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The Globalist
Venezuela opens up its oil industry. Plus: a look ahead at Costa Rica’s presidential elections
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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 30 January 2026 on Monocle Radio. The Globalist in association with U. Live from London. This is THE Globalist with me, Emma Nelson. A very warm welcome to today's program. Coming up, Venezuela's president opens up her country's oil to the private sector after decades of state control. What will this mean for the nation's economy? Also ahead, Laura Fernandez, a rally being held for her. She's the frontrunner in this weekend's presidential elections in Costa Rica. In Latin America's first big election of 2026. We'll ask if the shadow of Donald Trump's involvement in the region will shape the vote. Plus, after Zoom and Teams, France decides it wants a slice of online communication platforms, we'll examine Paris's play for digital sovereignty. We'll go through the papers and we.
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C
Learned that the startling reconsiderations of the right to bear arms had been prompted by one American citizen doing exactly that.
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B
Andrew Muller will bring us up to date on the week's events. We'll have the theatre news and find out why a French pastry chef is winning plaudits for his croissant here in the UK that's all coming up on THE Globalist, live from London. First, a quick look at some of the other stories we're following today. The Supreme Court in Panama has annulled a concession that allows a Hong Kong based company to operate two container ports at the Atlantic and Pacific entrances to the Panama Canal. President Zelensky of Ukraine has said he hoped the United States could halt Russian strikes on his country's energy infrastructure. And European Union foreign ministers have agreed to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization. Stay tuned to Monocle Radio throughout the day for more on these stories. But first, lots of breaking stories coming out of Latin America. For starters, Venezuela's interim president, Delcey Rodriguez has signed a law that opens the country's oil industry to private investors. Meanwhile, Cuba has been declared a threat to the national security of the United States by Donald Trump. And we're also looking ahead to the region's major first election in 2026 with a right wing populist poised to take the Costa Rican presidency. Well, to go through a very busy day in Latin America, I'm joined now by Andrew Thompson, Latin America specialist and Latin News contributor. Good morning, Andrew.
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D
Good morning.
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B
It's all beginning over in Venezuela. Let's begin with this big change for Venezuelan and this law that's been signed that opens the country's oil industry to private investors. What more do we know about this?
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D
Well, what we know, I think, is that the new, in effect, the strange new government of Venezuela, which is led by Del C Rodriguez, but has all the same old ministers from the previous period, this government has agreed with the United States that they need to develop the oil sector, bring in new investment and begin strong economic growth. The changes to the law are designed to do that. They give foreign companies a lot more freedom to operate in Venezuela and set the stage for reductions in royalties and other, if you like, elements that will help the investment flow. There are, however, which I can go into if you want to, some big problems with the new law and the way it will work.
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B
Please do.
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D
The problems essentially are when you look at a country that's coming out of a period of dictatorship as Venezuela is, do you try and fix the economy first or do you fix the politics first? And the Trump administration has said it's all about the economy. They're not particularly interested in restoring democracy, although that is probably a secondary objective. The problem is, is that if you are an international oil company, you want long term security and a change in the law passed by a government that has expropriated your holdings in the past and is really not enough, not, not enough security. There's also an issue that the oil industry is in a state of almost obsolescence. Everything is old. There hasn't been maintenance for years. And some people estimate that to get Venezuelan oil really flowing, you need to invest about a billion dollars every year for the next 10 years. So that is very, very long term. And a lot of companies are saying, well, it's not quite as encouraging as we'd like it to be because of this political uncertainty. The counter argument or the argument that goes with that is that they should solve the political problem, restore democracy first, and then try and change the legislation in the oil sector.
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B
Let's move on to Cuba. It's in the last few hours that the US President has said that Cuba is a threat to US national security. What does he mean by this?
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D
I think what he means is I intend to squeeze Cuba immediately And on the longer term to try and force political change on the island. I think that's the kind of the, the basic approach. What we've seen in the U. S. Administration is, if you like, a difficult decision between two things. One is to basically take over a country like they took over Iraq and governance, take everything into their control, which in the case of Iraq proved to be a catastrophic error. The other way of approaching things is just increasing the pressure on, on governments you're targeting, say you're not looking for regime change particularly, but try and create a situation where it is more likely that the government will collapse. And I think Donald Trump is playing his cards for a collapse of the, of the Cuban government.
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B
Indeed. And we, we've discussed this yesterday on the globalist where the idea that if you starve Cuba of oil, you will promote Provok humanitarian crisis which which then will, could, could provoke a, as you say, a collapse of the, of the regime there. But in the wider scheme of things, when we already have the Trump administration going in and capturing the Venezuelan president and carting him off to New York and we now have issues with Cuba as well, do we know what Donald Trump's end game is in the region other than to hoover up communist countries or authoritarian countries?
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D
Strangely, perhaps. There's been a document that was published last November December, which is the National Security Strategy of the United States, which sets out exactly what the US Is looking for in quite a clear way. It's alleged that Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, wrote it, but it basically says is not that worked up about democracy. Is much more interested in creating a situation where the countries of the Western Hemisphere and Latin America work with Donald Trump on, on reducing crime, reducing migration, reducing, you know, flows of hot money and other things of that kind of, to kind of, if you like, protect the US national interest. So like all strategy documents, it's kind of quite general and it doesn't tell us, you know, whether there will be further invasions or military operations. But I think, I think it is likely that there will be. With the Trump administration always quite cautious about putting boots on the ground, it's much more prepared to, to use economic sanctions or airstrikes which limit the possibility of the US Getting bogged down. The, The Venezuelan special operation, to give it a possible description, has been a major success because it was well planned and incredibly well executed. The problem is this may lead the Trump administration to think it can do the same elsewhere without running high risks.
