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The Monocle Daily
Rare trilateral talks between Ukraine, Russia and the US cap a week of geopolitical change
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You're listening to the Monocle Daily, first broadcast on 23rd January 2026 on Monocle Radio.
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From Davos to the desert, diplomacy deals and doubts about American power. As global leaders come down from the Alps, attention shifts to fragile peace talks on Ukraine and a growing debate inside the US about the costs of intervention abroad. I'm Georgina Godwin. The Monocle Daily starts now. Hello and welcome to the Monocle Daily, coming to you live from our studios here at Midori House in London. My guests Charles Hecker and Mark Adelman will discuss the day's biggest stories. And our chief foreign correspondent, Carlotta Rebelo gives us her wrap of Davos. We'll have culture and film recommendations with Claud Jacob and Fernando Augusta Pacheco. And from Nuuk, Andrew Muller tells us what he has learned. Stay tuned. All that and more coming up right here on the Monocle Daily. Hello. Hello. I'm Georgina Godwin and I'm in the studio today, I am so pleased to say, with two men I adore, Mark Adelman, who is founder of Adelmania Consulting, a political strategist and a consultant for the Democrats in the United States, and Charles Hecker, a political risk and Russia analyst and author of Zero Sum the Arc of International Business in Russia. Now, Mark, you are normally to be found in America, either in Washington or in California. What are you doing here?
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C
Well, you know, I was telling you earlier, I hosted a storytelling program at the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School at Harvard this past fall and was able to sort of pretend I was a student for, you know, three months. I looked like one. At least. I wore a backpack to make me look younger. And, you know, I'm like on spring break now, so I thought, where better to come than London? And so just sort of catching up with some friends and just seeing what's going on.
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B
Well, it's always lovely to see you here.
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A
Thank you.
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B
And, Charles, you've been on your travels, too?
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D
That's right. I've been to the part of Switzerland that is not Davos and spent a day in Zurich actually briefing a team of executives who are on their way to Davos. I had a lovely. And Zurich turned around and came back, ah, very quick. Very quick, but pleasant.
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B
And I have been in India at the Jaipur Literature Festival, which was just fabulous. Mark, you were telling me you're either an India person or you're a Japan person.
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C
Well, that was. That was told to me, you know, that if you are somebody that can deal with, you know, just a lot of energy and you know, sort of activity at, you know, the, out of 10, at all times you are meant to be in India or China. And if you're somebody who does better with order and maybe organized structure, you kind of do better in Japan. I don't know if I do well in any of those places.
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B
You see, I think it's about where you place, place yourself within the social strata. Because if you're at, you know, top end parties in India, you could be a top end party anywhere in the. I mean, it's, you know, I don't think, I mean, obviously it's lovely to take in the country too, but at that sort of level it's, it's, there's an international crowd. Right, for sure.
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C
I mean, I will give you an example. Like, you know, I fly a lot. You all fly a lot. And if, you know, a plane gets delayed or it gets canceled, you know, I go, oh my God, I'm not built for this. What do I do? You know, like, and so I feel like, you know, maybe, I mean, we'll have to talk about my Moscow trip years ago because that was fascinating and maybe I'm a Moscow person, or at least I was at the time.
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B
So what is a Moscow person?
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D
Ooh, a Moscow person is somebody who sleeps very, very little. Moscow was and is I suppose to this day a 24 hour city. It has an absolute, you know, and I'm waxing nostalgic, of course, given what's going on. But Moscow is an inexhaustible city with phenomenal energy. It's big, it's brash, it's beautiful, it's ugly, it's monstrous, but it just goes. And it is a place where everything is possible and nothing is forbidden.
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B
Sounds a bit like Dubai.
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D
Actually, it's Dubai with an awful lot of snow in the winter.
