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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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Emma Nelson
You're listening to the Globalist, first broadcast on 19 March 2026 on Monocor Radio. The Globalist in association with U. Live from London. This is the Globalist with me, Emma Nelson. A very warm welcome to today's program. Coming up in the next 60 minutes, the targeting of Riyadh while a number
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Peter de Loa
of diplomats are meeting I cannot see
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Partial Speaker (continuation of C or D)
as coincidental, and I think that's the
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Francis Collings
clearest signal of how Iran feels about diplomacy.
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Emma Nelson
Middle Eastern diplomats gather in Saudi Arabia to discuss the Iran war, only to find the meeting coming under fire. Meanwhile, a key Qatari liquefied natural gas complex becomes another high profile target, with an Iranian attack causing extensive damage. And Israel intensifies its fight against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. We'll have the latest on that too. Elsewhere, we'll explore how China's long term strategy to dominate trade may be helped by the world's uncertainties and vinyl continues to be strong.
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Fernando Agusta Pacheco
We've seen 19 consecutive years of growth for vinyl, but last year in the physical category, overall we did see a small dip, whereas it has absolutely bounded back this year.
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Emma Nelson
Good news for the music industry. Global recorded music revenues are on the up, plus an update from the Passenger Terminal Expo 2026 and some South Korean cultural news too. That's all coming up on the Globalist, live from Lond. First, a quick look at what else is happening in today's news. Thailand's parliament votes today to elect a new prime minister, with a caretaker leader, Anatin Chan Virkul, expected to win by a majority. Thousands of demonstrators in Turkey have protested outside Istanbul's City hall to mark one year since the arrest of the mayor, Ekrem Imomolu. And Japan has seen a record number of visitors in February with 3.46 million arrivals. Stay tuned to Monocle Radio throughout the day for more on these stories. But first, there's been a significant rise in tensions between Iran and its neighbours following an attack on Iranian facilities in the South Pas gas field. Within hours, Tehran responded, launching attacks against Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar. Doha said five ballistic missiles launched against its main Raslafan gas facility have caused extensive damage and were a direct threat to its national security. Now joining us now from the Oman UAE border overlooking the Strait of Hormuz is in Zamam Rashid, Monocle's Gulf correspondent. Welcome back to Monocle Radio Insy.
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Zaman Rashid
Good to speak to you Emma.
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Emma Nelson
So there was this, this enormous step up yesterday firstly with the targeting of the Iranian South Paars gas field and then Tehran's response against the Qatari or the joint owned Qatari Ras Lafangas facility. It's, it's a big escalation isn't
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Zaman Rashid
is the conflict I think went to a new level overnight because it escalated in a very dange way militarily but also I think there's a shift in tone from some countries directly involved in this war. So as you mentioned yesterday, Israel attacked Iran's South Pas gas field. It's the world's largest natural gas site and is a core pillar of Iran's energy supply. We then saw the first shift in tone from the UAE as a result of that and Qatar, they strongly condemned that Israeli attack on the gas field stressing that attacks constitute to a direct threat to global energy security. Security and they reminded Israel indirectly without actually naming them to abide by international law. Iran then of course responded. They initially ordered evacuations of energy supply sites across the UAE and Qatar and Saudi Arabia as well. And then within a few hours of that threatening notice they attacked. In Qatar Iranian missiles struck and caused as you mentioned extensive damage to the country's main gas facility at Raslafan in Abu Dhabi. The UAE shut down the Habshan gas facility after that was attacked. And in Saudi Arabia two refineries were attacked by Iranian missiles and drones. But so too was the capital's diplomatic quarter where a meeting of these foreign ministers from Arab and Muslim nations was being held to act to discuss sorry the ongoing conflict and as a result the Saudis are outraged.
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Emma Nelson
Emma, it sounds that Iran knows exactly knows where to put to target.
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Zaman Rashid
Well, it seems. Well look this Foreign ministry meeting firstly was pretty public. It was announced by the GCC and other countries and I think what the response is from Saudi Arabia brings us to the second shift in tone. Saudi Arabia's Foreign minister Prince Vessel said that the Iranian attacks on Saudi last night were calculated and that they were blatant blackmail and warned Iran that the patients being exhibited by the Gulf states right now is not unlimited. He said that Saudi Arabia and the Gulf have very significant capabilities that could be drawn on should they choose to do so. He also added that following these rounds of attacks from Iran there is little trust all the little trust that was remained in Iran has been completely shattered. I think it's becoming increasingly clear as well, Emma, now that the Gulf states are as a whole want this war to end for obvious reasons, economic reasons, and of course the continued impact it's having on their nations. But it wants it to end by the decimation of this Iranian regime. Because they know now that strikes on the likes of uae, Qatar and Saudi Arabia could in fact be a regular occurrence. Once the US leaves, once the Israel stops fighting with Iran, the Gulf is left here to still take any heat directly from Iran. And that's something that these countries just can't afford.
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Emma Nelson
And which way do you think they are going to go with this one? Because what Iran's intention was at the start of this was to pressurize these nations by placing them directly in, in, in the crosshairs to push back against America and Israel and say stop this now. Are they any closer to capitulating towards this idea that Iran wants them to do, or are they much more focused on pushing back against Tehran now, as you say, with trust gone?
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Zaman Rashid
Well, I think, like as I mentioned, that kind of rhetoric that came yesterday, the response that came yesterday from the UAE in Qatar about the attack on the gas field in Iran was pretty much the first time we've heard the Gulf states kind of push back to, towards Israel about the way that have carried out this situation of the conflict over the last few weeks. But then of course, you see the UAE responding to Donald Trump's call to get warships out to the Strait of Hormuz, which I'm looking over right now. There are still hundreds and hundreds of vessels parked up waiting to get the green light that they can pass through, transport 20% of the world's oil, which usually goes through these waters. And the UAE responded to Donald Trump's, to Donald Trump's call for NATO allies and for other countries to bring warships to these waters to get the oil flowing out here once again to take back control of these waters. The UAE said that that's something that they would be willing to do and join the U.S. in so clearly support in some elements towards the U.S. i think also let's just, if I may move to the third point of shifting tone, and that's come from the US President directly because he posted last night suggesting that he wasn't aware that Israel were going to target the South PAS gas field in Iran and actually threatened himself to blow up the entire gas field if Iran hit Qatar again. But he also sent a clear message to Israel, Emma, he stated that no more attacks will be made by Israel on this facility. Clearly, the two countries that started this war are not on the same page. And Donald Trump will not want to be seen as a president who's losing a hand on this very expensive conflict.
