i'm babita sharma with bbc world news. our top story: a road bridge has collapsed in the italian city of genoa. at least 26 people have died. italy's transport minister said it was "an immense tragedy". cars and lorries crashed 100 metres to the ground. a major rescue operation is under way. a man has been arrested on suspicion of terrorism after a car crashed outside the houses of parliament in london. the vehicle hit cyclists — then crashed into a barrier. and this story is trending on bbc.com. the international cricket star, ben stokes, has been cleared of charges of affray after a fight outside a nightclub. he's now back in the england squad for the next test match against india. that's all. stay with bbc world news. now on bbc news — hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk,

i'm stephen sackur. four decades ago, daniel ortega was a latin american revolutionary at war with a corrupt autocracy. now he stands accused of defending his own corrupt autocracy in the face of a popular revolt. several hundred anti—sandinista protestors are believed to have died in the last four months, but power remains firmly in president ortega's hands. my guest isjuan sebastian chamorro, a leader of the opposition alliance. has the window of opportunity for change in nicaragua already closed? juan sebastian chamorro, in managua, welcome to hardtalk.

thank you very much, stephen, for having me on your programme. we've been watching events very closely for the last four months in nicaragua, we have seen the street protests, we've seen the violence and we have seen thousands of nicaraguans demanding an end to the presidency of daniel ortega. but, i'll be honest with you, it looks like those protests have run out of steam. would you agree? i would not agree. i think this is a process that is going to take time. obviously you're talking about a dictator that has been in powerfor11 years, 11 years of violations of rights, right to mobilise, right to speak, right to vote, and the reason why we have this national revolt against this dictatorship is because people are really tired of this situation,

but obviously we're talking about a dictator which has complete control of all branches of government. has complete control of the national assembly, of the supreme court, of the police, of the paramilitary, who are, at his service, firing live ammunition at the protesters defending themselves with slingshots and rocks. we never expected this to be an easy task. we're talking about a government that has used repression in the cruellest manner. and, you know, it's taking the time that it could take... so much in what you've just said... i'm sorry to butt in, but there's so much in what you've just said i need to sort of explore a little bit. number one, you use the language of ortega being a dictator and in the recent past you've compared him correctly with anastasio somoza, the infamous dictator who was toppled in 1979 in nicaragua.

of course there's a fundamental difference, daniel ortega wins elections, he last won a thumping great majority in 2016, so this is an elected president, he isn't a somoza—style dictator. that is true if you think the elections were honest and clean, but there is ample evidence that not only the election of 2016, but at all elections since 2008, presidential elections and regional elections, have been the result of electoral fraud. that's the reason why people are protesting on the streets because we've been denied our right to vote. legitimacy is a big question mark here because it's true there were elections in 2016, but international observers have been denouncing irregularities in electoral processes since 2008. to bring a change here, we need to reform the electoral

system as well, that's the reason why the civic alliance forjustice and democracy is demanding free and clean elections next year. we'll get to your demands in a minute, but let'sjust look at what has happened in the last few months. april 18th was the key date when these protests really kicked off after the government's pension reforms produced this groundswell of opposition, which, of course, thousands took to the streets. let's look at what's happened since. no doubt there's been egregious examples of government paramilitaries using force against protesters, but in recent months we've also seen protesters using arms and home—made mortars against government forces, which does rather question what is happening on the streets, whether this is simply a question of civilian protesters or actually a militarised opposition. no.

there has been people from all walks of life, workers, business leaders, persons, students who are putting barricades on the streets of managua and other cities to defend themselves against these armed forces, these paramilitary forces that are in pickup trucks firing live ammunition. and as i said, these protesters have been defending themselves with slingshots and home—made mortars. that might be the only tool that they are using to defend themselves. on the 13th ofjuly, for example, in a commune, morrito, in nicaragua, we had clashes in which four police officers were killed and just one protester. this is figures coming from the nicaraguan centre for human

rights. you know, it is clear that as this thing evolved after april and became more violent injuly, it was notjust one—sided violence. yes, there was plenty of violence coming from the paramilitaries and the people loyal to the government, but there was plenty of violence going the other way too. well, i would not discard any information regarding people trying to defend themselves against the paramilitaries, so it's probably that people on the other side were trying to defend themselves. now, with respect to the four officers who were assassinated, there's no clear evidence who actually did it. but you are right, we're talking about four months of repression and it's expected that some people might defend themselves, that is something normal. but the offensive movement from the paramilitary, especially by mid—july, was clearly almost a military operation against mostly unarmed people, and that's the reason why the barricades were erased