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B
Well, let's go to the uae because that is where the negotiators from the Ukraine, from Russia and the United States are hosting negotiators. Officials say it's the first trilateral meeting involving all three countries since Moscow's full scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago. There are no presidents in the room. Neither Trump, Putin nor Zelenskyy are there. But the delegations heavyweight. They have representation from senior security and defense figures as well as the former US real estate developer Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump's son in law Jared Kushner. But everybody else is a very senior security or defense figure. There's much we don't know about this meeting, such as whether all three sides will even sit at the same table, and if the diplomacy in the desert will produce a concrete result, or if the prospect of peace remains a mirage. Charles, what do you make of the talks today?
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D
Yeah, Georgina, this is another one of these situations where I think we're going to hope for the best but prepare for the worst. You're absolutely right to point out that this is an unusual format. It is the first time that there have been tripartite talks on the war since 2022. And the people who've come to Abu Dhabi for these negotiations are considerably more punchy than the folks who've been attending negotiations in the past. These are people who have greater authority, although, as you point out, not the authority of their heads of state. But these are serious heavy hitters that have come. And, of course, these negotiations. Negotiations come precisely on the heels of talks in Moscow that started just before midnight last night and went until about three o'clock in the morning. Witkoff and Kushner got on a plane and flew directly to Abu Dhabi. They must be absolutely exhausted, but they are going to be a party to these talks. All of that said, you know, everyone says that this is down to the wire, and there are just a few outstanding issues, but there are reasons why there are these outstanding issues, and that is about territory and security guarantees, and these remain the most difficult elements of the negotiation, and they're still the most difficult elements of the negotiations. And I still don't see how anyone really budges significantly yet.
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I mean, just talking about the fact that the main players aren't in the room, that's not really relevant, is it? I mean, you've been in the room when these kind of things happen, and actually it's bashed out amongst the senior members of staff. You just bring in the sort of prominent figure to. To sign in the photo op, surely, typically.
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C
But, you know, nothing.
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Not with Trump.
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C
Yeah, yeah. Nothing is typical when it comes President Trump. And I do think it is no secret that he has empowered Jared and Steve Witkoff with almost the powers of the Secretary of State. And so, you know, they very much sort of speak for the president. And it is. It's definitely not what people are used to, but they are very much in the ear of the President.
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B
Mm. Mm. Charles, I wonder if Russia is willing to make compromises and what Moscow's actually trying to achieve at this stage now.
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D
Russia's position really hasn't moved over the years, frankly, since the war began. And, you know, next month will be the fourth anniversary of this horrible, grinding conflict, and Putin really hasn't backed off any of his key demands. And one of the big sticking points is that he wants Ukraine to relinquish territory that Russia currently does not occupy, militarily or otherwise. And I can't imagine anything that would prompt President Zelensky to say, oh, well, we'll just give you this, then. You know, the other thing is that President Putin would be diametrically opposed to the presence of any sort of foreign troops in, you know, a conflict zone that would become a sort of deconflicted zone. And Ukraine continues to insist on having European and American security guarantees to ensure that this is a durable ceasefire. You know, we don't really know yet. Are we having peace negotiations where the war ends? Are we having ceasefire negotiations where the war pauses? You know, the actual sort of quality of these talks is yet unclear. And the one thing that we do know about, you know, the presence of Kushner and Wytkoff is that, you know, Kushner in particular, his presence at these negotiations cement the fact that the business element of these negotiations is every bit as important as the political element of these negotiations, and that adds to the complexity.
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B
Yeah. Mark, I wonder how much influence Washington really has over the direction of this war.
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C
Well, I think they. They do have quite a bit. I think that, you know, President Trump has very much made this a clarion call for his power and leadership. And in the tropes that he likes to live in of being a deal maker, this is very important. He does say a lot. And, you know, the one thing about Donald Trump is you kind of know what's on his mind at all times. He does talk about many, many, many times about innocent children dying, innocent men and women dying, and how unnecessary this is and how disconcerting and upsetting this is. I do believe he would like to end this war.
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B
Of course, there is also a growing debate in Washington, in the U.S. rather, about how far Washington should be projecting its power beyond its borders. I wonder how Trump's push to annex Greenland is being viewed at home.
