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The Monocle Daily
Iran vows to keep blocking Strait of Hormuz as three more cargo ships are attacked in the Gulf
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A
You're listening to the Monocle Daily, first broadcast on 12th March, 2026 on Monaco Radio.
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B
The Strait of Hormuz and the unintended but inevitable consequence of war with Iran. Canada's prime minister takes another step towards turning his minority government into a majority one. And Japan and vending machines grow apart. I'm Andrew Muller. 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 Andrew Muller. My guests Carol Walker and Charles Hecker will discuss the day's big stories. And our weekly letter from arrives from a Mexican city pronounced other than how it is written. Stay tuned. All that and more coming up right here on the Monocle Daily. This is the Monocle Daily. I'm Andrew Muller and I am joined today by Carol Walker, Times radio presenter, political commentator, and Charles Hecker, risk analyst, Russia expert and author of Zero Sum the Arc of International Business in Russia. Hello to you both.
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C
Yeah, good evening.
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D
Good evening, Charles.
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B
Let's give the book another plug. Go on.
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D
It's coming out in paperback soon, I'm very happy to announce. Thank you.
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B
There you go. What's it about? And don't say about 400 pages.
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D
It's about the history of Western business in Russia, starting with the czarist period, very briefly and ending with the war in Ukraine.
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B
Topical, then, and historical, both on the nose. I mean, if you'd asked, Charles, I would have given you a blurb for the paperback that would have said timely and relevant.
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D
Oh, in inverted commas right on the front cover.
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B
Carol, you join us very recently back from Egypt, which must have been an interesting spot to be when it all kicked off.
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C
Yeah, it was pretty tense. We were in Cairo when the first strikes occurred and the war began. Egypt, of course, it was pretty close geographically to what was going on and really fascinating to be in a country which is a really significant player in the Middle east under President Sisi, who has played a very interesting tactical approach to all of this, cozying up a great deal to President Trump, a key player on his board of Peace for Gaza. And it is also a country which has pretty evident security even before the war happens largely, I think, intended to make sure that there's no trouble at home for the regime, which is pretty repressive. But it was certainly pretty tense for the first few days, though, of course, it's one of the few countries in the region that so far has escaped being caught up into it. And we were certainly very lucky in terms of Being able to actually fly back when we wanted to.
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B
Well, we will start with Iran. And a development that only this U.S. administration could have failed to see coming. That is that the most obvious thing a cornered and beleaguered Iranian regime could possibly do would be to halt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, through which all energy shipments leaving the Persian Gulf must pass. Iran's new supreme leader, Mujtaba Khamenei, son of the previous incumbent, has reportedly vowed that Iran will continue, continue blocking the strait. This follows attacks on three more tankers in the last day or so. US President Donald Trump has suggested that the remedy is simply for the ships to sail through anyway. The crews of unarmored vessels full of flammable cargo are likely to take some persuading. We'll bring in our panellists shortly. But first of all, here is Noor Al Kabi, the United Arab Emirates Minister of State, the Ministry of Foreign affairs, speaking to Monocle's Gulf correspondent Intermam Rashid about how the region is responding to attacks from Iran.
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A
Our state of defense is very precise. It's very strong, responding to the attacks that we're getting from the Iranian aggression. You know, the numbers in Zamam, I mean, collectively there are more than 2,000 threats. And we're talking about threats in targets and missiles and drones that are not just in big definitions. You know, of course, there's the economic line. There is, of course, the, the global kind of security element, logistically, the airspace, just the community. It's hitting the community, it's hitting individuals who are civilians, not just the infrastructures. And I think for us, the uae, we've been clear we're not seeking the conflict. We don't want to escalate it. That has been said before through officials that we will take necessary actions when it comes to protecting our people, our sovereignty, our residents. I think the UAE, and the community specifically of the uae, is showing a beautiful, compassionate spirit. The leader of the UAE has been walking amongst people in shopping malls, visiting the injured, giving reassurance that things will be fine, that we will emerge stronger, that the UAE has a thick skin. So we have a leader that is quite compassionate and composed, and we feel how heavy this can be when it comes to a country such as the UAE.
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B
In Zimaam, that was Noura Al Kabi, the UAE's minister of state at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Let's bring in our panel now. Charles, first of all, to the Strait of Hormuz. And thinking with your business and risk analyst hat on, if that's gummed up for days, weeks or months. That potentially gets quite bad, doesn't it?
