could prince harry 5 case against the publishers of the sun be settled today? the start of an eight—week trial was delayed yesterday after the two sides were involved in talks to strike a deal. the duke of sussex alleges he was unlawfully targeted by journalists working for news group newspapers, which the company denies. our correspondent rich preston is outside the high court in central london. rich, what can we expect from today's hearing? good morning. as you mentioned this is day one of what is expected to be an eight—week trial. they what was supposed to be yesterday but was delayed after various arguments in court yesterday between the barristers on the opposing sides. this is prince harry and lord watson versus news group newspapers and they are the last claimants out of several legal claims, there were about 1700 claims. helena wilkinson

is with me outside court. many people may have a sense of deja vu. haven't we been here before in court with prince harry? yes we have. _ in court with prince harry? yes we have. and _ in court with prince harry? yes we have, and you _ in court with prince harry? yes we have, and you will - in court with prince harry? yes we have, and you will remember the mirror group newspapers in 2023 and prince harry won a substantial amount of money in that case. we are waiting, the hearing he is expected to get under way in the next couple of minutes. we did see prince harry's barrister david sherborne arrived in the last 15 minutes or so and a question was thrown to him, has a settlement being reached? we just about made at what he said. he said we will have to wait and see. what we expect to happen this morning, we will either get the start of the trial finally, either get the start of the trialfinally, as either get the start of the trial finally, as you mentioned, trialfinally, as you mentioned, an eight—week trial finally, as you mentioned, an eight—week trial ahead of us, which will be a bitter battle between prince harry, lord tom watson, the two remaining claimants, against mgm newspapers, the publishers of the sun newspaper and the

now long closed news of the world. 0r now long closed news of the world. or they may be a settlement. i can tell you we have got correspondence in the court room stop prince harry's barrister david sherborne has asked the judge for a couple of more minutes. a little bit of a delay still until we find out what is going on. if a settlement has been reached, that will major news. that will happen pretty quickly in court then we will likely expect to hear from then we will likely expect to hearfrom prince harry's hear from prince harry's barrister hearfrom prince harry's barrister david sherborne outside the court room with a statement possibly from prince harry if a settlement has been reached. but we will have to wait a couple more minutes. we saw lord wait a couple more minutes. - saw lord watson arriving earlier on, are we expecting prince harry? irate earlier on, are we expecting prince harry?— earlier on, are we expecting prince harry? we are not, we understand — prince harry? we are not, we understand he _ prince harry? we are not, we understand he is _ prince harry? we are not, we understand he is in _ prince harry? we are not, we understand he is in california | understand he is in california but he will clearly have been involved in what we understand where very intense talks between both sides from the claimant and mgm newspapers. they have been in intense talks

over the last couple of days or so. we saw yesterday, quite an extraordinary day in court, where the barristers for both sides were asking for more time, so the hearing didn't get under way yesterday. figs time, so the hearing didn't get under way yesterday. $5 i under way yesterday. as i mentioned, _ under way yesterday. as i mentioned, 1700 - under way yesterday. as i mentioned, 1700 cases i under way yesterday. sis i mentioned, 1700 cases have under way yesterday. is i mentioned, 1700 cases have been settled so far by news group newspapers and they have repeatedly, consistently, denied any wrongdoing at the sun. , ., w. ., denied any wrongdoing at the sun. , . ., ._ sun. yes, no acceptance of any liability but — sun. yes, no acceptance of any liability but a — sun. yes, no acceptance of any liability but a huge _ sun. yes, no acceptance of any liability but a huge number- sun. yes, no acceptance of any liability but a huge number of. liability but a huge number of claims previously have been settled, as you mentioned. a huge amount of money has been paid out by news group newspapers. mgn has always denied unlawful activity at the sun newspaper and if this trial goes ahead what is fascinating and interesting about this case in particular is that not only the claimants for a case, but also a generic case will be presented. the allegations in that will be there was a cover—up at the high levels within the organisation. we

