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A
You're listening to the Monocle Daily, first broadcast on 25 July 2025 on Monocle Radio.
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The real human cost of cuts to American foreign aid. How you can help the US pay off its national debt. And how much would you pay and how long would you queue for a really spectacular mango? I'm Andrew Muller. The Monocle Daily starts. Hello and welcome to the Monocle Daily. Coming to you from our studios here at Midori House in London. I'm Andrew Muller. My in house guests, Anita Riota, Chris Chermack, Carlotta Rebelo, Tom Webb and Fernando Augusto Pacheco will discuss the day's big stories and debate the merits of premium versus wonky fruit. And we'll hear from CNN's Isabel Young about her recent visit to Afghanistan. Stay tuned. All that and more coming up right here on the Mon Foreign. This is the Monocle Daily. I'm Andrew Muller and I am joined today initially at least by Anita Riota, producer here at Monocle and Chris Chermack, Monocle's senior news editor. Hello to you both.
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C
Hello.
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D
Hi, Andrew.
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B
Hi, Anita. Hi, Anita. We can plug tomorrow's excellent edition of the Foreign Desk, which I presented and you produced, because there's two of us and Chris can't stop us.
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D
Absolutely. And obviously, shout out to Lily, who did so much work on this episode. We are going to Cameroon to investigate whether it's a good idea that a 92 year old run for president again.
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B
Spoiler alert. No.
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D
And more seriously, the Anglo Franco conflict that is roiling the country and seems to get very little attention both at home and abroad.
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B
It is. It is an interesting episode. As I do mention in the episode, it is almost exactly 20 years since I went to Cameroon to attempt to report on that. A trip which did not go tremendously well in a number of respects. The only country, unbelievably Chris, that has ever thrown me out. They were terribly polite about it.
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C
You have to tell me more about this. How exactly did they throw you out? I want details, Andrew.
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B
They drove me to the airport and put me on a plane.
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A
Well, that's nice.
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C
What did you do to them?
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B
Nothing really.
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C
I feel like there's more here.
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B
All a calamitous misunderstanding. Chris, you are going to the theatre, which is why you have your top hat and spats on. What are they performing?
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C
They are doing Romeo and Juliet. Cause why not? But it's particularly a new version of it which takes place in the American West.
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B
Okay, are you sitting in the stalls or are you actually going to stand through this with the rabble.
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C
No, I decided not to do the stand thing, I have to say. Although, yes, I know it is like part of the experience, but you know, long days at work and all, I just couldn't quite bring myself to do the standing thing.
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B
Well, we will be starting in the United States, the president of which Donald Trump is presently en route to Scotland to play golf, a doubtless well earned break from his arduous schedule of playing golf at home. Prior to leaving, the President made a visit to the Federal Reserve, the chairman of which Jerome Powell Trump has recently expressed grave displeasure with. He must be really upset with the idiot who appointed Powell in the first place. Pause for listeners to remember that it was in fact Trump who did that. In other American fiscal news, a long running program which allows public spirited citizens to contribute to the settling of the national debt has been expanded to accept payments from payment app Venmo. This is presumably Chris. So they're thinking, people have had a few drinks, they're on their way home, they want, they're sitting in the cab, they want to do something nice for their country. They think, I'll just venmo the Treasury. 20 bucks. It's not going to make that much of a dent in it. I looked this up earlier. The US national debt is currently $37.1 trillion. That's about $110,000 per citizen, which means Chris and Anita, that's 110 grand each. Do either of you want to whip your phone out and put a dent in it?
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D
Right now I don't have Venmo on my phone anymore. Living in the UK so unfortunately, as much as I definitely have $100,000 to send and would love to do so, 110, unfortunately, I just, I don't have the app anymore.
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B
But I do think other methods of payment are available.
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D
No, no, no. Look, I'm a millennial.
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B
You can send them a check.
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C
A check the other way is still apply.
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D
I've never written a check postal order.
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C
Never written a check. Really?
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D
No.
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C
Oh wow. Okay. I do have the check days, especially back in the States because this was so much of a thing. Living in the US you would still like bring out your checkbook not that long ago compared to here.
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B
Do you fancy whipping yours out now, Chris? Like, you know, you dent in your $110,000 right here on the program?
