And stranding thousands of tourists. Get in touch with us using the hashtag. Hello and welcome im katty kay in washington and Christian Fraser is in london. She looked nervous, he was rather awkward it was a typical engagement announcement. Except that hes a british prince and shes an american actress. All of which excites americans who cant get enough today of Meghan Markle and prince harry announcing theyre getting married. They made their First Official engagement appearance this afternoon she wore a ring he had designed. The diamond by the way comes from botswana. And its surrounded by two diamonds from his late mothers personal collection. The statement from harrys father, prince charles, said his Royal Highness the prince of wales is delighted to announce the engagement of prince harry to ms Meghan Markle. The wedding will take place in spring 2018. The queen and Prince Phillip said they were delighted for the couple and wished them every happiness. The new royal couple have just given their first interview to our colleague mishal hussein. How did you first meet . Er. Yes, we first met. We were introduced, actually, by a mutual friend, who we will. We should protect her privacy. Protect her privacy, yeah. A little too much of that. And, but, it was literally through her, and then we met once and then twice back to back, two dates, in london lastjuly, beginning ofjuly, and then it was i think about three, maybe four, weeks later that i managed to persuade her to come and join me in botswana, and we camped out with each other under the stars, and we spent. She came and joined me for five days out there, which was absolutely fantastic. So, then we were really by ourselves, which was crucial, to me, to make sure that we had a chance to get to know each other. Your friend who introduced you was she trying to set you up . Yes, it was definitely a setup. It was a blind date. It was a blind date, for sure. And its so interesting because we talk about it now, and even then, you know, because im from the states, you dont grow up with the same understanding of the royal family, and so, while i now understand very clearly there is a global interest there, i didnt know much about him, and so the only thing i had asked her when she said she wanted to set us up was one question i said, is he nice . Because if he wasnt kind, it didnt seem like it would make sense, so we went and met for a drink, and i think very quickly into that, in the case of your relationship, unlike for most people, theres this whole layer of what it means to get involved with someone from the royal family. How much of a sense did you have, meghan, of the enormity of what you were getting into and what it might mean for your life . I think i can very safely say, as naive as it sounds now, having gone through this learning curve in the past year and a half, i did not have any understanding ofjust what it would be like. I dont think either of us did. Weve both said that. Even though we knew that it would be. I tried to warn you as much as possible, but i think both of us were totally surprised by the reaction after the first five or six months that we had to ourselves of what would actually happen from then, so you can have as many conversations as you want and try and prepare as much as possible, but we were totally unprepared for what happened after that. The scrutiny. Well, all sorts. I think also because. Theres a misconception that, because i worked in the entertainment industry, that this would be something i would be familiar with. Even though id been on my show for six years at that point, and working before that, ive never been part of tabloid culture, never been in pop culture to that degree, and lived a relatively quiet life, even though i focused so much on myjob, so that was a really stark difference out of the gate, but. And i think we were just hit so hard at the beginning with a lot of mistruths that i made the choice to not read anything. Positive or negative, itjust didnt make sense. Instead, we focused all of our energiesjust on nurturing our relationship. 0n us, yeah. 0n us. And some of that scrutiny and you ended up making a very Public Statement about it some of that scrutiny was centred around your ethnicity, meghan. When you realised that, what did you think . Of course its disheartening, you know. Its a shame that that is the climate, in this world, to focus on that, or be discriminatory in that sense. But i think, at the end of the day, im reallyjust proud of who i am and where i come from, and we have never put any focus on that. Weve just focused on who we are as a couple, and so, when you take all those extra layers away, and all of that noise, i think it makes it really easy to just enjoy being together, and tune all the rest of that out. What was it like introducing meghan to your father and your brother . Um. What was it like . It was exciting. I mean, id been seeing herfor a period of time when i literally didnt tell anybody at all, and then william was longing to meet her, and so was catherine, and being our neighbours, we managed to get that in quite a few times now, and catherines been absolutely amazing. Shes been wonderful. As has william as well. Theyve been fantastic support. And then my father as well, weve had a couple. No, more than that. A handful of teas and meetings and all sorts of gatherings over at his place as well, so the family together have been absolutely solid support, and my grandparents as well have been wonderful throughout this whole process. And you met the queen . Yes, i have a couple of times. Whats that like . Its incredible. First, to be able to meet her, through his lens, notjust with his honour and respect for her as the monarch but the love he has for her as his grandmother, those layers have been important for me so when i met her i had a deep understanding and of course incredible respect for having that time with her. Weve had a really. Shes an incredible woman. And the corgis took to you straight away the last 33 years