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The Globalist
EU and US sanctions on Russia, Art Basel Paris and tariffs’ impact on the superyacht industry
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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 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 24th 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, Vladimir Putin responds to new U.S. sanctions by saying that dialogue is always better than confrontation. But we'll ask if the situation is now beyond that as the EU agrees to fund Ukraine for a further two years and talks between Moscow and Washington fall apart. South Korea's $350 billion investment dispute with the United States has become a key backdrop to next week's APEC summit. We'll unpack the deal and what the presence of Donald Trump and Xi Jinping at the meeting might achieve. We'll have a roundup of business and economic news, as well as a rustle through the day's papers.
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Then, this year, once again, Paris has showed another level of commitment to great presentation at any level of any segment of the industry.
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We'll find out how Art Basel Paris is reinventing itself and Andrew Muller will review some of the more bonkers stories of the week. Plus, anchors away in Fort Lauderdale as we look ahead to the opening of the world's biggest boat show, with record launches and shifting tides in luxury. That's all ahead here on the Globalist, live from London. First, a look at what else is happening in the news. US President Donald Trump has halted all trade negotiations with Canada after accusing Ottawa of producing a fraudulent Ronald Reagan ad criticising tariff. Trump has dismissed Israeli lawmakers push to annex the occupied west bank, saying Israel is not going to do anything with the territory. And Alaska Airlines grounded flights nationwide for nearly three hours following a major IT outage before gradually restoring operations. Do stay tuned to Monocle Radio throughout the day for more on those stories now. European leaders meeting in Brussels yesterday agreed to guarantee Ukraine's financial support for the next two years, but stopped short of approving the use of frozen frozen Russian assets to fund that aid. The proposed reparation loan, potentially worth 140 billion euros, was delayed until December after Belgium and others raised concerns at the same Time, Washington has hit Russia's two biggest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, with new sanctions aimed at forcing Moscow into peace talks. The move has rattled markets, pushed up oil prices, and provoked a furious response from Vladimir Putin. Well, I'm joined now by Jenny Mathers, who's a senior lecturer in international politics at Aberystwyth University. Jenny, it's good to have you back on the show. What exactly held EU leaders back from approving the asset plan now, and how significant is this setback for Ukraine?
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C
Well, I think it's because Belgium is very concerned about the legal implications. And, you know, Belgium is the country where most of these assets are actually held, and they want more sort of cast iron guarantees that action that they take now to release them won't be held against them in the future.
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A
And how significant is the setback for Ukraine?
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C
Well, it's a huge disappointment, obviously, because the Ukrainians have been lobbying for this for quite some time, and it seemed within reaching distance just a few days ago. And so, yeah, this will be a huge disappointment because although the EU has said they'll come back and look at this again in December, and perhaps by then they'll have it all sorted out, it still means a delay, certainly, of possibly some months before this money could be used to support Ukraine.
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A
So the US has now sanctioned Russia as two big oil companies. Was this a coordinated transatlantic push?
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C
It was. I mean, I think it reflects the fact that the European supporters of Ukraine have been developing their ability to manage the Trump administration, shall we say, and manage the president himself. And so it's been, you know, through discussions and through suggestions, there's been coordination so that both sides understood what the other was planning and they could act together.
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A
What's been the reaction from Moscow and its allies?
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C
Well, Moscow is being very bullish. So Putin has described these sanctions as sort of an act of war. He said that they would harm sort of relations with the US And Dmitry Medvedev, who is the former president, who is often sort of a voice for extreme views in Russia, nevertheless has said that it means that Russia can just continue and accelerate its attacks on Ukraine without worrying about unnecessary negotiations to restrain it. So Russia is being very bullish and denying that this is going to have any sort of major impact on its war effort or on its position.
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A
Can it afford to carry on the war? I mean, this is a huge income stream that's been cut off.
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C
It is a huge income stream, and I think it really depends upon how effective these sanctions are. Will the Trump administration Hold the line and enforce them properly. Will countries like China and India that are the major buyers of Russian oil decide that it's not worth the while to support Russia and sort of cave in? Will Russia find other ways around the sanctions as they found ways around previous sort of sanctions on its oil production? So I think there's still a lot of big questions up in the air. But yes, if everything falls into place in the way that the US and the Europeans are hoping it will, it will definitely create huge problems for Russia's ability to finance the war.
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A
I mean, let's unpack some of those questions you brought up. Could rising prices test Western resolve to keep pressure on Moscow?
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C
Yes, certainly. And this is the big reason why these two oil companies have not been sanctioned in the past because there was concern about the knock on impact of rising oil prices on consumers, particularly in the United States. Now at the moment, oil prices are low because OPEC has agreed to increase production over several months. And so at the moment it's a good opportunity for the US and the Europeans to make this move. But whether that condition will continue is another question. So, yeah, we just don't know kind of how the impact is going to fall and when it might fall.
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A
And what about other major buyers? I'm thinking here particularly of India. Could they be forced to rethink Russian imports and might that then cause some kind of domino effect?
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C
Well, India so far does seem to be indicating that it might back away from purchasing Russian oil or at least directly purchasing Russian oil from these two suppliers. And the wording I think is significant because if they can find a way around directly purchasing the oil from these two suppliers, then they might very well do that because this is very lucrative for the Indians. They import Russian oil, they refine it in Indian refineries, and then they resell it, basically. And so this is a good deal for them. So I think they're probably going to be looking quite hard to see if they can find a way around these new conditions.
