Rabu, 17 April 2019
Watch live: Crews continue to assess damage after fire ravages Notre Dame - Washington Post
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etwx7rKguX8
2019-04-17 11:46:28Z
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Notre Dame fire: Macron's vow to rebuild cathedral is unrealistic, experts warn - NBCNews.com
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By F. Brinley Bruton
Cathedrals often took more than a century to build in medieval times, a process that sometimes spanned the lives of several monarchs.
So French President Emmanuel Macron's pledge Tuesday to restore fire-devastated Notre Dame within five years was at odds with experts who predicted restoring the jewel of Gothic architecture would likely take much longer.
April 16, 201904:42
A host of specialized artisans and skilled workmen will need to be gathered from around France, and likely beyond. These include master stone-cutters, mortar makers, carpenters, roofers, quarrymen and sculptors.
Speaking before Macron's announcement, Emily Guerry, a professor of medieval history at England's University of Kent, anticipated restoration work on the 850-year-old icon would take around two decades.
“This will be the largest, most important cultural renovation project in France for some time to come,” she said, adding that the process would be “very delicate.”
Jean-Claude Bellanger, secretary-general of Les Compagnons du Devoir, an organization that provides training in manual trades, told Le Parisian newspaper that the niche nature of the work would require an influx of new talent.
“We need to open some 100 places in our carpentry, stone-cutting and roofing sections,” he said, with at least 300 more skilled tradesmen also needing training.
A decade is necessary to train some of the specialized workers required for such a project, Bellanger added.
Bertrand de Feydeau, vice president of preservation group Fondation du Patrimoine, told France Info radio that the 800-year-old roof that went up in flames was built with wood from forests that have all but disappeared.
It won't won’t be rebuilt precisely as it was before because "we don’t, at the moment, have trees on our territory of the size that were cut in the 13th century," he told The Associated Press.
Macron's promise was aimed at galvanizing a nation reeling after a blaze tore through the 12th-century landmark.
And with around $1 billion raised in donations for Notre Dames's reconstruction, Macron appeared confident it could be made whole again in time for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.
"We have so much to reconstruct," he said. "So yes, we will rebuild the Cathedral of Notre Dame more beautifully. And I would like it to be achieved in five years from now. We can do it. And we will mobilize."
But the timescale of similar projects suggests Macron might be focusing on optimism over realism.
The Gothic cathedral in Cologne, Germany, was badly damaged during World War II and work to repair it is ongoing more than 70 years later.
"This is certainly a tragedy with a European dimension, because the Gothic style was invented in France,” Peter Fuessenich, who is leading the reconstruction in Cologne, told the AP. "It will certainly take years, perhaps even decades, until the last damage caused by this terrible fire will be completely repaired.”
Pierluigi Pericolo, who is in charge of restoration and security at the St. Donatian basilica in the French city of Nantes, said it could take two to five years just to secure and stabilize Notre Dame, given its size.
"It's a fundamental step, and very complex, because it's difficult to send workers into a monument whose vaulted ceilings are swollen with water," he said on France Info. "The end of the fire doesn't mean the edifice is totally saved. The stone can deteriorate when it is exposed to high temperatures and change its mineral composition and fracture inside."
April 16, 201903:12
Historians and experts in medieval architecture tried to assuage worries around the world about the future of Notre Dame, saying that such disasters were natural in the lifespan of such buildings.
Sara Uckelman, a professor at Britain’s Durham University, pointed out that the cathedral has endured sieges and two world wars.
“I'm finding that my background and training as a medievalist means I'm, overall, finding it a lot less devastating than many people,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “I know how churches live. They are not static monuments to the past. They are built, they get burned, they are rebuilt, they are extended, they get ransacked, they get rebuilt, they collapse because they were not built well, they get rebuilt, they get extended, they get renovated, they get bombed, they get rebuilt."
Uckelman added: “It is the continuous presence, not the original structure, that matters."
Rachel Elbaum , Alexander Smith, Saphora Smith, Yuliya Talmazan and Associated Press contributed.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/notre-dame-fire-macron-s-vow-rebuild-cathedral-unrealistic-experts-n995311
2019-04-17 10:08:00Z
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Early results show President Joko Widodo take a lead in Indonesia's elections - CNN
An initial count of Wednesday's ballots put Jokowi on around 55% of the vote, with Prabowo winning around 44%.
