welcome to newsday. i'm kasia madera in london, the headlines. queen elizabeth's son, prince andrew, steps back from public duties, after controversy over his links to a convicted sex offender. later on in the day, we followed the president's orders. towards the south—west of england — may be double figures here. a key witness in the impeachment inquiry says donald trump wanted him to press ukraine to investigate a political rival. more showers, a lot of cloud the president hits back. around really on friday so here is my answer — but the potential for some wetter i want nothing. i want no quid pro quo. weather to develop towards the west country, south—west of england, then heading into the west midlands and wales, so showers merging to some longer and i'm rico hizon in singapore. spells of rain which could be also in the programme: quite heavy, actually. a few showers to come, things could growing tensions between the uk and china, as a british consular develop a bit wetter towards the worker tells the bbc he was tortured south—west. showers heavy for a by chinese secret police. while, merging into some longer spells of rain into the south—west

and we talk to the star of a hotly of england in the west midlands, tipped film at this week's into west country and wales through singapore film festival. the day. that's an area to watch as things get wetter. those temperatures, 9— 10 degrees. let's set into the weekend. it's a weekend dominated by low pressure. we got one slow—moving area of low pressure which is why we are seeing that rain developing. how far north the rain gets, a little bit uncertain. most of the rain across england and hello, and welcome to the programme. wales, perhaps heading towards northern ireland, as far north as it's 9:00am in singapore and 1:00 the central belt, allowing something in the morning here in london, drier and brighter to arrive across parts of the window and wales and where prince andrew has decided to step back from his royal duties temperatures again typically 9— 11 for the foreseeable future. degrees. some rain around on it follows controversy surrounding his friendship with the convicted paedophile, saturday. was that rain will peter jeffrey epstein and his disastrous interview at the weekend with the bbc. out, as the bills, we got one coming the prince has denied having sex in from the atlantic. this one looks with a 17—year—old girl procured for him by epstein, but a number a bit deeper. again, the position of organisations linked to his work have begun to distance themselves. could change but at the moment, it looks like gloucester got some nicholas witchell reports. residual rain to clear away from

driving himself into scotland, the weather, windy weather should be arriving towards the buckingham palace yesterday, south—west of england and into the the only sighting of prince andrew since the newsnight midlands and again, temperatures interview was broadcast. better than they have been, typically 9—11. hostility towards him has shown no sign of lessening. of pounds worth of damage. "poison prince" and "pariah prince" were just two of the newspaper headlines this morning. at the same time, sponsors of his various initiatives and charities have continued to distance themselves from him. all this in response to a notably misjudged interview in which he failed to find either the right tone or the right words to respond to his association with jeffrey epstein. tonight, he and buckingham palace accepted that his position had become unsustainable. in a statement, prince andrew said: "i have asked her majesty if i may step back from public duties for the foreseeable future and she has given her permission". he went on: "i continue to unequivocally regret my ill—judged association

with jeffrey epstein. i deeply sympathise with everyone who has been affected. i can only hope that in time they will be able to rebuild their lives". and finally and significantly: "of course, i am willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations if required". i'm kasia madera the tone was notably contrite, with bbc world news. something of a contrast our top story: queen elizabeth's to saturday night's broadcast. son, prince andrew, has announced that he's stepping back from public duties over his links with a convicted us sex offender. any sense now of guilt, regret or shame about any of your behaviour in your he released a statement friendship with epstein? after an attempt to clear the air as far as mr epstein is concerned, in a bbc interview was widely deemed it was the wrong decision to go to be a public relations disaster. and see him in 2010. he said he unequivocally regretted knowing jeffrey epstein, who killed himself injail. do i regret the fact that, that he has quite obviously a top us diplomat has told conducted himself in the trump impeachment inquiry a manner unbecoming? that he was following presidential yes. orders when the us put pressure on ukraine to open investigations unbecoming? he was a sex offender. against a political rival. yeah, i'm sorry, i'm being polite. and this video is for the queen, fulfilling royal trending on bbc.dot.com. duties tonight on this, her 72nd wedding anniversary, a woman has been reunited it must be both upsetting with a koala she saved

