Author: Liam Porter

Spain’s Costa Brava has long been a magnet for the jet set, its pebbled calas and charming fishing villages luring everyone from Truman Capote and Marcel Duchamp to Ava Gardner. While you could easily follow in their footsteps, spending your vacation hopping from one rocky playa to the next, that would mean missing out on the wider charms of Empordà, the storied region stretching inland from the Mediterranean Sea and north toward the French border.Once home to the first Greek settlement on the Iberian Peninsula, this picturesque corner of Spain, just an hour and a half north of Barcelona, encompasses…

Keir Starmer has backed the US strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities and called on Iran to return to negotiations, saying the country’s nuclear programme was a “grave threat to international security”.Donald Trump announced overnight that the US had bombed three nuclear sites in Iran, joining Israel’s attack on the Tehran regime.There was no UK involvement in the action. Starmer and the foreign secretary, David Lammy, had pushed for a diplomatic solution amid fears a wider action could further destabilise the region.As recently as Tuesday at the G7 summit, Starmer had said he did not have any indication the US was…

Helen Drew & Olivia DemetriadesBBC News, LondonGetty ImagesThe average cost of an attended funeral in London in 2024 was £5,449The average cost of an attended funeral in London is the most expensive compared with anywhere else in the UK, according to a report.Financial services company SunLife found that the average funeral cost in 2024 was £4,285. In London, it was £5,449 – a 5.4% increase from the year before and 58% higher than in the least expensive region, Northern Ireland.Concerns have been raised about funeral poverty, with charity Quaker Social Action saying the financial stress can “rob people of their…

If you don’t know where to start—and use—your HP coupon code, there’s a wide variety of options available at HP.com in terms of budget and use case, but my eye goes first to the high-end HP Omen gaming monitors, like the fantastic HP Omen Transcend 32. This 4K 240Hz monitor is a favorite among PC gamers, even among the huge amounts of OLED options out there. It can hit a peak brightness of over 1,000 nits in HDR, bringing scenes in games to life in vivid detail.Or if you’re on the other side of the budget spectrum and just need…

The Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers will square off for one last time on Sunday in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals. Their thrilling series has far exceeded expectations, and just seven total points separate the two teams through the first six games. This is the first time the Finals have gone the distance since 2016, when the Cleveland Cavaliers completed their historic 3-1 comeback to defeat the 73-win Golden State Warriors. The Thunder won 68 games this season, which is the most wins by any team since that Warriors group. Will they meet the same fate? Ranking every…

As a travel writer who takes dozens of trips a year, I’ve had my fair share of trial and error when it comes to summer-friendly travel pants. One of the fastest ways to ruin a flight? Too-tight pants that seemed fine for an hour but feel unbearable after takeoff. Over time, I’ve learned that lightweight, pull-on pants are the key to staying cool and comfortable on the go (of course, bottoms with breathable fabrics are also non-negotiable). Below, I’ve rounded up my favorite plus-size travel pants for summer. Whether you’re lounging on the shores of Costa Navarino in Greece, hiking…

New Delhi put into ‘abeyance’ its participation in the 1960 transboundary treaty after 26 people were killed in Indian-administered Kashmir in April.India will never restore the Indus Waters Treaty with neighbouring Pakistan, and the water flowing there will be diverted for internal use, says federal Home Minister Amit Shah. India put into “abeyance” its participation in the 1960 treaty, which governs the usage of the Indus River system, after 26 people were killed in Indian-administered Kashmir in April, in what New Delhi described as an act of terror backed by Pakistan. Pakistan denied involvement in the incident, which led to…

Nestled in the heart of rural Berkshire, the 300-hectare (750-acre) military complex at Aldermaston is an incongruous sight. It comprises a mix of 1950s and 1960s institutional buildings, heated by a steam tube system more familiar in Soviet structures, and a handful of modern offices, several of which are in the process of being built.But the technology inside the complex, one of Britain’s most sensitive defence locations, is far from that era of cold-war hostility. The sprawling campus is the largest of three locations where Britain manufactures its nuclear warheads – and where the UK will design and build a…

To Israeli military planners, it is akin to Mount Doom: a tightly guarded nuclear enrichment plant, buried half a kilometre beneath a mountain, which is ringed by air defences and symbolically situated near the ancient religious city of Qom.To Tehran, the Fordow facility symbolises its desire to safeguard its nuclear programme, designed to survive a full-frontal attack, with enough centrifuges and highly enriched uranium intact to potentially produce a nuclear weapon, or “break out”.Buried under hard rock and encased in reinforced concrete that puts it beyond the destructive reach of any of Israel’s publicly known weapons, it is also a…

Omar Marques | Lightrocket | Getty ImagesEther ETFs have finally come to life this year after some started to fear they may be becoming zombie funds.Collectively, the funds tracking the price of spot ether are on pace for their sixth consecutive week of inflows and eight positive week in the last nine, according to SoSoValue.The second largest cryptocurrency has become more attractive to institutions in recent weeks largely due to recent regulatory momentum in the U.S. around stablecoins – many of which run on the Ethereum network – the successful IPO of Circle, the issuer of the second-largest stablecoin; and…