Hong Kong police officer shot with arrow during university siege - CNN

Hundreds of protesters with bricks, petrol bombs and makeshift barricades have held off riot police on roads surrounding the campus in the city's Hung Hom district, just across Victoria Harbor from Hong Kong Island, for hours. The authorities have responded with tear gas and water cannons in skirmishes that heated up Sunday afternoon.

As violence has escalated in recent days, protesters have begun using bows and arrows against the police, and authorities said a media liaison officer was hit in the leg with an arrow during a skirmish Sunday afternoon.

in a fiercely worded statement, the police labeled the group holding the university "rioters," a loaded term in Hong Kong's protests which carries a heavy prison sentence if convicted.

The man who was shot with an arrow is conscious and has been sent to hospital for treatment, according to the police statement.

Hong Kong's Polytechnic University is just one of a number of university campuses being used in the past week as a rallying point for Hong Kong's protest movement.

But unlike other campuses such as the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Polytechnic University sits in the center of the city, close to a number of major roads including a cross harbor tunnel.

In the past week, protesters have blocked these roads, severely disrupting the city's public transport system.

Polytechnic University is also less than 164 feet (50 meters) from a Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) base. So far there has been no sign that the country's military will be used to crack down on protesters.

University campuses fortified

The protests in Hong Kong have now been raging for almost six months after they began in June over a controversial China extradition bill, which sparked huge marches across the city.

When the government suspended but didn't withdraw the bill, the movement's focus quickly expanded to focus on complaints of police brutality and wider calls for democracy.

The protests took a turn in early November after the protest-related death of a 22-year-old student, the first since the demonstrations began. Protesters began to fortify university campuses across the city, holding off police with weapons ranging from bows and arrows and petrol bombs.

On Saturday night police attempted to clear the roads around Polytechnic University but were forced to back down after protesters started fires on the street and threw petrol bombs.

"They showed total disregard for the safety of everyone at scene," police said in a statement Sunday, confirming they tried to disperse the group using tear gas.

A 23-year-old protester and Polytechnic University alumni told CNN Sunday that they didn't have a plan and were just waiting to see how the police would react. "If we don't come out, no one will come out and protect our freedoms. Polytechnic University is my home," he said.

Protesters on Sunday were using catapults to launch bricks and other hard objects at police lines from the university's balconies. Their hold on the high ground made it difficult for police vehicles to advance under a hail of bricks and petrol bombs.

"Such attacks pose a grave threat to the safety of police officers, reporters and first aiders at the scene," said police in a statement, accusing protesters of firing petrol bombs and metal balls at their lines.

On Sunday the government announced that all schools would be shut again on Monday as protests were expected to continue across the city.

Protests escalate

With the both the government and the protesters refusing to back down, there is no immediate end in sight to the Hong Kong demonstrations.

Showing his dissatisfaction with the situation, Chinese President Xi Jinping made rare public comments on the demonstrations Thursday.

He said that "radical" protesters had trampled the city's rule of law and that "stopping the violence and restoring order" was Hong Kong's most "urgent task."

It came just hours before a 70-year-old man, who was struck by a brick during clashes between protesters and their opponents, died of his injuries. Police blamed protesters for throwing the item which killed him.

For the first time since the start of the demonstrations in June, China's People's Liberation Army hit the streets of Hong Kong on Saturday but only to clear up barricades and debris.

Even that incursion was enough to spur pro-democracy lawmakers in Hong Kong to push for an explanation from the city's government.

Chinese soldiers' efforts to clear road blocks outside their barracks in Kowloon Tong was "purely a voluntary community activity initiated by themselves," the Hong Kong SAR government said in a statement to CNN.

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2019-11-17 09:42:00Z
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Hong Kong police officer shot with arrow during university siege - CNN

Hundreds of protesters with bricks, petrol bombs and makeshift barricades are holding off riot police on roads surrounding the campus in the city's Hung Hom district, just across Victoria Harbor from Hong Kong Island. The authorities have responded with tear gas and water cannons in skirmishes that heated up Sunday afternoon.

As violence has escalated in recent days, protesters have begun using bows and arrows against the police and authorities said a media liaison officer was hit in the leg with an arrow during a skirmish Sunday afternoon.

He is conscious and has been sent to hospital for treatment, according to a police statement.

Hong Kong's Polytechnic University is just one of a number of university campuses being used in the past week as a rallying point for Hong Kong's protest movement.

