this is bbc news. the headlines at 11:00: prince andrew breaks his silence on thejeffrey epstein scandal. the duke of york was questioned about staying at the home of the convicted sex offender in an exclusive bbc interview. buckingham palace denies all allegations of inappropriate behaviour. that is the bit that, as it were, i kick myself for, on a daily basis because it was not something that was becoming of the royalfamily. labour promises free, full—fibre broadband, for every home in the uk, by 2030. borisjohnson dismisses the plans as a ‘crackpot scheme.‘ around 100 people are rescued from floods, many stranded in cars — as river levels continue to rise in the west midlands.

more details emerge about the duchess of sussex's court action against the mail and mail on sunday. and at 11:30 we'll be taking an in—depth look at the papers with our reviewers, broadcasterjohn stapleton and the telegraph's women's editor claire cohen. stay with us for that. the duke of york has answered questions for the first time about his relationship with the financierjeffrey epstein. prince andrew has been accused of having links to the billionaire — who killed himself in prison while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. in an exclusive interview with bbc newsnight‘s emily maitlis prince andrew was asked about his relationship with one of epstein‘s accusers — virginia roberts, who said she was forced to have sex with the duke three times. buckingham palace has denied all the allegations against him.

0ur royal correspondent nicholas witchell reports 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 queen's 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 17—years—old. 18 years on, virginia roberts giuffre, as she is now,

insists she's telling the truth. he knows exactly what he's done and i hope he comes clean about it. thank you. buckingham palace has consistently denied any impropriety by prince andrew. now he's decided to speak for himself to bbc newsnight‘s emily maitlis. one of epstein‘s 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 don't 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 that's 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 can't 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. and nicholas witchell is here with me. many people are asking why he has decided to do this interview now. many people are asking why he has decided to do this interview nowi think that is a very good question andi think that is a very good question and i think it is all really rather baffling. i mean, it is an considerable gamble for him. he is not a member of the royal family who has a high level of public sympathy of support. he is widely seen to be arrogant and difficult. but clearly he wants to get his version of events out there. he must recognise that he has been seriously damaged by all of this relentless headlines, asi by all of this relentless headlines, as i was saying there, for many months. so he wants to get his story and try to restore his reputation. i think some of his answers are a little curious. i mean, clearly we need to be very careful what we say

and we need to underpin everything with the fact that buckingham palace has repeatedly and emphatically night any impropriety, but when challenged on the allegations from virginia roberts for, as we've just heard, he says he has no recollection of this lady. is that really the kind of categorical absolute denial that one might have expected? that denial has come from his officials. all he has said in particular excerpt is, "i don't remember this lady". well, it is up to each individual to make a judgement on it and we must take it at its face value. like you say, an element of him trying to protect his reputation. as he said, he let his side down. what kind of implications does this have on the royal family? iam sure does this have on the royal family? i am sure they are dismayed by them. the queen is 93 and the duke of edinburgh is 58. they are very fond

of prince andrew. he has been her favourite son over the years. he was an active, seen as embodying all the best things about the royal family. service, duty, armed forces, all that sort of thing. i think his life has got rather tangled up in recent yea rs, has got rather tangled up in recent years, since the divorce from sarah ferguson. i think he has lacked a clear purpose and i think that is perhaps one of the reasons why he fell in with somebody likejeffrey epstein. now, one has to wonder what is going on in someone's head that you will not recognise that this man is not a suitable person for a member of the royal family to be consorting with? he recognises that 110w. consorting with? he recognises that now. he says he let the side down but how could it be that he would go and stay in the house of a man who was by then a convict child sex offender? that, if you like, is the

most baffling aspect of this whole thing and he sort of says, well, now, with hindsight, i recognise it was a mistake, can't really understand it. and there is no plausible mitigation for doing that. some body, anybody, quite frankly, never mind if you are a member of the royal family. and never mind if you are a member of the royalfamily. and that never mind if you are a member of the royal family. and that is the closest we have seen so far to an element of humility in this. "i let the side down. ". 0k, thank you for that. and you can see the full interview in a bbc newsnight special — ‘prince andrew and the epstein scandal‘ that's on bbc 2 tomorrow night at 9:00. labour has set out ambitious plans to provide free full—fibre broadband to every home and business in the country by 2030. jeremy corbyn says bt‘s 0pen reach broadband business would be brought into public ownership and the ongoing cost of providing the service would be partly funded by a new tax on technology

companies, such as facebook and google. borisjohnson has dismissed the proposal as a "crazed communist scheme". here‘s our political editor laura kuenssberg labour has a big giveaway it hopes to connect with you. fast—fibre broadband for everyone everywhere, if they win, within ten years‘ time. another big intervention in the market, another expensivejob for the state. labour‘s money man is adding the internet to rail, water, energy and the mail he would like to take into public hands. the way we‘ll do it is if we‘re putting that scale of public money and taxpayers‘ money in, we want to ensure we own it as well and that means bringing parts of bt into public ownership.

