0:00

You're listening to The Globalist, first broadcast on

0:02

the 21st of March 2024 on Monocle

0:06

Radio, The Globalist in association

0:08

with UPS. It's

0:11

sixteen hundred in Bangkok, 8am in

0:13

Brussels, 7am here at Midori House

0:15

in London, and 3am in Ottawa.

0:18

You're listening to Monocle Radio, The

0:20

Globalist starts now. Live

0:43

from London, this is The Globalist with me,

0:45

Emma Nelson. A very warm welcome to today's

0:47

programme. Coming up, the leaders of the EU

0:49

meet with the agenda as full and as

0:51

serious as ever. Will the session be a

0:54

chance to iron out differences within the block?

0:56

We'll find out. Also coming

0:58

up, the president of Vietnam resigns, or

1:00

was he pushed, will examine what happens

1:02

next in a country where foreign investors

1:04

are banking on the nation's stability. And

1:07

Monocle's US politics correspondent will explore

1:09

the role of disinformation in this

1:11

year's presidential elections. But it's

1:13

really important to realise that some of the most

1:17

persistent and pernicious forms

1:19

of online disinformation in the

1:21

United States and elsewhere were text-based. Plus,

1:24

the paper review will come from Paris today

1:26

and will delve into the latest edition of

1:28

Monocle magazine. That's all ahead on The Globalist,

1:30

live from London. First,

1:40

a quick look at what else is happening

1:42

in today's news. Russia has launched a missile

1:44

attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, injuring at

1:46

least ten people. The Israeli

1:48

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told

1:50

US Republican senators that Israel will

1:53

continue its efforts to defeat Hamas.

1:55

And the US National Security Advisor has promised

1:57

that a major aid package blocked by Republicans...

2:00

Eighteen months we'll get to Ukraine say

2:02

change Monaco radio throughout the day for

2:04

more in these stories. But the Twenty

2:07

third Leaders of the Eat Meat Today

2:09

with Defense, The Middle East and the

2:11

continuing protests by the block agricultural sectors

2:13

on the agenda prefer to give the

2:16

political green light to the opening of

2:18

accession talks with Bosnia Herzegovina. So to

2:20

go through an enormously such agenda, I'm

2:23

joined now by Season Lentz, his global

2:25

playbook. Author and associate editor at Politico

2:27

Imbecile for comeback says i'm good morning.

2:30

Good morning and us at right. This is a high stakes

2:32

some as isn't it. Is. Very much

2:34

is as eaters will be arriving here

2:37

around lunchtime am and is a two

2:39

day meeting Am very much folks saying

2:41

city on though this that is sad

2:43

but defense air it is a big

2:45

as effect at in his last her

2:48

add two leaders before the summer's sharing

2:50

Michelle at the head of the European

2:52

Council talks about your of needing to

2:54

be on a on a war time

2:56

fo things put these economy a war

2:58

footing Each hadn't talked about how the

3:01

fuck with the conference The Satan the

3:03

biggest secure suppress. Since the Second

3:05

World war so at trying to get some

3:07

agreement on that on where the. You need

3:09

to go from here. We are and

3:12

with the let's let's focus on this

3:14

on the move move move move on.

3:16

the other really big subjects that me

3:18

to be tackled as well today but

3:20

when it comes to Ukraine we are

3:22

now what. More than two years in

3:24

and the defense to talks are still

3:26

talking about the way that the European

3:28

Union supports Ukraine, how they can come

3:30

together how various countries approaches must be

3:32

ironed out because they are hugely differing

3:35

ones not the moment we want suggests

3:37

it. Also two and a half he

3:39

is he sued have been sorted out.

3:41

By not fooling. yeah so

3:43

am the he has struggled on this

3:45

issue as a collective soldier individually seen

3:48

a lot of change among different countries

3:50

or germany is now providing huge amount

3:52

of age as ukraine for example military

3:55

aid and of the complete turnaround for

3:57

germany both what they have thrilled with

3:59

it do is try

4:01

and have a more EU-wide response to

4:03

this. That would save

4:05

money, be more effective, make

4:08

more sense. So for example, an

4:10

example of this would be during COVID when

4:12

the EU got together and was able to

4:14

procure vaccines together. It made more sense. That

4:16

was one example of it. And that's the

4:18

kind of idea people are trying

4:21

to do here now about defense, that rather

4:23

than having this patchwork across Europe with

4:25

different countries providing this and that at

4:27

two different levels, there would be some kind

4:29

of more common approach that they

4:32

would fund or help Ukraine as a

4:34

collective. It's a big market, obviously, the

4:36

EU, and it would work better that

4:38

way. So what they're looking at is

4:40

quite a finance focus, how to finance

4:42

that, for example. So one idea is

4:44

that President Macron has been very strong

4:47

on this in the last few days

4:49

and said that the EU should issue

4:51

bonds, war bonds, defense bonds to try

4:53

and finance this. But some countries, not

4:55

least Germany, are opposed to this. That's

4:57

one example of the idea that's going

5:00

to be discussed today. Tell

5:02

us a little bit more about how

5:04

the plates are shifting within the European

5:06

Union here, because we've seen in the

5:08

last few months at least Poland being

5:10

welcomed back into the fold with the

5:12

return of Donald Tusk to be prime

5:14

minister, a key figure now, a uniting

5:16

figure, many would suggest. Yet at the

5:18

same time, we have Hungary and now

5:20

Slovakia causing more problems for

5:22

the European Union in terms of

5:25

their push towards Russia. Yes,

5:28

I think Hungary, that is going to

5:31

be a flying the ointment today, for example.

5:33

Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, he

5:37

is obviously a, he rails against various

5:39

EU measures. But on Ukraine, he's a

5:41

very strong view. He feels that the

5:44

EU shouldn't really go any further, that

5:47

keeps giving what it's giving, but that

5:49

it shouldn't get more involved

5:51

in anything that would provoke Russia. And

5:54

Slovakia is quite a right

5:57

wing leader there, Fitso as

5:59

well. is backing that.

6:01

So with these

6:03

big issues, you can have one country that

6:05

blocks something. So it's important to have everyone

6:08

on board. In saying that he's not alone,

6:10

I mean, some of these issues, one other

6:12

proposal, for example, is that the European Investment

6:14

Bank should be used to fund defence. A

6:17

lot of countries are against that in

6:19

principle. My own home country Ireland, for

6:22

example, it's a shareholder in the EIB,

6:24

it would be completely ideologically against that.

