because you have been in this position yourself. yes, we're in a very ironic. position for anybody making to court, you could win - a settlement from news group than that, you would be liable for the legal costs? yes, exactly.

you've already been offered, then you are liable for all. settled, it's why i settled, it's why vince cable, -

for executive power- because they were worried get approval for their bid for sky television. - this was the use of hacking of politicians, in order- to pursue corporate objectives. it was corporate espionage. they settled without - any admission of liability. i would say that's criminal activity. i

who got in their way. if sir mark rowley and - the metropolitan police decide that they should go ahead with a full investigation, l has not come to light as i a result of this settlement. and you were saying at the top that all of you, this business with the damages and the settlement and the costs. yes, i had given- a witness statement. cross—examined on monday.

i would very much have liked to see this properly ventilated. . and that is a very- regrettable situation. and the view of the former. prime minister gordon brown

indeed, he would have had to pay their costs. chris says he wants this information brought out — it won't be. and if the defendant is willing to pay you, and you're willing to accept that money, well, that's the end of it, and that's why the case doesn't come to court. well, jake, just to bring you back in, because there hasn't been a court case. as a result of this?

i'd be hard to argue otherwise, i think, but we're a far cry from back in the day, in which to, you know, obtain information, i think on journalism as a profession, unfortunately, even though the majority, the vast, vast majority ofjournalists work responsibly and ethically, it does not — it does not bode last weekend, the first

three israeli hostages cheering. and she joined us from jerusalem. israelis got their coverage from israeli channels, there are three main channels, you know,

and i suppose i'm asking where the actual footage came from, you know, everyone from the israeli government yes, in particular, i would highlight of masked, heavily—armed men. transmitted around the world with very little comment. "here they are, see them, they're walking."

on twitter and on tiktok, on twitter and on tiktok, and on instagram that actually and on instagram that actually showed that these crowds were very small, that it might have been 100 or 150 men, that they were really... it was created like almost it was created like almost a movie scene around these a movie scene around these trucks in which they were transporting the women. and this was unbelievably important context, because much of the world leapt on these images to show in a way that no gazans are innocent, right? a line that has been going around right—wing media a lot in recent months, unfortunately. they wanted to show hundreds, thousands of gazans, and in fact, it wasn't. although that footage, i suppose, was startling, it did look like a great pr moment for hamas, if you like. when we first saw that footage, this was a terrorist organisation, according to the israelis,

that they were going to wipe out. and what we saw was something different. are they, you know, mobile? are they alive? if the hostages it's releasing are alive or dead ahead of time.

because we did a terrible disservice, by basically transmitting pure propaganda. and are you just saying propaganda on the hamas side, what footage. . . ? i... this was absolutely hamas propaganda. i thought that the israeli government, in its own way, israelis were... why? that they wouldn't even be able to see their families. and at the end, the israeli government, which is... is a branch of the israeli prime minister's office. they were waiting for these women

so these women, these young women, even if they were asked for their permission, were in no position to give it. the tension, you know, i don't know, i have no evidence but even if they were asked to give permission, is a colleague, an israeli abroad. but despite my situation in an extreme minority, i do feel strongly about it. i do feel strongly about it.

and i wouldn't be surprised if, in a year and a half, we hear from one of these women we hear from one of these women saying how violated she felt saying how violated she felt to have cameras, you know, to have cameras, you know, every whimper, every expression in the most intimate and vulnerable situation in their lives. i don't think this had to be transmitted necessarily to the public. and as we've been reporting many times on the media show, internationaljournalists have been banned from gaza nowaceasefirehas begun. now a ceasefire has begun, are there any signs that those journalists will be allowed into gaza? not yet. i belong to the foreign press association here in israel. we have petitioned the supreme court to allow us. the court, by and large, has just, without comment, accepted the army's argument that, due to security reasons, journalists can't be let in. the last supreme court hearing was just yesterday. the army received another postponement. there seems to be, among the judicial authorities

in israel, very, very, very little awareness, if you ask me, about the importance of having independent professional media coverage in gaza. and i would even argue, if i could speak to these people directly, that the state of israel itself has been very ill—served by their policy of not allowing anyone into gaza, because basically, the narrative that has taken over the world — and specifically very much the arab world — is hamas' narrative. and i think israel should ask itself pretty big questions about this choice. now, this week, there have been some developments on the future of tiktok. on tuesday, president trump was hosting some big tech players in the white house when he announced his thoughts on a deal that could keep the app running in the us. the deal, i think, is this. and i've met with ownersl of tiktok, the big owners. it's worthless if -

it doesn't get a permit. it's not like, _ oh, you can take the us... the whole thing is worthless. with a permit, it's worth, like, $1 trillion. _ so what i'm thinking - about saying to somebody is, buy it, and give half to- the united states of america, half, and we'll give you the permit. - well, that was president trump answering questions about tiktok while meeting with oracle founder larry ellison and other tech bosses in the oval office on tuesday. we've obviously seen these huge pictures through the week of his inauguration and actions since. jake kanter, just bringing you back in, from deadline. have big tech and the us government somehow merged, do you think? well, we're seeing something quite extraordinary that we just didn't witness in 2016. i mean, just to take tiktok as an example, i mean, trump previously led efforts to ban tiktok, arguing that it posed a threat to us national security. and here he is as tiktok�*s saviour. and i think that achieves

a couple of things for him. firstly, you know, being painted as a saviour is no bad thing for an incoming president, and, you know, i'm sure will win him many fans among tiktok�*s loyal base of i think it's about 170 million american users. we won the young vote. i think i won it. through tiktok. so i have a warm spot- in my heart for tiktok, 0k? the other thing, which i think probably gets to your question a bit more, which is that, you know, it gives him space in his efforts and gives him power in his efforts to bring the tech titans to heel. he now has the power to sort of extract concessions from tiktok, maybe even encourage some tweaking in its algorithm. you know, turn the trump dial up a little bit. i mean, look, that's speculation on my part, but we are seeing tech companies take massive steps in his direction. you've only got to look at meta, the owner of facebook and instagram, which is now

dropping fact checking across its services and has appointed trump allies to some very senior positions. you know, we're in a totally different climate to previously when trump was in office and he was talking about breaking these companies up nonstop. that's it for this week. hello there. with these low pressure systems, which have brought very windy, very wet conditions, we've got numerous the next few days are looking dry.

of this area of low pressure. of england throughout the day on wednesday. offshore, but it looks like the channel islands and a few down the east coast, but the bulk of the country dry with some sunshine. it will be a chilly day, temperatures in single ireland. again, some snow on the hills, especially the grampians and the highlands, and that rain in the south will be likely to see frost develop, and that will greet us for thursday morning.

works its way in from the west. and there's your thursday temperatures. it will feel chilly, but at least we've got the sunshine to compensate. but we could see some sleet and snow over the higher ground begins to build across the south and the east. weather fronts out in the atlantic try to make so i think most of the rain will stay out west both

take care.

welcome to newsday. the headlines: it was due to begin. tens of thousands more palestinians make their way back

to northern gaza. people in cities across asia celebrate lunar new year, embracing the year of the snake. hello and welcome to newsday. i'm katie silver.