another big nationalisation with a big price tag. yes it is. yes, and what we‘ll do in the normal way is firstly, we‘ll issue bonds for shares and what we‘re doing is introducing a new tax, for the ones that gain their incomes from the internet, the apples and googles and amazons of this world and in that way we will pay for the day—to—day costs. whether you look at free broadband, free university fees, renationalisations, why should wealthy people in this country be entitled to free things? because we believe we need a more equal society and the best way of getting that benefit to everyone is to make sure you don‘t have hurdles like means testing. this is hard—nosed economics.

if we do not get on and do this, we will fall... we already are falling behind our global competitors and we will fall behind even further. future generations will not forgive us. your critics might say you‘re just addicted to spending other people‘s money. i‘m not at all. other countries are having these visions and we‘re not. we‘re being held back. if we don‘t do this, we will be held back even further. both of the main party leaders were on the stump in lancashire today, both stage managing the campaign, both battle buses now on the road. but the approach borisjohnson is pursuing on the economy is very different. can you all hear me? £5 billion to subsidise expanding broadband. a huge programme of investment in our roads, in telecoms, gigabit broadband unlike the crazed, crazed communist scheme that was outlined earlier on today, we will give people gigabit broadband by 2025. with the quality of broadband achingly different in different corners of the country, it matters in this campaign. scotland is ahead of the uk in terms of our current performance in many respects, the improvements we have seen in broadband availability recently but also in

the scale of our ambitions. i've been to about 30 constituencies so far. 30 down, many more to go. perhaps more dramatic plans too. yes, the third one, come on. but this time round, with these leaders and these parties, in this election you can‘t say they‘re all the same. bye, everybody, see you again. laura kuenssberg, bbc news. there‘s been a hostile reaction to labour‘s plans from broadband providers and the wider business community with questions being raised about how much it would actually cost. our business editor simon jack reports on how it could work and how it could be paid for. the uk has some of the slowest average broadband speeds in europe. it even trails madagascar, making life difficult for the people and businesses closer to home in rocklands norfolk. we have trouble running the business, sometimes the card machine, which is linked

to the internet is a problem. i was in spain for 20 years and i lived in the most rural part of spain you can imagine. my internet speed was 100. i came here to rocklands and my internet speed was one. if you have families, everyone comes home from school, all the homework's done online now, it makes it really tricky. children are not able to do their homework, people are not able to work from home. the average household broadband bill is £30 a month. labour would make it totally free, but not to the taxpayer, who labour estimate would pay £20 billion. but the independent national infrastructure commission estimate it would cost £34 billion. so why is it so expensive? at the moment, most of us get our broadband through a fibre—optic cable that links to these old green cabinets where the existing slower copper network takes over to do that last mile into our homes and businesses. replacing all of that with individualfibre into every property is something that only 8% of the country enjoys at the moment.

doing the other 92 is one heck of a job. 0penreach, bt‘s broadband division, has 32,000 employees and sells its services to other operators like virgin media and talktalk. if bt broadband will be free, other companies won‘t be able to compete while taxing us companies to help pay for it risks putting them off britain. clearly, everybody would like to have things for free, even if you classify broadband as a utility, clearly, everybody would like to have things for free, even if you classify broadband as a utility, you pay for all your other utilities because you have to have a return so i think the cost of that provision will be huge and trying to levy that on taxes on other companies will not be popular, will not encourage investment in this country, it will just create investment uncertainty. labour say they hope to come to an arrangement with bt‘s competitors and if they can‘t, they might nationalise them too. do you know anything about this bt share offer? ay?

millions of people own shares in bt since the 1980s or through their pension funds. labour say parliament will decide how much they get for them meaning they may get less than market value. all parties agree that faster broadband is essential. that‘s where the agreement ends. simon jack, bbc news. let‘s take a look at some of today‘s other election news. the liberal democrats say they would invest heavily in tackling climate change if they‘re elected to power. they want to spend £100 billion over five years in areas such as clean energy and transport, and home insulation. and they reiterated their decision not to go into any kind of coalition in the event of a hung parliament. the green party has pledged to introduce a universal basic income by 2025 to replace the current universal credit system. it would see every adult receiving a minimum of £89 per week and they say it would be funded through taxation.