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C
No.
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B
What are you, some sort of communist?
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C
I will say I found also just for one other number, I found it amazing that the treasury actually raised $2.7 million last year. People do that's an impressive amount of money, isn't it? And this was before Venmo. So, yeah, I am wondering what Venmo is going to do. I also wonder if the Trump administration could coerce Venmo to actually send out after you've had the drinks with. And it offers like, would you like to share this tab? Oh, by the way, would you also please contribute to the Treasury? So I'm wondering where this is going to go.
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B
$2.7 million is not going to make that much of a dent in it, I have to say, which does go.
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C
To this point, right. It's like 2.7 million is an impressive number. It doesn't really matter, does it?
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B
There are online, Anita, real time US national debt clocks available and it does rattle along at a frankly terrifying clip.
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D
Well, I mean, yes, it is baffling that $2.7 million is truly a drop in the ocean, but I do think for anyone unfamiliar with Venmo, it is. You just do have to take one moment to think about how funny this is. Venmo is the payment app where you send your friends. Yeah. Money for a pint at the pub you. But I think three things mostly happen on Venmo. You pay your friends back for drinks, you buy illegal substances, and it's the last platform your ex hasn't blocked you on. And so you stalk their life happenings on Venmo.
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B
And all of this. And all of this is more important than paying down the US national debt, is it, Anita? Are you some sort of communist as well? I am learning a lot about my.
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D
Colleagues paying off our student debt. We got our own debt to worry about, not the government, ask not what.
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B
Your country can do for you, et cetera. On which subject, Chris? Or on a related subject, as an exercise in optics, how would you say Trump's visit to the Federal Reserve went hilarious?
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C
I mean, just in terms of optics, the picture of the two of them, video of the two of them in hard hats awkwardly standing next to each other, I just found pretty hilarious. It was just the most awkward scene of these two men then bickering over the cost of how much it would actually be to renovate the Federal Reserve, which is ostensibly Donald Trump's reason for going there. Just the optics of that whole thing alone. That scene of them at the construction site was just.
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B
It was not, was it, Anita, a tableau of two individuals who have a terrifically high regard for each other?
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D
No, most certainly not. I mean, to Chris point. To Chris's point, it is comical, if not tragic, to watch the supposed leader of the free world and the man who operates most a lot of the levers of the biggest economy in the world in this sort of cat fight with each other in hard hats in front of the cameras. At one point, Trump says, oh, the. Which we can get into why he's allegedly mad. But he says, you know, the budget for this project has gone up. And Jerome Powell just shakes his head and says, no, it hasn't. Then Trump takes out some envelope from his pocket which has God knows what on it, really, and says, oh, but look at that. And then Jerome Powell just shakes his head. So it's all.
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C
He says, that's a different building.
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D
It's a different building that was finished five years ago. Has nothing to do with anything.
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B
I have to say, in my experience as a journalist, when you're talking to somebody who begins removing pieces of paper from jacket pockets, that's usually an indication that you are not going to be using any of this.
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C
Can we call that being Ramaphosa? I feel like that's at this point.
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B
Yeah. I mean, it's kind of, I guess, illustrative. Chris, of Trump's extraordinary hubris that he thinks he can outdo the chairman of the Fed Reserve on numbers. I think Powell's probably got that stuff pretty cold. But Trump, I think, in general, I think it's fair to say, has not had a good week. Is it fair to say. Do we think that between this and, you know, bickering about, the name of what, Washington D.C. 's NFL team and wanting different kinds of sugar in Coca Cola, that we are just. And that's only the first three that have occurred to me from this week alone, that he is basically hoping that people will not talk about the obvious.
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C
Sure. I mean, I think this is his general strategy as well. Maybe he's stepped it up a bit of a notch this week, but he has always been the king of distractions and he's always had, frankly, a lot on his mind. This is not the first week that we've had five to 10 to 20 different stories about Donald Trump that we need to talk about. So in that sense, it's somewhat business as usual. Just to say on the Fed. What's also interesting for me is just this thing about, like, is this the thing that gets him? Is this the thing where he finally stops? We keep talking about these sort of moments. Is this the thing for about 10.
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B
Years now, pretty solidly.