in a matter of days. i wonder whetherfor you, and it has to be said... again, sorry, there's a time delay, mr chamorro, so it's a little difficult, but i put this to you, you're an established economist, you're a leader of the civic alliance, you come from an elite family, a very respected, comfortable background in nicaragua, but many of the people you've been encouraging to take to the streets are students, they're poorer people, people worried about their social security benefits and they're the ones in the line of fire and yet you keep telling them to keep up the street protests, to keep up the street action. do you think that is really a responsible position for you to take given what is happening on the streets? absolutely it is.

that's the only way that we can put pressure on, with the people on the streets. i myself was on the streets, i was on the streets yesterday in a protest and i will be on wednesday. you have to understand that this is a national revolt by all kind of people, not only students and people from the working sector. this is an entire country trying to demand change. one thing that has been fundamental in our call for protest is they have to be peaceful, they have to be in the most peaceful manner to try to express our demands of bringing a change to the country, trying to bring democracy. i think it's completely responsible, the civil resistance, the marches, the strikes, all kinds of protests, as long as they're peaceful to express the demands for change, i think they're absolutely valid and coherent with a strategy of bringing pressure to the government to simply accept what is natural in most countries of the world, and that is having free elections. i want to get to your political platform and proposals injust a second, but one last thought on the nature of the clashes right now, a very interesting letter in the guardian newspaper in the uk sent to the paper from a resident of masaya in nicaragua saying this, he said that he had witnessed public buildings and the houses of government supporters

being burned down protesters, shops being ransacked, businesses and banks and schools being closed because protesters had taken over the town. he said the main secondary school for more than 3,000 pupils was burned to the ground. the police station was put under siege. are you now, here on hardtalk, prepared to condemn what some of the protesters out on the streets in your name are actually doing? absolutely, we are condemning any kind of violence, wherever this violence comes from. this is not the solution to our problem. you see, we're talking about a president, ortega, who is very strong on arms, so completely it doesn't make any sense at all to conduct activities, armed activities or violent actions, to overthrow a president who has demonstrated he is strong with arms. so our cause is a peaceful cause. we are condemning any kind

of death if, for example, the death of these four officers is clarified, we will be the first to condemn because we believe that the loss of lives, nicaraguans, regardless of their position, whether they are a police officer or protesters, should not occur in a country like nicaragua for the reason we're asking. we're just asking for freedom, for democracy, for a change and not a single life should be lost as a result of this protest. i tell you what this reminds me of, it reminds me of the situation in venezuela over the last 12—18 months. we have seen a series of popular protests against the maduro government, at times, thousands and thousands of venezuelans on the streets,

violence, loss of life, particularly among civilians, and at times a feeling they were getting close to bringing the government down but, of course, they never did, and the reason they didn't was because the security forces, including the police, the paramilitaries and of course, ultimately the armed forces, the army, stayed loyal to maduro and all the indications are that that same loyalty from the security forces to the government of daniel ortega, and if that's true, you cannot win. that's relatively true. in the first case, you are right that the armed forces, the military, were loyal to maduro. in the case of nicaragua, the army had decided to stay neutral, not to intervene, not to go to the streets. so that's one difference. the second one is that venezuela is a rich country in resources,

poorly managed obviously, but it's a rich country in oil. nicaragua doesn't have any natural resource that would allow the government to stay afloat with a huge amount of resources. that's another difference. the third difference is we're entering into the fourth month of protests already and the protests continue. they are large, they are all over the place. and the fourth difference is in nicaragua we have almost twice as much dead people as in venezuela. and remember, nicaragua is only a 6 million people country. that's true. that's a big difference. that's true, but one other similarity you have with venezuela is the opposition isn't coherent, isn't united and doesn't have a simple message. if you look at your own message, you have talked about insurrection. you've could compared ortega to somoza, you've said we need to rid ourselves of this dictator. but then many of the most prominent

figures in the opposition are instead just saying, you know, we need a promise that we'll get new elections sometime next year. then you've got the catholic church getting involved, and their calling on both sides to ramp down the rhetoric and start talking to each other seriously to each other in a more moderate way. nicaraguan people looking at this have no real idea what the opposition‘s objectives are, can you help me? no, ithink, stephen, what i'm saying is that we need a change. that ortega is a dictator. i think everyone is clear about by the he behaves. and that the only way, the only way that we can bring change here is through a democratic process, free elections, that is precisely the position of the civic alliance and the position of so many people. that is the reason why we haven't seen natural combats,

