we have uncovered and proved the shockingly— we have uncovered and proved the shockingly dishonest way in which the mirror— shockingly dishonest way in which the mirror acted for so many years and then— the mirror acted for so many years and then sought to conceal the truth — and then sought to conceal the truth tell— and then sought to conceal the truth. tell about the parties of two former— truth. tell about the parties of two former pakistani prime minister is have _ former pakistani prime minister is have claimed to win the election. us presidentjoe biden rejects suggestions he has a poor memory and is unfit for office. my memory is fine. my memory... take a look at what i've done since i have become president. nobody thought i could pass any of the things i got passed. how did that happen? you know, i guess ijust forgot what is going on. hello, welcome to bbc news now, three hours of fast—moving news, interviews and reaction. let's start with breaking news, and in the last hour or so, it's been announced that prince harry has settled the remaining parts of his phone hacking claim against the publisher of the daily mirror and won further

"substantial" damages. the duke of sussex sued, claiming journalists at the mirror group newspapers publications were linked to methods including phone hacking, so—called blagging, that is gaining information by deception, and use of private investigators for unlawful activities. in december, a judge ruled that phone hacking was widespread at mgn titles in the 19905. outside the court, david sherborne delivered a statement on his behalf. "after our victory in december, mirror group have finally conceded the rest of my claim, which would have consisted of another two trials, additional evidence, and 115 more articles." "everything we said was happening at mirror group was in fact happening." "and indeed far worse, as the court ruled in its extremely damaging judgment." "as the judge has said only this morning, we have uncovered and proved the shockingly dishonest way in which the mirror acted for so many years, and then sought

to conceal the truth." "in light of this, we call again for the authorities to uphold the rule of law, and to prove that no—one is above it." "that includes mr morgan, who, as editor, knew perfectly well what was going on, as thejudge held." "even his own employer realised it simply could not call him as a witness of truth at the trial." "his contempt for the court's ruling, and his continued attacks ever since, demonstrate why it was so important to obtain a clear and detailed judgment." "as i said back in december, our mission continues. i believe in the positive change it will bring for all of us. it is the very reason why i started this, and why i will continue to see it through to the end." charlie rose gave us this update.

david sherborne, prince harry's lawyer, has been giving a statement on the last few minutes. he has been awarded substantial initial damages in his claim against mirror group newspapers, his lawyer said mirror group newspapers had agreed to make payments for cost of around £a00,000 with further costs to be assessed. mirror group newspapers say they are pleased to have reached the agreement and move forward. this follows what happened at the end of last year when prince harry 115 sample claims against mirror group newspapers, accusing them of unlawful information gathering, hacking his phone to get information to write stories, including stories about his former girlfriend, chelsy

davy, a relationship he had when he was much younger. prince harry said that was just the beginning, there are many more claims he wants to bring against mirror group newspapers, numbering some 115 claims. we were going to find out today whether that was going to trial or whether there would be a settlement. we now know that there has been a settlement. david sherborne gave a statementjust now to reporters and camera crews, said everything the prince had said was happening during this trial was happening. and he also called out piers morgan, the former editor of the daily mirror, saying piers morgan knew what was going on. in actualfact, at the morgan knew what was going on. in actual fact, at the end morgan knew what was going on. in actualfact, at the end of morgan knew what was going on. in actual fact, at the end of the trial last year, thejudge actual fact, at the end of the trial last year, the judge said that there were many unlawful information gathering, it was known by many senior executives at mirror group newspapers, they were all aware of what was going on, thejudge said. we are talking about the daily

mirror, the sunday mirror, and we now know that prince harry's claim has been settled, and his lawyer, david sherborne gave that statement to reporters just now. david sherborne gave that statement to reportersjust now.— to reporters 'ust now. charlie, we know that to reportersjust now. charlie, we know that this _ to reportersjust now. charlie, we know that this is _ to reportersjust now. charlie, we know that this is a _ to reportersjust now. charlie, we know that this is a test _ to reportersjust now. charlie, we know that this is a test case, - to reportersjust now. charlie, we know that this is a test case, so l know that this is a test case, so what are the implications for other people? it what are the implications for other eo - le? , . what are the implications for other eo . le? , ., , what are the implications for other --eole? ,. , , what are the implications for other n-eole? ,., , , people? it is a big case, 'ust part ofthe people? it is a big case, 'ust part of the wider * people? it is a big case, 'ust part of the wider ongoing _ people? it is a big case, just part of the wider ongoing issue - people? it is a big case, just part of the wider ongoing issue of - people? it is a big case, just part of the wider ongoing issue of the | of the wider ongoing issue of the phone hacking scandal, following on from the leveson inquiry. piers morgan, in the past, has denied his involvement in any of this, denied knowing phone hacking was going on, denied knowledge that this was going on, but of course we now know that it was going on in prince harry's case. prince harry was bringing this case. prince harry was bringing this case against mirror group newspapers, he won at the end of last year, 15 of 33 sample cases, basically saying that journalists and reporters working for mirror group newspapers, they were

