we'll tell you why they're so controversial. touring a military camp in belarus. our correspondent investigates reports that the site could soon house wagner paramilitary fighters. and the exiled belarusian opposition leader, svetla na tikhanovskaya speaks to the bbc. hello i'm helena humphrey, it's good to have you with us. we start here in washington, where officials have confirmed the us government will send a cluster munitions package to ukraine to help its counter—offensive against russia. they're a controversial class of weapons that are banned by more than 100 countries, due to the risk of harm to civilians. but ukraine has been pressing for the weapons for months, amid an ammunition shortage. each cluster munition carries large numbers of smaller bomblets,

that are dispersed over a wide area. the concern is that some of those bomblets fail to explode, posing a danger to civilians long after a conflict has ended. and for that reason, they're banned in 120 countries. human rights watch says both russian and ukrainian forces have used cluster munitions already — killing civilians and military personnel. so we know the risks of these cluster bombs but how do they work? the munition is fired, before the ammunition — or bomblets — from the cluster are released. the bomblets then fall to the ground, detonating on impact. in this us military training video you can see the sprawling nature of the weapon, which combined with its failure rate — has raised humanitarian concerns for nearby civilians. as we said, the usage of cluster bombs is controversial, particularly due to their high dud rate — or rate in which they fail to detonate. however us national security advisorjake sullivan said

the cluster munitions america will send to ukraine have a dud rate of less than 2.5%. us officials say that russia's cluster munition dud rate, meanwhile, is between 30 to a0%. earlier today sullivan defended the decision to send ukraine cluster bombs. we recognise the cluster munitions create a risk for civilian life and this is why we deferred the decision for as long as we could. but there is also a massive risk of civilian harm if russian troops and tanks rollover ukrainian positions and take more ukrainian territory and subjugate more ukrainian civilians because ukraine does not have enough artillery. that is intolerable to us. cluster bombs are not banned in the united states, ukraine or russia. in fact, russia has already used the explosives already, and a un investigation found that ukraine likely has used cluster bombs already. still, nato is divided over the us decision to supply ukraine with the weapon. here's nato secretary

generaljens stoltenberg earlier on friday. it is for individual allies to make decisions on what type of weapons. all allies agree that weapons. all allies agree that we should deliver weapons, ammunition, to ukraine and allies are delivering an unprecedented level of support. germany and many other allies are delivering different types of ammunition, weapons, to ukraine. but when it comes to cluster ammunition there is a difference because some of us have signed a convention on cluster ammunition is. so they have none to provide ukraine. 0ther allies have not signed the convention and many of them, some of them indeed have cluster ammunitions. earlier i spoke with democratic congresswoman sara jacobs, who has spoken out against the biden�*s administration's move.

thank you so much forjoining us. us officials have confirmed that they are going to send cluster munitions to ukraine and you would have heard the national security adviserjake sullivan saying there is the risk of russians gaining more ground without. what you make of that? i thought the biden administration has been thoughtful and masterful in how they are dealing with the conflict, keeping our international coalition together. i have been a strong supporter of making sure we send ukraine everything they need but i disagree with this decision. sending cluster munitions will increase civilian casualties and erode our community. 23 of our nato allies have signed under the against cluster munitions, and it will make it harder for us to call out russia and the use

of cluster munitions by other people as we seek the moral high ground in this conflict. this is something that the ukrainian government itself have call for, promising to use them carefully to minimise risk to civilians. if ukrainian government wants them, should the us trust the ukrainian government, that it will use them carefully to minimise risk to their own people? i them carefully to minimise risk to their own people?— to their own people? i believe the ukrainian _ to their own people? i believe the ukrainian government - to their own people? i believe the ukrainian government hasi the ukrainian government has every intention of using them as carefully as possible. at the very nature of cluster munitions is such that regardless of your intention or how careful you are, there is a huge risk to civilians. munitions go out a full city block and we know that the tested dud rates are often much lower than the actual wartime dud rates because we do them under different conditions, they are not always hitting a hard surface and exploding. and i have a lot of concerns about