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D
Yeah, it really does. I mean, what people have been saying, especially since the full scale invasion of Ukraine, people have been saying, well, you know, energy markets are getting really, really good at managing geopolitical risk and that everything is now baked into the price of energy. And so we're not supposed to see these huge spikes or drops in prices based on world events, except every once in a while, the energy market turns around and sort of bites you in the hindquarters. And what I think they've said to President Trump is that we're not paying attention to the fact that you want to release part of the Strategic Petroleum reserve or that other countries that are members of the International Energy association want to release their strategic reserves. We don't care that you say that you're going to accompany vessels through the Straits of Hormuz. We don't think you can do it. And so energy prices have gone back up again. I mean, the president last week tried very hard and very vocally to literally talk down the markets. And that worked for a couple of days. But there seems to be very little belief in any sort of short term and even longer term resolution to the Straits of Hormuz.
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B
Carol, does it appear that the US Administration do have a plan for dealing with this beyond suggesting that tanks full of oil and gas should just sail through a minefield anyway?
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C
Well, they have, of course, attacked many Iranian ships and naval vessels in the region. Taken out, I think it's at least 16 minelaying ships and so on. But I think the problem is that the Iranians have worked out that they can wreak havoc on this absolutely crucial waterway through which such a large proportion of the world's oil supplies usually flows by using relatively unsophisticated weapons and attacks, they have struck. I think, I think it's at least five tankers in the last 24 hours or so. And of course, because this is a narrow waterway, it's only 20 miles across at its narrowest point. It is relatively easy for the Iranians, or even indeed some of their proxies, to fire weapons, cause enough damage and make it sufficiently dangerous that most companies are not going to necessarily accept President Trump's invitation to just be little bit braver.
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B
Because on that, Charles, to be clear, President Trump appears to be, as I understand it, misapprehending the thresholds on which commercial shipping, and more pertinently, their insurers operate. Because when you have a tanker full of Oil. It's not going to be good enough to hear, is it? There's probably only a few mines there. You probably won't hit any of them. I'm sure it'll be fine.
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D
Yeah, just go really, really slowly and sort of weave your way through the minefield. You're right. Nothing is going to happen through the Strait of Hormuz. Not a single ship is going to progress through that choke point unless it's got insurance. And getting insurance right now is nigh on impossible. And if you do get insurance, then it's prohibitively expensive. And so, you know, I think about other places that have been brought to a standstill by much less. And, you know, Carol's absolutely right. It doesn't take that much to shut. And I remember, you know, what was going on in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Yemen, when you had tankers and all sorts of maritime traffic stopped by people essentially in rubber dinghies with shotguns. And so imagine that you still have, you know, whatever's left of the Iranian capacity aimed at a much easier target than the Gulf of Aden, which was much bigger and much wider than the Strait of Hormuz. And so, you know, Lloyds of London is working on this now and actually is thinking there might be quite a tidy sum to be had out of this problem proposition. And the President has tried to arrange an insurance or reinsurance backstop out of Washington, but so far, you know, nothing in. In that industry and nothing in that sector happens without insurance, and that's just not happening yet.
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B
Just finally on this one, Carol. And to Iran's new Supreme Leader and his alleged remarks threatening to keep the strait closed, it's worth worth emphasizing this was not broadcast on television. It wasn't even broadcast on radio. We don't even have audio of him. Spe. These are remarks relayed by intermediaries. Is it a bit weird, verging on downright suspicious that we have not seen actually any, or indeed heard any concrete proof that this chap is still with us?
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C
Yeah, I think it's extremely suspicious. There's been no. There have been no pictures of him, no video footage of him since he was appointed to succeed his father. As you say, that message was announced by Iranian state television. It was not even read out by the new leader. And certainly amongst the Iranian diaspora, rumors are rife that he's very seriously injured. We know, of course, that it was not just his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed at the start of the war, but many other members of his own family. And there have been suggestions that he was badly injured in that same attack. And there are. The rumors are now going overtime. I think this statement that has been belated put out has, if anything, fueled the speculation as to what sort of state the new ruler of Iran is in. After all, if you're taking over the helm of your country at a time it is under unprecedented attack by the US and the Israelis, would you not want to at least appear in person and deliver some kind of message of reassurance and leadership? The fact that he hasn't, I think, raises a huge amount of questions as to where he is, how he is, and whether he's actually in a fit state to lead the country.
