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We're proud to support the craft of journalism. UBS brings you the latest news from around the world with the Globalist on Monocle Radio.
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You're listening to the Globalist, first broadcast on the 4th of September, 2025 on Monocle 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, we'll be in Lisbon for the latest on the fatal crash involving one of the Portuguese capital's most famous tourist attractions, the Gloria Funicula. Also ahead in the next 660 minutes with Vladimir Putin striding out with the Chinese and North Korean leaders in Beijing. How can the west respond to such a gesture of confidence? The EU places a trade deal with the Mercosur group after a quarter of a century. We'll ask what went right and we'll look at Thursday's newspaper headlines. Anita Riota will join me in the studio. Good morning, Anita. You'll be looking at the Italian press today. Yes.
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C
We're going to see what the latest obstacle is in building the Ponte di Messina and a warning that is being issued to to tourists of Italian cities.
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Thank you very much indeed for that. We'll also find out why Thailand wants to be Tomorrowland. And the main thing is that we want to make a place that everyone can come here. Pint of Lingonbury Sour. Anyone will explore one Finnish town's remarkable love for brewing its own beer. That's all coming up on the Globalist live from London. First to look at else, look at what else is happening in today's news. A judge in the United States has ruled that the Trump administration acted illegally when it froze billions of dollars in research funds to Harvard University in the name of stamping out anti Semitism. The US has said it will continue military operations in South America in order to combat drug cartels following a military strike on a Venezuelan ship earlier this week. And a painting stolen by the Nazis has been found in Argentina after it appeared in pictures in an estate agent's listing for a house. Stay tuned to Monaco Radio throughout the day for more on these stor. But first, a day of national mourning has been declared in Portugal after at least 15 people died in a crash involving one of Lisbon's most well known tourist attractions, the Gloria Funicula. Rescuers say both Portuguese nationals and foreigners are among the dead. One eyewitness said they saw a carriage career out of control without breaks. Well, I'm joined now from Lisbon by Pedro Santos Guerrero, executive editor of CNN Portugal. A very good morning to you, Pedro. Thank you for joining us.
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D
Hello. Very good morning to you too.
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B
The pictures of the funicular are quite unbelievable. Mangled mess, aren't they?
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D
Yes, they are quite horrible. The city is just waking up not believing the way things went. I mean, the Glory Funicular is not only a very known tourist attraction, it's part of Lisbon. It's part of the daily lives of many locals from Lisbon that use it to go to their works, to their jobs and back to their home. So this is really quite unbelievable. I mean, it's used every day for a very long time, for over 140 years, and nothing of the sort hasn't happened. If you know Lisbon, you know that Lisbon is displaced upon seven ills. And there are some funiculus that are used slopes and this is one of them that goes for, I don't know, about three minutes travel to go from Staudoborz up to Bayerltu. It's less than 300 meters travel and it is indeed a tragedy.
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B
So it's this astonishing thing that it has such a short distance to go. So do we know what went wrong that caused such a catastrophe?
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D
Well, we don't, not officially. So investigations are underway, of course, but apparently it was due to a failure on the cable based braking system. And so the car derailed and it came down the hill, gaining speed until it finally crashed against a building. This system connects two cars. There's one that goes up and the other goes down and the weight of one helps the other. And they are powered by electric motors. According to some witnesses, the cable may have came loose along the road, so it's not yet determined. There are several investigations, like I said, including by criminal police, that admits crime by negligence and does not rule any other possibility yet. So we are expecting even because everyone in Portugal wants, including the president of Portugal that has demanded for them in.
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B
A short time, indeed we have a national day of mourning declared. And also in Lisbon you have three days of mourning. You mentioned the fact that this funicular is used both by tourists and locals alike. It is stitched into Lisbon city life. For those foreigners who were on that funicular yesterday, they were part of this enormous tourism boom that Lisbon has enjoyed recently, hasn't it?
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D
Yes, Lisbon has gone through, I don't know, in the last 10 years of a constant Boom. A constant growth on tourism numbers and, well, people are welcomed in Lisbon and most of the queries that are published show that people love to come to Lisbon. And of course, no one was expecting anything similar to this that could happen. We know now that there are 15 people that have been declared deaf. There are 23 others injured, five of those in the Syrians condition. There's no official information yet on who died, but it's certain that among them there are tourists from different nationality. We don't know how many, but we are sure now that there are terrorists.
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Among the Pedro Santos Guerrero, executive editor from CNN Portugal, on the line from Lisbon. Thank you very much indeed for joining us on THE Globalist. Now, the sight of Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong Un striding out together for the Beijing military parade yesterday sent a powerful message to the world that Moscow's allies are bound together and ready to help Russia withstand any pressure to bring about an end to its full scale invasion of Ukraine. And Mr. Putin went another step further by saying that the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, would have to come to Moscow for any talks or that Russia would end the war by force. So how do Kyiv and its allies respond to this in order to bring about a situation which could lead to a convincing and durable ceasefire? Well, they're all meeting in Paris today. And one man who's written about this recently for Foreign affairs is Michael McFall, director of the Freeman Spradley Institute and a Hoover Fellow at Stanford University. Michael was also US ambassador to Russia between 2012 and 2014. A very good morning to you, Michael. Thank you for your time.
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E
Thanks for having me.
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B
So this was a disheartening sight in China yesterday, wasn't it? This unsettling view of those three men. Vladimir Putin saying Volodymyr Zelensky will have to come to Moscow. There was defiance there.
