welcome to bbc news. i'm reged ahmad. our top stories: hundreds of new fires rage in the amazon as international pressure mounts on brazil's president over his environmental policies. all smiles as borisjohnson arrives in biarritz for the g7 summit but tensions simmer over britain's exit from the eu. hello and welcome to bbc news. hundreds of new fires are raging in brazil's amazon region, according to official figures. brazilian troops have begun a major

operation to put the fires out. the government has promised to relax street austerity policies that make strict austerity to relax strict austerity policies. this is what remains. large swathes of ra i nforest this is what remains. large swathes of rainforest cleared to the ground. parts of the world ‘s biggest tropical forest reduced to charred remains. and every day for the last few weeks, new fires start and died. across brazil there have been more than 76,000 so far this year. highest in nine years. under pressure from international leaders, brazil's president has said the army will help stop please. mr bolsonaro has sent in the military to help out the fires after coming under

pressure from the international community, saying he wanted to protect the arm is on. military staff could be deployed to nine different states. they are already acting in rondonia. one day later, local government here in the state of rondonia, one of the most affected by the blazes, has launched affected by the blazes, has launched a special operation combining different forces including army troops, firefighters and an elite group from the environmental protection agency. the t5 operations told us the aim is to have the fire under control in the next few days. for some, this is not enough. at the weekend, many hundreds turned out to demonstrate in major brazilian cities and outside brazilian embassies all over the world. they say the government was slow to act and the president's rhetoric encourages farmers to burn down the

forest, to clear land for agriculture. fires in the amazon ra i nfo rest agriculture. fires in the amazon rainforest are nothing new during summer. rainforest are nothing new during summer. but the scale and the speed with which they are spreading has alarmed brazil and the rest of the world. world leaders have been meeting for dinner at the g7 summit in biarritz. the french president, emmanuel macron, said he'll do everything he can to get leaders of the g7 to tackle the world's problems. mr macron said he'd try to convince the g7 that tensions, especially over trade, were bad for everyone. he's one of a number of leaders to urge president trump not to further escalate america's trade war with china. the president announced fresh tariffs on chinese imports on friday, hours after beijing confirmed a similar move. for borisjohnson it's his first international gathering as british prime minister. high on the agenda for him is brexit. the european council president donald tusk said he was "willing to listen" to his ideas for brexit — as long as they were "realistic". but the two men clashed over

who would be to blame in the case of a no—deal brexit. our chief political correspondent vicki young reports from biarritz. landing for his first summit, and it could be a tense one. borisjohnson is determined to leave the eu but says britain won't be walking off the world stage. the prime minister wants to show he's got an important role to play and has strong views on global trade. i'm very worried about the way it's going, the growth of protections, of tariffs that we are seeing. the uk thrives mightily on being an open, outward—looking, free—trading nation. that's what we're going to be promoting because i think it's good for the world. there is a lot on the g7 agenda here in biarritz, but right now for boris johnson nothing is more important than brexit. can he persuade eu leaders to give him a new brexit deal? that's something brussels has said it won't do, even though parliament rejected the withdrawal agreement that theresa may negotiated. so is this man likely to help the prime minister? donald tusk famously said there was a special place in hell

for those who promoted brexit without a plan. most saw that as an attack on mrjohnson. he will be the third british conservative prime minister with whom i will discuss brexit. the one thing i will not co—operate on is no deal. and i still hope that prime ministerjohnson will not like to go down in history as mr no deal. but mrjohnson is optimistic that it will be the eu who changes direction in the end. downing street's playing down the chances of a breakthrough here in biarritz, but think angela merkel and emmanuel macron are ready for some meaningful conversations. about the so—called backstop to avoid checks at the irish border. the prime minister insisted again today that it has to go and says that donald tusk should remember that donald tusk should remember that if he does not want to go down

