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Craft matters in small ways, like how a coffee is brewed, and in not so small ways, like how your money is cared for. Which is why for 160 years, UBS has elevated banking to a craft, tailoring unique strategies that combine human expertise with the latest technologies, all happening across 24 time zones and and 12 key financial hubs. With you at the heart of it all, UBS advice is our craft. You're listening to the Globalist, first broadcast on 26 February 2026 on Monocor 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, resetting relations. The Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney heads to India to mend fences with Narendra Modi. Also ahead in the next 60 minutes,
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they've already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they're working to build missiles that will soon
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reach the United States of America.
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Donald Trump uses his State of the Union address to repeat warnings about Tehran, who in turn accuse him of peddling big lies. It is with this backdrop that another round of talks between the two powers, US And Iran, begin. We'll also be in San Francisco to hear the latest on Samsung's updated Galaxy phones.
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Plus, it's so important that we keep those centres of craft in our cities and that's something we've worked on so often in the magazine and that we've covered on the radio.
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The latest edition of Monocle magazine hits newsstands. In it, we go through our 100 favourite things, plus the papers, too. That's all coming up on the Globalist, live from London. First, a look at what else is happening in today's news. Cuba says a group of people on board a US Registered speedboat who opened fire on the Coast Guard were armed Cubans living in the United States. North Korea's Kim Jong Un has made a rare overture to the United States, saying they could get along well if Washington respected his country's status as a nuclear power. And Japan's tallest tower, the Skytree in Tokyo, has reopened after a lift broke down, trapping a group of visitors. Stay tuned to Monocle Radio throughout the day for more on these stories. But first, having made his mark for the middle powers in his speech last month at Davos, the Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney is now on a mission to mend fences with old geopolitical foes. His predecessor, Justin Trudeau, took his country to the heart of a diplomatic dispute with India over the killing of a Sikh separatists on Canadian soil. So can Mark Carney's persuasive elegance work its wonders with the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, or have times changed, just simply changed? Well, to tell me more, I'm joined now by Paul Waldy, who's Europe correspondent at the Globe and Mail. And in Bangalore is Maya Sharma, who's a journalist based there, where the time has just gone half past midday. A very good afternoon to you, Maya. And good morning to you, Paul.
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Hi, good afternoon.
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Paul, let's begin with you. Just how bad were things between India and Canada?
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About as bad as you can get. You know, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the time stood up in the House of Commons and basically accused the Indian government of participating in the murder or having some kind of role in the murder of a Sikh activist in Vancouver. That led to a flurry of diplomatic ousters from both countries. I think there were further allegations made by the RCMP that India had conducted sort of a campaign of violence and intimidation against Sikhs in Canada. So the relationship was really, really bad. Now, since Carney won the election a year ago, he has tried to mend fences with India, with China, two countries that Canada's had difficult relationships with. And that started in India's case with the G7 meeting in Kananaskis, where he invited Narendra Modi to come. And I think from then on, things have kind of improved. But, you know, there's real desperation on the Canadian side here. They need India a lot more than I think India needs Canada for trade reasons and for Trump reasons and for everything else.
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Maya, there's a real desperation on the Canadian side. How accurate an assessment is that from Paul?
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Well, I think Canada does definitely want access to India's huge market. We're talking about 1.4 billion people in the backdrop of global uncertainty, to put it mildly, thanks to Canada's southern neighbour, the United States. Canada really wants to reduce its dependence on the United States when it comes to trade. And India looking good. But, yes, there's a lot to get over. Even if trade deals are not actually signed, even if things that don't actually move forward on paper during this visit. The symbolism of the visit is huge because, as Paul was saying, it was a very, very bitter time with the former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying, accusing India of actual involvement in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijara, Sikh separatist. We've just heard, of course, that out of Ottawa, they're saying that India is not linked to violent crimes any longer. No, longer linked to violent crimes and no longer is causing some interest here in India. But certainly the right sounds in terms of trying to get closer to India. Once again, it does need the India's market. But also India in its turn is also perhaps relying a little bit less on the United States and trying to have growth with India when it comes to trade. We have lots of Indian students in Canada, which did reduce during the times of tension. But India also has a lot to gain from this relationship.
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No longer being a very, very loaded expression there. But coming back to you, Paul, this idea of who holds the balance of power, both you and Maya have said that this, the Canadians moment now to do some work.
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It definitely is. And I think, you know, Maya's right that they made that announcement yesterday about how suddenly Canada doesn't view India as this, this threat or this involvement in, in this campaign of intimidation and violence, which they've talked about nonstop for a couple years. So that's a little bit surprising. Also, it's interesting to note that Mark Carney's not going to Punjab, which in the past Canadian prime ministers on Visistindi have made the a visit there, made a visit to the Golden Temple, largely because Canada has such a big Sikh population. But I think, look, you know, Canada right now views itself as on the outside on this. India has struck trade deals with the eu, with Britain, with a lot of other countries. And right now Canada is kind of sitting on the sidelines looking at as the only G7 country without a trade agreement or some form of trade agreement with India. And I think Canada is desperate to get a piece of that and to diversify itself away from its over reliance
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on the US let's talk a little bit more, Maya, with you. With the overreliance on the U.S. i mean, Canada has very, and Mark Carney has very, very clearly stated that reliance on the United States must diminish given just how parlous the relationship between the, the leaders of the two countries at the moment is. But when it comes to Narendra Modi and his dance around Donald Trump, it is a, it is a much more complicated relationship, isn't it? Because the two men have in the past said that they get on very well. And Donald Trump and Narendra Modi sort of buddy up quite, quite powerfully. And yet Donald Trump does not seem to care about this when it comes to tariffs.
