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A
You're listening to the Monocle Daily, first broadcast on 23rd September 2025 on Monocle Radio in New York. Donald Trump tells the United Nations General assembly it's failing to deliver and that many of its members are going to hell. Constructive the India EFTA deal kicks in next week, perhaps offering a template for how to talk trade against such an angry backdrop. And Beijing's strategy in Africa will also be in the spotlight as Chinese exports rise in the face of US Tariffs, trade wars and increasing isolationism. Are we getting sense of what global trade and a new diplomacy might look like in the future? I'm Tom Edwards. The Monocle Daily starts now. Hello and welcome to the Monocle Daily. Coming to you from our Studios here at D90 in Zurich in Switzerland. I'm Tom Edwards. My guests, Andrew Muller, Rajesh Merchandani, Alexandra Tisu and Remco Tennis will discuss the day's beer story. So do stay tuned. All that and more ahead here on the Monocle Daily. A very warm welcome to this evening's program. Great to have you with us wherever in the world you are. Great to have with us here at D90. Alexandra Tisiou, CEO of the geopolitical firm Magpie Advisory and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. Good evening, Alexandra. How are you today?
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B
Good evening. I'm very well, thank you.
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A
This is what we like to hear. Alongside Alexandra, we welcome, welcome Remco Tanis, Asia Society, Switzerland managing editor. Another who's braved the rain to come and see us. Remco, how do we find you? Fine Fetal today?
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C
Yeah, pretty good, actually. It's an interesting time, isn't it?
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A
He wins the understatement of the day award. Alexandra, we'll hear plenty from you in just a moment. But the big story that we're covering today is Donald Trump's I don't know what to call it, address performance at the Unger in New York City earlier. My personal favorite Trump watcher is the inestimable Andrew Muller, who's on the line from London McDorry House, his usual seat. Hello, Andrew. Good evening. Tell me Trump's address. I thought we'd sort of run out of new lows, but has he outdone himself this past afternoon, as you see it?
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D
I think if I was reviewing movies on one of those daytime television shows where you're not really allowed say anything bad and you have to couch everything in kind of passive aggressive euphemism, I think I, I would say it's that nobody's ever really seen anything like this before. That would be my line. Staring straight into the camera with an absolutely ice cold expression.
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A
Well put, my friend, well put. Now listen, Andrew, as I said, we're going to hear from our panelists gathered around the desk here in Zurich in a moment or two. But first up, you're getting the view from on the ground. You're going to be checking in with our other man at the Unger. Take it away, Andrew.
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D
Well, yes, because even before US President Donald Trump mounted the dais at the United Nations assembly hall in New York City a few hours ago, he was already having quite the vintage week for public utterances, declaring during a memorial service for a murdered friend that he hated his political opponents, that is roughly half of his fellow citizens, and announcing that Tylenol causes autism, which it doesn't. However, at the UN earlier today, Trump cleared these heights of indecorousness and or eccentricity with room to spare. Here are some highlights.
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E
I look at London, where you have a terrible mayor. It's been so changed. Now they want to go to Sharia law. Both the immigration and their suicidal energy ideas will be the death of Western Europe. This cannot be sustained. You walk on Terraza. Do you notice that as far as I'm concerned, frankly, looking at the building and getting stuck on the escalator, they still haven't finished the job?
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D
There were some yards more where that came from. I'm joined with more on this by Rajesh Merchandani, global affairs affairs analyst and Monocle contributor based in the United States. Rajesh, is it possible to assess what the reaction was in the hall, especially around the time when he cheerfully informed his fellow national leaders that all their countries were going to hell?
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F
Well, 55 minutes he spoke, Andrew, which I don't think I've ever heard a speech go on that long at the UN Certainly not by an American president. He actually got a few laughs at the beginning when he was telling the assembled dignitaries about how the escalator into the general assembly hall had got stuck and how the teleprompter was broken. And I can confirm from a senior UN official that the teleprompter actually did break before he took to the stage and then started up again. Not that it mattered, because he did as he usually does, which is go off script whenever he wanted to, only coming back to his script when he wanted to it when he wanted to. So he got a few laughs that.
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C
Felt a little bit warm.
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F
You know, he's a showman. But I can tell you for perhaps 50 minutes of the 55 people were silent in the room and silent probably on every screen watching it on the UN Live cast, wherever they were watching from. I certainly was as well thinking, what are we watching? What is this speech? It doesn't seem to be making much sense. But remember, the American president comes to unger less to talk to world leaders and more to talk to the American audiences. And this could have been a bit of a rehash of a US State of the Union speech. There was a lot. It was a President Trump eight months in performance review. Look how well I've done.
