♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, royal scandal. accusations of sexual assault rocking the royal family. >> this has been so damaging for him and for the monarchy. >> prince andrew's accuser a then 17-year-old girl who says they met through jeffrey epstein and ghislaine maxwell, allegations he has vehemently denied for years. has the prince already lost the pr battle this. >> i think a lot of people in the court of public opinion have made their mind up about prince andrew. eradicating an invasive species. the feral hogs wreaking havoc across the country, causing millions of dollars in damage. the all-out effort to stop the pig population from exploding. >> you either have pigs or you

will have pigs. >> why some farmers fear they're losing the battle. and -- >> actor? >> why this 18-year-old video making the rounds on the internet is causing so many to roar with laughter. new vicks convenience pack. dayquil severe for you... and daily vicks super c for me. vicks super c is a daily supplement with vitamin c and b vitamins to help energize and replenish. dayquil severe is a max strength daytime, coughing, power through your day, medicine. new from vicks. from the very first touch, pampers, the #1 pediatrician recommended brand, helps keep baby's skin drier and healthier. so every touch will protect like the first. pampers

♪ thanks for joining us. a judge in new york today heard

arguments in a civil lawsuit that's rocking the british monarchy. prince andrew, queen elizabeth's second son, accused of sexually assaulting a woman when she was just 17. no matter the outcome of the case, the fallout for the prince and his standing in the royal family enormous. in the beating heart of the british monarchy, a humiliating scandal playing out for the world to see. prince andrew, second son of - queen elizabeth, uncle to harry and william, ninth in line to the british throne. runs known as "randy andy," the prince now a pariah. >> he hasn't represented them or appeared punily at anything apart from his father's funeral over the last two years. >> reporter: no longer a working royal, seemingly banished in his own kingdom, left out of his own daughter's official wedding pictures in 2020. >> i think a lot of people in the court of public opinion have made their mind up about prince andrew. >> reporter: in a new york city courtroom more than 3,000 miles

away from buckingham palace, andrew stands accused of sexual assault in a civil lawsuit brought by virginia roberts giuffre. she says he sexually abused her multiple times beginning when she was 17. the prince denying the claims, his legal team scrambling to have the case thrown out. at the heart of today's developments, secret court documents unsealed this week by a judge's order bringing to light the 2009 settlement between convicted sex predator jeffrey epstein and giuffre. epstein paid her $500,000. she agreed not to sue other potential defendants associated with epstein's settlement in the future. >> virginia giuffre had alleged in that lawsuit that she was trafficked by jeffrey epstein and exploited by some of his male friends. and included in that category, she did not name names, but she included businesspeople and politicians and royalty. >> reporter: attorneys for the duke of york argue that epstein's settlement with giuffre, now 38, should prevent

the prince from being sued. the prince's legal team previously sought to get the case tossed out on jurisdictional grounds. >> the claim that virginia giuffre cannot sue prince andrew based on jurisdiction, specifically, that she's lived in australia for the last 17 of 19 years, is going to, for lack of a better term, fall flat on its face. so that claim, more likely than not, is going to be thrown out. >> reporter: giuffre claims she was trafficked for sex by epstein and maxwell, found guilty last week for separate trafficking charges. >> according to giuffre, maxwell was the introduction to epstein. if it wasn't for her, you could say they wouldn't have met, and perhaps he wouldn't be in the predicament he finds himself in now. >> in the car, ghislaine tells me that i have to do for andrew what i do for jeffrey. and that made me sick.

i just didn't expect it from royalty. >> reporter: this is giuffre in 2019 in her own words, speaking to the bbc program "panorama" about prince andrew. the prince has repeatedly denied her claims. in this bbc interview from 2019, he maintain he had no recollection of meeting giuffre, despite this notorious photo of them together. he denies ever having sex with her. the interview was part of an extended one-on-one bbc special where prince andrew admitted to staying in epstein's new york city home even after the wealthy financier became a registered sex offender. >> do i regret the fact that -- that he has quite obviously conducted himself in a manner unbecoming? yes. >> unbecoming? he was a sex offender. >> yeah, i'm sorry, i'm being polite. >> the interview was a disaster. and there were serious questionsed about of him over many of the responses that he

gave. >> reporter: and when asked about allegations made by giuffre, that the prince was sweating profusely while they were dancing, he responded with this now-infamous explanation. >> i -- i have a peculiar condition, which is that i don't sweat, or i didn't sweat at the time, and that was -- yes, i didn't sweat at the time, because i had suffered what i would describe as an overdose of adrenaline in the falklands war when i was shot at. >> reporter: attorneys for the queen's second son calling giuffre's lawsuit baseless, meant to achieve another payday. if the case proceeds, the prince could be called upon for a deposition. >> this is going to be daylight, seeing all the dirty laundry, potentially, of prince andrew or virginia giuffre. are we going to see prince andrew on a treadmill, running to see if he can sweat? probably not. but there are going to be questions and documents that do need to be passed along to either side to substantiate or