of being barked at, this one, walking in, the corgis. Tell us about the ring. The ring is obviously yellow gold, because thats herfavourite, and the main stone itself i sourced from botswana, and the little diamonds either side are from my mothers jewellery collection, to make sure that she is with us on this crazyjourney together. Its beautiful. And he designed it. Its incredible. Yeah. Make sure it stays on that finger of course. What does it mean to you, meghan, to have those stones on your finger that once belonged to Princess Diana . I think everything about harrys thoughtfulness and the inclusion of that, and obviously not being able to meet his mom, its so important to me to know that shes a part of this with us, what do you think your mother would have thought of meghan, or said about meghan . Theyd be thick as thieves, without question. I mean, she would be over the moon, jumping up and down, so excited for me, but then, would probably have been best friends with meghan, so it is days like today when i really miss having her around and being able to share the happy news, but with the ring and Everything Else thats going on, im sure shes with us, you know, jumping up and down somewhere else. Prince harry, Meghan Markle, thank you both very much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Christian, i know you are a big romantic. Tell me you didnt love that lets get some stateside reaction to todays announcement from charlotte triggs. Shes a Senior Editor at People Magazine and joins us now from new york. Charlotte, listening to Meghan Markle, she is articulate, poised, seems very confident, her life is about to change dramatically. How much does it change the whole equation that she is an american . You know, ithink equation that she is an american . You know, i think itjust makes it even more of a dramatic story. Kate first met william when they were stu d e nts first met william when they were students together, people knew her for yea rs students together, people knew her for years and years. Meghan is really quite unknown and the fact that she is an american who is having this fairy tale experience, i think all the women out there are able to project their own kind of fa ntasy o nto able to project their own kind of fantasy onto her of meeting a prince of foreign lands and getting married and becoming royal. There was a huge amount of attention here paid to diana when kate and william got married, that was a big story here in the United States. For your readers, is this going to be as big a deal . Yes, i think this is a huge deal because, you know, it is not everyday that you have someone like this, an american actress, from relatively Humble Beginnings he gets to become if not a princess, a duchess. Part of the family. It is something that really captivates this country. People are really not. We dont have the culture of royalty in United States ourselves. The closest we had was probably the kennedys and saw people love to imagine this life of cassells and diamonds and royals that is not something you get to see here every day so i think it is a big deal as people, you know, has covered the royals for years and years. We had diana on our royals for years and years. We had diana on oui cover royals for years and years. We had diana on our cover 58 times, she was on our cover more diana on our cover 58 times, she was on oui cover more than anyone diana on our cover 58 times, she was on our cover more than anyone else, so on our cover more than anyone else, soi on our cover more than anyone else, so i think there is a great addition in this country of royal watching, as it were. Do you think your magazine and others will start to look at the history of its . The last time an american marries a royal was when edward viii time an american marries a royal was when edward v was forced to abdicate after marrying wallis simpson. Times are very different now and so i wonder if the americans would say this is really the royal family coming into the modern age . Right, | family coming into the modern age . Right, i think that is totally true. The fact of the matter is that she is not your traditional candidate to be someone marrying into the family. She is divorced which was previously something they didnt really go for but the fact of the matter is that it isa but the fact of the matter is that it is a new age, a new generation and both william and harry have decided that they want to kind of ta ke decided that they want to kind of take control of their lives and marry who they want to marry and i think it has really shown how much the royal family has changed since those days that people would be forced to abdicate the throne. Charlotte triggs, thank you very much for coming in. And you can see the full interview on the bbc news channel and bbc world news from 8 30pm gmt in about an hour and 20 minutes time. Al franken, the democratic senator from minnesota, says hes embarrassed and ashamed by his behaviour towards women. Four women have now accused him of Sexual Misconduct and hell be the subject of an ethics investigation. Just a short time ago, franken spoke outside his Senate Office saying he has been doing a lot of reflecting and he again apologized for his actions. I know that ive let a lot of people down, the people of minnesota, my colleagues, my staff, my supporters and everyone who has counted on me to bea and everyone who has counted on me to be a champion for women. To all of you, ijust want to again say i am sorry. Senator franken isnt the only elected official in the us having to answer allegations against him. On sunday, congressmanjohn conyers stepped down as the ranking democrat on the housejudiciary committee. The civil rights hero had to give up his powerful position pending an investigation into Sexual Misconduct. All this as roy moore continues his run to become a us senator from alabama after multiple women have come forward alleging Sexual Harassment, some while they were minors. Joining us now isjournalist jay newton small, who has covered congress and is author of broad influence how women are changing the way america works. Thank you for coming in. What is interesting, i think about the al franken case is it has raised here in the states at least the whole issue of relativity around Sexual Harassment. Are some allegations worse than others . Xl apologises profusely, does that somehow exonerate them later on . Is al franken is sort of sign of the evolving to meet all Sexual Harassment . I think there should be two categories. 