welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name's mike embley. our top stories. venezuela closes its embassy in the united states — as nicolas maduro accuses donald trump of trying to overthrow him. the us senate votes down two proposals to end the government shutdown — donald trump says he's willing to consider a ‘reasonable‘ deal. warmer weather means a less salty sea in the arctic. why has that got climate scientists worried? and the high price of cheap guns in ghana. we have a special report. venezuela's embassy and all its consulates in the united states are being closed, on the orders of the president, nicolas maduro, a day after the us officially

recognised the opposition leader, juan guaido, as interim president. the us has ordered all its non—emergency staff to leave caracas. at least a dozen countries, including canada and the uk are now also backing the venezuelan opposition. mr maduro accuses them of a coup. russia, china, turkey, mexico, bolivia and cuba are supporting him. here's our north america editor, jon sopel. last night in caracas, and, much like a lot of recent nights in the venezuelan capital, gunfire, violence, protests against the government. a cycle seemingly without end as the economy of this oil—rich country collapses. but there was one crucial difference. it came after mass rallies as the leader of the national assembly, 35—year—old juan guaido, declared himself the interim president as thousands took to the streets — a move that brought immediate backing from the americans and demands that nicolas maduro, who has presided over venezuela's economic collapse, steps aside. the regime of former president

nicolas maduro is illegitimate. his regime is morally bankrupt. it is economically incompetent and it is profoundly corrupt. in light of these facts, we call on venezuela's security forces to ensure the protection of interim president guaido‘s physical integrity and his safety. a number of other latin american countries have followed suit, so too canada. and britain as well, with the foreign secretary in washington today. this regime has done untold damage to the people of venezuela. 10% of that population have left venezuela, such is the misery they are suffering. but in venezuela, defiance from the president. translation: i think there is no doubt in the world that donald trump himself wants to impose a de facto government, unconstitutional, a coup d'etat in venezuela against the people and democracy.

there is no doubt. russia, a long—standing ally and supplier of weaponry and economic assistance to the venezuelan government, has warned of the dire consequences if the us intervened. translation: it is another flagrant interference into international affairs of a sovereign state. as you know that have been several attempts to oust maduro from power, including attempts of his physical liquidation. the president's national security advisor was asked why single out venezuela when there are plenty of other brutal dictators that donald trump doesn't do anything about. the answer came that america has a responsibility, it is in their hemisphere and it is an issue that donald trump cares deeply about. new sanctions will be targeted at venezuela's oil industry. donald trump says no option is off the table, including a military one. he has made his statement of intent. the world now watches to see

how america's commander in chief follows through. with its huge oil reserves, venezuela should be one of the world's richest countries. but a collapse in oil prices and a series of economic mis—steps have left much of the population desperately poor. food and basic goods are in short supply, and inflation is predicted to reach 10 million per cent this year. our correspondent vladimir hernandez has been following the crisis in venezuela for some time. the clean up the day after. when there is chaos at a political level, that is normally followed by chaos on the streets. at least a dozen people were killed in anti—government protests yesterday. many more, likejesus, were injured. translation: last night, a battle broke out between armed local boys on the security forces. they came into the slum and people started shouting at them, saying things like, "do you not struggle to get food, too?" translation: it was horrible.

there were bullets fired, rubber bullets, too, over here and there, waves of people coming and going. but what is really going on in this country? i have been several times in the last two years to report on the gravity of the humanitarian crisis. i have met some of those that are the most vulnerable and see how more and more people are living off the streets, sometimes even chasing rubbish trucks to find something to eat. the venezuelan government took almost full control of the food supply in the last two years. but amidst claims of mismanagement and a simultaneous crash in oil prices, most supermarkets were left like this. no food. in my last visit to venezuela a few months ago, i found something even more shocking. rotten beef is also sold here in this market. it smells strong. it has got flies all over it. how did it all come to this?

the government blames us sanctions, but they were imposed after the economy fell into recession. many believe instead that this is the result of an influx of cash, a historic oil revenue, being badly managed by the ruling party. this is why many venezuelans elected hugo chavez almost 20 years ago as an alternative to the traditional but widely perceived as corrupt parties. but under him is when things may have started to unravel. today, with international pressure rising, the risk of a popular revolt against president maduro has never been higher. let's get some of the day's other news one of brazil's few openly gay congressmen has announced he won't serve a new term in office because of death threats. jean wyllys, of the socialism and liberty party, now plans to live abroad. in a newspaper interview, he said violence against lgbt people in brazil had worsened since the election of jair

bolsonaro. brazil's new president has made many insulting and divisive comments about homosexuality. the intelligence committee of the us senate has formally requested subpoenaed testimony from president trump's former lawyer and personal fixer, michael cohen. on wednesday, he postponed another public session, saying mr trump had threatened his family. the former scottish first minister alex salmond has appeared in court charged with attempted rape and sexual assault. he faced 14 charges at edinburgh sheriff court, including breach of the peace and indecent assault. he made no plea and was released on bail. outside court, he said he was "innocent of any criminality" and would defend himself "to the utmost". the us senate has voted on two plans to end the partial government shutdown — but both failed to get the support they needed. on day 3a of this stalemate — the parties are still far apart, and it's furloughed federal workers who are paying the price.

