Newspaper headlines: 'Not over yet' for flood risks and 'top Tory says party faces obliteration'
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The Post Office IT scandal continues to feature prominently in the papers, with public anger fuelled by ITV's drama about the branch managers wrongly convicted of theft and fraud.
The Guardian, external reports that the Post Office is suspected of wrongly prosecuting dozens more people who took part in a pilot of the faulty Horizon IT scheme. Whitehall sources have confirmed to the paper that a precursor scheme was rolled out in the north-east of England in the mid-1990s. The paper says at least two branch managers were prosecuted after taking part in that pilot.
The Times, external focuses on criticism of the Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Ed Davey, who was postal affairs minister in the coalition government. One victim portrayed in the drama, Jo Hamilton, tells the paper Sir Ed should have "done his job" and asked more questions. Referencing the Lib Dem leader's 31 calls for people to resign on his Twitter profile in recent years, the paper's editorial says he, himself, has questions to answer - and so far shows "little sign of either candour or contrition". The Sun's editorial says "his credibility is shot to pieces". Sir Ed has previously expressed regret for not doing more.
The Daily Telegraph says, external Fujitsu, the company behind the discredited Horizon programme, should compensate those who suffered under it, not the taxpayer. That bill currently stands at £150m. The Daily Mail calls for all wronged subpostmasters to be paid their compensation, in full, now.
The main story in the Times, external is a projection that the overall cost of disability benefits will increase by 50% by the end of the decade. The paper has looked at forecasts from the Department for Work and Pensions and says depression and anxiety are now the leading reasons for adults to receive such benefits.
The Daily Telegraph says , externalthe Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has "bowed" to rail unions by offering what it calls a "bumper pay deal" to avoid a week long Tube strike. The paper says the RMT called off its action after the mayor found extra money for a "significantly improved" funding offer. The former prime minister - and former mayor of London - Boris Johnson describes the development as a "foretaste" of what life would be like under a Labour government.
The RSPCA is re-homing more than 100 animals every day, according to The Mirror, external, as owners are crippled by rising costs. The paper says the surge in pet ownership during the pandemic has added to the problem.
The Sun reports, external that 16-year-old World Darts Championship contender Luke Littler has prompted a surge in interest in the sport. Retailers say sales of boards and darts have increased by 60% since the contest last week.
Finally, the Telegraph reports, external that academics at the University of Oxford asked an artificial intelligence system to design a perfect rail network in which trains didn't crash, and found the algorithm came to a novel solution: stop the trains from running at all. A professor of computer science at the institution has used the encounter to illustrate his scepticism that AI could take over the world, saying "it absolutely isn't something that keeps me up at night".
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