Queen ‘approved threatening News International with legal action’

Published

2 years ago

April 26, 2023

admin

Prince Harry’s legal team have listed 208 articles about him in The Sun and the now-defunct News Of The World which his lawyers claim were as a result of private information being unlawfully gathered.

The stories’ headlines and reporters’ names were included in court documents as part of a legal action by the Duke of Sussex, who is suing the publications’ owners – News Group Newspapers (NGN) – over alleged phone hacking, including listening to private voicemail messages.

NGN is bringing a bid to have Harry’s case thrown out, along with a similar claim by actor Hugh Grant, at a three-day hearing in London which started on Tuesday, arguing they have been brought too late.

The court documents show:

• A transcript of an alleged intercepted phone message in 2006 from his brother Prince William to Harry claiming to be his former girlfriend Chelsy Davy

• Harry said in a February 2018 email to Buckingham Palace that an apparent lack of response by the newspapers’ publishers – formerly known as News International – over phone hacking claims was making the “institution” [Royal Family] look “ineffective and weak”

• Harry questioned if News International journalists should be allowed “into Windsor” [Castle] for his wedding to Meghan Markle in May 2018 “if it isn’t resolved”

• Harry said “there needs to be an ultimatum otherwise this institution and everything it stands for becomes a laughing stock”

• Another email from the palace said the Queen approved threatening News International with legal action

• The prince’s lawyers claim Harry has “suffered considerable distress, as well as the loss of his dignity or standing, and his personal autonomy, as a result of the misuse of his private information by NGN”

Growing frustration of Harry laid bare in court documents

We’ve heard Prince Harry’s arguments, now we’ve seen his evidence. The Duke of Sussex has publicly released private emails, from those at the heart of the late Queen’s household.

Reading the email trail between Harry and the palace, you get a sense of his growing frustration.

He wants an apology, and the emails show the Queen gives her consent to threatening tabloid executives with legal action.

But still nothing happens, and in the following months there is a significant shift. Despite the Queen consenting to using lawyers, Harry’s father tells him to drop all his claims.

Harry claims this is to prioritise positive stories about him and Camilla. It’s something we’ve heard Harry talk about before.

In his memoir, Spare, Harry says he was sacrificed on Camilla’s “personal PR altar”.

He also recalls how his father, describes his battle with the press as a “suicide mission”.

We now know Prince William settled, out of court, his phone hacking case with the publishers of The Sun and News of the World.

But what we’re seeing with Harry is the opposite. He wants his day in court, he wants to hold senior executives to account. And he’s prepared to say and show as much as he can to expose what he alleges is their “criminal activity”.

According to the court documents, the first of the 208 articles was published on 6 January 1996 and was headlined “Diana: I’ll take my time Ma’am; Exclusive!”

Harry’s lawyers claim it contained private information about the prince’s “personal life and in particular, his health and details of a skiing accident”.

Also included are articles about his “education and professional life” and “details about his relationship with Chelsy Davy”.

The 208th article listed was published by The Sun on 1 November 2016 and was headlined “Smitten Harry bombarded Meghan with texts until he got a date”.

His lawyers claim the story contained private information concerning his “personal life and in particular the fact that he had ‘inundated’ and ‘besieged’ Ms Markle with text messages and also details of and the frequency of their dates”.

In the 2006 William phone message to his brother, a male speaker puts on a female voice, lapsing into normal voice.

The male speaker says: “Hi, it’s Chelsy here. I just want to say I miss you so much, and I think you’re the most – best-looking ginger I’ve ever seen – although you really are quite ugly for a ginger, but hope you’re having a lovely time – I really miss you. It’s lovely out here in Africa, and hopefully I’ll see you very soon, you big, hairy fat ginger. Anyway, speak to you later. Bye.”

According to Harry’s lawyers, the audio transcript of the voicemail was seized from a private investigator’s home.

His legal team claimed around that time there had been a number of suspicious calls from the investigator to Harry’s mobile.

Harry’s barrister David Sherborne has alleged the duke’s mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, had her calls and messages intercepted by NGN.

He claimed that articles taken from 1994 and 1995 demonstrated that NGN journalists and paparazzi working on their behalf “had inside knowledge” of where Diana was going to be.

And the phone calls of the King and Queen Consort were intercepted by the publisher of The Sun in the 1990s, the prince’s legal team alleges.

Mr Sherborne alleged that NGN was intercepting phone calls and messages, as well as obtaining itemised phone bills of Charles and Camilla.

Articles allegedly published as a result between 1994 and 1995 include stories in The Sun from August 1995 with the headline “Heir to the Phone” and “The Midnight Caller”.

