← The Monocle Daily
The Monocle Daily
Colombia’s fears of potential US intervention. Plus: a preview of this year’s Golden Globes
00:42:02
Loading summary
Transcript86 lines
- [00:00]
A
You're listening to the Monocle Daily, first broadcast on the 9th of January, 2026 on Monocle Radio. A week on from Trump's intervention in Venezuela, we'll assess how leaders in Central and South America are responding as Russia strikes Ukraine with a new hypersonic missile. We'll assess the state of the conflict as the fourth anniversary of Putin's illegal full scale invasion approaches. Then we'll look ahead to this weekend's Golden Globe Awards to weigh up the contenders. Plus what we've learned this week. Andrew Muller' take on global events. I'm Vincent McEvinney. The Monocle Daily starts now. Hello and welcome to the Monocle Daily. Coming to you from our studios here at Midori House in London, I'm Vincent McEvin. My guests Oscar Guardiola Rivera, Julia Jenn and Karen Krasanovich will discuss the day's big stories and we'll hear Andrew Muller's round up of the week in news. Stay tuned. All that and more coming up right here on the Monocle Daily. This is the Monocle Daily and I'm Vincent McEvinney. It's almost a week since the United States audacious raid on Caracas to capture President Nicolas Maduro. As the shock is starting to wear off in capitals across Central and South America, the the ramifications are becoming clearer. Trump's rebooting of the 19th century Monroe Doctrine as the Donroe Doctrine is forcing leaders to recalculate their geopolitical risks and recalibrate their diplomatic relationships. For some of those leaders, there's an even greater urgency. Colombia's leftist President Gustavo Petro and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum have been singled out for criticism by the US President in his comments about the hemisphere in the past week. To discuss all this, we're joined now by Oscar Guardia Rivera, professor in International Law and International affairs at Birkbeck College. Oscar, good to have you back in the studio. Firstly, let's focus in on Venezuela's neighbour, Colombia. What has Trump been saying about President Petro?
- [02:18]
B
Well, he had been saying that Petro was in charge of, as he put it, cocaine mills and cocaine factories and thus he singled out Petro, to excuse my French, in quoting the US President. Watch his ass. That seems to have changed a little bit after yesterday's telephone call between the two leaders. Gustavo Petro announced today that he had asked US President Donald Trump for help in attacking the common enemy. That would be the National Liberation army, which operates in the Venezuelan Colombian border. Very much putting into risk, risk any potential oil operation by US corporations in that country. At the same time, it is very clear for him and for others in the country that this does not mean the threat is off the cards. In fact, Petro has also said to the BBC and El Paesterdate that he takes them very seriously.
- [03:32]
A
And I mean, Trump has been musing about carrying out strikes elsewhere in South America. I mean, is this the danger now that these leaders are facing, that he might unilaterally decide airstrikes on what he sees as targets sort of to do with the drug trade? Is that something that could happen?
- [03:51]
B
Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, he's very clear to everyone, you know, regardless of their political leaning, that the so called war on drugs is the perfect pretext, the excuse for revamping the Monroe Doctrine in a way that, as you hinted at, the Donroe Doctrine no longer includes just Latin America as its backyard, but also Europe. And that's a major change. The other major change is that before 1970s these operations used to be quite covert. As Henry Kissinger put it, our fingers everywhere, our fingerprints nowhere. That has changed. Now the fingerprints are all over the place, but also the plans for the day after all over the place. And that has plunged the entire region into uncertainty. The possibility of land attacks in both Colombia and Mexico has been very clearly delineated by the US President. And that is very, very different from the kind of swift, spectacular, TV friendly attack that we saw on the 3rd of January. You know, Colombia, Mexico, their capitals are not near the sea, they are deep inland. Huge difference in geography. That would mean boots in the ground.
- [05:14]
A
And in terms of the sort of population in Colombia first and then we'll move to Mexico. I mean, what has this done to their opinion of the United States and Donald Trump? Because there have been right wing parties in Latin America and South America that have kind of co opted his language thinking about Jab Elsonaro and Milei and Argentina and they've sort of created their own sort of MAGA movements. How have those movements responded?
