by their allegations, despite a lawyer for the now 20—year—old saying the claims are "rubbish". plus, a new country, a very different life. the bbc visits a center in south korea that's getting ready for a rise in defectors from the north. hello, i'm sumi somaskanda. just hours before a pivotal summit, nato secretary general jens stoltenberg anounced a critical deal that will allow sweden tojoin nato. after negotiations with turkey, who along with hungary were the final holdouts to the country's bid, sweden will become the second nation to join the military coalition since russia invaded ukraine last february. nato's head, jens stoltenberg, said turkey and sweden addressed security concerns and as a result sweden amended its constitution, changed its laws, expanded its counter—terrorism operation against the the kurdistan workers' party , which is banned in turkey —

and resumed arms exports to turkey. stoltenberg lauded the deal earlier. nato will also significantly step up its work in this area and i will established for the first time at nato, the pulse of special co—ordinator for counterterrorism. completing sweden's accession to nato is an historic step that benefits the security of all nato allies at this critical time. it makes us all stronger and safer. our correspondent katya adler is in vilnius, and has more on the significance of this announcement. turkey had been blocking sweden joining nato because it said the country was to soft on kurdish separatists but also not respectful enough towards

muslims, but sweden said it was working towards allaying some of turkey's fears, a huge sigh of turkey's fears, a huge sigh of relief, my phone has been alive with high messages —— messages from high—level nato diplomats because tonight is the eve of a high—profile summit, joe biden, rishi sunak, emmanuel macron, olaf scholz and many more leaders are coming to town and the focus on their summit? coming to town and the focus on theirsummit? unity, determined their summit? unity, determined unity, theirsummit? unity, determined unity, continuing support for ukraine and unity in the face of russian aggression so turkey changing its mind really helps that unity message and nato hopes that can show vladimir putin that his aggression in ukraine is counter—productive. in he hates the —— ukraine of course also wants to join nato as a fully fledged member, that is a lot more complicated and that will be discussed in detail here over the next few

days at nato summit. sweden's entry into nato has also been a priority for president biden. he met with the swedish prime minister during his visit two weeks ago and has been supportive of sweden's membership. our correspondentjessica parker is in washington. on the eve of the summit, this is going to be a huge relief to nato, these summits are a stress test of the alliance's unity, a stress test for president biden as well, he has released a statement welcoming these developments, he said: of course there is the matter of ukraine's hopes ofjoining the nato alliance, some countries wanted to see fast track process, i think president biden trying to temper that a little bit, he said that ukraine isn't

ready tojoin nato, it is a country at war, nato has a actual defence clause that would pull nato into the war but what he has talked about instead is some kind of rational path forward for ukraine. against the backdrop of sweden's big step towards nato membership, ukraine's president has said he understands his country will be also welcomed into the alliance. volodymr zelensky said they are �*working to make the algorithm for gaining membership as clear and fast as possible.�* earlier i spoke with kurt volker, the former us ambasador to nato and former us special envoy for ukraine about both ukraine and sweden. great to have you back on the programme. i want to start with the significant development of turkey clearing the way for sweden to join nato. what do you think nato members were able to provide turkish president recep tayyip erdogan for him to change his mind? i think turkey made a very sound point about terrorism and sweden addressed that point, which is to say that sweden doesn't see itself

as supporting terrorism, doesn't want it territory to be used by terrorist groups and trying to address turkish concerns that that in fact had been the case in the past. they did this originally when president erdogan issued the invitation to the other nato allies, they reinforced this with a security pact today. in addition to that the biden administration has been working in earnest to try to get its teams to turkey, they is something turkey has been interested in and president erdogan getting through his re—election has given him a little bit more room to do some of the things that need to be corrected such as on the economy, such as on allowing more drones to go to ukraine, saying ukraine should be an nato as well. if we look at what the nato secretary general said today, nato makes sweden safer and stronger, we know that finland hasjoined as well, what does this mean for nato

