Morning briefing Friday 10 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 This is the Times Radio Morning Briefing on Friday, 10th April. I'm Chris Stabbs. Sir Keir Starmer has said that he's fed up with President Trump's actions during the ongoing war in Iran because they've pushed up energy bills for households and businesses across the UK.

0:50He compared the US-Israeli war with Iran to Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine. Speaking during a trip to Bahrain, he also said that Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon are wrong and should stop. He also criticized Trump's threat to obliterate civilization in Iran, saying it was not language that he would ever use. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has responded to rumors that Iran are charging fees to tankers to go through the Straits of Hormuz, and warned Iran via a post on Truth Social that they'd better stop now. Negar Murtazavi is an American-Iranian journalist and a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, and told us that Iran wants to use the straits to raise funds.

1:31They see it as their golden card, as the main leverage, and they're trying to see how they can play this card in the highest reward possible, that are passing, who can pass, how they can pass. And then they're also thinking about it long term after the war, after the ceasefire, after a permanent cessation of hostilities, if they can turn this into a revenue making situation with a framework that they're trying to create with Oman, who also has access to this waterway. U.S. First Lady Melania Trump says rumors linking her to Jeffrey Epstein are lies and are damaging her reputation. She's denied ever having a relationship with a late sex offender and says that he did not introduce her to her husband Donald Trump.

2:14In a rare unscheduled live address from the White House, she referred to an occasion stated in the Epstein files where she had a brief correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell. David Charter is the assistant U.S. editor of the Times and explains the situation. There is an email in which she signs off Love Melania and she engages in chit chat with Ghislaine Maxwell saying I know you're busy flying all over the world. How was Palm Beach? Give me a call when you're back in NY, meaning New York. So this again has given rise to the rumour mill that she was more friendly with Ghislaine Maxwell for example than perhaps was known in the past.

2:54And NASA's Artemis II crew is set to make history this weekend with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, scheduled for approximately 1.07am on Saturday morning. After a 10-day journey that took them further from Earth than any humans in history, peaking at a record-breaking just over 252 ,000 miles, they'll reach speeds of over 23 ,000 miles an hour as they re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. Lauren Worley is a former NASA press secretary, and told us that the re-entry should be straightforward, but by no means routine. I'm confident these systems have been tested consistently over the years, but it will be harrowing because in 2022, that's when the Orion heat shield was tested without crew, and we know that the heat shield did not hold up to the extent that we anticipated that it would.

3:44So there will be some chattering teeth, there will be some fingers crossed tomorrow night. And you can hear more on these stories throughout the day on Times Radio.

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