Ex-presenter of BBC Radio 4 show complains in Guardian of ‘gratuitous gratitude’ and ‘gushing’ between host and guest

For more than three decades, John Humphrys delighted and infuriated listeners in equal measure as he confronted the nation’s politicians in his trademark, pointed style on the Today programme.

Now a listener himself, the former presenter of the BBC’s flagship radio news show is just as pointed in his assessment of the current incarnation of the programme. His verdict? It’s irritating.

PM secured re-election despite devastating military defeat to Azerbaijan and political and economic pressure from Moscow

For most candidates, campaigning on the loss of an ancestral homeland and advocating reconciliation with a longtime enemy would amount to political suicide. Not in Armenia.

On Sunday, the prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, secured re-election in the Caucasus nation of 3 million people, despite having led Armenia through a devastating military defeat to Azerbaijan just three years ago.