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Emma Nelson
Indeed. I mean, Trump has denied any prior knowledge of Israel attacking the South PAS gas field. And this was pushing back against reports that the strike was coordinated and approved by the US Administration. So if we have the US And Israel now, not necessarily publicly being seen as acting in tandem, what consequences does this now have on the rest of the conflict?
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Zaman Rashid
Yeah, I think it has huge consequences because then it means that Israel is acting as a rogue state. It's not acting in lockstep with the United States. And what the United States ambitions are and Donald Trump's ambitions are for this conflict. We've known for a while that Israel has wanted regime change. They've also spoken heavily about Iran's nuclear capabilities. That's been going on for decades and decades. And finally they've found a president who's willing to join them in this war on Iran. But it's not been entirely clear what the US Wants out of this conflict. Donald Trump hasn't really been explicit about his aims in this war. And so I guess he's left that door open to be adaptive and, and, you know, I guess maybe also, also adapt to the tune of the Israelis. So I think it will be interesting to see how that relationship goes on. Meanwhile, the US Carries out their own attacks. They've targeted missile sites along the coast of Iran here near the Straits of Hormuz. They drop multiple bunker ballistic missiles, bunker busting missiles on some of these Iranian missile sites here along the Strait of Hormuz to essentially try and stop Iran targeting vessels in the water, making it a threat so ships can finally pass through. So US Carrying out their own missions as well. There is also some suggestion that the US and Israel both could been involved in the death of some of the key figures over the last few days inside Iran, including Ali Larajani. But that was the man that the US Were keen to actually take over their regime. That was the man that the US Were keen to start having diplomatic discussions with, to start negotiating with. And so Iran taking out that man will also have, I think, consequences on the relationship between the two nations that started this war. But clearly it is Iran, the Gulf nations, that are suffering the consequences of continued military might from the US And Israel into a fourth week of this conflict.
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Emma Nelson
In Zaman Rashid Monocle's Gulf correspondent overlooking the Strait of Hormuz. Thank you so much for joining us on the Globalist. Now, Israel is waging war on two fronts. Yesterday it launched a series of strikes on the Lebanese capital Beirut as part of its targeting of the Iran backed militia Hezbollah. At least 10 people were reportedly killed. Israel has also ordered a strict evacuation order on large parts of southern Lebanon, saying it will soon target key river crossings as well. Joining me in the studio is Yossi Meckelberg, senior consultant fellow at the Middle east and North Africa program at Chatham House here in London and Suzette Dakazali, he's also from Chatham House, a fellow there and a former UN advisor. Good morning to you both. Right, let's just come to you first, Yossi. We've just heard there that this discussion about who actually approved the attack on the Iranian gas field perhaps exposed a parting of sort of a kind of conflict, a disagreement between Israel and the United States in terms of what the strategy is. I mean, do we know what Israel's overall strategy is both in Iran but also in Lebanon? Do they have an idea?
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Yossi Meckelberg
I think the playbook is very similar in both places. Using maximum force, try to eliminate the leadership, hurting the economy sometimes make it very difficult for the population in hope that actually people will go to the street. It's different because in Iran this is against the regime and in Lebanon it's again an organization which is very powerful within the state. So in the hope that the government will do something, the military. But I think the idea, the concept is very similar, put maximum pressure and hope that, you know, it will create change. It weakens the sides enough to create an internal or domestic change. The problem with that, we are week four into this and it hasn't happened. And they expect at the beginning they talk about 72 hours, then it was five days and so on and so forth.
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Emma Nelson
Are you surprised by this? Is it?
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Suzette Dakazali
I mean, look, Yoshi's absolutely right. It is a play, playbook that has been read from for a long time. I would add on Lebanon. I think it's also establishing presence in Lebanon. I mean, Israel has been destroying the Litany river bridges since yesterday, which cuts off tenths of Lebanon land basically from the mainland. And that means that Israel is intending to also establish a buffer zone there and displace thousands of people. So I would add the presence as well and creating chaos. I mean, what it's doing actually is creating chaos. It's leaving Iran much more chaotic and leaving Lebanon much more chaotic.
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Emma Nelson
Indeed. I mean, we're seeing reports yesterday of tens of thousands, thousands of people being subject to a strict evacuation order in southern Lebanon at least. And people saying that actually the Israelis are targeting civilians. I mean, how much of an accurate assessment is that?
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Yossi Meckelberg
It's difficult to know. It's not necessarily that, you know, they target civilians, but it became a collateral damage as far as. So it's as bad as. Because if you then take into account, you know, the life of civilians and what, what suffering you're causing. We saw it, it's in Gaza. So at certain point, whether you are deliberately doing that or doing that because you don't care enough to look after their well being, I think it becomes not important anymore. The fact is civilians are suffering and even if Israel keeps saying that, you know, we're doing that for their own good because if they are not there, we can't harm them, they won't be at the end of the day those are people that have been displaced so many times along the years as a result of it. It's not to say that, you know, there is no danger from Hezbollah or from Iran. It's the way how you go about it. And right now it's again is the using the excessive force without an exit strategy and probably with not objectives that are achievable.
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Emma Nelson
And this is very different from the fact that, you know, it is not long ago is it that Israel declared victory over Hezbollah and there was a ceasefire. It also carried out military strikes against Iran and then pulled back. But this time it feels very, very different.
