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Around the world with the Globalist on Monocle Radio. Be part of an international network that.
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All, UBS advice is our craft. You're listening to the Globalist, first broadcast on 25 September 2025 on Monocle Radio. The Globalist in association with U. Live from London, this is THE Globalist. I'm Emma Nelson. A very warm welcome to today's program. Coming up, Moldova's president warns of the amount of money being spent by Moscow to influence this weekend's elections. But what is the significance of them? We'll examine why another nation finds itself torn between a pro European and pro Moscow future. Also ahead in the next 60 minutes, as Typhoon Ragasa leaves 17 dead, we'll be in Taipei to hear more about Taiwan's rescue and recovery plan. We'll look at Friday's papers.
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Plus, we learned that American conservative media had incredibly run hog wild on a lurid conspiracy narrative without waiting until the facts were in.
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Andrew Muller reminds us of what we've learned this week. And we'll also look at the latest edition of Monocle magazine and check in from Milan Fashion Week. That's all coming up on the Globalist live from London. First, a quick look at some of the headlines we're following today. The former boss of the FBI, James Comey, been indicted on charges related to the disclosure of sensitive information. The United States is to impose a 100% tariff on imports of branded or patented pharmaceutical products from the start of next month. And postal workers in Canada have gone on nationwide strike. Stay tuned to Monocle Radio throughout the day for more on these stories. But first, Mova is the latest European nation to see its elections become an existential struggle for the country's identity and its place among its neighbors. This weekend, voters go to to the polls with the current government pushing for the country to join the European Union and the opposition wishing to pull to the east towards Moscow. Well, I'm joined now from Chisinau by Paola Erizanu, who's a Moldovan Romanian journalist. A very good morning to you, Paola.
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D
Hi, Good morning.
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C
So just would you briefly lay out who is running in this election and who stands for what?
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D
Sure. So we have many, many parties running in the election, but the ones that actually have chances to pass the THR threshold to get into Parliament are 4. The first one with the kind of highest results is the ruling party pass, founded by President Maya Sandow, which is pro European. But opinion polls show that they may get around 30 to 40% of the votes. So they may not get a majority again the way they have in the past elections. And the other three political parties that are likely to get into Parliament are the so called Patriotic Bloc, which is made of former President Dodon, former President Voronin. So people who have been quite closely associated with the Kremlin. Of course, their messages are not overtly pro Kremlin. They say, we want to have good relations with both the east and the West. They may get from 12% to 20% according to polls. And then next after them we get our party, it's a populist party led by Renato Usate. Usati made his money by working with the state railways in Russia, but it's not clear what his links to Russia or other kind of actors are any longer. And then after him, the party that may not pass the threshold is called the Alternative. It's actually a bloc formed of Chisinau Mayor Johan Chaban, who says he's pro European, but he has a Russia linked past and other leaders with similar profile.
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C
This is the issue. This is the issue. Sorry to interrupt you, but this is the issue, isn't it, that there is this pull towards the European Union? Moldova is on its way to be accepted into the European Group within the next few years. And yet you have just mentioned not one, not two, but at least three organizations or three parties which have connections to Moscow, albeit not necessarily direct ones.
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D
Yes, and actually one of the questions for me is how would the political scene in Moldova look like without the Russian dirty money? You know, we may get a lot more pro European parties past the threshold because there are some other pro European options, but they haven't scored well in the polls. One thing that is crucial is that according to polls, we have about 20 to 30% of people who are undecided. So this is where surprises may come from.
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C
Explain a little bit therefore, about the accusations as well that there's been some meddling in the elections. You talked about dirty money, though. So what? Authorities have carried out what, more than 200 raids about the involvement that Russia is accused of having in the elections. And this isn't just trying to sort of influence online, this is paying people to engage in riots and actually to sort of take this to the streets.
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D
Yeah. So Russia has been trying to meddle in Moldovan elections since our independence. This is not something new for us. But this year they are pouring so much money and so many options into the fight, which shows that clearly this is a historical battle for Moldova's future. And Russia is just trying to get back its influence on Moldova. So we're talking about cyber attacks, we're talking about troll farms, we are talking about trainings to trainings in destabilization tactics and so on and so forth. So the authorities detained 74 people who were trained in destabilization tactics in Serbia and were already in Moldova. They also sized about the equivalent of 5 million euros in cash and also cryptocurrency from this network that is trying to buy votes. So just two days ago, the head of the police announced that WI fi routers across the country were compromised. And the purpose was to try and kind of attack the central electoral commission's servers on Sunday to kind of stop the voting process from its regular kind of development. And then also Moldova has a big diaspora of around 1 million. And mostly these people are in the west, in Europe, and until now they have voted overwhelmingly pro European. But this year Russia is also targeting them informationally and also with advertorials that they can make a few hundred euros by doing some weird kind of event management and also by observing the elections. So Russia is trying to compromise the Moldovan state at all levels and to overwhelm state capacity to fight against all of these efforts.
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C
This isn't just a problem for Russia though. We've seen the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk saying there can be no secure eu, no secure Poland, France and Germany without an independent Moldova. Just geographically it is nestled between Ukraine and Romania. So geographically it has a strong and far reaching relevance when it comes to which direction it takes.
