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The Globalist
European commitment to renewable energy and security cooperation in the North Sea
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UBS Narrator
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.
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Georgina Godwin
You're listening to the Globalist, first broadcast on 27 January 2026 on Monocle Radio. The Globalist in association with U.
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Nina Dos Santos
Hello.
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Georgina Godwin
This is the Globalist broadcasting to you live from Midori House in London. I'm Georgina Godwin. On the show ahead, Europe needs to be able to do more by itself. I'm not pointing fingers at anybody specifics, but no continent, and definitely not Europe, should be dependent on a very limited number of suppliers. That's Denmark's climate and energy minister, one of 10 signatories to a vast fleet of wind farm projects in the North Sea. We'll look at how Europe is shoring up its own supply after a tumultuous week with the US over Greenland. Very little information is coming out of Iran due to the Internet blackout, but we do know the situation is dire for protesters. We're joined by a journalist who has firsthand information from within the country about the circumstances on the ground. We'll have a flick through the international front pages and then we'll hear about an Olympics exhibition.
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Ed Stocker
Our warming planet is changing the nature of winter sports, affecting everything from how we protect our skin to the equipment used.
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Georgina Godwin
We'll find out why the US plans to raise tariffs on imports from South Korea to 25% and and have a roundup of news from the Mediterranean before giving you a preview of a highly exclusive jewellery show currently sparkling in Paris. That's all ahead here on the Globalist, live from London. First, a look at what else is happening in the news. Japan's prime minister says the US alliance would collapse if Tokyo stayed neutral in a Taiwan conflict, while walking back earlier remarks that hinted at direct military action. President Donald Trump has moved to defuse tensions with Minnesota leaders after two U.S. citizens were killed during federal immigration operations in Minneapolis and truck drivers across four western Balkan countries blockaded border cargo terminals in protest over EU entry rules. Do stay tuned to Monocle Radio throughout the day for more on those stories. Now, 10 European countries have signed the Hamburg Declaration at the North Sea summit, committing to build 100 gigawatts of jointly developed offshore or wind, connected for the first time by shared Undersea cables. What began in 2022 as a way to cut dependence on Russian energy has now taken on a new political edge as Europe looks to reduce its reliance on the United States after a turbulent week in transatlantic relations over Greenland. Alongside renewables, the summit's focused on the security of offshore infrastructure amid growing fears of sabotage and maritime interference. Well, I'm joined now by regular Nina Dos Sant, who's an international broadcast correspondent and the former CNN Europe editor. Nina, good morning to you.
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Nina Dos Santos
Good morning.
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Georgina Godwin
What is new about this agreement compared with the existing web of interconnectors that Europe has already?
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Nina Dos Santos
Well, what's new about this agreement is that they're going to be building massive offshore wind turbine sites. And these are various different EU countries. And also the UK is involved as well, that's now outside of the EU to deploy really big tenders for creating these offshore wind farms that will be connected by all sorts, sorts of subsea cables and interconnectors. And they're going to do it really quickly. So this is a part of an original plan that was devised back in 2023. So just after the invasion, the full scale invasion of Ukraine back in 2022, Europe, of course, suddenly realized it really needed to do something to unhook itself off of Russian energy pronto. Now it realizes it also has to unhook itself off of American energy that supplanted some of that Russian supply. And particularly after the difficult conversations that the Western alliance has been having with the United States over Greenland, there's been this massive acceleration to realise, look, guys, we really need to do this now because let's face it, wind may be unreliable, but it's not always as unreliable as the US Trump administration at the moment.
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Georgina Godwin
Absolutely. And of course, we realize the vulnerability that Europe has and that there has been this political shift from energy independence from Russia to strategic independence from the US But I wonder if linking wind farms directly to multiple countries changes the economics in any meaningful way for us, for the consumers. Will it end up being more expensive?
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Nina Dos Santos
Well, we're not quite sure as of the moment. But let's take a look at the energy mix, though. And you can definitely see that, you know, we are pretty heavily dependent on the United States. Liquefied natural gas exports from the United States heading over towards Europe have increased fourfold since the full scale invasion of Ukraine. As obviously, as I was saying before, lots of EU countries have tried to sort of scale back on their energy imports. And those energy imports from Russia are going to start to expire at a quicker rate. In the next year or so with some of those last countries that are still holding out with their contracts, see those contracts expire, particularly places like Slovakia and stuff like that in Eastern Europe. But we still take in about a quarter of our energy needs as a continent from gas. So nobody's saying that wind energy can completely supplant all of this and replace it. Indeed, look at what's happened in Spain, where they very quickly rejig their energy mix to put in a lot of renewable energy. And of course, they've had a lot of very severe power outages depending on weather. So energy security is also about getting the right mix, but also access to that energy is high geopolitics. And I was speaking to the head of a very big UK energy company who was pointing out more or less, he said, look, the reality is it's never going to be completely renewable because politics is at play and somebody always wants to have the power in their hands physically, and that means the actual source of the power as well.
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Georgina Godwin
I wonder how real the risk is around offshore infrastructure security. What are the most vulnerable areas, where do the threats come from and how are we going to protect those?
