to beijing, saying she feels more confident that the us and china will have more contact in the future. and some allies express concerns over the united states�* decision to send cluster bombs to ukraine. aus a us city goes to sue manufacturers of so—called ghost towns. —— guns. hello, i'm carl nasman. us treasury secretary janet yellen is wrapping up her multi—day trip to china, aimed at strengthening economic ties between the two super powers at a time of tension. while in china, ms yellen held ten hours of talks that she described as "direct and substantive." it was aimed at strengthening economic times at times of tension between economic times at times of tension between the economic times at times of tension between the two superpowers and she held ten hours of talks, criticising chinese curbs against us firms in calling for cooperation on climate change. this was her

speaking at a press conference at the end of the trip. the us and china have significant disagreements. those disagreements need to be communicated clearly and directly. but president biden and i do not see the relationship between the us and china through the frame of great power conflict. we believe that the world is big enough for both of our countries to thrive. both nations have an obligation to responsibly manage this relationship, to find a way to live together and sharing global prosperity. i spoke to rupert wingfield—hayes. several items were onjanet yellen�*s agenda, among them diplomatic ties, and easing of economic tension.

how much progress does it seem she has made? well, from what she said in her press conference in beijing this morning and what we have heard from chinese officials i think this is about as positive as we could expect. i don't think anybody was expecting any major breakthroughs, but as she said in her press conference, they have had a direct, i think she said candid, constructive and and that they build a resilient and productive dialogue for the future. she said one trip can't solve all the problems between the us and this is building the foundation but they can now continue talking to each other. i think one of the key things about this is that the biden administration's senior officials had not met with any of the new senior chinese economic team that came in last year, after the communist party congress at the end of last year. but now janet yellen has had the chance to do that. she hasn'tjust met with lee chan, the chinese premier, but she also met with huli fong, the vice premier in charge of the economy, and an absolutely key official in the chinese

government. he is very close to president xijinping, and they had several hours of closed—door face—to—face meetings yesterday, but was probably the key moment in this visit to really understand the most her important counterparts in the chinese government. on the china side, china's economy has not been performing as well as the country might have hoped, especially coming out of the pandemic. there are fears about a debt crisis in the country. what do you think china was hoping to get out of these meetings, and also looking forward to future summits? well, i think the chinese... although the chinese have been talking very tough on the us in recent months, behind that bravado, there is deep concern about the decoupling of the us and chinese economies, because the us market is so vitally important to the chinese economy. last year, china exported something

in the region of 500 billion us dollars worth of goods to the united states. so, it is the absolutely key economic partner for china. what china would like is to see the trump—era tariffs imposed on china lifted, that clearly has not happened now, but i think there is hope that if a dialogue can be continued, ms yellen in particular and other members of the biden administration have talked of those tariffs not being fair. i think the chinese would like to see those lifted as soon as possible, really. certainly that is their key desire. some positive messaging from that trip there by yellen, thank you so much, rupert wingfield—hayes. there are new allegations against a bbc presenter allegedly paying a teenager for explicit photos. the claims in a newspaper claims he paid the teenager tens of thousands of pounds and it is understood the

corporation is investigating the allegations and the presenter is not scheduled to be on air in the coming days. earlier i spoke with our graham satchell. graham, just fill us in — what more do we know about this story? well, as you say, these allegations first appeared in a british newspaper, the sun newspaper. they have spoken to the mother of this teenager, now 20, but was 17, we understand, in this first started to happen. and the allegation is that the unnamed bbc presenter paid significant sums of money over a period of time for explicit photographs. these allegations are serious, not just ethically or reputationally, but legally, as well, because in british law it is an offence to share, create or possess pictures like that of anyone under the age of 18. and in tomorrow's paper, the sun is giving more details of the kind of things that were allegedly exchanged between the unnamed presenter

and the teenager, so, it says that there are pictures of this presenter allegedly in his underwear on the sofa in preparation for a video call. you can see that there are now serious questions being asked about the way the bbc is starting to handle all of this. the bbc for its part has said that it takes these allegations very seriously, that it has tried to speak to the people involved, the family involved, to get further details. but their statement goes on to say that if it gets no reply or receives no further contact, that can limit its ability to progress things, but that doesn't mean the inquiry stops. the presenter is still unnamed, but some bbc presenters have felt compelled to come out and say that they are not involved? that's right. we're in a very difficult situation at the moment because the sun isn't naming the presenter, the bbc is not confirming their name. and, so, what you have had here is a frenzy on social media, frankly, with people speculating as to who the bbc

