A member of the touring side claims sprits remain high after a strong evening session went pear-shaped and threatened to define the series.

A man has been stabbed to death and a woman has been arrested at a Ballarat home on Saturday morning.

A fire rips through the Los Angeles hotel where the Doors photographed their 1970 album cover.

A man who police say was armed with a knife and trying to force his way into other people’s cars has died after being arrested.

US President-elect Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to delay a ban on TikTok so he can weigh in after he takes office.

Advogados refutam decisão de Alexandre de Moraes e violação de medidas cautelares

ARSENAL star Bukayo Saka could be sidelined for “more than two months” after undergoing surgery.

Saka, 23, was forced off just 23 minutes into the Gunners’ 5-1 thrashing at Crystal Palace with a hamstring injury last week.

Manager Mikel Arteta issued a bleak update regarding his star winger’s fitness as he revealed he underwent surgery.

And the Arsenal boss confirmed the England international could be out until February.

Arteta said: “I prefer to leave it to the doctor. But yes Bukayo had surgery, and he will be out for many, many weeks.

“Many weeks, I think it will be more than two months, I don’t know how long it will take with the scar tissue or improving his mobility.

“We have to rely on the team, that is our strength, we are a team of players who can score 20/30 goals together.”

THIS IS A DEVELOPING STORY..

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MAKING predictions for the coming year is a mug’s game.

But there is one forecast I feel confident in making: That the people who are contributing least to economic growth will be the ones reaping the rewards.

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In the first three months of the Labour government the economy failed to grow at all[/caption]

Figures from the Resolution Foundation confirm what has been obvious for months: That public sector workers have been the big winners from Labour’s general election victory.

At the beginning of 2024 the average public sector worker was earning two per cent more than an equivalent worker in the private sector. Since then the gap has trebled to six per cent.

The differential in salaries, though, is only half the story. Many public sector workers continue to enjoy salary-linked pensions.

Private sector employers realised long ago that increasing longevity was making it unaffordable to offer workers guaranteed, index-linked pensions for life based on what they were earning while in work.

Yet public sector employers have carried on getting these generous pensions regardless, relying on taxpayers to pick up the burden.

Pleading poverty

Another shocking set of figures released yesterday shows that across Britain a quarter of council tax receipts are now swallowed up by pension contributions for council staff.

In some areas it is much more. Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council managed to spend more on pension contributions last year (£10.1million) than it raised in council tax (£9.5million).

Providing actual public services such as emptying the bins and running libraries and swimming pools has to be funded from other sources of revenue.

We have become used to councils pleading poverty, bleating that “Tory austerity” has bled them dry.

But now we know the truth: While the public sees services slashed, former council employees have been treated to extravagant pensions.

The Local Government Pension Scheme, though, is in some ways the responsible one.

It is one of the few public sector schemes which is “fully funded”, which means that today’s contributions are invested to pay tomorrow’s pensions.

Most schemes, such as those for NHS workers, teachers, firefighters and so on, are “unfunded, which means that there is no pot of cash being invested to pay future pensioners.

Instead, today’s pension contributions are going straight out of the door to meet current pension liabilities.

Were they in the private sector, these pensions would be called Ponzi schemes — they are like the scam operated by the late US financier Bernie Madoff.

They are committing future taxpayers to huge, unknown liabilities.

If the public sector was working efficiently and well, it wouldn’t matter quite so much. Yet disgracefully, public sector workers are being allowed to get away with producing less and less each year.

Astonishingly, the average public sector worker produces less now than when Tony Blair came to power nearly 28 years ago, with minor productivity gains in the years to 2019 wiped out since the pandemic.

The Labour government has made things worse

Ross Clark

This has been a period of huge technological advance, offering numerous opportunities for making work more efficient.

Instead, civil servants and others have been indulged with the right to work from home, or even from the beach.

Valuable work time is frittered on endless diversity courses and team-bonding exercises.

Some council staff have been put on four-day weeks without any loss of pay, based on the fantastical assumption that it will somehow make them so much happier that they will produce as much in four days as they used to in five.

