Morning briefing Wednesday 25th 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 Wednesday 25th March. The United States has sent a 15-point plan to Iran to end the war that would include strict limits on its nuclear programme and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

0:50The New York Times, quoting two anonymous officials, said Pakistan had offered to mediate in talks, while Israel's Channel 12 said the negotiations would take place during a month-long ceasefire. Elliott Abrams is a former special representative to Iran under President Trump. Speaking to Times Radio, he said he was pessimistic. I don't hear anything about a 15-point plan. I think that the American desires and American conditions are pretty clear. I think so are the Iranian conditions. They do not overlap, which makes me wonder how the negotiations will succeed. The Prime Minister will face MPs later as the UK works to develop a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

1:35It's after the chief executive of Shell, Wael Sawan, warned that Europe risks fuel shortages as soon as next month. Dr David B. Roberts is a Gulf expert and a former director of the think tank RUSI, the Royal United Services Institute in Qatar. The economic impact is being felt and I think will be felt for months and months to come. And I think that President Trump has a good sense of that. And so I can understand how and why he would like to cut a deal. Having said that, I don't see that Iran is in this utterly parlous kind of position. The party of Denmark's Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, have suffered their worst results in more than a century in an election dominated by migration and welfare.

2:19Frederiksen's Social Democrats won the most votes but failed to secure a majority, having campaigned on a promise that she would help Greenland navigate a complex relationship with the United States. Her chances of staying in power for a third term now depend on coalition talks which could last several weeks. Dame Sarah Mullally will today be enthroned as the Church of England's first female Archbishop of Canterbury. Her appointment last year, however, drew sharp criticism from a conservative group of Anglican churches in mostly African and Asian nations. The Bishop of Gloucester, Rachel Treweek, says it's a huge moment for the church.

2:58Twelve years ago we were struggling for women to be able to be consecrated as bishops. I don't think any of us thought we'd have a female archbishop this quickly, so it is huge. But the tricky thing is I also want to say I don't want it to be all about being about a female archbishop. I hope that we will celebrate the fact it's great for women, but the important thing is that she's the archbishop. And a patient who talked a trainee nurse out of detonating a homemade bomb at a hospital will receive the George Medal for bravery later. Mohamed Farouk was jailed for at least 37 years after taking the device to a maternity wing at St James' Hospital in Leeds in 2023.

3:39The judge who sentenced Farouk, Mrs Justice Chima Grubb, said Nathan Newby's decency and kindness had prevented an atrocity. There's more on all of these stories throughout the day on Times Radio.

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