us presidentjoe biden has proposed a $6 trillion budget to boost the us economy and fend off competition from china. mr biden is demanding huge investments in infrastructure, education and green technology. the plan, the biggest since the second world war, still needs congressional approval. the us says its preparing a list of key members of the belarussian goverment who will face sanctions. it's after a passenger plane was intercepted to capture an opposition journalist. meeting russia's president putin, belarus�*s leader accused the west of trying to destabilise his country. the head of the world health organisation's warned the coronavirus pandemic wont be over until at least 70% of the global population has been vaccinated. dr tedros ghebreysus wants at least 10% of every country to be innoculated by september.

the number of new coronavirus infections across the uk has risen above 4,000 for the first time since the start of april, with 4,182 new cases and 10 deaths reported in the past 2a hours. infections have now risen by 25% over the past week. in the vaccine roll—out, more than 256,500 people have received a first vaccine dose in the last 2a hours, meaning almost 39 million people have now had theirfirstjab — almost 74% of the adult population. just over 434,000 had their second dose in the past 24 hours, meaning almost 24.5 million people, 46.5% of the adult population, are now fully vaccinated. the prime minister boris johnson says he raised significant human rights concerns at talks in london with his hungarian counterpart, viktor 0rban. the right—wing hungarian

is only the second eu leader to visit britain since the post—brexit transition, and british opposition parties have criticised the visit. ryan giggs will go on trial next year accused of deliberately headbutting his ex—girlfriend and controlling her throughout their relationship. the former manchester united star is accused of assaulting kate greville last november. it'll take place at manchester crown court injanuary. he denies the charges. now, under cover of covid, the amazon rainforest is under attack from deforestation. for this week's edition of our world, justin rowlatt is on a mission to find out how a tribe he visited a decade ago is faring in the face of this assault. under cover of covid, the amazon rainforest, the greatest ecosystem on earth, is under attack. deforestation is at levels not seen for more than a decade.

we meet the people on the frontline of the battle to save the forest... shouting. translation: the prospectors used to be scared of being - caught by us. now they feel the president will protect them. ..and see the impact on the animals. the government is accused of encouraging the destruction. and i'm on a mission to contact some old friends — the members of the most threatened tribe in the world. their relatives have never had contact with civilisation. are they safe? are their precious trees still standing?

cheering. two years ago, a right—wing ex—army officer became the president of brazil. jair bolsonaro had a clear agenda for the amazon and its people.

this is the story of my attempt to find what his policy of opening up the amazon means for a tribe i first met a decade ago. this is a community that grew up a couple of decades ago, uncontacted. to go into the jungle and meet people who've onlyjust made contact with the modern world is quite extraordinary. katou! chuckles. �*katou' means hello, apparently. i thought there'd be a huge chasm, a kind of cultural gap between us, and that we'd struggle to understand each other. emuka, emuka, emuka. that means "i'm happy". i'm here with the awa. the awa live deep in

the amazon rainforest. they're some of the last people on earth who still try to live as traditional hunter—gatherers. wow, the village... i really felt that they welcomed me in. we felt like we had a real connection together. i'm not going to dress like that, no. laughter. pira'i was probably my best buddy in the village. he was the one that instigated most of the jokes. you know, towards the end, we went on this big hunt with them that took two or three hours. when we got back, everybody was really hot and sweaty and they got to this lovely waterhole. and i thought, "yeah, ok, i'll go swimming" and itjust seemed right to take my clothes off. laughter. then they played a trick on me and it became clear that they were trying to, essentially, dress me like they dressed to hunt. laughter. you don't want to see it.

laughter. it seemed they lived an idyllic life. but when i asked my new friend pira'i about what life was like when he was growing up, i learned just how traumatic things had been for the tribe. this community that, at that point, had had no contact with the outside world. the first contact was with loggers who'd come into the forest to cut their trees and were willing to shoot the community to get them out of the way. you could occasionally hear chainsaws — that's how close the loggers were. all too soon, i had to leave my new friends. but this was a special time for the amazon.

in 2012, the brazilian government made stopping the destruction of the rainforest a priority and rates of deforestation were falling dramatically. a few years later, i received an extraordinary invitation. well, after years of neglect, the brazilian government has finally decided to do something. we are flying into a base camp they've set up just outside the indigenous reserves, and that's where they're operating from, driving out the people who have gone into the forest. it was like flying into a kind of forward base in afghanistan or something. you just thought, "hold on a second. the brazilian government, it really means business about protecting the awa." when we went back to the village, suddenly i started seeing all these familiar faces.