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Nina Dos Santos
And this is the big thing that they're having to think about in this project. So what they've committed to that's different from in years gone by. By the way, this North Sea Summit is in its third iteration because they got started about a year after the full scale invas of Ukraine. And originally they had committed to creating 300 gigawatts. Now they're committing to the first 100 gigawatts of that 300 gigawatt project, which is still quite a lot. I mean, it'll power 143 million homes across European countries. Just to put that into context, that's roughly the power needs of entire country, like the United Kingdom. So it's a big thing, but it will work if everybody works together and they're able to get this energy from the wind turbines in the middle of the North Sea and out towards where it's needed. And that will require really complex engineering project of infrastructure like these interconnector cables. These are the sort of big energy cables that go under the sea, but they're going to have to do more to protect them. Because we know that over the last couple of years, Russia has been engaged in an increasingly aggressive hybrid warfare with European countries by dragging anchors at the bottom of the sea and unearthing these sensitive cables, including Internet cables, but also energy cables as well, cutting off entire parts of so they noticed that this was a problem about a year or so ago. They developed an action plan on cable security that meant that they're going to bury these cables under the ground. But of course, as you'd imagine, that makes it an awful lot more expensive.
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Georgina Godwin
Absolutely. Finally, Nina, would you say that this summit is genuinely about. I mean, I'm sure it is about climate policy, but is it more about trying to redraw the map of power in the North Atlantic?
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Nina Dos Santos
I think that's a very good way of putting it, actually. And what it's going to do is it's going to pit the United States again and again against Europe. You know, the fault lines are things like technology, whether or not NATO is worth its salt anymore these days. And we saw Donald Trump on the stage in Davos just a few days ago saying that wind turbines, like this enormous fleet of wind turbines that Europe's just agreed to sign onto, are, quote, unquote, for losers. You know, you have an administration in the United States that hitherto has been, under previous governments, a big ally economically of Europe that is very keen to push hydrocarbons. And Europe, of course, is pivoting off on its own more green agenda. And that is another one of those political fault lines. But as I was saying before, it's also about who holds the power, whatever power source that is, and developing wind turbine technology like Europe has invested in. By the way, they're going to have to figure out where they buy these wind turbines from. Remember, China's been getting in on this game, and this is a hugely sensitive question for Europe as well. Do they have their own wind turbine infrastructure? Big Danish companies make wind turbines. I've been to go and film them up there. Germany has huge wind turbine technology, but can they make them at scale? Can they make them well enough so that Europe can be becoming more energy independent, or will they have to buy some from places like China because the United States won't like that either?
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Georgina Godwin
What's the timescale on this?
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Nina Dos Santos
I'm not entirely sure. I've been having a look at that. I think it probably will depend upon how quickly, as I said, they're going to be able to do this, but they want to do it as soon as possible. So presumably within the next couple of years, as part of this rollout, that'll see them potentially triple this 100 gigawatt capacity, up to 300 gigawatts in the future. As I said before, though, to make sure that it is resilient, Europe also needs an energy mix so that you don't get these big fluctuations in the grid system. And they're going to be investing a huge amount in the grid system as part of this sort of tripartite agreement. Part of it is finding investment, part of it is having the technology and making the wind turbines, rolling them out. And the other part is really making sure that their infrastructure is future proof and security proof as well.
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Georgina Godwin
Nina, thank you very much indeed. That's Nina Dos Santos, former CNN Europe editor. And this is the global. It is 1041 in Tehran, 711 here in London. Iran remains under an almost total Internet blackout with contact inside the country extremely limited as the government crackdown continues. A U S based human rights group says it's confirmed nearly 6,000 deaths since the unrest began, mostly protesters and it is investigating a further 17,000 reports while Norway based Iran Human Rights warns the final could exceed 25,000. Authorities in Tehran put the figure at just over 3,100, saying most were security forces or bystanders. Donald Trump has said he's sending an armada, but those who defiantly took to the streets in the early days of the protests now appear increasingly cowed. The latest videos, believed to date from the 8th and 9th of January show security forces firing into crowds, bodies left lying on pavements and bloodied protesters being dragged into vans by planes close offices as families scream in the background. It's pretty harrowing stuff. Since then, most Iranians have been cut off from the Internet with only fleeting access via tools like Starlink and VPNs. Well, I'm joined now by Tara Kangalu who's a journalist for NBC, CNN and Al Jazeera as well as the author of the Heartbeat of Iran. She's been able to speak to her contacts within the country. Tara, many thanks for joining us. What then is it actually like on the streets? What do your people tell you?
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Tara Kangalu
Thank you so much and thank you for covering this important story. I would start by saying this very powerful sentence that a dear friend actually told me yesterday from Isfahan. She said it's as if we're all in a coma and we have no idea if or when we're going to wake up. And I think this is a general sentiment among millions of Iranians. Again, just to put things in perspective, Iran is a country of 90 million people and categorically they have all been in this digital prison, as you mentioned. Another person, a source of mine that I spoke with yesterday as well, said all of us as we slowly just for minutes get access to Internet, wish that we didn't because the videos that are circulating are just harrowing. We're realizing what we've lived through and what we are continuing to live through. So sometimes we wish we weren't able to connect because they're now, as you can imagine, Georgina, seeing some of these awful, awful, harrowing videos that have been emerging. So it's an incredibly precarious situation. But once again, I will say the Iranian people feel abandoned. They have been brutally stifled by the regime at home. And Donald Trump, as you mentioned from the earlier days of the protests, came out and said, people of Iran, we are here to help you. But of course it's a wait and see game and we have to yet see what that help looks like, if anything.
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Georgina Godwin
What does normal life look like then for people who are just trying to get on with things there? How do they go about their, their daily business?
