Hello and welcome to bbc news. Prince andrew has answered questions for the first time about his relationship with the financiers Jeffrey Epstein. The prince has been accused of having links to the billionaire who killed himself in prison while awaiting trial on a sex trafficking charges. With an exclusive interview with bbc, Prince Andrew was asked to asked about his relationship with one of the women, Virginia Roberts. Our royal correspondent nicholas witchell. He is continuing with royal duties. Last sunday he was at the cenotaph, laying a wreath with his nephews, and yet for month after month, he has been the focus of troubling questions. Prince andrew, the queens second son, one moment seen waving from the doorway of the new york home of a convicted child sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, and photographed strolling through central park with him. The headlines have been lurid, relentless and deeply damaging. Most serious of all is the allegation that andrew himself had sex with a girl called Virginia Roberts when she was i7 years old. 18 years on, Virginia Roberts giuffre, as she is now, insists shes telling the truth. He knows exactly what hes done and i hope he comes clean about it. Thank you. Buckingham palace has consistently denied any impropriety by Prince Andrew. Now hes decided to speak for himself to bbc newsnights emily maitlis. One of epsteins accusers, Virginia Roberts, has made allegations against you. She says she met you in 2001. She says she dined with you, danced with you at tramp nightclub in london. She went on to have sex with you in a house in belgravia belonging to ghislaine maxwell, your friend. Your response . I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady. None whatsoever. You dont remember meeting her . No. It was in 2001, according to Virginia Roberts, that she had sex with andrew, on three occasions, including one orgy. The palace has denied that. In 2008, epstein was convicted of procuring for prostitution a girl under the age of 18. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison. It was in 2010, after epstein had been released from prison, that andrew visited him in new york, and stayed at his mansion. How does he explain that . The problem was the fact that once he had been convicted. You stayed with him. I stayed with him. And thats the bit that, that, as it were, i kick myself for on a daily basis, because it was not something that was becoming of a member of the royal family, and we try and uphold the highest standards and practises, and i let the side down. Simple as that. But nothing about this story is simple. Jeffrey epstein cant answer questions he took his own life in august. As for andrew, the us authorities will undoubtedly very much like to hear his account of everything he witnessed. That was nicholas witchell. You can find out exactly what the duke of york had to say about his rent ship with the late jeffrey york had to say about his rent ship with the lateJeffrey Epstein by watching Prince Andrew anstey Jeffrey Epstein scandal. And the epstein scandal. Former Us Ambassador to the ukraine who was fired by donald trump has told an impeachment hearing in washington that she felt threatened and intimidated by the president. Marija jovanovic Marie Yovanovitch said his government had been manipulated by corrupt foreign interests. John sobel reports from washington. This was devastating and powerful testimony in what turned out to be a day of edge of your seat drama. The Us Ambassador to ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, thrust into the centre of a poisonous brew. She fell foul of a diplomatic back channel set up by Donald Trumps personal lawyer, rudy giuliani, and was fired without warning. The smears against her were all untrue, but in thejuly 25 call between donald trump and his ukrainian counterpart, astonishingly, the us president attacked her. The former ambassador from the united states, the woman, was bad news. Well, shes going to go through some things. So, what did she think when she learned of this a couple of months back . Iwas. Shocked and devastated that i would feature in a phone call between two heads of state in such a manner, where President Trump said i was bad news to another world leader and that i would be going through some things. It was a terrible moment. Then, while she was giving evidence, and unbeknown to her, the president went on the attack again, tweeting that things went bad wherever she served. She was made aware of this by the chairman of the committee. Well, its very intimidating. Designed to intimidate, is it not . I mean, i cant speak to what the president is trying to do but the effect is to be intimidated. Well, i want to let you know, ambassador, that some of us here take witness intimidation very, very seriously. Republicans, too, were uneasy, but donald trump denied that hed done anything wrong. Sir, do you believe your tweets or words can be intimidating . I dont think so at all. Go ahead. Impeachment is the mechanism by which a sitting president could be removed from office for high crimes and misdemeanors. The first stage is a vote in the house of representatives, which has to be carried by a simple majority. If thats passed, then the articles of impeachment go to the upper chamber. And here, the president is put on trial, with the 100 senators acting as the jury. For donald trump to be removed from office, two thirds of senators would have to find him guilty a threshold thats never been reached before. This has been an uncomfortable day for donald trump. Tweeting against Marie Yovanovitch while she was giving evidence wasnt a smart move, raising questions about whether he was trying to intimidate a witness. But theres no sign that republicans are peeling away from him. And the less they do, the impeachment process goes nowhere and he certainly