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- [00:04]
UBS Narrator
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Emma Nelson
You're listening to the Globalist, first broadcast on 2nd April, 2026 on Monocle Radio. The Globalist in association with U. Live from London. This is the Globalist with me, Emma Nelson. A very warm welcome to today's program. Coming up, NASA says it's back in the business of sending astronauts to the moon.
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Sound Effects / Announcer
3, 2, 1, booster ignition and lift off.
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Emma Nelson
The Artemis 2 mission blasts off from the Kennedy Space center in Florida. Who gains from all of this? Also ahead in the next 60 minutes, has the Iran war forced to rethink on nuclear proliferation? We'll hear from one author who argues that the world's powers will see nuclear arms as the only real deterrent. Today we'll find out why. Taiwan's opposition leader is on her way to China.
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Alexis Taylor
And I think this record, it has some of the joy of the Hot Chip music and it has some of the joy of what's inside of me, which is an ultimately optimistic person.
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Emma Nelson
Alexis Taylor from Hot Chip there talking to us about his latest solo project. Plus the papers and the latest music news from Japan. That's all coming up on the Globalist live from London. First, a quick look at what else is happening in today's news. Donald Trump has said the US Is on track to complete its military objectives against Iran. The Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutter, goes to Washington next week as relations deteriorate between NATO and the White House. And Republican leaders in the US Congress say they've reached a deal to restore funding for most of the Department of Homeland Security. Stay tuned to Monocle Radio throughout the day for more on these stories. But first, the first crewed journey to the moon in more than 50 years has finally blasted off from the Kennedy Space center in Florida. On board a crew of four astronauts beginning a 10 day journey which could take them further from Earth than any human being before them. Artemis 2's mission is not to actually land on, but to circumnavigate the moon. Well, staying up late, way past her bedtime. Tyra Schubert, journalist and fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. Good morning, Tira. Thank you for making it in.
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Tyra Schubert
Good morning. It was an Exciting launch. It was quite spectacular.
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Emma Nelson
It was one that was absolutely bathed in superlatives, wasn't it? This is the biggest, most powerful rocket ever built. They're traveling at more than 10,000 kilometers an hour. This, that and the other. I mean, there was a real sense that this was a massive moment both for space but for, as those on board said, this was big for humanity. Why is that?
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Tyra Schubert
Well, because it is the largest rocket that has ever carried human beings. And it's something that is a rare spark of something positive, I think, in our news now. And the Americans love their superlatives. And they said, yes, we are going. The astronauts said, we are going for our families, we are going for our teammates. Finally, we are going for humanity. They are at the moment going around orbiting the Earth before and troubleshooting before they head to the moon.
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Emma Nelson
I like this idea of troubleshooting because you've been watching the NASA feed before you came on into the studio, for which we are obviously very grateful. What are they troubleshooting? There were the most prosaic problems that they had to deal with. First of all, was the facilities.
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Tyra Schubert
The facilities? Yeah. You have to have a space toilet. And they trouble shot the toilet. I think I'm going to start using that in my domestic life now. But what they're trying to do actually is they're trying to break all the systems before they do this fantastic maneuver which will be in another day called translunar injection. This is NASA and they love their jargon tli that means that at the moment they're in orbit about 33,000 miles above Earth. But they need to escape the gravity of Earth, which is enormous. And that means they have to do a kickoff with their rocket and blast into a trajectory that will take them in this beautiful figure 8 journey around the moon. So they can't do that. They won't leave Earth orbit until they try to break everything on the spacecraft and make sure that it is working.
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Emma Nelson
Just remind us why NASA is going to the moon.
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Tyra Schubert
Well, there's the scientists who will tell you the science reasons and there's the strategists and politicians which will tell you those reasons. I think it's a combination of everything because this is a program that started under many presidents, many presidents ago. And yes, there is definitely science to do, but there's also the moon there building a moon base. And they are. NASA is being pushed by the fact that the Chinese, which are the largest space power after the Americans are also shooting for the moon.
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Emma Nelson
Now talk us through this because you said this is a positive thing right at the beginning of this interview. But in actual fact, this is absolutely stitched into geopolitics. There is this race to establish a presence on the Moon, and this. And NASA, I think the United. Sorry, the United States said that they would have a permanent presence on the moon by 2024. That's not yet happened yet. But the Chinese are trying to get there as. And the purpose of this is, what is it to exploit the resources to bring things back for the benefit of humanity, or is this all about marking your territory?
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Tyra Schubert
It's all of the above. All of the above. There's definitely science involved in the same way we have scientific bases in the South Pole. But there is an economic, a commercial reason as well as a strategic, because there's a lot of incredible resources on the Moon and in other parts of the solar system. But on the Moon, if we build a moon base which is in the plans, there's just for a start, there's this extraordinarily rare element called Helium 3. Now, Helium 3 trades for far more than gold on this planet, and there's not much of it. And it's used in medical applications, but it's also used for nuclear, for fusion power. And one Chinese scientist who's working on this said there's enough helium 3 just below the surface of the moon to power humanity for 10,000 years.
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Emma Nelson
He said dramatically that also quite simply. But it is much, much more complicated than that. And actually trying to settle on the Moon does sound like something which, which is still one step beyond us. Or are we genuinely looking at a permanent presence in the next. Within the next decade, at least by some large superpower?
