When there was some chatter here a couple of months ago about fewer small boat crossings, I was sceptical that winter weather made analysis impossible. Now the weather's great - and the crossings still aren't happening. I'm in France to find out why: www.thetimes.com/uk/transport...

After 6 broken bones - 3 in each leg - I told my physio I want to be able to paddleboard this summer. So we found some new rehab exercises 😅

Man arrested for arson with intent to endanger life over a fire at a packed LGBT club on Saturday night. The club today looks completely destroyed. Thankfully nobody hurt. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I'm pure baffled by this reporting from @reuters.com - if you order your troops to "forcibly" attack targets in a country, you are not "testing" a ceasefire. You are breaking it

One in 10 kids rescued from Russia and the occupied territories by Save Ukraine have been sexually abused including girls who are pregnant from rape. Raping and forcibly impregnating girls under occupation is a genocidal act as we know from Rwanda.

Putin’s aims for Ukraine are textbook genocidal. He says Ukraine doesn’t get to exist, that Ukrainian language & culture doesn’t exist. His actions - civilian massacres, occupation, executing people who have Ukrainian symbols, the child abductions - all genocidal

So my visit to my sister in Australia this winter might be off, yeah?

A man jailed for a plot to blow up the London Stock Exchange applied for asylum from prison. He was denied, but given leave to remain nonetheless. Yet his case was never made public, so the reasons for doing so couldn't be scrutinised - until now. www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/art...

You can actually see the moment Ed Miliband thinks, what's the point burning through whatever political credibility I've got left energetically defending a man who's going to be gone in a matter of weeks.

Quite the quote from the John Blake, the former director of fair access at the Office for Students www.thetimes.com/article/1cb6...

Giles was so generous with his time and so helpful when it came to explaining to journalists very clearly and with quotable precision exactly how a wrong un landlord was being a wrong un. But mostly I just remember thinking he was a really, really kind human who cared about the state of others.

lol: "The Royal Navy has not seized any sanctioned Russian oil tankers because of concerns in Whitehall that the cost of berthing and maintaining the vessels could reach tens of millions of pounds." www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Half of all the world's bluebells are in the UK. I can't imagine living in a country where the woods don't turn into this every spring.

Daniel Kinahan has (finally) been arrested in the UAE. With @occrp.org @georgegreenwood.bsky.social and I showed how he and his wife were making millions from buying, renting and selling Dubai property, while supposedly on the run... www.thetimes.com/article/48f2...

Smugglers in northern France are launching boats from deep into Belgium, requiring asylum seekers to make a 100km+ journey to Britain. We've been told boats have been detected launching from De Haan, north of Bruges - likely as a result of brutal French policing. www.thetimes.com/article/9bae...

The FAQs page of the Belgian Coastguard is utterly delightful. These are the questions people ask "frequently".

Quite a flex to turn up at the presidential palace, get him to confirm you as prime minister, call him unfit to serve with no moral authority, tell him to resign, and then pose for a picture

A quick look at yesterday's RAF P-8 flight mentioned by @yeomans.bsky.social in relation to the position of the PM-82 recorded over HF by @te3ej.bsky.social

A Russian naval supply and repair ship loitering off a Suffolk windfarm may have been running security operations for shadow tankers. Thanks to @jjdroxford.bsky.social for the help with this! www.thetimes.com/article/60ad...

Text from Hungarian family reads simply "It's over"

Late night Sunday quest to find the nearest shop selling tokaji

🇭🇺 Hungarian elections: ‼️Viktor Orbán congratulated Péter Magyar

ORBÁN CONCEDED

💥🇭🇺🗳️First results of the Hungarian parliamentary elections are in: with 14.72% counted, the opposition leads with mandates nearing a two-thirds majority. Everything points to Viktor Orbán’s defeat and Péter Magyar becoming Hungary’s next prime minister.

