By GABRIELA SÁ PESSOA

SAO PAULO (AP) — Pugapia and her daughters Aiga and Babawru lived for years as the only surviving members of the Akuntsu, an Indigenous people decimated by a government-backed push to develop parts of the Amazon rainforest. As they advanced in age without a child to carry on the line, many expected the Akuntsu to vanish when the women died.

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That changed in December, when Babawru — the youngest of the three, in her 40s — gave birth to a boy. Akyp’s arrival brought hope not just for the Akuntsu line but also for efforts to protect the equally fragile rainforest.

“This child is not only a symbol of the resistance of the Akuntsu people, but also a source of hope for Indigenous peoples,” said Joenia Wapichana, president of Brazil’s Indigenous protection agency, known as Funai. “He represents how recognition, protection and the management of this land are extremely necessary.”

Protecting Indigenous territories is widely seen as one of the most effective ways to curb deforestation in the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest and a key regulator of global climate. Researchers warn that continued forest loss could accelerate global warming. A 2022 analysis by MapBiomas, a network of nongovernmental groups tracking land use, found Indigenous territories in Brazil had lost just 1% of native vegetation over three decades, compared with 20% on private land nationwide.

In Rondonia state, where the Akuntsu dwell, about 40% of native forest has been cleared, and what remains untouched is largely within conservation and Indigenous areas. The Akuntsu’s land stands out in satellite images as an island of forest surrounded by cattle pasture as well as soy and corn fields.

In the 1980s, deforestation pushed attacks in Rondonia

Rondonia’s deforestation traces back to a government-backed push to occupy the rainforest during Brazil’s military regime in the 1970s. Around the same time, an infrastructure program financed in part by the World Bank promoted domestic migration to the Amazon, including the paving of a highway across the state.

In the 1980s, Rondonia’s population more than doubled, according to census data. Settlers were promised land titles if they cleared the forest for agriculture and risked losing claims if Indigenous people were present, fueling violent attacks by hired gunmen on Indigenous groups such as the Akuntsu.

Funai made first contact with the Akuntsu in 1995, finding seven survivors. Experts believe they had numbered about 20 a decade earlier, when they were attacked by ranchers seeking to occupy the area. Funai agents found evidence of the assault, and when they contacted the Akuntsu, the survivors recounted what happened. Some still bore gunshot wounds.

The last Akuntsu man died in 2017. Since then, Babawru lived with her mother, Pugapia, and Aiga, her sister. The women, whose ages aren’t known for certain, have chosen to remain isolated from the non-Indigenous world, showing little interest in it.

In 2006, Funai granted territorial protection to the Akuntsu, establishing the Rio Omere Indigenous Land, which they have since shared with the Kanoe people. The two groups, once enemies, began maintaining contact, usually mediated by officials. The relationship is complex, with cooperation but also cultural differences and language barriers.

The Associated Press requested a facilitated interview with the women through Funai, but the agency didn’t respond.

Amanda Villa, an anthropologist with the Observatory of Isolated Peoples, said Akuntsu women depend on Kanoe men for tasks considered masculine, such as hunting and clearing fields. The two groups have also exchanged spiritual knowledge — the current Kanoe spiritual leader, for example, learned from the late Akuntsu patriarch.

But the most consequential development for the future of the Akuntsu may have occurred last year, when Babawru became pregnant by a Kanoe man.

Linguist Carolina Aragon is the only outsider able to communicate with the three women after years studying and documenting their language. She works closely with Funai, translating conversations almost daily through video calls. Aragon also supported Babawru remotely during her labor and was with her during an ultrasound exam that confirmed the pregnancy.

Aragon said Babawru was stunned by the news. “She said, ‘How can I be pregnant?’” Aragon recalled. Babawru had always taken precautions to avoid becoming pregnant.

Social collapse shaped the Akuntsu’s choices

The surviving Akuntsu women had decided they would not become mothers. The decision was driven not only by the absence of other men in their community, but also by the belief that their world was disorganized — conditions they felt were not suitable for raising a child.

“You can trace this decision directly to the violent context they lived through,” said Villa, the anthropologist. “They have this somewhat catastrophic understanding.”

The Akuntsu believed they could not bring new life into a world without Akuntsu men who could not only perform but also teach tasks the group considers male responsibilities, such as hunting and shamanism.

“A breakdown of social relations that followed the genocide shaped their lives and deepened over the years. That does lead people to think — and rethink — the future,” Aragon said. “But the future can surprise everyone. A baby boy was born.”

Aragon said the women were embarking on a “new chapter,” choosing to welcome the child and adapt their traditions with support from the Kanoe and Funai. Villa said the fact that the newborn is a boy creates the possibility of restoring male roles like hunter.

Researchers and officials who have long worked with the three women understood that protecting the territory depended on the Akuntsu’s survival as a people. They sought to avoid a repeat of what happened to Tanaru, an Indigenous man who was discovered after living alone and without contact for decades.