But unlike other campuses such as the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Polytechnic University sits in the center of the city, close to a number of major roads including a cross harbor tunnel.

In the past week, protesters have blocked these roads, severely disrupting the city's public transport system.

Polytechnic University is also less than 164 feet (50 meters) from a Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) base. So far there has been no sign that the country's military will be used to crack down on protesters.

The protests in Hong Kong have now been raging for almost six months after they began in June over a controversial China extradition bill, which sparked huge marches across the city.

When the government suspended but didn't withdraw the bill, the movement's focus quickly expanded to focus on complaints of police brutality and wider calls for democracy.

The protests took a turn in early November after the protest-related death of a 22-year-old student, the first since the demonstrations began. Protesters began to fortify university campuses across the city, holding off police with weapons ranging from bows and arrows and petrol bombs.

On Saturday night police attempted to clear the roads around Polytechnic University but were forced to back down after protesters started fires on the street and threw petrol bombs.

"They showed total disregard for the safety of everyone at scene," police said in a statement Sunday, confirming they tried to disperse the group using tear gas.

A 23-year-old protester and Polytechnic University alumni told CNN that they didn't have a plan and were just waiting to see how the police would react. "If we don't come out, no one will come out and protect our freedoms. Polytechnic University is my home," he said.

On Sunday the government announced that all schools would be shut again on Monday as protests were expected to continue across the city.

Protests escalate

With the both the government and the protesters refusing to back down, there is no immediate end in sight to the Hong Kong demonstrations.

Showing his dissatisfaction with the situation, Chinese President Xi Jinping made rare public comments on the demonstrations Thursday.

He said that "radical" protesters had trampled the city's rule of law and that "stopping the violence and restoring order" was Hong Kong's most "urgent task."

It came just hours before a 70-year-old man, who was struck by a brick during clashes between protesters and their opponents, died of his injuries. Police blamed protesters for throwing the item which killed him.

For the first time since the start of the demonstrations in June, China's People's Liberation Army hit the streets of Hong Kong on Saturday but only to clear up barricades and debris.

Even that incursion was enough to spur pro-democracy lawmakers in Hong Kong to push for an explanation from the city's government.

Chinese soldiers' efforts to clear road blocks outside their barracks in Kowloon Tong was "purely a voluntary community activity initiated by themselves," the Hong Kong SAR government said in a statement to CNN.

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2019-11-17 08:45:00Z
52780435950054

Hong Kong police officer shot with arrow during university siege - CNN

Hundreds of protesters with bricks, petrol bombs and makeshift barricades are holding off riot police on roads surrounding the campus in the city's Hung Hom district, just across Victoria Harbor from Hong Kong Island. The authorities have responded with tear gas and water cannons in skirmishes that heated up Sunday afternoon.

As violence has escalated in recent days, protesters have begun using bows and arrows against the police and authorities said a media liaison officer was hit in the leg with an arrow during a skirmish Sunday afternoon.

He is conscious and has been sent to hospital for treatment, according to a police statement.

Hong Kong's Polytechnic University is just one of a number of university campuses being used in the past week as a rallying point for Hong Kong's protest movement.

But unlike other campuses such as the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Polytechnic University sits in the center of the city, close to a number of major roads including a cross harbor tunnel.

In the past week, protesters have blocked these roads, severely disrupting the city's public transport system.

The protests in Hong Kong have now been raging for almost six months after they began in June over a controversial China extradition bill, which sparked huge marches across the city.

When the government suspended but didn't withdraw the bill, the movement's focus quickly expanded to focus on complaints of police brutality and wider calls for democracy.

The protests took a turn in early November after the protest-related death of a 22-year-old student, the first since the demonstrations began. Protesters began to fortify university campuses across the city, holding off police with weapons ranging from bows and arrows and petrol bombs.

On Saturday night police attempted to clear the roads around Polytechnic University but were forced to back down after protesters started fires on the street and threw petrol bombs.

"They showed total disregard for the safety of everyone at scene," police said in a statement Sunday, confirming they tried to disperse the group using tear gas.

A 23-year-old protester and Polytechnic University alumni told CNN that they didn't have a plan and were just waiting to see how the police would react. "If we don't come out, no one will come out and protect our freedoms. Polytechnic University is my home," he said.

On Sunday the government announced that all schools would be shut again on Monday as protests were expected to continue across the city.

Protests escalate

With the both the government and the protesters refusing to back down, there is no immediate end in sight to the Hong Kong demonstrations.

