Daily Briefing Saturday 21st June

0:00Hello, this is your Times Daily Briefing for Saturday 21 June 21 June, with me, James Kitchen. Opponents of the assisted dying bill have pledged to use every means possible in the House of Lords to prevent it becoming law. Yesterday, MPs voted narrowly in favour of the legislation, with the bill passing the Commons with a majority of just 23. More than a dozen MPs switched their vote to oppose a change in the law that would allow terminally ill people to end their lives in limited circumstances. Critics in the Lords now plan to slow the bill's progress by tabling several amendments in the hope it expires at the end of the parliamentary session.

0:37Mark Elliott is Professor of Public Law at the University of Cambridge. It can't be carried forward into the next session because it's a private members' bill and the only option then would be for an MP to reintroduce the bill into the House of Commons in the new parliamentary session as Kim Ledbetter did under the private members' bill process unless the government decides it wants to turn it into a government bill. Iran's foreign minister says if the US joins Israel in attacks on its territory, Tehran will retaliate in self-defence. Israel's ambassador to the UN has vowed his country will not stop strikes until the nuclear threat is dismantled.

1:18But Tehran's previously said it won't resume talks over its nuclear program while under attack. The director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, Chris Doyle, told Times Radio Donald Trump is conflicted. His instincts are genuinely to keep out of what he sees as forever wars. He doesn't want to get sucked in into a never-ending conflict in the Middle East. He got elected on the basis that he would do deals, that he would end these conflicts. But on the other hand, here is the US's leading ally in the Middle East. It wants to try to deal a blow against the Iranian nuclear program, and it needs American firepower.

1:59Counter-terror police are investigating after Palestine Action posted footage online showing two protesters inside an RF base in Oxfordshire. It's understood the Home Secretary is preparing to ban the group after two military planes were vandalized at Bryce Norton yesterday. Footage appears to show activists breaching security before speeding across the tarmac on e-scooters and spraying aircraft with red paint. The Prime Minister has held a series of one-on-one meetings with Labour MPs to try to contain a rebellion against his welfare reforms. It comes after the former government whip Vicky Foxcroft resigned early this week over plans to cut disability benefits.

2:37The first vote on the legislation is expected early next month. Salvage crews have started the process of recovering the Bayesian superyacht, lifting it from the seabed off the coast of Sicily. Seven people died when the ship sank in August last year, including the tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah. Investigators want to inspect the hull of the 56-metre vessel to determine how it capsized. And it's estimated almost 600 people will have died in England and Wales because of this week's heatwave. Experts, including some at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, have used decades of figures to predict excess mortality during hot spells.

3:16An amber heat health alert covering all of England is in place until Monday and temperatures could hit 34 degrees Celsius later. And remember, you can follow the Times News Briefing on Spotify and you can listen live to Times Radio Online.