Britain

Britain on Tuesday will set out draft legislation to regulate "buy now pay later" credit, saying the sector posed potential harm to consumers without thorough affordability checks.

Britain's economy showed zero growth in the final three months of 2022 - enough for it to avoid entering a recession for now - but faces tough prospects in 2023 as households continue to wrestle with double-digit inflation.

A British auction house on Friday dropped the sale of "Star Wars" memorabilia once owned by actor Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca, after a public plea from his widow.

Bank of England policymakers disagreed on Thursday about where interest rates need to go to tame inflation, with Governor Andrew Bailey stressing the uncertainty of the outlook, a week after the BoE suggested its run of rate hikes might be peaking.

The UK said Thursday it was aware of "potential escalatory risks" in equipping Ukraine with more Western weaponry, while playing down the prospective delivery of older Typhoon fighter jets.

President Volodymyr Zelensky used a visit to London on Wednesday to urge allies to send combat aircraft to his war-torn country as Britain promised to train Ukrainian fighter pilots.

The Church of England will look into the use of gender neutral terms to refer to God in prayers, but the centuries-old institution said on Wednesday there were no plans to abolish current services.

Britain placed another hurdle in the way of Microsoft's $69-billion mega purchase of "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard, saying it could harm gamers by weakening the rivalry between Xbox and Sony's PlayStation.

Britain must set out a new strategy to boost military production and overhaul wasteful procurement to better support Ukraine and signal to Russia that things can only get worse, opposition Labour's defence policy chief said on Tuesday.

A UK judge on Tuesday sentenced a former policeman to life in jail, with a minimum term of 30 years, for dozens of rapes and sexual assaults in the latest case to shame London's Metropolitan Police force.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reshuffled his cabinet on Tuesday, breaking up two departments to better suit his pledges to spur the economy and turn around his party's fortunes before an election expected next year.

Tens of thousands of nurses and ambulance service staff walked off the job on Monday in a pay dispute, putting further strain on Britain's state-run National Health Service with their largest ever strike.

The Bank of England on Thursday hiked its interest rate for a tenth time in a row as global authorities race to combat sky-high inflation.

British house prices dropped by a bigger-than-expected 0.6% in January and are now 3.2% below their peak in August, following a surge in borrowing costs and broader inflation pressures, mortgage lender Nationwide Building Society said on Wednesday.

Half a million workers went on strike in Britain on Wednesday, calling for higher wages in the largest such walkout in over a decade, closing schools and severely disrupting transport.

British grocery inflation hit a record 16.7% in the four weeks to Jan.

Supermarket group Tesco, the biggest retailer in Britain, announced Tuesday plans to slash about 2,100 jobs, as sky-high inflation hikes costs.

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will meet with Republican lawmakers this week as he presses the United States to sustain aid to Ukraine as it fights off Russia's assault.

Nigeria's former deputy senate president and his wife appeared in a London court on Tuesday ahead of their trial for organ harvesting, but his accused daughter was unable to attend as she is in hospital.

Three years after its departure from the European Union, Britain is yet to benefit from the Brexit dividend that was promised for its economy as it lags its peers on multiple fronts, including trade and investment.

British regional airline Flybe on Saturday ceased trading for the second time in three years, with all flights cancelled and 276 workers made redundant.

Britain's finance minister on Friday dismissed "gloom" over its recession-threatened economy and vowed to tap into Brexit opportunities and tackle rampant inflation to boost growth during a cost-of-living crisis.

A British teenager was on Friday sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for videos promoting racist violence that have been linked to two mass killings in the United States.

At an east London church on a bitterly cold winter's day, Beautine Wester-Okiya picks her way through boxes of donated baby clothes, toys and other assorted items destined for local people battered by the UK's cost-of-living crisis.

Moves to reintegrate Russian athletes for next year's Paris Olympics were strongly criticised by the British government on Thursday.

Britain and the European Union are unlikely to fundamentally change their underlying Brexit settlement, making sector-specific deals for financial services, fisheries and energy necessary to prevent more disruption, a report said.

The Bank of England will lift the Bank Rate by 50 basis points on Feb.

Banks are pushing the British government to relax core parts of post-financial crisis rules designed to hold bosses to account for misconduct on their watch, in order to make hiring easier, two industry sources told Reuters.

Cross-Channel train operator Eurostar complained Tuesday that slower post-Brexit passport checks for travellers are forcing it to run some services almost one-third empty.

Two hundred children who arrived in the UK seeking asylum without their parents in the last 18 months are missing, immigration minister Robert Jenrick said on Tuesday.