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C
And in this case, it's also fascinating. Is this the thing where markets are like, oh, please stop. Just Leave the Federal Reserve alone. It's the one thing we hope that you wouldn't touch. You can do whatever you want. Just leave Jerome Powell alone. Is that the thing where they finally get through to him? We still don't really know on that either.
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B
And just finally, Anita, he is of course shortly to arrive in this country. He will be returning in September, it says here, for a full blown state visit. How excited are you as an American abroad to help your British friends and colleagues involve themselves in those celebrations?
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A
Well.
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D
You know, I, I wish the Scottish well over this weekend and, and wish them a probably non eventful visit. I think that's, that's the best outcome. But you know, as far as renovation scandals go, it's not too long ago that the UK had their own. No. Anyone? Carrie Johnson, number 10.
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B
Oh, yeah.
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D
So Keir Starmer must, you know, I think he probably remembers that renovation scandal slightly better than the two of you. But so, you know, maybe he has.
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B
The numbers were smaller, I would guess.
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D
Also to be fair, before we sort of wrap this up, it's a $2.5 billion renovation project. I'll just leave that out there. Does it, does it need to be that much money? I don't know. Anyways, not for me to say can, you know, the Federal Reserve, I mean, you know, they'd have to start multiple accounts now. It'd be maybe just difficult to track.
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B
Once you're 37 trillion in the bag, what's another two and a half billion? Anita Riota and Chris Chermack, thank you both for joining us. This is the Daily with me, Andrew Muller. And moving along somewhat, one of the signature measures of President Trump's second term has been a gutting of American foreign aid programs up to and including the effective abolition of U.S. uSAID, now folded into the U.S. state Department. U.S. secretary of State Marco Rubio, who now oversees such foreign aid as the US still delivers, testified to the US Senate in May that nobody had died as a result of these cuts and followed that up by solemnly averring that no children had died on his watch. Isabel Young, international correspondent with cnn, recently visited Afghanistan to put Secretary Rubio's claim to the test. I spoke to Isabel earlier and began by asking how difficult it is to get into and report from Afghanistan.
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E
Very difficult. Firstly, you know, we applied for our permits to go and travel to Afghanistan many months ago, very soon after Trump's administration cut all aid going to Afghanistan. And it took us months for us to get that. And so, you know, now that it's been four years since They've regained power. They really are ruling with an authoritarian grip there. And that means that they're also very aware that they have a very negative image throughout a lot of the world. You know, most countries still designate them as a terrorist organization. And they know that the perception that, you know, their crackdown on women's rights is not viewed lightly by most of the world. And so their kind of response to that is to really try and control the narrative, to try and crack down on journalism. And as a response to that, we were followed wherever we went. We had a minder who was tracking our conversations. You know, we were told many times to focus on more positive stories, not to talk about women so much. So, yeah, it was really challenging, mostly because as with any authoritarian country, it makes it really, really difficult to know that you can talk to people safely, to know that you're getting the full picture.
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B
Is it possible, first of all, before we talk about what the state of play in Afghanistan is now vis a vis foreign aid, to give us some idea of how reliant Afghanistan was on foreign aid, especially American aid, before the Trump administration began cutting it?
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E
Yeah, pretty reliant. I mean, there were billions of dollars worth of aid going to Afghanistan. And that has been crucial, really, since the US Withdrew, in terms of propping up their healthcare system especially. But, you know, there's a long list of things that that aid has been going to over the last few years. There's been huge de mining efforts. You know, after four decades of war, that's been crucial in terms of cleaning up the remnants of war. Women's work programs, agricultural programs, obviously a lot of healthcare, emergency food services, cash handouts, education programs, psychological support for people who have been mostly women who have experienced sexual or violent abuse. There really is a very long list of things that was crucial for Afghanistan over the last few years.
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B
So are there particular sectors in which you now see the difference the absence of that aid is making?