as mr no deal brexit. mrjohnson hopes he can depend on the american president for support. donald trump has said that brussels has not treated the uk well over brexit. tomorrow they will sit down together to discuss a post—brexit trade deal. so far so good. weather is perfect and the guests are fantastic eve ryo ne and the guests are fantastic everyone is getting along. we hope to accomplish a lot this weekend and i look forward to it. friendly words but they may not be able to disguise the serious differences between leaders here. hundreds of anti—capitalist and environmental campaigners have been staging protests against the g7 summit in the nearby town of bayonne. police used tear gas and water cannon to control the demonstrations after stones and bottles were thrown at officers. several people were detained. earlier, several thousand people staged a peaceful and authorised march across the border between france and spain. let's look at some other stories in brief. north korea's state media has released images of its leader

kim jong—un personally overseeing saturday's test of a very large multiple rocket launcher. mr kim said his country must step up the development of new strategic and tactical weapons. he said that young scientists who developed new missiles were a precious treasure. israel has launched airstrikes on targetsjust outside the syrian capital, damascus. the israeli military says it targeted iranian forces inside syria, which were preparing to launch killer drones at israel. unidentified gunmen have reportedly fired on a tourist bus injordan near the ancient city of petra. ajordanian news agency said the bus was not carrying any passengers at the time and there were no injuries. an estimated 40,000 people have turned out in the german city of dresden for a rally against far right extremism, ahead of state elections in saxony next weekend. some held placards that read, "racism is not an alternative." saxony‘s minister for integration said the event sent an important signal beyond the state's borders.

don't forget that you can get all our top stories on our website including analysis from our correspondent. this is abc news. —— bbc news. queen elizabeth's second son, prince andrew, has released a statement about his friendship with the disgraced financierjeffrey epstein. it's the first time he has spoken directly about his links since epstein took his own life in a new york prison cell earlier this month. prince andrew said "at no stage" did he "see or suspect" any criminal behaviour. epstein had been awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges when he killed himself. here's our royal correspondent nicholas witchell. what was prince andrew doing at the home of a convicted paedophile in new york in 2010, peering out through the door as young women came and went? the questions about andrew's

friendship withjeffrey epstein have shown no sign of abating — and so, from the prince today, a statement in which he says he is eager to clarify the facts. he states... "i met mr epstein in 1999. during the time i knew him, i saw him infrequently and probably no more than only once or twice a year. i have stayed in a number of his residences." the prince goes on... "at no stage during the limited time i spent with him did i see, witness or suspect any behaviour of the sort that subsequently led to his arrest and conviction." andrew does acknowledge that it was, in his words, "a mistake and an error" to see epstein after his release from prison. this photograph of them together was taken in 2010. andrew expresses regret that what he knew of epstein was not, as he puts it, "the real person". and yet epstein‘s behaviour was a matter of public record. two years earlier, in 2008, he had been prosecuted for procuring an underage girl for prostitution.

he was sentenced to 18 months in prison. but andrew was one of his friends, emerged, when this photo was published. it had been taken at one of epstein‘s parties in 2001. it showed andrew with a then—17—year—old girl — virginia roberts. andrew has always emphatically denied any impropriety. in today's statement, the queen's second son expresses tremendous sympathy for all those affected by the actions and behaviour of his former friend, jeffrey epstein. and nicholas has been telling us where this leaves prince andrew. i think he clearly feels the need to establish his version of events after a difficult and, frankly, damaging week in terms of media stories about him. let's look at what he says. he asserts that between 1999 when he said he met

alabama and 2008 when he was convicted, he never saw any evidence of suspicious behaviour. —— when he metjeffrey epstein. of suspicious behaviour. —— when he met jeffrey epstein. what of suspicious behaviour. —— when he metjeffrey epstein. what is difficult for andrew is that he resumed the friendship with jeffrey epstein after release from prison. he was then a convicted paedophile and andrew saw him in new york and went to his home as we saw from that video. andrew now acknowledges that it was a mistake, an error he regrets that. one area he has not commented on in this statement is whether he will now co—operate with the us authorities and lawyers for the us authorities and lawyers for the victims who are very keen and are desperate to find answers and to establish the truth. british airways has apologised after wrongly telling some passengers their flights were cancelled, and telling them to book new ones. the mistake, which caused confusion for passengers, came after pilots announced three