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Suzette Dakazali
It does. And let's remember also that when we say there was a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, I mean it wasn't really implemented. Israel maintained some post presence in posts in Lebanon that it never evacuated, although it should have done that in accordance with a ceasefire, but it did not. It continued to be present in Le Lebanon after the ceasefire has been signed. And that puts the Lebanese government in a very peculiar odd position as well. I mean it's a government that is struggling anyway. It's struggling to provide services to its population. It's got sectarian problems as well. It is not really hasn't made much progress on the Hezbollah disarmament, although this process has been going to some extent. But look, I mean just covering on civilians at the end of the day, civilians do pay the high in the war. I mean look at Iran. It's at the end of the day it's the people there that are going to be paying the highest cost.
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Emma Nelson
And this is something that applies across the board, isn't it? I mean Iran is seeing the conflict as an existential threat, as is Hezbollah in Lebanon.
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Yossi Meckelberg
I mean, the regime in Iran, it's all about its survival. Again, it's not. The Iranian people want this regime again. As he said, at the end of the day, the civilians are paying the price. And In Iran, it's 47 years since, since the revolution and they pay heavy price every single day. We know it's an oppressive regime. People were in the streets only weeks ago, try to change it, but they are caught between external forces and domestic forces. And both of them, the well being in civilians became the least significant issue for them. And it continues. And if this war can drag on for quite a long time, it's not. You might just change it for more higher intensity to lower intensity. But because they already put the stakes so high, they don't have a retreat strategy out of it and then we can see it for weeks, if not month.
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Emma Nelson
And this is the issue, isn't it, that Trump declares victory left, right and center. But this does not mean anything on the ground, does it?
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Suzette Dakazali
No, it does not. Because we have to be clear here that even when the US withdraw its troops from Iran, that does not mean necessarily the end of the war. It doesn't mean that there's going to be peaceful transition in Iran. It doesn't mean that there's not going to be that descent into chaos. It doesn't mean that civil civilian war is not going to happen. So all these scenarios are open and we've seen already that how the region has been impacted, how the whole economy has been impacted, the impact of this war are long term and they're not going to end by declaring some kind of a victory or a ceasefire.
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Emma Nelson
Suzette Darke, Chatham House Associate Fellow and former UN advisor, and Yossi Meckelburg, Senior Consultant Fellow at Chatham House too. Thank you both for joining me in the studio. You're listening to the Globalist with me, Emma Nelson. Still to come on today's programme, sales
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Tom Webb
like this can capture the full spectrum of a generation at the peak of their purchasing power that are consuming anime at an almost cultish level.
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Emma Nelson
Monocle's Tom Webb tells us why Christie's is hosting the first dedicated anime and manga auctions. So stay tuned.
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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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Emma Nelson
It is 8:19am in Paris, which is. We head now to join Francis Collings, Paris space foreign news correspondent who's made his way to Studio 5 in the French capital. Good morning, Francis. How's Paris looking today?
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Francis Collings
Paris always looks beautiful, as you know, Emma, it's fantastic.
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And of course, Paris in the springtime. We could write a song about that.
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Emma Nelson
Well, someone should, I'm sure someone. Take notes, everyone. Okay, tell me what's happening in the papers where you are.
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Francis Collings
Well, a lot of interest, mainly in Paris. But of course, what happens in Paris is reflected across the country as well in the mayoral race, which started last
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weekend and is now getting into the situation after the. The first round of horse trading and the pushing together of candidates. So we have the Socialist Party candidate, Emmanuel Gregoire. He took a commanding lead in that first round on Sunday.
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He's up against former Minister Rashida Dati. You may recall she was a culture minister under Nicholas Sarkozy a few years ago, got a high profile. She's a local mayor in Paris. She's running for the. For the Conservative Party, Le Republican. But she was well beaten into second place. And now we've got the horse trading going on because there's a merger between Dati, the Republican candidate, and a candidate from horizons of the center right. So that's boosted her potential vote in the second round on Sunday. Also lady called Sarah Knafo, who is from the Reconquet Party, from the far right, she withdrew from the race. We're not sure where her votes are going to go.
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And then we had a debate last
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night on TV between those two. And also Sophia Chikuru from the far
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left, from the France Insoumise Party, the France Unbowed Party. So France does love these TV debates. It does them very well. They're always very exciting when it comes to the presidential elections. And essentially it comes down to how well people perform and whether that's going to influence the votes on Sunday. Consensus seems to be that Mr. Gregoire did well. He's got a very sort of calm demeanor and he stays quite disciplined and gives the. The message, I am the candidate of unity and governability and allowed the other two to be fighting it out more or less on tv. So we have to see where the votes are going to go, where the allegiances are going to, to send people. But Gregoire, of course, he's part of the. The same a situation that gave USAN Hidalgo, the mayor for the last two terms, who has turned Paris into something of a cycling green paradise, so I'm told.
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Emma Nelson
Indeed. And we look forward to round two. Francis, it is exactly a year to the day that you and I met in the very studio that you are standing in to talk about the arrest of Ekrem Imomolu, the Istanbul mayor. We have spoken to him extensively at Monocle, and it came as a very big shock. It is now one year since his arrest, and as the papers are describing, there have been widespread protests in Istanbul.
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Francis Collings
Yes, there have. I mean, there were protests that we discussed a year ago when he was first arrested. And initially there was. We'll put it this way, the charges are somewhat spurious, but of course, the government says they're very serious. But there was one which referred to the fact that his university degree wasn't valid and that you needed a university degree to stand for president. And that was revoked, I think, on the 18th of March last year. And then a day later he was arrested. Led to a lot of protest at the time, a lot of passion, because there is real passion for politics in that country. And then effectively, it petered out. And it petered out because it's not going to get a lot of international attention, because nobody really in the west, apart from the odd statement here or there, is going to stand up and say, this is wrong. We want this to change and to take on redship Tayyip Erdogan, because Turkey a year ago, most of the time, is very important to what is going on in Europe and the West. And of course, with recent events going
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on that we've been discussing this morning already, exceedingly important. So there's going to be no support, effectively from the West. He's still in jail. The trial started a while ago. Various charges, I think 150 charges ranging from bribery, corruption, embezzlement. So it's unlikely that he's going to be allowed to run from jail for the presidential election in two years time. Prosecutors are wanting a prison term of 2,000 years.
