Latest news with #Quan
NDTV
a day ago
- Climate
- NDTV
"So Much Loss": Vietnam Shipwreck Victims Recall Tragedy That Killed 35
Halong: The thunderstorm came so suddenly that it overturned the boat within seconds, said two survivors of the shipwreck which killed at least 35 people in Vietnam's top tourist spot of Halong Bay and left another four missing. "It had been raining for 15 minutes, then there was a thunderstorm ... and a huge wave that all of a sudden capsized the boat," said Nguyen Hong Quan, one of 10 survivors of the accident, which happened early on Saturday afternoon. "It took only a few seconds," he told Reuters on Monday, recalling one of the worst accidents in recent years to hit the UNESCO-protected archipelago, which consists of thousands of limestone islands about 200 km (125 miles) northeast of Hanoi. Of the 49 people that Vietnam's government said were on the boat, four are still missing. Weather conditions are expected to worsen in the coming hours with the landfall in northern Vietnam of Typhoon Wipha, which skirted the southern Chinese coast over the weekend causing flash floods and landslides. Authorities were verifying on Monday whether a body found on an islet in the bay was one of the missing people from the accident, according to local media. The thunderstorm hit large parts of northern Vietnam on Saturday, turning the sky dark in a matter of minutes, with sudden downpours and strong winds felling trees in the capital of Hanoi and temporarily disrupting air travel at the Noi Bai international airport. Quan, a 40-year-old tourist, said he drifted for about three hours on a wooden chair from the sunken boat before a fishing vessel finally rescued him. Hanging on the chair together with him were another two people, only one of whom survived. "One of them was too tired and couldn't hold any longer. What a tragedy," he said. His account matches that from the second person who survived by holding onto the chair. "The waves were so strong. One of the other two was too tired and said goodbye to us," Vu Anh Tu, a 25-year-old member of the crew, told Reuters. He also recalled how the storm hit the boat so suddenly, causing it to overturn "in 15 seconds". "There was so much loss, including children," he said, confirming reports from authorities that several minors were also on the sunken vessel. "I don't know if I'll ever work on a boat again," Tu said.
New Straits Times
a day ago
- Climate
- New Straits Times
Survivors recount how sudden storm drowned dozens in seconds in Vietnam
HALONG: The thunderstorm came so suddenly that it overturned the boat within seconds, said two survivors of the shipwreck which killed at least 35 people in Vietnam's top tourist spot of Halong Bay and left another four missing. "It had been raining for 15 minutes, then there was a thunderstorm ... and a huge wave that all of a sudden capsized the boat," said Nguyen Hong Quan, one of 10 survivors of the accident, which happened early on Saturday afternoon. "It took only a few seconds," he told Reuters on Monday, recalling one of the worst accidents in recent years to hit the Unesco-protected archipelago, which consists of thousands of limestone islands about 200 km (125 miles) northeast of Hanoi. Of the 49 people that Vietnam's government said were on the boat, four are still missing. Weather conditions are expected to worsen in the coming hours with the landfall in northern Vietnam of Typhoon Wipha, which skirted the southern Chinese coast over the weekend causing flash floods and landslides. Authorities were verifying on Monday whether a body found on an islet in the bay was one of the missing people from the accident, according to local media. The thunderstorm hit large parts of northern Vietnam on Saturday, turning the sky dark in a matter of minutes, with sudden downpours and strong winds felling trees in the capital of Hanoi and temporarily disrupting air travel at the Noi Bai international airport. Quan, a 40-year-old tourist, said he drifted for about three hours on a wooden chair from the sunken boat before a fishing vessel finally rescued him. Hanging on the chair together with him were another two people, only one of whom survived. "One of them was too tired and couldn't hold any longer. What a tragedy," he said. His account matches that from the second person who survived by holding onto the chair. "The waves were so strong. One of the other two was too tired and said goodbye to us," Vu Anh Tu, a 25-year-old member of the crew, told Reuters. He also recalled how the storm hit the boat so suddenly, causing it to overturn "in 15 seconds." "There was so much loss, including children," he said, confirming reports from authorities that several minors were also on the sunken vessel. "I don't know if I'll ever work on a boat again," Tu said.
