Sean Penn: Trump 'machine-gunned the vulnerable' during Covid


Issued on: 11/07/2021 - 

Sean Penn and daughter Dylan Penn, co-stars in 'Flag Day' which received a standing ovation at its premiere in Cannes on Saturday. Valery HACHE AFP


Cannes (France) (AFP)

Actor-director Sean Penn, who mobilised a huge network to help with the Covid crisis in the US, made it clear on Sunday that he does not miss the Trump administration.

At the Cannes film festival to present his new film "Flag Day", Penn responded to a question about the pandemic response in the United States in typically forthright style.

"When my team and I would come home from test and vaccination sites at night... watching the maddening news, it really felt like there was someone with a machine gun, gunning down communities that were the most vulnerable from a turret at the White House," Penn said of former president Donald Trump's administration.


"We were, not only as a country but as a world, let down and ultimately neglected, misinformed, had truth and reason assaulted, under what was in all terms, an obscene administration, humanly and politically," he added.

Penn, who has a history of highly energetic aid work from Haiti to Hurricane Katrina, used his non-profit group to set up his country's biggest Covid-19 testing site in Los Angeles in the early months of the pandemic.

His group, CORE Response, later set up vaccination sites in LA and Chicago, along with food distribution for affected communities.

Penn plays a very different role in his new film, which he also directed, as a deadbeat father constantly disappointing his daughter, played by his real-life off-spring, Dylan Penn.

He admitted he was reluctant to both act and direct, but was finally won over by Matt Damon.

"The last effort I made to not play it was when I sent the script... to Matt Damon who was generous enough to give it a quick read and call me, not to say that he can do it, not to say he can't do it, but to say that I was a stupid schmuck not to do it and take this opportunity to act with my daughter," Penn told reporters.

Dylan, Penn's child with ex-wife Robin Wright, said their relationship was nothing like the distant one in the film, despite her father's busy acting schedule.

"My parents were extremely present throughout my childhood. The fact that they took us out of Los Angeles where the industry is the focal point was an amazing decision in leading us to a normal upbringing," she said.

Her father said that, if anything, they had the opposite problem.

"While there were periods of time when I was away... once you get done with a job, you're the only parent who's there 24/7 -- that's when the kids get upset, when you're there all the time!" he said, laughing.

"Seems like they still like me OK, though."

"Flag Day" is among 24 films competing for the top Palme d'Or prize at the Cannes festival, which runs until Saturday.

© 2021 AFP

‘Openly neglected by an obscene administration’: Sean Penn criticises Trump’s handling of pandemic

Premiering new film Flag Day in Cannes, director and actor likens former president’s approach to ‘someone with a machine gunning down communities that were most vulnerable’

00:35

Sean Penn criticises Donald Trump's handling of coronavirus pandemic – video

Catherine Shoard

@catherineshoard

Sun 11 Jul 2021 12.49 BST

Sean Penn has criticised Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, likening the former president’s approach to someone opening fire on vulnerable communities.

Speaking at a press conference following the premiere of his new film, Flag Day, Penn said:

“We were — not only as a country, but as a world – let down and openly neglected, misinformed. We had truth and reason assaulted under what was in all terms an obscene administration.

“When my team and I would come home from test and vaccinations sites at night, particularly during testing under Trump, to maddening news — it felt like someone with a machine gun gunning down communities that were most vulnerable from a turret at the White House.”

Sean Penn and his daughter, Dylan. Photograph: Lionel Hahn/Getty Images

Penn, who wore a mask when he was not speaking, said he was optimistic about the future under the new administration.

“In the transition to the task force that President Biden put together, it was really that feeling like a sun was rising. There was no effort of integrity coming from the federal government until the Trump administration was dismissed.”

Earlier this year Penn, who has always made his contempt for Trump evident, described him as “a man who all would concede is guilty of negligent homicide on a grand scale.”

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Penn is the founder of non-profit organisation Community Organized Relief Effort, which aims to focus fundraising and relief efforts wherever they are urgently required. CORE recently devoted considerable resource to hastening testing and vaccination efforts in New York and India.

Flag Day review – Sean Penn shows he’s still got it in tale of unrepentant swindler

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Flag Day, in with Penn stars alongside real-life daughter, Dylan, and son, Hopper, as a con-man with a complicated relationship with his children, has been warmly received at the festival. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw hailed it as a return to form following the widely-ridiculed The Last Face, which premiered to boos and laughter five years ago.

“As an actor he’s still got the chops,” wrote Bradshaw, “a fierce masculine presence, a buzzard-like watchfulness always liable to break into a scornful grimace or lethal grin. His seductive address to the camera is almost unrivalled. Moreover, as a director, he knows how to bring the horsepower. And so it proves in this very watchable and well-made family drama.”

Dubai does it again: now world's deepest pool

Issued on: 11/07/2021 - 

A diver experiences Deep Dive Dubai, the deepest swimming pool in the world GIUSEPPE CACACE, GIUSEPPE CACACE AFP

Dubai (AFP)

The city of superlatives with the world's tallest tower among its many records, Dubai now has the deepest swimming pool on the planet complete with a "sunken city" for divers to explore.

