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The Globalist
Dutch elections, Lebanon seeks to disarm Hezbollah and the US government shutdown’s impact on aviation
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UBS Narrator
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Georgina Godwin
You're listening to the Globalist, first broadcast on 29th October 2025 on Monocle Radio. The Globalist in association with U. Hello, this is the Globalist broadcasting to you live from Midori House in London. I'm Georgina Godwin. On the show ahead, the Netherlands heads to the polls in a snap election today and it could go either way. Far right leader Geert Wilders was asked how he'll govern if nobody wants to work with his Freedom Party. His reply?
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Stephan de Vries
Well, let's first see what the outcome.
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Jerome Neutra
Of the election is.
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Scott Bryan
Wednesday, the voter is in charge, but.
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Georgina Godwin
Analysts are saying it's too close to call. We'll be in Amsterdam as the polls open. Then Lebanon's fraught push to disarm Hezbollah. We'll ask how close the army is to meeting its deadline and what the consequences might be. Also, Anthony Albanese's Malaysia mission will look at what this first state visit to the country says about Australia's growing ambitions in Southeast Asia. And travel turbulence across the Americas. We'll explore how the shutdown and Mother Nature are wreaking havoc in the skies. Plus, we head to the Palais de Tokyo, where perfume takes center stage as the medium in a new exhibition, Sculpture of the Invisible.
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Jerome Neutra
As a statement to say as a curator, this is art because it's culture. Sounds like fine art. It's a bit paradoxical. Oh, it's perfume, but it's culture.
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Georgina Godwin
And we'll wrap with the latest news from the world of television. That's all ahead here on the Globalist. Live from London. First, a look at what else is happening in the news. At least 33 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza after Israel accused Hamas of breaking the fragile U. S Brokered ceasefire. Hurricane Melissa has torn through Jamaica and is now bearing down on Cuba after becoming the strongest storm ever to hit the island. And Donald. Donald Trump has arrived in South Korea for the final leg of his Asia tour, chasing a trade breakthrough with China after missile tests and stalled talks with Seoul. Do stay tuned to Monocle Radio throughout the day for more on those stories. Now, the political landscape in Lebanon is growing ever more Tense as the army races to meet a year end deadline to disarm Hezbollah under the 2024 ceasefire deal with Israel. US Deputy Envoy Morgan Ortegas was in Beirut this week pressing Lebanese officials to keep up momentum amid appears that Israel's renewed airstrikes could reignite conflict. The army, which says it's blown up so many Hezbollah weapon caches that its own explosives are now depleted, is sealing off sites awaiting more U.S. supplies. But progress beyond the south looks uncertain and both Washington and Israel are warning that time is running out. I'm joined now by Leila Malana Allen, who's Monocle's Middle east correspondent. Leila, thanks for coming back on the show. What is driving this sudden urgency in Lebanon to disharm at Hezbollah?
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Leila Malana Allen
What's driving it is that a deadline has been set for the end of this year. Now, just to take you back a little bit, this has been an ongoing battle since the end of the Lebanese civil war. The end of the Lebanese civil war in 1990, Hezbollah was the only militia that did not have to lay down its arms. The reason for that is that Israel was occupying the south of Lebanon still, and it was deemed that they needed to be able to have weapons to fight them. Israel pulled out in 2000 and Hezbollah continued to hold on to its weapons. And then in 2006, of course, there was a war between Israel and Le and it was deemed that Hezbollah really was the force that managed to eventually, as they see it, win the war and repel Israel because the Lebanese armed forces weren't powerful enough to do so. So they gained a lot of public popularity because of that. In the years since, it has become an increasing problem for many reasons, including the fact that it does continue to attract Israeli attacks onto Lebanese soil and the fact that Hezbollah being the only force in Lebanon that is allowed to have weapons, although they're not anymore other than the Lebanese armed forces, really makes it impossible for the Lebanese armed forces to be the main force in Lebanon. Now, in 2006, through a UN resolution that ended that war between Israel and Lebanon, one of the clear terms was that Hezbollah was going to disarm and they were going to pull a bit north, they were going to pull up from the south and they were going to allow the Lebanese armed forces to take control of the south and be the main force there. That never happened. And in the war last year, once again, when a ceasefire was made, it was agreed that that would need to happen for the ceasefire to hold. The ceasefire hasn't really held. Israel has made hundreds of violations against that ceasefire in the last year has killed at least 100 Lebanese civilians, if not more in that time. And now there's a very strict deadline of the end of the year that's being pressured both by Israel, which says it will attack Lebanon again if not, and by lots of Lebanon's Western allies, including, of course, the United States.
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Georgina Godwin
Yes. And of course, so we've seen Morgan Ortegas there in Beirut. What message was Washington bringing to the country?
