Morning briefing Friday 20th 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 This is the Times Radio News Briefing for the morning of Friday the 20th of March. The Israeli Prime Minister has suggested a ground operation would be needed to overthrow the regime in Iran.

0:45Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was still working to create the conditions for the Islamic Republic to collapse. He claimed, though, their ability to enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles has been destroyed within 20 days of strikes. But doubts have been cast on his ability to completely deal with what he sees as the Iranian threat. The Israeli Prime Minister is a bit like Hercules fighting the Hydra, the serpent with nine heads. Every time one of the heads was lopped off, two more would grow back. Now that is the Iranian regime at the moment. They're replacing the leadership as fast as it's being assassinated.

1:18And I think anyone who knows the Iranian structure of the Islamic Republic knows that they are very embedded in the country, in its economy. That was the former British ambassador to Iran, Nicholas Hopton. Meanwhile, a former Israeli diplomat, Dan Arbel, has also told Times Radio the war objectives from both Israel and the US continue to change. When the war started and Khamenei was eliminated, then the talk of regime change became the prevailing point. And all of a sudden you see that regime change is no longer an objective that the US and Israel seem to be able to achieve. And so now they're talking about creating the conditions that will bring about regime change in the future.

2:05The police inquiry into Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is likely to widen beyond the offence of misconduct in public office. The Times has learned through police sources that Andrew is set to be investigated over other potential corruption offences on top of a scoping inquiry into alleged sex trafficking. He was arrested last month on suspicion of misconduct in public office. relating to his time as a government trade envoy when he allegedly passed confidential information to the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. He has denied all wrongdoing. More vaccination centres are opening in Kent as the government's immunisation programme there expands.

2:42A number closed early yesterday because they reached capacity. It's thought more than 100 students were turned away. The clinics have been opened in response to the county's meningitis B outbreak. the UK Health Security Agency, say there's been nearly 30 confirmed or suspected cases. Andrew Lee is a professor in public health. He says the response has been impressive. It takes time. In real world situations and conditions, it takes time to mobilise a response. And I say this, this response has been pretty swift, has been pretty robust, and my hat's off to them because behind the scenes there would have been lots of people working many hours late into the night sorting this out and most of us would not have seen it.

3:26Inflationary pressures are building. That's the warning from the head of research at the British Chambers of Commerce, who says it's not just the war in Iran causing problems. It comes after the Bank of England held interest rates at 3.75%. David Barrier said the chance of rate cuts this year are diminishing, with stagflation a real risk. There are these mounting pressures that we're seeing both from the raise in labour costs, the growth challenge that's now presented by the Iran conflict, and of course, the macro trend of AI adoption. If you haven't already, don't forget you can subscribe to the Times Radio News Briefing on any podcast platform.

4:10This 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. Discover more at pwc.co.uk.