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Tyra Schubert
I think the Chinese and the Americans will have some kind of base, whether it's as elaborate as we. We see in the drawings that both the Chinese and the Americans have put out there, creating little sort of humps of. Of habitations and bringing up small tractors. But There is helium 3. There's rare earth elements, and there's also water ice, and water ice is made of helium and oxygen, which means you can drink it and you can breathe it, and you can also make rocket
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Emma Nelson
fuel, and you can also use it if you are someone like China or indeed Russia or the United States. So let's look at the way that the race is divided up here. Back on Earth, we have China with a bit of work involved from the Russians as well, is that correct? But the United States has a large number of partners, doesn't it? It's got Europe involved.
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Tyra Schubert
It's Even got Japan right now up there in space, 33,000 miles above the Earth. Artemis has a. The European space. The European Space Agency has a base on Artemis. So it's flying with component that has been made by us over here on this side of the Atlantic. And that is what's providing them consumables, which is fuel and water and air, among many other things. The Chinese at the moment aren't working that closely with the Russians, but again, they keep their program shrouded and they're one of the five nations that have made a soft landing on the moon. The others are Japan and India, which is very, very successful, and America and the Soviet Union, not Russia.
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Emma Nelson
And let's talk a little bit about how this is all done here on Earth in terms of the logistics because a lot of what we read about now is that we have elon Musk and SpaceX and we have Jeff Bezos Blue Origin. So this is when space travel is being transferred into the private sector, both in design and manufacture. The interesting thing about Artemis 2 is this is, dare I say it, a little bit old school. This is a NASA designed spacecraft, a NASA designed project and then farmed out or tendered out to traditional aerospace companies to go and build them. How important is it that there is still that sort of national commitment?
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Tyra Schubert
The national commitment drives the private industry and the private industry is going to bring in. If all of these plans work in the way they think is going to be a very lucrative side of things. There's several hundred space companies, successful space companies in the United States and actually on this side of the Atlantic too. And they are going to be increasingly involved in building landers that go down from the spaceship to the moon. And also they will be the people that will be servicing the moon base. So it's leading to a proliferation. We hear about SpaceX and Blue Origins, but there's hundreds more. And some of them are just concentrating on one tiny little bit. Like for example, one that's just looking at bringing up helium, helium 3 from the surface of the moon, for example.
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Emma Nelson
Tira. Finally, we've got 10 days of this to look forward to. Where are the highlights that we should be looking out for?
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Tyra Schubert
Okay, after the astronauts are about to have a period of sleep and after that there'll be a bit more troubleshooting before they get the go to head to the moon. And then they'll be flying for four days to the moon. They have the highest resolution cameras that we've ever had in space. And you are going to see some spectacular images. So even if you're a bit jaded about this and skeptical, have a look at those pictures. They're going to be fantastic. And then when they get to the moon, we're going to have the first ever selfies. The Apollo astronauts didn't do selfies. They had big Hasselblad cameras. They're going to be selfies with the moon behind.
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Emma Nelson
Can't wait. Tyra Schubert, journalist and fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, thank you for joining me on the studio here on THE globalist. Now, in June last year, the world was told by a triumphant Donald Trump that Iran's nuclear capabilities had been dealt a devastating blow by the U.S. bombing of key strategic targets. This week, the U.S. president made the claim for a second time, declaring that he'd already achieved one of the primary objectives of his attack on Iran, the elimination of its ability to build a nuclear weapon. So where does this leave Iran and the rest of the world's nuclear strategies? Well, I'm joined now by Georgia Cole, research associate for the International Security Program at Chatham House. She's written recently on the subject of global nuclear proliferation, and she's joined me in the studio. Good morning, Georgia. So this claim that Donald Trump said that he had, I think it's the second claim, as I've just said, that they had destroyed Iran's ability to make a bomb. He had no evidence for this, did he?
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Alexis Taylor
No.
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Georgia Cole
I mean, after the bombings of last year in June, we know that some of the capability was degraded because we could obviously see the physical sites. You know, there was damage there caused by the bombs, but they didn't provide any evidence beyond this. And we know even now, again, they've degraded some of that physical capacity. But Iran still has enriched uranium. We don't necessarily know exactly how much or exactly where it is, but that's still there and that still can be used to make a bomb.
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Emma Nelson
The interesting thing is, is that when Donald Trump starts to talk about nuclear capabilities, it almost trying to find the right word for this doesn't belittle it, but it does bring it into line with the other more traditional areas of warfare and deal making. And it just becomes another thing that Donald Trump wants to talk about. Whereas in the past, especially during the Cold War, there was that sense that nuclear arms were something that we needed to really think about. What effect has that had?
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Georgia Cole
I mean, Donald Trump's been quite interesting on nuclear weapons because on the one hand he has, you know, he grew up during the Cold War. He was there for all of this panic and he has spoken out really strongly against nuclear weapons in the past. But then there's also been times that he's been somewhat blase about it and as you say, bring it into this whole deal making thing. And I think we've seen more of that recently, obviously. But I mean, even in 2016, he was sort of musing about the potential for allies to get nuclear weapons, but then in the same vein saying that nuclear weapons should be eliminated. And he was going to do that. So it's not entirely clear how seriously he is taking this.
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Emma Nelson
And this leads us into the next part which you have written about, which is the fact that if you have the President of the United States changing his tune on nuclear arms, what message does that send to the rest of the world? Does it suggest that actually the only way that you can protect yourself if the United States is no longer a trusted partner is to arm yourself?
