Morning briefing Wednesday 8th 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 a Times Radio morning briefing on Wednesday 8th April. I'm Daryl Jackson. Donald Trump has announced he agrees to suspend bombing and attacks of Iran for a period of two weeks.

0:44The US president says he's received a 10-point proposal from Iran and believes negotiations can be worked on. Mr Trump says it is subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran, agreeing to the complete, immediate and safe opening of the Strait of Hormuz. Dr H.A. Hellyer, senior associate fellow at RUSI, told Times Radio this is good news. It's the beginning of an off-ramp. It's not a deal. It's the beginning of a negotiation to get to a negotiation and then hopefully to a deal. The way in which Trump has framed this is that the points between the Iranians and the Americans are not so far apart. Of course they are, but I think that it allows for at least cessation of hostilities.

1:28Pakistan's prime minister appealed for the extension last night. Without a deal, Donald Trump said a whole civilisation would have died as he planned to attack Iranian infrastructure. Malcolm Nance, former US Navy intelligence officer, told Times Radio the US president should never have threatened that. The President of the United States said that he will essentially remove a civilization from Earth and never to be brought back again. That civilization is the Persian civilization. It's been there for 5 ,000 years. You cannot play with this. We have no weapons system other than atomic bombs, which I've worked around, which I've worked at a National Nuclear Command post.

2:09I know the power of these things. Israel's also agreed to the two-week ceasefire and is to suspend its bombing campaign. Joel Rubin, a former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, told Times Radio this appears to be a positive step. It's a good day when we get an end to the fighting and we see the opening of the Straits of Hormuz. I think we should breathe a sigh of relief. Hopefully this is going to stick. I think this is the kind of announcement that looks like it might have some solidity to it. The Pakistanis got in the middle. Maybe President Trump's crazy talk got them a little spurred on and got something done here.

2:46Barbara Leaf, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs under President Biden, told Times Radio it's now important face-to-face talks take place. For one thing, it's just wildly inefficient to be sitting in hotel suites or antechambers anti-chambers and passing notes back and forth through a third party, it's ridiculous. It absolutely has to go to direct talks. And it's always been the Iranians these last years. Ever since President Trump withdrew from the JCPOA in May of 2018, they have refused direct contacts with the US. In other news, a murder investigation is underway after a 21-year-old man was stabbed on Primrose Hill in North London last night.

3:26Another man, believed to be in his twenties was found by police nearby with stab wounds that aren't thought to be life-threatening. No arrests have been made. And new data has revealed crimes are committed at churches across the UK 10 times a day on average. Figures from the Countryside Alliance show nearly 4 ,000 were carried out at religious sites last year. It includes records of theft, burglary, criminal damage, vandalism and assault. And you can hear more on those stories 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.

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