On the eve of D-day, the wartime British PM drafted a letter that could have ended De Gaulle’s political career

It is a letter that might have changed the course of European history- had it been sent.

In early June 1944, a vast armada was gathering on the south coast of England with the task of liberating France and, despite concerns about leaks from the French camp, the British prime minister, Winston Churchill, had invited Gen Charles de Gaulle to fly to London on his personal plane from Algiers.

Royal assent to be given to law overturning convictions of branch operators accrued over 22 years in England and Wales

Hundreds of post office operators convicted on charges including false accounting, theft and fraud are set to be exonerated by an unprecedented act of parliament.

The moment will be marked by the release of an open letter to all the affected operators, followed by individual letters containing assurances that their names will be removed from police databases, according to the government.

There were times during Horizon inquiry when victims of scandal struggled to keep composure as former chief executive pleaded ignorance

It was difficult for the victims attending the public inquiry into the Horizon scandal on the fifth floor of Aldwych House in central London to demur from the conclusion of Moya Greene, a former chief executive of Royal Mail and Paula Vennells’ boss until the Post Office split off in 2012.

“I think you knew,” Greene had written to Vennells in January, according to a text message published by the inquiry this week.

Former boss claims IT executives and legal counsels let her down and tells inquiry she ‘loved the Post Office’

Paula Vennells, the former Post Office chief executive, has named five executives who she said were to blame for the Horizon scandal, including a missing IT expert and a former in-house lawyer who has refused to appear at the public inquiry.

During a third day of tearful evidence in front of the inquiry, Vennells denied she had given “craven and self-serving” testimony but readily provided the names of those she claimed had let her down.

European court of human rights rejects appeals over Mikheil Saakashvili’s criminal cases heard in Georgian courts

The former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili was fairly convicted of abuses of power for ordering the beating of an opposition MP and pardoning four murderers, human rights judges in Strasbourg have ruled.

Saakashvili, who was president of Georgia from 2004 to 2013, was said by the European court of human rights on Thursday to have failed to show he had been unfairly treated in his trials in 2018.

Former boss, appearing at inquiry, denies decision not to review miscarriages of justice over 10 years ago was led by PR adviser

• Post Office Horizon inquiry – live updates

The former Post Office boss Paula Vennells killed a review that would have exposed the Horizon IT scandal more than 10 years ago after being told it would make “front-page news” but insisted she was not part of a cover-up.

During a second day of giving evidence at the public inquiry into the scandal, Vennells, who led the Post Office for nine years, said a different decision could have avoided a “lost decade” for persecuted branch operators.

Former chief executive says she was ‘too trusting’ of subordinates and was advised to deny Fujitsu had remote access to terminals

• Paula Vennells breaks down as she tells Post Office inquiry she was misled

Ten years after making her last public comments, Paula Vennells, who joined the Post Office in 2007 and held the position of chief executive between 2012 and 2019, has given evidence at a public inquiry looking to provide justice to the thousands of people whose lives were ruined in the Horizon scandal. Between 1999 and 2015, hundreds of Post Office branch operators were prosecuted on the basis of the faulty accounting software, and thousands more were bankrupted or forced to pay back money.

Ex-chief executive tells inquiry into Horizon scandal she had been unaware people were being wrongly prosecuted

• Post Office Horizon inquiry – live updates

The former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells repeatedly broke down in tears as she told a public inquiry that she had been misled by her staff about the safety of the prosecutions of branch operators.

Under questioning from Jason Beer KC, the inquiry’s lead counsel, about her knowledge of the faults in the Horizon IT system, which led to hundreds of people being wrongly persecuted over missing funds, Vennells claimed: “I was too trusting.”

Draft bill tabled in Congress would open talks on trade deal with Georgia in return for commitments on civil rights

A “foreign agents” law in Georgia that has brought hundreds of thousands of protesters on to the streets of Tbilisi could be dropped in return for a package of economic and security support from Washington, the ruling party has hinted.

In response to a draft bill tabled in the US Congress that would open up talks on a trade deal in return for fresh commitments on civil rights, the governing Georgian Dream party said it would need to see progress on such promises within a year.

Former home secretary used ‘Henry VIII powers’ to lower threshold for police restricting protests

The former home secretary Suella Braverman acted unlawfully in making it easier for the police to criminalise peaceful protests, the high court has ruled.

She was found to have both acted outside her powers and to have failed to consult properly over regulations that would be likely to increase prosecutions of protesters by a third.

Salome Zourabichvili says bill contradicts constitution but ruling party is expected to override her action in coming days

Georgia’s president has vetoed a “foreign agents” bill that has split the country and appealed to the government not to overrule her over a law she said was “Russian in sprit and essence”.

Salome Zourabichvil followed through on her stated intention to use her veto on Saturday although the governing Georgian Dream party has the votes to disregard her intervention.