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D
Yeah. So although it's a small country of only 2.6 million, if Russia gains control of Moldova, political control of Moldova, that means more destabilization in southern Ukraine and weakening the Ukrainian front, especially around Odessa, which is only a couple of hours away from Moldova. So that is strategic and also, you know, malign actors could also be infiltrated into Romania from Russia controlled Moldova.
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Thank you so much for joining us on the line. Paola Arezano, who's Moldovan Romanian journalist on the line from Chisinau. You're listening to the Globalist 1410 in Taipei. 10am here in London now, at least 14 people have died and more than 45 are still missing. After Typhoon Ragasa tore through one of the most visited parts of Taiwan. Recovery work has now begun. But in Taiwan, people are just starting to assess the scale of the damage caused by one of the most powerful storms to hit the region in years. Joining me now from Taipei is William Yang, Senior Northeast Asia analyst for the International Crisis Group. Very good afternoon to you, William.
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E
Thank you for having me again.
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C
So if you could just bring us up to date on the death toll. We have what, 14 have died, but there are 46 other people who are missing. So there is still. It's the immediate aftermath that's still the priority at the moment.
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E
Right. I think the local authorities and also the National Guard are still in the search and rescue process, even though it has in fact passed the 72 hour golden hour to be able to still make sure that they can save as many lives as they can. But because of the extent of the flooding and also all the muds that came with all the flood that came down from the mountain nearby, the rescue and search mission continues to remain quite difficult. But I think they are making progress as the weather stabilizes on the eastern side of Taiwan.
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C
One of the big problems is mud, isn't it? This is the thing that has claimed the majority of the lives, right?
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E
Exactly. I think the majority of the lives were claimed due to the like flooding that extended from one of the nearby lakes that was formed in previous years, earthquake, and also the several of the typhoons that came afterwards. And then there were debates about whether the local government made the necessary pre warnings to all the local residents so that they have enough time to evacuate before the floods actually came into the city, the town center. And unfortunately it seemed like the existing mechanisms to warn people beforehand isn't enough to actually give all these local residents, mostly people who are disabled or elderly and people who have difficulty with their movement to actually be able to have enough time to move to the enough places or to be evacuated to places that are far away from the zones that will be flooded.
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C
So this is by all accounts kind of the type of people who've ended up losing their lives. Elderly, infirm, who've been unable to leave houses as the water just pours through their homes. You mentioned their questions being asked about the level of preparedness. What are the issues there?
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E
So the issue is that Taiwan's national warning system for natural disasters are mostly based on smart mobile phones and also township wide kind of like broadcast. But for a lot of the local residents in this particular town that was hit by the flood, they are elderlies who are not familiar with modern technology and a lot of them don't actually have have a modern smartphone. So they mostly rely on door to door kind of like pre warning by township mayors or magistrates to actually give them the heads up. But so for this particular natural disaster, there wasn't enough preparation for this kind of particular door to door kind of mechanism because they thought that everyone would just be able to receive the warning. But this case proves that there needs to be more preparation for different kinds of local population, especially in different parts of Taiwan.
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C
Indeed. And this, when you compare this to what's happened in Guangdong Province, they managed to evacuate a million people from their homes.
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E
Right. I think another big difference is that the Chinese authorities often use a more forceful kind of evacuation that will make sure that everyone living in the area that are at risk of being flooded will be evacuated. But in this particular case in Taiwan, the authority only give the warning, but there was no forceful measures to actually evacuate everyone living in all those houses. So actually it ended up being most of the local residents decided to stay home and just see what happened. And that's also one of the key differences that led to the unfortunate deaths that we witnessed here in Taiwan.
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C
Will this be a moment when a more long term strategic reassessment takes place as a result of this? This?
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E
There's already a national level discussion going on to the modification of the national disaster warning system because of obviously the shortfalls that were proven by this unfortunate event. And you know, I think given Taiwan's very vast experience dealing with the many natural disasters that it faces throughout the year, the government should be able to adjust and also make modification based on the different needs of local populations regulations going forward.
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William Yang, senior Northeast Asia analyst for the International Crisis Group, joining me on the line from Taipei. Thank you so much. Steltacam on today's program. That's a beautiful sound of Zimmer 90. Fernanda Aguasapasheka will join me in the studio in a little while to tell us about his latest music reviews and in the latest edition of Monocle magazine. Stay with us. On the globalist.
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To help you achieve your financial goals. UBS banking is our craft. 7:16, nearly 7:17 here in London. Let's have a look at today's newspapers. Joining me is Vincent McEvinney, political broadcaster and commentator. Good morning.
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F
Good morning.
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C
How's life in Vincent McEvinney's world?
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F
It's all right. It's starting to feel autumnal, isn't it?
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G
Yeah.
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C
Coats on kids. Right. Let's talk about news that broke overnight in the last, well, last five or six hours being extensively covered. And the New York Times is probably the place to go for this one. James Cobey, the former FBI director, the man, am I right in thinking who investigated Donald Trump's involvement with Russia.
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F
Yes.
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C
Been arrested and charged.
