this is the business briefing. i'm samantha simmonds. we take a look at the amazon's deforestation, as brazil's environment minister is set to meet business and local leaders later today. and the national carrier of fiji looks to a greener future, as the country faces the threat of rising sea levels. and on the markets. they are down, due to fears that trade talks between beijing and washington could be derailed after us president donald trump threatened fresh tariffs.

the world's greatest rainforest is under increasing threat. illegal logging, mining and land grabbing has led to vast areas of rainforest being lost. it is a huge store of carbon that is vital for tackling climate change, but the brazilian government of president bolsonaro has so far denied the problem, but that may now change. environment minister ricardo salles will meet governors of amazon states today to discuss tactics to counter deforestation. in the 12 months tojuly, 2019, deforestation soared almost 30%. more than 3,700 square kilometres of forest has been deforested this year, an area about a fifth the size of wales orjust over 500 thousand football pitches. while deforestation mainly has been caused by illegal logging, mining and cattle farming, a new threat is posed by increasing

demand for land for palm oil plantations. however the president of brazil, jair bolsonaro, believes other countries had overblown the situation. translation: the situation. at times, certain countries translation: at times, certain countries use the environmental agenda with the human rights agenda to interfere in domestic issues of third—party countries. sometimes they manipulate the environmental stories, which is precisely what happened in our case against zilman recently. i'm nowjoined by gervais williams, who's the senior executive director of miton group. welcome, good morning, thanks for coming in. when it comes to the amazon, how important is it when it comes to financial decisions for big companies? does it play a part now we are increasingly aware of the destruction and the impact that's being brought? the financial industry has been interested in making investments on a long—term, sustainable basis and this has been

avoiding things like tobacco. what's interesting about the last few years is the whole environmental issue has become hugely more important for clients and fund managers, and particularly we are seeing people looking to make positive decisions to improve the environmental outcomes. is that because clients are asking for this or they know it's the zeitgeist? a bit of both, but clients particularly now are changing their agenda. they're not just interested in ethical investing, we need to make positive changes and allocate capital, particularly to companies but aren't just good but improving sustainability. we see this in companies. yesterday easyjet decided to pay for all carbon offsets for their seats stop me more and more companies wanting to make a positive impact but they still want to make money. we talked about palm oil and soybean is big business for brazil. how much does that play into it when it comes to financial decisions and what financial markets want and

need? countries like brazil are dependent on overseas currency and overseas currency is dependent on overseas currency and overseas currency is partly coming in from trading of things like soybeans but also investment, and if those flows are cut off because people are worried about brazilian policies, that will make a difference. 0n the other side, if they can do things that will carbon offset, it will attract flows from that side as well. what about meat? large areas of land are being cleared for meat farming with huge demand from china. that's right. there's two aspects, there's not just the fan such like but also the soybeans to feed animals. what's interesting is here we are seeing changing habits. in the us in the last 30 years, beef consumption has stabilised and it's been dominated by chicken consumption. it's one seventh of the c02 resource to manufacture compared to beef. how much of an impact is brazil's refusal to admit there is an issue here having on the brazilian

economy? do they recognise now that there needs to be a shift in their stance? absolutely. what is happening is we are seeing a substantial change to the willingness to invest in brazil. a lot of fund managers are pulling back a bit while this is going on to see what the outcome will be. this will lead to quite a severe shortage ten shall of capital flows into the brazilian economy. we will report on what the brazilian environment minister says later, but gervais williams, thanks for coming in. sustainability has featured in discussions at this week's dubai airshow. the aviation industry is responsible for around 2% of global carbon emissions. in order to find out how airlines are cleaning up their act today, our middle east business correspondent sameer hashmi spoke to gordon penfold, who's the executive general manager of fiji airways. tell us one of the features of this aircraft where we are standing right

now. what makes it more sustainable? well, the aircraft is more fuel—efficient. it's the fuel efficiency first of the engines themselves, which are extremely lean royals rice units. the second is the fundamental construction of the aeroplane. the aeroplane is essentially a carbon fibre structure, which gives you huge weight advantage for the strength required. that's taken through all the materials, you know, within the cabin. the seeds themselves have got carbon fibre content within them. how important is this from an airline point of view to have an aircraft like that? it is important for two or three reasons. the first is the consciousness about the environment and the consciousness about, you know, the effects of global warming, about, you know, the effects of globalwarming, particularly about, you know, the effects of global warming, particularly with an aircraft that longs to an airline that originates from the south pacific, where the whole question of global warming and the rise in sea

levels is very important. the second thing is it's also good for business in that the aircraft's and fuel efficiency means that you have reduced costs per seat mile, and, you know, with the keenness that is felt in airfare pricing these days, it gives you the opportunity to actually turn a profit on the business that you're doing. adapting clean technology involves spending more money because it's expensive. what does it mean for the profitability of airlines? you have to invest upfront. the airframe and engine manufacturers are investing upfront. the airlines are investing upfront. the airlines are investing upfront. the airlines are investing in the materials that are investing in the materials that are used within the cabin for the cabin furnishing. now, consumers cabin furnishing. now, consumers are cabin furnishing. now, consumers are becoming more environmentally conscious, is that putting more pressure on the airline investment? i think investment? ithink any investment? i think any business is under pressure. i think the way in which

