this is bbc news. i'm shaun ley. the headlines at 12. the parents of alfie evans, the 23—month—old boy who was at the centre of a legal row about his treatment, say he has died. his father said on social media, "my gladiator lay down his shield and gained his wings. cabinet backing for amber rudd, who says she didn't see a memo copied to her office detailing home office targets for deporting illegal immigrants. the home secretary has apologised saying that of course she should have seen it. but she cannot be held accountable or responsible for a document she didn't see and for decisions that she didn't take. plans for easier challenges to parole board decisions following the case of serial sex offenderjohn worboys. also: the race to the premier league goes down to the wire. fulham beat sunderland and move to second in the championship. premier league relegations could also be confirmed today with west brom and stoke on the brink. and click visits a cryptocurrency mine in iceland and investigates a new and growing

crime amongst hackers. that's in half an hour — here on bbc news. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. alfie evans, the terminally ill toddler who was at the centre of a legal battle over his treatment, has died. alfie had a degenerative neurological condition and had been in a semi—vegetative state for more than a year. following a series of court cases, alder hey children's hospital in liverpool removed his life support on monday, against his parent's wishes. on social media, alfie's father tom evans said he was "absolutely heartbroken", at 2.30 this morning his son "lay down his shield and gained his wings."

judith moritz reports. for the first weeks of alfie evans' life, he seemed healthy, happy and well, but he soon started to develop problems and he was admitted to hospital, where scans showed his brain was being destroyed. the little boy spent a year in intensive care before doctors said they felt his life support should be stopped. alfie's parents, kate and tom, strongly disagreed with the medical view that their son could not be helped. he has shown the biggest fight, and that is what is getting us through this. it is heartbreaking, just because the doctors cannot find a diagnosis, think it is ok that they say they think it is time to give up on him. if you're going to give up on him, reassure us and please refer him. the couple began a long legal

battle, taking their case through all the available courts — several times in the uk, and twice to europe. they changed their lawyers more than six times. alfie's father tom, 21, even representing himself on this occasion. we have no legal team today, i'm here on my own today. i am on my own with my mum and dad, we need an adjournment today. release alfie evans! and throughout it all, the family have had vocal support, initially from a group of mums and children, but increasingly from a growing social media campaign. the self—styled alfie's army has hundreds of thousands of followers, and in recent weeks, crowds have turned up to campaign outside alder hey. it has not always been peaceful. on one evening protesters tried to force their way inside. hospital management published an open letter which said... alfie's plight has made international headlines,

especially in italy. alfie's parents wanted to airlift him to a hospital in rome with connections to the vatican. tom evans was granted an audience with the pope, who backed his case, and alfie was granted italian citizenship. there was also support in poland. a tweet from the president and a hospitasl visit from these women. i saw this post yesterday from alfie's father, thanking the international community. you do not need to know people to support strangers. we are human. outside the hospital, campaigners have kept vigil, united behind their common cause. inside, after his ventilation was switched off, alfie hung on for days. his family clung to hope as he held to life until until eventually there was no more fight.

with his parents by his side, the little boy slipped away. this morning, alder hey children's hospital have released a statement. "we wish to express our heartfelt sympathy and condolences to alfie's to alfie's family at this extremely distressing time. all of us feel deeply for alfie, kate, tom and his whole family and our thoughts are with them. this has been a devastating journey for them and we would ask that their privacy and the privacy of staff at alder hey is respected." well let's cross live to alder hey and speak to our correspondent. what's been the reaction to today's's news? the atmosphere has been subdued. the last of the supporters are outside the hospital but far fewer. you supporters are outside the hospital but farfewer. you can supporters are outside the hospital but far fewer. you can see the balloons and purple and blue, they

are what alfie's family describe as their warrior‘s colours. at half past two this afternoon there will be released the balloons in a nearby park. it is a place where people are being asked to pay their respects and behave and what has been described as a peaceful manner. we have had a statement this morning from the archbishop of liverpool. he has expressed his deepest sympathy to alfie's family, describing the boy's struggle as heroic. we must recognise all of those who played a pa rt recognise all of those who played a part in alfie's life wanted to act for good. people will gather later on in the park to release balloons we re on in the park to release balloons were alfie at around half past two this afternoon. alison freeman outside alder hey hospital. thank you very much. the environment secretary michael gove has strongly defended amber rudd over the row on immigration targets. he says it was "entirely possible" the home secretary did not see a memo sent to her last

year about targets. last night amber rudd tweeted she hadn't seen the memo but accepted that she should have. speaking to the bbc, michael gove says amber rudd is the right person to be home secretary and she should remain in position. the home secretary has apologised saying that of course she should have seen it. but she cannot be held accountable or responsible for a document she didn't see and for decisions that she didn't take. and she's going to appear in front of the house of commons on monday. i think it's important to recognise that whenever issues have been raised, whether it is in the field of immigration or in other areas of her responsibility, the home secretary has been quick to react, authoritative in her response and determined in policy prosecution. but there's no let up on the pressure from labour — and the shadow home secretary diane abbott called again for amber rudd to resign. i think she's in a very difficult position. i think she's hanging by a thread. on the one hand there may be more to come out but what we do know

