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From Our Own Correspondent: Murder in the Brazilian Amazon

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18/06/2022 GMT

Murder in the Brazilian Amazon

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Murder in the Brazilian Amazon

Remembering Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira; stories from France, South Africa and Iran

Why Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira faced deadly danger in the Amazon; plus disillusion in French politics; a row over Afrikaans in South Africa and the nomadic herders of Iran.

Max Pearson introduces dispatches from reporters and writers in Brazil, France, South Africa and Iran.

There was concern, fear - and then grief - felt around the world over the fate of the British journalist Dom Phillips and the Brazilian expert on indigenous affairs, Bruno Pereira, who went missing in the Amazonian jungle in early June. They made global headlines, but both men often stressed the climate of fear hanging over communities in Brazil's more remote regions. Their work with local indigenous groups had exposed the pressures of illegal mining, logging and hunting - as well as the risks sharpened by land invasions and drug trafficking - in the area around the Javari valley in Brazil's far west. Andrew Downie pays tribute to the energy and commitment of his friend Dom Phillips.

As France elects the men and women who'll sit in the Assemblee Nationale, Lucy Williamson talks to one of the last cohort of new entrants to the corridors of power. Many of the fresh faces who Emmanuel Macron recruited from outside the political establishment in 2017 now have a different view of the French system after five years spent trying to spark change. 

The Irish budget airline Ryanair has weathered some serious criticism in South Africa recently - over its introduction of a 'general knowledge questionnaire' for South African passengers flying to the UK. It was meant to weed out people traveling on fake passports. The problem? All the questions were in the Afrikaans language, which not all South Africans speak - or even understand. After a passionate backlash, the test has been junked - and even Ryanair's chief executive admitted it 'made no sense'.  Audrey Brown explains why the quiz sparked such widespread anger.

And in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, Anthony Sattin joins the seasonal migration of the Bakhtiari herders, nomads who have driven their sheep and goats across the country's plains and highlands for thousands of years. In the modern world, many countries would prefer nomadic peoples to settle down - it makes them easier to tax, for one thing. Both Shahs and ayatollahs have tried to persuade the Bakhtiari to stop moving around so often - but as it turns out, their seasonal journeys haven't just shaped Iran's history, but continue to feed the country today. 

Producer: Polly Hope
Production Co-Ordintor: Iona Hammond

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