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Georgia Cole
Yeah, I think that's the lesson that a lot of states are taking from this. I mean, Iran has now been attacked twice during active negotiation rounds. And then, you know, you compare this with say North Korea, who was successful in developing a nuclear program and has not been attacked, versus Iraq and Libya with which both abandoned their weapons programs. And I mean, people were already starting to think this after the invasion of Ukraine. Well, obviously Ukraine relinquished its Soviet era arsenal in exchange for guarantees that it would never be invaded. And subsequently has been. So all of this is, you know, countries are going to start thinking that maybe conventional capabilities just aren't enough and you need that nuclear deterrent and what
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Emma Nelson
does that lead to?
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Georgia Cole
Potentially further proliferation, which obviously and far more dangerous world. That's not something that's inevitable, but it is getting more likely.
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Emma Nelson
And where are you seeing countries just contemplating this? Where should we be focusing?
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Georgia Cole
So South Korea is a big one, East Asia, both South Korea and Japan, but more so South Korea we've seen public support is now in majority in favour of developing a nuclear weapon. And obviously with North Korea, that's always been a cause for concern. But the US has provided security guarantees to the region. Right, but now in light of everything that's been happening where the US is seen as potentially an unreliable partner, then that calculus might start to change.
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Emma Nelson
And explain to me the longer term effects of having Donald Trump a destabilizing voice. It won't be just as simple as when Donald Trump departs the White House and let's say a clearer headed leader takes up residence there, that everybody will just roll back to where they were before. Are we seeing a permanent change here?
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Georgia Cole
I mean, I think so this is a debate that's ongoing in Europe. Right. And I think that before this year everyone assumed that we just needed to get through the next few years and then, and then things would change. But I think Greenland is probably what started to change the calculus there. And we don't know who's going to come in next. You know, it could be a Vance, it could be a Rubio, it could be someone far worse. So I think this has really highlighted how dependent a lot of the world has been on the US and how that's just not a reliable security guarantor.
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Emma Nelson
And who will become the next voice, do you believe? Because I mean, we're looking at Saudi Arabia is even contemplating nuclear proliferation. Mohammed bin Salman has been quite hesitant about it. But this, this takes time, doesn't it? Because nations have to start a program from scratch.
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Georgia Cole
Yeah, absolutely. So it still would take them several years. A lot of some nations do have the sort of the technical expertise to be able to do this. A lot don't. So depending on each individual country, it will take quite a long time. And as we've seen with Iran, that is a very dangerous period in which a country is trying to go for a weapon, then that might actually invite preemptive attack. So it's certainly still not an easy decision.
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Emma Nelson
Georgia Cole, research associate for the International Security Program at Chatham House. Thank you so much for joining me in the studio. Still to come on today's program, this
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Petri Borzow
is Monocle's Petri Borzow. I am in Kautokeno in Northern Norway, about five hours north of the Arctic Circle. I'll be telling you about the indigenous Sami people whose homeland this is and about their singing tradition of joiking.
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Emma Nelson
We'll find out more from Petri a little later on. Today's globalist.
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UBS Narrator
Craft is a matter of perspective, a unique outlook, an obsessive attention to detail. With UBS's Chief Investment Office Houseview, we're focused on identifying the latest investment opportunities and market risks to help you achieve your financial goals. So you get the big picture broken down into thought provoking insights. Deliver daily and curated by over 200 globally connected, locally active analysts, UBS banking is our craft.
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Emma Nelson
Let's continue with today's newspapers. Joining me from Lisbon is Carlota Rebelo, Monocle's senior foreign correspondent. Good morning, Carlota. How's Lisbon looking today?
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Carlota Rebelo
Bon die Irma. Lisbon is looking quite sunny. I'm not going to lie. It's been quite a great couple of days.
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Emma Nelson
Good. I thought it might be because you departed London when? Friday?
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Carlota Rebelo
Yes, on Friday. And it wasn't so great. It was raining for the last day, which I think is only fitting.
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Emma Nelson
Any regrets so far as you head to the sun?
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Carlota Rebelo
So far, none. But I will keep you posted, don't worry.
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Emma Nelson
Thank you very much indeed. Obviously your welfare is our concern right now. You've landed, you've done a bit of unpacking, obviously this is where we're going to be hearing you from now for the foreseeable from Lisbon, your focus is on the Portuguese papers. What have you spotted?
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Carlota Rebelo
Yes, so there's quite a few interesting stories from the Lusophone Sphere this morning, making the papers. The first one which was it's been a long time in the making and we've discussed it on this program before. It's the controversial changes to the nationality law in Portugal. Now yesterday, Parliament has finally approved it. And this is after a deal between the governing PSD party and the far right party, Chiga. Now this is fair to say this is a, a big win for Chega to be able to mold a law in cooperation with the government. And basically this means that the key changes are that the number of years someone needs to reside in the country to apply for citizenship has changed in some occasions was five years for those under a special regime under the Lusophone and Portuguese speaking community sphere, that has gone up to seven years and the same for the rest of the world. But then it also introduced this caveat of the possibility of a judge now imposing the loss of nationality as an additional penalty to a sentence due to crimes. So this idea of citizenship and nationality being tied with criminality. And we've heard similar debates happening in the UK and in other countries about, you know, whether or not people with a criminal record should be entitled to apply for nationality. Well, here we see some of those
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Emma Nelson
changes and we say that this is a big win for Chaiga, the far right group. But in actual fact, how much is this a burning issue among Portuguese themselves?
