Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Thursday 26 Apr 2018

1. Evidence contradicts Rudd’s immigration target claim

An inspection report shows that the Home Office did set targets for the number of illegal immigrants removed voluntarily in 2015, despite Home Secretary Amber Rudd yesterday telling a Commons committee: “We don’t have targets for removals… that’s not how we operate.” Labour is calling for Rudd to quit over the Windrush scandal.

2. NHS ‘needs £50bn more a year by 2030’

Former Labour health minister and leading surgeon Lord Darzi is warning that the NHS needs £50bn more a year by 2030 to survive. His report on the health service is being supported by Conservative and Lib Dem MPs. The Government is expected to unveil a long-term plan for the NHS in July, probably on the 70th anniversary of its founding.

3. North Korean nuclear test site ‘beyond use’

North Korea’s main nuclear test site has collapsed under the stress of multiple test explosions, Chinese geologists say. They believe collapsed tunnels mean it is now unsafe for further tests and vulnerable to radiation leaks. If true, this would put the sincerity of North Korea’s pledge to end nuclear weapons test in considerable doubt.

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4. Security alert over aide’s ‘sugar daddy’ website

An undercover reporter posed as a wealthy businessman to meet an aide to Housing Minister Dominic Raab who boasted that she knew his “every move”. The woman was advertising her services on a “sugar daddy” website and was paid £750 for every meeting with her “client”, the Daily Mirror reports. Raab did not know.

5. Kim Jong Un to enter South Korea for talks

North Korean dictator will on Friday become the first leader of his country to cross the border to South Korea since 1953. South Korean president Moon Jae-in will meet Kim in person at the border at 9.30am local time and they will then walk together into the demilitarised zone. They will dine together in the South.

6. UK diplomat ‘got Windrush treatment’ over son

A former British high commissioner says he was left feeling “powerless and nervous in spite of my privileged position” when his baby son was denied a British passport after being born abroad. Arthur Snell, who served as high commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago for four years, told The Guardian that the inconvenience he suffered was nothing compared with what has happened to Windrush migrants.

7. Women in remote Scotland ‘put off having babies’

Women in the far north of Scotland are being deterred from having babies by changes to maternity care, a pressure group has claimed. The maternity service at Caithness General Hospital was downgraded last year to save money – with the result that some mothers face a 100-mile, three-hour car journey to Inverness to give birth.

8. Kate Bush to write Bronte memorial inscription

Reclusive singer Kate Bush has been tempted back into public life, to contribute an inscription to a memorial stone for the Bronte sisters. Bush’s early hit Wuthering Heights was inspired by the 19th century novel of the same name by Emily Bronte. Carol Ann Duffy, Jackie Kay and Jeanette Winterson are also contributing words.

9. Kanye West: ‘I share dragon energy with Trump’

Rapper Kanye West has caused controversy online by tweeting his support for US President Donald Trump, saying yesterday: “We are both dragon energy. He is my brother. I love everyone.” The comments caused some to question West’s mental health, which in turn led his wife, Kim Kardashian-West to accuse the media of “demonising” him.

10. Briefing: how will Pompeo change US foreign policy?

Mike Pompeo is all but guaranteed to be confirmed as the new US secretary of state this week, replacing the outgoing Rex Tillerson in Donald Trump’s administration.

The US President has repeatedly described himself as a “counterpuncher”, and “the same could be said for Pompeo in his approach to international affairs”, says The Atlantic.

What kind of secretary of state will Mike Pompeo be?