04/08/2017 World News Today

Thousands of government supporters march in the Venezuelan capital,

Caracas, as the new constitutional assembly takes office.

America's Attorney General condemns what he calls the staggering level

of unauthorised access to classified

We will investigate and seek to bring criminals to justice.

We will not allow rogue anonymous sources...

with security clearances to sell out our country.

Health warnings across Europe as some countries experience

Neymar, the world's most expensive footballer,

Hello, and welcome to BBC World News Today.

Venezuela's new Constituent Assembly has been sworn in.

Their role - as controversially called for by President

Nicolas Maduro - is to re-write the existing constitution.

The elected representatives - more than 500 of them,

almost all of them allies of the President -

gathered in the parliament building for the ceremony in Caracas.

While, outside, confrontations between police and anti-government

Opposition leaders, and leaders internationally,

have condemned the Venezuelan government's plan as an attempt

BBC Monitoring's Luis Fajardo is following events from Miami.

He told me the swearing in of the new assembly was very symbolic.

When the leaders walked into the building carrying the portrait of

Hugo Chavez, the father of the Revolution, in the same building

that will now hold the pro-government assembly has been the

house of the National Assembly which has been controlled by the

opposition and when they took over the National Assembly a couple of

years ago, they made a big deal of removing this portrait of Hugo

Chavez. Really set the symbolic effect of showing the pro-government

faction taking over one of the last introduced zero bastions of the

opposition in Venezuela right now. There seems to be some confusion

about what happens next in terms of the need for a referendum. Explain

this process to us. Actually that is one of the big issues that no one

knows what happens next, because the Venezuelan participant assembly has

such a degree of power and autonomy they could basically rule that they

would not need any further endorsement by any kind of

referendum. In theory they could even replace a president. One of the

issues of great uncertainty is the amount of power that is going to be

controlled by the constituent assembly. Of course the leaders of

the assembly who have just been named are closely associated with

President Nicolas Maduro, seen as close allies of this, but there are

still a strong degree of uncertainty and that was one of the things the

opposition was complaining about, the fact that this is an enormous

amount of power that is being given to a new constituent assembly that

is going to rewrite a lot of the constitutional framework in

Venezuela and the opposition is afraid that they will move against

the last bastions of institutional opposition in Venezuela. We can

cross now to Washington to talk to the co-director of the Centre for

economic and policy research and an expert on the politics and economy

of Venezuela. Thank you for joining us. There has been international

condemnation and direct reaction as well. We are starting to see the

first signs of sanctions against Venezuela and President Maduro. Yes,

I think sanctions from the US will further polarise the situation. The

problem that the US has is regime change like you had in Iraq and

Syria and Afghanistan and Libya and this really needs, it has led to

disaster and will else and if they keep going in this direction it

could push the country into civil war. It is a polarise country. What

they really need is negotiations like they had in the fall of last

year, and something that leads to elections, of course, as President

Maduro has promised, scheduled presidential elections and that is

what they need and instead the US and its allies, including Europe,

and US allies in Latin America, who are on board with the regime change

strategy. Those are the ones that support what the United States, the

drug Administration is doing and those sanctions are already taking

effect, having an enormous negative impact. The black market value of

the currency crashed by 40%, the fastest I have seen it falling in 15

years. Some of these sanctions on individuals will deprive the

government of most of its foreign exchange. One of the officials of

the order companies is, they cannot sign contracts. This is already a

serious attempt to destroy the economy and overthrow the

government. The Secretary of State said it. He said, we are trying to

force President Maduro to design -- resign, and look at policy options

that will get rid of this government. Is President Maduro good

for Venezuela? How does the present Venezuela defer to the vision

previously? That is why they have elections, they have a president

elected for the next year, people can vote him out of office if they

want to do so like they voted him in. The point that the vast majority

of the 7 billion people on the planet would agree with is that a

foreign government does not have the right to overthrow the elected

government of another country. That is what most people believe what the

Trump administration doesn't believe in that. There have been suggestions

that there was widespread electoral fraud in the selection. Where there

observers on the ground in Venezuela at the time of the election on

Sunday? There were some observers. You know, first of all, I don't know

that you can really call it fraud if they inflated the turnout. This was

not a competitive election between the government and the opposition.