strike dates for next month — and the airlines advised some people with flights on non—strike days to rebook, or get a refund. our business correspondent katy austin reports. josie spent time and thousands of pounds planning a september trip to florida, catering to the needs of her disabled mother. then last night an e—mail saying their flight was cancelled. we don't know whether it's the outbound flight or the inbound flight, as well. we've called british airways 67 times since 6am. we got through once after a 45 minute wait on hold. british airways says all affected customers will be offered a refund or the option of rebooking another day. some of the thousands who received cancellation messages overnight expressed confusion and frustration on social media that they had been unable to rebook online or get through on the phone. in a statement, british airways said... that affected customers could get

refunds will be rebooked for a different date. but that was not the end of the confusion. this evening, the airline confirmed that some customers were wrongly sent cancellation e—mails about flights on non— strike days did some people told the bbc they already paid for alternative flights. ba has apologised and said that anyone who has incurred expenses should get in touch. strike plan faucet timber is the first ba has ever had, the result of a stand—off with the union over pay and conditions. passengers have already felt disruption, some of it avoidable, before a walkout has even begun. this is bbc news, the headlines: hundreds of new fires continue to burn in the amazon as international pressure mounts on brazil's president over his environmental policies. emmanuel macron has called for a de—escalation of trade tensions — at an informal dinner ahead of tomorrow's g7 talks.

more now on the fires in the amazon, oliver stuenkel is professor of international relations at the getulio vargas foundation in sao paulo. he says at the moment, brazil's president is keen to give the impression, he's not concerned about criticism from the international community. i think the situation to the bisley and president is about much more than just climate change or deforestation. the president who does not believe in climate change has made very clear that he considers the issue to be an internal issue, that the amazon belongs to brazil, and that this is seen by him as an attempt to weaken the cells sovereignty, to question brazil's control over the amazon and while some hope that international pressure may moderate the president ‘s stance, it also does create a rally around the effect on the

president ‘s populist who likes to engage in controversy, in confrontation, also enjoys this moment were international pressure seems to support his views that the international community seeks to wea ken international community seeks to weaken brazil, 60 keep reserve from developing so i think it remains uncertain to what extent threats by the eu, for example, the threat to not ratify the recently signed trade agreement, will actually help the situation because so far at least the president has been very clear that he does not seek to moderate his stance, does not plan to moderate his terms in response to international pressure. we talk about the president, being very supportive of celine farmers and agriculture, he wants to expand in that area. if the international community bring sensations or balls out of that huge trade deal you are talking about, or that actually hurt

farmers, effectively his base in the country? absolutely. so i think we see now the integration of two blocks emerging to explain this internal political dynamic at first, the ideal bowls of climate change, the ideal bowls of climate change, the military, which is hearing concern about international engagement in the president has authoritarian tendencies, it questions the role of ngos, it is critical of them receiving foreign money, the one side, the other is interestingly enough business aligned in civil society, indigenous populations, who are now starting to be concerned. business in particular, of course, would be at the hurt if we ended up having boycotts so this might be perhaps the only thing as you rightly point out, this is part of the president

‘s base stop many of the fires are suspected to have been fired —— started by farmers who are less concerned about international consequences. there is a big farming companies are concerned about brazil's reputation. that does not apply to the small—scale farmers who are seen as some of the responsible people who have started the fires. just very briefly can already see this going? as i said, i think it is unclear to what extent the international unity can exert pressure on brazil, some people have said that the president doesn't want the trade deal with the eu, he's done it to win the election, his adopt a more liberalising rhetoric but in fact, he is an economic nationalist. is he not in favour of international trade. to some extent, some may say that he enjoyed the moment of confrontation. everything will now depend on the capacity of