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It was indeed rather an embarrassing time for India of late because, yes, Prime Minister Modi and his government have talked a lot about the personal rapport between Trump and Modi, they've talked about the special relationship and then being hit with these tariffs. An extra 25%, tariffs added to 25% because India continue to import Russian oil. It caused a lot of bad feeling. It affected many high employment areas like jewellery, like textiles, which actually hit a lot of people working on the ground here in India, whose previous exports were largely to the United States. Of course, that was modified with India, with the United States at least definitely saying that India has reduced its import of oil from Russia. The tariffs are down. More complication, of course, from the Supreme Court in the United States talking about Trump's tariffs and not really saying that they're quite legal. And Trump announcing the 10%, 15% tariff. I mean, there's a whole lot of confusion over tariffs. And the opposition in India has said that India has been very weak when it came to the trade deal, which is almost finalized between India and the United States, saying that India has got the bad part of the deal, that it's good for the United States but not good for India. The opposition, including Modi, of continuing perhaps to dance around Trump. So, yes, it has been an embarrassing time for Modi and his government when it comes to Indo US Relationships. Perhaps one more reason why the visit of Mark Carney is being very welcomed at this stage.
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And indeed, it does give the opportunity, doesn't it, Paul, for Mark Carney to seize upon the momentum that he enjoyed in Davos with that speech about middle powers and ruptures. Do you think that he has enough to usher in a new era of pragmatism? I mean, he has said that what needs to be done in the world now is that is one must focus on what we can control rather than what we cannot. And one wonders whether Narendra Modi and other and other leaders who will mention in a moment because he's on a bit of a tour, will actually follow Carney.
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I think that remains to be seen. I think maybe the optics are. Yes, but look, Canada has an awful long way to go in terms of this diversification that Carney's talking about. When you consider that 70% of Canada's trade is with one country, the U.S. that is right now the most difficult country to deal with. I think this is going to take a very, very long time. And I think the Canadian government recognizes that they are mending fences with countries like India or trying to with China as well, which has been a very fractious relationship. So we'll see. I mean, I think Carney's speech in that has bolstered his image. And you're right, he's going to Australia and Japan as part of this trip as well. And I'm sure he'll be welcomed primarily in Australia for that kind of message he delivered in Davos. But in terms of a practical sense, they have a long way to go. You know, trade between India and Canada are trying to negotiate a trade deal, and trade between those two countries for both of them is pretty small right now. They're hoping to double that to about $70 billion in total for goods and services. So that's pretty small in the grand scheme of things. And so Canada's got a long way to go in terms of diversification.
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Let's talk.
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I'm staying with you, Paul. Let's talk about the, the next steps of Mark Carney's tour. He's off to Australia to meet the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, and to be the first Canadian Prime Minister in nearly two decades to address the Canadian Parliament. And then he's off to Tokyo.
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Yeah, right. I mean, these are two stops. So I think obviously the, the biggest part of this trip is the India part. It's two days in Mumbai and New Delhi. But, yeah, I mean, those are, those are important stops, I think, for, for the Australia thing. It's, it's more of a Commonwealth tie. It's more of a former British colony tie to some extent. India as well, but more so with Australia. And I think that may be more of a friendly thing. Japan as well, I think there's a trade aspect to that. But again, Canada, Japan, trade about the size of the Canada India trade. So, you know, it's all part of this effort. Carney is trying to make it to go as far and wide as possible to find new agreements, and remains to be seen how successful he'll be.
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And very briefly, Maya, while Mark Carney is off on his travels in that direction and Randra Modi heads to Israel.
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Well, yes, he is in Israel right now. He addressed the Israeli Parliament. He was greeted at the airport by Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, who was wearing saffron, which is the color very much associated with Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government. So it was a very, very personal meeting. Benjamin Netanyahu went on to talk about Modi's hug because as we know, Prime Minister Modi tends to greet other world leaders with a great big hug. And the symbolism, again, of this visit, it has caused some problems with the opposition and people who are critical of Israel's actions in Gaza. And Israel, of course, being isolated by so many countries around the world. India's prime minister actually going there and talking about their close ties and how they have a deep rooted friendship between the two nations. It has sent a message which not everyone in India is really on board with, but there are definitely talking about collaboration in defence. India is the largest importer of Israeli defense exports, so there is that tie as well. India talked about it, talked about Modi. Prime Minister Modi talked about the October 7th attack. And historically though, India has been pretty close to the Palestinian people as well. It was one of the first to recognize the PLO decades ago. And it has sent a message, it's the symbolic message of Prime Minister Modi saying that we support Israel, we're close to Israel, but it has not gone down well with the opposition who do raise the issue of Gaza and saying why is he going there? They mentioned the Epstein files, also talking about Epstein in the files mentioning Prime Minister Modi's visit to Israel to dance on the behest of Donald Trump. They talk about that also. So it's not been a totally welcome visit, but definitely very symbolic.
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In Bangalore, Maya Sharma, thank you so much for joining us on the line. And Paul Waldy, Europe correspondent at the Globe and Mail as well. You're listening to the globalist foreign. In Geneva now. There are more talks between Iran and the US In Geneva today. Are we any closer to a de escalation intentions? Well, Guarana Gurgic is Monocle's security correspondent and can answer that question for us today. Good morning, Guarana. Morning Emma, joining us on the line from Zurich. Garana, just explain to us a little bit about the, the backdrop to this, these talks. We have the Iranians going in with a, a sort of an upbeat tone saying that there's a prospect for a negotiated agreement over their nuclear development program. That said, Donald Trump drove a cart and horses through any sort of positive attitude from the United States yesterday in his State of the Union address where he did nothing but talk about the threat, repeat the threat that Iran that he believes Iran poses.
