Lula pledged upon taking office in 2023 to eliminate illegal gold mining from Indigenous lands and protected areas after years of expansion encouraged by far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro

International News via Reuters:

Billions of dollars worth of gold is still being extracted illegally from Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, a study by nonprofit watchdog Greenpeace found, despite efforts by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to crack down on wildcat mining.

Lula pledged upon taking office in 2023 to eliminate illegal gold mining from Indigenous lands and protected areas after years of expansion encouraged by far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro. Last year, Brazil’s Federal Police seized a record 447 kg (985 pounds) of illegally mined gold.

But as gold prices hit record highs amid intense geopolitical instability, the Greenpeace study found that miners have adapted by using permits from places with no mining activity to falsify the origin of illegally mined gold. 

Greenpeace analyzed 187 forest areas with gold mining permits issued by Brazilian mining agency ANM near Indigenous lands and protected areas in the Amazon and found that 98 of them showed no signs of mining.

Still, so-called “ghost permits” from those areas were used to justify the sale of 26.8 metric tons of gold worth an estimated $3.88 billion between 2018 and March 2026. 

Reuters flew over two of the permitted areas in the dataset and verified that, despite paperwork for huge output from surface mining, there was no activity to be seen. Six minutes away by air, journalists spotted a large active illegal operation in a protected area. 

It was not clear where all the gold backed by so-called “ghost permits” originated, but researchers and investigators believe much of it is extracted from protected areas and Indigenous lands, such as the Kayapo people’s territory in Para state.

Kayapo chief Megaron Txucarramae expressed frustration at the government’s failure to act.

“I don’t know what else is needed to solve illegal mining on Indigenous land,” he said. “It destroys the land, pollutes the rivers, and Indigenous people, without realizing it, end up eating poisoned fish.”

ANM said in a statement that it was monitoring the permits that Greenpeace denounced for any irregularities and added that, with thousands of permits issued, the Amazon region imposes “large-scale logistical and oversight challenges.”

“As long as it is possible to launder gold using mining permits, there will be an expansion of the activity in the Amazon,” said Greenpeace Brasil spokesperson Danicley Aguiar.

Reporting by Ricardo Brito; Editing by Manuela Andreoni and Jamie Freed

Wearing tan pants, a white shirt and dark suit jacket, Kenneth Law, 60, was emotionless as he entered the pleas on Friday at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Newmarket, Ontario, north of Toronto

International News via Reuters:

A Canadian man accused of selling a legal but potentially deadly chemical online to 14 people who took their own lives pleaded guilty on Friday to aiding suicide, allowing him to avoid a high-profile murder trial.

Wearing tan pants, a white shirt and dark suit jacket, Kenneth Law, 60, was emotionless as he entered the pleas on Friday at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Newmarket, Ontario, north of Toronto. 

He was facing 14 counts each of first-degree murder and counseling or aiding suicide related to 14 Ontario residents, aged 16 to 36, who died by suicide.

Prosecutor Peter Westgate told Justice Michelle Fuerst that prosecutors would ask that the murder charges be withdrawn after he is sentenced at a later date.

Law’s lawyer, Matthew Gourlay, told Reuters last month Law would plead guilty to aiding suicide charges under an agreement with Ontario prosecutors that would see the murder charges withdrawn. Gourlay has declined to comment further on the case.

SALT CAN BE DEADLY IN HIGH CONCENTRATIONS

Canadian police allege that Law, a trained engineer who worked as a cook at a luxury Toronto hotel before his arrest, operated several websites starting around 2020 which marketed and sold sodium nitrite and other items that ​could be used by the purchasers to take their own lives.

Sodium nitrite, a salt used in low concentrations as a food additive to cure processed meats, can be deadly when ingested in high concentrations.

Law’s case has drawn global attention because of the international reach of his alleged shipments. Ontario investigators have accused Law of mailing at least 1,200 packages to addresses in more ‌than ⁠40 countries, including around 160 in Canada.

Authorities in Britain, Ireland and other countries have opened investigations into whether the products were responsible for deaths in their jurisdictions and conducted welfare checks on those who purchased them.

Britain’s National Crime Agency said in April it was investigating potential offences linked to the deaths of 112 people in the UK who bought items to assist with suicide from Canada-based websites tied to a Canadian suspect it did not name.

Law has been in custody since his arrest at his home west of Toronto in May 2023.

A conviction for counseling or aiding suicide carries a ​prison sentence of up to 14 years, according to ​Canada’s Criminal Code. First-degree murder in Canada carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment with no chance of parole for ​a minimum of 25 years.