agricultural businesses to pressure the president to adopt a more moderate stance. but it's a board to point out those fires are just the tip of the iceberg. we've seen over the past eight months are systematically getting of watchdogs, the president has adopted a strategy which has led to the suspension of the amazon fund, which a large—scale scheme —— are a large—scale scheme financed by norway in germany to help preserve the amazon. this is not something that has just come up. this is an integral part of the president ‘s policy, and pirated policy, farming policy, he does regard the amazon butter suffered to be but something to be economically exploited. so i'm very sceptical, u nfortu nately to exploited. so i'm very sceptical, unfortunately to what extent the community is able to moderate the sta nce community is able to moderate the stance of the bisley and president. —— brazilian president. an employee at the british consulate in hong kong who was detained

in mainland china has been released. china says simon cheng was detained for visiting a prostitute. but his supporters have dismissed that claim and suggested his case was linked to the political crisis in hong kong — which erupted again today, with the worst violence in more than a week. our china correspondent john sudworth is there. what began as opposition to an exhibition law is a full—scale pro—democracy movement. fuelled by fears that the city ‘s freedoms are being eroded under chinese rule. just before the barricades went up, news came that a staff member at the uk consulate in hong kong had then released from custody in mainland china. but the claim that he was detained for paying a prostitute has

been met with disbelief. they caught him and faked the picture. they photoshopped a picture which he was with a circle prostitute and they detained him for 15 days. some suspect a political motive. the protest of the biggest challenge to communist party rule in decades. in china has been accusing the uk of meddling. hong kong's political stand—off descends once again into violence, and police bearing teargas and rubber bullets as they chase the protesters away. it continues they can do the night with the project is already planning further battles in the days ahead. a 16—year—old girl and a 21—year—old man died in a car crash in the early hours of this morning in essex. two teenage girls are also in a critical condition. a man was arrested in loughton. leigh milner reports from the scene.

well, this is goldings hill in loughton and as you can see behind me is a long stretch of road which runs through epping forest, and if you just look over my right hand shoulder you can see where the silver bmw m3 collided into a tree just after two o'clock this morning. a 16—year—old girl and a 21—year—old man died at the scene and two girls, aged 16 and 17 are currently in hospital with life—threatening injuries. earlier today, i spoke to counsellor michael stubbings who gave me his reaction. i'm very sad, very sad that young people had to lose their lives and you don't know what happened at the time or what went on. what caused it. have you seen things like this happen before on this road? yes, many times i've driven down here and i've seen cars in the forest where people have missed their turning and come off the road for whatever reason.

it is a road that has to be taken cautiously. a 21—year—old from left and has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and causing injury by dangerous driving and perverting the course of justice. he's currently in hospital with minor injuries. we've all had that terrifying moment where you're getting ready to go on holiday and you think you've lost your passport — but new technology could make remembering to carry your travel documents a thing of the past. instead, the passport would be saved on your phone and detected by a biometric scanner at the border. our business reporter simon browning has been to try it out. sunshine, holidays, city breaks. we all love our trips away. and the time of year when flights are full, airports are bursting and they can bea airports are bursting and they can be a lot of waiting around. now we all know what it's like to arrive on holiday at your destination to arrive in the past bottle and be

greeted by cues to get your possible scan. they were a nightmare, 30 minutes an hour. technology means they could be a thing of the pass of our passports go on our phones. this kiosk is called project. it is a start of a contact was id system designed by a group of companies and academics to speed up transition between borders. if you can select english... after downloading an app to your phone, you can register your past just once. to your phone, you can register your pastjust once. i ask you to present your possible, your document onto the reader. i would ask you to look to the camera and this is similar to make a match between the passport photo and your live image. rodent to —— energy has been verified on the link has been established and this will be confirmed on screen because of this has been done, and joanne offer now says you have been enrolled. 140 million passengers arrived the uk border in 2017 because of that expected to double by 2050. epos cannot double in size

so they have to process is faster so we arrive and leave much quicker. the advantage of this is such a distract passengers choose to use it and if they are low—risk and eligible that it is a company without too much examination, then they can go through and. stop. they can keep walking. where's the rest of the passengers who have to be seen and go to the normal control. the security of our data has never been under such scrutiny. the designers says said because own place and information is encrypted. but other questions remain, your battery dies? what if you've brought the wrong smartphone? and can the biometric channel before? i'm going to test whether passport application rates but i'm going to try and triggered with this mask. the developer so the system is ready for imitation. the home office as it continues to investigate the application of new and emerging technology at the uk border. we are just come to see, i hope you didn't recognise her. the -- that's right.

