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- [00:04]
UBS Narrator
Craft matters in small ways, like how a coffee is brewed, and in not so small ways, like how your money is cared for. Which is why for 160 years, UBS has elevated banking to a craft, tailoring unique strategies that combine human expertise with the latest technologies, all happening across 24 time zones and and 12 key financial hubs. With you at the heart of it all, UBS advice is our craft.
- [00:38]
Emma Nelson
You're listening to the Globalist, first broadcast on 21st 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, I think I have a.
- [01:16]
Carlota Rebello
Lot of messages for Davos, but the primary message is how well the United States is doing.
- [01:21]
Emma Nelson
Donald Trump heads to Davos, but who will stand up to him? Our team will be in the World Economic Forum and also at Zurich Airport, where we were expecting the US President's arrival, but a faulty Air Force One has meant he's been delayed.
- [01:36]
Mark Edelman
Plus I'm Andrew Muller and I'll have more from Nuke as Monocle Radio continues its run of special programs from Greenland's capital.
- [01:44]
Emma Nelson
Andrew Muller will bring us the latest view from Nuuk and a second fatal train crash in Spain. Spain. We'll have an update. Plus the latest on the investigation into Sunday's crash in the south of the country. The number of those killed has now reached 40. The Spanish prime minister has pledged to investigate. We'll have more on why a ceasefire between the Syrian government and Kurdish militia might be about to crack. Plus, the papers and a recap of LVMH's watch week. That's all coming up on the Globalist. Live from London. First, a quick look at what else is happening in today's news. A court in Japan has handed down a life sentence to the man who shot the former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at an election rally three and a half years ago. South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung says the north is producing enough nuclear material each year to arm about 20 warheads. And the tech billionaire Elon Musk has picked a fight with the owner of Ryanair, Michael O', Leary, over the possible use of Mr. Musk's Starlink satellite services on Ryanair planes. Mr. O' Leary doesn't want them. Stay tuned to Monocle Radio throughout the day for more on these stories. But first, Donald Trump plus entourage is en route to Davos. Davos, albeit not in the manner he wished. A technical fault with Air Force One has delayed his journey, but he is reportedly on his way, albeit on a slightly less glamorous plane. But the past two days at the World Economic Forum have served as little more than a warmer pact for the US president's arrival. Mr. Trump has certainly pushed buttons in the last 48 hours, reiterating a pledge to grab Greenland and not ruling out military action to achieve this. This caused the dollar and the US Stocks to tumble. Not what WEF needs now. Well, I'm joined by our senior foreign correspondent, Carlosa Rebelo, who's in Davos. And I'm also delighted to say that in the studio, the media strategist Mark Edelman joins me, too. Very good morning to you both.
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Mark Edelman
Good morning.
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Carlota Rebello
Good morning, Emma.
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Emma Nelson
Carlosa, let's come to you first. I mean, what on earth is happening at Davos at the moment? Because everybody was expecting Donald Trump and it's not yet happening. So is everybody in a flurry?
- [03:52]
Carlota Rebello
Emma, this has been an edition of the World Economic Forum's meeting that no one could have predicted. I mean, just looking at images from yesterday, who could have imagined Emmanuel Macron delivering a speech with mirrored sunglasses? I think no one could escape those pictures. But, yes, the big news this morning is, as you know, that Donald Trump is now delayed. He's en route. Last time I checked the route, he was somewhere over Nova Scotia. So he should be here on time for his speech, which is scheduled for later at two. But the latest news coming out before he departed Washington, D.C. is that he has agreed to a Greenland meeting on the sidelines of Davos. Now, we don't have information of exactly who will be present, but we know that that is meant to be happening at some point this afternoon or later this evening. We need to reiterate the fact that this is the biggest US delegation ever to come here, around 300 people, and that includes everyone, including the support staff. But it is a hefty presence, and, you know, Davos is bracing for it. The train up from Kloster, this was the busiest it's been all week. I don't know if you can hear in the background, but just a group of members from the Swiss Armed forces just arriving now and taking their positions. 5,000 army personnel have been dispatched here. And, you know, we had warnings. Participants have received warnings today to expect additional security checks and possible Internet disruption from the moment the president touches down in Davos.
- [05:21]
Emma Nelson
Okay, so we have all that to come. Mark, let me bring you in here. Yesterday, there were two or three phenomenally powerful speeches from the likes of the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, from Emmanuel Macron in his sunglasses and from the EU Commission President Ursula La von der Leyen. All of them setting out, dare I say it, quite an aggressive stance.
- [05:44]
Mark Edelman
Absolutely. I mean, I think you've got the President of the United States coming in to deliver some type of chest thumping speech to the extent that he wants Greenland and he doesn't understand why nobody in Europe doesn't think he should have it. And by the way, his flight having to turn back to D.C. is almost a commercial for him to have Greenland, because if he did, he could just have returned there. But in all seriousness, I think that the amount of sort of disruption that this is causing at a time right now where frankly the world is pretty, pretty disrupted, the idea that we're all coming together to speak about Greenland and Nook is quite fascinating.
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Emma Nelson
And indeed, I'm just staying with you, Mark. I mean, Mark Carney yesterday said the rules based way of doing things was partly false. I mean, what an incredible admission to things saying that, you know, in the past the strongest would be exempt, but great powers are now using economic integration as weapons. It's not just economic integration, it is Greenland. It is absolutely every single level of the way that the world, a highly globalized world, does business seems at great speed to be just being shattered 100%.
- [07:04]
Mark Edelman
I think, you know, the more people you talk to, this idea that the United States is trying to assert its power in the world actually is winding up, in my opinion, making it look much smaller. And when you've got somebody like Mark Carney who says in our own backyard basically that we've just made a deal with China on electric vehicles, that is kind of flabbergasting. And the idea that he also said to the extent that China at this point is a more reliable trading partner than the United States. My God. I mean, you know, talk about the American century that we just live through, maybe not being in this part of the world anymore. Insane.
