Including the firing of live ammunition and when governments in South Asia found themselves and pickle over onions well that after this Hello I'm Tom what's with the b.b.c. News the Colombian president Duke a says he will launch what he calls a national conversation in response to a wave of deadly anti-government protests Mr Duke a declared he wanted to strengthen Social Policy and work towards narrowing the gap between rich and poor Matthew Charles is a journalist in the capital Bob a top he says the government has a big task ahead one of the problems with these protests it is it isn't just about one issue so it's quite difficult to see how they could gather around or think or set of demands that the government could agree to so President look at says he will start this national conversation but he hasn't even suggested that he would be there. And I think a lot will depend on the coming days and how the government does respond a man claiming to be a former Chinese spy has told the Australian authorities about alleged Chinese intelligence operations in Hong Kong Taiwan and Australia Wang arrived in Sydney on a tourist visa and is now applying for asylum there in an interview with Australian television Mr Wang said Beijing's covert agents had infiltrated the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong and the upcoming elections in Taiwan. In Hong Kong itself the earth or Aziz have threatened to suspend voting in Sunday's local elections in case of serious disruption at polling stations the vote comes amid a continuing political crisis Our correspondent Stephen McDonell reports the day before crucial district council elections the banners and posters of various political parties adorn the street corners and places where people gather the results will be seen as something of a referendum on the government of Kerry and its handling of a political crisis now in its 6th month over the authorities say voting will be suspended at any polling place where there's serious disruption the election comes as a small group of student activists holdouts inside the Polytechnic University defying calls by police to leave the campus and face arrest for rioting one week after violent clashes erupted their voters in Bougainville are celebrating as they take part in a referendum that could mark their 1st step towards independence from Papua New Guinea more than 200000 Island has registered to vote in the 2 week referendum film has this report Bergenfield civil war lasted from 1988 to 997 the conflict was brutal and fueled by anger over a huge golden copper mine locals feel the profits from the island's natural resources are not being fairly distributed the referendum on independence from Papua New Guinea was at the heart of a 2001 peace agreement many on Bogun Vale have long had secessionist ambitions and the signs are they will vote to break away a world news from the b.b.c. . The u.s. State Department has released records relating to the trumpet ministrations dealings with Ukraine documents were released to the ethics watchdog American oversight after a Freedom of Information requests American oversight suggested secretary of state Mike Pompei o was closer to events at the center of the impeachment inquiry than he had so far publicly acknowledged the technology giant Amazon is mounting a legal challenge last month decision by the Pentagon's awarded $10000000000.00 cloud computing contracts to its rival Microsoft and as an had been seen as the favorite to win the bidding process it alleges that political bias and an improper intervention by President Trump influence to the outcome a committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency has recommended that Russia's drug testing agency be suspended again because of noncompliance with international rules if the recommendation is adopted Russia could be excluded from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics earlier the governing body of well the flight exulted the process of reinstating the Russian Athletics Federation because of new suspected breaches of anti doping rules the head of the i.w. Task force on Russia Rena Anderson spoke to reporters cancel mandate the task force to make recommendations to cancel. Actions that council should impose on Drew serve if it is determined that Rousseff has breached its obligations under the rules and whether Congress should be asked to consider the expulsion of Rousseff from membership of that and the commonly held view that dogs age 7 years for every one human year is a myth according to the latest research scientists found the aging process in puppies is much faster and that by the age of 3 dogs are closer to a 50 year old human than the process slows down and a 10 year old Labrador was found to be similar to a person aged $68.00 b.b.c. News. Hello I'm Caroline Wyatt and welcome back to the world this week Prince Andrew the queen secondhand it said favorite son took the unusual step of agreeing to be interviewed by the b.b.c. At Buckingham Palace the interview shown last Saturday night focused on his friendship with the billionaire and convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein who killed himself in a New York jail in August 1 awaiting trial on fresh charges during 45 excruciating minutes the prince defended his 4 day stay at Epstein's home after the billionaire already been convicted of trafficking minors for prostitution the prince claimed that he went to stay in order to break off their friendship in person because he had a tendency to be too honorable He also said he had no recollection of meeting Virginia Roberts she's a woman who claims to be trafficked by obscene and made to have sex with his associates including with Prince Andrew on 3 occasions something the Prince has always denied as public outrage mounted Buckingham Palace issued a statement in which the prince finally distanced himself from Epstein and expressed sympathy for the victims of the late billionaire but it was too late and on Wednesday Prince Andrew announced he was stepping down from public duties be to hunt is the former b.b.c. Roll correspondent I asked him why Prince Andrew thought it was a good idea to let the cameras in the palace itself. The key thing there is what he knows that we don't know I think we don't yet know what was going on in the background that made him think he had to be on the front foot we don't know what level of interaction there has been between his office and the f.b.i. I suspect there has been some so we don't know what sort of questions the f.b.i. Had started to ask and the reason I say that is that what was one element of the many elements that were very