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Leila Malana Allen
The message Washington was bringing is this needs to happen now. It really, really must be the time that finally Hezbollah is disarmed and that everyone can move forward now. The issue here, of course, is that it's not just about Hezbollah's army. Hezbollah was hugely weakened in the war with Israel last year. They lost many hundreds of fighters. They lost a huge number of their weapons caches both in the south of and around Beirut, and they lost, of course, most of their leadership. But they still are a force to be reckoned with. They're struggling with other issues as well, of course, since the Assad regime fell in Syria. Iran, which supplies Hezbollah now, does not have that direct road to get the weaponry anymore. But they certainly are down but not out. And the problem that has always been the case is that while all Western nations support this idea that Hezbollah will disarm, the Lebanese armed forces will take over. The Lebanese armed forces have never been given either the weapon skill to really be able to supply the same kind of military might that Hezbollah does and be a strong enough force to actually protect Lebanon. One of the main reasons for that is, of course, that Lebanon's Western allies are also Israel's Western allies. And Israel does not want the Lebanese army to have offensive weaponry, doesn't want them to have the offensive might to potentially be able to protect that whole country and potentially invade other countries. So what the Lebanese arsenal saying right now is firstly, as you said, that they have run out of enough explosives to be able to continue blowing up these Western cash in the south, which they're having to do very delicately, of course, because they don't want to ignite internal conflict with Hezbollah, something that we have seen before, not just during the civil war, but on occasion since as well. And they're also, again, pushing and saying, look, we need many things for this military if we're going to have it be in a position by the end of the year to protect Lebanon. We need more weaponry, we need a better air for force, and we need more significant training. It's the Brits and the Americans that train Lebanon's Armed forces, and they're saying that they need a lot more help with that. So presumably there will have been negotiations behind the scene that if the US is pressuring for this, they need to give something in return.
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Georgina Godwin
And how solid is the army? I mean, could this push risk internal conflict or fractures within the force?
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Leila Malana Allen
The issue here is not internal fractures within the Lebanese armed Forces. The Lebanese Armed forces is they are the only force within Lebanon that actually is united and that represents all the different sectors of society, which is why it's so important as institution. It is a very respected institution. And it's particularly helpful in this situation right now that the new president, Joseph Aoun, General Aoun, was the general who ran the military previously. So he's in a very good position to be sort of negotiating. So the issue is not fractures within the military. The issue is, firstly, that the military needs to be much more professionalized. These are people for the last five or six years during the crisis in Lebanon, financial crisis, have been being paid $60 a month, the equivalent of that, as their wages. Many people tried to defect simply because they couldn't afford to live. This is not currently a professional and militarized army, except for a few of the elite troops who are paid well and trained well. It needs to be really overhauled. The issue of possible conflict is conflict with Hezbollah if they push too hard to make Hezbollah disarm. Because Hezbollah, of course, maintains that they are the only force able to protect the south. They need to protect their people. And of course, with a war just having happened last year, that hasn't really ended. Israel still has five outposts in the south and continues to bomb regularly in the south and around Beirut. They maintain that they need to still be there. So I was speaking to some ministers in the new government just a couple of weeks ago who were saying it's very, very fragile situation, because, of course, Hezbollah is not just a militia. They are a governmental party. They are a major part of our government. They represent a major part of the country. We can push hard, but we cannot afford to have internal fractures, internal divisions, and have them turn against the government and feel that they're being pushed out of their own country. That could lead to conflict.
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Georgina Godwin
And finally, I mean, the US is pushing hard, as we've said, Israel's still bombing. Does Lebanon have a chance of meeting the disarmament deadline without sliding back into war?
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Leila Malana Allen
It is deeply unlikely that Hezbollah will be completely disarmed by the end of this year. And usually that's the way that this happens, with armed groups like this, it's very difficult to sort of completely have a group lay down all their weapons, especially in a situation where, let's just remember, they have not agreed to do so. They haven't said that they will. They have agreed to abide by the terms of ceasefire, in terms of not attacking Israel, but they haven't said that they'll lay down their weapons. So that's almost certainly not going to happen. What many people hope is that they will be significantly disarmed, that they will be significantly weakened and that the government will be able to negotiate, that they pull back a bit and at least work in collaboration with the Lebanese armed forces. We have seen that on many occasions before. When ISIS in 2016 was pushing into Lebanon from the Syrian border, Hezbollah and Lebanese Armed Forces worked together to push them back. It was actually Hezbollah who did the majority of the sort of very difficult work on the border to push them back. There is precedent for these two forces working together. What would be ideal for many people is some sort of agreement rather than all out pressure, all out pushing, because that's just unlikely to work. But as I say, there's not much hope that this is going to be a complete success by December. What many people are hoping for is that enough will be done, that the international community will accept it and will try and convince Israel that it's enough.
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Georgina Godwin
To Leila, thank you very much indeed. That's Leila Malana, Allan Monocle's Middle east correspondent. Now the Netherlands heads to the polls today, less than two years after Geert Wilders far right Freedom Party swept to victory. The snap election triggered by Wilders himself after a collapse in the ruling coalition has again put migration at the heart of Dutch politics. But even if Wilders wins, he may find it impossible to form a government. Stephan de Vries, European affairs correspondent at Euronews and BNR News radio broadcaster, joins me now from Amsterdam. Stefan, what exactly led to the snap elections and why now?
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Stephan de Vries
Well, Geert Wilders, as you mentioned, the leader of the populist right wing party, the pvv, he became the biggest party two years ago and he became a member of the government. And then only after 11 months he decided to quit the government because he found that the government he had formed was not strict enough with new asylum measures. So that meant that the the Dutch will have to vote for the ninth general elections since 2002, a European record. Only the Bulgarians went more often to the polls this century than the Dutch. So it is a political mess in the Hague. It's quite incredible this country has the image of a very stable, wealthy country, but actually when you look at politics, it's one big mess. So the Dutch are now supposed to clean up this mess today in the elections.
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Georgina Godwin
And I wonder if that anti immigration message that Wilders is pushing still resonates so strongly with Dutch voters as it did two years ago.
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Stephan de Vries
Not quite actually anymore. I think a lot of Dutch citizens are fed up with the rhetoric anti, the anti foreigner rhetoric. And interestingly enough, according to the latest polls released last night, the center could be the real winner. Parties such as the Christian Democrats and the Liberal Progressives Allowed.
