dozens of demonstrations have taken place around the world to show solidarity with the people of belarus in other football news, brentford are finally promoted to the premier league for the first time in their history. they beat swansea 2—0. now on bbc news, our world. under cover of covid, the amazon rainforest is under attack. deforestation is at levels not seen for more than a decade. brazilian presidentjair bolsonaro talks of opening up the forest to development while the environmental police is under attack from loggers. our world has obtained a recording of the environment minister talking about using the cover of covid to "change all the rules" in the amazon. for our world, justin rowlatt is on a mission to find out how a tribe he visited a decade ago is faring 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? 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! "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. 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. do you remember me? 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. so probably the most amazing moment of all for me was when operation 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. shouting. 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, it's got 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, a700 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 talking £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 for farming. 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 online 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 tranches 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 pirai'i told me what it was like when he lived like this. "it is a life," he told me, "of constant fear."

finally, the weather's settled down, and it's going to last for at least the next few days. later in the week, next week, things may turn a little more unsettled, but we're not anticipating things turning much colder. let's concentrate on the good news for now. so warm and sunny weather lasting into bank holiday monday, and you can see the warmth has spread across the uk into scandinavia as well, other parts of europe further east and south. and temperatures will probably peak at around 2a or 25 degrees celsius come monday or tuesday. so, let's get on to the forecast, then, starting with the satellite picture, and i want to show you what's happening with the weather fronts currently coming off the atlantic. look at this. it looks rather ominous, then it reaches ireland and the uk, and it fizzles out. and that's because there's a big

area of high pressure across the uk and scandinavia, and it basically stops the weather fronts from punching through. now, high pressures aren't always sunny, there is always a little bit of cloud around, and in fact, there is some low—grade cloud stuck in the north sea, and there's very little wind to push it around. but there is just a bit of an onshore wind. so that means that some eastern coasts, very close to the coast itself, will be a little cloudy. but elsewhere it's clear blue skies on sunday. and the high pressure's with us into monday, keeping the weather fronts at bay. they're shooting off into the northern climes, we've got the sunny weather. but again, north sea coasts with an onshore wind could be, at least in one or two areas, a little on the cloudy side. and maybe fair—weather cloud building in the afternoon elsewhere, but look at the temperatures — 23 in liverpool, 22 in glasgow, not far off 20 degrees in northern ireland as well. and repeat performance on tuesday. again, light winds, sunny skies, beautiful weather to be had right across the board.

temperatures will probably peak at around 2a or 25 degrees celsius in the south of the country, maybe even the mid 20s. you never know a little bit further north, then it all changes. a low pressure is heading our way, but this low pressure's not coming out of the north atlantic. it's coming in from the south. so that means it will be, let's call it a warm area of low pressure. so not necessarily cool air, but it will be cloudy, humid and quite thundery. so, yes, at this stage, we think the weather will go downhill. but look at the temperatures, still into the 20s, despite the weather going downhill. now, the low pressure is very close to the uk or right on top of it come thursday. in fact, quite a few isobars there. so it will be fairly breezy out towards the south west of the uk on thursday, and there'll probably be quite a few showers around. but if the forecast holds to this pattern, it looks as though eastern counties all the way from scotland to the south east should have the best weather on thursday, with temperatures not far off 20

towards the west of the uk and also around northern ireland here, we'll see temperatures of around 15, 16 degrees. and then towards the end of the week, the jet stream is generally out in the atlantic and to a the north of us, with low pressure and cooler air here — we're still closer to that more disturbed weather in the south, so these thunderstorms are a little bit more unpredictable, they could be heading our way. it's pretty uncertain what's going to happen beyond thursday. so let's summarise all of that, cos there's a lot happening. warm and sunny start to the week, up to 25 degrees celsius, showers coming in from the south midweek, and then after that, a little uncertain.

this is bbc news. champion league winners — chelsea beat manchester city to take the cup. making a splash — a rise in lockdown river swimming promts public concern around the state of the uk s waterways. and we ll be taking an in—depth look at the papers with our reviewers sian griffiths, the education editor of the sunday timesand political commentatorjames millar. — stay with us for that. in the last few minutes, chelsea have won the champions league.