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And effectively, we need to remind ourselves that this began with the fact that
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in the cities, his party, the CHP party, tend to do very well. They took Izmir, they took Istanbul, they retain them.
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There was an election when I was living there in Istanbul where the candidate, Benali Yildirim, didn't win. He was from Erdogan's ACT Party. So they decided to have a revote and he lost by an even greater margin when the count was revoted on. And that's when Imanolu first came to prominence and I think they first began to realize that he was a serious proposition.
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Emma Nelson
Let us move to stories about what's happening in Belgium. There are former high ranking diplomat has been charged over the assassination of the first prime minister of Congo in 1961.
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Francis Collings
What's happening here, it's quite remarkable. You don't normally get people of the age of 93, which is. We're talking about a chap called Count Etion Davignon, who's a former EU commissioner. He was a diplomat at the time. People of his age being put on trial. Normally it's for, it's, it's old Nazis, if you recall. It's all very murky. This was the first elected prime minister of Congo post independence, Patrice Lumumba, who was assassinated. His name still carries a lot of power in, in Africa. Very popular and there's always been a lot of suspicion about his death. Ousted from power and then later killed by Belgian backed secessionist rebels in January 1961.
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They had a parliamentary investigation into his killing In Gosh, over 20 years ago and he concluded Belgium was morally responsible for his death. But now we have a trial of this man, Count Etion Davignon, as I say, junior diplomat. It's the first prosecution related to this murder. So it's quite remarkable given how long ago it was and how long this has been been floating around. You'd have thought that it would have been effectively put to bed. He's also accused of involvement in the murder of two political allies at the time. And of course, you know, we should also mention that there are other suspects in the case, but most of them are no longer with us. So it is just this chap not present in the courtroom on Tuesday. Lawyers not commenting at all on the case. But Lumumba, anti colonial icon, really in Africa at a time of course, when
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many nations were pushing for independence.
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Emma Nelson
There is an excellent article in the FT which describes all this and the fact that it is not very often that you get elderly members of the aristocracy up on, up on murder charges. Finally, let's talk about fake food. Francis, what is fake food and why should we worry?
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Francis Collings
Fake food is something which apparently is a concern to the European Union because fake food can pop up and we don't know about it. Mislabeling. For example, you could be buying some Italian olive oil. But is it Italian? Does it come from somewhere else?
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Is it olive oil? Well now the EU is rolling out an AI tool across all countries to detect food fraud. It's called Trace Map and it's going to use data that's already existing in agri food systems to track trade patterns and production flows. And so apparently whenever food shipment leaves its place of origin, there is a data TR transport importer lab tests and the AI is connecting all these dots instantly. So it's looking for things like a company suddenly importing a lot more olive oil than usual, products that jump strangely between countries, supply chains that don't really make sense. And apart from the fact that they're looking at the fraud aspect of this, there's also the health aspect of this because the AI needs to be detecting whether of course, this food is healthy. It's passed all the test.
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But one article I was reading about this said that the people who may be guilty of some sort of food fraud are also now starting to use AI to defeat the AI program that the EU is implementing. So we have a battle of the AI as to whether your Italian olive oil is indeed Italian.
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Emma Nelson
Marvellous. Francis Collings, Paris Space Foreign News correspondent in our Paris Studio 5. Thank you so much for joining us on Monocle Radio. You're with the Globalist. Now here's a quick look at some of the stories we're keeping an eye on today. Thailand's parliament votes to elect a new prime minister today with the caretaker leader Anatin Chanavikul expected to win by a majority. The rival People's Party is expected to field the strongest opposition candidate. Thousands of protesters in Turkey have demonstrated outside Istanbul City hall to mark one year since the arrest of the mayor. Ekrem Imelolu, the rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was detained last March. And Japan saw a record number of visitors in February with 3.46 million arrivals. Even with a slowdown of Chinese inbound tourism due to diplomatic tensions, the month saw a 6.4 rise on last year with one early blooming cherry blossom festival drawing around 630,000 visitors. This is the Globalist. Stay tuned. Now it's time for a look behind the headlines. Here's Monocle's Tom Webb on why Christie's is hosting its first dedicated anime and manga auction
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Tom Webb
as a new cohort of younger buyers enters the art market. Auction house Christie's has responded with with its first anime focused online auction. From iconic Studio Ghibli movie posters to illustrations of anime characters, collectors who grew up with anime and Manga in the 1990s has witnessed their subculture become a legitimate art form. Takakai Murakami, head of Christie's Japanese and Korean art department, told me the anime market has strong potential for growth right now. Recently there was news about a Pokemon card that made a record price of more than $16 million. Showing the strength of the market. But it isn't just sales of objects. Institutional exhibitions also help cultivate market influence. This is the kind of attention we have never seen in the past. Auction houses are also responding to a more cautious shift in collectors tastes, veering towards lower priced art. From $600 you you can walk away with an original Japanese movie poster for the animated 1988 classic Akira. Or in the same sale you could bid for an original Yoshitomonara illustration with a higher estimate of $120,000. Arts and culture writer Anna Vukardin told me it's a response to the taste of millennials and Gen Z. Heavily influenced by coveting social media's more pop aesthetic aesthetic, sales like this can capture the full spectrum of a generation at the peak of their purchasing power that are consuming anime at an almost cultish level.
