NewsBeat
Tom Watson praises ‘predator’ Prince Harry | News
Lord Tom Watson described the Duke of Sussex as a “predator” in a statement after Prince Harry settled his legal action against News Group Newspapers (NGN), who offered a “full and unequivocal apology” for “serious intrusion” by The Sun and for phone hacking by private investigators working for the News of the World.
Harry, 40, alleged he was targeted by journalists and private investigators working for NGN.
The duke’s barrister said parties had “reached an agreement” and NGN offered an “unequivocal apology” and would pay “substantial damages.”
NGN had denied unlawful activity took place at The Sun.
The former Labour deputy leader was also taking legal action against the publisher and settled his claim.
He was also offered a “full and unequivocal apology” by NGN “for the unwarranted intrusion carried out into his private life during his time in Government by the News of the World during the period 2009-2011.”
Politics
Keir Starmer’s decision to blame Amazon for Axel Rudakubana failings is ‘puzzling’, Mendoza claims
The head of a leading think tank has accused Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer of going down a “bizarre rabbit hole” of blame in his response to the Southport attack case.
Alan Mendoza, Executive Director of the Henry Jackson Society, told GB News he was “puzzled” by Starmer’s approach to the failings that led to Axel Rudakubana’s deadly rampage.
NewsBeat
Watch outside court as Prince Harry agrees settlement with Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers
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Watch outside of court as Prince Harry today (22 January) agreed a settlement with Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers.
The Duke of Sussex finally agreed to settle his claim against the publishers of The Sun after eleventh-hour talks on the opening day of his trial went late into the night.
Prince Harry’s high-stakes trial was scheduled to begin on Tuesday, but both his and News Group Newspapers (NGN) legal teams made several bids to delay legal proceedings in order to “continue discussions.”
The proceedings were due to begin again at 10am on Wednesday, but the High Court was told the two sides had broken the deadlock with Harry agreeing to drop claims against Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers.
As the duke’s lawyer David Sherborne told the court an agreement had been reached, he read out an apology issued by NGN to Prince Harry.
The publishers offered “a full and unequivocal apology” to the duke “for the phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators instructed by them”.
It added that the Sun and will pay “substantial damages” as the two sides settled their legal claim, Harry’s barrister has told the High Court.
At least 11 people have been killed and five injured after they fled rumours of a fire on board their train in India, only to be hit by another train.
Railway officials said the passengers got down from the Mumbai-bound train in western Maharashtra state after someone pulled the emergency cord, causing it to stop.
They were hit by a train on an adjacent track. It was not immediately clear whether there had actually been a fire.
India has launched a $30bn (£24bn) programme to modernise its railways in recent years but this has been marred by a series of accidents, including a major three-train crash in 2023 in the state of Odisha which left nearly 300 people dead.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said in a post on X that he was “deeply saddened by the tragic loss of lives” during the incident near Pachora in Jalgaon district, about 400km from Mumbai, India’s financial capital.
He said eight ambulances had been dispatched and hospitals were on standby.
The crash will be seen as a setback for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has called for modernisation of the railways to boost the economy and connectivity.
There are plans to boost spending on the programme in next month’s budget, Reuters news agency reports.
Politics
Trump’s budget pick is famous for defying Congress. GOP senators want to confirm him anyway.
Senate Republicans are eager to seat the man who could undercut their funding power.
As President Donald Trump boldly defies the will of Congress by issuing executive orders freezing billions of dollars in federal cash that lawmakers have approved in recent years, Senate Republicans are still speaking accolades of Russ Vought, the president’s pick for White House budget director and the man famous for withholding government money during Trump’s first administration.
Key committee chairs are predicting that the Senate will confirm Vought without issue to head the Office of Management and Budget again, even as some GOP senators raise concern about protecting Congress’ “power of the purse” — granted under Article I of the Constitution — from presidential overreach.
“I think all of us are going to vote for you,” Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham told Vought on Wednesday, as the nominee testified before the South Carolina Republican’s committee in his second public vetting this month.
“Bottom line is, I think you’re qualified for the job. I know why he picked you,” Graham said of Trump’s selection of Vought. “And again, we just had an election. And when you win, you get to pick people. And I’m glad he picked you.”
Loyally confirming Trump’s desired budget director amid the new president’s sweeping funding pause would immediately strengthen the White House’s ability to pick and choose what cash to spend, shirking the spending laws congressional Republicans have voted to enact and calling into question the soundness of any bills they clear in the future.
Notably, Vought would not promise Wednesday to avoid circumventing impoundment law, which is meant to block presidents from withholding money Congress has previously passed through the Congressional appropriations process.
Federal watchdogs concluded that Vought and other Trump administration officials violated impoundment law several times during Trump’s first term, including the freezing of aid to Ukraine that helped fuel Trump’s impeachment in 2019.
