Newspaper headlines: Flooding devastation dominates front pages

The dramatic accounts and pictures of the weekend's floods are on all the front pages - and make the lead for most of them.

"The drowning of the north of England" is the Independent's headline. It says flooding transformed urban streets into canals across the region.

The Telegraph says waters rose so fast in some areas that families were not able to grab essentials, such as food and warm clothes, before fleeing to safety.

The Times, the Express and the Star lead on the warnings that more heavy rain is on the way.

There are concerns about whether Britain is ready for what the Guardian calls the "new weather era".

It says the ability to cope with more frequent and severe flooding has been called into question after the failure of key flood defences.

The Times says ministers face a backlash over spending on flood defences, with calls to increase the money earmarked for projects over six years.

The Mail reports that residents in Yorkshire and Lancashire have expressed anger that Britain is "squandering" cash on foreign aid when they have been told there is no money for local flood defences.

Born abroad

The Telegraph highlights international research showing that the UK relies more heavily on foreign doctors than any other EU nation except Luxembourg.

According to the study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, more than a third of NHS doctors were born abroad.

Yet, the Telegraph adds, Britain is also one of the highest exporters of doctors. It says critics have attacked "revolving door" immigration policies that mean the UK has spent billions of pounds training medics who went abroad, only to rely on overseas labour to plug the gaps.

The revelation that nearly 50 prisoners in England and Wales have been released early by mistake in the past year, is the Mirror's main story. It reports that a man accused of murder was among those wrongly freed.

The Sun is not impressed. A pretty basic requirement of the criminal justice system, it says, is that prisoners stay in prison.

Our courts are lenient enough as it is without the authorities letting criminals out while they are supposed to be inside, the paper adds.

A number of papers give details of a new year reshuffle of Labour's front bench being planned by Jeremy Corbyn.

According to the Sun, as many as 12 members of the shadow cabinet are facing the sack or demotion, in a purge of frontbenchers who voted to extend air strikes in Syria.

The Telegraph says Mr Corbyn is believed to be on the verge of sacking shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn, along with shadow defence secretary Maria Eagle and her sister, shadow business secretary Angela Eagle.

Bargain hunters

The Mail reports that the mild weather and the fact that Boxing Day fell on a Saturday tempted as many as 22 million people - many of them foreign tourists - to the shops for the start of the post-Christmas sales.

According to the Times, the bargain hunters were slow off the mark at first, with the High Streets only fractionally busier than last year on the morning of Boxing Day. But they came to life after midday.

A retail expert tells the paper: "Traditionally, the first few hours of the day are the busiest.

"This year, the rush shifted to later on in the day as shoppers apparently used the first few hours to search for the best bargains online and then ventured into the stores to buy."

Finally, the Sun says the new Star Wars blockbuster has been breaking box office records - but sharp-eyed fans have been counting the number of mistakes in the film.

According to the paper, they have spotted at least 25 blunders in The Force Awakens.

In one scene, the paper says, the character Rey repairs parts of the Millennium Falcon spacecraft, ripping an electrical device apart.

At the start, the cables are hanging loose down the device. But in another scene, they are shown to be in a different spot.

And in another part of the film Rey eats a taco snack with a distinctive Romanesco broccoli in it. After a one-second cutaway, the camera comes back to see her with a different snack.