- [05:39]
B
It's a very good point, Vincent, because Colombia is a bit of a different case precisely because we Colombians went through a Trump like leader, you know, throughout the late 90s and the beginning of the noughties. And so people in Colombia know that that kind of response only leads to further violence. Their sons, their daughters were killed by, you know, paramilitaries associated to Alvaro Rivaveles, who leads, still leads, the right and far right opposition. The they find themselves in is twofold. On the one hand, they did hope that Trump would do the dirty work for them and install Maria Corina Machado in neighboring Venezuela. That did not happen and it has been interpreted widely as a betrayal. So they don't know what to do and what to say about it. On the other hand, they have tried and are trying to not just co opt the language, but they have been actively visiting, you know, Senator Bernie Moreno and Marco Rubio, among others, to invite the US to invade Colombia to get rid of this leftist leader. Now that seems to be backfiring. They are not very popular in the polls. That might be one reason why they're, you know, this is their last ditch effort. And yesterday we saw massive demonstrations in Colombia, people, you know, voicing their position against any attack. Because this is not about the person, Gustavo Petro, or the president. This is now about the sovereignty of this country and all others in the Western hemisphere. And that's a very different thing.
- [07:31]
A
Just looking at what Trump has done with Europe in the past couple of years, he chastised them in the first term for not supporting NATO fully. And he had an argument there were many countries not hitting that basic minimum of sort of 2%, spending many now over performing, performing on that target. Is there any kind of traction to his claims? Is there any recognition amongst leaders in South America, Central America, that he is kind of right about the drug trade? I mean, that there is particularly this stuff that's being laced with fentanyl that's coming in across the Pacific from China that they maybe haven't done enough to stem the flow of it?
- [08:12]
B
Definitely not. On the one hand, there is clear recognition of the drug problem because this predates Trump. And in fact, countries like Colombia pretty much burned their own house trying to contain that phenomenon. And in fact, this government, the government of Gustavo Petro, inherited a huge problem from the right wing previous government. This is the time when the cocaine production went up. Right now it's going down. You know, a huge amount, thousands of tons of cocaine being confiscated, more than 2,300 small labs being destroyed. This is precisely the kind of evidence that President Petro laid out before Trump in order to convince him of the fact that Colombia has traditionally been an ally, a military ally of the U.S. in the war on the war on drugs. At the same time, there is clarity that this is not the real goal, that this is not what is in the agenda. This is not about drugs. This is not even about democracy. As demonstrated in Venezuela, Maduro regime hasn't fallen. And so the fact that there is a new geopolitical reality, that this is a Political design, a design of dominion is now in the eyes, clearly in the eyes and minds of these leaders.
- [09:37]
A
I want to come back to you about that point in Dominion, but just before we get to that, in terms of Cuba, the lifeline that it had was Venezuela. They traded doctors for oil, essentially. We know that they've been getting less cooperation from Russia. They are more isolated, potentially, than they've ever been the regime there. Now, obviously, Trump hasn't actually removed the regime in Venezuela. They've swapped the sort of figurehead. But in Cuba, I mean, you could see a real and sudden collapse of the system there potentially.
- [10:07]
C
Now.
- [10:09]
B
Cuba has been in trouble for quite some time, and yes, this was a lifeline. And the strangulation of the oil lifeline between Venezuela and Cuba is going to be more problem. Having said that, yesterday I heard the ambassador, the lady ambassador of Cuba here in the United Kingdom reminding everyone that no other country has as much experience with, you know, dealing with this kind of US Bravado. They take it seriously. But they also warn not to underestimate the resolve of, you know, people who have never known any other political regime than that of after the revolution, a sudden collapse. Collapse is never sudden. And that's more problematic because it will mean, you know, higher, huge suffering, even more suffering for the people of Cuba. They are the ones who suffer first. And that is why the attempt to strangulate the country, which is very dear to Marco Rubio, has to be criticized, at least on ethical grounds.