The opposition didn't participate. If they did do that then it is

terrible for their credibility. I am not sure that they did. They have

posted all the numbers for the individual races and they do seem to

add up to about what the government claimed. It would be very hard to

fix this. So we don't really know what the totals are, but even if it

did happen, that is not the same thing as stealing an election from

your rival power, and that is not justify it at all. It would be

terrible if those numbers were inflated, but it doesn't affect

relations between the government and the opposition. I'm not defending

what the governments do. I wasn't in favour of this assembly, either. The

point is that we need calm voices, people are calling for dialogue and

negotiation, people within the opposition do favour that but they

are not in the ascendancy right now. Right now it is the hardliners, the

ones who want regime change by any means, and Lopez himself, by the

way, he was arrested because he called on a video for the military

to rebel and to stop providing security for President Maduro

himself. We're going to have to stop you there, sorry about that, thank

you very much. Let's take you to Caracas. We can show you this scene

live now. This is at the new assembly. Unfortunately, we haven't

got those scenes, but there are reports of some protests that have

been taking place by opposition supporters.

Many of the leaks have been about the Trump campaign and their alleged

links to Russia. The FBI chief investigator into this has stepped

up his inquiry. Donald Trump is never happier

than when is out of Washington. An adoring crowd in West Virginia,

the problems of Russia, collusion, special counsel and grand juries

are a long way from The Russia story is

a total fabrication. It is just an excuse

for the greatest loss in the history of American politics.

That is all it is. He didn't mention the special

counsel by name but had him I just hope the final determination

is a truly honest one. The grand jury is made up of members

of the public meeting behind closed They can force people to testify

or hand over evidence. They will decide whether

the material is strong enough Crucially, they don't decide

if a potential defendant is innocent or guilty.

That is done by a conventional jury. Of course, it may be that the grand

jury meeting at this courthouse will come to the conclusion

that the evidence doesn't add up to much and there's no

need further action. The fact that a grand jury has been

called is a sign that this and will last a good

deal longer yet. The other worry for

the Trump entourage scale of the enquiry

will spread as well. Another is the endless

damaging and revealing leaks Today, the Attorney General

revealed a new crackdown. This nation must put

an end to these leaks. We will not allow rogue sources

to sell out our country. The president visited the emergency

centre for hurricans. With this grand jury,

one could soon be barrelling Let's take a look at some of

the other stories making the news. The US economy has seen strong jobs

growth thanks to a wave of hiring President Trump has welcomed

the news, tweeting... Excellent jobs numbers

just released - South Korea's spy agency has

admitted it tried to manipulate the result of the 2012 presidential

election to ensure Park Geun-hye did beat

liberal Moon Jae-in, but she is now facing trial

for corruption and abuse of power. Researchers warn that half

of India's nearly 800 languages Experts says children

from linguistic minorities or indigenous communities aren't

educated in their mother tongue, and there's little incentive

for following generations Parts of southern Europe

are suffering from the hottest sustained heatwave for more

than a decade. Temperatures have reached 45 degrees

Celsius in some parts of Italy and the Balkans and several

countries have issued Several countries have issued

Vadillo health warnings and some regions are contending with drought

and forest fires. Sophie Long reports. Planes putting out while

files in Corsica. Last week the north of the Mediterranean island

burned, and now it is the turn of the cell. The extreme heat has

sparked wild fires across Europe. Swathes of the South of France are

scorched. Now in Hungary, too. Here, hundreds of hectares of grasslands

burnt. Firefighters battled to put out planes before -- flames before

they spread to urban areas. Italy is experiencing its worst drought in 60

years. Thousands of tourists travel there every year in search of

sunshine but the intense heat means people are desperately searching for

shade. We find some nice weather this year but it is not as hot,

nowhere near, making sure that we just drink lots of water. It is

fantastic having the water fountains around Rome. Across the country 26

major towns and cities are on heat alert. Hospital admissions have

increased by 15%. The prolonged drought has affected the agriculture

industry to the tune of billions with 11 regions facing critical

water shortages. All of crops are 50% lower than normal. It's a silly

beaches are quieter than usual, as people follow the lead of the locals

and stay indoors. Others do what they can to protect themselves and

keep cool, as forecasters see no respite in the coming days.

