welcome to bbc news. i'm mike embley. our top stories: australia's cardinal pell to remain injail as his appeal is dismissed. wildfires in the amazon at an all—time high — more than 70,000 fires across the region. president trump plays down fears of a recession but confirms he is considering tax cuts. and farmers in the uk warn that a no—deal brexit will cause severe disruption.

hello to you. cardinal george pell, the most senior catholic found guilty of sexually abusing children, has failed in his legal attempt to quash his conviction. an appeal court hearing in australia has rejected his argument that the verdict was unfair. the former vatican treasurer was jailed in march, for 6 years, for abusing two boys in a melbourne cathedral in the 1990s. chrissie foster is the mother of two girls who were raped by another catholic priest. she campaigns on behalf of the victims of sexual violence and was in court when the appeal was dismissed. it has been upheld, this rape of a

child, two children. it... it doesn't happen often. it always gets overturned. all the appeals, half of them usually win. it is a hard climb to get a conviction in the first place. hardly anyone comes forward and this has been an outstanding example of justice and just and this has been an outstanding example ofjustice and just amazed. let's head to the bbc‘s phil mercer who is at the court in melbourne. the cardinal is in his late 70s. his that the end of this case for him? as it stands he has to serve a minimum sentence of three years and eight months, taking him through into his early 80s. the big unknown is whether george pell‘s defence tea m is whether george pell‘s defence team will take the case to the highest court in the

land, australia's high court in canberra. whether they will be allowed to, or whether there are grounds for another appeal in this case. the judgement handed down here in the victorian court of appeal was a split decision by the three judges are two of those judges did say they agreed with the prosecution assertion that the vic in this case, the surviving victim, was a very credible witness. he was clearly not a liarora credible witness. he was clearly not a liar or a fantasist and witness of truth. those from the chiefjustice and ferguson, really getting to the heart of why cardinal george pell‘s appeal has been dismissed here in australia this morning. give us more on the background to this case, would you? cardinaljohn fell once upona time would you? cardinaljohn fell once upon a time it was one of

the most powerful figures upon a time it was one of the most powerfulfigures in the upon a time it was one of the most powerful figures in the catholic world. —— george pell. this case was one of the most eagerly awaited legal decisions we have seen in australia for quite some time. last december, a jury convicted george pell of abusing two choirboys, aged 13, ina pell of abusing two choirboys, aged 13, in a cathedral here in melbourne, in the late 1990s, when george pell was the archbishop of melbourne. in march he was jailed for six years. in a there was a two—day appeal and now we find ourselves here today whether the court of appeal in victoria dismissing george pell‘s appeal so he will be heading back to continue that prison sentence handed down in march. thank you for

that. 0fficials officials say london is not proposing any alternatives on a brexit. the prime minister is due to meet angela merkel. the backstop intended to prevent the return of a ha rd intended to prevent the return of a hard border in ireland he says is unconstitutional. i think there is a real sense that something needs to be done with this backstop. we cannot get it through parliament as it is so i will go at it with a lot of, as you would expect and will be making some progress. 0ne of, as you would expect and will be making some progress. one thing that is slightly, i think, complicates the picture, is that our eu friends are still clearly think that there isa are still clearly think that there is a possibility that parliament will block brexit and as long as they think there is a possibility that parliament will block brexit they are unlikely to be minded

to make the concessions we need that will take a bit of patience. the prime minister boris johnson. throughout this week we are looking at issues facing farmers in the uk and brexit is a key one. farmers have warned leaving without a deal will cause severe disruption. the government minister responsible there will be short—term turmoil. they have found here for nearly 100 yea rs. they have found here for nearly 100 years. no deal is chaos. nobody seems to know what

we can do. years. no deal is chaos. nobody seems to know what we can dam years. no deal is chaos. nobody seems to know what we can do. it is oui’ seems to know what we can do. it is our livelihood. what do you need to see? what is the best possible outcome? a deal and a transition period. hundreds of animals and millions of litres of milk crossed the irish border every year. it is somewhere around here but there is nothing to show exactly where it is. the businesses and people on both sides it is practically invisible. unlike here, between sweden and norway. we simply cannot miss the border. this crossing from an eu country into a non—eu country is not only a physical body but impacts on decisions made by government and farmers. norway is a key trading partner, a situation of the uk will try to replicate. guaranteed food prices and supporting norwegian farmers. 0ne prices and supporting norwegian farmers. one of

the biggest challenges for farmers is to compete against the european union. we are not able to compete on the eu market. there is a strong support for agriculture in norway from the consumer and government and parliament, so the best market is right here outside my door. in the uk, farming unions have called on the government to strike a deal and do more to support british farmers. we spent three years planning for a no—deal brexit and we will do everything we can to make sure the border flow continues and we will also put in place a pot full sectors like sheep which may be affected. even among farmers who support brexit, there are calls for clarity. the problem is we have let politicians take over and do it. it does not matter what happens, the 31st of october, we need to know

