Morning briefing Thursday 7th August

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0:35This is the Times Morning Briefing for Thursday 7th August. President Trump says there's a good chance of a face-to-face meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin very soon to discuss a ceasefire in Ukraine. Washington said it would be open to a further trilateral meeting involving the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. A White House official said secondary sanctions were still expected to be implemented on Friday after Trump pledged to impose punitive measures on Russia if it showed no progress on ending its war in Ukraine. We've made a lot of progress and as you know we put a 50 % tariff on India on oil.

1:14They're the second largest. They're very close to China in terms of the purchase of oil from Russia. You're going to see a lot more. You're going to see so much secondary sanctions. The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he doesn't know if any meeting between Trump and Putin will happen next week and that it depends on how much progress both sides can make. But some analysts say the possibility of a summit is remote. Rosie Göttermüller is a former deputy secretary general of NATO. Speaking to Times Radio, she said she's sceptical about Putin's motives. Putin is in this for his own purposes.

1:49He hasn't changed his conditions for ending the war. And he wants NATO basically to have hands off Ukraine and not to allow progress toward NATO membership for Ukraine. So at least on the surface, Putin has not changed his goals and objectives and he continues to talk tough. Almost one in five NHS doctors say they are considering quitting or moving overseas in pursuit of better pay and working conditions. According to the General Medical Council, the main factor driving doctors abroad is the belief they are treated better in countries such as Australia and Canada. The GMC's annual survey of nearly 5 ,000 doctors also found high levels of frustration with training.

2:31A British man has been charged with attempted murder in Florida after allegedly trying to drown his daughter-in-law, Mark Gibbon, who's 62 and from Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, was on holiday with his family at a resort near Orlando. The authorities in southern France have warned a wildfire that has burned almost 60 square miles of land could rage for several more days. More than 2 ,000 firefighters have been deployed so far and today we'll see the resumption of their efforts, supported by dozens of water bombing aircraft, to combat France's biggest wildfire since 1949. Adam Sage is the Times Paris correspondent.

3:08Summer fires are part of the scenery here now, unfortunately. France does have the capacity, if not to put them out, at least has an infrastructure for getting people evacuated quickly and efficiently, which is a comfort to some extent. And a scientific assessment has found that lynx could thrive if released in Northumberland and 72 % of people in the region where they would roam support reintroducing the large predator. Northumberland is the only area of England and Wales with enough woodland to support them. You can follow the Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

3:49This 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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