i have a cue but we know are good at it, i'll be ready to it with a hasslefree biometric feature? let's have a look at the weather with ben rich. the weather we had on saturday sets the tone for the rest of the weekend. but news if you like sunshine. and you locate. it was a beautiful day for the beach in cornwall on saturday, there will be more beach whether in places and the temperatures on saturday afternoon got very close to 31 degrees just to the west of london. 29 is making it the west of london. 29 is making it the warmest bank holiday weekend on record for wales, not in scotland, it was a bit school —— cooler because of some extra cloud, you could see the river clyde on the satellite, a broad range to the far north—west of the uk, clearing, novels, you can see crowd filtering in over recent hours into wales and

the south—west was not this was errors will generally see some patches of cloud as you go through the day on sunday. the east, one or two missed patches over on the shoot and we're going to see a lot of sunshine. more signage on the sort across saturday, ship and could see some extra cloud rolling its way into the afternoon was not as far as temperatures go, 20 degrees in glasgow, 32, possibly 32 distract 33 across parts of the south—east and it is going to feel increasingly humid as well, as we go to sunday night into the early hours of monday, that humanity can cause some areas of mist in the cloud and fog to form and western areas. some poor visibility and positive the west as we go to the first part of wonder. further east, some clear spells and just the odd mist patch. this temperature is 14 or 15 degrees as we start the day. who monday, there will again be plenty of dry weather and spells of sunshine but remember that ellie missed on the west, some of which could take a bit too clear,

with a set of frontal system getting close to northern ireland and distance of the, some other rest infringers could see the odd shower, turning cool in the west by this stage but still the high 20s although that is across parts of eastern england. things will be changing as we head into the weak, very monday night into tuesday, because he some showers in this weather frontier, because he some showers in this weatherfrontier, pushing eastwards and a more meaningfulfront source to make progress into the west. that was not it big in the cloud because possible in ireland, western scotland, because he some splashes of rain, chance of the shelter bracket from a visio shower during tuesdayit bracket from a visio shower during tuesday it could be having —— heavy and thundery, the potentialfor warm weather especially across eastern areas. however, wherever you are across the uk, things will cool off as we had deeper into the week. there will be outbreaks of rain at times particularly across the north and west.

this is bbc news, the headlines: emmanuel macron has called for a de—escalation of trade tensions — at an informal dinner ahead of sunday's g7 talks. leaders will also try to resolve differences over climate change and brexit. the european council president donald tusk says it may be the last chance to restore harmony among leading industrial nations. hundreds of new fires are raging across the amazon according to official figures. more than 78,000 forest fires have been recorded in brazil so far this year, most in the amazon region. presidentjair bolsonaro has ordered the army in after mounting international pressure. police have used tear gas and rubber bullets to try and disperse anti—government protesters in hong kong. officers are also said to have charged at demonstrators with batons outside a police station. it's the twelfth consecutive weekend of protests.

now on bbc news — dateline. hello, and welcome to the programme that hosts debate between leading uk columnists and the foreign correspondents who file their stories to the folks back home with the dateline "london". this week: borisjohnson's brexit diplomacy appears to pay off in berlin. no bromance for bojo in paris, though. we'll be discussing which matters more. plus: with the amazon on fire, brazil accuses the g7 nations of colonial meddling. but is the g7 fiddling whilst the global economy burns? around the table with me are thomas kielinger, a biographer, and for many years london correspondent

for germany's die welt.