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C
Well, I think, you know, if you look at a lot of the sort of focus grouping and polling, most Americans are not really in favor of this. It's not something that voters, you know, even considered, I believe last year or was even came up as a campaign issue. And it's sort of a very, you know, voters are thinking about their everyday lives. We talk about this sort of ad nauseam, but it's true. Like, everybody's just trying to get out the door if they have kids, get them to school, make a decent living. A lot of Americans are struggling with that. A lot of Europeans are struggling with that. And, you know, the idea that bringing Greenland in is a America first ideal just doesn't really fly. I think with most Americans, we haven't taken territory in any kind of way in over 100 years.
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B
I mean, I wonder, Charles, if this could begin to hurt Republicans as the midterms approach.
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D
Yeah, I mean, it's early in 2026, but I think we can still say even now that this is going to be a very, very interesting year and a very interesting, I would say, 18 months, because in November we have the midterm elections. And midterm elections typically offer, you know, sort of diplomatically said, a bit of a corrective to the incumbent. And you will see an enormous amount of political jockeying. And I know I'm saying this in front of a political analyst, but you will see an awful lot of political jockeying in the run up to the midterm elections. And you may see Republicans coming to the conclusion that associating themselves too close to President Trump is a toxic move. You know, the MAGA movement right now is already at war with itself. And you've seen some fairly high level retirements and defections and disappointments with MAGA and the Republican movement. You know, most notably Marjorie Taylor Greene, who's, you know, who's should her last day in Congress should be one of the next coming days. She's resigning with almost immediate effect. And, you know, we'll see camps form and we'll see rivalries emerge. And the thing that makes the 18 month forecast interesting is that once the midterms are over, it's essentially the kickoff of the presidential election.
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B
Yeah. Mark, how of it? Democrats pushing back? Is there a credible leader emerging?
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C
Well, look, I think you've got many, I think you're starting to see and I think, you know, I know people that are Democrats who are desperate to say this is the person, this is the guy, this is the woman. But the truth of it is there's a process and that process takes time. And you certainly have people like Gavin Newsom, who was very much a star this week at Davos. You've got folks like J.B. pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer from Michigan, Josh Shapiro from Pennsylvania, Andy Beshear from Kentucky. There will be a lot of these names you'll be hearing over and over again. And I do think what is very interesting, one thing that you have heard from a lot of members of Congress and certainly a lot of voters is that, you know, the president is not a king. And so you need Congress to be able to create treaties. You need Congress to be able to enforce and create conflict and war. That is something that I think is also going to be very present and discussed at great length with politicians that are campaigning all year.
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B
I mean, it's interesting that you mentioned Newsom because, of course, California isn't just a political powerhouse. It's also the center of the entertainment world. Now, your connection to that world is very personal because your father, Barry Adelman, has been one of the key figures behind the Golden Globes for decades.
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C
Yes. Did you watch?
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B
Well, tell us a little bit about this. Cause you grew up with it.
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C
Well, yeah. You know, the Golden Globes is. I'm very proud. You know, my dad has worked for the Dick Clark Company for, you know, I can't even say how many years, but. And worked very close with Dick, you know, for decades. And they do a myriad of shows from the big New Year show on ABC in Times Square to the Golden Globes and the American Music Awards. And I can go on. The Golden Globes is a special show. It's irreverent. It's, you know, very much a show that talent, like going to the Oscars, which will be. We had the nominations come in yesterday. Actually. The oscars seats about 8,000 people. The Golden Globe seats about 1,100. And so everybody in that room is really sort of. They're meant to be there. You don't have sort of extraneous folks like me. And the other thing is that, you know, you're really, really tight in the room. And so there's sort of these great things that happen when talents see each other. The bars are open, Everybody's a little lubricated. And so it's kind of, you know, we like to say it's the party of the year because you kind of don't know what's gonna happen. Nikki Glaser was, of course, the host over the last two years. She's amazing. It's a very hard room to do. It's a very hard room to win over. And it is so cohesive in there and such a small space that you walk out on that stage and you see everybody you've ever wanted to work with or everybody you've ever worked with. And so it's pretty intimidating.