what is going to happen. this uncertainty has been the biggest challenge. the farmers dealing with a brexit is like dealing with the weather. what is coming next is the question being asked. let's get some of the day's other news: around 100 people stranded for nearly three weeks on a migrant rescue boat in the mediterranean have docked at the italian port of lampedusa. the italian government had refused to allow those on board to disembark but an italian prosecutor intervened. as part of the order, the ship, run by the spanish charity open arms, will be seized. manchester united has condemned the racist abuse directed at their midfielder paul pogba, after he missed a penalty last night, in their 1—1 draw with wolverhampton wanderers. he is the third player in england to receive such abuse in the past week, for missing a penalty. jeffrey epstein signed a will two days before killing himself

in a new yorkjail, according to reports in the us. the financier set up a trust worth more than half a billion dollars in the us virgin islands, for unnamed beneficiaries. it means his victims could now face more difficulty suing his estate. he died while awaiting trial on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. wildfires raging in the amazon rainforest have hit a record number this year, with over seventy thousand fires detected so far by brazil's space research centre, as concerns grow over right—wing president jair bolsonaro's environmental policy. the surge marks an eighty three per cent increase over the same period last year, and is the highest since records began in 2013. live now to manaus, in the brazilian state of amazonas, where we can speak to romulo batista. he is a forest campaigner from greenpeace brazil. please tell us how bad is it? good

night, mike. the fires outbreak in amazon is one of the biggest in recent yea rs. amazon is one of the biggest in recent years. in august 20, 135 fires higher than the same period in the previous year. this is even worse. it is important... can you trust these figures because the president says they are not true, lies or mistakes? yes, the government say they are lies. at the national institute of space research, well—known for their academy and respected from the science community, one thing we have to see eight

of the forest have fires occurring right now. it is important because a fire is one of the ways they do deforestation here in the amazon. we talk about wildfires but the suggestion is that many of these are deliberately started ? many of these are deliberately started? yes, what we saw in the beginning of the year, this month, the organisation announced they would have a day of fire in the state and what we sow is an increase of 300% of fires. this is the environment of the government that did not allow operations by estate agents of environmental... why is the amazon so important? the amazon is very well—known to be the

lungs of the world but in truth she is more of a kind of bump of what up for the atmosphere that regulates the climate. 0nce for the atmosphere that regulates the climate. once we start to burn the climate. once we start to burn the forest a lot of greenhouse emissions go into the atmosphere and these make worse the climate crisis we are facing an it is a kind of vicious cycle. 0nce we are facing an it is a kind of vicious cycle. once we have more heat, the forest will become more dry and would be more susceptible to fire and we will have more greenhouse emissions. we have to proceed now that we have time to stop this. romulo batista in manaus in the amazon. thank you for talking to us. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: tour space with virgin galactic next year, but don't expect change from $250,000.

washington, the world's most political city, is today assessing the political health of the world's most powerful man. indeed i did have a relationship with ms lewinsky that was not appropriate. in fact, it was wrong. in south africa, 97 people have been killed today, in one of the worst days of violence between rival black groups. over the past ten days, 500 have died. chanting: czechoslovakia must be free! czechoslovakia must be free! chanting: czechoslovakia must be free! russia is observing a national day of mourning for the 118 submariners who died on board the kursk. we are all with them now, within our hearts. the pope has celebrated mass before a congregation of more than 2.5 million people in his hometown of krakow. "stay with us, stay with us", chanted this ocean of humanity. "well, well", joked the pope, "so you want me to desert rome?"

this is bbc news. the latest headlines: australia's court of appeal has dismissed cardinal george pell‘s appeal against his conviction for sexually abusing children. he is the most senior catholic official to be found guilty of the crime. a record number of wildfires have raged across the amazon this year with 70,000 already detected. concern is growing over brazilian president jair bolsonaro's environment policy. the trump administration is playing down the widespread talk of a possible recession. mr trump sees a strong economy as key to his re—election prospects next year. at the white house on tuesday, he again suggested boosting the economy with a temporary cut to the payroll taxes, deducted from the wages of american workers

to finance health insurance, social security and pensions. and once more, he attacked the central bank for not cutting interest rates, accusing the federal reserve of holding back growth. if the fed would do itsjob, i think it would have a tremendous spurt of growth, a tremendous bird. the fed is psychologically very important. so actually, but very psychologically important. and if the fed would do itsjob, which it has really done really poorly over the last 1.5 years, we would see a burst of growth like you have never seen before. the president there of course. barry eichengreen is economics professor at university of california, berkeley. he's there now. thank you very much for your time and expertise. the president says we area and expertise. the president says we are a long way away from a recession. this is something manufactured by his enemies and by us manufactured by his enemies and by us in the media. what you say?” manufactured by his enemies and by us in the media. what you say? i say they would be no rationale for cutting taxes at this point. if the economy was healthy. so

