Evening briefing Wednesday 4th 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. Welcome to the Times Radio evening briefing on Wednesday the 4th of March. The U.S. Defense Secretary says an American submarine has sunk an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka.

0:42Pete Hegseth says it's the first American sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II. Sri Lanka's Deputy Foreign Minister says at least 80 people were killed in the Indian Ocean attack. Hegseth says the Iranian regime will be destroyed. We are only four days into this, and the results have been incredible. Historic, really. Only the United States of America could lead this. Only us. But when you add the Israeli defence forces, a devastatingly capable force, the combination is sheer destruction for our radical Islamist Iranian adversaries. They are toast, and they know it. It could be two weeks before HMS Dragon is in place to protect RAF Akrotiri and Cyprus from ballistic missiles and drone attacks.

1:30Officials say the Type 45 destroyer will not set sail until next week. It's being brought out of maintenance and being fitted with the correct weapons. James Cartlis, the Shadow Defence Secretary, says it's being deployed way too late. I don't understand why she wasn't sent many days ago. Dragon is a Type 45, that is an air defence destroyer. incredibly important. It can intercept missiles that will be incoming to Cyprus. Hopefully that won't happen but as part of her defence she's a critical element. She should have been there days ago. Sir Keir Starmer says the special relationship with the US is not about hanging on to President Trump's latest words.

2:03He says the British jet shooting down drones and missiles to protect American lives demonstrates the special relationship. Trump has said that Starmer is no Churchill. The leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage has given his reaction. To say he's no Churchill is quite an understatement, really, I would have thought. I mean, the man has dithered, he's all over the place, he's not a leader, he's a follower, his performance has been abject over the course of the last few days, added to which we haven't even got a Royal Navy that's serviceable anymore. So I'm not surprised he said what he said. Three men have been arrested on suspicion of spying for China.

2:37The Met Police says the suspects, 39, 43 and 68, were arrested by counter-terror officers in London and Wales after being accused of assisting a foreign intelligence service. One of them, a lobbyist called David Taylor, is married to Labour MP Joni Reid. She says she's never seen anything that made her suspect her husband had broken the law. Security Minister Dan Jarvis has been updating the comments. We remain deeply concerned by an increasing pattern of covert activity from Chinese state-linked actors targeting UK democracy. This involves attempts to obtain information on UK policymaking and interfere with our sovereign affairs.

3:16And you can follow The Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify and 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.

4:00Discover more at pwc.co.uk