Coffeehouse

• Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H) and Wellington Estates today announced the planned debut of Cas en Bas Beach Resort, marking the introduction of the Destination by Hyatt brand in the Caribbean.
• Expected to open in late 2024, Cas en Bas Beach Resort will invite global escapists to discover St. Lucia through a cosmopolitan Caribbean perspective including one-of-a-kind programming, hyper-personalized amenities, and dynamic culinary offerings.
• Nestled on the northern tip of St. Lucia, and idyllically situated between two award-winning golf courses, and a stunning white sand beach, Cas en Bas Beach Resort will provide a secluded, elevated luxury escape.
• A getaway for global travelers, Cas en Bas Beach Resort will offer the perfect balance of adventure and luxury.

• The flagship location of the coffee chain revived the long-dormant retail concept of the automat: a restaurant where food and drinks are served by technology, rather than human staff.
• The new coffee automat consisted of a touchscreen for placing orders, a window that allows customers to watch a robotic arm prepare their coffee, and a slot that dispenses the completed order.
• Toronto has seen the arrival of numerous autonomous business concepts, ranging from Aisle 24’s cashier-less grocery stores to PizzaForno’s 24/7 pizza vending machines.

No card, no phone, no service

• Checkout is accomplished through a touchscreen interface paired with a point-of-sale device that only accepts debit, credit or smartphone payments.
• Since these underbanked individuals often hail from low-income communities, they are already disproportionately burdened by the transaction fees associated with debit payments.
• This not only presents an obstacle for the communities mentioned above, but also impacts seniors, who still lag behind in smartphone adoption.

Automation and accessibility

• This poses a potential problem should a customer require immediate assistance — specifically, assistance related to a disability.
• The Canadian National Institute for the Blind notes that touchscreen payment terminals often lack haptic feedback or other accessibility features, creating a barrier for Canadians with vision loss.

Disappearing public amenities

• Lastly, the automation of these retail locations often closes off taken-for-granted public amenities.
• In large North American cities like Toronto, spaces like public parks, shopping malls and subway stations are increasingly being designed without expected amenities like sitting areas, drinking fountains and public bathrooms.
• This general divestment from providing public amenities slots into a broader trend within Canadian urban planning towards defensive architecture, often disproportionately targeting youths and those experiencing homelessness.

Mathew Iantorno does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• NEW YORK, Feb. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The Leopard at des Artistes , an iconic restaurant nestled in the historic Hotel Des Artistes in Manhattan's Upper West Side, proudly announces the appointment of Vincenzo Adamo as the new Executive Chef.
• In 2022, Chef Vincenzo joined The Leopard at des Artistes team as Sous Chef, showcasing his culinary prowess and dedication to the art of Italian cuisine.
• The Leopard at des Artistes, a proud member of the Il Gattopardo Group, continues to uphold a rich legacy that traces back to the storied Café des Artistes.
• Chef Vincenzo Adamo's appointment as Executive Chef marks an exciting new chapter for The Leopard at des Artistes and solidifies its commitment to providing an unparalleled dining encounter on the Upper West Side.

• She has dedicated her life to him, keeping her family together while he was serving time in different prisons across Italy.
• Signora Anna is someone who might be called a “mob wife”, but her world and look are galaxies away from the mob wife aesthetic that has become popular on TikTok.
• It is a commercial product rather than a reflection of the gritty reality of Italian mafias and organised crime.
• From my experience of real mob wives, this lies in direct contradiction of the very essence of mafias.

The real mafia women dress code

• Italian mafia wives are different from American mafia wives because a structured Italo-American mafia developed during the 1930s within a different historical context of capitalism and the American dream.
• These are glamorous women who appear as trophies on the arms of their men without a care in the world, rather than normal women with daily concerns.
• These films also inspired many different images of mafia women that confuse and overlap our understanding of them.
• In this way, Italian mafia women have always been portrayed as passive and ignorant bystanders, not visible and loud mob wives.
• Important Italian mafia women may like branded clothes, luxury and exotic holidays but they will never show off.

TikTok glorifying the criminal underworld

• The use of Instagram and TikTok have exploded among the young.
• Naples is a particular hub of TikTok production with many focusing on mafia images, symbols and messages as well as neomelodica music (Italian pop music).
• Women are part of this showing off of social status in posts flaunting their latest clothes, their plastic surgery and holiday destinations.
• The TikTok trend is fundamentally a distraction from addressing the real hardships that girls and women deal with within organised crime spaces on a daily basis.

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Felia Allum is a Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).