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The Globalist
US-Iran Islamabad talks: all eyes on Pakistan as Shehbaz Sharif hosts delegations from Washington and Tehran
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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.
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You're listening to the Globalist, first broadcast on 10 April 2026 on Monocor Radio. The Globalist in association with U. Live from London, this is THE Globalist with me, Emma Nelson. A very warm welcome to today's program. Coming up, fresh talks but little trust. The US And Iran resume peace negotiations in Pakistan this weekend. Will anything substantial come of them? And and why has Israel said it wants to open direct negotiations with Lebanon? Also ahead in the next 60 minutes, could this weekend mark the end of the era of Viktor Orban? As Hungary's prime minister trails in the polls ahead of an election, we'll examine what options remain to him and to the country.
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Plus, we learned that in a bemusingly undersold triumph, the present US Administration had mastered teleportation.
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Andrew Muller reminds us of the highlights of the last seven days in what we learned. Plus, we can't explore deeper unless we are doing a few things that are inconvenient, unless we're making a few sacrifices, unless we're taking a few risks. And those things are all worth it. The astronaut Christina Koch there will hear more about the most dangerous part of the Artemis 2 mission as the Orion craft prepares to splash down in the Pacific later today. That's all coming up on the Globalist, live from London. Actually, about the Israel First, a look at what else is happening in today's news. The head of NATO, Mark Rutter, has praised Donald Trump despite the US President's anger about the lack of support shown by Washington's allies to the war against Iran. Russia has announced a ceasefire in its war against Ukraine for Orthodox Easter. And a man has been sentenced to more than two years in prison after he stole a handbag containing a Faberge egg and a watch set worth more than 2 million euros from a pub in central London. Stay tuned to Monocle Radio throughout the day for more on these stories. But first, both Iran and the US May agree on one thing, that it would be a good thing if the conflict in the Gulf were to end. But just how they go about achieving this is a different matter. With a fragile ceasefire fraying within the first 24 hours of it coming into being. But then there's been a new development. Israel says it wants to open direct negotiations with Lebanon. Well, to discuss the talks and the events in Israel, I'm joined now from Karachi by Zara Kuro, who's a journalist for Dawn, Pakistan's largest English language newspaper, and co host of the TV talk show Zara Hatke, and by Monocles Middle east correspondent Leila Malana. Alan, a very good morning to you both.
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D
Morning.
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E
Good morning.
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B
Leila, if I can begin with you. This Israel, Lebanon development, what do we know about this?
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D
Well, this is all very new. So of course, what we've seen this week which triggered all of this, is that initially the ceasefire earlier this week was understood to include Lebanon. Now, thus far in the war, you know, Lebanon's really sort of been ignored as a sideline issue, certainly by the US The US really hasn't intervened at all in these devastating Israeli strikes on Lebanon. But it was understood they would be part of the ceasefire deal. And then suddenly, several hours after the ceasefire was announced, Benjamin Netanyahu said, no, no, Lebanon's not part of it. And Trump then agreed and said, no, that's a, that's a separate issue. Now immediately, Pakistan, which negotiated this ceasefire, said, well, they were supposed to be part of it. And what we then saw on Wednesday was an absolutely devastating series of strikes in Lebanon, across the country, across Beirut, in central Beirut as well, not just the suburbs, which are often hit. And more than 300 people have been confirmed killed, many hundreds more injured. People are still being taken out of the rubble, lots of infrastructure hit. There were over 100 strikes in 10 minutes. Now, there are a couple of reasons why this might have happened. Firstly, it may be that Israel focused all of its energy on Lebanon, with the rest of the ceasefire deal having put through. Being put through. The other possibility is something that we've seen regularly as a tactic used by the Israeli military, which is that as they think they might be coming up to a ceasefire deal, they will launch hell. They will launch hell, essentially on, on. We've seen this in Gaza, we've seen this in Lebanon. So it's entirely possible that the Trump administration had spoken to Netanyahu and said, look, we are going to need you to wrap this up. And we do know that President Trump, when he spoke to him, asked to be more low key in Lebanon, as he put it, and he responded with this very intense series of strikes. So it's entirely possible, as I say, that Israel was kind of thinking right with the ceasefire deal, we are going to be asked to wrap up this war in the next few days. Now, the result of those devastating strikes has been mass condemnation from all Western leaders, from the U.N. real horror the enormous level of killing, displacement, destruction that we've seen in the last 48 hours. So it's quite clear that now Netanyahu has been asked to come to the negotiating table. The way this looks like it's going to happen is that after these ceasefire talks in Pakistan this weekend between the US And Iran, then the US will broker talks next week between Israel and Lebanon. That's likely to happen in Washington. And Lebanese leaders have been very clear that they need the US to be the mediator of those, and they need them to be the guarantor of any deal. Because, of course, at the end of 2024, when a ceasefire was agreed in November, since after that Israel continued to strike the south of Lebanon and sometimes Beirut really with impunity, until this war kicked off again this year, this ceasefire didn't really hold.
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Sara, let's head to you in Karachi. Is there a sense that the United States pressured Israel into agreeing or to suggesting these talks with Lebanon, given the fact that the talks that had happened in Pakistan and the ceasefire that had been agreed clearly was not strong enough for people to actually agree on everything?