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D
To refer to one of the other clips we played there, Rajesh, is it absolutely clear why he felt it necessary as President of the United States addressing the United Nations General assembly, to tee off at the mayor of London?
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F
He's had a bit of a personal gripe against the mayor of London for a while, I would imagine, also because he's just come back from a state visit to the UK as well. So he's been in London, so it's uppermost in his mind. But he does value his relationship with the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer. He said as much today. And I think he's using any opportunity he can to say, launch arrows, those that he can launch arrows against. He can't do anything about the London mayor in the US Whereas we've seen the attempts he's made to stifle dissent and criticism amongst his political opponents in the US So if he can use his pulpit at the UN to have a go, then I'm not surprised that he did at all.
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D
Rajesh, I think this may be one of those ones where to even ask the question is to answer it. But was there any discernible, overarching theme apparent, any especially urgent message the president wished to communicate to humanity?
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F
Well, there are a couple of messages. Firstly, he took claim for ending seven wars in the eight months that he's been in office and was quite clear that he didn't get any thanks for that. And he said he didn't even get a phone call from the UN offering support. So a lot of his speech was spent criticizing the United Nations. The clip you played about walking on Terraza. So he even criticized the United nations for not hiring him when he was a real estate developer in New York many years ago to refurbish UN headquarters, saying as a result they'd massively overspent and it's still not finished because the elevator broke and saying that I told them I would give them marble floors. Look, you're walking on Terrazzo did you know that? But he also castigated the UN for failing to step up in many areas, particularly on what he agrees with the UN as its primary responsibility, which is peace and security around the world. That's one thing. That was the thing that a lot of people in the UN were really nervous about, what he would say, how far he would go. I don't think there's any announcements in this, but it doesn't stop the US Administration from really pulling back on its engagement with UN entities and bodies and also its funding of the organization as well. Secondly, there were two big policy themes. Uncontrolled immigration is the world's biggest problem, he said, as is the hoax of climate change. He spent all the time, a lot of time on this. He really targeted the UK for not continuing to drill North Sea oil again, because he's just come back from the uk, I imagine, as well. These were the really big themes. And he said, look at America. We're doing great because we tackled these issues. Your countries are being destroyed, he said to Western nations right in front of it in the room.
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D
How much concern is that likely to cause among those countries, which is most of the United States allies who are still taking climate change correctly, seriously? Because with this, as with pretty much anything which requires a global consensus, tackling it without American leadership is difficult. And obviously, if the United States decides it can't be bothered with this, that extends license to China and India to decide, they can't be bothered with it either.
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F
Andrew, while it might extend license to China and India, we're not seeing that, certainly not from China. I mean, China seems to be filling the gap gap that the US Is leaving on the world stage. The US has already pulled back from this. A lot of legislation that was passed during the Biden administration for things like subsidies for renewable energy and on electric vehicles are being curtailed by the Trump administration. He's pulled out of the Paris Agreement. European allies, and we have to say allies in maybe inverted commas at the moment, are looking at this and thinking we're just getting kicked again and again and again. And he really turned on them again for some of them, for continuing to buy oil from Russia, Russia. And it talked about he needs them to step up in the same way that the US Is stepping up imposing tariffs against countries like China and India for buying Russian oil. That's not necessarily something the Europeans want to do. What's always interesting about watching President Trump speak about his relationship to other leaders and other countries is that he's quite happy to give America's traditional allies, especially the Europeans, a kicking. But he's also quite happy to praise the relationship he has with other world leaders that are seen to be much more authoritarian, particularly Vladimir Putin, that he name checked. And then he also talked about having quite a built a warm relationship in the 39 second encounter backstage with the Brazilian president, Luda da Silva. The Brazilian spoke before Donald Trump and they bumped into each other just as one was exiting the stage and one was coming onto the stage. And in 39 seconds, Donald Trump said they had an encounter. We built good chemistry together. And then he still went on to criticize President Lula for locking up President Trump's ally Jaya Bolsonaro recently.
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D
Rajesh Merchandani, thank you for joining us. You are listening to the Daily on Monocle Radio.