AsiaOne
a day ago
- AsiaOne
'It took only a few seconds': Survivors recount how a sudden storm drowned dozens in Vietnam, Asia News
HALONG - The thunderstorm came so suddenly that it overturned the boat within seconds, said two survivors of the shipwreck which killed at least 35 people in Vietnam's top tourist spot of Halong Bay and left another four missing. "It had been raining for 15 minutes, then there was a thunderstorm ... and a huge wave that all of a sudden capsized the boat," said Nguyen Hong Quan, one of 10 survivors of the accident, which happened early on Saturday (July 19) afternoon. "It took only a few seconds," he told Reuters on Monday, recalling one of the worst accidents in recent years to hit the Unesco-protected archipelago, which consists of thousands of limestone islands about 200km northeast of Hanoi. Of the 49 people that Vietnam's government said were on the boat, four are still missing. Weather conditions are expected to worsen in the coming hours with the landfall in northern Vietnam of Typhoon Wipha, which skirted the southern Chinese coast over the weekend causing flash floods and landslides. Authorities were verifying on Monday whether a body found on an islet in the bay was one of the missing people from the accident, according to local media. The thunderstorm hit large parts of northern Vietnam on Saturday, turning the sky dark in a matter of minutes, with sudden downpours and strong winds felling trees in the capital of Hanoi and temporarily disrupting air travel at the Noi Bai international airport. Quan, a 40-year-old tourist, said he drifted for about three hours on a wooden chair from the sunken boat before a fishing vessel finally rescued him. Hanging on the chair together with him were another two people, only one of whom survived. "One of them was too tired and couldn't hold any longer. What a tragedy," he said. His account matches that from the second person who survived by holding onto the chair. "The waves were so strong. One of the other two was too tired and said goodbye to us," Vu Anh Tu, a 25-year-old member of the crew, told Reuters. He also recalled how the storm hit the boat so suddenly, causing it to overturn "in 15 seconds". "There was so much loss, including children," he said, confirming reports from authorities that several minors were also on the sunken vessel. "I don't know if I'll ever work on a boat again," Tu said. [[nid:720414]]
Montreal Gazette
01-07-2025
- Business
- Montreal Gazette
Moving day means big rent jumps for many Montrealers
By Jason Magder Carlos Quan, his wife and their two grown children bid farewell to their home of 17 years in Villeray on Tuesday. They moved into a two-bedroom apartment in Montreal North, which at $1,400 per month will cost double what they are currently paying. 'The landlord here took over the building to do renovations, and he started already,' said Quan, who hails from Guatemala. 'For my family, it's hard to leave here. This is where we moved when we first came to Canada.' Quan was among roughly 100,000 Montrealers who changed homes around July 1, Quebec's unofficial moving day. This year, rents have increased by a record amount over the previous year at around 5.9 per cent. Most people who spoke to a reporter on Tuesday said they would be feeling the pinch of sharp rent increases. 'We're very disappointed,' said Steve, who didn't want his last name to be published. 'We'll be paying $800 more per month.' Steve said his landlord repossessed the apartment where he, his wife and his four-year-old daughter were living for the last six years. They will be moving to another place just about 400 metres away. 'We're going to tighten our belts; we'll stop eating and we're not going to be travelling for the next 10 years,' he said. Céline Camus, community organizer with the Villeray Housing Committee, was cycling through the neighbourhood to see if anyone needed help, or if there were illicit evictions. 'We met a woman who was paying $1,250 per month, when the previous tenant was paying $800,' Camus said. 'Some landlord groups on Facebook are talking together to make sure that the rents reach a certain price in this neighbourhood, so it's not a free market.' She said this year's sharp increases have taken a toll on renters. But illicit or unethical landlord behaviour also plays a part. Camus added that tenants often don't want to challenge steep increases in their rents at the TAL — the province's rental board — because they don't want to earn a bad reputation for future landlords who may refuse to rent to them. Complaints to the TAL are listed publicly. Yourri Alcindor moved Tuesday to Villeray, because he found a one-bedroom apartment that cost roughly $300 less per month than what he was paying in Plateau-Mont-Royal. 'I've been in Quebec only three years, and since that time I know rents have gone crazy,' Alcindor said. 'It's a big moving day, but it's going rather smoothly. The truck is double the price today than usual, but there aren't a lot of cars on the road, I found friends to help me and found a good parking spot.' Roughly 900 households aren't able to find a new place they can afford as of July 1. The City of Montreal's housing office helps to find them temporary apartments, or hotel rooms until they can find something permanent. Anyone who needs the city's help is urged to call the 311 hotline.
