welcome to bbc news. i'm tom donkin. our top stories: the desperate search for survivors in colombia — bad weather hampers efforts after a landslide kills more than 250 people. power politics in venezuela — president maduro claims the credit as protestors call on the supreme court to reinstate the authority of the congress. as britain vows to protect gibraltar during brexit negotiations — spain insists it will have a direct say on the territory. and — after he was lost for words — bob dylan finally collects his nobel prize for literature. hello.

a landslide in southern colombia has left more than two—hundred and fifty people dead. police and rescue teams are at the scene but their efforts are being hampered by bad weather. many people are still missing and it's feared the number of people who lost their lives could rise. the local governor has called the situation in the southern city of mo—coa "an unprecedented tragedy". sangita myska reports. urged on by soldiers, people living in the city of mocoa run for their lives. there is no time to collect possessions, because this is what's coming. deadly mudslides have engulfed parts of southern colombia, submerging homes, businesses and people. as rescuers continue the search for survivors, the president today declared a state of emergency across the region. unusually heavy rains flooded the mocoa river, bursting its banks and those of three tributaries.

it created what eyewitnesses called an avalanche of mud that has pulled buildings apart, devastating towns and leaving residents amazed and appalled in equal measure. as families continue to flee, the emergency services pick their way through the debris in treacherous conditions. the red cross have tonight warned that the death toll is likely to rise. earlier i spoke with dimitri o'donnell, a jounalist in the country he explained what is happening in macoa, one of the worst—hit areas. over the course of the last few hours many of the roads in and around mocoa have been washed away or blocked off, so it is still difficult to get in and out of the city and that is hampering the rescue efforts. the military in the past half—hour have released the most hated figures the military in the past half—hour

have released the most updated figures in relation to the death toll in mocoa and we now know 254 people have died in a landslide. 200 people are still missing, 300 families have been affected across 17 neighbourhoods and hundreds of families and people are still missing in mocoa right now. so that the scale of the devastation that this landslide has caused over the past 2a hours in mocoa. obviously still a huge concerns. how with the weather now affected in the region? i guess the last thing rescue workers need now is more brain. i guess the last thing rescue workers need now is more rain. forecasters say there is light rain expected in parts of mocoa over the course of sunday and into monday, but it is expected to get better, so that's good news for rescue teams. they have scaled down the operations tonight. it is 8pm local time.

so darkness has set in, which means it is more difficult to try and carry out the extensive search and rescue operations. 1100 police and soldiers have been sent to mocoa and they've been joined by 200... ..2500 other locals who have set out to try and pull their loved ones from out of the rubble orfrom their homes. as you have seen the devastation is extensive. a wide area of mocoa, which has a population of about 350,000 people. how common are landslides and rain of this scale in this region? it is a mountainous regions are you would expect quite it is a mountainous regions and you would expect quite a bit of rain? while they are pretty common, and of course it's all due to some people say to climate change, the level and devastation

has caught people by surprise. there were two landslides last year in october and november and they killed about 20 people. this time around the authorities did send out a warning notice the locals in mocoa, saying, please leave your homes, go and find a safe place to hide, but what happened injust over three hours, 30% of mocoa's monthly rainfall deluged the city injust three hours. so by the time people were on the way out of their homes, the level and speed of these rains really caught people by surprise. authorities thought there would be more time to get people out. the difference between the landslides that took place this year and the most recent ones. the supreme court in venezuela has reversed its decision to strip the opposition—led congress of its powers. it follows a surprise intervention by president nicolas maduro. despite the announcement, hundreds of venezuelans marched in the capital caracas to protest

against the original decision. will grant has the story. whether it was a risky game of brinkmanship or an embarrassing u—turn, the controversial power grab by the supreme court in venezuela has been reversed. following a late—night session of the state security council president maduro said a resolution to the crisis had been found. translation: we have reached an important agreement to solve this controversy and i can tell you by reading the statement and by the publication of the corrections of sentences, 155 and 156, this controversy has been overcome. and not a moment too soon. tempers in caracas already frayed after years of economic chaos and food shortages had begun to flare over this latest political crisis. translation: i am protesting because i do not have freedom. i am protesting for fear of what is happening in my country. and i am protesting for my children. i have two children and i want freedom for them. translation: right now

