live from london, this is bbc news. a court rules that prince harry was a victim of phone hacking, awarding him damages. the former daily mirror editor issues this denial. i also want to reiterate, as i've consistently said for many years now, i've never hacked a phone or told anybody else to hack a phone. and nobody has produced any actual evidence to prove that i did. israel says it's opening the border at kerem shalom for aid — a decision welcomed by washington —— and the world health organization. a british boy — found alive six years after he disappeared — is due home in the coming days. french authorities say he walked for four days through the pyrenees.

and hundreds gather at the sydney opera house to remember the comedy superstar barry humphries. hello, welcome to verified live. prince harry has been awarded £140,000 damages in his phone hacking case against the publishers of the daily mirror. a high courtjudge ruled this morning that on 15 occasions, the duke of sussex was the victim of hacking or other unlawful methods of getting stories about him. in a statement, prince harry said it's a great day for the truth and called on the police to launch a criminal investigation into mirror group newspapers. our media correspondent david sillito reports. this has been a landmark case. prince harry said his life had been blighted by illegal press intrusion — and, today, the judge mrjustice fancourt ruled that, yes, his phone had been repeatedly hacked by mirror group newspapers.

outside court, a statement was read out on behalf of the duke. "today's ruling is vindicating and affirming. i've been told that slaying dragons will get you burned, but in light of today's victory and the importance of doing what is needed for a free and honest press, it is a worthwhile price to pay. the mission continues." thank you very much. 33 mirror group articles have been presented to court — 15, thejudge said, had been sourced by illegal activity. hacking, he said, had been widespread and habitual between 1996 and 2011, and he concluded that a former editor of the mirror, the tv presenter piers morgan, had known about the practice. piers morgan has repeatedly denied involvement. referring to one story about kylie minogue and evidence from the writer omid scobie, mrjustice fancourt said...

the judge also named former senior directors of the company — one of them, former chief executive sly bailey, who had told the leveson inquiry in 2012 that there was no evidence of hacking. we have only seen unsubstantiated allegations, and i have seen no evidence to show me that phone hacking has ever taken place at trinity mirror. this, thejudge said, was untrue — she had known for years about the practice and turned a blind eye. hacking, he said, had been widespread and habitual at the mirror since 1996. this is, of course, far from the first hacking case the mirror has lost. prince harry was today awarded £140,600 in damages, an amount that could increase considerably as other

stories are considered. but costs and damages of more than £100 million have already been paid out to many other victims. the company, now known as reach, said... for prince harry, this is a landmark moment. it's 132 years since a senior member of the royal family appeared on the witness stand. but today's court victory is only one of a number of cases he is bringing, in a battle against newspapers he says have brought misery through relentless and illegal activity. david sillito, bbc news. the daily mirror's former editor, piers morgan, made a statement in the past hour. he said he never hacked a phone,

or told anyone else to. the judgment finds there is just one article relating to the prince, published in the daily mirror during my entire nine—year tenure as editor, that he thinks may have involved some unlawful information gathering. to be clear, i had then and still have zero knowledge of how that particular story was gathered. all these other claims against the daily mirror under my editorship were rejected. with regards to the judge's the references to me in hisjudgment, i also want to reiterate, as i've consistently said for many years now, i've never hacked a phone or told anybody else to hack a phone, and nobody has produced any actual evidence to prove that i did. —— other references to me. i wasn't called as a witness — it's important for people to know this — by either side in the case, nor was i asked to provide any statement. i would've very happily agreed to do either or both of those things had i been asked. nor did i have a single conversation with any of the mirror group lawyers throughout the entire legal process.

that was piers morgan speaking a little earlier. uk officials in france are preparing to fly home a british teenager who was found alive six years after he disappeared. alex batty, now 17, was last seen travelling to spain with his mother and grandfather. the boy was found on wednesday near the city of toulouse. in the past hour, prosecutors have given more information about how alex came to be found. translation: he's not able to give us the exact surroundings _ of where he was in the pyrenees mountains. but it appears, according to his tales, that he moved from from the east side of the pyrenees all the way, and he left to spend times travelling across the different places in the pyrenees, without settling anywhere. he never stayed very long where exactly... where he was exactly.