to have new members? you have geographic coherence and depth so that you now have all of northern europe, not including the north atlantic alliance, that gives you coherent oversight and control of the aerospace and the sea space around northern europe and the ability of forces to work together much more seamlessly and operations, whether they asked the 14 the efforts such as we had for a long time in afghanistan, kosovo or any contingencies that may arise in the defence of that part of europe. i want to ask you about what ukrainian president zelensky has been saying, he has been speaking today and he said that summit in vilnius has to confirm that ukraine is a de facto member of nato. what do you think of that? de facto is not a term anyone working in nato would use because you have this article five treaty commitment that obligates countries

to come to each other�*s defence, and you don't want to have this be ambiguous or unclear in any so at the time that a country becomes a nato member, you want that commitment to be ironclad and perfectly understood, so you can't quite say that in advance. what we should be saying at the vilnius summit and what a hope is set for president zelenskiy�*s benefit as well as nato's benefit is that the commitment that nato made 15 years ago to ukraine's eventual membership is now becoming operational and we are going to begin the process of bringing ukraine in the alliance, several practical steps will be taken and we will review this at the next meeting in washington next year. president biden was asked about this in an interview with cnn, here is what he said. if the war is going on, we are at war, so i think we have to lay out a path, a rational path, for ukraine to be able to qualify to get into nato.

so ambassador, what does this path actually look like? a couple things about the president's statement. he was answering a question or a point about whether ukraine should be invited to join nato now. that is to say on the day of the vilnius summit which there, he is right, it would require nato to actually start fighting with russia to help defend ukraine and nobody wants to do that but we do need to give a clear pathway, but it is not because ukraine has more work to do. ukraine is ready. it the alliance that is not ready because they don't want to take on this conflict with russia at this time. what ukraine needs to do is win the war. we need to have stable lines in europe and then we need to bring ukraine fully into nato and help deter any further aggression against ukraine or anyone else in europe. just to jump in there, the president was asked specifically if he thought that ukraine was ready and he said he didn't think that was the case, so you disagree

with that? i do disagree with that. i think if you look at several existing nato allies and say who would you rather fight alongside, would you like to have ukraine on your side or one of the smaller or less capable european allies, you would pick ukraine. they are fighting and defending the frontiers of freedom right now and they are prepared to do so and already they have one of the strongest militaries in europe so they are fully ready to be part of the alliance. what else do you want to see come out of this summit? i think a renewed commitment to increasing defence spending is important. that is critical for sustaining us support for the alliance. if we feel we are doing everything and others are not as we have seen many presidents discuss, especially donald trump, then it weakens us political support for nato's are getting defence spending

on track racing to 2% and above, it's very important it's great that we're going to see sweden admitted as well — i think we ought to be making a statement that ending these grey zones, eliminating these places in europe where putin feels free to attack is actually in nato's security interest because if we don't do it then we are dealing with the effects of war such as we are dealing with ukraine today. that would be a very powerful statement to make, meaning that bringing ukraine in is not only about ukraine, it is also about nato's own security. more information has emerged, concerning allegations that a bbc presenter paid a teenager tens of thousands of pounds for sexually explicit images. the young person, now aged 20, has claimed via a lawyer that nothing inappropriate or unlawful has taken place, and that the claims that first emerged in the sun newspaper are rubbish, and an invasion of their privacy. the sun says it stands by its story. meanwhile, the metropolitan police say they are making further inquiries, but there is currently no investigation underway. the male presenter, who has been suspended, has not been named.

here's our media editor katie razzall. for the first time, we at the bbc have had contact with the lawyer acting for the young person in this case. they told us one thing that effectively the story as reported by the sun is untrue and the sun's front page tonight recently published this is quite another. the parents say they stand by their account and in an interview they say, "we did this to help," and that the presenter has got into their loved one's head, as they put it. the stepdad says the claims tonight on behalf of that young person are not true and accuse the bbc of lying about what happened when they made their complaint. where does that leave us? not much clearer perhaps. here is my account of how the day has unfolded. the story has dominated the front pages for days, driven by the sun newspaper, which first reported it in its saturday editions. now a lawyer for the young person at the centre of the allegations has told the bbc that on friday, via whatsapp, they told the sun the statement by their mother was totally wrong and there

