we'll tell you why they're so controversial. japan prepares for the release of millions of tonnes of treated nuclear waste water into the pacific ocean. and the exiled belarusian opposition leader svetla na tikhanovskaya speaks to the bbc. hello i'm helena humphrey, thanks for your company. 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. 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, meahwhile, 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 roll over 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 by the united states, but nato is divided over the us�*s 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 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 munitions there is a difference because some of us have signed a convention on cluster munitions. 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 them. 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 an understanding 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 called for, promising to use them carefully to minimise risk to civilians. if the 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 believe the ukrainian government has every intention of using them as carefully as possible. but 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 is an incredibly important moment in this conflict. ukraine carrying out its counteroffensive artillery. what do you think 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. 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 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 short term? what about at a time when ukraine has an advantage against a 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, air 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. 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. 0ne one of the top general said the

ukraine offensive said the counteroffensive is going slower than predicted. you're on the house armed services committee. how widespread is that concerning congress? 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. sarahjacobs, the democrat from california, also a member of the house armed services committee. thank you for being with us. japan will begin releasing treated radioactive waste water from the fukushima nuclear power plant into the pacific ocean, some 12 years after a tsunami severly damanged the plant in 2011. the plan to release treated waste water from nuclear plant has been endosed by a united nations watchdog, but some scientists and activists have opposed the plan due to concerns on the impact of the oceanbed and marine life.

fishing groups are also worried as they fear consumers will avoid buying regional seafood. live now to michael bristow— asia pacific—editor for the bbc�*s world service. micky, talk us through the plans to release this water and the testing that it has gone through? this plan to release contaminated radioactive water from the power plant has been proposed two years ago and now it is coming to a head, japan plans to release the water sometime, not sure exactly when it was announced, but in the weeks leading up to that, and over the last few days essentially what it has been doing is getting the verification process, the sciences behind the plan to make sure that they have the

best possible support when they do lease it, sojust best possible support when they do lease it, so just this week the international atomic agency filed the report and said it in line with international standards, and is essentially safe, and the head has been in japan to try and present that report, try and persuade people, mr grossi is now in south korea where i am talking to you from, where he is expected to meet nuclear safety officials and politicians and try to persuade them that this is safe. the south korean government does actually agree with the plan, with japan's plan, saying it is in line with international standards, reasonably safe, and has backed it, but the public here in south korea is not so convinced and there has been a number of protests against the planned discharge of water and today

there were even more protests planned. there were even more protests lanned. , ., , , planned. some protests in the wake of even _ planned. some protests in the wake of even these _ planned. some protests in the wake of even these efforts - planned. some protests in the wake of even these efforts to l wake of even these efforts to try and reassure the public. i just wonder if there could be any further ramifications in terms of trade, food imports, for example. terms of trade, food imports, for example-— for example. there certainly will be. after _ for example. there certainly will be. after the _ for example. there certainly will be. after the fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, lots of countries in this part of the world banned seafood from fukushima and the surrounding area, and those bands are still in place. what you have seen over the last couple of days since it has been clear that japan will press ahead with this proposal to release water, number of countries have or said they will keep those bands, particularly china, they will keep that band, perhaps extended to other products from japan, certainly not allowing seafood and other products from

fukushima into the country, and the theory is once this water is released and the fear for many south korean fishermen �*s evenif many south korean fishermen �*s even if the scientists say that this is safe, that the water will have no effect on the environment, the sea, the seafood, even though they say that, people will not believe them, people will not want to buy seafood which have been taken from waters that have this contaminated water in it, so regardless of what the scientists say people may not believe them, and the politicians also, they are making use of this issue in china, south korea, trying to persuadejapan china, south korea, trying to persuade japan not to china, south korea, trying to persuadejapan not to release the water because they are doing it for political reasons, as again, regardless of what the scientists are saying. briefly, for critics who don't want this water released, what do they want to happen with that instead?— do they want to happen with that instead? most scientists believe that _ that instead? most scientists believe that this _ that instead? most scientists believe that this is _ that instead? most scientists