gathering information unlawfully, hacking into his phone, and we heard earlier on today, inside this courtroom, there are 100 other claimants waiting to have their claims processed, so this could be mounting up into a very, very costly, costly case, costly exercise for mirror group newspapers, who are being pressured to settle now. find being pressured to settle now. and as i was saying, he talked about how his mission continues, this isjust one of four cases that prince harry has ongoing at the moment. yes. one of four cases that prince harry has ongoing at the moment. yes, not every claimant. _ has ongoing at the moment. yes, not every claimant. a _ has ongoing at the moment. yes, not every claimant, a number _ has ongoing at the moment. yes, not every claimant, a number of - every claimant, a number of celebrities involved in this case, but not every claimant has been successful. there were two actresses, and the ex—wife of paul whitehouse, their claims to have payments made for mirror group

newspapers to pay their settlements, that was thrown out, mirror group newspapers would not have to pay their costs, basically because they failed to settle with mirror group newspapers. so there are other people involved in all of this, but it is that figure of 100 other claimants waiting to have their claims processed, and mirror group newspapers now have that to deal with, a huge financial burden facing them, and there will be pressure for them, and there will be pressure for them to settle with those claimant as well. candidates loyal to jailed former pakistan prime minister imran khan have a narrow lead in the national assembly election, with just over half the seats declared. both khan's party and the party of three—time prime minister nawaz sharif have claimed victory. nawaz sharif had been seen as the favoured candidate of the powerful military and is expected to be elected pakistan's prime minister for a fourth time. but early results are still not conclusive. mr sharif told the bbc the vote had been "absolutely fair" despite the recentjailing of his rival imran khan on corruption charges.

our south asia correspondent samira hussain, who is in islamabad, had the latest. if you look at how many of the results are back, we're seeing that about 49 independents have been able to claim victory. and most of those independents are, in fact, backed by the pti, which is the political party that is being run by imran khan. and then if you look further down, you see that nawaz sharif�*s party, pml—n, has 42 seats and then ppp, which is the party for bilawal bhutto zardari and he's got about 3k seats, so there's no clear winner just as yet. but there are indications that so far there is this kind of feeling that it's going to be up to the independents whether they're going to want to form some sort of coalition government. so now the real sort of politicking and horse trading is going to begin.

and just to explain, we know what's been going on in the run up to this. as i mentioned, imran khan has beenjailed. there've been all sorts of restrictions put on his party, haven't there? and some candidates have even been campaigning from prison. yes, exactly. look, this has been an election that has been mired in difficulties and accusations that they are not going to be free and fair. and for imran khan, he is still wildly popular in this country, but he was banned from contesting in these elections and members of his party were able to participate in the elections, but they couldn't they couldn't participate under the pti name. so that posed some challenges. and of course, then you had many of the candidates for the pti that were very fearful of publicly campaigning. so some were just conducting their campaign online and some were holding rallies in secret locations. and so that was on the one side. and then on the other side,

you see that there is the three time former prime minister nawaz sharif, who's back from self—imposed exile and on the ballot again. and he was the favored candidate to win coming into these elections, mostly because he is the candidate that is favored by pakistan's very powerful military, which wields a lot of influence in this country. well, let's just talk a bit more about that, can we? because in terms of if there was any attempt to form a coalition, presumably the military would have a lot to say on that. well, look, the military has made it... it seems pretty clear that if you have the military support in this country, your pathway to victory is pretty guaranteed. and i think because of that and because these early results are showing that the independents are doing well, if you talk to voters on the ground, as i have been today, there's quite a bit of scepticism with regards to these results. i was speaking to a few people out in a marketplace, and they were saying, well, look, you know,

it's been now 2a hours since the polls have closed and we still don't have any clear results. and, yes, there have been delays for a variety of technical reasons, but for them, it is this worry that their vote actually won't translate into the results that they would expect them to be, meaning that they believe that the votes could possibly be manipulated. and this is something that we've certainly heard from pti backed candidates, that they're worried about voter manipulation. so how long is it expected before any declaration could be made? right, 50, you know, this afternoon at local time, i was at the electoral commission office and the spokesperson there said to me, you know, within one or two hours, it's for sure that we'll be able to get all of the results. well, that was about five and a half hours ago and we've only got half the results in. so it's perhaps going to be yet another long night of counting.