- [11:27]
A
And just finally, I mean, you are a professor of international law, something you've dedicated your life to. What do you think when Trump makes comments like he did today in the Oval Office, where he said, you know, there's no such really thing as international law, and I'll use my own conscience to decide what.
- [11:44]
B
That is. Something alarming. And, you know, I'm not the only one saying so. Ask any practitioner, any serious practitioner of international law, regardless of their political leanings. This is not about left or right. This is not about progressives or conservatives. And it is the international legal order built after World War II. What is imperiled, that was our second chance at building something like this. But we also live in a nuclear era. We won't have a third chance. And that is why hearing the US President saying, I don't need international law, I have my morality, well, the morality in question is questionable. And that is hugely concerning.
- [12:29]
A
And if nothing else, I mean, it can be pointed out to him on a level he'll understand that international order has created the greatest age of prosperity and lifting of global poverty. For all the ills that we have, it did a lot of good.
- [12:42]
B
And it was created by the United.
- [12:43]
A
States and enforced by the United States. Well, one to watch for, sure. Oscar Guardiola Rivera, professor in International Law and International affairs at Birkbeck College. Thank you for joining us. This is the Monocle Daily. Well, to Europe now and overnight. Russia's military is reported to have fired its new hypersonic Aureshnik missile at Ukraine. It struck near the EU border and was supposedly in retaliation for an alleged attempted Ukrainian drone attack on Vladimir Putin's residence last month, an attack denied by Kyiv and for which Moscow has offered up zero evidence of it taking place. I'm joined now by Julia Jen, Monocle's writer and researcher, expert on Ukraine. Firstly, what do we know about this weapon and its impact?
- [13:55]
D
Of course. So the Oreshnik, this weapon, we know that it's come from Soviet plan, so it's not an entirely new sort of novel weapon. We know that there are very few Ereshniks in production. So if we kind of go into the analysis of this weapon, we know that this is being used as a propaganda tool. So if we sort of unpack this kind of strike and its impact, it is very difficult to actually shoot down on Oreshnik because as the missile is traveling through the air, the kind of sort of warhead element of it splits up into different sections. And so suddenly you have traveling at 13,000 kilometers an hour that's, you know, absolutely impossible almost to kind of identify on a screen as it's coming towards its target. So we, you know, the strike happened with 15, less than 15 minutes warning. So that's from the time of the air raid alert going off and people having time to actually go down into the basement or into their bomb shelters. And so it splits up. And so then it suddenly is striking various targets.
- [14:57]
A
It's like a cluster munition.
- [14:58]
D
Absolutely. So it's not actually, it doesn't have the ability to specifically target one area, unlike Russia's other missiles. So the Kolibo missiles, for example, which they have plenty of and plenty of coming off the factory line, those are much more. Those are precise. This is seen more as a propaganda tool. It's not, as we said, it's not targeted specifically at one place. It's sort of maximum damage wherever it strikes. There's an understanding that it wasn't really going for a specific target in western Ukraine. Rather, it was close to the EU border, striking fear into, you know, Europeans, really, that's Kind of the fear element there. Absolutely. And also a response to what's been going on with Venezuela. How much that has impacted Russia in terms of the oil tankers that have been, you know, taken over by US Forces, how much impact that has had on Russia economically. Because we know that this shadow fleet of oil tankers that moves around the world under Russia's kind of gaze and coming from Russian ports, that's very much part of Russia's war machine, economic machine. So there is a lot tangled in there to unpack.
- [16:06]
A
But yes, and I mean, there's a real threat there to Europe because the way that the warhead sort of deploys into multiple warheads, how much control do they have over where those then land? Because they could have strayed over the border quite easily.
