hello, this is outside source. the french president tells borisjohnson that it might be possible to renegotiate the brexit deal. but he says the irish border backstop is indispensible. mrjohnson says there are alternatives to the backstop. i think that the technical solutions are readilyy available, and they've been discussed at great length. brazil says it will launch an investigation into the huge spike in the number of wildfires that are burning across the amazon forest after the us conducts a missile test after pulling out of a key arms reduction treaty, russia says the world is on the eve of a new arms race. the un security council is discussing the us launch right now. and we'll hear from bbc russian on the three sisters who killed their abusive father.

they've been charged with murder, but what should happen to them has become a huge topic of debate in russia. boris johnson's diplomatic tour of europe continues, as the uk prime minister tries to convince european leaders to renegotiate the brexit deal. yesterday he met with angela merkel in berlin, and today he met with emmauel macron in paris. we are 70 days away from the brexit deadline and still no agreement has been made. mrjohnson began his meeting on a positive note. i want to be absolutely clear to you, emmanuel, to the french people,

that of course i want a deal. and i think we can get a deal — in a good deal. i was powerfully encouraged by our conversations last night in berlin with our mutual friends. and i know that with energy and creativity, and application, we can find a way forward. the problem for borisjohnson remains the same as the one that was faced by theresa may. the withdrawal agreement that mrs may's government agreed with the eu, can't get through parliament. it has failed three times. but the eu has refused to renegotiate it. after borisjohnson‘s visit to berlin, there are new hopes european leaders will be more open to changing it. this was emmanuel macron‘s view. translation: i'm very confident in the collective joint of intelligence. we should always be able to find something smart within 30 days. if there is goodwill on both sides, and i believe there is. that being said, i can been very clear that we will not find a new withdrawal agreement within 30 days, which will be very different from the existing

one. it it is just that what michel barnier has negotiated can be amended while complying with the integrity of the single market. so president macron sounding a little more firm than angela merkel yesterday. here's another clip. translation: i've always been presented as the hard boy in the band, in the group. but it'sjust that i have always been clear — a choice has been made, a choice was made, and we cannotjust ignore it. the problem lies here, on the border between ireland and northern ireland. that will become the only land border between the uk and the eu after brexit. the brexit withdrawal agreement has an insurance policy, a backstop. what that ensures is that until there is a new trade deal between the uk and the eu, the border between northern ireland and ireland will remain open — by keeping uk customs aligned with the eu.

many brexiteers hate it, because — to namejust one of severals reasons — it has no end date. but borisjohnson believes the backstop isn't necessary. here he is explaining. under no circumstances will the uk government be instituting or imposing checks or controls of any kind at that border. and we think — and i understand your desire to protect the integrity of the single market. of course we understand that, but we think that the ways of protecting the integrity of the single market and allowing the uk to exit from the eu whole and entire, and perfect. we will be looking into those alternative arrangements in the next hour, to find out how they might work. after the news conference, boris johnson and emmanuel macron had a meeting together, you may have seen this picture of prime ministerjohnson with his foot on the table. it has received a lot of comment on social media. here's the incident on video.

you can see mrjohnson only had his foot on it for a moment. apparently, president macron was joking the table could double as a foot stool. damian grammaticas has been in paris for borisjohnson‘s visit. i asked him how downing street thinks this trip to europe has been. i think they might see it as a bit ofa i think they might see it as a bit of a success in that what they got was this sort of offer, if you like, this statement from both angela merkel in berlin and emmanuelle macron and paris, saying that they are open to hearing new possibilities that the uk may want to put to the eu for anything that could replace those irish backstop provisions and the exit deal that borisjohnson provisions and the exit deal that boris johnson says provisions and the exit deal that borisjohnson says absently have to go. from what had been the eu saying no way can there be any renegotiation, a little chink of an opening that they are willing to listen. that doesn't mean they're

fundamentally changing their bottom line in any way. what i was wondering, what exactly is that chain shining on in the withdrawal agreement that could be open for renegotiation? good question, because what mr macron said is that they only have about 30 days in which any new ideas can come forward. they would have to be something — those ideas would have to replicate what is there already, which is dealing with two things, preserving peace on the island of ireland, and preserving the integrity of the eu's market and its borders, how those are operating and preserving that. nothing can be done to effect that, that is what the current irish backstop revisions are therefore. mr macron said any alternative the uk want to present has to address those things. that doesn't leave much room for mr johnson to manoeuvre. but when it