is that no one will take this government studiously —— seriously on the windrush scandal until amber rudd offers her reignation. amber rudd is on her fourth apology about this scandal. you know, there comes a point when the apologies have to stop and amber rudd accepts responsibility. i'm joined now by the conservative commentator, alex deane. in terms of this story, it has dragged on. it was first about windrush and the treatment of those people coming in the 50s and 60s, and then documentation on those facing deportation and know their targets. where do you think the problem for the government lies in terms of going on? the two stories have been pushed together. government would have an easier time of dealing with them separately,

especially windrush. it is decades old and rooted in history of those people coming to this country many decades ago. both parties presided over that. being criticised for details by diane abbott, irony is dead when diane abbott gets to talk about that. the home secretary should have seen this memo. there is a difference between something you could and should have seen but didn't get a chance to see. it is the sort of human error that eve ryo ne the sort of human error that everyone needs to hold their hands up everyone needs to hold their hands up to say they did not see it. her emigration minister did get the memo and we can assume that he would have seen it. —— emigration. it would have known at ministerial level. did she not see the document because she said she wanted to reduce the

paperwork, was it an by her officials? that is what we will find out by her statement. department share responsibility. how later shared between her and the prime minister, we do not know. she is responsible for all of it, but without not having any internal insight, i imagine we got this memo coming to the fore because someone would have seen it. there is nothing wrong with having targets about migration. the difficulty here is that the set under david cameron this net migration target. a lot of people said the timing was ambitious and it has continued not to be met. targets might end up with the tail

wags the dog. the tailor the policy to fit the target. presumably that is where the two stories have blown up. officials felt we have got to meet these numbers, so anyone who may be potentially illegal here, let's get rid of them. i thought the target set by the last government was wrong. we were setting a target while we had a large number that we could not control. we squeeze the migration from outside the eu which we could. migration in the eu is based on the race. why should we prefer a polish labourer to an indian doctor? we should not. but thatis indian doctor? we should not. but that is what our membership of the eu we had to do. when we leave the eu, we will get it right. the government, presumably that is the difficult parts of this. ultimately it is down to the prime minister

when she was home secretary and her successor? to be clear, not only should we be robust on migration, but our environment for hostile attitudes to illegal migration, that isa attitudes to illegal migration, that is a good thing. the government has been criticised for this terminology. the hostile environment terminology? correct. theresa may did use that phrase. we should be hostile to illegal migration. do you think amber rudd is out of the woods? i think she will weather the storm. she is the right person to put the department on track. she has apologised. a woman police officer has been sexually assaulted whilst detaining a man in sheffield in the early hours of yesterday morning. officers were responding to a report of an attempted rape on scotland street, when it's alleged a man struck the officers with a wooden signboard and sexually assaulted one of them. the man was arrested on suspicion of attempted rape, assault, sexual assault and criminal damage and remains in police custody. president trump has said

he'll continue to apply pressure on north korea to try and rid the peninsula of nuclear weapons. following the summit between north and south korea, mr trump said he would forge a deal with the north if it were possible when he hold talks with kimjong—un, in the coming weeks. media outlets in north korea have called yesterday's meeting historic. our correspondent rupert wingfield—hayes, who's in seoul said the event had been also welcomed by the south korean media. given those extraordinary scenes at the summit yesterday. it is no surprise there are some excitable headlines today. here is one from the herald, the end of the korean war. this is one paper with a big picture of kim jong—un and moonjae—in. they are embracing.

it is interesting also to note that we now know that people in north korea are getting to see these pictures for the first time. the biggest official paper showing every scene from yesterday's summit and publishing in full the declaration that the two leaders signed at the end of the summit yesterday, in which it includes the words "commitment to seek complete "denuclearisation of the peninsula". that is in there without any comment. as far as interpretation of this is going, here in the south i think one would describe it as optimism but cautious optimism. and in some of the papers, scepticism as well. in a popular paper here, there is commentary saying "it was never made public what kim's idea of denuclearisation is and how and when denuclearisation will be accomplished."

that sums up a lot of the mood here. a real sense that an opportunity has opened up a dialogue to go forward and for peace to be achieved, but scepticism about what the north korean leader ‘s intentions are in particular regarding his nuclear weapons. the headlines on bbc news: alfie evans — the toddler at the centre of a legal battle over his treatment — has died. his father said on social media, "my gladiator lay down his shield and gained his wings." cabinet colleagues rally around home secretary amber rudd. she says she didn't see a memo copied to her office which detailed home office targets for deporting illegal immigrants. parole board decisions could be challenged more easily, under new government proposals. it follows a review set up after the release of the serial sex offender, john worboys — a decision that was later overturned. parole board decisions in england and wales could be

challenged more easily, under new proposals. a review was set up after the release of the serial sex offender, john worboys — a decision that was later overturned. here's our home affairs correspondent, danny shaw. still behind bars, john worboys, the man known as the black cab rapist. his victims had to go to court to appeal against the parole board decision to let him out ofjail. they didn't even know why the 60—year—old prisoner had been approved for release until the legal action began. the case exposed flaws in the parole system and ministers are now trying to address them. they're planning a series of reforms to the parole board to make it more transparent. a summary of the reasons for parole decisions will be sent to victims and in some cases to other people who request it. a scheme to keep victims informed about their cases and offenders' licence conditions will be extended. and a parole board judge will review decisions that are contested and could even

hold hearings in public. nick hardwick lost his job at the parole board because of thejohn worboys case. a—z fl? ffzzz: is