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E
Yeah, so we were particularly focused on the healthcare system because so much of that money has been going to healthcare over the last few years. And especially after decades of war, a lot of the infrastructure for healthcare, things like medical services, clinics, et cetera, had obviously been destroyed. And then within the last few years, that a lot of that has been built up. For the first time, they were able to put a lot of clinics in rural areas. That was absolutely critical for especially women and children who are able to get treatment. And, you know, we really have seen the dismantlement of that, and it's had a huge, huge impact so over 400 clinics have closed, particularly in rural areas, particularly impacting maternal mortality rates and impacting children and malnutrition treatment. And millions of Afghans, therefore, don't have access to even basic healthcare. So that means that Afghans are having to travel further and further to get any kind of healthcare attention. And when they get to those hospitals, those hospitals themselves now find themselves with limited medical equipment, limited drugs, limited doctors, nurses, midwives, all these things that the US had been providing and other countries had been providing to hospitals and to healthcare clinics.
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B
Did you get any impression at all that the Taliban are making any effort whatsoever to think of ways to deal with the shortfall and to provide these kind of services? Because I don't know how different the situation now is, but I can remember traveling to Kabul and Jalalabad under Taliban 1.0 in the late 90s and being told by more than one exasperated NGO that basically, you know, we run the country and actually provide services and such governance as there is while they amuse themselves passing obscuritist laws against flying kites.
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E
Yeah, I mean, officially, the Taliban have said that, you know, this is a domestic issue. They're. They're very capable of running the country without foreign aid. But, you know, there were murmurs of recognition that the healthcare system is really struggling. But given that so much of that effort by the Taliban government has gone into focusing on the security situation that has taken resources away from healthcare, and they're completely overwhelmed. You know, this is essentially a pariah state right now. Given that the US and most other countries do designate them as a terrorist organization. The International Criminal Court has suggested that this crackdown on women's rights, leading to what many in the international community have called gender apartheid, is increasingly isolating this government. And so they are really like. Every single person you speak to will tell us that the economy is in a dire situation right now and that the government is not doing enough to help the people where they need it the most.
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B
Just, finally, is there any indication at all that anybody else is looking to fill the gap left by the United States aid and indeed other donors which have deserted Afghanistan in the last few years? The US Is not alone in that, because one of the arguments that was always made in favor of USAID and similar programs is that, you know, it's a soft power weapon. It buys you influence, it buys you the good opinions of others. Does anybody else appear interested in making that sort of outreach to Afghanistan?
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E
There are smaller donors who I think have stepped into much smaller shoes. But from what we saw and what we heard from Speaking to many NGOs, many medical workers, et cetera, and across different fields, demining education, it doesn't seem like anyone is stepping into those shoes. And you know, the US was providing about 43% of humanitarian aid up until now. And so that is huge shoes to step into. And from what we've heard, it just doesn't seem like that is flowing from anywhere else.
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B
That was Isabel Young from CNN speaking to me earlier. Her reporting from Afghanistan can be found@cnn.com you're listening to the Daily with me, Andrew Muller. I'm joined now by Monocle's Lusophone contingent, senior correspondent Fernando Augusto Pacheco and senior foreign correspondent and executive producer Carlotta Rebelo. And now that I've read out their names and titles, that's all we have time for. Thanks both for joining us.
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A
Hello contributing editor and host of the forum, that's Kendra Muller.
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B
We are here to talk about things and occurrences in the Lusophone realm. And for listeners who are unfamiliar with the phrase Lusophone, it means the Portuguese speaking world. But we're going to start with one that involves Carlotta, both Portugal and the Portuguese realm. And this is, this is an idea Portugal has about redefining citizenship somewhat.
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A
Yes. So we've spoken about this before on this very program. Andrew, about the new Centre Right government, which one of the big changes they want to implement is the changes to the nationality citizenship law. So this is how foreigners residing in Portugal are able to apply to be naturalized as Portuguese citizens. Now the vast majority of Europe agrees on a 10 year residency requirement for people from outside the European Union. But in Portugal there's always been an exception for those from the cplp. That's the Portuguese countries of Portuguese as a language, the Community. So this is the equivalent of the.
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B
Commonwealth, but for Portugal, basically the former Portuguese empire essentially.
