Rapper stabbed to death as London's Notting Hill Carnival returns

London’s Notting Hill Carnival was marred by the murder of a young rapper and hundreds of arrests, police said on Tuesday. Watch ARY News live on live.arynews.tv The 21-year-old man died after being stabbed on Monday, the latest in a wave of knife-crime incidents in the British capital this year that have sparked growing concern. The victim was later identified as a rapper from Bristol, western England, who performed under the name TKorStretch. “He came from Bristol to simply have a good time at the London carnival and this is the end result,” his manager Chris Patrick wrote on Instagram.

Related – VIRAL: Elderly woman confronts thieves with broomstick video

“TK was a good kid, a good guy and what has happened breaks my heart,” he added. London’s Metropolitan Police said officers were called at about 8:00 pm (1900 GMT) on Monday, the final day of the carnival, to reports of a stabbing in Ladbroke Grove and administered emergency first aid. “He was taken to a west London hospital where, despite the best efforts of medical staff, he was pronounced dead,” the force added. London mayor Sadiq Khan said he was “sickened” by the stabbing. “Violence has no place on our streets and we are doing everything in our power to root it out,” he added. Related – After Sidhu Moosewala, another rapper shot dead after his show London police recorded 11,122 knife-crime offences in the year until March 2022, a 9.8 percent increase compared to last year, according to official figures. At the carnival, officers made 209 arrests, including 46 for assault, 33 for possession of an offensive weapon and eight sexual assaults, said the force. Alison Heydari, Commander of Local Policing, said early on Tuesday that “the atmosphere over the past two days has been largely positive” but that on Monday evening “we saw a number of violent incidents”. The Notting Hill Carnival — one of the world’s largest street festivals — was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic. The three-day celebration of British-Caribbean culture traces its roots back the 1950s after the first surge in arrivals from former British colonies post-World War II. Feathered dancers, steel bands and earth-shaking sound systems feature in the vibrant celebration held over the August bank holiday weekend.

Comments

#Rapper #stabbed #death #Londons #Notting #Hill #Carnival #returns https://www.globalcourant.com/rapper-stabbed-to-death-as-londons-notting-hill-carnival-returns/?feed_id=18093&_unique_id=630edb0fa2d15

Havana announces blackouts, cancels carnival as crisis deepens

HAVANA: The Cuban capital of Havana will begin electricity blackouts in August, has canceled carnival and is taking other measures as the country’s energy crisis worsens, state media reported on Saturday.

The capital, home to a fifth of the population of 11.2 million and center of economic activity in Cuba, had been spared the daily power outages of four or more hours that the rest of the island has endured for months.

Blackouts have sparked a few small local protests this summer and a year ago in July fueled a day of unprecedented unrest across the country as discontent boiled over.

For now, a schedule of power outages will mean each of Havana’s six municipalities will have its electricity cut every three days during peak mid-day hours, according to the local Communist Party daily, Tribuna de la Habana, which reported on a meeting of local authorities.

The blackouts reflect a deepening economic crisis that began with harsh new U.S. sanctions on the island in 2019 and worsened with the pandemic that gutted tourism, and then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Soaring prices for food, fuel and shipping have exposed import dependence and vulnerabilities such as a decaying infrastructure. The country’s economy declined 10.9% in 2020, recovering just 1.3% last year.

Cubans have withstood more than two years of food and medicine shortages, long lines to purchase scarce goods, high prices and transportation woes. The blackouts have only added to the frustration, leading to an exodus of more than 150,000 Cubans since October to the United States, and more elsewhere.

“This is the moment to show solidarity and contribute so that the rest of Cuba suffers less from the undesirable blackouts,” Havana Communist Party leader Luis Antonio Torres was quoted by Tribuna as stating.

Torres, and others at the meeting insisted they were acting in solidarity with fellow Cubans, not from necessity, and announced other measures such as mass vacations to shutter state-run companies, working from home and a 20% cut in energy allocations for private businesses with high consumption. The cancelled carnival had been due to take place next month.

Jorge Pinon, director of the University of Texas at Austin’s Latin America and Caribbean Energy and Environment Program, said offered a different assessment from Torres. He said the entire power grid was near collapse after recent fires in two of 20 already obsolete plants, with others constantly breaking down.

“When you keep running the equipment past its capital maintenance schedule it falls into a downward spiral with no short term solution,” he told Reuters.

“The announced scheduled blackouts are not in solidarity but rather a necessity to avoid a possible total collapse of the system,” Pinon said.

Comments

Source https://www.globalcourant.com/havana-announces-blackouts-cancels-carnival-as-crisis-deepens/?feed_id=4572&_unique_id=62e6049195b1e