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Emma Nelson
And that was Monocle's Tom Webb. Anime starts here. Japanese subculture reimagines tradition runs online until the end of this month. For more you can sign up to our daily newsletter the Monocle Minute just go to our website monocle.com. 1532 in Beijing 8:32am in Zurich now a geopolitical upheaval conflict and wants allies becoming untrustworthy partners. The search for stability and safety has increased in urgency while China has reportedly stepped up to offer this to a world in need of steady supply chains and predictable tariff rates. My next guest argues that all this is fitting into a ferocious political ambition or its Ram Charan, who's the author of the book China's 90s Model and he joins us from India. Good afternoon to you, Ram. Explain to us you've written this book called China's 90% model. What is that? What is a 90% model?
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Ram Charan
Yes, this is the most insidious thing it is China produces total factory output that is equal to 90% of the demand of the whole world. As a result, the cost of the last unit becomes very low and they sell it at that price and incur losses and then they earn the trade surplus 1.25 trillion last year. No local company can ever compete and no people will invest money in building those factories in their countries. And therefore China dominates.
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Emma Nelson
And this is something that it's been planning for how long? This idea of building capacity to meet 90% of global demand and then to make sure that it sells below market
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Ram Charan
rate minimum 25 years. And it is destroying the Industries in America, in England, in Germany, in India, all major free countries because those industries are being shut down. Furniture, shoes, solar.
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Emma Nelson
What kind of resistance is possible from other markets and from other countries?
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Ram Charan
The game is now fully baked up, up. And most Western countries have to rethink by getting together to create a similar scale and challenge the China production and prevail for China to reduce this model. Otherwise the economies will suffer badly.
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Emma Nelson
How much of the recent events, I mean events going back four or five years, geopolitical tensions and war, how much have they reshaped global supply chains and turned people's focus to China as a reliable partner?
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Ram Charan
The problem is China has today full control not to supply the major supplies to the Western world. You have to negotiate with them. They want technology, you want supply of key materials and there is no other way except negotiating.
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Emma Nelson
Ram Charan, author of the book China's 90s Model, which is out now. Thank you so much for joining us on Monocle Radio.
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Yossi Meckelberg
You.
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Emma Nelson
Now here in London, one of the British capital's more cavernous event spaces XL has been transformed into a playground for brilliant ideas about airports. The passenger terminal export has been on this week, roaming the halls, wearing out his shoe leather is a journalist, Zach Proctor, I'm delighted to say he joins me in the studio. Good morning, Zach.
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Zach Proctor
Good morning, Emma.
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Emma Nelson
How are we feeling after? Are our legs a little tired from the Excel?
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Zach Proctor
A little. A little bit.
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Emma Nelson
It's a huge cavernous place, isn't it? And when you go to something like the passenger terminal expo, it's almost like going into a sort of enormous Richard Scarry play airport, isn't it?
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Zach Proctor
It is, it is. And with so many architects there who are behind a lot of these amazing airport concepts, you're walking around, you're surrounded by models. I mean the Foster and Partner stand was superb. It was phenomenal. You walk over to Zaha Hadid, I mean the scale of the architecture, I think the ambition of it is just immense. And you really feel that on the ground.
- [36:58]
Emma Nelson
Tell us, where are we going to get foster and where are we going to get hedge? Indeed. Architecture popping up in terminals soon.
- [37:03]
Zach Proctor
Well, there's a lot of focus on the Middle east and obviously there's been a lot of focus on growth in the Middle east in the last couple of years in particular when it comes to driving that tourism. I mean, I was on the ground in Riyadh just in January and actually you really, really feel that when you're there is that they are preparing for something huge, which is this tourism drive in the coming Years.
- [37:21]
Emma Nelson
I mean, we do have to factor in what's happening recently in the Middle east and the fact that, you know, if you're closing down Dubai airport this massively and we're talking about the amount of the cost of passenger of aviation fuel. How much was that on people's lips at XL yesterday?
- [37:38]
Zach Proctor
It really was, Emma. I mean the industry right now, I think is in two different places at the same time and it's a very complex moment. On the one hand you have, as I say, this ambition, this aspiration and all of these amazing concepts which we're about to open, whether it be in Mexico City ahead of the Olympics which are coming. But then at the same time you are really hearing the impact of the current conflict on air travel. I mean it's impacted so many different sectors and industries, but air travel is one of the most significant. I mean, for me, I was actually flying through Dubai on my way back from Sydney on the day the conflict kicked off and I had just landed in Heathrow and managed to just escape it in time. But we all know somebody who is either trying to get out right now, was trying to fly through, is still got travel plan which has been derailed. I mean British Airways this week is just announced that they're cancelling all flights through Dubai for seaboard really until the end of the summer.
- [38:29]
Emma Nelson
Devastating stuff when you're trying to sort of effectively trying to keep the world moving. So while all that is being discussed and the long term future of aviation is being really poured over, we have this quite, dare I say it, strange and wild exhibition called the Passenger Terminal Expo. It has nothing to do with the aircraft itself, has it? It's got to do with how you move from A to B and get them on a plane at the right time. And it has all the permutations of it. So talk us through it.
- [39:03]
Zach Proctor
Exactly. I mean the main focus this year really is on innovation for passenger experience. And what was.
- [39:09]
Emma Nelson
What does that mean?
- [39:11]
Zach Proctor
That's a great question. I'm glad you asked that, Emma. I was waiting for that question. And it's interesting because there's a term we use quite a lot. We talk about seamless travel in the industry. And actually a lot of the conversations I've been having this week are about, well, what does it mean to be seamless? What does that actually mean? And the truth is that it's actually something different, everybody. So a big focus of a lot of the talks and the conversation this year was around the idea of hyper personalization. So technology is amazing in airports but. And we'll hear from someone from perspective on biometrics a bit later. But digitalization within airports is fantastic. But you have to be able to design for that choice. Not everybody who is entering an airport is necessarily digitally native. Some people actually want that physical interaction and that kind of first port of call, that first human is sometimes still really important moving forward.
