Daily briefing Sunday 4th 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 Sunday 4th January. The deposed Venezuelan leader, Nicolas Maduro, is being held at a detention facility in New York, where he will face US criminal charges.

0:47He denies allegations of drugs and weapons offences, saying they were a pretext for regime change that was imposed by the United States. The US says it will work closely with Venezuela's former Vice President, Delcy Rodriguez, who has assumed the role of acting leader. The Times US correspondent Louise Callaghan says the immediate future of Venezuela looks very unclear. Is there going to be a democratic transition? Are they going to work towards elections? These are not questions that Trump actually seemed that interested in during this press conference. He kept talking, you know, when these questions came up, he would go back to talking about oil production, about how US companies are going to move in and start producing oil.

1:26So this question of kind of the democratic transition, where Venezuela goes next, seems to be kind of secondary to them at the moment. An expected first court appearance for Maduro will take place on Monday, the same day as a scheduled emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. The Ministry of Defence says the UK and France have carried out airstrikes against an Islamic state target in Syria. It targeted an underground facility north of Palmyra, identified by Intelligence Analysis as an IS weapons store. Prosecutors in Switzerland have opened a criminal case against the co-owners of a bar in a ski resort where 40 people were killed in a fire during New Year's celebrations.

2:05Police have questioned Jacques and Jessica Moretti, but the couple have not been charged. News Corp reporter Sophie Ellsworth is in Cron, Montana. She says the venue's fire safety regulations and emergency exits remain the primary focus of the police investigation. Now I've spoken to revelers who were at the venue on the night who said to me there were not sufficient emergency exits in the building. Now investigators are still going through the site and authorities were there yesterday. It remains cordoned off and very much a matter that police and authorities are looking at still. Searches are continuing for two missing prisoners including one convicted of murder who've absconded from jail.

2:48Matthew Armstrong and Daniel Washburn haven't been seen since New Year's Day after leaving HMP Layhill in South Gloucestershire. And Luke Littler says this is what dreams are made of after the 18-year-old retained the PDC's World Darts Championship title. Despite losing the first set of the final against Jan van Veyn, the world number one bounced back to win 7-1 and become the first player to go back-to-back for a decade. Nothing will ever beat a first world title for anyone in any sport, but this was just all about retaining it, bringing it back home with me for 11, 12 months and yeah, just adding my list, my name to the list of world champions to go back to back.

3:28It's a very short list, but I'm on it. Littler also became the winner of Dart's first£1 million prize. You can follow the Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

3:44This 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. PwC turns innovation into implementation so you can accelerate from experiment to scale. Discover more at pwc.co.uk

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