- [07:47]
Emma Nelson
Carlotta, just tell us what happened yesterday because we had these hugely powerful speeches.
- [07:53]
Carlota Rebello
Absolutely. And the Adam and Marcati, the one that stood out for me, which, you know, we were so used to, you know, almost to its own fault. But we know that speeches coming from the European Union, being the Commission or the Parliament, tend to be a lot of the same, the same virtual signalling. But yesterday's speech by Ursula von de La and the commissioned President was actually really powerful. I mean, there's sentences about, you know, how nostalgia won't bring back the old world order really resonated with the room and then, of course, echoed the words as well from Mark Carney saying that, you know, the world is in the midst of a rupture, not a transition. The thing that also is sticking out to me is the fact that, you know, we know that here in Davos matters as much. What's happening, what's happening inside a congress center and what's happening outside. And you see the money on the Project Promenade, which companies are investing big on the houses, and not surprisingly, AI and tech companies are dominating those houses. But dare I say that everything that's been happening with Donald Trump, which he hasn't even arrived in Switzerland and has already dominated the conversations since Sunday, maybe geopolitics have finally taken over AI in terms of the key points of discussion here up in the mountains.
- [09:13]
Emma Nelson
So that's one thing that people are now focusing their energies on. But when you have the likes of Macron and Ursula von der Leyen standing up against Trump, is there a sense that Europe is about to call Trump's bluff, especially when it comes to Greenland?
- [09:27]
Mark Edelman
Well, look, I think this is a test for Europe and a test for European leaders that work as a bloc that certainly in NATO's case, the United States helped create. And, you know, look, if the United States wants to work, I mean, I can't reiterate when I really think about this, like, we are allies in every sense of the word. We work together. We do training exercises together in our military, we share intelligence. And this idea that all of the sudden the president of the United States is being seen as an adversary to a, a world sensibility that's existed since 1945 is quite incredible. And I think that, you know, Trump is counting on that. Some of the fissures that have always existed in the European Union and in NATO, very papered over, will sort of erupt, and he'll be presented Greenland on a plate like he was hoping the Nobel would come his way.
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Emma Nelson
And adopting the brace position, I think, is something that you did. You know, you've mentioned a little earlier, Carlotto, about talking about the hefty presence of the United States. And just writing in the Financial Times today, the US Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lucknick says far too long the fate of the global economy has been decided by an international establishment who took America's economic power and gave it to the rest of the world. This administration is putting America first. We're aggressively rebuilding, manufacturing, unleashing energy. Is there a sense that, you know, once Donald Trump and his astonishingly big entourage land at Davos by whatever means that this American energy will basically derail the ability for anything else at Davos to be done.
- [11:21]
Carlota Rebello
Look, if there's one thing I've learned for over the past couple of days is that making predictions, I'm mostly going to be off the mark because things are changing so far. But what I will say, Emma, is that we're already seeing that America first message out, even before the entourage arrives. I was at the USA House yesterday and you know, the fact that the USA House is obviously celebrating what they're calling Freedom 250. This is the anniversary of the 250 years of the independence of the United States. And the whole thing is a push for, you know, American patriotism. America first. Why all eyes should be set on the U.S. we know that so many, there's a few senators, a few ambassadors and Secretaries of State stopping by the House throughout the week. Not no word yet whether Trump will make an appearance, but we think that he might. But this narrative of America first is happening even before Trump arrives. Now, I wanted to pick up on something that Mark said because this idea of, you know, a exposing or Trump using and exposing the fissures that already existed in the European Union, to me makes me wonder if the reaction we're starting to see from the EU is them actually acknowledging those fissures and trying to mitigate them. Will this push for closer union, will this push for the EU to finally resolve some of the internal issues it had? We know that the push towards increasing NATO spend and defence spending has pushed for the EU to start to have some serious conversations about defence budgets and the possibility of an European army. I don't know, perhaps having all of this exposed for the world to see thanks to Donald Trump, could benefit the EU in the long run.
- [13:09]
Emma Nelson
Mark, does Europe need to put its money where its mouth is?
- [13:13]
Mark Edelman
That's the big question. And what does that look like? I mean, what I will say is if we're going to play into the trope of America first, nothing makes America stronger than a solidified and strong and supported Europe. And this idea that breaking up alliances that have existed for decades is good for the United States is crazy. And if you look at our stock market yesterday, it was the lowest it's been since October. I think it dropped 870 points. And I was looking in one of the other papers today, gold is back to being the most bought standard in the world. This is not what America first is supposed to be. And I would say, look, not to make it political, but everything is political if you're somebody who voted for Donald Trump. And I understand a lot of reasons why those people may have done that. Greenland was not on their bingo card.
- [14:11]
Emma Nelson
Mark Edelman here in the studio, thank you so much for joining us. And Carlotta, you'll be posting the briefing from Davos a little bit later on, won't you?
- [14:19]
Carlota Rebello
Yes, we'll be bringing you the briefing from Davos at 1300. That's midday in London. Our own Laura Klenimer will be poised at Zurich airport. Hopefully by then we will have an air force land in Swiss soil and the president somewhere in the air. Coming to the Swiss mountain. Just before I let you go, Emma, we can see now the queue around the block to get in to the Congress center. So he might be a few hours away, but people are already bracing.
- [14:46]
Emma Nelson
We can't wait. Everybody adopting the brace position. And we'll be doing some plane spotting a little bit later as coming to town. He's literally that we'll be doing a bit of plane spotting a bit later as well as our editorial director, Tyler Brulee will be joining us to tell us about the plane that the president is really in. You're listening to the Globalist. Now. While the leaders of the eu, France and Canada staked out their positions on Greenland yesterday, Donald Trump said there was no going back on his campaign to take control of the place. Monocle's contributing editor Andrew Muller is out in Nuke with the Monocle team for us all week. He sent us this dispatch.
