Maduro Blocks Aid on Bridge from Colombia; Tusk: Special Place in Hell for No-Plan Brexiteers; U.S. Envoy in North Korea to Prepare for Trump-Kim Summit; Venezuela's Juan Guaido Orders Army to Allow Entry of Humanitarian Aid
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church with your next two hours of CNN NEWSROOM. Let's get started. Venezuelans blocked from getting much needed humanitarian aid after the embattled government blocks this bridge. A congressional Intelligence Committee announces a broad investigation into the president's finances just one day after Trump called for an end to probes into his presidency. Plus the latest warning on global warming. A new report details a worrying trend about the planet's climate.</s>CHURCH: Good to have you with us. The latest battle for control in Venezuela is taking place on a bridge along the border with Colombia. Forces backing Maduro are blocking the path of badly needed humanitarian aid, truckloads of food, medicine and diapers. Maduro says his people are not beggars. But opposition leader Juan Guaido is urging the military to let the aid pass.</s>JUAN GUAIDO, OPPOSITION LEADER, VENEZUELA (through translator): We know the containers are traversing the border bridge crossing. We know the tanks are there on the border. And what we are saying is that it is an absurd reaction by a regime which is not interested in its citizens and that we are going to do everything we can so that some of this aid gets in.</s>CHURCH: A few kilometers to the south, another bridge from Colombia is filled with pedestrians. They cross back into Venezuela loaded up with whatever they can afford. CNN's Isa Soares is there.</s>ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm standing at the Simon Bolivar Bridge. It's the main pedestrian bridge between Colombia and Venezuela. As you can see behind me, there is Colombia and straight in front of me is Venezuela. People have been making this journey every day. According to Migration Colombia, about 30,000 come in and out pretty much every day. They come in with pushchairs, with trolleys, their suitcases, full of money, money that's worth nothing because of hyperinflation. And they come here to buy food, to buy toilet paper, flour, eggs. (Speaking Spanish). What did you buy? (Speaking Spanish). She didn't want to talk. (Speaking Spanish).</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking Spanish).</s>SOARES: Chicken, no mas?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking Spanish).</s>SOARES: (Speaking Spanish). And flour. And flour, too. So some of the basic staples. And of course worth remembering once they get to the other side, they still have a long journey to go. (Speaking Spanish).</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking Spanish).</s>SOARES: "Just food, that's all I have," he says. And when I ask everyone walking down this corridor back to Venezuela who they blame, so many have told me, time and time again, there's only one man and that is Nicolas Maduro, the man we've said in the last couple of days, has said this is not a humanitarian crisis, this is an economic crisis. We are not a country of beggars. But look at these people. Just look around. People are in need of food -- eggs. So many people desperately trying to make ends meet. Back to you.</s>CHURCH: Isa Soares with that. The U.S. national security advisor is trying to persuade Venezuela's generals to defect. John Bolton tweeted, "The U.S. will consider sanctions off-ramps for any senior military officer that stands for democracy and recognizes the constitutional government of President Juan Guaido." Here's how Maduro responded.</s>NICOLAS MADURO, PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA (through translator): Is John Bolton Venezuela's military chief? That's why we're going to tell John Bolton what the thinking, doctrine, and strength, of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces are. Listen well, John Bolton, here is the response of the armed forces to your so-called coup makers. Let's say our slogan loudly. Loyal always, traitors never, so it could be heard in Washington.</s>CHURCH: Mr. Maduro also pledged his support for 12-nation talks in Venezuela scheduled for the coming day in Uruguay. The clock is winding down on Brexit. With just 50 days to go, frustrations are boiling over in Brussels. In a few hours, British prime minister Theresa May is to meet with E.U. leaders hoping to renegotiate a deal. But she was just in Northern Ireland, where she didn't seem to make much progress and E.U. leaders have already signaled they are done with negotiating.</s>JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKER, PRESIDENT, EUROPEAN COMMISSION: The Brexit issue is not a valid (ph) question between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, it is a European issue and that's why we cannot accept the idea, which is circulated around (ph), that the withdrawal agreement could be reopened. And that's the backstop. It's part of the withdrawal agreement. We cannot be open to discussion on the backstop.</s>CHURCH: The prime minister's meeting with the European Council president may be frosty after Donald Tusk said there's a special place in hell for Brexiteers who didn't have a plan for leaving the E.U. CNN's Nic Robertson has the details.