plus: us presidentjoe biden kicks off his three—nation tour and the us treasury secretary, janet yellen, says relations with china are on a �*surer footing' after a four—day visit to the country. hello, i'm helena humphrey. the bbc has suspended an unnamed presenter, and contacted the police, over allegations he gave tens of thousands of pounds to a teenager, in return for sexually explicit photographs. the corporation, which was told by the young person's family about the allegations back in may, says new information came to light on thursday, and it's now investigating all the claims. the bbc is now in touch with the family.

and in the last few hours the sun newspaper has printed claims the presenter contacted the family in recent days. our media editor, katie razzall has more. for the best part of 48 hours, the bbc has been splashed across many of the front pages. today was an attempt to prove it hadn't been slow to act in the face of a serious complaint, an effort to take control of the narrative. this afternoon, the bbc announced it has suspended the still unnamed presenter at the heart of the allegations and also contacted the police. the bbc first became aware of a complaint in may, it said in a statement. new allegations were put to us on thursday of a different nature. and in addition to our own inquiries, we've also been in touch with external authorities, in line with our protocols. those new allegations, the devastating story in the sun newspaper yesterday that a male presenter had paid an individual £35,000 over

three years in return for sexually explicit images beginning when that person was 17. a possible criminal offence. today's newspaper had new allegations about the bbc star described as known to millions that he stripped to his underpants in a video call with the young person with a pressure to act intensifying, a government minister and a member of the shadow cabinet weighed in this morning. these are very, very serious allegations. and the bbc needs to act swiftly. it needs to follow its procedures that it says it has in place. but i'm a former minister for safeguarding, and i worked for 20 years in the criminal justice system. and so in all of this and in our conversations about it, we have to remember that there is a person, a young person at the centre of this. the bbc do need to speed up their processes. it looks like that these issues were raised in may and we're now in july and the presenter stayed on air. that's not good enough. the culture secretary held talks with the director general, tim davie, soon after and came away apparently

reassured that the bbc is investigating swiftly and sensitively and should, she said, be given space to establish the facts and take action because these are just allegations, they may not be true. this is reputationally damaging for the bbc, which still has questions to answer, not least in terms of what exactly it did in may after the families' complaint and whether it knew at that point that potential criminality might be involved. how many attempts were made to contact the family after they complained 7 was the presenter interviewed and should he have been taken off air? tonight, the metropolitan police told bbc news that it has received initial contact from the bbc but that no formal referral or allegation has been made. it will, it says, require additional information before determining what further action should follow. the bbc has said it expects to be able to provide a further update on this story in the coming days. but as a publicly funded corporation, it depends on trust.

trust that is earned. the bbc has faced a series of crises in recent months. for some, its reputation is already tarnished. we can only fullyjudge how damaging this latest crisis will be when the full facts of the story are known. 0ur news correspondent charlotte gallagher has more. we have heard more revelations from the sun newspaper. this was the newspaper that first reported it a few days ago. they are saying this person contacted the young person, made a panic phone call saying "what have you done?" and asked them to ask their mother to put a stop to the investigation. the mother as well has told the sun newspaper that she is upset with the bbc. she is saying the bbc never contacted herfor a proper interview when she first made those allegations back in may. so, more claims, more revelations in the sun newspaper tomorrow and in other newspapers. now, lots of people

are asking "why are we not naming this presenter?" and it is a really good question and it is a legal reason. firstly, defamation. so, a few key developments today. those of the two reasons why at the moment the smell presented is still unnamed. it has not stopped people speculating on social media. a number of high—profile bbc presenters have come out and said it is not them. the director—general today condemned all these rumours about different mail presenters who have been innocent and they are caught up innocent and they are caught up in the story. us presidentjoe biden has