6:26

That should not be the role of

6:28

the European Investment Bank to fund

6:30

arms, a defence that would then go

6:32

to Ukraine because Ireland is a military

6:34

and useful country. So you've got all

6:36

these problems that maybe for different reasons,

6:39

some countries don't want to get more involved

6:41

in defence. But you're absolutely right in that

6:44

the presence of Donald Tuskie is very much

6:46

seen as an adult in the room by

6:48

a lot of leaders here, even though he

6:50

himself has come under a huge pressure from

6:52

his own farming lobby and has vowed to

6:54

that in extent. A lot of the farmers

6:57

in Poland are not happy

6:59

with the imports that are coming in from

7:01

Ukraine. They're obviously bordering the country there in

7:03

the east of the bloc. Will there be

7:05

any consideration of Emmanuel Macron's comments from last

7:08

week when he talked about the reality that

7:10

one day the western troops could

7:12

end up in Ukraine? Yeah,

7:14

I think there will be. I think

7:16

there will be some of that. Ukraine's

7:18

Prime Minister Vladimir Zelensky is due to

7:20

address leaders here this afternoon

7:23

by video link. So no doubt he

7:25

will make the case for

7:27

the urgency of this. And obviously,

7:29

as we know, Ukraine is still

7:31

waiting for the stalled aid from

7:33

the US Congress. So they badly

7:35

need it. So I think

7:38

there is there been reports that some German

7:40

reports and research, German

7:43

intelligence services reportedly warned

7:46

that an attack on an EU country

7:48

could happen as soon as 2026. So

7:51

I do think that is going to be

7:53

very high in the agenda. In saying that,

7:55

to be perfectly honest, there are some people

7:57

here in Brussels who would be suspicious that

7:59

they would be there. when France talks about

8:01

increasing the European defence industry,

8:04

it's talking about its own defence industry because

8:06

France of course is one of the big

8:08

defence producers. So the argument would be of

8:10

course it wants more EU

8:12

defence because most of its companies are heavily,

8:14

you know, one of the big drivers of

8:17

that. But yeah, I think Macron is going

8:19

to be a big voice on this when

8:21

he arrives here today. What about the non-military

8:23

measures that the European Union can take? I

8:26

mean, since the

8:28

27th last met, two

8:30

things have happened. Firstly, Alexei Navalny

8:32

died in a penal

8:35

colony in the Arctic. And secondly,

8:37

President Vladimir Putin was elected in

8:40

inverted commerce, many argue, for

8:43

another five years in

8:46

power. Tell us a little bit

8:48

more about what the European Union is considering doing

8:50

or can do to try

8:53

to address these two events. Yes,

8:55

absolutely. So earlier in the week,

8:57

EU foreign ministers met here and

9:00

that usually happens in advance of the EU

9:02

summit. And they did agree

9:04

or they did signal that they were going

9:06

to impose new sanctions over the death of

9:08

Navalny. And this would be sanctions on

9:11

30 Russian officials, individuals

9:14

on this. So that now has

9:17

to be rubber stamped. And we're

9:19

waiting to hear some more of

9:21

the details on that. But there

9:23

was broad political agreement for that.

9:25

We do expect obviously, then a,

9:27

you know, a denunciation of the

9:29

election in Russia, although, of

9:31

course, not all countries, you know, have

9:33

the same view you mentioned Hungary and

9:35

Viktor Orban. Orban has met Vladimir Putin,

9:37

for example, one of the only EU

9:39

leaders who have done so since the

9:41

start of the war. And so sometimes

9:43

it depends who you're asking.

9:46

And most countries in Europe, of

9:48

course, have denounced the election

9:50

as a sham. But yeah, if I

9:52

think this has made, made people realize

9:55

that this, you know, Putin is

9:57

not going anywhere, that he has been in

9:59

big trouble. by this election that

10:01

we all knew he was going to win

10:03

it obviously with the sham election but for

10:05

him the optics were important so there

10:08

has been a lot of speculation

10:10

here that after the election Putin

10:12

would ascend a lot more you

10:14

know flood troops at two

10:16

Ukraine at both sides need more troops on

10:18

the front line but that he'd be waiting

10:20

until after the election so if that has

10:23

to happen that's of course going to put

10:25

huge pressure on Ukraine as it fights back

10:27

at Russia. One of the big issues that

10:29

will be raised today is EU enlargement

10:32

and there has been an assessment of

10:34

what the bloc needs to do to

10:36

be ready for enlargement by 2030 with

10:39

the with the idea that Bosnia-Herzegovina should

10:41

be now be allowed to engage in

10:43

accession talks but there are calls for

10:45

changes within the EU to be made before

10:47

it gets any bigger. Yes

10:49

exactly so we do expect that

10:51

decision on Bosnia-Herzegovina to

10:54

be made today which is

10:56

a development but the

10:58

big political problem for the EU is

11:00

that it has agreed to open the

11:02

door to talk to Ukraine

11:04

and Moldova did so a while

11:06

ago but the reality

11:09

is that the European elections are looming

11:11

we've got a lot of protests for

11:13

example by farmers about a potential Ukraine

11:17

accession because of their huge

11:19

role as an agriculture producer

11:21

and how that would affect the

11:23

agriculture market so I think a

11:25

lot of countries in reality want to

11:27

put this off they don't want to

11:29

talk about it before the European election

11:32

they want to get the election done

11:34

and then turn seriously to enlargement. Now

11:36

in saying that Ukraine is

11:38

obviously the most important country

11:40

in that of its size as

11:43

well as the fact that that war is on

11:45

the on the track you know we've got

11:47

it is trying to there

11:50

are discussions going on all the time

11:52

between Brussels and Kiev where they are

11:55

meeting certain criteria that have to be

11:57

met before they would exceed the next

11:59

stage. in the process. So

12:02

that is happening. But it's more about that

12:04

the EU, you know, let's look at the

12:06

EU itself, how it works, for example, you

12:09

know, should this idea that I mentioned

12:11

unanimously, that you need everyone to agree

12:13

on certain issues, should

12:16

that be looked at in terms of foreign

12:18

policy? Maybe that needs to be changed because

12:20

of the fear that everything will become too

12:23

unwieldy if more join. And all these discussions

12:25

we were talking about about, you know, common

12:27

issues of debt and those kind of things.

12:30

They're all in turn a reform things

12:32

that some people feel should happen before

12:34

we even get to a stage where

12:37

people other countries would join. So

12:40

it's a huge issue enlargement. The,

12:42

you know, at the end of

12:44

the day, if Ukraine joins EU,

12:47

it's a very big country. So Kiev would

12:49

wield huge influence in the European Parliament and

12:51

in the Council of the EU, and

12:54

would also be a major player when

12:56

it comes to agriculture, which would very

12:58

much influence and

13:00

change the dynamics within the EU. Susanne

13:03

Lin, thank you so much for joining

13:05

us on Monocle Radio. You're listening to

13:07

The Globalist. The

13:20

Vietnam school of six took a rather

13:22

unsteady turn yesterday with the resignation of

13:24

the country's president. In power for a

13:26

little over a year, Vavan Tung's departure

13:28

follows the arrest of a former official

13:31

on corruption charges. Well, to tell us

13:33

more, I'm joined by James Chambers, his

13:35

Monocle's editor. He's based in Bangkok. Very

13:37

good afternoon to you, James.

13:40

Morning, Emma. So Vavan Tung's

13:42

departure follows accusations of shortcomings.

