Hannah Tomes

How many U-turns can a government perform before it starts spinning out of control? Liz Truss is reportedly considering yet another change of heart over existing policy: this time over plans to end no-fault evictions. In the month or so Truss has been Prime Minister, she’s U-turned on a key Treasury appointment and scrapping the 45p rate of tax. One source told the Times the eviction policy was not considered a priority by the government and would be delayed; another said it would be scrapped entirely. Asked about today’s reports, a government housing spokesman said: ‘Everyone deserves to live in a safe and secure home. A fair deal for renters remains a priority, and we are carefully considering our next steps for the rental market.

As the nation wakes up to its first day after the Queen’s death, newspapers in Britain – and around the world – have published historic editions to commemorate her 70-year reign. Here’s a look at some of them. The Times focuses on the Queen’s extraordinary life of service. It also features a moving quote on the back page from her Christmas broadcast in 1957: ‘I cannot lead you into battle. I do not give you laws or administer justice but I can do something else: I can give you my heart and my devotion to these old islands, and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations.’ The Guardian has chosen the same picture for their front page – a striking image from the Queen’s Coronation in 1953, when she was just 27 years old.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II died this afternoon at Balmoral, the royal family confirmed. The gravity of the news has been felt across the world, with leaders offering words of sympathy – and reflecting on a reign that spanned 70 years. The first of the tributes came from her son Charles – the new King. He wrote, in a statement released by Buckingham Palace: ‘The death of my beloved mother Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family. We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world.

After the disruption caused to education by the pandemic, this is the first year since 2019 in which school leavers have sat traditional A-level exams. Normally, 26 per cent of A-level students are marked A or higher: last year it jumped to 45 per cent after teacher-assessed grades were brought in. Now it’s 36 per cent, as per the government’s plan to mark a halfway house between last year’s grade hyperinflation and normality. But A* grades, normally reserved for the top 8 per cent of pupils, have been handed to 15 per cent. This is slightly down on last year’s 19 per cent.

Another week, another warning that the NHS has reached crisis point. A cross-party group of MPs today published a report detailing the extent to which the health service and social care sector in England is understaffed – and found that it is facing the worst staffing crisis in its history. Research found that NHS England is 12,000 doctors and 50,000 nurses and midwives short at the moment. There are more than 99,000 vacancies in the health service – with 105,000 in the health and social care sector. The ever-declining number of healthcare staff is a problem that is only going to get worse as demand rises: almost a million more positions will need to be filled by the early 2030s.

Pause in a park or field in summer and look out across the grass and you’ll see a multitude of thin, earthy tracks breaking up the swaths of green like shatters in a pane of glass. These are most commonly known as desire paths – although other names include cow paths, desire lines, pirate paths or social trails – and are created when humans (or animals) are drawn in the same direction over and over, flattening the grass and eventually wearing it away. The term ‘desire path’ was coined by French scientist, philosopher and poet Gaston Bachelard in his 1958 book La Poétique de l’Éspace (or ‘The Poetics of Space’).