people defending and killing with heavy ammunition and the protesters‘ side. we, as nicaraguans, believe in a democratic solution, in elections. i don't see discrepancies or differences between opinions of my colleagues at the alliance or even the opposition. i think it's overall, i believe that the only way we can provoke a change is to bring pressure, to bring pressure on the protests, on the streets for the government to see it at the table of the national dialogue that has been suspended since the end ofjune and try to convince the government that the only solution here is to continue the national dialogue and bring the anticipated elections to 2018. i think that's the general demand from the nicaraguan people. well, you keep saying ‘the nicaraguan people', as though they are united behind your demands. but of course they are not. we've all seen the demonstrations mounted by the sandinistas. talking about the achievements of ortega. after all, you've had 4% annual

economic growth for several years. we have actually the least crime—ridden, the most stable society in central america. compared with some of your neighbours, nicaragua has been a relative success in recent years. and daniel ortega has made a point to working with the business community. you put all that together and, actually, ortega's achievements are not inconsiderable. and many people in nicaragua think he had better stay in power rather than have you guys muck things up. well, i think you are right in the sense that the economic situation was moving relatively well, but everything changed, stephen, in april. we have a completely different country now. we have the economy in ruins. we have entire sectors, like tourism, 1 million people came from abroad, many from the uk and elsewhere, to visit nicaragua... but with respect, with respect,

that's in many ways your fault. you're the one who told the protesters to put the barricades up, which has ruined transportation links inside nicaragua, you're the one who has consistently called for people to take to the streets so we see all of these images on our tv screens of violence and instability in nicaragua. who can you blame but yourselves for the fact that international investors and tourists don't want to go to nicaragua? listen, stephen. we didn't ask anybody to put barricades on the streets. the civic alliance forjustice and democracy was an organisation formed after the revolt. so in that case i think, i think probably you need more information about the process. the civic alliance was formed after the revolt as a counterpart to the government trying to find a solution. we never asked people to defend themselves against the paramilitary. they themselves did it because they saw people being killed on the streets of managua and elsewhere. the situation of the barricades, the roadblocks, responsible for those roadblocks is the reparation that happened

from that accord from the ortega government. this was a completely expontaneous movement from all cities of nicaragua, so the economic crisis that we are suffering is not the result of someone asking the people to put barricades on the streets. those responsible for the crisis, the economic crisis, the more than 200,000 jobs have been lost in the last four months, is the reparation of ortega. it cannot be blamed on the protesters. the protesters were killed from day one. people have the right to go to the street and try to defend the right to, ah, not to be killed. so the only responsible for the crisis we're suffering is the government of ortega not the people who were defending the rights in the streets. do you think it's wise for you to have made such a public

call for the united states to expand its sanctions on nicaragua? it revives so many memories of us interference in nicaraguan affairs going back to the late 70s and 80s and the reagan administration's support for the contras. many nicaraguans, last thing they want to see is the us trying to dictate what happens in your country. and yet you seem to be welcoming it. well, i haven't stated that we are in favour of any sanctions to the people of nicaragua. let us just be clear about this. you have repeatedly called for more us intervention in nicaragua. you want to the targeted sanctions expanded to more members of ortega's family, you say that the imf should stop giving any assistance to nicaragua for the time being because it's only going help the ortega regime. everything you say, number one, invites, hang on, invites more us intervention and will do more damage to the nicaraguan economy. and i agree.

that's why we haven't issued any statements calling for more sanctions or the imf not lending any money. there's no... hang on, i have a statement from you, juan sebastian chamorro, saying, "additional us sanctions would be a great step in the right direction." did you not say that? you're certainly quoted in the media as saying it. well, that's a big difference, saying that you are asking for those sanctions, when you are sanctioning individuals, individuals who are responsible for repression, that's a different matter. what we haven't said is that we are in favour of general sanctions against the people of nicaragua, like cutting loans or things like that that will help social policy like health and education. obviously we are not in favour of those type of sanctions. but when you are in sanctions for individuals who are responsible for the repression, for the violations of human rights, obviously we are in favour and they don't affect the general population.

