Morning briefing Thursday 19th March

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0:36This is the Times Radio Morning Briefing for Thursday 19th March. British military officers have been dispatched to the US to help plan how to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. It comes after the price of oil soared as Iran warned it would strike energy infrastructure across the Gulf in response to an Israeli attack. Missiles hit Iran's huge Paz gas field yesterday. Iran retaliated by launching attacks on energy sites in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. It's still sending missiles over to Israel as well, so its program has not been significantly affected so far in that it is able still to send drones over to all its neighboring states.

1:20So we're seeing that Iran's capability of retaliating with missiles and drones remains robust. That was Dr. Roxanne Farman-Famayan, an expert in Middle East politics who's previously served as an advisor to the UK military. Meanwhile, Reuters has reported the White House is considering deploying thousands of US troops to the Middle East in order to reinforce its operation. It's also being reported by the Washington Post that the Pentagon has asked the US government for an extra$200 billion in funding via a series of proposals in the past two weeks. Former advisor to the U.S. government's Department for War, Catherine Thompson, told Times Radio she thinks this conflict will drag on.

2:05I think it's certainly possible given some of the rhetoric from the president and others around potentially what could be coming as far as further escalation. And I'm just not seeing enough signals from the administration on, again, a desired end state that then gets us to an off-ramp quickly. The independent MP for Canterbury has said schools and universities in the city need to be better at communicating advice to their students in the wake of the meningitis outbreak. The UK Health Security Agency issued a rare national public health alert for NHS staff in England, who have been told to be vigilant for signs of the disease.

2:44Up to 5 ,000 students living in halls are going to be vaccinated. The UK HSA say there have been 20 cases now in total and two young people have died. Rosie Duffield represents the area in Parliament. I think communication could be better from some of the schools, but of course they're also reliant on the information they're getting from the government. So some schools have sent out lots of information, others not so much. And I know sixth formers in particular have been really worried about whether they should go into school or not. So I think we need more information, not just at the universities, but the sixth form.

3:17One school shut its year 13 and others haven't. So I think we need maybe a bit more clarity on that. The Bank of England is expected to hold interest rates at 3.75 % as global uncertainty continues. There were hopes of a rate cut, but with the unpredictability over Iran, policymakers will likely wait for more clarity. Economists say rising energy prices linked to tensions involving Iran could push inflation higher again. The target rate is 2%. Don't forget you can listen live to Times Radio on the Times Radio app.

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