Theresa May has attempted to distance herself from the row over the Home Office’s enforced removals targets that has already claimed the scalp of one of her most senior ministers, Amber Rudd. The prime minister tried to draw a line under the affair by arguing that Rudd had only resigned over a single error, while separating the issue from the wider scandal over the Windrush generation.

She again declined to place the blame for the debacle, which has caught up thousands of people and is widely regarded as a result of her own “hostile environment” strategy, on individual ministers or civil servants at her former department. Sajid Javid, appointed home secretary on Monday morning following Rudd’s departure, vowed to make sure people affected by the Windrush debacle were treated with “decency and fairness” as he arrived at the Home Office to start his new job.

Javid said he would look carefully at the government’s immigration policy, although No 10 insisted there were no plans to change direction on the issue. May, on a local elections campaign visit, said it was right that the government continued to deal with illegal immigration through enforced removals, a policy that also existed during her tenure at the Home Office.(theguardian)…[+]

Ten journalists have died in Afghanistan in a coordinated double suicide bombing in Kabul and a shooting in the eastern Khost province, on the deadliest day for media workers in the country since the fall of the Taliban.

Nine journalists died in the Afghan capital when they gathered at the scene of the first of two blasts. Ahmad Shah, a BBC reporter, was shot dead in a separate incident in Khost province, near the border with Pakistan. In Kabul, a suicide attacker riding a motorbike blew himself up in the Shash Darak neighbourhood, near the Nato headquarters and the US embassy, at about 8am. A second bomber, holding a camera and posing as a journalist, struck 20 minutes later, killing rescue workers and journalists, including an Agence France-Presse photographer, who had rushed to the scene. At least 25 people were killed and 45 injured in total. Hours later, a suicide bomber targeting a Nato convoy in southern Kandahar province killed 11 children at a religious school located near where the explosion occurred. At least 16 people, including five Romanian Nato soldiers, nine civilians and two police officers, were also wounded.(theguardian)…[+]

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator has warned that talks are at risk if the UK does not soften its red line on the Irish border issue. Speaking to reporters on his third visit to Ireland since the referendum, Michel Barnier said he was “not optimistic” and “not pessimistic” but “determined” that the two sides can break the current impasse on talks.

He repeated recent declarations that unless Britain came up with fresh thinking on how to avoid a hard border by the June EU council summit, further talks were in danger of collapsing. “Until we reach this agreement and this operational solution for Northern Ireland, a backstop [solution], and we are ready for any proposal … there is a risk, a real risk,” he said. But he hinted that the UK would not have to come up with the final deal for Ireland, describing the June summit as “a stepping stone” to the October deadline for the wider Brexit deal to be completed. The Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, said Britain’s “approach to negotiations will need to change in some way” if there is to be agreement over the issue.(theguardian)…[+]