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F
Yes. He's facing quite an interesting charge. He's been indicted and charged. He's not been arrested yet. So this was a federal grand jury in the state of Virginia has indicted him on two charges related to testimony he gave to Congress regarding his investigation of Donald Trump and potential links to Russia. And Comey has come out immediately fighting, saying that he is innocent in a video message that he has great conference in the federal judicial system saying he will not live on his knees under Donald Trump and nor should you. But behind the scenes, there is a lot going on with this indictment. And this is one of the alarm bells that rings normally when a state is slipping into autocracy because it is a, by all accounts and all measures, it seems to be a political prosecution. Pam Bondi, who is the attorney general, was refusing to move on this. Donald Trump then had one of his other staffers, this lawyer called Lindsey Halligan, who has never prosecuted a case, she was a defense lawyer, including for Donald Trump. He has then inserted her into the Department of Justice just purely on the mission to get this done by a deadline, statutory deadline, last night to indict him. And yes, a grand jury found that on two of these charges. On another one, they didn't find that there was enough evidence. But on two, they found evidence. A prosecutor can have a huge sway over a grand jury. So this is going to be incredibly complicated, but if you step back from the case itself, it is a real dark move by the Trump administration.
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C
And this is what the New York Times is mentioning. It said that current and former Justice Department officials say this filing of criminal charges against Mr. Comey have far reaching consequences, including, and they're saying the resignations of more prosecutors over how the Trump administration uses the Justice Department and the erosion of public trust in U.S. attorneys.
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F
Yeah, that's right. Lindsey Halligan apparently was told by both superiors and subordinates not to do this, that there wasn't the evidence needed in order to bring this case. But what it means is that Donald Trump is now emboldened by the Supreme Court decision, which basically overturns the sort of post Watergate consensus that presidents aren't above the law. He thinks from the decision that he has a sort of wide immunity from any kind of prosecution himself. And so trying to make this move, what it could do if it was to be successful, is embolden Trump to go after more of who he perceives as enemies. So Letitia James, the New York prosecutor who was also bringing a case against him in the past, he said he wants to prosecute the likes of Hillary Clinton, of John Kerry. He could be then using and morphing the Justice Department into his own tool. And it will be very interesting to see what the reaction is for Jim Comey, because there are a lot of people in America who think that it was his actions unnecessarily reopening an investigation into Hillary Clinton just days before the 2016 election that led to Donald Trump coming into office in the first place. Hillary Clinton has been very critical of, of him ever since, but I think will probably be someone that comes out and defends him now saying this is an overreach. He also is the man responsible a long time ago for putting Martha Stewart in jail. That's a really fascinating story as well.
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C
Let's move on to British politics. The Times has gone bananas this morning with a lot of reporting about where, well, how the British political lie of the land is. And Labour, I think it's fair to say, has not had a good first.
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F
Year in power, power internationally good, politically tricky.
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C
It is always the way with leaders and parties. And it's written two articles. It's firstly said that Reform, which is the populist party, which is very noisy, gaining in traction, entered Parliament. I think it's for the first time in the last election. Nigel Farage is now an mp. Everybody knows his face. If you're British, they are seizing the initiative. And the article in the Times says that reform could actually win an outright majority in Parliament if there was an election today. Now, I said, this is interesting when you walked into the studio and you went, this is completely wrong.
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F
It's complete nonsense.
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C
Why did you say that, Vinny?
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A number of factors. One, I think there is a problem in political media because there's a lot of we had a lot of kind of years of psychodrama, the Johnson years, the Liz Truss, the Rishi Sunak, Brexit. And now there is a government which is less about trying to get headlines, every about trying to deliver on its five missions. And so sometimes there's a bit of looking for let's rile something up. Let's pump up Farage as a threat Nigel Farage, no doubt, he is a genius political operator. If you walk down the street outside the studio here and ask people to name five other members of Reform, they couldn't do it.
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C
I think quite a few people would struggle with the Labour Cabinet, actually, to be honest.
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F
True. But the problem with Nigel Farage projects is that they are always Nigel Farage projects. Ukip, the Brexit party, all have spectacular fallouts. And Nigel Farage has already lost one of the MPs that he came in with last year. And the danger that he's got is one, the party is all about him and a lot of people do not like him. He has trouble attracting real talent. But when he does get someone who is a political player, he often falls out with them. See Douglas Carswell, Mark Reckless in the past, who he pulled from the Conservatives into Ukip. And the problem is, if he can't build a team around him and it's all based on him, well, the project evaporates. If he got into any kind of look at Marine Le Pen, any kind of serious legal issues, or if he took a turn in his own health. But ultimately, we are four years out from the next British general election. You, in that time will have Reform, which is now running a number of councils, including Kent Council, including Nottingham Council, running already into issues. We've had spectacular fallouts and what we see is not only mismanagement, but also there is, more often than not, with these kind of parties coming in, they don't quite get the things that they can and can't control, so they promise to do things that are in the control of Parliament, not local councils. And you also get quite a lot of corruption normally as well. But if we're sort of four years from an election, you'll also be at that point potentially six months out from, let's say, Donald Trump maybe being booted out of the White House or the Republicans being booted out. And the argument labor can make is, why would you want to go across to that kind of toxicity, to that kind of chaos? That's not what this country is. Now, it is interesting polling, but I think it's more dangerous for the Conservative Party because it would leave the conservatives on only 45 MPs. That party is the most successful election machine in Europe. In the last 150 years, it has dominated British politics. And if you're Kemi Badenoch, you're already on watch because there might be a push against you. I think this poll will do more damage to her. She's got a conference next week. But I think she could well and truly be out at Christmas if she doesn't turn this around.