but when his mother said to alex that they needed to go to finland, alex batty decided to stop this journey and left, left his mum and started to walk for four days and four nights. he was mainly walking at night and sleeping during the day. erm, he then walked until he found out, until he encountered a young person who brought him and got him by car. later on, he was walking through gardens and sleeping in areas in the wilderness. and then, he was found on wednesday night. one of the key bits of information. earlier, our paris correspondent

hugh schofield told me what other details the prosecutor had to say at the news conference. a key fact there, that what instigated him to leave was his mother telling him that they were going now to finland — and the prosecutor went on to say that they think that the mother is now in finland. and so, the british investigation — and that's the only investigation that's really open into the disappearance — will now focus on finland, because they need to find the mother. another interesting fact that came out, apparently the mother's father — in other words, alex batty�*s batty�*s grandfather — has died, died six months ago because alex batty apparently told investigators here, the prosecutors and gendarme, that he participated in some kind of farewell ceremony, meditation by the grave or impromptu grave, or whatever it was, of his grandfather six months ago. and we learned that, yes, that for the last two years, he's been in france moving around in this kind of itinerant community,

groups of, you know, sometimes 10—12 people. there were danes — not danes, there were canadians and indians and spanish with them there. he didn't speak of any other children, though, and oddly, they seem to go wherever they went in a convoy of cars, and they always took with them solar panels. and the prosecutor used the word potash, which means a kind of a market garden. i assume that means they took with them all their vegetables, which they must have been growing. there was obviously a sort of cult—like atmosphere in the group, though no suggestion of a kind of religious cult, more of a kind of way of life, kind of cult and obsession, it seems, with kind of energy as well. they were afraid of electricity and other forms of energy that came through through wires and so on, and always brought their solar panels with them. so a lot of detail — and yes, this idea that because there was this plan move to finland,

he decided that that was it, he wanted to get out. and he started this amazing journey travelling by walking by night, sleeping by day. he had 100 euros on him, which he must have saved or been given. and then, he encountered this young driver who took him down to toulouse. and just briefly, i mean, the authorities talked about the phobias of modern life that, in terms, instigated what you describe, but there was no explanation as to why. i mean, this was a boy who was on a missing list that was being looked for — why he was never found, no sightings, nothing until a couple of days ago? yeah, i mean, there was no specific reason why the french should have been looking specifically for him. but the gendarme and the prosecutor is interested to know why, for two years, a boy of school age went under the radar and there was no sighting of him, no report of a young male who should have been at school, not being at school, wandering around. normally that would happen in france, where they're very strict

on this kind of stuff. but he was kept below the radar. so what the gendarmes here want to do is mount their own separate investigation — not into the family or anything like that — but to work out why it was and where it was that they, this family, were moving and why it was that they managed to keep this boy, who should have been at school, just to themselves. hugh schofield there with some of the latest details on the incredible story. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. there's been an alarming number of young scottish children escaping from nursery care. a nursery trade association says members were taking theissue association says members were taking the issue seriously and cited staffing pressures with the greater number of inexperienced staff. households face paying more

for their energy bills to help suppliers recover nearly £3 billion in debts, from customers who can't pay their bills. ofgem is proposing lifting the energy price cap by £16 from april. the watchdog said it wanted energy companies to use the extra funding to support struggling customers. six of lionel messi's jerseys worn during last year's world cup have sold for a combined £6.1 million at at auction. messi captained argentina to victory at the tournament with his country beating france on penalties in the final. the six jerseys were from the first half of the final, semi final, quarterfinal, last 16 tie, and two group games. you're live with bbc news. let's turn to the middle east. israel has said it is opening the border at kerem shalom for aid — a decision that's been welcomed by the world health organization. it's also been supported by the white house national security adviserjake sullivan, who is visiting the region.

