this is bbc news. the headlines: president biden has called for the banning of assault weapons and high—capacity magazines in the wake of a mass shooting at a texas primary school last week. other measures proposed included raising the age at which guns can be purchased and putting in place tougher background checks for gun buyers. on the eve of the hundredth day of russia's invasion of ukraine, president zelensky has said moscow has seized about a fifth of his country, and up to 100 ukrainian soldiers were dying each day. russian forces have been intensifying attacks in the eastern donbas region. buckingham palace has announced that queen elizabeth will miss friday's national service of thanksgiving at st paul's cathedral in london, marking her platinum jubilee.

a statement said the 96—year—old monarch had enjoyed the birthday parade and fly—past at the palace, but experienced some discomfort. now on bbc news, it's hardtalk with stephen sackur. welcome to hardtalk. i am stephen sackur. uruguay is a beacon of prosperity and democratic stability and sometimes turbulent south america. a decade ago under left—wing leadership, it was also a pioneer of progressive social policies. the legalisation of cannabis and abortion rights. my guest today is president luis lacalle pou. now, he is a fan of unfettered free market economics. does that swim against the tide of public opinion in latin america?

president luis lacalle pou, welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much. mr president, what is it like being a centre—right politician on a continent which is quite clearly moving to the centre—left? you are swimming against the political tide. we have a strong a coalition of five parties that supported this government. you have for the right, centre—right, centre and centre—left. and i have to balance between these five parties. we have a programme that we took to the election to the citizens. you will not be able to find centre—right.

now to your question... the question is important because you're a relatively small country which depends upon strong alliances with its neighbours, not least in the trading block with argentina, paraguay and brazil. and if one looks at the wider region, you have a problem because the people you need to work with have very different politics from yours. you know that my great—grandfather used to speak about lord palmerston. stepping here and i took a picture and he always said, countries don't have permanent enemies or permanent friends. they have permanent interests. so, i have to be chief of state of all of my country, and my country has lots of opinions. if i do international politics thinking about ideology, i won't go forward.

i...perhaps it is getting into some trouble with our continent when you see some elections, and i am not a political analyst, so perhaps when i go out of office, i can give much more opinions. argentina's president, fernandez, does not see economics and trade relationships in the same way that you do. i mean, you're here in london, you desperately want to open up trade with uruguay, you want free trade deals and i dare say you may want one with post—brexit britain. the problem for you is you sit in the middle of the trade bloc which has high protectionist tariffs, which can only operate with unanimity and you, in uruguay, are out of step with your neighbours

in argentina. that is an exact diagnosis of what happened to us. it is not dependent on ideology. just what you said, brazil and argentina are not willing to open as fast as we want and as fast as we need. what are you going to do about it? are you going to leave the trading bloc? we...we do not accept the argument that we have to be altogether. in fact... but that is the rules. the rules, you can interpret them in different ways. a few months ago, brazil and argentina took a measure that did not meet our approval and they took the measure. so, we are trying to convince both argentina, brazil and paraguay — paraguay has more than 33% of the exports and so, they are not a partner in this journey. but the trouble is, you do not have partners for your journey

and i'm looking at a quote from your colleague in argentina, president fernandez, and he said quite plainly, "if you don't like the south american trading "bloc, you are welcome to leave. "if you feel we are a burden to you, take another boat." that is what he said. we are in the boat. you're not in the same boat. we want to move on. and we will move on and we are trying to deal with china, with turkey, this invitation of the prime minister for us was a very good moment to talk about trade with great britain, with uk, and we stepped forward. you are determined to strike a free trade deal with china because i believe at least one—third of all your exports by value right now goes to beijing. the problem is that argentina doesn't want the same

deal with china that you want and, again, i'm going to quote an argentinian official — that is the minister of development — who said, "uruguay can make a bilateral agreement with china "outside of the area or it can choose "to continue to be in the area, it cannot do both." let us see. we are just now talking with brazilian government and the foreign affairs minister was last week at our country and we will step forward. 37% of our exports go to china and we are willing to extend and expand our markets. right now and in here. is there a danger that your population of 3.5 million is becoming too

economically dependent on a superpower economy like china's population of well overi billion. it's an asymmetric relationship and it could be dangerous to you. let's take it this way. if the only option is selling those products for a good price to china or not selling them, what will you do? i would sell them. if we open more markets — if the united states opened more markets for us, united kingdom, the rest of europe, turkey, whatever, we would sell them. if i can choose, i won't put all my exports in one country. but that's really increasingly what is happening. if you look at your beef exports, your timber exports, china is becoming so important to you that you are becoming dependent on beijing. can you define me independent?

