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A selection of recent news articles written for BBC News 

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Maggie Smith's most memorable performances including Harry Potter, Downton Abbey and Lady in the Van

Dame Maggie Smith was one of Britain's best-loved and most celebrated actresses, with a career spanning eight decades.Her first performances came on stage in the 1950s, and her last screen role was just a year ago, when she starred in The Miracle Club. She was one of a select group of actors to win the treble of big US awards, with two Oscars, four Emmys and a Tony - as well as seven Baftas and an honorary Olivier Award in her home country.Here are six of her best-known performances:

Dame Maggi...
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Phillip Schofield: Broadcaster returns to TV in Channel 5's Cast Away

In May 2023, Schofield agreed to step down from ITV’s This Morning “with immediate effect” after more than 20 years, following reports of a rift with co-presenter Holly Willoughby.A week later, he admitted to having had an "unwise but not illegal" affair with a younger male colleague and has not made a TV appearance since. Speaking to the BBC last June, Schofield said the affair was "consensual” but his “fault" and his "biggest, sorriest secret".Schofield had presented This Morning since 2002, w...
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Sally Rooney's Intermezzo is 'utterly perfect' say critics

Intermezzo - a chess move, a composition of music, and now, Sally Rooney's latest novel, which critics have called "utterly perfect".The Irish author's fourth book swaps out her usual female protagonist and instead follows the relationship between two grieving brothers who are both in age-gap relationships and think they have little in common. Ivan is a 22-year-old competitive chess player and a "complete oddball" according to his older brother, Peter, a smooth-talking barrister.The Guardian's A...
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Booker Prize 2024: Women dominate this year's shortlist

Two of the novelists, Percival Everett and Rachel Kushner, have previously been short-listed for the award. Everett's James is a retelling of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written from the perspective of the runaway slave, Jim.Kushner's Creation Lake is a spy thriller which sees an American woman infiltrate a radical anarchist collective in rural France. Edmund de Waal, chair of the judges, praised the six novels shortlisted and said: "My copies of these novels are dog-eared,...
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Beetlejuice: Juice is loose as sequel is box office hit

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has had a stellar opening weekend as it earned an impressive $110m (£83m) in the US box office.The film, which is the highly anticipated sequel to Tim Burton's 1988 Beetlejuice, is the second biggest September opening ever after 2017's IT.The supernatural comedy is also the third biggest debut of 2024, behind Inside Out 2 ($154.2 million) and Deadpool & Wolverine ($211.4 million).Michael Keaton has reprised his role as the titular chaos-causing ghoul in the sequel. Cather...
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BBC asks Huw Edwards to return more than £200,000

Huw Edwards has been asked by the BBC to hand back more than £200,000 salary he earned after being arrested in November on child abuse image charges.The ex-presenter "behaved in bad faith" in continuing to take his salary despite knowing what he had done, said BBC Chair Samir Shah in a letter to staff.Edwards, formerly the BBC's most high-profile newsreader, continued to earn his salary for five months after he was arrested on three counts of making indecent images of children.He was suspended i...
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Bafta awards add new children's and family film category

Children's and family films are to get their own dedicated category at the Bafta film awards.The prize is open to any genre of film that Bafta says has a "specific inter-generational appeal to children, young people and adults".Films with a certificate rating of U, PG or 12A will be eligible.It is the first new film category to be introduced by Bafta for five years, and will be awarded for the first time in 2025.Films can be nominated in more than one category - for example Inside Out 2, which r...
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BBC pay 2023-2024: The full list of star salaries

The BBC has published the salaries of its highest-paid stars as part of its annual report.Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker is again the corporation's top earner with £1.35m, followed by Radio 2 breakfast host Zoe Ball with £950,000.Huw Edwards, who left the BBC in April 2024 on "medical advice", saw his salary rise by £40,000.Greg James, Stephen Nolan and Fiona Bruce also had an increase in salary.Match of the Day presenter Alan Shearer earned £380,000, having taken home £445,000 last yea...
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Strictly Come Dancing left Paralympian Will Bayley with injuries he'll 'never get over'