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B
Absolutely. Well, listen, we're going to return later in the show to the subjects of the Oscar, but right now it's time to say goodbye to our panel, Mark Edelman and Charles Hecker, and thank you very much for joining us. Now, I'm saying this on air, but of course we are just going to go and have dinner. Yes, a bit later. This is the Monocle Daily. You're back with the Monocle Daily. And I'm joined now by Carlotta Rebelo, Monocle's senior foreign correspondent and executive producer, fresh from a trip to Davos, where the World Economic Forum wraps today with leaders from politics, business and tech gathering to take stock of a year shaped by war, economic uncertainty and rapid technological change. Well, Carlotta, we really wanted to turn our attention away from the US President who soaked up up all of the oxygen at this year's event. How central was Ukraine to the discussions, not only on the stage, but when the microphones were off?
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E
So it is interesting, in previous years, I found that Ukraine was way more present as a topic, a discussion point in the official program. Now, Volodymyr Zelenskyy did arrive yesterday, but at the beginning of the week, we had the news that due to a Russian airstrike, he was considering canceling his attendance to Davos. But the House of Ukraine, I mean, Ukraine House, did a good job at bringing people together. They always have an array of former and current ambassadors to Ukraine coming in, people, some of the ministers as well, others zooming in from Ukraine. So they are quite good at keeping the momentum going and people and bringing people together from both the politics side, from civil society and business leaders. Because we need to remember this is a conference where we want to bring money. It's all about investment. And one of the people in attendance was the deputy minister for, for communities. Now, she is essentially tasked with reconstruction of Ukraine at a national level. We've spoken across Monocle Radio several times about the task of rebuilding cities and some of the organizations and local authorities working on that. But Alona Shkroom is really looking at the overall picture of how we do that at a national level and ensure that we continue to rebuild in Ukraine at the same rate that, you know, unfortunately, cities continue to be destroyed because waiting for things to be over means that these cities will be empty.
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B
Did China feel present in any meaningful way?
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E
Not as much. The vice premier of China was present and he did give a speech shortly before, Mark Carney, I believe. And for a bit, he nominated a bit of the headlines of everything that was coming out. But it wasn't as present as in years before, which I don't know if it's surprising or not, but it reminded me of India, for example, last year, which was a Davos, where the attendance wasn't as high. We didn't have as many business leaders or as many political leaders. Narendra Modi, surprisingly, was one of the few of those big names who attended in person. And this year, India House, for example, had its largest delegation ever. But no Premier Modi.
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B
You mentioned Mark Carney there, of course, the leader of Canada. He really seemed to be the one person who very much mattered. He said things of great consequence.
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E
Yes. And the immediate reaction after that, and I know that now we've had a few days to digest his speech, but a lot of the analysis matches that, which was. It was a speech for the history books. That's how everyone was describing it immediately after. And, you know, the mood in the room when he delivered it. I think he confronted or made people confront a lot of the, I guess, things that they didn't want to in terms of this idea of nostalgia for the old world order, of trying to bring some sort of common sense to the discussion. And ultimately, you know, this idea of rupture and not a transition. We're no longer in this. Oh, in between, things can go back to how they were. It's clear that the relationship with us between its allies has changed. It's no longer a question of how. So it's a matter of adaptation. How is Europe going to adapt to that? How is Canada adapting to that? And so on.
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B
Finally, somebody said the emperor has no clothes. It was extraordinary.
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E
Well, and we can't forget the protest that happened as well, where a group, five to six individuals, trekked up and skied down the mountain, apparently with some torches, some 400 torches and spelled no kings up the mountain, lit up in fire. So that was super visible. On the day that Trump delivered his.
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B
Speech, you mentioned the houses along the promenade. What did Davos get right, in terms of design and hospitality?
