well, there are a number of things, and let me give you a little bit of the inside baseball here. you know, the insider analysis. our top story: house democrats have voted to hold first of all, those are not the only the us attorney—general, ones inside the regime that william barr, in contempt of congress. have been negotiating. and if fact there are many others, he'd refused to hand over the full, uncensored report on russian not to be named on air, interference in us elections. the contempt issue will now go but there are several, there are many. so they have been sort of turncoats before the full house — the democratic chairman in that they have been negotiating. of the judiciary committee said that people close to maduro have would happen rapidly. been negotiating an exit six weeks after an election since i was there two in thailand which was supposed to return the country years ago in may 2017, from military to civilian rule, drawing the hot official results have been protests at the time. announced, giving no party they started negotiating their exit. a majority in the that didn't work out either. so the fact that there's ongoing negotiations from many people is now well known. what has happened, i think, also... also the release of leopoldo lopez 500—seat parliament. is a complicated phenomenon. because on the one hand it shows that sebin, which is a very hard—core intelligence service that tortures people, the fact that and football is trending on bbc.com. they released him — it really speaks to fracture it was an incredible within the regime. second night of drama however, the military in the champions league semi—finals is not a fan of lopez, — with tottenham hotspur snatching because they tortured him last minute victory from ajax. for three and a half years in a military prison. so there, you know, there might have been some question as to whether if he is out would lucas moura scored three goals for his team against a devastated the deals of amnesty really apply? ajax. spurs will play that might have been liverpool in the final. that's all. cause for concern. stay with bbc news.

now on bbc news, that is very interesting about what you've said about the deals for amnesty. it's hardtalk with stephen sackur. as i understand it, the offer, when the americans and people around maduro were having their talks, welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. covert or otherwise with the inner circle, the deal was that a week ago, venezuela's opposition if you turn on maduro, was confident that the socialist regime led by nicolas maduro we guarantee that you will keep your was in its death throes. topjobs in the military well, they — and their allies and the security services and indeed in the trump administration the supreme court as well, — were wrong. ie you will remain in position, despite the fact that we've been describing you as part of the criminal gang running venezuela we are prepared to let you keep yourjobs. how do you think ordinary venezuelans would react maduro still occupies to that deal? the presidential palace, even if opposition leader juan guaido continues to say the top job is rightfully his. my guest is one of mr guaido‘s diplomatic representatives, vanessa neumann. i think ordinary venezuelans really want out from maduro and they understand that we need to keep territorial control and we need to keep peace. have the missteps and miscalculations of the opposition made a regime change less likely? vanessa neumann in washington, dc, welcome to hardtalk. there is a real territorial control issue in venezuela, notjust because of the military,

and you need the military in place, but you also have the paramilitary groups — the colectivos, you have the farc, you have the eln, you have hezbollah, you have russians, you have cubans, so all of these people will need to be purged from the venezuelan thank you for having me on. territory to regain our sovereignty it has been a week of drama and the military has and turbulence in venezuela, a role to play in that. which the whole world has been you appear to be alluding watching, but would you accept it to leopoldo lopez's role. has leftjuan guaido now, for those who don't know, and you in the opposition of course, he has been a long time in a weaker position? hardline radical leader of the opposition to maduro. he was imprisoned after public protest lead to violence in 2014. he's then been under house arrest. as you say, he was dramatically released onto the streets during the height of last week's events. now, lopez chose to then well, that's up for be very high—profile. debate, obviously. he was speaking out, because i'm not sure he was on the streets protesting. about the weak opposition, because what has come out is that many in the opposition have said, you know, he probably misplayed that because there is so much mistrust of him inside the maduro regime that it hardened their stand. we've had more unity do you agree? in the international arena. the stronger statements by the group of lima, which is 13 western hemisphere countries, not including the united states, and even the international contact group oh, it's hard to know.

they have no way of knowing is now aligning more with the sharper edge of lima. and it has forced more countries to basically pick a side and generally the side what goes on inside the mind they have picked is ours. it has also revealed rifts. we now know that the close circle around maduro has actively been negotiating his exit. of a criminal drug trafficking so while it did not remove maduro military commander who's from power and get him on a peaceful torturing my people. transition on an aeroplane out as we would have liked, i can't relate to that mindset. it has, actually, revealed, you know, how the regime clings what i can say is that his to power and has actually forced people to unify behind us. but there is a competence release was surprising. and credibility question, surely, hanging overjuan guaido and his most senior advisors. and after all of the drama, so if there had been a script that was being followed, if there had been an agreement after we'd thought that guaido might of a step—by—step, his release was, if it was surprising to me and to others, be almost literally marching you know, i wonder whether that was surprising to them and that to the presidential palace — played a role. but i cannot say that it did, and then it never happened — because i don't know exactly he said this to the washington post. what went on on the other side. he says, "we have recognised our yeah, itjust gets to the facts, and i know this from my own reporting in venezuela over mistakes, what we didn't do the years, that the opposition has been fragmented and divided for years. and yes, there is a leopoldo lopez, and what we did too much of". and he, in many ways,

