Columbia Hillen

Highlight of a stay at Lisbon’s Lumen Hotel is undoubtedly its dynamic outdoor color and light show presented every evening reflecting aspects of Portugal’s checkered history. 

Columbia Hillen

Promptly at 10pm, guests take their seats either in the interior courtyard or at tables along the first-floor terrace and enjoy dazzling entertainment projected onto the walls around them using video mapping technology.

Opened four years ago, this 4-star, 147-room hotel lies outside Lisbon’s hectic centre in the Santa Cruz neighborhood north of Lisbon’s central Baixa district, a lively suburb but within a 10-minute taxi or bus ride of many of the city’s most important sites.  

Columbia Hillen

Once a series of derelict buildings, architect Frederico Valsassina has created an attractive contemporary building with a chessboard design inside that emphasizes light and dark, as the hotel’s name suggests. Rooms are finished in one of three tones of color inspired by dawn, sunset and dusk. Golden Dawn, yellows representing vibrant tones of dawn; Copper Nightfall, oranges and reds reminiscent of sunsets; and Pure Light, reflecting the interplay of light and shadow just before nightfall.

Columbia Hillen

My companion and I stayed in suite 608, spacious, wood-floor, with large floor-to-ceiling windows and a sliding door separating bedroom, living-room and a second bathroom. With minimalist decor, furnishings included a large sofa, two wall TVs, a long work bench, a mini-fridge, coffee and tea facilities and a round table with three chairs. 

Columbia Hillen

Our main bathroom, separated from the bedroom by glass panels, featured a double sink and toiletries from Benamor, a cosmetics company founded in Lisbon in 1925. Slippers and robes were provided. Outside the living room was a long, railed balcony facing onto the street, with chairs.

Columbia Hillen

Two added benefits for us was that the executive lounge was on the same floor and there was also easy access to a roof-top pool and cocktail bar a few steps away. I enjoyed a few swimming laps and an hour’s relaxation on lounge chairs with panoramic views over the city before heading off to the nearby Calouste Gulbenkian Museum to see its unique collection of intricate art nouveau jewelry by René Lalique, as well as works by Rembrandt, Monet, Rubens, Manet, Renoir, Degas and Turner.

Columbia Hillen

‘Photosynthesis’ courtyard is also a quiet place to relax, decorated as it is with ivy covered walls, ferns and glass-topped ‘water mirror’ ponds.

We dined alfresco at the hotel’s 130-seat Clorofila restaurant, its relaxed ambience enhanced by decorative flickering gas-flame lights in glass cubicles.

Columbia Hillen

Highlights on the menu included traditional Portuguese sausage cakes served with mango chutney, balsamic and pistachio crumble; cod and mackerel timbale with a sweet potato mousse and roasted peppers; sauteed padron peppers, with crushed garlic, balsamic sorbet and salt flakes; shredded duck confit, mushroom creamy rice with glazed apple and seafood casserole served with rice and mint foam.

Columbia Hillen

Throughout the week, the chef prepares a special buffet lunch. Breakfast is also served here.

For a leisurely drink in an informal ambience, try the hotel’s lobby lounge bar, Six Degrees, an atmosphere flooded with natural light.

Columbia Hillen

The hotel also has a fitness centre, evening entertainment and a 24-hour front desk, as well as business meeting rooms, with combined capacity of over 350 people. 

Throughout our stay we were served by a young and efficient multi-national staff, including 21-year-old receptionist, Beatrz Evora, who is also a talented illustrator.

Kitchen staff at the end of a busy day. Photo by Columbia Hillen

For a hotel removed from the hustle and bustle of downtown Lisbon yet within easy reach of the city’s main attractions, Lumen may be an excellent choice.

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Donald Trump will nominate Jay Clayton, the former head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, as US attorney for the Southern District of New York, one of the most prestigious prosecutorial posts with oversight of Wall Street.

“Jay is a highly respected business leader, counsel, and public servant,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform on Thursday. He said Clayton had done “an incredible job” as SEC chair. 

It was one of several nominations for top legal posts that Trump put forward on Thursday, as the president-election moves quickly to shape his new administration.

He picked Todd Blanche, a former federal prosecutor who was the president-elect’s defence attorney during this year’s “hush money” trial in New York, to be assistant attorney-general at the Department of Justice.

Trump also nominated Blanche’s co-counsel Emil Bove to the post of principal associate deputy attorney-general and acting deputy attorney-general, while Blanche is in process of being confirmed by the Senate.

John Sauer, who successfully argued for Trump in a case before the US Supreme Court over presidential immunity, was nominated as solicitor-general, which will put him at the front of the administration’s cases before the high court. Sauer was previously solicitor-general for the state of Missouri.

The moves come a day after Trump nominated Matt Gaetz, the incendiary former Florida congressman who practised law briefly before joining Congress, as US attorney-general. That pick shook Washington’s legal community over concerns that Gaetz could, if confirmed, use law enforcement against the president-elect’s political opponents.

By contrast, the latest batch of nominations come from more conventional legal backgrounds. All have close ties to Trump.