Reporting by Ryan Patrick Jones in Toronto; Editing by Edmund Klamann and David Holmes

Seven Lao nationals had entered the cave in Xaisomboun province to prospect for gold, but their exit was blocked, leaving them trapped for more than a week

International News via Reuters:

A team of specialist divers said they pulled one man from a flooded cave in central Laos on Friday, as four more people remained trapped with two others still missing.

Seven Lao nationals had entered the cave in Xaisomboun province to prospect for gold, but their exit was blocked, leaving them trapped for more than a week.

Video footage showed rescuers guiding a mud-smeared man wearing a headlamp from the tight cave entrance.

Reuters had not yet verified the video at the time of writing. 

It took about 37 minutes to bring him through the passages to safety, the team said in a Facebook post.

Rescuers said they had stopped operations for the night as they evaluated the remaining four people they had found, and planned to resume the search for the final two.

A team of volunteers from neighbouring Thailand joined the rescue efforts on Sunday and further reinforcements were due to arrive on Friday, including from France, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand and Australia, the group posted on Facebook.

Kengkard Bongkawong, a Thai cave diver involved in the mission, said in a Facebook post on Friday that the health of the survivors was deteriorating as they awaited evacuation. 

“The rescue operation is extremely challenging, as it involves moving them through narrow passages stretching hundreds of metres and requiring underwater diving,” he said.    

Footage taken on Thursday by Norrased Palasing, another Thai volunteer, showed survivors sitting on a ledge deep in the cave and crying with relief. 

Reuters was able to confirm the location from corroborating social media footage showing two divers in the video both went into the cave for the rescue. Facial features of men in the videos matched corroborating footage of members of the rescue team. The date of the footage was not confirmed, but no older versions of the videos were posted online before May 27 and 28, 2026.

Reporting by Bangkok bureau; Writing by David Stanway; Editing by Martin Petty and Chiara Rodriquez

Lauded abroad by liberals for standing up to U.S. President Donald Trump and calling out atrocities in Gaza, at home Sanchez trails in the polls and is coming under fire even from allies for the string of corruption cases making their way through Spain’s courts

International News via Reuters:

Eight years after ousting a corruption-mired, centre-right government on the promise of cleaning up politics, Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is running out of road as graft accusations stack up against his party and family.

Lauded abroad by liberals for standing up to U.S. President Donald Trump and calling out atrocities in Gaza, at home Sanchez trails in the polls and is coming under fire even from allies for the string of corruption cases making their way through Spain’s courts.

Sanchez himself has not been named in any of the cases to date and has said they are a part of a campaign to oust him.

There is a long tradition in Spain of the two political parties that have alternated in power taking advantage of the levers of patronage that they control when in office, said Miriam Gonzalez, a Spanish lawyer and founder of España Mejor, a platform for engaging civil society in politics.   

Sanchez’s office and the PSOE didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Alberto Feijoo, leader of the conservative People’s Party that was kicked out in the 2018 no confidence vote, quipped that there were so many cases hovering over Sanchez that when police on Wednesday searched his Socialist Party’s (PSOE) headquarters, Spaniards had no idea to which case it was related.

Sanchez said his party was cooperating fully with the investigation.

KEY CONFIDANTS INVESTIGATED

Key confidants, including Sanchez’s number three in the PSOE and his former transport minister, are being investigated in several cases involving kickbacks for public works, or oil and gas contracts, and the procurement of masks during the pandemic. 

They have denied wrongdoing.

Last week, Spain’s High Court said it was investigating former Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero for allegedly leading a network that profited from lobbying public ​authorities on behalf of third parties, such as airline Plus Ultra. He denies the claims.

That case is particularly damaging for Sanchez because of Zapatero’s role as a mentor, said Lorenzo Bernaldo de Quiros, an economist and president of Freemarket Corporate Intelligence.

“Zapatero is Sanchez’s ideological father,” he said. “They are two sides of the same coin.” 

Some cases, such as the trial of Sanchez’s brother David and of his wife Begona Gomez for alleged influence peddling were pursued following complaints filed by anti-graft campaign group Manos Limpias – Clean Hands – whose leader has links to the far-right.

That led Sanchez to complain of a politicised “mud machine” aimed at undermining his government – a perception shared by Socialist voters, said political analyst Eduardo Bayon. 

David Sanchez’s lawyer on Wednesday called for the case against him to be closed, calling the allegations “pure lies”. Begona Gomez has also denied the claims.

ANTI-DEMOCRATIC MEANS

Transport Minister Oscar Puente on Thursday said the flurry of legal activity constituted “an attempt to bring down the government by anti-democratic means”.

In March, Sanchez was the only major EU leader with a positive net approval rating, according to a Polling Europe Euroscope survey published in April. 