A former Strictly Come Dancing contestant has said his time on the show left him with "injuries that still affect me to this day".Paralympian Will Bayley, who appeared on the show in 2019, was left in "horrific pain" after practising a jump in rehearsals with his professional partner Janette Manrara. The 36-year-old table tennis champion told The Sun he didn't want to do the jump , externaland his coach had also told the show beforehand that he "can't do jumps".A BBC spokesman said it had "longs...
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Feltham Young Offenders' Institute is most violent - watchdog

A young offenders' institution in west London has the highest levels of violence of any prison in England and Wales, an inspection has found.HMP Feltham A, which holds children aged between 15 and 18 who are on remand or have been convicted, has seen incidents of disorder triple since the last inspection of the prison two years ago. The review, by HM Inspectorate of Prisons in March, found that conditions had significantly deteriorated and self-harm and levels of violence were on the rise. it co...
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Police told me to accept abuse as part of job - MP Stella Creasy

An MP has said that police told her to accept street harassment as part of her job.Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, told The Times, external that she had experienced abuse and intimidation after she was harassed by an anti-abortion campaigner.When she reported the crime to the police, she was told "the problem was my response, in that I told him it wasn’t appropriate, and that I have a problem with people disagreeing with me".Commander Simon Messinger of the Met said the allegation...
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Russell Brand: Informal concerns 'not adequately addressed'

Informal concerns raised about Russell Brand while he hosted Big Brother spin-off programmes were "not properly escalated or adequately addressed", according to the findings of an investigation.The comedian and actor fronted shows including Big Brother's Big Mouth and Big Brother's Celebrity Hijack on Channel 4 between 2004 and 2008.An investigation by production company Banijay UK has said managers were alerted to allegations that he asked staff to get audience members' phone numbers, and that...
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London elections 2024: 'No-one represents us young people'

In a few days, thousands of young people in the capital will head to the polls for the first time.They will have the chance to vote for the mayor of London, a position that comes with a £20.4bn budget. But what are some of the issues they really care about? At Kingsley Academy in Hounslow, west London, sixth form students have been discussing the upcoming elections and the matters they would like to see the newly elected mayor address.

In a few days, thousands of young people in the capital wil...
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Two Strangers: Critics rave about new millennial rom com musical

From Richard Curtis classics to the so-bad-they're-good movies, the world is not short of romantic comedies.Despite this, a new rom com musical about two twentysomething strangers meeting ahead of a wedding has impressed critics.Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York) sees optimistic brit Dougal (Sam Tutty) arrive in the city for his absent father's second wedding. At the airport he is met by native New Yorker and sister of the bride, Robin (Dujonna Gift).With wedding bells ringing in the d...
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Gabriel García Márquez: Sons publish last novel that late author wanted destroyed

When Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez died a decade ago, he left behind a novel he had written while struggling with dementia.In his final days, he told his sons the book must be destroyed.However they defied their father and, in what they have called an act of "betrayal", have published the book.Until August has received mixed reviews, with The Guardian's critic describing it as a "sketch, as blurry and flawed as sketches generally are"."But a sketch from a master is welcome,"...
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Sinead O'Connor's estate asks Donald Trump not to use her music

A joint statement from O'Connor's estate and her longtime label Chrysalis Records said: "Throughout her life, it is well known that Sinéad O'Connor lived by a fierce moral code defined by honesty, kindness, fairness, and decency towards her fellow human beings. "It was with outrage therefore that we learned that Donald Trump has been using her iconic performance of Nothing Compares 2 U at his political rallies. "It is no exaggeration to say that Sinéad would have been disgusted, hurt, and insult...
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Journalists call for foreign media access to Gaza in open letter