what this will mean for civilian casualties in the immediate and also what it will mean for the future of ukraine when we work to rebuild from this conflict.— this conflict. this is an incredibly _ this conflict. this is an incredibly important i this conflict. this is an - incredibly important moment in this conflict. ukraine carrying out its counteroffensive artillery. what do you think the alternatives are?- artillery. what do you think the alternatives are? this is wh we the alternatives are? this is why we need _ the alternatives are? this is why we need to _ the alternatives are? this is why we need to do - the alternatives are? this is i why we need to do everything the alternatives are? this is - why we need to do everything we can to fix our defence industrial base and make sure that we are actually manufacturing the things we need to be successful in conflict. and this has really shown the real problems with the way we have our industrial base in the united states and allied countries. 0ne base in the united states and allied countries. one of the things that has been so important in making sure we get the ukrainians what they need is the ability of us to use not only what is in us stocks but also our partner and allies around the world. for instance, there have been public reporting that the uk has sent

their long—range missiles that can get to a similar range but thatis can get to a similar range but that is why it is so important that is why it is so important that we don't want to do anything to undermine that allied unity which i believe this decision on cluster munitions could do and so many of our partners and allies have so publicly stated they are against cluster munitions. what about in the _ against cluster munitions. what about in the short _ against cluster munitions. what about in the short term? - against cluster munitions. what about in the short term? what about in the short term? what about at a time when ukraine has an advantage against a weakened russia? i has an advantage against a weakened russia?- has an advantage against a weakened russia? i think we should send _ weakened russia? i think we should send as _ weakened russia? i think we should send as much - weakened russia? i think we| should send as much artillery as we can right now, i think we should make sure they have all the other things they need, for instance, a defence is a huge component of what they need and we have been working really hard to ensure they are getting that and getting that quickly. i think there are many other things we could be doing that do not undermine or legitimacy, our moral high ground and our allied unity. 50 our moral high ground and our allied unity-— allied unity. so the us is auoin

allied unity. so the us is going to _ allied unity. so the us is going to send _ allied unity. so the us is going to send these - allied unity. so the us is. going to send these cluster munitions. what would you like to see congress do in response? i have authorised an amendment to the act that would prohibit the transfer of cluster munitions. there is already current united states law that government cannot transfer or sell foster munitions that have a dud rate of over i%. this would close the loophole that the biden administration is using to transfer this set of costly emissions it has been said that the ukrainian counteroffensive appears to be going slower than predicted. you're on the health services committee. how widespread is that concerning congress? == that concerning congress? -- health that concerning congress? » health services committee. we always knew a counteroffensive would be difficult. it is always more difficult to take ground than to defend it but i think we have also consistently seen the ukrainian military be underestimated and i think we will see them have success as

we continue on through this summer. we continue on through this summer-— summer. sarah jacobs, the democrat _ summer. sarah jacobs, the democrat from _ summer. sarah jacobs, the democrat from california, | summer. sarah jacobs, the . democrat from california, also a member of the house armed services committee. thank you for being with us. the whereabouts of wagner boss yevgeny prigozhin have been a mystery since he led a short—lived rebellion in russia last month. under the deal to end the stand—off, charges against him were dropped and he was offered a move to belarus. but yesterday, belarus leader alexander lukashenko said prigozhin was in russia after all. last week, bbc verify revealed these satellite images that appeared to show activity at a disused military base around 64 miles from the belarusian capital. the area has been reported in russian media as a place that could house wagner fighters. 0ur russia editor steve rosenberg has visited that site — and he's sent this report. this is an abandoned soviet military base. about 1.5 hours

from minsk. and this is one place that the leader of belarus, alexander lukashenko belarus, alexander lu kashenko has belarus, alexander lukashenko has offered to the wagner mercenary is as a camp, a base, if they relocate to belarus. and we have been brought here today by the belarus in defence ministry to take a look. and you can see that there are a lot of new tenants which i here which we are told have been put up which we are told have been put up in the last few weeks. but we have also been told that these tents, which are empty, have nothing to do with wagner or getting ready for wagner. there are territorial defence exercises coming up in belarus in september so forward planning by the defence ministry here. 0k. here we are inside one of the tents and it all looks and smells very new you can smell the wood. still so i'm clear what is happening here. wagner coming to belarus,