- [15:30]
Mark Edelman
Becoming the apple of a US President's eye is, it turns out, a mixed blessing. Among the people we've spoken to in Nuuk was a CEO in Greenland's tourism sector who acknowledged a huge spike in enquiries and bookings since Donald Trump started laying claim to the territory, but said it had tapered recently as people started to worry that Trump might actually be serious. Basically, the CEO told us, if Trump shut up about Greenland now, the last year could just about be assessed a net positive, at least from a business perspective. But other people we have spoken to have worried that even if Trump was distracted by some new mania or perhaps a passing squirrel, lasting damage will have been done, that Greenland will never again feel quite so gloriously remote, quite so splendidly invulnerable, quite so contentedly self contained. This is not an easy place to live. Greenland's situation is remote, its climate harsh, its landscape austere. But it is noticeable how many of the people we've met left for a while, then returned unable to find anywhere else that felt quite so much like home. And they'd like to keep it as they know it in Nuke. For Monocle Radio, I'm Andrew Muller. Back to you in London, and that.
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Emma Nelson
Was Andrew Muller in Nuuk. We'll be hearing from Andrew and all the team out in Greenland on the Daily later on today. You're listening to Monocle Radio. This is a globalist. Now. The authorities in the Spanish region of Catalonia have suspended all suburban train travel following a deadly accident on a commuter train. It's the second fatal rail crash in three days in Spain. To tell us more, Monocles Madrid correspondent Liam Aldous joins us. Good morning, Liam.
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Liam Aldous
Good morning, Emma. Yeah, it really has been a horror week on Spanish rail network this week. Of course, we had the incredibly horrible crash on Sunday night in which 42 people lost their lives. And now last night we're just getting the the news that there was another crash in Catalonia. This one, the causes are actually quite obvious. There has been torrential rain around Catalonia over the last few days and a section of retaining wall has collapsed and the train has collided with that wall and has come off the rails and the driver has lost his life. But the chaos that both crashes have caused across the national rail network is ricocheting around the country. Obviously, Catalonia has suspended all of its regional rail services, leaving 400,000 commuters without alternatives for the unforeseeable future. They haven't said how long the rail network will be suspended. They're going to check all the tracks in the mean. And of course, the main high speed rail link between Andalusia and Madrid is still suspended as well. So there's a lot of chaos for passengers and travelers in Spain at the moment.
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Emma Nelson
What's been the wider reaction from the Spanish public given the fact that the images from Sunday night gave such a horrifying view of what the high speed, what could happen when the high speed rail network goes wrong? And now we have a more regional network experiencing a problem.
- [19:02]
Liam Aldous
Yeah, there's a lot of people asking a lot of questions. Obviously, politics in Spain is always fractured. So there's been a bit of political point scoring, particularly from the far right, trying to point the blame directly at the ministers and the prime minister. There has been a bit of a truce between the main conservative opposition and the Socialist leading Socialist party because there are three days of mourning declared across Spain. There's also been a lot of coverage in the media of small stories of heroism from the first crash on Sunday night. Of course, you had the mayor of the town where the crash occurred being one of the first people on the scene and we've seen lots of young people heading to the scene. The whole town mobilized to help the injured out of the train. The problem was the first crash occurred in a section of track which was very hard to access for vehicles. So the people in the local town ran there on foot and were actually like helping people out of the tracks. There was also this so called quad bike hero, Gonzalo Sanchez, who was a lottery ticket salesman who mobilized his quad, got some tools and was actually ferrying people from the crash site to the town for the hospital. So there has been a lot of focus on the human side of the tragedy. But as far as the rail network is concerned, a lot of people love the the national rail network in Spain is a source of national pride. A lot of people use it. It's the world's second longest high speed rail network in the world. And the fact that it's called being called into question is it's a real dent to the national feeling. And also the way Spanish, the Spanish experience their country, if they can't trust their own network, then you know, it really undermines their sense of national pride and their sense of self.
- [21:03]
Emma Nelson
Liam Aldous Monocles Madrid correspondent, thank you so much for joining us on the line. Still to come on today's program, morning, Emma.
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Carlota Rebello
From Zurich Airport where myself and about 30 plane spotters are eagerly waiting to watch President Trump land ahead of his appearance at Davos. He's delayed after Air Force One had to turn around due to a minor electrical issue. But but spirits here are high despite the frosty wait.
- [21:29]
Emma Nelson
We'll be joining Laura and the plane spotters a little bit later on the Globalist, so stay with us.
- [21:38]
UBS Narrator
CRAFT is a matter of perspective, a unique outlook, an obsessive attention to detail. With UBS's Chief Investment Office House View, we're focused on identifying the latest investment opportunities and market risks to help you achieve your financial goals. So you get the big picture broken down into thought provoking insights delivered daily and curated by over 200 globally connected, locally active analysts. UBS Banking is our craft.
- [22:16]
Emma Nelson
Let's have a look at today's newspapers. Joining me in the studio is Monocle Senior news editor Chris Chermack. Good morning, Chris.
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Chris Chermack
Good morning, Emma. What another busy news day.
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Emma Nelson
There's quite a lot of headline rewriting going on, I suspect in a lot of the papers. What's I mean, just looking at the front page of the Financial Times, it's sort of a Trump schedule to address Davos amid Greenland tensions, US President delayed trip risks changing economic forum schedule, including a planned speech. I mean, we'll be talking to our editorial director, Tyler Brulee about, you know, the reorganization of a day like this. But this is a moment where people are rewriting, writing and just, just riding it.