we have a government that has our country cut off, a country in which we are practically on our knees. our venezuela is so pretty, so beautiful and yet today the government wants all the people to kneel before them. the origins of this controversy date back to the legislative elections which handed control of the national assembly to the opposition. however, it is a very current crisis over the democracy venezuela itself, played out internationally as well as at home. the organisation of american states, country after country, urged mr president maduro government to examine the path it was taking. it's not clear whether the reversal was based on that or on internal pressures, 01’ some combination of the two. so, for now, the supreme court has stepped back from the brink. but several key questions remain. will the national assembly be able to carry out its work without further

judicial interference? and many venezuelans are asking what it says about the separation of powers in the country that the supreme court would first make this ruling and then overrule it apparently under the president's orders. at least the immediate crisis seems to have been averted and, the government hopes, with it the threat of further violent protests. some news in brief for you now: the president of paraguay has sacked the interior minister and the chief of police after violent protests on friday over moves to allow the president to run for a second term in office. the protesters stormed the congress and set fire to the building. the authorities have also arrested four police officers, after one of the protesters was killed. now to france where 18 people have been injured when a bonfire exploded at a carnival held in northern paris. video posted on social media showed the bonfire blowing up seconds after being lit. according to le parisien newspaper, a mother and her child

are among those seriously injured, and the town's mayor has also been hurt. the russian poet yevgeny yevtushenko has died in the united states at the age of 8a. he came to prominence in the soviet union of the 1960s. he is best—known for his epic work babi yar, named after the place in ukraine where more than 30,000 jews were killed in one of the worst nazi atrocities of the second world war. the uk government has said britain will defend the interests of gibraltar in the brexit negotiations — following warnings that spain is attempting to use the process to pursue its claim — that spain is attempting to use the process to pursue its claim to the rock. the eu has suggested a brexit deal won't cover gibraltar without a separate agreement between london and madrid. the labour opposition say it's vital the people of gibraltar aren't used as a bargaining chip in negotiations. richard lister reports. this rock looming up from the med is casting a shadow over britain's brexit talks, and the people of gibraltar are also wondering what the future holds.

they voted almost unanimously to remain in the eu, giving spain hopes of taking the territory back. just this week, theresa may said that wouldn't happen. we are absolutely steadfast in our support of gibraltar and its people and its economy. our position has not changed. but the european council position has changed. in its draft negotiating guidelines, it says after the uk leaves the union, no agreement between the eu and the uk may apply to the territory of gibraltar without the agreement between the kingdom of spain and the uk. translation: on gibraltar, no agreement between the european union and the uk will apply without the consent of spain. we won't accept any agreement that undermines spain's position on gibraltar‘s sovereignty or that harms spain's economic interests. and madrid has other grievances, too, like gibraltar‘s low tax economy enabling the smuggling of cheap cigarettes into spain.

brexit mayjust have given the spanish a bit more negotiating leverage, to the annoyance of politicians on the rock. these are draft guidelines, but already we see spain making the moves that people were expecting she might have made up five minutes to midnight with an agreement ready. she's doing it now and, frankly, i think it's singling out gibraltar unfairly. theresa may's letter triggering article 50 and the brexit process did mention northern ireland's border with the irish republic, but not that of gibraltar with spain. critics have said that was a mistake which emboldened the spanish. and a spanish veto could mean choppy waters ahead. spain hasn't been shy of confronting britain in the past here over fishing rights off the gibraltar coast. so will britain be more likely to compromise on gibraltar in the interests of a bigger eu deal? it's absolutely wrong that any future free—trade agreement or any future security bilateral arrangements or anything else should