mr sullivan, who has today met the palestinian authority president, mahmoud abbas, called it a "significant step". our middle east correspondent, hugo bachega, told me about the opening of a second gaza crossing point. an important announcement by the israeli authorities because this is going to allow more humanitarian aid to be delivered to gaza. for days we have been talking about the desperate situation, humanitarian situation in gaza with widespread shortages of basic supplies, also hospitals under a lot of pressure with the health system on the verge of collapse, so now more trucks carrying basic supplies will be entering gaza. up until now, all trucks were entering the territory through the rafah crossing on the border with egypt and now

israel saying that the kerem shalom crossing point will also be open for the delivery of humanitarian aid. and this comes on the second day of the visit by the us national security advisor, jake sullivan. he was in ramallah in the occupied west bank, he met the president of the palestinian authority, mahmoud abbas, and yesterday he had meetings with the israeli leadership and i think the message here from the biden administration was that he was trying to tell the israeli military to change, you know, tactics in gaza and to move to a phase that he described as "more targeted and precise attacks" to target the hamas leadership in gaza. this obviously amid international pressure on the israelis, as there have been concerns about mounting civilian casualties in gaza and also the worsening humanitarian situation.

the fighting in gaza continues and we actually heard the iron dome intercepting rockets here over the city, reports say that three rockets were intercepted by the country's military. the first time thatjerusalem came under attack in several weeks. so again, it shows that these groups continue to have the capacity to launch rockets at israel as this offensive, this military offensive continues in gaza. there's been reaction from david cameron welcoming israel's allowing of aid through the kerem shalom crossing, saying... that's just been posted by the british foreign secretary, david

cameron. israel's military have said they've retrieved three bodies of those taken on october 7th. i've been speaking to miri eisin, a retired idf colonel and director of the international institute for counter terrorism at reichman university. i asked her if she knew the circumstances around those hostages and whether it had been part of a failed rescue bid. what we are talking about are bodies that were found while israel was acting, the idf forces in the ground operation in the northern gaza strip. the details that have come out are that all three are individuals who were kidnapped on 7th of october and were seen alive on 7th of october, and the initial reports that have come out of israel — because they still don't have details — is that they were murdered by hamas in captivity and found in the tunnels themselves. one of them was 19 and, as his mother said, he had asthma and they kidnapped him without his, because in the israeli military, it is conscriptees, you know, it is not the kind of military that you are used to, and she was very

worried about him the entire time. i don't know to say additional details, this is what the idf has let out until now. just to clarify, though, your special forces are trying to get the hostages out. there was an incident, an attempt last friday. that is going on, is it, alongside those negotiating teams that were operating out of qatar? there is going to be consistently the trying to get to the hostages themselves. i think we both understand clearly, the hostages are the get out ofjail free card for the terrorists, and especially the top echelon. in that sense, the expectation today is the more or less 130 hostages — because we don't know exactly who is alive and who is dead, hamas have never shared that information with anybody, and so most likely they are with those top echelon to be used in a very horrible way. today the idf have also put out from one of the places

that they were looking to get to hostages, the different capabilities that hamas have been trying to use to lure the israeli soldiers, using the idea of hostages where they had microphones with voices in hebrew, i mean, they are really trying to use them to lure them into the different booby—traps. so i am certain that we are trying to get to them, but it isn't like we understand that is easy. yes, and of course, there was an ambush only a couple of days ago in which nine israeli soldiers lost their lives. in terms of the broader tactics, the defence minister saying only yesterday that the war would go on for several months. is it your understanding that is the totality of the war? is there the possibility, within the next few weeks, that israel may move to what the americans have been pushing for, a much more targeted approach in terms of tactics? i think we are already there. there is such a big gap when we talk about military issues and how people understand them. in the attacks that are in the southern gaza strip,

the whole tactic in and around khan younis, if you look at it, has been much more targeted because in and around the gaza strip israel did try and that was to save lives, but that doesn't mean it always does so... you say that, but president biden described it as "indiscriminate bombing" only a matter of days ago. he also said a lot of other things. i always listen to the entire recordings... but do you accept that? he absolutely said that, he also said hamas needs to be destroyed and that they back that... he did say that, but in terms of the tactics and the indiscriminate bombing, do you accept that part of his conclusion? i do not think that we do indiscriminate bombing. i think when we are in urban warfare, that no military knows how to do it in a very exact way. the fact we are doing it with the ground forces all the time, the fact that, as you just mentioned, soldiers are being killed inside this ground operation, indiscriminate, sir, would mean that we would do it from the air, we wouldn't care.

