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Ethel Caterham, recognised as the world’s oldest living person, is celebrating her 117th birthday at her care home in Surrey. Caterham was born in Hampshire on 21 August 1909 and became the world’s oldest person in May 2025 following the death of a 116 year old Brazilian nun.

Her 116th year included a visit from King Charles, who met her at Hallmark Lakeview Care Home last September. Caterham told the King that she remembered watching his investiture as Prince of Wales in 1969 and joked that all the girls at the time had wanted to marry him. She said meeting the King had been one of the highlights of her year.

Caterham is the last surviving person who was a subject of Edward VII, who died in 1910. Six monarchs have occupied the British throne during her lifetime: Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII, George VI, Elizabeth II and Charles III. She is spending her birthday with friends and family at the care home.

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Prince Harry and Meghan are planning to move back to Britain with their children for an extended period, six years after stepping away from royal duties and relocating to the United States. A person close to the couple told Reuters that Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet will attend school in Britain and the family will live outside London in a non royal residence.

The move has renewed questions over security arrangements for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Harry lost a legal challenge in 2025 over changes to his police protection after he ceased to be a working royal. Former Metropolitan Police chief superintendent Dal Babu told Sky News that state provided protection, if granted, could cost millions of pounds, while private security personnel in Britain cannot be armed.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the couple’s security was a private matter and wished them well with the move. Harry and Meghan will remain non working royals. Buckingham Palace and Harry’s spokesperson declined to comment on the move when approached by Reuters.

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Travelodge chief executive Joanna Boydell has left the budget hotel chain following criticism of its handling of guest security incidents. Boydell departed after 13 years with the company and chief financial officer Ray Reidy has been appointed interim chief executive while Travelodge searches for a permanent replacement.

The company has faced scrutiny after two cases in which men were given access to rooms occupied by women. In one case, a guest at a Travelodge in Maidenhead was sexually assaulted in December 2022 by a man who had been given a key card to her room. Kyran Smith was jailed for seven and a half years in February. A second woman later said staff at a London hotel gave a key to a domestic abuser who then assaulted her.

Travelodge has introduced a new room access policy requiring explicit permission from the guest before an additional or replacement key can be issued. It has also commissioned an independent review led by barrister Paul Greaney KC, introduced additional training and carried out a deadbolt audit across its UK rooms. Reidy said the company would remain focused on the safety and wellbeing of guests.

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The UK public finances recorded an unexpected £1.8 billion deficit in July, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics. Economists surveyed by Reuters had expected the public finances to be broadly balanced, while the Office for Budget Responsibility had forecast a £500 million surplus for the month.

The ONS said higher Government spending offset record self assessed income tax receipts. Central Government spending on social benefits was £2 billion higher than in July 2025, while spending on goods and services, including staff costs, increased by £1.2 billion. The deficit for June was revised down from £16 billion to £12.8 billion.

Public sector borrowing reached £56.7 billion during the first four months of the 2026 to 2027 financial year, compared with the £54.4 billion forecast by the OBR. Chancellor John Healey said the Government remained committed to its fiscal rules ahead of the Budget in October.

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Councils could be given powers to require people responsible for fly tipping to carry out up to 20 hours of unpaid clean up work under new Government proposals. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has launched an eight week consultation on the plans, which would allow local authorities to use conditional cautions to make offenders help clear the areas they have damaged.

The proposals would also allow councils to recover the costs of clearing dumped waste directly from offenders. Ministers say the aim is to speed up enforcement in appropriate cases without requiring lengthy court proceedings, while ensuring that taxpayers are not left paying for the removal of illegally dumped material. The consultation is due to close on 16 October 2026.

The measures follow an increase in the maximum on the spot fine for fly tipping from £1,000 to £5,000. The Government has also announced a new Tackling Waste Crime Alliance bringing together regulators, police, councils and the waste industry, while the Environment Agency is reviewing the level of fixed penalty notices available for waste crime offences.