During his tenure at the SEC Clayton, a veteran Wall Street lawyer, had sought to focus his enforcement agenda on cases linked to harm against retail investors, and oversaw a deregulatory drive aimed at making it easier for companies to raise capital.

Clayton, who is a senior policy adviser at law firm Sullivan & Cromwell and independent chair of Apollo Global Management’s board of directors, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In recent years, under the leadership of US attorney Damian Williams, the Southern District of New York has won the convictions of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, and Archegos’ Bill Hwang, among other high-profile white collar criminals. 

If confirmed, Clayton would take over an office that is still prosecuting rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs, and Democratic New York mayor Eric Adams, who faces numerous corruption allegations.

Trump has expressed sympathy for Adams, saying he had been targeted by “lunatic” prosecutors. Adams, who maintains his innocence, has in turn been reluctant to criticise the president-elect.

While the US attorney for the Southern District of New York answers to the attorney-general, the office has a long history of acting relatively independently, at arm’s length from Washington.

It previously declined to prosecute Trump over campaign finance violations relating to his payments to pay off a porn actor in the run-up to the 2016 election, before the Manhattan district attorney decided to bring similar state charges.

Trump has not yet named his selection to run the SEC.

THE Chancellor last night attempted to win back the City with plans to create pension megafunds to boost investment in Britain and rip up financial red tape.

Just a fortnight after her Budget received a frosty reception, Rachel Reeves told businesses she was still “going for growth”.

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Ms Reeves wants to create her “megafunds” by pooling £1.3trillion of pension savings held by 86 separate local government schemes.

She reckons this will create £80billion to invest in British businesses and infrastructure.

The Chancellor borrowed the idea from Canadian and Australian pension schemes, which bundle local government pension schemes together and invest their trillions of dollars in big assets with high growth and profit potential.

She hopes this will not only cut costs for pension schemes by reducing fees to advisers, but will also funnel greater investment into the country’s infrastructure — which is currently being snapped up by overseas pension funds.

Canadian pension funds own swathes of British properties and utilities, and just this week bought the UK’s airport operator in a £1.5billion deal.

Reeves’ idea is not a new one, but pension reform on this scale has not been tackled before.

Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, last night agreed that the UK pension system had been “too fragmented” to encourage “investment in the real economy”.

In his speech last night he said the UK’s economic potential growth rate had fallen from 2.6 per cent between 1990 to 2008 to just 0.7 per cent, partly because of low productivity.

Tom Selby, public policy director at AJ Bell, said the megafunds must not forget their purpose to deliver good returns for pensioners.

He said: “In the government’s increasingly desperate search for investment and growth, it is crucial savers and retirees are not forced to pay the price through sub-standard investment return.”

The Chancellor, who has said she wants to bring more stability and security to the financial system than the Conservatives, last night conceded it was time to take off the kid gloves.

She said that some of the rules and regulations brought in after the 2008 financial crisis to avoid another banking meltdown had “gone too far”.

Ms Reeves reckons some rules stifled investment.

She added: “The UK has been regulating for risk, not regulating for growth.”

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Firms feel left out after raid

LAST night was a Square Mile schmoozefest that few Brits or businesses could relate to.

As Reeves spoke of growth under chandeliers in the Lord Mayor’s house, shops, pubs and restaurants counted the cost of her £25billion tax raid.

Retailers feel particularly sore for supporting Labour before the election to then be hit by National Insurance contributions. They also didn’t get business rates reforms.

 Altus Group analysis shows raising taxes on top properties to level the playing field with online retailers actually hits nearly three times more retail, leisure and hospitality firms than online businesses.

Reeves has to renew her charm offensive with firms outside of the City.

Trench warfare for Burb

BURBERRY shares rose yesterday after its new boss outlined an urgent turnaround — and blamed his predecessor for several fashion faux pas.

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Half-year results for the brand fell by a fifth to £1.1billion in the last six months while it has swung to a £53million loss.

Joshua Schulman, who took over as CEO in July, said it was due to “poor decision execution and a lack of focus on core business”.

He also pointed the finger at former CEO Jonathan Akeroyd’s decision to hike handbag prices, when Burberry did not have the same clout as leather goods giants LVMH and Hermes.

He said it will focus on its heritage of trench coats, which Thomas Burberry started in 1856 with waterproofs.

The US boss, who previously led Michael Kors and Coach, dismissed predictions that he would turn Burberry into similarly more affordable and mass-market brands.

New coal mine ban

THE government has banned any future new coal mining schemes as part of its Clean Power push.

It comes after the UK’s last coal-fired power station Ratcliffe-on-Soar shut last month.

Coal mining powered Britain for 140 years but Labour wants to become reliant on green renewable energy by 2030.

Energy Minister Michael Shanks said: “The UK’s in prime position to lead the phasing out of coal power, the largest contributor to global emissions.”

Ices Gaza ‘gag’

ICE cream brand BEN & JERRY’S is suing its parent company Unilever, claiming it was silenced from speaking out in support of Palestinians.

It follows the former Unilever boss telling Ben & Jerry’s to stay out of geopolitics after it said it would stop supplying ice cream to the West Bank two years ago.

