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You're listening to the Monocle Daily, first broadcast on 30 January 2026 on Monocle Radio.
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A maybe sort of ceasefire in Ukraine, but does Russia think it's already over? Why Spain reckons everyone else is wrong on immigration and how visitors to Zurich can stay with Monocle. 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. It's our In House Friday edition. And my guests Julia Jenn, Ed Stocker, Grace Charlton and Nick Minise will discuss the day's big stories. And we'll have our weekly wrap up of what we've learned. 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 first of all today by Monocle writer and Ukraine expert, indeed Ukrainian Julia Jen. And we will start in Ukraine. And what may be good news, depending on how far one is inclined to trust the combined word of US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump claimed to have won agreement from Putin that Russia would take a week off, bombing Kyiv and other unspecified Ukrainian cities. But earlier today, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said he understood the ceasefire to have started last weekend and due to end on Sunday when the minimum temperature forecast for Kyiv is minus 22. In this interregnum, Russia has laid off Kyiv a bit, but has struck energy related targets elsewhere. Julia? President Zelenskyy has issued tactful thanks to this for Donald Trump, which I suppose he has to do. But actually how big a deal is, or should we perhaps say, was this ceasefire?
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C
I think the damage has been done. The effects of, you know, the strikes that Russia has been conducting on Ukraine and Kyiv's energy centers in particular over the last week and a half, two weeks, three weeks is just off the scale. Today there was an emergency meeting the UN nuclear watchdog iaea, and there was an emergency meeting with them because they are really worried about the risk of nuclear disaster in Ukraine because what we're having is huge energy spikes, you know, voltage spikes because of these attacks on the substations that are actually looking after supplying nuclear energy stations in Ukraine. Ukraine has enormous nuclear energy stations, power stations, you know, the biggest one in Europe is in Ukraine. And so if anything was to go wrong with these stations, that would be an issue for the entirety of Europe. So we're not talking just about actual energy being supplied into people's Homes. And we're actually talking about, you know, across the board, a very substantial change to the way that sort of energy infrastructure actually works in Ukraine. And it's important to note that in the last week that the supposed ceasefire has been happening. According to Russia, we've had huge attacks on Kyiv. You know, On Wednesday, over 600,000 households were left without electricity for a day because of strikes. On that night, we've also had strikes across the country. And actually, in particular, Russia has been focusing on logistics, so targeting passenger trains. They have targeted, you know, a passenger train, for example, one yesterday in Kharkiv, which was traveling along with just normal civilians, women, men, children, traveling between cities. And they, you know, just hit it, slammed into it with a drone and just killed people inside. These people burnt alive. You know, it's very traumatic. And there has actually been an announcement from Ukraine, Liznitsia, Ukraine's national railway service, they've said that they're actually going to limit the amount of trains they're sending between, for example, Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia, two major Ukrainian cities. That's never happened in the war before. It really shows how vulnerable Ukraine is right now to Russian strikes.
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B
Given all that, is there any optimism or I guess even any attention attendant upon the allegedly ongoing peace talks? United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed has arrived in Moscow and has issued a fairly pro forma statement. UAE fully supports any efforts, blah, blah, blah, political and diplomatic solutions, et cetera, peace, international harmony and stability. Does any of that mean anything much at this point?
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C
I think no. On one hand, you know, it's Groundhog Day. That's what everyone's been saying. You know, memes about that film sort of abounding in Ukrainian Internet. But actually, interestingly enough, there has been a real, real slowdown in diplomacy in terms of prisoners of war and abduct at Ukrainian children and civilians. And that's why the UAE has really been instrumental in the past, really making sure that civilians and children who've been deported into Russia, and we're talking about, you know, hundreds of thousands of people, this is not a small scale kind of operation that Russia's been conducting. And of course, prisoners of war, Ukrainian prisoners of war who are held in horrific conditions, they're not, you know, they can't be visited by international agencies. There is systematic allegations of torture. There have been, you know, satellite images to show entire camps, torture camps really being constructed for Ukrainian prisoners war. We're talking about horrific stuff. The UAE has been instrumental in making sure that Russia conducts these regular exchanges with Ukraine. And these are so important for Ukrainian families and the Ukrainian public because it really helps feel like there is some progress being made. People are being protected in a real way. You know, their freedom is being sort of guaranteed, and the UAE is very instrumental in this. So, perh. See some positive moves coming out of this visit to Moscow.