was no truth in it, adding, "nothing inappropriate or unlawful has taken place and the allegations are rubbish". the sun newspaper has pushed back tonight, telling the bbc its story was about two concerned parents who made a complaint about the behaviour of a presenter and the welfare of their child. their complaint was not acted upon by the bbc. "we have seen evidence that supports their concerns," they say, adding it is now for the bbc to properly investigate. time is of the essence because it is not fair on victims, it is not fair on people who could be implicated and it is not fair on the bbc, which does an importantjob. you know, iam not here to, as it were, bash the bbc, but i do think they need to get their house in order and they need to proceed promptly, otherwise you will have plenty of collateral victims. according to the sun, for three years, the presenter paid ten of thousands of pounds in exchange for sexually explicit images to a person who was 17 when it began — a potential criminal offence. the family told the paper they were frustrated that the presenter remained on tv after they approached the bbc.

so what do we know about the timeline of events? the family complained to the corporation on 19 may. nearly two months on, last thursday, the bbc says it received new allegations. the next day, the sun published claims that a bbc presenter paid a teenager for explicit images. on sunday, the bbc suspended the presenter. i think one of the questions that will come out of this in the inevitable inquiry is who did the complaint come into and did they escalate it fast enough and in future, should a red flag go up when an issue of this seriousness comes in, whether or not there is a huge amount of information or not, that it should go straight to senior management and that they should deal with the issue immediately. escalation yesterday involved a referral of the allegations to the police. today, after a virtual meeting with the met�*s specialist crime command, the police said they are working to establish whether there is evidence of a criminal offence.

there is, they added, no investigation at this time. until it is clearer, until we have a greater knowledge from possibly the police, the bbc itself, the alleged victim or the victim's mother, in this case, it is very hard to know exactly what we are criticising the bbc for. the acting bbc chairman is only in her role after the resignation of the politically appointed former chairman richard sharp. now the corporation is at the centre of another crisis. tomorrow, she and the director—general, tim davie, will have to face the media as they launch the annual report, with the corporation in the eye of a storm. our legal correspondent dominic cashiani has been looking into the letter from the young person's lawyer as well as the sun's latest article. i think it is a really, really important development in this story as as the son's latest story as as the son's latest story tonight, —— sun. the law of privacy is there to effectively protect reputations and careers and futures from

undue harm because there are many things in our private lives which are simply nobody else's business, they are private to us and if you analyse, what this law firm is saying on behalf of their client and this is not a modest high—street firm, they are a decent sized firm in central london is, they are saying there is a repeated breach of privacy here in this reporting, even though the individual had been named and nor has the presenter, the young person denies involvement in unlawful or inappropriate activity and they are effectively saying, if you carry on doing this and if you carry on doing this and if you were to name our client, this is the subtext, you might end up in court, that is what the warning comes down to, although there is no warning as such although there is no warning as such in the letter, and if you take that as a starting point, i think it is really interesting then to have a look at what the sun has said tonight. there is one line

which sticks out to me. in the story, it quotes the stepfather as saying, "i told the bbc had gone to the police in desperation "but they could not do anything as they said "it was not illegal.". now, we're not quite sure exactly what that relates to, but from the perspective of this young person, and thinking about this just in purely legal terms, if nothing has been done which is wrong, what is the case then for this person to be named or the presenter to be named? and i think this is why there is so much at stake here. going to the scotland yard statement, really telling that they are assessing the information, but it has not yet crossed a criminal threshold for them, and i think the takeaway from that is, we are not the only ones who at the moment are really unsure about exactly what has been going on. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. bringing you different stories from across the uk. the first group to qualify as doctors by completing the six year medicine with a foundation course at the university of leicester. it was designed for students from less traditional backgrounds such as areas with

