‘Amazon of America’: film paints vision of a post-coup Brazil giving up rainforest

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Vitória Régia imagines rightwing Bolsonaro plot succeeded with US help – and highlights threats facing Indigenous peoples

The year is 2025 and far-right coup plotters have annihilated Brazil’s democracy, assassinating the president, closing the national congress and surrendering the Amazon rainforest and its untold riches to the United States.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Amazon of America,” a thick-accented North American soldier tells a group of journalists being taken on a propaganda tour of an oil refinery in the newly annexed jungle realm. Nearby, a replica of the Statue of Liberty has been carved out of the wilderness to celebrate Washington’s tutelage over more than half of Brazil.

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Bodies retrieved from Indonesian volcano after eruption kills 3 hikers – AP News

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  1. Bodies retrieved from Indonesian volcano after eruption kills 3 hikers  AP News
  2. Two Singaporeans confirmed dead in Indonesia volcano eruption, bodies retrieved  Reuters
  3. Bodies of missing hikers found in each other's arms after volcano erupts in Indonesia  Sky News
  4. Indonesian rescuers retrieve body from Mount Dukono as search continues  The Guardian
  5. Mount Dukono: Multiple hikers killed, others rescued after volcano erupts in Indonesia  CNN
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Drone Hits Ship Near Qatar as US Awaits Iran Peace Plan Response – Bloomberg.com

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  1. Drone Hits Ship Near Qatar as US Awaits Iran Peace Plan Response  Bloomberg.com
  2. Iran ceasefire tested as cargo ship catches fire after being hit off Qatar's coast  NPR
  3. Live: Iran responds to US peace plan after drones target Kuwait and the UAE  France 24
  4. Tanker struck off Qatar as Iran warns of US sanction supporters  The Jerusalem Post
  5. US-Iran ceasefire under strain as Gulf states report drone attacks  Al Jazeera
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Plaid Cymru leader says he hopes to be made first minister as early as Tuesday

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Rhun ap Iowerth says he hopes his party’s programme for government will get backing from across the Senedd

The leader of Plaid Cymru is hoping to become Welsh first minister as early as Tuesday after his party won a historic victory in the Senedd elections, soundly beating Labour and holding off Reform UK.

Plaid fell short of winning a majority in the Welsh parliament but Rhun ap Iorwerth said on Sunday he hoped other parties would work with him and told UK Labour not to punish Wales over the result.

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‘I was in a terrible state’: actor David Morrissey tells how social anxiety led him to alcoholism

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Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, Liverpool-born actor says depression and anxiety followed death of his father when he was 15

The actor David Morrissey has spoken of how “terrible” social anxiety contributed to him becoming an alcoholic.

“I am a recovering alcoholic,” Morrissey, who has been sober for 21 years, told Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. “Drinking first was about anxiety. I’ve had this terrible social anxiety and that helped me get through it.”

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Gullah Geechee people set out to keep their family land. Unclear titles and surging taxes are pushing them out

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Property disputes, predatory developers and surging sea levels are putting the historic Black community at risk

On Arthur Champen’s half-acre property in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, a thicket of southern live oaks, palmettos and pine trees muffle the roar of cars on nearby highway 278. His haint blue house, lightened by the sun, sits on stilts to protect it from flooding that comes with the high tide. During the spring, it is common for the marshland adjacent to his land to turn into a muddy soup. “Other than the cars,” Champen, 81, said, “you hear how peaceful it is?”

About a decade ago, Champen’s family nearly lost the grassy marshland next door that their family bought several generations ago.

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How TMZ is finding its footing on the political scene, even after some misfires

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The salacious gossip website is hounding politicians and tracking vacationing members of Congress

TMZ has only been in Washington DC for a matter of weeks, but the salacious gossip website is already having an impact: hounding politicians, tracking vacationing members of Congress and reporting on a senator taking a trip to Disney World.

It’s been quite the start as the website and TV channel attempts to break into the political scene, with its first focus on members of Congress taking a two-week recess – typically meaning the politicians return to their home districts and states to meet constituents – during a record partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

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North Korea amends constitution, mandates nuclear strike if Kim Jong Un is assassinated: Report – WION

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  1. North Korea amends constitution, mandates nuclear strike if Kim Jong Un is assassinated: Report  WION
  2. North Korea updates constitution to require automatic nuclear strike if Kim Jong Un is assassinated: report  Fox News
  3. North Korean constitution now requires nuclear missile strike if Kim Jong Un is killed by foreign power  New York Post
  4. North Korea revises constitution to drop references to unification of Korean Peninsula  NBC News
  5. North Korea drops reunification goal from constitution  DW.com
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Iran’s Supreme Leader briefs military chief on ‘new guiding measures’, Fars agency says – Reuters

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  1. Iran's Supreme Leader briefs military chief on 'new guiding measures', Fars agency says  Reuters
  2. Iran’s Supreme Leader Meets Military Commander, State Media Says  WSJ
  3. Khamenei briefs army chief on 'guiding measures to pursue military operations' — Iranian media  The Times of Israel
  4. US Iran war news LIVE: Iran sends response to US peace proposal via Pakistan, says negotiations to focus on ending war  Hindustan Times
  5. ‘Confront the enemy’: Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei issues new directive after meeting military head  WION
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Nobel laureate’s smuggled memoir details beatings and neglect in Iranian prisons

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Writing by Narges Mohammadi, arrested 14 times for activism, offers a disturbing insight into treatment

In an exclusive extract of writing smuggled from prison in Iran, the Nobel peace prize laureate Narges Mohammadi has described the “torture” of solitary confinement, and her systematic medical neglect by the prison system.

The writing from the past decade will be part of a soon to be published memoir that gives a rare and alarming insight into the treatment of Mohammadi, who is in critical condition. It details beatings, constant interrogations, deprivation of medical care and long stretches in solitary confinement during her numerous imprisonments.

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Iran’s two-tier internet access fuels anger and exposes cracks in the regime – CNN

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  1. Iran’s two-tier internet access fuels anger and exposes cracks in the regime  CNN
  2. Iran Businesses Buckle Under Strain of Record Internet Shutdown  Bloomberg
  3. Forced offline for most of 2026, Iranians say they're struggling to survive  CBC
  4. Telling the truth about Iran is more dangerous than ever | Maryam Foumani  The Guardian
  5. Infrastructure of Silence - PART II - Iran HRM  Iran HRM
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