Homebase has faced tough competition in a crowded market that has intensified since budget Chinese marketplaces have entered the fray, retail experts said today. The DIY chain faces an uncertain future after years of pressure from rivals with similar product ranges such as B&Q, Wickes, B&M, The Range and Home Bargains. Homebase has also fought for business with online marketplaces such as Temu offering heavily discounted consumer goods mostly shipped directly from China.

An army veteran posing as a retired elite soldier who served during the Falklands at a Remembrance service has admitted fabricating his military background in an act of ‘stolen valour’. Mick Carling, 61, placed himself at the heart of commemorations in Malton, North Yorks, in full military regalia – with medals pinned to his chest that he had no right to wear. Carling claimed that his service included a period in the Parachute Regiment during the Falklands War and the Pathfinder platoon in Afghanistan, during a career which spanned from 1979 to 2000.

Kim Kardashian has talked about parenting alone these days. When chatting to her best friend Zoe Winkler — whose father is Henry Winkler of Happy Days fame — on the iHeart What The Winkler? podcast, the SKIMS founder, 44, said she feels like a single parent. That is because her ex-husband Kanye West has been in Japan for months with his new wife Bianca Censori. In fact, the rapper has not been seen with his children in about 57 days.

Top Republican Michael McCaul was detained at the airport for ‘mixing Ambien with alcohol.’ The shocking event occurred two weekends ago at Dulles International Airport, according to the lawmaker who chairs the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee. ‘Two weekends ago, I made a mistake — one for which I take full responsibility,’ McCaul, R-Texas, said in a statement confirming the incident to DailyMail.com.

A new mom has been killed in a horror golf cart crash at a private members’ club in Maryland. Mary Beth Blasetti, 32, died after being launched from the vehicle near Sherwood Forest Club on Saturday. She sustained life threatening injuries and was helicoptered to the hospital where she passed away two days later.

A woman who neglected her XL Bully dog to the point that vets couldn’t recognise its breed claimed she didn’t ask for help because of the Government ban. Carys Scott, 31, of Birkenhead, neglected Marlow so badly that his weight plummeted to less than half of what it should have been, and he struggled to walk and drink. She appeared at Wirral Magistrates Court on Wednesday, having pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.