believe that this is a - that instead? most scientists believe that this is a safe - that instead? most scientists| believe that this is a safe way of releasing water, the japanese government points out that chinese and south korean nuclear facilities release this kind of water into the sea already, and the iaea has collected a panel of people from different countries and some scientists indicate that they don't, they could look at other possibilities such as one example i saw, using this water to make concrete to make sure the kind of accident that happened in 2019 does not happened in 2019 does not happen again, but generally the scientist seemed to be on board with this plan we seem to be on board. ~ . ., �* , ., with this plan we seem to be on board. a ., , a with this plan we seem to be on board. a ., �* a ., board. michael bristow, abe two bbc pacific _ board. michael bristow, abe two bbc pacific editor. _ board. michael bristow, abe two bbc pacific editor. good - board. michael bristow, abe two bbc pacific editor. good to - bbc pacific editor. good to talk to you. thank you. 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 has offered to the wagner mercenaries as a camp, a base, if they relocate to belarus. that isn't clear at the moment. and we have been brought here today by the belarusian defence ministry to take a look. and you can see

that there are a lot of new tents which are here, 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 some 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. it's still so unclear what is happening here. are wagner coming to belarus, are they not coming? are they here, are they not here? 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. yevgeny prigozhin and fighters who wanted 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 sviatlana tsikhanouskaya about lukashenko 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 prigozhin is in saint petersburg or belarus, if the camp that has been built for the wagner group orfor somebody else. it means he doesn't oppose the possible deployment of nuclear weapons. it means he has to consult with his department on all questions. you mention nuclear weapons and vladimir putin claims he has moved a batch of nuclear

weapons into belarus and lukashenko told the bbc this week that if ukraine "can fight with other people's weapons, why can't i?" what do you make of those comments? lukashenko was always looking for external enemies. he needs to justify the presence of russian military on our territory. now the presence of wagner, he wants to show that somebody wa nts to invade us, the countries around us are our enemies but lukashenko is the worst enemy for belarus than anybody else. and he uses this rhetoric to threaten neighbours to blackmail them and create pressure on the people inside belarus. do you 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 we need strong attention on all of the crimes of the lukashenko regime, and the crimes against humanity, the abduction of ukrainian children into our territory because when western countries keep silent it is perceived as weakness by dictators and they continue with impunity. so we believe the strong direction, strong sanctions against lukashenko's regime, political isolation, derecognition, bringing him to accountability with the direction of the crimes. as you 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?

putin and lukashenko know that the belarus and people putin and lukashenko know that the belarusian people, 86% or more, are against the expansion of belarus in this war. belorusians 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 two usurpers. putin can use our soil 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. 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.

bordered by poland, lithuania and latvia. what do you think nato should be doing right now? alexander lukashenko has already threatened to drag 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 on our territory. i want to underline that the western countries have to show strong direction that that this will not be tolerated. i want to touch on your role as opposition leader. i know you said recently have received an anonymous text message that your husband has died in prison. a horrendous text message

to receive and you have also said previously that you have not heard from him since the ninth of march. have you been able to learn anymore about your husband? you know, when i got this message, i demanded openly to show me 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 a video where my husband was recorded. he was injail, but honestly speaking, i could not recognise him because he 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 in jail but i have to say that many belarusians and political prisoners are kept like that.

incomunicado. 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 about you, you have not been able to live in your country since the 2020 elections, which is that you have won but also say there has been systematic vote rigging. you have had to go into exile with your children. do you feel safe? since 2020, i have not 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 friends. sviatlana tsikhanouskaya, thank you for being with us. allegations have emerged in a newspaper about a bbc presenter.

our culture and media editor katie razzall has more. 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 the sun 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 or 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. stay with us here on bbc news. that's all from us here in washington. we leave you with these live pictures of london as we hand off to our colleageus there. 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.