Author: BBC

Ruth Jones says she hopes to write again soon with her close friend and fellow Gavin & Stacey creator James Corden. Fresh from her Bafta success as best female performance in a comedy, Jones confirmed there are no plans to continue one of Britain’s most beloved comedies. But that does not mean the pair are not hoping to “come up with something new” in the future.Video edited by Erin Lister.

The US and China have agreed a deal that will significantly cut the import tariffs, or taxes, both sides have imposed on one another for a 90-day period.US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said both countries would lower their reciprocal tariffs by 115% for 90 days.The announcement came after the two countries held talks in Switzerland, the first between the two countries since US President Donald Trump had levied steep tariffs on Chinese imports.The huge tariffs caused turmoil in the financial markets and sparked fears of a global recession.President Trump had imposed a 145% tariff on Chinese imports, while Beijing responded…

Graham FraserTechnology ReporterGetty ImagesAbout 1.2m people in the UK were affected by banking outages that happened on what was pay day for many earlier this year.The details have emerged in letters from Lloyds, TSB, Nationwide and HSBC to Dame Meg Hillier, the chair of the Commons Treasury Committee, which is looking into the incident that occurred on Friday, 28 February.HSBC also revealed that customers had to wait two hours on average that day to reach its online customer service team. Its standard target wait time is five minutes.In their correspondence, the banks said they had paid compensation to affected customers…

Lindsey Burrow talks to Giovanna Fletcher on the Couch to 5K Podcast about how her perseverance while running has helped her to build resilience in life. Lindsey has run two marathons in two weeks in memory of her late husband, rugby league legend Rob Burrow.LISTEN ON BBC SOUNDS: The Couch to 5K Podcast

Steven McIntoshEntertainment reporterGetty ImagesTV duo Ant & Dec, who are nominated for their last series of Saturday Night TakeawayTV stars doused themselves in suncream on Sunday, as they walked the sun-drenched red carpet ahead of the Bafta TV Awards. The ceremony, one of the most prestigious events in the entertainment calendar, takes place at London’s Royal Festival Hall. Baby Reindeer and Mr Bates vs the Post Office are among the nominees at the ceremony, which recognises the best television of 2024. The show is recorded ahead of time and broadcast on BBC One at 19:00 BST. Here’s a selection of…

More than £4m could be allocated to helping people meet their essential household living costs in Barnsley.Councillors are due to discuss plans to provide millions of pounds of support to people in the district who are struggling with the cost of living.If approved the money would be used to help residents with winter fuel payments, school meal vouchers, energy costs and provide debt and budgeting advice.Barnsley Council said in previous years the funding, provided from the government’s Household Support Fund, had been used to help hundreds of people.Robert Frost, cabinet spokesperson for core services, said: “Our work to deliver support…

Ofcom has launched investigations into two pornographic websites it believes may be falling foul of the UK’s newly introduced child safety rules.The regulator said Itai Tech Ltd – which operates a so-called “nudifying” site – and Score Internet Group LLC had failed to detail how they were preventing children from accessing their platforms.Ofcom announced in January that, in order to comply with the Online Safety Act, all websites on which pornographic material could be found must introduce “robust” age-checking techniques from July.It said the two services it was investigating did not appear to have any effective age checking mechanisms.Firms found…

Getty ImagesThe NHS in England is planning “previously unthinkable” cuts to try to balance the books, health bosses say.Services including diabetes care for young people, rehab centres and talking therapies are in the firing line, according to NHS Providers, which represents health managers.Staff, including doctors and nurses, also face the axe – and some NHS trusts are stopping overtime for doctors, putting the drive to cut the hospital waiting lists at risk.NHS Providers said some of the savings were “eye-watering”, but the Department of Health and Social Care said NHS services should focus on cutting bureaucracy and driving up productivity.The…

Annabel RackhamCulture reporterGetty ImagesTaylor Swift and Blake Lively, seen here in 2023, have been close friends for many yearsTaylor Swift’s representatives have told the BBC she is being brought into a legal row between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively to create “tabloid clickbait”.The 35-year-old singer was summoned to a US court after it was alleged she encouraged Baldoni to accept script re-writes by Lively for It Ends With Us, a film that both starred in and is the centre of a sexual harassment case.Baldoni says he was invited to Lively’s New York home in 2023 to discuss script changes, where…

Deborah GrushkinDeborah Grushkin says she felt panicked when she heard about the end of “de minimis”Earlier this year, Deborah Grushkin, an enthusiastic online shopper from New Jersey, “freaked out”.US President Donald Trump had signed an order to stop allowing packages from China worth less than $800 (£601) to enter the country free of import taxes and customs procedures.It was a move, backed by traditional retailers, that had been discussed in Washington for years amid an explosion of packages slipping into the US under the limit. Many countries, including the UK, are considering similar measures, spurred in part by the rapid…