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Scott Bryan
May probably become.
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Stephan de Vries
The biggest party and are gaining momentum. The Dutch want a stable moderate coalition and even one of the leading figures of the Christian Democrats, Henry Bontepo, who is a possible new prime minister. He said he hopes politics will become boring again. And many Dutch seem to find that idea deeply reassuring. So the rhetoric of anti immigration, it has become a little bit old fashioned, you can say.
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Georgina Godwin
I mean, he's calling for decency, isn't he? But we have seen violent protests and deep political division. What do you think's driving that anger on the streets?
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Scott Bryan
Yeah.
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Stephan de Vries
It'S a paradox. It's really a very strange situation because beneath the political fatigue, the Netherlands is thriving. The economy is among the strongest in Europe. Unemployment is virtual zero. Poverty levels are at record lows. People work the least hours in the whole European Union. Four days, four day work week is actually the norm. There's a lot of innovation. So the country does pretty well actually. Yet there's a huge political fatigue. There are some groups that feel left behind. The demonstrations you talked about, the extreme right demonstrations in the Hague and Amsterdam the last couple of weeks. They are very small groups who try to make believe that there is a huge problem with immigration, that there is, that the country is losing ground, that the country is under threat even and funnily enough. So these people defend the Netherlands with Dutch flags, but also with English language slogans. One of the groups that organize these demonstrations calls themselves in English the Dutch Defense League, which is quite ironic of course, if you try to defend national interests. But so yeah, there is, there are some groups that are not happy with the current situations, but they are isolated. And in general the trend in the debates in the campaign of the last couple of weeks is that the Dutch simply want calm and stable politicians who are able to work together and stigmatizing groups in society that doesn't simply work anymore. And we also saw that Kate Willis in the debates was pretty tired. It looked like he has lost his edge. And that is also something the Dutch voters feel they are choosing for stability today. But of course, the polls will close tonight at 9:00 and then the real world will start. And that's giving back confidence in politicians to the Dutch citizens. A huge task. But, you know, maybe once again, Dutch pragmatism could become the winner tonight.
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Georgina Godwin
Do you think anyone would work with Wilders?
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Stephan de Vries
No, that's absolutely out of the question, especially since the last time. Willis has been part of governments now twice over the last 15 years, and twice he has proven himself to be a very unreliable leader. He is not capable to put forward any capable ministers. So all the parties now more or less excluded the fact that they will ever work with Wilders again. So he may end up first tonight in the polls. It is not quite likely. He may also end up second or third. But even if he wins tonight, that means that he will be completely isolated and he will not be a prime minister simply because the other parties will decide to form a coalition without him. So it looks like that, for the time being, at least for now, the role of Gittel in Dutch politics has been reduced to the opposition.
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Georgina Godwin
And finally, how does what happens in the Hague today influence the rest of Europe?
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Stephan de Vries
Well, you could say that Dutch politics is always some kind of laboratory for Dutch politics, for European politics, because Gerd Wilders is there already. For 25 years, a quarter of a century, he was more or less at the start of a huge populist wave in other countries in Europe, where the populace now have almost everywhere around 20, 25% of the electorate. Maybe this shift to the center and this need for decency, need for strong, stable coalitions, may be something that the rest of Europe will want as well. Sometimes the Dutch are way behind the politics in other European countries. Maybe this time the center that will win tonight is a new trend in European politics. But of course, it's maybe too early, maybe even too arrogant to suggest that. But of course, we see in the European Parliament that the extreme right or the populist right is much bigger than the years before. But it could be a new trend. The center is back, but we'll know more later tonight at 9:00pm Amsterdam time.
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Georgina Godwin
Stefan, off you get to the polling station. Thank you very much indeed. That's Stephane de Vries in Amsterdam now. Still to come on the program, Fantastic Geronimo. Bowties are cool. If you know, you know. And we'll all know more after our television roundup at the end of the show. This is the globalist.
- [19:42]
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 delivered daily and curated by over 200 globally connected, locally active analysts. UBS Banking is our craft.
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Georgina Godwin
Well, let's continue now with today's newspapers. And joining me is Nina dos Santos, international broadcast correspondent and the former CNN Europe editor. Good morning to you, Nina.
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Nina dos Santos
Hi there. Good morning, Georgina.
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Georgina Godwin
Let's have a look at what's happening in Brazil because 64 people are reported killed in Rio's worst day of violence. This is amid police raids on favelas. Tell us more.
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Nina dos Santos
Yes, that's right. Well, there have been quite a few police raids in favelas over the last 10, 20 years and sometimes there is sort of sporadic violence that can be quite pronounced. But as you're pointing out, this is the deadliest set of raids so far with 64 people now known to have lost their lives. As you mentioned, 2,500 police officers stormed the and Pena favelas, which are near the Rio International Airport, amid concerns by local authorities, in particular the right wing mayor, governor actually of Rio de Janeiro, Claudio Castro, who says that drug gangs are operating with increased impunity in these favelas and also that their reach is reaching further into other parts of Brazil as well. And as a result, he has the governor declared, quote, unquote, a war on drug gangs. The backdrop to all of this, of course, is that there is an increased movement against what's been dubbed narco terrorism across other parts of Latin America as well. I mean, just take a look at what Donald Trump is doing in Venezuela, targeting boats that he says, you know, have narco terrorists on board and are moving large cocaine shipments around the Caribbean. But the reality is is there are a lot of inhabitants in these favelas who have absolutely nothing to do with the drug trade. They're getting caught up as bystanders, innocent bystanders in the shooting. And they say that the drug problems that Brazil is dealing with at the moment don't necessarily emanate from Brazil itself. Cocaine is made in other parts of Latin America and people don't grow marijuana inside the favelas, even if these may be major trading and distribution centers.