is mentor to juan guaido. but there are many other elements to the opposition. so as an advisor of his, you can think ofjulio borges what were those mistakes? well, first of all, first of all, or you could think of hector capriles. you could think of so many others who do not appear to have been involved in the events of the last i'm now one of his 26 ambassadors. week and who appear to have been sidelined since guaido declared himself as the interim president. the opposition is still deeply divided. so i express my opinion no, let me beg to differ with that. when i'm asked for it. becausejulio borges is actually so i'm not a permanent advisor. the ambassador to the lima group. usually the chain of command so he's not at all sidelined. flows the other way. he is in an extremely i think you need to understand powerful position of the guaido administration, 0k. that the regime is basically a criminal organisation. and actively so. and my view is that what was not he was just not under house arrest. properly taken into account the only one under real house arrest of the big leaders was leopoldo was the extent of the criminality that this military is earning $8.8 lopez. so that's it. not henrique capriles, billion, is our estimate, who has gone quiet in the last couple of years, somewhat. from illicit trade every year. so that's not the issue. so i disagree with you on that. so they are loath to get rid of that. what is an issue, however, is, while the appeal is to come and support the constitution, as i said, the military tortured come and support change, leopoldo lopez for three and a half come and support human rights, come to us, is very appealing, years in ramo verde military prison. so, um, yeah, they can't really they did not take proper account of the financial expect that he is going to be very

motivation to stay put. yes, well... we will talk about the machinations positively disposed to them. not only did they torture to him inside the regime, but i'm thinking for three and a half years, about the relationship at the moment when they went to house arrest they rearrested him and he regained his activism, the rearrested him, tortured him for another three days, between guaido and the ordinary where he lost some of his eyesight, so... do you think... people of venezuela, because trust and credibility are very valuable assets and if you lose them it's very hard to get them back and here are the words of a respected venezuelan political analyst, carlos romero, who said after this week's events, he said: "these events have shaken venezuelan politics and people are now confused. they are wounded and unmotivated". and that's a big problem for you. well, i think it's i want to just move on to another important part of the story. a very big problem, yes. since the failure of the guaido putsch for power last week, he has indicated that he would be because people, to get out onto the street is very open to the option of the us difficult for venezuelans. the reality is you wake up using some sort of military intervention. in the morning without running and mike pompeo, the us secretary water, without electricity, sometimes, and then with your baby of state, has that ultimately a set crying, because you don't of options may have to be taken that have enough food to eat. could involve the use so for guaido to have of the us military. succeeded in unifying people, is that your official position now get them out onto the street and inspire them was very, as a movement that you invite, very big and significant... that you believe, inevitably, there will be some sort of us military intervention? first of all, the term intervention

is something we take issue with. yeah, but my point... because, arguably, we have been crosstalk. i'm sorry to interrupt, intervened, as you well know, but that's precisely my point. because i've seen your visits right. you have to convince people to venezuela, which are wonderful that it is worth it, reporting, we have been worth all of the risks, intervened by the cubans, the russians, the iranians, literally risk to life and limb you know, it's absolutely invaded. to go out on the streets to back they have invaded our security and into forces. this man who says he is riding ifjuan guaido it is recognised... a wave all the way to with respect, they were invited by the government in caracas. right. the presidential palace. but the point about, and you know it much more than i, the point about talking of us military intervention is that it invites maduro to play the card of railing against the american yankee those people are not going to go out for him again, neoimperialists who are only and we've seen the size of the crowds in recent days, after one thing, which is venezuela's resources they are much smaller. — ie oil. yes, unfortunately that's not surprising. look, their story is that is the reality, never going to change. that people will now, quite frankly, nobody listens to maduro any more. if they see that there i mean, you know, from our is no exit from inside, that whatever they do, perspective he can say that this won't change, whatever he likes. you are right, the streets will go quiet. because he's a criminal. and that is actually one it's a drug cartel. of the regime's goals. so, unfortunately, yes. let's talk about exactly what miscalculations were made about what was happening inside the maduro inner circle. the united states administration says it had been talking for weeks to seniorfigures, including the defence minister, the chief of the supreme court,