does mean is that from the eu's point of view, rather than the eu being left to look in transit, like they aren't prepare to listen anything, they are prepared to listen but the ball is now in mr johnson's court. he thinks a deal can be done which doesn't need the irish provision, but the eu call his bluff, saying he should do it. what do you think our viewers should be watching for next? i think the thing to watch for is two things— one is with the eu, does the uk come and present any new ideas? will they present any new ideas? will they present anything to michel barnier and his negotiating team and brussels? because then there may be an idea of whether there is something jenny when the uk thinks he can propose. i think it is highly unlikely because we've had two yea rs, unlikely because we've had two years, and the eu has set for two yea rs years, and the eu has set for two years to give us new ideas. we may not actually see any movement there, because the other thing to watch is not what happens on this side

of the channel and brussels and paris and berlin, but what happens in london and parliament when the mps come back and whether they start to wrestle control of the whole idea to make or issue from borisjohnson‘s government and mps and parliament start to interfere, fearing the prospect of no deal. that is where some of the action made no move to, while we wait to see if mrjohnson really does want a deal and has something new to propose. the holidays will be over, thanks to damien. prosecutors in brazil have opened an investigation into a surge in deforestation and fires in the amazon. on wednesday, brazil's environment minister was heckled over the record number of fires in the amazon. have a look. minister, you have the floor. booing well, you can clearly hear the booing as ricardo salles gets up to speak. protesters also held up signs saying

things like "the amazon is on fire". in the last few minutes, we've just got this through from afp, french president emanuel macron has declared the wild fires an international emergency. this is what he and so many others are concerned about — there's been an 80% increase in the number of fires in the amazon, compared to the same time last year. this graphic shows the density of smoke, spreading right across the country from the amazon in the north west, to the atlantic coast. the country's populist president — jair bolsonaro — at first appeared to suggest that the fires could have been started by non—governmental organisations as revenge for a cut in theirfunding. but on thursday he denied saying that, and added that the government lacked the resources to fight the flames. earlier, i spoke to the bbc‘s daniel gallas, who's in sao paulo. well, brazil has been having these fires, and this is a common

occurrence that has been happening for decades. there was this big surge of 80% in this month against the last year. so what people want to understand is exactly who is causing these wildfires? is it linked to something like maybe the dry season, or is it linked to illegal deforestation and illegal groups who are feeling empowered by the government's discourse of trying to bring more economic develop into the region? we know in the end there isa the region? we know in the end there is a search in deforestation and wildfires, but we haven't had an analysis of exactly why this is happening. i'm also wondering how president bolsonaro's remarks have been received in brazil. i talked about his rolling back there, blaming ngos, but he has said there is not enough money to fund a defence. we'll have people said? the

government has been making all these controversial statements, both the environment minister and the president, and that has been adding a lot of confusion and anger. and it has been politicizing the debate for lot in brazil. there is some rough data coming from the satellites which show that there is an increase in deforestation. we have these fa cts , in deforestation. we have these facts, so now there is the game of blaming people and environmental groups, ngos — on the other hand they are blaming the government, as well. there's lots of political noise, and the government's state m e nts noise, and the government's statements are only adding to these controversies and not bringing many solutions to the table. people have been quite shocked with some of the absurd things that president bolsonaro has said about, for instance, blaming ngos for causing the fire. very few people believe thatis the fire. very few people believe that is possible. and of course, bolsonaro has also battled against science in the last month when he

fired the head of the agency which monitors deforestation. he was actually displeased with the fact that the agency released those numbers without telling the president first, they were very bad numbers. so lots of politicizing around this issue and not many a nswe i’s around this issue and not many answers as to what is happening in the amazon. stay with us, daniel. kenneth ehrenberg, here's a tweet. she says... there's been a huge social media response to this story. let me bring daniel back in. why do you think the story has captured global imagination? for one thing, the

amazon is a sensitive issue for eve ryo ne amazon is a sensitive issue for everyone around the globe, because it is one of the few remaining forests of this size, and it is important to keep the global temperatures. but there was an interesting phenomenon this week, which was that those many cities across the north of brazil are used to having their skies being dark during the afternoon and the morning hours because of these wildfires that happen in the amazon. this week we saw for the first time that same phenomenon happening in sao paulo, which is very far away from the amazon, and it is brazil's biggest city. where the international media is, all the big national debates ta ke is, all the big national debates take place. so there was a big talk in social media in sao paulo and across the world because people far from the amazon are seeing what the effects of these fires can actually have. daniel, may i ask you briefly, what is the state of the fires

right now was mac are they being contained in any way? there is not much containment being done because they are in very remote areas. most of this monitoring is done by satellite, so sadly the answer is no, nothing is actually being done. thanks very much to daniel. stay with us on outside source. still to come: we'll report from russia on the modelling agency which specialises in the over—sos. the latest migration figures have been released by the office for national statistics, and they show that 226,000 more people came into the uk than left in the year since march 2018. a quarter of those coming into uk are from the eu. our home affairs correspondent daniel sandford has more. despite brexit, there is still net inward migration to the uk from eu countries. today's figures show a 59,000 more people came here then left in the year to march.