presenter is. and it's led to a number of other bbc presenters to basically go on social media and say, "it ain't me." so people like gary lineker, jeremy vine, nicky campbell, radio presenter, ryland, have all taken to their various different twitter and instagram accounts to say, "well, don't speculate about me, it is not me." some have been threatening legal action. so, this is a very serious situation, particularly for the bbc and, of course, for the unnamed presenter. graham, you alluded to this earlier but there are also some questions about how the bbc has handled these allegations? that's right, because the family say they complained to the bbc in may. so, we're talking some six, seven weeks ago now. and the bbc is not confirming to us or it's not telling us whether there has been a formal suspension

of this bbc presenter. but they are saying he's not expected to be on air in the coming days. the questions are being asked and they are serious questions — who knew what, when? what questions were asked, why wasn't this presenter immediately suspended ? if it is potentially, allegedly a criminal offence, why wasn't this referred to the police? there are big questions here. and politicians here have been getting involved, so, caroline dynage, for example, who is in charge of the culture select committee in the house of commons here, is saying the bbc has questions to answer. there's pressure on their hr department to investigate these latest claims quickly and explain what has happened since this story first came to light back in may. the bbc�*s graham satchel. to ukraine, where the country's president has marked the 500th day of russia's invasion with a video of his visit to the site of one of the war�*s most iconic battles. volodymyr zelensky posted the clip on telegram of his trip to snake island, a strategically significant outpost in the black sea that

ukrainian border guards refused to surrender to russia on the first day of the invasion, february 24th, 2022. their obscene reply to russian warnings became a rallying cry, and they were presumed dead when russian troops invaded and captured the island, though it later transpired that the guards had survived. ukraine re—took the island four months later. mr zelensky toured the island, laid a wreath and spoke to his nation. translation: dear ukrainians, i wish you good health. - today we are on snake island, our snake island, which will never be conquered by the occupier, like the whole of ukraine, because we are a country of the brave. today we honour our ukrainian heroes, all the soldiers who fought for this island, who liberated it, and although this is a small piece of land in the middle of our black sea, it is a great proof that ukraine will regain every bit of its territory.

i want to thank from here, from this place of victory, each of our soldiers for this 500 days. as ukraine's counter—offensive grinds on, the us has committed to sending controversial cluster munitions but divisions within nato countries about supplying the weapons are starting to emerge. british prime minister rishi sunak has confirmed that the uk, like several other nato countries, is signed up to a convention that bans their use. on friday, president biden said the weapons transfer was "a difficult decision." he arrives in the uk on sunday. rishi sunak is playing down any differences. well, the uk is a signatory to a convention which prohibits the production or use of cluster munitions, and discourages their use. we will continue to do our part to support ukraine against russia's illegal and unprovoked invasion. we have done that by providing heavy battle tanks and, most recently, long—range weapons. and, hopefully, all countries can continue to support

ukraine. russia's act of barbarism is causing untold suffering to millions of people. it's right that we collectively stand up to it. and i will be heading off to the nato summit next week in vilnius, where we will be discussing with our allies how we can strengthen our support for ukraine. so what is the convention on cluster munitions? it's an international treaty that prohibits all use, transfer, production, and stockpiling of cluster munitions. cluster munitions are an explosive weapon which scatters bomblets over an area. the convention entered into force on i august 2010 and a total of 123 states are committed to it. the united states and russia have not signed this convention, nor has ukraine but most nato countries have.

