welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm reged ahmad. our top stories: president maduro refuses to allow aid into venezuela. he says the country doesn't need foreign handouts. not everyone agrees. translation: i want this aid to get in because people are dying. mr president, we are dying. families are dying. at least ten people, including teenage players, are killed after a fire sweeps through a building at one of brazil's biggest football clubs. thailand's king denounces his sister's unprecedented bid to try and become prime minister — calling it ‘inappropriate‘. and — apple's bug bounty — we'll tell you about the teenage boy who got paid for finding a facetime flaw. the venezuelan opposition leader who has declared himself

president, jaun guaido, is calling on the military to let us humanitarian aid into the country. the first lorries carrying food and medicines have arrived at the colombian border but venezuelan troops won't allow them in. president nicolas maduro, who has the support of the army, says he won't allow what he called the "cheap show" of false humanitarian aid, and he repeated his accusation, that the lorries were part of an american "intervention" plot, aimed at ousting him through a coup. this report from our correspondent, orla guerin, contains some flashing images. a convoy that could save lives. lorries full of desperately needed humanitarian aid headed for venezuela at the request of the opposition. they didn't get far, thanks to these containers on the venezuelan side of the border. president maduro insists there's no humanitarian crisis and no need for foreign help, so the spectacle of venezuelan troops blocking the aid, even as some

of their countrymen gathered nearby, begging for help. translation: i'm not hoping for food or anything else for me. i want this aid to get in because people are dying. mr president, we are dying. families are dying. despite the roadblock at the border, the us is promising a great flood of aid. this is a down payment. this isjust a beginning. it's important, it's significant. it will be distributed to venezuelans in venezuela. but it is an effort to respond to 20 years of mismanagement, of corruption. but among president maduro‘s supporters, no changing the tune.

the refrain here is about hugo chavez and the great socialist past. they queued up to sign a petition, refusing aid from the hated us. and from their president, no hint of compromise. "these are historic days," he says, "that could decide between war and peace. we demand the end of us aggression and threats of military intervention". for him, the greatest threat may be hunger among his people. the political landscape could change fast if the opposition manages to get aid into the sprawling slums of caracas. for years now, in areas like this, the poorest have been relying

on the government for their survival. they depend on monthly rations. president maduro is putting food on the table and that ensures a certain loyalty, and the distribution of aid is very tightly controlled. we saw the system in action. it's in the hands of colectivos — local committees loyal to the president. we've been told that maduro supporters are guaranteed basic supplies, but opponents can go empty—handed. nelson diaz stands by the president and is grateful for his government aid. this proud nationalist wants no help from washington. "i don't think we should take it," he says, "because it comes with bad intentions. if they really wanted to help us, they wouldn't interfere with our economy. they want a silent invasion." aid is much needed here, but it has become a weapon between the government

and the opposition, between president maduro and president trump, who is keen to remove him. orla guerin, bbc news, caracas. there's more on this story on the website — including background on what's created the current crisis, and how the aid scheme could work. that's on bbc.com/news. the us envoy, stephen biegun, says he's held three days of productive talks in north korea to prepare for the second meeting between president trump and kim jong—un. speaking after arriving in south korea, mr biegun said the us and north korea still had some work to do before the summit which it's been announced will be in hanoi later this month. the president is looking forward to taking the next steps. we have some work to do between now and then with

the dprk. i'm confident that both sides can make progress. at least 10 people — including young footballers — have been killed after a fire swept through one of brazil's largest football clubs, flamengo, engulfing one of the player dormitories. the blaze happened at the club's youth team training centre in rio dejaneiro. julia carneiro reports. a fire that put an end to young athletes‘ dreams while they slept. firefighters were summoned to the flamengo training ground in riojust after 5:00 in the morning. translation: the place was completely overtaken by flames. we tried as much as possible to locate victims, but all we found were dead bodies. this is what's left of the dormitory. corrugated iron roofs were twisted by the blaze that charred walls and even nearby trees. this was a home for members of the youth team that had come from faraway states or neighbourhoods. families prayed outside the training ground around the black and red flamengo flag. fans left flowers and messages for their golden boys.