and unwelcome. from a bushfire in australia. toni doherty pulled the distressed andrew has always enjoyed her animal from a tree that was on fire and treated his burns. particular support but by this morning, it will have become evident that his position was untenable. that's all. thus, for the first time, one of her own immediate family has been forced by public opinion to step back. i've never seen such a reaction more on our website to a royal interview. bbc.co.uk/news and the news app. i mean, there have not been that many royal interviews but the reaction was just so condemnatory and he came across so badly. not once expressing regret for those, or sympathy, for the victims of epstein‘s behaviour. buckingham palace will be hoping that andrew's statement and his withdrawalfrom public duties will stem the criticism. they will be hoping, too, that the epstein allegations have now run their full course. also making news today,

a former employee at the british consulate in hong kong has told the bbc he was tortured in mainland china, and accused of inciting political unrest in the city. simon cheng says he was ‘shackled, blindfolded and hooded', when he was detained for a fortnight in august. the uk has summoned the chinese ambassador and condemned mr cheng's treatment. in response, china is calling on britain to keep out of chinese affairs. translation: the chinese ambassador will summon the british side to express our anger. will summon the british side to express oui’ anger. we will summon the british side to express our anger. we hope the uk will stop interfering in china's affairs or it will eventually harm to show interest. the us congress has approved two bills intended to support demonstrators in hong kong, forcing president trump to decide whether to sign them in the face of strong objections from china. the hong kong human rights and democracy act provides for sanctions against any hong kong officials considered responsible for human rights violations. british airways passengers on some

flights are experiencing delays after what the airline described as a technical issue. it's understood that this latest problem is affecting what been described as "a handful of flights" at this stage and passengers should check in as normal. the airline has suffered a number of technical issues with it's systems in the past few years, the most recent in august when around 500 flights were cancelled or delayed because of a systems failure. the leader of the liberal democrats in the uk has described brexit as a national embarrassment. launching her party's election manifesto, jo swinson said that remaining in the eu would free up fifty billion pounds to spend on public services. 0ther proposals include a frequent flyer tax and a renewables target of 80%. myanmar says the country's civilian leader, aung san suu kyi, will personally lead a legal team at the international court ofjustice next month to argue against accusations of genocide committed against

the rohingya people. the case was filed last week by gambia on behalf of the organisation of islamic cooperation. a woman has been reunited with a koala she saved from a bushfire in australia. toni doherty pulled the distressed koala from a burning tree, poured water on his burnt paws and wrapped him in a blanket before taking him to a koala hospital. she's been praised for saving the animal's life. it's been a day of explosive testimony at president trump's impeachment inquiry, although the white house has dismissed the significance of evidence from a senior us diplomat. the us ambassador to the eu, gordon sondland, confirmed he was acting at the express direction of the president

when he pressured ukraine to conduct political investigations. he said the quid—pro—quo was directed by mr trump's attorney rudy guiliani. but mr sondland said the president never instructed him directly. 0ur north america editor jon sopel reports. the day a simmering pot boiler became a blockbuster drama, with this unlikely character as the leading man. gordon sondland, a wealthy hotelier, was made ambassador to the european union on the strength of $1 million donation to donald trump's inauguration committee. now he'd come under oath to eviscerate the president's account of his dealings with ukraine. i was acting in good faith. as a presidential appointee, i followed the directions of the president. we worked with mr giuliani because the president directed us to do so. we had no desire to set any conditions. we had no desire to set any conditions on the ukrainians.

the president has denied repeatedly there was a quid pro quo, or as democrats now call it, bribery. in other words, unless the ukrainians delivered what donald trump demanded, vital military aid and a white house meeting would be withheld. was there a quid pro quo? as i testified previously with regard to the requested white house call and the white house meeting, the answer is yes. and according to sondland, everyone was in on the plan — the president, the vice president, secretary of state, chief of staff. they all knew what was going on. everyone was in the loop. it was no secret. everyone was informed via e—mail on july 19th, days before the presidential call. but one important source of comfort for the white house — sondland said he never heard directly from the president conditioning aid on an enquiry into the bidens, and that's been seized on by the president, who had his script lines carefully prepared. ready?