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Yeah, you're absolutely right. And we were just here a week ago or a little over a week ago when last Wednesday we saw these talks happen in Geneva. So this is just the resumption of US Iran diplomacy that is happening under the shadow of really possible strikes given what we are seeing are very heavy US Military deployments around the region and actually going to reinforce that where there already is quite a significant mass of US Military. I would say that at the moment there is so much noise. And it's really up to anyone to kind of pick up which sort of signals they want to see in terms of glass half empty or half full. Given that from Iran, we've heard different voices. Their leaders have been publicly alternating between sort of rejection of some of US Claims and cautious optimism. So where their president said that there is a good outlook to these negotiations, the Foreign Ministry spokesman just recently said that Iran would be able to respond to any U.S. strikes. And what you alluded to was just the State of the Union speech where Trump said that he would not let Iran develop a nuclear weapon and that no nation should ever doubt America's resolves. So they do have the most powerful military on earth. And at the moment it's being shown, much like, you know, a Chekhov's gun on the mental piece in a play when it appears, it's sort of sure to fire at some point by the end of the play.
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Yes, we all know what that means as soon as it arrives. But is there a sense that, I mean, we've been talking, the commentaries around it have been saying this is a last ditch negotiation to avoid a military conflict, that the path, the direction is simply one way. How much do we believe that?
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Look, I would not put just all the kind of stakes on this one round of talks. I mean, there is a narrow path of the cliff, if you wish. These talks do matter. But whether they are make or break talks is yet to be seen, simply because we actually don't have a clarity from the US Side in terms of what would be the sort of trigger point at this moment. And, you know, President Trump has been shifting these timelines and deadlines, whether he's going to decide over 10 days, two weeks and so on. Again, I think a lot of this depends also on US Force posture and the changes that we are seeing. You know, another aircraft carrier coming. So Gerald Ford joining at some point, Abraham Lincoln, that's already there, and various other things that are in the mix. But I would also say that now when it comes to the menu of topics that are on the agenda, it's not just about nuclear program and uranium enrichment. It has now also broadened to what Secretary Rubio has put on the table. And that's, of course, the ballistic missile program. So that's being added to the mix, of course, issues with Iranian proxies in the region. But also added to this, the most recent developments in Iran, of course, those protests and the carnage that happened in late December, early January. So, you know, what is it then in a sense going to be the kind of concession that the United States is going to be happy with. Is it just going to be about nuclear program and potentially allowing International Atomic Energy Agency to come and inspect, expect and agreeing on certain limits for enrichment and doing away with what there might already be there in terms of enrichment, or is it also going to be about all these other things that are being slowly added to the list?
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Indeed, when we look at Trump's State of the Union address yesterday, he was talking about sinister nuclear ambitions. And it has been picked up that there wasn't anything that specific. There was just a repetition of rather vague claims about the Iranians that he couldn't actually pinpoint, a definitive thing that needed to change in order for the tensions to dial down. And that was also coupled with the suggestion perhaps that the president rather likes the amount of power his military can exert over the rest of the world, and that he may feel himself almost compelled or just may just decide to do something about Iran because that is what he just wants to do.
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This is or this has been one of the key issues with Trump 2.0 presidency. And you're absolutely right, a lot of these things ultimately come down to what President Trump decides, not necessarily as a product of some sort of interagency deliberate deliberation, you know, on good advice that he's getting from his foreign policy bureaucracy, whether it's the State Department, Department of Defense, National Security Council, et cetera. Right. But it does come down to some of these sort of moments of how he's feeling and where, you know, he takes in, where he goes in the kind of politics of brinkmanship, essentially. And this is something that I think, you know, if you follow the madman theory, which was famous sort of for the Nixon era, it can be a deterrent for rivals and adversaries. But at the same time it's also playing with fire because once some of these decisions are made, they can trigger spirals that are hard to control. And this is where we are at at the moment.
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Gharana gurgic, MONOCLE SECURITY Correspondent, thank you so much for joining me on the line from Switzerland. Still to come on the program, I'm
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David Phelan, and I'm in San Francisco where Samsung has just been announcing its latest mobile phones. And I've been checking out what they're really all about.
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David will be joining us on the line from San Francisco a little later on. Today's globalist. 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. Delivered daily and curated by over 200 globally connected, locally active analysts. UBS banking is our craft. Have a look at today's newspapers. Joining me is Inga Thordar, his chief catalyst officer at Kanaloa and former senior editor at the C. At CNN and the BBC. Good morning, Inga.
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Good morning.
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We were complaining that we can't see. Neither of us are 20 anymore.
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Let's be absolutely obvious.
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I think it's the lighting.
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I agree. Let's go with that.
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Soft flattering. We can't see a thing. And in this context. How are you? How are things?
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Yeah, very good, thank you. It's great to be here, as always. Good.
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Right, well, in the dark we're going to try and talk about the newspapers.
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What have you found?
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What have you been able to see?