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Tara Kangalu
Awful. Awful. And another person that I spoke with just two days ago, he said, he's a businessman, he said, Tara, everything is on hold, everything is on pause. And you have to realize that Iran was already suffering from horrific economic conditions. And we can confidently say that the country is fully bankrupt in an, in a full economic collapse. And at a time when people don't have access to Internet, you can only imagine people cannot do business, people cannot work, some folks go to the office. But of course, given the total disillusionment and depression and the state of mourning that the country is emotionally, people are in a stalemate position. On top of that, the schools are all online communication is very limited, even amongst people. On top of that, there is a police state. People are afraid to talk amongst themselves on the phone. The communication is also very limited, huge surveillance. So on the ground it's, the situation is quite harrowing for a population where over 50% was already living under poverty.
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Georgina Godwin
Line and other protests still continuing in any form.
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Tara Kangalu
You know, if we are not seeing thousands on the streets as we saw two weeks ago, the will of the people is certainly there, but these numbers are not seen on the streets. And again, that's not because people are somehow content or, you know, no longer demanding the changes that they demanded or are trying to reconcile with the regime. No, but the only reason there is they saw that their fight with bare hands and they're brutally killed. So that's the only reason we're not seeing these numbers on the streets again. But I need to underscore that the will of the people is there and they are not reneging from their demands. In fact, if anything, they more so want a change and full dismantling of this regime.
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Georgina Godwin
I mean, but given that the Revolutionary Guard is so embroiled in every aspect of the country, economically, socially, politically is the most likely scenario that instead of perhaps that there's talk of son of the Shah instead of him, that the Ayatollah would be ousted by the irgc, the Revolutionary Guard and citizens would be looking at a situation similar to Egypt where the military is in charge.
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Tara Kangalu
That's an excellent point. And I mean these are discussions that you hear. We have to remember that the Ayatollah, the supreme leader pretty much controls the irgc. Right. But within that IRGC apparatus there are extremely powerful figures. And yes, there are two names out there, Lari Johnny and Khali Bob. These are extremely powerful figures that sources have told me even before, you know, this round of protests and what we've seen in Iran this last month, that these two will be there to take over potentially as well as Khamenei's son. So there's a discussion and, you know, conversation around what comes after Khamenei. We really have to wait and see because so much of it depends on what the United States has in mind for Iran. And we need to not discount that. I mean we saw what happened to Venezuela. You take a leader out and then you put another one in. And of course you mentioned Egypt. So in some ways anything and everything is possible. Georgina. But I will say the, the region, Saudi Arabia, I was just in Saudi Arabia. The Gulf countries as well as Turkey, they are wary and worried if there's an all out fall of the regime. They don't want, want chaos in Iran because it's going to have an impact there. And so what the United States does next would have a regional impact. But the bottom line is the highest price in this political game is being paid by millions of Iranians who are really risking it all and have giving their life for what they tell me, honestly just a normal life, that's what they want.
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Georgina Godwin
Time, Tara, thank you very much indeed. That's Tara Kangalu, author of the Heartbeat of Iran. Now still to come on the program.
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Brenda Tuohy
Hi, Brenda Tuohy here in Paris Place Vendome for high jewels. It's the haute couture of the industry. And if you listen in later, I'm going to reveal what gemstones, what gold, what everybody's showing. It's truly spectacular.
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Georgina Godwin
I'm our luxury markets editor there, Brenda Toohey. This is the globalist.
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UBS Narrator
Craft is a matter of perspective, a unique outlook, an obsessive attention to detail with UBS's Chief Investment Office, Houseview. We're focused on identifying the latest investment opportunities and market risks to help you achieve your financial goals. So you get the big picture broken down into thought provoking insights. Delivered daily and curated by over 200 globally connected, locally active analysts. UBS banking is our craft.
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Georgina Godwin
It's the globalist. It's 7:20 in London. I'm Georgina Godwin and in the studio with me is a communications and media advisor, Janelle Alldred. Welcome, Janelle.
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Janelle Alldred
Thank you.
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Georgina Godwin
I know you've been on the show a few times with my colleague Emma, but this is the first time we've met and I'm very happy that you're sitting here with us to talk first of all about the situation in Minneapolis. Of course, this is garnering headlines all over the world. You've chosen to go with the Guardian on this one.
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Janelle Alldred
Yeah. I think it's an interesting moment in what seems like a definite escalation of violence. And as we know, well, more than two people have been killed by ICE agents. But the two American citizens recently killed has kind of brought us to the fore. And you can see there's protests happening. So now what's happening is the White House is actually beginning to change its tone a little bit on what's happening. And the man who was running the operation, who's been running the ICE operation, Gregory Bovino, and who was doing the press conference when Alex Pretty was killed and kind of calling him a domestic terrorist, he's actually been moved out of Minneapolis and Minnesota and he is going to go back to the border. And Trump is now bringing in a new czar, but someone who worked under Barack Obama. So Tim Homan is going to be the new person responsible for ICE on the ground. Still very much interested in a very aggressive tactic. But I think all sides recognize that something had to change. Local government. Tim Walsh, who ran with Kamala Harris as her vice president pick, he's in the state and you know, they're asking for to be able to run a local kind of police investigation into what happened. And so you can see that things had kind of come to a very untenable head. How much this will change things, how much this will allow people to feel safe when there's still thousands and thousands of ICE officers in Minneapolis. We will see whether that will dampen down things. But I think things have got to a really difficult, beyond difficult, actually I don't think difficult even goes far enough place and something needs to happen. But it's interesting to see the White House Kind of. I wouldn't quite say they're backtracking, but I would say recognizing that they need to change tact, because the U.S. public now, if ICE are here to protect U.S. citizens and actually two U.S. citizens have been killed by ICE. Well, what does that mean?