After the discovery, authorities struggled to protect Tanaru’s territory. After he died in 2022, non-Indigenous groups began disputing the land. Late last year, the federal government finally secured the area, turning it into a protected conservation unit.

Funai’s Wapichana said Babawru’s child “is a hope that this next generation will indeed include an Indigenous person, an Akuntsu, ensuring the continuity of this people.”

Through years of careful work, Funai secured territorial protection for the Akuntsu and helped foster ties with the Kanoe. The agency also arranged spiritual support from an allied shaman, allowing the women to feel safe bringing new life into the world after decades of fear and loss.

The Akuntsu form emotional bonds with the forest and with the birds. Now, they are strengthening those bonds with a new human life in their world.

“What kind of relationship will this boy have with his own territory?” Aragon said. “I hope it will be the best possible, because he has everything he needs there.”

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

DURHAM, N.Y. (AP) — Shoppers in upstate New York earlier this month turned up a rare find while perusing a local antique store this month: tucked next to a cookie jar made in the shape of a chicken was a live owl resting peacefully on a shelf.

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The state Department of Environmental Conservation said Friday that the incident happened on Feb. 21 in the hamlet of East Durham, about 127 miles north of Manhattan.

The agency said customers at The Market Place had spotted “something extremely lifelike” on one of the shelves and alerted store staff.

Environmental conservation police officers arrived to find a brown-and-white owl perched on a shelf with its eyes firmly shut.

The department said officers gently cradled the sleeping owl to remove it from the store, and then released it into a wooded area, where it flew into a nearby tree.

The bird, an eastern screech owl, is nocturnal and typically nests in tree cavities.

It is not immediately clear how it got inside the store. An email was sent to the store’s owners on Friday.

By JAIMIE DING and JULIE WATSON

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles schools superintendent Alberto Carvalho was put on paid leave Friday while he is part of a federal investigation, two days after the FBI served search warrants at his home and the district’s headquarters.

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Authorities have not provided details of the nature of the investigation involving the nation’s second-largest school district, which serves more than 500,000 students, nor have they accused Carvalho of any wrongdoing.

The move by the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education came after two days of deliberation behind closed doors.

Carvalho became superintendent in 2022. He previously led the public schools in Miami.

Andres Chait, the chief of school operations, will take over the helm while Carvalho is on leave, the district said.

Carvalho has not responded to a request for comment. The FBI on Wednesday also searched a third location near Miami. The Miami Herald reported the Florida property belonged to Debra Kerr, who previously worked with AllHere, an education technology company that had a contract with Los Angeles schools before it collapsed and its leader was indicted for fraud. She could not be reached for comment Thursday.

In 2024, Carvalho heavily touted a deal with AllHere for an AI chatbot named “Ed” designed to help students. But about three months after unveiling the technology and paying the company $3 million, the district dropped its dealings with AllHere, which collapsed into bankruptcy. Months later, founder Joanna Smith-Griffin was charged with securities and wire fraud, along with identity theft.

The school district said in a statement Wednesday that it “is cooperating with the investigation and we do not have further information at this time.”

Carvalho denied personal involvement in the selection of AllHere, according to the Los Angeles Times. After Smith-Griffin was indicted, Carvalho said he would appoint a task force to examine what went wrong with the LA school district’s project, but there have been no public announcements about it since.

Kerr, an education technology salesperson who connects companies with schools, said she was never paid her $630,000 commission for her work in closing the AllHere deal with the LA district, according to a news organization, The 74, that covered the company’s bankruptcy hearings in 2024.

The 74 reported that Kerr had longstanding ties with Carvalho from when he oversaw the Florida district and that her son who worked for AllHere pitched the technology to LA school leaders after he took over the helm there. The Associated Press was unable to reach Kerr for comment.

Over the past five years in Los Angeles, Carvalho has been lauded for the district’s improvements to academic performance. He won similar praise while overseeing Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Florida’s largest school district, where the national superintendents association named him Superintendent of the Year in 2014.

Spain knighted the Portugal-born administrator in 2021 for his work in expanding Spanish-language programs for Miami-Dade County schools.

Months later, Carvalho took the job in California and became a harsh critic of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown, especially following raids in Los Angeles last year.

Carvalho arrived in Los Angeles at a critical moment, as the district found itself flush with funding from state and federal COVID-19 relief money but still struggling with the impacts of the pandemic, including learning losses and declining enrollment. He previously sparred with Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis over his order that schools not require masks during the pandemic.

The Miami-Dade school system said in a statement that it was aware of the investigation involving Carvalho but did not have any comment at this time.

Watson reported from San Diego.

A Minneapolis man was sentenced to 40 years in prison Friday for bringing a 14-year-old girl and a 20-year-old woman to his accomplice’s Mahtomedi apartment where they were given drugs and sexually assaulted.