are they not coming? are they here, are they not hear? from what lukashenko was saying yesterday when we met him in minsk, the question about wagner coming to belarus, relocating here has not been resolved, even though that was part of the deal done between wagner and the kremlin. the leader and fighters who wanted to were to relocate here. but thatis to were to relocate here. but that is up in the air at the moment so the mystery continues. i spoke earlier to the nation's main opposition leader sviatla na tsikhanouskaya about lu kashenko and what comes next for belarus. thank you forjoining us here on bbc. the whereabouts of the wagner leader are currently unknown. lukashenko said on thursday he is in russia. what do you think is going on here? lukashenko does not control the situation at all and does not

know if yevgeny prighozin is in saint petersburg belarus, if the camp that has been built for the wagner group offer somebody else. it means he has to consult with his department on all questions.— on all questions. you mention nuclear weapons _ on all questions. you mention nuclear weapons and - on all questions. you mention nuclear weapons and let - on all questions. you mention nuclear weapons and let amid | nuclear weapons and let amid putin claims he has moved a batch of nuclear weapons into belarus and lukashenko told the bbc this week that if ukraine confide with other people's weapons, why can't i? what do you make of those comments? lukashenko was always looking for external enemies. just to justify the presence of russian military on our territory. now the presence, he wants to show that somebody wants to invade us, the countries around us are

our enemies and they are a worst enemy for belarus than anybody else. and he uses this rhetoric to threaten neighbours and create pressure on the people inside belarus. [30 and create pressure on the people inside belarus. do you think we should _ people inside belarus. do you think we should take - people inside belarus. do you think we should take those i think we should take those comments seriously? potentially what we're talking about here is nuclear weapons on the doorstep of nato. what do you think the west should do about that was to mark we need strong attention on all of the crimes of the lukashenko regime, and the crimes against humanity, the crimes against humanity, the abduction of ukrainian children into our territory because when western countries keep silent it is perceived —— when western countries stay quiet it is perceived as weakness and they continue with impunity. 50 weakness and they continue with imuni . ,

impunity. so we believe the stron: impunity. so we believe the strong direction, _ impunity. so we believe the strong direction, strong - strong direction, strong sanctions against lukashenko's sanctions against lu kashenko's regime, sanctions against lukashenko's regime, d recognition, bringing him to accountability with the direction of the crimes. figs him to accountability with the direction of the crimes. as you know, vladimir _ direction of the crimes. as you know, vladimir putin - direction of the crimes. as you know, vladimir putin has - direction of the crimes. as you know, vladimir putin has used j know, vladimir putin has used belarus as a staging ground in the ukraine war before. how far do you think he may potentially go in involving the country? do you see a scenario when he would call on people in belarus to fight? would call on people in belarus to fiuht? . , to fight? putin and lukashenko no that the _ to fight? putin and lukashenko no that the belarus _ to fight? putin and lukashenko no that the belarus and - to fight? putin and lukashenko no that the belarus and people j no that the belarus and people are against the expansion of belarus in this war. aleutians do not want to fight with ukrainians because we're close nations and our army and soldiers do not want to die or to kill for the ambitions of our leaders. putin can use our oil and ourfacility and he has

lukashenko as an ally but in belarus lukashenko and the people are two different things. we support ukrainians and lukashenko is loyal to putin. iam i am wondering about further risks to belarus. you wrote last week that any fighting between rival russian military factions might spill out into belarusian territories. in two latvia and lisa rainier. what do you think nato should be doing right now?— doing right now? alexander lukashenko _ doing right now? alexander lukashenko has a _ doing right now? alexander lukashenko has a ready - doing right now? alexander - lukashenko has a ready threaten our country into this war and can already provide our infrastructure, our land for launching missiles enter ukraine as he has already allowed nuclear weapon tamme territory. i want to underline

