Skills and education. And the race to be the democratic challenger in 2020 has been thrown wide open, with a new poll putting Pete Buttigieg in first place in iowa with a 9 point lead over his nearest rival. Hello and welcome. Im Michelle Fleury in new york and Christian Fraser is in london. The duke of york is said to be standing by his decision to take part in an interview about his links to convicted sex offender, jeffrey epstein. Sources close to Prince Andrew said he wanted to address the issues head on, and did so with honesty and humility. It comes after the princes extraordinary interview with the bbc over the weekend. There are now growing calls for the prince to cooperate with us investigators about his links to jeffrey epstein. In his interview, Prince Andrew denied having any sexual contact with the American WomanVirginia Roberts who says she was forced to have sex with him at the age of 17. Epstein took his own life, while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. With me in the studio is our royal correspondent, nicholas witchell. This story on eight front pages, what will the reaction be in the family . Dismay, principally. A disbelief that this could have been agreed to quite frankly. Exasperation at the way in which it is now being portrayed and exasperation that actually in the way Prince Andrew handled himself. He was completely unsuited to that kind of interview. It showed injust about every answer and has made a difficult situation for him infinitely worse. With demands now that he should talk to the fbi, give a statement under oath, and the palace is still saying that if they make a request it will be considered, so there is still not an absolute agreement at Buckingham Palace that he will answer questions under oath. Has been a lot of focus today on who knew what about the interview, whether the queen was involved in the decision. What will her involvement have been, do you think, and what will her opinion be now that it has unravelled . Think, and what will her opinion be now that it has unravelled7|i think, and what will her opinion be now that it has unravelled . I think she was told about the interview a couple of days before it, i dont think she approved it in any active sense, i think that at the age of 93, she does not really want to get involved in that sort of thing. I would imagine that Prince Andrew will have called and explained and said this is something he really wa nted said this is something he really wanted to do, he felt was important to get his story out there, that he talked through it with his own officials and he was confident of being able to do it. And i would imagine the queen would have said well, now, are you sure . Andrew would have said yes i am absently sure and confident i can handle it. And on that basis, she would have said ok. I think now she and her senior officials are going to need to exercise much more Central Control within Buckingham Palace. We have had two episodes within the last couple of months. Prince harry issuing his rant a statement about the british tabloid media the advice of his officials and now andrew acting although with the support of his own private secretary, certainly against the advice of the queens officials and the Communication Specialists within Buckingham Palace. That brings me to one of the recollection is that Prince Andrew shared in that interview, basically an account of what he was doing, i visit your pizza restaurant, let us have a listen to the clip. On that particular day, that we now understand is the date which is the 10th of march i was at home, with the children. I had taken beatrice to pizzaexpress in woking, for a party. I suppose 4, 5 in the afternoon. Why would you remember that so specifically . A pizzaexpress birthday and being at home . Because going to pizzaexpress in woking is an unusual thing for me to do. The question many people watching that are wondering is how come he has such great recall of that visit to that particular restaurant so many years ago but does not remember meeting this one woman . Extraordinary isnt it, and there is no plausible or credible answer but that was his answer because as you say in this rather unkindly and dismissive way, he said, it was unusualfor him dismissive way, he said, it was unusual for him to dismissive way, he said, it was unusualfor him to go dismissive way, he said, it was unusual for him to go to a Pizza Express unusual for him to go to a pizzaexpress in woking, a town in surrey. One would imagine there would be security records of his movement but it is unlikely those would be shared even with american lawyers. But yes, again, it raises more questions than it answers. Thank you so much. So what, if any, Legal Proceedings could Prince Andrew be called for in the United States . Jonathan turley is the bbcs legal analyst. If you were to step a foot on us soil he would likely be hit with a subpoena service faq get access to him. There are a number of civil lawsuits pending, some arejust filed, many deal with defamation claims which are flying between lawyers. You have the alleged victim herself who is in court, there are a lot of these lawyers who would love to hand Prince Andrew a subpoena. And once he has possession of the subpoena, you are normally compelled to appear. Prince andrew does not immediately get diplomatic immunity, u nless immediately get diplomatic immunity, unless he is on some kind of official trip and even if he did, the uk government often waves that immunity in cases of this kind. So this interview put him in a precarious position if he plans to visit the United States anytime soon. And the key being effie plans to visit