</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: The Irish prime minister got exactly the support he was looking for in his visit to Brussels meeting with E.U. leaders there, a very clear united commitment from them that the withdrawal agreement is not something that's going to be opened up for Theresa May, that the backstop remains part of that agreement. Donald Tusk, the European Council president, using very strong language, saying that there was a special place in hell for those who hadn't planned properly for Brexit. For Theresa May here in Northern Ireland, that was incendiary language for some of the political leaders she was meeting here. She was meeting with the Democratic Unionist Party; their leader has called it provocative. They've also called it insulting. So this is something that's deeply polarizing here because Theresa May was also meeting with leaders of the main nationalist party, Sinn Fein. And they said that Donald Tusk was correct to say that there was a special place in hell. They said that Theresa May came here with no new plan, no clear vision for the future and they've even gone as far as to repeat their calls that, if there is a no deal Brexit, there should be immediately a referendum across the whole of Ireland for a united Ireland. Another one of the Northern Ireland party, the Democratic Unionist Party, repeated a call that they've made as well. Just to give you an idea the massive rift of sort of views here in Northern Ireland that the Democratic Unionist Party said that, if there's a no deal Brexit, then London should take over ruling Northern Ireland, go back to what they call direct rule. That's the polarized debate that Theresa May has walked into here. So what she heard from the Democratic Unionist Party, the party that she really wants to convince to support her in a vote next week, she heard from them that they still hold her to that amendment last week that she must replace the backstop when she goes to Brussels.</s>ARLENE FOSTER, LEADER, DEMOCRATIC UNIONIST PARTY: Well, I think we're into semantics now. I think what the House of Commons has given her the mandate to do this to replace the backstop and that's there for her mandate to take to Brussels.</s>ROBERTSON: A very clear message for Theresa May there. And what we've heard for the European Union something that they don't appear willing this stage to give. Theresa May now going to Dublin on Friday to meet with the prime minister there for talks, Brexit really coming down to the wire -- Nic Robertson, CNN, Belfast, Northern Ireland.</s>CHURCH: We turn to Pyongyang, where the U.S. special envoy for North Korea is paving the way for a second summit between Trump and Kim Jong-un. Mr. Trump announced in his State of the Union address that the leaders would meet on February 27th and 28th in Vietnam. Our Paula Hancocks joins us from Seoul. Good to see you, Paula. One of the biggest issues yet to be figured out by the U.S. special envoy and others is where the two leaders will actually meet. What is said about that?</s>PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, we're only a few weeks away from the 27th-28th of February, when the president said this summit will take place. We only have the country, Vietnam. We did hear in the past few days from U.S. sources, including those in the Trump administration, that they wanted Da Nang, the coastal city, but that the plans were still being finalized. You can only assume from that that North Korea doesn't want it there. Hanoi is the capital; it is where Kim Jong-un would presumably have to go to meet the president of Vietnam. It's where they have a North Korean embassy. So there's an assumption among many experts that's the way it is going. But of course the other issue is what exactly is happening in these working level talks and how much is being prepared before these two leaders sit down again. The criticism from Singapore was that it was very much top down and that was really the only way it was going to happen. But there was very little detail when it came to the statement, working towards denuclearization was even more vague than it had been in previous --</s>HANCOCKS: -- years, when there had been peace declarations. Clearly there is -- there's a desire for more detail to come out from this summit. One reason Mr. Biegun is in Pyongyang talking to his North Korean counterparts. The South Korean presidential spokesperson said they welcome the fact this summit is happening but they would like a more concrete and tangible steps to come from the next summit.</s>CHURCH: As you pointed out, we didn't see much come out of that first summit in Singapore. What will happen this time? And what might the U.S. offer Kim Jong-un to entice him to speed up the denuclearization process?</s>HANCOCKS: We have heard some indications from Mr. Biegun, the special envoy to North Korea himself. He had a speech last week at Stanford University and he said the U.S. president is ready to end the Korean War. It ended in 1953 with an armistice. North Korea and South Korea and many in the region would like a peace treaty. That's the end result. That's far more difficult and needs more people and countries involved than a simple declaration of the end of the Korean War. That is a political statement. And it seemed to be the clearest indication so far from Mr. Biegun that Trump may be willing to give that. What would they have in return from North Korea? They want a lot more detail in exactly how they would denuclearize. Biegun said they would like or he would like a list of exactly what North Korea has. They would like independent experts to be in the country to make sure that what North Korea has said they have destroyed is actually out of action and to monitor what they have declared. And going forward, they would help them to destroy their nuclear and missile arsenal. This is a wish list that the U.S. has had for some time. It is one North Korea resisted for some time. So it is a difficult process. All sides agree. But certainly experts and longtime observers of North Korea want a lot more detail when it comes to this summit. Rosemary.</s>CHURCH: We shall see. Paula Hancocks, bringing you the latest there from Seoul in South Korea, where it is 4:15 in the afternoon. We'll take a short break here. Coming up next, Trump lashing out after an House committee announces a new investigation against the president. And New Mexico's government takes a stand against President Trump, saying she won't take part in fearmongering along the southern border. We're back in just a moment.