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E
Well, absolutely. I mean, remember, the Russians have tried to kill President Zelensky numerous times. The idea that he would travel to Moscow is absurd. And I think just underscores how Putin is not taking the efforts by President Trump seriously about trying to begin negotiations to end this war.
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B
This is the key to it, isn't it? This is the way that the United States has behaved in the last six to eight months in terms of its relationship with Ukraine and its relationship with Europe. And this is something that Russia can quite easily capitalize on.
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E
That's right. And I do applaud President Trump for trying to end this war. This is a horrific, barbaric War and the killing needs to stop. I agree with you him on that. Where I disagree is his strategy for achieving that. His strategy has been to appease Putin, to placate Putin, to give in to all of his demands and put pressure on Ukraine. And that hasn't worked. Instead, what you've seen is Putin has upped the ante. He's asked for more. He's asked, for instance, for Zelensky to leave parts of Donbas in eastern Ukraine, which Ukrainian soldiers currently hold. And so I think the president, if he, if he's serious about ending the war, has to change his strategy. And that strategy has to include pressure as well as engagement and pressure in two forms, increasing military assistance to the Ukrainians and increasing economic sanctions on Russia.
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B
These are two things which Donald Trump has both promised and withdrawn. So it's not necessarily, would you say, the offer of military help and indeed that the push against Moscow to bring about a change in approach, but it is actually a question of consistency, which is not something that Donald Trump is well known for.
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E
Well, I'd say two things. First, he's threatened rhetorically sanctions, but he hasn't imposed any new sanctions since he's been president. And while he's been president, the war, the attacks, especially attacks on civilians by Moscow, has increased under President Trump. So President Trump loves to say this is Biden's war. Well, he should be aware of the fact that the war is increasing, escalating on his watch. And second, with respect to military assistance, the somewhat good news is that he has been willing to sell weapons to our European allies who then transfer them, but he hasn't been willing to provide direct military military assistance from the United States. And I have to say, as an American, I'm embarrassed by that fact. I'm embarrassed by the fact that we are now making money off of Ukraine's war and not helping the Ukraine's to stop this invasion. Because at the end of the day, there are two ways that wars stop. One side wins and dictates the terms of the peace or there's a stalemate on the battlefield. And right now the Ukrainians need more military capacity to bring about a stalemate on the battlefield with we could help them do that and we are choosing not to do so.
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B
How much is Ukraine's dependence on the United States and Europe been a problem in the longer term, not just during the Trump administration, but in the last three years since a full scale Russian invasion? Because nothing really was done during the, in the time leading up to Donald Trump. There is applause for Donald Trump for actually making some sort of effort to try and get something done. So where has everyone been going wrong here?
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E
Well, I think that we've been underestimating Putin's commitment to peace. This is an ideological war that Putin is fighting. It's not a transactional war. It's about uniting. In his words, not mine. I want to underscore the Slavic nation. He most certainly sees himself in historical comparisons to Peter the Great and Catherine the Great. That is, those people that have leaders that have expanded the Russian empire. And so far, he's incurred, I should say his people have incurred tremendous costs to do that, but he's willing to take those costs. He doesn't care. It's a dictatorship, after all, so he doesn't have to respond to people's preferences. And we keep thinking that it'll be enough, that he'll want to settle. And he thinks that time's on his side because he thinks, especially the Americans will eventually lose interest and disengage, and that will allow him to achieve the military objectives that he seeks on the battlefield.
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B
Just looking at your article for Foreign affairs, the idea that both the United States and Europe have to think smarter and harder on this, where are possible solutions to this in a situation that, as you have just described, there is arguably no reason for Vladimir Putin to actually want to stop this invasion.
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E
Well, he'll only stop the invasion when his soldiers can no longer march forward. Right now, they're marching incrementally forward westward. And he thinks that's. That's progress, and so he wants to continue. So the first step is to reduce the money he has to fight the war. That's through increased sanctions. And second, to arm the Ukrainians, especially with long strike weapons that can hit targets inside Russia, to create a stalemate. Then the second piece that I think the president got wrong in his flurry of negotiations and summits a couple weeks ago is we need to delink the negotiations about where the borders of Russia and Ukraine will be from the discussions about security guarantees. That first conversation, that first negotiation is between Zelenskyy and Putin. The president of the United States nor any other European leader does not have the mandate to give away Ukrainian land to the Russians. That's ultimately just a decision for Zelensky and the people who elected him. The second conversation about a security guarantee, which is essential for the Ukrainians to accept giving up some of their territory, that's a conversation between Ukrainians, Europeans and Americans. And Putin can't be part of that conversation. President Trump brought him into that conversation in Alaska, I think, was a huge strategic mistake. We didn't ask for Stalin's permission to create NATO in 1949. We didn't ask for Khrushchev's permission to bring in West Germany into the alliance in 1955. And Clinton didn't ask Yeltsin and President Putin didn't ask Putin's permission when we expanded NATO. And therefore, I think that's the right approach. That is a separate conversation between allies. And Putin doesn't get a veto about security guarantees.
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B
Finally, Michael, it's something that you just mentioned there when you referenced Stalin, when you reference Khrushchev and Clinton, there is not often much of a mention of the playbook, the history lessons that can be gleaned and used when trying to solve this problem. How much of a difficulty is that?