- [39:57]
Emma Nelson
It is incredibly important. I think quite a few people at Monocle who would say that the day of automated check in was the day that the fun died. But there is this balance to strike now, isn't there? Because if you are dealing with bigger and bigger passenger numbers, you can't, let's be honest, have that amazing person at check in who issues that glorious waxy printed ticket anymore. What you end up doing is doing self check in with bags which you end up talking to a person about anyway because the stuff doesn't normally work. But how much our airports having to
- [40:31]
Zach Proctor
embrace technology, they really are. And I think a lot of what I've been hearing this week is that airports often are legacy institutions in a sense and kind of are steeped in tradition and they have a lot of stakeholders involved in making the decisions about the future of them. I mean we think Even just nearby US Heathrow Airport has been debating this third Runway for over 20 years now and the decision is still yet to be kind of concretely made. So I think that airports do have to embrace innovation at a faster pace than they are right now.
- [40:59]
Emma Nelson
And that tradition needs to be stitched into the airports infrastructure itself. I remember when Munich airport opened in what, 1995 and it was considered to be an incredibly high tech airport, but that is what now three decades old. So tell us what they're doing.
- [41:12]
Zach Proctor
Well, so Munich Airport for example is part of this amazing consortium which I was interested in speaking to Sharon David about. It is a kind of a world leading and quite an unprecedented collaboration between 10 different leading international airports. And what they're doing is iterating, prototyping, testing and sharing learnings from implementing these technologies in their airports. One of these that we touch on is biometrics. And this is fascinating to me because if you think about our perception of even that word biometrics, 10, 15 years ago would have struck fear of the average passenger, the average person. It might have conjured up the idea of 1984 loss of personal privacy. And actually now we're so used to using facial technologies to unlock a phone or complete a bank transfer. So it's really become part of our everyday.
- [41:55]
Emma Nelson
So let's hear from Sharin Daroud, his innovation manager at Munich Airport.
- [41:59]
Partial Speaker (continuation of C or D)
Biometrics is one. AI is, I mean, on the rise. And of course there are many other trends. For example, when it comes to the day to day business, robotics is a big thing and automation in general. So there are a lot of trends coming up and we try to identify what's the status quo at our airport. How can we use that technology? Are we ready for this technology or is it maybe something, something we have to build a foundation first.
- [42:30]
Zach Proctor
You mentioned biometrics there and I wonder because this is a technology for which our perceptions of it have dramatically transformed in the last decade and we've become so much more accustomed to facial recognition in unlocking our phones or completing a bank transfer. So have you had any adverse reactions to implementing this kind of innovation?
- [42:46]
Partial Speaker (continuation of C or D)
Biometrics is something that really is the future, but it also comes with I think again, a lot of challenges. You will always have great opinions about something. You will have some more critical opinions or maybe some people which are just a little bit more, let's say not the first movers. But in general, as we do offer different customer journeys, our passengers can decide whether they want to use that or they don't. I think of course the future will be a fully digital journey. Of course, for quality standards or when it comes to very specific situations, having a human in the loop is the main default, you know. But in general I would say that we get a very good feedback because it just runs more smoothly.
- [43:43]
Emma Nelson
That was Sharon Daroud, innovation manager at Munich Airport and talking to you about that. Zach, she, you know, she's, Sharon is clearly very clear in sort of giving people choice, which is not something which is terribly helpful in an airport because in many ways you need to have absolutely no self will so that you actually make it to your plane. It's almost a deliberate idea of discombobulating us. But there is that feeling that. And we're going to go back to this terrible phrase passenger experience. What do we want now from an airport?
- [44:11]
Zach Proctor
Well, I mean it's a great question and I think that, you know, here what's really important is that clarity of choice. And we're about to hear from the chief operating officer at Geneva Airport, Giovanni Russo, here, here. And it leads on quite nicely from my conversation with Sharon because we spoke together about the innovation adaptation that's required for airport operations here to deal with changing conditions. So in Geneva it might be the impact of a ski season, for example, and how an airport has to design for year round capacity, but also kind of put moments of higher capacity throughout the year, but then more generally in the industry and as we've discussed, there are increasingly unpredictable external factors that are really beyond anyone's control.
- [44:47]
Emma Nelson
Okay, well, let's hear from Giovanni Russo, the chief operating officer at Geneva Airport about all these questions that need answering.
- [44:55]
Zach Proctor
With passenger numbers rising towards 20 million at Geneva airport by 2030, how do you plan to service that capacity while preserving the punctuality and the quality of your service?
- [45:07]
Giovanni Russo
A key piece that we will, we're about to introduce is a new thermal expansion that will allow us to increase capacity, but also the, let's say a new ambience to the airport airport. So it will be best increases in check in but also security. And in the commercial areas.
- [45:26]
Zach Proctor
Is there an innovation that you think airports generally are falling behind on?
- [45:30]
Giovanni Russo
Again, the big challenge is that airports do not manage a lot of their processes. Look at check in for example. Check in is basically an airline process. If you want to innovate this process, you need to work together with airlines. And quite a lot of airlines still have legacy systems and cannot put push their innovations to the point they would like to. We are far from the credit card industry where you can actually withdraw money on virtually any ATM in the world. This is not possible the other way around at the airline business where you could use a single check in kiosk for all the airlines.
- [46:02]
Zach Proctor
We've seen quite vividly in the last two weeks when a global event has really major implications for air travel. So when something does go wrong, be it a weather disruption, a technical issue issue, even a star shortage, how do you prioritize actions in real time? And what's the first question that you ask?
- [46:17]
Giovanni Russo
Well, since we only control partially what happens in our infrastructures, we must be prepared for the unexpected. We can't really plan for it because there are so many elements that can occur that you don't expect. You need to have procedures, infrastructures and people that are able to manage any situation.