i spoke to a land clearance expert who has experience in clearing these bombs. you have been involved in afghanistan and yemen and other areas and walk through how much of a challenge it is to clear areas after weapons like cluster munitions have been used? thank ou ve munitions have been used? thank you very much. — munitions have been used? thank you very much. yes. _ munitions have been used? thank you very much, yes, i— munitions have been used? thank you very much, yes, i was - you very much, yes, i was involved in the clearance operation after the air campaign over afghanistan in 2001. we had good information from the us government on where it dropped the bomblets and when we went to clear up those we were finding as many as 50 bomblets of 180 that should have gone off when they hit the ground but as many as 60 failed to detonate on impact with the ground the clearance teams were coming back with that kind of data back into thousand and one and 2002, from us intelligence. diesel weapons that have been fighting afghanistan but

according to the numbers you are describing, this sounds like a fairly large failure rate in the cluster munitions, many left on the ground —— these were weapons. the official numbers, - these were weapons. the official numbers, the - these were weapons. tue official numbers, the estimates were 5% and we saw as much as 30% when we were clearing. what 3096 when we were clearing. what is our 3096 when we were clearing. what is your reaction _ 3096 when we were clearing. what is your reaction then, _ 30% when we were clearing. what is your reaction then, because been hearing the biden administration insisting the cluster munitions, they have a failure rate closer to 2.5%, definitely in the single digits. is that not your experience with these weapons? i cannot speak to the specific type of cluster sub munition deployed to ukraine but my experience is the failure rates were often overly conservative. in the fog of war and the real thing, the failure rates are higher almost always higher, then they are in the theoretical exercises that lead to these estimates.—

to these estimates. when you are actually — to these estimates. when you are actually in _ to these estimates. when you are actually in the _ to these estimates. when you are actually in the field - to these estimates. when you are actually in the field and i are actually in the field and coming into an area where these munitions were used in battle, how do you go about de— mining or deactivating these weapons? so, when we have, in the case again, when we had stored data, we had references where these things were drops are having good information on where the device would have been dropped, what bomb could be found is a good starting if you have that, thatis good starting if you have that, that is great and the devices speak for themselves and they injure livestock and kill life people and this is how we deploy clearance teams in response to injury or a death of a person or two livestock. in general, who is on these kind of response teams? is this a national effort, an international effort? who does the work of going into these dangerous areas to make sure it is safe for civilians? in

dangerous areas to make sure it is safe for civilians?— is safe for civilians? in the case of — is safe for civilians? in the case of afghanistan - is safe for civilians? in the case of afghanistan there | is safe for civilians? in the - case of afghanistan there were ngos responsible for clearing the leftovers of the wars so they were trained to clear cluster munitions. in other countries you have international ngos they get involved and in other countries either the national literary once peace is back, takes over and does the clearance operation.— and does the clearance operation. and does the clearance oeration. ., ., , operation. how long can this kind of operation _ operation. how long can this kind of operation take? - operation. how long can this kind of operation take? we i operation. how long can this i kind of operation take? we are still clearing _ kind of operation take? we are still clearing cluster _ still clearing cluster munitions in afghanistan from 2001, 2002. there is clearing ongoing in laos and cambodia from the vietnam war era and so it could take a long time. there was a war in lebanon in 2006 and we are still undermining lebanon. find 2006 and we are still undermining lebanon. and what im act undermining lebanon. and what impact does _

undermining lebanon. and what impact does this _ undermining lebanon. and what impact does this have _ undermining lebanon. and what impact does this have on - impact does this have on civilians? they will not wait decades to return home if they can, they will return home as soon as possible. what impact does it have when there are still munitions potentially lying around?— still munitions potentially lying around? the impact is often with _ lying around? the impact is often with children - lying around? the impact is often with children because| often with children because these are novel devices that show up in rural environments, for instance. shepherd children returning will pick up devices because they are out hurting their animals and they will come upon a device that is unusual, they will pick it up, they will drop it again and thatis they will drop it again and that is what we tend to see. the data often shows multiple children were injured or killed because when one of these things goes off it is much more powerful, generally speaking, linen and high personnel landmine. these things are designed to penetrate. so these are more dangerous _ designed to penetrate. so these are more dangerous than - are more dangerous than traditional landmines? the kill