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E
Well, I think it's a mistake. I think we need to learn history and understand history to deal with Moscow. There's been a fear in the Biden administration and in the Trump administration that we can't do too much, we can't poke the bear. And there was even concerns that if we pushed Russia too hard, Putin will use a nuclear weapon. I think that analysis was flawed. I think when we had the opportunity to give the Ukrainians more military assistance, particularly in the fall of 2022, when they were winning the war, and not be afraid of what Moscow might have done, that might have ended the war more quickly. But because we've had this incremental approach, I think think we've suffered from it and not we, the Ukrainians have suffered first and foremost.
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Michael McFall, director of the Freeman Sporoli Institute and a Hoover Fellow at Stanford university and former U.S. ambassador to Russia. Thank you so much for joining us on Monocle Radio. You can read Michael's piece, how to arm Ukraine for negotiations in the current edition of Foreign Affairs. You're listening to the Globalist On Monocle radio. 8.16am 8.17am, I should say, in Brussels. 7.17 Here in London now, the EU and Mercosur, the South American bloc made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, may have finally reached a trade agreement after a quarter of a century of negotiations. The deal, believed to be the EU's largest trade accord in its history, faced fierce opposition, much of which coming from the European side. Well, I'm joined now from Brussels by Suzanne lynch, who's Bloomberg's Brussels bureau chief, a regular voice here on Monaco Radio. Good morning, Suzanne. Good to have you.
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F
Good morning, Emma.
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B
So do we have a deal? Yes.
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F
It looks like we do. It looks like the EU have now got this over the finish line. Now technically they've brought forward the final text, but they're hoping to get it stamped by the end of the year. As you said there, this has been a long, ongoing saga, more than two decades in the making. But last December, the European Commission president, Ursa von der Leyen, she flew to South America and signed the deal. But there was is still pushback here in Brussels. But yesterday they published a new proposal and crucially, there are some safeguards in that proposal that they're hoping will appease countries that are opposed to this, and that's mainly France, but also other countries like Poland. Italy has been lukewarm about it too. Ireland has been opposed. So they're hoping that these measures will get them over the line.
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B
What was the problem here and indeed how did they solve it?
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F
It, yeah, I think the issue here is one sector and that's agriculture. So with this trade deal, there are going to be winners and losers in terms of European exporters. So the agricultural industry is worried that the, there's going to be an influx of agri products into Europe, particularly beef, for example. So the farming bloc has been protesting about this. They believe that it's not fair that some of the South American countries don't have to adhere to the same, for example, emission standards, climate targets, that kind of thing that the agri sector does in Europe. And that's unfair. Now, on the other side of things, this deal will open up the market massively for European exporters and other fields, including some food products, but also in particular the car industry. It's really going to open up the South American market for European car exporters. So we've got countries like Germany, for example, who are very, very in favor of this deal, also Spain as well. So what the European Commission has said that it's given this, it's calling it a safeguard that something would be triggered when a certain number of imports threshold is reached. So if they increase, if imports rise by 10% or prices fall 10% below domestic levels, well then that will trigger an investigation and the European Union will take action in some way. So, so what we know now is that countries are going to go and look at this, look at the detail of this, see if it's enough for them. But crucially, it looks like France and some of the other wavering countries don't really have enough votes to block this. The way this is structured, it doesn't need unanimous agreement by all 27 member states. This can be passed by it's called qualified majority. So it's a kind of a calculation of a certain number of member states and a number of citizens in those member states. So it looks like, and the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said yesterday, more or less he said, look, we're not that happy with this, but we don't think there's enough of a blocking minority for this. So they're all now looking at this detail to see if this safeguard is enough to help their farming community. And presumably they will push for even more on that over the next few months.
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B
And indeed that exposes what does this say about the way that the European Union manages itself, Suzanne, given the fact that we did have Donald Tusk saying that his country continues to oppose a deal but doesn't have enough partners to block it, is it an example of the European Union functioning, functioning well and coming to that great compromise, or are we going to have more bumps down the line?
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F
I think the issue around farming has always been a controversial issue within the eu. Obviously farmers in Europe get a huge proportion of the EU budget that cap the common agricultural policy. So it's always been a politically tricky one for some member states and we're seeing that again now with those member states with a strong agrippa. But I think even though that's a very vocal sector, there are other sectors in all these countries that are going hugely from this. So, you know, I think that's why a lot of these countries are prepared to really ultimately back the deal in some way if they get these kind of special treatment, if you like, for the agri sector, if there's an influx of imports. I think that the context has changed too. We're in a moment where there is obviously a, a trade war. The United States and Europeans and other allies of America are realizing that the United States is not the trading partner once was so that all countries now have to look further afield. So there's more of an incentive, I think now for the EU to try and forge new paths into different markets that most of their exporters can benefit from. So I think that's what's shifted the dial somewhat on this issue.
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B
Suzanne Lynch, Bloomberg's Brussels bureau chief, thank you so much for joining us on Monocle Radio. Still to come on today's program, and who doesn't love a bit of edm? Thailand wants to become one of the world's hot stop, hot spots for large scale music festivals. And we'll find out later on the global list, craft is its own reward.
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Which is why at UBS we're honoured.
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To work alongside over 50 of today's.
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Leading Nobel laureates, each an expert in the art of economic science, bringing you engaging discussions, actionable insights and inspired solutions, all focused around the questions that shape our world today.