Far from addressing the problem of falling public sector productivity, the Labour government has made things worse.

In one of its first acts it awarded fat pay rises to NHS staff, train drivers and others without any requirement to agree to improved working practices.

We can’t go on like this. If the private sector worked like the public sector we would be stuck with 1990s standards of living.

Like the Soviet Union in its last decades, Britain would have become the land which economic development forgot.

Energy crisis

As it is, we have a millstone of a public sector being dragged along by a private sector which is still just about able to generate enough wealth to stop the country falling into permanent recession.

But it is a close-run thing. In the first three months of the Labour government the economy failed to grow at all.

This was an economic downturn generated entirely in Downing Street.

Unlike the economic retreat caused by Covid-19 and the energy crisis following the Ukraine invasion, Britain’s sudden step backwards is not echoed internationally.

Rather, it has been caused by declining confidence in the face of higher business taxes coming into effect next year.

Labour came to office promising “growth, growth, growth”.

If they really want to achieve that, they need to be shrinking the unproductive public sector and boosting the private sector.

They are doing the opposite, while failing to undertake reforms to public sector pensions needed to avoid fiscal disaster in future.

The past few months have seen a generous payday for some.

But none of us will be shielded from the long-term decline caused by a slothful public sector.

IT was supposed to be a week that unveiled the next glittering chapter in Jay-Z and Beyonce’s quest for global domination.

As the pop queen dazzled crowds at a stunning Christmas Day NFL show, the couple’s daughter Blue Ivy Carter joined her mum for a surprise cameo that sent fans into meltdown.

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Getty Images - Getty

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But the 12-year-old’s big step on to the world stage has been overshadowed by the allegations levelled against her music mogul father.

Jay-Z, 55, is accused of taking it in turns to rape a 13-year-old girl with pal Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.

The alleged victim claims she was attacked at a VMAs after-party in 2000 while an unidentified female celebrity watched on.

Both men strongly deny the allegations.

Yesterday, a judge accused Jay-Z of making “combative” personal attacks in an attempt to have the accusations thrown out.

The rapper’s lawyer Alex Spiro tried to have the woman behind the allegations identified in public but he was criticised by Judge Analisa Torres, who refused.

‘Cruelty and greed’

She said Spiro’s “relentless filings of combative motions” were filled with “inflammatory language and ad hominem attacks” that blasted the woman’s lawyer, Tony Buzbee.

It is the latest twist to a case which could see Jay-Z and superstar wife Beyonce, 43, take a hit to their vast, multi-billion pound fortunes.

The accusations also overshadowed the long-plotted launch of Blue Ivy Carter’s career.

The 12-year-old appeared on the red carpet for Disney movie Mufasa with her parents earlier this month — a day after the rape claims emerged.

Blue Ivy voices Princess Kiara, the daughter of King Simba, in the new Lion King prequel, while mum Beyonce plays Queen Nala.

The family put on a united front at the film’s premiere, but it proved to be Jay-Z’s last public appearance.

He was nowhere to be seen when Blue Ivy made an unexpected cameo in Beyonce’s Christmas Day NFL show in Houston.

Looking just like her mum, Blue Ivy danced while the pop icon sang her hit Texas Hold ’Em.

Jay-Z, real name Shawn Corey Carter, has previously released a statement telling of his “heartbreak” at having to tell Blue Ivy and seven-year-old twins Rumi and Sir about the accusations.

My wife and I will have to sit our children down, one of whom is at an age where her friends will surely see the press and ask questions about the nature of these claims

Jay-Z statement

Aggressively denying the claims, vowing not to part with “one red penny”, Jay-Z wrote: “My only heartbreak is for my family.

“My wife and I will have to sit our children down, one of whom is at an age where her friends will surely see the press and ask questions about the nature of these claims, and explain the cruelty and greed of people.”

Jay-Z and Beyonce have spent years carefully sketching out the career path of Blue Ivy.

She has already collaborated with both, making her debut on her dad’s 2012 hit Glory and on her mum’s 2019 single Brown Skin Girl.

