Morning briefing Thursday 17th July

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0:34This is the Times Morning Briefing for Thursday 17th July. The Ministry of Defence is reportedly facing potential compensation payments of£1 billion over the data breach that highlighted those Afghans who supported British forces. Around 100 ,000 were put at risk of Taliban death squads when their names were revealed in 2022. The mistake was then the subject of a super injunction. One law firm representing almost 900 Afghans is preparing legal action. The Labour MP Clive Lewis has told Times Radio it's a matter for the court whether people receive compensation, but he stressed they don't deserve to live their lives on the run.

1:14It's a matter to see what the implications were for those people whose lives are put at risk. I'm sure some will make the argument that if you now live here and are safe living in this country, that that's something that is sufficient. There will be people who say and who will want to whip this up as part of the whole kind of immigration and asylum issue. The reality is the vast majority of people in this country understand what fair play is. Eight babies, including a set of identical twins, have been born using a pioneering three-person IVF technique to prevent them from inheriting devastating mitochondrial disease.

1:49The procedure combines the egg and sperm from the mother and father with a small amount of DNA from the egg of a second donor woman. Dr Bobby McFarland is a professor of paediatric mitochondrial medicine at Newcastle University. To see the relief and joy on the faces of the parents of these babies after such a long wait and such fear about the consequences from their family histories, it's brilliant to be able to see these babies thriving and developing normally. One of the four MPs suspended from the Labour Party for persistent breaches of party discipline says she remains loyal to the Prime Minister.

2:27Rachel Maskell will sit as an independence in the House of Commons after voting against the government's welfare reform bill. Brian Leishman, Neil Duncan-Jordan and Chris Hinchcliffe have also had the whip removed. Speaking to Times Radio, Maskell said she'd been punished for speaking up for her constituents and she said she remained committed to the Labour Party's values. What's really important is that we become stronger. There is time now for reflection and learning. you know, I'm a bridge builder, I'm a conciliator, and I hold up my hand to the Prime Minister if he wants to take it, because ultimately, I believe we're stronger when we're together.

3:05And I believe we're stronger when we're holding up those values of which the Labour Party was founded. The mayor of Moscow says Russian forces have shot down three Ukrainian drones that were targeting the city. In the southern Russian city of Byelgorod, a Ukrainian drone killed one person and injured six others. And Germany is to tighten its legislation in an attempt to combat gangs smuggling migrants to the UK. The announcement from Downing Street comes ahead of today's first official visit to London by the German Chancellor Friedrich Metz. You can follow the Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

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