13:45

What are shortcomings in Vietnamese

13:47

politics? I

13:49

think the first thing and perhaps the

13:51

most important thing to understand about Vietnamese

13:53

politics, and it's very similar to

13:55

Chinese politics, is that there are kind of two

13:57

layers politics

14:00

is the party, the Communist

14:02

Party, that sits at the top and there's

14:05

the government. So Vavantong

14:07

was the president, so he was, you

14:10

know, the top figure in the government,

14:12

but actually the party

14:14

is the most important thing. So the

14:16

most senior leader in Vietnam is the

14:18

general secretary of the Communist Party and

14:20

he remains in place. So when

14:22

we talk about the president resigning, it is a

14:24

senior role but it is not the

14:26

top guy. And so he

14:28

was, I mean, it's been reported as

14:30

if he resigned yesterday

14:33

but obviously he was forced

14:35

to vacate his position and the reason

14:37

that's been given at the moment is

14:39

that he violated party rules. So that's

14:42

a reference to the Communist Party and

14:44

nothing, no reference to

14:46

any law that he may

14:48

have broken. So whatever he's done, we don't know

14:50

what it is but he has been a violation

14:52

of party rules and he's essentially damaged

14:55

the reputation of the Communist Party. So

14:57

this resignation, this stepping back, tell us a little

14:59

bit more about the idea of whether he jumped

15:02

or whether he was pushed. Well

15:05

he was certainly pushed. There's

15:07

no question about that and

15:10

even though we don't know the exact

15:12

reasons for it, it's

15:14

all part of this ongoing

15:17

and huge anti-corruption

15:20

initiative that's been raging

15:22

in Vietnam for

15:25

years actually. It started

15:27

in 2016 but it's only in the last

15:29

few years that it's really kind of ratcheted up and

15:31

we've seen some big figures get

15:34

taken down by this. The guy, the president

15:37

who resigned yesterday, he was only in the job

15:39

for a little over a year and he replaced

15:42

his predecessor who also had to

15:44

leave because of graft. I

15:47

guess what makes this particular resignation

15:50

interesting is that there's an understanding

15:52

that he was handpicked by the

15:54

General Secretary, by Nguyen Phu Tong,

15:56

which is The guy who

15:58

really does call the shots. Or in Vietnam

16:01

he is the equivalent of of seeking

16:03

paying in China. And so he was

16:05

here. He was the president, was the

16:08

general sectors man and he was being

16:10

seen as a future star. Someone who

16:12

might actually rise to that to the

16:14

most a senior ranks arms. The fact

16:17

that he has been taken down by

16:19

this ah suggested as a lot of

16:21

kind of factional inflating. In

16:23

the Communist Party And as you said

16:26

at the start, this is all. Ah

16:28

gives this this image of of instability

16:30

and chaos which is not What are

16:32

these authoritarian countries and I'm for. Tennis

16:35

What? This long term issue with corruption

16:37

is in Vietnam And I think you

16:39

mentioned either the number of people he's

16:42

been arrested in last couple of years,

16:44

as hundreds of government officials, high ranking

16:46

politicians to say what am. So

16:48

he's a second Vietnamese President to go,

16:51

and fourteen months. It's

16:54

something that's in straddles politics and

16:56

business. I'm in. Those two things

16:58

go hand in hand. All is

17:00

the kind of bribery and corruption

17:03

in politics often involves, you know,

17:05

issuing licenses and certificates for his

17:07

his people and right now we

17:09

have Vietnam is seeing passage biggest

17:11

corruption case I gotta go through

17:14

the Colts at the moment involving

17:16

a very very successful a wealthy

17:18

business woman in how team in

17:20

city she's being accused of a

17:22

twelve. Billion Us dollars, Fraud.

17:26

And that cases you know completely

17:28

frozen everything in and Vietnam's a

17:30

major commercial hub because it's desert

17:33

What? while this is going or

17:35

wireless this corruption cases going on,

17:37

all the the junior officials in

17:39

in that city are just too

17:42

scared to do anything so they

17:44

not issuing any kind of certificates

17:46

and case they get accused him

17:48

of being involved in bribery and

17:51

this lady is a of. we

17:53

found out this week the prosecutors wants her hand

17:55

her the death penalty so here is that it's

17:57

a huge it's a huge thing that goes across

18:00

the country. As I said,

18:02

it's years in the making. And

18:05

the first point to make is that it is

18:09

important that Vietnam addresses its

18:11

problems with corruption. Every

18:13

country has corruption. But in my years of

18:15

being in Asia, Vietnam is always the one

18:17

that comes top of the list in terms

18:19

of the country that has

18:23

the worst corruption in this part of the world. So

18:25

the government does need to tackle it. And

18:28

a bit like what they were doing in China, it was

18:30

addressing something they needed to do. The

18:32

problem they're facing is that when

18:35

does an anti-corruption initiative

18:38

turn into kind of political

18:41

score settling? The

18:43

leader, the general secretary in Vietnam,

18:46

is following a similar playbook

18:48

to Xi Jinping, and he's consolidating

18:50

power in his hands. And there

18:52

have been accusations that he's using

18:55

anti-corruption as a way of taking

18:57

down rivals that he can become

19:00

the most powerful person in the country. So while

19:03

it is needed, and Vietnam does

19:06

need to clean up, especially as

19:08

more and more foreign investors are pouring into

19:10

the country, there are

19:12

doubts about how sincere some of these cases

19:14

actually are. Tell us a little bit

19:16

more about this international position that Vietnam is

19:18

enjoying at the moment, because as

19:21

the world is noticing that Washington

19:24

and Beijing's tensions are causing

19:27

many manufacturers to move away

19:29

from China, many western manufacturers,

19:32

Vietnam seems to be their chosen new destination.

19:34

So when you have this amount of instability,

19:36

what does that do? That's

19:39

right. I guess a lot of companies

19:41

are pursuing this China plus one policy.

19:44

So they might not be able to completely

19:47

withdraw from China, but they need to have

19:49

a plan B. And Vietnam is seen as

19:52

the next best option. It

19:54

is very similar to China in many

19:56

ways. I think if I ran a multinational

20:00

I would be setting up shop in

20:03

Vietnam. But

20:06

it has this political instability will

20:08

be a cause for concern. Companies

20:11

like Samsung, they have a massive

20:13

manufacturing hub in the north

20:15

of the country. They make over half their

20:17

smartphones in Vietnam. And the reason why they've

20:20

been there for years is because it's

20:22

very stable. You

20:24

can say what you will about these Communist

20:27

Party, one party states.

20:30

But they have their five-year plan. They tell you

20:32

how fast the economy is going to grow. And

20:34

they normally hit those numbers. And

20:37

the transfer of power is normally quite orderly.

20:39

So this will give foreign

20:43

investors pause for thought. Because

20:46

it is not why they

20:48

invest so heavily in these

20:50

places. They expect stability.

20:52

But what I would say is

20:55

probably more of a short-term

20:58

concern. I think everyone's quite bullish on

21:00

Vietnam's long-term potential, especially

21:03

as all the investment

21:05

does move from China to

21:07

Vietnam. But the government

21:10

really does need to sort its

21:12

act out. Because right now,

21:15

they have the current problem with the

21:18

president resigning. But there's a bigger problem

21:20

not too far in the future with

21:22

the general secretary. Because

21:25

it's well-known that he's not in

21:27

very good health. He

21:30

took the decision in a similar way to

21:32

Mr. C in China to stay on for

21:35

an unprecedented third term. So

21:37

as he's consolidated his power, and

21:39

now there's no obvious

21:43

replacements for him, what's going

21:46

to happen when he departs? Vietnam

21:51

could be in for even more

21:53

instability and much more wide-ranging

21:55

than this resignation. on

22:00

the local radio. Still to come on

22:02

today's program we look at the role

22:04

of disinformation in the upcoming US elections.

