'Afghan's £1bn blunder' and four MPs 'lose Labour whip'

The Afghan data breach is dominating the papers for the second day in a row. A High Court judge lifted the superinjuction on Tuesday that had barred reporting on the leak for two years. "Cabinet bid to halt Afghan airlift", leads The Daily Telegraph which reports a number of ministers objected to plans to grant asylum to thousands of Afghans. The paper says it was forced through using "emotional blackmail" amid a "toxic" atmosphere.

"Thanks for saving us, now we'll sue you" - states the Daily Mail headline. It says taxpayers could potentially face a £1bn bill as legal companies begin signing up claimants whose safety was put at risk when the database was compromised. Prince Harry is pictured on the front page after he made his third visit to minefields in Angola, retracing the steps of his mother Princess Diana.

100,000 Afghans were left "at risk of death" as a result of the "blunder" says The Sun, which also focuses on the £1bn payout.

The Times reports that secret intelligence used by the Ministry of Defence to keep the Afghan superinjunction in place for two years was deliberately withheld from MPs. The paper says it spearheaded efforts to lift the superinjunction as Afghans had the right to know if they were on the list so they could protect themselves from the Taliban.

"NI hits food prices" warns the i newspaper, writing that prices are climbing as a result of Rachel Reeves's £25bn increase in employment taxes, alongside the impact of poor harvests and bad weather.

"Four MPs lose the Labour whip as PM attempts to reassert grip on party" - states The Guardian. Back-benchers Neil Duncan-Jordan, Rachael Maskell, Brian Leishman and Chris Hinchliff were suspended and a further three Labour MPs were stripped of their government trade envoy roles after rebelling against a vote on welfare cuts earlier this month. The paper also pictures large plumes of grey smoke after Israel struck Syria's defence ministry in Damascus.

The damage in Damascus is also pictured on the front page of the Financial Times. The FT's main story is Debra Crew's resignation from drinks company Diageo as "falling alcohol sales take toll".

The Southport victims and murdered MP Sir David Amess are pictured on the front page of the Daily Express. The paper leads on an independent review which said that anti-terror scheme Prevent had "failed to provide" help that may have stopped the two separate attacks.

The Metro leads on US President Donald Trump's "flip" on files related to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019. The paper reports Epstein's ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell has launched a fresh appeal against her conviction for helping Epstein sexually abuse young girls.

The Mirror states "BBC's kitchen nightmare" as it reports on John Torode becoming the second presenter to be sacked from MasterChef. The chef was let go after an allegation against him using "an extremely offensive racist term" was upheld. Torode said that while he "does not believe that it happened", he did apologise immediately afterwards.

The Star reports that "under-fire" Thames Water CEO Chris Weston has blamed rain for an increase in water main leaks, despite much of the UK being in drought. The company is currently under scrutiny as part of an inquiry into reforming the water sector.

The Afghan data breach continues to be the lead for several of the papers. The Daily Telegraph claims that, under the previous government, the Home Office tried to stop the secret relocation scheme for Afghans whose details had been leaked - because of fears about national security. It reports that several other government departments also expressed concerns about the scheme, but were over-ruled by defence ministers who used what the paper calls "emotional blackmail" to get it through.

The Times says secret intelligence used by the Ministry of Defence to keep the super injunction in place was deliberately withheld from MPs and peers. The legal order meant details of the data breach and the relocation scheme could not be reported. The paper said that judges questioned whether the intelligence and security committee should have been made aware of the leak and the scheme, but it adds that no-one on the committee was told because lawyers for the MoD had "concern about certain pieces of information".

The Sun and the Daily Mail both focus on the issue of compensation for those Afghans affected by the breach. Both claim that taxpayers could face a total bill of a billion pounds and that claimants could be paid up to a quarter of a million pounds each.

The suspension of four Labour MPs who failed to support the government's new welfare bill is the lead in the Guardian. The paper quotes one MP from the left of the party saying that the move made the government look "brittle", and that it was a "punishment beating".

A number of the papers carry a photo of Prince Harry wearing a blue protective vest - walking through minefields in Angola - as his mother Princess Diana had done, just before her death in 1997. The Metro reports that the Duke of Sussex - who's patron of the landmine clearance charity, the Halo Trust - spoke to families living next to Africa's largest minefield, and gave children advice on avoiding detonating the mines, in Portuguese.

And the Mirror reports that the television presenter John Torode is planning to take legal action against the BBC after he was sacked from Masterchef for allegedly using racist language. He denies the claim.

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