military to support the opposition leaderjuan guaido as interim president. the iii—nation lima group called for a change of government without the use of force, and the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid. german chancellor angela merkel has been meeting the japanese leader shinzo abe injapan to talk about trade as global economic tensions rise. among the topics are the us—china trade war and brexit. and this story is popular on bbc.com: the american hip—hop rapper 21 savage has been arrested by us immigration officials. they say he's from the uk and overstayed a visa when he came to america at the age of 12. that's all. stay with bbc world news. now on bbc news, hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen

sackur. right now, venezuela is in the grip of political and economic chaos. two men are claiming the presidency, protesters are out on the streets and the international community is divided in its response. well, today i am in miami to meet christian zerpa. until december, he was a justice on the venezuelan supreme court. now he is one of the highest profile defectors from their maduro regime. so does this erstwhile insider believes the socialist revolution is in its death throes? christian zerpa, welcome to

hardtalk. thank you. let us begin with your personal story. he used it with your personal story. he used it with me in miami and yetjust a few short weeks ago, you were a justice on the venezuelan supreme court. you could have stayed in your country to fight for truth and justice. you ran away. why? i understand very well that it is very dangerous to be an opponent to the maduro regime. dissidents, as you say, are in prison. you were not

a dissident. you were an extraordinarily loyal functionary of the government. you expected a position of the supreme court and you were chosen because you had been so you were chosen because you had been so loyal for so long to ditch have easter revolution and to nicolas maduro in particular. —— you were accepted. bass chavista. —— chavista. this is important because it is important to get inside the mindset of people who still today in venezuela are working for the maduro regime. did you continue to stay loyal because you had, relatively speaking, a good salary, yourfamily was being looked after, you were inside the system, so in a sense, you couldn't or maybe you felt you couldn't afford to leave, to make trouble, to run any risks, is that why you stayed so loyal for so long? with respect, your situation was

very different to those venezuelans who are suffering real starvation. i mean, we see from the figures that have been put out by the un that up to 10% of children in venezuela today are suffering severe malnutrition. we know that millions have had to flee their country because they are going hungry. according to one estimate there are now nearly 3 million venezuelans who have fled the country. medicines are in short supply in many of the country's hospitals and yet you still sat on the supreme court, issuing yourjudgements, loyal to mr maduro. did you not feel that what you were doing was fundamentally wrong? while you tell me about the dangers

of being a dissident and how difficult it is, i am also thinking that you sat on the supreme court at a time when the judicial system, with your court at the very top, was locking up many dissidents and opponents of the government. leopoldo lopez, for example, he was locked up. a good lester holt posted brave venezuelans locked up. a good lester holt posted brave venezuela ns —— locked up. a good lester holt posted brave venezuelans —— i could list a whole list of brave venezuelans who we re whole list of brave venezuelans who were dissidents. you sat on the supreme court. you are guilty, yourself, of putting dissidents

behind bars. you are part of the system. if you tell me, oh, i was involved in elections. did the supreme court say that the election of 2018, president maduro's re— election, the court was happy to accept that result when every international observer said the vote was rigged, that it was com pletely the vote was rigged, that it was completely legitimate and unacceptable. so even in your role in devising elections, time and again, you were avoiding all responsibility to tell the truth. are you saying to me that maduro's re— election in 2018 was legitimate

01’ re— election in 2018 was legitimate or illegitimate? was that election free and fairor or illegitimate? was that election free and fair or was it rigged? have you discussed with the us authorities, because of course you are now living in florida in x, have you discussed with them giving evidence and sworn statements about what you describe is the systematic corruption at the top of the regime? ——in exile. you have talked about the president and the president's immediate family and his close associates and you have suggested

that they are all part of a corrupt system. what evidence did you see of wealth that was being a quiet by people at the top of the government —— acquired. do you also feel guilt, yield that usurped that regime that you now described as illegitimate and corrupt? you served it for so long. how much guilty you feel? —— how much guilt do you feel? let's talk about the situation in venezuela today. a few weeks after you left the country, juan guaido declared that he was the legitimate

president of the country. he was the president of the country. he was the president of the national assembly and argued that maduro's election in 2018 was illegitimate which you have agreed with and he said he is the legitimate president of venezuela for subcutaneous support his claim? ——0f venezuela. ——do you support his claim? but yourformer but your former colleagues in the venezuelan supreme court have frozen his bank accounts, they have barred him from travel, leaving the

country, that he is under enormous pressure today. you know the supreme court very well and you know president maduro very well. is it your impression that they will do everything in their power to destroy quite go right now? —— destroyjuan guaido. what do you think president maduro is going to do now? because of course, mr guaido has won the support of many nations around the world including of course the united states and many countries in latin america, but the response from maduro has been to talk about us imperialism, trying to illegitimately remove him from power. he has said they are trying to get their hands on are all oil, just like in iraq. he has said that if they try to overthrow me, get me out of power, it will be worse than

vietnam for them. so did you believe maduro is committed to staying in power, confronting the opposition and doing whatever it takes to maintain his grip on power? the truth is, there are long—standing suspicions inside venezuela of american motives and 110w venezuela of american motives and now that donald trump and his team have imposed punitive new sanctions on venezuelan oil companies, it will cost the country ‘s billions of dollars, it will mean the desperate state of the economy will get even worse. do you support american sanctions? do you support america ‘s talk of military options being on the table? but would you accept that mr guaido has to be careful. he has already spoken to donald trump by telephone.