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Georgina Godwin
And as you say, the drug traffickers are getting increasingly aggressive. They're using weaponized drones, according to the Guardian.
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Nina dos Santos
Yes, that's right, although that isn't the first time I think we've seen that in Latin America. And you can imagine narco terrorists, quote unquote, as the Trump administration and other governments across Latin America have dubbed these enemies of the state, These large drug gangs, some of them called the Red Command, that's one of the ones that is operating inside these favelas that's been targeted. There are other drug gangs as well. They have a lot of money. And let's face it, drone technology is becoming more and more sophisticated. We've seen it used in war zones, like, for instance, Ukraine as we speak. And so it's little wonder, with the links between all these different activities, say, arms trading, sanctions, evading, drug running and so on and so forth, that criminal gangs will try and use the best technology that they can. And, you know, the authorities in Brazil, they do have specialist trained units that are particularly strong and some have accused of being quite violent to tackle this type of violence. But the reality is, as you're pointing out, asymmetric warfare is also something that they have to deal with here inside the favelas, too.
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Georgina Godwin
Now, one of the reasons Brazil is really pushing on this at the moment is that next month it will host the COP summit, the great big climate change summit in Belem. Now, there's a big story coming out about that in the New York Times, because they say that Bill Gates has pivoted his opinions on climate. He was once very, very much pushing for the whole idea that this could lead to the end of humanity, and he now appears to have reversed that decision.
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Nina dos Santos
Yes, this is a really big story, actually. It's across all of the newspapers this morning, this memo that Bill Gates has put out, aged 70, suddenly apparently appearing to pivots well away from climate change alarmism. I suppose that's the backdrop to what he's saying here. He's saying, essentially, we shouldn't be so focused on the fact that the planet is warming, irrespective of the fact that last year it warmed by the most on record and became the hottest so far. And that obviously global warming is affecting huge amounts of lives, particularly in the developing world, where they're less able financially to cope with the impact of climate change. Bill Gates actually wrote a whole book about this called how to Avoid a Climate Disaster just a few years ago. And then, of course, he was a big supporter of the Paris Climate Change Accords back in the day. But I suppose the question everybody has is whether or not this is another tech billionaire pivoting his stance to bring it more into line with what we know the Trump administration stances on this particular issue, which is quote, unquote, drill, baby, drill, to quote Donald Trump from last year. And the problem with all this, climate change activists say, is that if somebody with the kind of heft that Bill Gates has, particularly with regard to projects that have changed people's lives in the developing world, do gooding, that's more or less his reputation, if you like, that this will be seized upon by the climate skepticism lobby to say, well, if Bill Gates says it's fine, well, who are we to Chuck?
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Georgina Godwin
And I mean, he was funding breakthrough energy that's now announced deep cuts that includes dismantling its climate policy group. Gates has announced plans to wind down the Gates foundation, which has spent billions on climate related issues. It is a huge story, as you say. And there's been no comment from him.
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Nina dos Santos
No, that's right. Well, it's just been this memo that's been released and obviously it's been covered quite extensively in lots of the newspapers, in particular the New York Times that cites some of the figures that you're referring to there. Obviously the Bill Gates foundation, he's also winding down partly because not just for this reason, it used to be the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, remember? And then of course, when they separated and got divorced, her name was removed from that. She has her own foundation that focuses on other things like women's rights. So it's not the only reason he's scaling back that foundation. But as you quite rightfully say, he has spent a huge amount of his hundreds of billions of wealth. I think he's worth reportedly 120 billion, doll. Whether that's a lot nowadays for a tech oligarch, I've got no idea. In America, because it seems their riches seem to be appreciating and accruing on a logarithmic scale. But you're right to say he has spent billions raising alarm bells about climate change, investing in technologies that can help stem the warming of the planet. And now there's been a bit of an about turn. He will still continue to invest in things like nuclear power and stuff like that. That further down the line will help with the issue of climate change. But that is of something that will take a long time to bear fruit. And he's 70 years old now.
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Georgina Godwin
Power, nuclear or otherwise, is something that's in very short supply, except in a political sense in my home country, Zimbabwe, where during the State of the Nation speech, the lights went out in parliament and the backup generator didn't spark up. And the president, Emerson Munangagwa, read the State of the Nation speech in darkness by torchlight, and apparently.
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Nina dos Santos
Yes, that's right. Apparently an aide had to hold up a torch. And then other aides said, well, look.
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Georgina Godwin
This isn't the best.
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Nina dos Santos
Look, we just cut it here. And apparently President Menangarwa wanted to carry on reading, so he did. And apparently this isn't the first time it's happened. The lights went out during a budget delivery as well, and he persevered. You know Zimbabwe better than I do, Georgina, because as you pointed out, you're from there. I'm not. Not privy to the exact reason why Zimbabwe has quite so many issues publicly with energy supply, but one would assume that it has to do with rampant inflation and whether or not the suppliers have been paid and whether they can pay.
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Georgina Godwin
It's a kleptocracy. That's the sort of bottom line on Zimbabwe. But one of the things that's interesting is that people used to, despite the sort of downside of living near Parliament or the presidential residence, the Pres Rez, one of the reasons people did want to live near there was you got uninterrupted power.
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Nina dos Santos
No longer is the case.
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Georgina Godwin
That is clearly no longer the case, and particularly if he's reading it by torchlight. But listen, torches are going to be out in full force this weekend, possibly shining up underneath people's chins because of Halloween.
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Nina dos Santos
Yes, that's right.
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Georgina Godwin
And there's one town in America that is really not best pleased.
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Nina dos Santos
No, that's right. It's a town that used to be called, I think, Tarrytown, but now it's called Sleepy Hollow. It is a famous Sleepy, supposedly, or at least it was town about 25 miles north of New York City, one of those sort of beautiful, as you can imagine, east coast sort of commuter towns. Very idyllic. It is where in the 1820s, Washington, Irvine based the legend of Sleepy Hollow that famously brought us the tale of a headless horseman who haunted this community on the eastern seaboard in the United States, or at least in the northeast of the United States. And that was turned into a famous film in 1999 starring Christina Ricci and also Johnny Depp. But since 1996, when the town decided to actually adopt that name, Sleepy Hollow, change its name to leverage the success of this novel. And then later on this film, recently after the pandemic, it has been absolutely inundated by Halloween tourists that's been blighting the lives of locals. People turning up, taking endless selfies of themselves in the cemetery, putting pumpkins all over the place. Apparently they, they start arriving, the Goths, that is from the month of September and people are increasingly fed up with it. And I suppose it makes me think a little bit of how the Portobello Road in Notting Hill, which I grew up near, has changed so much over the years thanks to the success of the film Notting Hill. The wave of tourists that arrive and sort of queue up outside that travel bookshop that I'm not sure actually ever existed back in the days when Richard Curtis filmed that film has grown exponentially. And largely lots of this over tourism has come since the COVID pandemic, since people finally realized that they were allowed back to travel and they wanted the experience economy and they also wanted to document it online. And I think that's one of the reasons why Sleepy Hollow has been inundated just as much as parts of the Portobello Road here in London.
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Georgina Godwin
Nina, thank you very much indeed. That's Nina dos Santos there. And this is the Globalist on Monocle Radio. Now here's what else we're keeping an eye on today. At least 33 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes across Gaza in what Israel says was retaliation for a Hamas attack that breached the ceasefire. Hamas denies responsibility, insisting it remains committed to the US Brokered truce. Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica with winds of up to 185 miles an hour, submerging towns and leaving hundreds of thousands without power. The Category 4 hurricane is now heading towards eastern Cuba where half a million people have been ordered to evacuate. And the US President is meeting South Korea's Lee Jae Myung before a high stakes encounter with China's Xi Jinping aimed at easing trade tensions. Donald Trump says he hopes to cut tariffs in exchange for Chinese action on fentanyl exports while downplaying North Korea's latest missile test test. This is the Globalist. Stay tuned. It's 1531 in Kuala Lumpur, 831 in Zurich. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has wrapped up his first official visit to Malaysia since taking office. This follows the ASEAN Summit in Quality Lumpa. He and Anwar Ibrahim Co chaired the 3rd Malaysia Australia Annual leaders meeting agreeing to deepen cooperation on trade, clean energy, defense and education. They also oversaw new MOUs on transnational crime and unveiled Monash's new campus in Kuala Lumpur, a signal of just how strategic this partnership has become. Well, I'm joined now by the Canberra based political correspondent Karen Middleton, who's also the author of Albanese Telling It Straight A biography of the Prime Minister. Karen, it's lovely to talk to you again. It's been too long. Tell us more about these talks.
- [33:13]
Karen Middleton
Well, as you mentioned, the Prime Minister, the Australian Prime Minister hasn't actually visited Malaysia since he won office the first time three years ago and he's just been re elected earlier this year. So he made that point that it was important that the two leaders, himself and Anwar Ibrahim were together. And increasingly, I think the Australian government is focused on the countries of Southeast Asia as an investment opportunity. They appointed a special envelope who undertook a review of the trade relationship with key countries in the whole region and looked at the possibilities for Australia to invest in Southeast Asia right out to 2040. So the Prime Minister is very much talking up, I guess, the mutual opportunities of trade, particularly between the two countries, Malaysia and Australia.
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Georgina Godwin
And how close are they now on defense and maritime issues issues?
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Karen Middleton
Well, they've always been quite engaged on defence issues with the. Along with the British, they've been military exercises for some time. And of course Australia has relations with a number of Southeast Asian countries that are involved in maritime surveillance and patrols in the oceans of the region. There's been some concern about some of China's engagement in the region and as we know, there are disputes over islands in, in various parts of region as well. So Australia has certainly been involved on a military level with Malaysia in the past and there's a lot of emphasis on maintaining that relationship. And they're talking about law enforcement, cyber security and the like as well. So I think increasingly there's global concern about criminals crossing borders and countries are forging ties on those things too.
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Georgina Godwin
What about green energy collaboration?
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Karen Middleton
Well, Malaysia, you know, has had a big deforestation issue in the past. And so there's, there's often there's been a lot of cooperation in terms of trying to discourage that activity in part other parts of the region. And I think Australia is also trying to position itself as a leader on green technology. That's something that this particular government has been driving here in Australia, the transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy and seeing that as an investment opportunity. So combining the two things, I guess economic and trade opportunities with what we might be able to offer in new technology and encouraging that transition right across the region, including in Malaysia.
- [35:48]
Georgina Godwin
So after a packed ASEAN summit and now this visit, how do you think Albanese's regional diplomacy is being received?
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Nina dos Santos
Well, I think he's a bit more.
- [35:57]
Karen Middleton
Comfortable than he was when he first was elected. He didn't have a lot of global experience. He wasn't a foreign affairs specialist. His portfolios had mostly been domestic, domestic when he was in Parliament through the opposition years. So he, you know, he's had to find his feet in terms of that. But he had a recent meeting with President Donald Trump of the United States that was seen as being very successful. And I think he's gained some confidence generally on the global stage and with relations between the United States and China and indeed with Australia and China being so significant, I think he's seeing this visit to the region, firstly to Malaysia for the ASEAN Summit and then on to South Korea for the annual APEC leaders meeting as a chance to renew ties, you know, strengthen ties with other countries and engage on the state of geopolitics in the region and particularly in relation to China and its intentions.
- [36:54]
Georgina Godwin
And finally, how would you say Malaysia fits into Australia's bigger South Asian strategy?
- [37:00]
Karen Middleton
Well, as I say, I think they're an investment partner and they were both emphasising the possibilities in investment. And you mentioned Monash University, that's a university here in Australia that's made making a billion dollar investment in Malaysia. There have been a lot of Malaysians who've come to study in Australia already. And I think that is one aspect of the relationship that's got a lot of emphasis, the possibilities for education exchange. And certainly our Prime Minister makes a lot often of the importance of people to people ties that we come to understand our countries, each other's countries much better when there are those kinds of exchanges. So there's a lot of emphasis on the possibilities of education.
- [37:39]
Georgina Godwin
Karen, thank you very much indeed. That's Karen Middleton there and you're with Monocle Radio. Now, air travel in the United States is grinding under the strain of the government shutdown now nearing its fourth week. Air traffic controllers who must legally keep working without pay are calling in sick, leading to thousands of delays nationwide. Major airports from Newark to Dallas are feeling the pinch as staffing levels drop and stress rises. And it's not just a question of inconvenience. Safety, tourism and even the wider economy are feeling the knock on effect. And to make matters worse, Hurricane Melissa is adding to the chaos in the skies above the Americas. Well, Sally Gethen is an aviation analyst. She joins me now with more detail on this. Sally, welcome back. How bad is the disruption to US Travel right now?
- [38:35]
Sally Gethen
Yes, it's pretty bad. I, I mean, obviously this is an immediate crisis that shows no sign of being immediately resolved and it has an immediate knock on effect not only on the air traffic controllers themselves who are working without pay at the moment and are forced to do so unfortunately due to the terms of their work because they're federal employees, but also travelers as well, passengers. And, and this would normally be an internal matter or a federal matter, but this has an immediate impact on travellers who are experiencing more congestion, more delays, sometimes in forced ground stops at airports, which basically means that in order to alleviate the flow of traffic, in other words, to manage the crisis, some airports are actually stopping flights for say an hour or so to be able to put some sort of alleviation into the system. And like I said, no immediate sign of this stopping either. It is a pretty messy picture.
- [39:53]
Georgina Godwin
And what about safety? Are there real concerns emerging from this?
- [39:58]
Sally Gethen
So there are concerns about safety and we've got heard concerns raised throughout this year. Actually prior to the shutdown situation. If you go back to the beginning of the year with a major fatal incident at the start of the year, there were safety concerns raised by the newly appointed Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, and these have only escalated. But having said that, like I said a moment moment ago, there are measures being put in place to try and, you know, retain safety and security. However, that remains a concern and of course it does contribute to anxiety amongst passengers as well who might perceive there to be reduced safety. The trouble is that the nature of the work that controllers do is so intensive, it involves hyper vigilance, so much so that they're required to retire in their 50s. And so it's just such intense analytical work that requires their full attention. They're having to work mandatory six days a week at the moment. Some have their backs against the wall in terms of finances and the cost of living. And it's reported or rumoured that some are even taking on side hustle jobs. Now this is not a situation that is desirable, certainly not from a safety point of view. When you have the nation's air travel relying on the backbone of a reduced number of controllers at the helm.
- [41:42]
Georgina Godwin
What kind of toll is this taking on business and tourism travel?
- [41:47]
Sally Gethen
Yes, I mean obviously this is having a dent on business and tourism travel. If you're outside the United States. It's worth remembering that air travel in the United States is a core part, part of the air transportation system. It's often not nice to have or an option for the business community. It is absolutely a must have and that's how the country thrives economically. So obviously this is having an effect on business travel and I would expect actually that charter and corporate jet travel, or biz jet travel as it's known might enjoy a bit of a spike at this time for some of the higher end businesses that absolutely do rely on it for their success.
- [42:38]
Georgina Godwin
Do you think that pressure from the aviation industry could help break the deadlock in Washington?
- [42:45]
Sally Gethen
It's a good question, but it's a funny one because aviation as a whole is very much driven by the free market. It did used to be regulated prior to 1970, but in fact the United States led the way in deregulation of the airline industry with a new law in 1978. And since then we've seen all these low fare airlines such as Southwest and too numerous to mention actually, which filtered through to the rest of the world with other low fare airlines. But in this scenario it seems that it has to be solved at a political government level. And in fact, on that note, the Secretary Sean Duffy has been really right out on the ramparts in the last seven days, going straight to air traffic control towers, taking on the concerns of controllers and banging the drum politically on his social media, such as X pointing out that this is completely unacceptable. Whether that works to resolve the logjam, as it were, resolve the core issues is another matter. You could argue it's being politicized. On the other hand, perhaps that does lend pressure and could help more of a resolution.
- [44:05]
Georgina Godwin
And just finally, beyond the shutdown, how is Hurricane Melissa complicating travel across the region?
- [44:13]
Sally Gethen
Well, as we can all imagine, if we're not there, hopefully, you know, for most people it's sad to see this play out, you know, on in the news, but it is, it is a major catastrophe. The airlines will not take chances in this situation. The airports in Jamaica have shut down and it could be for several days. For passengers that are being affected by this, by their airlines. The airlines that are flying, such as Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, a number of the US carriers as well, they're entitled to a refund and the flights will be cancelled or diverted. So it's going to actually have a knock on effect with pushing those passengers, shifting that traffic flow into other flows around the region. To avoid the eye of the storm. To avoid the storm. And also we can expect this to have a knock on effect as well, depending on the nature of the impact of the storm and the infrastructure of those airports that will need to be restored and brought back to full operational capacity before that, before air travel throughout the Caribbean and Central America, you know, comes back to normal.
- [45:40]
Georgina Godwin
Sally, thank you. I've got to fly through five different regional US airports next month and sadly I can't stretch to a private jet, so I think it's going to all.
- [45:50]
Sally Gethen
Be in for delay and also through hub airports as well. Longer turnaround times, longer connection times.
- [45:56]
Georgina Godwin
Yep. Sally, thank you very much indeed. That's Sally. Guests an aviation analyst.
- [46:05]
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- [46:43]
Georgina Godwin
To Paris now, where an unusual exhibition is opening today at the Palais de Tokyo. It's called Sculpture of the Invisible and leads guests by the nose through the decades long career of French perfume wizard Francis Kirkjaw with a series of olfactory experiences. Monocle's Paris bureau chief Simon Bouvier sat down with the exhibition's curator, Jerome Neutra to hear how the exhibition came to life and how to create an experience around the sense of smell.
- [47:13]
Jerome Neutra
My obsession as an art curator has been always ways to try to demonstrate that art is not a question of medium. This is not the pencil that defines the artist. It would be too easy. It's not because you own a very nice Leica camera that you can be Irving Penn, you know, and the same for all the mediums. So what I tried in all my programs and all the shows I curated is to explore various mediums, even comics, video game, even cinema, of course, paintings, culture, installations, video, computing, art, fragrance, design, architecture. Because really my deep, deep belief is that there is no one medium for an artist. A great artist, a true artist, is an artist inventing or reinventing, inventing his art, his medium. And for instance, Francis Kirkjean among the perfume world is truly an artist in the sense that he experience as a challenge with a lot of issues to make fragrance a medium of expression, to express through perfume, emotions, ideas, his vision of the world. And that is for me the definition of an artist. You know, I understand, I know a lot of side painters or side sculptors who are not artists. They are good handcraft guys, good technicians, but the work says nothing. It doesn't bring a new step in the history of art. And Francis Kurgjean is really someone who treats fragrance as a sculpture. When we decided of this title, Sculpture of the Invisible, it was for two things. Number one, as a statement to say as a curator, this is art, because sculpture sounds like fine art. It's a bit paradoxical, oh, it's perfume, but it's culture.
- [49:20]
Stephan de Vries
It's not something intangible but then culture.
- [49:22]
Jerome Neutra
Is the art number two to insist on another statement of this show, which is that the said immaterial medium, fragrances is definitely a material medium. You know, to experience the fragrance, you have to interact, to participate physically by smelling, you have to breathe. So it's very physical, it's very material.
- [49:47]
Georgina Godwin
So how did you approach the issue of making it accessible in the sense that it's probably one of the senses that people are least familiar? Stimulating, right? So how did you approach that challenge for the sense of smell?
- [50:01]
Jerome Neutra
Did you think that it might be.
- [50:03]
Georgina Godwin
A bit barrier for people that they're not used to it?
- [50:06]
Jerome Neutra
Paradoxically, perfumes is a very, very popular medium in the sense everybody likes to wear perfume, almost everybody. It's very attractive and it's quite universal. You know, it's really not a question of civilization. All every culture likes perfume, so the smell and the perfume are popular. What is a challenge in this case is to present a series of perfumes within the same hall of an exhibition, because generally the perfumes are used as a single experience, you know, intimate experience. Here, Francis Kurgjean, take the opposite and propose, as he has proposed all along, his career in his art events and art experiences, to share in a collective way, perfumes. And that is another story because that creates for curator a lot of new issues, how to make sure that one perfume will not interfere with another one when you have to present more than 50 perfumes in an exhibition hall, you know, and that's why I think this exhibition is quite a pioneer exhibition, because that's the first one I know to present simultaneously in the same space in the same time of visit, so many various fragrances to smell. And I don't want to unveil all the mysteries and the secrets of the show because I want to motivate the visitors to come. But I can say that you will also have an experience of V scent combined with VR, because Francis Kirkjean was the very first one to even think of how to diffuse a perfume in a VR helmet. You know, you will have really unexpected and very pioneering ways of diffusing the perfume and making fragrance a medium of expression that could be shared in a collective way.
- [52:13]
Georgina Godwin
That was Jerome Neutra, curator of the exhibition Sculpture of the Invisible, which opens at the Palais de Tokyo today. This is the the Globalist on Monocle Radio. And it's now time for the latest news from the world of television. And for that I'm joined by Scott Bryan, TV critic and broadcaster. Good morning to you, Scott.
- [52:38]
Scott Bryan
Good morning.
- [52:39]
Georgina Godwin
Let's Start by talking about CNN and this new all access subscription streamer. What is this package they're offering?
- [52:48]
Scott Bryan
So it feels a bit like deja vu really because CNN are now offering a paid tier 2 subscribers that you don't need to have cable for. That allows you to watch a lot of their live programming. It's called CNN All Access. It's, it's not too expensive, it's only a few dollars, it's only available in the US at the moment. But the reason why it's a bit of deja vu is that a few years ago CNN had a high profile launch and then pretty much a media axing or something very similar, something called cnn CNN Plus. It was scrapped because of a upcoming merger between the parent company that owns cnn. But it was also at this sort of time of streaming services launching and then closing and then consolidating. It was seen to be a huge expensive failure. Quite a lot of people had been made redundant as a result of this merger too. So I guess there's a lot of sort of concern or rather raised eyebrows within the industry about whether something is, is different this time around. I think one of the key parts that will potentially make it more of a success is, is who is in charge of it. Mark Thompson, who is the former sort of head of the New York Times editor editorially also used to be the former director general of the BBC. And of course the New York Times has managed to in a very difficult digital era. So it changed its fortunes by sort of changing itself into a paid sort of subscription model. Many people using the phone for sort of gaming as well as reading for news. So I guess there's sort of some sort of interest in about whether CNN will be able to make something quite similar to its rival, the New York.
- [54:34]
Georgina Godwin
Times sort of features. Will this have what's going to pull them in?
- [54:39]
Scott Bryan
Yeah, the most important part I think is the fact that you'll be able to watch live news without having to have a cable subscription. I mean of course a lot of people within the US are unbundling their cable subscription, AKA sort of leaving subscriptions as leaving cable all together just primarily because it's the fact that now many people are watching sort of apparently such as Netflix and Amazon. I think a challenge for kind of legacy networks such as CNN is the fact that it can still be quite lucrative to be tied to cable. There's a lot of contracts involved with within staying on cable, but of course it's not a dying medium. But it's certainly becoming less successful than what it used to be. So you don't want to cannibalize your existing audience.
- [55:24]
Georgina Godwin
Let's have a look at Disney now because they are saying they will not no longer be involved with the BBC on a Doctor who partnership.
- [55:31]
Scott Bryan
Yeah. So of course this was a big landmark deal between the BBC and Doctor who Shooter Gatwad taking over as the doctor back in 2022. This was supposed to give a sort of a boost to the long running sci fi shows fortunes and the fact that anyone around the world in more than 160 territories would be able to watch new episodes. Of course these episodes will would be much more well funded than how it was funded previously, primarily through the BBC. And yesterday was a sort of long sort of anticipated announcement of a bit of a retreat, essentially the BBC, Disney plus not renewing the deal. I think part of it is that the ratings have not really been as high as what has been expected. Shooter Gatwell also sort of stood down as the Doctor. There's a very large long plot line, I can tell you about what happens in regards to his character the Doctor. But essentially there's the re arrival of a previous one that led the last season to be on a bit of a cliffhanger. And then there was essentially a year when, when this long running show, more than 60 years old, nobody knew what its future was going to be at all. But then the BBC announced that that there will be a Christmas special in 2026 written by Russell T. Davis, at least for the fans. So I think a big question will be what does the BBC do next? Do they sign with this sort of very sort of big cult show, but also not as a show as popular as it used to be? Do they, do they sign up with a new streamer? Do they try to sort of fund it themselves? Do they have a bigger sort of refresh with a new creative team? It is certainly not an easy task when the ratings haven't been as high as they once were.
- [57:11]
Georgina Godwin
Of course huge ratings for the Crown, for Netflix. And the question then was who to do next. And it's been decided it's the Kennedys.
- [57:19]
Scott Bryan
Yes, the Kennedys. So I mean of course the Crown was an absolutely huge smash for Netflix. And it was reported in the Times a couple of days ago that the sort of the American royal family, I would say the Kennedys in all of its sort of it iterations and generations will be sort of examined next I guess because a bit like the British royal families they, you know, it has experienced triumph, successes, controversies and tragedy. So it's going to be starting I think in the 1930s. I think the anticipation, the amount of money that that's been spent into it is going to be pretty significant. And of course it looks at an American dynasty. So in the same way as the British Crown, you've got the political element as well as the sort of sibling rivalry that exists too. I guess there's always going to be sort of the, the, the, the idea about whether it, it will be as successful as the British sort of series of the Crown. I think the Crown was sort of so elegantly put together for the most part, I think was a very big success, but of course had that kind of tabloid angle as well, particularly when it looks at the relationship between Diana and Charles. Will the, this new, new version be in, in the same way or have audiences moved on? It's a bit of a wait and see.
- [58:34]
Georgina Godwin
Absolutely. Casting details yet?
- [58:37]
Scott Bryan
Michael Fassbender has been tied to it, but I think as wider casting still to be determined. I think Netflix is quite confident about this. I think they've certainly tried to go and do the upmarket programming as well as sort of more than down market programming and I think this is certainly going to be to the up market sort of style of shows that they've been doing recently.
- [58:57]
Georgina Godwin
Scott, thank you very much indeed. That was Scott Bryan and that's all for today's program. Thanks to our producers, Hassan Anderson, Carlotta Rebello and Anita Riota, our researcher Joanna Moser and our studio manager, Elliot Greenfield. After the headlines, there's more music on the way and the briefing is live at midday. Inland London. I'm Georgina Godwin and I'll be back on the Globalist at the same time tomorrow. Thank you for listening.
- [59:39]
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