VOUX MAG

Violencebroke out in a remote town in northern Australia after police arrested themain suspect in the murder of a five-year-oldIndigenous girl.

Jefferson Lewis, 47, was arrested late on Thursday night local time inAlice Springs.

The young girl, referred to by her family as Kumanjayi Little Baby in line with Indigenous customs, was reported missing from her central Australian home late on Saturday.

Authorities located the body, believed to be hers, shortly before midday on Thursday, about 5km south of the original crime scene.

Local reports said a crowd attacked Mr Lewis when he appeared in a localcommunityand beat him unconscious before police intervened.

Police said they had long suspected that Lewis received assistance from people in thecommunitybefore he appeared at a town camp.

“For him to be able to appear inAlice Springslast night just confirms to us that he was getting support from somebody,” police commissioner Martin Dole of the Northern Territory said.

“My message to those people is, look out because we're coming for you as well.”

When officers took him to a local hospital, hundreds of “angry” residents gathered, shouting for him to be killed and demanding “payback”, according to the ABC.

The situation escalated into rioting as people threw rocks and bottles, set vehicles on fire, and damaged property. Police responded with rubber bullets and tear gas to control the crowd.

Several officers were injured in the violence.

The unrest continued into the next day, leaving streets littered with debris and signs of looting nearby. Authorities later transferred Mr Lewis to Darwin for his safety and to prevent furtherviolence.

“As a result of presenting himself, members of that town camp decided to inflict vigilante justice upon Jefferson, and we received numerous phone calls saying he was in the process of being assaulted,” Mr Dole said on Friday.

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Theviolencefollowed days of search for the girl, who had gone missing from a remote Aboriginal town camp nearAlice Springs.

Hours after the girl’s death was confirmed, Mr Lewis was reportedly seen wandering near the Charles Creek town camp in centralAlice Springs.

“Members of that town camp decided to inflict vigilante justice upon Jefferson and we received numerous phone calls saying he was in the process of being assaulted,” Mr Dole said.

“Our police officers were attacked at that time, as were the St John Ambulance crew that attended to assist. They were turned on by about 200 people, but they were able to get out of there and get Mr Lewis to hospital.”

Videos from outside the Alice Springs Hospital showed protesters demanding “payback”, meaning a form of traditional punishment under Aboriginal law in Central Australia.

Reports said anger within thecommunityremained high. “The feeling is that the police are protecting this guy. They are shooting us with rubber bullets,” Harley Myers, an Arrernte man from Alice Springs, said.

“It’s like the system is not sticking up for us and letting us get our own traditional payback.”

“We’re united because it hurts all of us,” he added, “because she was only five years old and it could happen to any of our kids. I don’t want that to happen to any of our kids at all.”

Indigenous leaders, however, urged calm. “Bringing the word ‘payback’ into this scenario just fuelsviolence,” Michael Liddle, an Alyawarre man and Alice Springs local, told the BBC.

“There’s a system set up here, where there is a person in custody, and the Western rules will deal with that person.”

The girl’s grandfather also called for calm on Friday. “What has happened this week is not our way,” Robin Granites, a senior Yapa elder, said in a statement.

“Our children are precious, of course, we are feeling angry and hurt at what has happened. This man has been caught, thanks tocommunityaction, and we must now let justice take its course while we take the time to mourn Kumanjayi Little Baby and support our family.”

On Thursday, the girl’s mother, who was not named, said: “It is going to be so hard to live the rest of our lives without you. Me and your brother will meet you one day.”

Mr Dole said charges against Mr Lewis were likely to be filed in the coming days.

Cameron Young fired a bogey-free, 8-under-par 64 to kick off the Cadillac Championship and take a one-shot lead over Jordan Spieth and Alex Smalley on Thursday outside Miami.

The PGA Tour returned to Trump National Doral and the famed "Blue Monster" for the first time since 2016. The event is a $20 million signature event with no 36-hole cut.

