Morning briefing Thursday 26th 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 Times Radio's morning briefing on Thursday the 26th of March. President Trump says Iran's leaders are afraid to admit they are negotiating with the United States.

0:45It's after the Iranian foreign minister, Seher Abbas Arachi, said his country will keep defending itself and there is no intention of negotiating for now. But in his speech at an unrelated fundraising dinner in Washington last night, Trump insisted Iran is involved in talks. And they are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly, but they're afraid to say it because they figure they'll be killed by their own people. They're also afraid they'll be killed by us. There's never been a head of a country that wanted that job less than being the head of Iran. As President Trump deploys more than a thousand troops to the Middle East, military experts are suggesting any attempt to seize Iran's key oil exporting terminal on Haag Island would be a significant risk.

1:34Iran is also warning the US against trying to send troops there. Mick Mulroy is a former US Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East. Speaking to Times Radio, he warned of a potential suicide mission. I think they're going to focus primarily on the islands around the strait so we can open it up. And Karg Island has 90 % of the processing capability of Iranian energy. So the idea would be the Marines take it and then hold it at risk, hoping that it would force the Iranians to open up the strait. It's unclear if that would actually do that. A legal success for a 20-year-old woman who sued Meta and Google over her childhood addiction to social media is expected to lead to tens of thousands of further lawsuits.

2:21The jury awarded her$3 million. British parents are already suing TikTok in the United States after the deaths of five children. Mark Selman is the technology correspondent for The Times. So it's essentially a product liability issue and it's been compared to the big tobacco trials. And it could end up being that significant in terms of the amounts of money involved. There was about£260 billion that ended up being settled in the tobacco trials. And with 10 ,000 cases sitting in the wings, we could be talking about billions. And Northern Ireland's manager Michael O 'Neill says tonight's World Cup qualifying playoff in Italy is a big opportunity that his players can take advantage of.

3:05Italy will be favourites to win their semi-final, but the four-time World Cup winners haven't qualified for the tournament since 2014. O 'Neill says it will be a young Northern Ireland team that will take the field tonight. I have a lot of belief in this group of players. I think the benefits you get with youth is a lack of fear. We have everything to gain in the game so I don't worry about that side of this team. They've already gone to Germany and Cologne and Slovakia. They've handled those situations well. And the winners will take on either Wales or Bosnia next Tuesday for a place in the finals this summer in North America.

3:45There's more on all of these stories throughout the day on Times Radio.

3:52This 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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