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A
I wonder if escalation, this escalation could trigger wider economic contagion beyond energy.
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C
I think there's a potential for that, of course, and again, a lot depends upon the dynamics within the energy market itself. But yes, this potentially does have ramifications for other kinds of commodities and other kinds of prices to sort of reverberate outwards.
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A
So do you think that this combination of sanctions and a financial pledge bring the world any closer to a negotiated peace?
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C
Well, there's hope at least that it will. And I think that's probably the most that we can say at the moment because of all of these questions that we've discussed. We just don't know how stable, how long lasting this position is going to be and whether it will have the desired impact because Russia is going to hold out as long as it can to avoid sort of caving in and giving in to these kinds of pressures. And will the Trump administration be willing to hold a course long enough to make a difference? So, yeah, I think there's hope, but I don't think we can say much before.
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A
And given the EU's delay in approving this package, what does it mean for Kyiv right now as it struggles to keep its finances afloat?
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C
So the challenge, I think for Kyiv is to try and hold on, hold on in a material sense in terms of money and see where it can get some more support from Europe while it waits for this package of Russian money hopefully to come through, but also to keep up morale at home. I think this is a huge, huge issue that Ukraine faces after more than three years of war, is to give the people some hope that, you know, the tide is turning and that things will be better and that there is some kind of an end to this war. So I think the two things together, material capabilities but also morale, are really important for Ukraine. So this is a difficult moment for them.
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Now, of course, we're seeing more talks coming up. Keir Starmer, who's hosting this meeting about Ukraine in London, is going to push allies for long range missiles. How likely? What do you think we're going to see come out of this London meeting, given that Zelenskyy's meeting in Brussels yesterday didn't go quite as planned?
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C
Yeah, I think it's a tricky one for the Europeans because they want to support Ukraine, but they also need to keep on the right side of Trump. And Trump has indicated that he certainly doesn't want at the moment to offer Tomahawk long range missiles to Ukraine and he doesn't want to be seen to be authorizing these sort of longer range strikes. So I think the Europeans have got a trick to decide whether they're going to push ahead and show leadership basically in this area or whether they need to hold back to try and keep the US Sort of sweet and on their side.
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Jenny, thank you very much indeed. That's Jenny Mathers there. And this is the globalist. It's 15:11 in Busan, 7:11 here in London ahead of next week's APEC leaders summit in Gyeongju, South Korea. And the United States remain at odds how to deliver a $350 billion South Korean investment package in US industries such as semiconductors and batteries. The row over cash versus loan funding has stalled tariff talks and could shape both the summit's tone and the adoption of the so called Gyeongju Declaration. Adding to the tension, both Donald Trump and Xi Jinping will travel to South Korea next for back to back meetings with President Lee Jae Myung. It's a rare moment when Seoul finds itself at the center of global diplomacy. I'm joined by Robert E. Kelly, professor of Political Science at Busan National University. Robert, good to have you back. What exactly is the Gyeongju Declaration and what's it expected to achieve?
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B
Sure.
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D
Well, Gyeongju is just a city here in South Korea. It's not that far away from my house as a matter of fact. And the way these things work in most of these big multilateral meetings, they have some kind statement of intent at the end. You know, there's some kind of declaration or something like that where they list the principles that the, the leaders all agree to. Right. And it gets named after the, the local, the local place where it occurred. And so this time the, the fight over it, where, you know, the name is just the city, the, the big fight, it's is going to be over free trade. And to what extent the participants are committing to free trade because of, you know, Donald Trump and the trade war. That seems to be the big debate, you know, how much can they get the Americans and the Chinese to commit to?
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A
And how would you describe the current state of trade and investment between Seoul and Washington?
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D
Pretty bad. The Americans signed two trade deals actually with Korea, one back in 2013. And then it got renegotiated. Was it 2013? And then it got renegotiated a little bit later, I think in like 2018 or 19, it's called the chorus Korea, US FTA and the Trump administration's tariffs just openly violate that. And that is ratified treaty, I might add. Right. That is to say that it was signed by both presidents and ratified in the legislature. So it's actually black letter law. And Trump just threw it out the window. Hence, here in South Korea, the constant debate is like, why are we even talking about this? You know, I do South Korean media sometimes and they're always like, well, why are we even doing this? Didn't we nail all these issues down back in the trade negotiations 20 years ago, 10 years ago? And they did. And now there's, there's Trump sort of asking for all this investment money upfront, too. He's asking for a large amount of money. And so the South Koreans are pretty unhappy. You know, the relationship between the US And South Korea is pretty asymmetric. Right. South Korea really needs U.S. defense commitment, the U.S. defense commitment, particularly the nuclear umbrella. So the U.S. has a lot of room to twist arms here. And but Trump is doing it much more than any other US President has ever done.
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A
And do you think that there is a realistic chance of resolving this before or during the APEC Summit?
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D
It. The U.S. south Korean issue is probably not. No. I mean, judging from what I see in the media here, no, because the Koreans are pretty upset. Donald Trump is asking for, it looks like. I mean, I don't know, it looks like Donald Trump is asking for something in the order of $200 billion in investment guarantees. That is an astronomical sum of money, actually. Right. I mean, South Korea's GDP is only about $2 trillion. That's 10% of South Korea's entire GDP. And, you know, until just recently, apparently, Trump was asking for some kind of like, upfront cash payment over which he would have discretion where it got invested. It would be like the sovereign wealth fund. That looks an awful lot like bribery. An awful lot. And that's the big pushback here, right? It looks like, you know, Trump is demanding a payoff. And I would, I, I, at those, at that scale, when you're talking about that much money, I would imagine it's going to take a long time to work it out. And no, I mean, given that APEC is what, in like, five days? No, I don't think it'll be resolved. There'll be some kind of like, sort of general statement put out there for media consumption. Right. They'll paper it over, but I think it's gonna take a while, probably at least until Christmas.