well, this is... yeah, this is... i sense from your answers that you know this is very sensitive territory for any nicaraguan. so ijust put one more specific to you. the white house onjuly 30 issued a statement saying, "the us has announced an additional $1.5 million to add to an ongoing $30 million programme to support, quote—unquote, "freedom and democracy in nicaragua, including civil society, human rights groups, independent media". are you receiving american money? not a part of that 1.5 million. obviously not. because this was an announcement that was made a month ago. the think tank that i am general director, have received in the past

funds from different organisations to conduct economic analysis and so on. so you get money... but not this particular... so you get money direct from the us government. ‘cause, you see, daniel ortega characterises you and others leading the civic alliance as people aiding and abetting terrorism using foreign funds. and when you tell me that, yes, you have had some american money, i guess ortega will say to his people that he has a point. no, absolutely not. we are, for example, have been working for ten years conducting economic studies and have received grants from different governments, that's something normal that a think tank in nicaragua will do. we have been working on economic analysis and on education, health, social security, and we have received funds. we have been very public about it, not only from the american government, but also from the swiss, from the germans, from the private sector. that's what ngos do for a living — try to get programmes and conduct economic studies. what the president is trying to do

is say that these funds are being used for arming and organising coup d'etats and things like that. which is obviously not true. we're almost out of time. from the late 1970s through the 1980s we saw a bitter, horrible, protracted civil war in nicaragua. is it possible there will be another civil war in nicaragua? i hope not. i hope for this time, for the first time in 200 years of independence, we will pursue a democratic process. that is the reason why the civic alliance forjustice and democracy are seated at this table of the national dialogue, with the catholic church. if ortega wants to find a peaceful and democratic solution i think he has still, despite the 400 people being assassinated and so on, the opportunity to try to find a solution to the problem. juan sebastian chamorro, we have to end there,

but thanks for joining me from managua. hello there. the weather pattern for the rest of this week and into the weekend looks pretty similar day on day and that is with more cloud rain, stronger wind across the north and the west of the uk and the further south and east that you are, better chances of staying dry and bright with sunshine and feeling warmer. that process really will begin through wednesday, with an area of low pressure to the north—west of the country, a couple of weather fronts moving into northern and western areas, whereas further south and east it should

stay largely dry. variable cloud, but also the sunshine breaking through at times. although breezy, not quite as windy it as it will be across northern areas. thicker cloud with outbreaks of rain, blustery across the north and the west of scotland, eastern scotland for a time across the south, scotland into northern ireland in between the two weather fronts we could see a little bit of brightness. this first weather front will bring rain to north—west england, parts of wales and eventually into the south—west of england. 2a, 25 degrees again across the south—east. another warm afternoon. as we head through wednesday night, that weather front will merge together and bring rain further south—east to parts of northern england, the midlands, wales and south—west england. ahead of it, another muggy, dry night. to the north—west of it, clear spells and blustery showers. some heavy and feeling cooler and fresher. heading on into thursday, that weather front continues to sink its way south eastwards, it also opens the floodgates into cooler, fresher air which will flood in across the country during thursday and last into friday. it will be noticeable particularly in the south—east. that weather front will take its time to clear the south—east. a grey, wet, blustery day across the south. further north and west it will be quite windy,

with sunshine and showers, some of them merging through longer spells of rain across the west of scotland and those temperatures range from 10—20 degrees, feeling much pressure right across the board, particularly in the south east. on friday we do it all again. another area of low pressure across the atlantic to effect the northern half of the country, keeping things more settled across the south and the south—east. it's going to be a windy day across northern ireland, scotland and perhaps north wales. more cloud, outbreaks of rain, persistent across the western scotland. further east you are, quieter, some sunny spells and feeling just a touch warmer than it did on thursday, highs of 22 or 23 degrees. saturday looks fairly quiet but it is only more wind and rain, the best of the brightness and warmth in the south—east.

this is newsday on the bbc. i'm rico hizon in singapore. the headlines: o dio, o dio, o dio. devastating scenes — as a motorway bridge collapses in genoa, italy. at least 26 people have been killed. the rescuers behind me there are still trying to lift up several large slabs of concrete under which they believe several more vehicles may be trapped. a man is arrested outside the uk parliament after a car swerves into pedestrians and crashes into barriers. i'm babita sharma in london. also in the programme: the catholic church in pennsylvania is accused of covering up the sexual abuse of children by hundreds of priests over 70 years.