Morning briefing Tuesday 3rd 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 Tuesday 3rd March. The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is warning Iran to expect a series of bigger and harder airstrikes.

0:46Speaking in Washington last night, Secretary Rubio said President Trump has options at his disposal. He said the administration's objectives can be achieved without the need for troops on the ground. The President always has the options to undertake whatever operations he decides to do as the commander-in-chief. We believe the objective that we have set for this mission, which is the destruction of their ballistic missile capabilities, both launch capability and manufacturing, can be achieved without ground forces. Right now we're not postured for ground forces, but obviously the president has those options.

1:17He's never going to rule out anything. Secretary Rubio also said the United States attacked Iran preemptively because Washington knew that Israel was going to attack first. His comments appear to contradict President Trump's initial claim that the American action was timed to bring about regime change. Mick Mulroy is a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East. Because we knew Israel was going to attack Iran, then Iran would likely respond not just to Israel but also to the United States. So we're using that as the imminent threat that required us, if you will, to do preemptive strikes.

1:53That's going to be challenged, of course, by Congress, but ultimately that is what the administration has landed on. Iran has warned it will set on fire any ship attempting to pass through the Straits of Hormuz, a key oil export route in the Gulf region. Maritime insurers had already halted voyages through the strait between Iran and Oman, which carries around a fifth of the oil that is consumed globally, as well as large quantities of gas. Sir Mark Lyle Grant is a former national security advisor. Speaking to Times Radio, he warned the British economy will be directly impacted because of the amount of liquefied natural gas it imports from Qatar.

2:32Bertie says there are other, more serious consequences facing the UK. The biggest concern will be the risk of increased Iranian cyber attacks and terrorist attacks in the UK. Well, if this turns out very badly for the Iranian regime, there'll be a lot of people motivated to take revenge on those who've attacked them, and that will include the United Kingdom. Britain's most senior police officer has praised what he's described as the extraordinary dignity in the face of unbearable grief shown by the family of Sarah Everard on the fifth anniversary of her murder. Sarah, who was 33, was raped and killed by a serving police officer who tricked her into thinking she could be arrested for breaking COVID lockdown rules as she walked home from a friend's house in South London in 2021.

3:22Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said it was as devastating today as it was five years ago. And the Chancellor will tell MPs today the government has the right economic plan for the country. In her spring statements, Rachel Reeves will point to falling inflation and cuts in interest rates, although the statement comes just weeks after the Bank of England downgraded its growth rating for the UK economy. There's more on all of these stories throughout the day on Times Radio.

3:54This 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. At Brookfield, we believe you can own wealth that's measured in generations.

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