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B
On the Groundhog Day motif, though, obviously, US President Donald Trump said, you know, upon arriving in office, he could solve this in 24 hours. And we've now had about a year of him saying there will be an agreement in a month or two weeks or 20 minutes or whatever the timescale of the moment is. His envoy, Steve Witkoff, is latterly claiming it all hinges on one issue which he says is solvable. One assumes this is referring to territorial exchanges, but is that actually solvable? By which I guess I'm asking, is there any imaginable compromise that Russia might agree to and that President Zelensky could get Ukrainians to agree to? Especially after the four years Ukrainians have.
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C
Had, it's very difficult to see that happening. What Russia wants right now is for Ukraine to give up the Donbas, which is, you know, vital to Ukraine's fortification system, if Ukraine is giving that up. But they're not just giving up, you know, civilian homes. They're giving a large swathe of their population up, their industry, you know, logistics hubs and so on and so forth. But also, absolutely, in terms of, you know, the fortifications that have been built and the investment that has gone up into kind of protecting these areas, that would all just be given away for free. What Zelenskyy is really highlighting is that there have to be security guarantees to Ukraine from the US Ironclad security guarantees that come before any peace deal, because Ukraine can't be signing anything. This is Zelenskyy's argument, understanding that the US Is backing them. There have been some interesting developments this week with Elon Musk and Starlink. There have been reports and, you know, allegations that Russia is using Starlink, strapping Starlink devices onto their drones to basically make them unjammable. And really, interestingly, Ukraine's new Defense Minister, Fedorov, he's been in close contact with Elon Musk on this issue, which is a bit of breakthrough that we weren't expecting, I think, from Elon Musk potentially. Hopefully there'll be some good news there. But, you know, what Ukrainians always go back to is the Budapest memorandum from the 90s. This is when Ukraine gave away its nuclear weapons. It gave away a huge arsenal of weapons, fighter jets, planes, you know, really important stuff that is in fact, in fact, even rockets that are actually being used against Ukraine by Russia today, the exact same weapons that were transferred back in the 1990s in exchange for a security guarantee by the U.S. i think Ukrainians understand they may have to go through this charade of security talks, peace talks with the us, With Russia, but there's an understanding, a real ironclad understanding that the only protection they really have is from their own army.
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Monocle's Julia Jen, thank you for joining us. You're listening to the Daily on Monocle Radio. This is the Daily on Monocle Radio. The February issue of Monocle magazine is on a newsstand near you now exploring a theme of how to change and or reimagine a country. One country which features therein is Spain, which is tackling an issue faced by many others, but is bucking the consensus in terms of its response. I'm joined down by Monocle's Europe editor at large, Ed Stocker. Ed, welcome to the show. Introduce the piece and its subject.
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D
Indeed. Hello. Yes, I spoke to the Spanish minister for inclusion, Social Security and migration, Elma Size, as you said, Spain is really looking to, I guess, in many ways offer something different. It's looking to, in many ways, welcome migrants. It's made it a lot easier recently for people to settle there. It's trying to, in many ways, live up to the fact that, you know, essentially it's an aging population, like here in Italy, where I'm based, Greece as well. It has this aging population. It needs more people in the workforce. It needs to prop up its welfare system. And it's trying to do that in what it calls a progressive way. But of course, that is bucking the trend compared to much of the world, which seems to be going anywhere in the opposite direction. Andrew?
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B
Well, indeed so. And by way of illustrating just how very prescient your piece is, we've seen an example of what Spain is doing just this week.