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E
Look, the houses are quite individual in how they look. It has to do a lot with their own appearance and their own messaging. But I want to highlight a few. So we had, for the first time, Nigeria house on the promenade. Super relevant to have a West African nation have a house and show that they are present and want to engage with the world, with business. We need to remember Nigeria is one of the founding members of ecowas, which is essentially, you know, the European Union of West Africa. So having a seat at a table really matters. Even if your voice is not heard immediately, you're there. You're, you know, you're with the big guys, let's say it. And I thought it was a really smart move by Nigeria House and makes me wonder if next year we'll see similar neighbors making making certain moves. Also we had House of Kosovo or House of Kosovo for the second year in a row. And this was again to remember. We need to remember that Kosovo is one of Europe's youngest nations turning 18 next month. And the premier, the prime minister Albin Kurti was one of the few that was at the house every single day, Monday to Friday to engage in these conversations. Most leaders fly in and out for a couple of days. He there hosting people at House of Kosovo. And that for me really stood out.
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B
Thank you very much indeed. Carlotta's Monocle's senior foreign correspondent. This is the Monocle Daily. Well, let's dive into some recommendations now for the weekend and weeks ahead. So earlier we promised you Oscar's chat and so we have those to give you film ideas and a whole series of French exhibitions and cultural suggestions, too. So joining us for this week's battle of recommendations are Monocle senior correspondent Fernando Augusto Pacheco and Monocle writer Claudia Jacob. Welcome to you both. Thank you for coming down. I know wine is being served upstairs and you have gallantly torn yourselves away from the open bar. And here you are. Thank you very much indeed. Fernando, let's start with you because you are wanting to get us all to go and watch something that is heavily tipped for the Oscars. It's a Brazilian political crime thriller.
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F
Yes. And not only a Brazilian political crime thriller, there's also a little bit of satire. It's a visual feast, I would say. And I think it's nice that Brazil is finally, well, you know, it took a few years, but last year we had them Still Here, which was a worldwide box office hit. And the Secret Agent to Follow being nominated for four, four categories including best picture, best actor for Wagner Maura. I think if you watch this film, you understand a lot about Brazil because it was set in the late 70s. It's a period where the military dictatorship was still in power. But it's very different from I'm still here from last year, which was also during the military dictatorship. This is kind of a less serious film. As I said, there's a little bit of a Brazilian flair. Nice cinematography. Wagner Mora, he's the most charismatic actor this season as well. That's all I can say.
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B
Claudia, you're going to take us to Paris to the Fondation Louis Vuitton and this Gerhard Richter Foundation.
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A
That's right. He's a German artist based in Cologne. And it's sort of it's a retrospective. And I think if you've been to the Fondation Louis Vuitton, you'll know that it's a humongous building and you really have to have a lot of range if you're going to exhibit there because it just. It goes through so many rooms. And because this is a retrospective, you know, you really get the full picture of his work. So, you know, it's in chronological order from 1962 to 2024. And it really takes you through the progression of his work, you know, starting with very colorful paintings to quite lyrical watercolors. And then it becomes much more sort of sombre and almost macabre as you sort of reach the end of the exhibition. And it sort of shows how he's gradually become more experimental with time, sometimes the other way around with artists. But actually there's a big change in his work. And as you sort of wind your way through the Fondation, you're able to trace that and really understand his elev.
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B
It's a brilliant building, isn't it?
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A
It's stunning. It's absolutely huge. And yeah, no, it's. It's definitely, definitely worth a visit.
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B
I get very perturbed, though, by they've got these little alarms along the bottom. If you stand too close to the work, the alarm goes off and there's always somebody standing too close to it. So it's like this near constant alarm.
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A
That's it. And it is, of course, one of the buildings of the late great Frank Garry. And it's. Yeah, it's worth looking at alone, just for its architecture.
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B
Yeah, well, you need a big building to see your next recommendation. You are telling people they must go to cinemas because it's such a groundbreaking thing film.
