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- [00:04]
UBS Narrator
Craft matters in small ways like how a coffee is brewed, and in not so small ways like how your money is cared for. Which is why for 160 years, UBS has elevated banking to a craft, tailoring unique strategies that combine human expertise with the latest technologies, all happening across 24 time zones and and 12 key financial hubs. With you at the heart of it all, UBS advice is our craft.
- [00:38]
Georgina Godwin
You're listening to the Globalist, first broadcast on 11th November 2025 on Monocle Radio. The Globalist in association with UP hello, this is the Globalist broadcasting to you live from Midori House in London. I'm Georgina Godwin. On the show ahead. As Ukraine heads into winter and Russia steps up attacks on the country's energy supplies, President Zelensky says more pressure should be brought to bear on the Kremlin. We'll cross to Taipei to hear how US Tariffs are beginning to bite in Asia. We'll have a look through the papers. And then Chris Power, one of the judges of the Booker Prize, which was awarded last night to David Saleh, author of Flesh, the first Hungarian British author to win the award. As South Africa firms up a loan from the World bank to prop up failing city infrastructure, Donald Trump says the entire US administration will be boycotting the G20 in Johannesburg. And he reiterates his claim that white South Africans are being persecuted. We'll hear from our man on the ground.
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Keith Penton
Plus, when you have beautiful jewels that will appeal to absolutely everybody, the field is open, which is why we don't really know where they'll end up landing. That's the exciting part.
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Georgina Godwin
The head of auction house Christie's jewelry department reveals all about an exciting new upcoming jewelry collection Going under the Hammer and tells us about the glamorous woman who owned it. That's all ahead here on the Globalist, live from London. First, a look at what else is happening in the news. Senators in the United States have passed a deal which could bring an end to the longest government shutdown in history within days. Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is standing by her controversial remarks on her country's potential military defense of Taiwan, saying that if Taiwan was attacked, it could be a survival threatening situation for Japan. And former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been freed from jail pending appeal after a Paris court ruled he is not a flight risk despite his conviction for conspiring to raise campaign funds from Libya. Do stay tuned to Monocle Radio throughout the day for more on those stories. Now Russia has stepped up its assault on Ukraine's power grid. Just as the country heads into winter. Substations, gas storage sites and heating plants have all been hit, leaving some places without power for many hours daily. This comes on top of staggering structural losses since 2022, from heat and power plants to hundreds of kilometers of damaged pipes. And fresh political tensions in Kyiv, where President Zelenskyy is publicly blaming the former head of the state owned grid operator for failing to fortify the system. Well, I'm joined down the line from Kyiv by Lily Bivins, business editor for the Kyiv Independent, and here in the studio by Ada Wordsworth, who is a writer, editor and co founder of the charity harp, which works on UKRA reconstruction. Welcome to you both. Ada, what can you tell us about this latest wave of strikes and its impact on life on the ground?
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Ada Wordsworth
Yeah, I mean, I think that the. Everyone knows that the energy situation in Ukraine has been getting worse over the past few years. You know, you've had these attacks every winter pretty much since the start of the war. But this year it does seem to be significantly more intense. You know, my colleagues in Kyiv are living with up to 12 hours without electricity, which makes it obviously quite impossible to sustain any kind of real day to day life in terms of work, in terms of leisure, in terms of anything really. And this is happening across the country.
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Georgina Godwin
And Lilly, how resilient is Ukraine's grid after this level of sustained damage?
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Lily Bivins
Good morning. Yeah, you know, it's difficult to tell because a lot of information about the scale of the attacks and how bad the damage is is not public, or basically none of that information is public. You know, attack happens and people then go through, like Ada said, 12, you know, 16 hours of blackouts a day. And you understand kind of, okay, the situation must be quite bad. Right? But people have generators, businesses have large generators. People have these sort of batteries, like large kind of batteries at home that they can use. At the moment, there is heat in people's home, which is good because it's not connected to electricity. But at the same time, I think what's going on behind the scenes with the energy companies is this sort of race to repair these things, substations and power plants and whatever they can as quickly as possible after these attacks. And for the time being, they're kind of able to do some patchwork repairs here and there to prevent the overall collapse of the entire system. But it's really a fragile situation.
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Georgina Godwin
And Ada, how are hospitals and frontline clinics coping when they're forced onto backup power?
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Ada Wordsworth
I would say that there is a certain level of resilience. People are prepared for this that, you know, you do have generated, you do have backup power which is functioning. But things are obviously touch and go and you're relying on, you know, the extent of the destruction of their energy at this point means that you're relying on systems which aren't necessarily meant to be functioning for this long, which puts everything into a very precarious situation.
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Georgina Godwin
And, Lilly, why is Russia targeting substations that feed critical sites, including nuclear facilities? And just how seriously should we take Volodymyr Zelenskyy's warning that this puts Europe at risk?
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Lily Bivins
So I think the reason why Russia is targeting the system is that it's a, you know, it's a classic military tactic to try and harm both military operations and the fun, but also the functioning of the country and the civilian population, you know, to make them suffer, to make them miserable.
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William Yang
It's cold.
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Lily Bivins
Winter is setting in. It's very dark on the streets. It's already dark around 4:30pm you go out on the street and a lot of the street lights aren't on. It's very dark, it's cold. It's meant to harm people's morale, right? So I think that's one of the major, major reasons. I think the campaign is also just to make life and governing as difficult as possible. And I think the risk to Europe is very real for many reasons, one being if there's a humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, in which people can no longer live here, there will be, you know, for one, a wave of new Ukrainian refugees into Europe, which is obviously a difficult thing for Europe to handle. I think also it's just, again, a kind of sign of what Russia is capable of doing if it does decide to kind of attack your country. And if Europe is at risk of being attacked by Russia at some point down the line, you know, this is. This is what people can expect. So I think for many reasons it's. It's harmful already for Ukraine, for European security, and could be in the future.
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Georgina Godwin
Ada, what are humanitarian teams and charities like your own seeing in terms of families, abilities to afford heating and fuel?
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Ada Wordsworth
I think it's becoming increasingly difficult, especially when you're in a situation where people are having to, you know, rely on individual generators. People can't necessarily afford the fuel to back those up. You don't really have, you know, at the start of the war, when you first had the massive energy crisis in 2022, you had far more charities on the ground who were able to support with things like that. Who were kind of going around handing out generators, being able to live a few around frontline villagers. Those charity. That charity infrastructure doesn't really exist anymore, partly because of the fact that, you know, for local, on the ground, grassroots Ukrainian charities, most energy now goes to the army, for obvious reasons. And many of the people who are running those charities are now fighting. And then on an international level, with the cuts to usaid, you just don't have the same. The same number of charities operating on the ground now who are able to provide that support, which means that a lot of families are just left in the cold.
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Georgina Godwin
Lily, I wonder if you could talk us through the blame being placed on the former head of the state energy grid and what that tells us about the political tensions surrounding the power supply.
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Lily Bivins
Yeah, so things are very tense on that front in Ukraine right now. So, you know, long story short, I think Zelensky has a tendency, perhaps as a leader to be uncomfortable with, with blame for certain situations. He is a, you know, after all, he comes from the TV world and he doesn't love bad press. And so in a crisis like this, with an energy system that is really on the brink, he's looking for someone to blame. And he's chosen one of his, I guess you could call political rivals, Volodymyr Kudrytsky, who was the head of, as you said, the state grid operator of Ukraine until last year, until 2024, when he was pushed out. And it's quite alarming, right, that, you know, instead of kind of just trying to manage the situation, or rather one of Zelensky's and his team's response to managing this crisis is to look for that scapegoat so that the public can maybe, you know, pin the blame on that person, doesn't blame him. And, and sort of there's calm. Some of this panic might be quelled among society. And I think it's, you know, okay, it's a political tactic, but it's, it's also, you know, it risks Ukraine's reputation because Kudrytsky is very well known and I would say very well respected among Ukraine's European partners, particularly the ebrd, the European bank for Reconstruction and Development, that has worked very closely with Ukraine to help get money to its energy sector since the crisis of 2022, when Russia started its attacks on the, on the energy system. And so they look at this and they think, you know, why is Zelensky going after some, an individual trying to scapegoat someone when there's this crisis? And so it's you know, I think in, in the very high levels of the government and institutions in Europe, they look at this and it's a very worrying sign for them.
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Georgina Godwin
And finally, Ada, heading into winter, obviously, how are people preparing?
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Ada Wordsworth
I would say a lot of people are preparing by buying generators, buying portable power stations. You know, the prices for portable power stations in Ukraine are going up massively because there is just this huge demand for them at this point. And then beyond that, I think people are also thinking of other plans, thinking of, you know, if things keep remain this bad, if things don't get better, then, you know, I have friends and colleagues who are planning to potentially spend more time in Europe this winter before coming back to Ukraine. But that's obviously not an option which is available to everyone.
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Georgina Godwin
Thank you very much indeed. That's Ada Wordsworth, Charity Harp, and Lily Bivins of the Kyiv Independent. This is the globalist. It's 1512 in Taipei, 712 here in London. US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping reached a limited trade agreement during their meeting in Busan at the end of October. The deal, implemented on November 10, included a partial rollback of tariffs, a pause on rare earth export controls, and new Chinese restrictions on fentanyl related chemicals. While the measures signal a temporary easing of tensions, questions remain over how lasting the truce will be and what it means for Asia's economies. Well, I'm joined now from Taipei by William Yang, Senior Northeast Asia analyst for the International Crisis Group. William, it's always lovely to have you on the show. After the Trump Xi deal took effect yesterday, what meaningful shifts have you seen in trade activity? Has anything taken effect yet?
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William Yang
Yeah, we in fact saw already both sides taken measures that they promised during the meeting to basically begin to implement it. So just today we know that China has suspended the special port fee that it was planning to impose and charging from US Vessels for at least a year. And at the same time announcing the series of measures of restricting the export of the key chemicals that are reportedly being used to produce the fentanyl. That has really created a lot of crisis in major US Cities. And I think on the other hand, we are also seeing that China now suspending some of the export controls on rare earth. But also with regard to one of the latest case in the Netherlands, they've also resumed the export of the chips that European auto industries desperately need after the fallout surrounding one of the Chinese owned companies that was taken control by the Dutch government. So I think overall the trends are looking positive. And because both sides are now gradually honoring the commitment that they've made and walking back some of the tit for tat measures that were introduced since the beginning of the year.
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Georgina Godwin
And what do you think is driving Trump's decision to ease tariffs at this stage of the election cycle?
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William Yang
You know, I think after 10 months of trying to push very hard, of almost entirely relying on using tariff as a means to extract concessions out of countries around the world, he realized that the same tactic will not be able to be sustainable when it comes to dealing with China. Some of his important constituents inside the US Especially farmers, especially soybean farmers in the Midwest, are seriously suffering and pressing their local representatives to seek support from the federal government. So I think these are all the incentives that have really, eventually convinced Trump to walk back and really try to reach a temporary deal and trade truce with the Chinese side.
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Georgina Godwin
So this truce is meant to last a year. Trump wants to renegotiate after 12 months. I wonder if there is a realistic path to extending it and if it is a real cooling of tensions or simply a tactical pause from both sides.
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William Yang
Yes, I think we should definitely view this only as a tactical pause, because as I've already outlined previous in pre. You know, just, just right now, a lot of these steps were, in fact, you know, only walking back some of the measures that were introduced since Trump returned to the White House in January. And this is not really, you know, substantively addressing the structural trade tensions that still exist in the bilateral, bilateral relationship. And these trade truths remain somewhat fragile and temporary. In previous instances, we've seen either one of the sides was then basically essentially walking away from the commitment that they've made, and the other side viewed the development as a bad faith reaction. And so they decided to impose a unilateral measure to punish the other side. So I think if either the United States or China view that the other side is not doing enough to really honor the agreement that they've reached in South Korea, then, you know, this tit for tat kind of dynamic could quickly, you know, resurface, and then that would then again really, you know, push the whole bilateral trade relationship, but also the global economy down back into the turmoil again.
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Georgina Godwin
Yeah. And what does it mean for Asia's wider economies as they, as they plan for 2026?
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William Yang
Yeah, I think right now, everybody is really looking at the signature aspects of some of these trade truths, especially vis a vis China's export control on Rare Earth, because as we have seen, Beijing is becoming more and more willing and confident in using weaponizing its dominance in certain sectors and rare Earth is definitely one of the sector that will have a widespread impact across many industries and around the world and in Asia as well. So I think what we can expect is that, you know, other countries across the region will continue to look for, you know, options to diversify, especially their reliance on China, but at the same time making sure that they're not leaning too close to the United States so that they also lose that wiggle room that they need to be able to really recalibrate in a very, very fluid dynamic.
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Georgina Godwin
And where do you see the next pressure points in US China relations and, and how exposed are Asian supply chains to those pressure points?
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William Yang
I think the next frontier is going to be the AI competition and the global air race because right now we see that, you know, initially after the meeting in South Korea, Trump did hinted that he might actually consider allowing leading semiconductor design houses like Nvidia to restart negotiation with the Chinese government and potentially restart selling some of the advanced semiconductor chips to China. But after domestic pushback and also some of his cabinet members warning, he has now coming out to reverse a little bit of that optimism and said that some of the most advanced chips like Blackwell will not be allowed to be sold to China. And that is likely going to be, I think, the frontier that we will see continuous intense competition and also potentially more export control introduced by the US that much could potentially trigger new export control that China will then reinstate in the coming months or even in the near future.
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Georgina Godwin
William, thank you very much indeed. That's William Yang speaking to us from Taipei now. Still to come on the program, the.
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Chris Power
Winner of the 2025 Booker Prize is flesh.
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Georgina Godwin
We'll speak to the Booker Prize judge Chris Power about David Soloy's win last night. This is the globalist.
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UBS Narrator
Craft is a matter of perspective, a unique outlook, an obsessive attention to detail. With UBS's Chief Investment Office House View, we're focused on identifying the latest investment opportunities and market risks to help you achieve your financial goals. So you get the big picture broken down into thought provoking insights delivered daily and curated by over 200 globally connected, locally active analysts. UBS banking is our craft.
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Georgina Godwin
This is the Globalist. It's twenty past seven here in London and we're continuing with today's newspapers. Joining me in the studio is Claudine Fry, partner at Control Risk. Good morning to you Claudine.
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Claudine Fry
Good morning.
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Georgina Godwin
We are talking about the Senate and the deal to reopen government. Some Democrats deflected, defected. That's the word I'm looking for.
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Claudine Fry
That's right. Yes. On day 40 one of the longest ever government shutdown in the United States of America, a small group of Democrats has joined with Republicans in the Senate to pass an agreement that would finally end the shutdown. It has to be said there are some steps to go through, through yet that the agreement will need to go through the House of Representatives, which apparently the New York Times tells us is not going to happen until Wednesday at the earliest. But President Trump has indicated that he will support the deal that has been struck. So it is a breakthrough.
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Georgina Godwin
And the concessions that was on health.
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Claudine Fry
Well, health have been a real sticking point. Democrats have been holding out to try and get some concessions from Republicans on help with healthcare costs. And actually, it seems like that's probably been punted into the future somewhat. But, yes, there have been a number of concessions agreed that enable the agreement to take effect. And of course, air traffic control disruption was really starting to ramp up just weeks ahead of Thanksgiving. So the pressure was building.
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Georgina Godwin
Let's stick with Trump because he's issued another one of his threats to sue for a billion dollars. This is his favorite figure. I think he threatened Michael Wolff with that just a few days ago. And now he's threatening to sue the BBC for a billion. Now, this has been a huge story here in Britain. It's caused the resignation of the head of news and indeed the head of the whole of the BBC. Tell us more how the BBC itself is reporting it.
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Claudine Fry
That's right. You know, the BBC is no stranger to controversy. We're very familiar with that here in the UK But I think even to some extent around the world. But this controversy, this crisis that has now erupted at the BBC about the ed writing of a Trump speech that appeared in a, in a documentary called Panorama, real flagship program of the BBC here in the UK There's a huge controversy around the way that this Trump speech from January the sixth, the Capitol Hill insurrection, was edited. And after the loss of the director general, as you say, and the head of news, in the midst of, of controversy around the management of the speech in the documentary, Trump, President Trump. Yes. Has now said that the BBC must retract the addition of the Panorama program and face a lawsuit of no less than $1 billion. So even by its own standards, this crisis really is intense.
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Georgina Godwin
Yeah. I mean, the BBC, to be fair, though, has taken the program down. You can no longer watch it. I think they've got a deadline of Friday. How is this being viewed politically?
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Claudine Fry
Oh, it's a real hot potato. The BBC is going to be under fire around this from all sides, as has become customary over the last few years. It's really going to be from both the right and left wing within the UK it's going to be attacked from various perspectives. But I think it's going to be interesting to watch how politicians in the UK respond, given that it is now under so much pressure, specifically in Washington. I mean, we had the Trump, the White House press Secretary, Caroline Levitz, describing at the weekend the BBC as 100% fake news and a propaganda machine. And no matter how much the BBC comes under fire from all ends of the political spectrum, here it is at the same time a beloved national institution. So I think this pressure from the United States and allegations of, of, of being fake news and so on, I think that that's an interesting dynamic there. We'll have to see how UK politicians respond to that because I don't think there would necessarily be a huge amount of support for that position within, within.
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Georgina Godwin
The UK let's go to the Financial Times now. And this is saying that an aviation regulator is warning that Britain's airports will be disrupted by organized drone attacks.
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Claudine Fry
Yes, that's right. There was a conference, a UK Airlines conference yesterday, and the Civil Aviation Authority chief made clear it's a question of if not when, UK airports are disrupted by drone activity. It wouldn't be the first time, of course, for UK airports to be disrupted because back in 2018, there was major disruption at Gatwick because of drone activity. But since then, there has been a huge increase in the amount of disruption caused to airspace by drone activity, which appears to be much more organized and has been linked to a sort of type of hybrid warfare that we're seeing right across Europe. When we had a number of airports closed in Denmark recently because of drone activity, the Danish prime minister was very clear about refusing to rule out the possibility of Russian involvement.
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Georgina Godwin
Let's cross to Thailand now. This is a story in the Bangkok Post, and it's talking about a suspension of the peace pact with Cambodia. Why is that?
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Claudine Fry
Yes, that's right. So a prime minister in Bangkok confirmed yesterday that the country has decided to suspend the implementation of a peace deal with Cambodia and the planned release of about 18 captured Cambodian troops after some of its soldiers, four Thai soldiers, were injured by a landmine explosion while patrolling the Thai Cambodia border. This has been a, a long festering border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia, which erupted into conflict earlier this year and prompting some intervention from the president in the United States. Talking about Trump yet again this morning. But this, this is one of seven conflicts that Trump claims to have solved since he returned to power in January. And so it's one that will be closely watched, both because it's alarming to see two countries in Southeast Asia going at, going at each other and at loggerheads in this way, but also because it's one of the conflicts that Trump claims to have had significant success calming.
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Georgina Godwin
And finally, let's go to the Guardian, which explains why people love to eat spicy food even when it hurts.
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Claudine Fry
Yeah. So apparently this, this is interesting. I think the Guardian's pointing out that in actual fact, the kind of reactions that we have when we're eating spicy food, the way we sweat, we become a bit tearful. These are actually your body responding to something it needs to get rid of. It's your body telling you this isn't right. But the reason that we enjoy spicy food is that, well, sometimes people rather quite like the sensation, but also there are ways of overcoming it. So there's a phenomenon known as benign masochism where we can basically mentally reframe the meaning of what those, what that pain represents. It's a bit like the piece makes a comparison between eating spicy food and watching scary movies or going on roller coasters. So perhaps mind over matter a little bit there, but the piece does recommend eating mint ice cream when you eat spicy food as a way to balancing out the impact on your body.
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Georgina Godwin
Are you a fan?
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Claudine Fry
Actually, I don't think my mind is necessarily very strong because I don't think I have been able to reframe the way I think about spicy food. I'm one of those people who likes things really mild and boring.
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Georgina Godwin
Claudine, thank you. That's Claudine Fry there. And you're with the Globalist. Now here's what else we're keeping an eye on today. Senators in the United States have passed a deal which could bring an end to the longest government shutdown in history. Within days, eight Democrats broke from the party to join Republicans in approving the bill. Air travel was the latest sector to be hit by the shutter shutdown. With more than 2,000 flights cancelled and around 8,000 delayed on Monday. Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is standing by her controversial remarks on her country's potential military defense of Taiwan. Takaichi said that if Taiwan was attacked, it could be a survival threatening situation for Japan, with the Chinese envoy posting on X about foolish politicians and saying, if you go stick in that face filthy neck where it doesn't belong, it's going to get sliced right off and Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been released from prison after a Paris court ruled he can remain free while appealing his conviction for conspiring to raise campaign funds from Libya. Judges say he is not a flight risk, though he remains under judicial supervision and is barred from leaving France or contacting Justice Ministry officials. This is the Globalist. Stay tuned. The winner of the 2025 Booker Prize is Flesh. From 153 submissions to a short list of six, David Soloy has emerged the winner of the Booker Prize 2025, which celebrates the best works of long form fiction by writers of any nationality, writing in English and published in the UK or Ireland between the 1st of Oct, 2024 and 30 September 2025. Well, I was at the prize dinner last night where I caught up with one of the five judges, Chris Power. He's a British author, a literary critic and a former BBC Radio 4 presenter. He's known for his short story collection Mothers and a novel, A Lonely Man. I began by asking him if it was a happy gang of judges.
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Chris Power
Extremely happy. It's been a really, really wonderful year. I couldn't have asked for a better.
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Georgina Godwin
Group of judges working with a Hollywood A lister. How was that?
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Chris Power
Fantastic. I mean, once you get over the initial, kind of pinch yourself, oh my God, I'm in the room with Sarah Jessica Parker. She was just a very committed and avid reader like the rest of us.
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Georgina Godwin
And were you unanimous in the choice?
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Chris Power
We were, we were. But I think what's really interesting is that it was a long final meeting. It was five hours, I think, but not because there was any fractiousness or really uncertainty, but because we really loved the shortlist. We wanted to explore and return to all of them before we made a decision. So we talked about them in turn, first of all, without talking about whether we thought they were contenders for the prize or not. And then only afterwards did we return to them with that kind of focus.
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Georgina Godwin
Was there anything that really surprised you about the short?
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Chris Power
No, I don't think so. In that we chose the books. I mean, I guess I was surprised by. I think great literature is always surprising. Maybe that's a definition of great literature. It does in some way surprise you. And each of those six books, I think, hold some surprise for the reader.
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Georgina Godwin
What does it mean for the winner, do you think?
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Chris Power
Well, from my understanding, I'd like to tell you from personal experience, Regina, but I think it means, I mean, obviously a huge surge in sales, a huge surge in awareness. You know, it's One of those prizes where people suddenly know your name even if they haven't read your work, which for a writer is an unusual position to be in. I think it can bring pressure. Obviously, from the sounds of things, it's kind of a year long press junket. But if you can keep your sanity and you can hold onto that rocket wall while you're riding it, then I think, I guess, I mean, from a practical point of view, it gives you security with which to approach your next work.
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Georgina Godwin
And what about what it means for the publishing industry and for the readers?
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Chris Power
I think it's tremendously exciting and that it really generates a lot of attention. People will buy a book because it won the Booker Prize. And you know, in past years, I wouldn't say that's always been a good thing because I don't always agree with the choices the judges make. I'm very biased, but I think we made a very good decision. And I do know a lot of people who've read Flesh who just get so excited by it. And not necessarily people who like read, you know, 100 books a year. So I think it's really going to be a book that gets people reading and gets people excited about literature.
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Georgina Godwin
Tell me a little bit about the book.
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Chris Power
Well, it's the story of Istvan. He's a Hungarian. We meet him first as a teenager and the book follows him through these sort of signal moments of his life. He goes to prison, he goes to war in Iraq, he moves to London, becomes a bouncer, falls into working for the super wealthy. And the book actually covers decades of his life, but brilliantly cuts between them like they'll. He'll leave. David Zloy, the author leaves sort of significant gaps just in perfect moments that make it such a propulsive and propelling read. And Ishvan's character really emerges almost through negative space. You don't get a lot of the conventional trappings of characterization and yet you come away from the book absolutely knowing who this person is and feeling their predicament.
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Georgina Godwin
What made it stand out from the other five books?
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Chris Power
It's a tough field to stand out from because they really were exceptional books. But I think the formal decisions David Zaloy made, which makes it sound a bit cold, I mean, I think it's important to note it's a really exciting book to read. But I think the willingness and the determination he had to strip away so much that you're used to seeing, the trappings you're used to seeing in literary fiction just aren't there. And it's quite a daring act to say, look, you don't actually need all this stuff to engage with a story in a really emotional and visceral way. And in doing so, he sort of shows, I think, something about consciousness, the way we actually experience life that maybe a lot of books don't capture or certainly haven't captured in this way.
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Georgina Godwin
But before Chris, we're in the middle of a party, a very glamorous party, it has to be said. And I know I need to let you get back to enjoying it all. Very starry occasion.
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Chris Power
Absolutely. I know. I mean, I was chatting to sj, but still, I was like, oh, look, there's, there's so and so. There's Charles Dance, there's whomever. Yeah, it's, it's, it's fun, you know, and it's a great celebration of the books.
- [36:09]
Georgina Godwin
Thank you very much to Chris Power. Well, best moment of the evening. Uber glam actress Natasha McElone admiring my outfit and gently flirting with Ben Ocree and David Nicholls. You're with Monocle Radio, and I have a very lovely green velvet jumpsuit. South Africa has secured a 925 million US dollar World bank loan to jump start a six year $3 billion push to rescue its biggest cities. The bank's first pay for results scheme in the country will reward met that actually improve water power and waste services, a political priority after years of outages, scandals and an electoral backlash against the ANC last year. The timing, however, is awkward. Donald Trump has pulled the US out of the G20 summit in Johannesburg, reviving discredited claims that white South Africans are being persecuted. Pretoria calls the allegations imagined. And rights groups say Washington's new refugee cap of just 7,500 places mostly reserved for white South Africans is a political distortion of a humanitarian program. So can South Africa fix its cities just as its relationship with Washington hits a new low? Well, I'm joined now by Antony Squazen, Bloomberg news reporter based in Johannesburg. Anthony, thanks for coming on the show. Can you tell us more about what this World bank program is trying to fix in practical terms in South Africa's biggest cities?
- [37:52]
Keith Penton
Thank you.
- [37:52]
Antony Squazen
Yes, South Africa's cities, the biggest ones anyway, have been very badly run for many years. And what we've seen is a breakdown in provision of water. And that's not due to a shortage of water. It's really due to old pipes that are breaking and, you know, no maintenance being done. Potholed roads for the same reason. And even with electricity, while South Africa has had genuine electricity Shortages. There are regular outages just due to the fact that the grids within the cities are very old, haven't been maintained and keep breaking down. And that's all been compounded by the fact that they haven't been run very professionally at a municipal level. So revenue collection is not what it should be and therefore there's not that much money to go around. And in addition to that there'll be a lot of corruption scandals. So the plan is, is that the World bank is helping to work with the South African national treasury on this plan whereby if cities reach or hit certain targets for revenue collection, for operational efficiency and those in water waste collection and electricity provision, then they will be eligible for further grants from the treasury that will help them further bolster infrastructure and also shield them against adverse weather. You know, basically climate resilience. So that's the idea. It's a big program to try and bring back more professionalism to the way the municipalities are run.
- [39:17]
Georgina Godwin
But they're doing it rather unusually because it's a pay for results schemes scheme rather than a traditional loan. Just explain that and tell, tell me how unusual is that for a G20 economy?
- [39:30]
Antony Squazen
It's not that unusual actually. It's been done at least I know in India and China. It is the first one that South Africa has ever signed up for. And the idea is that you have to have a reasonably competent government, which South Africa does have. A national treasury level is quite well respected. There are other elements of the government probably not so much so, but at treasury level it's considered to be quite well run. So it's unusual in that to date South Africa has, you know, from central government given cities large amounts of money which has either been squandered or has not been spent because there's no managerial capacity to do so, you know, to improve provision of services and has been returned to treasury at the end of the year. The idea is to basically kick start a proper push to fix the cities.
- [40:20]
Georgina Godwin
I wonder if this loan puts the World bank at odds with the Trump administration given that they'll now be a boycott of the G20 in Joburg by, by US officials.
- [40:30]
Antony Squazen
Well, yes, the World bank is extending loans to South Africa and that's a relatively new thing at a sovereign level like this one. South Africa hadn't really taken up many loans from, from multilateral lenders like the World bank until the onset of COVID So this is the third sovereign loan I've taken out since then. The US has meanwhile shut off most aid to South Africa and has opposed various payouts for climate related assistance. And as you well know, there's been a lot of rhetoric about white genocide and generally, you know, how South Africa's government is conducting itself and how that is very annoying for the Trump administration.
- [41:14]
Georgina Godwin
I mean, is there any credibility behind the white genocide narrative that Trump keeps pushing?
- [41:21]
Antony Squazen
South Africa has a very high crime rate and a lot of white people are killed, but even more black people are killed or murdered. And it's not been backed by anyone, including the fringe right wing Afrikaner rights movements that have been caught in the Trump administration. They have all stepped back and disavowed the genocide claim, saying there isn't a genocide. So I think that in some ways they've got a little bit more than they bargained for given the ferocity of the Trump administration's response to this.
- [41:54]
Georgina Godwin
I mean, but it's an extraordinary thing for him to keep pushing. Is this down to Elon Musk?
- [42:00]
Antony Squazen
Well, a lot of people say it might be does have a South African background, but it's unclear where it comes from. So it's a bit of a mystery. And I think it is really is a bit of a curveball, especially in G20 for South Africa. I don't think the government saw this coming and it's been something that's been quite difficult for it to cope with all year. And I think this sudden withdrawal from the G20 leaders meeting meeting in the last few days has been a big surprise as it was expected that Vice President J.D. vance would attend.
- [42:36]
Georgina Godwin
It's a problem. I can see that. And just finally, does this standoff risk complicating South Africa's ability to work with international partners on the urban reform agenda that the World bank program is meant to support with no US presence at the G20?
- [42:53]
Antony Squazen
Well, I think they've got the loan from the World Bank. They also have South Africa's also won a lot of climate finance from rich nations. There's a program called the JETP with just energy transition and while the U.S. has pulled out of that, the U.K. germany, France have doubled down on it. So I think South Africa is just doing its best to work with other partners and to try and maintain its relations with multilateral organizations like the World Bank. But certainly having a, a less than optimal relationship with the US which is the world's biggest economy and a big member of all these organizations, does make things a little bit difficult and might prevent further payouts or further loans in future. But there's been no sign of that just yet.
- [43:36]
Georgina Godwin
Anthony, thank you very much indeed. That's Bloomberg's Antony Squazen in Johannesburg. And this is the Globalist on Monocle Radio.
- [43:48]
UBS Narrator
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- [44:26]
Georgina Godwin
Well, it's time now for a roundup of news from the Gulf region and I'm joined from Dubai by Monocle's Gulf correspondent, Inzamin Rashid Insi. Good morning to you. I understand that you're at Urban Future Week in Dubai at the Museum of the Future. What's happening there?
- [44:42]
William Yang
Yep.
- [44:42]
Inzamin Rashid Insi
Joining you live, Georgina, from the Museum of the Future, where Urban Future Week is well underway. It's day two and it's a gathering of architects, policymakers, designers asking what cities of tomorrow should actually feel like. So today's theme is digital cities, Placemaking and community futures and, and what they're trying to do today. And have kind of a conversation today is around kind of exploring how data, design, digital tools can all build human centered urban environment. So we had the UAE's Minister of Climate Change and Environment, Dr. Amna Al Dahak, open with a striking line opening the Urban Future Week around how the country wants to build a global modern model for urban sustainability rooted in innovation and well being. And there's a lot of talk here, Georgina, about kind of AI and urban planning and open data governance and participatory design as well, how technology can make cities not just smarter, but also kinder places to live in as well. And one interesting addition in this year's Urban Future Week is also the Hawaii Dubai. It's an initiative which focuses on kind of creating people centered community spaces with green areas as well. Something that you probably don't really see much of out here in the uae. Well, Dubai in particular, and that's something that they're really focusing on. And in short, what this kind of gathering of these mines from all over the world, and particularly here in the Middle east, is trying to position Dubai as this kind of living laboratory for urban innovation, a place where kind of ideas for future cities are tested in real time. And it's all happening here under the beautiful roof essentially of the Museum of the Future.
- [46:49]
Georgina Godwin
I just wanted to talk a little bit about green spaces and parks and leisure areas because one thing that's often struck me in, in Dubai is where all the Immigrant workers go on their days off and it seems to me it's car parks or shopping malls.
- [47:03]
Inzamin Rashid Insi
Yes, that's absolutely true. Shopping malls is usually the big spot where you'd find most people on a weekend. And it's usually the best day to avoid it if you can manage to go in during the week. But you're right, there aren't many public spaces. There aren't places for people to, you know, just hop out, go for a walk especially, especially you think of the summertime, it's just not the climate to do that. This is a place which has got a ski slope inside a shopping mall. And so yes, it lacks those public spaces. But Dubai wants to do something about that. And I think that kind of leads on nicely to what I do want to mention next and also about some of the conversations that are being had here at Urban Future Week is that Dubai Vision for 2033, its Livability Vision, it's just recently released this plan to become the world's most livable city by 2033. And they want to try and get this out to absolutely anyone, whether you are a migrant worker working on a construction yard or whether you know you've come over here as a multi millionaire and moved your family office to the UAE. But this strategy includes 310 new parks, 60 affordable schools, they say, and schools are incredibly expensive here. I have to, I have to say 15,000 aviation jobs as well. We know that because of DWC, the new airport in Dubai south, which will be a huge success, no doubt. But the bigger idea is actually to balance growth with quality of life. And this isn't the old thing that you get from Dubai. Georgina ROV Bigger is better. Dubai is really focusing on kind of gentler urbanism where well being, affordability and green spaces are kind of being their new metrics of success. I think the city, and from the conversations that I've had with very senior people here at Urban Future Week and other conversations as well who are actually involved in the planning, they want to see this kind of city alongside Copenhagen, alongside Singapore, as a model of sustainable kind of people focused growth. And Urban Future Week is the conversation really that's kind of shaping that vision.
- [49:21]
Georgina Godwin
Let's have a look at Saudi Arabia's vision because that's had to be curtailed slightly.
- [49:27]
Inzamin Rashid Insi
Slightly, I think is a huge understatement. Saudi Arabia is really cutting back on their futuristic city project, NEOM and its centerpiece. The line it's facing, I think a huge reality check. After it consulted external advisors, there's Been reports now that suggest that plans for the 170 kilometer mirrored megacity will be scaled back significantly. Originally it was pitched to house 9 million residents. It's now expected to accommodate only a fraction of that by 2030. And basically there's not enough money to build it. It was just way overly ambitious, which I think a lot of the world did see. And the interesting thing is that whilst it has been scaled back significantly, the project still remains incredibly ambitious. But I think it's a reminder that even, even in the Gulf, urban optimism probably now comes with a bit of pragmatism as well. And I think where Saudi's vision once really reached for the clouds, it really, you know, they were aiming high for some of these big GIGA projects. I think they'll now have to look at how they can weave in the kind of future into the existing cities that it has, like Riyadh and Jeddah, and evolving rather than revolution in some sense.
- [51:01]
Georgina Godwin
Of course, it's meant to be the venue for the 2029 Asian Winter Games. Will that project still go ahead?
- [51:09]
Inzamin Rashid Insi
Well, I think the big question is whether they actually have the funds to do it. And because when you think of a place like Saudi Arabia and you think, think of this sovereign wealth, they are still on the lookout for heavy foreign investment. That is one of the key missions for Saudi's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He has made a number of foreign visits, he's invited a number of foreign dignities to Saudi Arabia, including Donald Trump, as we know, in a very famous visit. And I think the plan is, is to get a lot of FDI into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The big question is whether they'll actually have the funding to make all of this happen. Their ambitions are huge. It's just whether they can fulfill them in the timescale that they want to as well.
- [52:00]
Georgina Godwin
Yeah. And finally, Inseef, a Filipino chef who helped create viral Dubai chocolate, has launched an Abu Dhabi flavor. What does it taste like?
- [52:10]
Inzamin Rashid Insi
Have you tasted the viral chocolate, Georgina?
- [52:13]
Georgina Godwin
I have to say I have. I haven't. Sorry.
- [52:15]
Inzamin Rashid Insi
Well, maybe I'll get you a bar next time I'm back. Well, look, it's. It's basically a dessert. The Dubai Viral Chocolate, it went viral because a woman posted a picture of her, a video of herself eating it on TikTok. And lo and behold, people from all around the world want their hands on the viral chocolate. But that viral chocolate, which was created by a British Egyptian woman, Sar Hamuda, she was the idea behind this chocolate bar. But there was a Filipino pastry chef Noel Katis, who actually helped create that chocolate bar. He is a chef, after all, and so he was the one who actually created the ingredients and put it together to create the Dubai viral chocolate. He has now launched his own rival bar, Abu Dhabi Chocolate. And he's done that because he's not got the recognition I think that he feels he deserves for the original chocolate bar. So what he's done is he's gone to Abu Dhabi. He says that the capital has really shaped his career. And this is his love letter in confectionery form. And the new bar that he's created blends salted caramel, saffron, cardamom, tahini, date syrup and some Emirati flavors as well, topped of course, with 24 karat gold flakes. And it will set you back around £20 insi.
- [53:39]
Georgina Godwin
Thank you very much indeed. That's Insamin Rashid there talking to us from Dubai. And this is the Globalist. On Monocle Radio, the world renowned auction house Christie's is gearing up for its latest jewelry sale, a glittering online event featuring art deco treasures from the Wimborm family collection. Monocle's luxury markets editor Brenda Tuohy caught up with Keith Penton, head of jewels at Christie's in London, to talk about the stories behind the pieces. She began by asking Keith if during his time at Christie's, there was a standout piece of jewelry that caused real excitement.
- [54:18]
Keith Penton
I'm lucky, really. I've. I've seen many pieces go much, much higher. For instance, when we sold Elizabeth Taylor's jewelry back in 2011, there was massive connection with that jewelry. Everybody could remember the Burton Taylor marriages and. And love of jewelry. Exactly. So there was were pieces that went far, far higher. And again, with Princess Margaret, people had a connection, they felt they had a connection with her. They remembered her when she was young and glamorous, rather like an Elizabeth Taylor sort of character. A very exciting period and so a lot of the buyers paid easily 10 times more for certain things. So, yeah, very exciting sales.
- [55:00]
UBS Narrator
Both we're looking here, you've very kindly brought down some portraits by Cecil Beaton. Could you tell me who is that very glamorous woman in the portrait? And talk me through this fantastic jewelry.
- [55:15]
Keith Penton
The lady depicted is Viscountess Wimborne, the first Viscountess. So Alice, Lady Wimborne. And we're selling as the lead collection in our online jewellery sale, which runs from the 14th to the 25th of November, some superb art decade jewels from the Wimborne family. And the two Cecil Beaton Portraits show her wearing an amazing Cartier emerald bracelet from the twenties, which we have on offer for three to four hundred thousand pounds, but I think it could easily exceed that. It's one of the best pieces of Cartier jewellery I've seen seen for a very long time. And there are also pictures of her wearing a pendant with ruby and pink sapphire and another one with emerald drops. Also top quality art deco jewels. And Lady Wimborne, you can see in the photographs, was a very vivacious and self confident woman who had a great political and musical hostess. She was the muse of William Walton, the composer. Her parties at Arlington street at Wimborne House just behind the Ritz, were famous and she entertained all the great and the good in the 20s and 30s and later. So, yeah, very beautiful woman.
- [56:38]
UBS Narrator
Who do you think might buy those jewels? What kind of client? Apart from a very rich one, of course.
- [56:44]
Keith Penton
I think they, they have a really wide appeal. We have lots of Asian collectors who would totally want these jewels. We have American, Swiss collectors, private people, they're all very, very wearable. And we also have professionals who would want them for the sort of trophy element of having these in stock. I think there'll be competition from every side for these. Which is the most exciting lots. Some lots, you know, will only appeal to professionals, some, you know, will only appeal to privates. But when you have beautiful jewels that will appeal to absolutely everybody, the field is open, which is why we don't really know where they'll end up landing. That's the exciting part.
- [57:27]
UBS Narrator
And provenance, as you've said, storytelling is a huge part of the sale. It must add pound signs.
- [57:36]
Keith Penton
Yes, it can be do. We don't like to necessarily build in, you know, the value, the provenance. We like to sort of put things out for what they are. If it's a lovely tiara, that's worth, in our opinion, I know, 30, 40,000 pounds. That's what we'll put it out at. And then the backstory can enhance it. We'll let the buyers decide how much to sort of pay over and above the estimate. And something like a tiara. When I started they were, weren't, which was, you know, a long time ago, they weren't as interesting because that kind of formality wasn't what people necessarily wanted. But now they do. It's the tiaras for weddings are huge, you know, the transformable ones. When you can change them into a necklace, you get double usage out of them. We have tiaras going to all corners of the world and some people just like to collect them. They're great cabinet pieces. And of course, then you also have professionals who want them because if you're. It's sort of the epitome of a great piece of jewellery at Tiara. So tiaras tell a story.
- [58:39]
Georgina Godwin
And that was Christie's head of London jewels, Keith Penton, in conversation with Monocle's Brenda Tui. And that's it for today's programme. Thanks to our producers Vincent McEvinney, Chris Chermack and Laura Kramer, our researcher, Joanna Moser and our studio manager, Lillian. After the headlines, lots more music on the way. The Briefing is live at midday in London and the Globalist returns the same time tomorrow. Not with me, however. I'm going to be off air for a little while, but listeners in the US can find me at the Charleston Literary Festival, Joe's Pub in Manhattan and at the Miami Book Fair. I'm Georgina Godwin. Thank you for listening.
- [59:33]
UBS Narrator
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.