katou? i think that's hello. hey, hello. i remember you. katou. do you remember me? very good. yeah! but the best one was pira'i. no! we went into his house and he came out with a bit of string and waved it in front of me. not again! i've been tricked once, it's not happening again. laughter. so probably the most amazing moment of all for me was when 0peration awa decided they wanted to show the awa what they'd done. pira'i, who grew up uncontacted, now is flying in a helicopter.

pira'i and a friend watched as government bulldozers destroyed the homes of farmers who'd illegally occupied the tribe's land and cut hundreds of hectares of trees. dogs bark. back at home, they wanted to tell the others what they'd seen. it showed the brazilian government can protect the forest if it wants to. pira'i was hopeful for the future. but that hope was short—lived. soon after i left,

brazil entered a time of political turmoil. deforestation started to rise again. the most dramatic increase came two years ago, when president bolsonaro took power. as the coronavirus raged through brazil, killing tens of thousands of people, brazil's environment minister had other issues on his mind, as this recording of a cabinet meeting reveals. "we have the chance at this moment, when the media's attention is almost exclusively on covid and not the amazon," he says. "while things are quiet, let's do it all at once and change all the rules." there was a media storm. minister salles subsequently claimed what he wanted was to simplify the existing rules. but after that meeting, he withdrew protection from some of the forested areas of brazil. and president bolsonaro�*s

government certainly appears to be dismantling some of the structures that had succeeded in holding back destruction in the amazon. the environmental police force, ibama, is on the front line of brazil's efforts to protect the forest. but some officers say they aren't getting the support from the president that they need. one of them agreed to speak to us anonymously. translation: i've never seen so many illegal goldmines. - the price of gold is higher than ever. but also, the prospectors used to be scared of being caught by us. now they feel the president will protect them. explosion. in places where we didn't have incidents in the past, now loggers, prospectors, squatters are rioting. last year, an officer was trying to seize a vehicle that was taking timber from indigenous land. he got hit with a bottle

while the police that was meant to protect him just watched. the police are loyal to the president. in the past, the police would give us security during the operations. the brazilian government admits some local officials have withdrawn protection for environmental officers, but says this is not official policy. yelling. it has become guerrilla warfare. thejob is getting more and more risky. people are blocking the road to stop us from doing ourjob. they feel they have the support from the government. we have just landed the helicopter and the officers are going over to the truck here, which clearly has been — you know, freshly cut logs on it. it is very different from how things used to work. over the years, i have been on a number ofjungle raids with the environmental police. the most impressive was we flew

with this female officer... ..to raid an illegal sawmill. we found the account books. look at this... so they have the total value, 4700 reals, and then, look, there's a fee here — 200 to pay the police, leaving them with 4500, so this is extraordinary. this book is like the diary of the business and we've got payments to policemen, we've got how much money they are putting in the bank and it is a lot of money. we're £20,000, $30,000 they are making here. it was obvious that the guy

with the money had run and left the little guys behind. and i remember talking to one of the guys about what it was like. and then at the end i remember saying to her, what are you going to do now and she said, "well, we can't leave it like this." with fire. she is going to burn it down. it was obvious that ibama had the weight of law behind them. when we got to places where illegal activity was happening, people were genuinely frightened.

burning the equipment used for deforestation has always been a key tactic, says our whistle—blowing officer. the owners of the equipment normally escape when they hear the helicopter so we cannot prosecute them. over the years, we have seen that the most effective strategy to stop deforestation is to destroy their expensive equipment. not any more, according to the brazilian president. despite what president bolsonaro says, when we asked the government, they said the rules on burning equipment have not changed, but

funds have been cut. this year the environmental police received its lowest budget ever, and because deforestation is so high, germany and norway say they won't pay for its helicopters and vehicles any more. that and the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic explain why, when we spoke, there were no environmental police patrolling the amazon. it is a first time this has ever happened. none of us are out in the field. last year, 4200 square miles of forest was cleared. a 12—year high. those involved in illegal deforestation often believe the government will pardon their actions.

it is notjust the amazon that's under attack, the neighbouring wetland, the pantanal, is burning too. last year, 50,000 hectares of this unique ecosystem was lost in the biggest fires ever recorded there. juliana camargo heads a charity that tried to rescue wildlife during the fires.

a source in the environmental police told us the government ordered them not to attend the fires. the brazilian government describes these claims as lies.

