The photo is doing a lot of work to make that pool look decent too

Grifty @TheGriftReport Follow G... Keir Starmer jetted off for a four-day luxury family Easter break at a £200-a-night four-star boutique hotel in Valencia, complete with rooftop bar and pool. While lounging in the sun and sipping café con leche in a public square, Trump was issuing ultimatums to "obliterate" Iran's power plants and warning Tehran they'd be "living in Hell." Starmer stayed put despite the escalating crisis, five years after he slammed Boris Johnson for holidaying as Kabul fell, declaring: "You cannot coordinate an international response from the beach." Macron spent the weekend on emergency calls with Trump and Iran's president. Starmer? Not so much. Priorities 7:30 AM • Apr 12, 2026 • 3.5M Views

Fascinated by the implication that £200/night for a family holiday is outrageous luxury living

Ouch. Jet fuel.

www.ft.com/content/7181...

A parador for the party isle of Ibiza Two decades in the making, the new Parador de Ibiza crowns the historic citadel — and shows the island does culture as well as clubbing

Although if you're after a second thing to read here's my bit on the new Ibiza parador, a tale of perseverance, hope and an awful lot of history giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Death row lawyer Bryan Stevenson: ‘Hope is our superpower’ The attorney and activist on overturning capital convictions — and his fears that civil rights gains are being dismantled

giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... Death row lawyer Bryan Stevenson: ‘Hope is our superpower’: if you only read one thing today make it this by @edwardluce.bsky.social

First American politics, now crippling fuel prices - pity the travel PRs who had spent months planning for the centenary of Route 66 this year

I cannot wait for the insights on this! He's going to:

1. Sample some local street food.
2. Ride a train.
3. Visit a temple.
4. Not mention the pogroms that the serving Prime Minister presided over.
5. Smile at some elephants.
6. Top up his kids' private school fees.
7. Say "India is changing".

I was receiving intermittently but couldn't send – consistent 504 errors or things sat in the Outbox for hours

Same. I've been RB for c.25 years. An hour or two at its worst but we're now approaching 24 hours with no timelines for resolution and no real communication with customers. This could be me and RB done tbh

Almost 24 hours on and now there’s no service at all. Service status is red across the board. I now can’t even set up an autoreply to say “call me”. Do you timelines please?

“The Times has been told” by who? UAE government sources? UK opposition parties? Dave down the pub? Without some sort of source this is just meaningless.

Six days into Iran it’s been relentless grift from right-wing media

I'm trying both: webmail and via Mac Mail iPad and iPhone. Here's hoping for tomorrow

Yes webmail. Can't send any emails and I'm on deadline. It's been like this for 5-6hours. Tried to file a ticket but guess what: "There has been an error"

Still can't send anything: 504 errors

SMTP 465 - ie mail - is down

@runbox.bsky.social can you update re email provision, please? recurrent outages and 504 errors

Cardiacs definitely more important. Hope all snowy in the pond

Thoughts and prayers with every PR who has a major launch this week

You'll be telling me that George V didn't actually like Bognor next

Exactly. "But I got spooked by the mRNA vaccine!" Oh well, that's ok then

Plus there's the line: "It's all very well to scream at me that the medical establishment knows best… but I was also someone who got spooked by the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine".

Just one nonsense explanation after another

UK quietly shelves £110mn frictionless post-Brexit trade border project Experts criticise halt to programme that had used Deloitte and IBM as contractors

If the government had only asked me I'd have saved them £109m and done nothing for £1m www.ft.com/content/186f...

Mad that so many people complained it had lost it's soul cos Audrey started offering table service

Thanks Simon! I was hugely fond of Cabane. It felt a privilege to hang out for a few days. Dinner conversations and interviews tested my French to its limits, mind

Cornwall’s new hamlet of cool cottages — glorious even in winter This estate near Looe has 11 stylish self-catering pads, a farmhouse, and shepherd’s hut saunas, making it the perfect base for year-round holidays by the sea

And while I’m putting up pieces here’s one from last week; a new Cornish stay to help you remember what matters

www.thetimes.com/article/30de...

The surprisingly affordable mountain hotel in upscale Verbier Skiers will love Cabane Mont Fort, elevated 2,457m above the Swiss resort’s busier centre with out-of-hours access to the slopes — plus what’s new nearby

My bit from Verbier in today’s Times. The header pegs this on price but it’s actually a story about tradition and community; what one guide called “the spirit of the mountains”

www.thetimes.com/article/f328...

Boy who drove campervan at 70mph given penalty points for future licence The 13-year-old drove his parents’ VW van in the middle of the night on a dual carriageway. They tell a court he will be ‘washing cars for a year’ as punishment

Frankly kudos to him for coaxing 70mph out of a VW bus

www.thetimes.com/article/b4f7...

Are the locals friendly? Do hotels perch? We need to know

Have you ever done a tour of Hamburg's docks? Can recommend. Even just taking a small ferry into different quays is brilliant