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A
So it includes Angola, Mozambique, Saint Domain, Principe, Brazil. And I'm sure I'm from Guinea Bissau and probably some other country that I'm forgetting now, but so you can see that it's quite a big percentage of people and there's always been this special relationship where the requirement has been lower and under the new proposals by the government they will increase that. And surprisingly, Angola's current president Joo Lorenzo has spoken out against it and said how, how he was surprised and is slightly concerned about this proposal to raise the citizenship requirement. Now what is interesting as well is that Joo Lorenzo is in Portugal right now. Today he was in Lisbon for a state visit, meeting with the Portuguese President Marcelo Rubel de Souza and they alluded sort of to that bit of tension that the citizenship law is causing without mentioning it specifically. So they mentioned the relationship between the two nations and how it's important to remember that, that governments and statesmen and laws, they. They may change over the years, but the connection between the people always remains. And it's important to mention that the reason why there's been this special relationship, you know, it's the end of the Portuguese Empire. The end of colonialism is quite recent in modern terms. It was in 1974 with the Portuguese Revolution, Carnation Revolution, that that process began. 75 for most African former colonies, 76 for some others. And big part of the revolution movement was because the majority of the people were against colonialism. So it's really tied the idea of democracy in Portugal with the right to self determination of these nations, the right to be independent countries. So it is messing with recent history. And that has not gone. The law hasn't been passed yet. The Constitutional tribunal is reviewing it right now because there are issues that might be unconstitutional, but it is the result of having a centre right government with the far right as the main opposition in power.
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B
Fernando, is this a source of great concern in Brazil? Do many people from Brazil still decide at some point I'm going to go and live in Portugal, perhaps become a Portuguese and therefore a European citizen.
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F
There are concerns indeed, and I have to say from an outside perspective, but I always see the relationship between Brazil and Portugal in the last decades as almost tensionless. You know, I do think both countries, they have a good relationship and the Portuguese overall, they welcome Brazilians because we have a huge community. I would say we have the biggest community in Portugal.
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D
Right.
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A
It's interesting you mentioned that because literally yesterday the numbers of the immigration numbers were released in Portugal and 35% of all foreign residents in Portugal are from Brazil. It is the biggest community with 16.44% being from Angola. To the point we've been just discussing.
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F
Very interesting numbers, but I do think there's more tension even this year. More Brazilians are stopped in the Portuguese airport. Some of them, they can't even go in for whatever reasons. And we didn't hear that much that in the past. And so you can see that political change happening. And I wonder, because we discuss here what happen, what happened in Italy, where, you know, we have a lot of Brazilians with Italian blood, but now they probably would not cannot apply. I wonder if this also is going to happen in Portugal because we have. I was reading that 25 million Brazilians, if they wanted, they could apply for a Portuguese passport. Even me, in a way, because my great grandfather is a Portugal, was Portuguese from Porto. And according to the law, if I really wanted, I could also apply for one. So maybe there's some tension there because there's a more interest for Brazilians to move to Portugal ago as well.
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B
I mean, is there an echo here, Carlotta, of some of the angst we're seeing in this country where there are programs under which citizens of the Commonwealth, such as myself, can move to the United Kingdom, which is what I did many years ago? I think it's fair to say that the people in this country who are concerned about immigration tend not to be that upset about people who look like me. But nonetheless, is that an echo here as well, that Portugal is saying, we just are worried that 25 million Brazilians are about to move here?
- [25:55]
A
It plays into this bigger debate whenever a country shifts, even if slightly towards the right, that immigration suddenly is a new problem, even if the numbers don't really back that up. Now, there are some changes to the nationality law that are interesting and needed. For example, there wasn't a requirement to speak Portuguese. There wasn't a requirement to do a sort of history and culture test like life in the UK here, which is important because when you talk about integration, you know, that is cruc. And in this case we're not talking about residency, we're talking about someone naturalizing as Portuguese. So it is good that those requirements are being inserted. Now if someone wants to. Has lived in Portugal for 10 years and wants to apply for citizenship, you know, they could stay in that country for the rest of their life without ever becoming Portuguese if they wanted to. But, you know, there is that idea that you give back to a country, that you've made it your new home and that you have. Have naturalized, you have become part of the country's fabric. This distinction between CPLP immigrants and the rest of the world is a bit concerning, that they also want to raise that. I think, yes, while, you know, technically 25 million Brazilians could apply for the passport, and this is an entryway into the European Union, which, you know, concerns Brussels at points. I don't think that it was the main driver. I think at the back of it all, we have right wing rhetoric that is using immigration as the main scapegoat for a lot of the problems. And, you know, Portugal's. Portugal's dangerous immigration is not coming from the vast majority of those numbers. It's coming from really wealthy Foreigners moving to Portugal and driving up the house prices. And those numbers tend to be more from the US tend to be more from Asia as well and not necessarily from Brazil. Brazil and the former Portuguese and the Portuguese speaking countries.