it's all about economics. not politics. economics, yes. politics, no. how can you be sure there's going to be consistent separation? because that's the way they have acted years ago and we'll act the same way. look around your region. look at some of the deals that some other latin american countries have done, costa rica, a project to modernise refineries that went horribly wrong with allegations of corruption, led to arrests inside costa rica, and hydroelectric investments that the chinese took on for ecuador. billions of dollar projects... a slight difference. we don't have chinese investments in our country. will you take them ? we don't need infrastructure. we have our own investments and we do not need something that perhaps china can offer. i'm sure if we go on 56, they will want

to compete in 56, but our trade is exports. we send our commodities mainly to china. a final thought on this developing relationship between your small country and the chinese. i don't like to call my country small, but i'll accept it. forgive me. we have to be realistic. it comes down to this. here you sit with me, the president, when you it with chinese officials you take by deepening the trade relationships and signing a free trade deal, do you, at any point, mention to them, care about china's human rights record, what they are doing, for example, to the uighur muslim minority in the province — do you ever mention that to the chinese? not in the same meeting. but we have meetings about different things

and what we are going vote or what we are going to say in the un, for example. we have meetings, and obviously, we don't align in some places with china. but there is geopolitics here, there's very important geopolitics for a country like yours. you know that the way the world is working right now, the united states and china are becoming much more obvious and deeper geopolitical rivals, it seems to me that you are taking a strategic decision to deepen your relationship with china. you don't see the prospect of getting the same kind of preferential trade treatment in the united states, so, you're putting your eggs, your geopolitical eggs in the basket with china. i put my eggs where i can. that's what i have to do with my country to open my country. we have today, the government of the united states, that's not looking south. that's a problem for us. we would love to be balanced

with europe and the uk. the uk for us is an excellent partner. but values don't matter to you? here you sit, you were democratically elected. you are now saying that you are deepening your key strategic alliance with a country which, i'm sure you would not describe as a genuine democracy. of course not. one thing is commerce and the other things is human rights, ideology or whatever. so, what's your message then to the united states right now? are they losing power and influence across latin america because they will not offer you the same preferential trading arrangements, the same closeness of economic ties that china will? i think they don't have a view on latin america. or they think they have a view of latin america.

we export software — our first client is united states, our second i think is the uk. but they think that from the border in mexico, we have all the same problems on the same needs. we are talking with us officials and we will be meeting one on thursday in my country, and i think we are trying to be much more open—minded with them and we are not willing to go fast forward to fta... free trade agreement. i'm not in love with the ftas. we want to sell our projects, our services and our intellectual creations. that is what we want. and until now, this biden administration doesn't

look to our country. i feel that the tide is turning. we have a meeting of the americas onjune 8. that will be a good moment to express ourself and here we are. yeah, and just one more thought then on that in geopolitics and we'll get to your domestic agenda, and the thought is about venezuela. the effort among you and your neighbouring countries in latin america — most of them, not all of them, but most of them — has been to isolate the venezuelan government in the hope that maduro — president maduro could be removed from office. well, it hasn't happened, and the people of venezuela are still suffering terrible economic and humanitarian conditions. are you now prepared to open up to venezuela and end the isolation and say, "you know what? "maduro is still there and we have to work with him." i think maduro is not willing to call free elections

or he's willing to have a democracy in venezuela. you see him as a dictator? of course. he is. and he came into mercosur because our former government had strong relations with chavez and maduro then they had a fight and bueno, they went out of the mercosur and it wasn't logical to have venezuela in the mercosur, but that's another story. a few weeks ago, the biden administration got closer to maduro because of oil things and we did not understand that move that the united states has done in these days, so if we can really sit down at the table and hope that maduro and his regime are prepared to call to free elections with the opposition in the same terms that they have, we will be