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B
Finally, let's move to Costa Rica. We have presidential elections this Weekend we have what the first in, in Latin america For, for 20, 26, 20 names on the ballot paper. But the one to watch is Lara Fernandez, former presidential chief of staff. The, the, the natural successor to the current president and pushing the country in a much more populist right wing direction.
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D
Correct. And it looks as if, of course, you know, elections can, can deliver surprises, but at the moment it looks as if she will achieve what she wants. To win an election in Costa Rica, you need to get most votes and to have more than 40%. If you can't get past the 40% of the votes mark, there will be a second round runoff. According to the latest last minute polls, Laura Fernandez is on about 44% and the opposition is fragmented into 19 different, different candidates, none of whom is getting beyond the 10% mark. So it looks highly likely that she will emerge as a victor. She'll also be looking to get a majority in the national assembly, in the parliament, which they haven't had before. The opposition fears that if she gets that majority, she will use it in a very Trumpian sty to reduce and eliminate checks and balances on executive power.
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B
If we could just quickly. Sorry, Andrew, to interrupt, but just to look more broadly at the, very briefly at the influence of what has been happening with Donald Trump and what we're seeing with Cuba and how the whole of the region is being effectively having a very fierce spotlight shone on it. How do you think that might influence the way that the elections in Costa Rica might go?
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D
I think the big influence is the question of crime. Costa Ricans are very, very concerned about crime which has increased and they are therefore, if you like, buying into the Trump doctrine, which is you have to be very, very hard line on crime and to the point that you fight crime and ignore or sidestep civil liberties and other protection. So just to give you an example, the neighboring president of El Salvador, Najib Bukele, who is notorious for his authoritarianism and for building major prisons, has visited Costa Rica to lay the foundation stone on a new maximum security prison in, in the country. So there is a very strong signal that it's kind of hard line against crime. And there is in fact, if you look at all the recent elections in Latin America, there is a swing to the right, which is not, not particularly that people love Donald Trump, but it's that they are reacting to similar problems that Donald Trump addresses, which are fears over crime and immigration and a general sense that the political establishment is corrupt and doesn't really support the interests of citizens.
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B
Andrew Thompson, Latin America specialist and Latin news contributor. Thank you for that roundup. You're listening to the Globalist. It is just nudging 1513 in Beijing. 7:13am here in London now. Sakir Starmer has left Beijing and is en route to Shanghai as part of the first visit made by a British prime minister to China in eight years. Yesterday, today there had been what Starmer said was a very warm, very good meeting with China's Xi Jinping, providing just the level of engagement that we hoped for. He said the US President Donald Trump has reacted angrily, warning it would be very dangerous for the UK to deepen its ties with China. To explore Sakia Starmer's visit to China, I'm joined by William Yang, senior Northeast Asia analyst for the International Crisis Group. A very good morning to you, William.
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E
Thank you for having me again.
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B
So this very warm, very good meeting with Xi Jinping, how do we think, what do we think was achieved?
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E
So I think this trip basically serves the purpose for countries like the UK which has long been very strong allies of the United States that are seeking to try to rebalance its relationship between the two great powers in the world due to, I think, the growing uncertainties and also growing frictions between these countries and President Donald Trump's foreign policy approach, especially toward European countries. So I think if we look at this trip, it is more about countries, democracies of the similar size of the UK Trying to improve certain aspects of their relationship with China, dial down some of the tensions that have troubled the bilateral relationship over the last few years, so that they can actually, I think, have more bandwidth to deal with the growing uncertainty that actually is coming from Washington's side. So I think in a way, we shouldn't be looking at this as a fundamental shift from the US To China, but rather, I think it's countries like the UK Seeking a new equilibrium between the two great powers.
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B
And that equilibrium, I mean, how does it, what shape does it take given the fact that the Keir Starmer has said that we need a more sophisticated relationship with, with China.
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E
So I think this is, you know, like the UK Sir Keir Starmer and also other middle power leaders recognizing the fact that they can't just keep going along with the United States by being very tough across the board in terms of its relationship with China, they recognize that it's still important for their countries to actually have a normalized and less confrontational, at least, trade and economic relationship with China at a time when the trade and economic relationship with the US Is facing a lot of pressure and stress because of the tariff policy that the Trump administration had adopted over the last year.
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B
Tell me more about the way that the world is now going as a result of what's happened with Donald Trump and the tariff fractures everywhere and now this, this sort of procession of people going towards Beijing. We had Mark Carney signing a trade deal with Canada. We've had Emmanuel Macron there. We now have the British Prime Minister. What world are we now looking at? Are we looking in world of what's being called functional cooperation now, where allies, alliances are being formed over certain subjects, yet you can still be an adversary?
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E
Yes, exactly. I think this is most of the countries outside of the US and China seeking to actually position themselves in a more pragmatic way, which is that they don't tie themselves too closely to either of the great powers so that they actually have a little bit more room for themselves to maneuver around to make adjustments when it's needed. And at the same time I think, you know, having other spaces to actually seek alternative, I think relationships. One of the examples that we should also look at is the EU's of trade agreement that they just signed with India. I think we're going to increasingly see countries outside of the US and China seeking to rebalance their relationship with the two great powers while at the same time looking at possibilities to build up more, you know, alternative cooperation with like minded countries that are facing similar situations.
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B
There is that inevitable question to do with security and how much one allows China into your business. How wary or how should countries play this now?