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D
Yeah, we just thought we'd time it so that there's this great news story breaking in January. Yeah, I mean, when I spoke to the minister, there was sort of a feeling of frustration because there'd been this popular vote, basically this law, this debate had been introduced to Parliament after some 700, 000 people signed this petition to have basically immigrants regularized, you know, normalized within Spain. It was debated in Parliament back in 2024, but the opposition, the right wing opposition sort of changed its mind about this law, even though this initiative Rather, even though it had the backing of the Catholic Church, amongst many others. So it was stuck in parliament for a long time. And then what the government decided to do just now, earlier this week, was to use a royal decree to make this happen so that bypasses parliament. And now there could be up to 600,000 people who are living in Spain, but not with papers. They could see their situation radically changed. They could have residency through this change in the law. Applications will start from April and run through to the end of June. But it's a massive thing for Spain and obviously it would lead to a lot more people being able to work from day one in Spain. The only law being that you have to have lived in Spain for at least five months and have arrived by the end of last year.
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B
Well, let's hear a clip of the minister now talking about why Spain has taken the stance it has.
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E
Spain took a consistent decision. Firstly, Spain isn't alone and Spain took the choice of being an open and prosperous country and not a closed and poor one. Spain is a country of opportunities and this is a response to a political decision and to values and principles of social democracy and being a progressive country with progressive policies.
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B
Ed, as far as it's possible to tell though, how is this going over with the Spanish electorate? Because most politicians across Europe now and across the wider west and not just the far right populists, are proceeding on the assumption that large scale immigration is incredibly unpopular.
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D
It's complicated in Spain, I'd say, you know, on the one hand you have those numbers of signatories which I mentioned before, the fact that 700,000 people signed this popular request to sort of legal legalize the, the migrants that don't have papers in Spain, which is a big number, but at the same time it's an extremely polarized country. You know, you have one data gathering organization which I mentioned in this piece in February, saying that, you know, migration, immigration is the number one fear. It's the number one issue for Spanish people. And it's no, there's no doubt that it's going to play a major role in the next general election, which is scheduled for 2027. At the same time, you have very different visions from the country at the moment. There's this left wing coalition minority government which is led by the socialists. You have the right that is increasingly hardened against any talk of migration. Even the center right pp, the People's Party, is taking an increasingly hardline stance. Then you have the far right vox party that basically accused Pedro Sanchez, the prime Minister, after This royal decree of wanting to replace, he actually used that word, Spanish people. So the right, if you can paint a broad brush, is sort of whipping up fear about all of this. Even when this royal decree was passed, you had the leader of the PP saying that the reason this was taking place was that the government wanted to increase the electoral register, basically that it would somehow advance, be advantageous for them, even though people moving to Spain or people being granted residency aren't given an automatic vote. So they sort of had to walk that back. So you have two very different visions, I think, of Spain and I think this debate is going to continue to play out as we head into this election cycle and look towards 2027. Andrew. And you know, when there is this fear, of course, there's this fear about jobs and people losing out to foreigners coming into the country. And Minister Saez was very keen to push back against that idea that she says is the right doing.
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But a person from overseas isn't coming to take a job from a Spanish national, nor will they take a house from them or deprive them of medical attention in the public system. This is a narrative that the right and extreme right are trying to force on us.
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B
And just finally and briefly, obviously listeners who want to learn more about this can read all about it in the new issue of Monocle. But is the minister kind of resigned to the idea that in those upcoming elections this is going to be the major issue?
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D
I think she is resigned to being used. I mean, she was very keen and I think really most comfortable, to be honest, during our interview and we spoke for a good amount of time when attacking the right. That was in her most comfortable place. You know, she just accuses essentially both those parties which I mentioned before of sort of using it to whip up the electorate and use it for electoral gain. So she's, I guess, accusing the right of, of politicking, of using the, the fear of immigration to try and get some electoral gain. And who knows, you know, at the moment. And if you look at the polls, the PP is very much ahead of the socialists. VOX is as gay numbers as well. You know, what stopped the Right getting into power in the past has been the refusal of, of the PP and VOX to govern together if that were to change. And that is a big if, they would indeed get into power. Andrew.