happy to sit down. do you see any sign of that today? no, i don't. let's talk about what's happening inside your country in uruguay. you perhaps put it at the centre of your campaign for the presidency — getting tough on crime and security issues. you looked at the rising number of homicides, the gang crime, the insecurity in uruguay. you said, "i'm going to fix it" and you had a raft of different laws under this law of urgent consideration — much tougher policing, tougher sentencing in your courts, tighter drug trafficking laws. it doesn't seem to have worked. ijust looked at the latest homicide figures. for the first quarter of 2022, they are going up. you should look also the percentage of other crimes. all the other crimes, except homicides, went down. so, what's happened

to homicide? sighs. i don't want to do what i criticised former governments that say, "bueno, these are the gangs "killing each other" because, it's like you have death type a and type b and i don't like that. we are getting lots of pressure to the drug smuggling — lots of pressure — and the violence have risen in this month — this month of may, before mid—may, we had more homicides than last may. we were getting down the homicide. if you see the long story of five, six years ago, the results were ok until — until — these last three months. the problem is the measures you've taken — all of the the tougher policing, tougher prison sentences, giving more powers to your intelligence agencies, your opponents in uruguay say that you are revealing yourself as an authoritarian.

did you not see the special rapporteur from the un who concluded that that some of the measures you wanted to take were not complying with international human rights standards and, specifically, was worried about the new powers given to the police and the way in which you were putting new limits on uruguayan people's right of assembly? no. i don't agree. that is what the special rapporteur said. sure, i don't agree. that's not true. that's not an argument to say that people can't unite or go to into an assembly. what we — the law that we passed is that you cannot cut a street, for example. people can go on strike, can do assemblies, but they cannot block a street. so, you cannot have a mass protest because, of course, that blocks the street. you cannot, only if you asked for — for example, the mayor of montevideo, last week,

they blocked five blocks. i'm telling you about illegal blockades or you cannot go into an industry and don't let other workers in. yes, you've also launched an attack on trade unions. no, no, that's not an attack. why an attack? because you've curbed... an attack? no. ..the powers and the rights that trade unions have inside workplaces in uruguay. perhaps what we did, is, i believe, justice, yes. in between people that did not want to work and people in the same place that wanted to work. people can go on strike, people can give their opinion, but the other people weren't able to come into theirjob. for me, that's justice. does it worry you that again, independent civil society — hang on, mr presidentm

if you don't mind — an independent civil society organisation, as you will know them much better than me, the centro de archivos y acceso a la informacion publica in your country annual report, says there is a backsliding of freedom of expression in this country with an increase in violations of the right to freedom of expression — under your presidency. once more, that's not true. why are these people saying these things? they're lying about you? some, maybe. i do not call "lie" — we have a different view — but you have to prove those things. we are one of the strongest democracies in the world. again, it's notjust the locals, it's also independent international analysts. reporters without borders, a highly respected institution... no, i don't... they've taken you down... you know what? i don't respect that institution. you don't? no, i heard that... because they have demoted you from 18th place to 44th place in the press freedom index. we are under afghanistan, i don't know, that's — people in our country,

free reporters, criticised that exact informer. i don't respect that one. that's strictly a lie, that. before we end, you inherited something from your predecessor, president mujica. and he took decisions which i'm surprised you have not reversed. one was on the legalisation of cannabis. uruguay took the lead across the world in the complete legalisation of the entire supply chain for cannabis, production through to sale, and the state is actually involved in the sale of cannabis. you came to power as a right—wing politician, you had declared yourself, back in 2014, saying, "i am against the state producing and selling drugs "and earning money like this" and yet, you have done nothing to stop it. why? november 2010.

the first law that tried to pass in our country, and i think in latin america, for legal use of marijuana was myself. yeah, i know that, but that's a specific point — at that time, you were specifically saying that there should be a legalisation of the right to grow limited amounts of marijuana. no, not limited. but the point is, i'm not just talking about the growing of marijuana. i'm talking about the entire supply chain and the state profiting — profiting from marijuana and you sit there as the president of a state that does profit from marijuana sales and you tell me that you're trying to conquer drugs crime in your country and that drugs—related violence is a big problem. don't you see a connection there? i see a connection and i will explain you. first, part of this law — i voted it, no? because i think that you have to be able to have your marijuana legally and not illegally. i voted that thing.