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Chris Chermack
They are absolutely riding, rewriting, wondering what's going to be happening in Davos. And actually one of the stories I picked out on this theme that I thought was interesting from Politico is the Greenland turmoil eclipsing Ukraine at Davos. And I thought that was an interesting aspect of this to mention as well. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky is also going to be in Davos, although according to Politico, there were actually some debates within Ukraine whether it was even worth him going at this point because Ukraine is so aware of this fact that Greenland is now eclipsing everything at Davos. There isn't even a set schedule yet of whether Zelenskyy will meet with Donald Trump. And just last week we were talking about this on the briefing on others, the push from European leaders for security guarantees for Ukraine, nearing a deal between Ukraine and Russia if those security guarantees can be agreed. All of that appears now up in the air. And it's not even clear Zelensky's are trying to get a schedule, a meeting in the schedule with Donald Trump. They still think that it's worth it. But you've had even, you know, there's a quote in this story from the Norwegian foreign minister saying there is a real war with the Russians going on in Ukraine. Greenland is taking energy away from what we should be talking about. So there is an understanding of this even among Europeans, but there really isn't much they can do about it right.
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Emma Nelson
Now and there is nothing they can do. And that question that you raised there about energy is that there is not limitless energy here. That but the fact remains is that There are only 24 hours in the day, much as Donald Trump would like us to think otherwise. And the fact that I remember this time last year, he was doing what was called flooding the zone domestically. He was changing bits, well, large swathes of the way that America did things domestically. And he did it at such a speed that no one could keep up. When you're dealing with the rest of the world, that's a completely different kettle of fish, isn't it?
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Chris Chermack
It is, absolutely. And I will just mention, speaking of energy, there's also this aspect of the real energy aspect in Ukraine that it is facing the coldest winter it has since the war began. And energy infrastructure is being hit by Russia, consistently leaving many without power. In some cases, power is only on for about four hours in the day. So there is a real energy problem in Ukraine, which points to the fact that they really need help at this point, but they are being ignored because the energy in the room in Davos is currently focused on other things.
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Emma Nelson
Okay, let's move on to a story here in the United Kingdom which has enormous geopolitical consequences. The Chinese embassy, a mega embassy, which will be right slap bang in the heart of the British capital, has now been approved despite very serious warnings from lots and lots of people.
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Chris Chermack
There are lots of warnings. I find this story so interesting also looking at, like, how serious the warnings are and not. But yeah, yes, this is going to be basically a mega embassy in the heart of London, close to the City of London, the financial district. That's the part that worries a lot of people. It's even near, say, fiber optic cables that transport vast amounts of sensitive data between banks and so on and so forth in London. So this is a 5.5 acre site, it's near the Tower of London. So it is right in the heart. And yes, this has been going on for years, but the approval has now been given by the UK's housing minister for this to go ahead, even though he said he is aware there are still legal challenges. So he said he considers the matter closed unless the legal challenges open this up once again. And there will be legal challenges because there are a lot of worries about what this embassy means. I did find, I have to say, interesting what even the sort of MI5 and GCHQ, the intelligence cybersecurity agencies have said about this. They've basically said that like any foreign embassy on UK soil, it's not realistic to expect that they can wholly eliminate each and every potential risk. So there is a risk there with China. At the same time, I did find it interesting as well. You know this personally, Emma, but there are seven current locations of China's embassy around the uk, around London. There is some belief at least that if there is a silver lining to this, they will all now be in one place and that the actually uk, to put one positive spin on it, some in the UK security agencies think actually it might be a bit better to have all of this in one place rather than seven disparate locations. So it's a really interesting debate and also goes to, of course, to the heart of geopolitics and what we think of China in this moment when we're also talking about Donald Trump.
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Emma Nelson
Indeed, it is interesting what neighbors you have. Right. Let's move to the Justice Department is ceasing prosecutions for Democrats who are risking, who are sort of protesting or mounting some sort of objection to what is happening in Minnesota.
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Chris Chermack
So this is a really interesting set of stories from the Washington Post about how the Justice Department and prosecutors are fighting this out at the state level and the federal level in the U.S. in Minnesota, you've seen the Justice Department bring investigations against the sitting governor, Tim Walls, and the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey. They have both been served with subpoenas yesterday in the US they have to appear before a grand jury to answer for their criticisms of the federal government and immigration enforcement agencies that are on the ground in Minnesota, as we all know. What's interesting as well about this story from the Post is what kind of impact this is having on the justice department and U.S. attorneys across, frankly, the United States in Minnesota after the death of a protester. Renee Good, last week in Minnesota, you saw 10 U.S. attorneys, state attorneys in Minnesota resign over the Justice Department and the immigration agency's enforcement of the laws or attempted enforcement of federal laws in Minnesota. So what the Justice Department is having to do is basically bring in lawyers from other parts of the of the country into Minnesota in order to prosecute Democratic officials. And it's a similar story in Virginia, where there's been this big fight. It's a major state attorney's office. It's the one charged with Trump administration. Justice Department wants them to charge James Comey, former FBI head, as well as Letitia James, who's attorney general in Georgia, who brought the election fraud charges against Donald Trump himself for 2020. They both want to they the Justice Department wants to charge them. They haven't been able to find anybody to actually charge them because there isn't really enough evidence out there. Lindsey Halligan, somebody who had no experience of being a prosecutor, was named head of the state attorney's office in Virginia. She is now out again because courts have fought her appointment in that role and actually threatened to punish anybody who said that she was the state attorney after they ruled that she had no qualification for this job and must be out of it. So there's a big fight among courts and the legal system in the US about what the Justice Department is doing in trying to prosecute Democrats.
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Emma Nelson
Finally, the Tager Spiegel in Germany is reporting on the fact that calling in sick is not is nicht erlaubt, nicht erlaubt in Germany.
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Chris Chermack
I love this story. It's been building for a while. It actually started Also last week, the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is involved. This is a campaigning issue, Emma. He said this in a campaign stop, that the, the epidemic of sickness in Germany has to stop. The average, he said, is 14.5 days, almost three weeks of Germans calling in sick.
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Emma Nelson
That's a lot of sick.