the United States but if he stays away, he could potentially be out of reach . If he plans. Stays away, he could potentially be out of reach . If he plans. That is right. He could certainly stay an arms length away and they can try to seek the assistance of the British Government to try to facilitate a deposition. This is a little different with the fbi. If the fbi were to request an interview it would be a request, but those types of requests are given greater weight and move with greater expedition. I read your column at the weekend and i know that he looked at some of the lines of defence that he put forward. One in particular being that he could not have had six with this sex with this girl, he does not perspire and she referenced his sweating all over me. What sort of defence is that if any . I would say it is not a good defence when you have basically perspiration in pizza and pizza as your two main fronts to defend upon. Frankly, if he had given this testimony in a deposition, it would have been disastrous. Or in a trial he would not have gotten out of the courtroom, what is astonishing is that he went into this interview but it not seem to know to want to say. He did not seem to have a clear a nswer he did not seem to have a clear answer and what he came up with was obviously not persuasive. He frankly came across as the type of person that would go to jeffrey came across as the type of person that would go tojeffrey epsteins home even after he was accused of really serious crimes with underage girls. That is obviously not the place you want to be, so i think that the interview did him a great deal of damage below the water line. In this interview could be played back to him to say that it couldnt have been me because i dont perspire, leave that other clarity that has been alleged and he insists. I was just that has been alleged and he insists. I wasjust going to say, he felt he wanted to do this because he felt he wanted to do this because he lives in unique circumstances as a royal auntie finds it very difficult to confront properly some of the allegations but it seems from what you are saying that he should have more properly consulted lawyers before he gave an interview like this . Yes, my understanding is that his press adviser left him not long before the interview, i cannot imagine his Legal Advisers were far behind. Because this was a truly catastrophic decision on his part. It is bad enough when people believe that you are criminal, when they also believe youre comical it is a good combination and this interview has people really in disbelief. So he should have talked to Legal Counsel or gotten better legal advice. The problem now is that he has put his account out there. And it will be difficult to walk back from that, if you find himself in the United States and is served with a subpoena or if the fbi speaks to him, he could convert a civil case into ourcriminal him, he could convert a civil case into our criminal case. He does not have to worry about the criminal case which existed back in the day with jeffrey epstein, case which existed back in the day withjeffrey epstein, that case which existed back in the day with jeffrey epstein, that statute of limitation has passed. But making false or misleading statements under oath in a civil proceeding or to an fbi agent is a crime under United States law. Thank you forjoining us from washington. There have been more violent scenes at a University Campus in hong kong. Pro democracy protestors have been arrested trying to escape from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University which is surrounded by police. Authorities are also stopping crowds from reaching the activists who are barricaded inside. Police are warning that they will use live rounds if they need to. Hong kong has seen almost six months of protests, but over the past week, the clashes between police and protesters have become more violent. Chinas ambassador to london said this morning that if the situation continued, the future of hong kong will be unimaginable and dreadful. Our correspondent, robin brant, is in hong kong. Supporters of the 500 or so protesters who are holed up in the Polytechnic University called for others to take to the streets tonight, to show their support. And this is what has happened. In the last couple of hours or so, thousands and thousands of people, most of them are young, have descended onto this area of kowloon and have taken over the streets. Its peaceful but it is highly disruptive and it is another sign of the tactics they are using to convey their message to the people of hong kong and frankly to disrupt day to day lives. There are bricks on the streets, we have seen highways blocked and we have seen the entrances to tunnels closed as well. All of this is a show of support for the protesters who are holed up for a second night now. So, is there an end to this crisis . With me now is christopher hughes, professor of International Relations at the the London School of economics and political science. He specialises in china and Chinese Foreign policy. We should pick up with the comments from the Chinese Ambassador these images undermine the idea there is stability in the country and it is all one country so you can see why they are starting to run our patients . You described it, the future is unimaginable. It is already unimaginably bad and he has to ask why . Who is causing this . What is the root cause . The Chinese Government and the Hong Kong Government and the Hong Kong Government immediate strategy is to try and frame this as violence by a small group of protesters, which is a symptom of an underlying issue which is a