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B
Fernando, we should look at news from Brazil as well. Curious headline, I have to say. In your hometown newspaper, Fola de Sao Paulo. It says violent deaths in Brazil reach historic low. Good. But police lethality remains high. So basically the. Is it fair to infer that while criminals have stopped killing people as much as the once did, the police are continuing to do so at more or less the same clip.
- [28:12]
F
I think what happened there. So the proportion of the killings by the police is higher. The number did went down, but not as much as the overall crime. So it's kind of a. It's an exercise in statistics there. But also Andrew, I think for anyone who sees that is a historic low, it's still impressively high.
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B
I mean I know, I know Brazil is a big country, but that is a shocking number. Intentional violent death Deaths last year, 44,127.
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F
Yeah. So it's almost embarrassing to say that that's the historic low. Nevertheless, it makes me feel happy because at some point there was over 60,000 people being killed in Brazil. Every year the numbers are shocking. So every year there's a new kind of document released. It's called the Map of Violence. And I think for a country like Brazil, it's essential reading if you're interested in the country because it really depends on where you live live. And you know, in the past the southeast used to be extremely violent. Now the north and the northeast of the country, some cities, for example, in Sierra. It's horrendous what's happening. And I think the main issue here is drug gangs. There are a lot of infighting and one of the reasons, for example why my state, Sao Paulo is now officially the safest state. I know some people from state my laugh with these statistics but it is true is because I think the police really dealt with the drug gang problem there. And I think that's been honestly from what I've been reading, of course we can talk about social inequality. There are many, many other reasons. But I think the drug trade, it is the main reason why our crime remains very high.
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B
Just finally on this, Fernando, if we try to focus on the good news here it is Friday. Is it clear why the number of violent deaths, shockingly high though it is, has declined as much as it has?
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F
There's one reason but you know, of course I'm a little bit skeptical, but some people say that the country's getting older and just that fact already makes us safer because older people commit less crime. I know it's very simple, but honestly, some statisticians and researchers, they were saying that that one of the reasons.
- [30:27]
B
Fernando Augusto Pacheco and Carlotta Rebelo, thank you for joining us. You're listening to the Daily on Monacle Radio. Still with me is Fernando Augusto Pacheco and Carlotta Rebelo has been swapped out for Monacle's deputy head of radio, Tom Webb. Now readers of this morning's Monocle Minute email newsletter. And if you weren't, why not? It's free. Will have been introduced by our Tokyo bureau chief, Fiona Wilson, to the concept of sambakiya. This being a posh fruit shop which delivers the best of what is in season in Japan, sambikiya is also known for its long queues and high prices to be deliberated. Now, is it all worth it? Fernando? First of all, this may be news to our listeners, but it is certainly not news to anybody who has ever worked within earshot of the radio desk here at Montgomery. You have very firm views on fruit.
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F
Of course I do. I love beautiful fruit. I love fruit that, you know, that has some care and that, you know, that I'm sure there's some amazing farmers in Japan who are producing the most delicate melons and peaches you can ever imagine. It's an art. And I can understand. This appreciation the Japanese have, of course, is not for everyone. Listen, I'm not being glib here. Of course we can eat cheaper fruit, but I think there's something quite beautiful and I think, for example, the column that Fiona wrote, that piece, it's an experience. You go there to have your slice of musk melon, which I think is one of the most expensive, and then you can have with it a glass of champagne. It's a whole thing. I like those kind of. I don't know, I like those sort of experiences, you know. But, yeah, ugly fruit. I mean, I'm appalled sometimes here in Europe when they have those websites called oh, won't. Wonky vegetables, wonky fruits. There's nothing that irritates me the most. But, you know, I'll be quiet now.
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B
Where are you, Tom? I. I am well aware, as you are, that there is. Is nothing that gets Fernando's goat quite like wonky fruit. But where are you on it? Are you. Are you picky?
