Anonymous ID: e7281c Nov. 6, 2021, 5:20 a.m. No.14936194   🗄️.is 🔗kun

https://apnews.com/article/arts-and-entertainment-texas-houston-6c697502318c50ba4b57aa1c6f71f9bf

8 dead, numerous injured at Astroworld Festival in Houston

HOUSTON (AP) — At least eight people died and numerous others were injured in what officials described as a surge of the crowd at the Astroworld music festival in Houston while rapper Travis Scott was performing.

Officials declared a “mass casualty incident” just after 9 p.m. Friday during the festival where an estimated 50,000 people were in attendance, Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña told reporters at a news conference.

“The crowd began to compress towards the front of the stage, and that caused some panic, and it started causing some injuries,” the fire chief said. “People began to fall out, become unconscious, and it created additional panic.”

The show was called off shortly thereafter. The fire chief said “scores of individuals” were injured.

Officials transported 17 people to hospitals, including 11 who were in cardiac arrest, Peña said. It wasn’t clear whether all eight who died were among the 17 that had been transported to hospitals. Many people were also treated at the scene at NRG Park, where a field hospital had been set up. About 300 people were examined at that site throughout the day, he said.

Astroworld is a two-day music festival that was scheduled to take place Friday and Saturday in Houston. The event was sold out, according to the Astroworld website. Saturday’s performances have been canceled.

The deaths called to mind a 1979 concert for The Who where 11 people died and about two dozen were injured as thousands of fans tried to get into Cincinnati’s riverfront coliseum.

Scott, one of music’s biggest young stars, released two new songs earlier Friday, “Mafia” and “Escape Plan.” The 29-year-old Houston native has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards. He has a 3-year-old daughter, Stormi, with Kylie Jenner, who announced in September that she’s pregnant with their second child.

Drake joined Scott on-stage at the concert — which was livestreamed by Apple Music — and posted photos to Instagram after the performance.

Event promoters had arranged for medical units to be on scene at the festival, however once the crowd surge began, those units were “quickly overwhelmed,” Peña said.

In a video posted to social media, Scott could be seen stopping the concert at one point and asking for aid for someone in the audience: “Security, somebody help real quick.”

Houston Police Executive Assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite was near the front of the crowd and said it seemed the surge “happened all at once.”

“Suddenly we had several people down on the ground, experiencing some type of cardiac arrest or some type of medical episode,” Satterwhite said. “And so we immediately started doing CPR, and moving people right then, and that’s when I went and met with the promoters, and Live Nation, and they agreed to end early in the interest of public safety.”

Peña said officials did not immediately know the causes of death for the eight people who died. A medical examiner would investigate. The deceased had not been identified as of early Saturday.

Officials set up a reunification center at a hotel for family members who had not been able to reach relatives who had been in attendance at the event. Authorities were looking to connect families with festivalgoers who were transported to the hospital, “some as young as 10” years old, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said.

Houston Police Chief Troy Finner called for calm and urged people not to jump to conclusions as to what caused the surge.

“I think it’s very important that none of us speculate. Nobody has all the answers tonight,” Finner said. He added that there have been several rumors surrounding the event that authorities would look into.

“We’re going to do an investigation and find out because it’s not fair to the producers, to anybody else involved, until we determine what happened, what caused the surge,” he said. “We don’t know, but we will find out.”

The Associated Press reached out to a representative for Scott but did not immediately hear back.

Finner told reporters that Scott and the event promoters cooperated with police.

Scott founded Astroworld Festival in 2018 and it has taken place at the former site of Six Flags AstroWorld each year since, except for in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Other music events where there have been multiple fatalities in recent years include the Las Vegas massacre in 2017 when 58 people were killed at the Route 91 Harvest Festival, the so-called Ghost Ship fire in 2016 that killed 36 people in California and the 2003 Station nightclub fire that killed 100 people in Rhode Island.

Anonymous ID: e7281c Nov. 6, 2021, 5:22 a.m. No.14936201   🗄️.is 🔗kun

People gather around an oil tanker to collect leaking fuel before it exploded near Sierra Leone's capital, killing at least 92 people and severely injuring dozens of others, officials and witnesses said Saturday, Nov. 6, 2021. The explosion took place late Friday after a bus struck the tanker in Wellington, a suburb just to the east of Freetown. (AP Photo)

Oil tanker explodes in Sierra Leone, killing at least 92

https://apnews.com/article/business-africa-explosions-sierra-leone-julius-maada-bio-face14a7564fa650a8ae0a73ce2ece3f

An oil tanker exploded near Sierra Leone’s capital, killing at least 92 people and severely injuring dozens of others after large crowds gathered to collect leaking fuel, officials and witnesses said Saturday.

The explosion took place late Friday after a bus struck the tanker in Wellington, a suburb just to the east of Freetown.

The mortuary at Connaught Hospital reported 92 bodies had been brought in by Saturday morning. About 30 severely burned victims were not expected to survive, according to Foday Musa, a staff member in the intensive care unit.