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C
The interesting thing, though, is it's countered by not just the rise of. And you very eloquently laid out the problems that Reform would experience were it to enjoy success. But the fact is that the success is not necessarily just down to reform being popular. It's down to Labor, Labour falling to pieces in its popularity. And as this Times article suggests, Sir John Curtis, the man who knows everything about elections anywhere in the entire universe, he says that the problem that Labour faces is that it is suffering in the constituencies which it holds with Reform just snapping behind its heels. So, yes, this new two horse race between Labour and Reform is a new departure for British politics. But the fact remains is that Labour is losing its own vote.
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F
Yeah, that's right. And it had done before the red, so called red wall went in when Boris Johnson came in and he flipped a lot of seats that in 2019 that wouldn't get before. There is, you know, there is if, if you're sort of a sort of shallow water, what's called political viewer. So you, you know, you're not in the weeds every single day looking at, you know, policies and bills and you're only sort of seeing the sort of big splashes every now and again. Someone like Farage can, you know, catch your.
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B
Farage.
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F
What's really interesting is this poll was done before this week. Farage is running into some real trouble because he's had two policy announcements recently which have basically fallen apart within 12 hours. And to give you an example, this week, getting rid of indefinite leave to remain. Now, Farage announced this big policy, saying it would undo what he was calling the Boris wave. And he was basically saying that. He was basically saying that they were going to cancel indefinite leave to remain, which is where you can live in Britain for a period of five years at a time. You don't have to take British citizenship. This would affect potentially millions of people. Then he backtracked, saying, oh, no, if you were here from the EU before that, you're fine. But then it creates a huge problem for Britain's quite large Southeast Asian community because countries like India don't allow you to have dual nationality, so those people can't then get British passports. And by the end of the day, the sort of policy was in pieces. And then he goes on the radio the next day and says he sort of backs up Donald Trump's claims about Tylenol, saying he doesn't know. And so there is I think more exposure of what he's really like and he may now come more and more unstuck.
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C
Briefly, we have but a few seconds to talk about Sir Tony Blair wanting to run Gaza. This is an astonishing sort of culmination of events and narratives and people.
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F
Yeah, I mean, Tony Blair has spent a long time after he left office in 2007-2015, he was a representative for what was called the Quartet, the UN, the US EU and Russia. Russia working in the Middle East. He is well regarded in the Middle East, Iraq aside, in terms of the work that he's done in Israel and Palestine. He is someone that is thought to be a subject matter expert. And what he's looking to do is basically what was done in Kosovo under his time as prime minister to set up this sort of temporary administration to look after and govern the state and get it prepared to run itself. He's someone that's got experience of peace processes in Northern Nazi, in Kosovo, in the Balkans as well. And he has apparently the backing of Jared Kushner, the President's Donald Trump son in law, and his sort of special adviser, Steve Witkoff, other parties as well. And this is something that he wants to sort of spend as long as he says as possible doing. It would be based just over the border in Egypt trying to administer Gaza and get it back on its knees. But there's been a lot of bad news for people in Gaza. But this is seen as a reaction to the fact that Netanyahu has had a real blow this week with the uk, Canada, France saying we recognize Palestine now and possibly putting an end to the talk of Israel just consuming it.
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C
Vincent McEvin, political broadcaster and commentator. Thank you so much for joining me in the studio. You're listening to the Globalist. Now here's a quick look at some of the other stories we're keeping an eye on today. The former boss of the FBI, James Comey, has been indicted on charges related to the disclosure of sensitive information. The U.S. justice Department says he's charged with making false statements and the obstruction of justice. He becomes the first former FBI director to be indicted for a crime. The United States is to impose a 100% tariff on imports of branded or patented pharmaceutical products from the start of next month. The US President Donald Trump said the only exemption would be for companies who are already building a manufacturing plant in the U.S. meanwhile, the U.S. president has signed an executive order handing the U.S. operation of TikTok to a group of private investors. America says this will remove security concerns about the platform's current current Chinese owners and postal workers in Canada have gone on nationwide strike. The country's government has told Canada Post that it needs a major transformation in order to balance its finances. This is the globalist. Stay tuned. Now let's have a look at some of the headlines that we're following as well. Well, with Nicolas Sarkozy's spectacular downfall yesterday in a French courtroom, Monocle's Paris bureau chief Simon Bouvier talks about French politicians post political woes.
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What is it with big name French politicians and their legal troubles? Earlier this year, far right leader Marine Le Pen was found guilty of illegally funding her party, barring her from running for political office for five years. Years. Now it's the turn of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy to face justice again. On Thursday, he was found guilty of criminal conspiracy and sentenced to five years in prison. His trial focused on allegations of taking money from former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to fund his winning 2007 presidential campaign. Even before yesterday's ruling, which he will appeal, Sarkozy was already the first, first former French president to be sentenced to prison. In a separate case involving illegal wiretaps, he served that sentence with an ankle tag under house arrest. This time, however, Sarkozy will definitely see the inside of a prison cell. Though a jailed ex president will be a first for France, Sarkozy follows a long Gallic tradition of political improprieties that test the limits of the legal system. Sarkozy's mentor, the late President Jacques Scholars Chirac, was found guilty of siphoning off public funds through fictitious jobs created while he was the mayor of Paris. But he was handed a suspended sentence. Before him, France's first Socialist president, Francois Mitterrand, got in trouble for wiretaps while his predecessor, Valerie Guiscard d', Estaing, faced allegations of improper gifts from former Central African Republic strongman Jean Bedel Boucassa. But both escaped legal repercussions. The optics of these imbroglios are not good, especially at a time of historically low confidence in politicians from polarized and angry French voters. But the electorate should look on the bright side. In France today, the law does eventually catch up with you, even if you're a former president.