Still to come we talk to the National Geographic photograph --

photographer of the year took this explosive shot of a volcano in

Mexico. Thousands of Venezuelan government

supporters have attended the swearing-in of the controversial

new constituent assembly as protesters opposed

to it confront police. The US Attorney General,

Jeff Sessions, has announced a tougher approach towards dealing

with leaks of classified government information,

saying he won't hesitate A British computer expert who

stopped the worldwide cyber attack has been arrested by the FBI. Marcus

Hutchins is accused of creating software to steal bank details. The

charge is not related to the piece of malware he disarmed in May after

it affected tens of thousands of computers in 150 countries. Marcus

Hutchins was arrested in Las Vegas after spending a week partying in

the desert city. He had been attending a cyber security

conference. He was detained minutes before he was due to board a flight

home at Las Vegas International Airport. In the cyber security

industry he is regarded as something of a folk hero for his role in

stopping the so-called Wannacry virus which hit the NHS in May

before spreading to 150 countries. But he is accused in an indictment

laid down in the US state of Wisconsin of creating software which

was designed, the prosecutors say, to harvest online banking details

and credit card data. The software is called Chronos and was used in a

number of countries including France, the UK, the US and Canada.

He is due to appear in court in Las Vegas. He has some support within

the cyber Security industry and from his mother Janet Hutchins, who said

he spent an enormous amount of his time trying to combat these kind of

problems, to improve security on the web, and she says the charges

against him are outrageous. Time for the sport with Will Bury. Starting

with the latest from the World Athletics Championships in London.

Usain Bolt making his final appearance on the global stage back

at the stadium where he won those gold medals five years ago at London

2012. He has been in action in the 100 metres eats ahead of the

semifinal tomorrow. He won his heat with a time of 10.0 seconds, but

described his performance as a very bad, and he is unhappy with the

starting blocks. Not at his best, but you Usain Bolt, importantly,

into the semifinals of the World Athletics Championships. Mo Farah

has fond memories of the stadium, he won gold in the 5000 metres and

10,000 metres four years ago, and is about a run in the next couple of

minutes in the 10,000 metres final. 25 laps, it starts at 9:20pm UK

time. Also tonight a big upset in the long jump. The Olympic champion

Jeff Henderson of the US able not be coming back to the final. He could

only manage a jump of 7.74 metres. That was in his final jump. Not

enough to make the cut tomorrow. He's not a happy man. There has been

abuzz in Paris because of that man, the world record signing, Neymar,

for PSG, paraded in the city, and hundreds queueing at the club shop

to buy shirts with his name on the back. He gave his only British media

interview to our correspondent Richard Conway, and he told him that

it was a wrench to leave Barcelona. TRANSLATION: The decision was

difficult to take. During the month I was thinking about all this. But

then my heart told me that I had to follow it. And I took the decision

and I am very happy to be here. There has been so much said about

this transfer this week. The world is talking about it, and also about

the amount of money involved, the huge transfer the. Lots of people

saying that perhaps you are doing this for the money, that that is

your motivation. What do you say to that?

TRANSLATION: I have nothing to say to those people. If people think

that way, it is because they do not know me, they do not know my life

and I regret that they think that way. I did not come over here for

the money. I came here for the motivation of the challenge. You are

morally comfortable with this. You are a religious man?

TRANSLATION: I could not be unhappy. How could I be? In the final day of

the test between England and South Africa there were half centuries for

Joe Root and Ben Stokes. They faced some disciplined South African

bowling. England were 216 to six at the close. You always want for

hundred at any Test match and having lost Ben Stokes at the close, if we

can get 350 we would be taking that right now. 350 plus, we'll was won

to try to get as close to 400 as possible. Maybe that last wicket

might knock a few for that. A round of 60 included an eagle. She is 11

under par at the halfway stage, two shots clear of the field. The US

open champion Stan Wawrinka will not be defending his title. He needs an

operation on his knee and that will keep him out of the rest of the

season. He said it was the only solution to make sure that he could

continue to compete at the top level. Mo Farah is underway, still

24 and a bit laps to go! The results of the National Geographic travel

photographer competition are in. 15,000 voters were entered from more

than 30 countries. It is a coveted title for photographers, which can

catapult them into international photography stardom. The grand prize

this year went to an incredible shot of a lightning strike on the

erupting volcano on Mexico's West Coast. Let's take a look at the

winners' list. Aren't they beautiful? According to

the photographer who took the winning photographer, taking a

picture like his takes a lot of patience. He has photographed the

volcano over 300,000 times over the years. A lot of patience. I have 15

years taking photos of the big volcano, and this was from 2015, in

December. If you want to have a good picture of a volcano, you have to

analyse all the time what the volcano is doing so in December, I

was 20 nights outside of my home, just trying to get a good picture,

but I didn't know that I was going to get this kind of picture. It is a

magical moment, because it has a big lightning and this lightning makes

the whole scenario bright. It is an amazing picture. And of course I am

very happy, as a Mexican, as a Latin American photographer, because it is

a strange kind of picture. It is not very common to take pictures of

lightning. That's wonderful. Stay with us, more coming up.