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Well, I think the sort of interesting story that caught my eye this morning is the story from Cuba. So the story sort of centers on this deadly confrontation yesterday between the Cuban border guards and this Florida registered speedboat. So the Cubans say that the boat entered Cuban waters and opened fire. They fired back, killing four and injuring six. They say the boat was carrying weapons and tactical gear. Now the US Official have said that they will investigate this independently and are denying that this was a US operation. But I think what is important here is the broader context. This isn't just like a border incident that we've seen with the boats in the past. It is really happening against the backdrop of the island's worst economic crisis in years following the incursion by the US Into Venezuela and the halting of the, of oil exports to Cuba after that. So I think that that shortage has led to blackouts, disruption to food and to transport. So the, the relationship between Cuba and us is extremely strained at the moment.
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The, the information, the, the latest development that's come back is that these were on the boat. They were, they were Cuban nationals, but they had by all accounts reportedly been living in the United States for two decades. So, so there was that. The intimacy of the relationship between Cuba and the United States and Cuban citizens is absolutely highlighted here.
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Yeah, no, it definitely is. And it's not the first time that we've seen Cubans living in the US sort of trying to, well, you know, go into Cuban waters either to help other Cubans escape or otherwise cause some incidents between the Cubans and Cuba and the U.S. it's just that it's happening now at a time that is quite dangerous. I mean, Cuba patrols have intercepted numerous boats coming from the US in the past. And some armed confrontation have happened before, mainly around sort of smuggling. But I think it's the geopolitical context that is important in this case.
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Let's visit the latest swathe of information that's being released about Jeffrey Epstein, the late paedophile financier. One of the lines the New York Times is as ever across it talking about Epstein field files are missing records about women who made claim about against Donald Trump. It says there's a, there's a brief mention somewhere in documents that there was an unverified accusation that Donald Trump assaulted her in the 1980s. But the memos that are related to her account are missing.
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That's correct. So what the New York Times is saying is that in the index to the latest batch there were four memos that were supposed to be released, but they could only find one. So that would suggest that three of them are missing and the only one included related to Epstein himself and did not relate to Trump. So that's really what they sort of centered on. Obviously the Justice Department released millions of Epstein related documents under the transparency law and they are saying that there is no conspiracy here, that they are now investigating whether these records were improperly held. And if they found, if those documents are found and they should have been in the batch, they will be released. So I think that there is still some confusion about whether or not it was just a cock up rather than a conspiracy on this one. But either way, it looks like all the documents relating to Trump himself are missing from this latest batch.
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And the spotlight now shines on a former president, Bill and Hillary Clinton. They are to testify in the next 48 hours. And it does what? And again, the New York Times doing its job so well, talks about how this now will shine a spotlight, not necessarily on Jeffrey Epstein, but on that continued open trauma that you see, which is Hillary Clinton trying to negotiate her husband's habits.
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Yeah, that is correct. I mean, this is likely to be a blockbuster appearance by the Clintons. Hillary Clinton due to give testimony today and Bill Clinton tomorrow. Now I think it's important to say they are behind closed doors. So we're not going to this playing out live on our screens or on our computers. But obviously the Clintons have said that they are being treated unfairly. Others have been allowed to give testimony in writing, but they are being called in front of the committee. So they see this really very much as an attempt to divert attention away from Trump and towards them. Now, what will come out of this will be interesting and especially actually because you mentioned Hillary sort of defense of her husband throughout the years, well, decades really, is that she didn't really have any relations with Epstein. So why she is being asked to give testimony remains unclear. But yeah, she will yet again have to sit in front of lawmakers unwillingly to justify those actions by him. But I do think it's important and because it often gets lost, we talk about the victims since they but I do think what could come out of this is the systemic failure of the whole system and so taking it away from the not just the perpetrator and the victims, but actually a failure of the system. That could be one thing that perhaps comes out of this testimony.
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Finally, let's talk about a lovely story out of cnn. The Great Barrier Reef is usually the subject of very serious warnings about climate change, et cetera, et cetera. But this is lovely. A mother and daughter who were diving, but their citizen scientists discovered the world's largest coral colony.
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Yeah. Isn't it lovely?
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I don't know. I mean, I used to go shopping with my mum, but I didn't necessarily go diving as a scientist. I mean, this is quite this talks an awful lot about sort of like family bonding as well as also sort of mutual interests and indeed saving the planet.
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Yeah. And just the importance of citizens, you know, citizen science really. So, yeah, this mother and daughter team, it started with the mother going down on a dive and taking photographs, coming back and believing she had something important, showed her daughter. And down they went again and measured and filmed this colony. And it turns out that it is the biggest coral colony ever recorded in the world. I mean, never mind the Great Barrier Reef, but it's the size of a football or a soccer, whichever you prefer, field. So it's very big, it's in a J shape. And they're now sort of trying to find out if it's because of the conditions and if there is anything we can learn about this that can save the corals who are still and we should remember, in grave danger.
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And go diving with your daughter, if you have one. Inga Thordar, chief catalyst officer at Kanaloa, former senior editor at CNN and the BBC thank you so much for joining me in the studio. You're listening to the Globalist. Now here's what else we're keeping an eye on today. Cuba, says the group of people on board a US Registered speedboat who opened fire on The Coast Guard were armed Cubans living in the US who had terrorist intentions. Four people on the boat were killed in the encounter. North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un has made a rare overture to the United States, saying they could get along well if Washington respected his country's status as a nuclear power. Mr. Kim alluded to the idea at his five year party congress in Pyongyang. And Japan's tallest tower, the Skytree in Tokyo, has reopened after a lift broke down, trapping a group of visitors. The attraction had been closed since Sunday. This is the Globalist. Stay tuned. We highlight the work of another magazine now because in the March April issue of Foreign affairs, the political scientists and government experts Professor Daniel Nixon and Alexander Cooley make the case that the Trump administration has not only had a wide ranging destabilising effect, they claim his presidency has ushered in a new age of kleptocracy in America where those in power actively steal their country's resources. Monocle Radio's Anita Riota sat down with Professor Nixon, who's a professor in the Department of Government and the Walsh School of Foreign Services at Georgetown University, to go through the article's findings. And Anita began by asking him to lay out some examples of how he believes the Trump administration has wielded the presidency for personal gain over and even at the cost of national interests.