22:08

But it's really important to realize that

22:10

some of the most persistent

22:12

and pernicious forms of

22:15

online disinformation in the United States and elsewhere

22:17

were text-based. Stay with us on The

22:19

Globalist. UBS

22:26

is over 900 investment analysts from over

22:28

100 different countries. Over

22:32

900 of the sharpest minds and

22:34

precious thinkers in the world of

22:36

finance today. To

22:38

find out how we can help you, that's

22:40

a list on ubs.com. Let's

22:50

continue with today's newspapers. Joining me on the line

22:52

from Paris is Agnes Parrier, his journalist and author

22:54

of Notre Dame, The Soul of France. A very

22:56

good morning to you, Agnes. Good

22:58

morning. How's Paris looking? Oh, it

23:01

looks gorgeous this morning. I bet. Well,

23:03

you know, it's spring, spring today, and it really

23:06

feels like spring. And if I were you I

23:08

would hop on the Eurostar and just

23:10

come and have coffee. Because I'm

23:12

told that temperatures are going to drop

23:16

by 10 degrees this weekend. So today's

23:18

the day. Okay. I shall cancel all

23:20

my plans and head straight to London

23:22

St. Panko State. And thank you for

23:24

that. While I dream of that and

23:27

fail, tell us a little

23:29

bit more about what's in the papers this week. Well,

23:32

I mean, today is Thursday and this

23:35

is when Lexcrest publishes

23:37

its weekly issue. Lexcrest is

23:39

a French weekly magazine and

23:41

it has a very interesting issue. Today it

23:44

looks at

23:47

how October the 7th and

23:49

the mass attacks on

23:52

Israel and the subsequent

23:54

Israeli retaliation against Gaza

23:56

is changing or perception of the

23:58

world we live in. And

24:00

it opens with a very long

24:02

and very, I thought, fascinating, remarkable

24:05

interview with Gilles Kepel. So

24:07

you may know Gilles Kepel, he's

24:09

this French scholar of the Arab

24:11

world and the Middle East, and

24:13

he's just published an essay trying

24:15

to make sense of the last

24:17

six months. And it is called

24:19

Holocaust, but Holocaust with an S.

24:22

And so he analyzes the

24:25

cycle of violence that

24:27

October the 7th has created in the

24:29

region on both sides. And

24:31

for him, it's proving to be

24:34

a major geopolitical shock, that's his

24:36

terms, and it

24:38

feeds discourse on

24:41

the global south against the north,

24:43

considered as colonial discourse, which has

24:45

reached, as we've seen, our

24:48

universities in the west, whether in Harvard

24:51

or in Sciences-Bouw in Paris just last

24:53

week. And so he

24:55

explains that if you want to

24:57

understand what's going on there, you

24:59

need to understand that

25:02

Holocaust means a massacre of

25:04

religion origin and that the

25:06

mystical and the political are

25:08

closely intertwined. So Palestine

25:11

is identified as belonging to

25:13

the south and Israel, and

25:15

it's historical lies, as

25:17

the north. And for him, it

25:19

goes extremely deep because he says

25:21

the post-war international order of 1945

25:25

that was based on an alliance between

25:28

the USSR, the US, Britain and France

25:30

on the never again, which

25:33

even the Cold War did not

25:35

change. That moral assumption

25:37

that the Holocaust and a

25:40

world war should never take place again

25:43

has now been broken, that international

25:45

order has been broken. And

25:48

one of the many examples that he

25:50

gives is that, for instance, South Africa

25:53

accusing Israel of genocide. It's

25:56

this attempt to break the semantics

25:59

that we... known since 1945.

26:03

But of course, you know, if you look

26:05

in detail at the South, the global South,

26:07

there's in fact little in common between,

26:10

let's say, India and China,

26:12

Egypt and Ethiopia, for instance.

26:14

And he compares September

26:17

the 11th and October the 7th. In

26:19

each case, he says

26:22

Israel and the US looked far

26:25

more vulnerable than they thought to

26:28

be. And of course,

26:30

he goes on talking about

26:32

the first impact of

26:35

Benjamin Netanyahu, who released the chief

26:37

of Hamas, who is responsible for

26:39

October the 7th, back in 2011.

26:41

And by sort of preferring to

26:46

have two Palestinians,

26:49

one under the helm of

26:52

the Palestinian Authority and the other

26:55

under the helm of Hamas, Netanyahu

26:57

completely stop the Oslo peace process.

27:00

And it goes on. And

27:03

what is great with Chilkepel, it's

27:05

always extremely nuanced, very

27:07

complex, it gives the facts. And

27:10

in the end, you know, you feel you know a

27:12

bit better, but you also know, it's

27:15

going to be extremely difficult to

27:17

just to make sense of it

27:19

all and to come out of it. It

27:21

is a must read. It's incredibly nuanced. And it

27:23

is incredibly detailed. And there will be passages in

27:25

it which will be found to be highly offensive

27:27

to lots and lots of people. I mean, how

27:29

do you think this is going to be received

27:31

in France? Well,

27:33

I mean, Chilkepel has taught

27:36

in every university, you know,

27:39

in America, in France, it is extremely

27:41

well regarded. That is

27:43

filled, you know, for the last 40

27:46

years, he obviously speaks Arabic, he knows

27:49

all those regions intimately well.

27:52

And, you

27:54

know, facts are often

27:56

offensive to ideologues, but he's

27:58

the opposite of an ideologue. on

28:00

Arc. He introduces

28:04

complexity and nuance in

28:08

debates that are too

28:10

often hijacked by people

28:12

with very short-sighted and

28:14

very simplistic approaches. So

28:17

he introduces intelligence, complexity,

28:20

and that's so much welcome.

28:23

Let's move on to a story

28:25

which is slightly less complex and

28:27

slightly less nuanced, but it's a

28:30

story of principle, isn't it? During COVID,

28:32

many governments gave lots of individuals and companies

28:34

lots of money to help them through. One

28:38

of the repercussions of it is that there's been quite a

28:40

lot of fraud. And

28:42

while some countries are

28:44

finding it quite hard to chase those who

28:46

decided that they would make a little bit

28:48

of hay while the sun shone in their

28:50

view, the French

28:53

authorities are clamping down on the

28:55

fraudsters. Well, yes,

28:57

I mean, it's fascinating. At the

28:59

moment, France is trying to save

29:01

€10 billion in

29:05

all its public spending. I mean,

29:07

France has a very generous welfare

29:09

system. But on

29:12

the other hand, of course, they don't want to

29:14

be seen as raising taxes. They don't want to

29:16

raise taxes. So they think, well, the system

29:19

being so generous, let's chase the

29:21

fraudsters. The swindlers, everyone

29:23

who tries to take

29:26

advantage of our system, and they've

29:28

been incredibly successful. They

29:31

only started with a

29:33

few one or two regions in

29:35

the South of France five years ago. And their

29:38

main aim was

29:41

to find out all

29:43

the owners who had

29:45

not declared their swimming

29:47

pool. And of course, you need to pay a little

29:49

tax if you have a swimming pool. And

29:52

it's been so successful that last

29:55

year they extended their

29:57

survey to the Hall of Fame. France

30:00

and it's interesting how they did

30:02

it because they only used publicly

30:06

available data with pictures

30:12

taken by plane and

30:15

also they added a bit

30:18

of artificial intelligence, some

30:21

software that were devised specially and

30:23

of course they hired a few

30:26

hundreds of England revenue inspectors just

30:28

to roam the streets of villages

30:31

and to take pictures as well. And

30:35

you know what, they found 140,000 swimming pools that

30:37

were not declared to the fiscal authorities

30:45

so that

30:48

means that they managed to collect 15.2

30:52

billion euros of unpaid

30:55

taxes and they said they were

30:57

not going to stop here because it's been so

30:59

successful now, they are going to use exactly the

31:01

same system, a bit of artificial

31:04

intelligence, some inspectors on

31:06

the ground and some

31:08

aerial pictures to find

31:10

if you've built

31:13

an extension to your house or a

31:15

conservatory or perhaps a garden shed because

31:17

you need to pay taxes also for

31:20

those. So expect

31:22

some bonanza

31:24

next year and some very expensive sheds and

31:27

some very expensive swimming pools. Anya Saria, thank

31:29

you as ever for joining us on the

31:31

line from Paris. You're listening to The Globalist

31:33

with me, Emma Nelson, live on Monocle Radio.