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F
It is groundbreaking and you need to watch it in the cinemas because of the sound. I mean, so much so that it was nominated for best Sound and is the first all female sound thing ever to be nominated for the Oscars. So C is a Spanish film. It's basically about a father looking for his missing daughter. But he looks for her in the deserts in southern Morocco and he goes in between raves that are happening in the desert. Honestly, I interviewed the director, Oliver Lachey. The interview is coming out in a few weeks in. It felt to me watching this film like a spiritual experience. And even the director himself is a huge man, two meters tall with long hair, you know, massive. But he had a very kind of calm vibes about him. So, you know, I could totally see that he directed this film. So Sirat. Honestly, I know that I love the Secret Agent, but I think I love as much Sirat as well. It's a great, great film.
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B
Well, so from big and huge and all of that, we're going to shrink it right down and talk about minimalism.
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A
That's it. At the Bourse de Commerce, they've got this, you know, they're sort of promoting the sort of more refined aesthetic. It's a American movement of the 1960s. And I think it really brings into question, you know, you look at these, you know, quite, you know, stark shapes and it sort of questions all of the, you know, the Parisian elegant architecture that the city has become known for. And of course it's set in this, you know, incredible, you know, magnificent rotunda. Tadao Ando's Bursta Commerce. It was a former grain repository. There's really nothing minimalist about this building. It is very much maximalist. But I think the interplay between those two things is super interesting and it sort of makes you sit back and, you know, have a think about what art really is. And, you know, it's very stark shapes, clear black lines. It's something a little bit different.
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B
Okay, you can talk about horror films, Fernando.
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G
Yes.
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F
You know why? Because horror is here to stay and the Oscars are loving it. Sinners was nominated for 16 Oscars, which is an all time record break. It's an all time number. But I want to talk about Weapons, which has been a surprise box office hit. They only got one nomination, but a very special one for supporting actress for Amy Madigans. She played Aunt Gladys. I don't know. Have you seen the film?
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B
I have not, because. Do you know why? Because it's a horror movie.
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F
It is a horror. But this is a good one. Have you seen Claudia? This one, she plays like this ant, you know, but she's kind of a manic, supernatural figure, you know, and she wears kind of some weird makeup. She's, you know, I think she became a little bit of a gay icon as well. You know, I'm not gonna lie here. I think Weapons is a great film. And even if you're not a horror fan, horror fan, I think you should try a little bit. It's not that scary.
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B
I'm not sure. Claudia.
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A
Persuaded.
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B
But I, however, am extremely persuaded by your next pick, Claudia. It's absolutely worth the trip to Paris just to see this. And in fact, that's exactly what you did, Fernando. You went to see this. It's 100 years of art deco.
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A
Yeah, that's it. So from 1925 to 2025. It started last year. And it really celebrates when Art Deco reached its zenith in Paris. You know, it's the department stores, the retailers, artists, architecture, all keen to muscle in the action. And this is a celebration of a centenary of this style. And, you know, it's seen through furniture and fashion, objet d'.
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C
Art.
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A
And also the reconstruction of the Orient Express, which I think is the sort of main hook of the exhibition. This sort of symbol of the golden age of train travel. Very luxurious, and also demonstrates how artists from other, you know, how artists from abroad, you know, borrowed this artistic. These artistic tropes, you know, in Manhattan, in Buenos Aires, these. The symmetry and the stylized forms. And actually, I think it's an acknowledgement of the staying power of Art Deco. You know, there are still so many buildings in Paris. You know, the Hotel Lutezia, the Saint Maritaine shopping center, that takes a lot of these geometric shapes and opulent materials into their interiors. And, you know, it's something that we still see today all over Paris. It's still as relevant as it was in 1925.
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B
Yeah, I mean, I've just been to Miami and that whole kind of building wave is incredible, isn't it? It's so beautiful.
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F
It is beautiful. And one thing I have to say, I mean, Miami perhaps is another good choice, but if you want some Art Deco furniture, there's so many galleries in Paris that are selling it. I mean, cool. Admittedly, it's not very cheap, but it's the place to be for Art Deco.