have heard repeatedly from prince harry, who has always said this is about accountability. he wants to bring this case to trial so people he alleges were involved in unlawful news techniques are held accountable. if he does settle, we will have to wait and see what the terms of that are. but, yes, a couple of more minutes until we find out in which direction this is going to go. which direction this is going to o. i, i, i, to go. there are two legal elements _ to go. there are two legal elements to _ to go. there are two legal elements to this, - to go. there are two legal elements to this, the - elements to this, the unauthorised access of people's private information, and there is this accusation of a corporate cover—up. tell us more about what they are being accused of. more about what they are being accused of-_ accused of. that is the generic case. accused of. that is the generic case- the _ accused of. that is the generic case. the alleged _ accused of. that is the generic case. the alleged corporate i case. the alleged corporate cover—up at the high levels, the allegations are that executives and editors knew about what was going on and covered it up. also there was the destruction of evidence. that is the allegation in the

generic part of this case. helena, thank you. do stick with us, we will be outside the court here and we will bring you updates. court here and we will bring you updates-— court here and we will bring ou udates. ., i, you updates. helena mentioned we have a _ you updates. helena mentioned we have a corresponding - you updates. helena mentioned we have a corresponding inside| we have a corresponding inside court and we have a live page “p court and we have a live page up and running on the bbc news website with the latest from our home and legal affairs correspondent. you can see his latest post. nods correspondent. you can see his latest post. mods and discussions as the judge is itching to get going. you will find all of those details live inside the court with those posts from dominic on the bbc news website. back now to our main story and president trump's first full day in office. he issued an executive order calling for an end to what he called "dangerous, demeaning and immoral" diversity, equity and inclusion schemes, announced a 500 billion dollar investment in al infrastructure, and also justified his decision to pardon more than 1,500 supporters who stormed the us capitol four years ago. jacob chansley, the

self—styled qanon shaman, was one of those pardoned by donald trump for his role in the 2021 capitol riots. chansley, who had pleaded guilty to unlawfully obstructing the certification of the 2020 presidential election, says he regrets nothing. he spoke to my colleague victoria derbyshire on the bbc�*s newsnight programme and was asked about the riots that took place. i entered the building illegally. if you mean like stopping people from stealing, volunteering to help the police. you know, saying a prayer inside the senate, singing a nice, harmonic song inside the senate. stopping people from breaking in once outside the building and literally, like, facing an angry mob all by myself, telling everybody they're not going to break in. you know, that also happened that day. it really all depends on what you mean by what i... by your question. well, how you remember it. well, i remember it being a lot different than the mockingbirds in the media have spun it,

that's for sure. the chaos and the violence that took place outside the building that day was largely provoked, as far as i remember, by tear gas, concussion grenades and rubber bullets being shot into a peaceful crowd. it was, after all that all hell broke loose. so that usually gets forgotten. i think that the whole thing has just been mischaracterised in so many ways. myself included. i mean, people think i'm an insurrectionist or a republican! i'm a libertarian. you know? there's so much distortion because of the media. you know, one of the things i like to say is you don't realise how distorted the media lens actually is until you see your own reflection in it. well, now is your chance to be absolutely clear about this. are you saying you did not go into that building to try to stop the certification of the accurate 2020 us presidential election result? yeah, that's what i'm saying. i did not go into the building for that reason. the fact that you still think

that i did just shows how distorted the media lens actually is on that, because that was never my intention. that's never been my intention! i'm just literally looking at what you pleaded guilty to. that's what i'm going from. you pleaded guilty to unlawfully obstructing an official proceeding. ie, the certification of court. but didn't the supreme court just say that that is not a practical application of the law whatsoever, and that the government was bending the law to gain convictions out of people? give us your reaction to being pardoned for that day by president trump. it feels just like it should. go on. i think that pretty much says it all. describe your emotions when you heard. he laughs. ithink i heard — i got the news from my lawyer when i was at the gym, and i walked outside and i screamed "freedom" at the top of my lungs.