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Georgina Godwin
Yeah. And of course he was now facing pushback from some Republicans.
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Janelle Alldred
Yeah. And I think from once your own party starts to stand up to you as well, and kind of with the midterms coming up in November this year, he will have his mind on that also. And I think there comes a point where you can overreach your powers. And I think they have definitely been in overreach for a long time. But now it seems like finally people in his own party are actually beginning to, to stand up to him a little bit and kind of say, hang on, we can't do this. But I think that has been a result of the recent death and you know, 10 shots fired the way they came out so strongly saying he's domestic terrorist, no investigation. Kristi Noem. You know, I think actually it's all a bit too much.
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Georgina Godwin
Yeah. And all of this really, I mean, you know, we can joke about alternate truth, alternate facts and all the rest of it, but all of this honestly just, it would seem, fantasy. Now here's another fact. Fantasy. If you're told that North Korea is paradise on earth, would you believe it and would you then subsequently go and live there?
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Janelle Alldred
I don't think I would personally, but this was actually quite a long time ago. It's actually quite a sad story about what happened to a lot of people who were sold a story that they're moving to North Korea would be an idyllic life. And there are actually more than 90, 000 and I hope I pronounced this right. So Nichi Korean so they' ethnic Koreans who lived in Japan. And so they were then enticed to come back to North Korea between 1959 and 1984, when actually, you know, now we do see a flood of news coming from North Korea. In a sense we understand what's going on there. But how much they would have understood about what was actually happening in North Korea back then is questionable. And so they've actually done a years long battle to claim compensation because they actually face a lot of hardship. They weren't allowed to leave the country. Some of them escaped. And after 40 odd years, they were a long time kind of living in these harsh conditions. And so they've had a legal fight to say we want compensation. Now the Japanese government at one Point said this is a non starter because actually how can they force North Korea to pay this compensation? So although they've now eventually won a court case, I think it was 2022, it was denied, but now they've actually won a court case to say, okay, I think it's some four hundred and something thousand pounds equivalent that they should owe this compensation. But how, I can't see North Korea saying, okay, well we'll give you that money. But I think it's devastating, obviously, for people who've lost 40 odd years of their life in harsh servitude when they were kind of sold a story about a different life.
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Georgina Godwin
Let's, let's go to the Middle east now. And this is a story that's going to influence next steps in, in Palestine because Israel has recovered the body of the last hostage in Gaza. And of course they've always said as soon as that happens, they will open the Rafa crime crossing.
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Janelle Alldred
And so now we have to wait and see whether or not that will be honored because Israel is saying, well, the second stage of this peace plan, which of course Trump's hand is again all over, as he's all over foreign politics at the moment, in a very overreaching way, is part of the demilitarization of Hamas and kind of decommissioning them. So they're still saying, well, this is the second part of the peace process. Yes, we will open Rafah only to pedestrian, not to humanitarian aid, not to any commercial vehicles. So where does that actually leave the people who are in Gaza? Because that's the only crossing that they even have to leave Palestine. So it seems like this peace plan is kind of a peace plan that's still very fraught at every single stage. Also, everyone's claiming victory for recovering the last body. Israel is saying they've done a great job. Presses Trump's press secretary saying that Donald Trump has engineered this. But some top US Senior officials have actually said it was the Egyptians and the Qataris who actually helped to make sure that this body has been recovered, help them to locate it. So it's really. And it's also hard to see because once it comes off the news headlines, which it hasn't really been for a few weeks, I think it's kind of gone quiet and I feel we go in these cycles of ice. Zelensky, Israel. And it's kind of almost like nothing can all be at the top at the same time because so much is happening. So when it becomes that it's not actually on the news anymore, it's actually hard to get sight of how the peace process is actually really going. So yes, we've seen this development, so now it's gone back to the top. But it doesn't really seem like there's a clear sign that humanitarian aid is going to be opened up. And I think if the number one thing that the Rafah crossing opening needs, needs its humanitarian aid.
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Georgina Godwin
Absolutely, absolutely. Just a quick look now at this social media addiction trial in California.
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Janelle Alldred
Yeah, it's a really interesting one and it's been called a landmark case by the BBC, but it seems that there's been lots of attempts to take social media tech companies to court about the way it affects young people, the way it affects all people and social media, so called addiction, where so far the tech companies have pushed back is on the fact that it's third party content. They can't be in control of what you or I post on social media. But this case, which includes a 19 year old woman, is actually taking them on the algorithms and the platform design and the actual, the mechanisms that the tech companies themselves are in control over in how addictive do they make it, the notifications, the way that content is pushed and, and that is the tech company's responsibilities. So they're actually going to get Mark Zuckerberg in court testifying in this quite early on in the trial. And it seems that if they do manage to get somewhere with this argument that actually it's not about the content, but it is about the content. It's not about the content, it's about the way the social media giants have set up their systems to be addictive and to push certain content, then actually that could open the way to more cases because that is a case that is, is directly on them.
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Georgina Godwin
I was speaking to Tim Berners Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, and I asked him if there was anything he regretted, particularly about sort of social media and all the rest of it, and he said no, it's about how you use it.
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Janelle Alldred
I would agree with that. I think social media is a tool, as the Internet is a tool, as AI is a tool. And I hope we learn from what's happened with social media, with the way that we use AI as a tool and the way that you can't predict how things will grow, spiral, evolve, mutate. But social media is a tool and I think there are lots of good things and this kind of ties into the social media ban for like under 16. So my partner's Australian, his children live in Australia and his 12 year old you know, has had one of his accounts deactivated because, you know, he's underage and now cannot have a social media account. But there are ways around things like this. You can get an international vpn. There's so many things you can do. I think, I think the serious conversation can't be, well, you just can't have it. I think the serious conversation does need to be about the mechanisms, how it works, what they're pushing to young children, because in other ways, you know, my nieces and nephews can connect with his children for miles and miles and build friendships and relationships and connect over funny memes and different things like that. But yeah, there is a really harmful side of social media if unchecked even for adults. So I, I will be interested to see if they manage to make this case about the way the architecture of social media is constructed. I actually think there's something interesting that we can then actually have a really interesting conversation about what social media means and how we should use that tool.
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Georgina Godwin
Absolutely. Janelle, it's been lovely to meet you. Let's connect on Instagram. Janelle Elgin, thank you very much. You're with the Globalist on Monocle Radio. Now here's what else we're keeping an eye on today. Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi says the U S Japan alliance would collapse if Tokyo failed to act during a Taiwan crisis. She distanced herself from earlier comments suggesting military action, adding that Japan would only respond within existing legal limits. President Donald Trump spoke with Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey after two US Citizens were killed during immigration operations, signaling an effort to de escalate the crisis. Trump said federal agents would begin leaving the state and agreed to allow Minnesota to conduct its own investigation. And truck drivers in North Macedonia, Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro blocked key border crossings over EU Schengen rules limiting their stay. They say the restrictions are leading to deportations and threatening regional trade. They this is the Globalist. Stay tuned. Now for a look behind the headlines, here's Monaco's Europe editor at large, Ed Stocker on an Olympics exhibition that's offering a cultural glimpse into the future of winter sports.
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Ed Stocker
With 10 days to go until the Olympic Winter Games, Milano Cortina, the Lombard capital is getting competition ready. There might be frantic round the clock construction work at David Chipperfield's Santa Giulia arena to get it over the finish line. But one element of the global event is already raring to go. The associated cultural calendar. Tomorrow, the White the Future of Winter Sports exhibition opens at Milan's triennale sweeping Architecture, Design and Technology. It has a focus on how our warming planet is changing the nature of winter sports, affecting everything from how we protect our skin to the equipment used. The exhibition, which runs until the 15th of March and features everything from fashion to furniture, is created by German industrial designer Konstantin Jurich and the director, director of Triore's Museum of Italian Design, Marco Sammichelli. The cultural Olympics during the Games to me are important not just because I'm a museum director, sammichelli tells the Monocle Minute. It's also because together with sport, they represent a set of values that remind the audience how important it is to live together in friendship and harmony, giving importance to none, knowledge, innovation, technology and good design.
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Georgina Godwin
Many thanks there to Ed Stocker, Monocle's Europe Editor at large, and for more you can sign up to our daily newsletter, the Monocle Minute. Head over to monocle.com forward/minute and listen out for Monocle Radio at the Winter Olympics, live from the Allianz Tower in Milan. Milan, this is the Globalist. Well, now I'm joined in the studio by Greek journalist and regular Monocle contributor Emanuele Bapacellevu, who first I always get it wrong, don't I?
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Emanuele Papavasiliu
No worries, It's Papa Vassiliou. Hi, Georgina, how are you doing?
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Georgina Godwin
You're here to have a flick through the Mediterranean papers, particularly the sort of top Greek stories. So I mean, we've seen the whole way across the United States, basically the whole country, apart from Florida having this terrible city. All of us this morning have battled here to Midori House.
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Emanuele Papavasiliu
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Look at me.
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Georgina Godwin
You are drenched, poor man. But there's also powerful storms hitting Greece.
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Emanuele Papavasiliu
Yes, they are. There are powerful storms hitting Greece, I mean, all over Europe, but in Greece specifically, because as I was saying in a previous Globalist spot last week, the problems with the country's infrastructure and every time it rains, basically Athens becomes drenched in floods. Now, what happened recently is this powerful storm just hit Greece and it caused widespread damage across the Attica region. Unfortunately, two people were killed in the south because of the floods, specifically in the suburbs of Klifada. There were heavy rainfall led to severe flooding, there were vacations, landslides, power outages, two municipalities declared a state of emergency and schools closed, limited public services, etc. The problem here is that Greece is at a point where its economy is booming, it's rising, it's doing great, and it's focusing a lot on new, exciting, great projects, such as, for example, they're opening up new metro lines, the Al Nikon tower in the south. That is like a great project. However, there needs to be a lot more attention into the boring stuff. You know, fix the roads, make them not flood every time it rains, especially in the capital. And get into that, let's look at.
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Georgina Godwin
Some other sort of infrastructure stuff. And this is about defense because there has been new hardware delivered. This is a flagship frigate.
