Abroad, the Russian bear continued to give cause for concern as 100,000 troops mass on the Ukrainian border. President Putin has threatened military measures if NATO does not back off. Personally, I think that's just a rather handy excuse to explain-away this massive military build-up. In response, US officials said talks could take place in January after Putin announced he was hopeful of a meeting in Geneva. The Russian leader demanded immediate guarantees on the future of NATO to defuse the crisis. "The ball is in their court, they have to give us some response," Mr Putin said at his annual press conference. Better news in regard to Covid, where a major analysis said that people catching Omicron were 50 per cent to 70 per cent less likely to need hospital care compared with previous variants. Hurrah. The UK Health Security Agency said its early findings were "encouraging", but the variant could still lead to large numbers of people in hospital. The Health Secretary said it was "too early" to determine "next steps". The study also showed that the jab's ability to stop people catching Omicron started to wane 10 weeks after a booster dose. Protection against severe disease is likely to be far more robust. Let's hope ministers take note of these findings and refrain from further restrictions. As I will say in my column tomorrow, enough is enough. I was concerned that the energy industry is predicting a 50 per cent rise in bills next year unless the government intervenes. Supplier EDF said the situation was "critical" as customers, already seeing record bills, were hit with more rises due to surging wholesale gas prices. Emma Pinchbeck, head of trade body Energy UK, said rising prices were now starting to hurt the economy. We really do need a reality check on this topic as the rhetoric on supplies from renewables just does not add up.