31:35

The time here in London is 7.31. Time

31:39

for a quick look at the rest of today's headlines. The

31:43

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has

31:45

told US Republican senators that Israel

31:47

will continue its efforts to defeat

31:50

Hamas in the garden strip. Mr

31:52

Netanyahu spoke to Republicans via video

31:55

link nearly a week after the

31:57

Senate's Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that he was not going to

31:59

be able to get a job. He was an obstacle to

32:01

peace and should stand aside. Russia

32:03

has launched a missile attack on the Ukrainian

32:06

capital Kyiv, injuring at least 10 people.

32:08

Officials say the attack damaged residential

32:10

buildings and industrial facilities. It's the

32:12

first large assault on the city

32:15

for several weeks. And

32:17

the Netherlands is to provide

32:19

Ukraine with 350 million euros

32:21

to spend on S-16 fighter

32:23

jet ammunition and advance reconnaissance

32:25

drones. The Dutch defence minister,

32:27

Kaiser Ollongren, said she'd come

32:29

to Kyiv to show solidarity

32:31

and turn out. ...and you've made

32:33

a huge stand-up in the globalist region.

32:44

Snudging 733 here in London,

32:46

now Canada, is to halt

32:48

all arms shipments to Israel. It's the

32:50

first major Western ally to do so.

32:53

The Israeli government has strongly condemned the

32:55

decision. Its foreign minister saying that it

32:57

undermines the country's right to defend itself.

33:00

Joining me now in the studio is Europe correspondent for

33:02

the Globe and Mail Paul Waldir, regular around the monocle,

33:05

Radio Desk. Very good morning to you, Paul. Hi

33:07

there. Good to have you with us. So this

33:10

halting of all arms shipments, it

33:12

follows a non-binding vote in the Canadian

33:15

Parliament, doesn't it? Yeah, and the

33:17

question is, is it halting all arms

33:19

shipments? I mean, that's how ridiculous the

33:21

situation has gotten. Here we are Thursday.

33:23

This vote was on Monday. And nobody

33:25

still really quite knows in Canada what

33:28

this actually means. The motion itself called

33:30

for no further arms sales. The NDP,

33:32

the party that proposed the motion, says

33:35

that means there's not going to be

33:37

any more arms sales. Everything's halted. We

33:39

won. The Liberal government, on

33:41

the other hand, is saying not quite. We

33:44

have stopped the permits, issuing

33:46

permits for arms sales in January. So there'll

33:48

be no further ones after January. The ones

33:50

issued before are in place. So it doesn't

33:52

really mean we're stopping everything full square. So

33:55

everybody's confused over what this means. The

33:57

Liberal Party's turning itself upside down about

33:59

this. And Canadians really don't know where

34:01

the country stands on this whole issue. And indeed

34:03

the context is that there actually haven't

34:05

been any arms exports since January, have

34:07

they? And in fact, even going back

34:09

a little bit further, Canada has only

34:11

been shipping non-lethal equipment

34:13

to Israel since October, haven't they?

34:17

For example, they are only sending

34:19

comms equipment. They're not sending anything

34:21

more dangerous. Yeah, I think we have

34:23

to keep this in perspective. Canada is not a

34:25

huge arms supplier to anyone. But Canada

34:27

does supply components to different things, whether they're

34:30

lethal or non-lethal. And I think that's one

34:32

of the issues here. Prior to January, there

34:34

were permits issued for those kinds of things.

34:36

And those permits technically are still in place.

34:38

So if a company who was supplying those

34:40

types of things before January continued to do

34:43

so, they'd be allowed to do that. What

34:46

this motion, which again was non-binding, and the

34:48

government doesn't have to follow it, but they

34:50

say they will, means that no further permits

34:52

will be issued for those kinds of things for

34:54

the time being. And that's a key

34:56

phrase that the government is trying to get out.

34:58

The NDP is saying, no, this stops it for

35:01

good. And the Liberals are saying, not quite. So,

35:03

you know, again, we're back to the position where it's

35:05

still really unclear what the government is going to do.

35:08

Well, while we wade through this

35:10

morass of what means what, when

35:12

and how, there's a bigger question

35:14

here, isn't there, which is the

35:16

internal struggles and the

35:18

internal accusations that

35:21

Justin Trudeau and his government aren't

35:23

doing enough here to take a

35:25

stand against Israel? Yeah, and I

35:27

think you have to look at the political context here. Trudeau

35:30

has a minority government. His government is

35:32

supported by the NDP, the New Democrats.

35:35

They're kind of like the Labour Party in Britain. That

35:37

would be a similar kind of equation. They've

35:39

been propping up the Liberal government. They've pledged to

35:41

do that until next year at the earliest, where

35:43

there's probably going to be an election. So the

35:45

Liberals have to kind of listen to what the

35:47

NDP says if they want to stand power. The

35:50

NDP has been pushing a pretty hard line

35:52

on Gaza, on the Palestinians, and calling for

35:54

cease-farts and these kinds of things. And this

35:56

motion was part of that. So the Liberals are kind of

35:58

finding themselves in the right place. a bit of

36:00

a quandary here because yes, they need the

36:03

NDP support, but they also have quite a

36:05

support base amongst Jewish Canadians that they have

36:07

to be mindful of. Some of their own

36:09

caucus members voted against this motion. They're

36:12

divided over this and I think they're trying

36:14

to tread some kind of

36:16

fine line here where they can please

36:18

both people who are pro-Palestinian and the

36:20

Jewish community. That's not really working very

36:23

well. Indeed, because the Israeli foreign minister has,

36:25

as I mentioned a moment ago, saying that

36:28

this decision by Canada, despite the comparatively

36:31

small amount of arms that are the

36:33

defense by Canada to Israel, the

36:35

principles are that this

36:37

is undermining Israel's right to self-defense.

36:39

Now, how does that play out

36:41

domestically in Canada? Well, there's a

36:43

lot of ramifications for this. First of all, on the

36:45

one hand, Canada might not be a big player in

36:47

the arms trade, but it does send a signal to

36:49

other countries that might want to follow suit. Canada

36:52

does have that kind of clout internationally. Secondly,

36:54

one of the major problems is the immigration

36:56

minister, Mark Miller, got up in the House

36:59

of Commons and said that this could really

37:01

impact the ability for Canada

37:03

to get Canadian citizens in the

37:05

Gaza Strip out because Israel kind of controls

37:08

that process. Canada has about a

37:10

thousand people who've applied to come to the

37:12

country under a permit system. None

37:14

of them have gotten out and the immigration minister

37:16

says this motion now could make that even more

37:19

difficult because Israel obviously is very well aware of

37:21

what Canada has done here. There's

37:23

going to be some real ramifications that our families

37:25

in Canada that are quite concerned that their relatives

37:27

might not get out because of this motion. So

37:30

what happens next in the foreseeable future?

37:32

You mentioned the immediate difficulty of getting

37:34

Canadian families out of Gaza, but in

37:36

terms of the way that Canada positions

37:38

itself within the global narrative here, where

37:40

does it want to go? Well,

37:43

and that's the big question and I think that's the question Trudeau

37:45

has to try and address here. What is

37:47

Canada really saying? Is Canada saying it's

37:50

going to pursue an arms embargo on Israel

37:52

and wants other countries to join in? Is

37:54

it saying no? This is a temporary measure.