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Carlota Rebelo
Well, that's why this is quite a big win for Chaiga because to be frank, before Chaige entered the mainstream, and we need to remember this is a party that 10 years, 11 years ago did not exist. And now it's the biggest political opposition force within the parliament. And they have made throughout its inception, until the very last campaign just a couple of months ago, immigration as a key issue. And we know that, you know, every nation struggles with a bit of immigration, but it has not been to the levels that Chiga wants the public to believe. So the fact that that has become such a big talking point in proportion to reality, to the point that it now influences a future law. That more than anything is the win here.
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Emma Nelson
Okay, let's head to Angola, the southern African nation Lusophone, and now deciding to place itself on a geopolitically strategic path.
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Carlota Rebelo
Yes. So this was a statement made yesterday on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Angola being part of the African Union. Now, the foreign minister was speaking at the United nations as part of the celebration of this milestone. And it was quite a strong speech where it clearly marked this shift from assertive diplomacy to what he described as strategic influence. Now, we need to remember that Luanda, particularly in the last couple of years, has played a real bigger, really a bigger role when it comes to mediating some of the conflicts that have happened in the region. And this is part of that ambition. Tete Antonio, the foreign minister, was saying, you know how this role is also expanded, that they want to be a key player when it comes to the debates about energy security, climate change, and even human mobility. Some of the key issues that the continent is facing and the nation, of course. But what I found quite interesting, Emma, is that in the middle of this big speech was quite a few lines. There were quite a few lines about the need to train a new generation of diplomats and the need to bring new talent into the diplomatic sphere of those that are entering this career. And I thought that's quite a fantastic story, this idea of bringing a new generation with strong technical skills, a complete, completely different sense of geopolitical awareness, you know, born in Angola, that is independent and post war. So I'm sure that will be one to watch.
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Emma Nelson
Indeed. And the foreign minister's speech was really ambitious, as you said, looking both backwards and forwards as well, not only wanting to create a new generation of diplomats, but also building on what he was saying was that Angolan diplomacy, and I'm quoting here, is born linked to the liberation struggles having contributed to the end of colonialism and apartheid, and that the country now intended to assert itself as a relevant actor in building global solutions. I mean, that's a re. That's quite a fresh idea, isn't it? Because that idea of very traditional spokespeople and people who bring things together, clearly in the last few years, it hasn't worked. But to have somewhere like Angola saying, actually, we've done this before. We know what we're doing.
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Carlota Rebelo
Absolutely. And, you know, Angola is not shy to be the first nation to say and recognize the own internal struggles it has. But this idea that precisely because of that and precisely because of its history, it knows how to navigate these tricky and complex geopolitical situations. You know, one of the other key things that came out was this idea of fragmentation and how, you know, rivalry, be it political or in terms of liberating forces or other positions, has always been part of Angola's DNA as a nation. And precisely because of that and the journey they it has made from then to democracy, it can actually teach and help guide some of these other nations, some of their, its neighbors who, who might be struggling with making the same path.
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Emma Nelson
Let's move to Mozambique. Anybody who has a debt that they owe doesn't necessarily rush to pay it back. Unless you are Maputo.
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Carlota Rebelo
An astonishing story, Emma. I mean, since last year we've been seeing hints of what was about to happen just a couple of days ago. But yes, Mozambique has surprised everyone, I dare say even the IMF themselves by paying off its entire 700 million dollar debt early. Now Mozambique is part of a list of I, I believe 85 creditors and it's the only now on the list that has adept equivalent to zero. And as I said, since last year we've been seeing from President Daniel Chapo and his ambitions to move towards this goal. There's, there's several announcements throughout 2025 of wanting to restructure that, wanting to enter all these agreements with the IMF to bring the country's finances back on track. And it's been a long journey, but oh my God, it has paid off, hasn't it Emma? And you know, this means that from now on, even though of course the relief in people's pockets won't be felt immediately, it means that going forward all this money that was being used to pay off that and to try to bring everything back in line can actually start to be invested back into the country. Now this is a huge step for President Chapo because it's been part of the campaign, was part of his mandate to incentivize growth, to put the finances back in order and to bring Mozambique back to a state where it can have real discussions with its peers.
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Emma Nelson
And if Mozambique has a spare bit of cash down the back of the sofa, having paid its debts off, it might want to buy the Portuguese national airline tap.
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Carlota Rebelo
Yes, tap, which has been up for sale quite a few times during my lifetime, I must confess. Em, and it has been public and privatized and public again. Well, we're at one of those rounds again, but today is the deadline for proposals. Now there are two key groups that are bidding for TAP are the Lufthansa Group and the Air France klm. There were rumors that iag, that's the group that originated from the merger between British Airways and Iberia. There were rumors that they might bid too. But the deadline is today and so far there hasn't been an official proposal. But, you know, there's still a few hours to go. The day is only starting now. It is quite a strategic move for both of these European groups to buy tap. The great appeal of TAP is not necessarily the roots within Portugal, but actually the fact that it has extremely incredible roots to the Lusophone sphere. We're talking about the nations we've just spoken about Angola, Mozambique, Saint domain principle, Cape Verde, but also across to Brazil. It's one of the European airlines that has the biggest amount of routes to the Latin American continent as well. So that is here the biggest appeal. What has been interesting from the part of the Portuguese government is that it has made a caveat that whoever wins this bidding process needs to commit to increase the amount of flights it has across all airports in Portugal, not just Lisbon, as we've seen in the past, but also some of the smaller regional airports. And that's where we can see quite a big a bit of a change because depending on which of these groups, different markets are more appealing. We know that the north of the country is quite appealing to French travelers, while German travelers tend to prefer the Algarve and Madeira. So it will be quite interesting to see, depending on who succeeds on this initial minority stake, which could at some point become a majority stake. It will be interesting to see who ends up winning.