wont be removed from office. Jon sopel, bbc news, washington. We have the editor in chief of the washington monthly. He gave me his impression of todays events . Washington monthly. He gave me his impression of todays events . I impression of todays events . I think impression of todays events . I think it was an important day. An important story was told. It is one of the succession of pieces of the puzzle that the hearings are illuminating. It was very dramatic. She was portrayed and is in reality a very competent, smart, brave, physically and otherwise, public servant. Those at the top of the embassy in a front line state like ukraine tend to be the cream of the crop of the Us Foreign Service and the importance that she had to this hearing was not that she was herself a witness to any of the alleged impeachable offences but that the president , his lawyers and others saw fit to remove her because she was seen saw fit to remove her because she was seen as saw fit to remove her because she was seen as being in the way of carrying out what it was they were trying to do, the alleged bribery at the heart of this. Have you ever seen the heart of this. Have you ever seen anything like it, when one person is giving evidence and the accused is live tweeting at that person . Unbelievable. It gets a stranger and stranger. Ken starr who prosecuted bill clinton in the whitewater investigation said today that this was extraordinarily bad judgement on the part of President Trump. I dont think there are very many republicans tonight that that thinking that that was a good move. And interestingly, none of the republicans roughed up ambassador Marie Yovanovitch as they had other witnesses, they treated her relatively well. Some of them praised her service and her guts. They went after other aspects of the investigation. The process and so forth. So nobody yet is following President Trump in attacking her personally. So given what you say, is one way to look at today and how it went, do you think it is a good day for pr for the democrats . They are trying to get Public Opinion against trump and it seems to have worked today. I think it is the case. She is a great human character and figure and she got a standing ovation by the audience that was there witnessing it and i think she is going to be seen and talked about for many days and weeks to come. Let us get some of the days other news now. Roger stone, a long time adviser to donald trump, has been convicted on several criminal court cou nts convicted on several criminal court counts of lying to progress, and witness tampering. His trial in washington was an offshoot into investigations into russian influence in the campaign. St marks square was closed for several hours after another high tide. The columns of the prison liquor have been compromised. The city has been engulfed by water levels as high as six feet in recent days was not Anti Government protesters in chile are back on the street a day after the government agreed to hold a referendum on replacing the countrys constitution. The current one dates back to the era of a military leader. Pinochet. They want to declare that health and education are response abilities of the state. Just days after a new interim government came to power in bolivia, the country appears to be rapidly realigning diplomatic relations with its neighbours. The country has broken ties with venezuela, a decades old ally, under bolivias recently exiled ex president evo morales. It is after venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro accused the bolivian leadership of staging a coup to remove evo morales. With me is candice piette, americas editor for the world service. There is no way back for evo morales but he has his supporters and they have come out in force . They certainly are as they are still on the streets. There are reports coming in now that they have been five People Killed in one of the other cities, one of the largest cities of bolivia and evo morales, from his exile in mexico, has been talking about condemning police action. The situation is still very tense for the interim president jeanine anez. She has been trying to establish a new identity for her interim government. You talk about a new identity and you think the news that has come out today, do you think it marks a shift in the change of politics in bolivia . She is trying to put her stamp on things. She is certainly sending a clear message that the interim government is distancing itself from the left wing politics of evo morales. So today, she ordered the venezuelan diplomats in the country to leave. Venezuela and bolivia have a very close relationship and have had one for decades. Have always supported each other regionally. This will be a blow for Nicolas Maduro in venezuela, the president there, who really considered bolivia there, who really considered bolivia the last kind of powerful left wing leader defending him in the region. And then also today, the interim government of bolivia has announced that cuba is removing over 700 of his doctors from the region after the foreign minister questioned whether they had been involved in the recent protests. Cuba, again, the recent protests. Cuba, again, the cu ban the recent protests. Cuba, again, the cuban president has been outraged and has denied that the human doctors could be in any way involved. These two allies are very very important for bolivia. They created a kind of essential block of left wing government in latin america and that bloc seems to be fading away. We have interim government in mexico and argentina. Lots of changes in the region. It will be interesting to see if the elections in the coming months will be making any changes because it looks like evo morales wont be able to stand. That is all we have time for but thank you for coming on. Stay with us on bbc news. Still to come. The joys of spanish. We discover the American Children who have learned a second language for the very first time. This Benazir Bhutto has claimed victory in pakistans general election. She has asked to be named as prime minister. Jackson has been released on bail after turning himself into the police in sa nta turning himself into the police in santa barbara. It was the biggest demonstration so far of the first growing european antinuclear movement. The south african government has announced that it is opening the countrys remaining whites only beaches to people of all races. This will reap lead to a black majority government in this country and the description of the white civilisation. Destruction. 