Young won the biggest tournament of his career just six weeks ago in Florida -- The Players Championship. Now No. 4 in the world rankings, Young excelled in his first competitive round at the Blue Monster, making up for 50% driving accuracy by ranking third in the field in strokes gained around the green and strokes gained putting.

Young had four birdies on each nine, including a 41 1/2-foot putt at the par-3 fourth and a 25-footer at the par-3 15th.

Spieth is one of a handful of players in the field who's played the Blue Monster in a PGA Tour event, and he got off to a strong start with three birdies and an eagle on the front nine. He mixed four more birdies with two bogeys coming in.

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The 65 was his lowest round of the year, and he's in position to make a run at his first trophy since the 2022 RBC Heritage.

Smalley only got into the field through the "Aon Swing 5" that rewards players' recent performance in standard tour events. He ranked second in the field in strokes gained approaching the green as he holed eight birdies with one bogey.

Canadian Nick Taylor is alone in fourth following a bogey-free, 6-under 66. Nico Echavarria of Colombia is in fifth at 5-under 67.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, making his first career start at Doral, birdied three of his first five holes but bogeyed Nos. 10 and 11 and settled for a 1-under 71.

--Field Level Media

New Zealandis witnessing an extraordinary citizen-led effort to bring its sacred national bird, thekiwi, back to the capital’s hills after an absence of over a century.

Residents are spearheading an ambitious campaign to reintroduce the endangered, flightless birds to their ancestral lands.

Kiwi are “a part of who we are and our sense of belonging here”, Paul Ward, founder of the Capital Kiwi Project, a charitable trust, said.

“But they’ve been gone from these hills for well over a century and we decided as Wellingtonians that wasn’t right."

In a poignant scene late on Tuesday night, Ward and his team traversed rugged farmland, shrouded in mist above the dark sea separating New Zealand’s North and South Islands. By the dim glow of red torchlight, they silently carried seven crates, each containing a kiwi.

This release marked a significant milestone, including the 250th bird relocated toWellingtonsince the project’s inception.

The kiwi, a shy and distinctive bird with underdeveloped wings and a whiskery face, is so emblematic that it lends its name to New Zealanders themselves. Its image is ubiquitous, even adorning the tailfins of the country’s air force planes – an ironic tribute for a bird that cannot fly and possesses no tail.

Historically, an estimated 12 million kiwis roamed the landscape before human settlement. Today, however, only around 70,000 remain nationwide, with the population declining by 2 per cent annually.

In the hills where Wellington’s kiwi now live and breed, the only late-night sound on Tuesday was the whoosh of wind turbines. Mr Ward and his friends set their crates down in pairs, slid them open and gently tilted the boxes.

Some in the small group of hushed onlookers were tearful. One man chanted a karakia, a Māori prayer.

From each crate, a long, curved beak eventually protruded as kiwi took their first tentative steps into the shadowed landscape, then sped to a run and disappeared into the darkness.

Kiwi make their first-ever visit to Parliament

One place kiwi had never set foot until this week was inside New Zealand’s Parliament. Hours before Wellington’s seven newest residents were transported to their hillside home, they were carried into Parliament’s grand banquet hall by handlers for a celebration of the 250th kiwi's arrival in the city.

Politicians and schoolchildren alike expressed whispered delight at seeing the timid, nocturnal birds up close, many for the first time, as conservation workers cradled the large birds like human babies, with their gnarled feet outstretched.

“This animal has given us as a people so much in terms of our sense of identity,” Mr Ward said.

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“We want to challenge our civic leaders, our politicians and say ‘this is a relationship we need to honour’.”

Endangered birds move from sanctuaries to urban life

New Zealand is home to some of the world’s strangest and rarest bird species. Some have only survived because of against-all-odds conservation programs, at times with uncertain funding.

Initiatives decades ago saw all surviving birds of some species moved onto offshore, predator-free islands or into sanctuaries where they could be carefully monitored and protected, but where few New Zealanders would ever see one.

Mr Ward and his group had a different dream: that New Zealand’s iconic national bird could flourish alongside people in a bustling capital city, where human encroachment and introduced predators had wiped out the kiwi before.