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C
So there are a lot of examples I think everybody, I hope, is familiar with the famous Qatar jet, which was a gift to Trump valued in the hundreds of millions in costing the US Taxpayers about a billion, I hear, in retrofitting costs, which the plan is to transfer to Trump's presidential library so that he has personal use of it should he ever leave office. But I think the one that is most sort of encapsulates things the most, which was reported by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and other outlets, is a deal that was negotiated in the uae. Essentially, Trump's main diplomatic envoy, other than now, Jared Kushner, is a guy named Steve Wittcloth, who is an old real estate buddy of Trump's and Witcloth and his sons. And Trump and his sons co founded a company called World Liberty Financial, which is a cryptocurrency organization. One of the things that they have that they're into is a stablecoin. So when Wyckoff went to the UAE and was negotiating a bunch of other stuff, he also negotiated a side deal with the national security advisor for the uae, who is a prince there who controls a bunch of the sovereign wealth fund money. And they negotiated a deal in which he bought $2 billion in stablecoin from World Liberty Financial. Chairman Shengpeng Zhao was at the time in prison in the United States for his company's evasion of money laundering regulations. Subsequently to that, the Zhao was pardoned by Trump in a pardon that by reports was pushed by his sons, who have a direct operational stake as this Trump in World Liberty Financial. Now, to complicate matters, at the same time, Wyckoff was negotiating a deal that released that relaxed US Export restrictions on high tech semiconductors that the chic that the Sheikh's company wanted access to, which the US had held up to had the US national security community had said no to for years on the grounds that it would be transferred to China. And so everybody denies any wrongdoing. But I think it's pretty clear, it's pretty hard to escape the conclusion that this was a complicated deal that enriched the Trumps, the witcloths, the National Security Advisor, the uae, and at the cost of US Security interests in restricting the transfer of technology.
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You've said that actually this personal interest sometimes and often flies directly in the face of US national security interests. So what vulnerabilities do you see this corruption creating for the US Its foreign policy, its security?
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C
There are two big categories of problems. The first is the kind of thing that this was an example of where the US simply sells out national security concerns for the private gain of US leadership or Trump or Trump's retinue. And you can see that in really stark ways with things like technology transfer. But you can see it in more subtle ways. So, for example, you know, these ongoing negotiations over Ukraine, again, major US Newspapers have reported that the Russians and the Russian envoys have been dangling various business opportunities in front of Jared Kushner and Steve Wyckoff in order to try to get them to push towards a resolute, you know, push towards a Ukraine peace deal and one that would be favorable to Putin, right? One that would get him the win some of the territory that he cannot get on the battlefield. Now, people can disagree about how much interest the United States has in Ukraine, but I think it's actually pretty large. The fundamental basis of American grand strategy since the end of World War II was to prevent a hostile power from achieving major inroads, let alone domination in the European, in Europe. And Ukraine clearly is the front line of that conflict. The second side of that is that I think that the cycle of kleptocratic, kleptocratic corruption and what we have called both here and in A book we wrote in 2020, globalized oligarchy is actually a direct threat to the survival of the American constitutional republic, and that this is all deeply implicated in these transnational vectors of subversive money and ideology.
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So you make the argument that this kleptocracy in the United States, this global corruption, will then encourage its fusion with far right extremism. Can you lay out to us a little bit how these two elements come together?
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C
How much time do you have? So obviously one of the things that we talk about very briefly is that trump foreign policy, and I think in many ways Trump domestic policy as well, is really best understood as a fusion of kleptocratic elements, corrupt elements and far right extremism. I think there is no cost because the very things that you do to increase corruption, breaking down the rule of law in the federal bureaucracy, all those sorts of things, they all are consonant with a desire for a more authoritarian state that can then use the power of the state to achieve their political objectives. Now, globally, what's happened is we've had this sort of wave of personalist, what Weberians would call patrimonial right wing leaders. Reactionary populism is the term I like, although I think that to some degree is just another way of saying modern fascism. And reactionary populists, you know, they run on the position that, you know, there's a threat from the globalists. Often they just say Jews, but usually it's the globalists and various kinds of sinister external forces who want to destroy not just the sort of opportunities of their, of their citizens, but also, you know, their, their national culture, all those sorts of things. And these reactionary populists, oftentimes what they are really doing is that they are breaking down the state and its institutions and the independence of the civil service and the bureaucracy as a way of extracting wealth, of extracting resources and staying in power. Right? And so, and so these guys have kind of come together with like minded, ideologically like minded oligarchs. And I would include some of, you know, our current quote unquote, tech Bros. Are now in this boat, but also people like the Mercers, and they have a network of kind of mutual support, mutual ideological exchange and mutual funding. So US Dark money, for example, has been behind funding of far right movements in, in Europe, which is actually a huge deal because European campaign finance doesn't look like ours and it doesn't require anywhere near as much money to inject in the European process to have an effect. If you think about the use of US Social media platforms, particularly X or X Twitter. This is deliberately being used now by Elon Musk to format far right views in not just the United States, but also in Europe.