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For a better outlook, find a Nobel perspective. UBS banking is our craft. It's 7:23 here in London. Let's continue now as today's newspapers. Joining me in the studio is Anita Riota, Monocle's producer of the Foreign desk, also producing the program at Wells as well. So congratulations, Nita, of doing two things at the same time.
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C
Well, thank you very much, Emma.
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B
It's good to have you with us. Right, and in addition to basically getting us on air, keeping us on air, keeping me in check, you've been looking at the papers and these are the Italian papers. Let's start off with La Repubblica, which has the latest chapter in the continued thousands year old saga about building a bridge between mainland Italy and Sicily.
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C
Yes, and thousands year old is not an exaggeration when it comes actually to building this bridge that would connect Sicily to mainland Italy. The Meloni government, government had thought that they'd found a creative workaround where they could become the government to finally get this bridge over the line and also put it into NATO defense, into their NATO defense spending bucket. So they would get a sort of double win here because it would bring them much closer this expenditure to hitting the new 5% NATO defense spending target. But unfortunately the US has said not so fast, this is creative accounting. And so that's a bit, you know, a bit embarrassing for the, for the Meloni government. The US has said this is not a strategic project, this is not a defense project. This should not be able to be allocated into the 5% defense spending target. And so now the Italian Finance Minister Giancarlo Gijetti is sort of having to go back to the drawing board and see how they can get this, this bridge to become a reality.
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B
I mean, it is a bit of a shame that we've, we've sort of going a couple of steps backwards again. But I mean, just honestly speaking, did they genuinely think that a beautiful bridge that would connect Sicily to mainland Italy would actually be seen as a defense asset?
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C
Well, you know, I, I wonder if they maybe thought we are all looking for wins here because wouldn't the Trump administration also probably like to walk away? See, you know, we sort of pushed NATO members and set the tone and now they've all hit this 5% spending because we said that they had to reach this threshold. So maybe they were hoping that D.C. would say, you know what let's do? Win, win, win. Everyone walks away feeling like they've gotten what they wanted.
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B
Okay, let's move to another bit of creative accounting and indeed, a story which, again, Italy only has about three stories. One of them is the Bridge. One of them is. Is some sort of food protectionist issue, and the other one is how to get money legally from its citizens in order to make sure that the country can function. This falls into that final category, doesn't it? I'm sorry for casting massive generalizations there.
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F
I really should.
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B
Strike me down, please, Sicilian lady.
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C
And you just enjoyed a holiday to Rome, so, I mean, you should be bolstering us. No? But, yes. So the national association of Italian Municipalities is saying that it is going to go after unpaid parking fines and trash fees to sort of make up this giant budgetary deficit that a lot of Italian cities are suffering from. And so they say that right now, as it stands, there are something along the lines of 25 billion euros in unpaid taxes, fees and fines. So they are trying to invest more into their revenue revenue collection agency and actually try to collect some of these fines that now, you know, for years and years have basically been suggestions.
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B
Indeed. And how did they plan to go about this? Cause this would require quite a lot of work.
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C
It absolutely will. Again, as I mentioned, they're looking to invest more money into this federal body and they will even introduce a new dedicated agency to try to help cities recover these outstanding fines. So it is. You sort of have to, you know, invest money to make money.
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B
Indeed. Finally, let's talk about something absolutely beautiful, which is trains in Italy are always a joy to take, regardless as to whether or on time and what have you. They do run a pretty neat service. There is an absolute beautiful train that is only going to be running for three weekends, which is a terrible shame. And it's in Tuscany as well. Yes.
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C
So this train, the Espresso Siena, will run from Rome to Siena, but unfortunately it is only this autumn, so listeners jump on it as soon as possible. It will run for three weekends from September 27, October 4 and November 1. And it is a beautiful vintage train that will take you through the rolling green hills of Tuscany, so you can start your day, you know, maybe having a Cornetto and an espresso in Rome, have this beautiful scenic route on a vintage train, and then end up in Siena, which is a delightfully adorable and historic town in Ital.
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B
And just explain to us, I mean, they are literally doing it for three weekends, which is terribly sad. But what would they say? It's a vintage train. Do we know what kind of train it's going on? It's a Grand Confor train, isn't it? Which is obviously dating back for sort of several, several decades, from the 70s and 80s. I think I might have actually gone one and not seen it as a grand comfort. I think I might have just been late for something. But this idea of using a train from our recent past to sort of, to sort of like spark a little bit of nostalgia, it's a delightful thing, isn't it?
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C
Absolutely. And I think this accomplishes quite a few things because it is exactly like you're saying, a bit of nostalgia. It's this beautiful, elegant 1970s train. It is bringing, it's going to bring attention along. A lot of the stops along the way are in smaller towns. And I think this is probably the true aim behind ventures like this. You know, you will stop in where my cousins are from. So these smaller towns will hopefully get to enjoy all of the tourism that normally goes into Italy's bigger cities. And tickets are only, they start from €29. So they're hopefully trying to make this accessible to as many Italian families and tourists as possible.
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B
I'm literally going to book this a minute we come off. What's quite nice is when you go to the Train Italia website, it talks about this train and it says it's got delicious right here. We are immediate trying to do translations. This is going to be wonky. Amazingly comfortable seats in velour and leather, a lounge, wide corridors, air conditioning and beautiful panoramic windows. It sort of highlights the stuff that actually you need from a train. It goes back to basics here, doesn't it?