touched down in london for a brief uk visit, on his way to a major nato summit in lithuania. he's scheduled to meet with prime minister rishi sunak amid concerns from the uk and other nato allies over his decision to send cluster bombs to ukraine. the meeting with mr sunak will be their fifth in as many months. on monday, mr biden is also due to hold his first talks with king charles iii since his coronation. those conversations at windsor castle are expected to focus on environmental issues. london is the first stop on a packed european trip for mr biden. on tuesday, the president and prime minister will travel to the lithuanian capital, vilnius, for a today nato summit. then on thursday, biden will make his final stop in finland, nato's newest member nation, where he will attend the us—nordic leaders' summit. meanwhile, ahead of that nato summit, there are questions about two nations hoping tojoin the bloc, ukraine and sweden. president biden spoke on sunday with turkish president recep tayyip erdogan about sweden's bid tojoin nato — a move that has been held up by turkey. also on sunday, president biden addressed ukraine's potential membership, telling cnn the war

with russia must end first. i don't think there is unanimity in nato about whether or not to bring ukraine into the nato family now, at this moment, in the middle of a war. i think we can work it out, but i think it is premature to call for a vote now, because there are other qualifications that need to be met including democratisation of some of those issues. 0ur correspondent tom brada is covering president biden�*s visit. hejoined me from london a short time ago. tom, the us president touched down a couple of hours ago. what can we expect from the visit? so, this is not a fully fledged a state visit. in fact, it is only a fleeting one but president biden will be hoping to cram a lot into a short period of time.

he is presumably sleeping behind me in winfield house, the official residence of the ambassador to the uk. later on monday, he will head to meet prime minister rishi sunak at downing street where they are expected to cover a range of issues in a meeting of around 30—a0 minutes, we expect, from clean energy to artificial intelligence but predominantly talking about the war in ukraine. from there he will then travel on to windsor where he is going to meet king charles and it will be the first time that he's met the king since charles became king becausejoe biden did not attend the coronation. instead, sending his wife, doctorjill biden, the first lady. we know that king charles is a massive advocate of environmental issues that we are expecting them to discuss climate change initiatives, close to the king's heart. and all of this coming at a time when we do know that several nato allies have questioned the biden administration's decision to send cluster munitions to ukraine. do we know if that topic

will be one that comes up for discussion there in london? so, we don't know the specific details of what they are going to be talking about, but it certainly comes at a time, this meeting, when there is a little bit of discomfort thanks to that announcement on friday. just to remind people what is cluster munitions are, they are a weapon which drop multiple bomblets onto an area and the risk is that not all of these bomblets will detonate and in which case they are called a dud and there is always the risk that a civilian may pick one of them up and there could be untold damage later down the line to the civilian population. the point is that the uk and in fact the majority of nato allies have signed up to a specific convention — there are 123 countries signed up to this convention which prohibits the production and the use of these particular weapons. russia, ukraine and the us are not signatories to this. and at this point, the us�*s decision to supply ukraine

with these weapons is going to be a point of friction and one that we imagined they might thrash out at that meeting with rishi sunak on monday and perhaps later in the week in vilnius at that nato summit. the bbc�*s tom brada there in london. tom, thanks a lot for that. 0ur security correspondent, frank gardner, has more on mr biden�*s week in london and in vilnius. this is potentially an awkward visit at a crucial time, why, because the nato alliance faces a number questions and it needs to try and present a united front. the two—day vilnius so much, tuesday and wednesday coming at a crucial time in the ukraine war, it comes at a time when america is out on its own when america is out on its own when it comes to cluster bombs, the decision taken in the last few days by america to supply ukraine with these very controversial weapons, has not gone down well with its allies, it has been pretty much condemned by human rights

groups across the world. britain has come out to say we will not be doing it because britain is a signatory to the convention on cluster munitions and spain has condemned it, so has canada, not in strong terms but they are not sympathetic to its. there is that issue. then there is the issue about who should become the next head of nato, the next secretary general. because there is some disagreement about this they are going to extend the current nato secretary general for another year, nato secretary general for anotheryear, he nato secretary general for another year, he is already in his late 60s now and was planning to retire. britain wanted edward wallace the uk defence secretary to be the next head of nato, that was backed by the baltic states, and lithuania etc, but it was not backed by the united states, crucially which instead seems to be favouring the eu head, as you have underlined, thatis head, as you have underlined, that is also controversial because she has a poor record