social media works, any business is called to account in their business practices and, you know, they're ecologically credentials. we invest in planting mangroves as part of our contribution to offset the effects of our carbon usage, for example. you have to keep finding ways to improve in order to act responsibly. the boss of fiji airways there. australia's second biggest bank westpac has been accused of breaching anti—money laundering rules. the country's regulator said it allowed payments from a number of high risk countries. let's go to our asia business hub where rico hizon is following the story. hi, rico, tell us more about this story. westpac, samantha, is indeed ina very story. westpac, samantha, is indeed in a very tough situation after being accused by the country's financial crime—fighting agency of

violating anti— money—laundering laws on more than 23 million occasions. regulators say westpac ignored red flags and enabled payments from convicted sex offenders and high—risk companies like iraq, zimbabwe, lebanon and the congo. banking analysts say each breach is liable for a civil penalty of 11-15,000,000 breach is liable for a civil penalty of ii—is,000,000 dollars, which leaves west westpac open to crippling fines if they approved in court. in 2017, samantha, the commonwealth bank of australia was accused of 50,000 breaches of monty laura laundering and antiterrorism laws, a case later settled by $500 million, the largest civil settlement. this comes at a time of heightened global regulatory scrutiny following high—profile scandals involving several global

banks and this has sent shares down after they are counting the reputational costs of this violation stop the lots of knock—on effects. rico, thank you. now let's brief you on some other business stories. standard chartered has become the second corporate partner to sever ties with the duke of york's business mentoring initiative, pitch@palace. the bankjoined accountancy firm kpmg in pulling support for the scheme. it said it was not renewing its sponsorship for commercial reasons. america's biggest e—cigarette company, juul labs, has been hit with a lawsuit by the state of new york. attorney general leticia james accused the firm of misrepresenting the safety of its products and targeting teens in adverts. the move follows similar actions by officials in california and north carolina, as well as federal warnings. that's it for the business briefing. up next, news briefing. we'll take you through ther stories making headlines in

the global news media today. ever since the eu referendum, and the election of donald trump in america, there have been fears that social media platforms can be used by foreign powers to manipulate opinion and influence the result. just over three weeks away from the general election, one of facebook‘s most senior executives has been speaking to the bbc. steve hatch has told our media editor amol rajan that the company is constantly vigilant. twitter has banned political ads but you haven't, why? in this country we've made the decision that advertising is part of the political process and is part of the election process , process and is part of the election process, and to ban the tickle advertising actually has an inherent bias in it. it helps entrench the

positions of the incumbents at the cost of those less represented. isn't it ultimately absolutely absurd that whether or not people see millions of false or true claims online, it is something you as a private company decide on and adjudicate on rather than lawmakers in this country. we've seen for many yea rs in this country. we've seen for many years now that there's a role for reform in the advertising space. years now that there's a role for reform in the advertising spacem the uk, for every pound you make, your pretax profit margin is just 8.5%. that is artificially diminished to avoid paying more tax? it isn't. it is based on the rules in which we operate and every company that is like ours... why is facebook less profitable in the uk than elsewhere? based on where the value is created, which is the rules of taxation as they are set at the moment, so where are the things being built and made an generated. if that's the case and ifjeremy corbyn is elected in a few weeks, if he brought in this tech tax, you would pay it and not lobby against

it and you wouldn't shift your operations elsewhere? we will work with every government that comes in and we always want to be added to the uk, we've been that for more than ten years and we certainly envisage our future than ten years and we certainly envisage ourfuture in than ten years and we certainly envisage our future in the than ten years and we certainly envisage ourfuture in the uk being more than ten years ahead. coming up at 6am on breakfast, louise minchin and dan walker will have all the day's news, business and sport. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: the leaders of britain's two main political parties have clashed over brexit and austerity in the first televised debate of the election campaign. washington's bracing for a key day in the impeachment inquiry, with gordon sondland, us ambassador to the european union, set to take the stand. the stand off between police and protestors at hong kong's polytechnic university has entered a fourth day. only a few pro—democracy protestors are still inside. now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines

in the media across the world. we begin with the front page of the i — borisjohnson and jeremy corbyn clashed over brexit and the nhs during a live head—to—head tv debate on tuesday night. meanwhile the conservative party is has been accused of misleading the public after renaming its official twitter account ‘factcheckuk' during the live debate. fallout from the bbc newsnight interview with prince andrew continues. the duke has been dumped by a number of big firms and was even a topic of conversation at last nights election debate. there are questions as to whether he should resign from public duty. the verge reports on the latest twist for e—cigarette companyjuul. new york attorney general letitia james has announced a new lawsuit alleging the company misled consumers about the risks of vaping through deceptive advertising. technology website tech crunch has a story on new company heliogen. using solar power, the start—up could represent a giant leap forward in the effort to decarbonise some of the world's most carbon intensive industries.

and finally deutsche welle says a building in austria where adolf hitler was born and spent the first few months of his life will be turned into a police station to deter neo—nazi tourism. with me is mark davies, managing director at camberton, a strategic communications consultancy. welcome to you and good morning. many of these newspapers could do with your help, i think. let's start with your help, i think. let's start with a debate last night. what did you make of it? the polls show a small advantage for boris johnson. 51-49 this small advantage for boris johnson. 51—49 this morning but did not tell us 51—49 this morning but did not tell us anything we did not know already. lynton crosby, who has advised on many campaigns for the conservative party has a phrase that you cannot fatten a pig on market day and we are getting very close to market day. and i think what people know is that people have already made up their minds on what they think of these two leaders. yesterday should

not change any of