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G
No, I'm not picky. I've bought some wobbly bananas in the past they're cheaper. Obviously, having lived in Taiwan, my understanding of fruit and how they see fruit is totally different. Different to it is here in Europe we should be more seasonal, seasonable in our shopping. But in Taiwan, in Asia they are. They, they buy things based on the season and actually they have a lot of pride with it as well. So if you're visiting a house, the first thing you'll be greeted with is the fruit that's in season. Passion fruit, dragon fruit. And for it to be high quality is something that brings a lot of pride and a lot of national pride. So I definitely understand why you'd want to invest in best.
- [33:22]
F
It's not about price, it's about pride. You know, go to the local Tesco, I don't see pride there. The apples are quite ugly, they're just left there. Where is the beauty?
- [33:31]
B
Well, there's that. But would you. Fernando. And I am just again consulting Fiona's excellent piece in this morning's Monocle Minute. Again that price. To subscribe to Monocle's email newsletters. Nothing. It's free. Go to our website. Subscribe. She speaks Fernando, of queues of 200 people waiting to pay as much as 20,000 yen give or take. €116 for a mango.
- [33:58]
F
Listen, I think it's gonna be an experience of a lifetime for many of Dan. I wouldn't recommend to eat a hundred dollar mangoes every day, but maybe for once in your life it could be an interesting experience.
- [34:13]
B
I don't think I'd stand in a queue of 200 people to be paid €100 to eat a mango.
- [34:17]
F
Me neither, but just because I don't like mangoes. But if it's a muskmelon then I'm in it.
- [34:22]
G
You are speaking to a man who has been successfully swindled by a fruit seller.
- [34:26]
F
I did actually.
- [34:27]
B
When were you swindled by a fruit seller? Unaccountably I missed this.
- [34:30]
F
That was not very nice actually because Carlotta was here. It was actually in Portugal, in Madeira. I mean I bought 10 fruit. They have beautiful exotic fruit there in Madeira. But I didn't ask for the price and I was like, sure, it's going to be €20, €30. It was €50. And then she told me, apparently there's a little scan there.
- [34:47]
B
I happening €50 for 10 items of fruit. What sort of fruit was it?
- [34:51]
F
They were sort of kind of a dragon fruit look alike. I'm not sure if it was the real dragon fruit, but it was, it was quite similar to one.
- [34:59]
B
So you are miffed that you got stung €50 for 10 dragon fruit and yet you would in theory be willing to spend a hundred euros on one item of fruit, though not a mango, because you don't like mangoes, because you are insane.
- [35:14]
F
Yes, because I would eat in a plate, perhaps with a little glass of champagne. It was not going to be like a very kind of confusing experience in a market, you know.
- [35:21]
B
Tom, what is your upper limit on what you would pay? Would you be into this experience that Fiona endorses in the Minute this morning?
- [35:29]
G
I understand it. I like to invest in things that don't rot or end up being eaten. I have spent $5 on a waxed fruit in a waxed apple. The Black Pearl variety in Taiwan is absolutely wonderful. It's bell shaped and it really was worth the $5. But anything above $5 is too much, I believe.
- [35:50]
B
Tom Webb and Fernando Augusto Pacheco on that inconclusive, ambiguous note. Thank you both for joining us. Finally, on today's show, our weekly attempt to determine how much the smarter we all are for having put up with another week of this. We learned this week that there is a limit to the insouciants, the sangfreud and general lasseculaire of French President Emmanuel Macron. We learned that Macron had instructed his learned friends to file suit for defamation, or perhaps should we say defamation, against conservative American commentator and idiot Candace Owens, who has persistently made a number of interesting assumptions, assertions about Macron's missus, AKA first lady of France, Brigitte Macron. We learned, and you may want to strap yourselves in for this, that Owen believes that Madame Macron, a mother of three, was in fact born a man, one Jean Michel Trogneau, and is actually a blood relative of President Macron, who is himself the product of some variety of sea on by a mind control endeavour. Not really sure. Owens is asserting that Macron, though fundamentally human, has merely been programmed by American spooks or is some sort of wholesale Android being holly, remotely controlled from a bunker at Langley and to be honest, don't care all that much as this is all obviously quite mad. But we learned that Owens was unrepentant, if incomprehensible.