But Vought said the executive orders Trump issued within hours of taking office Monday are simply “programmatic delays” or “pauses,” explaining they are meant “to ensure that the funding that is in place is consistent and moves in a direction along the lines of what the president ran on.”
While Vought vowed to “faithfully uphold the law” if confirmed, he noted that Trump disagrees with the Impoundment Control Act enacted more than 50 years ago to insulate the congressional appropriations process from executive branch meddling.
“The president ran on the notion that the Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional. I agree with that,” Vought said, further insisting that “what the president has unveiled already are not impoundments.”
Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, the Budget Committee’s top Democrat, told Vought on Wednesday he was “deeply disturbed” with his answers.
“Congress makes the law, not the president,” said Merkley. “The fact that you continue to advocate for this impoundment strategy, that is completely in violation of our Constitution.”
Under the far-reaching orders Trump issued after he was inaugurated on Monday, federal agencies are now being forced to pause funding from Democrats’ signature climate and spending law called the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as from the bipartisan infrastructure package Republicans helped enact in 2021.
Foreign assistance is also on hold for 90 days, including to Ukraine and Israel as the two U.S. allies are in the midst of wars.
Not every Republican is giving Vought a total free pass. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee — which also has jurisdiction over the OMB director nomination and held its own confirmation hearing with Vought last week — said he didn’t think a president should have the power to use government funding differently than how lawmakers have dictated in the bills they pass.
“The power of the purse is Congress,” Paul said during that hearing. “I think if we appropriate something for a cause, that’s where it’s supposed to go. And that will still be my position.”
Nonetheless, less than a week later, Paul led Republicans on his committee to approve Vought’s nomination, stating, “There is no doubt he will be swiftly confirmed.”
An SAS veteran has hit out at Labour’s decision to hit grieving families of military workers with inheritance tax from April 2027.
The money given to families of deceased Armed Forces members, called death in service payments, may be subject to a hefty cut after Labour MPs voted in favour of a raid.
Shocking video footage has been released by police of a car being driven at speeds up to 90mph before causing a three-vehicle crash killing a lorry driver.
It’s been three days since President Donald Trump took office. And he has come out swinging.
On the 2024 campaign trail, he promised to bring rapid and sweeping change to American government and society if he were re-elected.
Some of his policies and reforms will take time – and congressional legislation – to enact. Other moves might be blocked by the courts.
In the first days of his presidency, however, Trump has already made waves with dozens of unilateral orders and actions that represent a substantial expansion of White House power.
For many of his supporters – so far – it looks like he has delivered on his promises.
“He signed all the executive orders that he told us he was going to do,” said 68-year-old Rick Frazier, a loyal Trump supporter from Ohio who has attended more than 80 of his rallies. “I’m satisfied with all that.”
That has been cause for concern among some. Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, publicly asked Trump during a prayer service on Tuesday at the National Cathedral, to “have mercy upon people in our country who are scared now”.
Nowhere has this display of presidential authority been more prominent than on the topic of immigration, which polls suggest was a significant concern for many voters.
Just hours after taking office, Trump declared an emergency at the US-Mexico border, allowing him to deploy more US military personnel to the area.
He effectively closed the country to all new asylum-seekers and suspended already approved resettlement flights for refugees.
Mr Frazier’s daughter died of a heroin overdose last year. He told the BBC that the southern border was his top issue in the 2024 election.
“In my opinion had the border been closed, my daughter would not have had access to the compound that killed her,” he said.
Trump has also ordered authorities to stop granting automatic citizenship to the children of undocumented migrants born on American soil – setting up a lengthy legal battle over what had previously been viewed by courts as a constitutional guarantee.
One step that Trump repeatedly promised – but has yet to show signs of implementing – is mass deportations of migrants who crossed illegally into the US, something he said would start on day one of his presidency.
While some Trump officials have said the deportation process has begun, there have been no signs yet of the kind of law-enforcement raids or other expansive actions that would be necessary to detain and remove the millions of undocumented migrants who currently reside in the US.
Bryan Lanza, who previously served as a senior adviser to Trump, told the BBC’s Americast podcast that the total number of deportations is less important than the message it sends.
“It’s never about a number,” he said. “It’s more about the PR.”
If you deport a million undocumented migrants, he said, than the rest will start wondering if they’re next – and take steps to return to their home countries.
“Illegals aren’t welcomed here,” he said. “Every other country is allowed to say that. Why shouldn’t we?”
Immigration was a major issue that helped propel Trump to the White House, but in terms of voter concerns it was still dwarfed by worries about the economy and inflation.
So far the president has focused on energy policy – tying it directly to the high prices that millions of Americans have struggled with.
“When energy comes down, the prices of food and the prices of everything else come down,” Trump said on Tuesday evening. “Energy is the big baby.”