striking in the interview was that sense of him is nothing to see here Garth I can't tell you anything it felt like it was a preemptive strike to show the law enforcement agencies in the United States that be pointless waste of time talking to him so I think that's an element we don't know whether or not the f.b.i. Is talking to Glenn Maxwell Prince Andrew's friend and a key link with the whole Epstein saga we don't know what may be in documents that may yet be released within the American court system and of course there's Epstein's diaries we know he kept them we know they were detailed there must be a fear out of thought in war circles that they may yet end up in the public domain so I think all of these factors came together and then you throw in Prince Andrew's character where he clearly believed that he could appear before us unfiltered unadulterated and at the end of the viewing we the public would accept we should give him a break and the key thing I suppose he did achieve to be fair to him is he stated on the record what he'd said in his statements consistently and frequently said I never had any sort of sexual contact with his accuser who used to be known as Virginia Roberts It is very unusual to see an interviewer asked point blank on television about allegations over the sex life of a senior member of the royal family there wasn't much mystique of the monarchy really after the end of that program it didn't even peek behind the curtain it sort of ripped away our members of the novelist Jeffrey Archer used to say that he would take you to the bedroom door no further we were right in the row bedroom so to speak in that television program I suppose it showed how high the. Stakes are and how determined he was to make it clear to us that these allegations were not true but I mean you know when a member of the British royal family has been asked if you've taken part in an orgy you know you're in a in a new place himself Britain or appeared not to have been advised that at least some expression of sympathy might have been expected by the viewing public for the underage girls who were trafficked or used by the late billionaire Geoffrey Epstein Well as I alluded to earlier there were many striking aspects of this interview and that really was the most catastrophic from his perspective because he'd done it in statements in the past he did it again in this statement when he in essence announced his retirement his sacking whatever word one wants to put on it where he talked about the victims but it was gob smacking Leigh missing from the interview no expression of regret or sympathy towards the victims and the other thing that was missing from the interview was an unequivocal willingness as you or I or any of our listeners would do which is to play ball if law enforcement agencies want to talk to he sort of carry out it it really chunky and clumsy really but he corrected that in the statement in the course the other thing the glaring thing that was an error in the television interview was that he didn't regret his friendship with a paedophile he didn't unequivocal regret it in the interview he has in the statement in the interview he tried to justify it by saying there was seriously beneficial outcomes for him from that friendship. How damaging has this been for the wider Royal Family Well I think that's the key bit and I think that's why in essence he has been sacked because what the wars always want to do when they have disasters and calamities and they had a fair few in recent decades is they like to lock it down to an individual and sort of deal with it with that person but what Prince Andrew did was to spread his toxicity much wider so right from the start his judgment yet again for the umpteenth time was called into question by this interview but he then called into question the judgment of his mother because he referred higher up as he put it the request for the interview and clearly the person he regards as higher up than presumably a god is his mother and so she was drawn into it she allowed her palace to be used as the backdrop for this interview not some anonymous hotel and in that palace we had Prince Andrew talking about a paedophiles behaviors being unbecoming so she was dragged into it by that and I think the other crucial damage for the monarchy by all of this was when it became an aspect of the British general election campaign I think that really is the most toxic bit for them when you have the 2 men who could be our next prime minister being asked on national British television about the monarchy and one of them the current opposition leader Jeremy call been talking about an institution needing improvement you can see why an institution the monarchy which is a dynasty that is desperate to survive then pretty swift remedial action that remedial action from the palace to cut Prince Andrew from his royal duties in effect to sack him who would have taken that decision I think we can say unequivocally that it wasn't Prince Andrew he would have been dragged kicking and screaming while clinging onto balustrades and bits of furniture gold gilt furniture as he was a made clear that this really was the exit that would have been him willingly doing it I think what's striking is the Buckingham Palace are very keen to frame it as. From the Queen given that her judgment was called into question over the interview in the 1st place and her judgment has been called into question the past in terms of her blindness towards Andrew and her indulgence of Andrew and her historic habit when dealing with family matters or being an ostrich and just putting your head in the sand and ignoring it so I think the palace is very keen for us to see it as the queen aged 93 the monarch the head of state of the u.k. And other countries taking that action but the reality is that behind it was the Prince of Wales Prince Charles the heir to the British throne because I had always thought we'd got to a point where he would have to go particularly after a big businesses started fleeing from him in big businesses normally are desperate to wrap themselves around a royal The minute they flee you know they're in trouble but I'd assumed there would be a delay until the Prince of Wales Prince Charles return from an official visit he's doing to New Zealand but clearly royals can sack by telephone so Prince Charles was absolutely involved what this points to is of a shift in the power in the British monarchy as always with the British monarchy we don't really see but with the 93 year old monarch Charles the Shadow King more and more decisions that the Queen might want to take she runs past him 1st and I'm with