- [16:21]
D
Absolutely. It's unconfirmed where exactly it landed, but there are reports in Polish media that this was within, you know, tens of kilometers of the Polish border that is incredibly close. And we have seen, you know, over the past few years and very much in the last year or so, air raid sirens going off in Polish towns on the border, and we have even had people dying as a result of Russian attacks on Ukraine, in Poland itself. So this is very much. And, you know, and we've had that Berlin blackout, of course, in the last week, where thousands of residents in Berlin were left without power in freezing conditions. Something that Ukrainians, of course, are suffering, but something that, you know, in Berlin, in the capital of Germany, people have had a real taste of. And this Ereshnik missile, supposedly, again, unconfirmed, it was supposedly targeting a heat or, sorry, an energy storage unit. So really very much focusing the Europeans attention on how Russia targets energy infrastructure.
- [17:17]
A
Well, I just want to turn to some other issues. I mean, this week both France and the UK committed in the event of a, a peace deal, to putting boots on the ground. What's been the reaction to that in Ukraine?
- [17:30]
D
Muted. I think it's sort of more symbolism. There's still no comprehension of the fact that Russia is not going to agree really to a ceasefire. As soon as this kind of announcement came out, the Russians were immediately sort of warding it off, saying that any troops in Ukraine, Western troops, they will be seen as active military targets. So immediately striking fear into sort of Western capitals, our hearts thinking, well, if we put our troops on the ground, what would we do in the event of a soldier from Britain or France, what would we do in the event of them being killed in a Russian strike? Can we deal with the diplomatic fallout of that? The kind of Real term, they'd end.
- [18:08]
A
Up fighting with non identified Russians. Little green men that used to pop up in Donbass.
- [18:13]
D
Exactly, absolutely. So I think there's still this sort of desire for European capitals to move faster, as we've seen in the overnight strikes that we saw. And you know, the strikes yesterday that were happening as well in three different regions of Ukraine. Civilians dying, you know, people having the heat to their homes cut off. It's minus eight in some places in Ukraine. Snow on the ground, only sort of military might, military protection, really. That's the way to speak to Putin. That's what Ukrainian analysts are saying.
- [18:42]
A
And just finally, you know, you've touched on this. We're in the depths of winter. It's quite a cold one this year in Europe. Ukrainians have proven themselves to be very hardy people, but there's been a lot of damage accumulated over these almost four years of war to the energy infrastructure. How are they faring this winter?
- [18:59]
D
Well, we had extraordinary statements coming from Klitschko, who is the mayor of Kyiv. He asked citizens, residents of Kyiv to evacuate if they possibly could, to go and stay with friends if they didn't have access to electricity, light, water. We have a family friend who's just had a baby. They have a newborn baby. They're in a high rise block of flat and they don't have any warmth in their flat. They don't have any light, they don't have any water to bathe their baby in. And so there's a potential that they might even move in, you know, with some family members of mine who have a private house and they have the ability to kind of create a fire in the oven. So I don't know how to say it. Sort of fireplace. Yes, thank you. And it's a big affair, you know, great big chimney going through the, you know, very old fashioned. Yeah, an aga, I guess, is that. That would be the idea anyway. And there's this idea that, you know, that maybe they'll move in there for a week while the power is restored. Extraordinary measures really taking place and people. And we saw this, you know, in the last few winters, but really this is quite dire. We had half a million families without, you know, access to those bas, basic services and people shoveling snow off their balconies to melt for water to use in their flats. I mean, this is shocking stuff in Europe.
- [20:11]
A
Well, Julia Jen Monocles, writer and researcher and expert on Ukraine, thank you very much. You're listening to the Monocle Daily. Now. Are you tired of making decisions if so you're not the only one. According to new research by technology giant Samsung, one of the biggest hidden drains on productivity is decision fatigue. Deborah Honig is Samsung's Chief Customer officer and she joined Monocle's Tom Edwards to unpack what this means for the future of workplaces worldwide, how the responsible use of AI can help leaders create better workplaces, and Samsung's renewed approach to design. Tom started by asking Deborah to explain just how much of a problem decision fatigue is when it comes to the workplace.