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Chris Chermack
That is a lot of sick. It's in some, by some measures double the European average. What they're tackling now, what's interesting is many politicians believe this is due to phone prescriptions and phone sort of sign offs that you can get so you call the doctor rather than appearing before the doctor. This is something that was introduced during the pandemic and this is something that politicians are now saying they will review. And that's what the health minister is telling Tagesspiegel today. They are going to review the rules of whether you can get a medical slip off work just by a phone appointment or whether you actually have to go to the doctor. They blame this, I should say. There have been studies also going around in Germany saying actually it's not really about the phone thing, it's about other stuff. There's no real evidence that just because you can use a phone instead of going to the doctor that you call in sick more. There are other issues at work here. Mental health being an issue that people are using more than in the past and lung infections for that matter, from corona, from the coronavirus. But it's such an interesting debate about how often you're allowed to call in sick, what the numbers are and it is a campaign issue in Germany.
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Emma Nelson
Chris Chermac in Fine Health Monocle Senior News Editor thank you so much for joining me in the studio. You're listening to the Globalist. And look now at some of the other stories we're keeping an eye on today. A court in Japan has handed down a life sentence to the man who shot the former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at an election rally three and a half years ago. Tetsuya Yamagami pleaded guilty to murder when the trial opened in October, but had contested some other indictments. South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung says the north is producing enough nuclear material each year to arm about 20 warheads. He also warned that Pyongyang was improving its long range ballistic missile technology. The tech billionaire Elon Musk has picked another fight with the owner, this time of the successful Irish budget airline Ryanair. It's over the possible use of Mr. Musk's Starlink services, the satell on Ryanair's planes. The airline boss, Michael o' Leary Says he doesn't want them arguing the aerial antenna would be a drag on the aircraft. And the American astronaut Suni Williams, who made global headlines when she became stranded on the International Space Station, has announced her retirement. Ms. Williams 2024 mission was supposed to involve a week long stay on the iss, but ended up lasting more than nine months due to technical problems. And those are the headlines on the Global. 10:32am in Damascus, 8:32am in Zurich, 7:32 here in London. Now, one of the biggest tests of Syria's ability to move on from the era of Bashar Al Assad is whether the interim president, President Ahmed Al Sharar, could create a more inclusive country out of the myriad factions that want a slice of people, political power. A key group to win over have been the Kurdish led militia who controlled much of the north of the country, including Syria's gas and oil fields. Well, a deal has been struck over the terms under which the Kurds will join the new government. The agreement has been partnered by a ceasefire. But will it be enough? Well, I'm joined now from Istanbul by Monocle's correspondent in the city, Hannah, Lucinda Smith. Good morning, Hannah.
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UBS Narrator
Good morning.
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Emma Nelson
So a ceasefire has just been agreed or in the last 24 hours or so. Could you just outline what is actually happening, please?
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UBS Narrator
Yeah. So I mean, when you look from the outside, obviously it's been more than a year since Bashar Al Assad fled Damascus, handing over the country basically to rebel forces that have been fighting him for more than a decade. From the outside, it might seem, okay, that's it, it's finished. But there is still this kind of internal struggle going on between the new government in Damascus and the Kurds, who control about a third, between a quarter and a third of the territory of the country and as you said, critically, much of the gas and oil facilities. Now, clearly the Damascus government, they want to have control over all of the country. They don't want this kind of, you know, region, semi autonomous region, whatever you want to call it, operating it by itself in the northeast. And there have been clashes, increasingly violent clashes over the past few weeks between those two forces, raising all kinds of fears of, you know, Syria, which is an incredibly unstable state, state, an incredibly complex state, falling back into some kind of civil war. The other really big concern, particularly for countries like Britain, is that in that Kurdish controlled area you have camps where ISIS fighters, foreigners who went to fight alongside that jihadist group are being held in prison. And particularly the UK has a policy of not taking back its citizens who went to fight with isis. They're all imprisoned there pretty much. And what the Kurds are saying is, well, well, if we can't have some kind of agreement over what's going to happen here, why should we still be in control of these camps? And part of what's happened over the past few days is that they've handed control of Al Hol, the biggest of those camps, to the central government in Damascus.
- [35:52]
Emma Nelson
I mean, this opens up the wider question about how much the interim president is actually happy to decentralize power in his new government because this is what ostensibly is what Syria needs in order for it to function.
- [36:07]
UBS Narrator
Yeah, absolutely. No, he's not happy at all. As you know, I think any new government in Damascus wouldn't be. And also crucially, Turkey are really not happy. Turkey is one of the strongest allies of this new government in Damascus. Much of this Kurdish controlled territory abuts the Turkish border and the Kurdish forces that are in control of that territory are an offshoot of another group in Turkey, a Kurdish group called the pkk, which has fought this long running insurgency against the Turkish state, state. So it's really a kind of security problem all round. It's really hard to see how any of the countries in the region, not just the government in Damascus, would kind of allow this situation to carry on.
- [36:45]
Emma Nelson
Indeed. I mean, let's open this up to the more, you know, to the regional question of stability and instability. I mean, Syria's progress in the last 12 months has been breathtaking, breathtaking given what it went through under Bashar Al Assad. But how worried are the neighbors that Syria, Syria cannot get a handle on this?
- [37:03]
UBS Narrator
Yeah, I mean, I think as I said, this is, this is the major problem. And you know, in other areas, as you say, you know, Syria, you know, in the space of a year turned around from being pretty much an international pariah with friends only really in Tehran and Moscow, a few other places to, to really kind of being welcomed back into the global, into the global fold, particularly by the U.S. donald Trump, who's obviously met Shara, also by, by Gulf countries, also by Turkey. You know, it's really making strides and you're trying to rejoin the international economy to kind of secure the security situation within the country. But this is the last real problem. And if it is not solved, the, the danger is that Syria once again becomes this kind of island of instability in the middle of a really, really key region. You know, it's, it's hardly a stable region around it. You got countries like Israel on one side, you've got Iraq, also Turkey, which is, you know, has its own problems as well. And if Syria is destabilized, you have the problem of radicalism perhaps coming back. You know, ISIS is not a defeated force in this country. There are still many, many cells operating. We saw an attack on US Forces a couple of months ago. You have the question of will more refugees travel to Europe. That was also a massive, massive problem, problem for the EU and also for Britain. It's really destabilized Europe. So if Syria doesn't manage to get a handle on this and doesn't manage to come to some kind of agreement, whether that be some kind of semi autonomy in that region, whether that be that region being completely reabsorbed, but the Kurds given a really, really key roles within the government, then it's going to be a problem not just for Syria, but for the whole region as well.