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Ed Stocker, Monocle's Europe Editor at large. Thank you for joining us. You're listening to the Daily. This is the Daily on Monocle Radio. And joining me now is Monocle's associate editor, for design and fashion. Grace Charlton Grace. Before we get to what it says, here is the main event. There is some breaking news from Alia.
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Alia Alaia.
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B
I have once again put the emphasis on the wrong syllable.
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A
Yes. Alaia is this beautiful brand French house. They have one of my all time favorite creative directors, Peter Millier, who's just announced he's leaving. So I'm a little bit devastated.
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Andrew, what is good about the stuff he creates?
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Oh, it's so sculptural. It's very monochromatic. He's just brought new life into this house and it just, it's just pure beauty. To me. It's sort of an ode to perfect minimalism. One that isn't boring, but is actually very fine tuned.
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B
But rumor has it he is off to a house not often popularly associated with minimalism.
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This is adding to my devastation. The rumor, and it is just a rumor at this stage, I have to say that he's gonna go to Versace.
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B
That does seem to my admittedly inexpert sensibility like something of a pivot.
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I just can't see it. I don't understand how that sort of gold lame, very, you know, 90s sexy, whatever is gonna match up with his stunning minimal sculptural vision. I just can't see it. And I saw Demna going to Gucci in a way that other people didn't understand. But this one, I really, I'm trying to wrap my head around it.
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B
Well, doubtless more on that as events unfold. But this main event that we have been building up to. Grace, what is that going to be?
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It's a bit of service journalism for you, Andrew Moulin.
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Excellent.
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As well as our listeners, if they care. I've been on the road for a few weeks at the menswear shows and I picked out a few looks that I would like to discuss with you.
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Okay.
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And the idea is that maybe you could get some tips. How are you?
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Are you suggesting I need them? Grace? No, never, never suggesting.
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Hey, we can always, we can always improve on ourselves. So I've printed out some looks and.
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I, I, I, I. Yeah, I, I think we probably need to introduce to listeners the fact that we will be referring here to printouts you have not actually swished in here with a clothes rail full of things for me to try on, which frankly would be somewhat wasted in this entirely audio medium.
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Yeah. How good would that be then? Next time. Next time. Okay, we're starting in Milan. We've got Luke 26 from the Prada Menswear Autumn Winter 2026 collection. I'm starting off quite tame. Okay, first thoughts.
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B
So what am I looking at here? I'm looking at somebody who is about the width of one of my legs. So that may be helping him get into this outfit. I would characterize this. This is obviously it's a suit. It's a double breasted suit, except an extremely sl.
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Okay. But what's special about the cuffs?
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B
They're extremely long and flappy.
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A
Yeah. They've been left undone. It's a shirt, a dress shirt. And it has the cuffs sort of. Yeah. Flapping out in a devil may care sort of way.
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B
Is that a dress shirt though? It's got no collar. He's gone a bit Miami Vice here. This is the T shirt under the suit jacket.
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Well, he's forgotten his cufflinks.
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B
Okay.
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That's for sure.
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Well, that could happen to anybody.
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So the reason I picked this out for you, Andrew, is because you probably have all of these elements in your wardrobe. You just have to.
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B
A pair of shoes and a T shirt.
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A
No, a shirt and a suit. But what's important here, the service journalism here, is to know that you could style in an interesting way a shirt by leaving the cuffs undone and then tucking them into your little pockets in a sort of existential manner.
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B
I mean, I could get with the leaving my cuffs undone and tucking them into my pockets in an existential manner. What I, I'm, I have reservations about, Grace, is the double breasted suit. I, I have never worn one. I've never owned one. They are somewhat, to me, redolent of your sort of Nigel Farage slash provincial second hand car dealer. I mean, that's it. I, I can't see Nigel Farage wearing this either. It's a specific sort of double breasted suit. But genuinely, what do people see as the merit of the double breasted jacket? Because I've never got it.