another casualty has been the president's state of the union address which he's now conceeded won't happen until the impasse is resolved. i got the latestjust now from our washington correspondent, chris buckler. it should be said that democrats and republicans have been talking tonight. there have been some kind of — negotiations is probably too strong a word for it, but certainly, they have been talking which they see is a step forward, so there are these glimmers of hope that potentially, they could come up with a compromise. but the key thing here is they need president trump's agreement to any deal and as things stand and those comments where he said he would agree to a "reasonable" deal, he also made very clear that it was the wall that was important to him, this border wall with mexico that he says will tackle drug — drugs, crimes, gangs, these things that he continues to talk about. and for the minute, democrats simply are not prepared to give it, so you do get the sense that the stalemate is going to continue and, of course,

that is affecting hundreds of thousands of government workers. with tomorrow i think another day without a pay cheque, of course. yes, and each week that goes by where they do not get a wage, it is really leading to them becoming more angry and more frustrated with the way this is being handled, and there are huge dangers for this — for both the president and also for the democrats — in that they are watching these pictures that are on the nightly news here in america every single evening, of workers who have been told either that they are on unpaid leave and they will not get money or alternatively, that they will have to wait to some unknown date to get their pay cheque. they are talking about the frustration that they have. they're also being seen going to food banks in order to get food to feed their families. they are having to rely on help to frankly pay their bills. and that hasn't been helped by the fact that the commerce secretary, wilbur ross, who is a multimillionaire, said today he could not understand why many of them were going to food banks and why they simply didn't get bank loans. yes, he accepted that they would

have to pay some interest but surely, that would be something that they could do. it's given the sense that perhaps some in the administration — perhaps going further than that, some in washington — are not really aware of what some government workers are paid and what they are going through and as a result, i think there is growing pressure on both sides to come to some kind of conclusion that will end this shutdown. but for the minute, the president seems determined to continue until he gets money for that wall. climate change is redrawing the map of the arctic, according to scientists meeting in norway. in what researchers claim is the first sign of a major modern climatic shift they say the barents sea, which has been part of the arctic ocean for 12,000 years, is being swallowed by the atlantic. from the norwegian arctic, our environment analyst roger harrabin reports. sea ice, formed in the high arctic. it helps create a cold, fresh surface layer that acts as a cap on warm,

saltier waters beneath. but with climate change, there is less sea ice getting to norway's barents sea. the north barents sea has been dominated for 12,000 years by sea ice flowing down from the high arctic. but now, that flow is diminishing and the character of the sea is changing fast. soon, researchers say, the region will have no sea ice at all, so it will no longer be part of the arctic. it had an arctic type of climate for the last 12,000 years. we are probably witnessing the first modern example of a rapid climate shift event where the arctic shrinks in response to global warming. scientists say the barents sea could effectively become part of the atlantic in as little as a decade. let's imagine this is the north barents sea. this blue layer here represents the cold, fresh water flowing in from the high arctic.

it is forming a cap on this layer of clear, warmer, saltier water coming in from the atlantic. but now the high arctic is changing, look what's happening. we are going to use this to give you a very simplistic demonstration. that, in a sense, is what's happening. and it is having a profound effect. research from ships over 50 years in the barents sea shows that the cold surface layer has been steadily mixing with the warmer layer beneath. the more it mixes, the warmer it gets. and the warmer it gets, the more it mixes. but what does the warming mean for creatures that live in the barents sea? lisjorgensen says species like this brittle star could struggle to survive in warmer waters. these creatures may also be sensitive to warmth. it is a snail giving a piggy back to an anemone.

this sea slug loves cold water, too. so does this remarkable squid. if too many species are lost to the ecosystem, no—one knows what will happen. everything is depending on each other. so if you pop the ecosystem in one place, there will be a cascade of effect all through the ecosystem. this is a special part of the world where the sun is just returning after a two—month absence. the profound changes here may be influencing the uk's weather. scientists can't be sure yet. but they say they are struggling to keep up with the human impact on the planet. roger harrabin, bbc news, in the norwegian arctic. stay with us on bbc news — still to come... fake or fuhrer — the watercolours that may — or may not be — the work of adolf hitler. the shuttle challenger exploded