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B
Well, to China now, and to another demonstration of the animating belief of the Chinese Communist Party that the state can never be too powerful, pervasive, or indeed intrusive. A new law which claims to be wholesomely intended to promote national unity among China's diverse peoples appears upon scrutiny of the fine print, the latest in a long line of measures actually aimed at suppressing and assimilating China's ethnic minorities. All Chinese children will henceforth be schooled in Mandarin and Mandarin and will be prioritised over local languages on public signage and so forth. Carol, first of all, and I'm going to play, if not necessarily devil's advocate, then the CCP's advocate just slightly in a given country, if we detach this from China, if there is an official language, is it necessarily a bad thing to ensure that every child grows up learning to speak it?
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C
Look, I think the language of this law sounds utterly chilling, especially when we know.
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B
So that's a no, then?
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C
Well, you just have to approach this, knowing what the Chinese regime's approach has been to many of its ethnic communities, the brutal suppression of the Uyghurs and so on. And when you read some of the language in this, it says that the people of each ethnic group, all organizations and groups of the country, armed forces, every party and social organizations, every company, must forge a common consciousness of the Chinese nation according to law and the Constitution, and take responsibility of building this consciousness. It's not just the language, is it? They're all supposed to be essentially accepting President Xi's hymn sheet and singing from it in unity, or they're in big trouble.
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B
It's not life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, is it, Charles?
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D
No, it's not exactly out of the Declaration of Independence or the American Constitution. It's more really out of the Soviet playbook and Forgive me for going back to my comfort zone, but this is exactly what happened with the Soviet Russia ossification agenda. And we're seeing something virtually identical to this happening across China. You know, I think that as far as sort of the De and I component of the Chinese Communist Party, they're clearly getting up with the program being launched across the United States. But to your point about whether everybody should speak this language or not, when you roll this out most aggressively in the regions that just accidentally happen to coincide with areas of sort of politically minded independence movements or religiously backed independence move, then you've gotta be a little bit suspicious about its intentions. And, you know, it's more than a language equality thing. It actually demotes the languages and demotes the cultures of other indigenous peoples all across China. So it's sort of not like learning Chinese also, but it's learning Chinese first and learning Chinese instead. And, you know, this is something that we see happening around the world. I mean, it kind of fits in with Hindu nationalism in India and, you know, with lots of other kind of, you know, nativist and nationalist movements happening all over the world.
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B
I mean, you alluded to this earlier, Carol. It was a big story for a while, the story of the incarceration of many hundreds of thousands, at minimum, of largely Muslim Uyghur people in Xinjiang in what I think are euphemistically known as re education camps. Is it kind of strange that the world sort of zoned out of that? Or did China's economic importance trump all other considerations?
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C
Look, I think that many nations around the world, including of course, President Trump, have had to face up to the huge economic and strategic power that China wields. And, well, I suppose when you come to President Trump, he's not necessarily known for championing the cause of ethnic minorities, in case. Not really, but many nations have had to to face up to this. We saw a visit from the British Prime Minister to China. There was a huge amount of talk and speculation about whether he was going to raise human rights. And yeah, there was a little line in there somewhere where he said he'd raised his concerns about human rights. But it doesn't sound as though that was anything more than the briefest of diplomatic mentions so that he could put it in the press release to the media back at home. And I think there does appear to be a growing sense when so many leaders in the west have realized that they've got to reach an accommodation with President Xi. I think that includes Keir Starmer here in the UK and certainly includes President Trump, who tried taking him on full throttle when it came to his tariff wars, had to back down somewhat. And I suspect that when it comes to this new law, most nations will simply decide, well, this is an internal Chinese matter. If he's not openly stepping up the threats against Taiwan, perhaps that's not this is not the battle that they're going to choose to fight.
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B
But should it finally, on this one, Charles, have amounted to something that we've had two consecutive US Administrations, the first Trump and Biden publicly just accusing China of genocide and that didn't really amount to anything at all.
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D
China doesn't take very well to external criticism and the pushback is sharp and hard. And it's not just two US Presidential administrations in a row. It's basically Europe sort of stuck between the United States and China, completely adrift in its own attitudes towards China or maybe not so adrift really and really coming down more on the side of the trade and kind of get along go along in their attitudes towards this. I mean, China is just too big, too powerful and too economically tantalizing to anybody for them to really put up much of a stink about this.