Billy Ray Wiley (Courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office)

A Washington County jury in November found 52-year-old Billy Ray Wiley guilty of two counts of sex trafficking and one count each of first- and third-degree criminal sexual conduct in connection with the June incidents, which led to a multi-agency investigation led by the East Metro Human Trafficking Task Force.

Jurors had answered yes to all four questions on a verdict form, allowing the prosecution to argue for an upward departure from state sentencing guidelines.

Judge Juanita Freeman gave Wiley, of Minneapolis, consecutive sentences on three of the counts, noting that there were multiple victims and that they were particularly vulnerable.

“The trauma that these young ladies experienced at Mr. Wiley’s hands is considerable,” Freeman said.

Wiley looked for women and girls in the Twin Cities area, often approaching them near grocery stores or in the street in Minneapolis and St. Paul, prosecutors said. He would offer them rides, drugs or money in exchange for sex before bringing them to an apartment in Mahtomedi.

A presentence psychosexual report concluded that Wiley has a “complete nonunderstanding of the power dynamics of exchanging drugs for sex with highly vulnerable minor females,” Assistant Washington County Attorney Scott Haldeman told the court. “And that’s what he did. He preyed on the most vulnerable victims.”

In January, co-defendant Michael Lewis, 69, was sentenced to 15 years of probation after pleading guilty to third-degree criminal sexual conduct in connection with assaulting the teen in June.

Teen was ‘clearly intoxicated’

According to the criminal complaints, officers were called to the Piccadilly Square Apartments, an age 62-plus housing community near Wildwood and Stillwater roads, on June 30 on a report of a teenager dancing in the parking lot and screaming, “No, no, no.” The person who called said an unknown man dropped her off about four hours earlier.

A man identified as Lewis stepped out the front door of the apartment building. The teen pointed to Lewis and said she was with him and one of his friends. Officers spoke with Lewis, who said he did not know the teen.

EMS took the teen to the hospital. East Metro Human Trafficking Task Force investigators met with her and asked how she knew the man who brought her to the apartment. She said he was a “friend,” who she referred to as “Billy,” and she said he often drove around her neighborhood.

Officers identified “Billy” as Wiley. Surveillance footage showed he arrived at the apartment, where Lewis lived, with the teen.

“Watching a child following a 52-year-old man into that apartment, and knowing what was going to happen to her … makes you sick to your stomach,” Haldeman said at sentencing.

Video later showed the teen run out of the building “clearly intoxicated,” the judge said, before handing down the sentence. “She is beside herself. She is yelling. She is screaming. She is not well kept. She doesn’t have underwear on.”

The teen told investigators in a follow-up interview several days later that “when Wiley picked her up, she knew she would be expected to engage in sexual acts in exchange for money and drugs,” the complaints said. She said Wiley had given her crack cocaine and brought her to the apartment, where she was sexually and physically assaulted by Wiley and the other man. She identified Lewis as the man inside the apartment after looking at a photo.

Michael Lewis (Courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office)

Earlier assault

Earlier, on June 13, a 20-year-old woman reported to St. Paul police that a man, later identified as Wiley, picked her up while she was waiting for a bus on Lake Street in Minneapolis. She said he brought her to an apartment, where he physically and sexually assaulted her.

After the assault, Wiley drove her to downtown St. Paul. Once she got out of the car, she asked people on the street for help and they flagged down an officer.

She told police Wiley recorded the sexual assault on his phone, and investigators later recovered the video and identified the location as Lewis’ apartment.

Law enforcement obtained a tracking warrant and arrested Wiley on July 8 when he drove by the Piccadilly apartments. Law enforcement also arrested Lewis, and drug paraphernalia was found in his apartment.

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A 17-year-old girl was in the car with Wiley. She said that earlier in the day, in the area of Dale Street and University Avenue in St. Paul, Wiley “pulled up right next to her and asked her what she needed. He then gave her a cigarette and asked if she wanted to go for a ride,” the complaints said.

She said they drove around for several hours, and he “told her that she was pretty and had a nice body,” the complaints said. She said she told Wiley several times to drop her off, but he kept driving.

The teen also told officers “that many girls who are struggling with addiction hang around Dale and University” and “said that Wiley is known to pick up a lot of girls in the area,” the complaints said.

Victims testified

Haldeman told the court that it “took a whole community” to stop the sex trafficking, starting with residents of the Mahtomedi apartment building reporting what they saw. They also testified at Wiley’s trial.

But the “most important acts of bravery,” Haldeman said, were the testimony of the two victims during Wiley’s trial, where he represented himself without an attorney.

“They walked down this aisle, sat in that chair and told us what happened to them,” Haldeman said, “knowing full well that Mr. Wiley sex trafficked them, sexually assaulted them, and eventually would cross-examine them.”

The victims “stared down” Wiley, Haldeman said, “and were the ones left standing.”