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Emma Nelson
Carlotta Rebelo, Monaco, senior foreign correspondent, now based out of Lisbon. Thank you so much for joining me on the Globalist. Now here's a look at some of the other stories we're keeping an eye on today. Donald Trump has said the United States is on track to complete its military objectives against Iran. Mr. Trump said he'd hit the Iranians extremely hard in the next three weeks, and he warned that the US Would attack Iran's energy infrastructure, Russia, if there is no deal. Meanwhile, Iran's President Massoud Possesskian has published an open letter to the American people insisting his country's never been a threat and is not the enemy. He argued that the US had been manipulated into the war by Israel. The Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, is to go to Washington next week as relations deteriorate with the White House. President Trump has been enraged at the failure of the NATO alliance to join a war against Iran, which many of its members consider illegal. And Finland's president, Alexander Stubb, has held what's been a constructive discussion and exchange of ideas on NATO, Ukraine and Iran with the U.S. president Donald Trump and Republican leaders in the U.S. congress say they've reached a deal to restore funding for most of the Department of Homeland Security. Spending on immigration enforcement, however, will be funded separately. This is the globalist. Stay tuned. It's 1431 in Taipei. 8.31am if you're listening in Zurich now, at a time of turbulence, the world does not need another crisis. That's arguably quite sensible words uttered, however, by Taiwan's opposition leader. She's heading to China and the aim of her visit is to seek reconciliation with Beijing. William Yang is a senior Northeast Asia analyst for the International Crisis Group. He joins me now from Taipei. A very good afternoon to you, William.
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William Yang
Thank you for having me again.
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Emma Nelson
Once again, good to have you. Right. Let's talk about what Cheng Liwen said. What exactly were her words about the world does not need another crisis?
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William Yang
So since she became the chairwoman last November, she's been very clear about her intention of guiding the party, which is to refocus the party's, I think, priority to resuming exchanges with China because she believes that this is one of the most important approach to ensure cross strait peace and stability in the, you know, at a time when global geopolitics are influx. And she also believes that this is eventually going to be aligned with the majority of the Taiwanese people's opinion. So during the press conference on Monday when she announced that she recently accepted the invitation from the Chinese president Xi Jinping to visit China next week, she mentioned that she hopes the trip can show and demonstrate Taiwanese people and the world the conflict is not inevitable for both sides of the Taiwan Strait and that Taipei and Beijing can actually use wisdom and their efforts to pave a way for eats eventually.
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Emma Nelson
So do tell us, do you think that she will actually get the reconciliation that she hopes for during this visit?
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William Yang
I think the concept of reconciliation that she mentions is something that's very, I think, abstract and at the same time it involves very complicated history. So I think what she really means is basically that her trip is likely, hopefully going to guide Taipei and Beijing down the path of being being able to first return to more peaceful coexistence again. And then there might be more high level dialogues and conversations and then some form of understanding might emerge from there. But obviously, I think that's a very, very long term and also, you know, I think in some ways unreachable goal, but for the sake of the domestic political considerations and also the, you know, getting attention to her trip, I believe that's why she is focusing on this concept of reconciliation between Beijing and Taipei,
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Emma Nelson
which divides the motives into two. You have what you say that, you know, the wider goal of trying to get some sort of reconciliation with Beijing, but you've mentioned at least once the fact that she believes that reconciliation is aligned with the majority of the views of the Taiwanese. How accurate an assessment is this?
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William Yang
I think that's in fact a little bit detached from reality on the ground in Taiwan, because if we look at the opinion posed in recent years, it's very clear that most Taiwanese people are hoping that Taiwan can maintain its own way of life, which is as a democracy that has its own government and military and currency, and not under the direct control and rule of China. But on the other hand, that. That we are seeing China increasingly imposing greater pressure on Taiwan through multiple different means. And so when you combine all these facts together on the ground, it really seems like her goal of reaching reconciliation with Beijing is in fact, not really aligned with the trend of public opinion in Taiwan.
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Emma Nelson
Let's consider as well the fact that. That the budget for military support in Taiwan has become an enormously contentious issue. The president wants to push through a supplemental defense budget of what, US$40 billion, whereas the opposition and Cheng Liwen say that this is not the opportunity to just issue a blank check.
- [36:33]
William Yang
Right, Exactly. I think there has been a lot of controversy surrounding the opposition party's refusal to. With the government and the ruling party to approve the defense budget, that clearly the United States has also become impatient about the prolonged gridlock over this particular issue. And the ruling party and the government has repeatedly questioned whether the KMT and also the opposition party's refusal to approve the defense budget is in fact due to some sort of backdoor deal that they might actually have or instruction that they might actually receive from Beijing. And since generally, when announced her visit on Monday, this rhetoric has been picked up once again and the government is really pushing her, you know, to really raise this particular issue with China to reflect the fact that Taiwan is determined to continue to enhance its own defense capabilities. But it's not aimed at trying to, you know, sort of like taunt Beijing, but rather it's to ensure its own safety and way of life.
- [37:46]
Emma Nelson
William Yang from the International Crisis Group in Taipei, thank you as ever, for joining us on Monocle Radio. Let's head now to a road a little less traveled by Monocle, especially outside the Christmas season, Northern Norway is a cultural center of the indigenous Sami people who also inhabit Sweden and Finland. To tell us more, I'm joined now from Kautokeno by Petro Petri Birts off Monocle's Helsinki correspondent. Good morning, Petri.
