内容摘要：“The reform has its problems but we needed an urgent change,” he said. “You have to start with something.”

“The reform has its problems but we needed an urgent change,” he said. “You have to start with something.”

New Zealand is among countries where desecrating the national flag is considered taboo and prohibited by law. Damaging a flag in public with intent to dishonor it is punishable by a fine of up to 5,000 New Zealand dollars ($2,984), but prosecutions are fleetingly rare.and elsewhere, the country’s flag is synonymous for some with military service. But for others, particularly some Māori, it’s a reminder of land dispossession, and loss of culture and identity.

Protests of the artwork in the city of Nelson, population 55,000, included videos posted to social media by a local woman, Ruth Tipu, whose grandfather served in the army’s Māori Battalion during World War II. In one clip, she is seen lifting the flag from the floor and draping it over another artwork, an action Tipu said she would repeat daily.A veterans’ group also denounced the piece as “shameful” and “offensive.” City council member Tim Skinner said he was “horrified” by the work’s inclusion.But others welcomed it. Nelson’s deputy mayor, Rohan O’Neill-Stevens, posted on social media “in strong defense of artistic expression and the right for us all to be challenged and confronted by art.”

The work was perhaps expected to provoke controversy and in the exhibition’s opening days, The Suter Gallery defended its inclusion. But a statement on its Facebook page late Thursday said a “sharp escalation in the tone and nature of the discourse, moving well beyond the bounds of respectful debate” had prompted the flag’s removal.“This should not be interpreted as a judgement on the artwork or the artist’s intent,” the statement said. The gallery didn’t detail specific incidents of concern and a gallery spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for an interview on Friday.

New Zealand’s Police said in a statement Friday that while officers were investigating complaints, they weren’t called to any disturbances at the exhibition. Prince said when she revived the work in 2024 that threats of prosecution by law enforcement had prompted its removal from the Auckland gallery in 1995.

The Nelson gallery didn’t suggest in its statement that police involvement had influenced Thursday’s decision.“You’re the best driver,” the team owner said. “Unbelievable, man. Unbelievable.”

It was the expected ending of a bizarre, crash-filled Indy 500 in which Palou won for the fifth time in six races this season but in the one event Palou was adamant he needed to win to ever have a complete racing resume. He’s already the two-time defending IndyCar champion and has won three titles in the last four years, all with Ganassi.“I think he’s one of the greats. It’s that simple,” Ganassi said. “Certainly we’ve had some great drivers on our team, and he’s right there, at worst, shoulder-to-shoulder with all the rest of them.”

There have only been two drivers to win five of the first six races of a season in the modern era — Al Unser Sr. and A.J. Foyt, with Foyt winning the first seven and that included the Indy 500.Now Palou is on a similar dominating pace and with 11 races remaining in the IndyCar season, he takes a 115-point lead over Pato O’Ward in the championship standings to this weekend’s race in Detroit.