- [38:02]
A
That was Georgetown Professor Daniel Nexon talking to Anita Riota. The latest edition of Foreign affairs magazine is out now. You're listening to the Globalist. It's 1637 in Tokyo, which is where we head now to get the latest news about all things automotive. Hans Grimmel is the Asia editor for Automotive News, and he joins me on the line from the Japanese capital. Good afternoon to you, Hans.
- [38:34]
B
Good afternoon. Thanks for having me again.
- [38:35]
A
A pleasure. So let's talk about an article which you have published about this incredibly complicated or rather strange relationship between the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and not necessarily his relationship, but his fascination with car belonging to the Nissan executive Carlos Ghosn.
- [38:55]
B
Right. Well, we don't know that there actually is a relationship between the two of them, but in the Epstein files that were released, the redacted files that some of them that have been released so far, he talks about the, the arrest of Carlos Ghosn and seems fascinated with it. He wants to know more about the background of it and then he wants to share information that he seems to have about Carlos Ghosn or insights or thoughts, we're not quite sure, directly with Carlos Ghosn's U.S. lawyer at the time. In the early days, Ghosn had signed up with a US Lawyer to help his defense. And that lawyer, Brad S. Karp, happened to be a. An acquaintance or an associate of Epstein. And Epstein is seen converse, conversing with, in email exchanges with Karp about Ghosn. So it's all very curious why, why Epstein is taking a peculiar interest in Ghosn and then going behind Ghosn's back and having conversation with Ghosn's lawyer.
- [40:07]
A
Indeed. And do we know you say it's very hard to understand what it is, but Epstein said bad, you know, was very critical of Ghosn. He said he's a very, very not. I can't remember what the exact words are, but, you know, not, not one of the good guys, which is an astonishing statement from Jeffrey Epstein.
- [40:22]
B
Right. That's all very unclear what he means by that, why he's saying that, why he's asking about that. But he seems to have some strong opinions on the Ghosn affair. And beyond that, we can't really tell what's involved with it.
- [40:40]
A
Let's move on to another story about Aston Martin, one of the great British heritage Brands. It is cutting hundreds of jobs in order to make, excuse me, Aston Martin, one of the great heritage brands in the United Kingdom, is cutting 20% one in five of its workers to save 40 million pounds. Why does it need to save so much money?
- [41:04]
B
Well, it's kind of in a unique position. As you say, it's a iconic brand. You think of like James Bond cars and all that. And Aston Martins pops into mine. But now it has to cut about 20% of its workforce of only 3,000 people globally because it's basically making losses. It's got a huge debt pile, the stock price is way down, and it's being hammered on multiple fronts. First, it's being hit by the tariffs in the United States because they have to export cars into that market and they're limited into what they can do. And meanwhile they're being constrained by the slowdown in China in terms of demand for their cars. In China. Of course, in China, the, the new wave is all electric, high tech, software powered cars. And you know, it's as cool as an Aston Martin sports car is. It's still very grounded in the old world of internal combustion. So they are trying their best to put the wheels back on and get this thing going, but it's. There's been a lot of cuts and a lot of losses over the years.
- [42:18]
A
Let's move on to Subaru, a company which has never made a lot of cars and never made an enormous global mark. But you've written about the fact that suddenly this manufacturer based where you are in Tokyo, has suddenly got a little taste for ambition, right?
- [42:40]
B
Well, you know, they barely ever sold more than a million cars. The high point of their global volume has been, I think, 1,000,000.06,000,000 vehicles in 2018. So it's rather a small car player on the global stage. But now it wants to get to 1.2 million. It's a sizable jump for a car maker of its value. And it's doing this in part because it needs to protect itself from the US tariffs. And why does it have to be protected itself, especially from the US tariffs? That's because it gets about 70% of its global volume from the US market and about half of that is actually imported from Japan. So that footprint isn't about to change anytime soon. But what it can do to kind of offset the blow is to at least increase the sales volume. So it's going to be rolling out some more electric vehicles, some more kind of off roady variants of some of its existing vehicles, and then probably introduce some new nameplates that are in the large sized segments.
- [43:58]
A
And very quickly, are we going to see other companies try and do this as well, just to try and, you know, make things work?
- [44:06]
B
Well, I think a lot of companies are trying to boost the volume as much as they can globally. And in the case of other carmakers that are affected by, let's say, the tariffs in the United States, one of the key strategies is to diversify away from the United States and to bolster their volume in other markets where they don't have to deal with the tariffs. That's a strategy you see happening with Mazda, for example, another Japanese automaker that's traditionally reliant on the US Market. What they're trying to do is maybe increase their exports to other markets outside of the United States.
- [44:45]
A
Hans Greenwell, thank you so much for joining us on the line. You're listening to Monocle Radio, iq, EQ and AI, three components key to the craft of innovation at ubs. Because to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving age, you need a partner with decades of experience, endless passion for the work and a finger on the pulse of leading technologies. Bridging human expertise with artificial intelligence, all to elevate you. UBS banking is our craft. Samsung is holding holding its big spring event in San Francisco, launching the new series of Galaxy phones. Joining me on the line from San Francisco is our tech correspondent David Phelan, who was at the launch. But I have to wish you a good evening. David, how's San Francisco looking tonight?
- [45:46]
I
It's looking pretty good. It's been a bit rainy yesterday but it's been joyously sunny today.
- [45:52]
A
What a wonderful thing. And a joyously sunny day for Samsung.