- [46:38]
Emma Nelson
Now that was Giovanni Russo who's from Geneva Airport and just listening to them there, it's like it's a one directional travel, isn't it? So to pardon the puns act about the fact that everything is going to be increasingly automated. But one thing that airports are having to think about is look, if we just look at what's been happening recently, the way we've talked about it, this idea of airports having to reinvent themselves in many ways as something much more than aviation, and this is a big priority for I don't know if you go to Zurich on a Sunday afternoon, everybody can go shopping at Zurich Airport. It serves a different purpose. The same thing's happening in Vienna, isn't it? An airport slightly out of town needs sort of create itself as a bit of a destination.
- [47:19]
Zach Proctor
Yeah. And the, the concept here really at Vienna Airport and is designing an airport city, essentially. And it's not what you or I might necessarily think when we think of an airport city, because my first impression when I heard that term was that it's somewhere for you and I to go and dwell and spend more time in an airport. And actually it's instead looking at an airport as a bit of a business campus and thinking it in terms of a real estate value and thinking, if an airport has to be shut down operationally for a few days, which is a huge cost to that airport, what other ways can it adapt to still survive financially?
- [47:47]
Emma Nelson
And what's Vienna Airport doing about this? Because you spoke to the airport city development head, didn't you tell us about that?
- [47:52]
Zach Proctor
Yes. So Peter Doe, he's the head of airport city development at Vienna Airport. And I mean, what he's looking at here is with what you've got on site, what can you create with that additionally? And rather than thinking about the passengers, actually, what are the business opportunities opportunities there, what are the people in that airport thinking?
- [48:09]
Emma Nelson
Well, let's hear from Peter.
- [48:10]
Peter de Loa
Airports need to transform. We saw in the past a lot of different events where the airport doesn't make money. The operational costs will stay because an airport cannot simply close. So there needs to be some revenue coming in. And real estate revenue revenue is very stable because you have a tenant agreement that is maybe five years or 10 years even. So that makes it easier for the airport to calculate the future or to calculate such risks.
- [48:50]
Zach Proctor
And when it comes to an airport city like one in Vienna, for example, how often do you think about the relationship between the airport city and then the city of Vienna itself?
- [48:59]
Peter de Loa
The Vienna airport city and Vienna as a city, they were competitive many years, but today Vienna city recognize the strength or the power of the Vienna airport city, and they see the Vienna airport city more as a cooperation partner than before.
- [49:23]
Emma Nelson
Peter de Loa there from Vienna Airport. Finally, Zak, the weirdness of this passenger terminal Expo conference. What was the strangest thing you saw this year?
- [49:31]
Zach Proctor
I'm just not convinced about these robotics yet.
- [49:33]
Emma Nelson
Okay, wonderful. Thank you very much indeed. Zach Proctor heading bravely to the Passenger Terminal Expo and conference here in London. Thank you so much for joining us on the Globalist
- [49:46]
UBS Narrator
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- [50:25]
Emma Nelson
Now. Good news for the music industry. Global recorded music revenues grew last year and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, or the ifpi, has released its annual Global Music Report. The IFPI represents the recording industry worldwide and although paid streaming services continue to drive the majority of the growth, it's been a great year for physical formats, including vinyl and CDs. Victoria Oakley is CEO of IFPI and she spoke to Monocle Radio senior correspondent Fernando Agusta Pacheco at their event at London's 118 Studios.
- [50:56]
Victoria Oakley
Victoria, what a pleasure talking to you again. Another excellent year for growth. And it's all across the board, I have to say as well.
- [51:05]
Fernando Agusta Pacheco
Yeah, you're absolutely right. Every single region has grown again this year. And as you can see, several of our regions are enjoying double digit growth. And our fastest growing region is Latin America. 17.1%. Those are numbers to be very proud of. China, outstanding as well. The fastest growing market in the top 20, growing at 20.1% in this last year. I mean these are, these are really great numbers and I think they're great numbers for a healthy industry. But a healthy music industry means really healthy for fans and for artists. And that's the critical thing here.
- [51:41]
Victoria Oakley
And the growth, I mean, continue to be of course in the streaming, paid streaming services, but we also had huge growth to physical formats and not just vinyl, but also CDs, which is incredible.
- [51:52]
Fernando Agusta Pacheco
Absolutely. I mean, who would have thought it, right? I mean most of my friends I talk to, they say nobody buys CDs anymore, but you know what, it turns out that they absolutely do. So yes, as you say, vinyl continues to be strong. We've seen 19 consecutive years of growth for vinyl. But last year in the physical category overall we did see a small dip, whereas it has absolutely bounded back this year. A lot of that is driven from the Asia market. So as we know in countries like Japan and South Korea, physical formats are very popular. And so when those markets are growing again, then we see physical output growing again.
- [52:27]
Victoria Oakley
I find it very interesting. Let's go back to Latin America because Brazil, client positions, Mexico is in the top 10 now. I mean, this is incredible. And artists like Bad Bernie, which you mentioned, is not only popular in those Spanish speaking Areas, but also in the US in Europe. I think this is an appetizer song of the year. It's the best selling single as well. First time that a known kind of artist from outside North America or Europe. So a lot of big changes are happening.
- [52:53]
Fernando Agusta Pacheco
Yeah, you're right, we are seeing a shift and I think that's great. Isn't it great that you don't have to sing in English to be successful? Isn't it great that K pop was one of the genre genres that showed us the way on that? I know some K pop artists sing in English, but many of them don't. And that's been a real demonstration of singing in your own language and reaching audiences well beyond your country. As you say, Brazil up to number eight. Mexico entering into, into number 10 in the top 10 markets rankings. And I mean Bad Bunny, just a phenomenon and a brilliant guy, right? But I think so exciting to see some of these markets taking what I would call their rightful place on the global music market stage and reaching fans well beyond their home. So called domestic consumption. Most artists, they start building at home, right? Your listenership, your fan base begins at home. And then especially with the help of your record label and the marketing team who are looking where there is interest elsewhere and where that that's kind of spiking up, particularly on social media, they start to help you as an artist figure out actually I'm really popular in Finland or I could really sell in Belgium and it's wonderful to see artists reaching fans wherever those fans are.
