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13 July 2018
The Calvert Journal: Watch the new film celebrating Ukraine’s Brutalist beauty
Kiev is a city of eclectic beauty, with modernist landmarks that dot the skyline. But as the capital grows and evolves, many of these Soviet-era gems are falling out of favour and into disrepair, with many already cleared away to make room for newer projects.
Among the buildings at risk of demolition are Ukraine’s Institute of Scientific, Technical and Economic Information and the State Scientific and Technical Library — otherwise known as Kiev’s iconic “UFO Building” — already on the verge of being swallowed up by the shopping mall next door.
Soviet Modernism, Brutalism, Post-Modernism: Buildings and Projects in Ukraine from 1960 – 1990 is a love letter to this endangered architectural heritage. Inspired by a book of the same name — due to be published in October 2018 — the film draws in the audience, using warm tones and a fixed lens to build a sense of intimacy with these unwieldy concrete objects.
The aim, says director Roman Blazhan, is to build bridges that will help the audience to notice the unseen modernist structures which dominate everyday life.
Politico: Czech parliament confirms Babiš minority government
The coalition nearly fell apart last month when President Miloš Zeman rejected the Social Democrats’ choice for foreign minister, Miroslav Poche, because of his support of migrant quotas. Social Democratic chairman Jan Hamáček, who is also interior minister, will temporarily fill the post. [...]
On the other hand, said Pehe, it could be difficult to topple the ANO-led government because the opposition is not united. “If the Social Democrats leave the coalition, Zeman has sway over the [right-wing extremist Freedom and Direct Democracy party] and the Communists and could convince them that supporting the government is in their best interest because they could lose their influential parliamentary positions agreed with Babiš,” he said. [...]
Not everyone is happy about the coalition deal. Putting the Communists into a position of influence for the first time since 1989, when the Velvet Revolution put an end to 40 years of Communist Party rule, has sparked public protests in the Czech capital as well as political resentment. [...]
The government is also likely to feel heat from the Catholic Church, because one of the Communists’ demands in exchange for supporting the government was a tax on property confiscated by the Communist regime and restituted after the revolution, including churches.
Politico: Trump’s whiplash NATO summit
At a press conference later, Trump sidestepped a question about the threat, said he believed he had the authority to withdraw from NATO without congressional approval, and boasted that he had secured agreement for far larger spending commitments by allies. That claim was swiftly refuted by others including Macron, who said leaders did not alter their declaration in any way in response to Trump.[...]
Trump’s disruption of the NATO summit continues a pattern of tumult by the American president at major international gatherings. At the G7 last month, when the summit had reached a successful conclusion, he tweeted his fury from Air Force One and repudiated summit conclusions he had already agreed.
In Brussels, officials initially said Trump was more conciliatory, but he apparently became angry after reading news coverage that did not reflect his anger over allies’ reluctance to spend more on defense. [...]
Shaheen, the other co-chair of the NATO Observer Group, noted that Congress had responded to Trump’s threats towards the allies with a resolution adopted 97-2 supporting NATO and explicitly reaffirming the North Atlantic Treaty’s Article 5 mutual defense commitment.
The Local: The ambitious plan to turn Berlin’s central canal into a giant swimming pool
Despite its reputation, the Spree isn’t actually all that dirty - at least most of the time. When the river enters the capital its waters are so clean that you can go for a dip without worrying about your health, Edler's organization, Flussbad Berlin, claims.
The problems start inside the city, or more specifically, when it starts to rain in the city. Around 15 times a year, heavy rainfall overloads the city’s 19th century “mixed” drainage system. The sewage and rainwater which normally head towards sewage facilities overflow into the river, spewing faeces, detergents and tampons into the river. [...]
To this end, the city is generously backing the Flussbad Berlin project with €4 million to help it realize its aim. Berlin politicians are taking the project so seriously that it was written into the coalition treaty when a new city government was formed in 2016. [...]
Agreeing on access points to the water has been one major sticking point. At first the plan foresaw a wide set of steps at the Lustgarten park. But this plan was nixed by the city’s Monuments Authority which raised objections including that the swimming area would lead to overcrowding in the historical 19th century park.
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