i think we have two infer what the president really thinks is happening to the economy from his policy proposals, the lights are flashing yellow and his proposal to cut taxes indicates that they realise this in the white house. just to be clear, the very fa ct house. just to be clear, the very fact that he is talking about what he is talking about suggests that he knows the economy is not healthy. precisely. and there are a lot of independent indicators out there at the same thing. business investment is weakening. business confidence as weakening. the real estate market is weakening. the real estate market is weakening and the purchasing managers survey is weakening and the purchasing managers survey is weakening. so you can infer what they think from the president's words, you can look at the data, everything points in the same direction. on the indicators that you are saying, what do you think is coming, how bad could it be, what is to be done

about it? economists don't have crystal balls so we can't say how bad, we can't even say when precisely, but i think the direction of travel is pretty clear. cutting payroll taxes which means cutting taxes for the working class and the middle class would seem class and the middle class would seem in order at this point. the rich already got the tax cut in 2017. the other thing that we need to do is lower the political noise and lower the uncertainty. mr trump put his trade were on hold. businesses could make forecasts, they could invest in the economy could stabilise. professor, when the president blames the central bank, the federal reserve, as he frequently does and did on tuesday, what do you make of that? the fed is a convenient target for mr trump. but if you compare the fed's interest rates now with what the administration itself said in february and its annual report on the economy interest rates were

likely to be, they are lower now than the administration pretty good, not higher. so i think it is a bit of beat and switch affecting blame. what you expect the fed to do now?|j think what you expect the fed to do now?” think the fed sees what the rest of us think the fed sees what the rest of us see, that the economy is softening, that the external environment is worsening with problems in italy and china, not least in the uk, so the fed is likely to cut interest rates modestly, but only modestly, and mr trump was right when he said today further fed interest rate cuts are not going to have a dramatic effect on the economy. very good to talk to you. thank you very much. pleasure. italy's prime minister, giuseppe conte, has offered his resignation after a blistering speech in parliament in which he accused the interior minister, matteo salvini, of destroying the ruling coalition for his personal gain. mr conte, who belongs to neither party in the coalition,

was brought in a year ago to try to hold the government together. james reynolds has this report. there are some flashing images. if you come to bury, not to praise, then the senate in rome is a perfect stage. italy's prime minister, giuseppe conte, aimed his dagger at the man sitting to his right, his coalition partner, matteo salvini. translation: mr salvini has been irresponsible in provoking this government crisis. he has followed only his own party interest. the attack generated nothing more than a shrug or two. this coalition has not managed to fix italy's long—struggling economy. matteo salvini is moving out because he no longer wants to share power with populist rivals. he believes he can win an outright victory in a

snap election. translation: let's go to an election, no—one knows better than the italian people. they know who's done a good job. matteo salvini is already italy's most influential politician. he works on his man—of—the—people image the way others work on their tans. 0n the beach near rome, we found italians ready to go and vote. "if we need yet another election," this holiday—maker tells me, "so be it." "it's all a mess," this man says, "but i hope there is a vote soon "and i'll be happy to go with matteo salvini again." and this evening, here in rome, the outgoing prime minister went to see italy's president. the decision to call an early election now rests exclusively with the head of state. james reynolds, bbc news, rome. the new boss at virgin galactic says the company will begin taking people

into space on commercial flights by the end of 2020. the project hasn't been without its problems. in 2014, a pilot died after crashing during a test flight, and there have been question marks over the project's environmental impact. the bbc‘s marc cieslak travelled to spaceport in the united states and sent this report. 20 miles past the town of truth or consequences in the new mexico desert, we find find spaceport america. we are here to get a rare glimpse inside that. it bills itself as the world's very first purpose—built commercial spaceport and it's home to virgin galactic, sir richard branson's company, which is hoping to send fee—paying customers to space. fire, fire! the spaceport‘s exterior is the product of british architects foster + partners. it's cost £179 million to build, a bill which has been footed by state government and local taxpayers. eventually, five spacecraft

will reside in the hangar and it's here passengers will receive three days' training before blasting off into the upper atmosphere. virgin's tickets cost £200,000 for a 90—minute flight. so far, 600 people have signed up. but at a time of increased concerns about the environment, is it responsible to send wealthy people to space for fun? we actually don't have a very big rocket motor in the back, and so the per person co2 emissions is for the average flight around that of a business class flight from new york to the uk. there is an awareness of our planet documented scientifically with astronauts — they come back changed, with a greater realisation of the fragility of our ecosystem and ecosphere. the irony of this idea isn't lost on space experts, though. the fact that they have to go that far into space above the planet

