The government is proposing new legislation to end the automatic right for parents in England and Wales to homeschool vulnerable children. The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill is being put forward following the death of ten-year-old Sara Sharif, whose abusive father and stepmother withdrew her from school after teachers spotted her injuries.

Can anyone homeschool their children?
Parents generally don't need permission to withdraw their child from school in England and Wales, unless the child has an Education, Health and Care Plan and is attending a special school by arrangement of the local authority. In Scotland, the local authority must give consent, but in practice usually do so.

Homeschooling parents have a legal duty to provide a "suitable education" for their child, although exactly what that means remains a "grey area", said Schools Week. There is no obligation for parents to follow the national curriculum, term dates or school hours, and there is no routine monitoring of the quality of at-home education.

What are the proposed changes to the law?
Under the proposed legislation, councils will be given the power to demand children attend school if their home environment is "deemed unsuitable or unsafe", said Sky News. Parents will also lose the automatic right to homeschool if their child is subject to a social services protection investigation or is under a protection plan. This will apply to children at special schools too. Every local authority in England will be required to bring in, and maintain, new registers of children not in school.

Why are more parents homeschooling?
Homeschooling rates in the UK have increasing sharply following the Covid lockdowns. A BBC investigation earlier this year revealed that the number of pupils moving to home education has risen by 22% in 12 months, with councils receiving almost 50,000 notifications from families wanting to take their children out of school.

Census data suggested that "while the biggest known reason for moving to home education was still philosophical beliefs, mental health was the biggest factor in the recent rise", said the broadcaster.

To converts sharing tips online, "microdosing" Ozempic is a crafty way to lose pounds without enduring "eggy burps", constipation and other suboptimal side effects of the weight-loss drug, said Harriet Walker in The Times. But some experts are warning against the viral weight-loss trend.

'Massive spikes' in interest
Ozempic is a brand name for an injectable, semaglutide-based drug currently only prescribed on the NHS to treat Type 2 diabetes. In recent months, Ozempic has become the private-prescription weight-loss drug of choice among the rich and famous in the UK and the US.

A growing number of influencers and other users are microdosing Ozempic – taking a tiny amount – as a weight-loss "hack" following "horror stories" about side effects of the standard dose, including "nausea, vomiting" and "intense constipation", said The New York Times. Google Trends keyword analysis reveals "massive spikes" in interest in the practice over the past year, said science news site Futurism.

'Placebo effect'
I microdosed a similar weight-loss drug. Mounjaro, said The Times's Walker. After a week I'd shifted half a stone that "I've been trying to lose for as long as I can remember". Jeans that "I hadn't been able to sit down in for a year fit again" and my sciatic pain "is gone".

But users "don't typically get weight loss if we go to such a low dose", Mir Ali, medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center in California, told Women's Health. Some experts believe those who do lose weight by microdosing may be "super responders" who are especially sensitive to the effects of the drug, said The New York Times. Or the loss may be the result of a placebo effect that encourages them to make other changes to their lifestyle.

Getting the dose right "requires complicated maths and conversions", Dr Alexandra Sowa, author of "The Ozempic Revolution", told Women's Health. Prolonged use of tiny amounts of medication also increases the risk of consuming it after the use-by date.

'Tis the season to be merry, and cocktails can make festive gatherings feel extra special. When you have guests coming, preparing the drinks in advance is "the secret to making things feel seamless", interior designer Isabella Worsley told London's The Standard. You'll also "save on time, mess and space".

Adding simple touches to your favourite recipes can make them "feel festive", drinks expert Miriam Nice told the BBC. Try a rosemary sprig, frozen cranberries or a "sprinkle of edible glitter" as garnishes, or add a "stud a strip of orange zest with a few cloves".

And don't worry if you don't have a certain ingredient, said Nice: it's the perfect opportunity to experiment. For a cocktail that's usually gin-based, you could use the same recipe "but with mezcal or aquavit". Other swaps can work too, such as using lime, grapefruit or orange juice instead of lemon juice.

Do "try and keep any swaps as similar as possible" though. Don't "switch a triple sec for a cream liquor in a margarita", but "you could try swapping the triple sec for a crème de pêche or apricot brandy as they are all sweet, fruity, strong and clear".

Welcome to Britain's Victorian Christmas, where volunteers in Santa hats fulfil the basic functions of the state
Frances Ryan in The Guardian
"Cash-strapped charities are smart to try to squeeze every last drop from the season of goodwill," writes Frances Ryan. But while the public's generous response is "heartwarming", there's "something inescapably bleak" about the "strains of poverty and disability" being eased "not by the welfare state" but "the kindness of strangers". As well as being "impractical", it "ignores the structural inequalities that lead to poverty and illness" and "lets the state off its responsibility to fix them".

Is there any reason to use a screensaver anymore?
Justin Pot in Popular Science
"Remember screen savers?" asks Justin Pot. Most people "haven't really used one since the early 2000s" but "dig into the settings on your computer" and you'll still find them, even though modern monitors don't have the "screen burn-in problem" they were invented to solve. The reason to use them now is that it's "fun" to "walk away from your computer" and "come back to a bunch of high-quality nature footage, that green code from 'The Matrix', or a bunch of bubbles".

Do we believe in elves? Of course! Otherwise we'd miss out on the magic
Carla Hall in the Los Angeles Times
We all "buy into a suspension of disbelief in certain areas of our lives", writes Carla Hall, and "if ever there were a season for magical thinking, it's Christmas". There's a "very human temptation to pick apart magical beliefs", but "instead of letting our dreary realism call into question the Santas and the elves", we could "hold on to our holiday imaginings" and "lean into" the "will to believe, against all odds, in better times and a better world year-round".