here in miami other dissident meeting vice president mike pence. if the venezuelan opposition is seen to be too close to the trump administration and to the united states, that may well raise suspicions back home in venezuela. it may allow maduro to use this narrative about us imperialism? is that a danger? you talk about the venezuelan military and how important they will be in the next phase of this crisis. do you believe there was evidence of division within the military and that there are some who want to come out and supportjuan guaido? this is what a former maduro loyalists, who fled the country in 2015 said recently. he said, right 110w 2015 said recently. he said, right now at the venezuelan armed forces

could not have the capacity or indeed the desire to confront the population in a massive protest. he is suggesting that, if millions come out into the street, the army will not use repression to try and keep maduro in power. do you agree? what do you think is going to happen in venezuela? do you think the country is going to sink into civil war? i want to and with this thought, if i may. you talk of democracy. you we re i may. you talk of democracy. you were not a democrat, for many, many yea rs were not a democrat, for many, many years you were a loyal member of the socialist government which in many parts of the world is seen as a dictatorship. you served in that dictatorship, are you saying to me 110w dictatorship, are you saying to me now that the socialist revolution

and the authoritarian government in venezuela is basically over, it is finished? you said a few days ago, if i go back to venezuela right now, i would bea back to venezuela right now, i would be a dead man. do you believe you will ever go back with your family? christian zerpa, i thank you very much for being on hardtalk. hello. monday saw a transition to much milder weather across much of the uk.

tuesday though will start off on a pretty chilly note, at least first thing. this picture was taken on monday evening, by one of our weather of our weather weatchers, in hertfordshire, showing the fog's already been forming. so i think we are likely to start with quite a bit of mist and fog around, also some frost here and there first thing tuesday morning. rain will move in from the west later on in the day so we'll see those skies clouding over. a clear start for many of us. you can see the the blue colours indicating where the lowest of the temperatures and the frost will be. there's also going to be some fog problems, particularly through the vale of york, also through parts of southern england, perhaps east wales as well. through the day we do start with that sunshine for much of scotland, northern england, eastern england too. but you can see the cloud rolling in from the west, ahead of the arrival of some wet weather. so later in the morning, there will be some rain for northern ireland, wales, the south—west of england too. that rain pushing its way eastwards through the day. eastern scotland and eastern england should stay mostly dry. although skies will cloud over and temperature will range between around 6—12 degrees, on tuesday afternoon. we will keep all the cloud and the outbreaks of patchy rain

overnight tuesday into wednesday. still quite a breeze too. so for many of us it will be a reasonably mild night but where we do see those skies clear, particularly in the north, could just be a touch of frost but generally a frost—free and a mild start to your wednesday. now, through the day on wednesday, showers from the word go across the north—west of the country. initially some rain in the south—east too and that's down to this weather front that you can see on the map here. it is clearing its way off towards the south—east and then we are all left with this westerly flow of air. so quite a showery scene for northern ireland, western scotland too. and through the day we'll see some of that rain in the south pushing back in, so a bit of a soggy afternoon, i think, for south—east england, the london region and east anglia too but elsewhere actually some sunny spells coming through and temperatures not far off what we would expect for the time of year. between around 8—10 degrees for most of us. looking ahead now towards the end of the week and things will turn increasingly unsettled.

we could see a spell of rain, perhaps even a bit of snow over the hills, moving through into the early hours of thursday morning. so overnight wednesday into thursday, chance of seeing a little bit of hill snow here and there through the day on thursday then the worst of the rain and hill snow should clear away. and then again we're left with a westerly flow, a mix of sunny spells and a few scattered showers but it could turn quite stormy, quite windy and unsettled as we look towards the end of the week. that's it for now. bye— bye. hello, this is newsday on the bbc. i'm rico hizon in singapore. the headlines: a group of latin american countries and canada call for a change of government in venezuela as its crippled economy teeters on the brink. if you buyjust this much, you've spent a third of the average monthly wage. and prices are skyrocketing. they've doubled in a month. search teams confirm they've sighted a body in the wreckage of the plane carrying the missing footballer, emiliano sala, and his pilot.

i'm babita sharma in london. also in the programme: talking trade in uncertain times. angela merkel meets shinzo abe as global economic tensions rise.