Morning Briefing Tuesday 20th October

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0:42This is Times Radio's morning briefing on Tuesday 20th October. I'm Daryl Jackson. It's been a quiet evening across parts of France after authorities imposed overnight curfews after a weekend of riots and looting across the country. The protests began last month with students demanding better school conditions. But they've since escalated to take in a broader range of concerns with numbers at demonstrations over the weekend bolstered by trade unions and various protest groups. More than 2 ,500 people have been arrested. Adam Sage is Paris correspondent for The Times. I think it probably would have got a bit calmer anyway if most of the rioters and looters have gone home.

1:24The next big test, I think, for the government and for the country as a whole will be next Saturday when the yellow vests who were behind this weekend's demonstrations have called for another round of protests. The Times report that the Chancellor is rejecting pressure from senior Labour figures to raise capital gains tax in next week's budget. John Healy is reportedly pushing back against certain Cabinet ministers on the decision because of the risk it would cost the government money if wealthy individuals left the UK or deferred selling assets. George Bangham, head of social policy at the New Economics Foundation, told Times Radio the government does need to raise more money though.

2:03The opinion polls do suggest that people really do want support because they're struggling with the cost of living. So if the government is going to do that and sort of help people with the energy bills, it could get a lot higher in the winter. They do need to raise some tax and capital gains is a good way to do it. They could raise as much as 20 billion basically by the end of this parliament if they were going to slowly start on the way to aligning capital gains tax with income tax. Meanwhile, a new report claims taxing the wealthy, big businesses and banks would attract huge public support.

2:34Unison said its survey of more than 2 ,300 people also revealed most respondents wanted to close any loopholes that enabled wealthy people to pay less tax. The union says seven in ten of those polled support increasing taxes on the wealthiest individuals, and a similar number agreed that large corporations should pay a bigger share. Vladimir Zelensky said decisions taken by the United States on the war in Ukraine, including delays in arms shipments and restrictions on intelligence sharing, are hard to explain. Yesterday, the US president criticised the Ukrainian president, saying he should have had this war sorted out a long time ago.

3:13Donald Trump also said it's time for someone else to negotiate on the Ukrainian side. Brett Bruin, a former US diplomat, told Times Radio that Trump wants Zelensky to surrender. Let's just call a spade a spade here. Trump is a coward who never fought for his country, who wants to extract both personal profit and a deal in which he will be able to sell it to the American people as peace, even if it is only emboldening Putin. And leading A &E doctors across the UK have raised concerns about the pressure emergency service departments will face this winter. Just 3 % say they're well prepared for the colder months, according to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine.

3:58The latest survey of 163 doctors in charge of emergency departments found that more than 9 in 10 described current pressure as either high or very high, while 88 % said they're under greater strain now than a year ago. And there's more on all of those stories throughout the day on Times Radio.