- [38:49]
Emma Nelson
Anna Lucinda Smith, Monocle's Istanbul correspondent, thank you so much for joining us on Monocle Radio Video. Let's have a roundup of the latest news from Japan. Hendel Hento is contributing writer at the Japan Times. He joins us from our studio in Tokyo. Good afternoon, Hendel. How's it looking where you are?
- [39:12]
Hendel Hento
Good morning. It's looking great.
- [39:13]
Emma Nelson
Good. Thank you very much indeed for that. Now we've only just had a little bit of breaking news coming through. So the details are sketchy, but the man who shot the former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been sentenced to life in prison. This is Tetsuya Yamagami. What do we know?
- [39:31]
Hendel Hento
I mean, it was kind of expected the sentence. The prosecutors were asking for life in prison, while the defendants were like kind of asking for a bit more leniency for like a 20 year sentence because of his situation. So if you remember, like Yamagami was a victim of the Unification Church, here is the like a religious organization. Some people call it a cult. And that was from South Korea that was very influential here in Japan. I was kind of tied up with the ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party. So Yamagami, his mother donated a lot of money to the church and kind of like bankrupted the family. And that really affected him. So when he saw the relationship of Shinzo Abe with the church, he sent congratulatory messages and he basically associated the prime minister, former Prime Minister Abe, with the church. And opportunity presented itself during a campaign event. Then, well, we know what happened. He basically made a homemade weapon because guns are so hard to get in Japan. And then he shot Abe in broad daylight. So some people thought that he might get the death sentence but that was really never in the cards because in Japan that's only apply for know murders that involve multiple victims or stuff like that. But like Yamagami was actually he did everything in broad daylight. He, he didn't attempt to escape. He had like a, a motive that inspired sympathy. So the sentence that was kind of expected because Abe was the person that he was was life. The maximum sentence was life sentence and that's what he got.
- [41:13]
Emma Nelson
Hendel, thank you very much indeed for bringing us up to date on that. What other news are you covering at the moment where you are?
- [41:20]
Hendel Hento
Well, I mean this year is an interesting year. There have been like several developments that are like kind of coming to a head. The first one is there's been a push by the Japanese government to shift savings, the considerable savings are in cash in Japan towards investments. So in Japan like the level of savings is more around, around. Household savings are over 50% are in cash, which is incredibly high compared to the US or Europe. They've been trying to shift this towards investments and they launched a system called nisa, the Nippon Individual Savings Account, which is based in the uk the one you have in the UK called the isa, the individual Savings Account. Last year they revamped the system. They made it much more attractive and this year they're expanding it to include children so parents can start investing on behalf of their children since they're born, until they are 18 years old, at which point the account moves over to the children.
- [42:19]
Emma Nelson
Sorry to interrupt you. Are people more willing to take more risks in this way?
- [42:24]
Hendel Hento
Actually that's an interesting question because the Japanese investors have been very risk averse because of the situation with Japan stocks. So Japan, the Nikkei average crash crashed in around 1989 and lost like 80% of its value. It didn't climb up to the previous level for 30 years. So people have been very reluctant. But recently Japanese stocks have been doing very well. They actually outperform U.S. stocks. Right. So Japanese investors have been willing to shift savings from assets to stocks and that has been I think, I mean it's still very high but we are seeing like people like tech like being more willing to invest in stocks and in riskier assets.
- [43:05]
Emma Nelson
For sure, it looks as if it will. From the stories that we're covering today suggests that there seems to be sort of more profound societal change occurring. It's sort of, we're on the tip of it in Japan given the fact that. I think another thing you want to talk about is the momentum towards same sex Marriage with couples suing the government. So people taking more of an initiative here?
- [43:27]
Hendel Hento
I think so. I think people just got tired of waiting for the government to do something about it. Right. There is like a big disconnect between public opinion and the ruling class, the political class. Right. There have been like a number of surveys and all of them in recent surveys, all of them, the level of support for same sex marriage in Japan has been over 70%, sometimes as high as 80 something percent. Right. So they just got tired of waiting and they decided to, to do something proactively. So I think it was 2019, the first lawsuits. A number of couples got together, sued the government. And especially from last year, 2024 and 2025, a number of high courts, the one level below the Supreme Court, all of them said that the ban was unconstitutional. The big surprise was last year, two months ago in November, the Tokyo High Court actually upheld the ban. Right. That was a big shock for everybody. So, but the positive point about this is like, because now there is no consensus, now there is a conflict, the Supreme Court might actually step in earlier than they would have otherwise. So this year we might finally have a decision by the Supreme Court that finally decides that settles the matter. Right. So that's something to look forward to.
- [44:39]
Emma Nelson
Andelhento in our Tokyo bureau. Thank you so much for joining us on the glass. Globalist.
- [44:48]
UBS Narrator
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, expertise with artificial intelligence. All to elevate you. UBS banking is our craft.
- [45:26]
Emma Nelson
An update now from the world of luxury. The time here in London, 7:45. And we're speaking of time because Brenna Toohey's here, Monocle's luxury markets editor. She's here to talk about watches. Good morning, Brenda.
- [45:38]
Mark Edelman
Hi.
- [45:38]
Brenda Tuohy
Good morning, Emma.
- [45:39]
Emma Nelson
How are we?
- [45:40]
Brenda Tuohy
I am fantastic.
- [45:42]
Emma Nelson
I know you're fantastic, but how are you feeling? She's come in and there's, you know, if there's anybody who comes in with the most elegantly tied scarf, it's Brenda Tuohy. She can tie a scarf like no one else on earth.