but from those countries thatjoined the eu later in 2004, like poland, 7,000 more people left than arrived. the main exceptions to the trend are bulgaria and romania — from those two countries, there was still net inward migration of 32,000. and all the figures have to be treated with caution now. they were downgraded yesterday to experimental statistics because of concerns over how accurate they are. this is outside source, live from the bbc newsroom. our lead story is... the french president has told the british prime minister that there can be no major changes to the brexit agreement, but some alterations may still be possible. however, he said the irish border backstop was indispensible. let's look at some of the other

stories from our language services... an attempt by bangladesh to start repatriating rohingya refugees to myanmar has failed, with no—one turning up to board the vehicles that would take them home. officials at cox's bazaar in bangladesh say none of the refugees were willing to return. the us secretary of state, mike pompeo, has praised denmark for its cooperation with the us. it comes after a public row between the two countries, which saw donald trump cancel a visit to denmark, because it refused to sell greenland to the united states. and apple has advised owners of its new credit card to keep it away from leather and denim. the card is made of titanium to make it stand out from other products, but apparently damages very easily. it is the story everyone in russia has an opinion on. three sisters — angelina, maria, and krestina — killed their father in july 2018 after yea rs of physical and sexual abuse. prosecutors insist the killing was a pre—meditated murder. the sisters killed their father with a knife, hammer, and pepper spray. when he was found, officials say there were more than 30

knife wounds in his body. but representatives for the sisters say it was an act of self—defence, and that they are infact the victims of years of domestic violence. the three are currently out on bail, but if found guilty, they could face up to 20 years in prison each. the case has galvanised russia, with hundreds of thousands showing their support for the three sisters. here with the latest is olga ivshina. so basically, this case has sparked a lot of debates in russian society. they have continued for months and months now. there are more than 300,000 signatures of people demanding the sisters to be let go. what is very interesting about this case is that it has provoked wider debate about victims of domestic violence in russia, because many experts point out that there is no scheme of protection for victims of domestic violence. basically, prosecutors say the sisters planned to attack their father, but the defence says that they were defending themselves because their father

was persistently attacking them and that they were suffering from posttraumatic stress. so it turned out that there were no hard statistics about the number of cases of domestic violence in russia, and no working ways of helping victims. and many experts believe and hope that this case will not will not only spark debate, but help to work out schemes which can really help people in trouble. let's move on to os business. central bankers from across the world, are arriving in jackson hole, wyoming, for their traditional annual meeting. the us federal reserve chairman jerome powell will be speaking on friday morning. our keen fed watcher, michelle fleury, joins me from new york. great to have you with us, you are not in jackson great to have you with us, you are not injackson hole yet? this is something that they seem to manage

to every year —— go to every year, but why are they meeting there and what is so important about it? this is an annual event organised by the kansas federal reserve, so one of the regional federal reserves. it is a talking shop for central bank chiefs to get round the table and discuss economic theory. it is not meant to be somewhere where policy is discussed, although in recent yea rs is discussed, although in recent years increasingly, as more and more media coverage has been focused on this event, you have had pronouncements made. and i think thatis pronouncements made. and i think that is why there was so much attention and interest in this particular meeting when people are worried about the r word, recession. i think people want to hear what those like the federal reserve chairmanjerome those like the federal reserve chairman jerome powell those like the federal reserve chairmanjerome powell have to say about the economy. so what might people be focusing in on? is it interest rates to when it comes to mr powell's being tomorrow?

yes, his speech is tomorrow morning. we have the federal reserve, america's central bank, coming out injuly and cutting interest rates for the first time since 2008, since the financial crisis. there is a sense of what happens next? will there be of more rate cuts, more stimulus for the economy? and at the press conference afterwards, jerome powell was fairly ho—hum about that idea, which disappointed the market and one critic of the fed, donald trump. now we are waiting to see whether he will give more hints about a future interest rates. but even if he does, will he say how many cuts are to come? what frequency, where will we end up? all of that is unlikely, so the markets will probably be disappointed again. but nonetheless, people can't stop watching because we are at this interesting point not just in the us but also at the global economy and what happens next. michelle, thanks so much for speaking to us from new

