Royal couple ‘separate’ and £5bn for local buses

The expected announcement that the government will give the go-ahead to HS2 – and pledge £5bn to overhaul local transport links – is widely reported.

After noting that one of the prime minister’s advantages is that his name alliterates so readily, it urges readers to “get on board with the Boris buses”.

The main news for the Sun is that the Queen has been “hit by a split” after learning that the marriage of her “favourite” grandson has broken down.

Princess Anne’s son, Peter Phillips, is said to be “devastated” after his wife of 12 years, Autumn, told him she wanted to separate.

The paper claims there are fears that Mrs Phillips might want to start a new life in her native Canada – “just like the Duke and Duchess of Sussex”.

It says “close pals” are suggesting that the departure of Harry and Meghan “could have sown the seeds of an Autumn exit, and hastened her shock decision”.

According to the Daily Mail, Britain is facing a “major outbreak” after the number of confirmed cases in the UK rose to eight, including two GPs. The paper’s headline asks “How many more are infected?”

The paper says families in the north of England are “fuming” at the failure of the Conservatives to stop their homes from being flooding for the third time since 2012.

Several papers highlight the case of a police driving instructor who was cleared of 16 offences on Monday, after being caught speeding at up to 122mph as he travelled to a meeting at his son’s college in Norwich.

The Sun says PC Paul Brown jumped four sets of red lights, approached roundabouts on the wrong side of the road and did 101mph in a 30mph-zone, as he drove an unmarked car with blue lights flashing.

The Express says magistrates believed PC Brown’s claim that he had been “self-assessing” his driving as part of his job.

There is much interest in Sunday night’s Oscars, after the awards ceremony came too late for Monday’s print editions.

The Daily Mirror hails the Best Picture winner, Parasite, as “the best thing to come out of South Korea since Gangnam Style”, while the Times suggests: “It marks an important milestone for a country that’s struggled to win international respect for its remarkable achievements.”

Finally, the Times reports that residents of a Derbyshire market town ranked one of the best places to live in the UK have been criticised by police “for failing to report drug crimes out of fear that it could lower house prices”.

The average home in Melbourne sells for more than £300,000 and the paper says a public meeting held last week heard claims that homeowners had avoided reporting offences “for a number of years”.

The Daily Mail quotes one resident as saying “Melbourne is lovely but it does have its share of Hyacinth Bucket types” – referring to the snobbish social climber from the BBC sitcom Keeping Up Appearances.