zone is larger— traditional landmines? the kill zone is larger than _ traditional landmines? the kill zone is larger than an - traditional landmines? the kill zone is larger than an anti- - zone is larger than an anti— personnel landmine. just zone is larger than an anti- personnel landmine. just to circle back— personnel landmine. just to circle back to _ personnel landmine. just to circle back to the _ personnel landmine. just to circle back to the dodd - personnel landmine. just to circle back to the dodd rate| circle back to the dodd rate with the biden administration saying the weapons they will provide, which are controversial, would be about 2.5%. in your experience it seems a bit higher so what was your reaction when you heard that the united states wanted to supply these weapons? tt they are internally having a good look at what actually happens on the ground in terms of the real dodd rate and if they still decided to do this, i think that is a decision for them to make, not a decision i would have made and many countries have banned these weapons for good reason. they find there is no circumstance where it is worth using. but i would be concerned if there were actually just taking would be concerned if there were actuallyjust taking their 2.5% failure rate at face value and not assuming it could be worse than that because if that is the basis upon which they make this decision it is an ill founded basis to make such a

decision. ., w' founded basis to make such a decision. . a ., ., , decision. patrick who has worked to _ decision. patrick who has worked to clear - decision. patrick who has worked to clear areas - decision. patrick who has worked to clear areas in l decision. patrick who has - worked to clear areas in yemen and afghanistan, thank you so much for your insight. latvia's long serving foreign minister has become the first openly gay head of state of the european union orformer soviet head of state of the european union or former soviet country. he has been sworn in as the country's president. mr rinkevics first came out in 2014 and has been a vocal champion of lgbtq+ rights ever since. gay marriage is illegal in latvia, though the country's constitutional court recognised same sex unions last year. in the us, legal action against the sale of so—called ghost guns has been filed by philadelphia following a fourth ofjuly weekend mass shooting in the us city. the suspect allegedly used two ghost guns to fatally shoot five people. philadelphia's deputy commissioner of investigations confirmed the weapons used in the rampage fit the definition, meaning they were privately made — and there is no way to trace where they came from.

now the city says it has filed a lawsuit against two suppliers of ghost guns confiscated in philadelphia. one of those makers was also sued by the us city because ghost guns are untraceable it is hard to quantify exactly how many are on the street. however, the philadelphia police department confirmed that 575 ghost guns were confiscated in criminial investigations in 2022 alone. meanwhile, in 2023, the city of philadelphia reported 87% of ghost guns recovered in criminal investigations were made by one of the largest manufacturers that's listed as a defendent in the suit. for more on philadelphia and its issue with ghost guns, i spoke to philadelphia city solicitor and chief legal officer, diana cortes. we heard how over the recent holiday weekend, the shooter in philadelphia was armed with ghost guns. how have these weapons affected your city? well, thank you very much for having me. so, ghost guns, like many other... ghost guns in philadelphia have just been inundating the streets of philadelphia, just like many other cities around the country.

in 2018 there were only 12 recovered, and as you noted in the segment leading up to this, 575 in 2022 were recovered. that is a 4600% increase, as ofjuly 5th, 2023, when we had the press conference announcing this lawsuit, there were 292 recoveries of fully assembled ghost guns, as of today. that number has increased and is putting philadelphia on pace for a record breaking number of ghost gun recoveries over the full calendar year. as you noted, onjuly 3rd there was a mass shooting that also involved two ghost guns. so it is definitely infiltrating our streets and killing a great amount of people in philadelphia. do you know what is behind this recent increase in the number of ghost guns that you are seeing in philadelphia? i would say it is the easy

access to these ghost guns. the only thing somebody needs in order to access a ghost gun kit from polymer80 and jsd supply, the two defendants in our lawsuit, is essentially an address and credit card. that is all that is necessary for them to buy and purchase and have these ghost gun kits delivered to them. currently our pennsylvania state laws require certain guardrails for people to get firearms, and right now these two defendants are violating those laws. you are the city's chief legal officer. why did philadelphia decide to bring this lawsuit? well, these statistics that i mentioned earlier are unimaginable, and as i think your segment prior to me speaking noted, it is actually an underestimate, because these ghost guns are unserialised. there is no real way to fully capture the exact impact

that these ghost guns are having, but it is catastrophic, and so we need to do something, we need to hold these ghost gun manufacturers accountable, and therefore, it is the time to act. 0ur lawsuit is a 70—plus—page complaint going detail by detail as to everything that these ghost gun manufacturers have done wrong, including violating state laws which require them to have firearms that have serial numbers, they require firearms to only be sold to adults, and they also require firearms to only be sold to adults who have passed a background check. right now none of those things are happening. these manufacturers are not ensuring that is being done. they are putting profits over people, it needs to stop. there are some pro—gun groups and pro—gun legislators out there in the united states that say that legislating or limiting these self—made guns actually goes against the constitution. what is your response to them?