“Where people are is also the places where we can bring them back because we’ve got the means to do that guardianship,” Mr Ward said.

Thousands of traps protect kiwi in the capital

Although unmanaged kiwi populations are shrinking, their numbers have thrived in carefully managed wild bird sanctuaries — so much, in fact, that some of these protected areas have run out of room for them.

That has prompted their relocation to places like Wellington, where groups such as Mr Ward’s rally residents to embrace their new neighbors. Kiwi have been spotted by late night mountain bikers and on backyard security camera footage in the capital, he said.

“They’re living and calling and being encountered on the hills surrounding our city,” Mr Ward said.

That has taken work. Over the past decade, efforts between landowners, the local Māori tribe and the Capital Kiwi Project have produced a sprawling, 24,000-hectare tract of land where kiwi can roam.

It’s dotted with more than 5,000 traps for stoats, the main predator of kiwi chicks. So far, the Wellington population has a 90 per cent chick survival rate.

NZ eyes predator free goal

The kiwi initiative is part of New Zealand’s quest to rid the island nation of introduced predators, including feral cats, possums, rats and stoats, by the year 2050. Since a previous government established the target in 2016 its chances of success have been debated, but community groups have taken up the work in earnest.

Parts of Wellington are now entirely free of mammalian predators apart from household pets, and native birds flourish. Volunteers monitor suburbs with military precision for the appearance of a single rat.

“When I think of endangered species globally, for the most part you can’t do much other than campaign or donate money,” said Michelle Impey, chief executive of Save the Kiwi.

“But we have this incredible movement throughout the country where everyday people are taking it on under their own steam to do what they can to protect a threatened species.”

David Allan Coe, the country singer-songwriter who wrote the working class anthem “Take This Job and Shove It″ and had hits with “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” and “The Ride” among others, has died. He was 86.

Obit David Allan Coe

Coe's wife confirmed his death to Rolling Stone on Wednesday.

Whether he was labeled outlaw or underground, Coe was clearly an outsider in Nashville's music establishment, even throughout his successes as an in-demand songwriter and singer, eventually developing a core following around his raw, often obscene lyrics and a checkered and somewhat mysterious past.

His wife, Kimberly, posted on Facebook on in September 2021 that he had been hospitalized with COVID-19 and he made few appearances since then.

He did concert tours with Willie Nelson, Kid Rock, Neil Young and others. He wrote “Take This Job and Shove It,” a hit by Johnny Paycheck in 1977, and “Would You Lay With Me (in a Field of Stone),” a hit by Tanya Tucker in 1974. He was also the first country singer to record “Tennessee Whiskey,” penned by Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove, that has since become a genre standard and hits for George Jones and Chris Stapleton.

His own country hit recordings included “You Never Even Call Me by My Name,” written by Steve Goodman and an uncredited John Prine; “The Ride,” and “Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile.” Coe also appeared in a handful of movies, including “Stagecoach” and “Take this Job and Shove It,” which was named after his song.

Coe, born in Akron, Ohio, spent time in reformatories as a youngster, and served time in an Ohio prison from 1963 to 1967 for possession of burglary tools. He also has said he spent time with the Outlaws motorcycle club, but some of the tales about his prison time and his personal life have been wildly exaggerated over the years.

“I’d have never made it through prison without my music,” he said in an AP interview in 1983. “No one could take it (music) away from me. They could put me in the hole with nothing to do but I could still make up a song in my head.”

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He recorded his first album, a blues album called “Penitentiary Blues,” using songs that he wrote in prison. He later told reporters that he tried not to lean too heavily on prison as a topic for songs because of the similarities to the backstory of Merle Haggard, but that his criminal history was all people seemed interested in focusing on.

Coe recorded next for Columbia Records and did the album “The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy,” which became his nickname after performing in a rhinestone suit and wearing a mask.

During the heyday of the outlaw movement, Coe placed himself at the center of the scene, with songs like “Longhaired Redneck,” which featured lyrics about performing in dive bars, “Where bikers stare at cowboys who are laughing at the hippies who are praying they’ll get out of here alive.”