some could hardly bear the wait, desperate for news on the victims. translation: for rio, the world, for everybody that supports flamengo, the parents of victims, it's so sad. we'll struggle to get over this. translation: flamengo is not just football. it's a passion that involves a whole range of feelings — for the club, its history, and mainly for the kids that have trained here since childhood to become great players. one by one, the ten young men killed were identified, aged 14—16. these young athletes were at the beginning of promising careers, having faced fierce competition to make this far, into flamengo and its famous ninho do urubu training ground, or vulture's nest — a reference to the mascot of brazil's most popular football club. most of the club's facilities had recently been modernised, but the youth dormitory was still being renovated, and the young athletes were sleeping in an older lodging that burst into flames. police are investigating

what caused the fire and whether an air—conditioning unit triggered the blaze. rio city hall said the area hit had not been licensed as a dormitory, but rather as a car park. flamengo has not yet responded to this, and has declared itself in mourning. football clubs and players from across the world have expressed their shock and solidarity under the hashtag #forcaflamengo, including some of the country's biggest stars, like pele, neymar, and zico, whose career started in flamengo. translation: these were boys with dreams and goals, many of them playing to help their families, and then, a tragedy like this. i pray to god that he can give some comfort to the families

of these boys. brazil's passion for football has turned into mourning for those gone too soon. julia carneiro, bbc news, rio de janeiro. let's get some of the day's other news a collision between two trains in spain has left a train—driver dead and more than ninety passengers injured, three of them seriously. the two commuter trains collided north of barcelona in the early evening. an investigation is underway. a gunman who killed six members of a mosque in a mass shooting in quebec two years ago has been sentenced to life in prison. alexandre bissonnette pleaded guilty to six counts of first degree murder. the attack was described at the time as a terrorist incident, but it later emerged that bissonette had mental health problems. a political scandal in the american state of virginia has intensified, with a second woman coming forward to accuse the deputy governor of sexual assault. justin fairfax has faced growing calls to step down, after a university classmate claimed he raped her nearly two decades ago. lawyers say her account is similar to that of dr vanessa tyson,

who says fairfax assualted her in 200a. he has denied both allegations. the race for next month's election in thailand has taken another dramatic twist with king vajiralongkorn denouncing his sister's unprecedented bid to run for prime minister as "inappropriate". the election is scheduled for march and is seen as the first chance for thailand to return to democracy after five years under military rule. celia hatton‘s report contains flash photography. the thai king, maha vajiralongkorn, is an all—powerful figure in his home country. his pronouncements are rarely ignored. and his words on his sister's bid to become thailand's political leader were unequivocal. a palace statement said the thai princess's candidacy was unconstitutional. hours earlier, the king's sister, ubolratana mahidol, had been announced as the prime ministerial

candidate for a party allied to the former government. a government which was overthrown in a military coup five years ago. when her name was unveiled, it seemed as if the party of the ousted thai leader thaksin shinawatra could be back in favour. and it seemed to set the stage for a dramatic election contest. a popular member of thai royalty, facing off against prayut chanocha, the army chief who led the 2014 coup. he has also been named as the candidate for prime minister. on social media, the princess said it was her right at a citizen to accept the nomination. ubolratana mahidol gave up her royal status when she married an american man in the 1970s, but is still treated as a venerated member of the thai royal family. but the princess asserted her desire

to enter politics before her brother, the king, said it was utterly inappropriate. a rare display of discord from behind the walls of the palace, where it seems, the princess will remain for now. celia hatton, bbc news. adnan rasool is from the department of political science at georgia state university and explained the signifance of the move. it is unprecedented, given the fact that an ex—princess is running for elections for the highest office on the land. and the king coming out so clearly and stating categorically that the royal family does not support this action, and moreover, this is something that looks bad on the royal name and even though princess ubolratana has given up her titles, she is still considered part of the royal family, or she carries herself as part of the royal family, and that kind of gives a negative

connotation to the royal family, given the fact that king bhumibol, the late king bhumibol, was seen as the guard king and there is a certain amount of neutrality that is associated with the royal family. as you say, the royal family known to be very much neutral in thailand, so was this bad judgement on the princess's part? you could partly say that, but more than that, this seems to be a shot in the dark, sort of hail mary pass for thaksin shinawatra's thai rak thai party, which is currently in its fourth iteration as the thai raksa chart party. they wanted to have a candidate that would be very hard to disqualify, or a candidate that would be very hard to criticise. so under the laws of lese—majesty in thailand, it's nearly impossible to criticise the royal family or any member of the royal family, and there are serious punitive measures that would hurt the person doing do. so what there is a sense of right

now is that thai raksa chart party, the thaksin—led or backed party, tried using that law against the military—led political party that they are running against in the elections by appointing or nominating the former princess as their candidate. so, we don't know whether the princess will be allowed to run at the moment. but in terms of the opposition party, aligned with former prime minister thaksin shinawatra, is this a fatal mistake, will it cost them, or is it a stroke of genius? ah, it's — when it came out initially, earlier today, it seemed like a stroke of genius. this was supposed to completely upend the thai political scene, but the more you look into it and the more you kind of look into the deeper meanings of how this candidacy has to be approved by the election commission by next friday, it seems like a shot in the dark that is about to go really, really badly for the thai raksa chart party,

