Morning briefing Wednesday 29th April

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 29th April. April. The King has urged the US Congress to repair what he says is a priceless bond with the United Kingdom.

0:45Addressing a joint session of Congress, only the second monarch to do so, he highlighted several hundred years of partnership between Britain and the United States. The King also acknowledged times of great uncertainty and said London and Washington could not rest on past achievements. His Majesty also highlighted the importance of NATO, reminding Congress that the Alliance responded to the devastation of the 9-11 attacks 25 years ago. In the immediate aftermath of 9-11, when NATO invoked Article 5 for the first time, we answered the call together. Today, that same unyielding resolve is needed for the defense of Ukraine and her most courageous people.

1:33The King's speech, in which he combined British humour and history, was punctuated by rounds of applause and 12 standing ovations. One such ovation, led by the Democrats, was reserved for the King's reference to the shared values of the rule of law and the struggle to hold President Trump to account. Magna Carta is cited in at least 160 Supreme Court cases in 1789, not least as the foundation of the principle that executive power is subject to checks and balances. The King also made a discreet reference to the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, who have been supported by members of Congress. Without mentioning the late sex offender by name, it's understood the King hoped to acknowledge all victims of abuse when he spoke of supporting victims of some of the ills that exist in both our societies.

2:28Zakir Starmer will face MPs in the Commons later after they voted against launching an investigation into whether he misled Parliament over the appointment of Lord Mandelson as the UK's ambassador to Washington. It will be the last Prime Minister's questions before Parliament is suspended ahead of next week's local elections. The Labour MP for Aylesbury, Laura Kirk-Smith, voted against the motion because she said there is already sufficient scrutiny in place. The investigation that the Foreign Affairs Select Committee is doing and there's also this humble address process whereby the government is required to release a lot of documents about exchanges between members of the government and Peter Mandelson and information about Peter Mandelson.

3:12Unfinished legislation such as the Hillsborough Law and the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill will, however, continue to progress in the next session, which starts on the 13th of May. And the UK is at a population turning point, with deaths expected to outnumber births for the first time this year. According to projections by the Office for National Statistics, small annual increases will be solely due to migration. The population will break the 70 million barrier by 2034, but the study predicts falls in net migration will see Britain go into population decline in the mid-2050s. There's more on all of these stories throughout the day on Times Radio.

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