political problem that they have caused, and they are trying to divert attention away from that and onto the issue of violence. Of course you get violence when you create this kind of crisis situation which has now become out of control and people are just desperate and scared and resorting to any methods they can to try to protect themselves. Are the demands of the protesters, i know where it started, it started over the exhibition bill, but as we look at it today, are the demands of these protesters cohesive . Are the latter the same thing . Yes we have consistently have five demands, won the tradition bill which has been met, but the other four are clear, suffrage, investigations into the police brutality, including an amnesty for the people who have already been imprisoned or put on trial or charged. There are a clear set of their demands they all coalesce around so there is no doubt about that at all. And all of the demands in principle are deliverable. Difficult of course, but unless you begin to negotiate them, the situation will only get worse, it cannot possibly get better and it is already terrible. May you mentioned negotiations, who could act as negotiator between the Chinese Government, the hong kong authorities and the protesters . The movement, the Democracy Movement in hong kong is not new, it has been going on a long time so there is an older generation of legislators but also a number of new Political Parties that have emerged from the new generation, going back to 2014, but the attitude towards them has been to marginalise them and for the young ones to actually disenfranchise them and prevent them from running in elections, running for Political Office and some of them are in prison. So there are people who could at least in principle begin some kind of dialogue but at least to show, to make the gesture that dialogue is possible, rather than confrontation, rather than the strategy of trying to rule by fear and trying to break the will of the population, which remarkably is not working in hong kong. You have to pay tribute to the determination of the people of hong kong who have suffered now several months of extreme violence, notjust from the police, we see that, but from the police, we see that, but from triads, they have had several rights activists ta ken from triads, they have had several rights activists taken off the streets or out of car fees, stabbed and beaten up, it is a Systematic Campaign of terror. Taken out of car fees. That is one way forward from the government, and it is not working, the other is to have some kind of dialogue or in principle show they are prepared to engage in dialogue and begin to explore the venues dialogue and begin to explore the venues for that. Thank you for coming in to speak to us this evening. There is a new front runner in iowa, in the democratic president ial race. Pete buttigieg now has a clear lead over his rivals. Iowa of course the state that holds the first nominating contest in february. Support for the mayor of south bend, indiana, has surged among democrat voters. The new poll puts him around 10 points ahead of his nearest rivals. The poll for the Des Moines Register has buttigieg at 25 up 16 points from september. He has overtaken his three closest rivals who are in a tight race for second spot. Elizabeth warren is on 16 , Bernie Sanders and former Vice President joe biden are tied in third place at 15 . We can speak to the pollster, ann selzer, whojoins us from des moines in iowa. Thank you so much. What do you make of these new numbers . Well, when you talk about their being a new frontrunner, it is really a leapfrog for Pete Buttigieg over the other contenders some of whom have led in oui contenders some of whom have led in our poll before. His support nearly tripled, from the last time we measured in just two tripled, from the last time we measured injust two months tripled, from the last time we measured in just two months ago tripled, from the last time we measured injust two months ago in september. So this is kind of an astonishingly large move by one of these competitors who have been really rather clustered together. it because he is picking up support from moderate voters and if so where does that leave joe biden . He picks up does that leave joe biden . He picks up perhaps some support but it is interesting to note that among his supporters, the candidate most likely to be named as their second choice is Elizabeth Warren. And that seems kinda like and coupling, but i think as Elizabeth Warren has sort of drawn some concern about her radical, perhaps, stand about medicare for all, people begin to think that is not viable, that is not a future i can go for. We saw in oui not a future i can go for. We saw in our poll question about whether people supported smaller change if it stood a better chance of becoming law that they want big change even if there was a chance it did not happen, and there was much more interest in the smaller more doable agenda which is why perhaps Elizabeth Warren is backing off and Pete Buttigieg is on the rise. Joe biden is down five since september. Still up there in second or second and third place, but is he being damaged by the impeachment enquiry in washington . Are people starting to ta ke in washington . Are people starting to take note of the role that the bidens played in the ukraine . to take note of the role that the bidens played in the ukraine . I do not know i could speak to the impeachment part, because that is fairly recent, but what i will say is that we have seen consistently in the proportion of people who say they have favourable feelings toward they have favourable feelings t