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C
It absolutely does. And look and you'll end up in a region where you can have maybe one of the best steaks and some of best wine in the world. So it's not, not too bad of an offer.
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B
Anita Biosha, I'll see you on the platform. Thank you so much for joining me in the studio. You're listening to the Globalist. Now let's take a look at some of the other stories we're following today. The U.S. has said it will continue military operations in South America in order to combat drug cartels. It follows a military strike on a Venezuelan ship earlier this week. Washington claims the vessel was carrying narcotics. The Pentagon hasn't reported released specifics about the crew, nor why it chose to kill those on board. Hamas has said it's ready for a comprehensive Gaza deal through which all Israeli hostages are released in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners. The group's remarks came shortly after the US President Donald Trump called on Hamas to release all 20 remaining living hostages. A judge in the US has ruled that the Trump administration acted illegally when it froze billions of dollars in research funds to Harvard University in the name of stamping out anti Semitism. Alth this may not be the final judgment in the continuing dispute. It is being viewed as giving Harvard new leverage with the White House and A painting stolen by the Nazis has been found in Argentina after it appeared in pictures in an estate agent's listing for a house. The Portrait of Contessa Colleone by the Italian artist Giuseppe Gilandi was spotted in an advert for the sale of a property reportedly belonging to the daughter of a senior official in Adolf Hitler's government. This is the globalist state of Tuned now for a look behind some of the other headlines, here's Monocle's associate culture editor Sophie Monaghan combs on a new art offering in the heart of Europe. With the turn of the seasons comes a flurry of art events, and this year there's a new addition to the calendar in the form of Rendezvous with Brussels Art Week. Soft launched in 2024, it replaces the long running Brussels Gallery Weekend and opens today. The program includes exhibitions, talks, club nights and a monumental bouncy castle installation. The city is chaotic and cosmopolitan, brussels Art Week co founder Lori de Kock tells the Monocle Minute. There are lots of collectors, but it's still affordable for artists to have a studio here. The Tip Inn, an immersive installation bar by the artist Zoe Williams, will act as the fair's central meeting point. It will serve as a salon des rendezvous for artists, gallerists and the public to sip cocktails and see performances in a space that's part temporary venue and part art installation inspired by the city's bar culture. Even in Belgium, Brussels has a reputation for being a little wild and we wanted to tap into that, says de Kock. It's messy, it's a bit old school and there's a faded glamour, and that was Monocle. Sophie Monaghan Coombs there. For more you can sign up to our daily newsletter, the Monocle Minute. Head over to monocle.com minute this is the Globalist and we stay with culture, but of a slightly more lively kind. As we head to Bangkok for a bit of time, this bit of EDM there for you and the reason why we're mentioning it is because we are going to Thailand and to find out why it's trying to become a major player on the world's music festival scene. The country's authorities have just approved a bid by one of the world's biggest EDM festivals, Tomorrowland, to host a full scale event in Asia next year. Well, Tomorrowland, which holds its main festival in Belgium, also has spin offs in the likes of the French Alps and Brazil. And I'm joined now by Monica Tong, who's the editor in chief and head of editorial direction for Asia Pacific at Music Press Asia. Monica joins us on the line from Kuala Lumpur. A very good afternoon to you, Monica.
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G
Good afternoon to you.
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B
So what is the plan for Thailand?
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G
Thailand is very actively courting Tomorrowland and I guess, yes, it's very successful.
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B
Just explain to us what the plan is.
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G
Well, the plan is to have, it's a five year deal and so what's going to happen, that is the festival is going to maybe just start with about 50,000 people in its first year and grow from there, I guess.
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B
What is it about Tomorrowland which is so attractive to Thailand?
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G
Well, Tomorrowland, I believe it has its fans head over heels. I think there's many repeating festival goers. It's very attracted to its mystique, it's very attracted to its big theme, mega structured designs. And so I think maybe having to choose one Asia country to host it, I think Thailand would be perfect indeed.
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B
And Tomorrowland, it had its main event in Belgium this year. It had a disaster. A large portion of it actually suffered an enormous fire. But there is that sense that Tomorrowland is a globally recognized brand when it comes to dance music. And as I've mentioned before, it has spinoffs in the French Alps, it has Tomorrowland in Brazil. Tomorrowland is clearly courting a new market here in Thailand.
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G
Oh yes, and it's a very big one. I was doing a little bit of research about how many youth are there here in Asia. And I would say in Southeast Asia alone they are not 90 million youth between the age of 15 to 24. And the broader tourism, I mean among ASEAN nations they are at least 200 million. And I believe it's the youngest people that we have here in Asia in the world. So I think this big cultural place, it's full of, I mean not just temples and nice sunny beaches, but the cultural aspect is very attractive.
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B
It's an interesting thing that you mentioned about this cultural aspect because Tomorrowland has already said that they will try to make the event Thai. What does that mean?
- [37:53]
G
Oh well, I mean the Thai culture is beautiful. It has beautiful traditional dances. It has traditional instruments that look like nothing else in the world. It has amazing food. I mean in ASEAN alone, I mean including Malaysia and Singapore, all the food in these ASEAN nations are all different. So you are not just coming to of a music festival. It's an adventure really.
- [38:21]
B
And indeed, how will this all be funded in the infrastructure? Because Thailand already has a very good infrastructure as you mentioned in terms of accommodating tourism. But it does need to make sure that the tens of thousands of fans who will be traveling there will be going to a place which not is just used by Tomorrowland, but actually could become a global location for dance music.