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E
You know, I think fundamentally leaders like the, you know, Sir Keir Starmer and Mark Carney from Canada, they are very well aware of the long standing structural competitions and threats and also concerns that their countries seek still have towards the potential security implications and also security threats that China might actually bring to their businesses and also critical sectors. So I think while they are exploring building closer ties with China, they're not immediately looking to fully embrace and allow China to re enter into some of the most important sectors. So when we look at I think the deliverables that were announced yesterday after the meeting between Sir Keir Starmer and President Xi, we saw that it was focused very primarily on the cosmetic options, which is the downgrade of the reduction of the tariffs on the whiskey and also the visa free travel, I think these are also all very low hanging fruits that at least will allow both countries to actually signal their goodwill and also their commitment to actually improve relationships in certain areas. But at the same time I think the UK and other middle powers will continue to exercise very measured approach to actually, you know, identify other sectors that they can actually pragmatically deepen relationship with China without actually, you know, triggering the anger from the United States.
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B
William Yang in Taipei, thank you so much for joining us on Monocle Radio. Still to come on today's program.
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C
That.
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B
Ladies and gentlemen, is a song about a pain au chocolat. It is the close we closest we could get. We searched for at least five minutes to try and get a song about a croissant. Later we will meet the chef who makes the best croissant in Britain. So stay tuned.
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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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B
Let's continue with today's newspapers. Joining me is Terry Stiazny, political journalist and author of Believable the Misfits who Fought Churchill's Secret Propaganda War. Good morning, Terry. How's life with you?
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F
Yeah, it's pretty good. Yeah. For January you went to the.
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B
We've got Matt Wolf coming in from the New York Times giving us the theatre roundup. But you went to Arcadia last night. Yes, that tribute to Tom Stoppard, you know, the global giant. It does. Do his plays still cut the mustard?
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F
Absolutely still do. I mean it was amazing. I mean, I think they were staging it already before he had died. But they're just some, some speeches in it that really are even more moving once he has gone. He was talking about what survives of, of art and artists and that one had me sort of, you know, biting my lip. But Arcadia is such a brilliant play. It's so full of amazing ideas and thoughts but it's, it works as a story and it's still so light and you know, it was really, really.
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B
Well, definitely, thank you for that. You've given Matt Wolff a run for his money. Right, let's have a look at what's in the papers.
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F
Yes, well, let's first let's talk about Iran and in particular how Europe and the UK are reacting to current events in Iran. And yesterday the Guardian is reporting that the EU has decided eventually after some debate, that it would list the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization and describing this as ending years of division over the issue. Kayakalas yesterday was saying that repression cannot go unanswered. So this is clearly a response to the way that protesters have been treated in Iran by the regime. And she was saying that any regime that kills thousands of its people is working towards its own demise. And the Guardian pointing out here that, you know, this is one of the reasons this has been such a long time coming is that the EU has been divided, that in particular France and other countries like Belgium up to a point had been resisting listing the Revolutionary Guard as a, as a terror organisation and having further sanctions on it because they're still worried about it damaging diplomatic channels and the interests of French citizens. But now, given what's happened recently, they seem to have overcome those, you know, that skepticism.
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B
It is perhaps no great surprise that this announcement has made. But one always asks in these situations, what the practical and implication, the real effect of something like this.
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F
Well, yes, and I think that is the question because, I mean, if you look at what, what the UK is doing, and obviously they are trying to work to a certain extent in parall with the eu, but they are working much more slowly. There has been this certain reluctance because on the one hand, you've seen the EU and the UK want to engage with Iran and want to keep those kind of diplomatic channels open. And, you know, one of the reasons being that they want to still be able to, to talk to the Iranian regime. And they feel that in the way that Iran is reacting against that, that by having further sanctions in the Foreign Office in the UK saying, well, look, we've already got so many sanctions against personnel and individual members of the Revolutionary Guard, you know, what, what use does it do to then ban or designate it as a terrorized terrorist organization overall? And then what the UK is doing is typically British perhaps, in that it's going to be quite slow. They're drawing up new legislation to cover members of state bodies because they seem to believe that they're not already covered by existing terror laws because they're arms of the state. But this is something that could take till, till later on in the year.
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B
Let's move on to another story that you've picked up in the Guardian, although it is being widely reported the idea that Donald Trump has persuaded Vladimir Putin to stop launching strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure for a week because of the bitter cold that's being experienced there.
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F
Yes, and this is an issue. I mean, I know you've been talking about Donald Trump's pronouncements on lots of other things and lots of other issues during the program, but I think a little bit of skepticism here. He has said that Vladimir Putin has agreed to halt these strikes, calling it an energy ceasefire for a week. This hasn't been confirmed by Russia. There seems to possibly have been another call between Donald Trump and President Putin that we haven't heard any details about yet. Donald Trump saying he had a very nice call with Putin asking him not to fire into Kyiv and various towns for a week. He'd agreed it. They haven't announced any details, for instance, like when this would start, when this would end. And also from the Ukrainian point of view, they haven't immediately confirmed that the ceasefire was in place. They said that this was an important statement by Donald Trump about providing security for Kyiv during the winter. But I think this is going to be one of those ones that you have to watch closely to see whether what Donald Trump says is actually borne out by what other countries do or what they actually experience.
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B
Indeed. And what we do have again is the Ukrainians pinning their hopes on Donald Trump's ability to persuade Vladimir Putin, which up until this point has not demonstrated itself as being massively successful.
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F
Well, no. And given more recent reports as well about, you know, what the nature of that persuasion is, you know, suggestions that they are asking Ukrainians to withdraw from, from some areas, you know, Ukraine being really reluctant obviously, to withdraw from their own territory that has been invaded. It's, you know, they may well be happy if they're is, you know, a temporary ceasefire in the winter. You know, temperatures dropped, is expected to drop to minus 20 in the coming weeks. It says a million people in kyiv without power, 6,000 buildings without heating. I'm sure, you know, any respite from that for Ukraine would be great. But, you know, they are obviously still mostly concerned about the territory and about longer term negotiations.