soon after lift—off. there were seven astronauts on board, one of them a woman school teacher. all of them are believed to have been killed. by the evening, tahrir square, the heart of official cairo, was in the hands of the demonstrators. they were using the word "revolution". the earthquake singled out buildings and brought them down in seconds. tonight, the search for any survivors has an increasing desperation about it as the hours pass. the new government is firmly in control of the entirely republic of uganda. moscow got its first taste of western fast food as mcdonald's opened their biggest restaurant in pushkin square. but the hundreds of muscovites who queued up today won't find it cheap

with a big mac costing half a day's wages for the average russian. this is bbc world news. the main story this hour: venezuela's president nicolas maduro has accused the united states government of trying to stage a coup in his country. earlier, i spoke to phil gunson, a senior analyst for the international crisis group, who is in caracas, and i started by asking him about what might happen next. much will depend on which way the militaryjump. right now, they're notjumping at all, they're staying firmly behind nicolas maduro. although there are hints, if you read between the lines, that the military are not happy with the way things are and they may be open to some kind of negotiation and indeed, mr maduro himself, just a couple of hours ago, has said that he is open to some form of negotiation as proposed

by countries like mexico and uruguay, who are taking a more neutral stance on this. which way do you think the military might move, if they move? i suppose it may not be entirely helpful to mr guaido, within the country, that he has the backing of the united states? that is a bit problematic. the us is clearly taking the main role here, and given the us history in latin america, it makes it very easy for mr maduro to say that this is merely an imperialist plot to take over venezuela and in fact, it's not really that. much of the rest of the hemisphere and most of the biggest governments, biggest countries in latin america, are behind juan guaido. even the european union which has so far not come out as recognising him as interim president, is reported to be considering that move. and the government's isolation, maduro's isolation is increasing. he is being pushed against the ropes, if you like,

but the question is, is there a way out for him? because if there isn't, he has no incentive to negotiate. how much help to mr maduro can the countries backing him be? seems a little rich for say russia and china to complain about interference in independent states? well, that's right. i'm not sure they can be of much use. they can certainly be of use in the security council. there's a security council debate on saturday and it is not a bad thing to have two permanent members on your side. but don't think that, for example, if it came to any kind of military conflict, whether internal or international, the russians or the chinese or for that matter the cubans, closer at hand, would put any boots on the ground or put any kind of military assistance behind the maduro government. given the suffering of so many people there, from the outside we could look at this as a crisis about economics. but it's more than that. it's a political crisis in essence. although it is clear that the maduro

government has handled the economy extraordinarily badly. millions of percent of inflation, production collapsing, the economy size has halved since maduro came to power. but the issue really is political. if maduro had not closed off all democratic ways out of the crisis, we would have new government by now and the new government would undoubtedly have begun at least to put things right on the economic front. most immediately, what do you expect to happen? are there particular things we should be looking for? the crunch or at least one immediate crunch may come over the issue of us diplomats. mr maduro has broken relations with the us and has called on, or demanded i should say, that all us diplomats leave the country. washington has refused to remove its key diplomats saying that they're accredited the government ofjuan guaido. it's unlikely that mr maduro's going to invade the embassy and forcibly remove them, but when it comes to the point that the 72—hour deadline has passed and the diplomats haven't gone,

he's going to look much weaker even than he looks now. homemade guns are big business in west africa. it's estimated blacksmiths in ghana produce up to 200,000 illegal guns every year, and you can buy them for as little as us$9. security forces are now stepping up their efforts to crack down on the business. 0ur reporter in ghana, sulley lansah, has been finding out more. 0ne, one, two, three, five. preparing for patrol. police here are on the streets day and night. stopping the flow of weapons around the country isa flow of weapons around the country is a priority. you can be sure that criminals are smart. they opened the engine side of the vehicle and hide

weapons. when they stopped motors, you can open the seat and they can be hidden in there. it is impossible to get all of the illegal guns off the streets. many of them are smuggled across ghana's borders and used in conflict throughout west africa. 9096 of arms used in ghana are used, it home—made guns. africa. 9096 of arms used in ghana are used, it home-made guns. the police have set up a special operation to deal with the problem, using a combination patrols, quick response times and checkpoints like this. they hope to make a difference. so when i heard gunshots... ghana's father was killed when they interrupted an armed robbery on their way home. when i look at this picture i cry a lot. it is affecting the nation. but where do these guns come from? i

went to meet the man who makes them. with thousands of illegal guns in use across the country, we wanted to show how easy they are to get hold of, so we agreed to conceal the blacksmith‘s identity. 0ne challenge, he admitted he doesn't know where they will end up. if you hear that someone has been killed with a locally manufactured gun, what do you think about? so what will make you stop this job?