- [45:57]
I
Yes, I think it's been a very big day for Samsung. The spring is when they launch their Galaxy S series, their flagship phones. They launch folding phones in the autumn and this year it's the S26 as we're in 2026, the Galaxy S26, the Galaxy S26 plus which is bigger and the Galaxy S26 Ultra which is bigger and better. And those three phones along with a pair of in ear headphones are what made up to the event on Wednesday
- [46:31]
A
evening and how are they, what are they like to use to touch and the new features. When you have such a big launch you do wonder, you know where is the great differential.
- [46:43]
I
Yeah. And that is certainly what people have been looking at. The Design of the S26 and S26 plus has been very similar to last year, but they've now brought the the deluxe phone the S26 Ultra into a design that means that they all have the same look to them. There's a slightly different curve to the corners on the Ultra. It's also got faster charging, it's got improved cameras and it's got a slightly different screen. Those seem to be the big hardware changes, apart from one other one, which we'll come to in a moment. But everything else has been focused on AI and the new features that AI can bring. These weren't gone into in huge detail, but there was a big emphasis on what's called agentic AI, where instead of using apps, your phone will act as an agent using different apps itself, thanks to AI, so that it can get things done, as they said several times during the announcement.
- [47:45]
A
Tell us about this big change. It has to do with privacy, is that correct?
- [47:48]
I
That's right. Privacy display, or Privacy Display, as they were saying as we're here in America, is actually one of the most striking innovations I've seen from any phone manufacturer in recent years. No one else has got anything quite like it. It's a problem these days with shoulder surfing, where someone's looking over your shoulder and can see what's on your screen. And maybe you don't want that. You're typing in a password. You certainly don't want anyone to see that. For example, you can get round that at the moment with privacy screen protectors, which you apply on top of your phone. But the problem is then, when you want to show a photograph on your phone to someone, you have to angle at it, angle it at just the right way for them to be able to see it. And. And that's a nuisance. This is something different. It's a similar kind of thing. It's a screen protector, but it's done through software as well as hardware. And it means that you can turn it on and off in an instant, just with one touch of a button. It can turn it off so that everyone can see what's on your screen, or it can turn on so that no one can. And you can even do that automatically. Say when you're launching a banking app, you don't want anyone to see your details there. You can set it so that automatically, whenever that app comes on, they use what are called narrow pixels instead of wide pixels. And so the angle of viewing is severely reduced. I've seen it in action and it is phenomenally good.
- [49:22]
A
And will it actually make a difference to the fact that I think that this year Apple has overtaken Samsung in terms of phone sales for the first Time in a very, very long time. So Samsung needs to find its edge again.
- [49:35]
I
That's right. And I think this could definitely be it. I think we're all aware of, of privacy these days. We know that if someone steals your phone and they've got your password because they've been looking over your shoulder, for example, then they have access to everything in your phone. People don't want that, of course. So the fact that you can do this with incredible convenience so that it's only there when you need it is I think, certainly something that could give an edge. It even works so that, for example, when a notification comes in, a text message or any kind of notification, just that part of the screen is invisible to people looking at an angle. As I say, no one else has done this and it is such a kind of a remarkable thing to get your head around. I think it will really be a big thing for Samsung.
- [50:27]
A
Indeed. How rare is it nowadays, David, for you to go to an event and something genuinely original to be presented to you?
- [50:35]
I
Well, that's right. I think it can still happen. It certainly happened today in a big way. Usually it's smaller things. So there'll be a software feature that you think, oh, that's genuinely useful. Something that Apple announced previously and Samsung is doing the same thing now, is an effective AI call screening. So that when an unknown number calls you, it automatically hears a message saying, can you tell me what this call is about? And the person has to say, oh, I'm calling about the work I want to do or I'm a painter or whatever it is. They have to say why they're calling before the call is put through to you. And then you hear what they've just said. Those kind of things are genuinely useful ways of making AI better. And sometimes when they come along, they, they can make you think this could make a difference. And certainly that's what privacy Display did today.
- [51:40]
A
That's, that's an interesting thing because I do know someone who has something on their phone that if you want to talk to them, you have to tell them what it's about first. And I just hang up.
- [51:49]
I
Well, that is the danger. Of course. There's another thing that Apple announced which is, is call Hold Assistant, which is brilliant. If you're stuck listening to hold music on a phone, it's really tedious. But on the iPhone, as Samsung I'm sure will do something similar, it automatically takes over that, so that when the real life person comes back, the phone then rings you back while it's saying to the real life person. Oh, hold on, here comes the person you want to talk to. And the truth is sometimes you don't quite trust it. You've been on hold for 20 minutes or whatever it is and you want to make sure that it really is going to work. So probably you just stay on hold. But these things, as I think they become more familiar, people will trust them more. And those things are the ways that the, the phone continues to be relevant.
- [52:47]
A
David Phelan in San Francisco at Samsung, thank you so much for joining us on the line. You're listening to the Globalist on Monocle Radio. And a little in house news for you now. You can now find the latest issue of Monocle on newsstands this month. The magazine team has reported from all over the world to bring you 100 ideas, from spies and diplomats to chefs, makers and fresh thinkers. And indeed, Japan's hottest designer. Monocle's editor, Josh Fennett, sat down with the writer Julia Jen to dive beyond the front cover. And he began by asking her about some favourite stories from the magazine's pages.