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B
Let's move to a story in the Times to do with France. The Times having its usual little dig at the French. Always delightful and charming on a Friday. Let's, let's turn though. It's quite a serious subject that it's dealing with, which is this debate that's been taking place in the French Senate about how not if, but how to return artifacts from museum collections to their countries of origin. As it stands, as far as I can gather, every time they want to send something back, it has to be voted on individually. But there is such a huge swathe of artifacts that a sort of a much broader, more encompassing bill is needed here. But the warnings from the Times is that were this to be passed, France's museums would be empty?
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F
Well, yes, I think certain museums, I think is probably more, more to the point here. But yeah, it is interesting because as you say, you know, in 2017, Macron said there should be more of a return of African heritage to Africa. And he's commissioned a report what artifacts they actually currently have in French museums. So that was, which runs to 90,000 objects, you know, mainly from French colonies, also from other places, particularly in Africa. But about 70,000 of those objects are in one museum, the Museum du Quebron? L? Jac. And, you know, they said we would like to return some of these, but they are facing the, you know, as you say, the, the point that they have to do this individually and they're having a bill which suggests that they could have a more general restitution. But the countries would even then have to prove that artifacts were illicitly appropriated. So, you know, you can imagine that that's going to be quite a big discussion of how do you prove that if there isn't that sort of trail of, of provenance? And I think it's an interesting parallel again with, with what's going on in the uk, particularly, you know, the British Museum. There's a long running saga about, you know, what should be returned. And similarly in Britain, you know, the law would have to be changed if it was going to allow more restitutions more generally from collections, say in the British Museum. But some places like Oxford and Cambridge universities have started returning artefacts voluntarily and there have been some that have been put on loan. But, you know, this is obviously such a big live issue in the world of museums.
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B
Terry Stasney, thank you so much for joining me in the studio. You're listening to the Globalist. Now here's a quick look at some of the other stories we're keeping an eye on today. The Supreme Court in Panama has annulled a concession that allows a Hong Kong based company to operate two container ports at the Atlantic and Pacific entrances to the Panama Canal. President Zelensky of Ukraine has said he hopes the United States could halt Russian strikes on his country's energy infrastructure. President Trump had said that Vladimir Putin had agreed not to fire on Kyiv and other cities for a week because of the extreme cold. And European Union foreign ministers have agreed to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization. It's in response to the violent suppression of protests. Iran has condemned the move as illegal. This is the Globalist. Stay tuned. 8:29 in Paris, 7:29 here in London. Now, if during the pandemic you struggled at first with Zoom, only to find that the world had moved on and had gone to Microsoft Teams. Then, at this point, you may want to leave the room, especially if you are logging in or listening in the likes of France, because France is to replace its American tech communications platforms with its very own Vizio is expected to be rolled out and used by all French government departments by the end of next year. To tell us more, I'm joined by Isabel Hamilton, UK Tech editor at Politico. Good morning, Isabel.
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G
Good morning.
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B
Well, this all had us quaking in our boots because I can just remember how long it took everybody to understand Zoom and then to understand teams. And now we may all have to to jump onto the French version. Why are they doing this?
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G
I don't think the rest of us has to have to worry just yet. This is just for public officials, but the reason that they're doing this is part of a broader drive for, well, French. But also, I mean, this goes really to all of Europe. Tech sovereignty. You know, the US has started behaving like a much more unreliable partner or ally in recent times. And a lot of European countries are starting to become very uncomfortably aware that they depend really heavily on US Tech. And so some of them are looking for ways to get off it to, you know, kind of hedge against the idea that the US could become even more hostile.
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B
And just explain to us why the idea that you need to have digital sovereignty in a global world at the moment. Because, yes, there is an enormous, the focus is very, very much on the United States and its ability to control so many areas of tech, from digital platforms to cybersecurity. But this is now Europe trying to make a play for things, isn't it?
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H
Yeah.
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G
Well, there's a specific worry that's come up in Europe before, which is because the tech platforms are also just quite politically close to Trump. You know, they've made a real effort this time around to try and cozy up to him a bit. The worry is that there's a, quote, unquote, kill switch somewhere that Trump could put pressure on them to exert, and then you would suddenly lose access to lots of vital services. This came up last year. There were worries that Microsoft had canceled the account of prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in Europe because he'd been sanctioned by Donald Trump. Microsoft denied it. They said that it was, you know, a misunderstanding or coincidence. It wasn't that they had been told to cancel his email address. But there's still this worry, you know, in the back of EU policymakers, heads of, you know, what if.
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B
And how successful do we believe that France's Vizio will be? Because as you say, at the moment it will be rolled out and used by all French government departments. But surely that seems to be quite a limited approach. There must be ambition behind this.
- [32:32]
G
I don't know that there needs to be greater ambition. It's already got, I think, something like 40,000 users inside the government and they want to get it up. But you know, the US banned TikTok for its officials. It's not a completely new idea to get your government officials off tech that you don't entirely trust. I don't necessarily think this will mean that Emmanuel Macron gives an edict saying that no one in France can use Google Meet or teams.
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B
And when it comes to the idea of digital sovereignty, when you, if you were to have one country that, that does this and you have something like Vizio in France, what is the possibility then that Denmark comes out with something, the United Kingdom comes out with something, Germany comes out with something, and then you have, you know, then what you end up doing is a completely fragment and compartmentalized way of doing things.