- [38:18]
Petri Borzow
Good morning, Emma. And I wish this was TV so you could see how I'm actually having a staring contest with the reindeer just outside my hotel window. But I'm gonna leave it with you to imagine how it looks like.
- [38:28]
Emma Nelson
No, you're gonna talk us through it. What is happening with you and the reindeer?
- [38:33]
Petri Borzow
Okay, so the hotel I'm staying at, well, I mean, not only the hotel that I'm staying at, which by the way is the only hotel in this small town. Reindeer are everywhere here. That's the traditional livelihood of the Sam and has been for centuries and still is. So, you know, you cannot go anywhere without seeing, seeing reindeer. And actually yesterday on my drive from, I flew to the northernmost airport in Finland and it was still sort of a four hour drive from there. And I mean on these icy roads I was dodging reindeer driving really slow, so you just cannot escape them. And now one of them seems to have caught wind of the fact that I'm doing a live. So it's staring at me right from outside the window. But I mean this is safe. Double glazed window in, in between. And they're really nice, this reindeer. By the way, I was at the, I was at a sauna last night after the, after the, after a day of reporting and, and they wanted to come into the sauna as well, but I closed the door.
- [39:24]
Emma Nelson
What a shame. Are you actually doing any work?
- [39:29]
Petri Borzow
Yes, Emma, I am. I'm. I'm doing a story. This is. I don't know how much I can tease about it. Maybe I'll tease a little bit. This is for an upcoming issue of Confect. I'm doing a story on Joik Joiking, which is the, the Sami's age old singing tradition. It's a style of singing. I'm not gonna insult the listeners by even attempting to sing it, but it's basically, it's very different from traditional singing. There's a sort of almost like shamanistic elements in terms of sound and not in terms of beliefs in it. It has this ethereal element. It's sort of a dreamlike chanting, if I could describe it that way. So I'm doing a story on that. And I went to a concert last night, I'm going to another one today. And we're just Spending the whole day with Vasami, going around this landscape and seeing sort of how they perform in joik and what this singing means to them. And we're also going ice fishing, by the way.
- [40:24]
Emma Nelson
Well, we'll do the ice fishing in a minute. Looking forward to that. And we need an update on the reindeer in a moment too. But just fill us in more deeply on the cultural background of joiking, because the concert themselves, you've sent pictures we can see online, these amazingly elaborate and very. How do you say it, sort of culturally certain outfits and clothing where you get people who are so embedded in their own culture.
- [40:54]
Petri Borzow
Yes, that's correct. You're referring to the gakti, which is the traditional dress of the Sami. And let's just remember for a moment that Sami are the last remaining indigenous people in all of Europe. There used to be more, but Sami are the last one remaining. And joik for them it's been around since time immemorial, really. I mean, the Sami are the original inhabitants of this part of the world. Finns and Swedes and Norwegians are the. Are the ones who sort of colonized. And even this happened ages ago. And they've been joiking, as I said, since. Since history basically started started for them. And, and joiking is a very personal art form for them. So they don't. It, It's, It's. It's. It's interesting. I mean, they don't. I talked to them yesterday and I asked them what are. So what do. What do you joik about? And they, they corrected me. They. They said we don't joik about anything. We joik something sort of like how, how you would paint a flower. You don't paint about a flower. You paint the flowers. So they would joik in the same way they would yo about people. They would yolk, yoik about a certain and mountain or a tree, and a lot of joiks, apparently about reindeer as well.
- [42:00]
Emma Nelson
So there is that amazing sense that music actually imparts that communication between generations and cultures.
- [42:07]
Petri Borzow
Yes, very much. And there was actually a children's joik concert yesterday as well. And this is a tradition that is passed on from one generation to the, to the, to the other. And I have to say, I mean, just looking around and going to these concerts and seeing these people, as you said, wearing their traditional dresses very comfortably and, you know, with, with a lot of pride for a good. And it's just, it's really heartwarming to see how vibrant and alive their local culture is. Especially, you know, Knowing the history of sort of forced assimilation that has happened in the Samilands in a similar vein as has happened in North America with the first nations, with Native Americans and you know, all that. Despite all of that, you know, their culture is so strong and they're so proud of it and they have this weak law long Sami Easter Festival which, which takes place currently here in Calto Cano. And last weekend they had something really, really spectacular which is the Sami Grand Prix, which is sort of the Eurovision of the, of the Samiland actually. I mean I watched it in, in when I was still in Helsinki on Finnish tv. It's very high production, production value. Made actually made I think by the same, same people who make the Finnish or the Norwegian Eurovision. So you know, this, this, this tradition is just really alive and well and that's nice to see.
- [43:24]
Emma Nelson
Indeed inserted very much into today's culture. Snow fishing. In a moment, must ask how is the reindeer?
- [43:31]
Petri Borzow
Reindeer has actually, it's not there anymore. It's, it's kind of joined the, the pack. There's, there's about, I don't know, maybe 20, 30 reindeer just sort of circling around this, this hotel and it looks like this, this young one is, has joined the others. I'm gonna go check out after this live, see how they're doing, maybe give them some food.
- [43:49]
Emma Nelson
I have wild dreams that they're all snuggling around a radio listening to you talking. But, but we'll have to leave that there. Now talk to me about ice fishing as well, because this again, an incredibly traditional practice that in 2026 is still an integral part of what happens where you are.