Most pre-election opinion polls had given Jokowi a double-digit lead, though he had copped criticism from analysts and former supporters who say he has failed to deliver on issues such as human rights -- and compromised his values of pluralism to score political points.
Final official results will be announced by May 22.
Some 192.8 million people were eligible to vote across the archipelago's 17,000 islands in what is the world's biggest direct presidential election.
It's been billed as one of the most complicated single-day ballots ever under taken. For the first time, Indonesia held its presidential and legislative elections on the same day, with more than 245,000 candidates running for over 20,000 seats. More than 800,000 polling stations and six million election workers helped to pull it off.
Only the Indian elections are bigger (with 900 million people eligible to vote) and they are held over a period of almost six weeks. Indonesia's elections take place over just six hours.
A logistical feat spanning mountains and jungles
Indonesians were actually asked to casting five ballots -- for the president and vice-president, for members of the 575-seat House of Representatives, for the Regional Representative Council (or Senate), provincial legislators, and district and city councils.
Polling began at 7 a.m. local time and voters had until 1 p.m. to cast their ballots before polls closed and the counting started.
Ensuring this mega-poll in the world's third largest democracy would go off without a hitch was a logistical feat, with election workers traveling by boat to remote islands, scaling mountains to reach hill-top villages and trekking through jungles -- sometimes on horses -- to bring ballot boxes within range of every voter.
"The logistics of this election are fiendishly complicated," said Ben Bland, director of the Southeast Asia Project at the Lowy Institute.
"Indonesians are spread over hundreds if not thousands of islands, many of these places are very remote and mountain villages, you have to access some places by small boats, on foot in some cases. And remember that many different areas have different ballots because they're voting for different local candidates," said Bland.
"So for the election commission to get all these thousands of different kinds of ballot paper to 800,000 polling stations across Indonesia is a real geographical and logistical feat."
But there has also been reported allegations of voting irregularities, with Prabowo and his team claiming there were voter lists that included names of the dead and those not eligible to vote and vowing to take action if their concerns were ignored. The Election Commission is investigating the claims.
Indonesia's election watchdog has called for a revote for more than 300,000 Indonesians living in neighboring Malaysia because officials discovered invalid ballots, which were punched by non-voters, and other uncast ballots.
"There is convincing proof that the Overseas Election Committee in Kuala Lumpur did not carry out its task of conducting the 2019 election objectively, transparently and professionally," the election committee said in a statement.
It comes after video purportedly showed pre-marked ballot papers for Jokowi in Malaysia.
While Indonesia is a relatively new democracy following the fall of the Suharto regime in 1998, Bland said the nation has a "pretty good track record" of keeping the election free and fair.
"Its important to understand just how hard it is for countries transitioning from authoritarianism to democracy to do so successfully, and how hard it is in a big developing country to hold successful elections," he said, citing Nigeria and Afghanistan which have delayed their elections because of logistical problems.
"Meanwhile in Thailand there's an impasse at the moment because of uncertainties of the counting process and the role of the military government in that so I think Indonesia deserves credit for the way its built up a pretty resilient election system," he said.
The challengers
Polls suggest that Jokowi, 57, is likely to win a second term. A former furniture salesman, Jokowi became mayor of Surakarta in 2005 and then Jakarta governor in 2012.
In 2014, he campaigned on a promise of creating jobs, bolstering human rights and cracking down on corruption. The public was sold and swept in the self-styled man-of-the-people over his military strongman opponent, Prabowo, now 67.
Once again, Jokowi was competing against Prabowo, a retired army general and son-in-law of former president and authoritarian dictator Suharto. His running mate is Sandiaga Uno, a businessman and vice governor of Jakarta who was named by Forbes in 2013 as Indonesia's 47th richest man, with an estimated net worth of $460 million.
During campaigning, Prabowo seized on his rival's economic failings, slamming Jokowi for allowing food prices to rise and calling for better quality jobs.