depend on britain giving some concession to madrid over gibraltar. let me tell you, that will not happen. spain is putting gibraltarfirmly in the middle of britain's road to brexit, raising the question of what other eu member states may demand from the uk as the price of a deal. let's get more reaction on this. in a moment we'll hear from london, but first, some analysis from brussels. the eu side don't view this as a hostile or unfriendly act, they view this as the logic of brexit. "this is what brexit means", they say. now, spain has always disputed the sovereignty of gibraltar. what a senior eu official told us was that while the uk has been inside the union it has been able to prevent that from being reflected in official union policy. on any matters that will arise after the uk has left, the eu, the official said, would speak for the 27 members and they said that spain had lobbied hard to have this in and it will apply to a future trade deal

being applied to gibraltar not to the exit deals. so spain, yes, getting some leverage. downing street are saying that their commitment to gibraltar remains, yes, rock solid and borisjohnson, the foreign secretary, has said gibraltart is not for sale. the question is, what can britain do about it in these negotiation? well, first of all, british members of the european parliament are going to raise the issue on wednesday. but their influence in this is pretty limited. further down the line, of course, britain can talk tough during those trade negotiations with spain. but you do get the impression though that britain is very much on one side of the negotiating table and, while this might not be a hostile act, the other 27 members states are very much on the other. this was a week when the diplomatic plates started to spin and unless the government remains focussed, it is clear some quite precious, quite fragile things could be put in danger. still to come on bbc news:

still on alert — officials in australia warn swollen rivers are threatening tens of thousands of people in the state of queensland. the accident that happened here was of the sort that can at worst produce a meltdown. in this case the precautions worked, but they didn't work quite well enough to prevent some old fears about the safety features of these stations from resurfacing. the republic of ireland has become the first country in the world to ban smoking in the workplace. from today, anyone lighting up in offices, businesses, pubs and restaurants will face a heavy fine. the president was on his way out of the washington hilton hotel, where he had been addressing a trade union conference. the small crowd outside included his assailant. it has become a symbol of paris.

100 years ago, many parisians wished it had never been built. the eiffel tower's birthday is being marked by a re—enactment of the first ascent by gustave eiffel. this is bbc news. i'm tom donkin. the latest headlines: bad weather is hampering search and rescue efforts in colombia where more than 250 people have been killed in a landslide. the supreme court in venezuela has reversed its decision to strip the opposition—led congress of its powers, that's following a surprise intervention by president nicolas maduro. officials in australia are warning that swollen rivers are still threatening tens of thousands of people in queensland and new south wales, as emergency workers battle to restore water and electricity supplies to parts of the region.

the floods come in the aftermath of tropical cyclone debbie. greg christensenjoins me via webcam from southern queensland. he's the mayor of the scenic rim region and has just come back from surveying the damage. greg, you have seen it all first happened. give us a sense of what this has done to your community? look, it's, good evening, it's been a staggering experience. the technical term would have to be that oui’ technical term would have to be that our agricultural community has been smashed in many of the valleys. i would estimate that a large percentage of our agricultural and horticultural areas have suffered significant crop loss and significant crop loss and significant soil loss, i've witnessed horticultural paddocks today that have had 600mm of soil

stripped away by the floods as they have of moved through. i'd say, many kilometres of fence have disappeared. and yeah, we're now counting the aftermath and looking at our roads and infrastructure as well. we're a very — we're a a800 square kilometre rural precinct, 800km of roads, we have major damage to all of our gravel roads, that is about 700km, and major damage to bridges, causeways and all of the skirtings of our bitumen roads. just to give our viewers a sense, you're south of brisbane and inland from the gold coast. you're a big farming region. just in terms of where you are, your community, does this mean the people have basically lost their

livelihoods? for many of them, they have just gone through a recovery for floods in 2013, have just gone through a recovery forfloods in 2013, and have just gone through a recovery for floods in 2013, and theyjust restored their soil to full productivity and this type of event ta kes productivity and this type of event takes not just your soil, productivity and this type of event takes notjust your soil, but all of the nutrient again and they'll be backin the nutrient again and they'll be back in recovery mode. it's hit some of them very hard. they're very resilient. i have witnessed some of them working out where they can recover cro ps them working out where they can recover crops and what they can do to get back on their feet. we'll be working with them, working with state agencies as well our local agencies to do everything we can to get them back into production, as soon as possible. greg, thank you very much for that. i'm sure the viewers willjoin me in wishing your region, scenic rim, and your community, all the best in the recovery effort there. thank you very much. if there's one thing we know about donald trump it's that he has a huge personal fortune.