To that end, Trump declared a “national energy emergency” and rescinded Biden-era protections for fossil fuel extraction in Alaska and in American coastal waters. He also started the process of withdrawing the US from the Paris climate agreement, which commits nations to slashing emissions to try to avoid the most extreme effects of climate change.
Even optimistic estimates suggest these moves will take time to show any results, but Aziz Wehbey, a Syrian-American Republican voter in Allentown, Pennsylvania, said he was pleased by what he had seen so far.
“That’s a good sign for the economy, and for those of us who run businesses,” he said. “The economy is starting to move and not be frozen. Everyone will notice that.”
One topic that Trump has mentioned, but hasn’t acted on yet, is tariffs. He had pledged to slap them on some of America’s biggest trade partners on day one to protect American industries and generate new revenue to fund his favoured government programmes.
Economists, including some in the Trump administration, have cautioned that tariffs could drive up consumer costs and hurt American businesses that rely on imports in their supply chain. It could be a reason why Trump, with his eye on the stock market and economic growth, is treading more carefully when it comes to trade.
Many of President Trump’s other early executive actions focused on reshaping the vast federal workforce.
He has reinstated rules that allow him to fire senior-level civil servants, suspended new regulations and hiring, and ordered all federal employees involved in DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion – programmes to be put on paid leave.
He also renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America and instructed the US government to only recognise two sexes, male and female, in all official documents and forms. The changes, while controversial, have also been extremely popular with Trump’s base – a sign that the president will continue to lean in to contentious cultural issues.
Trump’s second term is just getting started. He promises more significant presidential actions in the days ahead – moves that will almost certainly test the limits of presidential power.
But the big splash, the noise, the drama, says former adviser Lanza, isn’t a problem for the president. It’s his strength.
“Where we are in modern politics today, which people haven’t figured out, is that from our standpoint, to communicate to voters are supportive of our issues, controversy enhances the message,” he said.
How do you get your message heard amid the overwhelming din of modern politics?
“It’s the controversy.”
Understand that, and the strategy behind Trump’s frenetic first days in office begins to come into focus.
With additional reporting from Bernd Debusmann Jr and Madeline Halpert
South Korea will remove concrete barriers used at airports across the country after a plane crash in December that claimed the lives of 179 people.
Politics
Kemi Badenoch ‘wastes PMQs AGAIN’ after failing to quiz Starmer over Axel Rudakubana murders
Kemi Badenoch has seemingly missed an opportunity to grill Sir Keir Starmer on the failings surrounding Axel Rudakubana’s horrific killings last summer.
The Prime Minister, who vowed not to leave a stone unturned in an inquiry into the Southport murders, might have expected Badenoch to take aim over a number of issues raised by other Conservative colleagues, including Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick.
But speaking in the House of Commons, Badenoch said: “I also know that the thoughts of many will be with the victims of the Southport killings.
“There are important questions to answer and I will return to those after the case is concluded.”
Badenoch missed an opportunity to grill Starmer on the failings surrounding Axel Rudakubana’s horrific killings last summer
PARLIAMENTLIVE.TV
Badenoch continued by instead opting to quiz Starmer on Labour’s education reforms.
Ahead of the Leader of the Opposition’s first intervention, the Prime Minister also addressed the Southport killings.
He said: “We will change the law so that the most serious offenders attend their sentencing hearings.”
In response to the exchange, Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice argued it was “unreal” that Badenoch had not probed Starmer on a topic other than education.
MORE ON KEMI BADENOCH:
Starmer was pressed on Labour’s education reforms rather than the atrocities in Southport
PARLIAMENTLIVE.TV
He said: “Kemi wastes PMQs again. Should have led on Trump and shocking debt figures to challenge Starmer.”
While leader Nigel Farage prodded: “Not a single question on Southport from Kemi Badenoch at PMQs today.
“What is the point of the Tories?”
A friend of Badenoch later told GB News’ Political Editor Christopher Hope that she raised the economy last week and acknowledged the Southport killer at the top of her contribution to PMQs.
Richard Tice warned that Kemi Badenoch had ‘wasted PMQs again’
PA
While another said there was “genuine anger” from Kemi and the wider party at what Labour is “doing to schools”.
“They’ve put some important stuff on safeguarding in the bill, but the bulk of it is reversing schools freedoms – rolling back academies, giving unions more control over who can be a teacher and reducing curriculum choice.”
Another Badenoch ally came to her defence after PMQs – Tory leadership runner-up Robert Jenrick, who said Sir Keir Starmer “had no answer” to the Leader of the Opposition’s questions – “because there are none”.
From the sampled vocals of Mel & Kim to the instantly memorable lyrics of Rick Astley’s biggest hits, Stock, Aitken and Waterman’s songs ruled the UK charts in the late 1980s.
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