0ne white civilisation. Destruction. One of the queens residencies has been consumed by fire by much of the day. 150 firemen have been battling the blaze which has caused millions of pounds worth of damage. In an exclusive interview, Prince Andrew has said he lets the royal family down by continuing to associate with convicted sex offender the crash site, which has now become a burial ground, has become the focal point of families concerns. There should have been choirs singing. Dad deserved to have his children there and his wife and his brothers. Zipporahs dad Joseph Waithaka was killed when an Ethopian Airlines plane crashed in march. Yesterday, the final unidentifiable remains of those who died were buried at the site. Its been really heartbreaking, thinking that, you know, theres a part of dad sitting somewhere in a crater, just exposed. Last month, during a visit to the site, relatives saw human remains. It put Ethopian Airlines under pressure to bury those who died. Two days before the burial, they sent the families an e mail, saying were going to be burying your loved ones in the next, you know, sort of 48 hours. They were just buried like people who didnt belong to anyone or werent loved by anyone. This was the second boeing 737 max to crash within five months, after a Flight Control system failed. Nine britons were onboard. Ethopian airlines has not responded as to why the relatives werent given more notice. To not be there was, i dont think words could ever describe that, and there were mothers in the whatsapp group, you know, talking about how broken they were that they couldnt see their children to the end of the journey. My dad had a funeral yesterday and i missed it. More details have emerged of the legal action the duchess of sussex will take against the daily mail and the mail on sunday. The byline investigates website has published Court Documents which accused the papers of waiting that waging a Fake News Campaign against her. Really serious allegations by the duchess of sussex, which in effect associated newspapers, the publishers of the mail and the mail on sunday, launched a fake news war against her, that they lied when they said they had published the full text of a handwritten letter to herfather when in fact they had only published half and they left out key parts of that letter because they didnt conform to the negative image that the paper wanted to portray of the duchess, that there were full stories about her baby shower, about her relationship with her mother, and about the refurbishment of her home with prince harry, frogmore cottage, that for instance they splashed out £5,000 on a copper bath, £500,000 on soundproofing, big money on a tennis court, an orangery, and a yoga studio, none of which, the duchess says, actually existed. And she claims that they falsely claimed the cost was on the public purse. Now, associated have told me they intend to fight this case with the utmost vigor. They said that when it was launched last month and they say nothing in this Court Document changes that. It is getting ugly. Taylor swifts former record label has rebuffed her claims it is blocking her from has rebuffed her claims it is blocking herfrom performing her own hits at the forthcoming American Music awards. The popstar said music executives Scooter Braun and scott bush that it would not let her perform songs from her past albums, which they owned the rights to. Earlier i asked Rolling Stone anyone for her take this public feud. So far it is he said, she said. She says one thing, they say another thing, she comes back and says what they said is incorrect. We dont know the details because we dont know the details because we dont know the details because we dont know the exact terms of the contract 01 know the exact terms of the contract or what they actually said to her. Where is Public Opinion on this . 0bviously showers going to have her own fancy will be backing her all the way, but where do you think a nalysts the way, but where do you think analysts and people who are in the industry, what do they think where the truth lies and was at fault here . It sounds pretty clear that there was a clause in her contract which said she couldnt rerecord her music until a certain date and that she could be enforcing that in an unusual way by saying showers not allowed to perform at these awards shows. But they wouldnt be doing it out of spite, they would be doing it asa out of spite, they would be doing it as a way to gain leverage in the ongoing scheme they have over where the. Inaudible. Showers saying they owe her millions, showers saying they also her millions. So far all we have is hearsay. If we look at the facts of who is saying what, where. What is interesting is that she has also mobilised herfan base and got involved and she is asking them to speak to these two managers directly, help me out and s0 managers directly, help me out and so on managers directly, help me out and so on that case, she is involving a huge set of. Fans would do anything to support her. I huge set of. Fans would do anything to support her. I think cynics out there might think taylor swift is