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A
Now, of course, Trump and Xi Jinping are going to be in Seoul. What impact do you think that their presence will have on negotiations? And indeed, how would it complicate Seoul's balancing act between Washington and Beijing having Xi there?
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D
Right. So if the Chinese and the Americans can actually come to a deal as the two biggest economies in the world, that would be huge, right? I mean, if Trump and G actually sit down and they hammer out a deal on rare earths and tariffs and all this other stuff we've been talking about for six months, that would be huge. That would be the single biggest takeaway from this. It would be a lot more important than some milquetoast kyungju statement that says we should all commit to sort of, you know, multilateralism and open societies. I mean, it would be, the real big takeaway would be Trump G. Leads to something substantial, mildly hopeful that would happen. But I, I, you know, Trump is really unpredictable. He doesn't prepare very well. My guess is not much will come of it. But it does also illustrate to your point that South Korea is really kind of stuck between the United States and, and China. This is something that's been a real problem in South Korean foreign policy really, since China's rise really kind of really took off, like in the 1990s, when the South Koreans trade with both us, the Americans, pardon me, and the Chinese, and the US and China are obviously, you know, ideologically really, really far apart. And so it has kind of got them in this position where they're being pulled back and forth. And that's a big, that's probably the biggest foreign policy split in the country. Right. And, like, how much do we throw in our lot with the Americans because China's like a dictatorship. But now Donald Trump kind of sounds like a dictator, too, so what do we do? And that's, that's, that's kind of like the big grand strategy fight here, I think, maybe for the next 10 to 20 years.
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A
And, of course, it's complicated by the fact that Japan' new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi set out a much tougher conservative line. I mean, Seoul, as you say, does seem to be entering one of its most complex foreign policy moments in years. Do you think, though, that South Korea could use this moment to raise its regional profile as a diplomatic broker?
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D
The problem with the broker thing, and that's a common argument particularly made on the South Korean left, when the current government is of that persuasion. The problem is that South Korea, it's hard for South Korea to be an honest broker because it's a US treaty ally, complete with 30,000American soldiers here, US fighter aircraft. You know, we have U2 spy planes flying out of South Korean air bases. You know, there's 100,000 contractors and families and stuff like that. I mean, I interact with these folks sometimes for work. So if you're China, the South Koreans can say they're a broker and they're equidistant between Beijing and Washington. But empirically, that's just not accurate. I mean, I can look out my window and see US Helicopters flying overhead, sometimes flying from Busan up to the air bases nearer to Seoul. And so that's why the Chinese have never really gone for that idea, I think South Korea really wants that. I think there are a lot of South Koreans who really don't like the idea that they're being chain ganged into a Sino US standoff over Taiwan or something like that, and they would like some more room to move. The problem is that they really want to break away from the Americans. They're going to have to spend a lot more in defense. And when I say a lot more, I mean like double or triple. And we're talking a huge new tax burden and there's just not a lot of will to do that. So they're stuck with the Americans instead.
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Robert E. Kelly, thank you very much indeed. Now, still to come on the programme.
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E
We learned, yes, that President Trump remained as determined as ever to spare the rest of us the hassle of coming up with our own metaphors, swinging the wrecking ball at the White House.
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We'll find out what else we learned this week. This is the 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. This is the Globalist on Monocle Radio with me, Georgina Godwin. The time here in London, 20 past seven. And we'll continue with today's newspapers. Joining me in the studio is the political journalist and broadcaster Theo Usherwood. Good morning to you, Theo.
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F
Very good morning to you, Georgina.
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A
So our headlines are reflecting this U.S. canada trade talk collapse Earth. But it's over at television advert.
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F
It is. We can all blame Ontario's premier Doug Ford, who's an outspoken critic of Donald Trump, putting together an advert to goad the Americans, which is based on a 1987 radio address by the former US president at the time, Ronald Reagan, in which he spoke negatively about tariffs. Donald Trump, we know, sometimes has a thin skin and he's put out a post on Truth Social to say that tariffs are very important to the national security and economy of the usa, all in caps. And therefore, based on their egregious behaviour, all trade negotiations with Canada are hereby terminated. Now this is a huge trade deal which is designed to deal with goods outside of the area, existing arrangements which include of course, Mexico and Canada. And it's worth around US$928 billion. So it is difficult now for Mark Carney who is the newish premier in Canada, to Prime Minister to try and heal relations because of course, he's got to deal with Doug Ford in Ontario, try and ensure that he doesn't do any more adverts, you would assume, and then get the President back on and get the talks back underway. I think it also underscores the wisdom, I know there are lots of critics of people like Keir Starmer of the British government of actually trying to be very cautious in the way handling the president with kid gloves, because it does demonstrate this story that if you make a. In trying to handle negotiations which are very delicate, those negotiations are made even more delicate by the thin skin of Donald Trump and his volatility that we've seen with this particular deal collapsing. The deal could also have, will have potentially huge implications for Canada's economy because.
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A
Of course, both sides are preparing to review the North American trade pact next year, which gives them some measure of protection right now, but could be negotiated in a way that would not be favorable.
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F
No. And of course, it's worth remembering. It's good you bring this up. Of course, this was a trade deal that was designed to ensure that Canada would not be hit on products outside of that arrangement, the North America Trade Pact. So it was about, in trying to ensure that actually where those goods weren't covered by that trade pact, that Canada wouldn't see a huge negative impact on those industries. And of course, Trump's now ripped that up completely. We're talking tariffs around 35%. So it's a hugely important trade deal to Canada. And as you say, we've got this wider negotiation coming up next year. And you could imagine quite easily how the President will bring in. He'll use any leverage he can to hit Canada.
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A
Another thing he's ripping up is this federal operation that was planned in San Francisco. Tell us about this.
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F
Yes, this is an interesting one. This is a story that's in the New York Times, which I picked out, originally picked out. So there was meant to be a big, big operation, border operation with Coast Guard and federal agents down in San Francisco. And it appears that Donald Trump has now called that off at the behest of some people like Jensen Huang, who is the chief executive of Nvidia, who's asked the President to, you know, just back away and not send in the, not send in National Guard. There was a call, a phone call between Donald Trump and the mayor of San Francisco, Doug Lurie. And interestingly, the president said that Mr. Lurie hadn't asked for anything but he had told the mayor that actually he wasn't going to send in the National Guard. So it seems that Trump has been very open, and he's been very open about this, has decided that he's not going to send in the National Guard. And the implication is that if you have wealth and influence, if you run one of these big tech companies and you are able to pick up the phone to the President and put in a phone call, then you can ensure you can positively influence politics. But there are question marks about what about those poorer parts of Southern California where you don't have the tech industry, where you don't have, in your. In the residents like Mr. Huang, who have the President's number in their phone book, who can suddenly pick up the phone and say, hang on a moment, this industry is really important to us. If you run an operation which we would assume, like similar operations have operated in the States, where you're going around and checking the credentials of every individual to legally work in the United States, if you don't have that influence, then what happens to those much poorer areas? And you would assume, we know that Trump, the way Trump and his ICE agents have targeted those parts of the country. And I think there, whilst it is nice to obviously look at this story and think, oh, look at this influence and look at the benefactors that big business can. They can offer, it does raise questions, quite serious questions, about, well, if you don't have that power and you don't have that influence, there's nothing to stop. There's. There's nothing to stop the President pressing ahead in the way that he has.
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A
And of course, it all just once again comes back to the transactional nature of everything that Donald Trump does. Let's turn now to look at Britain, because this is a really major story for the ruling Labour Party. It's been dealt an historic loss in a Caerphilly by election. Tell us more.
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F
So this was a member of the Senate, the Welsh Parliament died in August. And so we had this by election. And Plaid Cymru have won with 47% of the votes. Then we've seen Reform UK, Nigel Farage's Reform UK coming with 35% of the vote. Labour down on 11%. Labour. This has all. This area has always voted for Labour. It's never returned Labour, it's never returned anything but Labour member to the Welsh Parliament or indeed in the National Westminster elections. And then the Tories down on 2%. And we're looking ahead to the Senate elections next year. But even before that Labour, until yesterday had half the votes. They had to rely on a Lib Dem member of the Senate to get their budget through last time round. They've now got to find two independents to try and get their budget through in January. And it points to the fact, more crucially, that come the elections in May for the Senate, it's going to be a straight two horse race between Playa Cymru and Reform uk. Labour wiped out. And it points to the fact, I think, that increasingly every party apart from Reform are now no longer federal parties. We had this question in my heart, asked of Ed Davey when I was at the Libdem conference. Can they win in Scotland? Can they win in. In Wales? Ultimately, they can't. Labour are being pushed out of what we're seeing. They're being pushed out of Wales. They're probably being pushed out of Scotland as well. With Reform doing much, you know, looking to be the main opposition, if not running Holyrood. And we're seeing this shrinking where actually the traditional political parties in Britain can only really operate in England. The only party that's a federal party that can operate right across Britain is going to be Reform uk. And it points to not only a victory, I think, for Nigel Farage and whether he ends up running it or very close to running it with Plaid Cymru next year, then that's the first, and then, of course, the national elections, but I think it will also, with Plaid Cymru doing so well, raise the prospect. And we had the, you know, back in 2014, the question of independence in Scotland. Now I think we're going to get the question of independence in Wales as well.
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A
There is one quick story I want to cover before we go. Ara, I don't know if you notice when you come into the beautifully appointed. Midori has that our security guards are equally beautifully appointed. They are all ex Gurkhas from Nepal and carry themselves that way and all the rest of it.
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F
We're in safe hands. If we call Gurkhas at the front, nobody's coming in here.
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A
And I want to talk about Nepal because Jersey cows are helping Nepalese farmers improve the quality of their milk.
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F
I never thought a key part of international aid would be cows semen, but it appears that that is now what Jersey is doing. And it's fantastic because Nepalese cows, this was a story I found I dug out on the BBC, can only apparently produce 2,2 liters of milk per per sort of milking, and they're struggling to sell their milk. And so what Jersey have done is they've got, they've, they've come up with, they've got together with their scientists, they've come over with some Jersey cow semen and they are now implanting that into the Nepalese cows to breed cows with Jersey, sort of mix of Jersey Nepalese cows, which are much more, which produce much more milk and therefore supporting Nepalese economy and the farmers there so they can sell their milk and produce more milk for their communities. And I think it's just a lovely way of international age showing it can make a real difference in a way that you just wouldn't necessarily expect.
