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Episode details

Radio 4,31 Mar 2026,45 mins

Britain to send more troops and air defence systems to Gulf

The World Tonight

Available for over a year

More British troops and UK air defence systems will be deployed to the Middle East for defensive action against Iranian attacks. The deployment was announced on the same day that US President Donald Trump lashed out again at the UK and other countries, telling them to "go get your own oil" from the Strait of Hormuz. We look at a looming crisis in jet fuel supplies and what the rise price of gasoline in the US might mean for politics there. Also on the programme: it's being called "the great internet crackdown" in Russia; the government wants to reduce use of Virtual Private Networks. And the Metropolitan Police has told BBC News that the teenage boy at the centre of the Scott Mills sexual offences investigation was under the age of 16.

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