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C
And that was Monocle's Paris bureau chief, Simon Bouvier. For more on this, tune in to the briefing live on Monocle Radio at midday, London time. You're listening to the Glenn. It is what, 8:32am in Milan, which is we head now to join our fashion director, Natalie Theodosi, who's there for Fashion Week in Milan. A very good morning to you, Natalie. How's Milan looking?
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G
Good morning, Emma. Milan is great. It was meant to rain the whole week, but we've had a very nice sunny day yesterday when I arrived. So good mood for everyone and some exciting new designer debuts.
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C
It's interesting, isn't it? Because Milan at this moment is. There are two things happening, aren't there? There is. We can move to this in a minute. The departure of Giorgio Armani. He died last month. And yet the retrospective, the 50th anniversary, was just about to happen. So that is the end of an era in Milan. But when it comes to the likes of Gucci and also Gill Sander, it's very much people looking to see fresh beginnings.
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G
Exactly. I think overall, like you said, it's just. Just a period of ongoing change. And with Giorgio Armani, it is this end of an era. And on Sunday evening, we will be going. There's an exhibition and a show happening at the Pinacoteca in Brera to pay homage to Mr. Armani. Yesterday there was also the Emporio Armani show, which was, I think, a bit of a teaser of what's going to happen on Sunday evening. But you could already feel how emotional everyone was and his team coming out to take a bow and just kind of looking up at the sky and paying homage to Mr. Armani. But then all around, the rest of the week, it's all about the big designer debuts, high stakes and a lot of anticipation.
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C
Let's start with where we can answer. Jill Sandor or Gucci. Where do you want to begin? What got you the most?
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G
I had very different reactions for both. Both quite positive, I would say, I think when it comes to Gucc Demna's last few years at Balenciaga, I thought weren't his best. And he had pushed this whole streetwear ideas and irony a little bit too far. So I wasn't sure if he's the right person to now take on Gucci, but he teased his vision with a film and he did it in such a smart way, I think marketing wise, getting a lot of interesting people, Demi Moore, great directors to produce this film and then get them all together in a movie theater to launch the new collection. And I thought that that was fun. And he. And he did it. He employed humor that playing making fun of all these different Italian characters is more glamor coming back. And also very interesting that a lot of those clothes will be now available in stores directly, sort of helping Gucci get a Boost and then turn its fortunes around. So I thought that was a good start. And even if you do, you don't like Demna and the whole logo kind of loud fashion approach. It's something that made you smile, that made you stop and look. So overall, I would say positive. I don't know what you thought of it.
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C
I thought. I wasn't quite sure. I'm not there yet. I'm on my way. I'll find out. I did like the idea of the film. I think it's called La Familia, which is exactly, unashamingly, sort of fun and powerful and sexy and trying to channel that essence of Gucci that previous designers. Designers try very hard to encapsulate, and sometimes they fail, and sometimes they succeed. It's. There's an unto. There's a sort of undefinable element to Gucci, which isn't just glamour. And it is interesting that you talked about this. What's it called? See now, buy now, that from next week, parts of this collection will be on sale. The rest of it will be. Well, the whole lot comes at the beginning of next year. What is it, Natalie, is that's behind these decisions to make? Absolutely. You know, the. The couture element of fashion being instantly accessible.
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G
I think in this case in particular, it was an emergency decision. As we've spoken about a few times before, Gucci has had a bad few years with a lot of changes in creative direction. The last designer, Sabato de Sarno, his vision didn't quite work. Will work out. So the shares have been significantly down. Gucci's losing money. So this is a way, I think, to give it a boost and to make something work quite quickly, because Demna's first show will be in February, and that's when we'll really see the full collections in stores and everything. But I think this is a taster and a way to kind of appease shareholders, I think.
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C
Okay, let's move on to very clear statement there. Let's move on to Jill Sander. Simone Bellott presenting his debut there. Jill Sander had the cleanest, often quite considered, quite hard lines for women's fashion. How did Bellotti interpret it?
- [38:04]
G
I think he really doubled down and paid homage to Jill Sanders and that very clean aesthetic. But everybody was so delighted to see such a clear homage. But then at the same time, he's playing with color. He's so clever with the way that he plays with accessories. Everyone was already calling it the show of the season. They could predict that these loafers that he sent down the Runway are going to be selling out in no time. And again they are playing with this idea of more immediate kind of purchasing. So you can pre order some of the bags that were on the Runway two days ago and I really think that that's going to be one of the most successful debuts.
- [38:50]
C
Good to hear. Natalie Theodosi in Milan. Thank thank you so much for joining us on the Globalist. Now it's Friday, which means that Monocle's contributing editor Andrew Muller has been hard at work going through the last seven days for us to find out what we learned.
- [39:13]
B
We learned this week that humanity's frankly erratic stint at running its own affairs may be drawn drawing to a merciful close. We learned that the future of governance may sound like this, which is we learned Diala, an entirely AI generated apparition to whose handsome traditional Albanian costume we cannot entirely do justice in this audio medium, who has been awarded a role in Albania's cabinet allegedly to make impartial and incorruptible decisions on procurement for public works and so on. We learned, applying our admittedly rudimentary Albanian, that what she said there was the.
