Morning briefing Thursday 4th 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 Times Radio's morning briefing on Thursday the 4th of June. Nigel Farage has told Times Radio that this week's violence and disorder in Southampton is the beginning and that the division will get worse.

0:47Protests in the city led to 11 police officers being injured near the site of Henry Novak's fatal stabbing by a Sikh man who had falsely accused him of racial abuse. The Prime Minister has accused Farage of exploiting the murder of the teenager to create grievance and division. Speaking to Times Radio, the Reform UK leader also reiterated his claim that the UK is dealing with two-tier policing. I've really been astonished at the sheer number of emails I've had from serving and ex-police officers just saying we're terrified because if we're seen not to respond to an accusation of racism, that'll be the end of our jobs and that comes number one.

1:24It comes above everything else and it partially explains the actions that we saw. These are the instructions that operational police officers have been given, and it's not putting us in a good place. Sakir Starmer could water down plans to increase defence spending by£18 billion, amid concerns they are unaffordable. The Times has been told the Prime Minister met the Chancellor Rachel Reeves on Tuesday to discuss the long-delayed defence investment plan. Starmer wants to approve the deal before next month's NATO summit in the Turkish capital Ankara. Speaking to Times Radio, the former Conservative Defence Secretary, Tobias Elwood, said it would leave the UK increasingly open to attack.

2:01Our adversaries will be watching very carefully where we're not spending the money. Right now there is no air defence over London, no air defence over Portsmouth, for example. So those drones that hit Cyprus could easily be then fired at one of the bases in the UK. We'd have no proper air defence to actually manage that. But that big question is where does the money come from? President Trump says the Straits of Hormuz will reopen immediately, once a memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran is signed. In his latest briefing from the Oval Office, Trump said there could be progress in negotiations as soon as this weekend, although any talks could be hindered by ongoing hostilities between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

2:45David Hale is a former US special envoy for the Middle East. I think at the end of the day, Prime Minister Netanyahu doesn't want to get crosswise, with President Trump. I've also seen a pattern whereby whenever the Israelis see that in a conflict the United States may be beginning to negotiate with the other side, that the Israelis tend to overreach. They want to grab as much as they can so that when they're forced to bargain they have some leverage to bargain over. And a report by the Law Commission suggests water cremation could be introduced in England and Wales. Alkaline hydrolysis was introduced in Scotland in March as an alternative to cremation and burial.

3:23The commission says human composting is also being considered. The process involves the deceased being placed in a specially designed container with organic materials, in which the body is broken down into soil. There's more on these stories throughout the day on Times Radio.

3:52In 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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