- [37:31]
E
We are revolting against this, we're revolting against the perverts that run the world. And I want to be very clear here, I count you among them. I think you're sick, I think you're disgusting. And I am fully prepared to take on this battle on behalf of the entire world.
- [37:47]
B
Speaking on behalf of the entire world this all sounds like tremendous fun. Good luck with it. And we, for one humorous newsroom review, look forward to a court case which will basically write this thing for us for weeks, as well as furnish ample further opportunity to wheel out that somewhat borderline Gallic outrage chorus we recorded whenever and why ever it was. Actually, wasn't there a thing where we thought we'd lost it and made another.
- [38:23]
C
One.
- [38:30]
B
Sticking anyway with the theme of reasons the French might now be regretting their encouragement of the fledgling United states circa the 1770s, and that the Marquis de Lafayette might be turning, if not weeping in his tomb, we learned that one 34 time convicted felon had figured out who the real criminal is.
- [38:55]
H
It would be President Obama. He started it. And Biden was there with him. And Comey was there and Clapper. The whole group was there. Brennan, they were all there in a room right here. This was the room. This is much more beautiful than it was then, but that's okay.
- [39:11]
B
A reference there to the increasing difficulty many are experiencing in telling the the Oval Office apart from one of Saddam Hussein's bathrooms. We learned, yes, that President Donald Trump had concluded that his predecessors had connived in a hideous conspiracy.
- [39:29]
H
This was treason. This was every word you can think of.
- [39:33]
B
What? Every word?
- [39:35]
E
Carrot, chicken, water, hoping. Coffee. Coffee mug. Burger, sky, light bulbs.
- [39:43]
B
We digress. Although we did learn that Trump himself seemed intent on making a bold stab at saying every number he could think of.
- [39:51]
H
We will have reduced drug prices by 1000% by 1100-1200-1300-1400, 700, 600.
- [40:00]
B
Anyway, we learned that, yes, a former President of the United States had attempted to subvert the constitutional order because they didn't like the way an election had gone. And that President Trump was appalled by this notion, the very possibility of anything of the kind ever transpiring having simply never occurred to him.
- [40:19]
H
They tried to steal the election. They tried to obfuscate the election. They did things that nobody's ever even imagined.
- [40:27]
B
But we learned that Trump's point person on this, Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, an appointment which continues to make as much sense as naming Vin Diesel Director of National hair, was somewhat struggling to make the case. Possibly because there isn't one who can.
- [40:43]
C
Say it has to do with an.
- [40:45]
E
Outgoing president taking action to manufacture intelligence to undermine and usurp the will of.
- [40:51]
B
The American people in that election and launch what would be a years long.
- [40:56]
E
Coup against the incoming president, United States.
- [40:59]
B
Donald Trump, an outgoing president taking action to undermine and usurp the will of the American people. Sounds dreadful. We learned, or at least found ourselves suspecting, that this flim flam, and if you will, flummery may have been not altogether unrelated to escalating pressure upon the Trump administration to release possibly scandalous files pertaining to the friendships with powerful personages enjoyed by the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, which we learned Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson was so grimly determined to get to the bottom of that he sent Congress home for the summer so they couldn't ask any questions about it.
- [41:40]
C
There's no purpose for Congress to push an administration to do something that they're already doing.
- [41:45]
B
Are they though, Mr. Speaker? Are they? For we learned that the figure at the top of said administration appeared to be frantically engaged in in tactics which the flint hearted skeptic may suspect were intended to distract this morning President Donald Trump is escalating his call for the Washington commanders to change their name back to the Redskins. We learned that the President was all back in on reviving the inane culture war brouhaha over whether Washington D.C. 's NFL team should re embrace a nickname by which no basically well adjusted adult convert with the common courtesies and possibly not even Donald Trump would dream of addressing an actual Native American. But if he can't get that up to the gate, the Washington Epstein's is right there. And that's all for this edition of the Monocle Daily. Thanks to our panelists today, Anita Riota, Carlotta Rubello, Tom Webb, Chris Chermack and Fernando Augusto Baseco. Today's show was produced by Hassan Anderson and researched by Henry King and sound engineer was Mariela Bevan. I'm Andrew Muller here in London. The Daily is back at the same time on Monday. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend.