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Craft matters in small ways like how a coffee is brewed, and in not so small ways like how your money is cared for. Which is why for 160 years, UBS has elevated banking to a craft, tailoring unique strategies that combine human expertise with the latest technologies, all happening across 24 time zones and and 12 key financial hubs. With you at the heart of it all, UBS advice is our craft. You're listening to the Globalist, first broadcast on 30th October 2025 on Monocle Radio. The Globalist in association with U hello, this is the Globalist broadcasting to you live from Midori House in London. I'm Georgina Godwin. On the show ahead, we have a deal.
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B
Now, every year we'll renegotiate the deal.
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A
But I think the deal will go.
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On for a long time, long beyond the year.
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Donald Trump says he's struck deals with both South Korea and China. We'll hear more from our experts. Is the Netherlands about to have its youngest prime minister? And the first openly gay leader will be in Amsterdam for the results of yesterday's snap election. We'll look through the day's papers and get an aviation roundup from Asia. We'll hear about the largest ever police raids in Rio and then cross to Slovakia where pedestrians will soon be subject to to a speed limit. And finally, and I really have this.
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Urge to make music that you feel like dancing to, but also speaks about very vulnerable things.
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We meet the Portuguese singer Carolina Deslande. That's all ahead here on the Globalist, live from London. Now. US President Donald Trump has departed Seoul. He spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One just in the last hour about his meeting with Xi Jinping. So to begin today's show, I'm joined by Monocle senior news editor Chris Chermak for a look at what he said. Chris, bring us up to speed on a busy couple of hours.
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C
It has been a busy couple of hours. So just a recap of the headlines, if you will, from the U.S. and President Trump. He met for about an hour and 40 minutes with President Xi before hopping on a plane back to the U.S. this is the end of his Asia swing. They did not do a joint press conference, but Trump instead did this gap with reporters, if you will, on the plane for about 15, 20 minutes. He called it an excellent meeting with Xi Jinping. He rated it 12 out of 10. He did also announce, as you heard at the top of the show, that there is a deal that will be signed soon. He called it It's a One year deal that would be reviewed every year. And essentially it's a return to where we were. Both sides are pulling back from various restrictions that they put in place to some degree. China pulling back on rare earth export controls. US tariff reduced back to 47%. That's even a little bit of a cut from where they've been because Trump says that she has taken action on fentanyl. So he's reduced tariffs by 10%. And this is being also sold as a victory in the US for farmers because China will resume purchasing soybeans. This was a huge issue for the US and something that China was using as well as the rare earths to try and sort of force the hand of the US So what's interesting out of this deal and we'll get into China's perspective, perspective shortly, but from the US it's going to be hard to see how Trump sells this as getting anything that he didn't have before he came into office. Right. Because all of this has been his own tariffs, his own threats towards China and now they're all pulling back from that. That will all be key. Some other headlines just to give you as well, Donald Trump will be going to China in April. He announced that as well. She will apparently be coming to the US Sometime after that, either to Florida to Mar a Lago or to Washington D.C. they said Ukraine came up. They hope to try and end the war there. Alth although there was no real talk of oil and whether China would continue to buy oil from Russia. Taiwan, interestingly, never came up, according to Donald Trump was not discussed, actually, he said. And then one other headline to give you that happened before this meeting. Donald Trump announced the resumption of nuclear testing in the US it's important to mention this as well. Shows how busy these last few hours have been. It would be the first time in 33 years that the US tested nuclear weapons. Trump on the plane also said he was doing this because others are doing it. They all seem to be doing nuclear testing, he said, specifically referencing China and Russia. This is not necessarily true. China. China and Russia have also not tested weapons, actual nuclear weapons, since the 90s. They've only tested missiles, which the US does as well. So we really don't know exactly what this is going to mean. But nonetheless, it's extremely significant that this was announced just before his meeting with Xi Jinping. Georgina.
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A
Chris, thank you very much indeed. I mean, the thing is that Trump says all this stuff, we have no way of knowing if it's true.
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C
We don't know how much of it is true, what kind of deal there is. We're going to get details. He promised details will be coming in the next few hours, so we'll see. As always, the proof is in the pudding with Donald Trump. And yes, he could of course change his mind, but he sounded confident saying this is a one year deal and it could be longer than that. It's all fixed, it's all done.
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Chris Chermack, thank you very much indeed. Well, let's dig into this further because South Korea's President, Lee Jae Myung says a sweeping trade deal with the United States is agreed in principle. Once again, we just have his word for it. Just as Donald Trump and Xi Jinping rap talks in Seoul with this surprise tariff truce and pledges on rare earth exports and US Farm purchases we've just been discussing. With protests on the streets in Seoul and two rival leaders in town, well, South Korea is walking a tightrope, locking in U.S. investment and lower tariffs, whilst also trying not to spark a backlash from Beijing. So joining us down the line from Seoul is John Lee, who's editor of Korea Pro. And also on the line is Isabel Hilton, who' co founder of China Dialogue and a visiting professor at King's College London's Lauer Institute. So, John, if we could start with you from the South Korean side. Is this a real deal or mostly political theatre?