- [21:08]
C
Before I even show up for an 8am or 9am meeting, I make so many little decisions that by the time I show up, I'm flustered. I've already used a huge bunch of my energy. And actually our research shows that a lot of people, by the time they're at 11am, they already have decision fatigue. If you think about your workday, that's quite early on in the workday to already have people feeling fatigued. So I like to think about it as, how do you find technology and other ways to reduce the amount of decisions you need to make between 6am and 9am so that when you do show up, you feel like you've done what you needed, you've made less decisions doing it? Because a lot of those are repetitive, people are feeling overwhelmed and decision is coming to them in many different forms. And your technology can be disparate and therefore making it harder for you to keep track of it, which is why actually we focus a lot on how do we actually start to simplify that, certainly amongst our ecosystem at Samsung, but also just in terms of connecting the technology and then providing an integrated user experience whereby it will pull a lot of that information into one single thing so that you don't have to go check 10 things. And we do that, you know, in the home with smart things and setting up routines. So really getting technology to work for you. And I think we're at that phase and AI makes that even more possible than it did before because now you've infused a whole new level of intelligence into certainly our ecosystem. That means the product can learn and adapt and take collective information should you choose it to, to actually start to manage your routines, suggest things to you. We have a now brief, for example, which will pull all the information in from various points in your day to go, hey, you have all this planned for the day, but I'm looking at the time between one meeting and another, and average traffic would suggest that you're not going to make it. Like that's the kind of thing where it really helps, doesn't it? Or just alert you have the after school club, have you? But it seems you also have a meeting coming in. Is someone picking up your child?
- [23:22]
E
This sounds familiar. This sounds familiar to me.
- [23:24]
C
All those things. If you have something helping you do that, I think that really does give you that chance to do exactly what people are also trying to do about stepping away from tech, which is it gives you the head space to spend more time thinking, being more human, frankly, and spending more time with the people that you're working with and the people you love in your life because you can be present, because it's enabling that. So I think we're passing that stage and I think it's an exciting time for that. And that's why I encourage people to start to get into it. I think we can use it in so many more ways in our homes and at work and for creative reasons that it can really help you get rid of that cognitive load and get rid of. I think, I think the research we said said 36 minutes a day. People feel like they're losing to indecision because they've been over, have too much information, too many micro decisions have already been made. They get a bit paralyzed. And if you multiply that out 36 minutes a day by all the days in the year that we work and all the working population, I think we summed that up to like £92 billion of lost productivity.
- [24:36]
E
One thing I find really interesting about, about Samsung is the fact that, you know, we're not just talking about like a specific sort of corner of consumer products. These are technologies that affect everything. The shape of connected cities, things that we talk about at Monaco a lot across all different disciplines, whether it's urban planning or greenery or people's time and all the rest of it, that must be both really exciting and maybe a little bit also overwhelming, right, to be thinking about. Look, you know, we have capacity within this business to shape the substance and structure of literally how people are living their lives. That must be one of the great twin opportunities and challenges, right, of being part of a big kind of machine like Samsung.
- [25:17]
C
It's an absolute privilege to be in the conversation and actually to represent the customer in that. And that really is a part of my role, which is bringing, making sure we're constantly bringing the customer into those conversations. Because again, I really believe the question now is less about, about what, you know, can we do? And it's like, what should we do to define things, right? And so that's why when we think about it. We first of all, we have clear principles for how we develop. We think about fairness, accountability and transparency in everything. We think about both generally technology, but AI in specific, where I think it's more important and there are more questions about what we can do. And I think we also think about it as a choice at this point, certainly, which is, you know, you have a choice to use the now brief I talked about, which pulls information. You have a choice to opt into SmartThings Energy, which can automate energy savings in your house. I mean, it does use your data, but it stays in your network. But some people might not want that. I personally love it. I'm saving money every day without doing much, just having it turned on. And then we also think about in that context too, what's going to happen to your data in order to enable that. And just thinking about how do we keep that safe and secure. And so I think all those things are come, come into play in a way that we probably didn't have to think as much about before because we were talking about things operating more in isolation than we do now. And I think now, as we said, to have things to be able to learn and adapt, to be able to use technology, to learn and adapt to you means quite a level of intimacy that we are not used to with technology. And so we do have to take those steps and think about it in partnership with customers, about how we want to do that and what we want AI to do for us and what we don't want it to do for us.