but, it seems he's not the only one in his administration who is extremely wealthy. the white house has released details of the personal finances of some of his team. the disclosures — which are a legal requirement — show that his daughter ivanka and her husband jared kushner are worth up to $7a0 million. it's also been revealed that white house advisor steve bannon has between $3.3 million and $12.6 million in assets. head of the white house national economic council gary cohn, a former goldman sachs president, he has assets of at least $230 million. all in all the president's cabinet is estimated to have a collective net worth of around $12 billion. senior white house reporter for politico, darren samuelsohn, explained whether these numbers come as any surprise. we knew that president trump had surrounded himself with people like him — very rich people who have work in the real estate world, who have worked in the investment world, who knew construction,

who knew entertainment. and so a lot of the people who have come into the white house and are serving around him have maintained many of those assets, a lot of that wealth. and here we have the first public disclosure forms that show just how much these people are worth. for the people who supported president trump, i think that they are thrilled with who he has brought in, and has around him as his key advisers. they see these people as essentially trying to now turn the american economy around, help them become just as rich as they are. at this point in time a lot of the political support that president trump maintains from his original base is still there. the folks who didn't vote for him, who voted for hillary clinton, do see this as a huge scandal. we have never really seen anything quite like this from a president of the united states, with this much wealth in this many different places in the united states and around the world. obviously, you know, lyndonjohnson had a radio station in texas, and jimmy carter, famously, his peanut factory down in georgia, but nothing quite to the extent with the amount of investment

and assets from president trump and all the people around him that we are seeing in the white house right now. for bob dylan — it was definitely a case of better late than never. on saturday — he finally received his nobel prize for literature. it all happened behind closed doors in stockholm. he's visiting sweden to perform two concerts. anthony decurtis is from rolling stone magazine. he gave his take on how the award was finally accepted. i think there was a sense certainly in the immediate response that he was supposed to express some sort of gratitude and i think at this stage, and again those kinds of expectations are the kinds of things that dylan has been trying to elude for a long time, so i think i feel like he didn't want to make that big a deal about it. dylan, like anybody, he's 75 at this point, he has reached a point in his career

where recognition means something in terms of his legacy. how he's going be perceived. but also i think dylan is pretty sure about what his stature is and he's made an entire career out of not performing for things like this. you know, i think there's an element of him that's been historically very resistant to it. so i think he was happy to get it and accept it, but i don't think he wanted anything particularly special in that regard. there's no question he deserve it is. it i'm teaching a dylan seminar at the university of pennsylvania. i have a phd in literature. i know all the american writers who may have been contenders. there's a sense in which dylan's impact has been so

important, not just in which dylan's impact has been so important, notjust in terms of his song writing and lyrics, but his impact on many literary figures, you know, it's well deserved. bob dylan himself has been very low key about his nobel prize. but how might the famous singer have reacted if he put his thoughts to music? the musician mitch benn attempted to do just that. have a listen. # well, i had to be in sweden in a way # well, i had a coupla shows i had to play # so i figured that i might as well swing by and pick up my nobel # and then i better best be on my way.# mitch benn spoke with me earlier and gave his own thoughts on bob dylan's possible attitude towards receiving a nobel prize. i don't think it is any kind of deliberate slight that it has taken him six months to pick it up.