york. two international banks have placed adverts in hong kong newspapers condemning the violence in the territory. the hsbc and standard chartered adverts have called for a peaceful resolution, following more than two months of political unrest. here's karishma vaswani. some of the world's best known banks have taken out newspaper ads in hong kong condemning the violence in the asian financial hub that we've seen over the last 11 weeks or so. now hsbc and standard chartered, as well as the bank of east asia, have all placed ads in mainly the chinese language press, calling for a peaceful resolution after the political unrest we've seen in hong kong. in hsbc‘s ad, the bank said it was deeply concerned about recent events in hong kong, and that maintaining the rule of law was essential to hong kong post but unique status as an international financial centre. standard chartered echoed much of the same sentiment in its advert, saying that it strongly supported the one country,

two systems printable. i think all of this just shows you the pressure that businesses in hong kong are under. as the city has been rocked by these weeks of political protests, ostensibly these protests are about their much talked—about extradition bill. but many people are also fighting against what they see as the growing influence of china in their political and economic life. and i think this really encapsulates the predicament that businesses in hong kong now find themselves in. effectively, they have to make a choice, they have to choose. and the reality is that china is a massive market for these companies, one that they cannot afford to ignore. so these sorts of difficult calculations, whether or not to put an ad in a newspaper, for instance, are the kinds of things international companies are now having to do and make about operating in hong kong. it is, as one risk consultancy firm told me, a binary choice —

either stay in hong kong and toe the chinese communist party line, or leave. now for the final piece in our series on older workers. fashion is an industry that can be obsessed with youth. but one modelling agency in moscow, is trying to shake—up the catwalk with a different style. let's take a look how it's strutting its stuff.

very interesting, wasn't it? coming up in the next half hour: the us's testing of a cruise missile at the weekend is being discussed at the united nations security council. these are the live pictures from new york. this is the meeting which has been going on for about an hour now at the united nations. china are speaking now, they requested the meeting be held, along with russia. the missile launch took place in california over the weekend. we will

talk more about that in the half hour coming talk more about that in the half hourcoming up of talk more about that in the half hour coming up of half outside source. stay with us. hello, welcome along to tonight's world weather round up. news of a turbulent spell of weather in new zealand and some warmth in europe on the way. but i want to start on the other side of the pond in north america. now it has been very hot in recent days across the south, particularly the southwest of the us. but some cold air has been trying to push its way south, but that has spawned this weather front — the dividing line between the warm air in the cool air driving some pretty ferocious thunderstorms, which continue on into friday from the central plains of the us up to the northeast, places like new york and washington could well see those thunderstorms and travel disruption over the next 2a hours or so. meanwhile down to the southwest of the us, temperatures in phoenix, arizona have been around 45 celsius in recent days. they've dropped back a little

to a0 celsius on friday, those temperatures will head upwards as we start next week. further south off the southwest coast of mexico, here's a beautiful satellite picture — this swirling mass of cloud is a tropical storm, tropical storm ivo. it's moving its way southwest, likely to push west to the baja, california peninsula. it's not making windfall but dragging some very heavy rain across the western side of mexico with the risk of flooding and landslide. now here is a place where they could really do with some rain, south america, particularly brazil and bolivia, where are burning quite widely, giving issues with poor air quality, as well. just wild are burning. now there's not much in the forecast that will help that situation, it stays largely dry across these parts of south america over the next day or two. fairly breezy at times, as well, with some coastal cloud across rio dejaneiro with highs of 22 celsius.

now let's head to new zealand, i'll show you a beautiful satellite image here, you can see these lumps of cloud, you see these clumps of showers racing from the south? pretty cold air has been pushing from the south, then bending its way back into new zealand with an area of low pressure. this makes for a very unstable atmosphere, and this is driving some pretty vicious thunderstorms across the northern ireland and new zealand, with the odd tornado — quite unusual in parts of auckland with the south island doing better with spells of sunshine. closer to home, let's take a look at europe. this big area of high pressure will be dominating the weather over the next few days. if you have a weekend getaway planned, there will be plenty of fine, sunny weather out there. some showers and thunderstorms down into italy, but have a look at the temperatures across iberia, well up into the 30s celsius. that heat is heading our way, it turns drier and warmer for a time this weekend. how long will it last? find out in half

an hour.