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D
Yes and no. It is a real deal. The industry Minister announced, Sorry, not the industry minister, but the presidential chief of staff announced last night the details of the meeting. Now, what Donald Trump had said repeatedly over the past several weeks was that South Korea had agreed to invest $350 billion in cash up front. Now, this was a false statement. South Korea had repeatedly said that it wants to invest in the US but it cannot invest all of it in one lump sum because it would have affected South Korea's foreign exchange reserves. So during the negotiations, one of the things that South Korea had insisted on was a need for safeguards. And one of the proposals South Korea laid out was a cat was for a cash swap, a currency swap between the bank of Korea and the Federal Reserve. Now, eventually, what this deal ended up being was that there is no currency swap, but what America agreed is that of the $350 billion investment, South Korea would invest 200 billion, but of that, South Korea would only invest 20 billion each year. So this would be a 10 year commitment.
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Right, right, I see. Isabel, if I could just bring you in here. We've just heard Chris Chermack talking about the Trump Xi meeting. What's your view of it?
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E
Well, I very much agree with Chris that the details, such as they are, that we've learned so far after the meeting are very much what was agreed between the Chinese and the US Teams who've been meeting several times over the past three weeks. But they wrapped up two days of talks of Malaysia on Sunday. And actually both sides said that there was a preliminary agreement on things like fentanyl and export controls, which is the Chinese control of rare earths. The Chinese mentioned shipping levies. So essentially, you have two powerful countries that have pointed very big guns at each other and now have agreed not actually to fire them. But that's pretty much where we are. You know, we're back. As we said before all this kind of nonsense started, it was sort of back to where we were. So a great deal of sound and fury. There's been an awful lot of flattering rhetoric on both sides. Xi Jinping's statement after the meeting talked about the great ship of U S. China relations kind of, you know, sailing on and how they must be friends and, and work together and the world needed them and all of this, but quite short on details. So, honestly, you know, we have avoided worse, I think, is the best we can say about this.
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John, in Seoul, there have been protests against both Washington and Beijing. Tell us more about that.
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D
Well, the protesters that we've seen on the streets really represented the far right and the far left. When Donald Trump visited, there were a group of protesters who tried to march their way into the venue where Lee Jae Myung and Donald Trump were meeting. Now, I'm not quite sure what their intention was once they actually got there, but all the police presence stopped them from going. So that's from the far left. On the far right, however, on the other hand, they were quite welcoming of Donald Trump, while, of course, opposing Xi Jinping's arrival. Now, they welcomed Donald Trump because they were under this mistaken belief that Donald Trump would somehow speak on their behalf and say that Lee Jae Myung is not a legitimate president and that the former president, the disgraced and jailed Yoon Sung Yeol, should be reinstated now. So those are the two extremes that we've seen among the protesters. However, the vast majority of the Korean people who are in the middle, they were, shall we say, cautiously optimistic of the arrival of both Trump and Xi Jinping because South Korea really relies on both countries for their trade and really economic prosperity.
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I see, I see. Isabella, if we could just talk about Xi because he's staying longer in Seoul. Why? What does Beijing want from this extra time on Korean soil.
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E
Well, I think that this is part of a general push towards shoring up relations in the region that has been evident over the past year. So when Trump came back into power, announced his Liberation Day tariffs, the whole region went into shock and China went into action. And since then, we have seen a considerable warming of relations, actually, between smaller regional powers and China. They had always been rather nervous of China and had, on the whole, welcomed the American presence as a counterweight. But the Trump administration is so unreliable and difficult that I think that you've seen a considerable movement towards China as at least a steady hegemon. Even if it's a hegemon, I think that Xi Jinping's tour of the region is further confirmation of that. South Korea is a difficult one for China because it has been seen and has been indeed such a close ally of the United States. But there is an opportunity here for Xi to begin to detach traditional allies from the United States because of the Trump administration's behavior.
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And John, for South Korea, how difficult is it to balance between China and the United States?
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D
South Korea has not really been balancing its relation between the two countries, really. South Korea has made a choice and that has chosen the United States. If you look at all of the trade deals that South Korea and the United States have made, South Korean industries have become much more deeply embedded in the American supply chain, whether we talk about semiconductors, batteries or shipbuilding, which are the key sectors in South Korea's economy. The why there needs to be at least some balance, though, is because, yes, while South Korea has really chosen to align with the United States broadly, South Korea still really needs access to Chinese rare earths and other supply chains. And so in that regard, South Korea cannot afford to offend Beijing. But by and large, there is no balancing act anymore.
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John, thank you very much indeed. That's John Lee, editor of Korea Pro. We also heard from Isabel Hilton, founder of China Dialogue. And thank you both very much for joining us. This is the globalist. It's 8:13 in Amsterdam, 7:13 here in London. The Netherlands voted in a snap election yesterday called by Kjert Wilders of the far right Freedom Party, which had only been in government for 11 months, up for grabs 150 seats in the country's lower house of Parliament, which will almost certainly be another coalition. Well, I'm joined now by Amsterdam based journalist Shenai Bostas, who's been up all night watching and analysing the results as they come in Chennai. Thank you very much for staying up Even longer to speak to us. What are the results this morning?
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Well, it's extremely exciting. There's never been such a shift in the history of Dutch elections. Apparently, if you believe the national broadcaster, it looks like the Liberal Democratic Party has just edged it to a victory over the Freedom Party. They're actually on the current count of 99% of the votes. They're currently both on 26 seats. But it does look like the D66 party has got 2,000 more votes. So if that's confirmed, it would take the case, it would take the lead in trying to form a coalition.