israeli forces have carried out fresh air strikes on the city of rafah in southern gaza, hours after the us stressed the importance of protecting civilian lives there. the white house warned israel that staging a military offensive in rafah without planning would be a "disaster", after israel anounced its military was prepared to extend its offensive into the south. us presidentjoe biden says that conduct in gaza has been "over the top" and he is working to get a sustained pause in fighting. israel also bombed parts of rafah from the air on thursday morning and israeli tanks reportedly opened fire. about half of gaza's 2.3 million people have fled to rafah and many are now surviving in dire humanitarian conditions. here's our middle east correspondent nick beake with more. with more on the situation on the ground, i spoke to gaza resident and journalist ghada oudah, who's currently in rafah,

after having to move 46 times since the war broke out four months ago. the last couple of days the israeli government announced there would be ground incursion through rafah. more than one and a half million displaced people are now living inside the small city, rafah, and it is overcrowded. we can hear, meanwhile, lots of air strikes over the days and nights. people were told to move from the north, weren't they, and go down to the south, and that is why there are so many people there? are you able to tell us a bit about how you are getting food? how is day—to—day going on for you? we have been displaced many times from north gaza to the middle area, to khan younis, and then we had to come to rafah, the last city on the border area of the gaza strip.

the only thing that we can provide our self for food, it is things that is entering gaza through the rafah crossing. but it is almost running out from products, i can see there is not any kind of fruit, no chicken, no meat, only canned food from aid, and sometimes it is being sold for us with expensive prices. people now trying to leave the area? i don't know where people could go in terms of what may be safe. are people trying to leave? this is the last one that they have. we are away from the border area between gaza and egypt, just less than one kilometre.

if they are able to conduct their ground incursion. we have no place to go. maybe they order the people to flee to the border go back to the middle area or they will open the roads to go back to gaza and north of gaza. this is the only choice that we have here in rafah. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. guatemala's new president, bernardo arevallo, says he has no intention of breaking diplomatic ties with taiwan in favour of china. several other countries in central america and the caribbean have recently severed relations with taiwan in the past few years. china, in exchange, has invested billions of dollars in projects across the region.

rescuers in the philippines have found a girl alive, 60 hours after she was buried in a mudslide. more than 100 people are still missing after the disaster. the landslide hit a gold mining village in a southern region on tuesday. at least 11 people have been confirmed dead. a new oscar for best casting will be introduced from 2026. it will be the first new competitive category at the ceremony since 2002. casting directors have campaigned in recent years to be recognised in the way other film crafts, such as sound and costume, are. you're live with bbc news. us presidentjoe biden has angrily rejected suggestions he has a poor memory and is unfit for office. he was responding to a long—awaited report that concluded he shouldn't face any criminal charges for mishandling classified documents

during his time as vice president but questioned his ability to remember several important events. my memory is fine. look at what i have done since i became president. nobody thought i could pass the things that got passed. how could that happen? i guess i just forgot? in that same news conference, president biden made another slip—up. answering a question about the rafah gate in gaza, he referred to abdel fattah el—sisi, the president of egypt, but said he was the president of mexico. as you know, initially the president of mexico, el—sisi, did not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in. i talked to him. i convinced him to open the gate. this isn't the first time biden's been questioned about his memory, and our correspondent tom bateman — who's in washington — breaks down just how damaging this could be. it isn't the first time at all.

we have seen among his senior officials a concerted attempt over a long period to sort of fend off and fight off these accusations that his age means he is not capable of doing the job. so, what you had here in this report was that although it completely absolves him legally, the political damage is perhaps even harder to bear. that is because these descriptions of him essentially sketching out the idea that if he tried to stand up in front of a jury they would see him as a doddering old man with a bad memory, and therefore they could not find him guilty. there was a very hastily scrambled news conference in the white house, we just heard the clips. it was a very robust response from president biden about all of this. you have heard some of that. until the moment he went to walk out of the room, he was being thrown questions by the press corps. on one about the middle east, he decided to answer it and walked all the way back to the podium, and in the middle of the answer,

he described president sisi of egypt as the president of mexico. i think there will be a view that a lot of the work was undone in the damage limitation exercise by that slip—up. certainly, this entire moment is being seized upon by republicans who say that it just fundamentally proves their point, and a top strategist for donald trump saying the whole report has been, in his words, for mr biden, damning and defining. in terms of donald trump, people talk about his age as well. his rival, nikki haley, talks about it a lot. it's notjust president biden whose age is commented on? 77 years old, three and a half years younger than mr biden, he tries to repeatedly use this as a political issue. certainly in some of the political campaign ads, there is a lot of mocking of mr biden over his age. but the reality is that you have an incumbent president at the age of 81,