37:56

This is something we're just thinking about. Is

37:58

Canada going to take a harder line? on

38:00

a ceasefire, Canada did vote at the United

38:02

Nations in December for a ceasefire, but then

38:05

they sort of caution that said no, that

38:07

it was only humanitarian ceasefire, kind of changed

38:09

the language a little bit. So the inconsistencies

38:12

are piling up and Trudeau's going to have

38:14

to really start to articulate clearly where Canada

38:16

stands on all of these issues. Well, how

38:18

much faith is there in Justin Trudeau

38:20

being able to navigate this, both domestically

38:23

and internationally? Well, not a lot domestically.

38:25

He's far behind in the opinion polls, as I

38:27

mentioned, election maybe next year, the Conservative Party

38:29

and their new leader, Pierre-Paul Laverghe, is quite

38:31

far ahead. He's pursuing a lot of other

38:33

issues. This is not a big issue for

38:35

the Conservative Party. They did vote against this motion

38:37

and they have become much more

38:39

attractive to a lot of Jewish voters in

38:41

recent years because the former leader and former

38:44

Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, was very, very pro-Israel.

38:46

So they're staying out of this frayed. To

38:48

many respects, they voted against the motion. It's

38:50

not a big topic of conversation for them,

38:53

but they have been pursuing domestic issues that have

38:55

put them quite far ahead. And

38:58

I think Trudeau's going to have to find his

39:00

footing somewhere if he's hoping to avoid a massive

39:02

defeat next year. And also, you've got

39:04

the idea that further south, there will

39:06

be the key

39:09

US elections coming up. I mean,

39:12

how much is that factoring into the decision

39:14

processes here? It does

39:16

factor into the process in Canada a fair bit.

39:18

I mean, Canada now has broken with the US,

39:20

more or less with the Biden administration anyway, and

39:22

a lot of these UN votes and a lot

39:24

of the positioning, taking a

39:26

slightly more pro-Palestinian side than certainly Biden has.

39:28

And of course, Biden is coming under pressure

39:30

from a lot of his Democratic

39:32

voters as well, very similar

39:35

to the issues Trudeau's facing. I

39:37

think, yes, the US weighs in Canada much more

39:40

domestically in terms of economic issues and trade issues,

39:42

not so much foreign policy issues, because Canada tends

39:45

to be pretty much lockstep with the US anyway. So

39:47

this is a little bit of a divergence, but I

39:49

don't think that's going to matter too much to Canadian

39:51

voters. It's going to be much more domestic issues. But

39:53

nonetheless, this kind of reinforces the image amongst a lot

39:55

of people that Trudeau just can't make up his mind

39:57

and can't make a decision and can't make a decision.

40:00

be a strong leader on the world stage. Paul

40:02

Waldie, thank you as ever for joining us on Monocle

40:04

Radio. You're listening to The Globalist. QT24

40:17

has been dubbed the year of the election

40:20

with billions around the world expected to be

40:22

heading to the polls this year.

40:24

But in the age of AI

40:26

and online conspiracy theories, how does

40:28

one win elections amid so much

40:30

disinformation? Well, author and Monocle's US

40:32

politics correspondent, Sasha Eisenberg, has written

40:34

a new book dealing with this

40:36

exact issue. And he sat down

40:38

with Monocle's US editor, Chris Law,

40:40

to talk about the lie detectives

40:43

and how disinformation is already making

40:45

itself felt in the run-up to

40:47

November. So I think

40:49

everybody is on the lookout for

40:51

how will the technological capabilities change

40:53

the nature of disinformation this year.

40:56

That could be the quantity of it.

40:58

That could be the speed of disseminating

41:00

the scale, the scope. What's the role

41:02

that AI is going to play? And

41:04

particularly the new sophistication of

41:06

deep fake video and audio. And we're

41:08

seeing examples of this already. On the

41:10

day of the New Hampshire primary, there

41:12

was a fake Joe Biden who

41:15

was recorded in an automated robo call going

41:17

to New Hampshire voters saying, hey, the primary

41:19

day has changed. Don't turn out and vote

41:21

on Tuesday. It was a pretty

41:23

good example of what somebody can do with off

41:26

the shelf tools. But it's really

41:28

important to realize that some of

41:30

the most persistent

41:32

and pernicious forms of

41:34

online disinformation in the United States

41:36

and elsewhere were text-based. The QAnon

41:38

conspiracy in the United States, Donald

41:40

Trump's election denial, which is not

41:43

just a particular piece of online

41:45

disinformation, but has become a sort

41:47

of complete conspiracy theory that shapes

41:50

how believers see basically every

41:53

force in US life. These

41:55

were things that were not

41:57

supported by persuasive. fake

42:00

videos, these were created

42:03

by what is a pretty old-school

42:07

way of getting people to believe in conspiracy

42:09

theories, which is you start

42:11

telling them a story that they want

42:13

to believe and have it accord just

42:15

enough with reality and just enough with

42:18

sort of playing to their inclinations and instincts

42:20

and they start to buy it, which is

42:22

why we've had conspiracy theories in the world

42:24

for centuries. The character that emerges

42:26

at the center of the book is called Jory

42:28

Craig and in a way she is

42:30

a political consultant, but she's being

42:33

hired by campaigns all over

42:35

the world to come

42:38

back into information, if you will,

42:40

and it's certainly ultimate that she ends

42:42

up doing it here in the United States. Tell me

42:44

a bit about Jory Craig and sort of what

42:46

should we represent, would you like in this

42:48

battle against disinformation? What happened after

42:50

November 2016 was that

42:52

this woman who had never before worked

42:55

on a domestic American political campaign, she's from

42:57

Illinois, but she had never worked in American

42:59

politics, starts getting phone calls

43:01

from people in Washington in prominent positions

43:04

in the Democratic Party, at labor unions,

43:06

tied to donors who are saying,

43:08

hey, we're trying to make sense of what just

43:10

happened in this election. We're learning that there

43:13

were these troll armies and bot

43:15

farms that were attacking Hillary Clinton.

43:17

This was all totally foreign to

43:20

people in American politics. They

43:22

knew a hell of a lot about every voter

43:25

in the United States. They had all these ways

43:28

of experimenting to measure what was effective

43:30

and predict what would move certain voters.

43:32

And now these political professionals in the

43:34

wake of the 2016 election were having

43:36

to confront the reality that there

43:39

are all sorts of political communicators who

43:42

had the ability to reach American

43:44

voters and potentially sway them, whose

43:46

objectives were not always clear. Some

43:48

of the people who were engaging

43:51

in, who were creating fake accounts

43:53

on Facebook to

43:55

spread news were not doing because they wanted

43:57

to elect Donald Trump. They wanted to make money off

43:59

of Facebook. revenue, they wanted to have

44:01

fun or create mischief, and

44:05

Jory Craig became the person who explained to

44:07

them how to think

44:09

about all this. And that was because in these

44:12

countries where she had worked on four or

44:14

five different continents, a

44:17

lot of the things that were new

44:19

to American politicos were old

44:21

hat, unremarkable. People didn't necessarily call

44:24

them disinformation, but you know. Here

44:26

in America and in the West, were we a little

44:29

bit naive to this really? We were sort of attached

44:31

to an old safe world where that didn't happen. Yes,

44:33

and you know some of that is

44:35

distinctive to the US, I think, in that

44:37

so much of the American political

44:40

model was tied up in

44:42

the, we raise lots of

44:44

money and we communicate over

44:46

centralized channels. And the

44:48

campaign is being run foremost

44:51

by these sort of centralized

44:53

political communicators. That model was

44:55

disintegrating in 2016 in the US. And

44:59

it was the fact that Jory Craig

45:01

had worked in places where

45:04

those things were entirely unremarkable,

45:06

made her this incredibly valuable

45:08

guide to thinking about the

45:12

practical questions that faced American political communicators.

