Prince Harry is to return to London this week for the trial into his claims that a UK newspaper group unlawfully gathered information, in the royal’s last case in his long-running crusade against the media.The trial, expected to last up to nine weeks, is scheduled to start at London’s High Court on Monday.It is the third and final case brought by the prince, who is said to see holding the media to account as a personal mission.Harry has long blamed the media for the death of his mother Princess Diana, who was killed in a Paris car crash in 1997 while trying to shake off the paparazzi.King Charles III’s younger son is bringing the case along with six other high-profile complainants including pop icon Elton John and John’s husband David Furnish.The seven accuse Associated Newspapers, publishers of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, of allegedly carrying out or commissioning unlawful activities such as hiring private investigators to place listening devices inside cars.They also allegedly impersonated individuals to obtain medical information — a practice known as blagging — and accessed private phone conversations.The media group has firmly denied the allegations, calling them “lurid” and “preposterous”.- Rare UK trip -Harry is expected to attend for some of the first three days of opening statements.He is then due to take the stand for a full day of testimony on Thursday, according to a draft trial schedule shared with reporters by lawyers.Actor Elizabeth Hurley is set to give evidence the following week, followed by John and Furnish in early February. Actor Sadie Frost is also among the complainants.In 2023, Harry made history by becoming the first senior British royal to give evidence in court for more than a century, when he testified as part of his claim against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN).It will be a rare trip back to Britain for the prince, also known as the Duke of Sussex, who stepped back from royal duties in 2020 and relocated eventually to California with wife Meghan, where they live with their two children.During his last UK visit in September, Harry met with the king, seeking to start to repair a bitter rift with his immediate family.But UK media have said there are no plans for Harry to see Charles during next week’s visit.- ‘Blagging’ claim -The new trial follows earlier cases brought against Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN) and Mirror Group.Last year Prince Harry settled out of court in his action against Murdoch’s UK tabloid publisher.NGN — publisher of tabloids The Sun and the now defunct News of the World — agreed to pay him “substantial damages” in January 2025 after admitting intruding into his private life, including by hacking his phone.In a statement, NGN offered a “full and unequivocal apology” to the prince for “serious intrusion” into the private lives of Harry and his mother Princess Diana by The Sun and also “phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators instructed by them at the News of the World”.In his other case against Mirror Group, a High Court ruling in December 2023 said Harry had been a victim of phone hacking by journalists working for the group and awarded him £140,600 ($179,600) in damages.Media lawyer Mark Stephens told AFP much had changed in the British media in recent years, but that this final case would primarily be about “press freedom”.”Press freedom is essential but so is freedom from being illegally spied on,” he said.”I think we’re not going to be looking so much at yesterday’s gossip. I think this case is going to be more about tomorrow’s accountability for the media more generally,” he added.

As the first explosions rocked his military base in Caracas, 18-year-old Saul Pereira Martinez sent his mother a simple message: “I love you. It has begun.”It was the night of January 3, and US forces were invading Venezuela to seize the country’s then-president, Nicolas Maduro, on the orders of US President Donald Trump.Pereira had finished his shift on guard duty at Fort Tiuna, where Maduro was sheltered that night. Nonetheless, he would not survive the assault.Natividad Martinez, his mother, visited on Sunday the cemetery where her son’s remains are buried, recalling the night it happened, and still in shock.The last time she spoke to Saul was at 2:00 am. He repeated that he loved her, and told her to take care of his two brothers, aged two and nine.Trump has repeatedly touted the success of the stunning operation to seize Maduro, boasting that there were no casualties.In truth, at least 83 people were killed in the operation, including 47 Venezuelan soldiers and 32 Cuban security personnel, according to the defense ministry in Caracas.”You can’t come to my country and kill people like that,” said Martinez.”Because (they say) ‘it was a clean operation.’ It wasn’t clean. Do you know how many people died?” – ‘A brave man’ -As the attack began, 38-year-old Martinez heard explosions and began to scream, worried for the safety of her son, her husband said.After she got off the phone with him, she fell to the ground screaming his name, he said.”I told her to stay calm, we don’t know what’s going on,” said Saul’s stepfather, who asked not to be identified because he works as a police officer and government security official. He believes that Saul was killed because his unit was spending the night within the security perimeter around Maduro, which made them a target for US forces.On Sunday, Saul’s parents were joined by his girlfriend and friends at the cemetery in southern Caracas.Saul had just completed his initial training with the Honor Guard in December and was studying at the military academy. They brought flowers, and, to the rhythm of old salsa music, the family cried, recalled anecdotes, and toasted in honor of the young soldier whom they remember as “a brave man.” Saul entered the military following in the footsteps of a childhood friend, who was at La Carlota air base during the US attack and was wounded in the leg. His mother had applauded the decision, having earlier worried about the trajectory her son’s life was on. Saul, says Natividad, went from “partying, going here and there, doing nothing at home” to studying, cleaning the house during his visits, and acquiring discipline. – ‘All human beings’ -Despite the massive US military deployment in the Caribbean, Trump’s bellicose threats against Maduro and strikes on what Washington called drug-smuggling boats off the Venezuelan coast, Martinez’s family did not expect things to get this bad.”The president didn’t always stay in the same place,” his stepfather explained, and the government maneuvered to mislead even the state security forces about Maduro’s whereabouts. US forces found Maduro because of inside informers, the stepfather said.”(The death of) my son was a collateral effect of that infiltration,” he said. Hours after the attack, Natividad brought food for Saul to Fort Tiuna, as per their weekly schedule.She found only silence. Hours later, when the names of the fallen began to circulate, she went to the battalion and stood there, demanding answers. “And they had to tell me,” she said, staring at the cement tomb where mourners had spelled out Saul’s name in yellow, blue, and white flower petals. Her son, like other soldiers, was honored by the government, which promoted him posthumously. Natividad said that some seemed not to mourn these deaths because of the political polarization that has divided the nation under Maduro’s rule, and that of Hugo Chavez before him.”Those who died are also human beings. They are all Venezuelans. On one side or the other, they are all human beings, they all have people who mourn them,” she said. Shaken but still stoic, Natividad said she felt proud of her son.”He died for his country,” she said. “Regardless of what they say, to me, my son was a patriot, and that’s what matters to me.”