you have mr trump, clearfavourite to win the republican presidential nomination, not far behind him. both these cases, it is clearly an issue in the campaign. the problem for mr biden, as far as if you look at some of the polling, it does stick as an issue. people are worried about the issue of his age. what democrats say about that is that it has effectively been priced in, because this is such a polarised country, and the political race is so polarised, people that were going to vote for mr biden will not change their mind on account of these various slip—ups in the descriptions on the report. they already knew that age was an issue. it will continue now, particularly after the events of last night, to become a defining characteristic of the race. the question is the degree

to which it will really change the way people are likely to vote. much of this will be fought in the suburban areas, where things like this may be a factor, but the big, big issues in the election race are the economy and immigration. this one has not tipped the scales yet, but it's a problem for mr biden. a french model enthusiast has entered the record books, and it's a title he's had to fight for. richard paud's 7.2 metre matchstick replica of the eiffel tower was rejected by the guinness book of records after it was determined he'd used the wrong type of match. but after he filed an appeal, the authorities reversed the decison admitting they were too heavy—handed. here is what richard plaud had to say following the decision.

translation: yes, the guinness in the end decided to validate my work as the tallest matchstick structure in the world, it is a very good outcome for me. mark from guinness world records admitted they got this wrong. it was admitted they got this wrong. it was a aood admitted they got this wrong. it was a good opportunity _ admitted they got this wrong. it was a good opportunity for _ admitted they got this wrong. it was a good opportunity for us _ admitted they got this wrong. it was a good opportunity for us to - admitted they got this wrong. it w; a good opportunity for us to learn admitted they got this wrong. it "wes a good opportunity for us to learn a little bit more about the matchstick making community, and we got the opportunity to see that we needed to change our position. 50 opportunity to see that we needed to change our position.— change our position. so 'ust explain what was wrong h change our position. so just explain what was wrong with the _ change our position. so just explain what was wrong with the match - change our position. so just explain what was wrong with the match is l what was wrong with the match is that he was using originally? 50 that he was using originally? so with that he was using originally? 5r with all of our records, we have got guidelines in place, these are rules and evidence requirements that everybody has to follow, so that everybody has to follow, so that everybody is attempting the same record, the same challenge. in the guidelines, we had stated that matches must be used, and they couldn't be amended in any way, so you couldn't chop off the tops to take away the igniter will end. that

was our stance. we have since learned that when it comes to matchstick modelling, it is quite common to take off the head of the matches, because you don't want something that can ignite in place when you are creating a wooden sculpture. when you are creating a wooden sculture. ., when you are creating a wooden sculpture-— when you are creating a wooden sculture. ., , .,, sculpture. no, quite right, people used to remove _ sculpture. no, quite right, people used to remove the _ sculpture. no, quite right, people used to remove the red _ sculpture. no, quite right, people used to remove the red tape, - sculpture. no, quite right, people i used to remove the red tape, didn't they, in order to do it? but he very sensibly bought them with ones that had already been removed, and time is important, this took him eight years, didn't it? so is this the tallest matchstick structure or the tallest matchstick structure or the tallest eiffel tower structure? the tallest eiffel tower structure? ttj: tallest matchstick sculpture tallest eiffel tower structure? t“jtj: tallest matchstick sculpture of tallest eiffel tower structure? tj“tj: tallest matchstick sculpture of any kind, yes, they created the eiffel tower, which is what the previous record holder has created as way. how high was this one? plat record holder has created as way. how high was this one?— record holder has created as way. how high was this one? not as high as this one! — how high was this one? not as high as this one! i _ how high was this one? not as high as this one! i am _ how high was this one? not as high as this one! i am putting _ how high was this one? not as high as this one! i am putting you -