- [53:27]
D
Well, let's start with something I didn't work on, one of my favourite stories to read, which is actually in your section, Josh, at the very back. Concierge, of course, of course, the concierge section. And I loved the story about where you can get a beautiful bite to eat before you get on the Eurostar, written by Claudia Jacob. And this is an amazing sandwich stop sort of restaurant designed by the UK designer Luke Edward Hall. And it's a very colourful place and it really does away with that kind of mundane greyness of travel that we have so often now. And I think that's really the whole issue, isn't it? It's all popping with color, with excitement, with lots of energy and fun and really places that make the world a fantastic place.
- [54:10]
J
I think the interesting thing about this, when journalists come with stories and when we're talking about ideas, there's often a dual purpose to stories. So of course a great place to eat in Paris is always going to come in handy. But this particular restaurant, the De Gare, between the two stations, between Gare du Nord and Gare de l', Est, it sort of sums up maybe something that we've lost, that idea of a great train station restaurant. Let's move forward in the magazine now and talk about some of the other things because, because Monocle is all about light and shade, high and low. We have great embassies, we have the spy chief to watch. We even have some military hardware which we think is important and that's not because we think a great life is always predicated on having missiles or anti drone technology. But I guess, I suppose these are all benchmarks in different industries. Tell us about some of the stories you commissioned in the affairs and the business pages.
- [54:59]
D
Yes, so if we turn to the business pages. Absolutely. So. So one of the recommendations we give is a city that still is making things. So here we look at Como in Lombardy in Italy. And this was our Europe editor at large, Ed Stocker. I commissioned him to go off to Como for a day from his base in Milan. And this was a really lovely story to commission because it's so important that we keep those centres of craft in our cities. And that's something we've worked on so often in the magazine and that we've covered on the radio. But it's great to see people keeping their craft alive despite the odds, especially in Europe with the industrialization and, you know, bleeding away, the kind of affordability of continuing to make things in the city centre. So that was a fantastic story to work on with Ed.
- [55:46]
J
Yeah. And I think the other interesting thing about that is, you know, cities have become places of leisure, but leaving room for the bang and clatter of construction is important, but it's important for jobs, but it's also important for the diversity of the city. When you look around and you only see people in shirts carrying briefcases or probably phones is the equivalent, you know, you do lose something of a city's heritage. And I think Como is interesting because it's so known for tourism, its beautiful hotels, the lake, but you know, obviously the silk manufacturing is an age old employer, but it's just interesting to have places where people make things and cities that are for more than one thing and not just for leisure. So I think that that works on several levels too. People picking up the issue can expect a diverse range of stories. As always in Monocle, one of my favorites is a story about oleander bushes that Andrew Tucker thoughtfully penned. You know, are they one of the hundred best things in the world? Perhaps not on their own, but when you consider them in the context of urban greenery planting out motorway verges and creating, you know, even those in between spaces when we travel make making them beautiful. There's a little bit of thought that goes into that as well. And I have to go back to the. The concierge pages at the end. There's things to buy, there's places to eat, the fashion pages have things to think, things to buy to top up your Wardrobe as well. And we even have, you know, a top Nordic garrison in Gotland. We've got the new Bayman department store in Istanbul. Where else did we go for this issue? I really do think that some of the issues we're trying to press here, here cut across, you know, vacations, vocations, living better, but also really what, you know, what it means to be a great city. It can't just be a place for tourists. And I think that interview with the mayor of Malaga is particularly good. Just for variety, I've opened the business pages here and we've got two stories. One's about a tactile switch made in Germany, the importance maybe of ditching the LEDs and the, you know, operating everything through an iPad and technology to, you know, the good tactile pleasure of a switch. And a great French company, a lady who just makes badges. Do we all need our own emblems? Do we need to dress a bit more flashily, funnily and with a bit more color and joie de vivre, Julia?
- [57:55]
D
I think so, definitely. So this was written by Anita Riota, one of our producers here in London. And I just. We dispatched.
- [58:02]
J
I can see a leering through the glass.
- [58:03]
D
She's there, she's listening in. And we dispatched her to Paris to write about this fantastic company. So, yes, this is Macon and La Scoi and they create these beautiful badges. And I absolutely loved the quotes from Marie Macon, so she is one of the co founders of this beautiful label. She talked about how, you know, you can choose a badge and the badges are all sorts of different things. You have lobsters, you have little coffee cups, you have a radio and they're all sort of small and sparkling, which tornado. You know, you can basically sort of project your mood with the badges that you choose at the beginning of the day to match with your outfit. So you can begin with something comfortable and recognisable, she says. Marie McConne says, but you can also lean into something more provocative, which will become part of your armor for the day ahead. And I think that's a very sort of French, very Parisian way to approach dressing for the day.
- [58:59]
A
That was Monocle's Julia Jenn talking to our editor Josh Fennet there. Be sure to grab your copy on newsstands or a monocle dot com. Thank you for joining us both. And that's all the time we have for today's programme. The warmest of thanks to all my guests and to the producers, Angelica Jopson and Anita Riota. Our researcher is Annelise Maynard and Our studio manager is Mariella Bevan, with editing assistance by Christy o' Grady and Hunter Wang. After the headlines. There's more music on the way. I'll be back with a briefing live at midday. Here in London, we have Fernando's Global Countdown, so brace yourself. But for now, from me, Emma Nelson, goodbye. Thanks for listening. With ubs, you have a truly global partner, incorporating new technologies, innovative approaches and unexpected opportunities, leading you to insights that help answer the questions that matter. Delivered with passion, care and unmatched expertise. Because it's about rising with the dawn each day, knowing that we can do even better. That's what banking is to us. Not just work, but a craft. UBS advice is our craft.