45:14

So she became the person that, you

45:16

know, the first real counter disinformation operative

45:19

in American politics and has done more

45:21

than anyone to shape the way that

45:23

at least the Democratic Party and the

45:25

American left think about some of these

45:27

problems. Your book is subtitled as

45:30

a playbook of when thinking about

45:32

counter disinformation, how to tackle

45:34

it in this world of

45:36

politics. But ironically, you know, Jory's sort

45:39

of one of her main things that she ends up telling

45:41

a lot of these politicals that you say she sat down

45:43

with is, do nothing. The

45:45

worst case scenario is that you end

45:47

up amplifying or promoting it. The algorithms

45:50

that disseminate and promote content online respond

45:52

to engagement. Most of the examples we

45:54

see and that frankly are often surfaced

45:57

now by kind of disinformation.

46:00

information reporters in the media who are

46:02

incentivized to find the most outrageous things

46:04

that are circulating somewhere online and service

46:06

them are finding things

46:08

that are being followed by

46:11

improbably small audiences. And

46:14

so the challenge that

46:16

people like Jory Craig have is convincing

46:18

decision makers and campaigns, this could be

46:21

elected officials, candidates, how to

46:23

distinguish between the stuff that's just a nuisance

46:25

and the stuff that's a real problem. In

46:27

the US this year, I think

46:29

the most underappreciated

46:31

frontier in disinformation is

46:35

there's increasing use of apps

46:37

like WhatsApp, especially among

46:39

immigrant communities in the

46:42

US, Asian American, Latino

46:44

immigrant communities. Getting

46:46

visibility into them from campaigns

46:48

and political communicators is really

46:50

difficult. The challenge is

46:52

that a lot of the institutions

46:54

which once mediated truth,

46:57

certainly in the United States, but I think versions of

46:59

this are true and throughout the world, are weaker than

47:02

they were. The deep

47:04

disinformation problem that we face

47:06

is why are people

47:09

so willing to

47:11

accept lies online and focus

47:13

more on who's

47:16

welcoming them than who's putting them out. That

47:18

was Sasha Eisenberg there in conversation with

47:20

Monocle's Chris Lord. And Sasha's book, The

47:22

Lie Detectives, in search of a playbook

47:24

for winning elections in the disinformation age,

47:27

is out now. You're with The Globalist.

47:34

UBS is a global financial services firm with

47:36

over 150 years of heritage. Built

47:41

on the unique dedication of our

47:43

people, we bring fresh thinking and

47:45

perspectives to our work. We

47:48

know that it takes a marriage

47:50

of intelligence and heart to create

47:52

lasting value for our clients. It's

47:54

about having the right ideas, of

47:56

course, but also about having one

47:58

of the most accomplished system

48:01

and an unrivalled network of

48:03

global experts. That's

48:05

why at UBS we pride ourselves

48:08

on thinking smarter to make a

48:10

real difference. Tune in

48:12

to The Bulletin with UBS every

48:14

week for the latest insights and

48:16

opinions from UBS all around the world.

48:27

11.48am to 8.48am in Zurich.

48:30

It's time to get a girls

48:32

news roundup, Mustafa Al-Rawi. It's journalist and

48:34

writer based in the UAE. Very good

48:36

morning to you, Mustafa. Good

48:38

morning. How are you and happy Mother's Day.

48:41

Thank you very much indeed. I shall take

48:44

that with me. Thank you. Right, let's

48:46

talk about Saudi Arabia and an

48:48

enormous announcement yesterday about the amount

48:50

of money that it's ploughing into

48:52

artificial intelligence. That's

48:54

right. There was a

48:56

report that Saudi Arabia and

48:58

a Silicon Valley venture capital

49:02

fund called Andreessen Horowitz were working

49:04

together to create a $40 billion fund

49:06

to invest in artificial intelligence. It will

49:08

likely be the public investment fund, the

49:11

Saudi sovereign wealth fund that will be

49:13

working on this. It really follows a

49:15

trend in this region and perhaps around

49:18

the world that the real urgent area

49:20

in which money needs to be ploughed

49:22

into right now is in AI. What

49:26

will it do with this? It's

49:29

estimated that the investment into AI

49:31

from the Saudis is going to

49:33

be $40 billion

49:35

US. Where will that go?

49:40

We don't have a lot of color yet on exactly where

49:42

it will go, but if it's in line with the

49:45

recent conversations that have happened, for

49:47

example, we had Jensen Huang from

49:49

Nvidia in the region saying countries

49:51

like Saudi Arabia, like the UAE,

49:53

need to be investing in their

49:57

chips to power AI, of course.

49:59

Otherwise, if they don't have that

50:01

infrastructure, they're not going to be

50:03

able to create the AI-backed applications

50:05

and technology and equipment that's

50:07

needed to be at the forefront

50:09

of this technology. And they shouldn't be reliant

50:11

on other countries as well. The second part

50:13

of it would be not just

50:16

infrastructure like chips and cloud

50:19

software systems and data

50:22

storage, but also on investing in companies

50:25

that could be at the forefront of AI as well.

50:28

Let's move on to another big issue for

50:30

Saudi at the moment. The US Secretary

50:32

of State Anthony Blinken is

50:34

in the region trying to garner

50:37

support for a post-war peace

50:39

plan in Gaza. How is

50:41

that being received? There's

50:43

quite a few different elements at play at

50:46

the moment. So as you said, Anthony Blinken's

50:48

in the region. He was talking to his

50:50

Saudi counterpart yesterday evening about

50:53

getting backing for a US-led

50:56

ceasefire resolution of the United Nations. We haven't

50:58

been able to get to one up till

51:00

now largely because the US has been vetoing

51:03

them. But there is some kind

51:05

of push here because as Anthony Blinken said

51:07

himself this week, this is the first time

51:09

in history that an entire population is

51:12

being classified as being on the brink

51:14

of starvation. There's two million people in

51:16

Gaza that are at risk. The humanitarian

51:19

requirements are massive. And if there isn't

51:21

a concerted effort by all the nations

51:23

in the Gulf, the US,

51:25

elsewhere to really deal

51:27

with this, we could be seeing something quite horrific

51:29

that we've never seen before. Finally,

51:31

let's move on to its

51:34

Iranian New Year today. But it's

51:36

much more important than that, isn't

51:38

it? It's really

51:40

big for the Iranian community. There's

51:42

a large Iranian community in the

51:45

UAE, in Dubai, but also

51:47

in Iran next door as well. It's a

51:49

big celebration, but around the world. And

51:51

this is kind of a very unique celebration to

51:54

Iranians. And this is a very, very important time

51:56

of the year to celebrate their new year. It's

51:58

a very old tradition as well. as well. And

52:00

as I mentioned at the beginning, it coincides with

52:02

it also being Arabic or Middle

52:04

East and Mother's Day as well. So double

52:07

reasons to celebrate, but a very

52:09

significant cultural moment for Iranians here

52:11

in the world. Mustafa

52:14

Al-Wari, thank you so much for joining

52:16

us on Monocle Radio. You're listening to

52:18

The Globalist. Finally,

52:25

on today's programme, a look into the

52:27

future of hospitality and style. And I

52:29

think that's coming from our very own

52:31

magazine because the April issue of Monocle

52:33

magazine is, Monocle magazine, I should say,

52:35

is finally out today. Monocle's

52:37

editor Josh Fennott sat down with Andrew Muller

52:40

to talk about it. And this is what

52:42

they had to say. Josh, you have

52:44

right there the April 2024 edition

52:46

of Monocle magazine. I know that

52:48

there is a long answer to

52:50

the question of what's in it,

52:53

but is there a

52:55

broad theme to which the issue was attempting to

52:57

conform? I was really hoping you'd ask me quickly.