- [27:10]
A
Deborah Honig, Samsung's chief customer officer there speaking to Monocle's Tom Edwards. You're listening to the Monocle Daily. Now this Sunday awards season kicks up a gear with the 83rd Golden Globes ceremony in Los Angeles honouring excellence in both film and tv. To discuss this year's contenders, we're joined now by Karen Krasanovich, film critic and regular Monocle radio voice. Karen, good to speak with you again. This year's awards season feels like a much more open and unpredictable one compared to recent years is.
- [27:55]
F
Well, yes, possibly, but it does seem a little bit. If you look at any of the lists of nominees, you'll see the same titles over and over again. And that kind of leads to tell, well, tells you that it's very, very focused but they're high quality films.
- [28:13]
A
All right, well let's look at the big one then, the sort of best motion picture. What are the films in contention here? Here?
- [28:20]
F
Okay, so we basically got, got two, we've got Best film drama. And then we've got comedies as well. So the money is saying that Sinners is going to be the favorite. But for, for musical or comedy, there'll be one battle after another. Although the competition is really, really tight. You've got Sinners, you've got Hamnet, the secret agent. Sentimental value is just an accident. Frankenstein for best film drop. Now, you have to remember that the Golden Globe voters are not the same as Oscar voters. So even though we like to see the Golden Globes as something suggestive of the Oscars, it's not really a predictor.
- [28:59]
A
Well, Ryan Coogler's Sinners is a period vampire drama. It came out sort of midway through last year, I think, which is not the kind of normal, you know, award winning time. It did really great box office. Is it a serious contender, do you think, in award season? Because it's not, you know, it's had a, a kind of unique path behind the scenes as well, hasn't it, with Ryan Coogler's sort of ownership of the film too.
- [29:24]
F
Yeah. Which was actually not unusual. Everybody was saying, oh my gosh, he's getting his rights back after 25 years. You know, there were other. Other directors do that just. I think it was, it was a point that people were looking at this as an independent film as such. And it is very much an achievement. It's a beautiful, beautiful film. And I think that he really does have a very good lead. Now for the best film, comedy and musical, then jump into the next category. We've got one battle after another. Did you know that was a comedy? Yes, it is. Marty supreme is also no other choice is also. Even though it's grim. Begonia is also a comedy. Nouvelle Vague, who knew It's a comedy. And Blue Moon also as as well has got a little bit of music in there. So one that's missing for me is Song Song Blue, which I adore and doesn't seem to be getting any love this year. But these are all really top films and they're very, very competitive. Although One Battle after Another, released in a different time. You're absolutely right. Than Sinners probably has a better chance.
- [30:25]
A
Well, One Bottle After Another has breakout stars up for nominations like Chase Infinity and Tiana Taylor. There's also veteran Leonardo DiCaprio helming that in contention this year, the Marty supreme as well, which there's been a lot of chat about, you haven't mentioned yet. I absolutely loved that film. I think it's one to definitely see in cinemas. Chalamet is often Sort of compared to a young Leonardo DiCaprio in the choices he's making and his kind of commitment to the craft. Who do you think is the real, you know, are real contenders when it comes to the best actor, actress and best supportings?
- [31:00]
F
It's really tough to say. I think it's between Timothy and Leonardo now. I mean, I mean, I love the technique of Mighty supreme, but I just hated the characters. And I mean, it's, it's just a safety thing. They have these, these characters. You just think, oh my God, I don't want to be around these people.
- [31:16]
A
We did actually have this conversation yesterday on the Daily about whether you can, you know, root for a character you don't like.