and you say that — we care, we target, we try to do so. hamas hides behind civilians. that doesn't mean we are doing it indiscriminately. it is the way hamas built their capabilities. sure, the thing is, you talk about maximum effort to avoid civilian casualties, but how can you say that when half of the air to ground munitions that have been used are un—guided munitions, what is called dumb bombs? according to us intelligence, 40—45% of the 29,000 munitions used so far have been unguided and they pose a much greater risk to civilians in densely populated areas. that has come from us intelligence. i would have you go and interview your british officers, not israeli, because you don't seem in that sense to get the response i'll give. every military uses the different types of munitions, they are used in different spaces. the fact that we have used all different kinds, that is what all militaries do, that is not unique, not in an urban area or in any other place. the difference in that sense

between the exact and, as you say, the guided munitions, the ones you are calling dumb munitions, the lethality is the same, there is no difference, it is about where you are trying to attack. there's been a new statement in the last few minutes from the grandmother of alex baty, the british teenager found after six years of being missing dash one. he says, "i cannot begin to express my relief that alex has been found safe and well. i spoke to him last night and well. i spoke to him last night and it was so good to hear his voice and it was so good to hear his voice and see his face. i cannot wait to see him when we are reunited. the main thing is that he is safe after what would've been an overwhelming experience for anyone, not least a child." she goes on to say, "i would ask that the families given privacy so we can make this process as

comfortable as possible." she said it was so good to hear his voice and see his face again. let's turn now to the war in ukraine — because hungary has blocked more than $50 billion in eu aid for ukraine, hours after agreement was reached on starting membership talks with kyiv. after late night negotiations, the hungarian prime minister victor i spoke to oleksander merezko, a member of ukraine's parliament and head of foreign affairs committee, and asked her for reaction to the aid package blocked by hungary. first of all, we are very happy about the decision to start finally negotiating ukraine's succession to the european union. unfortunately the european union. unfortunately the decision to block the aid which we desperately need right now when ukraine is bleeding during the war — this is a bad sign, but i'm sure that this mistaken decision will be corrected as soon as possible. it comes of course off the back of a

similar blockage in washington — just hand on heart, how nervous our politicians, people they are in ukraine that perhaps countries in the west are beginning to waver? well first of all, i'm sure that the aid from the united states and european union will continue. there are several reasons to be optimistic — first of all, there were a number of statements, strong statements of unwavering support of ukraine made by the president of the united states, made by republicans, democrats, and made by the leadership of the european union. in the second reason to be hopeful is that it the second reason to be hopeful is thatitis the second reason to be hopeful is that it is in the best national interest for the united states to support ukraine to continue to provide us with the necessary weapons. because as president biden

— it is the best investment in american security. i’ll - it is the best investment in american security.— - it is the best investment in american security. i'll 'ust put on the i american security. i'll 'ust put on the screen pictures _ american security. i'lljust put on the screen pictures from - american security. i'lljust put on the screen pictures from only - american security. i'lljust put on the screen pictures from only a i american security. i'lljust put on l the screen pictures from only a few days ago when president zelensky actually met viktor orban in the setting of the inauguration of argentina's new president — it's mute, there's no sound on the video, do you happen to know what your president actually said to viktor orban? �* ~ . , president actually said to viktor orban? a . , , president actually said to viktor orban? , , ,, orban? actually was very impressive, there were many _ orban? actually was very impressive, there were many guesses _ orban? actually was very impressive, there were many guesses what - orban? actually was very impressive, there were many guesses what our. there were many guesses what our president might have said. but our president might have said. but our president later said that he ask him a very simple question. "give me at least one reason why the negotiations on ukraine's accession to the european union shouldn't start?" i understand, judging by this video, viktor orban had up shortly no convincing answer, he was at a loss — he at least looked taken aback by the question of our president. 50 aback by the question of our