hello, this is outside source. the french president tells borisjohnson that it might be possible to renegotiate the brexit deal. but he says the irish border backstop is indispensible. mrjohnson says there are alternatives to the backstop. i think the technical solution is already available and they have been discussed at great length. after the us conducts a missile test after pulling out of a key arms reduction treaty, russia says the world is on the eve of a new arms race. the un security council is discussing the us launch right now. we've got a special report from portland in the us on the antifa movement — meaning anti—fascist — which protests against white supremacists taylor swift says she'll re—record her hit songs, because she currently doesn't own the rights to her

back catalogue. let's get back to brexit, and the irish backstop that is such an obstacle to getting an agreement between the uk and the eu. this was what borisjohnson had to say about it in paris today. i think that the technical solutions are readily available and they have been discussed at great length and you can have trader schemes, electronic pre—clearing for goods moving across the border. ijust wa nt to moving across the border. ijust want to repeat one crucial thing, under no circumstances will the uk be tax at the frontier and we did not think it is necessary from the point of view of the eu to do that

to protect the integrity of the single market. we think there are other ways of doing that and i think there is adequate time to do that. lets get on and do it. trusted trader schemes and electronic pre—clearing are two of the options to check goods at the irish border, proposed by the uk to avoid having the backstop in the withdrawal agreement. they are laid out in this report headed up by conservative mps greg hands and nicky morgan. it is 250 pages long and very dense. but thankfully our northern ireland economics and business editor, john campbell has broken it down in an article you can find on the bbc news website. but to find out how workable these proposals are, i'm joined by allie renison, an expert on european trade. great too have ufs, and thank you for coming in to speak to us. with this alternative arrangement and

taking a look at it and as our northern ireland correspondent broke down, there are concrete proposals on what could work they believe instead of the current form of the backstop. would you agree? they are concrete and whether they are ready or testa ble concrete and whether they are ready or testable in time and their ed —— and 30 days, that is questionable. there is no resolution on it so when you have the report out there, the issueis you have the report out there, the issue is a work in progress and the challenge there politically in terms of pitching it as a replacement if there is nothing you can put in place now so that turns on whether the government and eu are happy to do it ona the government and eu are happy to do it on a print or trying to get this process and place now but that would take a lot longer than two months. you have been watching this very closely and as i know you have been watching every twist and turn and some would say perhaps today there seems to be more political goodwill and if there is, some of this could possibly be achieved

getting to a withdrawal deal that is agreeable to the eu and uk. everyone wa nts to agreeable to the eu and uk. everyone wants to see some type of compromise, the potential said there is peace on the island of ireland and taking a look at can you add clarifications and changes whether they involve reopening the agreement and satisfy both sides to say that we have the insurance policy but we wa nt to we have the insurance policy but we want to make clear we are never going to use it and that may potentially require changes to the backstop itself in terms of what is the scope of that and when does a ca ke the scope of that and when does a cake and and at the moment i think the difficulty is that the uk government says it wants to replace it altogether which is not leaving a huge amount of metal rim to negotiate on it. perhaps some people wonder are they playing a game of chicken so to speak in the assembly days to see who might blink first? the prime minister has said that and ultimately beat you will come around

andi ultimately beat you will come around and i think it depends on where the government must make exploratory panel gets doing the next month or so but it also depends on whether people really care about that no ideal situation because at the moment we do not know what the eu and republic of ireland's plans are going to be for the border and from a perspective and planning come up i spent all week talking to local traders and they need that information so we are calling on both sides to effectively find a way through even if it is not reopening the withdrawal agreement itself but see where we can make changes that is substantially delivering the reassurance to both side this is not the backstop and not necessarily where they want to end up. just briefly how would you describe the need when you went along the border? frustrated, a lot of small traders who do not know what is going on and the idea that they will be able to do this extra and two months to continue the loaves of bread

carrying back and forth across the border, i think that is nonsensical but in terms of the preparation narrative we need ideal but if did not get that deal but if we did not get that deal that excites me to sit down and work out what are they going to do and that no ideal situation. everyone can agree that the deadline is looming. thank you for speaking to ask. let me turn to another story. this is what i mentioned if you are with me in the past half hour. the us's testing of a cruise missile at the weekend is being discussed at the united nations security council. the test was conducted after the us pulled out of an arms reduction treaty with russia. today's open session was requested by russia and china. speaking in the last hour, the us ambassador to the un had this to say. we have heard a narrative today that the united states itself had been in a violation of the treaty because of a violation of the treaty because of a recent flight test that use the mk 41 launcher also found in the nestle to short defence system but is categorically false. the pentagon said on monday that it

had successfully launched a medium—range cruise missile off the coast of california, which hit its target after more than 500 kilometres of flight. this is the first missile test of this kind since the us pulled out of the intermediate—range nuclear force — or inf — treaty in august. it says russia has repeatedly violated the agreement. this cold—war era treaty, which was signed in 1987 between the soviet leader mikhail gorbachev and us president ronald reagan, banned missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometres. i've been speaking to the former director of arms control at the uk ministry of defence, paul schulte about whether this is the start of a new arms race. it will be slow competition in the ini fields, which is unavoidable now. but for russia to say