- [44:06]
Petri Borzow
Yes, that's, that's correct. So I am currently. Let me just set the scene. Basically. I'm, I'm looking out the window of this magical, magical winter landscape. You know, I'm seeing probably I'm, you know, 20, 30 kilometers ahead of me, just uninterrupted views of this. They're not really mountains because they don't have these sharp tops. I think the locals call them fells, but just, you know, white covered, rolling snow, covered rolling, rolling hills. And then in the middle of it is a, is a large lake which I'm now looking at. And that's where the ice fishing competition will be, will be held. So it's basically, I mean the ice is so thick here. It's, it's, you know, it's super cold. There's a meter of snow everywhere I, I look and the ice is so thick that you can actually. They build roads on the ice. I, I didn't dare venture with my rental car, but locals actually drive on ice and on that same ice they, they drill a hole with this sort of a drill tool and then they fish with a very small rod through that small hole. And I suppose they won't be catching any super big fish because the hole is only about a couple of inches in diameter, but maybe they'll catch a lot of small fish.
- [45:12]
Emma Nelson
Butsoff Monocle's Helsinki correspondent in Kaotokeno with the reindeer. Thank you so much for joining us on the Globalist.
- [45:24]
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- [46:00]
Emma Nelson
Time now for a look into the music world. Alexis Taylor is from the band Hot Chip. He came into Midori House to talk to Monocle Radio senior correspondent Fernando Augusta Pacheco about his new solo album and his most revealing work yet. It's called Paris in the Spring, and this is what their conversation was.
- [46:18]
Alexis Taylor
I think that a lot of the records I put out are very personal, so they're not really competing on a scale to be more personal. But then again, I think it is. It is a combination of being perhaps the most personal and revealing. But also I think I've managed to put the music together around those personal observations and revelations in a way that makes it slightly more, in my mind, universal and able to reach, I hope, more people. I feel like I've worked longer on the presentation of what is personal, so that I might have made something personal before, but perhaps it's quite intimate and really for a sort of a particular mood you'd have to be in to listen to it. Whereas I think this record, it has some of the joy of the Hot Chip music and it has some of the joy of what's inside of me, which is an ultimately optimistic person. It's there in the production as well as there being these quite sad sentiments as well. And so I think it's yeah, it's like I've worked harder to get those things to naturally come together and hopefully make something which is more appealing and direct for people to get into.
- [47:38]
Fernando Augusta Pacheco
That comes across in the album. Although, as you said, you know, there are songs that, you know, we can describe them as sad or very emotional, but there's an uplifting disco tone to It, I mean, a song that comes to mind is I Can Feel youl Love. Know, it's very kind of gospel disco like as well.
- [48:06]
Alexis Taylor
I can feel your love.
- [48:14]
Petri Borzow
But then I want to talk about
- [48:15]
Fernando Augusta Pacheco
Forex, which is a beautiful ballad. What was your inspiration for that one as well?
- [48:21]
Alexis Taylor
That one was not inspired by any particular music, but just a moment where I was alone in my studio in Alexandra palace with this tape recorder I just recently got set up and the Yamaha piano at my fingertips. And the song seemed to come out almost, Almost fully formed. And it was very much me working through some behavioral aspects, some parts of my behavior which seem, I think on the whole I am, you know, not extremely troubled person. But there are some things I do where I feel like they are. They're not helping me. You know, maybe you fall into patterns of behavior which is self destructive or even destructive to things around you that are important, important to you. And I wanted to, I suppose, process that in a quite raw way. So it's questioning, why does one behave in this way? Why does one do the thing that isn't good for you and do it again? I have a question.
- [49:28]
Fernando Augusta Pacheco
You know, when I was reading about your album, is it true that it was quite easy to start, but then to finish actually was a bit more complicated.
- [49:35]
Alexis Taylor
Really true, yeah.
- [49:36]
Fernando Augusta Pacheco
And why is that?
- [49:37]
Alexis Taylor
Well. Well, this album started with no pressure on it. I just had a few songs, one at a time. MP3s can make you cry. The blues make me punch drunk and deal with it. If you sing without you, you can sing without you. And the one with the avalanches, I can feel your love. They were at the beginning of the process. And as I wrote and recorded those things, everything flowed, everything was easy. I was connecting with great people helping me. Pablo Godin, the son of Nicolas Godin from Air, was engineering and helping me. And Nicolas Godin from Air was help play bass on MP3s can make you cry. It was very exciting, this beginning process. And I was working with a producer called Pierre Russo, who I met through Nicolas Godin. Fantastic, and one of the best producers I've ever worked with. He has so much interesting creativity, great ideas about how to support a song and bring it to life and to do very inventive things in the production. So. So that all set it up really well. But then unfortunately, Pierre became completely unavailable to me to carry on this working process. And I did feel a bit like I had started to depend upon his production to help me. So once he was no longer available, which was just. Life sometimes gets in the way of people's availability and that's fine. But it took me some time to to figure out how I could finish a record I'd started if Pierre is now no longer available. It was difficult for me. I lost a lot of momentum. I don't think I've ever taken so long to make an album. It all just slowed down. So I then just had to find a solution to that. And I think sometimes that's more psychologically difficult than it is practically achievable because you just feel like you're set on a certain path. And I couldn't think of anyone who could, could stand in for Pierre. I eventually found Ollie Bayston based in London to help me finish the rest of the record and we wrote new songs together. Those all came together by working with this new producer as well as him helping me finish everything I'd started with the Paris sessions.
