Public services productivity has fallen again and is still 8.5 per cent below pre-Covid levels as Labour prepares to pour in more resources. Grim official figures showed that state sector output relative to input went down 1.2 per cent in the three months to June, compared to the previous quarter. The ONS has also revised down data for productivity in 2022, suggesting improvement in the aftermath of the pandemic nosedive was less than half as fast as thought.

Lindsay Lohan looked incredible as she showed off her youthful transformation this week. The actress, 38, was praised by fans for her natural beauty as she attended the New York City premiere of her new Netflix movie Our Little Secret. Having rose to fame in the 1998 film The Parent Trap and going on to star in Mean Girls and Freaky Friday, she later took a break from Hollywood following her wild child antics.

Cheryl has bid an emotional final goodbye to Liam Payne – the father of her seven-year-old son – as he was laid to rest in a private service following his tragic death at the age of just 31. The former Girls Aloud singer, 41, walked behind her ex’s coffin following a poignant ceremony attended by family members and a host of stars from the world of music and sport. Harry Styles, 30, joined fellow members of One Direction Niall Horan, 31, Zayn Malik, 31, and Louis Tomlinson, 32, to celebrate the life of their beloved former bandmate. They have described themselves as ‘completely devastated’.

Labour’s plan to build 1.5million homes by the end of the decade to ease the UK housing crisis will be ‘more difficult than we expected’ to achieve, a senior minister admitted today. Communities Minister Matthew Pennycook admitted that the target set by Housing Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner was ‘incredibly stretching’. But he insisted it was ‘essential’ it was met and told the Housing and Communities Committee it was still deliverable.

A row broke out on BBC’s Newsnight over Jeremy Clarkson’s appearance at the farmers’ ‘tractor tax’ protest in London after his angry interview with presenter Victoria Derbyshire. Former Labour minister Jim Murphy condemned former Top Gear host Clarkson as ‘rude’ and ‘aggressive’ – but ex-Conservative party chairman Sir Jake Berry hit back, defending him. They clashed on last night’s BBC2 show which was presented by Derbyshire just hours after she had questioned Clarkson at the demonstration in central London.

Angela Rayner faced a backlash for refusing to rule out more hikes to inheritance tax today as she dismissed the outcry from farmers. Standing in for Keir Starmer at PMQs, Ms Rayner hit out at ‘scaremongering’ over how many will be hit by the Budget raid. Despite the huge protest by desperate farmers in Westminster yesterday, the Housing Secretary insisted the ‘vast majority’ will be able to hand down their estates tax-free.

Age spots, also known as solar lentigines, are flat, oval areas of increased pigmentation caused by prolonged exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light from the sun or tanning beds….

Vladimir Putin’s raging TV propagandists have called for Britain to be obliterated with nuclear weapons, amid claims that Ukraine has used UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles inside Russian territory. Kremlin mouthpieces are competing with each other to outline the most shocking and devastating war plans imaginable, with numerous commentators describing how far Russia could go in a nuclear attack. One proposed dropping Russia’s Satan-2 missile, widely described as ‘the world’s deadliest weapon’, on Trafalgar Square, while another urged Putin to use the new Poseidon high speed underwater drone and sink the UK under a ‘radioactive tidal wave’.

Ukraine has used the British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles in Russia for the first time, a Western official has reportedly confirmed. Up to 12 missiles were launched into the Kursk region on Wednesday, according to Russian reports. Unconfirmed images and footage posted to X/Twitter have shown residents in the village of Marino, Kursk, stumbling upon fragments of the missile.