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A30 world news
Diahuebs 21 aPRiL 2022
Rio’s Carnival parade is back, as street bands ache to party
Samba schools’ elaborate Momo the city’s key. spotlight, but their resur-
floats and feather-festooned gence in the 1990s dovetailed
dancers will parade between His statement echoed com- with redemocratization after
packed bleachers starting ments on Sunday while visit- two decades of military dic-
Wednesday night. As for the ing samba schools that were tatorship, according to André
more than 500 street parties putting finishing touches on Videira, a sociology professor
that usually run wild through their floats. The competing at the Federal Rural Univer-
the city, City Hall refused schools were corraled from sity of Rio de Janeiro who has
to grant them authorization, the streets into the Sam- studied blocos.
claiming it lacked sufficient badrome in the 1980s, and
time to prepare. became Rio’s quintessen- Later, they began assum-
tial Carnival display for tens ing forms akin to U.S. brass
That dissonance has sparked of thousands of attendees bands, without the need for
debate over whether City willing to shell out for tick- sound trucks or drum sec-
Hall is stifling Carnival’s es- ets. Their parades will run tions that hindered mobility.
sence, and if denizens should through Sunday night. Blocos were free to roam.
seize the streets as their own.
Some organizers couldn’t In the Sambadrome’s shadow “They are important vehicles
care less what is allowed; are the free parties known for the democratization of
they will turn out anyway — as “blocos”, which stream access to culture and access
part party, part protest — and through streets and pour into to the city,” Videira said.
Mayor Paes, a confessed Car- plazas, many of whose mem-
nival enthusiast, has said he bers relish subverting estab- Since 2010, more than 150
will refrain from deploying lished order. What blocos blocos have refused City
the Municipal Guard. lack in glamour they make Hall’s institution of a regis-
up for with glitter and grit. tration process, with many
“City Hall won’t impede Costumes range from racy viewing it as an attempt to
(AP) — Rio de Janeiro’s of the status quo -- but it people from being in public to outlandish, and are some- formalize something inher-
Mayor Eduardo Paes on remains to be seen how spaces, from celebrating, but times clever digs at authority ently informal, Videira said.
Wednesday ceremonially much post-pandemic par- it’s impossible that it happen figures. They insist celebrating Car-
handed control of the city tying is in store during the at such (large) size,” Paes said nival isn’t contingent on au-
to King Momo, a ritual first Carnival in two years. in response to a reporter’s Blocos had largely vanished thorities’ consent — not this
representing the upheaval question after giving King as samba schools claimed the year, nor any other.
Israeli military says rocket fired from Gaza amid tensions
(AP) — A rocket was large numbers around the group of Palestinian pro- Israeli Prime Minister Naftali annexed in a move not rec-
fired into southern Israel historic Old City, home to testers threw rocks at police Bennett said in a statement ognized internationally. The
from the Gaza Strip late major religious sites for Jews, while hundreds of Jewish that he would bar Ben Gvir Palestinians seek an indepen-
Wednesday, the Israeli Christians and Muslims, out visitors entered the flash- from going to Damascus dent state in all three territo-
military said, in the sec- of concern that confronta- point holy site. Gate. “I don’t intend to allow ries and consider east Jerusa-
ond such attack this week tions could further inflame petty politics to endanger hu- lem their capital.
as Mideast tensions have an already tense situation Amateur video from the man lives,” he said.
soared over violence in Je- during the Jewish holiday scene appeared to show po- Organizer Noam Nisan de-
rusalem. of Passover and the Muslim lice using sponge-tipped Last May, Palestinian mili- fended the march in an inter-
holy month of Ramadan. plastic projectiles intended to tants in Gaza fired rockets view with Kan public radio
It was not immediately clear be non-lethal as the protest- toward Jerusalem as a much before it was held, saying: “A
if there were any casualties or Tensions have surged in re- ers barricaded themselves in- larger group of thousands of Jew with a flag in Jerusalem is
damage, and no one claimed cent weeks after a series of side the mosque. Police said Israelis held a flag march to not a provocation.”
the strike. deadly attacks inside Israel, a firebomb thrown by one of the Old City following weeks
followed by military opera- the protesters set a carpet out- of protests and clashes in He said the demonstration
The Islamic militant group tions in the occupied West side the mosque on fire, but and around Al-Aqsa. Those was a response to Palestin-
Hamas that rules Gaza had Bank. On Monday, Palestin- it was quickly extinguished. events led to an 11-day war ians pelting buses with stones
issued vague threats earlier ian militants fired a rocket No injuries were reported. between Israel and Hamas. just outside the Old City
Wednesday over a planned from the Gaza Strip into earlier this week. The attack
march through Jerusalem by Israel for the first time in The Palestinian militant Israeli nationalists stage such happened near an entrance
Israeli ultra-nationalists. But months, and Israel responded group Hamas, which rules marches to try to assert sov- leading to the Western Wall,
Israeli police blocked roads with airstrikes. the Gaza Strip, said Wednes- ereignty over east Jerusalem, the holiest site where Jews
and prevented the marchers day ahead of the march that which Israel seized in the can pray, which is next to Al-
from reaching dense Pales- The exchange followed days Israel would bear “full re- 1967 Mideast war, along with Aqsa.
tinian neighborhoods, after of clashes between Israeli sponsibility for the reper- the West Bank and Gaza, and
a similar event nearly a year police and Palestinians at the cussions” if it allowed the
ago helped trigger an Israel- Al-Aqsa mosque compound, marchers “to approach our
Gaza war. known to Jews as the Temple holy sites,” without elaborat-
Mount. ing.
Police used parked trucks
and barricades just outside The hilltop shrine in Jeru- Itamar Ben Gvir, an ultra-
the walls of the Old City to salem’s Old City is the third nationalist lawmaker who
close the main road leading holiest in Islam, while for frequently stages provoca-
down to Damascus Gate, Jews it is their holiest site, tive visits to Palestinian ar-
the epicenter of last year’s where two temples stood eas, attended the rally and
unrest. After some pushing in antiquity. It is the emo- was greeted with cheers. He
and shoving with police, the tional ground zero for the is a disciple of a radical rabbi
marchers rallied near the bar- Israeli-Palestinian conflict whose violently anti-Arab
ricades, waving flags, singing and a flashpoint for previous ideology was once shunned
and chanting. rounds of violence. in Israel but is now having a
revival.
Israeli police deployed in Earlier on Wednesday, a small