May rules out post-Brexit EU immigration deal

Hello. Here’s your morning briefing:

May: No deal for EU immigrants after Brexit

What will happen to EU citizens who arrive in the UK during the “transition period” after Brexit? Theresa May has indicated she will fight a proposal by the EU that they should retain residency rights, arguing there has to be a “difference” between those who come before and after the UK leaves the EU. BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg says this shows the prime minister is willing to push back against Brussels, amid discontent among some Conservative MPs.

Meanwhile, how long will this transition period last after Brexit happens, on 29 March next year? Earlier this week, the EU said it was expected to finish by the end of 2020. But, after reports it could last longer, Mrs May moved to reassure Brexit-supporting MPs it was not “something that is going to go on and on”.

Larry Nassar case: USA Gymnastics doctor ‘abused 265 girls’

Last week, former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced to between 40 and 175 years in jail, after more than 150 women testified that he had molested them. A Michigan judge says the number of Nassar’s known victims has grown to 265. At least 65 more people are expected to confront the 54-year-old in court this week, in the last of three sentencing hearings.

PM turns down peer’s resignation over lateness

When international development minister Lord Bates arrived late to the House of Lords chamber he offered to stand down from the job, apologising for his “discourtesy”. He declared himself “thoroughly ashamed” not to be in place to answer a question from a Labour peer. He then walked out. But Theresa May has not accepted the resignation offer, her spokesman saying she felt this “unnecessary” and describing Lord Bates as “hard-working and diligent”.

Battling to save the world’s bananas

By Kim Gittleson, business correspondent, Namialo, Mozambique

Visiting the Matanuska banana plantation is not easy these days. A two-hour drive from the nearest city in northern Mozambique, visitors who make it to the farm are stopped at the entrance and asked to dip their feet in pools of disinfectant. Even the cars get a bath. Once a seeming miracle – a massive banana plantation in the middle of a dry, flat part of a desperately poor country – its formerly lush greenery has now been devastated by a deadly fungus called Panama disease. The failure to contain it has set off alarm bells around the world.

What the papers say

Times, Sun Times and Sun front pages for 01/02/18

The Times leads on a report that some religious extremists are using schools to “indoctrinate impressionable minds”. Meanwhile, the Daily Mail warns of the “alarming toll of wine o’clock”, saying many baby boomers are risking and damaging their health through excessive drinking. And the Sun accuses Formula 1 organisers of being “killjoys” for deciding to stop using “grid girls” at races.