Jokowi's choice of Ma'ruf Amin, a hardline Muslim cleric for his running mate, may have bolstered his religious credentials by appealing to Islamic hardliners that have traditionally supported Prabowo. But it could have also turn off some those who voted for him in 2014 for his commitment to religious freedom.
Youth vote
Some 80 million 18-35 year-olds -- about 40% of the electorate -- were eligible to cast a ballot this year and both candidates have made efforts to appeal to them.
Jokowi beamed a hologram of himself around the nation, featured his pet goat on social media, and made references to the television show "Game of Thrones."
Prabowo, meanwhile, focused on issues such as unemployment which are likely to appeal to younger voters who are struggling with an unemployment rate of about 15.8%, according to World Bank figures.
"Millennials are very important to the two candidates," said Hasanuddin Ali, chief executive of research company Alvara Research Center. "Millennial voters are also a key success factor in the Indonesian election."
But it could prove a hard sell. Analysts say there is widespread disengagement from young people towards politics and they are put off by high levels of corruption and distrust in the system.
"Some don't feel like they're being equally represented," said Ella Prihatini, an academic with the Center for Muslim States and Societies at the University of Western Australia.
Others are concerned that minority rights continue to be eroded -- over the past few years police raids and vigilante attacks on members of the LGBT community have increased and last year the country made moves to criminalize homosexual sex.
"I think it's unfair to expect LGBT Indonesians to vote when we're not even considered a part of this nation," said Amahl Sharif Azwar, a 32-year-old gay Indonesian freelance writer who lives in Thailand.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/16/asia/indonesia-election-2019-polls-open-intl/index.html
2019-04-17 09:06:00Z
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Notre Dame fire: drone footage shows damage to cathedral - Guardian News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMaY4KqG_d8
2019-04-17 08:33:35Z
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Indonesians await 'quick count' after country's biggest election - Aljazeera.com
Voting has ended in Indonesia's presidential and legislative elections, with tens of millions of people casting votes without widespread hitches.
Preliminary results based on so-called "quick counts"- votes publicly tallied at polling stations are expected to start rolling in within two hours.
The presidential race pits incumbent Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and his running mate, Indonesian Ulama Council Chairman Ma'ruf Amin, against retired general and longtime rival Prabowo Subianto and multi-millionaire businessman Sandiaga Uno.
People in two districts of Jayapura, the capital of volatile Papua province in Indonesia's east, were unable to vote after ballots and ballot boxes were not delivered.
Yosina, a resident in Abepura district, said: "We are very disappointed, we have waited for nothing since this morning. We want to cast our vote but ballot box was not there."
Police officers pushed her away from the polling station after she shouted, "This is a big question mark for us, don't fool us, we are smart, don't play with us."
Theodorus Kosay, chairman of the province's election commission, said the problems arose because of delays in replacing damaged ballots and lack of volunteers. The election in the two affected districts was postponed until Thursday.
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Widodo and Amin are trying to project themselves as progressive yet religious, with a campaign slogan of "Advancing Indonesia".
"I am a nationalist," Widodo said on the announcement of his candidacy in August 2018. "He is a devout religious figure. We complement each other well."
Prabowo, who has been accused of human rights abuses, ran against Widodo in 2014, while Uno is a businessman who spent a few months as deputy governor of Jakarta, after the mass rallies against Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (also known as Ahok) who was accused - and later convicted - of blasphemy.
Earlier, ballot papers were delivered with security escorts to remote regions of the country by plane, speedboat, canoe and horseback.
Two speedboats were deployed as mobile polling stations for residents on the Thousand Islands chain north of Jakarta.
"Even though some people are apathetic, I think it's important to vote for Indonesia's future. Vote with your conscience," said Hadi Wiguna, who was queueing to vote at a polling station in central Jakarta.
A tornado in East Java late on Tuesday destroyed two village polling stations and cut power to two others, forcing the authorities to move the voting to safer areas, the domestic news agency Antara reported.
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Al Jazeera's Wayne Hay, reporting from Jakarta, said the overall turnout was likely to be more than the traditional 70 percent.
"The turnout might be more this time due to two different elections taking place as well as the divisive nature of the vote and the long election campaign where there were many disagreements surrounding issues like the economy and religion."