Showing his dissatisfaction with the situation, Chinese President Xi Jinping made rare public comments on the demonstrations Thursday.

He said that "radical" protesters had trampled the city's rule of law and that "stopping the violence and restoring order" was Hong Kong's most "urgent task."

It came just hours before a 70-year-old man, who was struck by a brick during clashes between protesters and their opponents, died of his injuries. Police blamed protesters for throwing the item which killed him.

For the first time since the start of the demonstrations in June, China's People's Liberation Army hit the streets of Hong Kong on Saturday but only to clear up barricades and debris.

Even that incursion was enough to spur pro-democracy lawmakers in Hong Kong to push for an explanation from the city's government.

Chinese soldiers' efforts to clear road blocks outside their barracks in Kowloon Tong was "purely a voluntary community activity initiated by themselves," the Hong Kong SAR government said in a statement to CNN.

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2019-11-17 08:32:00Z
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China's PLA soldiers on Hong Kong streets in 'voluntary' clean-up - Al Jazeera English

Soldiers belonging to China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) have briefly left their barracks to help Hong Kong residents clean up debris left over from anti-government demonstrations in a rare and highly symbolic troop movement unsolicited by the city's embattled government.

Saturday's action saw scores of soldiers from the garrison sporting crewcuts and identical gym kits conduct a lightning-quick removal of bricks and debris near their base, the AFP news agency reported.

More:

Confirming the brief deployment on Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media platform, the PLA said it acted to open a debris-strewn road outside their Kowloon Tong barracks to traffic, winning "applause from residents" in the process.

A city spokesman meanwhile said the Hong Kong government did not request assistance from the PLA, which has previously stayed confined to its garrison during months of protests, but the military initiated the operation as a "voluntary community activity".

The presence of PLA troops on Hong Kong's streets could stoke further controversy over the Chinese-ruled territory's semi-autonomous status. 

Demosisto, a pro-democracy organisation, said Saturday's clean-up operation could set a "grave precedent" if the city's government invites the military to deal with internal problems, the Reuters news agency reported.

The developments followed some of the worst violence seen during more than five months of anti-government demonstrations after a police operation against protesters at the Chinese University of Hong Kong on Tuesday.

The authorities have since largely stayed away from at least five university campuses that had been barricaded by thousands of students and activists who stockpiled petrol bombs, catapults, bows and arrows and other weapons.

Many protesters appeared to have left the campuses by late Saturday, though some remained behind to man barricades. Hong Kong's Cross-Harbour Tunnel was still blocked by protesters occupying Polytechnic University.

Months of unrest

The months-long protests that have rocked Hong Kong have been fuelled by widespread anger at the perceived Communist Party meddling in the former British colony, which was guaranteed its freedoms when it returned to the Chinese rule in 1997.

The protests started against a now shelved bill to allow extradition to China but have billowed into wider calls for democracy.

Beijing, for its part, denies interfering in Hong Kong and has blamed the unrest on foreign influences.

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Chinese state media repeatedly broadcast comments made on Thursday by President Xi Jinping, in which he denounced the unrest and said "controlling chaos while restoring order" was the territory's "most urgent task".

Carrie Lam, Hong Kong's chief executive, has meanwhile condemned protesters as the "enemy of the people".

In recent weeks, clashes between protesters and police have become increasingly violent. 

Two people have died this month as the clashes intensified, while the financial hub has been pushed into a recession by the turmoil.

A 70-year-old street cleaner died on Thursday after being hit on the head by brick police said had been thrown by rioters. On Monday, police blamed a rioter for dousing a man in petrol and setting him on fire. The victim is in critical condition.

On the same day, police shot a protester in the abdomen. He was in a stable condition as of Saturday.

Several streets remain strewn with debris, barricades and scarred by scorch marks from petrol bombs thrown during the demonstrations.

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2019-11-16 15:03:00Z
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Prince Andrew: I stayed friends with Jeffrey Epstein because he was 'too honorable' - New York Post

Prince Andrew stayed friends with convicted billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein because he was “too honorable” to end the relationship, The Duke of York told the BBC.

The royal — who was photographed at Epstein’s Manhattan mansion as recently as 2010 and is accused of having sex with one of his alleged underage victims — said he stayed at the pervert’s lair for the sake of “convenience.”

The photos of the prince peeking his head out from behind the front door of the Upper East Side townhouse were taken just months after Epstein’s Florida prison sentence on charges of soliciting an underage girl for prostitution.