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A
Theo, thank you very much indeed. That's Theo Usherwood there. And this is the Globalist on Monocle Radio. Now here's what else we're keeping an eye on today. US President Donald Trump said all trade talks with Canada are terminated, claiming a Canadian ad misused footage of Ronald Reagan criticising tariffs. The move deepens tensions as both sides prepare to review their North American trade trade pact next year. Trump's rejected an Israeli parliamentary bid to apply Israeli law to the occupied west bank, calling the effort a stupid stunt. His vice president, J.D. vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned annexation could jeopardize Washington's Gaza ceasefire plan. And Alaska Airlines briefly grounded all flights across the US due to a nationwide IT failure that disrupted evening operations. Service was gradually restored after nearly three hours, though cancellations and delays are expected to continue. This is the globalist. Stay tuned. Now. Art Basel Paris is in full swing in the French capital. Despite the ups and downs of the art market this year and a brazen art heist at the Louvre that kicked off the week, the mood in Paris among the art crowd has been one of great positivity. Monocles are associate editor for Culture. Sophie Monaghan Combs has been exploring the fair and spoke with Vincenzo de Bellas, the chief artistic officer and global director of Art Basel Fairs. After the newly introduced VVIP Day Avant premiere, this is what Vincenzo had to say.
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B
This year, once again, Paris has showed another level of commitment to great presentation at any level of any segment of the industry. And then the attendance yesterday was great. We had several top clients for our work, top collectors from everywhere in the world, a lot of Americans, but coming from, of course, France is always the leading in, and it should be in this country, in this place, but literally from everywhere in the world. And also a lot of collecting museums, which is something we care very much about because it also has an impact that it's wider than the market. I mean, it's market. And it adds on also the cultural element, which is very important for artists progressions in their career. So it was great then. Today we are in the middle of the what it's the first day, actually, first full day. And I've been very well impressed by the fact that a lot of people who came here yesterday. Yesterday was a snapshot, was four hours, it's half day. Usually we have eight hours. Yesterday was four hours. So now a lot of people are coming back, which is what we wanted, and we were hoping and coming back and either closing some of the conversation they had and or exploring the more emerging part of the market, which is the future of the art world. So it's something we deeply care about.
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A
And some of the conversations I've had, Art Basel in Basel, some galaxy were talking about mixing up the stuff on their booths, maybe putting some slightly lesser known artists up there with their household names. Maybe you could talk a little bit about how you've seen galleries approaching how they've curated their booths, and also a little bit about some more details about the kind of things that are being.
- [33:32]
B
Sold and what's been happening so far. So all the galleries, any segment of the market, they mix generations, even the ones that are more. More emerging in the recent years. And it's something that started already 10ish years ago that galleries are rediscovering figures that were forgotten, for lack of a better word, for many years. And it's a desire of repositioning also the narrative of what art history is and looking through gender, background, diversity, which is not something that the art will has been for many years not very focused on. And so that is something that still is very present. So the rediscovery, the mix of generations, even with very well known artists and unknown artists more emerging, is something that is going on in most of the booths. Gagosian announced its public knowledge that they have a Rubens in their. In their booth, which is a unique thing for our Basel. That was a very specific speaking of going back and forth within the centuries of art, it's probably the most unexpected thing to see at Art Basel. And we happily received that proposal because it made a lot of sense curatorially within the booth. And I have to say the booth is spectacular and that makes a lot of sense now that people can see it in person. There's some great projects, a lot of great projects. I'll just cite some that for me are very indicative of how galleries are approaching this fair. I'll mention Hugo Rondinone, solo booth deva present Uber. That's very Eva's been doing for the second year in a row solo presentation. Last year she did Ciabala self. This year is doing UGA Rondinone. Very thoughtful and risky because galleries only presenting one artist. It's very risk taking and so that needs to be highlighted in my opinion at the same time similarly but with an artist from that is probably the most important most known artist of the past century. The solo show of Picasso at Namad Contemporary is unbelievable in quality. Also knowing that there's one of the paintings that was acquired by David Namat when he was on only 19 years old and then I would mention few works that I've seen that really kind of are in my opinion very strong make strong presentations. I'll mention two boots that are one across the other Fruit maggers with this very site specific work by Tia Giorgiaza is a metal stainless steel triangle that cuts the boot in two shoe. It's beautiful and really makes the boot very special. Similarly, on the other side there's a foot by Luciano Fabro, who is an artist I admired for my entire life. He's an Italian artist from the group of Arte Povera and it's basically a long leg with a brass foot that looks like a dinosaur foot. But it's very elegant because it's a silk leg. I can go on and on.
- [36:41]
A
There's main that was Art Basel's Vincenzo de Bellis in conversation with Monocle's Sophie Monaghan Combs. You're with Monocle Radio. It's Friday, which means Monocle's contributing editor Andrew Muller has been hard at work unpacking the last seven days for us. Here he is with this week's what We Learned.
- [37:09]
E
We learned this week that firing live artillery rounds over a civilian highway is a bad idea.
- [37:16]
F
No. Oh, that blows my mind.
- [37:20]
D
No way. Blow me down.