Earlier this week, Harry’s lawyers said Prince William settled a phone hacking claim against Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspaper group in 2020 for a “very large sum”.

NGN has previously settled a number of claims since the phone hacking scandal broke in relation to The News Of The World, which closed in 2011, but has consistently denied that any unlawful information gathering took place at The Sun.

UK

Unlicensed Botox-like injections spark outbreak of disease many doctors have never treated

Published

1 hour ago

July 26, 2025

admin

Unlicensed Botox-like injections spark outbreak of disease many doctors have never treated

A woman who thought she was being injected with Botox was left unable to swallow and doctors thought she had suffered a stroke – after she contracted a life-threatening illness from a potentially illegal product.

Nicola Fairley is one of dozens of people who have developed botulism linked to unlicensed anti-wrinkle injections.

She had the procedure done with her regular beautician after winning a Facebook competition for three areas of “Botox”.

“Within two or three hours my forehead and the sides of my eyes had started to freeze,” Nicola says.

“At first I thought ‘amazing’, that’s what I wanted – then it just carried on.”

Nicola was eventually sent to A&E in Durham, where she met several other patients who all had similar symptoms.

Doctors were stumped. “They thought I’d had a stroke,” she says.

“We all had problems with our eyes, some of us with our breathing. I couldn’t swallow – they put me on nil by mouth because they were worried I would choke in the waiting room.”

It turns out all of the patients had recently had anti-wrinkle injections containing botulinum toxin.

Health officials believe they were imported, illegal products.

Botulism – the disease they caused – is so rare many doctors never see it in their entire careers.

It can cause symptoms including slurred speech and breathing problems, and can be deadly.

The disease is so unusual, and so many cases were coming in, that doctors exhausted their stocks of anti-toxin and had to ask hospitals as far away as London to get more.

The UK Health Security Agency has so far confirmed 38 cases of botulism linked to cosmetic toxin injections, but Sky News has been told of several more.

The outbreak began in the North East but cases have now been seen in the East of England and East Midlands as well.

There are only a handful of legal botulinum toxin products in the UK – of which Botox is one.

But cosmetic treatments are largely unregulated, with anyone allowed to inject products like fillers and toxins without any medical training.

Cheap, illegal products imported from overseas are easily available.

‘It’s the Wild West’

Dr Steven Land runs Novellus Aesthetics clinic in Newcastle upon Tyne. He worked for decades as an emergency medicine doctor before moving into aesthetics.

He says he has been warning health officials of an outbreak for years.

“It’s the Wild West,” Dr Land told Sky News.

“Because anyone can do this, there is a lack of knowledge around what is legal, what’s not legal, what is okay to be injected.

“These illegal toxins could have 50 units, 5,000 units or rat poison – there could be anything in there.”

Dr Land showed us messages that he says he gets on a weekly basis, from sellers trying to push him cheap, unlicensed products.

They advertise “limited time offers” and cheap bundles on toxins imported from overseas. He calls them “drug dealers”.

“They are preying on the lack of knowledge among non-medical practitioners,” he says.

Consultations on how to regulate the aesthetics industry have been ongoing for years – but so far, no changes have been introduced.

The UK government now says it does plan to regulate certain procedures, but it’s not said how it will do this, or when.

“What will it take?” Nicola says. “One of the women we were with did almost die – she had to be resuscitated.”

Nicola’s beautician has stopped responding to her messages, so she says she still has no idea what the product was “or how much of it is in me”.

She doesn’t know how long her symptoms will last, but just hopes she will eventually recover.

UK

Trump issues warning to leaders as he arrives in Scotland

Published

4 hours ago

July 26, 2025

admin

'Immigration is killing Europe': Donald Trump issues warning to leaders as he arrives in Scotland

Donald Trump has landed in Scotland for a four-day trip including high-level meetings – praising Sir Keir Starmer as “a good man” but calling illegal migration a “horrible invasion” that is “killing Europe”.

Crowds gathered at Prestwick Airport in Ayrshire amid a major security operation for the US president’s visit.

Mr Trump told reporters: “I like your prime minister. He’s slightly more liberal than I am… but he’s a good man… he got a trade deal done. It’s a good deal for the UK.”

The pair are expected to discuss potential changes to the UK-US trade deal which came into force last month.

Trump left Air Force One to head to Turnberry, one of his Scottish golf courses. Part of the trip will include the opening of another course in Aberdeenshire, billed as “the greatest 36 holes in golf”.

“There’s no place like Turnberry. It’s the best, probably the best course in the world. And I would say Aberdeen is right up there,” the US president said.