- [52:18]
Emma Nelson
That was Alexis Taylor there talking to Monocle's Fernando Augusta Voseco. And Paris in the Spring is out now and you can listen to the full conversation on the Monocle Weekly. This is the Globalist. Finally on today's program, let's stay with music. And I'm joined from the Japanese capital by Patrick San Michelle, who's a Tokyo based writer with a focus on Japanese music. Good afternoon, Patrick.
- [52:44]
Sound Effects / Announcer
Good afternoon. Thanks for having me.
- [52:46]
Emma Nelson
Delighted. So tell us what's happening in the world of Japanese music. We've just had a hot chip. Well, Alexis Taylor going to Paris, let's head to Japan.
- [52:55]
Sound Effects / Announcer
So yeah, there's a lot of big developments happening even just in Tokyo itself. Most recently, just yesterday actually, the company SBI announced plans to try to bring a large spherical entertainment venue, the Sphere, which got a lot of attention in Las Vegas after opening a few years ago for its kind of like immersive, like 360 led utilizing experience. They want to bring that to Tokyo sometime in the near future. Plans are still very vague and kind of in motion, but they had a big splashy press conference yesterday to introduce this and kind of get this in front of people's eyes.
- [53:37]
Emma Nelson
Okay, talk us through it, what it will do and actually how much does Japan need this?
- [53:43]
Sound Effects / Announcer
So it's part of what I would say is a bigger shift towards bringing large scale entertainment venues to Tokyo and the Surro Tokyo area. They SBI proposed building this in a part of Tokyo called Odaiba, which is kind of an artificial island on the southeast part of the city. And in recent years they've actually opened a bunch of new entertainment venues in this area just Last year they opened Toyota Arena Tokyo, one of the biggest sports and music centric spots in the capital in quite some time. There's also places like Ariake Arena, Zepp Diver City, Live House to also bring large scale music acts to Tokyo. I think this proposed Tokyo sphere, for lack of a better term, it will be a way to take a step further. I imagine they'll want to do concerts like what the Sphere in Las Vegas does. But something that SBI mentioned yesterday that was really interesting to me is they could also see it being a cornerston of the country's quote unquote cool Japan program, which is basically taking all the elements of Japanese pop culture people love around the world. Anime, video games, technology. I guess I don't know if Matcha could be put into that, but somebody more creative than me can figure that out.
- [55:11]
Emma Nelson
I think we can, we can put that in. I mean the interesting thing that that then opens up is the, is the role that tourism plays in Japan because there is this constant steady stream of criticism of the of over tourism Japan finding pinch points. But we are with Japan very, very, you know, happily embracing the idea of anime, gaming, music, things which can be exported easily, accessibly and brilliantly to the outside world.
- [55:37]
Sound Effects / Announcer
Yeah, definitely. And building a central place to showcase that in Tokyo will help bring even more people into the city and maybe hopefully spread it out more so that some areas are less crowded than others. More people can go to Odaiba and explain experience whatever they do at this sphere.
- [55:54]
Emma Nelson
And we also have this creation of this destination within Tokyo, don't we, that the sphere will be in.
- [56:01]
Sound Effects / Announcer
Yeah, definitely. It'll help fortify that neighborhood as Tokyo's go to entertainment district moving forward if it actually gets built.
- [56:11]
Emma Nelson
Right. Let's move on away from the giant sphere that could end up in Odaibu district. And look now at where why the Japanese have gone absolutely nuts for baseball.
- [56:23]
Sound Effects / Announcer
So yeah, baseball is the most beloved sport in Japan. That's especially true now. We're coming off the World Baseball Classic where Shohei Ohtani and other famous Japanese players took part. They bowed out in the quarterfinals, but the nation was really gripped by it. And baseball is just. The professional baseball season here in Japan also just started, so. So baseball is on everyone's mind.
- [56:49]
Emma Nelson
And why is that?
- [56:52]
Sound Effects / Announcer
Well, baseball has been a dominant part of Japanese society since the early 1920s. I want to say it was something that kind of came from America after Japan opened up and the country just embraced it and has made it their own, which actually extends to the culture surrounding it. Like the way, especially to me, music is weaved into the game is really interesting and very different than what you see in the United States, for example.
- [57:24]
Emma Nelson
So talk us through the way that music plays such a big role in Japanese baseball, of course.
- [57:30]
Sound Effects / Announcer
So anyone who's been to a baseball game in the States is probably familiar with the fact it's very kind of relaxed, quiet. People are just kind of soaking in the atmosphere. That's not the case at a Japanese baseball game. The outfield stands are full of really super, like hardcore fans who play trumpets, they bang on drums. They have chance for every player on the team, every situation that the team can get into. And it gives this really festival atmosphere to the game experience. And then that also crisscrosses with with pop music. Lots of artists and idol groups have created songs for individual teams or even players over the years.
- [58:16]
Emma Nelson
Patrick San Michelle, thank you so much. Joining us on the line from our Tokyo bureau, you're listening to Monocle Radio. And that's all the time we have for today's program. The warmest of thanks to all my guests and to the producers, too, Angelica Jobson and Chris Chemak. Our research was Anneliese Maynard and our studio manager was Christy o' Connor Grady, with editing assistance by Jack Jewers. After the headlines. There's more music on the way. The briefing's live at midday here in London. The Globalist is back at the same time tomorrow. Hope you can join me for that if you can. But for now, from me, Emma Nelson, goodbye. Thank you very much for listening.
- [59:28]
UBS Narrator
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