the headlines on bbc news: prince andrew breaks his silence on thejeffrey epstein scandal. the duke of york was questioned about staying at the home of the convicted sex offender in an exclusive bbc interview. buckingham palace denies all allegations of inappropriate behaviour. labour has promised free, full—fibre broadband for every home in the uk by 2030. borisjohnson dismissed the plans as a "crackpot scheme." around 100 people have been rescued from floods, many stranded in cars, as river levels continue to rise in the west midlands. more than 100 people have had to be rescued by emergency services as parts of the midlands were hit by more flooding and drivers were caught out by rapidly rising water. there are more than 100 flood warnings currently in place in parts of england and wales. 0ur midlands correspondent sian lloyd reports from evesham

in worcestershire where the river avon burst its banks. so would you like us to bring you out of the property, because of the water? you would like to be evacuated. rescue boats have been launched throughout the day in evesham, as water levels on the avon continue to rise. it‘s been quite a protracted incident for us. there‘s been a number of incidents across the county, and this is just one of many that our crews are dealing with currently. the river has reached its highest level since 2007, with only one road through evesham left open. this is one of the main routes through evesham, but half a mile is currently submerged beneath the floodwater. it‘s meant that many people haven‘t been able to get through to their appointments at the community hospital today, and it‘s had to restrict its services. the hereford and worcester fire and rescue service have helped more than 100 people in the past 2a

hours, including trevor, who had become trapped inside his own home. i couldn‘t get out on my own, you know, i tried that earlier on and it was too deep for me to wade through, even with wwaders on. no such problem for this evesham resident. but with water levels still rising in some places, a number of communities are on stand by. all this water is working its way through, it‘s taking a long time on the big rivers. it‘s likely it‘s not going to peak at tewkesbury and upton until saturday, possibly sunday. this evening the work continued, as fire officers pumped water from the cellar of a restaurant to keep the business open on what would be one of its busiest nights. water levels are dropping in this town, but emergency services are preparing for a busy couple of days in communities where rivers are continuing to rise.

the former us ambassador to ukraine, who was fired by donald trump, has told an impeachment hearing in washington that she felt threatened and intimidated by the president. marie yovanovich told the congressional committee that donald trump‘s personal lawyer had worked to discredit her and she said his government had been manipulated by corrupt foreign interests. mr trump is accused of pressurising ukraine to dig up damaging information about his democratic rivaljoe biden. the president denies any wrongdoing, but the impeachment process could eventually see him removed from office. 0ur north america editorjon sopel 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 trump‘s 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. 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, it‘s very intimidating. designed to intimidate, is it not? i mean, i can‘t 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 he‘d done anything wrong. sir, do you believe your tweets or words can be intimidating? i don't 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 that‘s 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 that‘s never been reached before. this has been an uncomfortable day for donald trump. tweeting against marie yovanovitch while she was giving evidence wasn‘t a smart move, raising questions about whether he was trying to intimidate a witness. but there‘s no sign that republicans are peeling away from him. and the less they do, the impeachment process goes nowhere and he certainly won‘t be removed from office. jon sopel, bbc news, washington. the families of some of the 157 people killed when a boeing 737 max crashed in ethiopia last march have accused ethiopian airlines of denying them the chance to attend a service for their loved ones at the site of the disaster. relatives say they‘ve been left hopeless, outraged, and exasperated after the airline only gave them 48 hours‘ notice of the event. the crash site, which has now

become a burial ground, has been the focal point of families‘ concerns and recriminations recently, as simon browning reports. there should have been choirs singing. dad deserved to have his children there and his wife and his brothers. zipporah‘s 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. it‘s been really heartbreaking, thinking that, you know, there‘s 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 we‘re going to be burying your loved ones in the next, you know, sort of 48 hours. they were just buried like people

who didn‘t belong to anyone or weren‘t 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 weren‘t given more notice. to not be there was, i don‘t think words could ever describe that, and there were mothers in the whatsapp group, you know, talking about how broken they were that they couldn‘t see their children to the end of the journey. my dad had a funeral yesterday and i missed it. zipporah kuria talking to our reporter simon browning. the mayor of venice in italy, has closed the city‘s historic st mark‘s square, which has been flooded again by another exceptionally high tide. there‘s concern that the salt water could damage the monuments in the square, which is a unesco world heritage site. the flooding is still among the worst in the last 100 years in the region.