argue these claims. >> reporter: today's hearing comes on the heels of last week's bombshell verdict, where a jury found prince andrew's friend, british socialite ghislaine maxwell, guilty of sex trafficking and conspiracy. she's now facing the prospect of spending the rest of her life behind bars. >> it's a tremendous relief to be here. i wasn't sure that this day would ever come. >> this is a deeply horrible situation. it's sordid. it involves, in the cases of maxwell and epstein, proven allegations against them. >> reporter: maxwell's accusers taking the stand in the high-profile federal trial, saying when they were teenagers, maxwell befriended, groomed, and offered them up to be sexually abused by jeffrey epstein. annie farmer is one of the four women who testified against maxwell. >> i just feel so grateful that the jury believed us and sent a

strong message that perpetrators of sexual abuse and exploitation will be held accountable no matter how much power and privilege that they have. >> jeffrey epstein may be dead, but his presence is not going away. and for women who say they were his victims, this is intentional. they don't want jeffrey epstein's death to be the end of it. >> reporter: the corrosive legacy of jeffrey epstein refuses to go away. >> it really can't go away for prince andrew, at least not any time soon. even if virginia giuffre's lawsuit is dismissed on some legal technicality, the larger question about his conduct will remain. >> reporter: in one month, the queen will celebrate her platinum jubilee. 70 years of wearing the crown. at age 95. and with his brother poised to become king, the bigger question is, will prince andrew be invited? >> the platinum jubilee is supposed to be a moment of huge celebration of the queen's 70 years on the throne.

now, i would have thought, you know, that there would be the family on the balcony, but i can't see how prince andrew can possibly be up there waving to the crowds when the crowds might be booing back at him. up next, they're not cute or cuddly. the invasive feral hogs threatening farms, and what some farmers are doing about it. looking to get back in your type 2 diabetes zone? once-weekly ozempic® can help. ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! ♪ ♪ oh, oh, oh ♪ ozempic® is proven to lower a1c. most people who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. and you may lose weight. adults lost on average up to 12 pounds. in adults also with known heart disease, ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. ozempic® helped me get back in my type 2 diabetes zone. ozempic® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't share needles or pens, or reuse needles.

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♪ when you think of the phrase "invasive species," wild pigs don't necessarily come to mind. that may be part of the problem farmers are facing.

the feral hogs are destroying crops and threatening livelihoods. "nightline's" ashan singh takes us inside the drastic measures some are taking to keep the population in check. >> reporter: 27-year-old ryan ashcraft is heading up in his chopper. for one last ride before it gets too dark. 200 feet in the air, maneuvering skillfully between phone lines and farmland. this is a helicopter hog hunt. and the goal today? kill as many pigs as possible. this evening's run isn't meant to be for fun. it's persona. and the problem these pigs pose is more urgent than ever. >> when you're going in a helicopter three to four times a week and killing an average of 20 to 30 pigs every time you go, and the crop still gets completely destroyed? like, that's a problem. >> reporter: over the past five years, ashcraft has been on the

front lines of one of the biggest battles on america's farmlands, feral hogs. >> this is a serious deal. down here in matagorda county i would say this is probably the worst hog damage, as far as crops go, in a big region of texas coast.irst glance, they may look like piglets. >> my little sister looks like that little pig, so that's a cutie. >> if she wanted to pet him, he would definitely do damage to her hand, that's for sure. >> reporter: their aggressive attacks, making a mess wherever they go, and worst of all, their population is growing exponentially. >> we are definitely in the hot seat for pig numbers and populations and damage here. >> we see it in almost every field, every farm. >> reporter: over the last three decades, the population of feral pigs haction exploded to as many as 9 million across the united states. expanding from about 17 states to at least 35. >> we said that you either have pigs or you will have pigs. you're either going to be

directly affected or indirectly affected. >> reporter: they're everywhere. from viral tweets to trophy hogs so big, they don't look real. it's clear these guys aren't your regular farm pigs. billion in damage to $1.5 - agriculture, natural resources, and property a year. now it's all hands on deck and a whole industry of dealing with these pigs has since emerged. from companies like ashcraft, hosting hunts for tourists and bachelor parties, to a booming market for trapping systems. >> this is something that is impacting every american, whether directly at the farm level or indirectly as a consumer. >> reporter: we headed to bay city, texas. the epicenter of america's pig problems. >> yeah, this is just one out of, i don't know, a hundred spots within this field. >> reporter: to find out the extent of the damage these hogs cause and how ranchers and farmers are looking to stop them. richard byer knows this bay city