to have that emotion of feeling protective over the world they live in is sort of ridiculous. but you have to put it into perspective of the fact that space travel is very limited in how much it actually contributes to co2 emissions, comparison to aircraft — it is a tiny fraction of what aircraft put out there. there have been setbacks for virgin galactic. in 2014, one of its spacecraft crashed during flight testing, resulting in the death of its co—pilot and serious injuries for the pilot. 0n the spaceport‘s 2—mile long runway, chief pilot dave mckay acknowledges the time that flight testing is taking. it has taken longer than, i guess, we thought it would do initially. but with hindsight, i don't think that's at all surprising. virgin galactic is part of a new space race. amazon's founder and ceo jeff bezos‘s blue 0rigin and tesla boss elon musk‘s space x also have plans to take fee—paying customers into space. the race is on. space could be about to get a lot more crowded —

for those that can afford the price of a ticket, that is. marc cieslak, bbc news. just a quick update on something you might not have taken that seriously. president trump has tweeted that he is postponing his meeting with the danish prime minister in two weeks time because denmark had rejected the idea of selling greenland. earlier, prime minister mette frekeriksen had described the approach as "an absurd discussion" and she hoped the president was not being serious about buying the semi automous territory. some great pictures you may well have seen already. this was an outdoor movie experience gone very wrong in denver, colorado. movie—goers were defecting to watch a film under the stars on the comfort of blowup mattresses. as you can see, the weather had a different idea. there was an afternoon storm. the mattresses were flying through the park. this was before anyone had

a chance to lay on them or get stuck into their popcorn. there is more on all the news any time on the bbc website. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter. i'm @bbcmikeembley. thank you very much for watching. come again. hello there. it looks like we're going to see a return to some summery weather finally. high pressure establishing itself over the near continent will send southerly winds our way and we'll tap into that warmth, which will be building over the continent. today, though, it looks like we still have some weather fronts, weather systems to contend with, which will bring wet and windy weather, mainly to the north and the west if the uk. you can see this deep area of low pressure slowly making inroads as the day wears on. but we start, for many of us, with higher pressure, plenty of sunshine around this morning. one or two showers will develop ahead of this rain band, for northern england

into wales and the midlands, the odd heavier one but it turns wet and windy for northern ireland, much of northern and western scotland. gusts of wind 50, maybe 55mph in exposure and a breezy day further south and east. but better chance of seeing sunshine here with 22 or 23 degrees being the high. during wednesday night, that weather front moves southwards and eastwards, tending to fizzle out as it does so. but patchy rain across central portions of the uk with blustery showers following on behind, genuinely a clear and dry night across the south and east. you can see double—figure values for all starting thursday morning. so, warmer than it's been the last few nights. so, we've got a north—south divide on thursday. low pressure to the north, high pressure building to the south. that weak weather front will continue to fizzle out but we'll see further fronts pushing to northern ireland, parts of scotland and northern england through the day, thanks to that area of low pressure anchored to the north of scotland. it will be quite windy here,

but further south and east, again, better chance of seeing lighter winds and more sunshine. and we'll start to tap into the warmth on the near continent, 2a, maybe 25 degrees, but the high teens further north. now, this area of high pressure really starts to establish itself over the near continent. southerly winds dig in and start to push weather fronts to the north of the uk. so there'll be a gradual process on friday where we will see the clouds thinning and breaking and the rain diverted towards the north of scotland. elsewhere, variable cloud, but some good spells of sunshine and we're really tapping into the warmth over the near continent. temperatures in the high 20s celsius in the south and east, even the low 20s further north. into the start of the weekend, it looks like those weather fronts will be away from the uk. so most places should be dry, with variable cloud. winds coming to the south, south—east. a much warmer day for all. the low to mid 20s celsius in the north, perhaps high 20s in the south—east side so it's certainly warming up across the board with temperatures probably best across the south and east. it looks like this fine spell

will last, for many of us, into next week.

this is bbc news. the headlines: cardinal george pell, the most senior catholic cleric to be found guilty of child sexual abuse, has lost an appeal in australia against his convictions. the former vatican treasurer was jailed for six years in march for abusing two choir boys in a cathedral in melbourne in the 1990s. a record number of wildfires have raged across the amazon this year, with 70,000 already detected, concern is growing over brazilian president jair bolsonaro's environment policy. the surge marks an 83% increase on last year's figures. farmers' unions in the uk are warning that a no—deal brexit will cause severe disruption. the minister for environment, food and rural affairs says the government will support the farming sector through what he called "short term turbulence".

now on bbc news, hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. today i am inside the swiss laboratories of an international business which makes billions of dollars every year making and selling a highly addictive, potentially lethal product. these laboratories belong to philip morris international, the makers of marlborough and a host of other cigarette brand the ceo of the company is my guess today, andre calantzopoulos. he says he

is