- [45:55]
Brenda Tuohy
It's all about scarves this season.
- [45:56]
Emma Nelson
It literally is just about the scarves and it's all about the watches. Tell us about LVMH Watch Week.
- [46:02]
Brenda Tuohy
So LVMH Watch Week started in 2020. It's a kind of a traveling affair. It pops up in different cities. Dubai, New York. This year it was in Milan in various LVMH boutiques like maybe Bulgari or TAG Heuer or Tiffany or Zenith. It could also pop up in a hotel. Just depends what they feel like. So they are showcasing their special launches.
- [46:29]
Emma Nelson
Okay, and what was the special launch of the year? What were people focusing on?
- [46:34]
Brenda Tuohy
Well, I think that they were focusing on two quite different styles. Hublot, for example, who celebrated 20 years in the business, launched the Unico, which is a really a look back to what they were doing when they launched. So it's the big bang, but in different materials. So ceramic, ceramic, titanium. There was a lot of black in that big bang. So it's quite a sexy beast really. It's big, it's bold, it's a big bang.
- [47:08]
Emma Nelson
So it, it, you know, mirroring what is Derek terrorists happening in the outside of world at the moment. It's sort of sexy and black and big bang. It seems as if it's sort of we're kind of, we're sort of muscle, we're more muscular in our approach here. Is that what you notice?
- [47:22]
Brenda Tuohy
I think Hublot is always quite muscular and powerful in their approach. But by contrast, you could look at what Gerald Genta, what that beautiful, elegant watch brand had to offer. They had, you know, these fabulously gadrooned bez in white gold and in shades of butterscotch, you know, wonderful kind of contrasting dials in butterscotch or dove gray. So elegant with a leather strap. I mean the antithesis of Hublot's fabulous big bang. You know, very elegant, very chic for the man, the super chic man.
- [48:01]
Emma Nelson
Let's go to Paris to Hi Paris. High jewels. What's happening this weekend?
- [48:07]
Brenda Tuohy
Well, it all kicks off on Sunday with Dior and Dior really do things on a fabulous level. They have set designers who come in and create a sort of Dior magical fantasy land. I mean last year there were trees, there were leaves, there were flowers. It really is like, like going on some kind of a magical mystery tour. It really is fantastic. It's all over you. It's a, it's beside, there's the music, there's, you know, everything. It's just gorgeous. And then there are the high jewels to really knock the sight out of your eyes. Last year they were pinks and purples, fabulous colored gemstones in a multitude of different styles of jewelry. There was even a tiara. Who knows what there's going to be this year. I'm particularly looking forward to Masika last Year they did a lot of black and white contrasting, very modern, very bold jewelry and De Beers. I'm looking forward to also Boucheron. Claire Schwand, the creative director at Boucheron, she never, ever disappoints.
- [49:16]
Emma Nelson
And in what way? Given the fact that when you are designing the sort of at the absolute highest, highest level, obviously this takes time and this takes craftsmanship. But the idea that you can differentiate with just the most exquisite of material.
- [49:30]
Brenda Tuohy
The most exquisite of material, the whitest diamonds, you know, the best platinum, the high, high carat gold. But it's not just that, Emma. Last year at Boucheron, they invited us in, you know, writers, journalists, influencers, probably into a room and then they turned all of the lights off, which, you know, is quite unnerving at any level. I mean, it was pitched to and then in the distance the jewels appeared. White gold, white diamonds, like flowers in a vase. It was really, really startling. And because you had been left in the dark, this sudden appearance of this art, this art form, really high, high, high jewelry, one off pieces worth millions. It really is, is just spectacular. So it's not often just the jewelry itself. It's the way that it is presented.
- [50:26]
Emma Nelson
Brenda Tui, Monacle's luxury markets editor, thank you so much for joining me in the studio listening to the globalist. Finally, let us head back to Switzerland where there are moving parts at the moment. Donald Trump was supposed to be arriving at Zurich airport in Air Force One and then was heading up into the mountains. This has not happened because there has been an electrical problem with Donald Trump's plane. To bring us up to date, Laura Kramer, our senior producer, has headed out to the airport to find out what's going on. Laura, good morning.
- [51:04]
Carlota Rebello
Good morning, Emma. I'm so sorry if you start hearing my teeth chattering because it is a balmy negative 3 degrees here at the platform B where I'm viewing the airports. You can probably hear an airplane behind me now, but yes. So the press full time for the original flight at Joint Grace Andrews was around 8pm local time and Air Force One had to turn around about an hour into his flight, which means that they did take a different plane, not Air Force One, which makes the plane spotters that I am surrounded by incredibly disappointed, as you can imagine, because they're very excited about seeing it land. There are about 50 or so plane spotters and I have to say it's all ages. It's really nice to see. However, however, I am one of about three women here. So right now President Trump is Due to arrive at the airport at around 11, a little bit after 11 o'.
- [51:56]
Brenda Tuohy
Clock.
- [51:57]
Carlota Rebello
Now, earlier you can't really see, actually he can really see the planes landing. The fog is very thick. But earlier I spoke to a future pilot, a 15 year old plane spotter, Ben O', Sullivan, and he told me how the handover is meant to happen with President Trump once he actually does land here at Zurich. Take a listen.
- [52:17]
Liam Aldous
I saw the helicopter formation basically do their training flight on Sunday. So they're flying from the Dubendorf Air Base to the airport and then they're gonna taxi behind the Terminal E, kind of out of sight and then they're gonna come back out onto the Runway and in this whole convoy of helicopters they're gonna fly to Davos.
- [52:37]
Carlota Rebello
But do you think it's going to happen? It's quite foggy.
- [52:40]
Emma Nelson
It depends.
- [52:41]
Chris Chermack
Basically the visibility is a problem.
- [52:43]
Liam Aldous
So if they can't see enough, they're probably just going to take the cars.