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B
Fernando, I'm going to allow you literally 30 seconds to talk about heated rivalry. Now. I became aware of this film, this gay hockey player film, because of Charles Hecker, actually, who was on the program earlier, who pointed out to me a headline in the Guardian which described it as buttocks like pneumatic hams.
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F
I can see that. I can totally see that. It's a lovely Canadian series and it's been the surprise hit of 2026 because, you know, the book was released, it had kind of its fans, but suddenly it exploded. Everybody's talking about it here in the uk, in France, in Brazil, especially straight women. I have to say it is very much a gay series, but I think it really connected to stray women. There's some sexy scenes, you know, everything's bright. They have amazing chemistry, those two gay ice hockey players, Connor Story and Hudson Williams, the actors, congratulations to them, and they demonstrate their emotions very well. It's not just the buttocks, but, you know, there's also a lot of great acting as well.
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B
A lot of great buttock acting.
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F
Exactly.
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B
Claudia. Finally, one of my favorite venues has been Reef. It's coming back.
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A
It's the legendary soho jazz club, Ronnie Scott's. They're opening the top floor of their Soho venue. It's going to have a capacity of 140, and it will sort of integrate that sort of dark wood upholstery motifs that we. That we associate with the sort of speakeasy jazz club vibe. And for the first time, they're going to be offering classical music in the jazz venue. So there you go.
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B
Absolutely. Sounds extraordinary. I'm not sure I'd go there for classical, though.
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A
I think some people, some people wanted to have more of a range.
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F
I'm a soho resident. I would definitely be checking this out. I mean, Coronis. Cause of course, It's. It's a SoHo icon. Right.
- [31:09]
B
Well, thank you for giving us those fabulous recommendations. I plan to do all of them, apart from the horror film and heated rivalry first. Actually, I have to admit, I have seen it. Yeah, those pneumatic hands will stay with me. Claudia Jacob and Fernando Augusta Foscheco, thank you very much for joining us. And finally, finally on today's show, the usual host, Andrew Muller may have spent the week in Greenland, but that hasn't stopped him from recording his weekly musings on the world. It's what we learned.
- [31:46]
H
We learned this week that there are sore losers, really sore losers, epically sore losers and hyperactively sore losers, and then several hyperbolic action adverbs. Further along, there is U.S. president Donald Trump. We learned this after Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who has been a guest on Monocle Radio's the Foreign Desk twice, and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gar, who is yet to appear on the Foreign Desk even once, and. Come on, mate, what are you waiting for?
- [32:21]
A
Just get on with it.
- [32:23]
H
What, him or us? We learned anyway that the pair had sent President Trump a short but entirely affable message to the effect of maybe give the chat about invading Greenland arrest. Let's talk about this like reasonable people. About which we, for one whimsical news monologue, were encouraged, given that we have been all this week in Greenland's tiny but delightful capital of Nuuk. They have a national anthem here. Hit it. And we learned that the response, said missive elicited directed towards Jonas Gastur, was in part as follows, as will now be read with due solemnity by Monocle's whining crybaby desk chief, Fernando Augusto Pacheco.
- [33:17]
F
Considering your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped eight wars. Plus, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace.
- [33:28]
H
From which we learned that Donald Trump has definitely not learned that Norway's government does not award the Nobel Peace Prize, has quite possibly not learned that Norway has nothing very much at all to do with Greenland, which is part of the kingdom of Denmark, and has very definitely not learned that he hasn't actually stopped eight wars, especially if you're not counting. And call us pedantic, but we, for one whimsical news monologue, don't. Those wars, which never actually occurred, like for Cambodia and Armenia, was just starting.
- [33:59]
G
And it was a bad one. Think of that.
- [34:01]
H
And we learned all this in a week in which we learned that Trump had received a Nobel Peace Prize, or at least a Nobel consolation prize.
- [34:10]
C
Tonight, just 24 hours after Venezuela's opposition leader Maria Karina Machado presented President Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize, we pressed the president on what he'll do with it. What do you intend to do with it? And why would you want someone else's Nobel Prize?