backed by thaksin shinawatra. stay with us on bbc news — still to come: four—legged fashion — why you don't need a catwalk when you've got this many dogs. there's mr mandela. mr nelson mandela, a free man, taking his first steps into a new south africa. iran's spiritual leader ayatollah khomeini has said he's passed a death sentence on salman rushdie, the british author of a book which many muslims say is blasphemous. the people of haiti have flocked to church to give thanks for the ousting of their former president, 'baby doc' duvalier. because of his considerable

value as a stallion, shergar was kept in a special secure box in the stud farm's central block. shergar was driven away in a horse box the thieves had brought with them. there stepped down from the plane a figure in mourning. elizabeth ii, queen of this realm and of all her other realms and territories. head of the commonwealth, defender of the faith. this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: president maduro refuses to allow aid into venezuela. he says the country doesn't need foreign handouts. opposition leaderjuan guaido has called on the military to allow the aid in. at least ten people, including teenage players, are killed after a fire swept through a building at one of brazil's biggest football clubs. work has begun in the italian city of genoa to dismantle what's left

of the motorway bridge, which collapsed in august of last year — killing 43 people and injuring dozens more. the structure will be replaced by a new bridge of a different design. caroline rigby has more. it's the demolition project described by italy's transport minister as the image of the country's revival. thousands of tons of steel and concrete were removed from genoa's morandi bridge, in order to make it lighter before a crane began to move the first section to the ground. decked out in a red hard hat, the italian prime minister looked on. translation: it is an important day, because this is the first step of a path that i hope will be the quickest possible. what we can say today, and i spoke with all the demolition companies, is that the new bridge will be up by the end of the year. the deconstruction process is expected to last around six months, and engineers will draw on heavy machinery previously used to right the costa concordia cruise

liner, which capsized off tuscany in 2013. a new bridge will be built in place of the existing structure, designed for his home town by the famed italian architect renzo piano. it is likely to be one of the most expensive in europe, with a cost of more than 200 million euros. it will feature 43 lamps in memory of the victims of last august's disaster and is expected to be opened to traffic by april of next year. almost six months on from the partial collapse of the city's viaduct, many in the city are still reeling. but as investigations continue into the cause and accountability, the authorities hope demolition of the old bridge and construction of the new will help residents to move on from what happened. the entire population

of a new zealand town of more than 3000 people has been evacuated as a huge bushfire threatens their homes. a state of emergency has been declared around the south island town of wakefield. the fire has already burned more than 2000 hectares of land. white house advisor kellyanne conway says a woman assaulted her in front of her daughter last year. ms conway says mary elizabeth inabinett was "screaming her head off" when she grabbed her from behind and shook her in october. she denies charges of second—degree assault and disorderly conduct. she is due to stand trial in march. earlier, i spoke to our north america correspondent peter bowes who has been following the story. well, the details have really onlyjust emerged, kellyanne conway has been talking to us media outlets, explaining what has happened back in october of last year when she was in this washington, dc area restaurant, she had her teenage daughter

with her, when she says that she was approached by someone from behind. who grabbed her, the woman she says was screaming her head off, according to kellyanne conway. she says her teenage daughter managed to capture some of this on video. the police were called, although she said the woman had actually left the restaurant by the time the police arrived. they clearly managed to catch up with her later. she was arrested and has been charged, and will go on trial next month. she denies the allegations, in fact, her lawyer has said that she did not assault ms conway and she was exercising her first amendment right to express her personal opinions. it's often said that if you need help with technology it's worth asking a teenager. well, one 14—year—old from arizona has given a bit of help to one of the world's biggest companies — the technology giant apple.

14—year—old grant thompson discovered a major security flaw in apple's facetime app while playing fortnite. he told the company and has now been paid a "bug bounty". well, a little earlier i spoke with brandon falk, who's a security researcher at gamozo labs. i asked him how usual it is for someone to discover a flaw in a company's software and then be rewarded for it. it is a common thing for people to come across these bugs and report them to accompany, a lot of companies are spinning up these new bug bounty programmes which is allowing them to pay people for these, or at least have some way of handling these things as they come in. it is definitely a growing industry more and more, especially with younger kids finding these bugs and reporting them. from what i understand of grant thompson, he kind of found the bug coincidentally — rather than having some special coding knowledge. there is an industry springing up around this where people

with specialist knowledge are actively trying to find flaws in be paid for them. absolutely. there are people who almost do this full—time, or definitely do it full—time. with a lot of large companies spinning up these programmes and government spinning up these different programmes to pay for these bounties, more and more people are stepping up and being able to make a bit of money here and there. if you are younger especially you can make a full—time career out of that. is there a negative side to this, companies could almost be held to ransom? absolutely. it can get very difficult for companies as they have to staff in some ways, that can handle these reports, and have some budget to pay these people. if they don't have a programme of that sort you can have people may be taking these bugs to the black market where they can be used by organised crime or different criminal enterprises. new york fashion week is under way.