low participation in higher education. greece is the first and his family to go to university.— and his family to go to university. without this because _ university. without this because i _ university. without this because i don't - university. without this because i don't think i l university. without this - because i don't think i would because i don't think i would be able to do this career and pursue what is ultimately what i want to do in life. so pursue what is ultimately what i want to do in life.— i want to do in life. so it takes an _ i want to do in life. so it takes an extra _ i want to do in life. so it takes an extra year - i want to do in life. so it takes an extra year of i i want to do in life. so it. takes an extra year of study i want to do in life. so it - takes an extra year of study to make up for the lower grades, but the course leader says it's worth it. ,, ., , but the course leader says it's worth it. , , worth it. sometimes, people look at attainment _ worth it. sometimes, people look at attainment as - worth it. sometimes, people look at attainment as the - worth it. sometimes, peoplel look at attainment as the sole reason — look at attainment as the sole reason to— look at attainment as the sole reason to choose the right person to do a medical degree, it is very— person to do a medical degree, it is very competitive, so some people — it is very competitive, so some people say— it is very competitive, so some people say if you have a three and with— people say if you have a three and with three a stars why would _ and with three a stars why would you take a student with three — would you take a student with three letter bee, but my argument would be there is more to being a — argument would be there is more to being a good doctor than just— 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. the kremlin says that russia's president vladimir putin met wagner leader yevgeny prigozhin last month, shortly after the mercenary leader led a brief rebellion against the government. during the three—hour meeting, prigozhin is said to have told

mr putin that the wagner fighters support him unconditionally. our russia editor steve rosenberg has more. on the day of the mutiny, vladimir putin had called the organisers traitors, who had stabbed brush in the back, and he promised they would be punished. five days later, goodness me, he was sitting down with them in the kremlin, with the commanders of wagner, chatting about what had happened. so what does this tell us about the relationship between wagner and the kremlin? well, we knew they were close. very close. putin had admitted that the state has been financing wagner, so was this three—hour meeting in the kremlin sort of a person mutiny postmortem, an attempt to reboot or rebuild what had been a pretty effective fighting force for the kremlin? we don't know. we don't know how that meeting ended. what we do know is that the state media here

continues to try to discredit yevgeny prigozhin. last night, state tv said he is not the robin hood he tries to pass himself off as. he is a businessman with a criminal past, who was involved in dodgy dealings. but for now mr prigozhin is a free man. so what will happen next? i wish i knew. my advice, stay tuned for the next bizarre episode in putin and prigozhin. steve rosenberg reporting there. south korea has restated its commitment to welcoming north korean defectors. there used to be 3,000 people crossing the border each year. that number has fallen dramatically over the last decade or so, to fewer than 100. but south korea thinks more people will try, now that pyonyang has eased covid restrictions. michael bristow reports. she started her own business, these north korean women fled hunger and oppression. now they are learning the art of the manicure. filing, painting and

shaping. it isjust one of nearly two dozen courses on offer at the south korean reception centre for those who have escaped north korea and need new skills for their new lives. in another room, defectors are introduced to high—tech devices commonplace in south korea. less so in the north. they learn about the software that powers these gadgets. the hana one resettlement centre for north korean refugees is also a medical facility. korean refugees is also a medicalfacility. south korean medical facility. south korean doctors medicalfacility. south korean doctors try to fix health problems that might have gone untreated for years, from top to toe. this doctor is a psychiatrist, who has worked at the centre. not surprisingly, he says many defectors suffer with their mental health, not least from being separated from their relatives. translation:

these families have families backin these families have families back in north korea they can't see. it is a little like bereavement bit different because they haven't passed away, they are still there. for the defectors it is complete torture. ~ . the defectors it is complete torture. ., , torture. whatever problems the defectors face, _ torture. whatever problems the defectors face, the _ torture. whatever problems the defectors face, the hannah - torture. whatever problems the defectors face, the hannah one | defectors face, the hannah one resettlement centre is just the beginning of their education. the hardestjourney beginning of their education. the hardest journey starts beginning of their education. the hardestjourney starts on the outside. north koreans who arrive in south korea aren't just coming to a different place, they are also coming to a different time. in terms of the way people live their lives, south korea's decades ahead. imagine suddenly being transported half a century into the future, and you get some idea of the difficulties faced by north koreans trying to adjust to their new lives here. one of those who has managed to do that is this lady. she started her own business making a spirit popular in north

korea. translation: the first night| on the outside is a memorable one for all defectors. i hugged my daughter and started to cry, not because i was sad or lonely, but because we've survived. she's notjust survived, she's thrived. those still here will be hoping for a similar success. michael bristow, bbc news, seoul. a new scanning technique could improve how cancer drugs are tested. a chemical process used on a mouse was able to make the animal's body entirely transparent — allowing researchers to detect cancerous tumours much earlier than usual. pallab ghosh has the story. meet the transparent mouse. everything inside, its nerves, tissues and organs, all made invisible. it is done by removing all the fat and pigment from its body, after it is killed, using a chemical process,