and then gave a good native american war cry. and did you expect him to follow through on what he has promised on a number of occasions through the campaign trail? i expect donald trump to be a man of his word, like he has been for decades. and that is a track record that we don't have with pretty much any politician in dc, for the most part — very few have that kind of a record of saying the same things and doing the same things, which are pro—american for over 30 years! you wrote on x after you'd heard the news. "thank you, president trump. "i'm going to buy some mother effing guns" because presumably now your record has been wiped clean, you are allowed to buy guns again. is that what you're going to do? have you gone out and bought them already? oh, yeah. well, i want you to think about something. the mockingbirds in the media and the government demonised me. they made me a social pariah. they attached things like qanon, conspiracy theorist, white

supremacist, insurrectionist, racist, homophobe, terrorist. they attached all those labels to my image, and then they imprison me for 27 months — ten and a half in solitary confinement. and then they released me to the public as a social pariah without the ability to own a firearm. so i can never really actually bring a gun to a gunfight. i always have to bring a knife to a gunfight. and you do realise how wrong that is, right? you are with bbc news and we have some breaking news on that prince harry case. let's go straight back to the court and my colleague richard preston. good morning. in the last few minutes we have had an update from prince harry's barrister. helena wilkinson is still with me outside the court. what have we heard? we

me outside the court. what have we heard?— we heard? we have a correspondence - we heard? we have a correspondence in . we heard? we have a| correspondence in the we heard? we have a _ correspondence in the courtroom and in the last few moments prince harry's barrister has told the court there has been an agreement which has reached between both parties. so prince harry has settled his case with mgn newspapers. that breaking news in the last couple of moments. let me read you a couple of lines from our reporters back on the court room. that news in the last couple of minutes that there has been agreement that they offer an unequivocal apology to the duke

of sussex. and another line that has just come out of court there is going to be substantial damage payment. the breaking news at the high court, that there has been agreement reached between the parties offering a full and unequivocal apology to the duke of sussex and substantial damage payment. prince harry has wanted to come to court and we know there have been more than 1700 claimants who have settled claims with the publishers of the sun newspaper and the now closed news of the world that happened

in 2011. he has wanted to come to court on behalf of those people as well, including the likes of hugh grant and miller who settled claims previously. he has wanted to have his day in court. he has wanted to expose what he has said has been unlawful information gathering into his private life, going back many years. some of the articles were when he was a very young. today in the last few moments and an agreement has been reached, a high court settlement has been reached with prince harry and a full and unequivocal apology to the duke of sussex. he will be very pleased with this. what we don't know is the exact terms of the settlement. we can tell you the way they are framing it in the court room is substantial damage payment. so

an apology to the claimants. what we don't know yet is whether the other claimant in this case, the former labour mp tom watson, he was the other person standing in this case. he is in the court room at the moment. we have not heard yet whether he has settled, but we know for prince harry substantial damage payment and an unequivocal apology to the duke of sussex.— duke of sussex. what do you know about _ duke of sussex. what do you know about the _ duke of sussex. what do you know about the other - duke of sussex. what do you | know about the other element duke of sussex. what do you - know about the other element of this case in terms of the accusations of corporate cover—up. do we know if there has been any acknowledgement on that front quetta my any apology for any activity? we don't know _ apology for any activity? - don't know yet. what we were going to see if the trial went ahead was the two claimants' cases were going to be put forward. parry�*s specific case was not about hacking and that is because he was out of time.

so he couldn't bring any hacking allegations. but the allegations he was putting forward were about unlawful newsgathering techniques used by journalists newsgathering techniques used byjournalists on the sun newspaper and the news of the world. mgn has always denied unlawful activity at the sun newspaper. part of the trial was going to be that generic case, which is the important part of this trial. the allegations were on behalf of the claimants that the people at the very top of the organisation knew about what was going on. there was a cover—up and there was a 1536 00:15:42,