there‘ve been more developments today in the court action between the duchess of sussex and associated newspapers, reported by the website byline investigates. our legal correspondent clive coleman is here. really serious allegations by the duchess of sussex, which in effect associated newspapers, the publishers of the male and the mail on sunday, launched a fake news war against her, but they lied when they said they had published the full text of a handwritten letter to her father when in fact they had only published up and they left out key parts of that letter because they didn‘t conform to the negative image that the paper wanted to portray of the duchess, but 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, but for instance they splashed out £5,000 on a copper

bath, £500,000 on soundproofing, big money on a tennis court, and injury, and a yoga studio, none of which, the duchess is, actually existed. —— orangery. and she claims that they falsely claimed the cost was on the public purse. associated newspapers 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. they‘re called the hidden homeless: people who don‘t show up on official figures because they manage to find temporary solutions. the charity centrepoint is warning that more than 22,000 young people in england alone will be at risk of homelessness this christmas. our home affairs correspondent june kelly reports. this is very slippery, isn‘t it? this is very slippery, isn't it? the wasteland where jack lives. this tent was my home for eight months.

some days the only living creatures he saw were rats. this was where i cooked my food, this was my grill.l supermarket trolley? yeah. jack pitman ‘s 23 says he is not close to his family. and when it rained, what was happening? lots of flooding. if you didn‘t have dry clothes to put on you would have to sit on your wet clothes all night. this was my seat, where i sat and cooked. i woke up a couple of times blue lipped, really hypothermic. my health got really bad. i couldn‘t breathe in the mornings. what about your mental health? i was on a downward spiral. i was just getting lower and lower. i had had enough. ijust didn‘t want to be alive anymore. last time i was sleeping in town was when i was about 16. my applause parents were both drug addicts. she was in foster and then from the age of 16, on the streets. -- maya's parents. i slipped out here for two years. in doorways? in doorways, with cardboard boxes, with blankets people provided me. i ended up

pregnant. when you were pregnant she was sleeping on the streets? yeah, till i was about five months pregnant. they tried their best to try to find me something, at first they tried to offer me floorspace, and that is with all people that have good habits. not very nice people to be around, while you are pregnant. now she has a home with her baby daughter. the worsening weather is set to be followed by an increase in the number of young homeless seeking help. at this hostel in newport, the professionals try to build trust with those who have taken the first step of actually reaching out. you are going to be ok, though. there are a lot of people there to support you. many 16 to 24 people there to support you. many 16 to 2a —year—olds don‘t seek help. the hidden homeless is a huge issue, young people may be putting themselves into dangerous and difficult situations where they are potentially being exploited by people who might be saying that they have their best interests at heart, but don‘t really at all. have their best interests at heart, but don't really at all. harry

mcewan‘s organisation recently found jack pitman a flusher. if they spent less time worrying about brexit and all that, there would be more time and more resources they could have spent on preventing stuff like this happening to me or to anyone else. nobody should go through this. nobody, ever. it is hard. it is really ha rd to nobody, ever. it is hard. it is really hard to live like this. now it‘s time for the weather with stav da naos. hello there. low pressure is always going to be close by to our shores for this weekend. it means it is going to stay fairly unsettled, with quite a bit of cloud around, outbreaks of rain, and it will stay quite chilly, too, temperatures below the seasonal average. they will be some sunshine around, generally in between these weather fronts we will have one affecting central portions of the country and this one will be slowly pushing into the far north—west later in the day. but in between these weather fronts, so but in between these weather fronts, so the western scotland and northern ireland and also across the midlands into the south—east, here we should see the best of the drier and

perhaps brighter weather, but elsewhere, where we have these weather fronts, pick a elsewhere, where we have these weatherfronts, pick a cloud elsewhere, where we have these weather fronts, pick a cloud and outbreaks of rain into the far north—west, and it will feel quite chilly. but the winds will be lighter. probably not quite as has beenin lighter. probably not quite as has been in the last few days. saturday night, these weather fronts continue to bring bigger cloud, patches of rain at times, the rain starts to encroach into the north—west of scotland. a few clear spells to the south—eastern pub central portions of scotland, and where those temperatures are around freezing, thatis temperatures are around freezing, that is because you will have clear skies for longest. when you keep the cloud, between 3—6. sunday, we got this one at the front through central areas of the bringing outbreaks of rain, and you will notice high—pressure beginning to build and toppling across the north—west of the country. so here is an improving picture through the day. where this weather fronts will be in parts of central wales and northern england, it could bring a fairamount of rain, northern england, it could bring a fair amount of rain, which could fall on the flood centres, so this is certainly want to watch. the best of the sunshine later in the day will be across much of northern and western scotland and northern ireland, but again, a chilly