- [40:06]
C
Real danger to constitutions has never been machines, but human decisions made by the those in power.
- [40:14]
B
Which if we're honest, does sound a bit like what a megalomaniac computer program would say shortly before harvesting our blood for coolant. But we learned nevertheless that it could be worse and indeed is. For we learned of the latest steps in the ceaseless quest of US President Donald Trump to heal his divided nation. He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them. That's where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent and I don't want the best for them. I'm sorry. I am sorry, Erica. And it's rancorous politics. You know, Biden was always a mean guy, but never a smart guy. You know, even you go back 30 years ago, 40 years ago. He was a stupid guy, but he was always a mean son of a, you know, and a roiling world. I'm really good at this stuff. Your countries are going to hell and slash. But we learned that despite the derisive sniggering emanating from some cynical quarters.
- [41:28]
C
Stupid.
- [41:33]
B
Like that. One of President Trump's further placating of the dogs of war, silencing of the cries of havoc, etc. After learning last week of Trump's heroic labours to end the long bitter and non existent war between now apparently AI governed Albania and probably Azerbaijan.
- [41:55]
C
Aber Beijing and Albania as An example.
- [41:59]
B
It was going on for years. It was never going to be settled. We this week learned of another potentially destructive conflict nipped decisively in the bud by the Clemens von Metternich of our time. Cambodia and Armenia was just starting and it was a bad one. Yes, we learned that there would be no war between Cambodia and Armenia, though they must have been pretty angry with each other about something, given that their capital cities are. We'll need a spinning globe sound effect about 6,800 kilometres apart, give or take, which if we're quibbling, and to be clear, we are quibbling, elevates this particular diplomatic triumph to about the level of forestalling conflict between, say, Bhutan and. Come on, give it another spin. Malta. Big hello to all our listeners in Malta.
- [43:01]
C
Hello.
- [43:02]
B
But we learned, because it's not like he is ever shy about reminding us of how very tough life is for St. Donald the Peacebringer, who, even as you listen to this monologue, may well be tirelessly and diligently wrangling a cessation of hostilities between Fredonia and land Legoland. For a start, as Trump explained to his fellow national leaders at the UN General assembly, during the course of a typically sane, focused, constructive, coherent, self effacing and above all, completely normal speech, he gets none of the respect he abundantly deserves, which is a very big thing for which our country received no credit. Never receives credit. Everyone says that I should get the Nobel Peace Prize for each one of these achievements. Well, not quite everyone. We learned, however, that it gets even worse than that. We learned that the escalators at the UN building, all I got from the United nations was an escalator that, on the way up stopped right in the middle. We still have that chorus we made back when obscure UK Minister Will Quince resigned. Right, that one we sometimes wheel out and get the producer to leadenly intone, whatever the thing is, over every mention of Will Quince, we're going to need that with the UN's escalators. Over every will quince.
- [44:37]
F
The UN's escalators.
- [44:39]
C
The UN's escalators.
- [44:41]
F
Changes the UN's escalators.
- [44:44]
C
What are we going to do? Surely not.
- [44:47]
B
We learned, however, and as always, that the President's advisors could be relied upon to help him keep things in proportion.
- [44:54]
C
And if we find that these were UN staffers who were purposefully trying to trip up, literally trip up, the President and the first lady of the United States, well, there better be accountability for those people, and I will purpose personally see to it.
- [45:09]
B
And that the same could be said of the President's media outriders on Fox News, ready as always, to stoutly resist any temptation to report inane pettifogging trivia like it's Pearl Harbour or something.
- [45:22]
C
What we need to do is either.
- [45:24]
B
Leave the UN or we need to bomb it. We can of course be absolutely sure that Jesse Watters for it was he would be totally cool with it if a liberal broadcaster breezily discussed their Timothy McVeigh fantasies during a newspaper program. We learned, however, and this will be extremely difficult to believe, but stick with us, that American conservative media had incredibly, this is all completely beyond the realm of expectation. Just have never imagined, let alone heard of anything like this happening before. Run hog wild on a lurid conspiracy narrative without waiting until the facts were in. Yes, we're as shocked as you are.
- [46:03]
A
And so the Associated Press reports that the UN understands that someone from the.
- [46:08]
C
President's party who ran ahead of him inadvertently triggered the stop mechanism on the escalator.
- [46:15]
B
We learned therefrom, however, of a possible explanation for the President's apparent distraction while up there on the literal and metaphorical world stage. He just had to walk further than he ever had in his life. For Monocle Radio, I'm Andrew Malcolm.
- [46:32]
C
And my thanks to Andrew and all the team who pull that together for us every week, every Friday, right here on Monocore Radio.
- [46:42]
A
There's a craft to every question, which is why?
- [46:45]
C
At ubs, we query every aspect of.
- [46:49]
A
The market, working with specialized experts and.
- [46:52]
C
Award winning research teams covering over 3500 stocks in 50 countries, all delivered in.
- [47:00]
B
A comprehensive library, answering what you want.
- [47:03]
C
With what you need. UBS banking is our craft. Time for a quick roundup of what's happening in Japan. Fiona Wilson is Monocle's Tokyo Bureau Chief, Senior Asia Editor and she joins us from our Tokyo studio. Writer is Good afternoon. I believe it is Fiona just what just coming up to quarter to four in the afternoon. Just nearly ten to four in the afternoon exactly.
