Brazil’s military is searching for missing British journalist Dom Phillips as police said they have arrested one person in connection with his disappearance.
The army and navy joined the search for Mr Phillips and Bruno Pereira, an indigenous expert, who went missing in a region containing a vast indigenous reserve that is larger than Austria.
One suspect has been arrested, police said, and four fishermen questioned as witnesses. The fishermen are known to have clashed with authorities earlier over fishing rights.
Mr Phillips, a freelance journalist, and Mr Pereira, a former senior official with federal indigenous agency Funai, were last seen on Sunday.
Indigenous leaders have helped with the search in the Amazon rainforest’s Vale do Javari area and talked to local people.
One of them, Binan Tuku, said: “I asked where Bruno is, they said Bruno had left, then I took two litres of gasoline, and I came through the same way they should have passed, and didn’t find anything. I arrived here in Atalaia at 4 or 5pm, and I was told Bruno was not there, that he had disappeared.”
Gilson Mayuruna, a Vale do Javari indigenous leader, added: “Today, the indigenous movement is in search for clues on the disappearance of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips, who was accompanying him to film and show the problems of Javari people.”
They had been on a reporting trip in the Javari Valley, a remote jungle area that is home to the world's largest number of uncontracted indigenous people, as well as cocaine-smuggling gangs, illegal hunters and fishermen.
Amazonas state police said they had interviewed “four people as witnesses and another as a suspect”.
Both men's families urged the authorities to act fast and a group of friends and journalists appealed to Brazil’s authorities for help. Mr Phillips's sister Sian posted a video message online, fighting back tears.
Mr Pereira's family said: “We are really worried about him and urge the authorities in Brazil to do all they can. Every minute counts.”
“Time is a key factor in rescue operations, particularly if they are injured,” they added.
The pair were returning by boat to the city of Atalaia do Norte, about an hour’s trip, but failed to get there.
Mr Pereira is one of the Funai agency’s most experienced employees operating in the Vale do Javari area.
He oversaw the agency’s regional office and the co-ordination of isolated Indigenous groups before going on leave. He has received a stream of threats from illegal fishermen and poachers, and usually carried a gun.
Mr Phillips, 57, has reported from Brazil for more than a decade and was working on a book about the preservation of the Amazon with support from the Alicia Patterson Foundation, which gave him a year-long fellowship for environmental reporting.
The place where they went missing is the primary access route to the Vale do Javari, Brazil’s second-largest indigenous territory, which is bigger than the US state of Maine.
Local people have said it is highly unlikely the men would have got lost in that area.
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The schedule
December 5 - 23: Shooting competition, Al Dhafra Shooting Club
December 9 - 24: Handicrafts competition, from 4pm until 10pm, Heritage Souq
December 11 - 20: Dates competition, from 4pm
December 12 - 20: Sour milk competition
December 13: Falcon beauty competition
December 14 and 20: Saluki races
December 15: Arabian horse races, from 4pm
December 16 - 19: Falconry competition
December 18: Camel milk competition, from 7.30 - 9.30 am
December 20 and 21: Sheep beauty competition, from 10am
December 22: The best herd of 30 camels
Company%C2%A0profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ELeap%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMarch%202021%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Ziad%20Toqan%20and%20Jamil%20Khammu%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFinTech%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EPre-seed%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunds%20raised%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Undisclosed%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeven%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Europa League group stage draw
Group A: Villarreal, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Astana, Slavia Prague.
Group B: Dynamo Kiev, Young Boys, Partizan Belgrade, Skenderbeu.
Group C: Sporting Braga, Ludogorets, Hoffenheim, Istanbul Basaksehir.
Group D: AC Milan, Austria Vienna , Rijeka, AEK Athens.
Group E: Lyon, Everton, Atalanta, Apollon Limassol.
Group F: FC Copenhagen, Lokomotiv Moscow, Sheriff Tiraspol, FC Zlin.
Group G: Vitoria Plzen, Steaua Bucarest, Hapoel Beer-Sheva, FC Lugano.
Group H: Arsenal, BATE Borisov, Cologne, Red Star Belgrade.
Group I: Salzburg, Marseille, Vitoria Guimaraes, Konyaspor.
Group J: Athletic Bilbao, Hertha Berlin, Zorya Luhansk, Ostersund.
Group K: Lazio, Nice, Zulte Waregem, Vitesse Arnhem.
Group L: Zenit St Petersburg, Real Sociedad, Rosenborg, Vardar
Washmen Profile
Date Started: May 2015
Founders: Rami Shaar and Jad Halaoui
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Laundry
Employees: 170
Funding: about $8m
Funders: Addventure, B&Y Partners, Clara Ventures, Cedar Mundi Partners, Henkel Ventures
Prop idols
Girls full-contact rugby may be in its infancy in the Middle East, but there are already a number of role models for players to look up to.
Sophie Shams (Dubai Exiles mini, England sevens international)
An Emirati student who is blazing a trail in rugby. She first learnt the game at Dubai Exiles and captained her JESS Primary school team. After going to study geophysics at university in the UK, she scored a sensational try in a cup final at Twickenham. She has played for England sevens, and is now contracted to top Premiership club Saracens.
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Seren Gough-Walters (Sharjah Wanderers mini, Wales rugby league international)
Few players anywhere will have taken a more circuitous route to playing rugby on Sky Sports. Gough-Walters was born in Al Wasl Hospital in Dubai, raised in Sharjah, did not take up rugby seriously till she was 15, has a master’s in global governance and ethics, and once worked as an immigration officer at the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi. In the summer of 2021 she played for Wales against England in rugby league, in a match that was broadcast live on TV.
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Erin King (Dubai Hurricanes mini, Ireland sevens international)
Aged five, Australia-born King went to Dubai Hurricanes training at The Sevens with her brothers. She immediately struck up a deep affection for rugby. She returned to the city at the end of last year to play at the Dubai Rugby Sevens in the colours of Ireland in the Women’s World Series tournament on Pitch 1.
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