“Sean Connery helped get me the [planning] permits. If it weren’t for Sean Connery, we wouldn’t have those great courses,” he added.

During the trip, President Trump will also hold discussions with Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is keen to secure a trade deal with the US.

Mr Trump told reporters there was “a good 50-50 chance” of an agreement with the EU but added there were “maybe 20 different” sticking points.

EU diplomats say a deal could result in a broad 15% tariff on EU goods and half of the 30% Trump is threatening to impose by 1 August.

The US president touched on illegal immigration and gave European leaders a stark warning.

“You better get your act together or you’re not going to have Europe anymore. You got to get your act together,” he said.

“But you’re allowing it to happen to your countries and you got to stop this horrible invasion that’s happening to Europe. Immigration is killing Europe.”

He was also scathing about the installation of wind turbines across the continent.

“Stop the windmills. You’re ruining your countries,” he said. “It’s so sad. You fly over and you see these windmills all over the place, ruining your beautiful fields and valleys and killing your birds.”

Domestically, Mr Trump faces the biggest political crisis of his second term in office over his administration’s handling of files linked to disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in prison in 2019.

He faced another round of questions after stepping off Air Force One.

“You’re making a big thing over something that’s not a big thing. I’m focused on making deals, not on conspiracy theories that you are,” he said.

Mr Trump added that “now’s not the time” to discuss a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s imprisoned accomplice.

👉 Follow Trump100 on your podcast app 👈

While the president’s visit did attract some enthusiastic flag-waving supporters at Prestwick Airport, he is also likely to trigger a number of protests, prompting Police Scotland to call in support from other forces in the UK.

The Stop Trump Scotland group has planned demonstrations on Saturday in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dumfries.

About 70% of Scots have an unfavourable opinion of Mr Trump, while 18% have a positive opinion, an Ipsos poll in March found.

Mr Trump is staying at his Turnberry property on Scotland’s west coast this weekend, before travelling to Aberdeenshire on Monday, where he will open a second 18-hole course.

He is due to return to the UK in September for a state visit hosted by the King – the first world leader in modern times to undertake two UK state visits.

UK

‘Immigration is killing Europe’: Donald Trump issues warning to leaders as he arrives in Scotland

Published

10 hours ago

July 26, 2025

admin

Donald Trump has landed in Scotland ahead of a four-day trip, which includes high-level meetings, praising Sir Keir Starmer as “a good man” but also calling illegal migration a “horrible invasion” that was “killing Europe”.

Crowds gathered at Prestwick Airport in Ayrshire amid a major security operation for the US president’s visit.

Mr Trump told reporters: “I like your prime minister. He’s slightly more liberal than I am… but he’s a good man… he got a trade deal done. It’s a good deal for the UK.”

Trump latest: Donald Trump arrives in Scotland

The pair are expected to discuss potential changes to the UK-US trade deal which came into force last month.

“There’s no place like Turnberry. It’s the best, probably the best course in the world. And I would say Aberdeen is right up there,” the US president said.

“Sean Connery helped get me the [planning] permits. If it weren’t for Sean Connery, we wouldn’t have those great courses,” he added.

Mr Trump told reporters there was “a good 50-50 chance” of an agreement with the EU but added there were “maybe 20 different” sticking points.

EU diplomats say a deal could result in a broad 15% tariff on EU goods and half of the 30% Trump is threatening to impose by 1 August.

The US president touched on illegal immigration and gave European leaders a stark warning.

“You better get your act together or you’re not going to have Europe anymore. You got to get your act together,” he said.

“But you’re allowing it to happen to your countries and you got to stop this horrible invasion that’s happening to Europe. Immigration is killing Europe,” he told reporters.

He was also scathing about the installation of wind turbines across Europe.

Domestically, President Trump faces the biggest political crisis of his second term in office over his administration’s handling of files linked to disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in prison in 2019.

He faced another round of questions after stepping off Air Force One. “You’re making a big thing over something that’s not a big thing. I’m focused on making deals, not on conspiracy theories that you are,” he said.

Mr Trump added that “now’s not the time” to discuss a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s imprisoned accomplice.

👉 Follow Trump100 on your podcast app 👈

The Stop Trump Scotland group has planned demonstrations on Saturday in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dumfries.

About 70% of Scots have an unfavourable opinion of Trump, while 18% have a positive opinion, an Ipsos poll in March found.

President Trump is staying at his Turnberry property on Scotland’s west coast this weekend, before travelling to Aberdeenshire on Monday, where he will open a second 18-hole course.

He is due to return to the UK in September for a state visit hosted by the King – the first world leader in modern times to undertake two UK state visits.