Morning Briefing Monday 15th June

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 for Monday the 15th of June. Iran and the United States have reached a peace deal with an official signing due to take place in Switzerland on Friday.

0:47Donald Trump says the Strait of Hormuz will now open and the US will lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports. Ships of the world, start your engines, he wrote. Let the oil flow. It's after Pakistan's Prime Minister announced the deal had been agreed. Both sides, he said, have declared the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon. Mick Mulroy is one of Donald Trump's former assistant secretaries of defence in the Middle East. He told Times Radio it may well take time for the Strait of Hormuz to be confirmed as safe and mine-free. We would hope that the IRGC Navy actually knows where they put the naval mines and can recover them fairly quickly.

1:23But we have to convince commercial shipping and their insurers that it is actually safe. So even when the U.S. military goes through there, they have to agree, they have to believe it, and then they will be fully open. This doesn't mean that immediately we're going to see all these thousands of ships leave. It's probably going to take some time, but that's because the Iranians mind that straight up our nose. Iran's deputy foreign minister has said the memorandum of understanding doesn't mean there's trust in the enemy. Magy Taktrovansky confirmed negotiations for a final peace deal will be held over a period of 60 days.

2:00Royal Marines commandos are primed to take further action against sanctioned Russian vessels, with the capture of the Shadow Fleet tanker in the English Channel just at the beginning. In a pre-dawn raid, British troops captured a Cameroon flag tanker carrying over 700 ,000 barrels of Russian crude oil. Defence analyst Francis Tuzer told Times Radio the news of the captured fleet should be treated with some cynicism. It looks very performative to try and distract from John Healy's resignation and say, yes, we're really, we're doing stuff. It's going to depend on what we see in the next days and weeks.

2:36I'm not saying that Britain has to seize a tanker or a cargo ship every day, but one ship since, I think it's eight weeks since the regulations were announced about seizing them. That's not particularly impressive, is it? France intercepted almost two-thirds of the migrant boats bound for the UK last month. According to figures hailed by ministers as evidence, they're starting to turn the tide on illegal channel crossings. Home office data shows French authorities increased the rate of interceptions and the number of migrants prevented from reaching the UK since a new£660m deal to pay for more beach patrols was signed at the end of April.

3:14Migrant crossings are down 40 % compared to this time last year. And it was a successful Sunday for Premier League players at the World Cup. Arsenal's Kai Havert scored twice as Germany batted Curaçao 7-1. Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk and West Ham's Crescensio Somerville both scored for the Netherlands as they drew 2-1 with Japan. Manchester United forward Amadiyalo scored a 90th-minute winner as Ivory Coast beat Ecuador 1-0. And Liverpool's Alexander Isak and Arsenal's Victor Jokerez both scored for Sweden against Tunisia. You can hear more of these stories throughout the day on Times Radio.

3:49This 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.

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