president-— aback by the question of our resident. . , _, ., president. so he directly confronted him about that. _ president. so he directly confronted him about that. let's _ president. so he directly confronted him about that. let's go _ president. so he directly confronted him about that. let's go back - president. so he directly confronted him about that. let's go back to - president. so he directly confronted him about that. let's go back to the aid issue, because it is so crucial, so many people have said, including your president, in terms of military health, ammunition, all those things, tanks, how much supplies does ukraine have when there is this blockage in the pipeline for more? well, we are in desperate need, especially when it comes to shelves and ammunition. because let's not forget that we are fighting against a huge superpower which has more than enough — we are outgunned and outnumbered basically by human troops —— russian troops. that's why to save our soldiers and civilians, we need enough munition. we were promised 1 million shells to be provided by the european union, but unfortunately so far we've not yet received most of the shells. while

russia has received 1 million shells from north korea. the russia has received1 million shells from north korea.— from north korea. the latest reaction from _ from north korea. the latest reaction from kyiv. _ from north korea. the latest reaction from kyiv. i'm - from north korea. the latest reaction from kyiv. i'm back| from north korea. the latest. reaction from kyiv. i'm back in from north korea. the latest - reaction from kyiv. i'm back injust a moment. hello. we've seen some drier weather developing over the past 2a hours or so, and many of us will hold on to the fairly quiet theme to the weather into the weekend, too. so mostly dry, breezy and mild, often fairly cloudy, but the exception will be across the north—west of the uk, particularly northwest scotland, where we've got some really wet and pretty windy weather on the cards. so high pressure holds on to the south, keeping things mostly dry, but these weather fronts moving in at times through the weekend across the far north of the uk will be quite persistent as they produce that heavy rainfall. now for friday evening, overnight into saturday, a lot of cloud across the board generally. some light rain and drizzle for the west of scotland. we'll see a few clear spells here in there further south, but i think enough of a breeze,

enough cloud to keep things well and truly frost—free. so temperatures in the south between about 4—8 celsius, but we're staying in double figures for parts of scotland and northern ireland, with the wind and the cloud — and the winds are coming in from a very mild south westerly direction. importing this mild air, you can see the orange colors across the map — blue colours, colder air to the north there and where those two air masses meet, that's where we've got this frontal system, which will be a bit of a troublemaker in the far northwest. so saturday, that rain becomes quite persistent across the northwestern parts of highland, into parts of the western isles, the northern isles also seeing some rain. 1—2 splashes of rain for the likes of the cumbrian fells, perhaps northern ireland, but further south and east, we're going to be staying at dry. a bit milder than it was on friday — temperatures in double figures across the board. but then, as we move through saturday night into sunday, that rainfall continues to pile in. we could see up to about 175 millimetres of rain falling across parts of highland, towards argyll and bute. and the met office have issued an amber weather warning for that heavy rain, which is likely to cause some flooding

problems across the region. so moving through sunday, then, it's looking drier further south, but a bit of rain for northern england. northern ireland. should be dry too for the east of scotland and mild — 1a there for aberdeen, around about 11 in london. into the new week and for monday, then, that weather front slips its way further south. it's quite a weak affair, so tending to fizzle out, but it will bring a fair amount of cloud once again, a few showers around, as well. and then, further ahead, a pretty wet day for many of us, especially in the south on tuesday. stays reasonably mild and unsettled, though, through the course of next week. bye for now.

this is bbc news, the headlines. the high court rules — prince harry is found to be a victim of phone hacking and awarded £1a0,000 in damages. he describes it — as �*a great day for truth�*. israel says its opening the border at kerem shalom for aid — a decision welcomed by washington — and the world health organization. a british boy — found alive six years after he disappeared — is due home in the coming days. french authorities say he walked for four days through the pyrenees. and hundreds gather at the sydney opera house to remember the comedy superstar barry humphries.