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Fake delivery scams have soared during the pandemic with more than 60% of Britons reporting receiving at least one such text in the past year, research from the consumer rights group Which? has revealed. The scams are so prevalent that even entirely new mobile numbers, which have not been shared, are receiving fraudulent texts within …

For 10 years, Jonathan has been available on email. He receives messages as early as 6am and as late as midnight, and steadily for a 12-hour stretch every day. And right from when he first became a lawyer, the clear expectation was that he would do his best to read them as soon as they …

Just over a decade ago, Peter Singer issued a fundamental challenge to the relatively wealthy world. In The Life You Can Save, the Australian philosopher argued that most of us have more than we need to live a comfortable life. The money spent on that excess could instead be used to save someone’s life, and …

Miles Brignall gives a good account of the DLVA’s failure to enable people to contact it about urgent issues (‘The service is appalling’: drivers face holdups as DVLA fails to send licences, 26 June). The DVLA website says online applications are quicker than postal ones. Having been told to stop driving and to inform the …

Earlier today I set you the following two puzzles, inspired by a money-saving trick devised by Carl Friedrich Gauss. (Click to the original for the explanation of the trick, and what it has got to do with Gauss). 1. The double bill. Which of the two additions below (the sum of the nine numbers on …