Yahoo
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Inside Bouyon: How a Fusion of Local Folk Music & Digitized Instruments Gave Way to Dominica's Fast-Spreading Homegrown Genre
Last summer — and, for what it's worth, this summer as well — Quan, Litleboy and Trilla G's 'Someone Else' was inescapable across the Windward Islands of the Caribbean. Whether you were feting pon di road, out with friends, or humming along to your daily playlist, the song's infectious bouyon drums echoed across the region. Bouyon, the fast-growing genre originating from the island of Dominica, is poised to follow the footsteps of reggae, dancehall, soca and konpa as the next Caribbean genre to garner global attention — yet another major moment for a region that's wining on the precipice of another crossover wave. A mixture of traditional sounds and contemporary instrumentation and grooves, bouyon's origins reflect the generation-bridging essence of its composition. The term 'bouyon' roughly translates to 'soup,' and the pounding, syncopated percussion and high-octane tempos are normally paired with smooth crooners à la 'Someone Else,' or brash chant-adjacent delivery, perfect for a never-ending fete. More from Billboard Michaël Brun Talks Bringing BAYO Fest to Barclays Center Amid Trump Travel Ban & Increased ICE Presence in NYC Ye & Sean Combs' Son King Release 'Never Stop' EP, Including a Song Called 'Diddy Free' Ask Billboard: Here Are the Nos. 1 & 2 Reasons That the Hot 100 Has Been Historic This Month Cornell Phillip, one of the founding members of the bouyon-pioneering WCK Band (Windward Caribbean Kulture), tells Billboard the genre was born out of a few musical families in the mid-late 1970s. His older brother, Daryl Phillip, was a cultural officer, and he had the opportunity to document the traditional rhythms and dances of Dominica. As he brought the bands to the family house to record them, another brother named Ashton was learning how to use his Synchronic Sound System, giving the boys access to speakers, a mixer and other production tools. Ashton also bought a keyboard for Cornell and a bass guitar for Keith, another Phillip brother, once he took note of their musical inclinations. 'Boys being boys, we started to play along with the traditional instruments [that the bands our brother was recording played],' he tells Billboard. 'The boumboum [a hollowed wooden bwa kan] became the bass guitar, the syak and tambal [which are percussive instruments] became the drum machine, and the accordion turned into the keyboard. We couldn't play our own thing, so we joined them in our own way.' The brothers kept up their semi-digitized fusion of cadence-lypso and jing-ping (a kind of Dominican folk music), playing tea parties across the island. By the early-mid 1980s, 'hi-fis had taken over the music scene, and live bands weren't really playing in Dominica,' Phillip explains. 'My brother noticed that void, and we decided to take the other guys [friends from other musically inclined families] in to properly form a band together. That's how it all started.' WCK Band formally debuted with 1988's One More Sway, but it was 1990's Culture Shock, which housed early bouyon hits like 'Dance Floor' and the title track, that proved its breakthrough moment. By 1993's Forever, the band had perfected its bouyon blueprint, using it to craft 'Conch Shell,' one of its biggest hits — perhaps only rivaled by 'Balance Batty,' a timeless smash from 1995's Tou Cho Tou Flam. The band built on its cross-regional success with tours visiting the United States, Canada, Europe and the Caribbean. The group even graced the iconic Apollo Theater during this time. In the following years, bouyon continued its ascent across Dominica and the rest of the Windward Islands, especially Saint Lucia, evolving into subgenres like bouyon-soca and reketeng. Asa Bantan, one of the genre's current leaders and the voice behind hits like 'Wet Fete,' notes that alongside that development came the shift from bands to solo artists. 