Praise from progressives abroad has done little to boost Sanchez’s support at home, with the PP ahead in polls with 31.6% of the vote compared to around 28.1% for the PSOE and 17.7% for far-right Vox, according to an early May poll of polls by Electrocracia. 

The government has ruled out calling elections before its term ends in August 2027 and is not seen as inclined to submit itself to a confidence vote. 

That leaves a no confidence vote brought by opposition parties as the only possible way for them to remove the Socialists from power. Feijoo on Thursday urged smaller parties still supporting the Socialists to do more than “abstain from the problem”.

But ousting the PSOE could usher in a PP government that would likely need Vox’s support to govern. Many parties are reluctant to back a far-right return to power following the end of Francisco Franco’s fascist regime in the 1970s. 

A source at Catalan pro-independence party Junts said it had not been approached by the PP about a no-confidence vote and it wouldn’t support anything that risked handing power to the PP and Vox. 

Aitor Esteban, leader of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), said the legislature had “reached its end”, even as he said his party would not support a no-confidence vote.

“We find ourselves in a state of limbo where some judges lie and some politicians steal,” said Gabriel Rufian, leader of the Catalan separatist party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya and a sometime Socialist ally. “People are deeply disillusioned, and the only thing preventing this government from falling is that the alternative is infinitely worse.” 

Reporting Victoria Waldersee, Javi West, Joan Faus; Writing by Charlie Devereux; Editing by Sharon Singleton

Blue Origin was preparing the rocket for its fourth launch, which was due to deliver 48 Amazon Leo satellites into low-Earth orbit, part of efforts to build a broadband constellation to rival Musk’s Starlink network

International News via Reuters:

An uncrewed Blue Origin New Glenn rocket exploded on a Florida launchpad during a test on Thursday, in a major setback for Jeff Bezos’ space venture as it seeks to narrow the gap with Elon Musk’s IPO-bound SpaceX.

Video posted by NASASpaceflight, which livestreams launches from Florida, showed the towering New Glenn rocket igniting on the pad at about 2100 ET (0100 GMT on Friday) before erupting into a massive fireball that billowed skyward, sending a towering plume of flames and smoke into the air.

Blue Origin was preparing the rocket for its fourth launch, which was due to deliver 48 Amazon Leo satellites into low-Earth orbit, part of efforts to build a broadband constellation to rival Musk’s Starlink network. Amazon Leo satellites were not integrated on the rocket at the time of the incident, a source familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named due to its sensitivity.

The explosion marks the latest setback for the long-delayed New Glenn, which is supposed to play a central role in delivering lunar landers and cargo under NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration missions.

It comes just two days after NASA awarded Blue Origin a $188 million contract to land rovers on the moon’s surface, and less than a week after SpaceX – years ahead in development – carried out a largely successful test of its next-generation Starship rocket.

Blue Origin confirmed it had experienced an “anomaly” during a hot-fire test, where a rocket engine is fired up while anchored to the ground.

“Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it,” Bezos said in a post on X, adding that it was too early to know the root cause.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the agency would work with Blue Origin to support an investigation of the incident.

“Spaceflight is unforgiving, and developing new heavy-lift launch capability is extraordinarily difficult,” Isaacman said on X.

Isaacman also added that NASA would provide information on any impacts to its Artemis and Moon Base programs.

‘ROCKETS ARE HARD’

Musk’s SpaceX and Bezos’ Blue Origin, in the latest competition between the billionaire-run companies, have been racing to help return people to the moon ahead of a planned crewed mission by China in 2030 by designing the lunar landers NASA will use.

SpaceX, which unveiled its plans for an IPO earlier this month and is set to become the first trillion-dollar U.S. market debut, has also faced setbacks with its rockets.

In June last year, its massive Starship spacecraft exploded in a similarly dramatic fireball during testing in Texas while preparing for a test flight.

SpaceX was partly successful in its 12th test flight ​of a Starship prototype last week after it ⁠deployed a clutch of mock satellites and executed a controlled splashdown of the spacecraft in the Indian Ocean. But the Musk-owned company failed to achieve a controlled landing ​of the Super Heavy booster, which tumbled into the Gulf of Mexico.

Musk responded on X to a video of the Blue Origin explosion, saying, “Most unfortunate. Rockets are hard.”

Blue Origin has spent billions of dollars and roughly a decade developing New Glenn, a rocket 29-stories high with a reusable first stage meant to compete with SpaceX’s Falcon fleet and its more powerful Starship.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said it was aware of the incident, but added that it was outside its scope and did not impact air traffic in the region.

Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru and Joe Brock in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Kate Mayberry