With a pledge to offer every eligible adult in England a Covid booster jab by the end of January - or, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson put it, officials will be "throwing everything" at the rollout - details are emerging about how this will be achieved. Although about 50 mass vaccination centres have closed and many GPs have stopped delivering Covid jabs, there will soon be fresh guidance from NHS England about how to administer on this latest drive. Hospitals, pharmacists and GPs are all part of the plan, which would also see 400 military personnel on hand to help with the rollout. Government advisers say the impact of the Omicron variant on the UK is "highly uncertain", and officials should prepare now for a "potentially significant" wave of infections. The government says it will take further action if necessary, as it focuses on the booster jab programme.
People will be invited to book a third dose three months after their second, with pharmacies and hospital hubs in England - which largely focused on vaccinating NHS and care staff - being on hand to give doses. "We need to be realistic about what the health service is going to be able to do when it is prioritising these booster programmes," says Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents the healthcare system in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This comes as the British Medical Association, the doctors' union, warns that GPs are already working extra hours and will struggle to maintain their existing workload if they are required to help roll out boosters. The January target is a "huge logistical challenge" for the health service, admits NHS Providers, which represents health service trusts, but it says ramping up the booster rollout was "absolutely the right thing to do". Elsewhere, Northern Ireland's announced extra vaccination clinics and Scotland and Wales will ramp up their booster programmes, details of which are yet to be set out.

In what’s widely regarded as an effort by the West to counter China’s influence in Africa and elsewhere around the world, the EU plans to invest heavily in global projects. It will be presenting what’s been described as a Global Gateway initiative later, which insiders say lays out "concrete" ideas on digital, transport, climate and energy schemes. While the 14-page document about the multi-billion bid doesn’t say it’s rivalling China's Belt and Road scheme - which develops trade links by ploughing money into new roads, ports, railways and bridges - it appears to be offering countries an alternative. "Global Gateway wouldn't exist if you didn't have Belt and Road," says Andrew Small, Senior Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund. He adds that it’s the "first serious effort from the European side to put packages together and figure out financing mechanisms, so countries considering taking loans from China have an alternative option". China’s initiative has been criticised by some as "debt-trap diplomacy" while others argue the country met a need that wasn’t offered elsewhere. That aside, the EU says its approach is "values-based" and "transparent", one that creates links not dependencies.

How much do you spend each week on household costs? And what does that equate to on an annual basis? According to a forecast, those figures will be rising next year. It’ll be about £1,700 more per year - that’s just over £30 more per week for a typical family of two adults and two children. Analysis from the Centre for Economics and Business Research projected the inflation rate would rise to 4.6% by Christmas mainly due to higher fuel and energy prices, but analysts say the full impact of this hasn’t been passed on to customers by supermarkets. Read more here.

Booster jabs are the focus of many of this morning’s front pages. The i headlines on the plan to offer boosters to every adult in England by the end of January. The Metro says Prime Minister Boris Johnson has enlisted the Army to help with the rollout following concerns over the new Omicron variant and the Times says the programme pledge equates to 23 million jabs. However, it says, those newly eligible people won’t be able to book until next week and no date has yet been set for inviting under-40s. Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph reports that the latest self-isolation rules have been written into law until March next year, sparking fury from some Tory rebels. Read the newspaper review in full here.

Whether you believe aliens exist or not, it seems we may have been thinking about extra-terrestrial life in the wrong way. There’s a theory that life exists throughout the Universe and can move from one place to another. It’s called panspermia and Professor Brian Cox explains how the idea works. Take a look.
In theory this next one should provide some answers about the history of the Earth. A team is drilling ice in Antarctica which has a record of the planet’s climate stretching back 1.5 million years. Scientists hope it will explain why ice ages flipped in frequency. Interested? Read more here.
And finally, to the annual work Christmas do or drinks. It might feel like an age since you had a proper in-person office festive party due to Covid restrictions, so plans for this year are probably on your mind. How safe will they be? We’ve investigated.

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