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G
Yeah, I mean, it's not impossible, right? It's not impossible for people in a country to build a video conferencing tool. And I think there are some people in the EU in particular who would say that more competition is good, that we've had extremely dominant US tech players and that kind of making the landscape a little bit more pluralistic isn't the worst thing in the world anyway. Even when you're not thinking about digital.
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B
Sovereignty, explain to us how these things will be governed and the security will be governed. Will it be from a sort of a local point of view or is there now a sense that there needs to be, as in so many areas of tech, that there needs to be some sort of broader governments, rules based guardrails, whatever you want to call them, that structures that sort of keep security secure. Or is this something that needs to be just addressed by individual countries?
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G
If you're talking about cyber security, it sort of depends which countries we're talking about. So I mean, an interesting parallel that we've got here is that France is trying to push through a ban for under 15s for social media. And it turns out that if they do push that through, the European Commission will actually be tasked with enforcing any obligations under that law. So it kind of depends where we're talking about.
- [34:34]
B
Isabel Hamilton, UK Tech Editor at Politico. Thank you so much for joining me on the line. You're Listening to Monocle Radio.
- [34:44]
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.
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B
7:35 here in London. Let's talk theatre. Matt Wolfe, theatre critic at the International New York Times, has come in with notes.
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H
Yes, yes, I've got my crumpled notepad.
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B
No, no programmes, but, well, no programs today.
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H
No, I can remember it all.
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B
Good to have you back with us.
- [35:37]
H
Thank you. Lovely to be here.
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B
So, a moment ago we had Terry Stiazny coming in to do the Pay Per View and she came in raving about Tom Stoppard's Arcadia.
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H
Oh, I'm getting teary just hearing that, because it is my favorite of all contemporary plays and it opens next week.
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B
Goodness me, I can't wait. Is what Next?
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H
It's Tuesday, February 4th. Or. Yeah, Wednesday.
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B
Sorry, no one can get tickets for that. I can tell you right now. Just tell us a little bit about the. I think, obviously, when we think about Tom Stoppard and Arcadia, which isn't an easy play talk. No, it sort of explains the massive global importance of Tom Stoppard as a writer.
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H
Yes. And the thing about Stoppard that has always been said is he privileges head over heart. And actually, if you see Arcadia done well, that assertion is completely wrong, because although it has all sorts of things about landscape gardening and quantum mechanics and Fermus Last Theorem and this, that and the next, it is a woundingly moving story about love and sex. And in fact, I've noticed that the posters in are playing up the line from the play about sex. They're not wasting any time.
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B
Excellent. Because landscape gardening and quantum mechanics were the things that, dare I say it, the first time I saw it, slightly passed me by. Tell us very briefly what the story is, because that's not easy either.
- [36:50]
H
Well, it's set in a stately home in Derbyshire across two distinct time periods. One now, or at least now when the play was written, which was 1993, and then the other a century before. And in the contemporary bit, you've got a community of people, including a biographer, who are trying to unpack what happened in the earlier, and they're getting it wrong. And the core of it for me is in the earlier bit, the relationship between this young protege, Thomasina Coverley, who ages from 13 to 17 and her tutor, played originally by the extraordinary Rufus Sewell. A hard act to follow.
- [37:21]
B
Is there enough Tom Stoppard being played around the world nowadays? Because, I mean, you know, he's got the big, big plays, the Rosencrantz and Gilderson.
- [37:28]
H
Yeah, well, Indian Ink, a lesser play of his, but actually beautifully revived by the Hampstead Theatres just Before Christmas, directed by Jonathan Kent with Felicity Kendall, who was in the original Arcadia and the original Indian Ink. The about Stoppard is you don't do his plays lightly. You know, they're not kind of an easy, oh, I don't know what to do today. Let's just do a Stoppard. They do demand a certain amount of forethought, shall we say, but if done well, boy, do they pay off. And I've got fingers crossed so tightly for Arcadia World.
- [37:54]
B
Do more theatre of Thomas Stoppard. Right, let's have a look at January in the theatre.
- [37:59]
H
Not as exciting.
- [38:00]
B
No. A friend of mine went to see High Noon and came out and said, why?
- [38:05]
H
Oh, I was just going to say, why. Here you have this 1952 classic film. Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, a face off in the Old West. First of all, you don't really think of Westerns on stage. Although this isn't really a Western in terms of people settling up and riding bronco all around town. But it's.
- [38:23]
B
I'd pay good money to see that.
- [38:25]
H
Well, that would be a very interesting thing to try to bring on a West End stage. But the interesting thing is the person who wrote it. Eric Roth is a screenwriter who won the Oscar for Forrest Gump. He's in his 70s, very distinguished in Hollywood. He's never written a play before. And you sort of think, why, at this point in his life would he bother? And why would he bother with this film? The whole thing feels sort of by rote, as if everyone's doing it because the film is there, but without much to say about it. Billy Crudup, wonderful American actor, isn't Gary Cooper. And the whole. It just. There's a sense of marking time about it, as if we're waiting for another, better production to come along. And speaking of Billy Crudup, there is talk that he might be doing who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf on the West End later this year with Gillian Anderson. Now that I would like to see.
- [39:08]
B
Is it an inherently bad play or is it just the way that it's been done?
- [39:12]
H
I think it's. I don't. I wouldn't call it a bad play. I think it's a disappointing play and a play that doesn't connect with the audience. I don't fault Thea Sharik the director or Tim Hatley, the very good designer. I just think the material itself doesn't land on stage. Not every property deserves transposition from one medium to another.
- [39:29]
B
Okay, let's have another disappointment. Matt. This is Matt's list of things that we should.