- [38:44]
G
Well, the area selected is not too far from Bangkok. It's probably about one and a half hours away. I mean Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok has received over, I would say 62 million passenger last year alone. So I'm sure it could handle no problem.
- [39:06]
B
Monica Tong, Editor in Chief and head of Editorial direction for Asia Pacific at Music Press Asia, thank you so much for joining us on the line from Kuala Lumpur. You're listening to the Globalist on Monocle Radio. Now the Philippine president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. And Congress have launched an investigation into claims of corruption allegations in areas of flood control projects. The government allocated approximately five and a half billion US dollars for flood control projects this year with 70% potentially lost to corruption. I'm joined now by Richard Haydari, an academic and columnist for Philippine Daily Inquirer. Very good afternoon to you, Richard.
- [39:50]
H
Good afternoon. Good morning.
- [39:52]
B
So it's what, $5.4 billion has been allocated to control flooding and 7 out of 10 of those dollars are lost?
- [40:02]
H
Well, actually the numbers could be cranked up all the way to 9.5 or $10 billion some would even say which is more than 50 times worse than the previous mother of all scandals we had back in 2012, 2013, the so called PDAF, which also implicated a lot of politicians, even a number of senators were temporarily in detention. So this is really on steroids. This is even by Philippine standards of scandals, this is corruption on steroids. But what makes it even more incredible is that Ferdinand Marcos Jr, someone named along those lines, coming from a very notorious family, is now pushing for investigation for good governance reforms after having really, really get battered in the midterm elections earlier this year. The though is that there's so many people involved, potentially involved and implicated in this corruption scandal. So many people have made money out of this that people are wondering, so who's Gonna investigate who? Because even the Commission on Audit, which is supposed to audit this project. There was one case whereby the wife of one of these editors herself was involved in some of the contractors involved in the flood control. And allies of the President, enemies of the President, the Dutertes themselves, all of them could be one way or another implicated in this. So people are wondering where is this going to go? And that's why we're also carefully watching what's happening in Indonesia where people are taking matters into their own hands.
- [41:29]
B
Indeed, there are protests there. But just returning to President Ferdinand Marcos jr's decision to investigate claims of corruption, if you have it as endemic as you have described, Richard, what is the purpose? Purpose?
- [41:45]
H
Well, this really goes back to the kind of 19th century American style politics that was introduced to the Philippines. If you watch Gangs of New York, Boardwalk Empire, that's the kind of politics the Philippines still has. Because we never had the kind of progressive movement in the US that in the early 20th century created a semblance of modern political parties and some sort of more transparency and accountability. We never had that. So it's very expensive to run in elections in the Philippines. A couple of families could control much of the offices in the government. The dynasties are fighting over power themselves say it all. So in that situation, because elections are so expensive, because there's so much rampant vote buying, what happens is that these politicians will look for ways to have return on investments. And one of the ways they found used to be pork barrel funds again, another American heritage. But now is are these flood control projects. In fact, the flood problem in the Philippines is getting worse because we have so many fake flood projects by, you know, we have even this new mutation. You have contractors who are now congressmen, we call them contractors.
- [42:52]
B
Right.
- [42:53]
H
And a couple of senators were also caught getting direct donations from contractors in violation of the law. So this is really corruption and steroids, even by Philippine standards. So Marcos has to be very careful. If he's just going to be performative about this and make a big speech and assume that people are going to forget about it, this could explode in his face. And this could get weaponized not only by the liberal opposition who have every reason to be angry at the corruption in the country, but also by the Duterteists who want to claw their way back to power soon.
- [43:23]
B
And in the meantime, the Philippines is having to deal with flood control projects which are not working. So explain to us just without that money going into the areas where it is needed, what happens to the Philippines ability to control flooding so if you.
- [43:42]
H
Look at every major index on climate change vulnerability, the Philippines is top 10 in the world, if not number two or number three. So there's the HSBC ranking, for instance, that puts the most vulnerable countries to climate change. Philippines is obviously there. But being vulnerable to the climate change is one thing. Not doing something about it is another thing. So not only is the Philippines naturally vulnerable, we now also have man made disaster and vulnerability because we're not building the right infrastructure. You know, Japan also has a lot of vulnerability when it comes to earthquake and typhoons and everything. But they have impeccable infrastructure. But because they don't have the kind of corruption we have, because they have a more competent bureaucracy, they can better deal with climate change. So my fear with the Philippines is not only the money that is being lost to, you know, basically stolen tax money, but is also the money that will be lost due to lost productivity. If not lost likely. People can get killed. Some people may have been killed because of these faulty flood control projects. So there should be criminal liability here. And my proposal is for the formation of an independent commission led by people of impeccable moral integrity and people with the mandate to really go after the bad guys. The baddest of the bad guys.
- [44:58]
B
Richard. Hey, Darien, academic and columnist of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, joining us on the line from Manila. Thank you so much for joining us on Monica Radio with ubs. You have a truly global partner incorporating.
- [45:14]
A
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B
Care and unmatched expertise. Because it's about rising with the dawn.
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A
Each day, knowing that we can do even better.
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B
Better.
- [45:31]
A
That's what banking is to us. Not just work, but a craft. UBS banking is our craft.