- [35:50]
Emanuele Papavasiliu
This is very important because we live in an age of like big geopolitical instability as we know. The good news is that Greece is, this is part of a broader armed forces modernization plan in Greece. And Greece has just taken the delivery of one of its latest flagships frigate. It's called Kimon. It's a French made FDI class vessel. And we're expecting three more frigates, frigates to arrive within the 18 months. This is going to completely revolutionize the fleet in Greece. And you know, it's a transition to a new era. The ship is significantly going to boost naval surveillance, air defense and missile capabilities. And it matters because you know that defense modernization is a strategic priority. However, it also highlights this contrast here going back to the first story that, you know, the stage is spending a lot on high end defense. However, civil infrastructure at the time remains very vulnerable.
- [36:48]
Georgina Godwin
I want to have a look at aviation now and I find this fascinating. Greece has just inaugurated its first direct flight between Athens and New Delhi.
- [36:56]
Emanuele Papavasiliu
Yes, I think this is important, very important because you know, it has inaugurated its first direct flight between Athens and New Delhi operated by Indigo Airlines at the moment. Tourism Minister Olga Kefaloyani is on the way to India in this first flight right now for a 24 hour visit. And she's there to talk about more stuff than aviation, mainly, you know, diplomacy. They want to open new consular offices in Mumbai and Bengaluru, talk about visas and bringing more visitors from India. But however, this opening of the flight is very important because it opens up the routes and it comes at a time where Aegean Airlines, the flagship carrier of Greece, plans to launch long haul routes, two international routes in spring, in 2026. And this will open up the road to start doing so. And it's going to look for further destinations this year and the next in the Maldives, Nairobi, et cetera.
- [37:59]
Georgina Godwin
So I mean, it's fascinating because we are seeing India reach out more and more and more. Of course, it's the world's most populous democracy. Last night I was at Indian National Day celebrations at the Guild Hall. Absolutely packed, but not, I mean, with diplomats from, from everywhere. The speaker of Parliament was there, but it was just you got a sense of this incredibly powerful community. And I think it's very interesting to watch how India is now reaching out to the rest of the world.
- [38:26]
Emanuele Papavasiliu
Reaching out to the rest of the world. And this is something definitely that Greece needs to capitalize on. And obviously they're jumping on the opportunity.
- [38:33]
Georgina Godwin
Yeah, Manu, thank you very much indeed. Greek journalist and regular Monocle contributor Emmanuel Papavasiliu. You're listening to the Globalist on Monocle Radio.
- [38:46]
UBS Narrator
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- [39:21]
Georgina Godwin
It's 1639 in Seoul, 739 here in London. On Monday, US President Donald Trump announced plans to raise tariffs on imports from South Korea to 25%, citing delays in approving a U.S. south Korea trade deal agreed last year. The South Korean government says it will not given formal advance notice and is now scrambling to respond. Well, I'm joined by Steve Borrowick, who is a staff writer for Nikkei Asia in Seoul. Steve, good to have you back on the show. Why is it, what's Trump up to? Why is he considering raising tariffs on South Korea? Now.
- [39:58]
Steve Borwick
He said that the reason that he's going to do this is a failure on the part of the South Korean government to pass the bill needed to implement the terms of the investment agreement that the two leaders made some months ago. So Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung first agreed to this trade deal when Lee visited the United States in July of last year. And then at the APEC summit in the South Korean city of Gyeongju in late October, they kind of put a bow on the agreement and nailed down some specifics for when it came to how South Korea would apportion this $350 billion investment. And at the end of that meeting, there was a lot of smiles and handshakes and a real tone of celebration for the South Korean side. This was a pivotal agreement because it got tariffs from 25% down to 15%, which put it on par with peer exporter countries such as Japan and the European Union. But what Trump said in his Truth Social post this morning was that South Korea has not taken the necessary steps to actually implement this agreement and actually execute this quite large investment. And so in Trump's post, there was a kind of A tone of exasperation and impatience, sort of that. But he's kind of tired of waiting around and he's taken this measure to kind of light a fire under the South Korean policymakers who are overseeing this move.
- [41:28]
Georgina Godwin
So why has the deal been delayed within the National Assembly?
- [41:33]
Steve Borwick
That depends on who you ask. Earlier today, the floor leader of the People Power Party, which is the main opposition party, the kind of customarily more conservative and more kind of of pro US party, blamed the Lee administration for this. And they said that the delay here was because the Lee administration had not gone through the proper steps to kind of build the necessary consensus and explain the terms and sort of iron out the finer details and then get it passed in the National Assembly. So you know what Lee and Trump came up with at their meeting in Gyeongju, it was a fact sheets. You know, it wasn't a terribly long or detailed document. It spelled things out in, in kind of broader strokes and was kind of aspirational in tone. But when it comes to the real nitty gritty work of government, there's the complication that these two sides already have a free trade agreement. They have this alliance that goes back a long way. Sort of like how does this new, the, these new terms of investment fit into what's already on paper? And you know, how exactly does this get carried out? It seems to me like what's really holding held things up is that they haven't figured out those details yet, but I have to assume that they will feel a new level of urgency to do so.
- [42:50]
Georgina Godwin
And is it already impacting the markets?
- [42:54]
Steve Borwick
Some of the stock prices of major South Korean automakers such as Hyundai Motor and Kia were definitely down in early morning trading. Those losses narrowed as the day, as the day went along. I think the market has just been closed. So they did close down somewhat, but I think the market is probably waiting to see if the South Korean side will be able to communicate with their US Counterparts and kind of bring a greater air of stability to proceedings.
- [43:22]
Georgina Godwin
I mean, how serious is this for South Korea at this stage?
- [43:28]
Steve Borwick
Time will tell. It's definitely potentially very serious because we're talking about a very large investment. This is $350 billion. And if that goes ahead in US dollars, that's going to create even stronger pressure on the South Korean currency, the yuan, which has undergone quite a lot of depreciation in recent months. That's been a real cause of concern for the government. And some quite high ranking South Korean officials have said that there just isn't fiscal room to make the kind of very large investment that the Trump administration wants to see South Korea make. Like just speculating on my part. I mean, I have to assume that there was some kind of hope in the, on the South Korean side that, you know, as Trump got maybe distracted with some of the, maybe the domestic matters in the United States or any of the quite large number of other international matters that he's involved with, that sort of attention would fade and it would give them time to work out, you know, the most beneficial way for Seoul to carry forward with this. But that patience seems to have evaporated and they are definitely under a lot of pressure now. It's a little bit early to say just how serious this might be in a kind of broader economic sense, but it is an. And it was very unwelcome news this morning, we can say that for sure.
- [44:47]
Georgina Godwin
Yeah. Steve, thank you very much indeed. That's Steve Borwick of Nikkei Asia in Seoul. And this is the Globalist on Monaco Radio. The Voice of Hind Rajab, a powerful and moving film that won the grand jury prize at 2020-25's Venice Film Festival, has just been released in cinemas. The film centers on the harrowing true story of a six year old girl trapped in a car under fire in Gaza and the first responders attempting to rescue her monocle. Radio senior correspondent Fernando Augusta Pacheco spoke with the film's Academy Award nominated director, Katha Ben Hanier, to discuss why she felt compelled to tell the story.
- [45:40]
Ed Stocker
Just begin, dear.
- [45:51]
Katha Ben Hania
I was doing the Oscar campaign of my previous movie. It was nominated actually Four Daughters for an Oscar. But I was in middle of this red carpet thing and at the same time I was glued to the news following what was happening in Gaza and thinking all this is trivial, you know, what does it mean to be an artist or to be a filmmaker when the unthinkable is happening, you know, when reality is sometimes beyond imagination. And I was preparing another movie, actually about to enter the pre production that they've been writing for several years and then I heard the voice of Hindra Saab. It was in social media, it was small extract and she was begging for her life. And it's not like a normal thing to hear a child begging for life, you know, so when you hear it, you can't unhear it, you can't go with your daily stuff. And it impacted me in a very, very deep way. I was sad, I was angry, I wanted to sh. I needed to do something. As I said, what is this thing you Know, what can I do? I'm a filmmaker, I can maybe do movie, but wasn't obvious in the beginning because it's a real story about a real child. So I needed to reach out to the family, to reach out to her mother if she's like open to this idea. And I thought that I don't need only her approval, but I need also her blessing, you know. And her mother is just such a courageous, wonderful woman. She told me, listen, I want justice for my daughter. And if this movie can help in a way, because there is no accountability, you know, for the Israeli army, if this movie can make some pressure, can bring some justice to my daughter, please do it. Then I started the real work, you know, which is, you know, you have this strong emotion in the beginning. You want this emotion to be shared with the audience. But in between you have all the Russian decision making decision, you know, of filmmaking, of creative choice, of technical choices to made, you know, to. So you can convey or share with the audience what you felt as, as an artist.
- [48:11]
Ed Stocker
And the film is quite unusual. I don't think it's a very straightforward film, you know, because you do use her voice in the film. I think that was probably your way to honor the young girl as well. I never seen something like this. That's a first. Were you confident about that would work and that would be the best way to.
- [48:30]
Katha Ben Hania
No, you are never confident. When you are a filmmaker making a movie, you are eaten by doubt. But since it's not my first movie, and since I explored this kind of movie before, you know, Four Daughters was like this. I did several movies like this. I did documentary, I did fiction. So I knew know at least the set of tools that cinema can give me to tell an impactful story. I needed to tell an impactful story, but I needed also to be respectful because it's a sensitive thing to tell the story of the murder of a child, you know, finally, which is. And it's. It's war crime and it's a shame. And all those elements made it very, very tough. But for me, not doing it wasn't. Wasn't an option. So for the hybrid side, for example, since I made the choice to tell the story far from the car, since we have the voice, you know, I made the choice to stay with my camera, with those who did everything in their power to save this girl. For me it was the right place to be. But to make it in a pure documentary form, it wasn't possible because not all of the first response wanted to be filmed. So I told myself maybe the best way is to have another distance, you know, which is to bring actor and to go back. This will give me the possibility not to tell something about, you know, story that happened in the past, but to do moving the present dance, like with the immediacy I felt when I heard her voice. So the actor gave me this, you know, impactful and also distance, you know, respectful distance. So I found the equation interesting. But also I was aware that when you bring actor on the table, maybe for the audience it will be synonym of something fiction, you know, a thriller or something. Yeah. So that's why in the movie I wanted the contract with the audience to be very clear. Those are actors, they are portraying real people. And even those actors sometimes stop acting in the middle of the movie and they start listening to the voice of the real person, you know, till this moment when I think happen, which is the bombing of the ambulance where the actor disappear and we see the real person on screen.