He was featured in the acclaimed documentary about the outlaw country movement called “Heartworn Highways,” in which he performs a concert at a Tennessee prison.

Coe, himself heavily tattooed and sporting long hair, claimed a diverse fan base that included bikers, doctors, lawyers and bankers. His last record, released in 2006, was a collaboration with Dimebag Darrell and other former members of the heavy metal group Pantera.

He released two R-rated albums, 1978′s “Nothing Sacred” and 1982′s “Underground Album,” that he sold via biker magazines. The songs on these albums have been criticized for being racist, homophobic and sexually explicit. He told “Billboard” magazine in 2001 that author and songwriter Shel Silverstein convinced him to record the songs he had written, something he had come to regret.

“Those were meant to be sung around the campfire for bikers, and I still don’t sing those songs in concert,” he said.

In 2016, Coe was ordered to pay the IRS more than $980,000 in restitution for obstructing the tax agency and was sentenced to three years’ probation. Court documents say Coe earned income from at least 100 concerts yearly from 2008 through 2013 and either didn’t file individual income tax returns or pay taxes when he did file.

April 28 (Reuters) - The United States has placed specific conditions on releasing billions of dollars it owes to the United Nations, including further cost-cutting, and moves to counter ‌China's influence at the world body, a development news wire reported on Tuesday.

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty at U.N. headquarters in New York City

The report ‌by Devex, an independent news organization covering global development, said two diplomatic notes circulated by the U.S. called for nine "quick-hit" ​reforms as a condition for releasing more funds.

It said these included:

- Overhauling the U.N. pension system

- Ending long-distance business-class travel for some senior and all mid-level professionals

- Imposing additional cuts to the U.N.'s senior ranks

- A "10% reduction in long-standing, ineffective peacekeeping missions.”

- Blocking China from channeling tens of millions of ‌dollars each year to a discretionary ⁠fund housed in the office of the U.N. secretary-general, a move aimed countering Chinese influence at the U.N.

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"These reforms will be an indication that the UN ⁠is serious about reform," Devex quoted one of the documents saying.

The U.S. mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The U.S. has said repeatedly that it will ​keep pressuring ​the United Nations to reform after announcing its withdrawals ​from dozens of U.N. bodies this ‌year and cutting millions of dollars in funding last year.

China's U.N. mission did not immediately respond when asked to comment.

U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said assessed contributions by the United States and every other U.N. member state were "a treaty obligation" and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was already "leading a pretty heavy reform" of the organization.

"It involves decisions that member states must take if we want to have ‌a U.N. that is more effective, that uses its resources ​in the best way possible," Dujarric told a news ​briefing. "The secretary-general is doing everything he can ​in that direction."

Guterres warned in January that the U.N. faced "imminent financial collapse" due ‌to unpaid fees, most of which are ​owed by the United ​States. The U.N. said in February the United States had paid about $160 million of the more than $4 billion it owes.

The U.S. owed $2.19 billion to the regular U.N. budget as of ​the start of February, more ‌than 95% of the total then owed by countries globally. The U.S. owed another $2.4 ​billion for current and past peacekeeping missions and $43.6 million for U.N. tribunals.

(Reporting by David ​Brunnstrom, Editing by Don Durfee and Chizu Nomiyama)

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Nolan Gorman homered and drove in three runs and Alec Burleson and Jordan Walker drove in three runs apiece to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to an 11-7 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night.

Cardinals Pirates Baseball

JJ Wetherholt and Ivan Herrera, the top two hitters in the Cardinals’ batting order, scored three runs each. Burleson, Walker and Masyn Winn each finished with two hits.

Gorman opened the scoring with a homer leading off the second, his fourth of the season. Victor Scott II started a two-run second with his first home run of the season before Wetherholt doubled and scored a single by Walker.

The Cardinals extended their lead to 6-0 in the fifth when Burleson doubled in a run and Walker and Gorman followed with consecutive sacrifice fly balls.