- [37:23]
E
Verily, every day is a school day. We learned this via arguably ill advised celebration staged in honor of the 250th birthday of the U.S. marine Corps, whose hymn is presently popping away in the background and is not a bad tune as these things go. Let's hear it. Happy birthday, the U.S. marine Corps. We learned anyway that as part of the observances, a live fire exercise would be staged in the vicinity of Marine Corps base Camp Pendleton in San Diego County. A proposal about which California Governor Gavin Newsom had reservations. Live artillery rounds, civilian highway and so forth. And accordingly closed Interstate 5, which runs by the base. And we learned that even this elementary precaution was sufficient to prompt yet another of the inane culture war bun fights which have in recent years become a significant American manufacturing sector. Governor Newsom blasted the White House for having this tribute, saying firing artillery over the 5 Freeway would be dangerous. The White House scoffed at Newsom and held the tribute anyway. Yes, we learned that the White House was going to go ahead and dismiss the Governor's concerns as the milk toast witterings of a sandal wearing, soy milk slurping, mung bean munching, tree hugging, ukulele strumming flower child. Because nothing, nothing involving the firing of live artillery rounds over a civilian highway could possibly go wrong. The 155 millimeter shell was supposed to explode miles away inland on Camp Pendleton.
- [39:06]
F
The Marines were going to fire dozens.
- [39:08]
C
To celebrate their 250th birthday and the.
- [39:11]
E
Visit from Vice President J.D.
- [39:13]
A
Vance.
- [39:14]
E
The CHP vehicle that was struck by shrapnel was actually part of Vance's motorcade. Vice President Vance was of course himself a US Marine Corps corporal, so we would appear to have learned that in his specific case, fragging is no longer strictly reserved for unpopular officers. Sticking with the subject of unpleasant things being dropped on Americans by people who were supposed to have taken some sort of oath to defend them, we learned thanks to artificial intelligence yet more of the internal monologue of US President Donald Trump. Trump, who as millions of his fellow citizens exercised their First Amendment rights by peaceably assembling in protest against him, posted on social media a short video which had American broadcasters leafing urgently through their coy euphemism dictionaries. Millions of Americans took to the streets to protest the current administration and its policies. This was President Trump's response. The AI generated video features President Trump in a crown flying a fighter jet emblazoned with King Trump on its side.
- [40:28]
D
The president then appears to dump raw sewage on protesters.
- [40:31]
E
We learned, however, that if anybody was more aghast than American newsreaders, it was the unwitting and indeed unwilling composer of the soundtrack of Trump's lurid scatological fantasy. Dangerous Danger Zone Hitmaker Kenny Loggins Singer.
- [40:46]
A
Kenny Loggins is demanding President Trump take.
- [40:49]
C
Down an AI generated video that used.
- [40:51]
A
His song Danger Zone. Loggins said if he had been asked, he would have denied permission to the.
- [40:57]
C
President to use it. The president, you're seeing that AI video there, posted that online after Saturday's no King rallies, shows him wearing a crown.
- [41:05]
A
While flying a fighter jet and dropping.
- [41:07]
C
What looks like feces on a crowd of protests.
- [41:10]
E
Still, we learn, though cannot say we were surprised, that the Very same people who clutched their pearls, collapsed onto fainting couches, dabbed their foreheads with lacy handkerchiefs and pleaded limply for the smelling salts. When this happened, you know, to just.
- [41:26]
G
Be grossly generalistic, you could have put.
- [41:30]
C
Half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables.
- [41:34]
E
We're absolutely fine with the President of the United States States daydreaming about slapping a crown on his head, commandeering a fighter jet and depositing the contents of a septic tank upon his hometown of New York City. And that among those people absolutely fine with it were House speaker and three dimensional Waylon Smithers. A Simpsons reference Ask your parents. Mike Johnson.
- [41:58]
H
He is using satire to make a point.
- [42:01]
D
He is not calling for the murder.
- [42:02]
H
Of his political opponents.
- [42:04]
E
From which we learn that the President is not calling for the murder of his political opponents. Though we, for one whimsical news monologue, would characterise ourselves as intrigued that that of all places, was where Speaker Johnson went so quickly. Still, we learned, or were reminded once more, that we are very much in hitherto mercifully uncharted waters. President wise, it being difficult to imagine even had the necessary technology been available, available. Any previous occupant of the office conducting themselves in such a manner. Except maybe Millard Fillmore. What a fool.
- [42:39]
F
Stupid 13th president only carried one state.
- [42:43]
C
In 1856 and that was Maryland, which hardly counts.
- [42:48]
A
Idiots.
- [42:49]
G
What a loser.
- [42:50]
A
What kind of a name is Millard?
- [42:51]
F
What kind of idiot idea was the.
- [42:53]
A
Compromise of 1850 anyway?
- [42:55]
C
Stupid couldn't get nominated for a second.
- [42:57]
E
Term by his own puppet party.
- [42:59]
B
What a deadbeat.
- [43:00]
D
You know what?
- [43:01]
B
I really don't like him.
- [43:03]
E
Don't remember why we made that in the first place, but definitely do remember everyone moaning about having to do it. Like how many uses were we ever going to get out of a chorus of derision about President Millard Fillmore? But who's the self indulgent primadonna wasting his busy colleagues valuable time now, eh?
- [43:22]
F
Just get on with it.
- [43:23]
E
We learned, anyway, that President Trump was not done recalibrating the dimensions of the office of President either. Figuratively.
- [43:32]
A
Some other dramatic video just into us, even live as we speak, as we're.
- [43:35]
H
Learning, the whole East Wing of the.
- [43:36]
C
White House, it is being demolished.