- [52:48]
Emma Nelson
Right, let us head to our Studio 4 at our Zurich headquarters. Our editorial director Tyler Brulee is there standing by. Good morning, Tyler.
- [52:58]
Tyler Brulee
Good morning, Emma. I'm more Studio 4 and having good morning Laura as well, because everybody is deployed elsewhere so there's, there's no one to run the desk. So I'm joining you from outside our HQ here in Zurich. It's a fascinating story to of course follow right now because of course you could say technically Air Force One is coming because anytime an aircraft carrying the President on board, it becomes Air Force One. So in this case, so it is not the four engine 747 of which there are a few. And this is what's interesting, Normally there's a 747 backup as well. So it's interesting that he didn't get on another 747. So he's coming in on a 757, a two engine plane. It's like of course the 747, it's old. I mean this is an aircraft, I think it's, you know, it's over 30 years old, 32 years old. So it's the type of aircraft that's still flying around a lot and services of United Airlines, Iceland Air. So it's not going to be the fanfare. And as Laura saying, it's not, it's just not the hulking image of Air Force One as we know it. Nevertheless, it is Air Force One designate, but sort of, sort of Air Force One in drag. You could almost say.
- [54:13]
Emma Nelson
Indeed. And just reading into it, it's a modified 757, normally used for domestic trips to smaller airports. It's narrow bodied. He's not going to like that. Is he touched?
- [54:25]
Tyler Brulee
Well, it doesn't have a staircase either. So we're not talking about a double decker aircraft. It just, it doesn't have the presence. And of course, why does Laura have theater 50, some plane spotters around her? Because this aircraft, it is, of course, it's an icon, it is a symbol of American power. This is, we talk about sense of arrival. That is sense of arrival. Nevertheless, of course there are US military helicopters. Of course, when he's on board one of the Navy or marine helicopters, it becomes Marine One. And this will be literally the formation that will take him up to Davos, weather permitting, in the city. Here in Zurich, it is quite clear actually right now the airport is often a slightly different problem. There's a mountain in between, but it looks like I can, can already see patches of blue. So I think by the time they land and I know, I think, I think 11 o' clock is optimistic because when I was looking, he's, he's only just gone beyond Newfoundland recently, so unless that thing has got some sonic boosters on it, he's going to hustle. But of course it's throwing the whole schedule into disarray up in Davos today.
- [55:35]
Emma Nelson
Well, I mean, this is something that the FT is covering in quite a lot of detail. The speculation as to what happens when, when the utterly tightly run ship of Davos has to accommodate the fact that, dare we say it, the main star is late. I mean, there are risks. And the FT is this morning is saying that it could actually completely flip the whole schedule of wef.
- [56:02]
Tyler Brulee
Well, absolutely. I can tell you that we had a head of state who was going to be coming here later today and I just received an email from his team saying much uncertainty, not sure if we're going to make it because President DJT is currently up in the air and obviously it does signal, of course, that other leaders have to hang around as well. It also suggests that there are indeed going to be conversations and maybe that was going to be the case yesterday, but I think often off the back, of course, Prime Minister Carney, President Macron, I think what was said on stage, there's obviously going to be some closed door sessions today.
- [56:43]
Emma Nelson
Indeed. And we mentioned this at the beginning of the program, the absolute, not necessarily the aggression, but the sort of the united, muscular front that Mark Carney and Ursula von der Leyen and Emmanuel Macron in his aviators fronted up saying, Mr. Trump, we are ready for you. When he delays, does that actually sort of place the balance of power back into Donald Trump's position, or does it mean that they can all, you know, Davos can all stand and sort of like say, okay, we're waiting for you now?
- [57:15]
Tyler Brulee
Yeah, I think it's a little bit reporting to the principal's office in that respect. Listen, of course, there's probably no sense of Trump, of course, feeling intimidated by any of this, but of course, it is that sort of marching down the hallway. I think his team is clearly the Trump team. That is, they're obviously wondering what is going to be said. Of course, we have to recognize that there are conversations going into the background and there are surely lots of advisers, plenty of diplomats having a conversation before that happens. But nevertheless, you know, we know what he's like. We watched that rambling press conference last night, and he's going to be the one who's ultimately going to call the shot.
- [58:00]
Emma Nelson
Indeed. I hate to think what the catering department's doing as well. Laura, we have but 20 seconds to come back to you at zero count. Do we know what's going to happen when Donald Trump arrives?
- [58:10]
Carlota Rebello
Well, I'm hoping there's going to be a great big cheer. I really want a lot of fanfare to happen. But in the meantime, I will be here. I will also be appearing on the briefing. I'll be talking to more plane spotters. They've got really great technology here. They can hear the air traffic control and they're really, really excited to see what's going to happen for the new Air Force One, as Tyler said, with Donald Trump in it.
- [58:30]
Emma Nelson
Laura Kramer at Zurich Airport and our editorial director, Tyler Brulee at our Zurich headquarters. Daughters, thank you both. And as Laura has just mentioned, we will be in Davos for the briefing. Coming to you from 1300 Zurich time. Carlotta Rubello is your host for that. And then later on, we're off to Greenland again for the Monocle Daily, where Andrew Muller will be standing by to bring us the view from the country. But, well, the logo, the location, which is at center stage at the moment. But for now, that's all the time we have for today's episode of the Globalist. The warmest of thanks to all my guests and to the producers, Hassan Anderson, Angelica Jopson and Monica Lillis. Our researcher was Anneliese Maynard. Our studio manager was Elliot Greenfield. After the headlines. More music on the way. Stay tuned. There's lots to come on Monocle Radio for now from me, Emma Nelson Goodbye. Thank you very much for listening.
- [59:31]
UBS Narrator
With ubs, you have a truly global partner incorporating new technologies, innovative approaches and unexpected opportunities, leading you to insights that help answer the questions that matter. Delivered with passion, care and unmatched expertise. Because it's about rising with the dawn each day, knowing that we can do even better. That's what banking is to us. Not just work, but a craft. UBS advice is our craft.