that this american test is the beginning of a race is grossly hypocritical. the russian refusal to abide by the treaty was detected and 2013, the americans had six years of trying to tell them that they were cheating and it had been picked up, and they knew about it, the treaty would not survive in russia refused to respond to that. nato nations also joined survive in russia refused to respond to that. nato nations alsojoined in and instead this is unacceptable. and eventually this year the american said unless the russians came back in compliance america would pull out of the treaty. russia did not change any of its statements or behaviour so indeed america did leave a treaty but as the americans point out, what that is a treaty which only one side keeps to?|j suppose some would say that americans firing the nestle in california that it is a manifestation of what russia was concerned about and up

the ante? obviously it is concerned about the loss of an advantage that it had given itself by cheating and a major bilateral treaty. i do not think that ups the ante but it is maintaining a nuclear balance which will be done in some way or other and it is not, it is really not at all clear, it seems just russia planning for the gallery why an american counterbalancing response toa american counterbalancing response to a russian decision to cheat lead and itself lead to a more dangerous situation and stuff what do you expect to happen, i showed briefly that he russian federation speaking at the un council and it says they threaten international peace and security. i think there will be a lot of arguing about blame. about spreading the blame and assigning blame and the reason that that might thatis blame and the reason that that might that is the reason this was an open

debate anyway, essentially to make this a story where russia, supported by china would want to smear the us. eight... the treaty is dead and until somebody comes up with a new design it will remain dead. the question then is about imposing political costs in the way that the results are handled and that is starting to happen. china has criticised russia and america as well, but china itself does not want to be part in the treaty and does not want its immediate weapons limited. said there is a lot of finger wagging going on. stay with us on outside source — still to come... the sharp decline in giraffe numbers has been called a silent extinction. but now the mammals have been given an enhanced protection status. more on that in a few minutes. more than 700,000 teenagers across england, wales and northern ireland received their gcse results today. there's been a slight increase in the overall pass rate

and the percentage of top grades this year. in england, there have been major changes over the past few years. our education editor branwen jeffreys reports from devon. two years of pressure, weeks of exams. finally results day. tears and hugs. there is so much riding on this. their grades in england now from nine down to one, with more setting academic subjects. there is a lot of relief here today. in england, these have been much harder in the last two years but despite that top grades are up slightly. that is partly because the system is being so happily managed. so the past marks for some

are set lower, for a grade for gcs the year, higher maps needed just 22%. for 627%, french 31%. i passed everything so i am really pleased. gcs years are different around the uk but northern ireland still seems to get the best results, both and top grades and passes over all. in wales a small increase and passes but still one of the lowest levels for ten years. after results, time to sign up at college, technical options are growing with new tea levels around the corner and for some a chance to reset some gcs pes.

this is outside source live from the bbc newsroom. our lead story is... the french president has told the british prime minister that there can be no major changes to the brexit agreement, but some alterations may still be possible. however, he said the irish border backstop was indespensible. let's ta ke let's take a look at other stories that are making news on the world service newsroom. an attempt by bangladesh to start repatriating rohingya refugees to myanmar has failed, with no—one turning up to board the vehicles that would take them home. officials at cox's bazaar in bangladesh say none of the refugees were willing to return. the us secretary of state, mike pompeo, has praised denmark for its cooperation with the us. it comes after a public row between the two countries, which saw president trump cancel a visit to denmark, because it refused to sell greenland to the united states. and apple has advised owners of its new credit card to keep it away from leather and denim. the card is made of titanium to make it stand out from other products, but apparently

damages very easily. president trump says he now considers the us anti fascist movement— antifa, a terrorist organisation. he says he's looking at officially designating it as such. critics have called his statements hypocrisy, because he's done little to curb white supremacist groups. aleem maqbool, reported for us on the current state of the far—right in america. now, from portland in oregon, he takes a look at the far—left. the rise of white supremacy in the us has seen a counter surge in an antifascist movement that has come to be known as antifa. it gets attention when activists come out to oppose far right marches, often in dangerous confrontations with neo—nazis or the police. it is our duty, our obligation as human beings to come and use our voice and body to protect our communities. i personally am comfortable

with the thought that my life could be, like, i could die to make it easier for other people to live. many conservatives here say that antifa and not the far right is the real danger. in the past, antifa protesters have vandalised businesses and beaten people during rallies in the name of anti—fascist. nazi germany went pretty peacefully, right. we learn from that and we are not going to let fascist takeover. by whatever means? by any means necessary. which means the potential use of violence? u nfortu nately. luis has been arrested many times and insists it is never his objective to start violence, only to physically confront hate groups on the street.

