Evening briefing Monday 15th December

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 your Times evening briefing on Monday the 15th of December. Resident doctors in England will go ahead with strikes this week.

0:41British Medical Association members will walk out for five days from Wednesday after rejecting the government's latest offer. 83 % of them voted it down. Prime Minister Sikir Starmer says doctors need to reflect on the impact of strike action. The fact this is the week before Christmas with a flu problem that is very extreme, I think they've lost the sympathy of the public, frankly, and I think they've lost the sympathy of their colleagues, their non-doctor colleagues in the health service, who are getting on with their jobs, many of them on a much lesser rate of pay increase than the doctors got.

1:17Rob Reiner's son has been arrested and is being held in Los Angeles after the Hollywood director and his wife were found dead at home. According to the LA County Sheriff, 32-year-old Nick Reiner is being held on a$4 million bail. Jail records show he was arrested after 9 o 'clock on Sunday night. Meanwhile, President Trump has reacted to the deaths in a post on Truth Social, suggesting a political motive, though no such evidence has been presented by police. Ukraine's top negotiator has described talks with the US team in Berlin to end Russia's invasion as constructive and productive. In a post on social media, Rustem Umarov said real progress has been achieved, adding he hopes to reach an agreement that will bring us closer to peace by the end of the day.

2:00Kiev handed an updated peace plan to Washington last week. Meanwhile, the new head of MI6 has warned that Britain is on the front line against Russia and must be prepared for Putin's export of chaos. Blaise Metrovelli has delivered her first public speech since becoming sea. She's warning the UK faces an age of uncertainty as the rules of conflict are being rewritten. Our world is more dangerous and contested now than it has been for decades. Conflict is evolving and trust eroding just as new technologies spur both competition and dependence. We all continue to face the menace of an aggressive, expansionist and revisionist Russia seeking to subjugate Ukraine and harass NATO.

2:45Australia plans to toughen gun laws after the anti-Semitic terrorist attack on Bondi Beach which left 15 dead and dozens wounded. The cabinet said stronger laws which came into force after a mass shooting in Tasmania in 1996 would be renegotiated with the states and territories. John McTernan was former director of communications for Julia Gillard when she was Australian Prime Minister. He says there's a balance to be struck on gun control. Guns have a special role in Australian culture in that it's a country with a huge outback. It's a country in which hunting does go on. And, you know, it's a country with a huge rural landscape with farmers who will need to use guns.

3:23There is a balance to be struck here, but there's no doubt that in all forms of terrorism, interdicting the supply chain that gets the weapons or the materials to the individuals is a key part of trying to frustrate their plots. And the head of one of the UK's most popular coffee chains is warning the price of a takeaway drink won't get cheaper. Global prices for raw coffee beans has risen by more than 20 % this year after soaring 70 % in 2024. Gerry Ford, who heads up Cafe Nero, says even if production costs go down, businesses won't make things cheaper, they'll just take longer to raise prices again.

4:00You can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio Online. That's your Times Evening Briefing on Monday 15th December.

4:22This 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.