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  Britons are gearing up for the final long weekend of summer 2025, with schools, banks, government offices and several businesses closing for the August bank holiday. Many supermarkets have announced they will be operating reduced hours on Monday 25 August, with some stores planning to close earlier than usual. To help you plan ahead, we have made a list of bank holiday opening hours for major UK supermarkets. Aldi Aldi stores will be open from 8am to 8pm on Monday 25 August. However, stores in Scotland will close at the usual time of 10pm. Check here to find opening hours for your local Aldi.

 WILLIAMS LAKE, B.C. — Williams Lake RCMP are warning residents of a social media scam making its way around the community. In a news release issued Tuesday (Aug. 19), RCMP say they recently investigated a possible hostage incident where a resident reported they were messaged by a friend from their contact list on Facebook. The fraudster, posing as the friend, claimed they were being held hostage by a random individual and needed a certain amount of dollars in gift cards to be sent for their release.   Police say the fraudster messaged a fake picture of a severed finger for added effect. “Williams Lake RCMP attended the ‘hostage victim’s’ residence and confirmed they were unharmed and safe, knowing nothing of the reported incident.  Williams Lake RCMP further investigated and determined the source of the messages were from another continent,” police state.

  Kamloops city council has quietly made public a letter sent to Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson that lays out a litany of legal liabilities he posed to the city just a month into his term. It was delivered to the mayor on behalf of council in December 2022 and he repeatedly asked for it to be released to the public in the months and years that followed.  Why he wanted the four-page letter to be public and why council released it now isn't clear, but what is clear is council had serious concerns about his behaviour from the outset. "One ill chosen comment or action can result in significant legal exposure that is often difficult to mitigate. We all want to avoid involving the city in unnecessary claims such as this," the Dec. 9, 2022 letter reads. Signed by all eight city councillors, it was given to him to explain why they held two closed-door meetings without him that same week. They were getting legal advice to address or minimize the legal risk that followed his behavi...

  KAMLOOPS — Kamloops city council is currently working its way through an Official Community Plan (OCP) update.  On Tuesday (Aug. 19), council’s Committee of the Whole provided feedback on a number of topics related to housing policy within the community,  with the bulk of conversation coming around future transit hubs and work to align the city with current provincial legislation. Late last year, Kamloops council green-lit a development on Glenwood Drive for a six-storey building.   Now, city council is looking to align its Official Community Plan in the neighbourhood to closely reflect provincial legislation for transit hubs. “What the province will do with the Valleyview transit exchange, we don’t know,” said Community Planning Manager Stephen Bentley.  “They have not designated it yet.  They still could, so the question is, should we basically plan assuming that is going to happen, or assuming that we like the idea,  that we want to support ...

  KAMLOOPS — Earlier this week, the government announced Rick Doman was appointed as the new chair of the Forest Innovation Investment (FII) board. The board is tasked with expanding opportunities for B.C. forestry products through wood innovation,  diversifying markets and collaborating to support mass timber and value-added manufacturing.  While Doman brings more than 40 years of industry experience, B.C. Forest Critic Ward Stamer is unsure if it will lead to tangible changes. “I have all the confidence in someone like Rick Doman to be able to chair that,” highlighted Stamer. “But again, it doesn’t get to the root issues that we have right now in our forest industry.  One of them is certainty of supply. We don’t have enough fibre for our manufacturing facilities and without that fibre,  our secondary manufacturing — which is what this FII is really set up for — isn’t even going to have the products to sell in the first place.”

  Missing Teen Girl in Kamloops, British Columbia – Megan Buller, 16, Last Seen August 19, 2025 The Kamloops RCMP are asking the public’s help in locating Megan Buller,  a 16-year-old girl who was reported missing after last being seen in Sahali on the evening of August 19, 2025.  Police say there is concern for her well-being.

 On Thursday, students in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland will receive their Level 2 GCSE, BTec Tech Awards, and other results.   After years of change during the Covid pandemic, the GCSE pass rate is expected to be roughly the same by 2024. Last year, it fell for a third year running.  Students have also been warned they could face more competition for places at sixth form colleges this year.   Bill Watkin, head of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said there were more 16-year-olds in the population and sixth form colleges had grown in popularity.  "Almost certainly going to have to turn some young people away because they are oversubscribed," he said,  adding that others were "almost certainly going to have to turn some young people away because they are oversubscribed."