Morning briefing Wednesday 3rd 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 Wednesday the 3rd of June. The Home Secretary has condemned disorder in Southampton last night as completely unacceptable following the murder of teenager Henry Novak.

0:47The 18-year-old was stabbed and lay dying as he was handcuffed following his killer's false claims that he'd racially abused him. Chairs, cans and flares were thrown at police in riot gear late last night. Shibana Mahmood says there can be no justification for hijacking the tragedy to stir up violence and disorder. Festus Akinboussoy, a former police and crime commissioner for Bedfordshire, gave his reaction to Times Radio. Where were these people when in the last year alone about 24 people had died in police custody or after contact with the police? Where were these people when we know for a fact that black people are twice as likely to die in police custody or after coming to contact with the police?

1:31Because if they're talking about two-tier policing, that is actually an evidence of two-tier policing. Donald Trump's called out false reports in Iranian state media that talks between the US and Iran have stopped after Israel's campaign in Lebanon escalated tensions. Hezbollah confirmed it fired a series of rockets overnight at the Israeli military operating in the south of the country. David Lawler, national security editor at U.S. news website Axios, told Times Radio that the U.S. president lashed out at the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over actions in Lebanon. The trigger here was the idea that Netanyahu's escalation in Lebanon was really threatening President Trump's diplomacy with Iran.

2:13The Iranians said they would walk away from the table because Israel was violating the ceasefire. And so it got to a point where President Trump told Netanyahu, you're out of control. What are you crazy? This is making Israel look bad. He sort of exploded a bit on Netanyahu based on our reporting. Sakhez Dahmer is due to face questions from MPs later after the release of thousands of documents regarding Lord Mandelson's appointment as UK ambassador to the United States. Today's Prime Minister's questions will be the first time MPs will be able to ask about the latest files Monday's document dump revealed private messages between Lord Mandelson and senior ministers admitting frustrations with Sir Keir Starmer's leadership There are calls for a change in the water industry in the UK with one Lib Dem MP telling Times Radio the company should be owned by the public It's after South West Water was fined almost£2 million for drinking supply failures in Devon inspectors found a parasite from animal faeces got into the system in May 2024.

3:12Caroline Voden, Liberal Democrat MP for South Devon, told us that change is needed. What we want is to have mutually owned companies, similar to the model of the nationwide, for example. So the companies would be owned by their customers and they wouldn't have a profit motive, so they wouldn't be paying shareholder dividends. What we've seen for the last 20 years is far too much money being leached out of the industry to pay shareholder dividends and exorbitant pay and remuneration packages for chief executives. And figures show more than 4 ,000 drivers are still driving, despite having at least 12 speeding points.

3:47That would usually lead to a six-month ban unless a court agrees it would lead to exceptional hardship. Figures obtained by the RAC show 117 people have more than 20 points. And you can hear more on all of those stories throughout the day on Times Radio. This 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.

4:33PwC turns innovation into implementation so you can accelerate from experiment to scale. Discover more at pwc.co.uk

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