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So tell us about D66 and its leader, Jettes.
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F
Yeah, Rob Jettes, a very young, dynamic 38 year old former athlete, walks. He's the fastest walker I've ever walked behind on campaigning. His party, Democrat 66 was founded in the year 1966 when they felt that something was really awry with their democracy, which is probably something that some Dutch people have been thinking recently as well. So it's a fairly traditional Liberal Democratic Party, not so dissimilar to the British Lib Dems, although in the most recent election they have taken a view on immigration, which is something that pressures a small and densely populated country like the Netherlands. And there's a tension here. We depend on immigration to fuel our industries, particularly the farming industry, the distribution centers, but also the high tech expats industries, the chip chip making factories. But also it is a very small country with a limited amount of size. So there's a lot of competition for space and we need population growth. But the question is, can you steer it and can you choose who you have and can you control it and limit it so it's not too great? So it's taken on this issue, which is obviously the issue that Wilders has grown huge on in the past and he is now slumped in the results.
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A
It is going to have to be a coalition, isn't it?
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F
It's always a coalition in the Dutch system because this is the world's most representative democracy. You can get into Parliament with just 0.67% of the vote, which means that we get, in this current climate, loads of tiny weeny little parties and no party is seeing the results of over 30 seats that even 10 years ago parties were seeing. So it looks like a complicated coalition. If you look at the spread of results.
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I mean, how do you think it's likely to shape up? And where will Vild figure in all of this?
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If D66 does edge it and does get the the largest vote Then it will take the lead. It looks like that. Then that would be a left right coalition. Although there are so many little bitty parties this time, it's difficult to see. Either it would work with a fairly extreme. Fairly. A fairly hard right party.
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Yeah.
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In 20th, or it would have to try to cobble together a coalition of some of the very tiny parties. So It's. It's quite trick 10. It tends to be the case that when you've got a coalition of more than three parties, it can be quite unstable. In the Netherlands, if Wilders is saying that he doesn't want any formations to begin until the votes are final, but realistically, all the other major parties have ruled out working with him, so the chances of him being able to do anything are almost nil.
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I wonder what that means for Europe and the wider debate over populist.
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Well, they're saying here, Rob yet said it in his speech last night. We've turned the page on Wilders. We've shown that the centre can win, that positive forces, as he put it, can win. And some people here are saying that it's a very interesting sign for the rest of Europe, which is also dealing with a rise in these populists, not least Britain.
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So D66, as you say, looked at immigration. What about climate and energy policy? Did those play a role at all in the outcome?
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I mean, they're traditional parts of D66, which is a green. A green party, so they believe in more wind energy. The one thing that is a constant is that energy prices in the Netherlands are huge, partly because of the tax, and. And that's a big issue, even if you are a sort of economically liberal party like the D66s, because businesses will say, well, we're going to close our chemical factory in Rotterdam because it's too expensive to run. So I think on the liberal side of the spectrum, spectrum, everyone is aware that something needs to happen and they need to speed up connections to the grid, because one of the problems of having such a grid that's so heavily dependent on alternative sources is that when the sun shines, it shines strong, and when it doesn't, it doesn't. When the wind doesn't blow, it doesn't. So you get peaks and troughs. And this means the energy grid has been struggling to keep up and to connect enough companies.
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And finally, how long do we expect coalition talks to drag on for this time?
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F
Gosh, I mean, we've had 10 months before parties have said that they really want to form a coalition by Christmas because in the Vilas government really Nothing happened for 11 months except people shouting at each other and the behavior was, someone said to me, you know, worse than a kindergarten in Dutch parliament. So there is a mood that people want to form a coalition quickly. Whether that will happen or not. The jury's out.
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Chennai, Boztach, thank you very much indeed. Now still to come on the programme, we'll cross to Rio de Janeiro where the war on so called narco terrorists is taking a terrible toll. This is the globalist craft is a matter of perspective, a unique outlook, an obsessive attention to detail. With UBS's Chief Investment Office Houseview, we're focused on identifying the latest investment opportunities and market risks to help you achieve your financial goals. So you get the big picture broken down into thought provoking insights delivered daily and curated by over 200 globally connected, locally active analysts. UBS banking is our craft. It is twenty past seven here in London and we're going to continue with today's newspapers. So joining me from our Zurich studio is Gurana Grgic, who is Monocle's security correspondent. Gharana, good morning to you.
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G
Good morning, Georgina.
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Now, we heard from Chris at the top of the show about the US nuclear testing. The Washington Post has more on that.
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G
Yes, absolutely. It's just the sort of news you would expect to be announced on Truth Social in a post and then President Trump not necessarily following it up when he was asked about what this actually means when he was heading into a meeting with President Xi. So what we know so far is that there is this announcement with garbage left, some ambiguities over whether the testing of nuclear weapons are going to exactly be what that says or whether it's going to be more like testing the delivery systems that could actually deliver nuclear weapons. So a lot of questions around that, but the timing is certainly significant. First of all, the fact that it did go out just before President Trump was meeting President Xi. So to establish this kind of hierarchy of nuclear powers where he actually erroneously keeps on referring to the United States as having the largest nuclear stockpile in the world, when it's actually Russia. But nevertheless, China being third in this mix, but expected to rapidly increase the number of its nuclear warheads by 2030 to over a thousand. And then two other things, which is news out of Russia that it has now successfully tested one of its newer delivery systems, which is a nuclear powered super torpedo called Poseidon. And then of course the news out of South Korea, which will now be allowed to develop nuclear powered submarines. So a lot of nuclear news all around East Asia.