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E
Well, I mean, let's also understand that the talks happening, I mean, Pakistan is mediating or facilitating, however we want to put it between America and Iran. Right. We don't have any contacts with Israel as far as, or any pressure that we can possibly levy on them. Having said that, again, I think Layla's quite efficiently summed up the general Israeli policy. There's another factor here that I would add, and that is the statement from the Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf, who just a day, the day of these bombings, said that no one has the right to negotiate on Lebanon's behalf except Lebanon. In some Lebanese circles, that's been seen as given inadvertently, perhaps giving Israel a green light. There is great concern in Pakistan that Israeli violations of the ceasefire, because the ceasefire did include Lebanon, I think that's beyond reasonable doubt at this point, could possibly derail it. But there is also a realization that that is exactly what Israel would want to do. I mean, I'm going to quote a US Senator, I can't remember his name right now, who said that Netanyahu waited 40 years to find a US president stupid and reckless enough, those are his words, not mine, to go to war with Iran. And now that he's finally got it, it's not like he's going to let go of what has been, I think, his childhood.
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Dr.
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E
Just because there are negotiations going by. I mean, we've seen in the past that anyone who was sort of earmarked in Iran as a potential interlocutor, as a potential person to talk to from the side of the United States or even from Pakistan, has been systematically assassinated. This is really, I think, quite evident by now that this is the Israeli way of war, has been for several decades. But as far as the mood in Pakistan goes, there's optimism ranging to jubilation, ranging to absolute and utter shock, because let's face it, we're really not used to getting all this good press. I mean, we're used to being in the news, but never for the right reasons. So there is a feeling here like, oh my God, what is happening? I mean, how? And more importantly, how is this happening? Yeah.
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Leila, do we feel as if this movement on Israel and Lebanon will unblock the talks and lead to something more substantial than a two week ceasefire?
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D
Well, here's what's key. You know, both America and the US have thus far, as I've said, tried to sideline Lebanon and make it a separate issue, which of course has been incredibly devastating and frustrating for The Lebanese, where 1500 people already have been killed, more than 20% of the population displaced, mass devastation to infrastructure. And so if they had their way, it would be sidelined. And of course, what's key here is that we're seeing very clearly that President Trump is now very keen to extricate himself from this war that, you know, under anyone's reckoning, has really been a disaster for the US for multiple reasons. We've got midterms coming up. He's got his lowest ever approval ratings. People both feel this war has been disaster and for many people, more importantly, of course, feel that the way that the fuel prices, petrol prices have hit their wallets is unacceptable and not in keeping with his promise to make Americans feel richer. So he's very concerned about that. He understands that he was pulled into this war on all fronts by Netanyahu, you know, and so now is pressuring Netanyahu to kind of at least wind down. As we can see, the Iran chapter, the reason the Lebanon issue is being pushed forward is because Iran is saying this is absolutely non negotiable. They are saying we will not abandon the Lebanese people. Now, of course, that in itself in Lebanon is very controversial because many people in Lebanon despise Hezbollah, despise Iran, feel that Iran and Hezbollah have dragged them into this war over and over again. But for Iran, many reasons. Firstly, of course, because Hezbollah is one of the militias they support, but also because the reason Lebanon is in this war is because Hezbollah fired missiles into Israel after a couple of days after the US Started attacking Iran in solidarity with Iran. They hadn't fired any missiles into Israel since that ceasefire at the end of November 2024. So Iran is making this an absolute sticking point along with all of these other points that they want to negotiate this week, this weekend. So it does seem like Lebanon is an absolute sort of determined point for them. And no matter what deal is agreed this weekend, in fact, Iran even tried to pull out of the agreement over the Strait of Hormuz and allowing vessels through this week after the ceasefire because of the attacks on Lebanon on Wednesday. It does seem that the Pakistani prime minister was able to scale that back and say, no, guys, let's carry on for now and let's try and include Lebanon. But whatever else is agreed this weekend on the Strait of Hormuz, on the nuclear deal, on U.S. troops in the Middle east, all these points that Iran is trying to fight for, unless a deal can be agreed with Lebanon next week, it does seem that it will founder on that point.
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Zahra, finally coming to you. We have J.D. vance, the US vice president, heading to Pakistan with orders from Donald Trump to turn the ceasefire into a lasting peace deal. But also at the same time, we have Donald Trump saying Iran is doing a very poor job managing the Straits of Hormuz. There is this sense, isn't there, that no matter what is disagreed in Pakistan, just one post on Truth Social from Donald Trump could undermine everything until his
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next post on post on Truth Social. I mean, that's, that's really like life in the world of Trump now, isn't it? Is that we're sort of glued to his social media, wondering what sort of inanity or insanity will come from there next. But yes, absolutely. Look, everything is going to remain on the knife's edge. I mean, it doesn't matter even after the ink on the if it's a ceasefire agreement, well and good. If it's a lasting peace, well and good. We really don't know how this is going to end up. But any such peace is going to be extremely fragile because if you look at the map of the Middle east right now, we are seeing a massive restructuring of the power dynamics. The Iran that's going to emerge from this is an Iran that is going to be even more stridently nationalist and an Iran with great confidence in its ability to inflict pain across the region should the need arise. I mean, again, like you were saying, it's a massive strategic defeat for the United States of America. I mean, just look at it from this point of view, right? During the, we all remember the war on terror. We remember the Gulf War. That's when the United states had a 50 country or a 40 country coalition. Right now they have one state and that too is Israel. And again, everything comes down really to Israel's actions in Lebanon because as you guys were both saying, there is no conceivable scenario in which Iran gives up its Hezbollah allies. Those are extremely effective allies for them. If the ceasefire is going to break anywhere, it's going to break in Lebanon. But then that does not mean necessarily that there will be a resumption of hostilities between the United States of America and Iran. I mean, Trump, I don't want to use the term Darko, because I think that this would be the worst time in the world to try and hurt Trump's ego. I think it's best to just let him think that he's won and bring this disastrous war to an end. But the fact of the matter is that he's been looking for an out. And Iran felt that they had him exactly where they wanted him. I mean, the decapitation didn't work. The destruction of infrastructure has only rallied the Iranian people behind their government, which as we know, has not been the case in the recent years. We've seen massive protests in Iran. Certainly the Iranian government feels that they were all foreign sponsored and certainly they might have been in part. But there's no denying that there was genuine anger against the Iranian government. But here's the thing. When an entire populace is being bombed, when on the first day of the war you bomb a school, you kill what, close to 200 children, that has the tendency of uniting a people. I mean, we've seen it in Vietnam, we've seen it across the world. That is, I think that one of the abiding lessons of an air war is that the people you bomb tend to not like you for it.