Kyle Leahy (3-3) allowed three runs and nine hits in 5 1/3 innings with seven strikeouts. The Pirates scored all three runs in the sixth on homers by Oneil Cruz and a two-run shot by Ryan O’Hearn, cutting their deficit to 6-3.

The Cardinals broke the game open with three runs in the seventh inning and two in the eighth.

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The Cardinals have won the first two games of the four-game series after entering on a four-game losing streak. The Pirates have lost three in a row for the first time this season.

Braxton Ashcraft (1-2) was rocked for six runs in 4 1/3 innings after being activated from the bereavement/family medical emergency list before the game. He allowed six hits, struck out seven and walked three.

Pirates rookie Konnor Griffin hit a solo homer in the ninth inning. O’Hearn had two hits and three RBIs and Nick Gonzales had two hits and knocked in two runs.

Up next

Cardinals RHP Andre Pallante (2-2, 4.26 ERA) starts on Wednesday night against rookie RHP Bubba Chandler (1-2, 4.88).

AP MLB:https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The post-position draw for the Kentucky Derby is one of the few times in thoroughbred racing when getting first is not something to celebrate.

Last Saturday, during the draw for this Saturday's 152nd running of the race at Churchill Downs, that distinction went to Renegade.

Despite the ominous spot for Renegade, Churchill Downs' morning-line oddsmaker Nick Tammaro still set the 3-year-old colt as his early 4-1 favorite for the 1-1/4-mile race that serves as the start of racing's Triple Crown.

Drawing the inside post means Renegade will be the horse closest to the rail. While he would have the shortest path to the finish line, he will also have to avoid getting pinched along the rail as up to 19 competitors try to move in at the start.

The last horse to win from the No. 1 post position was Ferdinand in 1986, the last Derby win for legendary jockey Bill Shoemaker.

As for Renegade, the horse trained by Todd Pletcher has never finished out of the money in five starts. After placing twice and showing once in his 2-year-old campaign, Renegade has won both starts this year, including the Arkansas Derby a month ago.

Another horse seeking to buck a trend is Emerging Market. Trainer Chad Brown's horse, who has morning-line odds of 15-1, won the Louisiana Derby in just his second start. However, the last horse to win the Kentucky Derby in just a third start was Leonatus in 1883.

Brown, though, thinks his colt can end that 143-year streak.

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"He has such a wonderful mind and is so calm and collected," said Brown, whose entry got the 15th gate.

Based on Tammaro's projected odds, Renegade is considered one of four horses that stand out in the field. The co-second choices are Further Ado and Commandment at 6-1. Both are trained by Brad Cox, a Louisville native. Commandment has won four straight, including the Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park on March 28, while Further Ado impressed many with his 11-length win in the Blue Grass Stakes a week later at Keeneland.

Commandment drew the sixth post, and Further Ado will break from the 17th. Further Ado moved into that spot after Silent Tactic was scratched on Wednesday.

The fourth choice at 8-1 is Chief Wallabee, who will break from the 12th gate. He finished second to Commandment in the Fountain of Youth Stakes in February and third in the Florida Derby. Trained by Bill Mott, who won the Kentucky Derby last year with Sovereignty, is adding blinkers to the colt in hopes it will improve his performance.

"He seemed to be maybe just a little more straight and maybe a little more true," Mott said after the draw.

Another horse drawing interest is The Puma, who won the Tampa Bay Derby on March 7 and followed that up by finishing second in the Florida Derby three weeks later. Trained by Gustavo Delgado, the colt will break ninth and has odds of 10-1.

Trainer Bob Baffert has a pair of longshots in the field as he seeks a record seventh Derby win. Litmus Test is 30-1 coming off a seventh-place finish in the Arkansas Derby, while Potente, at 20-1, finished second in the Santa Anita Derby to So Happy (15-1). Litmus Test is starting fourth, Potente 14th.

There are currently 20 horses entered, with three also-eligibles. Great White joined the field Wednesday after Silent Tactic was scratched. An also-eligible can enter the race, based on the points they acquired in prep races, if another starter is scratched before 9 a.m. ET Friday.

--Steve Bittenbender, Field Level Media