Morning briefing Wednesday 17th 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 Wednesday 17th December. Ministers will announce today that the UK is rejoining the Erasmus exchange programme from 2027 in what's regarded as the first tangible outcome of Sir Keir Starmer's so-called reset with the EU.

0:51The reciprocal scheme means British students will be able to study in European universities under the high-profile EU scheme for the first time since Brexit. Richard Corbett is a former MEP who is now the vice president of the Labour movement for Europe. He says the scheme also covers apprentices, volunteers and those on vocational training courses. For all of them it's an enrichment to spend half a year, a year maybe abroad in an equivalent institution learning the culture, possibly the language, learning about how the issues that we have to deal with in Britain are being dealt with in other countries.

1:28It's an enrichment and that is something to be welcomed. The first funerals have been held for the victims of Sunday's mass shooting at Bondi Beach. Mourners gathered to remember British-born Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who was one of 15 people killed in the attack. Earlier, Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the suspects were likely motivated by Islamic State ideology. Levi West is a terrorism expert at the Australian National University. Speaking to Times Radio, he said the two men travelled last month to the Philippines, where Islamic State is known to have a significant presence. There has been an insurgency, a jihadist insurgency, running in the southern Philippines for decades.

2:09The Filipinos are very close with the Americans, and with us for that matter. And we've been involved in supporting and doing capability development with the Filipinos, and both exchanging and learning from the Filipinos for most of the duration of the war on terror. so since at least 2001. Patients in England are being warned to expect disruption as resident doctors begin a five-day strike amid a high number of flu cases. NHS England said non-urgent services would be affected by the industrial action. The health secretary West Streeting said the 14th walkout by resident doctors had been timed to inflict most damage on the health service.

2:48Nick Reiner, a son of the Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his photographer wife Michelle is to be charged with the murder of his parents. The couple were found dead at their home in Brentwood in California on Sunday. Yesterday's initial court hearing was delayed. After it was ruled he wasn't medically fit enough to attend. The district attorney of Los Angeles County is Nathan Hockman. These are some of the most serious charges that a DA's office can bring and we anticipate that the discovery that we will produce to the defense will be robust. It will be very involved they'll want adequate time to review it do I anticipate it being particularly fast no I I anticipate it being very thorough and thousands of dinosaur footprints dating back 210 million years have been found in a national park in northern Italy some of the footprints are up to 40 centimeters in diameter Milan based paleontologist Cristiano d 'Alsasso described the site of discovery as an immense scientific treasure you can follow the Times news

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