- [39:35]
H
Well, can I just say, Mrs. President at Charing Cross Theatre. Honest to God, this is the second show in within a month about Mary Todd Lincoln. So like the 38 bus, there are none of them. They all come at once. And the other one, oh, Mary, which I loved, a lot of people haven't, but I loved it is this kind of fanciful, very out there transfer from Broadway with the wonderful Mason Alexander Park. This one is a two handed with Keala Settle from the greatest Showman. Very dogged, very doer in in which you find Mary Todd Lincoln self doubting, full of recrimination, in conversation with the great photojournalist of the day, Matthew Brady. The play was done this time last year, didn't get great reviews. The playwright, who's American, took it away to rework it. I didn't see it last year, but all I can say is, if this is the reworking, what was it like then?
- [40:24]
B
Just remind us who Mary Todd Lincoln was. Abraham Lincoln's wife.
- [40:28]
H
Abraham Lincoln's wife, played by Sally Field in the Steven Spielberg movie. She suffered great loss. Several of her children died and of course her husband, as you say, was assassinated. And they make a big thing in the play about her having been the most reviled first lady in American history. Which strikes me as perhaps a bit of an overstatement. I can think of some other candidates. But be that as it may, I guess that's exaggeration for theatrical effect. But the play is preposterously overblown and pretentious. And it's one of these plays where the characters don't say anything to each other that sounds like the kind of thing you'd say in real life. And it's short. It's 80 minutes straight through, but boy, at the end was I ready for some fresh air.
- [41:10]
B
80 minutes you'll never get back.
- [41:12]
H
Oh, I'm reclaiming them somehow.
- [41:14]
B
Okay, so Mrs. President, not so good, but oh, Mary, much better.
- [41:17]
H
Oh, Mary's much better. And there was one play I really liked.
- [41:21]
B
Go on.
- [41:21]
H
Do we have time?
- [41:22]
B
Oh, yes.
- [41:23]
H
Okay. So the World Court is having a 70th anniversary season which has just started. The World Court in Sloane Square of global importance because its new writing remit has ricocheted around the world. I mean, John Osborne, Beckett, Carol Churchill, Sarah Cain, so many great writers. Jez Butterwort were first seen there. They have a new play called Guess How Much I Love youe, written by an actor, Luke Norris, who has written one World Court play before. This is his second, and it's really very fine indeed. It's. It's tightly coiled, very raw, very visceral about a couple who are having a baby. And I don't want to give too much away because the element of surprise in this is important. But then the baby is born, and the birth of the child prompts decisions that the couple have to make. But it is really about parenting. It's about how relationships manage in the face of stress, grief, desolation, and also just about how couples find a way forward if they do. And there's a very haunting ending to the play, which is kept opaque, whether it's real or imagined. And so it's one of these plays where you exit the theater wanting to discuss it immediately, and that's very rewarding. And it's beautifully directed by Jeremy Heron and brilliantly acted by Robert Aramayo and Rosie Shehy, and definitely worth seeing.
- [42:41]
B
So well done. Royal Court, 70th anniversary. Off to a very, very good start. How often do we get plays like Guess How Much I Love youe come Along? Because the number of times you've been in this studio and just gone, well, they've tried this. They were writing this about the pandemic, they were writing this about that. That we're trying to respond to current affairs, which arguably sometimes dates a place irreversibly. But this sounds as if it's got, you know, as if it has longevity.
- [43:05]
H
Yeah, this one has legs, as we used to say when I was on Variety. It was very interesting. When I was putting together my 10 best of the year for 2025, I didn't have any new British plays, and I think that's the first time in the many years I've lived here where that was the case the year before. Of course, Giant Mark Rosenblatt's wonderful play at Rhode Dahl, which also began at the World Court. So the World Court, thank God, is stepping up to the plate. I don't know why there's been a fallow period for new English writing of stature, but hopefully the Royal court, in its 70th anniversary year, will point the way forward.
- [43:34]
B
What else are we looking for? Right, so we've got. We're nearly out of January. It did sound like a bit of a dead loss. So what are we looking forward to?
- [43:39]
H
Well, the national is doing some interesting stuff, a Terence Ratigan play with the wonderful Ben Daniels called Man and Boy. And Terence Ratigan, part of kind of the pre royal court age of very polite English playwrights who act like Noel Coward, who actually isn't or wasn't nearly as polite as he is made out to be. His stuff can also in its own way be quite raw and visceral role. Looking forward to that. They're doing a revival of Maxim Gorky's Russian classic Summerfolk, which is one of these big sprawling plays that need a theater like the national to, to hold them. Big cast, big designs. So I'm looking forward to those.
- [44:12]
B
Matt Wolf, theatre critic at the International New York Times. Thank you so much for joining me in the studio. You're listening to the Globalist. Foreign. It's Friday, so here's Andrew Muller with what we learned.
- [44:39]
C
We learned this week that many of the United States, hitherto most volubly dauntless defiant from my cold, dead hands, Second Amendment fundamentalist, appeared to be in the grip of a rethink.
- [44:54]
H
As Christie said, you cannot bring a firearm loaded with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It's that simple. You don't have that right to break the law.
- [45:04]
C
We learned that among them was FBI director for some reason Kash Patel, who, despite hailing from the wing of the Republican Party, which generally regards it as an intolerable encroachment upon the liberties of a free state citizen, to be told they can't take a grenade launcher to antenatal classes, had suddenly pivoted to gun control. And we learned that Patel was not alone.
- [45:27]
H
You know he can't have guns. He can't walk in with guns.
- [45:30]
E
What about the Second Amendment?