soil well. he's been growing crops here for over 20 years. >> my dad grew predominantly rice, so i grew up on a rice farm. >> reporter: wild hogs have always been a battle, but the last few years, the damage has gotten out of control. how destructive are they? what are they capable of? >> they're very destructive. if i looked at it on average, i could lose up to 10% of my grain crops in a growing season from the wild hogs. they don't just do an acre, they can do acres in a night. >> reporter: he took us out to see the mess they make firsthand. this is all hog damage? >> all hog damage. >> wow. >> every bit of it. >> what have we got here? >> you can see here where the pigs have rooted up in the middle of the field. you can tell how -- there's a few soybean stalks left from the crop that we had. you can see a few scattered beanstalks in there. but they rooted them up. >> reporter: the problem has gotten so bad, the pigs now determine which crops he

harvests. >> we have an idea where the hog populations are worst or where we've seen the most damage, so that can determine whether or not we plant a grain crop or a cotton crop. >> reporter: for farmers the wild pigs are hurting their wallets. he says he can lose close to $100 million in revenue a year, not to mentio the money spent trying to stave off the hogs. the feral swine conundrum is nothing new. they've been in the u.s. since the 1500s when pigs were brought over as a food source. >> what makes a feral pig an invasive species? >> not from the united states. it was brought over some 500 years ago as a livestock species. as they progressed across the united states, some of them were just trickled out and left along the way as they moved around the country. now we have an unchecked population that's out there on the landscape to breed and to do what they do. >> reporter: dr. aaron summerall says poor hog management on private property, cross-breeding between subspecies, and reproductive cycles quicker than most mammals are some of the

reasons the pig numbers spiral. >> by the time the female reaches her 1st birthday, likely she's put the first litter on the ground. one female, a litter size of six, her 1st birthday, she's recruited three females to the population. their 1st birthday, they're recruiting more to theirs. >> exponential growth. >> exponential growth, it's like a firestorm. >> reporter: areas where feral pigs are present have a brutal impact on the environment. accompanying to usda, wild pigs have been linked to the decline of nearly 300 native plants and animals in the u.s., nearly 250 threatened or endangered. >> we're losing indigenous and native species, with regard to ground nesting birds, turkey and quail. pigs are not an active predator and see a deer like a coyote and chase it down. but if there's fawns in the spring, they happen upon them? they're going to be on the menu as well. >> reporter: historically, trapping these pigs isn't just expensive, it can also be

inefficient. summerall, a lifetime researcher, has joined the industry working to educate farmers about a new trap he says is a game changer. this trap summerall set up, along with a few others on this 32,000-acre ranch, hauled in over 50 pigs overnight. now his team is working to get as many as they can transferred to holding facilities, where they'll be sent for processing and wind up on meat markets overseas. with a decrease in value due to low demand, most of the pigs will end up being euthanized. >> there is no reason we cannot manage the population much like what we would do with domestic livestock populations. we're not taekting to do something that's not already being done in other populations across the country and across the world. >> reporter: even up in the sky, the ethics of hog hunting is something ashcraft grapples with. but says it's a necessary evil. >> who's complaining about setting a rat trap or

exterminator? there's roaches in your house, kill it. i know it sucks. i've always told people if you think there's a better way or a more humane way you can come down here and remove these hogs, be my guest. >> reporter: whether you agree or not, united states government has bought into the problem. congress invested almost $75 million in the feral swine eradication program as part of the 2018 farm bill. effectively encouraging population control. >> it's going to help the lifestyle of the farmers and ranchers, but also too through management efforts, we lessen the possibilities of diseases and disease issues by dropping that population. >> reporter: it's easy to feel this issue is isolated, relegated to america's rural areas where they can't affect everyday life. but summerall says that's not the case. >> the animals are not a solely a concern anymore because of the way that people are sprawling out across the landscape now, then the way those animals have to find new areas to occupy because of their own population

explosion. >> it's almost like, if you didn't think it's an urban problem, sooner or later it's going to be. >> it's an urban problem. >> reporter: uphill battle for farmers nationwide. the growth of this population has created a complicated relationship with the hogs for someone like ashcraft. while he wants to see them gone, those hunts keep his business afloat. you recognize they need to go, at the same time, you'll take the check? >> yeah, well, i mean -- i just have to find me a different business. i'd have to gear the business a different way. people would just need to learn about it a little bit more. a little more in-depth about it. we're saving money in our area, we're bringing money to our area, we're solving a problem all at one time. >> our thanks to ashan. up next, what's behind the 18-year-old elmo video that's just gone viral? >> rocco says he wants the

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♪ ♪ ♪ finally tonight, why are so many people laughing at an elmo video from 2004?

maybe in this difficult time, elmo's very human frustration felt familiar. in this clip he's seen refusing to share his cookie and gave us all the laugh we needed. >> rocco says that he wants the oatmeal raisin cookie. >> rocco? rocco won't know the difference. >> yes, he will. you can't have that cookie, elmo, rocco wants to eat it. >> how? how is rocco going to eat that cookie? rocco doesn't have a mouth! >> you tell him, elmo. that's "nightline." see you