i don't think it was him trying to show that the whole thing is beneath him, something morrissey might do. i think it was a case of him literallyjust, you know, i am a very busy guy, and he happened to be in town, yes, man, iwill swing by and pick up that thing i won. he is pretty laid—back and has been for a long time. he always keeps us guessing, enigmatic that way, but surely at this age and stage in his career, he must be thinking about legacy and surely a nobel prize in the pocket doesn't hurt that at all? to be perfectly honest, i don't know if he really thinks in terms of legacy. he has been around so long and done so much that by the time you get to his age i think one award feels quite the same as another, to be quite honest, but, yeah, i guess it is not often you get the cross over into the nobel academy into popular music, so i think he will be aware of what it means. i just don't think he will get that worked up about it. i don't think he is

that kind of person. before we go — let's take a look at these pictures from the united states. they show a massive pillow fight taking place in philadelphia. saturday was international pillow fight day — with mock battles taking place all around the world. after the feather—based carnage came to an end participants were encouraged to donate their pillows — which would be given to the homeless. a reminder of tower to story: in colombia, bad weather is holding back the efforts of emergency workers after landslides killed 250 people. the governor said that whole neighbourhooded were swept away. president santos called on the

government to start preventative measures for the rainy season ahead. saturday brought some intense april showers, with hail and thunder and lightning reported widely. and weather watcher pictures like this that came in, this is through the evening in milton keynes, show the top of a thunder cloud. in stark contrast, a much drier day awaits us, with some warm spells of sunshine. mind you, it's going to be a tad chilly to start sunday morning. a frost in the glens of scotland and northern ireland. ground frost also through north wales, the north midlands and northern england. so very much chillier than it has been in recent nights and there could be a bit of mist and fog around for the first few hours of the morning, but otherwise the morning looks set to bring the best of the sunshine for the vast majority, as you can see. temperatures just slow to recover after the chilly start. still that potential for some cloud around and some lingering showers from the day on saturday, but very isolated in comparison. mostly for the north—east of england. there could be mist and fog elsewhere. a risk for northern ireland

and scotland with the frosty start. still the odd shower for northern ireland, but essentially it's a dry picture for saturday. very much a stark contrast to saturday. the cloud will tend to build through the day, fair weather cloud that is. so it may well be bright rather than sunny come the afternoon. there is the risk of showers developing in eastern areas. just one or two, in eastern england in particular. very isolated compared to those on saturday. given the light winds in the sunshine, 13—17 will be pleasant. sunshine around the coast by the afternoon. if the boat races take place it is set fair, 15—16 in the afternoon when the races are set to take place, and it won't be as rough in temperatures as last week with the light winds. some sunshine for the premier league matches taking place over in swansea and london. a little bit of cloud hanging around. again, through the night on sunday, the cloud should melt away under the area of high pressure, so again a chilly start on monday morning. but we have the advancing weather

fronts in northern ireland and scotland. so there could be a bit of mist and fog around for your return to work on monday, but england and wales set fairand quite warm, despite the breeze picking up in the west. the rain holds off. mainly for northern ireland and western parts of scotland. but then we have the rain staggering southwards and eastwards, eventually clearing from the south—east later into wednesday, with the high—pressure returning. it means for monday there's rain in the north and west. tuesday, more cloud across the country. that's when high—pressure returns. still quite a bit of cloud mid—week. the latest headlines from bbc news. i'm tom donkin. in colombia, bad weather is holding back efforts of emergency workers after a landslide killed 250 people. the local governor said whole neighbourhoods had been swept away in what he called an unprecedented tragedy. president santos called on authorities to start preventative measures as the rainy season begins. president maduro has made venezuela's supreme court reverse its decision to strip the opposition—led congress of its powers. despite the announcement,

hundreds marched in the capital, caracas, to protest against the original decision. the speaker of congress centre court had staged "a coup". the uk says it will defend the interests of gibraltar, following warnings that spain is attempting to use the brexit process to pursue its claim to the rock. the eu has suggested london and madrid will have to agree on gibraltar‘s place in the brexit talks. coming up next: click, and a look inside the mind