you have the cameras rolling? i want nothing! that's what i want from ukraine. that's what i said. i want nothing! i said it twice. gordon sondland was faced with a binary choice in his evidence today. tie himself to donald trump, be vague about the decisions made and hope forfuture protection. or he could throw the president and his personal emissary, rudy giuliani, under the bus and take the vice president and secretary of state with them. he chose option two. it's hard to believe he will be eu ambassador for much longer. jon sopel, bbc news, washington. i asked the bbc‘s laura trevelyan in washington if ambassador sondland's testimony was a watershed moment. well, it's definitely highly significant because he said that he was working at the express direction of the president on ukraine and the president has been saying there was no quid pro

quo, no something for something when it came to ukraine. ambassador sondland said there was a quid pro quo but it was directed by rudy giuliani, the president's personal attorney and that quid pro quo was that ukraine had to announce investigations into the president's political rivals and the 2016 election for which they could get a visit to the white house, however republicans will be encouraged by the fact that gordon sondland didn't directly tie the idea that military aid to ukraine was withheld and he didn't directly tie it to the president, he said that he presumed that this is why the president wanted the ukrainians to announce an investigation and they wouldn't get military aid until they did but he didn't make that direct link to some, believe the republicans. the fact gordon sondland was merrily saying this wasn't a rogue diplomatic effort. it involved the secretary of state and did involve the vice—president so a lot

of denials coming out of the white house and the state department today. laura, yesterday, we were talking about the democrats and the republicans not being on the same page. was there more of the same today? yes, it was indeed. a lot of divisions. ambassador sondland was a slightly tricky witness for republicans because he was a donor to the trump inauguration, he is a trump appointee and so they weren't quite sure whether they should try to undermine him or they should try to get out of him the fact that he is linked with the president, maybe not as direct as democrats made out so it was a completely fascinating day and another big hearing tomorrow in the impeachment enquiry and how quickly things are going to move. are they going to draft articles of impeachment against the president, accuse him of bribery and say he is obstructing congress by not letting witnesses appear in front of this hearing? ambassador sondland, he appeared when he got a subpoena but other administration witnesses have

not, so the betting is that before christmas, there could be a vote on whether the house of representatives impeaches the president. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: cleaning up coral, we meet the divers who are hoping to dump the rubbish from indonesia's reefs. also in the programme, singapore's film festival kicks off with the story of an illicit love affair. we talk to the movie's main star. benazir bhutto has claimed victory in pakistan's general election, and she's asked pakistan's president to name her as prime minister. jackson's been released on bail of $3 million after turning himself in to police in santa barbara. it was the biggest demonstration so far of the fast—growing

european anti—nuclear movement. the south african government has announced that it's opening the country's remaining whites—only beaches to people of all races. this will lead to a black majority government in this country and the destruction of the white civilisation. part of the centuries—old windsor castle, one of the queen's residences, has been consumed by fire for much of the day. 150 firemen have been battling the blaze, which has caused millions of pounds worth of damage. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm rico hizon in singapore. i'm kasia madera in london. our top stories: queen elizabeth's son prince andrew has announced he's stepping back from public duties, amid renewed

controversy over his links with a convicted sex offender. a top us diplomat has told the trump impeachment inquiry he was acting under presidential orders, when pressuring ukraine to launch investigations against a rival. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world: singapore's straits times reports on a very close escape for one driver. he was trapped inside his car after a tree collapsed on his vehicle. but luckly he managed to escape unscathed, after being rescued by some helpful pedestrians. the japan times is wondering what's next for the record breaker, shinzo abe? on wednesday he became the country's longest serving prime minister. over the next two years he plans to focus on constitution reform and supporting the elderly. and, the new york times is looking

at the tropical plants growing into an obsession for some collectors. aroids, as they're known, have blossomed in popularity in recent years and their green fingered fans can't wait to get their hands on the most exotic foliage. let's return to the situation in hong kong, where some of the last protesters remaining at the besieged polytechnic university have tried to escape. here's aaron mc nicholas, the social media editor for bloomberg in hong kong, with an update on how many people are still inside. those still there have said in some cases they are determined to hold out for as long as possible. because despite the fact that the conditions there in terms of hygiene and in terms