More than 50 journalists have sent an open letter calling on Israel and Egypt to provide "free and unfettered access to Gaza for all foreign media".The letter is signed by correspondents and presenters for broadcasters with UK bases, including the BBC's Jeremy Bowen, Lyse Doucet and Mishal Husain.It says the need for comprehensive on-the-ground reporting is "imperative".Israel's military says its troops have taken journalists on escorted trips in Gaza to allow them to report safely.Palestinian j...
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Russell Brand denies claim of sexual assault on film set

Russell Brand has denied sexually assaulting a woman on a film set, saying his accuser has a "faulty memory of the events".In a civil lawsuit in November, the woman accused the actor and comedian of exposing himself and assaulting her while filming Arthur in 2010.But his lawyers have said the lawsuit is "premised on the false claim" that he was visibly intoxicated at the time.He was playing a drunk character but was sober in reality, they said.The woman appeared to be "unable to distinguish acti...
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Tom Holland's Avengers bonus sent to Tom Hollander in error

It is not every day a million dollars shows up in your account by accident.But The White Lotus star Tom Hollander has revealed it happened to him when he received a paycheque intended for Spider-Man actor Tom Holland.Speaking to Late Night host Seth Meyers,, external Hollander said: "We were with the same agents briefly and people in the accounts department got confused."It's been very difficult, because you know I was here first but he's enormously famous," he added jokingly.Explaining how he d...
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Bafta Awards 2024: Oppenheimer, Poor Things, Barbie and Saltburn get nominations

Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer leads this year's Bafta Film Award nominations with a total of 13.They include one for Cillian Murphy for playing J Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist described as the father of the atomic bomb.Oppenheimer's summer box office rival Barbie received five nominations, level with cult hit drama Saltburn.Elsewhere, Poor Things has 11 nods, while Killers of the Flower Moon and The Zone of Interest both have nine.

Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer leads this ye...
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Billie Eilish: Singer dedicates award for Barbie song to people struggling emotionally

Billie Eilish has dedicated an award for her song on the Barbie soundtrack to "anyone experiencing hopelessness".The 22-year-old American singer was honoured at the Palm Springs International Film Festival for her song What Was I Made For? on Thursday.Accepting the award, Eilish spoke of her personal experience of feeling "existential dread".She advised people to "be patient with yourself" and says she now feels "it's great to be alive now".On stage, the Bad Guy singer recalled that when she and...
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'Ring this London doorbell and your dreams might come true'

Ding, dong. The doorbell rings twice before a blue light flashes. The two-minute countdown to pitch your business idea into a camera attached to a five-storey derelict stairwell begins.Over the past few months thousands of budding entrepreneurs have headed to the disused stairwell, located behind a Starbucks on a main road in Twickenham, south-west London.The stairwell was recently purchased by 49-year-old businessman Simon Squibb, who bought the building for £25,000 at auction.He hopes to trans...
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Lord of the Rings fan fiction writer sued for publishing own sequel

The Tolkien Estate then filed a separate lawsuit against Polychron for an injunction to stop The Fellowship of the King from being further distributed.On Thursday Judge Steven V Wilson called Polychron's lawsuit "frivolous and unreasonably filed" and granted the permanent injunction, preventing him from selling his book and any other planned sequels, of which there were six.The court also awarded lawyer's fees totalling $134,000 (£106,000) to the Tolkien Estate and Amazon in connection with Poly...
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Prince Harry loses battle to get Mail on Sunday libel defence thrown out

Prince Harry has lost an attempt to get part of the Mail on Sunday publisher's defence thrown out in a libel case.The Duke of Sussex has taken Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL) to the High Court over a 2022 article about a battle over his UK security arrangements. The prince has said the story falsely suggested he had "lied" and "cynically" tried to manipulate public opinion.But the judge said ANL's honest opinion defence had "a real prospect of success and should go forward to trial".Friday's jud...
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