- [45:32]
I
Listen, he didn't walk into his guns.
- [45:34]
B
You can't do that.
- [45:35]
C
So we learned yet again of the undignified, if bleakly amusing knots that people will tie themselves in when attempting to adjust reality to their beliefs rather than the other way around. We learned that the startling reconsiderations of the right to bear arms had been prompted by one American citizen doing exactly that, as like it or not, he was entirely entitled to do, at least until masked goons employed by the state decided that it was instead an offence meriting summary execution.
- [46:06]
B
We are now learning that two, two officers fired during that fatal encounter with Alex Preddy this past Saturday. According to an initial report to Congress from the Department of Homeland Security.
- [46:16]
C
We learned, as we often seem to from the American political discourse, that a given thing is absolutely fine when one side does it, absolutely insupportable if the other side does it, that any unfortunate consequences attendant upon the given thing are terrible and unjust when they befall one side, but no more or less than were deserved when visited upon the other side. We learned an additional lesson in this paradox from Congressman and idiot Randy fine, representing the 6th district of can you guess?
- [46:48]
H
It's Florida, isn't it?
- [46:50]
C
We will not be distributing prizes on this occasion. No, we learned, yes, that Congressman Fine was absolutely clear on who was to blame for a mercifully ineffectual assault on one of his colleagues, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of the Minnesota 5th well, I've got two thoughts.
- [47:06]
H
First, look, I want Elon Omar to be deported and denaturalized, but I don't want her to be attacked or hurt.
- [47:11]
C
And people shouldn't do this sort of thing.
- [47:13]
H
But I also blame Elon Omar for.
- [47:16]
C
What happened, from which logic, and to be honest, we're getting kind of confused ourselves at this point. We can learn, or at least infer, that it is the fault not of the producers, that directors and editors involved with the film in question, but probably of George Soros funded liberal conspirators that nobody wants to see this.
- [47:35]
I
Together with like minded leaders we have.
- [47:38]
C
A voice, that being Melania's sensationally expensive cinematic hagiography of the US first lady, though technically this President's Third lady, which we learned had opened on this shore of the Atlantic at least to the sort of attendances which at least offer those who do turn up spare seats for bags, hats, coats, an entire symphony orchestra, That kind of thing. We learned in researching the matter further that the British talent for droll euphemism remains in robust health. As a spokesperson for the UK Cinema chain View, which has somehow been lumbered with with this dud, described ticket sales as soft, which was indeed one way of acknowledging that the premier screening had attracted precisely one punter. Maybe it was raining. Still, it wasn't all bad news. We learned that the subsequent screening had done twice as well. But we learned that where one US based foreign artiste couldn't give it away, another was trying to. We learned that Neil Young, for it is he, had decided to do his bit to effect reconciliation between his adopted home, the United States, and the bewildered people of Greenland, who as recently as a week or so ago were laying in salted blubber and battening hatches in anticipation of hosting the Danish American War of 2026, we learned that that Young was offering Greenlanders, in the interests of, quote, peace and love, a year's free access to his vast digital archive, presumably so they can enjoy such hits as Heart of Cold, Rockin in the Freeze World, Snow, More. Everybody knows this is Narwhal. Walrus Never Sleeps, Only love can break your harpoon. Are those anything?
- [49:34]
H
Booo.
- [49:35]
C
No, you shut up. And we learned, because it is lamentably, once again, that time of January, that the friendless poindexters at the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.
- [49:46]
I
Oh no.
- [49:47]
C
Were, as usual, absolutely itching to wheel out their silly big clock and tell us precisely how doomed we all are. And we learned that we are more doomed than ever, which, when you think about it, is by definition true. The world won't last forever. Am I right? Anyway, we learned, as usual, that these forlorn dweebs don't half take themselves seriously, which is more than any girls ever have.
- [50:13]
H
So the deliberations of the Science and.
- [50:16]
I
Security Board that set the Doomsday Clock.
- [50:19]
H
Every year are pretty intense.
- [50:21]
C
Go on then, hit it.
- [50:22]
B
Every second counts and we are running out of time. It is a hard truth, but this is our reality. It is now 85 seconds to midnight. This is the closest the world has ever been to midnight.
- [50:36]
C
Happy New Year to you tonight. Welcome to Nerds for Monocle Radio. I'm Andrew Mother.
- [50:44]
B
Thank you, Andrew. You're listening to the Globalist. So, finally, the question that preoccupies most of our minds all of the time. So what is so good about a croissant? Part of France's breakfast identity, readily available in almost every supermarket, cafe or hotel buffet around the world. But as well, we have all experienced, not all croissants are equal. There is one man, however, one French chef, who knows this executive pastry chef at the Savoy, Nicolas Usher. His croissant has been crowned the best in the United Kingdom. And I'm delighted to say he's in the studio and he's brought boxes upon boxes of goodies. Bonjour. Good morning, Nicolas.
- [51:26]
I
Bonjour, Good morning.
- [51:27]
B
How are you this morning? This is normal. This is kind of like your natural time. It's 7:51 here in London. So this is like your early doors stuff.
- [51:33]
I
Yeah, I'm an early bird.
- [51:35]
B
Okay, so when you actually have to make a croissant, what time do you.
- [51:37]
E
Have to get up?
- [51:39]
I
Around 5am in the UK, which is about all right. I mean, if you were to work in France, you may have to work overnight. But I will say then a croissant baked at 6am are the best for guests.
- [51:51]
B
Well, yes, obviously you're going to say that and you've. And your croissants are indeed the best in the uk, which is wonderful. So tell us a little bit about what makes your croissant so good. I'm going to open the box up for us. This is great. This is hopeless if you're not in the room. So you're going to have to kind of like describe the job. Already are going to have to use words to describe what we're looking at.