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A
That's such a good question. I think people see it as a sort of remnant of Savile Row tailoring and, you know, the art of getting dressed in that very gentlemanly fashion. It's making a real comeback. I saw a lot of them on the Runway.
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B
I remain unpersuaded. But nice try. What's next?
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A
Next is look 55 from Hermes. This is a very important collection. Andrew. Be nice.
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B
Go on.
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It's Veronique Nichagnon final collection at Gomez after 37 years.
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B
That is quite a shift.
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A
Yeah, right. And it's a crocodile. It's black leather rendered in crocodile leather. And it sort of Looks like an oil slick. But I thought, you know, you're sort of a rock and roll journalist at heart. Maybe this you could sport, you know, at your next concert outing.
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B
My views basically boil. Are in two parts. One, I think that a male human being has a very, very slender window in which he can wear leather trousers. This chap, I think, is clearly in it.
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A
What is the window?
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B
Oh, I mean, it's a matter of perhaps a few months between your late teens and early twenties. This chap is clearly in that window and he has the build for it. He can probably just about get away with leather trousers. Although these are weirdly baggy leather trousers, which is not something as. As for the leather jacket, I do still own one or two of those. Don't wear them terribly often because I think, again, there's a possible window issue there as well. But every so often. That's actually quite a nice jacket.
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A
Yeah, it's gorgeous.
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B
I. I would not. I wouldn't wear it with a black polo neck because I'm not a. A polo neck wearer. But I, I do actually quite like the jacket. I'm going to go ahead and guess it may be somewhat beyond my price range.
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A
Yeah, it's not about that.
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B
It's a bit about that.
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A
It's a little bit about the styling lessons, Andrew. Oh, my gosh. It's about how, you know, you could just take a simple all black outfit and you add an interesting material like, hey, I don't know, crocodile. Crocodile skin, and you focus on the silhouette and suddenly it's Hermes.
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B
Yeah. I don't mind the jacket at all. I would call the jacket a win. I think this lad in this picture is gonna. He can keep the trousers, but, yeah, the jacket. I'm not sure where or when I would wear it, but it's all right.
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A
All right. And now we're going to Copenhagen.
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B
Go on.
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A
Fashion Week.
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B
I was there just recently, just last weekend.
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A
Oh, my God.
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On the way back from Greenland, did.
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You feel the buzz of the Fashion Week?
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Not as such. Mostly what happened was our flight from Nuuk arrived quite late and we were very, very focused on trying to find something to eat because it had been a very long day. And of course, by the time we got to downtown Copenhagen, it was kebabs or nothing. So that. That was ended. Our expedition to Greenland, eating kebabs in Copenhagen.
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Chic.
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B
Well, we thought so.
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Fashion Week has just wrapped up today in Copenhagen. So this is fresh off the Runway.
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B
Okay.
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A
It's a look from MKDT studio. And the lesson here so what we're looking at is a gorgeous Scandinavian girl with just a simple black outfit, but she's thrown on top of it a statement coat. Floor length, fur.
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B
Yeah, again. I mean, again, there are fairly fundamental reasons, actually even more fundamental reasons in this picture why this model can get away with things that I cannot.
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E
No.
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A
But, hey, Andrew, I don't like this talk. Yeah, I think you can pull off way more than you try. Which is like quite a statement because you do try to pull off.
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B
I try hard. That's what you're telling me. The thing is, to bring this back to our trip to Greenland, I did do a piece which I think has already aired on Monica on Fashion, speaking to a designer in Nuuk who makes a lot of garments from seal fur which are beautiful and she insists, absolutely functional. But I'm not sure, again, where I would wear one.
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A
Are seals furry?
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B
Oh, yeah.
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A
Really?
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B
Yeah.
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A
I sort of picture them as like, sort of waxy.
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B
I mean, the fur might be waxy, but seals are definitely furry. How do you think they kept warm?
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A
I don't know. The blubber.
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B
You're thinking of whales. But yeah, I mean, it's. I don't know. Are people wearing fur? Again, there was a period in which people got extremely angry about, you've opened.