💥Polls closed in Hungary. No exit poll, but 21 Research Institute’s Apr 8–11 exclusive survey for @telexhu.bsky.social shows the opposition Tisza party leading Orbán's Fidesz 55–38, with the far-right Our Homeland around the 5% threshold. Tisza is on the verge of a parliamentary supermajority.

Excellent reporting on the horrors Lebanon are seeing under the recent Israeli attacks www.ft.com/content/5501...

Another reason is that Michael Wolff is suing Melania under the New York SLAPP statute for threatening to sue him unless he retracted his report that Jeffrey Epstein introduced Donald and Melania.

In case you're wondering why Melania is suddenly talking about Epstein... An Epstein victim told the FBI she recalled seeing Epstein introduce Melania and Trump at a modelling agency.

$2 million per ship — to cross a Strait that was free six weeks ago. @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/w...

Spectacular images taken by the Artemis II crew of earthset and the eclipse. Just incredible. NASA posts them here and it’s free to access: images.nasa.gov

Keir Starmer has pledged to intercept Russia's shadow fleet. I took a look at what might be found on board - and the massive dangers these ailing ships pose to crew and the environment. www.thetimes.com/article/4ed0...

Serbian authorities have found that Ukraine is not involved in the explosives found near the TurkStream pipeline, which connects Serbia with Hungary, said the director of Serbia’s Military Security Agency, Đuro Jovanić, according to Kurir.

❗️The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has rejected any involvement in the incident involving the discovery of explosives near the TurkStream gas pipeline in Serbia, stating that it is likely another Russian false flag operation.

my entire timeline on x is now just iranian embassies demonstrating a facility with the english language that puts everything i've ever read from the trump administration to shame

Very traditional part of the British constitutional settlement on display here: a scaffolder finding something mislaid by someone in authority and carrying out his solemn duty of calling both the police and the Sun newsdesk.

Poem of the day from the East Anglian Daily Times.

from Fraser Nelson:

This is utterly jaw-dropping. A school that bans Atwood, Zadie Smith, Terry effing Pratchett and *literal George Orwell* is actively harming its pupils. www.indexoncensorship.org/2026/03/scho...

Ah, the classic "we found military assets by Strava" story. Le Monde's, below, is the latest in a long, entertaining series. In 2022, I used it to work out the names of and plausible deployment dates for submariners on Britain's Trident nuclear subs... www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Satellite image taken this morning shows Safeen Prestige container ship on fire in Strait of Hormuz. It was initially attacked on 4 March by Iran. Reason for it being on fire two weeks later is unknown. Image by European Space Agency

Holy s*** two of my embroidery pieces have made it onto the Royal Academy summer exhibition shortlist. Cross your fingers for me please!

Whose job is it to arrange the ships into fun patterns with AIS jamming? because I have some ideas for them

Last year Barnet Council granted planning permission for 33 luxury flats to an Iranian banker linked to Mojtaba Khamenei. He was sanctioned soon after. This being Britain, the council exempted him from affordable home rules, but made him complete bat and newt surveys www.thetimes.com/uk/london/ar...

Dirty money, golden postcodes: Iran’s £200m London empire. @yeomans.bsky.social and I delve through the London luxury property linked to the regime. www.thetimes.com/article/7f4d...

So... It was the guy that everyone thought it was all along?

"Other than that, Mrs Lincoln, how was the play?"

Really proud that our project on the escalating pace of rescues and disasters in the English Channel was given a Special Commendation at the European Newspaper Awards. You can read it here: www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Bought some bergamot oranges by mistake thinking they were tangerines or something, and it is truly remarkable how something can be simultaneously the best smelling thing in the entire world, and also taste the worst

Reminder that this wasn't just an accusation, this was captured on film

Three vessels struck in Middle East Gulf ▶️Two bulkers and a containership have been damaged in this morning’s attacks ▶️A fire erupted on board one bulker, forcing the crew to evacuate ▶️There have been at least 10 attacks on vessels in/near the Strait of Hormuz www.lloydslist.com/articles/202...