he refused to answer the question. gloves and other items were found... armed robberies make the news nearly every day and the government recognises the scale of the problem. we have the blacksmith themselves, you have the middleman, you have the transporters around the border. 0ne thing begets another. today the same gun rout can be used for human trafficking, can be used for drug trafficking. can be used for all manner of contra band trafficking. can be used for all manner of contraband or all manner of illicit activity. the guns made

in these remote workshops have created a network that reaches beyond the streets of ghana. it crosses borders and affects millions of lives. police in germany have seized three paintings claimed to be the work of adolf hitler. they are now being examined to see if they are forgeries. they were due to go on sale at an auction in berlin. the bbc‘s tim allman has more details. at first glance, this watercolour looks fairly unremarkable but take a look at the signature. three paintings, said to be the work of one of history's greatest villains. adolf hitler may well have been a significant figure on the global stage, but when it comes to art, not so much. translation: in my opinion, they have no artistic value. they're basically proficient. there were different opinions but it has been done well. but the value of the objects and the media interest comes solely from the name at the bottom,

it has nothing to do with any sort of artistic value. the paintings were due to go under the hammer at this auction house in berlin but then local police announced on twitter that officers had confiscated three watercolours allegedly painted by adolf hitler and that officials were now investigating attempted fraud and the forgery of documents. hitler was a prolific artist in his youth. in his book mein kampf, he claims to have produced as many as three paintings and day. much of his work he had destroyed during the second world war but some of it survived, including these latest paintings? translation: i can't really say but it doesn't seem worth it to fake it based on the artistic value. if you walk along the seine and see 100 artists, 80 will be better than this. either way, they are now being examined to see if they're

fake or not. hitler's shadow continues to loom large even when it comes to his paintings. tim allman, bbc news. either way, we will let you know. we've just got time to leave you with these pictures from the united states. this police officer in wisconsin had a narrow escape, jumping out of the way of a car spinning out of control on an icy road. deputy jason fabry was out of his car helping another driver who had slid into a ditch. in fact, this happened on christmas day, but has been released now to remind drivers to slow down in cold weather. much more on any of the news any time on the bbc news website. thank you for watching. hello there.

today's the day that our weather is going to turn significantly milder. if we look at the kind of temperatures we had thursday afternoon, low single figures fairly widely, but this afternoon, we will see temperatures pushing up into double figures. for some, it will be a jump in temperatures of around 10 celsius, perhaps even a little bit more than that in one or two places. and the only thing that has the power to lift temperatures so quickly so far at this time of year is a warm front. and there it is, pushing its way eastwards. now, along with the warmer air that will be coming with that warm front, we will see extensive cloud. quite low cloud with some mist and fog patches around at times, particularly across eastern areas of england and around the coasts and hills in the west as conditions continue to get that bit milder. so as we go through friday morning, certainly a lot of cloud around. there will be a little bit of light, patchy rain pushing its way eastwards across eastern england, followed by extensive cloud with some bits and pieces of light rain and drizzle around our western coasts and hills. some wetter weather getting

into western scotland and perhaps at times into north—west england too. now, the far north of scotland in some cool—ish air but central and southern scotland, northern ireland, england and wales all having a mild afternoon — temperatures into double figures. those mild conditions will continue through friday night and into the early hours of saturday as well, but rain will start to move in and turn heavier across northern scotland. so, not a cold night — for most of us, temperatures 7—9 celsius. so it will be a mild start to the weekend as well. we are in a warm sector for saturday, starting behind the cold front, so a lot of cloud around once again. a westerly breeze and through the day, we will see the cloud thickening in the west to bring general outbreaks of rain into northern ireland and the rain at its heaviest in western scotland. it's probably not a bad thing, to be honest, that we see this wet weather because january has been a very dry month so far. it will be another mild day then with temperatures typically around 8—11 celsius or so, but it is turning colder across the far north of scotland.

now, through the second half of the weekend, as our low pressure pushes eastwards, we start to draw down these winds all the way from the arctic so it will be really quite chilly, particularly across western areas where we'll have gales and severe gales bringing in plenty of showers which will turn increasingly wintry across the hills in scotland, potentially also down to some lower levels late in the day. all the while, outbreaks of rain will continue to affect eastern coasts of england, eastern parts of scotland, so a blustery kind of day. and turning noticeably cooler as well — temperatures in the north just around four degrees or so. that's your latest weather. bye for now. this is bbc news — the headlines: venezuela and the us are locked in an escalating diplomatic confrontation — a day after washington recognised the opposition leader as interim president. venezuela has said it is shutting down its diplomatic missions in the us. washington has responded by ordering all its non—emergency personnel to leave venezuela. the republican and democratic leaders in the us senate have been holding private talks —

to try to negotiate an end to the partial government showdown. they are trying to agree a deal which would fund federal agencies for three weeks. president trump says he will support a ‘reasonable' agreement. scientists at a conference in norway have warned that the frontier of the arctic is likely to shift eastwards away from the barents sea as the climate warms. they say the kara and laptev seas along russia's northern coastline — are likely to become the new arctic frontier. you're up to date with the headlines. now on bbc news, hardtalk.