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A
I mean, as Chris clarified, though, it's important to note that we are talking here jump's talking about nuclear tests, but that's what's been tested by Russia and China and so on are nuclear missiles.
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G
It's different delivery systems.
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Exactly.
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G
And that's what I said in the beginning, that we have some ambiguities still whether, you know, there were no follow ups, neither from the Pentagon or anyone from the administration thus far. President Trump was asked about exactly what that means. Yes, the post on Truth Social said resuming tests of nuclear weapons, which would be breaking this sort of precedent that hails back to 1992, which was the last time that the United States actually tested nuclear weapons. This is basically the era when Cold War was ending or in fact was over. Basically, we haven't seen other than North Korea actually testing weapons. Countries do that over the past two, two and a half decades. So that that era of the kind of nuclear tests around the world ceased basically by and large in the 90s.
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A
So if the US is so concerned about nuclear warfare and particularly the threat coming from Russia, you'd assume then that they would keep their troops in Eastern Europe and on that border. However, the story carried in many places it's reducing the number of troops it has stationed in Romania. It's scaling back NATO's deployment to countries along Europe's eastern border with Ukraine. And this is extraordinary.
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G
And you're absolutely right, you would assume some of these things. But cognitive dissonance and sort of incoherence is not something that has been a rarity when it comes to this particular administration. So I don't think that this is a news that necessarily surprised as many people because this sort of direction of travel has been well known in terms of where the United States wants to see its troops sort of stationed. Right. When it comes to these announcements around force posture and structure that basically it wants to have more troops present in the Indo Pacific to withdraw them from Europe. After all, you know, this is has been part and parcel sort of the pivot that the United States has been trying to make towards the Asia Pacific or Indo Pacific for over a decade. What is significant is the fact that the news broke just sort of overnight from Romania first and then the United States sort of followed up saying that these 700 soldiers that will be withdrawn from Romania are basically a signal that Americans are trusting the Europeans to be doing more and to be more capable and that overall that NATO sort of stationing and forces in Romania are going to remain in the same number. So that means that they will be replenished by other NATO member states, most notably Europeans. However, again, coming to your question, when it comes to sending a strong signal to Russia on NATO's eastern flank, the this is not the kind of signal we want when it comes to deterrence, especially given everything that's been going on over the past couple of months by way of this hybrid warfare of the drone incursions, which actually occurred also in Romania and after which NATO launched the eastern sentry operation to fortify actually its presence on the eastern flank.
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Yeah, hybrid warfare, as you say, but also an information war going on indeed, all over the world. It seems that the US Is kind of voluntarily losing this, that shutting down so many radio stations that were bringing free speech to various countries which wouldn't otherwise have it. Latest one to go, Radio Free Asia.
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G
Exactly. And we are having now kind of a tour around US Foreign policy and kind of zooming in on particular areas. And here you now see kind of the incongruence of what the United States is doing when it's leaning into some of these military tools in particular kind of domains and regions, while withdrawing from others in a way that kind of counteracts the situational kind of awareness and threat assessments. But this story coming from basically different capitals in Asia which have hosted Radio Free Asia that was formed in 1996 as basically a response to everything that happened post kind of Tiananmen in China, is a significant sort of inflection point because it opens up this sort of vacuum to be filled by those actors that want to fill the sort of broadcasts with disinformation, with misinformation. And basically it just shrinks and the space and disables the voices that are more pro democracy, pro sort of liberty, if you wish to have a space to assert themselves, which is what actually Radio Free Europe was set out to do and after which Radio Free Asia was modeled.
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A
Khurana, finally, I absolutely love the last story you've chosen for us from the Washington Post about MAGA singles looking for love.
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G
Exactly. So this one comes to us via Washington Post, which is, you know, right on the pulse of what's going on not just in the political world, but also in the dating world of U.S. capitol. And it's, you know, the story is all this time trying to find love, I guess, but with significant complications, which is that DC is basically a place where over 90% of population voted for Kamala Harris. So imagine now all of these Trump appointees coming to Washington trying to find someone to Pair up in the era when actually political ideology sadly determines almost your identity and hence your dating preferences. So this story tells us about the various ethics efforts that younger conservatives mostly have been taken to meet people. But what I took out of it is one interesting fact, which is that the broad church that is the kind of Trump world has different types of MAGA conservatives. So for instance, some of the MAGA women are not quite pleased with some of the Trump appointees because they're not manly enough. Apparently. They don't like exercising. They're too career focused, it says. And also some aren't actually Christian enough for some of the conservative ladies there. And I also learned a new acronym, which is maha, not to Make America Healthy Again, but to Make America Hot Again. And they've been holding these mixers for conservatives not just in Washington, but also in New York.
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Well, whoever wrote this article really had fun with it talking about making America hot again. It quotes a woman called Raquel de Bono and talks about how she says, yeah, I just don't want to beat around the bush, but a lot of people got laid that night.