“It was a convenient place to stay. I mean I’ve gone through this in my mind so many times,” he told the BBC’s Emily Maitlis in an interview set to air Saturday. “At the end of the day, with a benefit of all the hindsight that one can have, it was definitely the wrong thing to do.”

The prince blamed his admittedly faulty decision making on his strong sense of loyalty.

“At the time I felt it was the honorable and right thing to do, and I admit fully that my judgement was probably colored by my tendency to be too honorable, but that’s just the way it is,” he said.

The royal also denied claims he slept with alleged Epstein sex slave Virginia Roberts Guiffre.

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2019-11-16 15:00:00Z
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Fact check: A list of 45 ways Trump has been dishonest about Ukraine and impeachment - CNN

Relentless deceit has seemed to be his primary defense strategy in the court of public opinion. Trump has made false claims about almost every separate component of the story, from his July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the whistleblower who complained about the call to Democrats' impeachment inquiry hearings.

The President is dissembling about so many different topics at once that it can be difficult to keep track of what is true and what isn't. To help you fight Trump-induced dizziness, here are brief fact checks of 45 separate false claims Trump has made on the subject of Ukraine or impeachment.

The phone call with Zelensky

1. Trump released an "exact transcript" of his call with Zelensky. (The document says on its first page that it is "not a verbatim transcript.")

2. Trump did not ask Zelensky for anything on the call. (Trump asked Zelensky to look into former Vice President Joe Biden, look into a debunked conspiracy theory about Democratic computer servers, and speak with his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr.)

3. Zelensky criticized former US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch "out of the blue" on the call. (Trump brought up Yovanovitch first.)

4. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was "angry" when she saw the rough transcript of the call, and she said, "This is not what the whistleblower said." (Pelosi has said no such thing in public, and there is no evidence she has said anything like that in private. Her public statement on the call was scathing.)

5. "Everybody" that looked at the text of the call agreed that it was "perfect." (Some of Trump's staunch defenders agreed with this characterization, but clearly not "everybody" did.)

6. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke to Trump about the call and said, "That was the most innocent phone call that I've read." (McConnell said he doesn't recall speaking to Trump about the call. His public statement on the call was far less effusive than Trump's description.)

7. People are not talking about the call anymore. (People continue to talk about the call, a central focus of the impeachment inquiry.)

8. The Washington Post made up fictional sources for its article on how Trump had allegedly tried to get Barr to hold a news conference saying Trump had broken no laws in the call. (There is no evidence that the Post invented sources. Other major news outlets, including CNN, quickly reported the same thing the Post did.)

The whistleblower

9. The whistleblower was "sooo wrong." (The rough transcript and witness testimony have proven the whistleblower to have been highly accurate.)

10. The whistleblower, a second whistleblower and the first whistleblower's source have all "disappeared." (There is no evidence for this. Whistleblowers do not have an obligation to speak publicly after filing their complaints.)

11. The whistleblower had "all second hand" information. (While the whistleblower did get information about the call from other people, the whistleblower also had "direct knowledge of certain alleged conduct," noted Michael Atkinson, the Trump-appointed inspector general for the intelligence community.)

12. The whistleblower "said 'quid pro quo' eight times." (The whistleblower did not even use the words "quid pro quo" in the complaint, much less specify a number of times Trump allegedly said those words. Trump may have been referring to a Wall Street Journal article that had asserted that Trump urged Zelensky "about eight times to work with Rudy Giuliani" on a probe that could hurt Biden; the article did not say this claim came from the whistleblower.)

13. The whistleblower "works now for Biden." (There is no evidence for this. The whistleblower's lawyers said their client has never worked for or advised a candidate, campaign or party; the lawyers said the whistleblower has come into contact with presidential candidates for both parties while working as a civil servant in the executive branch.)

14. Someone "changed the long standing whistleblower rules" just before this whistleblower submitted their complaint. (Contrary to a report on a right-wing website, the whistleblower rules were not changed.)

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff

15. Schiff committed "a criminal act" by delivering an exaggerated interpretation of Trump's July 25 call at a committee hearing. (The Constitution gives members of Congress immunity for comments they make at committee.)

16. Schiff did have immunity for his comments at the committee, but not when he tweeted a video of those comments. (Experts say members of Congress also have immunity for videos of their comments at committee.)

17. Schiff might have committed "treason." (Treason has a specific constitutional definition that Schiff's actions do not come close to meeting.)