Blue Ivy also joined the troupe of professional dancers on Beyonce’s Renaissance tour last year.

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Beyonce has waged a 12-year bid to have Blue Ivy’s name trademarked to stop others cashing in on it.

The couple insist they were “not involved” in securing her involvement in the latest Lion King instalment, but the film’s director said Beyonce always made sure she was on set with her daughter.

What is certain is that the latest accusations against Jay-Z will have had a massive impact on the family.

Jay-Z’s 38-year-old acc- user, from Alabama, alleges she was picked up by one of Sean Combs’ drivers after failing to get into the VMAs.

She claims she was taken to a house where she was given a drink that made her woozy and light-headed before Combs and Jay-Z took turns to rape her — watched on by an unnamed female celebrity.

Jay-Z has labelled the civil lawsuit “blackmail” and “false”.

The woman at the centre of the claims has admitted “inconsistencies” in her story but is adamant the attacks took place.

She conceded that her claims to have spoken to a particular celebrity during the after-party could not have been correct as the person was not in New York at the time.

And her father said he did not recall picking her up as she originally claimed.

In an anonymous interview with NBC News, the woman said: “Honestly, what is the clearest is what happened to me and route that I took to what happened to me. Not all of the faces there are as clear. So I have made some mistakes.”

On the night of the alleged rape, Combs was pictured surrounded by party-goers having a furious row with then- girlfriend Jennifer Lopez.

There is no suggestion the argument was connected to the claims against Jay-Z or Combs.

99 Problems rapper Jay-Z is the first major celebrity to become entangled in allegations against Combs, who faces charges of drugging, rape, assault and sex trafficking.

Many of the charges relate to Combs’ “White Parties” — a reference to the dress code — held at his mansion in the East Hamptons, New York, from 1998 to 2009.

They were attended by scores of A-listers, including Justin Bieber, Mariah Carey, Paris Hilton and Leonardo DiCaprio.

There is no suggestion that they knew or had any involvement in any wrongdoing.

Combs’ former publicist Rob Shuter previously said: “When Diddy winked at you and said come into the VIP section [at the parties], you knew you were going to have a really good night.”

‘Crack was everywhere’

According to business mag Forbes, Combs’ net worth fell from £589million in 2019 to £318million in June this year, following the accusations of sexual misconduct.

Former court prosecutor Neama Rahmani, of West Coast Trial Lawyers, told The Sun how the case could affect the business ventures of Jay-Z and Beyonce, who are worth a combined £2.3billion.

He said: “The mere accusations themselves can be very damaging.”

The mere accusations themselves can be very damaging

Former court prosecutor Neama Rahmani

Beyonce and Jay-Z own the most expensive home ever bought in Californian history, a £158million eight-acre compound with a private beach and infinity pool.

They also have a £70million Bel Air mansion with eight bedrooms and an £89million seven-bed property in East Hampton.

It is a far cry from Jay-Z’s upbringing in Brooklyn, where he dealt drugs aged 13.

He recalled in Vanity Fair: “Crack was everywhere. You go in the hallway — crackheads in the hallway. You look out in the puddles on the curbs — crack vials are littered.”

In 2009, he told Oprah Winfrey that he shot his drug addict brother Eric in the shoulder after he stole his ring but his elder sibling decided not to press charges.

More questions

The new claims have also led to questions about Jay-Z and Beyonce’s age-gap relationship.

Jay-Z is 12 years older than the Crazy In Love singer, and the pair, who wed in 2008, have given differing accounts about when they met.

The rap mogul said in a 2007 interview that they met “ten years ago” which would have made her 16 at the time, while Beyonce later said that she was 18.

And their marriage has also been hit with rumours of cheating. In her 2016 album Lemonade, Beyonce inferred her husband had been unfaithful with mystery woman “Becky with the good hair”.

Adding to their woes, a man claims he is Jay-Z’s illegitimate son.

Rymir Satterthwaite, 31, has been embroiled in a legal battle with Jay-Z since 2010 when the star refused to take a DNA test, claiming a New Jersey court had no jurisdiction over him.