- [43:38]
A
It's being pulled down.
- [43:39]
E
We learned, yes, that President Trump remained as determined as ever to spare the rest of us the hassle of coming up with our own metaphors, swinging the wrecking ball at the White House, apparently with a view to replacing the East Wing of which with a ballroom, the plans for which he unfurled in the Oval Office. Still there as of this broadcast. Broadcast amid a press conference with Mark Ruta, Secretary General of NATO, who to be clear, has absolutely no more pressing concerns at present. I brought these along so people could.
- [44:10]
B
See, but it's, you know, there's a relative, nobody's actually seen anything quite like it.
- [44:18]
E
Nobody who never asked Saddam Hussein for directions to the bathroom. Anyway, for Monocle Radio, Andrew, I'm Andrew Muller.
- [44:28]
A
Thank you, Andrew. This is the Globalist on 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. Well, it's time now for some business news and I'm joined by the economist and former joint head of the UK government's economic service, Vicky Price. Good morning to you, Vicky.
- [45:19]
G
Good morning.
- [45:20]
A
Vicky. Earlier in the program we were talking about the APEC meeting and the fact that China and the US are sending their leaders, we assume, although it hasn't been guaranteed from the Chinese side yet. What do we think that might come out of that and what's China saying in the build up?
- [45:38]
G
Well, it's interesting that given everything that's going on, getting a more conciliatory note from China or tone from China is quite welcome. So they want to talk, they, they claim they're a responsible big nation, they don't want to decouple from world trade and the world economy and, and really make it very, very clear that they're very much part of the global supply chain and want to remain there. So the question is how they get it to be done in the right way. And as we know, they've met recently, I know the group that meets to look at the development plan ahead for, for China stressed the importance of technology and moving in that direction and getting China to grow consistently over the next few years. And you know, trade is very important for them. So that's interesting given the various escalations we've seen in the recent past. And that's perhaps one little bit of good news. But let's see how it all develops because we have seen lots of ups and downs in this area.
- [46:41]
A
I mean, does China have the upper hand given the fact that it has all this, this rare earth minerals?
- [46:47]
G
Well, I mean, that's one of the issues, of course, which has caused quite a lot of concern and the reason why things had looked like they were escalating just recently is because, of course, they have put extra restrictions on their rare earth exports, requiring all sorts of conditions to be met in terms of the percentage of rare earths that is involved in various technologies that are used in elsewhere. So. And then of course, you know, the US threatens to retaliate with extra tariffs. So, yes, I think they look like they have the upper hand, but we do know that they want to be very much involved in the whole trade system and they made that clear. And I think that's, that's understood. I don't think development goals can be achieved if China is an integral part of the global supply chain. And I think we know it and they know the US knows it. So it depends who blinks first, if you see what I mean.
- [47:44]
A
Let's bring it back to the UK. And car production is down 36%. That's after that Jaguar Land Rover cyber attack. Tell us more.
- [47:53]
G
Yes, I mean, it's interesting. The UK car production has suffered, of course, for quite some time and it hasn't really recovered since COVID I suppose. But also we have seen it not being as it was before, since the financial crisis. So what we've got in the latest months is that in September that we got a substantial reduction in actual car production in the month. And so what we're seeing is that British cars and vans that have been produced are something like 15% down on a year ago. The cyber attacks on Jaguar, Land Rover in particular, have had quite a substantial impact because, of course, there's such a large, large part of the car manufacturing base in the uk. They've been recovering recently because production has started again, you know, after weeks and weeks and weeks of nothing happening at all and problems with financing and paying the elements of the supply chain, who are all, of course, involved in the car part production and everything else that is really, really important for maintaining the car industry in the uk. And the question is how soon that can be reversed. But also, of course, we do know that other problems of tariffs in the us and there's quotas that the UK has to meet to remain within the preferential tariff rate. There's huge competition coming from China, particularly on electric vehicles, and that is in fact getting worse because lots of other countries have tariffs against Chinese EVs, whereas the UK does, doesn't. And we've also, of course, got the issue that electric vehicles are being subsidised in the uk. So that encourages even more investment, sorry, more trade coming in from China in that area. So the UK car industry is in difficulty, costs have gone up. There are loads of shortages still there in terms of the types of skills that are needed. So I'm afraid, yes, we are looking at the UK car industry with a lot of people concern.
- [50:01]
A
And finally, Vicki, how poor do people feel they are across Europe?
- [50:06]
G
Well, that's really interesting and actually also rather worrying because of course, the economists have struggled recently, but overall we've seen growth taking place over a period of time. And yet what you are seeing is that if you ask people how do they perceive their situation right now? So it's a new, new way of looking at subjective poverty, which is really rather interesting. What you find is that 17%, just over 17% of the UK population last year regarded themselves as subjectively poor. In other words, not really able to make ends meet. So those who say with great difficulty or with difficulty, you know, quite a large percentage do. And my worry is that if you look at Greece, which is where I originally come from, is just under 70%. And that is a real worry given everything that's happened since. Greece is actually growing quite strongly, has been growing quite strongly recently. What the Eurozone crisis has left, I'm afraid, is quite a lot of people still finding the way around being rather difficult to, in fact, navigate.