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Now you can find a small brewery making craft beer in just about any city in the world these days. In northern Finland's biggest town of Oulu, a third microbrewery with its own tap room has just opened. So bulk lagers are making room for more tantalizing tastes such as lingonberry imperial sour and cinnamon bun coffee porter. Wif Stenger has been delving into the bubbling local subculture.
- [46:18]
I
Finns drink more beer than any of their Scandinavian neighbors. Mostly that means mass produced lager or in some rare cases, sahti, an old fashioned farmhouse alex flavored with juniper rather than hops, which is, let's say, an acquired taste. Microbreweries have been bubbling up in recent years in and around Helsinki and the other big southern cities. Though Many of them didn't survive the pandemic. The craft brewing wave is now swooshing up to the northern city of Oulu with three small to medium sized artisan breweries serving up tasty beverages. The biggest, High Lord on Bonnie or High Luoto Brewery, is based on a nearby island of that name. It's a half hour away by ferry. An idyllic fishing and farming community with a population of less than a thousand, this was Finland's first organic brewery, with most of its barley harvested on the island and using the island's unusually soft, pure groundwater. The firm runs a brew pub and a shop on the island, as well as a restaurant bar back on the mainland in a bohemian neighborhood of Oulu featuring a beer garden with two saunas out back. The brewery was founded almost a decade ago by Hialuoto native Kimo Kaukonen and his German friend Jurgen Hendelmeier. It focuses on German styled unfiltered beers, including pilsners, wheat beers and lagers, but much tastier ones than those bulk Finnish brands. He shows me where the magic happens.
- [47:51]
B
So there's a fermentation going on and.
- [47:55]
E
It'S releasing now the carbon dioxide.
- [48:01]
B
Which.
- [48:01]
D
Is coming over this 1.8 bar.
- [48:06]
B
This is a pressure tank.
- [48:08]
I
You can now find those beers in grocery shops throughout the country, typically in big liter bottles with retro style labels designed by Kaukonen, who explains why I.
- [48:18]
B
Like the old designs, like old advertisements.
- [48:21]
E
And of course beer labels were really.
- [48:25]
B
Really like mind blowing back in the days. Yeah. Now nowadays they are a different way.
- [48:33]
I
Mind blowing.
- [48:34]
E
Yeah, yeah, but, but we wanted to have some traditional look.
- [48:42]
B
Old, old, old school look for our label. Us also.
- [48:46]
E
So because we are also making pretty traditional beers.
- [48:50]
I
Falconen says he and his partner make the kind of beers they like rather than chasing trends. So for instance, they don't make any IPAs, except for a recent collaboration with a local startup, Nomad Brewery. But that's not to say they shy away from hoppiness. For instance, they make two bitter hopped pilsners and a Baden Wurtenbag lifestyle Spezial. But Kalkonen says the goal is balancing bitterness, aromas and maltiness. It's a busy summer evening at the Mala Sauna bar in Oulu. Kalkonen says that running a pub is crucial for many small breweries to sell more of their product and break even, especially in these tough economic times with high inflation and Finland's alcohol taxes, which are the highest in Europe.
- [49:39]
H
But anyhow, then you have to find.
- [49:41]
B
Ways to live and be creative or find customers who like your beers.
- [49:53]
I
For Karlkonen and Hendelmeier, that includes a lot of collaborations, including with the Flaming Sideburns, a popular garage rock band from Helsinki whose lead singer is from Argentina and whose producer is Hay Loto's brewmaster, Hendelmeier from Germany. The resulting Silver Flames ale won last year's Finnish Beer award for best pale or amber ale. And the band celebrated with a gig at the brewery's Garden bar.
- [50:18]
B
We want to make a brewery and a tap room that everybody can come. So it's important for us that we have lots of nice quality, easy drinking beers. But of course we want to do something special specialties and little patchy. Something. Something seasonal and funny and weird and quirky maybe sometimes. But the main thing is that we want to make a place that everyone, everybody can come here.
- [50:48]
I
The new brewery is starting out with a lager, an ipa, a wheat beer and various kinds of sours. And they're embracing local ingredients including organic malt, barley and wild berries for those sours. So the tasty old beer scene is about to become even more tantalizing. For Monocle Radio, I'm Wif Stenger in Oulu, northern Finland.
- [51:11]
B
My thanks to Wif Stenger in Oulo in Finland for that report. You're listening to the Globalist. Let's head to Venice now for the latest from the film festival there. Karen Krasanovich is film critic currently at the festival, has been there for nearly a week now. Karen, a very good morning to you. How are things? Things?
- [51:33]
A
Yeah. Good morning. Good morning. That the sun is out, the rain has stopped. Yeah, everything is pretty good. It's been a pretty. I mean, even though the festival is wrapping up, we've only got I think about three days left. It's been a heavy day of screenings and lots of awards given and lots of thoughts about who's going to win but. And I said I was going to be a little more serious. I tried to fit in to be a little bit more newsy, but maybe I can't do. Well, what do you want to know about? There's so much to talk about.
- [52:01]
B
Well, let us begin with a very, very serious subject in the voice of Hind Rajab, a 23 minute standing ovation at. At its premiere. It's a film that's about. Well, tell us more. It's a docudrama about the. About a 6 year old Gazan girl and it. And it received. Am I right in thinking the longest standing ovation in Venice's History.