The latest opinion polls in the lead-up to the election had the Widodo-Amin pair leading by as many as 20 points, with a significant proportion of undecided voters.
Most political experts predict a closer result, however, given that 2014's pre-election polls were similar, but Widodo ultimately beat Prabowo by just six points.
Wednesday will also see elections for parliamentarians taking place. Legislative elections are normally held months prior to the presidential elections but the move means voters will be confronted with a list of tough choices.
More than 10,000 people have volunteered to crowd-source election results posted at polling stations in a real-time bid to thwart attempts at fraud.
However, the opposition has already alleged voter-list irregularities that could affect millions and has vowed legal or "people power" action if its concerns are ignored.
"We are very concerned, we hope and we pray that today's election will be fair and peaceful, it will be peaceful if it's fair. Hopefully, the will of the Indonesian people, will be heard today," said Prabowo after casting his vote.
Last week, several videos appeared online apparently showing thousands of voting papers stuffed in bags at a warehouse in neighbouring Malaysia, with many of them apparently already marked.
The country's election supervisory board has recommended a revote for Indonesians in Malaysia and in Australia, where several hundred registered voters were still standing in line after the polls closed there on Saturday.
A decision will be taken by the elections commission.
Additional reporting by Kate Walton in Jakarta
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/04/voting-underway-indonesia-biggest-election-190417005359316.html
2019-04-17 06:11:00Z
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Selasa, 16 April 2019
Trump offers condolences to Macron for Notre Dame fire: 'Those bells will sound again' - Fox News
President Trump offered condolences Tuesday to French President Emmanuel Macron over the devastating fire that ravaged the famed Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris a day earlier.
“France is the oldest ally of the United States, and we remember with grateful hearts the tolling of Notre Dame’s bells on September 12, 2001, in solemn recognition of the tragic September 11th attacks on American soil,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. “Those bells will sound again. We stand with France today and offer our assistance in the rehabilitation of this irreplaceable symbol of Western civilization. Vive la France!”
Trump referenced the blaze repeatedly on Monday during both public appearances and on social media. During a stop at a trucking company in Minnesota on Monday, the president expressed his shock and sadness at the news of the fire – calling the famed cathedral “one of the great treasures of the world.”
Along with Trump, numerous other world leaders offered their condolences to France in the aftermath of the fire, including Pope Francis, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen.
Monday's fire collapsed the spire and burned through the roof of the 12th-century building, sparking an outpouring of grief and reminiscing of visits to the Parisian landmark.
Macron has pledged to rebuild a cathedral that he called "a part of us" and appealed for help to do so. The church is home to relics, stained glass and other incalculable works of art and is a leading tourist attraction, immortalized by Victor Hugo's 1831 novel "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."
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The Paris prosecutor's office said it was treating the fire as an accident, ruling out arson and possible terror-related motives, at least for now. French media quoted the Paris fire brigade as saying the fire was "potentially linked" to a 6 million euro ($6.8 million) renovation project on the spire and its 500 tons of wood and 250 tons of lead.
Despite the dramatic image of the flaming cathedral, no one was killed. One firefighter was injured, among some 400 who battled the flames for hours before finally extinguishing them. Firefighters continued working through the night to cool the building and secure the monument, as residual sparks sprinkled down from the gaping hole where the spire used to be.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-condolences-macron-for-notre-dame-fire
2019-04-16 17:17:16Z
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French Titans’ Pledges to Notre-Dame Pass €600 Million - The New York Times
In the aftermath of the fire at Notre-Dame, one of the great symbols of France, the luxury industry — another symbol of the country, thanks to names such as Dior, Louis Vuitton and Saint Laurent — has pledged hundreds of millions of euros to the cathedral’s restoration.
The donations were followed on Tuesday by other pledges that soon surpassed 600 million euros, or about $675 million, and included beauty, energy, and finance companies.
On Monday, as Notre-Dame burned and flames lit the sky, the Pinault family — owners of Kering, the second-largest luxury group in France — was the first to publicly offer a significant contribution, pledging to donate €100 million to the rebuilding effort.
“The Notre-Dame tragedy strikes all French people, as well as all those with spiritual values,” said François-Henri Pinault, chairman of Artémis, the family holding company that controls Kering.