as germany's defence minister, jimmy ramping down its defence on her what. then there are the more parochial issues you could call them here between the us and britain. the transatlantic alliance of the special relationship is not in the best shape. there is still enormous sharing of military and intelligence expertise at mid and low levels but up at the top president biden did not come he chose not to come to the coronation of king george sorry, king charles iii and may. he sent his wife the first lady but he did not come to it. this is a once in a generation event, people presume and he chose not to come to it, that is seen by some people as a snub. he spent plenty of time in ireland, he likes to stresses irish roots, and he has sometimes made comments that would imply possibly that he is more fond of ireland than

britain and that he is not especially fond of britain. i am sure the white house will go to great lengths to dispel the this and he has a good personal rapport with king charles, the two men share the same view on climate change and the environment, they will have a lot to talk about. they have met before and have a good personal chemistry when it comes to the political side of rings rishi sunak has reached out, tried hard to repair the special relationship but he is only got one meeting in less than one day to do it. so the transatlantic alliance is a bit of a work in progress, it is not the warmest it has ever been but let us see how this translates and whether it will lead to some kind of unified position in nato in the coming week in vilnius, and lithuania. us treasury secretary janet yellen has said efforts to improve relations between washington and beijing have made progress. she was speaking at the end of a four—day visit to china saying despite significant disagreements, the relationship is moving towards a �*surer footing.�*

ms yellen held 10 hours of talks with senior chinese officials, stressing the need for healthy economic competition, improved communication, and better cooperation between the two countries on climate change. here she is speaking to cbs news on sunday. an objective of my trip was to explain that national—security is something that we cannot compromise about. and we will protect. and we will do so even if it harms our own narrow economic interests. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. bringing you different stories from across the uk. postscript to qualify as a doctors by completing the course. it was designed for students for less traditional

backgrounds such as errors with low participation in higher education. reese is the first and his family to go to university.— and his family to go to university. without this course. _ university. without this course. do _ university. without this course, do not - university. without this course, do not think. university. without this course, do not think i l university. without this - course, do not think i would be able to do this career and pursue what ultimately i want to do in life. it pursue what ultimately i want to do in life.— to do in life. it takes an extra year— to do in life. it takes an extra year of _ to do in life. it takes an extra year of study - to do in life. it takes an extra year of study to i to do in life. it takes an - extra year of study to make up for the lower grades but the course and lead it is it. sometimes people look at people because it is very competitive and some people see a student with three a stars why would you take a student with three b's but my argument is that there is more to being a good doctor than just intellectual attainment. for more stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website. you're live with bbc news. a second child has died after a car crashed into a school in south—west london on thursday.

the metropolitan police named the victim as 8—year—old nuria sajjad. her family in a statement described nuria as "the light of our lives". on thursday, it was confirmed that 8—year—old selena lau had died as a result of her injuries. a woman in her 40s remains in hospital in serious condition. a number of other people, including a seven—month—old girl, were also hospitalized with non—lifethreatening injuries. the driver of the car was arrested at the scene on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. in other news: pope francis has announced the names of 21 churchmen who will be elevated to cardinals. the new cardinals will come from countries including the united states, south africa, switzerland, south sudan and poland. they will be officially installed in a ceremony in september, then will be able to enter the conclave that will choose the next pope. france has banned the sale, possession and transport of all fireworks and pyrotechnics during upcoming bastille day festivities. the prime minister said it was to prevent the risk of serious disturbances, after rioting sparked by the killing of a teenager last month by police.

