Morning briefing Monday 22nd 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 the Times Morning Briefing for Monday 22nd December. The Times reports that West Streeting has suggested Britain should join a customs union with Europe.

0:44The Health Secretary's comments will be seen as a direct challenge to the PM, who's ruled out a change in policy on a customs union twice in the past month. A poll also in The Times shows that eight out of ten Labour voters support the move. Oliver Wright is the policy editor for The Times. The timing of this is important because it's a little over two weeks since Stalmers stood up in front of MPs and basically said, I'm not going to do that. He said that the problem with joining a customs union was that since Brexit, we've had these trade deals most recently with India and with the United States, and that if you rejoined a customs union, you'd have to unravel some of that.

1:22The United States has seized a third oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. It was stopped in international waters days after President Trump announced a blockade of vessels carrying what he described as sanctioned oil. He's stepping up the pressure on leader Nicolas Maduro. Marc Hansen is a retired Marine colonel and a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Well, it's clear that President Trump is trying to increase the pressure on the Maduro regime. From the beginning, they have intended to have the regime replaced, put enough pressure that maybe some of the security forces break off, launch a coup, or that Maduro decides that it would be better to spend his retirement someplace else.

2:05Australia has launched an intelligence review into how security services and the police seemingly missed the planning of the Bondi Beach attack. Safety experts say that the nation's gun laws, among the world's toughest, are full of loopholes. An emergency set of laws will be introduced in New South Wales this week. It'll bring in more stringent regulations and protests will be restricted there for up to three months. U.S. Attorney General has been threatened with legal action over delays in making public the full Jeffrey Epstein files. Two congressmen say they're drafting inherent contempt proceedings against Pam Bondi to fine her for the period that the full files remain unpublished.

2:44Neymar Rahmani is a former federal prosecutor. It's terrible for the administration. Let's be candid. They promised to release the Epstein files last year when Trump was running for this office. Attorney General Pam Bondi said she would release the full Epstein file. Trail hunting is set to be banned in England and Wales as part of a new animal welfare strategy to be published by the government today. The practice sees an animal-based scent trail laid for dogs to follow rather than a real animal. Campaigners say that it's used as a smokescreen for real hunting. And hospitals in England are working to recover from disruption caused by strikes in the run-up to Christmas.

3:22Resident doctors returned to work this morning after a five-day walkout. Health Secretary Wes Streeting says he wants to end the dispute and he's pledged to get around the table with the British Medical Association in the new year. Don't forget you can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and you can listen live to Times Radio online.

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