53:00

Tell me what I was going to give you

53:02

a single word phrase, Andrew, which was what you?

53:04

Well, I am. Yeah, I am. I am in there

53:06

a bit. Well, I can see you talking to this.

53:10

There's literally a picture of me. There's

53:12

literally a picture of you on the

53:14

content page. And what are you doing,

53:16

Andrew? You're interviewing Kiriakos Mitsotakis. I am.

53:18

I'm interviewing the Prime Minister of Greece

53:20

that took place at the Munich Security

53:22

Conference recently. People may already have heard

53:24

some of that on The Globalist, but I

53:26

think we printed the full work, didn't we?

53:28

We did. And it's a very, very punchy

53:31

interview. And normally we're so combative on Monocle's

53:33

radio. But let me congratulate you on

53:36

this. Oh, thank you. Well,

53:38

I think the interesting thing about this and about this

53:40

issue is we went through a dual theme, which we

53:42

don't often do with the magazine, because everything

53:45

we cover in Monocle, global affairs

53:47

to business, culture, design, it can't always

53:49

fit on a neat narrative arc. But

53:52

we like the idea of hospitality in

53:54

a world where so much is geared towards

53:56

efficiency, where so much communication is done online.

54:00

The stack that little extra bit of

54:02

effort goes into a warm greetings whether

54:04

you are a prime minister and whether

54:06

you are running a at a restaurant

54:08

or hotel This keeping the neighborhood and

54:10

I've actually some of the rules dump

54:13

me to shift and I think them

54:15

it's taxes interview does tie in with

54:17

some of the other hospitality things because

54:19

he's talking about how to make same

54:21

sex couples feel welcome traits, how to

54:24

help people put down roots and also

54:26

of he's people who were worried about

54:28

migrations. It. Also it's a story about

54:30

hospitality when you think about near neighbours be

54:32

married so you know rumbling troubles in the

54:34

east and mad to the to the north

54:37

of Greece has well disagreements. how can you

54:39

be a a leader and show people that

54:41

you know there are ways of compromising the

54:43

don't make you that week which I think

54:45

is very important says the hospitality seem to

54:47

seem his style and doesn't that the in

54:49

well with missed him it's tech ssssss see

54:51

if you are you saying it doesn't fit

54:53

in well with the other person in that

54:55

photograph I was wearing a suit see where

54:58

are you a maiden s. Us were wearing

55:00

a super as as someone commits me if

55:02

I heard about that. If I may be

55:04

so bowls you know, families. let me talk

55:07

about style. It can seem like an ephemeral,

55:09

a throwaway sense. Actually, it's kind of a

55:11

bit of branding soon people. and we do

55:13

a story about how uniforms and how they

55:16

can tell a story about service even from

55:18

the way that they're made where they manufactured.

55:20

And we do a great story. The end

55:22

of the issue of the Seat as does

55:25

is reporting that as A says stories about

55:27

the refueling of jets above the Nevada. Desert

55:29

But I really love the store at

55:31

the end which is a kind of

55:33

visual exploration of some of restaurants and

55:36

so much of restaurant coverage is about

55:38

novelty about that. The must see must

55:40

try place. We actually went back to

55:42

seven places that really haven't changed anything

55:44

about what they've done. The first one

55:46

here is the Crown and hello As

55:48

celebrated his hundredth anniversary and it's a

55:50

story about and world was things change

55:52

so quickly. Monaco. Isn't

55:55

afraid I think to to step back and say well

55:58

in one, Is it changing? Does it work? and

56:00

there are stories about hospitality laced through the whole

56:02

issue. If it's not broken, don't fix it. I

56:04

am a huge, huge fan of places like that,

56:07

those ones where you feel like you're sort of

56:09

stepping into history when you walk into that

56:12

restaurant or that hotel. I mean, obviously it's

56:14

preferable if they have washed the tablecloths at

56:16

some point in the last century, but yeah,

56:19

I'm really, really fond of those places.

56:21

And in fact, going back to Munich,

56:23

we went back, me and Team Foreign

56:25

Desk, to the same place we went

56:27

last year, which was the Bavarian Beer

56:30

Hall of Your Dreams, which we wandered into at random.

56:32

And basically, I don't think has changed much

56:35

since it was built, which I like to

56:37

think was some considerable time ago. But it

56:39

was just with the big table

56:41

down the middle and staff wearing lederhosen

56:44

and Bavarian food the way,

56:46

but served the way Bavarian food should be. It

56:48

would have been a candidate for this spread, in

56:51

fact. Well, you know, some of these restaurants are

56:53

amazing because I just opened the page at random.

56:55

This is the Odeon in Tribeca, a kind of

56:57

well-known restaurant that was taken over by some arts

57:00

graduates in the 80s who had no

57:02

experience of running a restaurant. The cafe

57:04

had been there since the 30s. But

57:06

in a funny neighborhood where everything changed,

57:08

which struggled after 9-11, and actually the

57:10

cafe served the firefighters who were pulling

57:12

people from the buildings and it stayed

57:14

open, it's the thing that's changed

57:16

in the neighborhood. And also, I think there's something

57:18

interesting about these markers of cities that

57:21

don't alter with time. And so much of journalism

57:23

is about what's new and what's unusual. I think

57:26

this is an interesting issue where you won't

57:28

certainly have read any of the stories before,

57:30

how to detox your children, the

57:34

quirks of California's ballot, the

57:37

balloting for the election, Copenhagen's new parks,

57:39

lederhosen with ump, as the cover says,

57:41

which is a story about a tract

57:44

fair in Salzburg. There is newness and

57:46

novelty, but a great monocle story, which

57:49

I say to writers and which I say

57:51

to anyone who'll listen, often has this element

57:53

of not changing the things that don't need

57:55

fixing. Josh, thank you. And

57:58

thanks also to Andrew Mulliver. if you

58:00

are interested and you should be. Monocle's

58:03

April issue is out now. Its headline

58:05

is a nice bright yellow, chic style

58:07

and warm smile. It's the best spring

58:09

looks and timeless hospitality. Well,

58:12

that's all the time we have for today's

58:14

program. The warmest of thanks to all my

58:16

guests and to our producers, Chris Cio Grady,

58:18

Laura Kramer and Monica Lillis. Our researcher was

58:20

George Ruskin and our studio manager was Lily

58:23

Austin with editing assistance from Sarah Nichol. After

58:25

the headlines, there's more music on the way.

58:27

The briefing is live at midday here in

58:29

London. The globalist is back at the same time

58:31

tomorrow. I hope you can join me for that if you

58:33

can. But for now, from me, Emma Nelson, goodbye.

58:35

Thank you very much for listening.