that the western countries have to show strong direction that that this will not be tolerated. i that this will not be tolerated.— that this will not be tolerated. ., ., ., . that this will not be tolerated. ., ., ., tolerated. i want to touch on our tolerated. i want to touch on your role _ tolerated. i want to touch on your role as _ tolerated. i want to touch on your role as opposition - tolerated. i want to touch on l your role as opposition leader. i know you said recently have received an anonymous text message that your husband has died in prison. horrendous text message to receive and you have also said previously that you have not heard from him since the ninth of march. if you been able to learn anymore about your husband?— able to learn anymore about your husband? able to learn anymore about our husband? ., ~ ., your husband? you know, when i not this your husband? you know, when i got this message, _ your husband? you know, when i got this message, i _ your husband? you know, when i got this message, i demanded i got this message, i demanded openly to show meet my husband and i am grateful to everybody from the international society and those in belarus who joined this demand and two days ago, propagandist media published the video where my husband wasn't recorded. he was injail

but honestly speaking, i could not recognise him because he looks really, really bad but, for sure, looks really, really bad but, forsure, it looks really, really bad but, for sure, it was him and i am glad that he is at least alive. he is in rather poor condition injail but i have to he is in rather poor condition in jail but i have to say that many belarusians and political prisoners are kept like that. we do not know about many. many, many others. letters are not delivered so we request and demand from all international organisations to have a mandate to demand access to our political prisoners to use this mandate and come and demand access to our people because we do not know if they are alive and what is the health conditions.— and what is the health conditions. �* ., ., , ., conditions. and what about you, ou have conditions. and what about you, you have not _ conditions. and what about you, you have not been _ conditions. and what about you, you have not been able - conditions. and what about you, you have not been able to - conditions. and what about you, you have not been able to live . you have not been able to live in your country since the 2020

elections, which is that you have won but essay has been systematic vote rigging. you have had to go into exile with your children. do you feel safe? ,, . :: :: ., your children. do you feel safe? ,, . i: i: ., ., safe? since 2020, i have not felt safe in — safe? since 2020, i have not felt safe in a _ safe? since 2020, i have not felt safe in a single - safe? since 2020, i have not felt safe in a single day - safe? since 2020, i have not felt safe in a single day but l felt safe in a single day but when you're fighting you do not think about your personal safety, you think first of all about the people who are hostages in belarus presence, you think about people who sacrificed their freedom and some that lives to give opportunity fast us to fight further, so i will present belarus, i will be the voice of belarusian people as long as i can, so i see how my children miss their daddy but i know that thousands of families are split, thousands of children are growing up without their

parents and we, altogether, have to stay united and and dismantle this regime and bring fair elections to belarus and release all our beloved france. sviatlana tsikhanouskaya, thank sviatla na tsikhanouskaya, thank you sviatlana tsikhanouskaya, thank you for being with us. —— friends. allegations have emerged in a newspaper about a bbc presenter. our culture and media editor katie razzall has more. hello. yes, because a bbc presenter has been accused of serious misconduct with an individual that began when the teenager was 17 years old, according to the sun newspaper here in the uk. now, the newspaper says that the presenter, who has not been named, paid the teenager tens of thousands of pounds for sexually explicit images. we understand that the bbc is looking into the allegations which are clearly very serious and there are some claims that the well—known presenter

paid actually more than £35,000 in returns for those sexually explicit images. the individual�*s family, it's reported, complained to the bbc on may 19th this year and begged them to make the man stop sending the cash because the mum claims that her child, who is now 20, had gone from a happy—go—lucky youngster to a ghostlike crack addict injust three years, because it is claimed the money has been used to fund a drugs habit. the bbc in a statement said: "we treat any allegations very seriously and have processes "in place to proactively deal with them." they also said, "as part of that, if we receive information that requires "further investigation and examination, "we will take steps to do this. "that includes actively attempting to speak "to those who have contacted us in order to seek further detail "and understanding of the situation." the sun has reported that the male presenter has been taken off air and we do understand that he is not scheduled to appear in the coming days.