and then it's bathed in different chemicals to reveal the parts the german developers want to study. under the microscope, they're searching for cancer tumours, shown in small pink and white dots throughout the body. compare this image to a conventional scan, which shows only two of the largest concentration of tumours. it enables to see every single cancer at single—cell level, because diseases like cancer, they kill at cell level. so if we don't see them, we cannot treat them. this technology enables us to see this hidden enemy. in green are the nerve endings outside the mouse's body. different chemicals show different tissue. inside the purple tube snaking around is part of its digestive system. we can even look in the tube. medical researchers try out

new drugs and treatments on mice first, before trying them out on people. the new scanning technique enables scientists to see things they've never seen before. it also has the potential to improve the way in which new drugs are developed and tested, and it could greatly accelerate the understanding of hundreds, if not thousands, of diseases. currently, scientists slice up tissues into very thin sections to study them under a microscope. uk researchers are excited about this new way of analysing their samples. the potential that it has to be able to identify various tissues, cells, structures and also understanding, really, the development of diseases, we can't wait to get our hands on the technique. muzlifah haniffa is imaging cells to help create an online map, or atlas, of every cell in the human body. she says the new scanning technique will be useful for all kinds of medical research. without a doubt, it will accelerate the pace of medical research.

i mean, combining these types of fantastic, cutting—edge technologies and building the human cell atlas will no doubt completely revolutionise medicine. a whole human won't be made transparent because the process would kill the patient, but it could use donated tissues and organs to study human diseases, something can scientists say would transform research. pallab ghosh, bbc news. you are watching bbc news. stay with us. hello, there. there's no real change in our weather patterns coming our way any time soon. and that means it stays unsettled. loads more showers in the forecast, as we'll see in a moment. for monday, we have some heavy downpours come through,

starting off across parts of northern ireland, before spreading to scotland, and as they worked through threave, brought 15 millimetres of rain in a space ofjust an hour, really torrential rain. that's a bit more than half an inch of rain injustan hour. now, those heavy bursts of rain are working north eastwards at the moment. the rain will ease as we head towards dawn, but at the same time, we'll see some heavy rain pop up across the midlands, running into lincolnshire and east anglia, as well. still quite warm and humid across eastern areas of england as we start the day, tuesday, but in the west, a relatively fresh feel to the day, with temperatures around 13—14 degrees. now, tuesday morning, we'll see that band of rain start off across east anglia, south east england, taking a while to clear out of the way. but once it's gone, it's essentially a day of sunshine and showers. i think some of the showers could merge together to give

some longer spells of rain for western scotland, and perhaps through the central lowlands, and also some fairly lengthy downpours coming across wales and running into the midlands, too. temperatures a little bit below average for the time of year, but in the sun, it won't feel too bad. now, wimbledon, i can't rule out an odd passing shower, but there'll be large stretches of the day that are dry with some sunshine coming through. taking a look at the jet stream pattern across a good chunk of the northern hemisphere. we've got this pattern at the moment. this is an omega block. now, the uk finds itself underneath a trough. that's where low pressure forms. and the thing with these blocks is theyjust don't move very far. it's going to be like this really throughout the rest of this week, into the weekend and even into next week. and what that does for us is, even as we lose one area of low pressure, later in the week another one pops up, as if by magic, and works back across the country. and we've got that kind of repeating pattern. the weather kind of like a broken record at the moment. wednesday, yes, it's a day of sunshine and showers. probably a cooler feel to the weather across scotland and northern ireland, where we'll start to get more of a northwesterly breeze. so temperatures just coming down here a few degrees

in the south and east, 21, maybe fewer showers here for wednesday. but really looking at the rest of the week, into the weekend, and even into the early stage of next week, the showers will continue to pack in. there will be quite a lot of dry weather, even on these showery days, the showers perhaps lasting an hour or two, but still some heavy downpours to come.

voiceover: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme.