in the lebanese capital beirut as grief turns to anger after tuesday's explosion in the city. people there accuse the government of negligence and say corruption and mismanagement led to the deadly blast at a warehouse storing ammonium nitrate. france's president is the first foreign leader to visit the country since the disaster. he was mobbed by people pleading for help and asking that those responsible face justice. emmanuel macron called for a profound change in lebanon's leadership and an international investigation. in the us, the powerful gun lobby the national rifle association is in the firing line, with the state of new york trying to get the group dissolved. the attorney general‘s brought a lawsuit accusing its leaders of fraud, allegations that the organisation denies.

now on bbc news: hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. 18 months ago, venezuela seemed to be on the brink of political upheaval. the leader of the national assembly declared himself president, and he won the backing of more than 50 countries, but today the socialist government is still in power, president nicolas maduro overseeing a deep economic and health care crisis. my guest today is vanessa neumann, the london envoy of the would—be presidentjuan guaido. has the opposition missed its main chance?

vanessa neumann, in new york city, welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much for having me. it is a pleasure to be back with you, stephen. let's reflect on the big declaration made byjuan guaido some 18 months ago when he declared himself president of venezuela. he said that he was going to deliver freedom and democracy, and a better life to the people of venezuela. are you somewhat embarrassed when you think back to those claims? no, absolutely not. i think we have made a lot of progress. we have 61 countries now that recognise that our interim president, including the united kingdom, now, by active law, but in the british courts, and three international organisations, and what has happened is that it has become patently clear that the dictatorship of maduro has done everything in its power to prevent the free and fair elections.

ofjuan guaido‘s commitment, according to the constitution in his duty is to get us to free and fair elections. we have done everything in our power to get there, and where it has been blocked has been by maduro, so what has succeeded is we have offered help, we have brought in humanitarian aid to the people of venezuela and highlighted to the world the criminality of maduro and that he is the single greatest sanction and source of suffering and obstacle to democracy in venezuela. you talk about the economic aid that guaido has delivered to the people of venezuela, but it's simply not true. for all the big claims he would get the us and neighbouring colombia to deliver millions of tonnes of humanitarian aid, none of that has happened, and that is why the people of your country are now, it seems, deeply sceptical about mr guaido‘s claims. no, absolutely not, what has been highlighted is how maduro stopped

the international aid. your country, the united kingdom, has pledged over £1145 million in aid that has come through un organisations and distributed within venezuela, and the concern is that, in providing more aid, it is blocked, stolen and sold on the black market by maduro. the single person stopping the entrance of more internationally—observed aid is maduro. so that has been highlighted, and that has become clearer and clearer to the world. he is the sanction, he is the stoppage of international aid, and if he is so concerned, he can return some of the 300 billion he has been personally involved in stealing. but i am looking at this from the point of view of ordinary people in venezuela, who are suffering so much.

they have suffered for so long from a profound economic collapse and crisis. they are also today, of course, like so many others in latin america, suffering from the coronavirus pandemic and its effects as well, and surely the reality of the crisis today is that venezuela's people have no appetite for taking to the streets, for mass protest, forjoining the campaign to get rid of maduro? that phase appears to be over. no, i beg to differ on that. i think that it is true that maduro has used the lockdown measures of the coronavirus pandemic to quell dissent, and to keep people from complaining and dissenting, but we have also seen that when people in venezuela, we have 9 million people who are in a precarious food situation, which means on the verge of starvation, 9 million people, while maduro uses any food supply to fund his military and to pocket money for them, his people starve. and so when venezuelans go out

and break the quarantine to find food, to decide which of their children will eat tonight, he sends out illegal, non—state armed groups, who function as proxies, to beat people seeking food. what i want to focus on with you is not the prevailing science of crisis in venezuela, that is true, undeniable, and we put those points to the people from the regime whenever they agree to talk to us, but the problem i put to you is the political problem juan guaido has right now. looking at survey evidence, an independent analysis of survey of opinion in venezuela, while mr maduro‘s standings are dismal, at around 13%, the problem for guaido is his approval rating has tumbled from 60% when he declared himself president tojust around 30% today.

his support is crumbling, and i notice when he tweets about the political situation in venezuela now, he gets hundreds, rather than tens of thousands, of approvals and likes on twitter. his campaign is faltering. keep in mind that he is a constitutional interim president of venezuela. his obligation is to get the country to free and fair elections. what we are fighting for is not to tell the people whom they should like, but give them the opportunity to choose for themselves. what we are trying to do is to have free and fair elections, exactly as you have in the united kingdom, you know, to a fair, international standard, to let the people decide. we are not dictating to them who they should like. having said that, what is clear is that the people of venezuela do not want maduro in power any more, and who they want in after maduro is what we are working to give them the opportunity to decide, and that is a fundamental human right.

but you have scored some real own goals, haven't you? for example, two members of the guaido team allegedly involved in corruption, misusing and profiting and greatly spending for themselves, monies from various international aid agencies and the united states that was supposed to help exiles in colombia actually went to spending on hotels, on luxuries, on a car, for two associates of mr guaido inside colombia. that's the kind of corruption you accuse maduro of. yes, it is, and corruption is unfortunate always, and it happens in every political situation, including in europe, and in the western world, and those people were let go and it was dealt with. hang on, the whole point of your campaign is that you are going to change venezuela, you're going to root out corruption,

and here it is, two senior associates of mr guaido were deeply corrupt themselves and misused this aid money. i can only respond by my own actions, my decisions, and i am right with my god and with my people. however, it is unfortunate when you have individuals in any organisation who make bad choices, and then we have dealt with them. we understand that corruption is really what has destroyed venezuela. it is a kleptocracy on a global scale the likes we have never seen in history, and now it will be part of the challenge to change the minds and the culture throughout the country, and it is unfortunate when a few individuals make a poor choice, and we have dealt with them accordingly. unlike maduro,

who promotes them. you talk about a couple of bad apples. the problem is it is a much deeper problem than that. mr guaido himself looks like he is responsible for some very poor decisions, including association with what are alleged to be two narco traffickers, when he entered colombia in february of last year. can you explain that association? no, there is no evidence of a deep association beyond just a photograph. as many people do, they come up to you when you are a public figure and say, will you have your photograph taken with me? i am just a diplomat, and it happens to me, never mind the interim president. i have no evidence there is a deeper tie, and if there is, we support the rule of law, we support the independence of institutions in finding out the truth, and we have to leave it to them.

but these two paramilitaries, pictured with mr guaido in a smiling photograph, work for an organisation which is responsible for cocaine trafficking, illegal mining, kidnapping, ransom, extortion, and you're telling me that you haven't wished for any deep investigation of what this was all about? no, stephen, that's not what i said. i said that we would allow any investigation to move forward and we have not interfered and we mustjust wait to see what happens with that. as you know, it is unfortunate that in the desperate situation venezuelans find themselves in under maduro that they have to flee the border and cross these very narrow paths, which are unfortunately controlled basically by armed and criminal groups. this is a direct consequence of the brutality of the maduro dictatorship that does not respect its constitution, does not respect the will of the people, and imposes and tries to imprison,

basically, it's political opposition, and won't allow them to leave the country. in a normal country, juan guaido would go through the normal airport and fly to bogota. it is unfortunate that he and many of my colleagues, and if i ever had to enter the country again it would basically have to be through those narrow pathways that u nfortu nately a re controlled by non—state armed groups. let me ask you this, you have stretched your commitment to freedom, democracy and the venezuelan constitution, is it therefore time to acknowledge that mr guaido‘s flirtation with a coup removal of maduro by force at least twice in the last 18 months, that was a terrible mistake? no, first of all, not a coup. second of all, we are the legitimate government. you say it wasn't a coup, but both times violence was contemplated, it failed, so, yes, there was no coup, but it is quite clear associates

of guaido and possibly mr guaido himself supported efforts to get rid of maduro by force. you are mixing two issues, first of all the call of april 30th was for the military to come in support of what is the constitution and to serve the constitution to which they have pledged allegiance, and to support our interim president, period. pea cefully. the effort was to be peaceful. second of all, you are referring to that operation, the sort of two—bit cartoon operation, with these two americans who didn't even turn up, and it was an operation no one really took seriously, and then was used by the dictatorship as a false flag operation for propaganda purposes.

again, i don't see that as a call for a coup at all. i'm sure you don't, because it is so embarrassing, but the truth is that one of mr guaido‘s advisors in the united states was quite clearly associated with a us security firm that had plans to capture nicolas maduro. it may have been a mickey mouse operation, but the fact is guaido‘s associates were connected to that plan. you are only one of his advisers, maybe you don't know what the others are doing. chuckling. there is always that possibility, stephen. however, as you know, president guaido accepted the resignation ofjuan jose rendon after that, and also others stepped away when they realised how half—ba ked the security organisation was. so no one serious took this seriously, and the people who contemplated it

were left out. let me make one further point, however, we have always advocated for a peaceful transition. we are the ones who kept going with the oslo accord. we are the ones who keep calling to the military to come on side peacefully and support the constitution. let's talk about diplomacy, because you are the uk representative of the guaido team in london. now, you are, when you spoke to me a little more than a year ago, you seemed very confident that the international community, led by the trump administration, was going to do whatever it took, ultimately, to back you, and get rid of maduro. you must be sorely disappointed, because all the evidence is that donald trump himself and his administration are clearly cooling on their support for your man, guaido? no one is cooling in their support for the venezuelan people

and democracy, and i am not at all disappointed in, for instance, the actions of her majesty's government. as you know, we have one. . . before we get to the british, and frankly the british don't matter as much as donald trump, how can you say you are not disappointed? did you hear donald trump say just a few months back that he hadn't necessarily been in favour of what he called guaido‘s election, not quite clear what he meant by election — but he said, "i don't think that guaido‘s election or appointment was very meaningful, one way or the other." "all we want," he said, "is somebody that has the support of the people. i support the person that has the support of the people," and he patently doesn't believe any more that guaido is that man. i cannot speak to what may or may not be inside the head of the president of the united states, i just can't. i can't speak what is in the head of anybody else. all i can point you to is to the results, and repeat that once again what we are fighting for in venezuela is to give the right to

venezuelans to choose who they want to be led by. juan guaido is the interim president, by virtue of the maduro dictatorship. the maduro dictatorship created the interim presidency ofjuan guaido by stealing the 2018 elections, where everybody was in prisons, and the ones who weren't were, they had a forced election by two opposition who had actually worked inside the regime up until two months before, there were no international standards. what created thejuan guaido was maduro‘s dictatorship—like unwillingness to have free and fair elections that left the presidency vacant, and according to our constitution, the president of the national assembly assumes that role. but, vanessa neumann, what you call the guaido presidency is nothing more than alice in wonderland fantasy, if it lacks international credibility,

and my point to you is that over the last few months it has begun to seriously haemorrhage international credibility. well, i beg to differ. let me point you to the gold decision that we just won. on july 2nd was a ground—breaking verdict in the british high court thatjuan guaido is the constitutional interim president of venezuela and the head of state of venezuela. let's talk big picture. the fact is that maduro has proved much more durable than you thought he would, because he has the staunch support of russia, with money and material, with iran, who give him his petrol products, with china and with turkey, who leveraged some of his financial dealings. these countries are still backing him. to quote mr lavrov recently, "we have firmly expressed our support for venezuela's sovereignty, our solidarity with the venezuelan leadership and nation against illegal pressures

imposed by the us and their allies." as long as that is the case, maduro has the cards. you forgive my smile, stephen, but to hear the russians talk about our sovereignty will make any venezuelan laugh, quite frankly, because they have their own military on the ground. we have them photographed buying food and bottles of vodka in our own supermarkets in caracas that our own people cannot afford. they are making a fortune there by basically ensuring our murder. so to hear a russian talk about our sovereignty, they should start by pulling out the people who are murdering us. second of all, the only reason why turkey, iran and russia support him is because maduro, and chavez before him, turned venezuela into a major criminal enterprise, and a money—laundering operation. you've got a problem, because you are telling me there are 9 million people, at least, hungry in venezuela today, and yet you are supporting ever tougher sanctions, which are going to hit those very same people

harder and harder, and to many people on the ground in venezuela, your solution to all of this, which is ever more sanctions, simply seems to them to be hurting theirfutures, and their children's futures. i'm so sorry, stephen, but i disagree with that, because basically the biggest sanction on venezuela is the presidency of maduro. the economic decline started in 2013. we started tracking the growing hunger in venezuela in 2013. it started even while oil prices were high, basically because of gross mismanagement and incompetence and inability to manage both the monetary reserves, or to have any investment, and now he blocks food, the only one person blocking the food is maduro. but my point is that your strategy, which is to call for ever tougher sanctions, is not going to help the ordinary people of your country.