of food supply are getting quite bad, those who are still there are quite fearful of the reaction and the way they will be handled by the police once they leave. this movement over the last five months has been characterised by allegations of politce brutality so there are quite a number of protesters who, although they do fear the idea of arrest in principle, they do fear how the police may treat them once the stand—off is over. there are dozens of protesters still holding out and despite intervention and despite intervention by religious leaders, they will hold out until the very end. can you tell us anymore about some of the attempts made by those who do want to escape but evade police? there is talks of them using the sewers to leave the campus. that happened in the last 2a hours. some tried to do that, escaping through the sewer system.

a dozen or so were successful but others and were either arrested or the conditions were understandably so unhygienic that they had no choice but to turn back. there were also cases on tuesday where because of the road structure next to the university, a few dozen were able to abseil down from the pedestrian footbridge onto a traffic footbridge and be taken away on motorcycles. a few dozen escaped by that means and others, once the police became aware of this escape method, were arrested once it was discovered. there have been some escape attempts that have been successful but since monday or tuesday about 1000 people have either left voluntarily, failed and the resistance effort to leave and have either been arrested or had details recorded because the arrangement now is that if you are under 18 and leave peacefully you can leave and go home without being arrested immediately. the police will record your identification details

and they reserve the right to pursue the investigation later. what information are you getting on those who have left and been arrested ? it certainly it is the case where the hong kong courts are logged with numerous cases, not simply related to those inside the university. on monday night and on tuesday night we also saw scenes where protesters outside the campus were surrounding the urban areas around it to try and break the police cordan in lines and provide an escape method for those still trapped. on monday night, those scenes led to widespread clashes with police and resulted in 200 people, at least, being arrested. so we have a situation where the courts are very much backlogged with cases and that will take time to process. i understand the courts sat

until late yesterday, for example. as you can tell, this is being handled as a law and order situation. local police say they want to end the stand—off peacefully and they have every intention of pursuing the legal matters to the fullest extent of the law. indonesia is the world's second largest contributor to marine waste. seeing the beautiful coral reefs off the coast of indonesia's capital drowning in plastic, 25 year—old swietenia puspa lestari decided to take action. she leads a team of volunteer divers, who clear rubbish from the reefs and recycle what they find.

two years after the head of the grammys said women need to "step up" if they wanted to be recognised, female artists are dominating the 2020 nominations. five of the eight album of the year nominees are women, ariana grande and lana del rey

among the front—runners. meanwhile, lizzo and billie eilish are shortlisted in all of the ceremony‘s "big four" categories: best new artist, best song, best record and best album. the grammys were mired in controversy in 2018, after only one woman won an award during the televised ceremony. the singapore international film festival kicks off on thursday with a movie from local writer—director anthony chen. wet season follows the illicit relationship between a school teacher and her young male student in singapore. the film's female star yeo yann yann is up for best leading actress at taiwan's prestigious golden horse awards, dubbed the "chinese 0scars". she's been telling me why she took the role. this is the second time i collaborate with anthony chen. we have really great experience working together. when he invited me and asked me whether i wanted to be in wet season i said yes.

even though he did not really want to cast me. he had already cast someone else and to him we are like family. so there is a little stitch in his heart. a family indeed. your co—star played your son in an another anthony chen film in 2013 which was award—winning. how did you prepare for this film? a kid who is now your co—star? i have to thank the audience first. the audience really loved this mother and son and it has already become an iconic mother and son. so for the director it was very difficult. kinda difficult for him. 0ffscreen he called you mummy! since he was 11. and now when we were filming he was 18. was it awkward? it is not.

the first time he was filming with me he was new, it was his first time so i helped him a little and said not to call him any other names, call me mummy. that was the first day when i met him. what about the issue of women in film? asian women in particular. what kind of issues and challenges you face in the film industry? in the film industry. i think in asia, i mean, i can only speak for malaysia and singapore. we do not have an industry yet. not a very big industry. 00:25:31,715 --> 2147483051:49:30,572 it is small and emerging 2147483051:49:30,572 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 industry so there are maybe