The Monocle Minute

Among all the coverage in newspapers around the world of the shooting at the Pulse nightclub on Sunday morning, it is the Orlando Sentinel’s that spoke clearest to the horror that unfolded. By sticking to the facts and reporting the unfolding atrocity in clear, measured prose it captured the magnitude of the incident far better than its counterparts elsewhere. Yesterday’s redesigned front page was entirely dedicated to an editorial with the headline “Our community will heal”, prioritising strength over fear. Founded in 1876 and now owned by Chicago-based Tribune publishing, its has a daily circulation of about 150,000 but it has been thoughtful in its online presence too: it has lifted its paywall on all coverage of the attack, as well as broadcasting live discussions with reporters covering the aftermath. The Sentinel’s thorough and thoughtful coverage has shown that city newspapers, and local publications more broadly, are still at the heart of the communities on which they report. In turn, that can only improve our understanding of an attack as unfathomable as that which took place in Orlando on Saturday night.

The menswear buyers and fashion journalists of the world have once again arrived in Florence, where lauded tradeshow Pitti Immagine Uomo starts today. To celebrate its momentous 90th edition, organisers have decided to theme the show around the symbolism of numbers. Figures are an obvious way of understanding Pitti’s achievements, with the increasing number of visitors attesting to its success over recent years. With 1,219 exhibitors and about 30,000 visitors expected this week, the tradeshow has transformed since its first ever edition in 1972 (when there were 43 exhibitors and 526 visiting buyers), growing all the more rapidly under the savvy guidance of CEO Raffaello Napoleone (pictured, left). To reflect this year’s theme, the set design (courtesy of Oliviero Baldini) will feature numbers scattered across the Fortezza da Basso. Keep an eye out for a couple of installations too: artist Laurina Paperina redesigns the traditional Neapolitan Smorfia (a dream-interpretation system of 90 lucky numbers) with her “Wall of Fame”, while football magazine Undici builds eleven imposing sculptures dedicated to famous players’ jerseys, to coincide with the European championships. Pitti Immagine Uomo is on until 17 June.

Tokyo is about to lose another landmark: the Sony Building in the Ginza shopping district will be torn down next spring. Designed by Yoshinobu Ashihara and completed in 1966, the eight-storey edifice – with five additional floors below ground – has been the Japanese tech company’s main downtown showroom and venue for new product launches for decades, attracting some four million visitors a year. Sony said this week that it won’t rebuild right away but its future plans centre on a public space called Ginza Sony Park (the showroom will move a block away to a new building). Comparisons are already being made to the red steps on top of the TKTS booth in Times Square: Sony’s park will sit on top of the existing underground levels until just after the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, when the company plans to begin construction on a new tower of technology.

Turkey’s new transport minister Ahmet Arslan is looking to make his mark. One of his first moves has been to promise that a delayed railway from Turkey to Azerbaijan and Georgia will be operational by the end of the year. Then there’s the fact that the scheme to carve a new waterway through the suburbs of Istanbul, first touted in 2009 and described by president Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a “crazy and magnificent” plan, is again back on the table – and ruffling feathers. About 50km long, a canal linking the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea was an idea bounced around in the Ottoman court but today it’s seen as a way to alleviate naval traffic on the crowded Bosphorus (pictured). A grand scheme, no doubt, but its potential environmental impact has many Turks nervous and it would effectively turn the European side of the city into an island.

James Rylands is an auctioneer and director at Summers Place Auctions. The auction house has been bringing down the gavel on plenty of lots over the past 30 years and is now a world leader in garden statuary and natural history. Last week it had an interesting collection up for sale: Emmen Zoo in the Netherlands was parting with its natural-history collection. This comprised various fossils and drawings, ranging from small, immortalised fish to a seven-metre tall dinosaur skeleton.

A new generation of wine producers in South Tyrol has shifted the focus from quantity to quality, now successfully concentrating on what makes the tipple from this region so special. We visit Merano Wine Festival to meet the people behind this change in the Italian Alps.