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B
Well, to Canada, where Prime Minister Mark Carney, who came to power leading a minority administration one year ago on Saturday, is inching closer to leading a majority government. For the fourth time, a member of a rival party has crossed the floor law of the House of Commons to join Carney's Liberals, this time a member of the left wing ish New Democrats, following three Conservatives. A cross promotional plug at this point for Monocle's recent interview with Mark Carney, conducted at Canada's embassy in Tokyo by Monocle's editorial director, Tyler Brulee. You can find it in audio and video form on our website or on your preferred podcast platform or indeed YouTube. Carol, as a habitu of corridors of power at Westminster, you must have witnessed a good few floor where are you on them? Are you a fan?
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C
I think that most floor crossings that I've witnessed and we've seen a fair few, quite a few in the last few months here in the United Kingdom, many of them in the direction of Nigel Farage's Reform uk Quite a few of them, you just get the sense that they're somewhat opportunistic. Now, I'm not an expert, totally not, I'm not an expert on the individuals involved in these latest maneuverings within the Canadian political system. But I mean, if you look at Mark Carney, he's somebody who since he came to power looking somewhat fragile, seems to have managed to really build public support kicking off with when he somewhat robustly stood up to President Trump over tariffs and so on. And he has also forged a pretty big fan base across amongst European leaders who are very happy to try to see him as an ally in that region. So I just wonder whether these politicians who've crossed the floor in Canada have seen the way things are going, have seen the way that Mark Carney's public support seems to be building, that he's probably on course to have a majority government. And of course, it's always quite nice to be a member of the governing party, isn't it?
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B
Well, indeed, Charles. Can the American mind comprehend the floor crossing?
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D
No, we can't. And I'm just thinking about this because I do, because there is a literal sort of getting up from one seat on one side of the.
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B
Literally. Yeah. To be clear to listeners unfamiliar with the parliamentary system, the tradition is that they literally stand up and literally walk across the floor.
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D
And so half the room is cheering and half the room is jeering.
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C
Yeah.
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D
As they undergo this sort of ceremony. Well, first of all, in the US House of Representatives. Well, first of all, philosophically, this is almost incomprehensible in the United States because of the state of polarization in US politics. And then the other thing is that the corridor between the two of them is really quite narrow. And it's sort of like those people who would be getting up in the middle of a performance at an opera house and trying to go to the restroom. You know, it would be like, hugely inconvenient to everybody, and you'd probably wind up tripping over somebody's bag on the way over. So it's hard to do physically and it's hard to do philosophically. But I think that, you know, just to sort of expand on what Carol said, you know, Mark, Canadian politics is not something that people pay too much attention to internationally and perhaps even domestically. But Mark Carney has become a rock star since Davos, and that was basically by saying the quiet part out loud as far as the global political order, because not only did he say that that global political order is over, he suggested that it never existed in the first place. And then, you know, under great sort of risk of progress provoking the neighbor to the south, he pivoted away from the United States and went on a trip to China. And so he is, I think this is part of his international popularity, spelling domestic success. And I think everyone now, including folks sitting in radio studios in central London, are paying attention to domestic Canadian politics.
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B
Well, not least in this country, Carol, because I mean, as you suggest, I think there is very probably an element here, fear of rats doing whatever the opposite of leaving the sinking ship is joining the floating one. They see Mark Carney as a winner. His approval ratings personally are somewhere in the mid-60s. We are talking in a country where the which also has a broadly center left Prime Minister who was elected on a promise to be, you know, a sensible, stolid, no fuss leader and is barely polling in double digits. Why has Carney been able to sell this vision of competent centre leftism so convincingly while Sir Keir Starmer cannot give it away?
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C
It's a fascinating question, especially as of course, before he went back into Canadian politics, Mark Carney was the Governor of the bank of England here in the UK and seen as a very dry, very cautious character. And my goodness, has that changed. He is a very different character. He appears to be someone who can react intuitively and manage to remain on that center ground. Whereas Keir Starmer has tried to offer this vision of being somebody who was going to bring calmness after a rapid succession of different Prime Ministers here in the uk, but ever since he came to power with a huge majority appears to have been knocked in every direction. I think we're up to about 16 different U turns, which is quite something really. And I think many people are still frankly astonished at quite how badly he has done since he took over as Prime Minister. He achieved quite a feat in taking over the leadership of the Labour Party from the left wing. Jeremy Corbyn shifting the Labour Party much closer to the centre ground. But he seems to have simply lacked any idea of exactly how it works when you actually get to be leader, when you get to be Prime Minister. Whereas Mark Carney seems to have just found his feet there in that leadership role. And my goodness, I think many leaders around the world will be looking at that and wondering what lessons they can learn.