- [31:22]
F
Like, I think you can. I mean, obviously you liked it a lot. You saw it in a theater. I, I saw it on the smaller screen. But I mean, technically it's wonderful. But again, it's that I like the other Safdie film, the Smashing Machine, which I love the characters and, you know, maybe that's me. Okay, so we're looking at.
- [31:40]
A
For anyone that doesn't know just quickly, that's. There are sort of brother directing team who've gone their separate ways, haven't they? They made the likes of Uncut gems together and now they've kind of gone off and done their own projects.
- [31:53]
F
That's right. In my mind, one of them's a nice guy and the other one is. It's just, just from what they're producing, you know, a nice movie that you want to watch and the other one which is hard and cutting. Okay, so we're looking at, we're looking at best film drama actress. That would be between Jessie Buckley for Hamnet and Renata Rainsworth for sentimental value. And I think Jesse will have the edge here simply because it is. Even if you resist this film, if you don't want to cry at the. And you are going to be crying.
- [32:23]
A
Oh gosh, I'm going to see it after this tonight. So.
- [32:25]
F
Good, good. Well, just, just have some water before you go in.
- [32:29]
A
Prepare. Okay. And Karen, just finally, I mean, you've touched on this already. How much are the Golden Globes still a bellwether for the Oscars race?
- [32:40]
F
They're really. It's about the speeches and I know that sounds silly, but people vote for silly reasons. And if there's a great speech on that on the night of the Golden Globes, it is more likely that they will get those last votes from the 10,000 Oscar voters.
- [32:57]
A
Oh, wow, that is quite an electorate, isn't it.
- [32:59]
F
It's a lot. Yeah, there's 300 versus 10,000. So. Yeah. And there's very little crossover. So there you go. A lot more international people in the Golden Globe voting body, though.
- [33:07]
A
Okay, well, Karen Krasanovich, film critic and regular Monocle radio voice, thank you very much. And finally, on today's show, it's Friday, so it's time for Andrew Muller's weekly news roundup. Here's a special edition of what we learned from Australia.
- [33:34]
G
We learned this week that basically 2026 was giving early indications of being grimly determined to pick up where 2020 had left off.
- [33:46]
H
Oh, no.
- [33:48]
G
We learned, for starters, that Earth's most powerful individual, entrusted by the wisdom of the American electorate with the power to end human civilization within minutes of any such whim occurring to him, was now being subjected pretty regularly to the tests applied by concerned doctors to the patients they worry are parting company with verifiable reality. We learned this from the President of the United States himself, who boasted that he had completed such an examination for the third time.
- [34:22]
H
But I've taken now three cognitive tests. I've got. I've aced every single one of them.
- [34:29]
G
We have not learned why the president's doctors have now felt it necessary for him to take three such tests. Tests at least three that we know about or that he can remember or can count to. But we are absolutely certain that the median American voter would be absolutely content to continue trusting their general well being to a lawyer, accountant, electrician, plumber or dentist being subjected to such a regimen by their physicians, what could possibly go wrong, etc. But we learned that President Trump was as happy as ever to provide an answer to exactly that question. And we learned from the same lesson that it is almost, almost as if the FIFA Peace Prize meant nothing at all.
- [35:20]
A
Oh, that blows my mind. No way. Blow me down.
- [35:28]
G
Yes, we learned that having spent the season of goodwill bombing Nigeria, the airstrikes.
- [35:34]
C
Conducted by US Africom targeted locations within the Bouni Forest, around Waria and Al.
- [35:40]
G
Qasim villages, then threatening to bomb Iran again.
- [35:44]
C
President Trump, meantime, posting a stark warning to Iran's leadership early this morning, saying if the regime kills peaceful protesters, the US Would intervene and that American forces are locked and loaded.
- [35:58]
G
And then, apparently, having lost interest in both endeavors, President Trump had instead decided to cry havoc and let slip the dogs of etc at the capital of a particular South American country, Caracas. Not according to those cognitive tests they keep making him take. At least we learned, yes, that President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela was poised to become the third former head of state this decade to stand trial in a New York City courtroom after this guy.