- [47:36]
A
Emma, thank you. Yes, and it's another lovely day. I think every time I speak to you I'm bigging up the weather in Tokyo, but it is very nice. Yes, I was just reading that apparently we're in for an extremely short autumn this year. Don't know how they know that already, but apparently it's going to be hot and then it's suddenly going to turn to winter in November, so.
- [47:53]
C
Excellent.
- [47:53]
A
Looking forward to that.
- [47:54]
C
We shall look forward to your update from the Tokyo bureau, Wendy. That happens as you've just briskly put on a coat. I Think the focus has to be on today's conversation about the race for the next leader of Japan's ldp.
- [48:09]
A
Yes, that is the big news at the moment. Yeah, October 4th is the day and it's starting to. It's not a huge field, but it's starting to narrow a bit. And the front runner at the moment is Shinjiro Koizumi. He's the agriculture minister in his 40s. You know, he's young, good looking, son of a former prime minister, which is quite a common story in Japan. Son of Junichiro Koizumi, who was a rather successful prime minister back in the early 2000s. So he's the front runner at the moment and he's up against Yoshima Sahayashi, chief cabinet secretary, pretty high profile, speaks English and Sanae Takaichi, who is a quite controversial, I would say. She's ayou know, the LDP is a center right party and she's definitely on the right of that bit of the center right. So she's more outspoken on issues around nationalism, geopolitics and. Yeah, so at the moment, Koizumi nudging ahead and it's quite hard to say at the moment. This is an election that happens within the party so the public can take a view, but they don't actually get a say.
- [49:12]
C
So one thing is, you know, we're watching, waiting patiently, and the international media is obviously having a look. Reuters this morning has come up with an astonishing story about Mr. Koizumi, about a grape, a box of which I believe you have in your fridge.
- [49:29]
A
I had to laugh at this story. I mean, Koizumi doesn't really help himself. He's, if you read anything about him, he has made a few gaffes over the years and this looks like a bit of an own goal. Just when he needed to have a smooth ride to the leadership election. So he's agriculture Minister. He, for other reasons known only to himself, set up negotiations with New Zealand about licensing the growing of these Shine muscat grapes. Now, if you're in Japan, Shine muscat, these are the most delicious, the sweetest, juiciest kind of grapes. It's a kind of grape that they cultivated in Japan and it's now protected. The seedlings are protected. You can't just send them anywhere. So Koizumi, without discussing it with the governor of Yamanashi, which is the sort of center of shine musket production, or with the producers himself, seems to have opened up these discussions. And yeah, there was a delegation to complain about what he's been doing. And yeah, he tried to sort of fudge the issue by saying, oh, yes, they're absolutely right. We wouldn't do anything without consulting with them, having done exactly that. So bit of an unfortunate one for Koizumi today.
- [50:38]
C
No, not so great. Right, let's move over to a story in. I think it's in the Japan Times about Japan's aid agency making rather a big international communication error.
- [50:51]
A
Yeah, I mean, that story is everywhere. It's a very, very kind of unfortunate, slightly embarrassing story. So Japan, every August has this big conference for, you know, aid in Africa. They pledge a lot of money. I think it was about one and a half billion dollars this August. And at that conference they announced this initiative to. They already have kind of tie ups with certain African American countries and certain municipalities in Japan. And they slightly kind of cemented it a bit further. They called it this hometown agreement. They'd be extending the partnerships between four African countries and these municipalities. Now, it was slightly misunderstood and the Nigerian government, which was teamed up with Kisarazu in Chiba, not far from Tokyo, announced that skilled Nigerians would be getting special visas if they wanted to move to Kisarazu.
- [51:43]
C
And.
- [51:43]
A
And this just set off a whole panic about what this hometown initiative really was. Was it opening the door to large scale immigration from Africa? And it seems that the other people, the other municipalities involved have all been roped into this with anxious citizens saying, what exactly is this thing? And anyway, the government asked the Nigerian government to take down this business about the, you know, the special visa. And they've been trying to convey, I feel, in a very muddled way through the Foreign Ministry what they actually meant. And then yesterday they just said the whole scheme is scrapped. So that's the end of that. Very unfortunate.
- [52:22]
C
Let's talk briefly about if you want to be happy in Tokyo, where should you live?
- [52:27]
A
Well, I mean, you know, many answers to that question. But there's a poll that comes out every year. It's Greater Tokyo and that extends to Kanagawa, which is where these beautiful coastal towns are. And for the fifth year in a row, it's Hayama in Kanagawa. I'm a little bit worried about that because it's actually one of my favorite places to go in the summer. It's a small town on the coast, 30,000 people, great food, fantastic swimming. The Royals have a villa there. They know what's good and really good food. And it's just a very relaxed place and it's great for a swim in the summer.
- [52:58]
C
Wonderful. Fiona Wilson Monocle's Tokyo bureau chief and senior Asia editor. Thank you for joining us on the line from, from Tokyo. Finally today it's Friday and we're going to have a bit of house news. Fernando Agosta Pacheco. Excuse me, I'm losing my voice. Fernando Augusta Pacheco joined me in to basically fill the airwaves with delicious things until the end of our program. Hello, Faye. How are we?
- [53:24]
H
Bongi, I'm very, very happy. Usually I'm not happy in the mornings, but today I am now.