18. Schiff made his comments before Trump released the rough transcript of the call, not expecting Trump to release it. (Schiff spoke the day after Trump released the document.)

19. Schiff "didn't use one word that I said" in his rendition of the call. (Schiff did add words Trump had never said, but he didn't make up the whole thing; some of his remarks hewed closely to what Trump said.)

20. Schiff might have been the whistleblower's source. (This is nonsense. The whistleblower said in the complaint that information about the call came from "multiple White House officials with direct knowledge of the call.")

21. Schiff might have picked the whistleblower. (The whistleblower sought guidance from Schiff's committee before filing their complaint, but Schiff didn't "pick" the whistleblower.)

22. Schiff "will only release doctored transcripts." (Schiff has already released multiple transcripts of testimony from closed-door impeachment inquiry hearings, and there was no sign that any of them had been "doctored." Witnesses and their lawyers were given the opportunity to verify the accuracy of the transcripts prior to release, and Republicans who attended the testimony did not allege that any transcripts had been improperly altered.)

The impeachment process

23. Republicans were not allowed into the closed-door impeachment inquiry hearings. (Republican members of the three committees holding the hearings were allowed into the room and to ask questions of witnesses. Only Republicans who were not on the committees were barred from the room.)

24. Republicans were not allowed to ask questions in the closed-door hearings. (Republicans were allowed to ask questions. Democrats and Republicans alternated questioning.)

25. Nobody else has ever faced closed-door impeachment hearings. (Both the Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton impeachment processes involved some closed-door hearings.)

26. Trump's opponents have committed "illegal acts" related to impeachment. (Trump wasn't clear about who he was talking about, but there is no evidence of illegality by either the whistleblower or Democrats.)

27. The people who have testified in the impeachment inquiry have had "no firsthand knowledge." (Various witnesses have had firsthand knowledge of various components of the story.)

28. Gordon Sondland, ambassador to the European Union, still says there was "no quid pro quo." (Sondland revised his original testimony to effectively acknowledge his belief that there had been a quid pro quo.)

29. Unlike Democrats, former House Speaker Paul Ryan "would never issue a subpoena." (Numerous Republican subpoenas were issued to the Obama administration during Ryan's tenure as speaker.)

30. "Many" of the people who had testified as of October 21 "were put there during Obama, during Clinton, during the Never Trump or Bush era." (FactCheck.org noted that just two of the nine people who had testified at that point had been appointed under Obama. The other seven were appointed by Trump or his appointees.)

The Bidens

31. Joe Biden, along with his son Hunter Biden, has "ripped off at least two countries for millions of dollars." (There is no evidence Joe Biden has profited from his son's business dealings abroad.)

32. A video of Joe Biden speaking in 2018 about his past dealings with Ukraine is evidence of "corruption." (The tape does not show corruption. It shows Biden talking about his effort, in accordance with the policy of the US and its allies, to pressure Ukraine into firing a prosecutor widely considered unwilling to fight corruption.)

33. There is a photo of Joe Biden playing golf with "the company boss" of Burisma, the Ukrainian company for which Hunter Biden sat on the board. (Neither Burisma's owner nor chief executive is in the photo. The person Trump had identified as a "Ukraine gas exec" was Devon Archer, another American board member at Burisma and a longtime business associate of Hunter Biden.)

34. That golf photo contradicts Joe Biden's claim to have "never met the gentleman." (Joe Biden had not claimed to have never met Devon Archer.)

35. Hunter Biden was under investigation by the Ukrainian prosecutor who Joe Biden pressured Ukraine to fire. (There is no public evidence that Hunter Biden was ever himself under investigation. The prosecutor's former deputy has said that the actual investigation, into the owner of Burisma, was dormant at the time of Joe Biden's pressure.)

36. Biden pressured Ukraine to take the prosecutor "off the case." (There is no evidence that Biden ever called on Ukraine to remove the prosecutor from the Burisma case. Rather, Biden, like the US government more broadly, tried to get the prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, fired.)

37. Before Joe Biden denied that he had spoken to Hunter Biden about Hunter's overseas business activities, Joe Biden had said he did speak to Hunter about those business activities. (Joe Biden had not said he did speak to Hunter Biden about those business activities. Hunter Biden said they had one brief conversation in which Joe Biden asked him if he knew what he was doing.)

38. Hunter Biden's acts were "illegal." (Hunter Biden has acknowledged using "poor judgment" in accepting the seat on the Burisma board, but there is no evidence of illegality.)