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B
Well, to Japan now, where cliche has long reminded us that in Japan more than most places, it is possible to purchase pretty much anything you can think of and a few things you wish you'd never been caused to think about from one of the several gazillion vending machines festooning the country, not, it says here, for much longer, Japanese consumers are drifting away from the dispensing contraptions. Soft drink sales are have dropped 10% in the last decade. Price is reportedly a factor in that it is often cheaper to buy from a convenience store, of which Japan is also not short and More venerable vending machines still require cash, which fewer people carry. Charles, where are you on vending machines? Are you a big fan?
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D
This is one of Japan's biggest attractions. And, you know, one of the things that you do when you walk the streets of Tokyo is that you absolutely marvel at the spectrum of goods available. At the touch of a button or the pull of a lever, you can
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B
get everything except an actual vending machine.
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D
Well, did you. Did you actually know this is entirely counterintuitive, Although leave it to the Japanese to figure out a way to make this work. You can buy eggs in a vending machine, which makes you sort of wonder, like, well, how do they drop down out of the vending machine? And carefully, how do you pull them out of said machine? And, you know, the Japanese, I'm sure, have worked some way to deliver each egg perfectly individually wrapped and wr ready to be sort of boiled or fried at home at your convenience. The silver lining to this story is that one of the causes of the erosion of the popularity of the vending machine, as you pointed out, Andrew, is the popularity of Japanese convenience stores. And these places are absolute works of art. The food that they sell is genuinely creative, delicious, and desirable. And then, you know, there are also things that you could never imagine getting in a western convenience store.
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B
I mean, they sell, like, served,
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D
like, actually anybody paying attention to you. Yeah. They are spotlessly clean. They are luminescently lit. And, you know, if you're a Japanese salaryman who's been out a little bit too late on the sake and you need to run into the office at short notice, you can just about buy a full wardrobe and change of clothes before you go back to work.
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B
Carol, have you ever had a noteworthily memorable or odd encounter with a vending machine?
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C
Do you know, I'm feeling a little out of my comfort zone here. I had absolutely no knowledge of Japan's vending machine culture, and I have to say, I literally can't remember when I last got something out of the vending machine, except potentially a bottle of water at the airport. I always feel like I can't have enough water when I get on. On board.
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B
You're one of those people.
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C
So I feel I'm very much out of my depth here, but I am actually cheered by. I mean, I was wondering whether the demise of the Japanese vending machine was because people were no longer buying their cans of fizzy canned drinks and moving towards green smoothies, which I know that they're massively into their new health kick, as in so many countries around the world, but the fact that you can actually buy fresh eggs, obviously that theory is right. Wrong. I'm slightly cheered by the idea that maybe it's because people actually like to walk into a convenience store and deal with human being, which is, you know, increasingly rare. And I just wonder whether in this country where there is actually a depressingly huge problem of shoplifting, particularly at local corner shops, people just going in, sometimes threatening and heading out of the shop with armfuls of six packs of beer, sides of beef and goodness knows what else. I just wonder whether maybe if the Japanese have got some spare vending machines, they should kind of ship them over to the UK and maybe that would be a way round it.
- [28:55]
B
Carol Walker and Charles Hecker, thank you both for joining us. Finally, on today's show, it is Thursday and therefore time for our weekly letter from this week. It comes from Oaxaca by Monocle Daily Panelist journalist and chair of the Rory Peck Trust Tira Shuba About.
