Post Office Cover-Up

Hi Global Recap readers,

Have you heard about the UK Post Office scandal?

• With AI on the rise and talk of it replacing much of human labor soon, this story is a tragic warning about trusting tech too much, especially when tech errors can ruin lives, lead to suicides, and trap people in years of shame.

• We're digging into it in our Deep-Dive section, like always. It's fascinating but totally terrifying too.

But first, let's talk about the recently leaked audio of Trump. 👇

🌐 WORLD
Fast Scroll News

🇷🇺 Russia Sends 728 Drones. Just hours after Trump called Putin’s peace talk promises “bullshit” and vowed more weapons for Ukraine, Russia launched its biggest drone assault yet on Ukraine, firing 728 drones and 13 missiles overnight across multiple cities.

• Ukraine shot down 718 drones and fired back with 86 of its own. Still, one person was killed and several others were injured.

• Poland had to scramble fighter jets as the attack edged into NATO airspace.

• Zelenskyy called it “a telling attack,” pointing out that it happened “at a time when so many efforts have been made to achieve peace.”

🇫🇷 Police Raid "Far-Right" HQ. French police stormed the National Rally’s headquarters, seizing files and emails tied to suspected illegal loans and bogus campaign invoices from elections in 2022 and 2024.

• Party leader Jordan Bardella slammed it as “a serious attack on pluralism.”

• This comes just hours after EU prosecutors opened a separate investigation into €4.3 million allegedly misused by Identity & Democracy, a political group in the European Parliament’s ninth term that also included National Rally.

• The raid comes just after the party's top figure, Marine Le Pen, was convicted in March for misusing EU funds. This effectively ended her chances of running for president in 2027.

🇨🇳 Beijing Rejects Laser Claim. China has finally responded after Germany accused one of its warships of blasting a laser at a German reconnaissance jet over the Red Sea earlier this month, forcing it to abort its EU-led mission.

• Beijing denies everything, saying it was just doing “escort operations” off Somalia.

• China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning: "[China and Germany should] take a fact-based attitude and strengthen communication in a timely manner to avoid misunderstanding and misjudgment."

• However, Germany's not buying it, saying the ship made no attempt to communicate before the plane turned back to Djibouti.

• The US has made similar claims against China, but Beijing has never admitted a single one.

🇹🇼 Taiwan Simulates Invasion. Taiwan kicked off its biggest-ever war games on Wednesday with simulated attacks on military command systems to prep for a potential Chinese assault.

• Over 22,000 reservists were mobilized, and US-supplied HIMARS launchers made their debut alongside Taiwan’s own Sky Sword missiles.

• China called the drills “a bluff,” but Taiwan’s defense officials said they’re “realistically thinking about what Taiwan might face … in real combat.”

• Beijing responded by banning exports to eight key Taiwanese firms, including an aerospace giant.

🇮🇳 India Shuts Down Modi. Hundreds of thousands of workers across India staged a massive nationwide strike on Wednesday to protest PM Modi’s push to privatize state-run companies and overhaul labor laws.

• Organized by 10 major unions, the Bharat Bandh protest (Hindi for “Shut Down India”) crippled coal mining, banking, and railway operations, with demonstrators chanting “Stop selling our railways” and burning effigies.

• Police detained around 30,000 workers in Tamil Nadu, and entire cities like Kerala’s capital went quiet as shops and schools closed.

• Protestors say the reforms “snatch benefits” from workers in favor of big business.

🇬🇧 UNITED KINGDOM
Post Office
Scandal Deepens

Turns out nearly 1,000 postal workers were wrongly convicted.

And the worst part? The damage wasn’t just financial. At least 13 people are believed to have died by suicide because of it.

This is the UK Post Office Scandal. 👇

(Source: recent report on the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry)

How It All Started

From 1999 to 2015, hundreds of UK Post Office employees were prosecuted for theft and fraud.

• The cause: a flawed IT system called Horizon, built by the Japanese firm Fujitsu, misreported cash shortfalls at branches.

• Managers were accused of stealing when software errors created “illusory shortfalls” in their accounts.

• Some were jailed, some bankrupt; many lost homes, families, and reputations.

• The problem with this scandal is that the UK Post Office is state-owned but operates as a private business.

  • About 99% of branches are run by private individuals or franchise partners (called subpostmasters).

  • Only 1% are directly managed by the company itself.

Fujitsu’s Response

The Human Cost

Then came the emotional wreckage. The damage went far beyond legal fees and job loss.

• A government inquiry revealed that at least 13 people died by suicide as a result.

• 59 more contemplated suicide, according to official findings.

• Victims faced social stigma and “years of pain,” often blamed for something they didn’t do.

Cover-Up and Denial

So, did anybody sniff out that something was off about the prosecutions? Turns out, some insiders were suspicious all along.

• Retired judge Wyn Williams reported that Post Office leaders “knew, or should have known,” that Horizon was faulty.

• The 2019 High Court judgment in Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd confirmed that both the Post Office and Fujitsu were aware of software “bugs, errors, and defects” as early as 1999, when the system was rolled out.

  • Internal documents revealed during the public inquiry showed that Fujitsu and Post Office management knew of these issues but did not disclose them to sub-postmasters or courts during prosecutions.

• This meant that managers were forced to repay money they didn’t actually owe.

Public Reckoning Begins

How did this all come to light? It took a TV docudrama to make Britain pay attention.

• Public outrage reached its boiling point after the critically acclaimed TV drama Mr Bates vs. The Post Office (2024) revealed the full extent of the injustice.

  • This details the story of Alan Bates, a former sub-postmaster wrongly accused of financial misconduct due to the faulty Horizon IT system.

Timeline (So-Far)

However, even before the TV show aired, the public pressure was already mounting.

• 2017: A group litigation order (Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd) was filed by 555 sub-postmasters, led by Alan Bates, against the Post Office.

• 2019: The High Court issued judgments highlighting issues with the Horizon system, ruling in favor of the sub-postmasters.

• 2020: A non-statutory inquiry was announced in response to public pressure.

• 2021: The inquiry's first public hearing started on January 15, 2021, and was converted to a statutory inquiry in June 2021.

• 2022: The government launched the Overturned Convictions Redress Scheme and expanded compensation for the original 555 claimants.

• 2023–2024: Parliament introduced legislation to automatically overturn hundreds of wrongful convictions by early 2024, with ongoing compensation efforts.