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A
Up the biggest can of worms. Because I am the owner of a floor length faux fur coat. But the existentialism that I went through in terms of deciding, do I want to get secondhand fur, do I want the real deal? Fake fur is not particularly good for the environment either because it's synthetic. But I'm a vegetarian and I couldn't face the idea of wearing a dead animal on my body. So I ended up.
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B
You were just telling me to get.
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A
A crocodile skin jacket, say I was gonna get one. So I ended up on, like, faux fur, but one that I do believe I will keep for a long time and is very high quality. So I've found. But you're right, it's a highly controversial topic and I don't really know what the answer is. I think everyone sort of has to determine their own personal sense of, like, ethical good.
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B
I mean, it's a nice fur coat if you're that way inclined. But again.
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A
Well, I think the lesson here is, like, getting dressed in the winter, quite boring. And you need to be practical, Liven it up with a nice, nice investment coat.
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B
Would I not have to be a little bit concerned that I looked something like a little bit, maybe like a bit of a pimp?
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A
No. Oh, Andrew, no. If You've accessorized with a cane and a trilby hat, perhaps, but I think if you just kept it low key and minimal, like this gorgeous girl on the MKDT studio catwalk, you'll be fine.
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B
Well, on that inspiring note, Grace Charlton, thank you for joining us. This is the Date Daily. This is the daily on Monocle Radio to Zurich now and to the opening of what is, in the rigorously impartial view of this, the Monocle Daily. Without doubt, the best place to stay when visiting the city. It is the Monocle Townhouse at the Vida Hotel. And joining me now for a guided tour is Monocle's design editor, Nick Manise. Nick, introduce the townhouse.
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F
I'd love to. Andrew Muller. So it's, it's Monocle's Okay. Technically we have put together, I guess, suites and apartments for people to stay at before, but this is our first one, branded exclusively as Monocle but in partnership with the video hotel, as the name suggests. So it's a amazing hotel in the heart of Zurich's old town from the 1980s. It dates back to the 13th century. It's a, it's a composition of nine different townhouses that they've pulled together what they've done. And this is, this is by the hospitality group the Living Circle, who have a host of amazing hotels. But the Vida is, is their flagship, really. And what they've done is they've bought an apartment in a former seminary just across from the hotel, weren't sure quite what they wanted to do to it, so they reached out to us at Monaco, asked us if we'd fancy designing the interiors. So we had Pedro Becca on our design team, worked with Tyler Brulee, our founder, and pull together just an amazing interior space that's really reflective of who we are as a brand.
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B
Well, on that subject, obviously everybody who works at Monocle and associated businesses has wide and not always happy experience of staying in rented accommodation around the world. What kind of lessons from that were brought to bear on this?
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F
This, I mean, it's, I think it's things like, you know, lighting that is gentle. So when you come back from, you know, a day out in Zurich, wandering around, walking around, maybe bouncing between meetings if you're there for work, coming back into a space that is really welcoming and really homely, I think, I think that's maybe it more than anything, it's, it's really been set up almost as a home away from home. It's certainly more, yeah, more apartment than hotel room and yet you get the same amenities that you would in a hotel room because it is connected to the bidder. So you've got their 24 hour concierge, room service, access to their gym, daily housekeeping, all those sorts of things. But yeah, with the sense that you're in a home, in a space that feels distinctly residential rather than, I guess, contract style hotel.
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B
Well, in order to make it feel like a home though, that obviously means bringing to bear a certain sense of style upon it. How would you define the way this looks and what kind of things have been deployed to create that image?