this one he would have been pushing it as Peter Hunt mentioned there Prince Andrew's interview featured in the general election campaign here in Britain but also by no means the outstanding feature is a political correspondent Rob Watson There's no doubting the most telling moment or should I say moments of the campaign this last week it was when a studio audience repeatedly laughed at both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbin during the 1st television debates of the election loss you should understand the laughter of amusements but of derision and disbelief if you want to know what provoked such hilarity it was the moments of Mr Johnson answered yes when asked whether he thought the truth was important and when Mr Caldwell insisted Labor's policy on brac set was clear the studio audience's reaction was a reminder of a grim underlying truth about. Selection borne out repeatedly and national opinion polls namely that this is a contest not to select the most popular person and party as prime minister and government but rather the least unpopular one can't help feeling in a few months time this negativity could all prove very important aside from that the highlight of the week was the launch of some party manifestos basically what the parties promise to actually do should they win the election not surprisingly the ouse an out and see Bracks at Liberal Democrat party promise to stop Bracks says while the main opposition Labor Party led by the avowedly and proudly socialist Jeremy Corbyn also not surprisingly promised the most radical left wing agenda since 1945 of greater state involvement in every aspect of British life. For my part I have been in Scotland where as in Northern Ireland last week I heard repeatedly about how Brecht says which Scottish people voted against by 62 to 38 percent had rigged nights at the big and difficult constitutional question of whether Scotland's future lies in the u.k. Or as an independent country perhaps the most memorable encounter though was with not a Scot but a young Finnish student at Edinburgh University who told me Europe was now far more interested in British politics than it ever used to be but you guessed it as a cautionary tale of how not to do things robots and you're listening to the world this week the programme that tells you what happened in the past 7 days and white counts coming up what rising onion prices make politicians cry and if you want to listen to us again or previous editions tight b.b.c. The world this week into your search engine of the many dramatic days of the Trump presidency Wednesday's public testimony at the impeachment inquiry from a trump appointee brought the highest stoop Washington drama. Gotten someone to donated a $1000000.00 to the president's inauguration fund and was later appointed u.s. Ambassador to the European Union in his evidence he asserted that the president was demanding a quid pro quo from his Ukrainian counterpart Mr Trump would grant a meeting in the Oval Office in return for Ukraine announcing that it would look into 2 conspiracy theories both baseless in the on the Democrats and the son of one of his potential opponents in the next presidential election Joe Biden Mr sundered said he came to believe that u.s. Military aid to Ukraine was also in play and he said everyone was in the loop Aleem Maqbool is our correspondent in Washington it was certainly very damaging to Mr Trump because what is going on here is that Donald Trump has portrayed this whole process as something very partisan those coming forward are never trumpeters who just want him out of office and what we've seen all week is not only civil servants who don't really fit this bill and even you know decorated military veterans we have those like Gordon's arland who actually was close to Donald Trump who donated around a 1000000 dollars So a supporter of Donald Trump Hussein will this is how it was and it doesn't look good Gordon someone came out and said the words in his opening statement was there a quid pro quo absolutely someone also appears to be expanded the circle of those he says were aware of what was going on he brought into this the secretary of state my prepare and lots of others and we kept on saying that with David Holmes for example who is another man who gave testimony this week who was one of the diplomats in Kiev fear in the hill gave some fascinating testimony she was the lead national security adviser to the White House on Russia. And the e.u. Both of them suggested that this was something they were all talking about everyone involved in Ukraine policy felt that this was something that was going on there with those who went along with it it was a scheme being led by this alternative diplomatic track through Rudy Giuliani of course President Trump's personal lawyer who is leading this effort to get this military aid withheld until Ukraine announced and not by the way necessarily completed an investigation it was just the end nouns meant that it appears that the White House was looking for some had said through throws above them that it had been improper but it feels like it was many more people around who were aware what was going on and when it change minds among Republican senators I think those taking a step back would say that if there was a person out there who hadn't made their mind up about Donald Trump in the world they would look at the testimony that was given over the last week and say well it appears through the circumstantial evidence that he did a bad thing he was doing something on what Fiona Hill called a domestic political errand not for the good of the country but this is not about people looking at this with impartiality this is a political process not one Republican as yet has said they are going to vote for impeachment that's in the house and if he is to be impeached there will be a trial in the Senate there you need a 2 thirds majority for him to be removed from office 20 Senate Republicans would have to flip to support his removal from office there is no suggestion that one of them is going to do that as yet what is popular opinion in America stand on this now I mean are ordinary American. Glued to these public hearings on t.v. Outside Washington I've done a little bit of traveling around joining all of this and the sense is that people the 2 camps have just become more entrenched through this I have yet to meet somebody over the last 3 years who said I voted for Donald Trump and I regret that Aleem Maqbool it's all a plot by foreign enemies that center on has sought to dismiss the protests the broke out across the country over 50 percent rise in petrol prices protests that w