- [50:58]
Ed Stocker
Sometimes I have to say, I think some people, they might not hold all the details. They become desensitized with the new stories. And I think, and that's where I think your value as a director. It is because watching this film is a completely different experience, if you know what I mean, than watching a news bulletin very quickly on the BBC or any other church channel.
- [51:17]
Katha Ben Hania
Yeah, sure. I mean, I met, you know, people when they watch it, they often tell me the movie changed me, you know. But you have some people who tell me like, I'm afraid to watch can be very hard, you know, and the movie is not hard, you know, you don't see one drop of blood in the movie. It's not graphic. It's about people in an office listening, you know, and talking with this little girl. It's not that hard. And I think we can't look away, like, say, ah, I, I don't want to watch it. We can't afford to look away. I, we need to bear witness, you know, and if it's hard, there are several ways to change things. You know, everyone from his perspective, what he's doing, you can always do something about it.
- [52:11]
Tara Kangalu
Your.
- [52:27]
Georgina Godwin
That was Monaco Radio senior correspondent Fernando Augusto PCO speaking to the director Kalda Ben Hania. The voice of Hind Rajab is out now in UK and Ireland cinemas. This is the globalist. So we end the show in Paris where the fashion world is briefly swapping catwalks for carrots. Monocle's luxury markets editor Brenda Tuohy is at Place Vendome. Brenda, what are you doing? There. Exactly.
- [52:59]
Brenda Tuohy
Well, at the minute I'm just nipping in a hotel out of the rain because it's cold, quite bleak and wet. Today it's been glorious. Otherwise, I'm looking at jewelry. I'm looking at the best of the best. It's really the haute couture of the jewelry world. The one off pieces that really are treasures, wonderful things that I'm looking at. On Sunday we had Dior that was just fantastic. They set it up like a museum exhibition. They had ribbed glass and behind that glass were huge floral displays. And then in each little display box they showed pas of fantastic jewelry. Tassels in yellow gold and white gold. Yellow diamonds. White diamonds. I mean, really just a feast for the eyes.
- [53:50]
Georgina Godwin
Absolutely. So what else happens at High Jewels?
- [53:54]
Brenda Tuohy
Well, in January it's not as crazy as it is in July when they also show it's each jewelry house showing their best jewels, showing really what they can do best. So after Dior on Sunday, I went to see Anna Hu on Monday. And Anna Hu has an incredible apartment on Place Vendome. You know, really, really wonderful. The highest ceilings, fantastic sculptures and art. And she shows her work normally florals, and she did not disappoint. They were all orchids. The orchids are created in titanium with a sort of a ceramic placed on top. Now they look fragile, like porcelain, like the finest porcelain. But in fact they're very, very hardy and resilient. She had little wrist corsages which reminded me perhaps of prom d, you know, when I was much younger. But fabulous little wrist corsages with titanium and green wrapping around your wrist. And lovely orchids sitting proudly on top. Really stupendous. After that I went to see Gaia Repossi at Repossi and she created another version of her father's famous blast collection, which she did in yellow gold and white diamonds. She has kind of broken the mold a little and gone with pink gold and colored gemstones, citrine, orange, garnets, peach tourmalines. And then she did another version of Blast in white gold with tanzanite, sapphires, pariba, tourmalines. It's quite modern, quite bold and very sculptural. She had the maquettes there in gray clay which showed what she had worked from and what her father had worked from originally. I'm about to have a full day today. Bulgari, Boucheron, Chaumet, Mexica. It's going to be fun.
- [56:02]
Georgina Godwin
And Brenda, when you get to high end jewelry at this level, are you seeing themes and fashions kind of come through or does it generally tend to stick to quite a classic look?
- [56:14]
Brenda Tuohy
Do you know, you do see themes and fashions. We had asymmetry a couple of years ago, you know, no pair of earrings. The ear pendants were not the same. I saw a little bit here. There were quite a few tassels, you know, fringed collars, that kind of a thing. But I think that houses tend to do their own, they tend to walk to their own beat. You know, most of them have been doing it for a very long time repost, I think 70 years, you know, somewhere like malaria, you know, generations and generations and generations. So they're very confident they know who their customers are and they create, you know, whatever they like really.
- [56:59]
Georgina Godwin
And are diamonds still a girl's best friend? What are you seeing in terms of stones and popularity?
- [57:06]
Brenda Tuohy
I tell you, it's quite funny with diamonds now, isn't it? Because I mean, we have natural diamonds, which are the real diamonds, and we have lab grown diamonds which are less valuable and of course easier to purchase. They're not as expensive. And then we have a fashion now for salt and pepper diamonds, for desert diamonds. I'm going to feed the beers tomorrow. Diamonds of brown colors, yellows, beiges, they're quite fun too. So diamonds don't have to be sparkly white. They can come in all colors as we know the most valuable of all, a blue diamond. But there are diamonds, you know, mauve diamonds. I think diamonds are pretty much best friends.
- [57:51]
Georgina Godwin
Well, our shining, Brenda, thank you very much indeed. That's Monocle's luxury markets editor Brenda Tuohy in Paris about to have another sparkling day. And that's all for today's program. Thanks to our producer Chris Chermack, Tom Webb and Angelica Jopson. Our researcher, Anneliese Maynard and our studio manager is is Christy o'. Grady. After the headlines, there'll be more music on the way. And then the briefing is live at midday in London and the Globalist will return at the same time tomorrow. I'm Georgina Godwin. Thank you for listening.
- [58:44]
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