the head of the presidential guard, those three were seen to be turncoats who were prepared to turn on maduro. 00:07:05,268 --> 2147483051:40:17,349 it turned out that wasn't 2147483051:40:17,349 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 entirely right, was it? they're going to say whatever keeps them with territorial control and keeps them in power. ithink, you know... so that's not going to work. what is going to happen and what has been discussed is that they purposely pulled venezuela out of a regional cooperation, mutual defence agreement, the inter—american defence cooperation agreement — in spanish it's called tiar, i'm not quite sure what it is in english. and that — we are looking to get back into that. and that would enable our neighbours to come and work with us and help us regain our territorial control and regain our sovereignty and not just the united states. you airily dismiss the credibility of maduro‘s claims on the way the americans are pulling the strings here. but the fact is if you look at who is in the white house dealing with venezuela, that isjohn bolton, one of the leading neocons who has always favoured aggressive us interventionism, then elliott abrams who we all associate

with the support of the sandinistas all and anti—communist movements, even by covert operations in the 1980s. and, with the greatest of respect, there are people like you on the scene who, as i understand, you have worked in washington for a long time 18 months. and at times you have been a consultant working for the us government. so when maduro points to all of these suspicious, in his view, ties to washington's agenda, he does have a point. he can point to them all he wants but we can point to torture, starvation and the exodus of 8.4 million people, completely dwarfing syria. my consultancy, my past work has been specifically on the asymmetric warfare tactics employed by the chavistas. and all the while, the venezuelan people are suffering. they are hungry and many have been forced to leave the country. malaria and other diseases are

spreading, hospitals barely operate. these is the reality and you want more sanctions? i want the food on the money to go to the venezuelan people and not to the criminal regime. they have stolen between $5—$800 billion. quite simply, the greatest kleptocracy of all time. it is not about sanctions. a, contrary to what you assert, i have never taken a position that i want stronger sanctions. i have never publicly stated that and i don't know where you get that from. i am inviting you to contradict me then. you do not support the tough sanctions that have been imposed recently which many people, including the economist jeffrey sachs, directly tied to the suffering of venezuelan people? good. he is entitled to his position. i beg to differ and many people beg to differ and if you have been tracking venezuelan finances for 20 years, as i and others have, you will know that is not the case. what needs to happen is that the money needs

to be capped. they cannot continue to fund torture, murder — and by murder i mean paying paramilitary groups to shoot the opposition in the streets. i am not being theoretical, i am being very specific. the money needs to go to fund the reconstruction of venezuela, the humanitarian aid. don't forget, these guys originally blocked the entry of humanitarian aid and only are now starting to accept it. as we worked with the international red cross, as we built the channels with a growing coalition of the international community, maduro‘s forces shot their own starving people for the crime of carrying food to their starving relatives. that is all you need to know. let's talk about donald trump. you and people around juan guaido have invested a lot of hope

in donald trump and his administration. he spoke by phone to vladimir putin at the end of last week. at the end of the phone call he said that "putin is not looking at all to get involved in venezuela, other than he would like to see something positive happen for the country and i feel the same way. we want some humanitarian aid in." that does not sound like a donald trump who thinks the russians are playing a malign role in venezuela as you have said for so long. not only i have said, pompeo has, many other academics have said it. so what is going on? i cannot speak for the president of the united states, what his thinking is. all i can say is that the open arrival of russian military force, which they admitted, the venezuelan military admitted, maduro admitted and of which we have ample photographs. it is not a question for debate.

they say so themselves that they have invited russian military aid. so donald trump or no donald trump or whoever says it, the maduro regime has admitted it. it is a fact. but, vanessa neumann, my point is that you are a guaido diplomat and you read the political runes carefully and what we have is a us president who spoke to vladimir putin who does not want to make this a source of deep confrontation between washington and moscow. we know the russians are heavily committed to propping up the maduro regime and the cubans even more so. i put it to you as a diplomat, where do you go from here? the russians and the cubans will not end their support for maduro so how do you counteract that? we are continually calling the military to come and side with the constitution. we call upon our friends and allies, of which there are many — the 5a countries who recognise us to come and help and deal with this transnational criminal organisation

that is propping up maduro, basically the maduro regime. we have a number of other options here. if you treat them like the criminal syndicate that they are there are other options. increasing the financial disincentives to the leadership... i'm sorry are we going back to sanctions? is that what you are talking about? those are not sanctions. it is proceeds of crime and anti— laundering and transnational crime legislation. very different from sanctions. isn't the truth, as we look at the terrible suffering of the venezuelan people, that the only way that we can see out of this, more so after the events of the last week, is negotiation. is some sort of dialogue between the maduro regime

and juan guaido and all the forces arranged in the opposition. the problem with that is that maduro has not shown any willingness to dialogue. with whom are we dialoguing? he is the one who said no. he said no to hosting free and fair elections. it is not us blocking it, it is them. that is a nonstarter. there is a conversation to have about when are you getting on the plane out and when can we carry on to restore the country to democracy and prosperity. that is what we want. that is a negotiated solution. the negotiated solution is sir, your plane awaits, where would you like to go? what is your message to the outside world? what we have seen so far in terms of support from the us and europeans and other countries who have recognised guaido, it is not enough. and you need to do more. is that it?