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Zara Kuru, thank you so much for joining us on the line. Zara, as a journalist for Dawn, Pakistan's largest English language newspaper, he joined us on the line from Karachi and also Monocles Middle east correspondent Leila Malana. Alan, you're listening to the Globalist. It's 8:15 in Budapest, 7:15am here in London. Now, one of Europe's most significant and consequential elections in Years takes place on Sunday as Hungarians go to the polls. There is a strong chance that this weekend could mark the end of the era of the Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, and a man who's brought about profound erosions to the country's democracy and freedom of speech, angered and unsettled practically every part of the European Union, and acted as a poster child for populism all over the world. Well, I'm joined now from Budapest by Bruno Kaufman, global democracy correspondent from the Swiss Broadcasting Company and regular voice here on Monocle Radio. Welcome. Good morning, Bruno.
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F
Good morning, Anna.
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B
So is Viktor Orban really going to lose?
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F
Yeah, that's a big question, of course. I mean, I saw this picture with Orban and J.D. vance who was visiting. And when J.D. wentz said, you will win, Orban didn't made a very convincing impression on the screen. So he may expect that he will, after 16 years, really lose power this
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weekend and just explain to us how we've got to this point. Because his grip on power has been, what, 15 years long.
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F
That's right. I mean, he has been around in Hungarian politics for decades. I mean, I'm following Hungarian politics since the 1980s and Orban was already, during communist times, a figure. So he was very early on and he was like the hope for many people for a more democratic society. And when he still won his first election in 1998, he was really a liberal voice. And then power changed everything. And since 2010, he has really been very skillful in creating a system which made him an extremely powerful person. And this is still, of course, the case and would also be the case after a loss in the elections this weekend, because he has a network of people in the institutions, in the businesses, which is very powerful. But at the same time, he's also overreaching in many ways. And people really have a hunger for change. And this can be felt in all talks I have here in Hungary.
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B
What are people now saying?
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F
I mean, people say this is done. I mean, we feel that we have been taken hostage by the Orban regime now for so many years. And the credibility of this government is really gone because Hungary has been very much profiting from the EU membership. They got most money per capita in the EU Eastern Europe. But still Hungarians are not better off. They have got big inflation, they have bad services. So they really don't feel the benefits of all these talks. And they feel also now that they want to have better connections, better relationships to European Union. They don't want to be the enemy of neighboring Ukraine, which Orban is always saying this is the biggest threat to us.
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B
Explain to us who is likely to succeed him then. Who are the contenders?
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F
I mean, the main contender is a person who has been with Orban for many years. It's Peter Maiar who is the leader of the opposition TISA party. He was until just two years ago a member of the Fidesz party, the governing party of Viktor Orban. And then he really out of the center of the Fidesz, he came out and said this is a corrupt regime. This is not what we want in Hungary. Hungary. And he has been a very, very strong, let's say campaigner now in the last two years he went out to all the rural areas where Fides had a strong stay. He is still today going every day to four or five different places making campaign. And he's basically arguing that this is a corrupt regime. This is a regime which doesn't benefit Hungarians. He's a very nationalistic leader, but he wants to have better connections with Europe as well. And he wants to have a more democratic and more open government which can be the pride of Hungarians again.
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B
And what is the likelihood of that happening given the fact that Orban's grip on power has fundamentally changed a large amount of the way that the country works and indeed it is seen abroad.
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F
That's right. I mean it will be really interesting how this election will turn out. I mean a big issue is, and the opinion polls indicate a direction of that, that the TISA party of Pet Maillard, he could really win this so called 2/3 majority in parliament which will make it possible for his party to change the constitution to really make these kind of changes which are needed, who are important when it comes to appoint important positions in institutions, in the government. Possibilities of changing many things which Orban in the last, let's say 16 years change because you have to see that the election system have been turned towards this kind of, that you get a super majority even if you don't get like an outside majority in the elections. I mean, Orban almost never got more than 50% in the votes. But still he had this super majority now for 16 years. And this could be now turned against him because it looks like in opinion polls that TISA may be getting like 50% or a little bit less of the vote while Orban's party Fidesz is pulling around 39, 40%. And this is exactly the opposite to what happened in the last 16 years. So it's possible, but still there will be so many loyalists of Orban in so many institutions, even independent Think tanks who have been financed by the state now for many years. So it will take time to really change Hungary for the better.
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B
Bruno, briefly, we saw JD Vance support Viktor Orban earlier this week and it really reinforced just how important an ally to the United States, Orban and how much of an ally Orban is to all populists everywhere, doesn't it?
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F
That's right. I mean, he's more almost a symbol of that now. And he's on the other side, of course, something like a caricature of it as well, because I mean, the young dynamic Orban now is like a really, he's not so old, he's 62 years old, but he looks very old and he looks very exhausted at the same time. And this is maybe also the symbol of how many people feel about him. I mean, in Budapest, of course, people have almost never voted for this party in big numbers. But on the rural sides, people have been thinking that this is the man who is protecting us. But even on the rural sides now, people really feel this is not anymore the case. So the dynamics, the hope in Budapest is maybe also complemented by the exhaustion and by the feeling of being left over on the rural side. And this will be of course, the big challenge also for a new government, how to reunite, how to reconcile this country which have been under so big pressure on one side and on the other side becoming like the hostage of Orban as a symbol for a nationalist government in Europe.
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B
Bruno Kaufman, thank you so much for joining us on the line from Budapest. Still to come on today's program, I
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haven't even begun to process what we've been through.
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G
And riding a fireball through the atmosphere is profound as well.
- [23:15]
B
NASA's Artemis 2 astronauts prepare for the most perilous moment of their mission re entry. We'll hear about the science making it possible.
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A
Craft is a matter of perspective, a unique outlook, an obsessive attention to detail. With UBS's Chief Investment Office Houseview, we're focused on identifying the latest investment opportunities and market risks to help you achieve your financial goals. So you get the big picture broken down into thought provoking insights delivered daily and curated by over 200 globally connected, locally active analysts. UBS banking is our craft.
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B
And we stay in Budapest because that's where Paul Woldy, Europe Correspondent, the Global Mail is now and he's joining us to give us a newspaper review. A very good morning to you, Paul. How's Budapest looking this morning?
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G
It's fine, fine, thanks. Yeah, it's nice and sunny and bright A little bit chilly, but it's been some beautiful spring like weather here.
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B
And you have been absolutely in the thick of all the rallies that you've been going to and the run up to the election in Hungary this weekend. We mentioned a moment ago that we had Bruno Kaufman joining us from Budapest that there had been this rally with J.D. vance. You were actually in the thick of it.
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G
Yeah, I was. I was just listening to your interview with Bruno and you know, it has been fascinating being here. I went to two rallies this week. I was at the JD Vance event with Orban and the Fidesz loyalists and they had about 5,000 people in an arena and you know, talking to people in the line. It's a bit of an older crowd and they seem pretty confident of victory. But then yesterday I was at a teacher rally way over in the western part of Hungary and in a pretty small town and the vibe there and the mood was completely different. You know, there were several hundred people sort of gathered in this park to hear Magyar. And you know, this was one of three stops he was making on his campaign trail yesterday. And you know, it was a very excited crowd. And I was talking to one of the organizers, she said, you know, when he first started his movement a couple of years ago, they were lucky to get five people out to listen to him. And yesterday they had several hundred packed into this park, waiting, waiting for him. And you know, they were treating him much like a rock star. So there's a really interesting mood here in terms of pain and what he's managed to accomplish.
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B
Just this is supposed to be the newspaper review, but let's turn it on its head. As a newspaper reporter, what have you heard from fellow journalists, journalists in Hungary, about the ability to report and the constricts on the freedom of the press that have been imposed since Viktor Orban took power 15 years ago.
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G
Very difficult. You know, that's interesting because I was talking to local journalists here about this press conference JD Vance had with Orban earlier this week during his visit. And of course, Vance was very much in campaign mode for Orban when he was here. It was quite striking. But interestingly enough, the only people allowed to answer ask questions were from the Orban friendly media. None of the other media. That what's left of the independent media here, we're allowed to ask questions and that's pretty typical. Most of the time they're not even allowed to attend these events. So it's, it's a pretty restrictive atmosphere here for reporting.
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B
Okay, let's have a look at some of the papers that you've actually been reading. Not. Not actually contributing to. Let's have a look at the. The headlines that Vladimir Putin has called for a. A brief truce in his invasion of Ukraine because of the Orthodox Easter.
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G
Yeah, I mean, this is kind of interesting. I mean, I think that's viewed with a lot of suspicion in Ukraine. You know, Vlad Volodymyr Zelensky. Sorry, had been calling for an Easter truce for several days now, and Russia kind of jumped on this and claimed it was their idea. So this truce is supposed to take effect from Saturday to Sunday. So it's a pretty short window, 32 hours. But it would be the first if both sides would be the first since really 2022 that we've had. But of course, we attempt before to have ceasefires, and they've fallen apart. Both sides have accused the other violating them. And right now, I think there's a real concern, particularly on the Ukraine part, that peace negotiations with the US are really coming to a standstill. And I think Zelenskyy's kind of been saying that the clock is ticking towards the summer when really the US administration is going to lose complete interest in Ukraine because they'll be so focused on the midterm elections. So. So I think Zelenskyy and US officials have kind of agreed that he really only has a few weeks here to get these peace talks back on track.
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B
Okay, let's move on to an article in the British Guardian. It says, cuban president tells NBC he won't resign under US Pressure as Russia backs old ally. What is happening here? This is the first television interview with an American broadcaster from the Cuban president, isn't it?
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G
Yeah. This is Miguel Diaz Canel, and what he's saying is, of course, we've had the blockade by the US of Cuba on Cuba, and certainly oil exports from Venezuela have come to a halt, and oil exports really anywhere to Cuba have come to a halt. So the country's in dire economic conditions. Trump has talked about, you know, taking over Cuba, how he could do anything he wants with the country. And I think what he's envisioned is some kind of change in leadership, much like the US military did in Venezuela when they just kind of captured Maduro and put in a sympathetic person in place. I think he'd like to see that in Cuba. But now what we're hearing from the Cuban president is that's not gonna. It's certainly not in his mind that revolutionaries don't step down. He said, we're resisting,
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B
Paul. I think our line to Budapest is bringing us and our conversation with a paper review to a swift and unwanted conclusion. Paul Waldy, thank you so much for joining us on the line for today's newspaper, Paul Waldy's Europe correspondent at the Globe and Mail. You're listening to the Globe Globalist with me, Emma Nelson. Now here's a look at some of the other stories we're keeping an eye on today. The head of NATO, Mark Rutte, has praised Donald Trump despite the US President's anger about the lack of support shown by Washington's allies to the war against Iran. Speaking in Washington, Mr. Nrutte acknowledged that some NATO countries had been, in his words, a bit slow to respond to U.S. requests. But he pointed out that many European nations had helped with logistics. Britain's defence secretary has said UK Forces and allies have uncovered a covert Russian submarine operation north of the UK he said there were concerns that the submarines had been threatening undersea cables and pipelines. He directly warned the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, that any attempt to damage UK infrastructure would have serious consequences. 500 UK personnel were deployed in a counter operation with Norway and other allies. Meanwhile, Russia has announced a ceasefire in its war against Ukraine for Orthodox Easter. The Kremlin said military chiefs had been ordered to stop fighting on all fronts this weekend and it expected Ukraine to do the same. And a man has been sentenced to more than two years in prison after he stole a handbag containing a egg and a watch set worth more than 2 million pounds from a pub in central London. Enzo Conticello, who's 29, snatched the Givenchy bag from the floor of the pub in Soho. The egg and the watch have never been recovered. This is the Globalist. Stay tuned. It's Friday, so here's what we learned. Here's Andrew Muller.
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We learned this week that later this month the Estonian settlement of Tartu will host Estonia's first ever pig impersonation contest. No, it's more of a squeal thereafter. It says here in the contest rules, that's why we're playing the dueling banjos bit from Deliverance. One of the subtle yet meticulously excogitated cultural allusions for which the what we learned news review every Friday on Monocle Radio is justly renowned. Just get on with it. We learned anyway that a three person jury will select Estonia's premier pig like squealer based on authenticity, power and entertainment value and that contestants are at liberty to incorporate into their performance movement. Role playing as a pig, presumably. And a short comic skit, yes, entrance will be at liberty to ham it up up though we have not learned, and to be honest, do not much care if there are points deducted for being boring or indeed added for sty
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B
all
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we were, to be even more honest, basically hoping that a somewhat laboured setup to a succession of frankly underwhelming porcine puns hogging the stage is that anything might enable us to postpone by a few merciful minutes minutes our embrace of the inevitable because. We learned that the United States had either won a crushing victory, our troops, our American warriors deserve the credit for this day, but God deserves all the glory or suffered a humiliating defeat.
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F
Iranian union, Iranian solidarity is a very, very important factor to achieving this victory for Iran.
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C
But at any rate, that there was Now a Ceasefire let's give you a
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G
live look now at the White House. This is where President Trump is right now and already declaring today a quote, big day for world peace with this after the US And Iran agreed to a two week ceasefire.
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C
Unless there wasn't. Today the ceasefire is under fire amid confusion over what the US Israel and Iran have actually agreed to and that the Strait of Hormuz was back open.
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B
Iran has agreed to open the Strait
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of Hormuz, except to the extent that it isn't.
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B
The Iranian state news agency had stated that the Strait of Hormuz was once again closed to oil traffic.
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C
So we learned in some that we are yet to learn what the last month of war had actually been in aid of of unless it was the establishment of some sort of joint venture to control the Strait of Hormuz between US President Donald Trump and whoever is presently in charge of Iran. I asked him if he was okay with the idea that Iran would maintain control of the Strait and charge a toll. And he said to me, maybe it will be a joint venture. And I said, a joint or US Iran venture? He said, yes, it's a beautiful thing. But we learned that there may be a way for tankers and their cargo to arrive avoid the Strait of Hormuz altogether. For we learned that in a bemusingly undersold triumph, the present US Administration had mastered teleportation.
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B
I can't wait to try this.
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H
Tell me more.
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B
See where this goes.
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C
We learned that Greg Phillips, currently head of the Office of Response and Recovery in the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Good luck, America. Seriously had been reminiscing of his experiences being beamed up, down and specifically to a Waffle House in Rome, Georgia. Make a note of the Rome aspect. It's going to come up again later. Foreshadowing that's what we're doing.
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B
Okay, Rome foreshadowing right.
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C
We learned, however, that Phillips did not recall the event following fondly. And while he is hardly the first person to have found themselves bewildered that they are for some reason in a Waffle House, he can claim that his specific journey was unusual.
- [35:09]
G
And I ended up at a Waffle House like 50 miles away from where I was. They said, where are you? I said, a Waffle House. They said, waffle House where? And I said, waffle House in Rome, Georgia. I said, that's not possible. You just left here like a long way to go.
- [35:23]
C
And we learned that this was not, not Philip's first such outing.
- [35:27]
G
I was on the phone, oh my God, what's happening? And I was landed about 40 miles away in a ditch outside of a Baptist church in a little tiny town just where you cross over the border,
- [35:37]
C
who among us, etc. But. We learned that the US Administration was undertaking still further endeavors in the metaphysical. For we learned that Phillips was not the only member of said US Administration administration confronting Rome. Stick with us. This will seem very clever in a minute or so.
- [35:58]
B
Yep, got it. Rome wrote it down.
- [36:01]
C
We learned, and a caveat here, that the reporting is thus far from outlets whose word we for one whimsical news review would not necessarily take to the bank. But we're rolling with it because it amuses us so to do that. The next country to have come up on Donald Trump's 51st state raffle wheel after Canada's Greenland, Cuba, Venezuela and Iran, is the Vatican. We learned that US officials had leant on the Catholic Church to be more supportive of President Trump and had even by way of or else menaced the Holy See's ambassador to the US with the spectre of the Avignon papacy, which is not a a forgotten goth group who opened for Susie and the Banshees in like 1987, but the 14th century interregnum in which France took charge of the church until it got with the program. We learned, therefore, and perhaps of the possible post presidency plans of Pope Donald I, though there seems little overlap between Maga world and the Catholic faith. After all, one is a creed whose devoted adherents are currently pledged to the infallibility of a 70 something American with a lot of gold furniture. And the other is fill it in yourselves. Must we do all the work? For Monocle Radio, I'm Andrew Muller.
- [37:32]
B
Thank you, Andrew. And another instalment airs at the same time next week right here on the globalist view with Monocle Radio. 07:37 Here in London. Now the crew of Artemis 2, all being well, return to Earth today. They have traveled further than any other humans in history, becoming the first people to see the far side of the moon with the naked eye. Their re entry will be the most perilous part of the adventure and to strap us all in. In preparation, I'm joined now in the studio by David Badan is speaker, business advisor and best selling non fiction author and the man who really likes space. David, good morning, how are you?
- [38:08]
H
Good morning, good morning.
- [38:09]
B
Good to have you with us. So the danger happens. Now it's 24,000 miles an hour that these, the team of four is going in. So I've just looked that up. That's 38,000 kilometers. Kilometers an hour. That's quick.
- [38:21]
H
Oh, it's really quick. It's about six or seven second miles a second, which means it would cross London. Done. It would cross the channel. Done.
- [38:32]
B
Goodness me. Right?
- [38:33]
H
Goodness me indeed. You know when you rub your hands. Oh go ahead.
- [38:35]
B
No, no, do the hands thing. Sorry.
- [38:37]
H
When you rub your hands together, they get warm. Now imagine you're rubbing them like really fast. That's maybe 10 miles an hour. Suppose you decided to rub really really fast. 30, 40 miles an hour. Suppose a car tire. Have you ever seen a car go into a skid at 40 miles an hour? The rubber shoots off. Now imagine that at 1,000 miles an hour, at 5,000 miles an hour, at 24,000 miles an hour. If they don't burn up, they have another problem. You know when you just skip a stone on water, if you skip it at the right angle, it goes in. If you skip it at the other angle, it flies off. If they hit the Earth's atmosphere a little bit too steeply, they will actually burn apart. If they hit a little bit too lightly, they'll flick off into outer space and never come back. They have to get it within about a degree or so, but we're assuming
- [39:18]
B
that they've done the maths, they're really, really, really careful.
- [39:21]
H
And Isaac Newton, a good Englishman, is helping them along.
- [39:23]
B
Okay, explain the Isaac Newton thing as everybody who comes in talks about. Isaac Newton sorted this all out. But for those of us who do not study physics at any great degree of intelligence or level, how are they making this happen?
- [39:38]
H
So it turns out to fly a rocket you need fuel, but you don't have fuel all the way to get there. And all the way you just need to get started. Think of walking to the edge of a large pit once. If you want to get to the bottom of the pit. You don't need a vehicle to get down. You just go to the edge and let yourself fall. So once they get close enough to the moon, they can turn off their engines. The moon will just pull them in. And then once they get back a little bit ways towards the Earth, they can again turn off the engines. The Earth will pull them in like somebody falling off a diving board.
- [40:10]
B
Okay, thank you very much indeed for that explanation. Let's move to the trip itself. There have been enormous heads, haven't they? I've just mentioned further than any humans in history, seeing the far side of the moon with the naked eye. What are the significant scientific breakthroughs that we will enjoy from this trip?
- [40:30]
H
Well, for me, the real breakthrough, the essence of the space program, is the contrast with what goes wrong on Earth. And many of the astronauts, including, like, you know, uptight military, formal scientific types, they've always been awed by that. Wow. You really don't see land boundaries from outer space. It's just. It's not there. You see this tiny, tiny blue dot, what Carl Sagan called this pale blue dot in this black, black ocean. You really realize we're on this small, small spaceship, and if you start drilling holes in it or polluting it, there's no place else to go. So that think of the contrast with what's been going on on Earth. So while they were in space, the Jewish festival of Passover took place, the Christian festival of Easter took place. Ramadan ended just before. And those different religions at times have tried to obliterate each other at they've been really, really harmonious. And the outer space travel brings in
- [41:22]
B
the good part, and that brings in the rather wonderful philosophical areas of this trip. But what you have just said is possibly coming to an end given the fact that regardless of what the scientific breakthroughs were while Artemis or still are up in space, some are suggesting that the reason why this went up was to prove that we can go up there again. We can prove we can come back down again. And we are now bringing the boundaries of Earth up to the moon because this is a race to establish a permanent base there.
- [41:59]
H
Sadly, what often happens with the new technology, it takes the political and the emotional world we came from and extends it. Einstein talked about the First World War War as being like giving a caveman machine guns and machetes and stuff. We won't use it well. In a time of peace, the moon might be explored in a peaceful way. In a time of war, it'll be really aggressive. If there's different bases. I don't know. There's some places where there might be water. Water is very useful for making future rocket fuel. Suppose China wants to be by that and America wants to be by that. People like Donald Trump will say, let's resolve our differences. But no, no, sorry, he won't say that. That he'll suggest bringing weapons. It would be a terrible thing. Sort of like think of Antarctica at the moment. Most of Antarctica is handled really, really peacefully. That's a consensus. Somebody could break that at any time.
- [42:44]
B
And there is a sense today and from the last week that this human ambitions to permanently have a station and do whatever is done on there is. This race is currently being won by America by. How much is it? How much has actually Artemis given the US the edge?
- [43:00]
H
Oh, so the US edge is very slight. It's kind of like a rocket going up and coming back down. To develop something like a moon base, you would need an ongoing scientific. Sorry, an ongoing industrial establishment. And China's industrial establishment is stronger and certainly getting better and stronger than America's. The investment in science. Think of the way Trump's closed down a lot of scientific research and China. China is boosting our scientific research. There was recently an excellent book looking at China as the culture of engineers and America at the moment as the culture of bitchy lawyers.
- [43:37]
B
Go and do carry on.
- [43:38]
H
Oh. Having said that, although I deeply loved the Space program, in 1962, when one of the first American astronauts went up, he was accompanied by yours truly, lying on the ground in his house in Chicago in my little PJs pajamas with milk and peanut butter and jam sandwiched next to me with my feet up on the stairs and lying back. So I was just like him, and I followed his whole space travel. So I was with it from the beginning. But there's no science going involved. It's really just the aerospace industry having us spend a lot of money.
- [44:09]
B
And indeed, that child, that little David with his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and his milk, was obviously incredibly inspired by what he saw in 1962. Is there a sense that what's happening in 2026 will inspire the next generation of little Davids? I mean, has the PR machine worked in that sense?
- [44:29]
H
Yes. So the ideals are good. Sort of like there is an ideal from the army, which is nasty, hurt people, and we're better than others. There's an ideal from the army, which is cohesive and can be a nice motivation for people to get into good units. The same thing here. That's why I Like to begin with that image of the beautiful Earth that these people share. So the science is a little bit of PR. The history of 20 and 21st century science can be entirely written unchanged without the International Space Station or any sort of moon base. But as an ideal to motivate people to be generous, it seems kind of expensive. But who knows, if you bring somebody up onto a mountain and they get a beautiful vista and then for the rest of their life their understanding of ecology or things like that, it's not entirely wasted money.
- [45:14]
B
So what happens next?
- [45:15]
H
What happens next is there will be more rockets wasting a huge amount of carbon dioxide and there'll be more metals being used and there'll be more, more beautifully nice astronauts, well trained, wasting their time doing this sort of stuff. But again, it'll motivate little Davids, hopefully to do more useful activities.
- [45:33]
B
David Boderna, thank you as ever for joining me in the studio. You're listening to the globalist.
- [45:41]
A
Iq, EQ and AI. Three components key to the craft of 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.
- [46:17]
B
It's 7:45 in Lisbon, which is where we head now for a roundup of all the news from the world of urbanism. Carlota Rubello, Monaco's senior foreign correspondent, is on the line. Carlota, a very good morning to you. How's Lisbon today?
- [46:31]
I
Good morning, Emma. Today it's not as sunny as yesterday, but hey, it's still early in the day.
- [46:36]
B
You're still in Portugal. There is a beach, there is sea to sea later. Is that correct?
- [46:41]
I
Yes, yes, yes, absolutely.
- [46:42]
B
Excellent. Glad to hear it. Right, let us transport you back to the National Gallery here in the United Kingdom in London. It's a, it's a gallery that obviously is the great shop window for, for the way that British culture operates itself globally. It's just opened one new wing which is a refurbishment. It had controversy to it, but it seems to be working. They're going one step further with a huge redevelopment, aren't they?
- [47:08]
I
Absolutely. And this is, you know, one of the most significant transformations that the museum has had had in its 200 year history. The Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and his practice, Kengo Kuma and Associates, has won a huge competition, an international competition launched last year where 65 architects competed to win the bid to redesign this new Wing. Now this is a new building with a price tag of £350 million opening so somewhere in the mid-2030s. And what is significant here em, is that you might remember the news earlier in the, in last year where the new board and the new director of the the museum said that, you know, from now on they would start having paintings from the late 19th century to the present. Up until recently the National Galleries collection was made up until only the 1900s and after that all the works post that period would be at the Tate Modern. But as you know, time continues and as more work continues to emerge, there's this necessity by the gallery to house new works. Now this new wing will serve precisely that purpose. It's a new extension. The ground floor will be, as you expect for public facilities and stuff, some temporary exhibition galleries with all the accessibility requirements from street level up. And then higher up you'll have corridors that link up to the existing structure, bridges that are connecting to the Sainsbury Wing and the Wilkins Building. And then that's when we enter this new gallery that will house the collection from the 19th century onwards.
- [48:57]
B
And when it comes to the way that something like this, a high profile architect wins a high profile prize to, to consolidate the brilliance of one enormous gallery, there's two questions that need to be asked. How much is this actually being done for the people who live in London? Is this just a global thing? And whether that sometimes takes a spotlight from other cities?
- [49:21]
I
Well, what is interesting here is the choice of architect. Of course, as mentioned, it's been an international competition. But Congo Kuma and his practice have done extensive cultural work around the world. You know, even in the uk, the Va Dundee was done by, by the, the practice, the Besancon Art center in France and here in Lisbon, actually the extension of the Kalust Gulbenkian foundation, which is the modern art museum, the extension was made by Kengo Kuma. So we are here with an architect that understands the necessity of reflecting the place where a building is based, reflecting the culture it wants to present, present while acting as part of the conversation itself. You know, the idea is that the structure is also a piece of art on its own, as a piece of architecture. Now what we know so far about some of the materials that are going to be used, we know that a lot of the stone that is going to be used is similar to the existing one, so that it continues the same design language. So we will be, it will be expected that there's this continuation in terms of how the museum is Presented.
- [50:35]
B
Okay, that's brilliant news for anybody who enjoys going to the National Gallery in London. What other urbanism news do you have up your sleeve? Carlotta?
- [50:42]
I
Well, I thought I'd stay more or less in the region. From Japan, we turn the focus to South Korea because this is news that came up earlier in the year, but now we have official approval from the South Korean government, and this is that they have allocated $8 million to conduct a feasibility study to assess whether or not they can develop high speed rail in Ukraine. Now, of course, there's the angle here of the fence and getting Ukraine moving. And this is of course to link Kiev with Ukraine's border with the use. So we are assuming Poland or Romania. But what is interesting is how we are seeing in this story the soft power element of South Korean rail and mobility really at play. Earlier, maybe I believe it was in 2024 or early 2025, Ukrainian said the Ukrainian rail operator had bought trains from South Korea. So this is the culmination of a developing relationship between the two when it comes to mobility. And I think a really fantastic display play on how, you know, despite a war, despite the political side of it all, there is aid that can be provided by getting people from A to B.
- [52:02]
B
Let's head to the United States for your next story.
- [52:05]
I
Yes. So in the US a couple of good news and bad news when it comes to cycling. Which ones do you want first, Emma?
- [52:11]
B
Oh, let's start with the bad news and get it out of the way.
- [52:14]
I
All right, let's do that then. While Donald Trump has announced that he wants to, and I quote, retort, turn common sense to city planning. So brace for some more news from that. But the first big announcement is that he wants to remove this big segment of protected bike lanes in Washington, DC. Now, what is curious about this particular story is that the segment that he's targeting is actually one of the most popular. You know, the mayor, Muriel Bowser, Washington, DC's mayor, is against this, this move, saying that that segment, what they can track, is at least used by 4,000 people every single day. And the fact that it's a protected bike lane has reduced injuries by 91%. Now, this is this decision from the Trump administration as part of a big push to change how, how the streets and the transportation network in Washington are managed. So I, I would say watch this space because there will be more news to come. Shall we go to the good news then?
- [53:25]
B
We have 10 seconds. So quick, please.
- [53:29]
I
I'll do my best. The good news is that Mayor Mamdani in New York City is going to be giving away free bike helmets and free bike lights across the city over the next three months. Months to encourage people to get on two wheels.
- [53:41]
B
Neatly done. Carlotta Rivello, thank you so much for joining me on the line from Lisbon. You're listening to the Globalist. It's 1553 in Seoul. Now let's hear finally from the author of a new book which shines a light on a rare but brilliant slice of architecture, that of the brutalist buildings of of South Korea. One man who knows an awful lot about it is Paul Tellet, who's an Okinawa based photographer focused on brutalist architecture and the author of Brutalist Japan. The follow up, Brutalist Korea comes out this week. A very warm welcome to the program. Hello, Paul.
- [54:21]
J
Thank you for having me.
- [54:22]
B
Just explain to us how you go about illustrating an area of design that not everybody falls immediately in love with.
- [54:32]
J
I call it the Marmite of architecture. You love it or hate it.
- [54:37]
B
And how do you go about illustrating it? Because your photography is a very powerful method of talking about the buildings themselves.
- [54:48]
J
They're very bold geometric aesthetics that make architectural photography quite easy. But in terms of going about illustrating it, I want to sort of set it within a broader context and I want to show it its honesty and its raw materiality. And I guess that's what I'm scoping out. I'm looking to express the building not just aesthetically, but the social and the political context behind it. There's a lot of depth to the, the architecture.
- [55:24]
B
So give us an example of what we might find in Brutalist Korea now, which demonstrates what you've just said.
- [55:33]
J
It fits the moniker of that sort of authoritarian Soviet style brutalist architecture that we all sort of have in our minds. We must bear in mind that that through the 60s, 70s and 80s, South Korea was an authoritarian state. And whilst I tried to push people away from viewing brutalism as a reflection of totalitarianism, much of the architecture there from that period reflects a totalitarian state. But at the same time, there are new iterations, contemporary versions of brutalism that counter all that. There is this layer upon layer of historical imagery. If you go to Seoul, and I think that's what I try to illustrate.
- [56:32]
B
Indeed. Amara, are there any particular buildings which you found especially compelling?
- [56:40]
J
Not so much buildings. There's one in particular that sort of stands out like Roaring Tyrannosaurus Rex. And there's the DDP Dongdaman Design Plaza by Sahar Deed. Yeah, they, they look aesthetically pleasing. They suit the lens. You know, I love to shoot them, but there's a couple of sites. Yeah, not just individual buildings.
- [57:08]
E
I've looked.
- [57:08]
J
I'd like to talk about some sites. Paju Book City, northwest of Seoul. It's like a utopian publishing community. And the choice of material is concrete. And this is all very contemporary. And then there's also Seiyuan, which is an arbotorium, an outdoor gallery outside of urbanity, but the same choice of material. And I'm wondering why Korea has embraced this material so much where. Where other places, we're absolutely rejecting it. You know, concrete architecture is anathema. So, yeah, I think those are the two sites that really stand out because they've really embraced concrete.
- [57:53]
B
So what you suggest is that actually. That South Korea is actually continuing with its love of brutalism when many other countries have said that they don't need it anymore.
- [58:05]
J
Yeah, it's that evolution that I'm interested in. I went from Japan and yeah, there's some sort of historical documentation I didn't want the second book to be. Okay, now here's some brutalist architecture that fits the mantle from 1950s to 1970s. I wanted something that show showed. Yeah, that evolution and that it never went away. And that there's a rather Eurocentric conception of what brutalism is.
- [58:36]
B
Paul Tullett, thank you so much for joining us on the line from Okinawa. And the book Brutalist Career is available now, as is his previous book, Brutalist Japan. And that's all the time we have for today's programme. The warmest of thanks to all my guests and to our producers, Anita Riota, Laura Kramer and Desiree Bandley. Our researcher was Josefina Astrid Nagla Gomez and our studio manager was Christy o' Grady with Ed. Editing assistance by Mariella Bevan. After the headlines, more music is on the way. The briefing's live at midday here in London and the Globalist is back at the same time on Monday. But for now, from me, Emma Nelson, goodbye. Thank you very much for listening. Have a great weekend.
- [59:45]
A
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.