Daily briefing Saturday 3rd January

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 the Times Daily Briefing for Saturday 3rd January. President Trump says his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife have been captured by the US military and flown out of the country.

0:46It's after Trump confirmed he had ordered a series of large-scale US strikes on the South American nation overnight.

1:00The Venezuelan government has declared a national emergency and has accused the United States of military aggression. Today's developments come amid growing tensions between the two nations. Washington says Maduro's election was fraudulent and that he is personally involved in the smuggling of drugs into the United States. The government in Caracas, however, says recent actions by Washington are designed to secure control of Venezuela's vast oil reserves. Michael Amon is the deputy world coverage chief at the Wall Street Journal. Donald Trump campaigned on the idea that Venezuela was sending millions of migrants into the U.S.

1:38on purpose and also sending drugs into the U.S. And so he framed it up as an invasion. And there's been one of the largest military buildups in the Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela in decades. The families of those killed and injured in a fire inside a ski resort nightclub in Switzerland are making appeals for information amid police questions over negligence by the venue's owners. The Swiss authorities say the severity of the fire during New Year celebrations in Cron, Montana means details about the victims have emerged in installments. 40 people are believed to have been killed and 119 were injured, with most of those caught up in the tragedy in their teens and 20s.

2:21Dave Graham is the chief correspondent for the Reuters news agency in Switzerland. He says the investigation will focus on the venue's fire safety regulations and emergency exits. These are questions that are still being addressed, but some of the people who are inside said it was a scramble to get out. I personally am not yet 100 % clear on whether or not there was more than one exit out. We've spoken to a lot of people about this. Most people seem to be aware only of one exit, but I can't say with absolute clarity that we know there was only one exit. Two people, including a 67-year-old man, have died after getting into difficulty off the coast of Yorkshire.

3:00The search for another person resumed in Withensee on Saturday morning. Humberside police said the circumstances surrounding both deaths are not believed to be suspicious. And the government has launched a recruitment drive for thousands of new magistrates to volunteer in England and Wales as part of its efforts to reduce the Crown Court backlog. The Ministry of Justice says more than 2 ,000 magistrates have been trained since 2022 and is now aiming to increase that number by a further 2 ,000 within the next 12 months. You can follow the Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

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