Deep Dive Dubai, which opened Wednesday but initially by invitation only, prides itself as "the only diving facility in the world" where you can go down 60 metres (almost 200 feet), 15 metres deeper than any other pool, as confirmed to AFP by Guinness World Records.

It contains 14.6 million litres (3.8 million gallons) of fresh water, a volume equivalent to six Olympic-size swimming pools.#photo1

Guided down by lights and ambient music, divers can play table football and other games at the bottom as well as explore an "abandoned sunken city" or just soak up the vegetation on the way.

The pool is equipped with more than 50 cameras, for entertainment and safety purposes.#photo2

A one-hour dive costs between $135 and $410, with Deep Dive vowing that it will open to the general public soon.

The oyster-shaped structure pays tribute to the pearl-diving tradition of the United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is a member, explained Deep Dive Dubai's director Jarrod Jablonski, an expat from Florida in the United States.

Dubai, which from October hosts the delayed Expo 2020, reopened to tourists in July of last year and has organised one of the world's fastest vaccination campaigns against Covid-19.

© 2021 AFP

The French nationals going 'childfree' to save the planet

Issued on: 11/07/2021 - 16:12

A nurse holds a newborn at the maternity of the Diaconesses hospital in Paris, on November 17, 2020. © Martin Bureau, AFP

Text by: Bahar MAKOOI

As the global population exceeds 7.8 billion people, some French people have made the decision not to have children – a radical choice born out of a desire to help the planet and do their part to reverse global warming.

"Having a child would be totally against my principles. I’ve never wanted children and am more certain of this decision the older I get,” says Manon, 26. “I don’t see why I would impose another consumer on this world. In the Western world, we consume more than the resources available,” she adds.

Like Manon, more and more young adults are deciding not to have children for environmental reasons. Online they call themselves "childfree" or even "ginks" – short for "green inclinations, no kids" – and they staunchly defend their decision not to have children. World Population Day, which falls on July 11, serves as another reminder of the world’s ballooning population. It comes from the Day of Five Billion – July 11, 1987 – chosen by the United Nations as the approximate day on which the world population reached 5 billion.

"I have absolutely no desire to leave this planet to a child,” YouTuber Anna Bogen tells her more than 15,000 subscribers in a video on her channel. “When the planet has no resources left, I’ll be six feet under. But if I have a child, they and their children will have to live with it. I don’t want to inflict that on anybody.”

Denis Garnier, the president of Démographie Responsable (Responsible Demographics), an organisation founded in 2009 to promote a lower birth rate, says that over the past 10 years, talking about not having children has become a lot more common. “Young people are a lot more aware, thanks to the publication of studies about global warming and more public questioning about the destruction of biodiversity,” he explains.

A graphic on the organisation’s website counts in real time the number of people alive on earth. The counter steadily ticks upwards. “We’re already at 7.8 billion. It’s already too much. We should hit 8 billion by 2022 or 2023,” says Garnier.

'One less child, that’s 40 tonnes of carbon saved a year'

"Overpopulation has major environmental consequences. The calculation is simple: the more of us there are, the more CO2 we emit, and the worse climate change is,” says Jean-Loup Bertaux, a director of studies at the French National Centre for Scientific Research and the author of "Demographics, climate, migration: the state of emergency". “In France, one less child represents 40 tonnes of carbon saved per year. In comparison, choosing to use an electric car only represents two tonnes saved.”

Every year, the American NGO Global Footprint Network calculates Earth Overshoot Day, the day when the earth consumes more resources than it can regenerate that year. In 2020, that threshold was reached on August 22.

Those who have chosen to be childfree express anxiety about the future in online videos and comments, but also show a certain kind of defiance towards the previous generation. “I have never known an adult without children. For me, having kids was something mandatory, like getting up to go to school in the morning […] But we have to ask, what kind of world are we leaving to our kids? I don’t know if I want to leave them a world like this,” admits Clémence, a 27-year-old YouTuber.

'We’re lucky to be able to control pregnancy'

Manon finds the topic is difficult to raise with her parents, even if she was raised in a family where they were taught to “look after the planet”. “When we talk about it, they don’t really understand. For them, having a job, getting married, having kids is all part of the point of life. My position is beyond comprehension for them so we just avoid the subject.”

Her position is even harder for them to accept because she’s a woman, Manon says. “‘You’ll change your mind, you’re still young’, ‘You’ll see when you get a maternal instinct’… I don’t know if men receive the same comments as I do,” Manon says. “We’re lucky to be able to control pregnancy in France. That's not the case for women everywhere in the world. For some women, having a child or not isn’t a choice.”

This article was translated from the original in French.

Kabul urges Europe to halt forced deportations of Afghans

Issued on: 11/07/2021

There were almost 2.5 million registered refugees from Afghanistan in 2018 -- the second-largest refugee population in the world Ozan KOSE AFP/File

Kabul (AFP)

Afghanistan has urged European countries to halt forced deportations of Afghan migrants for the next three months, as security forces battle a wave of violence triggered by a dizzying Taliban offensive.