ukraine has welcomed home five army commanders captured by russia, who were being held in turkey, after a prisoner swap. the men had been detained for over a year, following the fierce and prolonged battle for control of the azovstal steel plant in mariupol. moscow has condemned their release. gordon corera, has more from kyiv. ukraine's president welcoming home five commanders at a ceremony in the city of lviv. translation: they were fighting for ukraine. - they survived russian captivity. they spent over 300 days in turkey. it is time for them to be home. applause the returning men were greeted by their families. translation: from today onwards, we will continue | the fight together with you. we will definitely have our say in the battle. with each day passing, we are advancing, destroying the enemy.

the five had spent three months defending the vast azovstal steel plant in the city of mariupol, holed up in bunkers and tunnels, keeping the russians at bay. finally, the men had been ordered to surrender. under a prisoner swap deal, they were laterfreed, but were supposed to remain in turkey. the men's return has been widely celebrated here in ukraine, but an angry russia has said it was not informed and that ukraine and turkey had gone against the terms of the deal. the release came after president zelensky met with president erdogan, in turkey, ahead of an upcoming nato summit. turkey's leader saying ukraine deserved to be invited into the alliance. president zelensky returned home notjust with that endorsement, but also five military heroes by his side. earlier i spoke to sean mcfate. he's a us army veteran,

as well as a senior fellow at the atlantic council, author, and professor of strategy at the national defense university. we're at a moment when ukraine, as we know, has dug in on a counteroffensive. we've had comments this past week from general mark milley saying that counteroffensive appears to be going slower than many people had hoped. ijust wonder, when you think about the nato summit coming up in less than 48 hours, what more do you think allies could be doing to help ukrainians on the battlefield at this really key moment? i do not think adding more weapon systems is going to be the magic bullet to win the counteroffensive. i mean, this has been a problem to date, is that zelensky has said give us more weapons and we will win this spring offensive. now it is mid—summer and it is failing, frankly. i think what the west should be more clever about doing is trying to pit the wagner group against the russian military. to try to destabilize russia, moscow

and putin's grip on power. and whatever happens that will be a win for ukraine. that is a really interesting perspective. do you think it is something that is achievable? of course, we have seen that situation just a matter of weeks ago, of course, with that attempted mutiny. we are not necessarily sure about what the future could be for wagner and for prigozhin. from what you're saying, you believe that there's the potential to utilize the wagner soldiers against russia, if i'm understanding correctly. that's right, so, we have to have a david versus goliath strategy. we have to be more cunning than brute force, and it is something i have been advocating for six months, that the relationship between wagner and the siloviki, which are the heads of the russian military et cetera, that has always been fraught and our role should be to try to continue that fraughtness, so, as we saw in the last two weeks,

when wagner marched on moscow, that was not a coup attempt, that was not a mutiny — this is how mercenaries renegotiate their contract, because this is an older type of warfare, that has more in common with the 12th century than the 20th century. we have market forces engaged in battle, which means you can use market strategies, like you might see on ebay, to outsmart and outfox your adversaries, and we should be doing a little bit more of that, which is a lot cheaper and safer than sending cluster munitions into ukraine. that is a fascinating insight. we are perhaps not there yet, we just do not know exactly what is going on behind the scenes. in the interim, the biden administration has taken what they say is a difficult decision to send those cluster munitions. what do you make of that? i think it is wrong. for two reasons. cluster munitions are in the same category as flamethrowers and napalm. the reason it has been

banned by many countries, and it is also the us military itself stopped using these at least 20 years ago, is because of the collateral damage, all the potential civilians and children who get blown up by them. as we also know, giving more ammunition to ukraine does not win this spring offensive. it is literally the definition of insanity. you mentioned strategy in all of this, as opposed to weapons. coming back then to the nato summit which is going to be taking place in vilnius, lithuania. we know that ukraine once again upping its bid for nato membership. do you think this is something that allies should reconsider? i think you can't have ukraine join nato when it is in a war with russia because suddenly nato would commit to war against russia which could go nuclear armageddon very quickly. if ukraine doesjoin nato, it will be after the war is done, if then.

