Evening briefing Tuesday 16th June

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0:36This is the Times Radio evening briefing for Tuesday the 16th of June. An investigation has been launched by the MOD after reports that a Russian warship fired warning shots at a yacht in the English Channel this morning. It's understood to have involved a frigate 20 miles south of the Isle of Wight and comes as the head of MI6 warns Moscow is expanding the battlefield to Britain. Despite rising tensions, the Prime Minister says there's unlikely to be more money allocated for the long-delayed defence investment plan. Sukhya Starmer told Times Radio it will be up to the new Defence Secretary to prioritise capabilities.

1:09Rachel Reeves and I have been responsible for delivering the biggest uplift in defence spending since the 1980s. That's what we did last year when we increased it from 2.3 % to 2.6%. The Defence Investment Plan sits alongside that or on top of that. That had already delivered£270 billion over this Parliament, by the way. It's a record amount of money. Donald Trump is urging Russia to make peace with Ukraine, as he described a G7 leaders meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky as very good. The US president has also told reporters at the summit there would be no Israel without him, amid worsening relations with Benjamin Netanyahu.

1:45He called on the Israeli prime minister to be more responsible in Lebanon. I'll tell you what, Israel's fighting Hezbollah too long and too many people are being killed. And you don't have to knock down an apartment house every time you're looking for somebody, because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses, and they're not all Hezbollah, that I can tell you. And I suggested to Israel to let Syria take care of Hezbollah. France's prime minister says the country's intelligence services will replace tools provided by the American tech firm Palantir with domestically produced alternatives.

2:18He says the move, which will take several years, is aimed at reducing dependency on foreign technology. Earlier, London's mayor, Sir Sadiq Khan, blocked a contract with the firm to provide the Metropolitan Police with an AI system. Thames Water has moved a step closer to nationalisation as the Environment Secretary objects to a£10 billion rescue package. Emma Reynolds has written to the regulator Ofwat, raising concerns over the firm's approach to pollution and infrastructure problems. But the Conservative Shadow Environment Secretary Victoria Atkins says the supplier could collapse at enormous cost to consumers.

2:50The priority now must be a financial arrangement that keeps the company afloat and protects bill payers and taxpayers. Now whilst her government is in chaos, paralysed by the Prime Minister's weakness and the Mayor of Manchester's leadership ambitions, Thameswater continues to fail. Prince George is to attend Eton College from September. Kensington Palace says the 12-year-old will follow in the footsteps of his father, the Prince of Wales, at the school near Windsor. And a rare first edition copy of Wuthering Heights, complete with spelling mistakes, is up for sale. The cloth-bound edition of Emily Bronte's novel is expected to fetch around half a million pounds at Christie's.

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