'If you was not in a band, you couldn't make it,' he says. 'You would have to join a band. But I was the first one [who] came out as a solo artist and took it to another level. [WCK's] 'Balance Batty' was probably the first bouyon crossover hit that reached other islands. Then, Triple K had one with 'Sousse.' [Around 2013], I performed 'Do Something Krazy' on the Ubersoca cruise [an annual seven-night soca festival at sea], and I was the only one there representing bouyon music at the time. When all those different artists heard my riddim, they recognized it was unique and different and wanted to hop on it.' Once soca giants like Bunji Garlin, Fay-Ann Lyons, Problem Child, Mr. Killa, Voice and Machel Montano took note of bouyon, they incorporated the genre into their own releases, like the latter's 2019 Motto-produced 'Issa Vibe.' As soca and bouyon artists began their cultural and sonic exchange, a new class of 'nasty business' bouyon acts emerged, marked by their penchant for 'rawer lyrics,' says Bantan. These artists, like Mr. Ridge, Reo and Nice, employ the same 'rough and commanding,' tone that Bantan, who's been a recording artist for two decades, says is paramount for bouyon vocalists, but their lyricism leans closer to X-rated fare than the socially conscious songwriting of the genre's roots. Today, bouyon is arguably the most popular style of music in Dominica, and its influence can be heard in several tracks from artists across the West Indies, especially during Carnival season. Bantan is probably the most popular stage performer in the genre, with his World Creole Music Festival entrances growing more elaborate each year. 'I've come in through the crowd on a horse as a king, one time I came out of a coffin, and another time I came in on a zip line over 15,000 people,' he reminisces. 'I've also come in an ambulance; I've come in a limousine as the president with bodyguards. Every year, I'm stepping it up another notch, and thousands of people look forward to what I'm going to do.' This year also marked the very first time Dominica hosted a Bouyon Road March competition during Mas Domnik, its annual Carnival celebration. Campaigned for, in part, by Emile Depooter, who previously managed WCK Band and Triple K, the separate bouyon category reflects the genre's growing influence on Carnival season. With just over a third of the vote, 'Rags' — a collaborative track from Trilla G, Shelly and Skinny Fabulous that melodically nods to The Greatest Showman's 'Never Enough' — won the inaugural Bouyon Road March title. Impressively, Shelly, the lead singer of Signal Band, also placed second and third alongside his bandmates with 'Bye Bye Bye' and 'My Band,' respectively. 'We had a lot of criticism over the years that Carnival time is not for Signal Band,' Shelly reflects. 'The consensus was that Carnival is not for us, and we are for the festivals and concerts instead. We made a conscious decision to change that narrative, and we did. When they kept calling our names for the results, that's what we worked hard for.' As bouyon continues its ascent and power players from other genres and islands turn their attention to Dominica, pioneers like Phillip welcome the outside investment, as long as true bouyon artists remain at the forefront. 'We as Dominicans have to be responsible because there is such a thing as fusion, but you have to be careful or you might lose the original form,' Phillip stresses. 'You can put a little R&B influence so that people in the States can relate, but we have to be careful to keep it organic and special to Dominica. We can't think so far outside the box that bouyon is eventually labeled as something else. Hopefully, one day soon our music will have its own classification. Music spreads love, so I want bouyon to go as far as it can — even Mars!' Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