Injured people whose clothes had burned off in the fire that followed the explosion lay naked on stretchers as nurses attended to them Saturday. Hundreds of people milled outside the main gates of the mortuary and near the hospital’s main entrance, waiting for word of their loved ones.

It was not immediately known how many people were undergoing treatment for burns because patients were taken to hospitals and clinics across the metropolitan area.

Video obtained by The Associated Press of the explosion’s aftermath showed a giant fireball burning in the night sky as some survivors with severe burns cried out in pain. Charred remains of the victims lay strewn at the scene awaiting transport to mortuaries.

President Julius Maada Bio, who was in Scotland attending the United Nations climate talks Saturday, deplored the “horrendous loss of life.”

“My profound sympathies with families who have lost loved ones and those who have been maimed as a result,” he tweeted.

Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh visited two hospitals overnight and said Sierra Leone’s National Disaster Management Agency and others would “work tirelessly” in the wake of the emergency.

“We are all deeply saddened by this national tragedy, and it is indeed a difficult time for our country,” he said on his Facebook page.

Anonymous ID: e7281c Nov. 6, 2021, 5:29 a.m. No.14936211   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6218 >>6224

Rosenbaum’s fiancee, Kariann Swart, disclosed that he was on medication for bipolar disorder and depression but didn’t fill his prescriptions because the local pharmacy was boarded up as a result of the unrest

Anonymous ID: e7281c Nov. 6, 2021, 5:33 a.m. No.14936218   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6309 >>6405

>>14936211

>Rosenbaum’s fiancee, Kariann Swart, disclosed that he was on medication for bipolar disorder and depression but didn’t fill his prescriptions because the local pharmacy was boarded up as a result of the unrest

Rosenbaum’s fiancee testified that hours before he was killed, she told him not to go downtown because of the unrest.

“When he left, he said that he would see me in the morning and he was all excited and ‘I love you.’ It was a pleasant visit,” Swart said.

After getting a call from the medical examiner that Rosenbaum was dead, Swart said, she fell to her knees and cried and then found a video online showing him dying: “I broke down and I can’t get that image out of my head.”

In the morning, Swart said, she went to the spot at a car dealership where Rosenbaum lay on the ground after being shot. “And I put my hand in it and my hand was wet with his blood,” she said. “And that’s again when I collapsed on the ground.”

Anonymous ID: e7281c Nov. 6, 2021, 5:35 a.m. No.14936230   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6256 >>6260 >>6310 >>6536

https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-lifestyle-europe-health-austria-b10bc4b4c1e049e45dc0afb875de835d

Austria to bar unvaccinated from restaurants as cases rise

Unvaccinated people in Austria who also haven’t had COVID-19 will no longer be allowed to enter restaurants, hotels and hair salons or attend public events larger than 25 people under new rules that take effect Monday, the government said.

Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg outlined the rules Friday night after a meeting with state-level leaders to discuss the country’s response to rapidly rising coronavirus cases.

“It is simply our responsibility to protect the people in our country,” Schallenberg told reporters, noting the case numbers and increasingly full hospital intensive care units.

Previously, people could enter restaurants, hotels and other areas if they were vaccinated, had recovered from the virus or could show results from a negative test.

The government is planning a transition period for the first four weeks to encourage the unvaccinated to get shots. During that time, anyone who has received one vaccine dose and has results from a valid PCR test will be allow to attend events and enter the listed types of locations.

After four weeks, only people who are fully vaccinated or who have recovered from COVID-19 will be allowed entry.

The capital city of Vienna announced similar restrictions earlier this week.

Austria reported a pandemic high of 9,923 new confirmed coronavirus cases Saturday, surpassing its previous record of 9,586 last year. In the last seven days, the infection rate rose from 317.4 cases per 100,000 inhabitants to 522.4 cases per 100,000.

If the situation continues to worsen, further restrictions on unvaccinated people could be on the horizon. Schallenberg said last month that if ICU’s fill to one-third of the total capacity, the government would implement lockdown restrictions for residents who remain unvaccinated.

Currently, 66.7% percent of Austria’s population has received one dose of vaccine and 64.5% is fully vaccinated, one of the lowest rates in Western Europe. The Austrian government announced this week that all adults are eligible for booster shots, if six months have elapsed since their last dose.

Schallenberg called again on unvaccinated Austrians to get the vaccine, calling it a “moral responsibility.”

Anonymous ID: e7281c Nov. 6, 2021, 5:36 a.m. No.14936232   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6256 >>6536

https://apnews.com/article/technology-russia-crime-arrests-hacking-f0adf6f0765b0f079a20a95cf85c5334

The AP Interview: Justice Dept. conducting cyber crackdown

The Justice Department is stepping up actions to combat ransomware and cybercrime through arrests and other actions, its No. 2 official told The Associated Press, as the Biden administration escalates its response to what it regards as an urgent economic and national security threat.

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said that “in the days and weeks to come, you’re going to see more arrests,” more seizures of ransom payments to hackers and additional law enforcement operations.

“If you come for us, we’re going to come for you,” Monaco said in an interview with the AP this week. She declined to offer specifics about who in particular might face prosecution.