- [36:32]
H
This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt.
- [36:39]
B
And this guy, former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez was sentenced to 45 years years in prison without probation by a New York court for several crimes related to drug trafficking and the use of weapons.
- [36:52]
G
And Maduro can perhaps console himself that it worked out okay for both those previous two guys, one of whom ended up in a position to pardon the.
- [37:01]
H
Other tonight, the former president of Honduras.
- [37:04]
B
Serving time in a U. S. Prison, walking free after a pardon from president.
- [37:08]
A
Donald Trump over the weekend.
- [37:09]
G
And we learned that he was on hand to reassure an anxious world that he had very definitely thought this latest escapade all the way through, all the.
- [37:19]
H
Way back, it dated to the Monroe doctrines. And the Monroe doctrine is a big deal, but we've superseded it by a lot, by a real lot. They now call it the Don row document, I don't know is Monroe Duncan Doctrine. We sort of forgot about it.
- [37:39]
G
We learned, therefore, and not for the first time, that maybe the way to get Trump to uphold or pursue anything is to find a way to allow him to name it after himself. So maybe the United States, bewildered European allies as of this recording etc could try to interest him in the Geneva donventions or the United nations charter or the treaty on the don proliferation of nuclear weapons.
- [38:05]
A
Just get on with it.
- [38:07]
G
Careful what you wish for. For we learned that agog with the relative ease with which the mightiest military power ever gathered beneath one flag had knocked over the presidential guard of a bankrupt banana republic. Its commander in chief was asking others to come and have a go if they thought themselves hard enough.
- [38:25]
H
But we can't take a chance after having done this, this incredible thing last night of letting somebody else take over where we have to do it again. We can do it again too. Nobody can stop us. There's nobody that has the capability that.
- [38:40]
G
We have, specifically Colombia.
- [38:42]
H
Colombia is very sick too, run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. And he's not going to be doing it very long, let me tell you. Mexico, by the way, you have to do something with Mexico. Mexico has to get, get their act together because they're pouring through Mexico and we're gonna have to do something.
- [39:02]
G
Greenland.
- [39:03]
H
We need Greenland from a national security situation. It's so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place.
- [39:15]
G
Land covered with ships right o And according to US Secretary of State and Voice of Relics reason, all things considered, Marco Rubio, Cuba for obvious and urgent reasons, it's run by incompetent, senile men.
- [39:30]
C
And in some cases not senile, but incompetent nonetheless.
- [39:34]
G
We learned that it is indeed just dreadful when a country is run by incompetent and or senile men. Just imagine that, etc. Let's hear for the first time in 2026 from the general muttered Agreement crew. Expecting big things from you guys again this year. But. We learned greatly, hearteningly that there is a better way for disputes among nations to be resolved than through the dispatch of gunboats, the marauding of aircraft, the launching of missiles, the deployment of of special forces to personally assault the head of state of a country with which your country is at odds. And we learned this from ah, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who after expressing concern and condemnation regarding the US action in Venezuela, had the following words of sagely restraint to impart as was now be read by whoever was available.
- [40:41]
A
We proceed from the fact that all partners who may have claims against one another must seek ways to resolve problems through dialogue.
- [40:50]
G
Is that right, Sergey Viktorovich, is it? For Monocle Radio, I'm Andrew Muller.
- [40:59]
A
Thank you, Andrew. Well, that's all for this edition of the Monocle Daily. A big thanks to my guest today, Oscar Guardiola, Rovette Vera, Julia, Jen and Karen Krasanovich. Today's show was produced by Monica Lillis and researched by Anneliese Maynard. Our sound engineer was Steph Chungoo, with editing assistance from Mariella bevan. I'm Vincent McEvinney here in London. The Monocle Daily is back at the same time on Monday. Goodbye. Thank you for listening and have a great weekend.
- [41:32]
C
Sam.