Rymir and godmother Dr Lillie Coley told The Sun they believed the dad-of-three is “scared” to take the test because late mum Wanda was only 16 when she got pregnant.

In a display of how determined he is to protect his wife and kids, Jay-Z has hired big-gun celebrity lawyer Alex Spiro, whose long list of clients include tech entrepreneur Elon Musk and Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin.

He previously represented the rapper when fragrance firm Parlux sued Jay-Z in January 2016, accusing him of costing the company millions by breaching their deal to promote Gold Jay-Z cologne.

After six years, Spiro won Jay-Z around £5.5million in royalties.

But Spiro’s attempt to reveal the name of his client’s rape accuser backfired after Judge Torres slammed his “inappropriate tactics.”

Jay-Z has previously attacked the woman’s lawyer Tony Buzbee, accusing him of “blackmail” and describing him as “deplorable.”

As the allegations rumble on, Jay-Z looks hell-bent on defending himself as he tries to protect his family — and Blue Ivy’s career.

AP

DANIELLE Armstrong has been hit with criticism online after she shared a weight loss transformation, and encouraged followers to follow suit.

Former TOWIE star Danielle Armstrong has shown off the results of her weight loss across 15 months, which has seen her lose 3.5 stone.

instagram/@daniellearmstrong88

TOWIE star Danielle Armstrong has lost an incredible 3.5 stone[/caption]

instagram/@daniellearmstrong88

The mum of two showed off a dramatic before and after on her Instagram, but was slammed by fans[/caption]

The mum of two has shown off a slimmer and toned figure, as she encouraged others to follow her weight loss plan in 2025.

Writing on Instagram, she told fans in a clip of her before and after: “In a world that it seems injecting is the only solution for weightloss these days.

“This is your sign to tell you there is another way.”

Alongside the video, she captioned the post: “If your someone wants to make 2025 the year you prioritise your health and get results without taking any risks or quick fixes to do so, but your not a big gym lover or haven’t got time to meal prep and live on chicken and broccoli then this is your sign to message me NOW.

“I’ll be going LIVE on an exclusive guest list only call on 30th December 8pm to go into detail exactly what a day on plan consists of and how I’ve dropped 3.5 stone.”

However fans have hit back at Danielle, with some branding her “crass” for slamming weight loss injections – which can be turned to for those struggling with obesity and are now offered via an NHS prescription.

One person commented on the video: “Whilst you look great, this is disappointing promoting diet culture 2 days after Christmas.”

Another added: “I think it is more the cost for people and you are promoting another expensive product to take along side the cost of the gym and personal training.”

“Honestly drinking shakes ain’t also a healthy way of losing weight. Balance diet, calorie deficit and move your body even it means just walking. It does wonders. Also please don’t feel guilty for over indulging holiday season life is for living. Enjoy, laugh and live,” stressed a third.

Another pointed out: “Sometimes “injecting” is the only way it can be done. People try and try the natural way but sometimes it doesn’t work for them. Bit of a crass statement to be honest!”

The healthy weight loss journey Danielle refers to sees her as a Herbalife Nutrition ambassador, alongside her fellow former TOWIE pal Ferne McCann.

Ferne also posted to social media to share a healthy body message, as she told fans: “Let’s lose weight together!

“Ok so over the last month or so, I’ve been less consistent with my healthy habits, eating whatever I wanted. Properly indulging over thee festive period and it’s crept up on me…quick.

“I’ve been training for dancing on ice everyday but let me tell you, exercising everyday isn’t the answer! I’m feeling fluffy! Is anyone else?

“If you want to lose weight, beat the Christmas bloat and work on feeling your best then join me on my 10 day results plan challenge.”

instagram/@daniellearmstrong88

The star was hit with criticism over her weight loss promotion, with fans slamming her for promoting Herbalife[/caption]

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The former reality star has been on a weight loss journey in the past 15 months[/caption]

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Danielle Armstrong and husband Tom share two daughters together, Orla and Una[/caption]