to china now where us treasury secretary janet yellen continues her multi—day trip and has expressed concern about what she called china's "unfair trade practices". speaking in beijing, at the start of a four—day visit, she called for healthy economic competition and criticized china's recent export restrictions on key minerals. china's premier said the us should meet china halfway and work to put bilateral relations back on track. despite tensions, the world's two largest economies did a record $690 billion in trade last year. here is some of what ms yellen had to say. the us seeks healthy economic competition with china but healthy economic competition were both sides benefits is only sustainable if that competition is fair. 0ur asia correspondent rupert wingfield—hayes gave us his analysis of what ms yellen had to say. she talked about punitive

action against us businesses in china and that is the fact that we have seen several us businesses investigator, some of their staff arrested and at least one closed down and that has caused a great deal of concern for the safety of us companies operating in china. there is also concern that china is not giving properfree open market access to us companies according to wto rules and china finds ways to discriminate and keep out us companies it does not want to compete in the chinese market but there are a whole host of other problems in the relationship that janet yellen that janet yellen will be addressing directly with her chinese counterpart. as well as reassuring them. because she has given the message that she has gone to beijing to reassure china that the us is not wanting to restrain china's rise as an economic power. a us court has sentenced a gunman, who fatally shot

23 people at a walmart supermarket in el paso, texas in 2019, to 90 consecutive life sentences. 24—year—old patrick crusius targetted people of hispanic descent, shortly after posting an online a message referring to an invasion of immigrants to the united states. his sentencing follows two days of emotional witness testimony. the 24—year—old got a life sentence for each of the 90 federal accounts, including hate crimes and firearm charges. this goes back to the date in august when at that while mud in el paso, texas, which is a border town which is 80% hispanic, you had choppers getting back to school supply when the gunman burst in and started gunning them down. —— shoppers. inside and outside of that while mud with an ak—47 style rival. prosecutors say this was a carefully planned

and he had weeks in advance to purchase firearms and thatjust minutes before the attack he had posted a race online manifesto saying he was doing this to defend the united states from an invasion of hispanics and that he was targeting mexicans. his defence team had tried to argue that he suffered from mental illness but prosecutors said they could not explain this very calculated attack and so went prosecutors took the death penalty of the table, patrick crusius did plead guilty to these charges. he still faces that a separate state trial where the death penalty is on the table. this sentencing of two days of emotional impact families of victims from survivors because dozens were also injured in that a crime including an infant. and family

members confronted the 24—year—old gunman, calling him racist, calling him a coward, they forced him to look at pictures of the loved ones they haven't lost and they talked about the grief they are still dealing with and the fact that these four year process to get to this point had been very difficult for the family members. now, patrick crusius now, as i mentioned, will be facing a state trial. no date has been set for that yet but it will be just another step in this process of closure for these families. stay with us here on bbc news. you can always add to our website for more news. thank you for your company and more news at the top of the hour. i will see you then. i will see you then. hello there. we closed out our working week

on a hot and increasingly humid story, in fact many areas across the country seeing temperatures mid—to—high 20s, peaking in the southeast with 30 degrees as an afternoon high. that means temperatures not falling very far at all, so the start of saturday morning is going to be quite an uncomfortable one, quite a muggy one. temperatures in london, well, sitting at around 20 degrees already — that's 68 fahrenheit. and with that humidity, unfortunately with this weather front pushing in from the southwest, could trigger off some sharp thundery downpours as we go through the start of the weekend. so dry, settled sunny start for many, but here is that front and you can see the brighter colours denoting the intensity of that thundery rain. large hail not out of the question as well. it sweeps quite quickly north and east, so behind it there will be some sunshine, and in actual fact, across parts of east anglia we could still see temperatures into the high 20s. but still some of these showers quite torrential,

large hail not out of the question, and certainly the potential for a lot of rain in a short space of time. so as we move into scotland, temperatures into the mid—20s, probably that rain not arriving in the far north and east of scotland until the end of the afternoon. as we move into sunday we are still under this influence of low pressure. a bit more of a breeze driving the potential for some showers as we go through the day. so for the second half of the weekend, some rain easing slowly away from the northeast of scotland, potentialfor some sharp thundery rain to move up from the near continent across east anglia and southeast england. we are going to have to keep a close eye on that, still some level of uncertainty in the forecast. top temperatures, 17—23 degrees as our overall high. as we close out the weekend into next week, low pressure never too far away — it looks likely that, as we see these areas of low pressure moving their way steadily eastwards, we lose our southwesterly flow and drag in more of a northwesterly, so our week ahead looks quite unsettled at times. there will still be some sunny spells but temperatures

have the potential to just be a little bit disappointing. so, next week, a little bit tricky. it looks likely to be fresher with some sunny spells, but still the risk of some sharp, blustery showers.

this is bbc news.