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F
I mean, I think it's perhaps furnished that you wouldn't typically find in a hotel room. You know they're, they're the pieces in there, I mean obviously certainly robust. But I think when you're, when you're talking like a hotel hotel, you're probably over engineering everything to the nth degree to make sure it doesn't get trashed. This, I mean this space, we're assuming we've got, you know, people that have an appreciation for quality interiors and again are looking for something that is a little bit more homely. So we've got, you know, there's, there's your classic sort of USM modular shelving systems and cabinets set up in there. You've got furniture from timber, furniture from Denmark, sorry, you've got shelving from Denmark's movie, you've got Sweden string in there. All these kind of like more, I guess domestic, more brands align with the domestic spaces. I think the other thing that's incredible is this enormous custom table in the dining room by the Swiss American brand Seats who work with Portugal's Oleo, another amazing furniture brand, to make chairs that match the table. So we also had. Everything's kind of responding to the space and I think that's kind of key as well. This isn't just like a drag and drop pop it. In no regard for the actual formation of the space kind of creation. This is really considering the fact that this is in what, what is an apartment in central Zurich. And it's furnished in that way with consideration for the space, with an understanding of context and the layers and the details that are required.
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B
And what kind of fanfare has attended its opening last night?
- [31:35]
F
Just a host of, I guess friends of the Monocle brand were there, but also of the Vida Hotel. And we had an excellent afternoon with a lot of Swiss press yesterday, just sort of introducing the concept to them. And I think that's what's been so beautiful about this. It's also the, I guess the interest we've had from other media organizations to see a media organization like us, I guess, trying to walk the walk. I mean, it's all well and good for us to talk about what good lighting is, what good hospitality is, you know, what a welcome, what a nice welcome is, but for us to actually execute on that and deliver on that I think is something else entirely. And I think that's what also makes this so exciting.
- [32:15]
B
And just finally, Nick, on the subject of media brands, can I assume that provisions are made for guests to keep up with their favorite magazine and indeed radio station?
- [32:25]
F
You will be very pleased, Andrew, Melissa, that this, this episode of the Daily is probably being broadcast in the apartment right now in the Monacle Townhouse right now. There's a few amazing technosat radios that Monocle collaborated on to produce that are also airing Monocle Radio throughout the day there. And of course, course, a smattering of amazing magazines and print publications that we've worked on throughout the apartment.
- [32:51]
B
Nick Minice, Monocle's design editor, thanks for joining us. You can find out much more about the monocle townhouse@vidahotel.com you're listening to the Monocle Daily. You're listening to the Daily with me, Andrew Muller. And finally, as usual on today's show, our weekly assessment of the extent to which the last seven days have left us any the wiser. We learned this week that many of the United States, hitherto most volubly dauntless, defiant from my cold dead hands, Second Amendment fundamentalists appeared to be in the grip of, of a rethink.
- [33:39]
D
As Christie said, you cannot bring a firearm loaded with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want.
- [33:46]
B
It's that simple.
- [33:47]
D
You don't have that right to break the law.
- [33:49]
B
We learned that among them was FBI director for some reason, Kash Patel, who despite hailing from the wing of the Republican party, which generally regards it as an intolerable encroachment upon the liberties of a free citizen, to be told they can't take a grenade launcher to anti antenatal classes, had suddenly pivoted to gun control. And we learned that Patel was not alone. You know, he can't have guns. He can't walk in with guns.
- [34:15]
A
What about the second Amendment?
- [34:17]
B
Listen, he can't walk in with guns. You can't do that. So we learned yet again of the undignified, if bleakly amusing knots that people will tie themselves in when attempting to adjust reality to their beliefs rather than the other way around. We learned that the startling reconsiderations of the right to bear arms had been prompted by one American citizen doing exactly that, as like it or not, he was entirely entitled to do, at least until masked goons employed by the state decided that it was instead an offence meriting summary execution.
- [34:51]
E
We are now learning that two officers fired during that fatal encounter with Alex Preston this past Saturday, according to an initial report to Congress from the Department of Homeland Security.
- [35:01]
B
We learned, as we often seem to from the American political discourse, that a given thing is absolutely fine when one side does it, absolutely insupportable if the other side does it, that any unfortunate consequences attendant upon the given thing are terrible and unjust when they befall one side, but no more or less than were deserved when visited upon the other side. We learned an additional lesson in this paradox from Congressman and idiot Randy fine, representing the 6th district of can you guess? It's Florida, isn't it? We will not be distributing prizes on this occasion. No, we learned, yes, that Congressman Fine was absolutely clear on who was to blame for a mercifully ineffectual assault on one of his colleagues, Congressman Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of the Minnesota 5th.