“Faced with this tragedy, everyone wishes to bring this jewel of our heritage back to life as soon as possible,” he added. “Today, my father and I have committed to donate €100 million from the Artémis fund to take part in the effort needed to fully rebuild Notre-Dame de Paris.”
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Shortly afterward, the Arnault family and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, led by Bernard Arnault, the richest man in France, announced that they would give €200 million.
“The LVMH Group puts at the disposal of the state and the relevant authorities all of its teams — including creative, architectural and financial specialists — to help with the long work of reconstruction and fund-raising, which is already in progress,” they said.
LVMH is the largest luxury group in the world. Its fashion holdings include Celine, Dior, Givenchy and Louis Vuitton. The group also owns drinks brands including Moët & Chandon, Dom Pérignon and Veuve Clicquot, as well as the landmark Parisian stores Le Bon Marché and La Samaritaine. The group reported revenue of €46.8 billion in 2018.
Mr. Arnault was an early supporter of Emanuel Macron’s presidential bid, and Brigitte Macron, the French first lady, wears Louis Vuitton for most of her high-profile public events. Mr. Arnault also masterminded the Fondation Louis Vuitton, the contemporary art museum in the Bois de Boulogne designed by Frank Gehry that has helped reshape the landscape of Paris and that will ultimately become a gift to the city.
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For its part, Kering owns luxury brands such as Balenciaga, Boucheron and Yves Saint Laurent. The Pinault family — also among the richest in France — owns the wine estate Château Latour. The group’s 2018 revenues were €13.67 billion. François Pinault, the patriarch of the family that controls Kering, is building a contemporary art museum in the former Bourse de Commerce in the center of Paris that will be designed by the architect Tadao Ando.
François-Henri Pinault, Mr. Pinault’s son, is married to the actress Salma Hayek. Kering has its headquarters in Paris, and Ms. Hayek posted a message of condolence and support on Instagram after the fire. “As many others I’m in deep shock and sadness to witness the beauty of Notre-Dame turn into smoke,” she wrote. “I love you Paris.”
The two fashion groups are deeply embedded and invested in the heritage of France as a global beacon of beauty and artistic creativity, a tradition that is also carved into the stones of Notre-Dame.
In recent years, the luxury industry across Europe has become actively involved in restoring historic monuments. The Italian leather goods group Tod’s is underwriting the restoration of the Colosseum in Rome for €25 million. Fendi, which is owned by LVMH, paid €2 million toward the restoration of the Trevi Fountain in the Italian capital (the company held a fashion show there when it was completed). Bulgari, a jewelry brand also under the LVMH umbrella, spent €1.5 million on the Spanish Steps in the city. And Salvatore Ferragamo, an Italian luxury goods company, has supported the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
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The motives are both altruistic — supplying funds that local governments do not have in the interests of saving a joint inheritance — and self-interested — the companies clearly understand that the more closely they associate with masterpieces of history, the more they bask in their glow.
In addition, when it comes to Notre-Dame, donors will benefit from a hefty tax write-off. Individuals in France can get a 66 percent discount on charitable gifts, while companies can deduct 60 percent of their corporate sponsorship expenses — which would most likely include assistance to the cathedral — from their corporation tax, though the amount is capped at 0.5 percent of turnover.
In the aftermath of the tragedy in Paris, however, such distinctions may not matter. The gifts from the likes of the Arnaults and the Pinaults are a reflection of how personally, and how profoundly, the fire has reached into the identity of French citizens and their businesses.
Indeed, just after the announcement from LVMH, Patrick Pouyanné, the chief executive of the French energy company Total, said on Twitter that his firm would contribute an additional €100 million to the cause, and L’Oréal and the Bettencourt-Schueller Foundation, which is backed by the family that founded the cosmetics giant, pledged a total of €200 million. Offers of aid in the reconstruction effort also came from the bank Société Générale (€10 million) and the advertising firm JCDecaux (€20 million), while the tire maker Michelin also promised a large sum and the construction giant Vinci offered to provide workers and architects.
Their legacy will now be part of Notre-Dame’s future.
Liz Alderman contributed reporting.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/16/fashion/Donations-notre-dame-fire.html
2019-04-16 15:56:15Z
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