let's talk a little bit then more broadly about the geopolitical picture. we have had a situation in which erdogan has freed azovstal commanders. it angered russia. and of course, erdogan had been walking this diplomatic tightrope. do you think potentially that world leaders could be reconsidering how they feel about putin in light of what we have seen with wagner? i don't know what world leaders — i think most world leaders view wagner as little more than a criminal organisation, and i can say that a—star generals and world leaders in kyiv, moscow and nato capitals have been consistently underestimating the wagner group and the nature of this war. do you think they have been underestimating the power of putin? yes, i mean, putin's stock has fallen in the world and he has also turned away xi jinping of china to some extent, too, and i think the strategy

of nato now has to help him continue that fall, without getting involved in a nuclear nato—russia conflict. we are a little over 500 days now into this war — it is a difficult question to ask in terms of potential endgames and we have not asked it, i think it is fair to say, for a very long time just because we appear to have been seeing this war of attrition, but just with your assessment, sketch out some potential endgames for us, if you could. sure, well, ithink the first one is that — i think ukraine's performance has been very disappointing to nato leaders. nato has been giving leopard tanks, f—i6s, all of these things with the promise of a sure victory and counteroffensive in the spring of this past year. it came late, it came in lacklustre events. so, i think that is weakening.

i also think that the story — this time next year putin could be out of office, one way or the other. it is notjust the wagner group and prigozhin who don't like him, it is also siloviki. and it is also an unpopular war in certain segments of russia. they could continue to stalemate. it is also possible that the wagner group and prigozhin, they leave the conflict, and that would change things as well. sean mcfate, a senior fellow at the atlantic council, really interesting analysis. thank you for being with us. thank you. stay with us here on bbc news. thats all from us here in washington, we leave you with these live pictures of london as we hand off to our colleageus there. to our colleagues there. hello there. the weekend was quite a mixed bag. we saw some pretty heavy, thundery downpours across more western parts of the country.

further east, it was a bit drier, with some spells of sunshine. but temperatures were coming down through the weekend, and that's the theme as we move through this upcoming week. low pressure in charge. it will feel cool for the time of year. showers or longer spells of rain and winds will be a feature, particularly towards the end of the week — all down to low pressure. monday, not a bad start for many areas, but we've got a new set of weather fronts slowly pushing into south—west england, wales, with stronger winds here for the morning and that will continue to journey its way northwards into the midlands, northern england, as well. some of this rain could be heavy and thundery. elsewhere, after a fine start, it's going to be one of sunshine and showers, though i think the far south—east of england and in towards east anglia should tend to remain drier, with lengthy sunny spells. winds will be a feature, then, across the south—west. those are mean wind speeds. lighter further north. temperatures ranging from high teens, low 20s in the north, maybe 23 or 2a degrees in the south—east. that rain continues to move northwards across the country during monday night. we see another batch of rain pushing

into south—west england, wales, the midlands, and this will continue to drift towards the east in the early hours of tuesday. again, some of this could be heavy and thundery. to the south of it, quite a warm and muggy night to come. to the north of it, a little bit fresher, where we'll have clear spells and showers. for tuesday, then, our area of low pressure starts to drift northwards to the north—east of the uk, and that will bring plenty of showers to the country, pretty much from the word go, across the north. this area of rain will take its time to clear the south and east of england through the tuesday morning. eventually, it will do and then all areasjoin in sunshine and showers. most of these will be affecting scotland, northern ireland, northern and western parts of england and wales. again, the high teens in the north, a little bit fresher across the south—east. then beyond tuesday through wednesday, thursday, that area of low pressure moves to the north. it allows west, north—westerly winds to move down across the country, again, with plenty of showers. further low pressure systems will be moving into western areas by the end of the week and into next week. and so, a very unsettled rest of the week to come, with showers or longer spells of rain,

some sunnier moments, as well, but it will feel quite cool, particularly when winds pick up at times, too.

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