- [52:23]
A
Well, it's a pretty long, I haven't actually looked to see if it's the longest, but it certainly is notable. And people were like nobbling me, everybody after they, after they came out of the first screening with microphones, trying to get her opinion about the film. It's, it's very short. It's, it's, it's an 89 minute film and it's got very heavy firepower behind it when it comes to production. So it's the, the producers are Brad Pitt, Jonathan Glazer, Joaquin Phoenix, Alfonso Cubone. I mean these are, these are big Hollywood names. There's a lot of power behind them. And this is made by a Tunisian director who previously did, I think four, four mothers. I think there's four daughters. Four, four daughters. But it's, it's, it's a true story. It's based on recordings that were put out on social media last year of a five year old girl that the Red Cross, Red Cross and Red Crescent forces were trying to save from a car. She's trapped in a car in a war zone and they can't get an ambulance to her. And that's what we go through now. Don't try not to read a lot of reviews of this because the way it's structured, the less you know, the better. But it was, it's very moving and people are feeling very argumentative about it, which is, I say, suppose not to be surprised. I was standing in a line to get a gelato and I was talking about the film with a friend and this guy turned around and started arguing with me about it. I thought, wow, this is a hot subject. So it is. Basically the Israeli military has not actually commented at all about this genuine case. So it's going to be one of the films that I think is probably going to be the most talked about for the next year.
- [54:13]
B
The interesting thing about it is it actually sometimes this now absolutely highlights the power of cinema and visual story storytelling insofar as the war in Gaza has been going on for the nearly two years now. And the numbers of people who die and the, and, and the devastation and the conflict that has been accounted for is, is, is huge and vast. Therefore it takes that, that trip down the ladder of abstraction to, to have that one voice and that one case study which can actually exemplify a whole crisis.
- [54:48]
A
Well, that's a very good point. And it's one that they make in the film when they say there's pictures of dead children all over the Internet from Gaza. What makes you think that this one, you know, these voice recordings could make a difference. And it is just. It is very moving. And I think the thing that really takes you up, and of course it's a war zone, is the fact that one of the issues with them trying to get help to this girl who's trapped in a car is that they need to get coordination. They keep talking about coordination, so they need to get clearance that it's going to be okay for the ambulance to go in there and not get bombed. And this takes forever. It takes such a long time. So I think there is this sort of communication and bitterness. There is no sense of anybody being allowed to stay alive. So I think that's. Yeah, but I think you're right. This be could be a match point, really, in an already very difficult area.
- [55:51]
B
Let's move to another documentary, which is another very, very serious subject about the death of a child or the death of a son is remake. Tell us about that.
- [56:02]
A
Well, yes, a lot of critics, you know, the point of coming to a festival is that, you know, you can read reviews all you want. You know, you can listen to me talking with you about movies, but the opportunity here is to talk to filmmakers and also other critics. And I was going to get catch a. A drink with a. A critic, a coffee. And he said, I'm in bits after seeing this movie. So I hurried to see him. And this is filmmaker Russ Ross. McElwee is a documentary maker, and in this film remake, he talks about filming his son. And he's films his son over and over, like over the child's life, I mean, and eventually the child grows up, moves, moves away and becomes addicted to certain drugs, like, I think, fentanyl, things like that. And he's looking at his relationship not only with his son, but also with how he approached parenting. And I think he says here, says remake is both my attempt to hold on to Adrian and also to let him. Him go, which I think is remarkable. Now, I didn't grow up with being filmed by parents because they were too busy doing other things, but a lot of people and people in my cohort who have children, you've got a lot of footage of your child, whether it's your dad was operating a camera early on or you're just filming with your phone. So I think it's a reflection not only about a filmmaker and his career and his family, but also also parenting, mostly. And it sounds very, very serious, and it is a very serious film, but I think it's. It also has a lot of love in it. And, you know, the loss of a child is a tragedy to, to everyone, but, you know, unfortunately, it does happen.
- [57:50]
B
Karen, we have a scant minute to. To shift the tone. I know you said you were trying to be serious. It's worked a treat. Yes. So all I want to say is, why is Dwayne Johnson a thing?
- [58:01]
A
Oh, because he's great. Because he's a terrific actor. I mean, he's moved from being, you know, wrestling and World Federation to being a really good actor. I mean, I know you think of him in Jumanji and all those silly fun comedies in which he's really good, but he's got the wholesomeness, the claiming, the sort of clean, squeaky cleanness that Jason Momoa doesn't have and in the smashing the Ship machine. It's just amazing. I tell you, of all the films I've seen here, and I've seen almost 20, this one has really hit the mark for me. He's a great. If somebody can do comedy, they can also do drama. And Benny Safdie has made this wonderful film. It's 123 minutes. It stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt about a mixed martial artist called Mark Kerr. And it's just an astonishing story. And it's not the sports store you think it is. And I just have to say, you've got to see it.
- [58:57]
B
And in one and in one word, is he going to get the Oscar?
- [59:03]
A
He won't. He should get a nomination. That's not one word. But. No, that'll do. Get an embassy.
- [59:08]
B
Okay, Karen, thank you so much. On the line from Venice and this. That is indeed all the time we have for today's program. The warmest of thanks to all my guests and to the producers and even Riota and Hassan Anderson. Our researcher is Henry King. Our studio manager was Elliot Greenfield. After the headlines. More music on the way. The briefing's live at midday here in London. The Globelist is back at the same time tomorrow. I hope you can join me for that if you can. But for now, from me, Emma Nelson, goodbye. Thank you very much for listening.