- [34:24]
G
Well, she offered it to me. I thought it was very nice.
- [34:31]
H
Yes, we learned that 2025's actual Nobel Peace laureate, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corinna Machado, had hanged, handed off the medal to President Trump, mounted in a tacky gold frame which will fit nicely in with the Uday Hussein bathroom, chic which presently dominates the Oval Office decor, and adorned with unctuous approbations along the lines of these are direct quotes presented as a personal symbol of gratitude on behalf of the Venezuelan people in recognition of President Trump's principled and decisive action to Fair enough among yards. More verbiage of the kind that might imaginably be coughed up if you typed into chatgpt the prompt Crank me out a few paragraphs of oleaginous flattery of the kind which might profitably soothe the fevered, seething ego of Earth's most abjectly needy individual. So we learned that President Trump appeared to have rethought one previously doggedly held.
- [35:31]
G
Position the United States will not let men steal trophies from women.
- [35:36]
H
But we learned that it hadn't quite taken, at least if one's threshold for success was stopping Donald Trump. Trump, whining interminably about being deprived of the recognition he believes himself due, should.
- [35:48]
G
Have gotten the Nobel Prize for each war. But I don't say that.
- [35:52]
H
Fact check. He does say that really pretty frequently. We learned, however, or at least were reminded who the real villains are and.
- [36:01]
G
Don'T let anyone tell you that Norway doesn't control the shots, okay? It's in Norway. Norway controls the shots. They'll say we have nothing to do with. It's a joke. They've lost such prestige.
- [36:13]
H
So we learned there from that President Trump either had not read or had not believed the explanation from Norway's Prime Minister, Jonas Gastur typed with an almost audible sigh, that Norway's Nobel Committee, which judges the peace prize, is an independent entity unlinked to Norway's government. And we learned, perhaps unsurprisingly in the context that one day near mep, specifically one Anders Vistisen believed that it might be time to state the general Nordic attitude more plainly.
- [36:44]
F
Let me put this in words you might understand, Mr. President, bog off.
- [36:51]
H
An approach which we learned might have kind of worked for. We learned that a week which began which bookmakers calculating odds on the Danish American War of 2026 and lawyers passing Article 5 of the NATO treaty, trying to figure out what in the wide world of sports everyone was supposed to even do if one member of the alliance attacked another while the president of the United States engaged in mortal combat with a paperclip.
- [37:16]
G
Oh, I'm glad my finger wasn't in that sucker. That could have done some damage. But you know what? I wouldn't have shown the pain. I would have gone back. What did you hear that? That was nasty. But I would not have shown the pain. I would have acted like nothing happened as my finger fell off.
- [37:34]
H
Ended with Trump collapsing, not for the first time, to the kind of space filling time buying flannel, which may stir memories in listeners whoever either neglected or forgot to do the reading before making a presentation to class.
- [37:48]
G
Well, we have a concept of a deal. I think it's going to be a very good deal for the United States, also for them. And we're going to work together on something having to do with the Arctic as a whole, but also Greenland. And it has to do with the security, great security, strong security and other things.
- [38:05]
H
But we learned that the international press, Monocle Radio very much included, which had descended upon Nuuk to cover the now apparently de escalated crisis, may not have far to travel for the next one.
- [38:17]
G
Our stock market took the first dip yesterday because of isis, so Iceland's already cost us a lot of money.
- [38:23]
H
Greenland, Iceland. Tomato, tomato. For Monocle Radio, I'm Andrew Muller.
- [38:32]
B
And that's all for this edition of the Monocle Daily. A big thanks to my panelists today. Charles Hecker, Mark Edelman, Carlotta Rebelo, Claudia Jacob and Fernando Augusto Pacheco. Today's show was produced by Chris Chermack and researched by Anneliese Maynard. Our sound engineer was Mariella Bevan. I'm Georgina Godwin here in London. And the Monocle Daily is back at the same time on Monday. Goodbye and thanks for listening.