The United Nations said on Sunday the rising conflict is also causing "more suffering" across the violence-wracked country as it urged for continuous financial aid.

Afghanistan is facing a crisis as the insurgents snap up territory across the countryside, stretching government forces and leading to a fresh wave of internally displaced families, complicated by a renewed outbreak of Covid-19.

"The escalation of violence by the Taliban terrorist group in the country and the spread of the third wave of (Covid-19) have caused a great deal of economic and social unrest, creating concerns and challenges for the people," Afghanistan's refugees and repatriation ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

"The government's decision emphasises that host countries should refrain from forcibly deporting Afghan refugees... for the next three months," the ministry said, adding that the return of Afghans from Europe was worrying.

There were almost 2.5 million registered refugees from Afghanistan in 2018 -- the second-largest refugee population in the world, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

The vast majority are in neighbouring Pakistan, followed by Iran, and Europe.

While more than 570 Afghan refugees voluntarily returned to the country between January and March this year, aided by the UN, just six came from outside Pakistan and Iran, according to data from the UN's refugee agency.

- War causing more suffering -

Afghans make up a sizeable share of EU asylum seekers, with 44,190 first-time applications last year, out of a total of 416,600, according to Eurostat, the EU's statistics agency.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi last month said Europe should brace for a fresh inflow of migrants from Afghanistan after foreign forces leave the country.

This year, several EU countries agreed to offer asylum to Afghans who worked with foreign troops and are at risk of retaliatory attacks from the Taliban.

Afghanistan recorded more than 1,000 cases of Covid-19 on Sunday, the health ministry said.

Almost 135,000 cases and more than 5,700 deaths have been reported since the pandemic began, with the country reliant on donations from the international community to vaccinate its population.

Ramiz Alakbarov, the United Nations Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan, said the country was also facing increased difficulties with the growing conflict since the Taliban launched their dizzying offensive.#photo1

"Pre-existing humanitarian needs are further exacerbated," he told reporters, adding that at least half of the country's 33.5 million people needed humanitarian assistance.

The "escalation of military activities and escalation of conflict and war is causing more suffering" apart from drought and Covid concerns, Alakbarov said.

He said that so far this year 25 humanitarian aid workers were killed while delivering relief items to the needy.

He called for continued financial support to meet Afghanistan's humanitarian assistance, adding that $450 million had come so far as global donations following an appeal of $1.3 billion made for 2021.

"The needs are so much greater, and continued assistance is needed," Alakbarov said.

© 2021 AFP

Cannes Film Festival tackles 'nunsploitation', gender bias and the male gaze

Issued on: 10/07/2021 - 

A still from Paul Verhoeven's "Benedetta". © Courtesy of Pathé

Text by: Benjamin DODMAN

Paul Verhoeven’s racy take on the lesbian-sex-in-a-convent genre has reignited talk of the “male gaze” in Cannes, even as female auteurs hail (some) progress in addressing gender bias both on and off the screen.

Has the film world turned puritan?

According to Paul Verhoeven, the veteran provocateur that gave us “Basic Instinct” and “Showgirls”, the answer is yes. Five years after his rape-revenge thriller “Elle”, the Dutch director is back in Cannes with his latest competition entry “Benedetta”, a saucy nun romance set in counter-reformation Italy. He looked irritated at times during Saturday’s press conference as he fielded questions about blasphemy, nudity and raunchy sex scenes in his film.

“Don’t forget, in general, people, when they have sex, they take their clothes off,” Verhoeven snapped at one reporter. “So I’m stunned basically by the fact that we don’t want to look at the reality of life,” he added. “Why has this puritanism been introduced? It is, in my opinion, wrong.”

>> In pictures: Paul Verhoeven, Virginie Efira grace the red carpet in Cannes

“Benedetta” is based on the true story of a mystic abbess who was credited with miraculously protecting her Tuscan hometown of Pescia from the plague – only to be stripped of her rank on account of her relationship with a fellow nun. Virginie Efira stars as the eponymous abbess, frequently baring it all as she charts Benedetta’s journey through spiritual and sexual ecstasy (which, in Verhoeven’s mind, clearly go hand in hand).

A nunsploitation comeback for the Covid-19 era (though Verhoeven actually filmed it before the onset of the modern-day “plague”), “Benedetta” is outrageous, erotic and often very funny, not least in its kinky use of liturgical objects as props. But the elaborate softcore quality of its sex scenes hardly fits with the notion that the protagonists are convent novices – and is bound to reignite talk of lesbian romance getting the “male gaze” treatment in Cannes.

The male gaze

The world’s leading film festival, which launched Verhoeven’s “Basic Instinct” almost 30 years ago, is no stranger to talk of the “male gaze”. In 2013, Palme d’Or-laureate Abdelatif Kechiche faced accusations of voyeurism for his lesbian drama “Blue is the Warmest Colour”. He faced more protests when he returned six years later, with part two of his “Mektoub My Love” series. The film took the most gruelling elements from his otherwise sublime part one – most notably the endless butt shots – and expanded them into an utterly plotless nightlong study of hedonistic release. Two years on, it still hasn’t been released in theatres.

In the middle of its thumping, throbbing, three-hour-long dancefloor sequence, Kechiche’s “Mektoub” featured a seemingly endless oral sex scene in which only the woman exhibited any flesh (though at least she was at the receiving end). This year, another sex scene has caused a buzz in Cannes, though critics have hailed it as profoundly feminist. It featured in Joachim Trier’s “The Worst Person in the World”, about a young woman trying to find herself as she shifts between lovers.

The Norwegian director has been credited in the past with directing lesbian sex scenes without playing to the “male gaze”. His latest work has dazzled both French and foreign critics, who praised its portrayal of shifting gender dynamics and proclaimed it an early favourite for the Palme d’Or. It has also shone a spotlight on the previously little known actress Renate Reinsve, an instant favourite for the Best Actress award.

“Growing up before #MeToo you kind of shape yourself with the strong opinions and presence of men,” Reinsve said in an interview with AFP. Speaking of her character in the film, she added: “She finds her identity in others’ eyes. When you free yourself from that, you become yourself and stronger.”

‘The first feminist director’

While very different, the movies by Trier, Verhoeven and Kechiche are at the heart of what French filmmaker and screenwriter Nathalie Marchak describes as an important and stimulating debate on the “male” and “female” gazes in film.

“There’s a million ways of filming a scene; the key question is where do I place my camera and what does it say,” she explained in an interview with FRANCE 24 in Cannes. “It’s a fascinating debate and one we shouldn’t shy away from. It’s part of cinema’s role to question the way we look at ourselves.”

It is not merely a matter of opposing male and female filmmakers, Marchak added, stressing that it is “perfectly possible for male directors to adopt a female gaze”. The point, she said, is to question the way we represent male and female characters.

Speaking of Pedro Almodovar earlier this week, US filmmaker and actress Jodie Foster described the Spanish director, who has made women central to so many of his films, as “the first feminist director for me".

“It was the first time I'd seen films that talked about women in an authentic way,” Foster said of Almodovar’s movies, a day after the legendary director presented her with an honorary Palme d’Or in Cannes. She called Almodovar an exception among male directors who “can't easily transpose themselves into a woman's body and ask themselves what the complicated and complex experience of a woman consists of".

Foster was just 13 when she first came to Cannes in 1976 for Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver”, which won a controversial Palme d’Or that year. Later star turns included her Oscar-winning part in “Silence of the Lambs” (1991). She has also directed several films, including "Money Monster" with George Clooney and Julia Roberts.

Addressing the Cannes Film Festival in impeccable French on Wednesday, Foster said there had never been a better time for women to enter the film industry. Although male domination has "not changed completely", she said, "there is now an awareness that it's been too long that we haven't heard stories told by women."

“I know it's a bit cliche to say 'tell your own stories',” Foster said. “But what I mean is: Ask yourself questions about the truthfulness of things and whether they resonate within you instead of pleasing others, be it the public or producers.”

Levelling out the gender bias

The dearth of women holding senior positions in the industry, and of female filmmakers in particular, is a recurrent subject in Cannes, where only one woman – Jane Campion for “The Piano” (1993) – has ever won the Palme d’Or.

Speaking to FRANCE 24 ahead of the festival, Cannes’ artistic director Thierry Frémaux pointed to the relatively high number of female directors in the Un Certain Regard sidebar, dedicated to emerging talent. He cited it as evidence that, “the future of cinema will be female”.

But what about now? There are still only four women in the main competition, out of a record 24 participants. The lack of progress is all the more glaring when compared with the main parallel selections, the Critics’ Week and the Directors’ Fortnight, which have attained near-parity this year.

Cannes’ defenders point out that the huge gender imbalance in the main competition generally reflects the imbalance in the number of films submitted. But critics counter that the selection process is naturally skewed in favour of established directors who are fixtures in an industry still dominated by men. As the person who is ultimately in charge of selecting candidates for cinema’s most prestigious award, they add, Cannes’ artistic director has immense clout in the film world and a responsibility to foster change.

Spot the woman: Jane Campion, the only female director to win a Palme d'Or, pictured with other past laureates at the 70th Cannes Film Festival. Mehdi Chebil, FRANCE 24

While Frémaux has spoken in support of women-driven initiatives for more gender equality, he has steadfastly refused to push female directors in the festival’s main competition through affirmative action – which in France translates as “positive discrimination” but is viewed negatively. The Cannes director has repeatedly stressed that he chooses films based on merit and not on gender.

It’s a view shared by Marchak, herself a vocal campaigner for greater gender equality, but for whom talk of “positive discrimination” is “insulting” for women.

“Female directors want to be selected for major festivals not because they are women but because their films deserve the spotlight,” she explained. The point is not to favour female directors over their male counterparts, she added, but to ensure women are present in the selection process and that their lack of visibility throughout the industry is addressed.

“When it comes to selecting films for competitions, I don’t think women are any more lenient with female directors than men,” Marchak said. “But female directors might not enjoy the same visibility from the get-go, so it’s important to go find them.”

In the Austrian Alps, post-Holocaust escape is re-enacted

Issued on: 11/07/2021 - 

Director, actor and author of the theatre group Teatro Caprile, Andreas Kosek, re-enacts the escape of Jews fleeing Austria after the Holocaust ALEX HALADA AFP

Krimml (Austria) (AFP)

Sidestepping a roaring waterfall and stumbling over rocks, an Austrian amateur theatre group re-enacts the treacherous Alpine escape of thousands of Jews seeking a new home after the Holocaust.

Surrounded by Austria's snow-capped peaks, two dozen spectators hike alongside lay actors who perform scenes based on the real experiences of as many as 8,000 Holocaust survivors who traversed the Alps to reach the Italian harbour of Genoa, where they hoped to board ships to Palestine in 1947.

"The special thing about the play is that you experience it and you get an idea of what people went through back then," says actor Celine Nerbl of the Pinzgau region group Teatro Caprile, which has been staging the theatre hike in summer.

After the end of World War II, thousands remained stuck in camps for displaced Holocaust survivors in countries such as Austria, with little hope of starting a new life while anti-Semitism remained so deeply entrenched.

The Jewish flight aid organisation Bricha smuggled groups of as many as 200 people on trucks via the camp "Givat Avoda", which translates to "Hill of Labour", in the Austrian town of Saalfelden, to Krimml from where they had to continue by foot.

It is here that the re-enactment begins, and it is an emotional, eight-hour-long hike for participants.#photo1

"You can feel yourself in there," says Austrian Marion Mikenda, a local who participated in the guided trek with her father.

- The only route -

"Nobody wanted them, even after the war, so they had to flee," says historian Rudolf Leo, who grew up in Salzburg province and who remembers his mother telling him about the 1947 Jewish exodus.

Back then, British allied forces prevented Jews from fleeing to British-controlled Palestine, making the back country mountain pass of Krimml their only escape route.

"I always thought she was wrong about the year," Leo says of his mother's memories. "But, no, she was completely right."

Physical exertion helps the audience imagine what the refugees experienced, says author and director Andreas Kosek.

He set the scenes along the original path: in a dense spruce forest, a lush meadow where cows graze, and inside a hut which, at an elevation of over 1,600 metres (5,250 feet), had offered the Jewish refugees shelter and a meal.#photo2

"I was here with people who said 'We never imagined there were mountains this steep'," says Celine Nerbl's husband Hans, who accompanies the group as a hiking guide.

The main difference is that today's hikers are well-equipped and travel by day.

In 1947, the Jewish refugees were at times forced to hike in complete darkness, some carrying their children and hoping not to be spotted.

- Reviving history -

The history of the displaced persons' camp and the escape of Holocaust survivors had long been forgotten, but they are slowly being resurrected in Austria. In 2007, the Alpine Peace Crossing association was founded to commemorate the post-war exodus with an annual hike.

Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen participated in the hike in 2017, and while it could only be held virtually due to the pandemic last year, hundreds of people once again followed in the Holocaust survivors' footsteps this summer.

Thinking of what happened back then, Hans says he sees a lot of parallels to refugees migrating today.

"The reasons for flight have stayed the same, and so has the attitude of countries who don't want to take anyone in," he says.

As for the hikes, actor Nerbl says descendants of survivors have even travelled by plane from Israel to Austria.#photo3

"They want to walk with us, and that's often very, very moving," she notes, adding that she remembers the son of two survivors who broke down and cried.

His parents, he told Nerbl, had made the journey with the few belongings they could carry -- and the hope for a new life.

© 2021 AFP

Historic Warsaw store, seeking rebirth, hit by pandemic

By VANESSA GERA and MONIKA SCISLOWSKA

1 of 22
The modernist 1914 six-story building of the Jablkowski Brothers Department Store that survived World War II bombings by Nazi Germany is a historic landmark, in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, July 10, 2021. After World War II the business was forced into bankruptcy and seized by the communist regime. The Jablkowski family regained the historic building in a long battle after communism fell, and were preparing to relaunch business when the pandemic hit and forced some changes to their plans, but did not undermine them. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Jablkowski Brothers Department Store was once a Warsaw landmark that revolutionized shopping and brought goods to a modernizing society in the early 20th century. But unlike Harrods in London and other Western counterparts, the business was forced into bankruptcy and seized by Poland’s communist regime that took power after World War II.

When communism fell in 1989, the Jablkowski family heirs began a long legal struggle to regain their properties. They were preparing to launch when the coronavirus pandemic hit, dealing one more blow to a family business that has seen a history of hardship mirroring Poland’s adversities.

“The pandemic hit us in a moment when we were almost ready to go,” Monika Jablkowska, one of the heirs, told The Associated Press.

The pandemic has created new uncertainty because it has accelerated a trend toward online shopping, leaving questions about what kind of in-store retail experiences consumers will embrace in the coming years.

The family business started when Aniela Jablkowska began selling stationery from a chest of drawers in 1884. It expanded into the largest and most important department store across Eastern Europe. In 1914 — just as World War I began — the family opened its main building, a six-story gem of modernist architecture with soaring ceilings and stained glass windows that is now a historic landmark.

This April 20, 2021, photo shows the 1914 stained glass windows that decorate the main hall of the Jablkowski Brothers Department Store a historic landmark in Warsaw, Poland. The modernist building and the windows survived World War II, when German occupying forces destroyed most of Warsaw. Currently under renovation, the windows are to be re-installed in September. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Today a European Union member, Poland was at the time carved up by foreign powers, with Warsaw part of the Russian empire. In its early years, the company sold its merchandise in rubles, with a catalogue and delivery service that sent goods as far away as the Russia’s far-east city of Vladivostok.

The business pulled through two world wars, hyperinflation and even the flu pandemic of 1918-20. During World War II, when German occupying forces destroyed most of Warsaw, the building was among the few to survive.

What dealt the final blow to the business, though, was Poland’s postwar communist regime, which imposed a huge tax forcing its bankruptcy, and then seized the store in 1950.

Jan Jablkowski, one of the heirs, says the family feels a “strong sense of obligation to continue” as an element of the city’s heritage, and has turned down even attractive purchase offers.

“We believe that such firms, present for many generations — just like the material substance of the city, its squares, its monuments, the street names — are all elements of the identity of this city,” said Jablkowski, a retired engineer who was formerly the head of Poland’s Institute for Automation and Measurements.

According to Cezary Lazarewicz, author of a book about the business, “Six Stories of Luxury,” the store offered a number of innovations to city shoppers -- not only all the clothes, toys and other goods for sale, but also neon advertisements, a terrace cafe, fashion shows and live piano music to stimulate shoppers.

He said the business was “revolutionary” in its introduction of catalogs, making it the Amazon of its age, and in its introduction of ready-to-wear clothing to a huge market.

“It wasn’t just a department store,” but a place that offered up a sense of magic, Lazarewicz said. “It was an exceptional place on the Warsaw map.”

After the fall of communism, the family began a legal battle to get back the building, but it took more than 20 years because they first had to reconstitute the prewar business. Even after the property was legally returned in 2004, a bookshop refused to vacate the premises, triggering more court cases until the store was finally regained in 2013.

The heirs’ initial plan was to revive the department store, but with department stores struggling to survive across the world — a trend accelerated by the pandemic — they realized that business model was no longer sustainable.

So they developed a new business plan to open it as a retail space of 4,500 square meters (48,500 square feet) with concept shops, restaurants, and spaces for cultural events. Then came the pandemic.

“The big question is how the business will look post-pandemic and whether the model will still be relevant afterwards,” Monika Jablkowska said.

Even before the pandemic, Poland has seen a huge retail upheaval, with international companies like Marks & Spencer and The Gap coming in, only to later leave the dynamic but demanding market where foreign brands compete with Polish clothing makers like Reserved. Online shopping has also taken hold, with Amazon recently entering Poland.

The fact that people buy fewer clothes now and have embraced more casual clothing creates uncertainties about what stores might want to open up in their building, Jablkowska said.

The modernist 1914 building of the Jablkowski Brothers Department Store that survived World War II bombings by Nazi Germany is a historic landmark, in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, July 10, 2021. The family business started when Aniela Jablkowska began selling stationery from a chest of drawers in 1884. It expanded into the largest and most important department store across Eastern Europe. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Two business professors who have studied the Jablkowski company, Tomasz Olejniczak and Anna Pikos at the Kozminski University in Warsaw, argue it’s in a weaker position financially than counterparts elsewhere because of the way Polish industry and businesses were stripped of their capital by communist authorities.

Other department stores from Tokyo to Paris to London “are struggling, but over their continuous history they have amassed enormous wealth and resources which they can now use to reinvent or redefine themselves in the age of luxury and e-commerce,” Olejniczak and Pikos said in joint email.

“They have all the freedom they want to reinvent themselves, but they also have virtually no resources and very limited money,” the two said about the Jablkowski project.

Jablkowski says the family is taking a cautious approach now to ensure its survival. During the pandemic, managers and employees took voluntary pay cuts and the company again is earning revenue by hosting fairs and exhibitions. No key decisions will be made until the shape of the post-pandemic world comes into better focus.

“We remember the history of the past 100 or so years, and we are very sensitive about the secure functioning of the business,” Jablkowski said. “For this reason, we are being cautious.”

The rise & fall of department stores - Retail Gazette

https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2019/08/department-stores-in-2019

2019-08-13 · The most recent full-year trading update for the John Lewis Partnership – the holding company for the eponymous department store chain – saw total revenue rise by a …

• Reviews: 3

• Estimated Reading Time: 11 mins

The rise and relevance of the department store | The National

https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/the-rise-and-relevance-of...

The concept of the department store was born out of the Industrial ...

• Estimated Reading Time: 7 mins

Woolworths: the rise and fall of the department store ...

https://www.theguardian.com/.../nov/19/woolworths-retail-department-stores

2008-11-19 · Woolworths: the rise and fall of the department store empire. ... In the 1970s, an average of 15 stores were closed each year to fund the renovation of more …

• Estimated Reading Time: 4 mins

From Main Street to Mall: The Rise and Fall of the ...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt14jxw65

Department stores had traditionally catered to women with lavish services; higher-priced, quality merchandise; and amenities at a downtown location. But purchasing power declined drastically in the face of widespread unemployment, failed banks, disastrous deflation, and an overarching loss of confidence in business leaders and the economy.

Review prompted by building collapse closes Miami courthouse
By DAVID FISCHER

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This Oct. 8, 2020 photo shows the Miami-Dade County Courthouse in Miami. Officials say the Miami-Dade County Courthouse will begin undergoing repairs immediately after a review found safety concerns within the building. A joint statement from multiple leaders late Friday, July 9, 2021 says the review was prompted by the collapse of a condo building in Surfside. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

MIAMI (AP) — The Miami-Dade County Courthouse will begin undergoing repairs immediately because of safety concerns found during a review prompted by the deadly collapse of a nearby condominium building, officials said.

An engineering firm that examined the 28-story courthouse recommended that it undergo immediate structural repairs and that floors 16 and above be closed. All courthouse employees, including those who work on lower floors, will return to working from home, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and other leaders said in a joint statement late Friday.

In its report, engineering firm U.S. Structures Inc. said that during its June 30 inspection, it found structural distress in various structural members such as support beams and joists, including steel columns that are in “poor condition” and concrete columns that have numerous cracks.

“In general, we observed numerous members with visible signs of structural deterioration that have been documented and reported by this and other firms for quite some time now. Many of these members are in an advance state of deterioration,” inspector Jose Toledo wrote in the firm’s Tuesday letter to Miami-Dade County officials.

The announcement about the courthouse, which is in Miami, came during the third week of the search for victims of the collapse of the Champlain Towers South building in nearby Surfside. On Saturday, authorities raised the confirmed death toll to 86, with 43 people still missing.

The courthouse, which was completed in 1928 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, is where most civil cases are heard and contains some administrative offices. Separate courthouses for criminal, children’s and family cases are not affected.

Workers only recently returned to the building after working remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic. Court operations will go back to a remote format until the safety concerns are addressed. The court planned to notify people with upcoming court proceedings of the changes.




(July 10)

“They had only been back in that building about a week,” Levine Cava said at a Saturday news conference. “So they have everything they need to continue to operate remotely and also at other locations, so it should not disrupt substantially.”

Authorities didn’t disclose details about the specific types of repairs that are needed, and they still plan to inspect its basement to determine if additional ones are required.

In its report, the engineering firm warned that one column on the 25th floor needed “immediate attention” and urged that it be repaired within 30 days. It also found overhead beams and slabs that had cracks and spalling, which is when pieces of concrete break off and potentially allow water in. In addition, it advised officials to remove heavy items such as books, office supplies and sandbags that were stored on upper floors.

Miami-Dade County is in the early stages of constructing a new civil courthouse and had been planning to sell the current one, which has been beset by leaks, mold and issues with its facade over the years. It’s unclear how the new findings might affect those plans to sell the building.

The building underwent a review following the June 24 collapse of the Champlain Towers South building, where efforts are ongoing to recover the bodies of those missing and presumed dead. Levine Cava said those efforts would continue throughout the day Saturday despite bad weather, though work was paused for about an hour Saturday morning due to a nearby lightning strike. She also said no asbestos has been found during the search of the rubble.

“Please pray for all those who’ve lost loved ones and for those whose hearts are broken by this unspeakable tragedy,” she said.

Rubble and debris of the Champlain Towers South condo can be seen in Surfside, Florida on Tuesday, July 6, 2021. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald via AP)

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said crews were making good progress, especially in clearing debris from the section of the building that didn’t collapse but was later demolished. That section will likely be cleared sooner than originally expected, he said.

“It’s astounding the pace at which they’re working in getting that rubble out of there,” he said.

Several other buildings have been reviewed to search for any structural concerns, and some — such as a condo building in North Miami Beach — have been evacuated.

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Associated Press writer Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg, Florida, contributed to this report

With Harris and Hannah-Jones, Howard University is on a roll

By ASHRAF KHALIL

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WASHINGTON (AP) — With the surprise twin hiring of two of the country’s most prominent writers on race, Howard University is positioning itself as one of the primary centers of Black academic thought just as America struggles through a painful crossroads over historic racial injustice.

But then, Howard University has never exactly been low-profile.

For more than a century, the predominantly Black institution in the nation’s capital has educated generations of Black political and cultural leaders. Among them: Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, civil rights icon Stokely Carmichael, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison and Vice President Kamala Harris.

But even by those standards, the school has been on a hot streak lately, with new funding streams, fresh cultural relevancy and high-profile faculty additions. This past week’s hiring of Nikole Hannah-Jones and Ta-Nehisi Coates serves as confirmation that Howard intends to dive neck-deep into America’s divisive racial debate.

Hannah-Jones opted against teaching at the University of North Carolina after a protracted tenure fight centered on conservative objections to her work and instead chose Howard, where she will hold the Knight Chair in Race and Journalism. She rose to fame with The New York Times’ “1619 Project,” which reframed U.S. history through a racial equity lens and helped mainstream the idea of critical race theory — a topic that has become a core Republican talking point.

Coates has written critically on U.S. race relations for years and is closely associated with the argument for reparations for slavery.

Howard’s president, Wayne Frederick, doesn’t characterize either hiring as overtly political, but merely a natural extension of the university’s motivating ethos.

“Howard University has been on that caravan for social justice for about 154 years,” Frederick said in an interview. “Howard has a rich legacy. ... My responsibility is to contemporize that and to bring faculty to the university who are in the contemporary space, speaking to present-day issues.”

Columbia University journalism professor Jelani Cobb, a Howard alumnus, described the moves as a pivotal jump in the university’s national stature. Howard, he said, had gone from traditionally “punching above its weight class” to “moving up a whole division.”

All this is just a few years removed from a period of internal tension and financial scandal. In 2018, six employees were fired amid revelations of more than $350,000 in misappropriated grant funding, and students staged a nine-day occupation of the administration building over demands that included better housing and an end to tuition increases.

But even amid those problems, Howard has seen a boost in applications and enrollment as more Black students choose to attend historically Black colleges and universities. “I do think that we’re seeing a renaissance, and that that’s driven by the students more than the parents,” said Noliwe Rooks, chair of Africana studies at Brown University. Rooks attended Spelman, an all-female HBCU in Atlanta.

Vice President Harris returned to Howard days after the hirings were announced. Speaking at a news conference on a voters’ rights initiative sponsored by the Democratic National Committee, she received a rapturous welcome from a packed house that supplied church-style “amens” and burst into applause when she called Howard “a very important part of why I stand before you at this moment as vice president of the United States of America.”

For current students, the school’s rising profile is a confirmation of their choice to attend “The Mecca” — one of Howard’s many nicknames.

“There’s something truly intangible about this university,” said Kylie Burke, a political science major and president of the Howard Student Association, who introduced Harris at the event. Like Harris, Burke came from Northern California to attend Howard, and she served as a legislative fellow in Harris’ office when she was a senator. “Howard teaches you a thing about grit, it teaches you to remain focused, it teaches you to be persistent,” Burke said.

The hirings capped a dizzying stretch for Howard.

Within the past year, Harris was elected vice president; MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, donated $40 million; and actor Phylicia Rashad returned to her alma mater as dean of the newly independent College of Fine Arts. That college will be named after the late Chadwick Boseman, a Howard graduate whose role as African superhero Black Panther made him an instant icon and shined a fresh cultural spotlight on the school.

Boseman expressed his love for the university in a 2018 commencement speech, calling it “a magical place.” He cited one of the school’s more modern nicknames, “Wakanda University,” a reference to the movie’s technologically advanced African utopia.

Although there’s rising interest across the HBCU network, Cobb said Howard will always attract a particular demographic of Black student such as Harris with an interest in politics and governance. The school has produced members of Congress, Cabinet secretaries and mayors. One of Cobb’s undergraduate classmates was Ras Baraka, now mayor of Newark, New Jersey.

Rooks said Hannah-Jones’ move could have ripple effects throughout academia.

Traditionally, Rooks said, Black academics were drawn to predominantly white universities because that’s where the funding and the prestige lay. But Hannah-Jones didn’t just bring her reputation; she also brought nearly $20 million in funding.

“It’s a whole other thing when you become the benefactor,” Rooks said. “We all learn how to behave, how to act, in the presence of power. If you’re the power and it’s your money, you’ve taken a whole racial dynamic off the table.”

Still, Howard’s rising prominence does bring the risk that it will overshadow smaller HBCUs. Rooks said Howard and a handful of other big names such as Morehouse, Spelman and Hampton dominate the headlines and the funding. She said, half-jokingly, that most Black American students couldn’t name more than 12 of the 107 HBCUs in the country.

One possible example of the phenomenon: In 2019, NBA star Steph Curry donated an undisclosed amount to allow Howard to launch Division I men’s and women’s golf teams, and fund them for six years. Curry was raised in North Carolina, home to 10 active HBCUs, and holds no particular connection to Howard.

The HBCU world still boils down to “five or six schools that really attract a lot of attention,” Rooks said, and dozens of others that are “desperate for funding.”

Howard’s recent fortune, she said, is “not necessarily going to raise all the boats.”

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Associated Press writer Hilary Powell contributed to this report.

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Follow Khalil on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ashrafkhalil