Morning briefing Tuesday 13th January

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0:36This is the Times Radio morning briefing for Tuesday the 13th of January. American citizens are being urged to flee Iran as deadly anti-government protests continue across the country. Donald Trump announced symbolic 25 % tariffs on countries that trade with Tehran ahead of meetings today where he'll discuss how to respond to the deadly crackdown. It's reported Iran has offered to negotiate with the U.S. to avoid an attack. Former U.S. diplomat Barbara Leaf is a Middle East specialist. She told Times Radio Trump needs to work out his goals. This regime has a toughness and a highly coercive resilience that has proven itself over decades, which is not to say it's immutably strong and that it cannot, under the right circumstances and pressure, begin to crack.

1:24But we haven't seen cracks. We haven't seen cracks in the governing elite. We haven't seen cracks in the security services. The BBC is seeking to have Donald Trump's$10 billion defamation case over a misleading documentary edit dismissed. Court documents show the state broadcaster is arguing it should be thrown out, as it didn't produce or broadcast the program in Florida where the case has been brought, and that President Trump's claim it was available to watch in the U.S. is untrue. The corporation also argues Trump has failed to demonstrate the required actual malice. Hundreds of vessels thought to be linked to Russia's shadow fleet could be seized by British forces.

2:01Officials have identified legal grounds to allow a clampdown on sanctioned tankers used to ship oil, funding the Kremlin's war efforts. The Times reporter Emma Yeomans says any operation is likely to be carried out with allies. A large proportion of the vessels we sanction are now considered stateless. That means they're flying false flags, they're flying flags without permission, or they're flying. In some cases, we identified today flags that actually don't exist. Governments are saying this tank should not have our flag on it. And when a vessel is stateless under the UN law of the sea, it is perfectly possible to seize that vessel in international waters.

2:38China's new super embassy in London is set to be approved by the prime minister within days. The Times understands the green light comes after the security services raised no formal objections. But a group of Labour MPs are opposing the plans, citing Chinese espionage concerns and the location near to sensitive communications infrastructure. An announcement is due ahead of Sir Keir Starmer's visit to Beijing at the end of the month, the first by a UK Prime Minister in eight years. Compensation paid by the NHS for mistakes in A &E has doubled in a decade. Last year, nearly half a billion pounds was paid out for clinical negligence in emergency departments, including failures to diagnose serious conditions such as stroke and inappropriate discharges.

3:20The figures that also show the number of claims jumping by 21 % in 10 years have been gathered by the Liberal Democrats who are proposing a 12-hour maximum wait time to be seen in A &E. And a new 50-pence piece celebrating Concorde has been launched by the Royal Mint. The coin shows the aircraft in flight and marks 50 years since the supersonic airliner's first commercial flight. Follow the Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio Online.

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