second, i think that the state has not to be in plantation and selling drugs. indeed, we are putting money — because we have to put some money monthly, yearly, because the production is not sustainable. are you going to change the law? we are trying to change some things. i don't believe in the states growing and selling marijuana. i believe in people, cannabis clubs, whatever, that we have, that they produce their own marijuana, and they sort of can have their own circles of marijuana use and not the states. so, my basic question is this — there are many governments around the world and, indeed, the un who say that uruguay has betrayed the international fight against illegal drugs by going so far down the track of notjust legalising but also getting the state involved in selling marijuana.

do you accept that uruguay made a mistake? i didn't vote that part of the law, so... it's a simple question — did uruguay make a mistake? bueno, but i can answer as i want, no? you ask and i answer. no, but i want a straight answer, not a complicated one. it's a pretty simple question. i will go there, i will go there. we made a mistake. that's why i didn't vote for it at that time. now, we have the system going on so, we can change it but one day, we can change it at a time. i don't agree. i was reading today in the morning that we betrayed the system. we have cooperation with other countries, we are working together, we exchange information, the drug smuggling is an international crime. we work with different agencies, with other countries so no, we are not no longer betraying the international policies. i want to and with something you said. you said, "uruguayans do not allow excesses "in their politicians.

"our people are very hard and forceful electorally "when it comes to criticising those in power." you cannot run for a second term — you're not allowed to in the constitution — but do you believe you have found the right balance between your right—wing politics and what uruguay actually wants? that's what i try to do every day i wake up. it's not easy. but i try to do it. president lacalle pou, thank you very much for being on hardtalk. thank you, a pleasure. hello. obviously, so many events

taking place over thejubilee weekend and many of us are hoping for some fine weather and, yes, there will be plenty of sunshine around, but also some heavy showers lurking on the horizon. they will be very hit—and—miss, though. now, the recent satellite picture showed the cloud, which we had during the course of thursday into friday, across the north—west of the uk, so some wet weather through the early hours south—western scotland, parts of northern england, into wales, too, but elsewhere across the country, there is actually a lot of dry weather to be had and 13 degrees at 8am in the south, 8 degrees expected in aberdeen. now, how about friday daytime, then? so, cloud and rain comes and goes, i think, in the north—west of the country, and then, eventually, most of that should fizzle out and give way to some sunny spells. however, to the south, across the midlands and wales, we could see showers brewing in the afternoon — again, very hit—and—miss — and the temperatures,

22 in london on friday, up to 20 degrees in the western isles of scotland, but for some of us, it'll be closer to the mid—teens, particularly on the north sea coasts, and that's because of those fresh winds blowing off the north sea, and this is the forecast for friday night. so, friday night, many of us having dry weather but through saturday, there is a change taking place to the south of us — a weather front here. high pressure in the north, so it's scotland that, on saturday, has the best of the weather — windless weather, clear blue skies, stunning conditions here. fine weather also stretching into the lakes and northern ireland, but in the south, there will be more cloud and a good chance of catching some showers from southern wales, along the southern counties, maybe a little bit further north. and then, saturday night, into sunday, there's a risk of thunderstorms across southern areas of the uk. they will be drifting in from the south. the forecast will keep changing. these are very notorious to forecast. the sort of shape of these storms change, the sort of areas they affect may change but the point is that

through the course of sunday morning, we think that area of thundery weather will be drifting further northwards, but even once it clears in the south, showers could return in the afternoon, so a very unpredictable day for southern parts on sunday.

this is bbc news. i'm victoria fritz with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the war in ukraine reaches its 100th day: president zelensky says russia's taken control of one—fifth of his country. translation: the russian army uses all its _ translation: the russian army uses all its armed _ translation: the russian army uses all its armed capabilities - uses all its armed capabilities and does not care about people at all. president biden calls for a ban on assault weapons following a string of deadly mass shootings in america. for god's sake, how much more carnage are we willing to accept? how many more innocent american lives must be taken before we say enough, enough?

jubilee celebrations continue across the uk,