones, which it has really pioneered the use of these medium-sized unmanned aerial vehicles.

1:20It has been supplying Russia with those for use in Ukraine. It comes as Iran's new supreme leader has urged his neighbors in the Gulf to expel all Americans from the Middle East. The message, which was read by a newsreader on state television, also warned the essential global shipping route of the Strait of Hormuz must remain closed. Speaking to Times Radio, the former UK ambassador to Iran, Sir Simon Gass, said closing the waterway was always Tehran's trump card. Iran doesn't need to hit dozens of ships with missiles or drones or mines or limpet mines. All it needs to do is to cast sufficient anxiety and uncertainty into the market that ships choose not to try to transit the Strait of Hormuz.

2:04and that's fundamentally where we are at the moment. Times Radio has revealed Jeffrey Epstein and Tony Blair discussed religion and world conflict when they met in 2002. According to a memo in the Epstein files, Lord Mandelson broke at a meeting between the Financier and the then Prime Minister at Downing Street. Our political editor Anna Mihailova has been examining the documents. We can now reveal that Epstein made a note of that meeting and of what Blair told him in Downing Street. Blair talked about religion, the role it plays in conflict, as well as disclosing to Epstein who he turned to for personal advice.

2:41This was in 2002, and weeks after Blair met George Bush in Texas at a crucial summit where the pair reportedly discussed plans to invade Iraq. A spokesman for the former Prime Minister says as far as he can remember, Mr Blair met with Epstein for less than 30 minutes and he never engaged with him subsequently. Police are responding to reports of an active shooter at a synagogue containing a school in West Bloomfield in Michigan. FBI Director Kash Patel says there was an apparent vehicle ramming at Temple Island. Dozens of emergency vehicles are at the scene and aerial video appears to show smoke rising from the synagogue.

3:17According to the Oakland County Sheriff, there are no apparent injuries and the suspect remains at large. A Sussex police officer will appear in court tomorrow charged with historical sex offences. Samuel Davis has been charged with the rape of a teenage girl and the sexual assault of another child. Both incidents are alleged to have taken place when Davis was a teenager and before he joined the police. The 21-year-old has been suspended from duty. And remember, you can follow The Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify and you can listen live to Times Radio Online.

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