- [53:28]
C
This is this thing, isn't it? So, so obviously we're on air when we're live at 7am London time, which requires a little bit of an early alarm. Let's be honest about this. This is not something that you like.
- [53:38]
H
Not really, but when, you know, when you are hosting the Globalist, we have a beautiful production team. I'm happy. I'm talking about magazines, music, beautiful events. That's fine by me.
- [53:47]
C
Clearly the alarm has gone to your head. Right, so. So I have a lovely new copy of the new magazine, the new Monocle magazine. Who? What? Where? Our dapper directory. It's, it's a style issue, isn't it? And, and you've, you've, you've paid some sort of contribution, in no sense small part.
- [54:02]
H
Absolutely. Well, shall we start with my little review of magazines in the, in the, in the new issue as well? Of course, it's the style issue, so I had to choose very stylish new magazines. So, Emma, I keep saying this on the stack. There's so many new titles when you go to the newsstand. And of course Natalie was there giving an amazing fashion debrief there. What's interesting that I'm finding is that brands are releasing magazines and that's quite an interesting thing. Bottega Veneta is doing it and Chanel, most importantly, just a month ago or so, they released the first issue of their arts and culture magazine. It's a hefty tome, you know. Of course, you know, Chanel is making it. So there are a lot of things about. There's a still life shot about the objects that once belonged to Gabrielle Chanel, but there's also interesting essays, it's beautiful photography. I think it's quite an interesting launch for a brand like this. And if I may continue, can I send another one as well, please?
- [55:01]
C
If you.
- [55:01]
H
Do you like also hefty Italian architecture magazines? You must be very careful.
- [55:06]
C
Who doesn't like a hefty Italian magazine?
- [55:07]
H
Who doesn't? I mean, I would have A serious conversation with that person.
- [55:11]
C
About.
- [55:12]
H
About is out. About is huge. Honestly, it's probably like about 300 page. And they look at interesting projects around the world, including Mexico City Pilates, which is a civic center. But they go for detail. This is a magazine for architectural nerds and people that like a well designed magazine as well. So if you go to the new stand, I would recommend you to get a copy. And it's in English. I said it's an Italian title but it's in English.
- [55:37]
C
We have a very sort of like warm and welcoming house, don't we? That we may make a magazine here, but we love other people's magazines too, so. So welcome to all those new titles. That was on what page 52, ladies and gentlemen. If you have the new edition read, follow along. Let's move forward to page 136 and I feel like I'm doing the hymns. Right. So let's, let's talk about music. So. So you have brought us a sort of a cultural briefing for music this year and we're going to listen to something too.
- [56:03]
H
Absolutely. Well, I think we should. We need a clip actually. Now the first album that I review is Olivia Dean, the Art of Loving. I mean she is doing so well, to be honest. Actually, the cab that I came to the office today, they were playing the song that. We're just gonna hear it right now, Men I Need, which is the lead single from Olivia Deen's new album. I love her dose of tones. I think she's a star and she is very stylish. Talking about the style issue. Shall we listen to a little clip, Emily?
- [56:30]
C
Yes, please. Like global countdown but at seven o' clock in the morning.
- [56:45]
H
Exactly. I, I brought the global countdown to the Globalist. But don't worry, we don't have a clip for that. But if you want something hard hitting. Another thing that I recommended is 9 inch Neo's new album and it's not really. Seriously, it's not a normal album. I bet it's the soundtrack for the new Tron Ares, which is of course the iconic film from the 80s, I believe.
- [57:07]
C
Right.
- [57:07]
H
And the last film in 2010, Deft Punk did the soundtrack. So that's quite an interesting one to follow. But Trent Reznor for Nine Inch Nails, he's the man to book if you are making a film. He did the amazing soundtrack for Challengers by Luca Guadagnini who I think was a very sexy electro yellow and perhaps less sexy, but still luxury. So I love the soundtrack of the new Trong as well.
- [57:31]
C
Excellent. So that's an interesting sort of to buy list. And finally, Zimmerman90, you did a thing with them and they are wonderful. Tell us about them.
- [57:41]
H
It's so gentle. The album is called Interior. It's all about your inner emotions as well, but with some beautiful symphony melancholia at the background.
- [57:50]
C
Delicious. You have 35 seconds to tell us about what you did in Lisbon this week.
- [57:54]
H
Beautiful event. The Portuguese fragrance house Claus Porto is doing a collaboration with Monaco. We have a new scent called Soleil Zest, light, joyful and citrusy. As I wrote in my notes, just like you.
- [58:04]
C
Faye, what was the event like?
- [58:05]
H
Over 200 people under the canopy of the new art modern museum Gobenkian. It was a delight. It was a really nice event. And I'll follow if you. You're going to be jealous with the weather. It was quite a nice evening. Quite warm and delicious.
- [58:21]
C
Excellent. Warm and delicious as well. Monocle senior correspondent Fernando Augusta Pacheco, thank you for joining us. Monocle's October issue, Dedic Style is out now. Go and get it. Anyway, that's all the time we have for today's program. The warmest of thanks to all my guests and to the producers Monica Lillis and Tom Webb. Our research was Daniela Brauer Smith. Our studio manager was Elliot Greenfield with editing assistance by Jack Jewas. After the headlines. More music on the way. The briefings live at midday here in London. The Globalist is back at the same time on Monday. But for now, from me, Emma Nelson. Goodbye. Thank you for listening. Have a great weekend. Sam.