diff --git a/images/talos/Dockerfile b/images/talos/Dockerfile
index a192cd1..db3f8a0 100644
--- a/images/talos/Dockerfile
+++ b/images/talos/Dockerfile
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-FROM python:3.10-bullseye
+FROM python:3.12-bullseye
 
 
 ARG VERSION=${VERSION:-6.1.2}
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ RUN apt update && apt install -y --no-install-recommends \
     rm -r /var/cache/apt/*
 
 # install a skinny version of gcloud
-# gcloud is a monster - contains thousnds of man pages, a whole python installation, etc.0
+# gcloud is a monster - contains thousands of man pages, a whole python installation, etc.0
 # gcloud-lite is a much smaller version, with only the bits we need
 # gcloud-go would be even smaller, but I couldn't grok the install
 ADD https://github.com/tonymet/gcloud-lite/releases/download/472.0.0/google-cloud-cli-472.0.0-linux-x86_64-lite.tar.gz gcloud.tar.gz
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ RUN tar -zxf gcloud.tar.gz \
     && rm gcloud.tar.gz
 
 ENV PATH="$PATH:/bin/google-cloud-sdk/bin"
+ENV CLOUDSDK_PYTHON="/usr/local/bin/python"
 
 # install nextflow
 ADD https://get.nextflow.io nextflow
@@ -35,4 +36,5 @@ RUN chmod +x nextflow && \
     mv nextflow /usr/bin && \
     nextflow self-update
 
-RUN pip install --no-cache-dir metamist git+https://github.com/populationgenomics/talos.git@${VERSION}
+# botocore is required for the Gcloud CLI
+RUN pip install --no-cache-dir botocore metamist git+https://github.com/populationgenomics/talos.git@${VERSION}