but even in recent days, we have seen that the antifa movement takes many other forms to oppose fascism. you don'tjust see anti—fascism expressed in this country on the streets when people come out to confront white supremacists, antifa has also found a home with the supporters clubs of some of america's professional football teams. the stadium at this portland timbers game was awash with antifascist slogans and signs, and messages of inclusion. even the supporters‘ club logo is that of the iron front, three arrows representing opposition to nazism. and this is antifa too, the metal band lockdown, part of a thriving us antifascist music

scene. what do they think about the president saying he is thinking of designating antifa a terrorist organisation? antifa is not an organisation whatsoever, it should just be how you should be as human being. we have done nothing terrorist at all. unlike the atrocities of the far right side, where there had been very many deadly terrorist attacks. there are signs that many americans consider themselves it by virtue of being against fascism. that is not to say things are not heading in a more extreme direction. moving on to the story...

conservationists are celebrating a decision today to give giraffes enhanced protection against being killed and sold for their meat or body parts. the convention on international trade in endangered species acted against what's been called a "silent extinction" with giraffe numbers falling more 40% in the past three decades in africa. there are in fact only about 111,000 left there in the wild — far fewer in fact than the african elephants — there are about 400,000 of those. the decision was supported map by countries across by countries across the centre of africa — like senegal, niger and kenya — which have seen the steepest falls although southern african countries — where giraffe numbers have held up — like botswana and south africa — actually resisted it. navin singh kahdka from bbc world service told me more. so these are quiet animals, sitting the title of silent extinction. over

the title of silent extinction. over the past 30 years or so around 40% population declined and there are nine sub species of giraffes and out of then few were already listed as endangered. for example in kenya and tanzania. that is why scientists or conservationists are worried that if this trend continues then soon, and also the fact that the global conservation organisation with the d raft conservation organisation with the draft as general, vulnerable a few yea rs draft as general, vulnerable a few years ago. so you have all of these happening and therefore it is called some kind of silent extinction. with this new regulation what will happen now? but they are saying basically is, this is about tracing and tracking trade. i was surprised friend since you know that even in europe for example the people go out to buy and there

are pillows and self was far from draft. and that demand has an impact on these animals. as a result, this international convention that regulates the trade, particularly focuses on illegal trade of species and they are trying to regulate and find out and collect this data and see where the draft parts, bones and hides and even meat and that will be used to track the trade and make sure that it is regulated and sustainable. with this regulation, there are certain countries that we re there are certain countries that were in favour of it but some southern african countries were opposed and why was that? this is like an out of the 19 graceland countries, different countries have different scenarios and what happens

is often some countries have other agendas and also they talk about for insta nce agendas and also they talk about for instance their revenue in terms of say sustained, trophy hunting and so forth. six countries in the central pa rt forth. six countries in the central part of africa got together and they we re part of africa got together and they were all supported by most countries said they all agreed that this is going to be a serious problem if we do not address it now. let me move on to this woman... popstar taylor swift has said she intends to record new versions of her hit songs after her back catalogue was sold off earlier this year. the superstar confirmed the news to a number of us media outlets. now this all started when it was announced injune that the rights to taylor swift's old song were being sold to this manjustin bieber‘s manager scooter braun. in a tumblr post the singer accused braun of bullying herfor years — and described the sale

as the ‘worst case' scenario. josh rom is an entertainment reporter at talkradio and joins us now. why is taylor swift doing this? why is taylor swift doing this7m is more of a sentimental point because it is a bit of a reclamation of her music. it is more of the fact that he has bought her back catalogue and she does not like him and infact catalogue and she does not like him and in fact i would go so far as to say she detests him and does not like the fact that this man owns her back catalogue of music so effectively he can licence it and do whatever he wants to her material and her long lasting career which he has built so far. that she expect when she re—records that she will release it again and people will buy it again perhaps? this happened when kelly clarkson tweeted saying that if she were to re—record all of her songs she would buy

it to make a point out of protest. taylor swift also has a loyalfan point out of protest. taylor swift also has a loyal fan base to say the least so i am pretty sure that all of herfans least so i am pretty sure that all of her fans across the globe will be buying it to make a point to come into, to come to her defence. she does have something like 86 million followers on twitter which is way more than the population of the uk. what you think it is that as her enduring appeal? the fact is that she continues to evolve as an artist and she continues to try loads of different things, her previous album reputation, very and finesse and the fa ct reputation, very and finesse and the fact that it contained various distracts, dissing the likes of kanye distracts, dissing the likes of ka nye west a nd distracts, dissing the likes of kanye west and making fun of all of herfeuds. she has gone in a com pletely herfeuds. she has gone in a completely different direction and bring the old taylor so she continues to surprise her fans again and again and i