Dealings with Ukraine

39. Trump "didn't delay" the military aid to Ukraine. (His administration did delay the aid.)

40. Democratic senators sent a letter to Ukraine that threatened to deny US aid if the Ukrainians did not comply with their demands. (The letter did not make any threat to Ukraine. The senators expressed concern about a New York Times report that Ukraine had, to avoid Trump's wrath, stopped cooperating with the Mueller investigation and frozen investigations into former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. The letter urged Ukraine to reverse course if the report was true.)

41. President Barack Obama sent mere "pillows and sheets" in aid to Ukraine. (Trump was correct that Obama refused to provide lethal military assistance, but Obama sent other military assistance: drones, armored Humvees, counter-mortar radars, night vision devices and medical supplies.)

42. The US is the "only" country providing assistance to Ukraine, and "nobody else is there." (European countries have provided billions in grants and loans to Ukraine since Russia's 2014 invasion.)

43. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike is primarily owned by someone from Ukraine. (CrowdStrike is a publicly traded, US-based company co-founded by Dmitri Alperovitch, an American citizen who was born in Russia.)

44. Impeachment has caused Trump's poll numbers to go "way up" to "higher than they've ever been, ever." (There has been no sign of a significant increase in Trump's poll numbers. His approval rating has fallen slightly since the Ukraine scandal began, according to FiveThirtyEight's poll aggregate.)

45. It was "announced" that a Fox News poll showing majority support for impeaching and removing Trump from office was "incorrect." (Fox News says it stands by the poll.)

CNN's Tara Subramaniam, Holmes Lybrand and Ryan Browne contributed to this article.

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2019-11-16 14:12:00Z
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Sarah Ferguson praises ex Prince Andrew for tell-all interview: He's 'a true and real gentleman' - Fox News

Prince Andrew sat down for a "no-holds-barred interview" interview this week during which he discussed his friendship with now-deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the sexual assault allegations made against him.

In a move to show solidarity, the British royal's ex-wife and mother to his children, Sarah Ferguson, took to social media to praise his candidness in the conversation with BBC Newsnight's Emily Maitlis.

PRINCE ANDREW'S LINK TO JEFFREY EPSTEIN DRAWS NEW SCRUTINY AFTER SUICIDE, DOCUMENT DUMP

"It is so rare to meet people that are able to speak from their hearts with honesty+pure real truth, that remain steadfast and strong to their beliefs," she wrote on Friday.

"Andrew is a true+real gentleman and is stoically steadfast to not only his duty but also his kindness + goodness @TheDukeOfYork." They were married from 1986 to 1996.

The Duke of York, 59, admitted: “I kick myself ... on a daily basis” for being friends with and staying with Epstein on multiple occasions.

PRINCE ANDREW 'APPALLED' BY JEFFREY EPSTEIN CLAIMS DESPITE VIDEO OF ROYAL LEAVING MANHATTAN MANSION IN 2010

“I stayed with him and that’s [something] 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 practices and I let the side down, simple as that,” the second son of Queen Elizabeth said.

Prince Andrew also addressed his relationship (or lack thereof) with Virginia Roberts (now Virginia Giuffre), who alleged that she was forced to have sex with the Duke of York three times between 1999 and 2002 in London and on Epstein's private island in the Caribbean.

EPSTEIN'S ATTORNEYS 'NOT SATISFIED' WITH AUTOPSY RESULTS THAT CONCLUDED FINANCIER DIED BY HANGING

“I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever,” he said.

Giuffre claimed that Epstein paid her to have sex with the British royal and she was just 17 years old during her first experience.

In August, Buckingham Palace said in a statement that Andrew was "appalled by the recent reports of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged crimes," which include the sex trafficking of girls as young as 14 years old.

JEFFREY EPSTEIN ACCUSER SAYS PRINCE ANDREW ‘SHOULD GO TO JAIL' IN NEW INTERVIEW

“His Royal Highness deplores the exploitation of any human being and the suggestion he would condone, participate in or encourage any such behavior is abhorrent,” the palace said.

Epstein, 66, died in jail Aug. 10 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges, with prosecutors alleging that he sexually abused girls over several years in the early 2000s.

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"Prince Andrew & the Epstein Scandal" will air on BBC 2 at 9 p.m. on Saturday. It is not clear when the program will air in the U.S.

Fox News' Frank Miles and Travis Fedschun contributed to this report.

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2019-11-16 14:17:49Z
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