- [54:11]
Victoria Oakley
And finally it was a very optimistic report, I have to say. In terms of concerns. Is AI the biggest concern at the moment for the music industry, would you say?
- [54:21]
Fernando Agusta Pacheco
I want to be careful because it's both the biggest concern but also a huge opportunity. And I think different perhaps to a year ago. We're really seeing now the opportunities in which ethical licensed AI can work within music and work for artists and for rights holders. So I think I feel more optimistic perhaps than I did a year ago. But I think we have to be realistic that if, see if we get it wrong and if unlicensed generative AI is allowed access to train on artist's material without their consent or without compensation and that that music AI then churns out tracks that can compete with the original material it trained on, then we could be looking at a very dangerous world and a very real risk to creating creativity and the businesses that underpin creativity. So I'm more optimistic than ever that we will get it right. But that risk is still there.
- [55:19]
Emma Nelson
That's Victoria Oakley, CEO of the ifpi. She was talking to our senior correspondent Fernando Augusta Pacheco. And to hear the number one songs from the world's top music markets, why not tune in to the global countdown later on the briefing. Today you're listening to the Globalist on Monocle Radio. Now the K Pop superstars bts. BTS are back. They've done their military service and this weekend they play their first concert as a complete group since October 2022. More than a quarter of a million fans are expected to attend the area at least. And as a result, the authorities have raised the terror alert in the area. Well, to tell us more about this and to give us a more general roundup of stories from South Korea, let's hear now from Nemo Kim, a journalist specializing in Asian issues. She joins us on the line from Seoul. Good afternoon, Nemo.
- [56:12]
Nemo Kim
Hi, Emma.
- [56:13]
Emma Nelson
So an event so big they've had to raise a terror level.
- [56:17]
Nemo Kim
That's right. 6,500 police officers and military personnel will be involved in the whole operation and vehicles will not be able to enter the area for 33 hours. So the authorities are really treating this event as a state event. And I was there this morning, morning, and the whole area is really bustling. The scale of the preparation was really striking. A lot of tourists and also Koreans gathered simply to watch the staging take shape. And what stood out to me was that the crowd was not just made up of army style BTS fans. There were also older Korean. I spoke to a couple in their 70s and they told me that they feel a deep sense of pride because that area, Gwanghwamun where the concert will take place is the very place where anti colonial protests took place a century ago. So for many older Koreans, the significance of the BTS concert is not just about K Pop and bts, but also about how South Korea has changed. So more than that, like several people also told me, several Koreans, that the feeling that this, they have this feeling that this is not just something about Korea, but it's. They're hoping that it will be a moment in which Korea will offer something fun and enjoyable and something meaningful to the rest of the world.
- [57:54]
Emma Nelson
And it does just generally, generally re emphasize just how important BTS is, not just for South Korea, but for the whole world.
- [58:01]
Nemo Kim
Right. And it's pretty interesting that they the what's been. What's being reported, they're gonna walk down this stage, down this place called Walde, which used to be a place reserved just for kings of Joseon dynasties. So that is pretty symbolic. And also the area itself, Gwanghwamun, that's been Korea's political and really symbolic center, as I mentioned, From Joseon dynasty 600 years ago down to the Japanese colonial period. That place, you know, is like the heart of Korean identity. So for them to hold their comeback concert in that very spot, I think, and also for them to have gotten permission to stage the concert there from the authorities, I think that both of those mean a lot in terms of how important BTS is in Korea, not just among K pop fans, but on a national level level. And also Gwanghwamun, it has become a digital landmark recently. We have like media facades that some people are hoping that it will become like the Times Square of Korea. A lot of like LED screens that are 10 story tall. So many people are thinking that this event will hopefully do good things for not just for bts, but the image of South Korea as well.
- [59:46]
Emma Nelson
I mean, there is a general uptick, isn't there, on what is already established and respected feeling that the world has for South Korea and its ability to create and produce brilliant musicians and package pop so well. And that was reflected in the Oscars this weekend, wasn't it? Because the K pop demon Hunters song Golden was the winner for the best original song, right?
- [60:12]
Nemo Kim
The film itself was mostly funded. It was made with American money, I think Korean Canadian director Maggie Kang as well. So strictly speaking, it's not really a Korean film, but it reflects a lot of Korean elements. And director Maggie Kang, when she accepted did the Oscar award, she dedicated it to Korea and Koreans all over the world. And also as you mentioned, the film's original soundtrack, I mean, everybody knows the song, right? I think some parents are kind of fed up with the song. It marked the first time a K pop song has taken an Oscar. And singer songwriter ej, she wrote and performed the song song. She mentioned that when she was younger, people used to make fun of her for liking K pop, whereas now everybody's singing songs that have Korean language lyrics in in them. So that was really exciting for Koreans. Also, what excited many people here was the performance of golden, which incorporated traditional Korean cultural elements like, like traditional Pansory and chosen Dynasty costumes and so on. And there was also a fun K Pop touch. Light sticks, the kind used at K pop concerts, were handed out to audience members so you could see Hollywood celebrities like Brad Pitt and Emma Stone holding them, which was fun. But at the same time, there was some disappointment here because the acceptance speech was cut so short. Many felt barely more than a min minute and reportedly even a lot less time than what was given to the winner of best short film there, Nemo
- [62:03]
Emma Nelson
Kim, thank you so much for joining us on the line from Seoul. That's all the time we have for today's program. The warmest of thanks to all my guests and to the producers, Chris Chermack, Tom Webb, Hassan Anderson and Rima Takahashi. Our researcher is Anneliese Maynard and our studio manager was Elliot Greenfield with editing assistance by Steph Chungu. After the headlines. More music on the way. The briefings live at Ms. Midday here in London. The Globalist is back at the same time tomorrow. Join me for that if you can. But for now from me, Emma Nelson, goodbye. Thank you very much for listening.
- [63:00]
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