i'm going to quote patrick gaspard, president of the open society foundations, served as a us ambassador under the 0bama administration, and he says this of venezuela today, "broad sanctions hurting ordinary people will only entrench the power of those at the top." you need a new strategy. first of all, the only people who are disallowing ..the sanctions do not prevent food or medicine. any food or medicine and humanitarian aid can enter venezuela. that is allowed under the sanctions. the only person blocking that... ..adding to the destruction of the venezuelan economy, the knock—on effect of that is that people go hungry, so telling me that humanitarian assistance is not blocked is not really addressing the problem. i will wait until you are finished, stephen, and then i will answer your question. 0k, basically, no. what has happened is that maduro won't allow the food in,

and the economic decline is because of the theft of between $300 and $400 billion, the incompetence, the kleptocracy, the corruption. the only food and medicine that maduro wants to let in is that that can be distributed by his army, so they can steal it and sell it on the black market, and keep their loyalty. he lets the venezuelan people die. your second question was what is our strategy to do that? our strategy to do that is to continue to strangle the illicit financing network of the top of the maduro regime. they steal the gold and send it to iran. they have stolen tonnes and tonnes of gold. none of that has gone to address the covid—19 crisis. in the end, though, isn't there going to have to be a dialogue between you and the opposition and maduro and his associates in caracas? you had the oslo process last year. by september, you walked away

from it, said it had failed. i'm sorry, he walked away from it. he walked away from it. well, it depends who you listen to, but the fact is, it ended. the norwegians, i notice, sent officials back to caracas just a couple of weeks ago. are you, here and now, prepared to talk to maduro and his people again, and will you commit to fighting in the legislative assembly elections in december, which would be one sign that a political process could begin? that's very sweet of you, stephen. i am rather surprised by your naivete in the question. first of all, i will take the second part first. the legislative elections are a fraud. we have been absolutely very clear that we want free and fair elections. for instance, how are you going to hold elections? there is not a single voting machine in all of venezuela, not one, because they were blown up and burnt by the maduro

regime in a warehouse. they are hoping to get some from argentina by a company that is controlled from within the regime. so, no. in terms of dialogue, we are always willing to have a conversation about the conditions under which maduro will step aside from the presidency, and that's it. we want a peaceful transition, get on a plane now, tell us what it would take to get on a plane out, and then for us to plan the international observers, with free access to media, with credible polling stations, with, you know, advertising and international observation at every point in the electoral process. and when maduro — we are always open to that discussion of how he will get out, so that our people can get back to prosperity and democracy. vanessa neumann, we have to end, but i thank you very much forjoining me from new york.

thank you very much. hello. friday brings some weather deja vu, with temperatures soaring once again. one week on from well, last friday, this is how it looked at the start of the day. the uk was set to record its third—highest temperature on record. so, here we go again this friday. heat surging up from the south. not everybody‘s going to get it, but the hottest area — around london — could reach 36 celsius. and, unlike last friday, this is the start of several days of heat, so for parts of england and perhaps wales, the start of a heat wave.

but, again, not everybody will get it. this weather front for northern ireland, into scotland, will bring some outbreaks of rain and keep temperatures into the low 20s. pretty warm and muggy start to friday. and some cloud around, a lot of sunshine from the word go through central and eastern england. but for northern ireland and scotland, here comes the rain. maybe some heavy and thundery bursts pushing eastwards during the day. i think parts of the east and south—east of scotland will stay largely dry until the evening. there may well be some misty low cloud hanging on towards some western coasts of england and wales. could be a bit drizzly in places here, but for the bulk of england and wales, it'll be sunny, though the cloud increasing in southern england mayjust bring the odd sharp shower later in the day. but, really, it's about those temperatures in england and wales. very warm to hot. parts of the midlands, eastern and south—east england in excess of 30 celsius, and exceptionally hot in the hottest parts of south—east england, where, of course, after such a very warm to hot day, it'll be very warm overnight and into saturday morning through a large part of england and wales. even where you have clear

skies, difficult forsleeping. but as that weather front has pushed on and cleared away from scotland and northern ireland, some cooler, fresher air here, and some actuallyjust dip into single figures as saturday begins. high pressure in control on saturday. that means a lot of fine weather to start the weekend. plenty of sunshine. bit of a breeze just kicking in towards some of these north sea coasts will actually take temperatures back down a bit from friday. even where it was so very hot, you may not be quite as hot on saturday, not so much, i think, as many people would notice. it is still very warm to hot across a large part of england and wales. 0vernight and into sunday for england and wales, the growing chance of seeing a few showers and thunderstorms break out, but many places will still stay dry and have a fine sunday. quite a range of temperatures across the uk, but it's those hottest parts of england and wales that will see the heat continue into the start of the week.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm david eades. clashes on the streets of beirut as police use tear gas against protesters in the aftermath of tuesday's massive explosion. it's a direct shot at the us gun lobby, new york state tries to disband the national rifle association accusing its organisers of fraud. in africa, the number of people who've tested positive for coronavirus passes the one million mark. we assess the worst affected countries. 0rganisers of the london marathon restrict this year's event to elite runners only — a bid to stay one step ahead of the virus‘ spread.