The Phish Food maker now says attempts to speak out in support of a ceasefire were blocked, breaching the terms of its settlement in 2022. Unilever said it “rejects the claims and will defend its case.”

INVESTMENT firm London Capital & Finance was a Ponzi scheme, the High Court ruled. It raised about £237million from 11,600 ordinary investors before going bust in 2019.

It depended entirely on new investors paying existing ones, a judge said.

WHS shops fly

WH SMITH yesterday revealed it now makes five times as much profit from its travel network shops than its high street stores after a rapid expansion in US airports.

The stationery retailer opened 100 new stores last year and is appealing to holidaymakers by selling more cosmetics, gadgets and food products.

It made £202million profit from its travel division compared to £39million from its high street stores in the past year. There are 90 more travel shops still to be opened.

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John Malone, the pre-eminent dealmaker in the media and technology industry, is pressing for merger activity amid an anticipated rollback of regulations under the incoming administration of Donald Trump. 

Charter Communications, the cable television and broadband company that has just agreed to buy his Liberty Broadband, should be allowed to merge with rival cable operators Comcast, Cox or T-Mobile, the billionaire “cable cowboy” told investors on Thursday.

“The idea that Charter should be limited to 30 per cent of the US terrestrial footprint while Big Tech has the globe, and even Elon [Musk] has the globe, is silly,” the Liberty Media chair said. “Tying an industry’s hands behind its back and allowing Big Tech to run wild in every direction that they choose to run in, I think is inappropriate.”

Malone’s pronouncement comes as mass media companies have struggled for years due to the disruption of linear television. Companies such as Warner Brothers Discovery have lost a huge share of their business to streaming services, leading to billions in writedowns and attempted mergers, like satellite TV provider DirectTV’s now-abandoned purchase of Dish.  

Trump’s anticipated dismissal of Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan and Department of Justice chief Jonathan Kanter has spurred hopes among media executives grappling with deflated share prices that tie-ups may escape harsh antitrust scrutiny. This is despite indications that the new White House administration is likely to continue strict enforcement of media deals.

David Zaslav, WBD’s chief executive, said earlier this month the new administration might offer a “change of pace” and an opportunity for a wave of consolidation.

Malone’s comments came a day after he announced he would simplify his media empire by spinning off event ticketing company Live Nation and events specialist Quint from Liberty Media into a separate public company following a wave of legacy media companies looking to clean up their corporate structure amid a wave of anticipated dealmaking.

Last month, broadcaster Comcast said it was weighing a spinout of its cable networks.

The remaining Liberty Media will focus on sports, following its $8bn acquisition of Formula One in 2017. The 83-year-old Malone will step in as interim CEO after the departure of prolific dealmaker Greg Maffei, who said he would step down as CEO after nearly 20 years at the helm.

A LUCKY lotto winner scooped a whopping £40million jackpot before opting for van life and getting dumped.

Dad-of-two Gareth Bull, 53, scored his winnings in January 2012 after picking up the life-changing ticket on a whim.

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The former builder realised he’d won the multi-million pound jackpot the day after he’d bought the ticket and celebrated with his then wife Catherine.

Six-years on, he splurged some of his mammoth fortune on a bungalow in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, only to have it knocked down and move into a caravan.

He said: “My friends said, ‘You’ve won £40,000,000 and moved into a caravan!’”

When the bungalow was half demolished in 2019 Gareth lived in the remaining rooms so he could stay on site and look after the tools.

Gareth added: “When the rest of the bungalow had to be knocked down, I moved into a caravan on the building site – much to the amusement of my friends.”

Thankfully for Gareth, the move was only temporary as he was in the process of building his dream 6000sq ft house.

“Once I got the green light to go ahead, I started digging and just didn’t stop.”

Despite being lucky in the lottery Gareth wasn’t as lucky in love, and split with his former wife in 2016, five years after their big win.

He then went on to have a whirlwind relationship with Tenerife bar manager Donna Desporte after they met on a stag do.

His wife was said to have spotted the pair in the background of a televised Anthony Joshua boxing match after they had split.

Gareth and his new lover had a star-studded nine-month romance after he used the pick up line “Google me” which ended being the title of Donna’s memoir.

Gareth then struck up a relationship with interior designer Victoria Melling, 48, around the same time he’d taken up caravan life.

After living in his trailer, Gareth was able to build his mega-mansion with the assistance of his new girlfriend.

The pair took to social media to share smitten snaps of couples holidays and luxury hotel stays.

Mum-of-one Victoria helped style the huge four-bedroom property during lockdown and stayed there frequently.

Despite looking loved-up online, and Victoria describing her lavish lover as a “knight in shining armour,” the couple called it quits after two years of dating.

The Furnish Your Interior shop designer told MailOnline: “I did design his house and I helped design his villa in Tenerife, but we are no longer together.”

The million-pound property boasts a wave-controlled swimming pool, sound-sytems, hot tubs, and a three personalised bars.

He also created an artificial lake, which originally designed to be a pond but increased to the size of two tennis courts.

The lucky punter added: “I called it ‘Lockdown Lake’, made a little sign with its name on it and invited anyone who needed to rehome their fish to bring them here.”

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