What happened
The King is understood to be prepared to allow MPs to decide whether his brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, should be removed from the line of succession. According to royal insiders, the monarch would not obstruct fresh legislation designed to block his disgraced sibling from ever inheriting the crown. The development follows Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest on his birthday, when he was detained for 11 hours for questioning.

Who said what
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson described the issue as “a matter for Parliament”. Defence Minister Luke Pollard told BBC Radio 4’s “Any Questions” that “British values” support preventing Mountbatten-Windsor from becoming monarch.

But “removing a person from the line of succession could also be a dangerous move for the very foundations of Britain’s constitution”, said Cameron Walker on GB News. The country’s stability “could be under threat if politicians begin choosing who has the right to claim the throne”.

What next?
Prime Minister Keir Starmer is said to be examining draft legislation that would formally alter the line of succession.

What happened
Ministers will publish a schools white paper today setting out proposals to reduce the achievement gap between low-income pupils and their classmates. The reforms aim to revise how extra support money is distributed, moving beyond the current reliance on free school meal eligibility and placing more emphasis on household income. Plans include new attendance benchmarks, higher starting salaries for heads in hard-to-staff areas and a sweeping redesign of the special educational needs system.

Who said what
Labour said the “disadvantage gap is as stark today as it was over a decade ago”. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson called the reforms “a golden opportunity to cut the link between background and success – one that we must seize”.

The move is important given a “stubborn division at the heart of the nation means that millions of boys and girls suffer a devastating setback at the start of their lives”, said David Williamson in the Daily Express.

What next?
Funding levels will be determined at the next spending review. Further details on regional programmes and changes to special needs provision are expected to follow as consultation and legislation progresses.

A scenario often featured in popular culture and hypothetical discussions has come true – and left investigators baffled.

A double murder trial in France has reached a “bizarre legal quagmire” because two of the suspects are identical twins and so have the same DNA, said The Connexion.

The 33-year-old brothers are among five defendants on trial in Bobigny, a suburb of Paris, accused of a double murder and several attempted killings in 2020. They deny the charges. Although both twins are suspected of conspiring to plot the double murder, the DNA found on an assault rifle used in a later gun battle could only be from one of them.

Identical twins develop from the same sperm and a single fertilised egg that splits during pregnancy, so they have exactly the same DNA, making forensic identification difficult. A police officer told the court that experts weren’t able to tell which of the brothers had been conclusively implicated. “Only their mother can tell them apart,” said the investigator.

Although advanced genetic testing techniques can sometimes help distinguish between identical twins, the forensic experts concluded that the amount of blood available in this case was insufficient, so the estimated €60,000 cost might not be justified.

Adding to the sense of confusion, according to police, is the fact that the twins frequently share clothes and use the same phone numbers and ID documents. So prosecutors are being forced to try other methods to establish who fired the gun, including phone tracing, interviews and wiretapping.

But for now the “crucial question” of who fired the recovered weapon “remains an open one”, said Sky News. The trial continues, with the court expected to reach a decision this week.