The Bank of England and the UK’s Treasury have launched a task force to explore the use of a national digital currency, the British government announced in several press releases early Monday as part of April 2021 Fintech Week.

As Britons mourn the death of Prince Philip, they are joined by a tribal community on a Pacific island half a world away. For decades, two villages on the Vanuatuan island of Tanna have revered the Duke of Edinburgh as a god-like spiritual figure. A formal period of mourning is now under way.

The BBC has set up a dedicated complaints page for viewers fed up with its blanket coverage of the death of Prince Philip. "We're receiving complaints about too much TV coverage of the death of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh," reads a statement on the BBC Complaints page, which invites disgruntled viewers to submit an email address to register a complaint.

Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II's husband and the longest-serving consort of any British monarch, has died at age 99. A statement posted on the royal family's website Friday morning said: "It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen announces the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

Half of the UK’s adult population has now received its first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, the Health Secretary has announced. Matt Hancock said more people received the jab on Friday than on any other day and praised the vaccine programme as a “national success story”.

A group of teenagers, living in some of London's most polluted communities, are posting roadsigns highlighting the disproportionate impact air pollution has on people of color. The campaign, organized by Choked Up, a group made up of self-described "Black & brown teens," has posted signs throughout the city which warn "breathing kills" and "pollution zone," The Guardian reported.

A highly infectious variant of COVID-19 that has spread around the world since it was first discovered in Britain late last year is between 30% and 100% more deadly than previous dominant variants, researchers said on Wednesday.

Google is failing to do enough to combat fake reviews within its business listings, and must be held to account by a UK watchdog, according to Which? The consumer group set up a fake company and bought bogus five-star reviews as part of an investigation.

The UK can see light at the end of the Covid-19 tunnel but the economy will never fully return to its pre-pandemic pattern, the governor of the Bank of England has said.

The U.K.’s top court ruled that a group of former drivers for Uber Technologies Inc. were entitled to a minimum wage and other benefits while working for the company, dealing a setback to Uber and other gig-economy firms in world-wide battles over their employment model.

There has been a "strong decline" in levels of coronavirus infections in England since January, say scientists tracking the epidemic. Imperial College London's React study found infections have dropped by two-thirds across England since lockdown began, with an 80% fall in London. But virus levels are still high, with one in 200 testing positive between 4 and 13 February.

Meghan Markle has convinced a UK judge Mail on Sunday violated her privacy by publishing parts of a letter she wrote to her estranged father in 2018 and that the tabloid is liable for copyright infringement. 

The U.K. economy experienced its largest contraction since records began in 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic ravaged economic activity.

The British government said on Thursday it was telling social media giants to take down posts containing coronavirus disinformation over concern that many in minority communities were refusing to be vaccinated.

A teenager who is emerging from a 10-month long coma has no knowledge of the coronavirus pandemic despite having caught the disease twice. Joseph Flavill, 19, was hit by a car while walking in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, on 1 March last year, three weeks before Britain’s first national lockdown began. He has spent months in a coma after he suffered a traumatic brain injury but is slowly beginning to recover and has started responding.

Avegan food entrepreneur has major plans to air an advert during a UK TV prime time slot in a bid to reach as many people as possible. Tom Bursnall, the founder of Miami Burger – which makes a range of plant-based products – is currently raising money to pay for the slot via a crowdfunder.

The UK has been accused of failing to honour its promise to curb shipments of plastic waste to developing countries, after it emerged Britain’s new post-Brexit regulations are less stringent than those imposed by the EU. From 1 January, shipments of unsorted plastic waste from the EU to non-OECD countries were banned.

The UK has given the green light for SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, and users in the country have already received their kit for the company's public beta test. Ofcom granted Elon Musk's aerospace company authorization for Starlink in November, a spokesman for the regulator told Insider on Monday. SpaceX began running a Starlink beta in the US in late 2020.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will find out Monday whether he can be extradited from the U.K. to the U.S. to face espionage charges over the publication of secret American military documents. District Judge Vanessa Baraitser is due to deliver her decision at London’s Old Bailey courthouse at 10 a.m. Monday. If she grants the request, then Britain’s home secretary, Priti Patel, would make the final decision.

Everyone in the UK ‘could be vaccinated by April’ according to leaked documents. Leaked NHS documents, seen by the Health Service Journal (HSJ), suggest that mass vaccination could begin before the end of January if supplies can be secured. Under the plan, every adult who wants a jab could be vaccinated by early April, the HSJ said.