PETER HITCHENS: The research is in. Wearing bits of cloth over your mouth and nose is almost certainly pointless, unless you are a bank robber trying to hide his ­identity.

PETER HITCHENS: The astonishing thing about our departing Prime Minister is that he is so ordinary.

EXCLUSIVE: UK experts have warned against offer a second Covid booster arguing it is not practical to do so every three months. Claims of Omicron as a ‘natural vaccine’ are debatable experts say.

Richard Osman, who co-hosts the programme with Alexander Armstrong, said guests on the show will be asked to redo their responses with a more acceptable example, worth the same score.

(Bloomberg Opinion) — The long-running trade dispute between Boeing Co. and Airbus SE has been a source of political grandstanding for years, but with the U.S.’s aggression reaching new levels of hypocrisy, the time may finally be right for a settlement. The U.S. Trade Representative’s office announced late Wednesday that it was leaving tariffs on $7.5 […]

Just brief blurbs from Guardian readers about the search for extraterrestrial intelligences. In short, it’ll take too long and humanity doesn’t care about Earth so why bother with aliens? Well then, David Robson and John Boyd perhaps you’d like to find out why The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Is Heightening despite your perfectly cromulent arguments. […]

After a cold open parody of A Christmas Carol that found Samantha Bee as Ebenezer Scrooge waking up from her Trump nightmare to celebrate Impeachment Day, the Full Frontal host wished her viewers a very “Merry Impeach-mas.” “Look, we should all take a moment to feel excited that Trump is finally facing a consequence,” Bee said […]

There was no reason for Beto O’Rourke to run for president. But he was convinced we needed him‘After the initial burst of publicity, Beto fizzled quickly.’ Photograph: Larry W Smith/EPAWhen Bernie Sanders was first asked about Beto O’Rourke entering the presidential race, his reply was dismissive: “Free country, anybody can run.” But others thought O’Rourke […]

BBC viewers complained over its ‘wall-to-wall’ coverage of Wimbledon on both main channels on Saturday night meaning shows including Casualty and Pointless Celebrities were cancelled.

Seeking permission to discontinue proceedings today, Sir Philip’s lawyers told the High Court in London that going ahead with a trial would have been ‘worse’ than ending the action.