think that is part of her long lasting appeal. has there been any response from scooter braun from this announcement by taylor? he is remaining defiant and has not really responded that much and all he does is the denied the accusations of bullying. taylor says she does not get to buy or acquire the back catalogue and this is a big music industry feedback has been quite entertaining for the likes of me. she is releasing an album as sheep makes this announcement as well. it could be for publicity purposes but we don't know. the album presold over 1 purposes but we don't know. the album presold over1 million records worldwide so already it is going to be circulated platinum before it has been released. thank you

very much. and thank you for spending some time with us and stay with the bbc. hello there. thursday's weather brought some wet weather across parts of northern england, northern ireland, southern scotland with some bursts of rain. but the weather will get drier over the next few days, and for many of us, it will get quite a bit hotter, as well. looking at the weather picture through friday, we have this weather front that continues to edge its way northwards across scotland. that will be bringing still some rain too many western areas of scotland initially, although the rain will be driven north of the mainland across alderney, then working its way into shetland as we go through friday afternoon, so the weather deteriorates here. but for the rest of the uk, after a rather cloudy start, we will see some sunny spells breaking through the cloud. the sunshine makes all the difference, it starts to feel warmer. so with temperatures climbing into the low 20s across northern parts of the uk torches southeast, becomes quite hot with

temperatures up to 28 celsius. and hotter still as we head into the weekend, this area of high pressure slips eastward to allow the winds come in from the continent, helping to boost the temperatures significantly through saturday and for sunday. warmer weather is on the way. saturday's weather — you'll notice it's not entirely dry everywhere, we have the prospect of some rain across the northwest of the uk. but for many of us, it is a dry start to the weekend with lengthy spells of sunshine developing, and it will become warmer, as well. temperature wise, looking at highs of 23 celsius in edinburgh and newcastle, 21 celsius in belfast. now for sunday, another fairly straightforward weather day in that most areas will have prolonged spells of sunshine. that said, there could be some patches of cloud and miss us around some parts of the north sea, where we have the sure winds. but for the majority, it's another dry and warm day. temperature—wise, looking at highs reaching the 30 celsius mark

across the east of england. spreading further northwards, 2a celsius in edinburgh, and 22 celsius in belfast. now it would be quite nice if i could stop the forecast there because from monday onwards, the forecast becomes very uncertain. and for good reason — it's down to the jet stream. now with the jet streams, this is what makes our weather. small differences in the wind direction can make a big difference with our weather. but we have a trough moving in through sunday and monday to the west of the uk. this trough is like a river — sometimes those river bends get so big, you get an oxbow lake forming. the same thing happens in the atmosphere, and we can get what is called a cutoff flow. now this changes the winds in the atmosphere by 180 degrees — it's a huge change with huge effects on our weather, and this cut—off flow could be over spain, it could be across southern england. so a difference of about 1,000 miles, and different models tell us different things. so there is no certainty with the forecast from monday. one scenario shows a band

of rain coming into the northwest of the uk. it would be hot through tuesday further eastwards, more of that very warm sunshine. but an alternative scenario shows that weather front through monday and tuesday staying mainly away from the uk, and instead we get some big thunderstorms moving up from the south. so those are the kinds of differences we are looking at in the forecast through monday and tuesday. ultimately the weather will change and become more unsettled, but the details of the rain and thundershowers is uncertain. how hot it gets as well is a bit uncertain through monday and tuesday. and most significantly, the timing of the change of the unsettled weather, as well. that's your forecast.

tonight at ten, france holds firm on the brexit agreement on ireland. its president tells borisjohnson the backstop is indispensable. but the mood music was warm — as the two men met for the first time, vowing to try to break the impasse. where there's a will, there's a way. merci beaucoup. let's work! but with three years of negotiations already behind them, how plausible is the prospect of any real movement on either side? also tonight: why a no—deal brexit could mean more domestic waste ending up in landfill sites in england — and guess where it will go. it would have to start being trucked from the ports up to those landfill spaces further up north. tougher gcses,

but the pass rate is up slightly — good news for many, but how does that work? after president trump labels them a terrorist organisation, we investigate america's antifacist movement. and england are back on track afterjofra archer takes six wickets in the third ashes test. and coming up on sportsday on bbc news, bury face expulsion from the english football league — they have until midnight on friday to prove they have the funds to run the club or find a buyer. good evening. paris was always expected to be tougher for boris johnson