once the trees have been cleared, the land is often used forfarming. ibama has just caught red—handed this illegal deforestation, using chains. the chains destroyed the vegetation and killed the wildlife, especially the babies who do not have time to escape. there used to be a system where farmers caught in illegal activities like this would be blacklisted, making it harderfor them to sell their produce and to get loans. the farmers who were found deforesting, their name would be put on an align system whereby buyers would be able to check if they are buying from an area which has strong evidence of illegal deforestation. but since last year, there's been some major changes

that make it harder for people to be embargoed, so enter the blacklist. the government told this programme the system of fines and blacklisting is obsolete and ineffective and is being modernised. but it makes it hard for buyers to check that agricultural products are deforestation—free and, all the while, business has been booming for amazon farmers. but there is still some resistance to president bolsonaro. almost all my professional life, i was a legislative consultant in the chamber of deputies. suely araujo helped write the environmental laws that underpin brazil's efforts to tackle deforestation.

the brazilian government told the bbc it believes it is necessary to bring economic prosperity to the amazon. "poverty is the biggest enemy of the environment," a spokesperson told us. i cannot travel to the amazon because of the pandemic but i did manage to get in touch with my friend who sent me these pictures and recorded a message...

and experts worry the amazon ecosystem itself is changing. i'm very concerned. previous research have been understanding that the amazon was much more resilient and that our tipping point, leading to the decivilisation the large trenches of the forest would happen if about 40% of the amazon was lost and now recent research is pointing towards figures closer to 20% — and we already are at those figures. it appears to be becoming less rainy and the fear is the forest could begin to give way to grassland. and the fortunes of the people who live in the jungle are also in the balance. to my astonishment, footage

is released that shows some awa people still live uncontacted in the remaining islands of trees. a team of local people patrol the forest in an effort to protect them from the loggers. the locals normally do not film out of respect. they decided to release this footage because the situation has become so critical, they want to highlight the danger these last remaining, uncontacted tribal people are in. this is an astonishing glimpse

of one of the last people on earth who lives outside of what we call "civilisation". we will probably never know his name but my friend pira'i told me what it was like when he lived like this. "it is a life," he told me, "of constant fear." hello there. friday was a bit of a disappointing day thanks to a weak weather front which brought more cloud

around and also some light and patchy rain. but for the weekend, as high pressure builds in, conditions will improve. we'll see increasing amounts of sunshine, and it will turn warmer as well. so, here's our building area of high pressure today. it'll be pushing these weather fronts out into the atlantic, so we'll see a lot of sunshine into the afternoon. because we will start off rather grey through this morning thanks to the legacy of yesterday's weather front. a little bit of drizzle here and there close to the west coast. but increasing amounts of sunshine into the afternoon, and that could set off an isolated heavy shower here and there, particularly across the higher ground in the north. and there could be a little bit of low cloud and mist affecting north sea coasts. but with more sunshine around, we could make 19—20 degrees, maybe even warmer than that in one or two spots. now, as we head through saturday night, any showers will fade away. we'll see some low cloud and mist rolling into eastern scotland and eastern england, but further west, skies should remain clear. those temperatures will range from around 7—ii degrees.

so, on into sunday, then, our big area of high pressure's dominating the scene, slowly pushing into the north sea. that's going to bring a lot of dry weather around. it will start quite grey and cool across eastern scotland and eastern england, but that low cloud and mist will burn back to the coast thanks to the strong late may sunshine. many places will be dry with widespread sunshine around, so it's going to be warmer. temperatures reaching 22 degrees there for glasgow, 21,22 or 23 degrees in parts of england and wales. now, as we head on into bank holiday monday, our area of high pressure will be out in the north sea, and that's going to draw some warm air up from the south or the south—east off the near continent. so, combine that with the strong late may sunshine, it's going to feel even warmer. 23, 24, maybe even 25 degrees somewhere, so that will be challenging the warmest day of the year so far, which was set back in late march. tuesday, we do it all again. south—southeasterly winds, plenty of sunshine around. it's going to be another very warm day. a bit of fairweather cloud bubbling up into the afternoon. those temperatures ranging

from low to mid—20s celsius. always a little bit fresher along some southern and eastern coasts. now, as we head through the week, there isjust the chance at the moment that we could see some thundery showers moving up from the south, particularly through wednesday and thursday. otherwise, we should continue to see quite a bit of sunshine.

this is bbc news: i'm ben boulos with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the $6 trillion plan. president biden pushes the biggest spending programme since world war two — to reboot the us economy. belarus's leader accuses the west of trying to destabilise his country. he's met president putin as tensions mount over last week's plane diversion. a policewoman�*s stabbed and seriously injured in france, in what's thought to be a terror attack. thousands of manchester city and chelsea fans arrive in portugal ahead of saturday's champions league final.