- [52:09]
I
I mean, I think the first thing to describe is what do you smell?
- [52:14]
B
I smell heaven, to be honest. He's not just brought croissant in as you would imagine on a plate. They've come in a kind of the equivalent of a sort of croissant hat box. They are tied together with ribbon and they are stripy. And I mean, I'm almost more enamoured. Okay. I can smell butter and butter and butter. So what makes your croissants so good?
- [52:34]
I
I would say the craftsmanship and the ingredients.
- [52:38]
B
Okay, go for it. Explain the secret.
- [52:41]
I
The secret of croissant. I would say the craftsmanship is surrounding yourself with the right people, being able to apply your recipe the proper way, being able to understand what goes through the making of a croissant. The processes. For us, our croissant takes three days to make. Okay, three days. Which go from the kneading of the dough to the bulk fermentation to the lamination.
- [53:04]
B
The proving you laminate your croissant.
- [53:06]
I
Yes, we laminate a croissant.
- [53:07]
B
How do you laminate a croissant?
- [53:08]
I
Ah, lamination. So lamination is the action of trapping a layer of butter between two layers of dough and folding it over and over to create a network of layers which will layer of butter and dough which will melt in your oven and create that sort of flakiness after the baking.
- [53:29]
D
Baking.
- [53:30]
B
That is the thing about the croissant, which I think I've always found phenomenally difficult to understand. That something that takes about two minutes to eat takes days, days to make. And the layers and layers and layers of butter and pastry and butter and butter and flour and butter and flour and butter and flour are so complicated to do. Talk us through the rest of the. The. The process of making. Of making a quote, croissant.
- [53:55]
I
Well, as I was saying, choosing your ingredients is the second most important step. Which flour you're using as the taste of a croissant is of course the butter, but it's also the flour you're using. And of course, the butter. We're using butter, which is a very specific type of butter.
- [54:17]
B
Are you allowed to tell us, or does that mean that you lose your prize?
- [54:19]
I
Oh, no, no, I can tell you.
- [54:21]
B
You can't tell me.
- [54:21]
E
No, I can't.
- [54:22]
B
You can go and tell me. Tell us.
- [54:24]
I
So we are using what's called a dry butter. So while you may buy some butter in supermarkets, which typically has 80 to 82% of fat, dry butter contains 84% of fat. And what this means is that it gives you a butter which is a little bit more pliable than plastic, which makes it easier year to laminate.
- [54:50]
B
Excellent. What was it that they said about your fabulous croissant, which I'm looking at the box now with desperate eyes. What was it that they said that made your croissant so good?
- [55:01]
I
Well, it was pretty much hitting all the boxes from the appearance, from the color, from the texture, and of course, from the taste. And I will say one of the little things tip which I can give to home bakers and to professional alike is that actually our croissant is made using brown butter beurre noisette. So inside the d', etremp, which is the. What's a detromp for the lump of dough?
- [55:29]
B
That's why French is so good.
- [55:31]
D
Everybody.
- [55:31]
B
They have a detromp. We have a lump.
- [55:35]
I
Obviously, it's the dough you make before you incorporate the butter. Inside there is a small quantity of butter you put inside that. And that butter, we actually cook it. We do a brown butter, and that allows you to have that sort of hazelnut flavor to do that choumami flavor coming in.
- [55:52]
B
Is that cheating?
- [55:54]
I
No, it's making the best of your ingredients.
- [55:57]
B
Okay, open the box. Tell us what we've got in it.
- [56:00]
I
So inside, we've got some of our breakfast croissants we serve at the Savoy and also at Scoff. Okay, Scoff. Which is our ship shop.
- [56:09]
B
Describe what. These jewels that we have in front of us. I'm slightly losing my mind looking at them. Go on.
- [56:14]
I
So you've got a croissant which is made out of several layers. We hold them and we count the layers when we hold them, actually. And here, the croissants, they are uniform in color. They are quite plump in appearance. They are not flat, and they are very distinctive layers from the side.
- [56:35]
B
Finally, you were telling us about the. The fact that, I mean, it seems quite strange for us to interview a French pastry chef. Chef who's come to the United Kingdom and is. And is happy in The United Kingdom with its sort of. With its sort of pastry tradition, which, dare I say, it is France's to lose and to glorify in. But you said something about who makes the best croissant. Is it the French or is it the Brits?
- [57:02]
I
Well, I would say I'm gonna be very careful of my words. However, I will say that for the past few years in London and in the uk, there has been a rise of independent bakery as well as a hotel pastry shop making d' homme croissant, where the standard of quality has been nothing short but outstanding. There will be some bakery in London, in the UK which have products which are comparable to what you will find in France, if not better.
- [57:37]
B
And the technique.
- [57:40]
I
The technique, of course, will come from the French background in French education, but this has been exported over the years and this has been given and taught to pastry chefs and bakers worldwide. And again, we reach a product now which is at full maturity in the uk.
- [58:02]
B
Okay, Nicolas Usher, executive pastry chef at the Savoy. Thank you so much for joining us. That's all the time we have for today's programme. Thank you to our producers Angelica Jopson and Hassan Anderson, and to our guests too, and to our researcher Anneliese Maynard and our studio manager, Lily Austin. After the headlines. There's more music on the way. The Briefing's live at midday. In London, the Globalist returns at the same time on Monday. I'm Emma Nelson, off to stuff my face with croissant. Goodbye. Thanks for listening. Have a lovely weekend.
- [58:46]
A
With ubs, you have a true 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.