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The Adam Smith Institute has called for five new defence focused enterprise zones to be established in the North East of England as part of proposals it says could increase manufacturing and encourage regional economic growth. The think tank has identified publicly owned sites at High Hanning, Quarrington Hill, High Pittington, Blaydon Quarry and Newburn Riverside as potential locations for the scheme.

Under the proposals, businesses operating within the zones would benefit from faster planning decisions, full factory write offs, zero rated business rates, lower employer National Insurance contributions and discounted electricity costs in areas with surplus energy. Each zone would be built around a large defence company acting as an anchor tenant, with the Institute arguing that this could encourage suppliers and other manufacturers to establish operations nearby. It said the North East already has a manufacturing workforce of around 110,000 and relatively low land costs.

The proposals have received support from a number of local political figures. Sunderland City Council leader Chris Eynon described the idea as an innovative way of strengthening manufacturing and the defence industry, while Gateshead Council leader Nick Allan said the authority was keen to explore the proposal and had asked its economic development team to carry out an initial assessment of the Blaydon Quarry site. Reform UK Durham County Council cabinet member Kyle Genner also backed the plans, saying they could provide long term employment and support industrial regeneration in County Durham.

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Merseyside Police has introduced a dispersal zone across Liverpool city centre following a series of reports of antisocial behaviour. The order came into force at 10.30pm on Wednesday 19 August and will remain in place until 10.30pm on Thursday 20 August. It covers a wide area of the city centre and waterfront, as well as Liverpool Lime Street, Edge Hill, Liverpool Central, James Street and Moorfields railway stations.

The order was authorised under Section 34 of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. It allows officers to direct people suspected of causing, or being likely to cause, crime, nuisance or antisocial behaviour to leave the designated area and prevent them from returning for up to 48 hours. Officers can also seize items, including vehicles, used in antisocial behaviour. Returning to the area after being directed to leave can amount to a criminal offence.

Chief Inspector Christopher Ruane said the measure followed several incidents in the city centre during the week. He said a 16-year-old boy from Liverpool was arrested after being chased into a McDonald’s on Lord Street by a group of youths and was subsequently found with a knife in his jacket. Extra officers are being deployed across the city centre while the dispersal zone remains in force, with police urging parents and guardians to know where their children are and who they are with during the summer period.

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A Bradford man has been jailed for three years and 10 months after police found more than 87,000 indecent images and videos of children on his devices. Richard Pooley, 60, of North Dean Avenue, was sentenced at Bradford Crown Court on Thursday 20 August after being convicted of offences including three counts of making an indecent photograph of a child and possession of a prohibited image of a child.

Pooley was also convicted of possession of an extreme pornographic image involving an animal, observing a person doing a private act and operating equipment beneath another person’s clothing without consent. He was placed on the sex offenders register for life and made subject to a 10 year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

West Yorkshire Police began its investigation after receiving intelligence in October 2024 that indecent images had been uploaded to the internet. Officers from the Online Child Abuse Investigation Team identified Pooley, arrested him and seized his devices. Examination of the equipment uncovered more than 87,000 images and videos, including material police said Pooley had obtained by using hidden cameras to secretly film children.

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A Doncaster councillor has condemned The Harewood over a social media post which targeted a female council enforcement officer during a dispute over parking enforcement. Gemma Cobby, who is the City of Doncaster Council portfolio holder responsible for regulation and enforcement, said she was “deeply appalled” by the venue’s behaviour and described the comments directed at the officer as misogynistic.

Cobby said no council officer should be publicly shamed for carrying out their role and argued that any concerns about an officer’s conduct or challenges to parking tickets should be raised through the council’s formal procedures. She added that people could also raise concerns directly with her in her role as portfolio holder rather than targeting individual members of staff online.

The councillor said she had checked with the relevant service manager on the wellbeing of the officer involved and would offer to meet her personally to thank her for the work she does. The intervention follows criticism of The Harewood after it published a photograph of the enforcement officer on Facebook and made personal comments about her appearance, prompting accusations of bullying and calls from some local residents for a boycott of the venue.