0ne harassment . I think there should be two categories. One should be for roy moore. Aged to be a bipartisan issue where americans would say abusing a child was very different than just has the state make sexually harassing women or other people versus people like al franken oi people versus people like al franken or really the president himself, donald trump, and any number of other politicians who have been accused of this. Those are people who have been accused of potentially groping or touching inappropriately women and, yes, there are definitely different kinds and Different Levels of rate so some people have been accused of using power to abuse women, saying too much younger women, saying too much younger women, 19 or 20 rowsjust beginning their careers that they would have a career as they sleep with him, that sort of thing. But there is a question of whether there should be a different standard for a sitting senator like al franken and if you have been elected to office, you to hold yourself to a higher standard. No doubt, it is a huge debate in America Today i do not know. You look at hollywood and the media, no question, the minute these accusations come out, you are out. This is not what we do, it is not good for business. In politics, things are much murkier because there are questions about allegations being politically motivated, someone potentially being paid to say these things coming into play and that is why there is an investigation and are the steps where you can go to ethics committees to have an arbitrator to understand who is at fault here and whether these people should step down, whether they should be penalised or not. Christian, i hear this is much more widespread than you might imagine on capitol hill. I wonder if perhaps one of the problems might be how they have historically been investigated. I read about an archaic law that said later had of confidentiality and more than that the boy is going to be settlements, the sect sick bag settle m e nts be settlements, the sect sick bag settlements are kept the settle m e nts settlements are kept the settlements are kept the settlements are kept the settlements are kept confidential. We have a gruff year of settlements from the last ten years. This is the amount of money that had been paid out to various women. The figure is 934,000 paid out in 2017. I am trying to think what would happen here in the uk taxpayers were told that there was a slush fund for paying out to Sexual Harassment victims. It is absolutely unquestionable that this process needs to be completely overhauled andi needs to be completely overhauled and i think there is agreement on capitol hill but not enough is being done. There is a huge amount of outrage that taxpayer money would be involved, these agreements were kept secret and that is both sides of the aisle. You hear it from everybody including leadership, even the republicans, so there is no question that there will be a very close examining of this process and it will be overhauled but the question as to what extent and that remains to be seen. Thank you for coming in. That is an extraordinary point that she was making, you could make a complaint against someone youre working for, a senator or congressman and then you would be sitting in the same office while this 30 day period elapsed and you we re this 30 day period elapsed and you were talking to the lawyers and you would still have to work with this person and there would be no person in between you and a senator or congressmen that you could talk to. Yes, i went through the steps that it took to file a complaint of Sexual Harassment in the us congress and it is still identifying and cobb located and lengthy, the whole process , located and lengthy, the whole process, that in all wonder women dont apply. Not only is there at the time of working in the office of someone you have the time of working in the office of someone you have already accused of Sexual Harassment but youre not allowed to talk to anyone, not your lawyer and not your therapist potentially about what is going on so potentially about what is going on so really it is a process that is almost made to feel and made to me that the accusers never come forward and file complaints against men who are very powerful and this is the complaint about capitol hill and westminster, it is an institution where there are a lot of men, a disproportionate number of men in powerful positions and young women who depend on those men for their careers. Yes, it is about getting the system in place that works. This week is a critical one for the brexit negotiations and right now the issue of ireland is the biggest obstacle to progress. The Irish Government says it wont accept any brexit outcome that leads to a hard border between north and south. The irish hold a veto if they dont like the way the talks are going. An added complication is a corruption investigation in ireland that threatens to bring down the minority government of Prime Minister leo varadkar. There is a confidence vote in parliament tomorrow. If it goes the wrong way for mr varadkar we could be looking at a snap election before christmas . Werejoined now from dublin by the irish minister for local government and Electoral Reform john paul phelan. Very good to see you, thank you for coming on the programme. I know that you have put the onus for this on the British Government. Brexit is there doing, so they have to come up with a solution, but what would be a solution that woul