- [35:50]
F
Well, I've got two thoughts. First, look, I want Ilhan Omar to be deported and denaturalized, but I don't want her to be attacked or hurt and people shouldn't do this sort of thing. But I also blame Ilhan Omar for.
- [36:01]
B
What happened, from which logic, and to be honest, we're getting kind of confused ourselves at this point. We can learn, or at least infer that it is the fault not of the producers, directors and editors involved with the film in question, but but probably of George Soros funded liberal conspirators, that nobody wants to see this.
- [36:20]
C
Together with like minded leaders we have.
- [36:23]
B
A voice that being Melania's sensationally expensive cinematic hagiography of the US first lady, though technically this President's Third lady, which we learned had opened on this shore of the Atlantic at least to the sort of attention residences which at least offer those who do turn up spare seats for bags, hats, coats, an entire symphony orchestra, That kind of thing. We learned in researching the matter further that the British talent for droll euphemism remains in robust health. As a spokesperson for the UK Cinema Chain View, which has somehow been lumbered with this dud, described ticket sales as soft, which was indeed one way of acknowledging that the premier screening had attracted precisely one punter. Maybe it was raining. Still, it wasn't all bad news. We learned that the subsequent screening had done twice as well, but we learned that where one US based foreign artiste couldn't give it away, another was trying to. We learned that Neil Young, for it is he, had decided to do his bit to effect reconciliation between his adopted home, the United States, and the bewildered people of Greenland, who as recently as a week or so ago were laying in salted blubber and battening hatches in anticipation of hosting the Danish American War of 2026. We learned that Young was offering Greenlanders, in the interests of, quote, peace and love, a year's free access to his vast majority digital archive, presumably so they can enjoy such hits as Heart of Cold, Rockin in the Freeze World, Snow, More. Everybody knows this is Narwhal, Walrus Never sleeps, Only love can break your harpoon. Are those anything? Boo. No, you shut up. And we learned, because it is lamentably, once again that time of January, that the friendless poindexters at the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Oh no. Were, as usual, absolutely itching to wheel out their silly big clock and tell us precisely how doomed we all are. And we learned that we are more doomed than ever. Which, when you think about it, is by definition true. The world won't last forever. Am I right? Anyway, we learned, as usual, that these forlorn dweebs don't half take themselves seriously, which is more than any girls ever have. So the deliberations of the Science and Security Board that set the Doomsday Clock every year are pretty intense. Go on the then hit it.
- [39:07]
A
Every second counts and we are running out of time. It is a hard truth, but this is our reality. It is now 85 seconds to midnight. This is the closest the world has ever been to midnight.
- [39:21]
B
Happy New Year to you too, nerds. And that is all for this edition of the Monocle Daily. Thanks to our panelists today, Julia Jenn, Ed Stocker, Grace Charlton and Nick Minise. And just before we go, this in honor of Canadian actress Catherine o', Hara, who, it is reported has died at the age of 71.
- [39:42]
C
I have a terrible feeling.
- [39:44]
F
About what?
- [39:47]
C
That we didn't do something. Did you close the garage?
- [39:50]
F
That's it. I forgot to close the garage. That's it?
- [39:54]
C
No, that's not it.
- [39:55]
B
What else could we be forgetting? Kevin, that clip of o' Hara from Home Alone. She also greatly enlivened the series, Schitt's Creek and many, many others. Her turn as Marilyn Hack in four years. Your consideration is also much recommended, if you haven't already. Playing us out is the theme from Home Alone. Today's show was produced by Chris Chermak and researched by Anneliese Maynard. Our sound engineer was Steph Chungu, with editing assistance from Mariella Bevan. I'm Andrew Muller here in London. The Daily is back at the same time on Monday. Thanks for listening.