| The mild weather this weekend reminded me of a recent day in Belfast so cold, blustery and wet that even the buskers were not out - who will now have to watch their decibel levels. Which, so long as the new laws are not used to silence preachers, seems fair enough. Our political editor David Thompson reports on unionists dismissing claims that robust questioning of witnesses before Stormont's executive office committee in Stormont is misogyny. David also reports on a letter that shows a DUP minister knew of a trans clinic years ago. Opinion columns this week include Johnny McCambridge on his lifelong quest to see a red squirrel, Ruth Dudley Edwards praising her friend the writer Lionel Shriver, and John Cushnahan again challenging Chinese outrages in Hong Kong. Phelim McAleer's his letter from America was on the rise of Catholics in the US. Meanwhile - astonishingly - the News Letter was perhaps alone in reporting Marco Rubio's praise of the Ulster influence in America. Today we gave that speech fresh coverage in this essay by the excellent Prof John Wilson Foster on the Scots-Irish. My column challenges the idea that Andrew will bring down the monarchy. Meanwhile, Philip Bradfield reported this week from the special assembly of the Presbyterian church amid safeguarding concerns. Enjoy your weekend and your reading,
Ben | 