well, i would say that right now, these ghost gun manufacturers are violating, already, our state laws. so i would say that this really is not an issue of second amendment rights. it is an issue of these ghost gun manufacturers violating our current state laws that have been passed by our state legislature, which encompasses several of those gun rights supporters, so i would say that this is not an issue, or should not be viewed as an issue of second amendment rights, it should be viewed as an issue of who is being responsible in distributing and selling these firearms, and who is being responsible in obtaining them. we spoke just last week with a city council member from baltimore, another city in the united states that saw a recent shooting over the holiday weekend and another city that has also filed suit against these ghost gun

manufacturers. it was interesting, because they told us that they have seen a recent rise in these ghost towns ending up in the hands of young people. is that something you've seen in philadelphia as well? absolutely, again, because these ghost gun manufacturers, these two defendants, are not requiring that people of age are getting ghost guns. in pennsylvania you are required to be 18 years of age. right now anybody, because they are not ensuring that the person submitting this credit card or doing any type of verification, these ghost gun kits are getting into the hands of anybody, including minors who have a credit card and have an address, so, yes, we are definitely seeing a steep rise in that. is there any action you would like to see on the state or federal level on these ghost guns? i would like to see a continuous push for accountability. right now the pennsylvania state legislature has put in place laws that these two ghost gun manufacturers

are violating, so i would like to make sure that the legislature maintains those laws, and i would encourage anybody and everybody affected by these ghost guns to continue to push for some level of accountability, including lawsuits. diana cortes, philadelphia's city solicitor, thanks for taking the time to speak to us. thank you so much. stay with us here. that is all from us here in washington and we leave you with these live pictures of the son rising over the river thames as we hand off to our colleagues in london. more headlines for you at the top of the hour. thank you for watching. hello there. it was a very thundery start to the weekend, and particularly so across parts of the west midlands, into north—west england. and later, those storms

spread their way northwards, into scotland, during the overnight period. part two of the weekend looks a little bit better. there will be sunny spells around, but further showers too and low pressure always close by, and these weather fronts, which will continue to generate these showers and thunderstorms. now, we start sunday off on a bright note, this plenty of sunshine. that's the overnight rain — thundery in places, clearing northwards, so it could be quite wet in 0rkney all day. an area of rain, some of it thundery, could affect east anglia and the south—east for a time through the morning. then that clears into the afternoon, and then it's sunny spells, scattered showers. most of these, northern ireland, wales and western england. now, it's going to be a cooler, fresher day across the board. top temperature, around 23 degrees in the south—east. so we could have some disruption at wimbledon for that early rain. but then, into the afternoon, it does look like conditions will improve, with increasing amounts of sunshine. so as you move into sunday evening, most of the showers fade away — not completely, but most of them will. we'll see lengthy, clearer skies, but across the south—west, here, we'll see some cloud thickening, with increasing breeze too.

temperatures lower, fresher than what we've had over the last few nights. range from 10 to 12 degrees. cooler than that out of towns and cities. this area of low pressure will throw out further weather fronts into the south—west. this area of cloud will thicken up further. we'll see outbreaks of rain, strengthening winds — south—west england, into wales, pushing into the midlands. some of this could be quite heavy. elsewhere, it's sunny spells, scattered showers. so we could be up to around 26 degrees in the south—east, given plenty of sunshine. a little bit lower than that further north. but as you move out of monday into tuesday, this area of low pressure sits right on top of the uk, so a really unsettled day, i think, on tuesday. it'll be quite breezy. there will be some sunny spells in—between, but showers or longer spells of rain, and some of these showers could turn out to be heavy and thundery in places. pretty much anywhere could catch a shower. and temperatures will be lower, 16 to 21 or 22 degrees. that's below par for the time of year. and temperatures fall further as we move deeper into the week. this area of low pressure pushes towards the north of the uk, bringing some cooler air down on that north—westerly wind. so it stays unsettled for much

of this upcoming week, with temperatures below par for the time of year. there will still be some sunshine in between the showers.

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