it's an excuse for designers, models and lovers of haute couture to get together and enjoy some very expensive clothing. but a fashion show with a difference has already taken place in the big apple — and the models were a little on the small side — as the bbc‘s tim allman explains. camera shutters. girls on film by duran duran plays. who needs a catwalk when you have this many dogs. every year they come for new york's pet fashion show. the theme for 2019, a masquerade ball for animals and owners alike. this is flora, we are originally from italy, we live in miami beach and she is a rescue, senior of 12 years old. and she is my baby. he is a chihuahua mix, he is blind and deaf,

and he came to me, i was fostering him, and we ended up keeping him. this is considered to be the largest pet fashion show in the world. although to be honest there aren't that many other contenders. not all the models look that impressed — at least not the a—legged ones. but it is all in a good cause. the event is a big fundraiser for animal rescue charities. all of this a precursor to the famous westminster kennel club dog show, which begins on monday. although at that there will probably not be as much glitter and sequins. that is 140 dog lovers. before we 90, that is 140 dog lovers. before we go, time to tell you that the

british department for transport has terminated a controversial contract to provide extra ferries in the event of a no—deal brexit. ministers in uk have a strong criticism since seaborne freight was awarded a £30 million contract in december to operate from ramsgate in kent, even though it had never run a ferry service or had any ships. an irish shipping line that was planning to back the company has pulled out. of course, much more on that story on oui’ course, much more on that story on our website as well, to explain all those details of brexit add all the jargon. and much more on our top story, the aid that is on the border of venezuela that nicolas maduro, the president, is not allowing in. the opposition leader calling for that aid to come to those who need it in the country. do day with us on bbc news. ——to stay with us. hello there.

storm erik still not done with us yet, there is more wind to come — in fact it looks like we could see some very gusty conditions through the early part of this morning. storm erik passes to the north of the uk with a swathe of 60—70 mph gusts likely for northern ireland, southern scotland and northern england first thing on saturday, gradually those winds will turn light into this afternoon. this swathe of potentially damaging and disruptive winds will affect the northern half of the country for a while this morning, some heavy rain and snow on the tops of the pennines and the scottish hills, further south some blustery showers, we will start the day with temperatures of around 6—8 degrees. a windy start this morning, further heavy pulses of rain, but eventually the rain becomes confined to the north—east of scotland and the northern isles, as storm erik continues to pull away into the north sea. further south there will be plenty of sunshine, a few showers across western areas, and a good deal of dry weather across eastern areas. it will be a gusty day, those winds gradually easing down into the afternoon. temperature wise, england and wales are seeing double figures again, 10—11 celsius, closer to 7—9 across scotland and northern ireland. something a little bit fresher there. there could be some disruption from the winds through today, particularly early on, keep tuned in to the latest weather forecast and bbc local radio for the latest updates. storm erik pushes off

in towards scandinavia, we look to the south, this next feature could bring a spell of very wet weather to southern parts of the country on saturday night, maybe on sunday some strong winds, but the strongest winds will be across the channel into the near continent. we could see some snow over the higher ground of wales for a while, but slowly this rain will ease away through sunday, it could hang back to east anglia and the south—east. colder air will be pouring south eastwards behind it, these showers across northern areas will be turning increasingly wintry as temperatures back into single figures for all of us. we will have showery burst of rain through saturday into sunday night, and then we see a ridge of high pressure building in which will settle things down but it will feel cold as we start monday off on a cold note. a little bit of frost around. but we have this ridge of high pressure which should see a good deal of dry weather, winds lighter than we have had for the past few days. temperatures 5—9 degrees, so it will feel a little chilly to how it has felt at the start of the weekend. high pressure building in next week,

temperatures will come down considerably, with dry weather and the return of chilly nights. this is bbc news, the headlines: the venezuelan opposition leader and self—proclaimed president, juan guaido, has called on the military to let us humanitarian aid enter the country. trucks carrying food and medicines donated by the us have arrived in a colombian border town but have been blocked from entering venezuela by soldiers. local authorities in rio dejaneiro say they have detected a series of irregularities at a training centre for one of brazil's most popular football clubs, flamengo, where a fire killed at least ten people. youth players aged between 14

and 17 are among the dead. the king of thailand has denounced his sister's candidacy for prime minister — saying that such a move is inappropriate and unconstitutional. he said his elder sister should not be allowed to run for office because it was against tradition, even if she'd given up her official royal title. lung cancer screening trucks, will be appearing in supermarket car parks, under a new scheme across england.