we need to do more. we need to continue to treat them as the transnational criminal organisation that they are. it's a whole different set of authorities from how we have dealt with them so far. they are not government. dealing with them diplomatically, you know, that is not how you deal with a drug cartel. you do not send diplomats to talk with them. you deal with the drug cartel by picking up the leadership, throwing them in prison, seizing their money, their houses, their boats and you cancel their visas. and that is what you do. it is not a military operation, that is a law enforcement operation. and that will help us a lot. final brief point. guaido and others last week were saying that maduro‘s end is about to happen, that he is in his death throes. he is not dead. how long will it take, in your view?

it is hard to know. can anyone ever predict it? the fall of the berlin wall was the result of after many negotiations the entire cold war et cetera, it was basically down to one guard who said let them pass. as the trickle of people turned into a rush, the berlin wall was suddenly down. nobody had predicted that. who knows? even the people did not predict the iranian revolution accurately. when you have just change it is hard to predict. what we do know is that there is instability within the regime, they are negotiating around him. that many of the mid—level commanders are unhappy. the sebin, the praetorian guard of the regime, let go the guy who had been tortured by the regime for 3.5 years. there is instability and we know we will have to wait and see how it shakes out and continue to work with our allies to restore my country to democracy and prosperity and i have absolute faith that it will happen. when it will happen, i have no way of knowing. we have to end but thank you very much for being on hardtalk. vanessa neumann, thank you. thank you.

hello there. wednesday was a thoroughly wet, cold, windy day for many areas. further south we did see the sunshine appear through the afternoon, but that gave way to showers and some thunderstorms with hail. all tied in with this area of low pressure, which is slowly moving out into the north sea, although its weather fronts will continue to affect parts of the country as we head through today. now, early on today it will stay quite damp across parts of scotland,

northern england, with persistent rain, still quite a breeze blowing in off the north sea there. but northern scotland will start dry with clear skies. so here another cold one with a frost out of town. but further south, because of more cloud and rain, it should be a less cold start. so for thursday, it will be a damp start for many. a lot of cloud around. the best of the sunshine across the northern half of scotland. winds will be generally lighter across the uk as that area of low pressure continues to pull out. but into the afternoon, a mixture of sunshine and showers for northern ireland, for much of england and wales. though the far south—west to stay dry. we will see top temperatures of 111—15 degrees in the south. as we head on into friday, the low pressure continues to pull away. although this weather front will bring showers mainly to central parts of the uk. but winds will be lighter still on friday, so we'll start off on a fairly cool note. there will be some sunshine around. but as those temperatures rise then showers will also develop, some could turn out to be heavy ones. again, southern scotland, northern ireland, into the midlands, northern england as well.

i think the south—west should stay largely dry. highs of 15 or16 highs of 15 or 16 degrees. a little less cold across scotland. into the weekend, it looks like high pressure is going to start building in, although there will be northerly winds on its eastern flank for a while, so it will stay quite chilly into the weekend. but then as that high pressure moves a little bit further eastwards we will start to draw up some warmer southerly winds. so it's a slow process but this weekend looks like it will be turning drier and it should turn a little bit warmer as well, particularly beyond sunday. now for saturday, it's a chilly start to those northern winds, quite bright with some sunshine around. we think showers will develop mainly across eastern areas. some of these could be quite heavy. the best of the sunshine further west. the south—west we could see 16—17 celsius. a little bit warmer further north too. on into sunday, i think we will start off chilly again with some sunshine. a bit of cloud will develop here and there.

probably the best of the sunshine closer to that area of high pressure. it should be warm across the board with highs of 17—18 celsius. and then beyond sunday into next week without high pressure building in, southerly winds, it will be turning warmer with some places are seeing the low 20s celsius.

i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore — the headlines: held in contempt — us democrats vote to officially condemn the attorney general for refusing to release the full mueller report. we spoke for a long time about approaching a constitutional crisis,

we are now in it. we are now in a constitutional crisis. no outright winner in thailand's election — so negotations begin over who will form the new government. i'm kasia madera in london. also in the programme: another footballing fightback for an english team — tottenham beat ajax — tojoin liverpool in the champions league final. and after the world's first glimpse,