how high was this one? not as high as this one! i am putting you on - how high was this one? not as highj as this one! i am putting you on the sot! it as this one! i am putting you on the spot! it was — as this one! i am putting you on the spot! it was about _ as this one! i am putting you on the spot! it was about 6.5 _ as this one! i am putting you on the spot! it was about 6.5 metres. - as this one! i am putting you on the spot! it was about 6.5 metres. it. spot! it was about 6.5 metres. it reall is spot! it was about 6.5 metres. it really is amazing, _ spot! it was about 6.5 metres. it really is amazing, have - spot! it was about 6.5 metres. it really is amazing, have you - spot! it was about 6.5 metres. it really is amazing, have you seenj spot! it was about 6.5 metres. it l really is amazing, have you seen it in the flesh?— really is amazing, have you seen it in the flesh? no, i have not had the opportunity — in the flesh? no, i have not had the opportunity to _ in the flesh? no, i have not had the opportunity to see _ in the flesh? no, i have not had the opportunity to see it _ in the flesh? no, i have not had the opportunity to see it in _ in the flesh? no, i have not had the opportunity to see it in the - in the flesh? no, i have not had the opportunity to see it in the flesh, i opportunity to see it in the flesh, but just seeing them opportunity to see it in the flesh, butjust seeing them putting it together, when they were measuring it and getting the final measurement for it, it is absolutely incredible. apparently it is going to be on display during the olympics. i was hearing that you get something like 40,000 applications a year when it comes to matchsticks, is that right? not specific to matchsticks, no, 40,000 applications generally. filth. t 40,000 applications generally. oh, i thou~ht 40,000 applications generally. oh, i thought that — 40,000 applications generally. oh, i thought that was _ 40,000 applications generally. oh, i thought that was incredible, a whole community, really huge! but in terms of how complicated it is to verify these things, you guys didn't go in person to see this? but did people go in person to see it? tia. person to see this? but did people go in person to see it?— go in person to see it? no, so in this instance, _ go in person to see it? no, so in this instance, and _ go in person to see it? no, so in this instance, and with _ go in person to see it? no, so in this instance, and with the - go in person to see it? no, so in i this instance, and with the majority of our record attempts, we have people submit evidence to us, so it comes in various forms, witness

statements, video footage, photographic statements, and in this instance in particular there was a survey it needed to actually measure it, so we got an accurate measurement of the height. mark mckinley from _ measurement of the height. mark mckinley from the _ measurement of the height. mark mckinley from the guinness book of records. just a reminder of our main news, prince harry has agreed further damages in his case against mirror group newspapers, he settled his remaining claims for phone hacking and invasion of privacy. in a statement, the duke of sussex said the mirror had acted in a shockingly dishonest way for many years but then had sought to conceal the truth. the amount what it has not been made public, but prince harry says this follows a ruling in december which said that mirror group newspapers had made extensive use of hacking. hello there. a5 temperatures have continued to rise, so the focus has shifted from snow to rain and flooding. this was the weather watcher

picture taken earlier today in leicestershire. it's a combination of the rain and in some cases the melting snow that's led to a large number of flood warnings. the bulk of those have been across the midlands and southern england, but the weekend looks like it should be drier. this weather front has been moving northwards, taking the wetter weather up towards scotland and that's where we've got the colder air still in place, but elsewhere it is much milder and we are seeing some spells of rain. with that mild dry coming in over the cold ground here in staffordshire, it's meant quite misty and murky conditions, as well as the snow gradually thawing. we've got misty, murky conditions across much of northern england and northern ireland. those are the temperatures we've got as we head into the evening. somewhat colder in scotland. there's still a strong easterly wind blowing and it's over highland and grampian above about 300 metres there could be as much as 20 centimetres of snow, so it really is well over high ground. it's rain elsewhere. we've got more rain in southern

scotland into the night, moving away from northern ireland and some clearer skies will develop further south and it may well be a little bit chillier than last night across southern england, with lows of two or three degrees here. it depends on cloud and mist and fog, and we could see some mist and fog developing through the midlands towards lincolnshire. that will be a little slow to lift. and we've still got more cloud around in scotland on saturday. the rain and snow mainly in the far north of the country. some showers will follow to the south, mainly in south wales and south—west england. but we should see some sunshine and even across northern england, southern scotland and northern ireland. that will certainly give the temperatures a boost. it's continuing to get milder in the next day or so. the colder air is getting pushed to the north of mainland scotland by that weather front by sunday, but we've still got low pressure close by, so there still could be some showers and there may even be a bit of rain running its way close to these north sea coasts. otherwise, it could be quite cloudy with mist and fog patches to lift, particularly in the north.

some sunshine coming through, but still a few showers, mainly in the south and west of the uk. blustery winds still through the english channel, otherwise the winds fairly light and those temperatures in scotland will continue to rise.

ploughing ahead. farmers�* protests spread across europe — despite concessions from the eu and member states. and chocolate lovers be warned — cocoa prices hit a record high as dry weather hurts crops. welcome to world business report. we start with europe's farmers — as protests that began in france and then germany have been spreading across the continent. demonstrations are taking place in poland, hungary and italy today. the farmers are venting their anger over low prices for their produce, soaring fuel and fertilizer costs and increasingly restrictive eu regulations. italy's government has promised tax breaks to ease hardship for farmers — after hundreds began gathering with their tractors this week, as you can see here going past some of rome's most famous landmarks.