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E
Just don't sit in the first three rows, My Mexican friend warned me when I told him I was going to a professional wrestling match known as Luce Libre in Oaxaca, an historic town in the southern mountains of Mexico. Sometimes they throw the wrestlers out of the ring right into the audience. You don't want them to land on you. It was good advice. When we arrived at the Open Air Venue, a plaza tucked behind shops and markets in a modest part of town, the audience was packed around what looked like a boxing ring, ropes strung between posts set on a raised platform around the makeshift arena. Disco lights were sweeping across the audience. Both children and adults posed ringside for photos and selfies, some wearing the masks of their favorite wrestlers. As the mood ramped up, a referee bedecked with golden wrist guards ran into the ring, waved his arms, and the match was underway. The first three fighters launched themselves into the ring dressed in an assortment of high vis boots, multicolored tights and vests. But none of the first three were wearing the colorful Luce Libre masks. Then a fanfarer as the top of the bill. Fighters danced into the ring after them wearing their signature full face masks, Santo Jr. In sparkly silver and the Puma King in fluorescent blue and white. The audience went wild. The theatrical contest with five wrestlers was underway. The tactics of Luce Libre were surprising. Sometimes one wrestler climbed high onto the ropes to call for more chicken, while the other fighters ran full tilt into the ropes for momentum to bounce into their opponents. Kicks were aimed at the most delicate parts of the body, but didn't actually seem to connect. The audience's favorite was when an opponent was lifted high overhead and then flung down on the floor with an enormous bang. Wrestlers were regularly heaved out of the ring with their engagement degrees of force as spectators seated below took evasive action. I was glad I listened to my friend's advice to avoid the front rows. The choreography of the wrestling took nothing away from the sheer physicality and entertainment of the spectacle. Luce Libre is a great night out and the second most popular sport in the country after football, a blend of theater and acrobatics officiated by a referee who didn't seem to follow many rules. It's just like the life of Mexico, my friend explained. Now you can understand something about my country. There have been plenty of unfair fights in Mexican history ever since the Spanish invaded Mexico in the 16th century seeking treasure and glory. The Spanish conquered the Aztec Empire and other traditional cultures by warfare aided by the new disease of smallpox carried from Europe. The indigenous Mexicans had their labor and land exploited as the nation was colonized. But over the centuries, the resilience of native Mexicans forced political change with hard won social justice and land reforms. The indigenous cultures are now valued and acclaimed, a narrative that is celebrated in the Luce Libre wrestling performance. Mexico is a nation that values its heritage while breaking new ground. Look no further than Claudia Sheinbaum, the first woman ever to be elected president. An historic victory this morning for Claudia Sheinbaum, who rose to national prominence here as mayor elected in 2024. Sheinbaum has broken many other barriers as well. The President the president, also known as Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum, is an energy engineer who worked in environmental policy as an academic before she turned her hand to politics. A feminist who advocates for legalized abortion, President Sheinbaum comes from Mexico's tiny Jewish community in a country which is more than 75% Catholic. Despite her liberal views not shared by Donald Trump, Trump President Sheinbaum has navigated a series of challenges from Washington to keep Trump satisfied and avoid economic turmoil. Sheinbaum recently won fulsome praise from Donald Trump at the end of January, in a social media post, the American president called his counterpart south of the border wonderful and highly intelligent and that Mexicans should be very happy to have her as their leader. The praise was welcome, as only weeks earlier, following the US Capture of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, President Trump hinted at the possibility of military action against Mexico aimed at the drug cartels. Claudia Sheinbaum held her nerve and pointed out the interdependence of the Mexican and American economies. Mexico is now the top buyer of US Products internationally. Along with the US Goods that are for sale everywhere in Mexico, there are more American citizens who have relocated south of the border. Some estimates are as high as 2 million Americans who have moved to Mexico. Some of the immigrants have Mexican heritage or are younger digital nomads, but more have left the US for political reasons. Walking around Mexico City, American voices are common and local friends complain the cost of rent in certain leafy neighborhoods have been pushed up by the new arrivals. Many of the US Immigrants are fans of President Sheinbaum, just like the New York Times, who included her in their annual list of most stylish people. The accolade was announced at the end of 2025, with the times reporting that Shinebaum has, quote, drawn attention to the country's indigenous fashion and is cracking down on brands that knock off local artisans. Indigenous. Last year, Adidas Sportswear had to apologize for launching a sandal called the Oaxaca Slip on, inspired by traditional Mexican footwear. However, the sandal was not made with the community in Oaxaca, and the charge of cultural appropriation was considered a win for Mexican artisans. Although President Sheinbaum has approval ratings as high as 70%, she says still must listen to the overwhelmingly young population of Mexico City who took to the streets last autumn to protest against corruption and organized crime. The influence of the cartels is an issue that Sheinbaum must deal with and the increasing worry about environmental concerns. Mexico is a semi arid country with a significant agricultural sector which is running out of water. The Mexican president will need to call upon her engineering and science background, as well as her ability to keep an unpredictable Donald Trump happy. A tough balancing act, but as a fashion icon with a PhD and proven diplomatic skills, don't bet against President Claudia Sheinbaum. For Monocle Radio, I'm Tyra Shubart.
- [36:46]
B
Thank you, Tira. And that is all for this edition of the Monocle Daily. Thanks to our panelists today, Carol Walker and Charles Hecker. The show was produced by Tom Webb and researched by Anneliese Maynard. Our sound engineer was Steph Changu. I'm Andrew Muller here in London. The Daily is back at the same time tomorrow. Thanks for listening, Sam.