- [51:14]
A
Vicky, thank you very much indeed. That's Vicky Price there. And this is the Globalist on Monocle Radio. Now it's all aboard for the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. The world's largest event of its kind opens next Wednesday. It runs until November 2nd. Nearly 100,000 visitors will descend on Florida's docks to see everything from sailing sloops to superyachts. But this year, the talk isn't just about design and horsepower. Sanctions, tariffs and shifting buyer habits are reshaping the market. And even the sale of a seized Russian yacht is testing how global politics and luxury now mix well. I'm joined on the line from Nice by Anders Curten, who is CEO of Fraser Yachts. Anders, many thanks for joining us. I know you've just returned this week from the inaugural African Boating Conference in Cape Town. Tell us a little more about the. About that.
- [52:19]
H
Good morning, everybody, and thank you so much for having me on the show. The African Boating Conference was the first of its kind and it was actually a raging success. They had over 200 delegates, a lot of them from Africa, but actually quite a few of them from overseas as well. And the speaker roster, including myself, was from many Many places. I myself hail originally from Finland. There was speaker from the US all over Europe and naturally the local, local boat builders as well. They have quite a big boat and yacht building cluster in South Africa, most of it around Cape Town. So the venue was very suitable for this magnificent event.
- [53:00]
A
So Fort Lauderdale is preparing to open its doors. Just how strong is the luxury yacht market at the moment?
- [53:08]
H
Well, you know what, ever since the pandemic, I think in our specific niche which for Fraser Yachts is a super yacht, super services forecasting has been exceedingly difficult. You know the disparity between the worst case and the best case scenario has, has never been as, as wide as over these past five years. The pandemic was a positive market aberration for us. We reached all time highs both on new yacht construction sales as well as brokerage transactions and also with, with charter. And the past years after the pandemic have been really, really strong. We have moved the last two years have sustained business which is significantly over the pre pandemic average. So while there's been some normalization after the pandemic we're actually at really, really healthy levels which has been highly pleasant.
- [53:54]
A
Do you think that sanctions have changed the way the super rich buy and sell?
- [53:59]
H
Well, I mean obviously the sanctions have changed the market in the sense that the Russian buyers aren't really in the the market anymore to the same extent that they were before the war in Ukraine. But the other sort of. If you look at the geographies and the nationalities of the buyers that's been pretty constant. The US is still number one with some 40% of the buyers and Europe is still steadily number two with about 30, 35% and the rest of the nationalities are pretty evenly spread all over the remaining globe.
- [54:33]
A
Tell us how tariffs are beginning to redraw the global yacht building map.
- [54:38]
H
Well, look, we operate in the, in the super yacht space and, and historically in the sense of where you flag the vessel, it doesn't really matter whether the ultimate beneficial owner has a Finnish or Swedish or French or Italian or or US passport. Generally the, the bigger inventory 30 meters and plus is very rarely flagged with the nation's flag of the ultimate beneficial owners nationality for a variety of reasons, not really mainly being lacking patriotism, but rather that this is a very small niche. We're talking about 200 some new yachts launched every year 30 meters plus and we're talking about 4 or 500 brokerage transactions in that same size range per year. And the total super yacht fleet over 30 meters is only about 7,000 yachts nationwide. So you know, many countries apply sort of commercial maritime flag regulations also to leisure, which really they couldn't be further apart in terms of use cases. And the practical operational needs of the yachts of the flag states tend to be, you know, a couple states that have chosen to sort of pursue the particularities of the super yacht segment. And thus this is really the rationale with which the flag states are chosen, which means that that sort of import tariffs don't really apply.
- [55:59]
A
And so people with that kind of mindset, do they care about sustainability ability?
- [56:04]
E
They do.
- [56:05]
H
We've seen a significant shift over, over the last five years and while sort of pre pandemic, it was a nice icebreaker at a cocktail party where everybody knew that this is something that you're supposed to be interested in. Actually over the last years we've seen a significant shift and in, in many of the discussions, especially about, about new builds, we see this play a pretty big part in the sort of final negotiations about the specification. Whether it's the propulsion technology, technology used on board or other solutions that can help you save energy on board and especially in the, in the sailing super yacht space. There's actually quite a few yachts out there that have been launched that are fully electric in the sense that the main propulsion unit is electrical and, and they hydrogenerate electricity as they sail, which means that these 150 foot vessels, they can actually cross the Pacific Ocean without burning a single drop of fossil fuel. So the technological shift over the last 5, 10 years has risen really been massive.
- [57:00]
A
And finally are charter destinations shifting as clients look further afield?
- [57:05]
H
The charter destinations if we look at the big bulk of, of charter we as Fraser we, we sell about 7,000 days of, of charter every year. It's a pretty sort of steady transitory route. The summer usually spent India in the Mediterranean and the winter season occasionally India in the Bahamas and the Caribbean. There is more appetite for sort of further away destinations, be they further north or further south. But about 60% of the traffic is still the Mediterranean and about 30% is in US adjacent waters, Caribbean, Bahamas. So then the remaining 10% is pretty evenly spread. But we do see yachts venturing further now than Maybe was typical 10, 15 years ago.
- [57:49]
A
Anders, thank you very much indeed. That's Anders Kurten who is CEO of Fraser Yachts. And it's time for us to sail away. That's all for today's program. Thanks to our producers, Chris Chermack, Carlotta Rebelo and Ryuma Takahashi. Our researcher Joanna Moser and our studio manager, Steph Chungu, with editing assistance by Mariella Bevan. After the headlines, there's more music on the way and the briefing is live at midday in London, the Globalist returns at the same time on Monday, and I'll be with you tomorrow for Monocle on Saturday. I'm Georgina Godwin. 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.