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G
She's talking about far away from the kind of Christian chastity, you know, and kind of like these traditional conservative values we, we would have assumed they would be propagating.
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A
Garana, thank you very much indeed. That's Garana Gerdic, who is our security correspondent speaking to us there from our Zurich studio. This is the Globalist on Monacle Radio. Now here's what else we're keeping an eye on today. The military government in Sudan has expelled two senior officials from the World Food Programme amid worsening famine and escalating conflict in Darfur, sparking fears of a humanitarian collapse. Hurricane Melissa has wreaked havoc across the northern Caribbean with hundreds of thousands displaced, major infrastructure damage and at least 25 confirmed dead in Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba. And In Australia, an 80 year old woman has been found dead on Lizard island after a cruise ship departed without her during a hike on shore. Police and maritime authorities are investigating how she was missed in what the cruise company calls a tragic one off. This is the Globalist. Stay tuned. It is 8:31 in Zurich. 3:31am in Rio de Janeiro. Now, as we heard in the headlines, Rio has seen its deadliest police operation on record. More than 2,500 officers stormed two favelas to hit the Red Command crime faction. At least 64 people are confirmed dead, though rights groups say the real toll may exceed 130. Governor Claudio Castro says Rio is at war with narco Terrorism, but critics call it state sponsored massacre. The raids come just days before the Earthshot Prize and the COP30 buildup, prompting accusations of a violent cleanup ahead of the global spotlight. Well, I'm joined now by Andrew Thompson, who's Latin America specialist and Latin News contributor. Andrew, hello to you. What is the verified death toll? Are we closer to any confirmed numbers.
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H
At the moment, but still unconfirmed. It's 132 of which four members of the police and the rest are just members of the general public, alleged drug traffickers. But, but the, the official authorities are likely to put out more numbers in the next couple of days.
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A
Did Governor Castro act within his powers or was this a sidestep of federal oversight?
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H
There are arguments on both sides. So there's a whole. Obviously there's, this is a major political setback for the, for the country in general. But there's an argument going on between the state authorities under Governor Castle Castro, who are very much in favor of hardline anti crime policies, and the federal government of President Luis Naciolula da Silva, who argue that you should have a better coordination between state and federal police authorities and that the response to crime should be more nuanced. You don't just go in shooting as Governor Castro has. You use intelligence and, and track the money from organized crime and drug trafficking and you make arrests without necessarily having to go in with guns, guns blazing all the time. So the federal government in the last few hours has made the point that it made a major blow against one of the gangs, the premier Commando da Capital or pcc, back in August. And they did so without firing a shot. It did so so because it tracked money, money movements, money laundering and conducted a whole series of arrests. So, so there's around this whole tragedy. It is a tragedy because it's the worst police massacre in Brazilian history. There are, there is an argument going on about how do you reduce crime and how do you protect your citizens.
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A
Is narco terrorism a fair description of reality? Those gangs?
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H
I think it's a very contentious description that the gangs. I think the context of this is that you have over a hundred people dead. It's not clear. Some of those were clearly members of the drug trafficking gangs and street gangs. But you know, you, if you believe that you've got to gather evidence and take them to court and deal with them lawfully. There is a suspicion among community groups, among the shantytown residents that this was, these were basically extrajudicial killings, that people were just killed without due process of any kind. So to say narco terrorism. What the governor is trying to do is say we need emergency. This is a war, we're fighting, fighting and civil liberties must take a back seat. Which is something that many Brazilians do not believe.
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A
What mechanisms exist to investigate human rights abuses after an operation like this?
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H
Officially the prosecutor's office, both the state religion prosecutor's office and the public federal prosecutor will investigate what has happened. The Justice Minister who had a meeting with the governor and was treading relatively carefully says that the law may have been broken and that will be something that, that will be investigated.
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A
Let's look at the timing. Obviously we've got these two big international events coming up, but also Castro's re election bid. How significant is that?
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H
I think that's very significant. The, the context is that Castro is a member of the far right, his part liberal was, well, is associated with former president authoritarian, former president Zaire Bolsonaro. So it appears that his electoral strategy, there are general elections in Brazil in October next year. His strategy is to basically have a very hard line against crime because crime is a big issue in Brazil and a lot of people, people just want the criminals taken off the streets and again are not too fussy about the civil liberties angle of the operation against that. President Lula La Silva, who has, whose popularity ratings have increased recently, says you have to use non violent methods. You don't exclude violence, but you use much more police intelligence and, and things like that. So there's a, it's a kind of political debate ahead of Brazil's next elections. I should also mention briefly that the Supreme Court has intervened and has ruled that state police forces such as those in Rio should follow a certain procedure when they're doing mass raids like this one, which went so, so badly wrong. And the procedure includes, includes the fact that the police should wear body cams so that the circumstances of the death of alleged narco terrorism terrorists is clear that they should. When they're planning big raids. There should be ambulances ready and present before the raid. There are various other things. There are rules on preserving evidence and preventing the, the rapid disposal of the bodies which, which would reduce the ability to gather evidence. So there's a kind of procedure to be followed and the federal government is, is going to try and insist that that is applied in Rio de Janeiro.
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A
Andrew, thank you very much indeed. That's Andrew Thompson there. And this is Monocle Radio. Now it's time for a roundup of aviation news. And for that we're joined from Phnom Penh in Cambodia. By Matt Driscoll, who's editor of Asian Aviation magazine. Matt, hello to you. We're looking at an opening of a new airport in Cambodia, which I initially misread as Techno International Airport. How do you actually pronounce it?
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I
I pronounce it Teco and.
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A
Tell us about it.
- [39:18]
I
It's a, it's a nice airport. It's. It's big. Like most new airports, so are there are soaring ceilings. As the architects. It's a British firm, actually Foster and partners. Cost about $2 billion. Actually. I kind of miss the old airport. It was a little more on the human scale. But the new airport is nice. I'm actually going to fly through it for the first time in November. My son flew when he was flying back to France for university. He flew through it and he said it was okay, it was nice. He does, he doesn't. He's younger than me, so he doesn't appreciate the luck lounges as much as I do. But it's nice. They've had some. They've got a few problems with it. The signage is not up to, up to spec as far as I'm concerned. It's very hard to find things a little bit. And there have been a few other problems as well, which normally, you know, it happens with every big facility like that that opens around the world.
- [40:11]
A
Yeah, yeah. So lovely new airport, but not very many tourists. Why are tourists reluctant to. To visit?
- [40:20]
I
Lots of reasons. Number one in costs right now, inflation has gone up around the world, so we have a problem with that. Also in Cambodia, Chinese developers were here pre pandemic and they were building skyscrapers and casinos and all of that left and right. They haven't come back. The Chinese tourists haven't come come back. We've got a border problem with Thailand. Thailand is responsible for a lot of the tourism in Cambodia. So the border skirmishes, which unfortunately led to several deaths, that hasn't helped either. The recent news about the scam centers, which don't really have anything to do with the airport, but that may give some people, although I don't think it's quite to blame, 100% for the downturn in tourism. So, you know, it hasn't happened. People haven't just rushed back in to Cambodia, but they're coming back and it's looking better. And actually I think Phnom Penh, for example, in the Telegraph was named one of the top 15 cities to visit in the world. So. And I've been here three years and I agree with that.
- [41:32]
A
Well, I was just going to ask you that. I mean, you actually live in the place. Would you recommend it to tourists? Do you feel safe there?
- [41:39]
I
Absolutely. My and my wife, I mean, one of the main cities that's the problem is Sihanoukville, which unfortunately, I mean, it was a beautiful city before all of the development took place. My wife is actually up there, she's French. She's actually there on a business trip this week. And you know, I feel safe here. I've had, I've never had a problem in Cambodia. Tourists should come. It's great. You want to see the temples, go to Siem Reap. It's safe. You know, I've lived in Paris, I've lived in New York City, I've lived in Washington D.C. tourists, you know, you're going to have a problem in whatever city you go to. But as long as you're smart, as long as you take proper precautions, like in the metro in Paris, you know, don't take your phone out because someone's going to nick it. Same thing in New York, you know, don't walk down the street talking on your phone because someone's going to come by on a screen scooter and they're going to grab it from you. It happens all over the world. I feel completely safe here and I love it here. I wouldn't be living here.
- [42:41]
A
Absolutely. Now, you mentioned inflation and the knock on effect that that's having on tourism. We're seeing a sharp rise in airfares across Asia Pacific and the Middle East. Tell us more about that.
- [42:55]
I
Basically, people are traveling more. So you've got strong, it's supply and demand. Supply and demand, demand. People are what they want to fly. One of the biggest problems is jet fuel costs more now that's inflation. You've. So you've got higher operating costs. Pilots want more money, cabin crew wants more money. I don't think a lot of people realize that the cabin crew, the flight attendants, they don't get paid until, in a lot of cases, they don't get paid until the door closes on the airplane and they take, take off. So they're not getting paid when they're sitting on the ground or going to briefings and things like that. And so you're seeing a lot of union action where they want to get paid for that. And another big problem that I don't think a lot of people realize, the general flying public, is that there just aren't that many planes available now because Boeing's order book is full and they can't produce planes fast enough. Airbus's order book is full, Embraer, et cetera, et cetera, etc, so there's not so many planes. A lot of this can be traced back to the pre, to the pandemic when you had a lot of, you had a lot of people leave the industry. So the maintenance, repair and overhaul technicians, the guys with the, the men and women with 25 years of experience, they're gone. It takes time to train more people. So it, the airplanes sit in the maintenance hangars a lot longer. We've had some engine problems, problems. Rolls Royce, lovely British company, they've had problems with air and their engines. Pratt and Whitney, same pro, same problem. They've got a GTF engine. When it works, it's a great engine, but it's a little bit over engineered and some of the fan blades are too sensitive. So in hot and heavy climates the fan blades have to be replaced. So you're seeing planes sit in the hangers a longer time without engines. So you got not so many planes, not enough engines, increased demand. It's a supply and demand problem.
- [44:54]
A
Yeah. And of course there are environmental concerns too. Will flights reach net 0 by 2050 as has been posited?
- [45:04]
I
Well, I can make your producer happy and give you the short answer, and that is no. And there's, there's several reasons for that. The main reason comes down to money. I was at a conference one time, it's one of my favorite lines to use when I talk about this. Airlines operate on such thin margins. This gentleman said that they are a hamburger and a Coke away from making a profit on a per passenger per flight basis. That is how thin the margins are on a per passenger basis. And, and the problem is again, it comes down to money. Jet fuel is about 30, 35% of an typical airline's cost. So sustainable aviation fuel, SAF, or SAF as everybody calls it in the industry, everybody knows that that is the way forward to cut emissions. Airline industry, the aviation industry wants to be net zero by 20, 20, 50. It's not going to happen simply because airlines don't want to spend the money for saf. They will spend the money on public relations people to tell you how many demonstration flights they've done, how much they believe in SAF, etc. Etc. But there's several problems. One, it costs too much. Number two, the supply is not there because there's not enough, there's not enough customers to buy the supply supply. And number three is the feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel. What are you going to use? There's there's only so many, so much leftover oil from fish and chip production in Bristol or McDonald's french fries to, to power sustainable aviation fuel. And you, and also you don't you have to worry about where is it going to come from? Are we going to use, you know, you go say, you say, okay, we're going to use plant based fuel. Well, where, where are we going to get the plants? So if we're going to use. What about human food? Can't use that. What about palm oil? You can drive from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore and I've done this before and from horizon to horizon is palm oil plantations and they cut down virgin rainforest to build those plantations. So yeah, you could use palm oil. But are you going to get rid of all, are you going to get rid of all the forest? That's the problem with saf. It comes down to money.
- [47:33]
A
Matt, thank you very much. I love the hamburger line. That's Matt Driscoll who's editor of Asian Aviation magazine in Phnom Penh. And this is the globalist on Monocle Radio. Iq, EQ and AI. Three components key to the craft of innovation. Innovation at ubs. Because to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving age, you need a partner with decades of experience, endless passion for the work, and a finger on the pulse of leading technologies. Bridging human expertise with artificial intelligence, all to elevate you. Ubs. Banking is our craft. Slovakia has taken traffic control to a whole new level, and it's a very slow one. Parliament has voted to make power walking illegal, introducing a six kilometer per hour speed limit for anyone using the pavement, including cyclists, skaters and e scooter riders. The move meant to cut down on collisions has been met with laughter, disbelief and one obvious cause question. Who's going to clock pedestrians with a radar gun? Well, I'm joined now by Alexi Korilov, Monocle's Vienna correspondent and regular visitor across the border to Slovakia. Alexi, are they serious?
- [49:00]
J
Well, it seems to be, yeah, they seem to be. I was actually in Bratislava on the day they announced the changes on Tuesday for a story for our radio show, the Urbanist. They've got a lovely new architecture and urbanism center in Bratislava, so there'll be a report on the Urbanist shortly. And then after that I was actually running late for my train back to Vienna and I literally had to run through the streets at some point and I'm happy to say nobody batted an eyelid, nobody said anything to me. But of course it's early days and the changes are not Due to come into force until January, but still. But you know, of course there is this comedic quality to it. Not quite on the level of the Ministry of Security. Silly walks, but still. But then obviously there's this more serious aspect, you know, collisions, which are quite often. I've just looked up the statistics about Bratislava that almost all collisions involving e scooters and scooters on pavements end up in injury for either party or for both parties. So that's obviously, that's obviously a big problem. And in a country where, where they don't have as many cycle. Well, Bratislava is different as a capital city, but across the country and other places in Slovakia, they don't have as many cycle lanes that e scooter riders or cyclists would be using.
- [50:23]
A
I mean, why are they on the pavement in the first place?
- [50:26]
I
Well, indeed.
- [50:26]
J
I mean, they don't have the infrastructure. So because they don't have those lanes, they permit people to use pavements.
- [50:36]
A
So it is allowed that.
- [50:38]
J
It is allowed. Yeah, it is. I mean, until January next year.
- [50:41]
A
Yeah.
- [50:42]
J
But obviously, you know, there's a difference between Bratislava, which is the capital, and all those other places across, across the country. In Bratislava, they've been investing heavily in cycle lanes and cycling infrastructure in general. But that, yet, that is yet to happen. In other words, parts of Slovakia. And as we say, I mean, obviously this is, it does sound a bit like a joke, but there is this serious aspect to it and this is just one way, I suppose, of dealing with it. I mean, in Vienna, for example, e scooter riders are allowed to use cycle paths, cycle lanes for now, but they won't be from next year because. Because even though, you know, it says on most of them, you know, my Top speed is 25 km an hour, most of them go faster than this. And so it's been decided to ban them from cycle lanes and they're going to use roads like cars and motorbikes. So that's, you know, that's another way to go. But obviously, you know, in the absence, to come back to Slovakia, in the absence of, absence of, of infrastructure, in the absence of lanes, that's one way they decided to go. I mean, whether that's going to be successful or not, you know, we're yet to see. And as you said, as well, you know, it's not clear how, how on earth they're going to check how fast I'm going as a pedestrian.
- [52:14]
I
I mean.
- [52:14]
A
Yeah, Alexei, thank you very much indeed. I just wonder if you're like me and would like there to be A fine for people moving too slowly and reading their phone. I think that's actually, actually the way that we should do it, don't you think?
- [52:27]
J
Yes, absolutely.
- [52:30]
A
Alexi Kharilov, Monocle's Vienna correspondent, thank you very much indeed. You're listening to the Globalist on Monocle Radio. And finally, on today's show, to Lisbon, where Monaco Radio senior correspondent Fernando Augusto Pacheco met up with Portuguese pop sensation Carolina Deslande to discuss Lisbon's music scene and more about her brand new album.
- [53:09]
G
I also want to talk to you.
- [53:11]
A
For your last album.
- [53:13]
I
Club, right?
- [53:14]
B
Yes.
- [53:15]
A
First of all, what a great name.
- [53:16]
I
To cry in the club.
- [53:18]
H
But.
- [53:18]
J
But I have to say, I love.
- [53:19]
D
Your music, but I love the kind of the disco flavoring of this album as well.
- [53:24]
A
What was the inspiration? Were you thinking about the time you were dancing?
- [53:28]
I
Tell us a bit more about the.
- [53:30]
A
Concept for that album.
- [53:32]
B
So I got known by the public here in Portugal with an album I made when I was 24. And it's an album about becoming a mother. Becoming a mother at a young age, falling in love, and all the things that were like anti pop stars too, because they were like, no, you need to be sexy. No one wants to see a mother singing about her kids. And I'm like, you, Nobody wants to hear you.
- [53:58]
F
That's one thing I know.
- [54:00]
B
Let me think about how I'm feeling. And so then my kids got bigger and I started coming back to places of myself that have been on hold. And I think that's a natural thing to go through when you become a mother. And before music started working out for me, like, and I had the chance to make records and everything, I used to work at clubs. I worked at clubs, like, my whole life. I used to be the host. Like, everybody put your hands up.
- [54:29]
G
Everybody put your hands up.
- [54:31]
B
I. I sang like Eminem's verses, ushers.
- [54:36]
J
Yeah, yeah, I remember that time.
- [54:39]
B
Yeah, Good times. And it was such an important part of my life because that's when I first had, like the feeling of grabbing a microphone and grabbing people's attention. And like, now it's a more calm song. And you cannot lose the crowd so let's make a game so I want to hear you scream and I will put your hands up and let's do this and now let's do that. And through that time, while I was always looking so happy, happy and being the host and you, I had all these friends. I was really depressed and a bunch of my friends felt that way too. That's why it's called Crying in the Club. Because people assume that when you're a teenager and when you're young, you go to parties because you're reckless and you're irresponsible. And I believe that you go to parties and you meet up with your friends because you want to get away from something. You want to disappoint, disappear for a moment. And that's what got me into going out and partying and working until 5 in the morning. Because I wanted to forget about my life and about who I was for a second, even just for a second. My kids are bigger now. And I started remembering those times, listening back to the songs that I used to listen to. And I really have this urge to make music that you feel like dancing to, but also speaks about very vulnerable things. And I found out that that's very common in electronic and house music and disco music, that you're dancing to a very sad poem and you don't even realize the poem is sad until one day you're drunk, you're on the dance floor, and the poem is talking directly into your arm, and you're like, oh my God, this person wrote this song about me. And I remember when the song Pumped Up Kicks exploded all the other kids with the pumped up kicks. And this one day I was like 4 in the morning, I was having a drip. And I'm like, wow, the lyrics are really violent. What the fuck does this mean? And I looked it up and it was about a shooting in the school. All the other kids with the pumped up kicks. You better run, better run out, run my gun. And I was like, this is so interesting how you can make a crowd dance to such. Such a sad story, but you're also bringing a very important subject to the table. And so that was the mood board for the album. It was like dancing through sadness dancing. And it was also an invitation to not be sad on your own. I had a very public depression in 2021 after my divorce. Everyone knew I was suffering. My album is really. The chaos album is really angry and really sad. And so I have this will to make an album that celebrates life but doesn't cover the sad parts. So it was like an invitation. Like, my heart is going to still be broken sometimes, and I'm going to feel lonely sometimes. But let me talk about this with my friends. Let me accept your dinner invitation. Let me go to that party.
- [58:01]
A
Let me dance.
- [58:02]
B
Let me dance it out. Because I believe that there's an occasion in every person's life where you reach realized. Like my friends saved my life. Actually, they did. They brought me back to life. And so it's like an invitation to dance through sadness. It is what it is. It really is that.
- [58:25]
A
Portuguese pop star Carolina Deslande is in conversation with Monocle's Fernando Augusto Pacheco. And you can listen to the full interview on the Monocle Weekly on our website or wherever you get your podcasts. And that's all for today's program. Thanks to our producers Chris Chermack and Anita Riota, our researcher Joanna Moser, and our studio manager, Elliot Greenfield, with editing assistance by Lily Austin. After the headlines. There's more music on the way. I'll be with you today for the continental shift and back to present the Briefing live at midday in London. Lots to explore from our archives meanwhile, including Meet the Writers, in which in the latest episode, I speak to Richard Lloyd Parry, who's Ashley editor of the Times and the Sunday Times. He's also married to Monocle's Asia editor at large, Fiona Wilson. He has been a foreign correspondent for years, but he's just written a debut novel. It's called in the Green Heart and it's fabulous. You can listen to him talk about it on the show. The Globalist returns at the same time tomorrow. I'm Georgina Godwin. Thanks for listening. With ubs, you have a truly global partner incorporating new technologies, innovative approaches and unexpected opportunities leading you to insights that help answer the questions that matter. Delivered with passion, care and unmatched expertise. Because it's about rising with the dawn each day, knowing that we can do even better. That's what banking is to us. Not just work, but a craft. UBS advice is our craft.