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A
Indeed, Andrew, thanks to Rajesh, too. I'm Tom Edwards in the chair here in Zurich. Andrew Muller's in London, as you've heard alongside me here, Alexandra and Remco Tanis. We're going to get into, guys, some of the expressions, actually Rajesh was talking about them. Then you know, how China is reviewing its global relationships in the light of increasing isolationism from Trump and in the face of the denuding of the established multilateral institutions in just a moment. But I've got to get a quick reaction on some of the Trumpisms we've heard from Alexandra to you. First of all, do we just need to remain sanguine and accept that this is kind of par for the course with Trump? Worry you that it was kind of a particularly egregiously offensive today?
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B
You know, even though it's something that we've never really seen before, I think this is kind of par for the course. This is what, what he's shown, how he is in his first administration, how he behaves on the international stage. I mean, to the point regarding the UN specifically, I think it's worth pointing out that within the MAGA base, there is a rather sizable debate as to the US Relation to the UN should the US Continue funding the UN and there are many voices that say no, because it either doesn't serve or doesn't represent US Interests. So in railing against the UN as he did, you know, the escalator is broken. I could have done it better. And you know, some of the more substantive points as well. I think there he was very much speaking not so much to the General assembly, but more to the MAGA base that really feels that the UN perhaps should not be the US should not be part of the UN to the extent that, that it has been so. But certainly some, some highlights to choose from there.
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A
I write a wry smile on Alexander's face. Remco, what about you? I know, I think, you know, you set the bar pretty low right when you go in to listen to something like that. But how did, how would you gauge that performance?
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C
It's, I mean with all the absurdities we've heard from him since getting back in office. But also before then, already back in June, I was speaking with someone and I said, well, probably tomorrow we'll wake up to the news that Saudi Arabia invaded Belgium. Completely useless, completely senseless. But why not? And I just heard your colleague in New York say that, well, you can't do anything about the mayor of London in the U.S. or from the U.S. i was like, can't you? I don't know anymore. And it's easy to laugh about it or not take it seriously, but we're talking about the President of the United States. It's still the most powerful country in the world. Dynamics are changing, but that's not going to change or go away anytime soon with or without him.
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A
Well, let's interrogate some of those shifting dynamics because I think it is super interesting also to kind of escape a little bit the echo chamber of North America, especially at a time when they have a big jamboree in town like this. New alliances being forged, new expressions of I guess the kind of traditional liberal democratic values in some instances. Let's talk about trade because obviously this is a drum that Trump bangs a lot. India, efta, a big deal. I think this goes into effect at the start of next week is right from the 1st of October. The EU's looking to be less dependent on the US and so some of its protagonists are saying, look, you know, this is actually, this lights away ahead and it's more than a trade deal. It's about access to markets, it's about a deeper engagement, it's about progressive development. Is it Remco?
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C
Deals like that are always very like verbose in indies, these general, general like statements. But in the end it is about, I mean for example from after side, an investment of 100 billion into India over the next 15 years which, and what's most important India has been like has had the reputation of being very difficult to access as a foreign investor, foreign company. And if that changes fundamentally then that is of course huge opportunities for, for in this case after nations and companies. But the EU as a larger entity is also getting quite close to closing a deal with India and I think it's fascinating to see that as the US is behaving the way it is on trade. But you see the other coalitions come together and even though their negotiations have started years before Trump was in the picture, as a politician, you can't help but wonder if this just sped it up to really sign the deals and get them into force. We'll see the EU having just closed the deal with Indonesia, that'll take one or two years to implement. But Indonesia is not doing too great right now. But still it is by far the largest economy in Southeast Asia. So yeah, I think it's really interesting that European countries and Asian countries are learning to, to look at each other for trade deals and, and kind of make up for the gap left by the US Alexandrov.
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A
No, weigh in on this.
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B
I think there are two other interesting points to this also. The EU strategy towards India. So yes, trade is a big component of it, but actually a fairly significant. The second component of the EU India strategy is cooperation in defense, the defense industrial base, which when you think about it, India is the world's second largest arms importer currently after Ukraine. You know, as Europe thinks about perhaps moves to rebuild its defense industrial base, that's not just an interesting market, that starts to be a potentially interesting. Fast forwarding a little bit, but it could be a potentially interesting alliance. You know, India, India's entire defence policy is based around the concept of self reliance. So you know, for India as well, that starts to be interesting. And the other part of this, I think especially in light of some other changes in the US as well, particularly related to the H1B visa program, that affects the Indian market immensely. And this for Europe opens up a huge opportunity to swoop up some of that talent that won't be going to the US or less will be going to the US So a big part of this is trade, sure. But I think the defense and you know, potential tech immigration piece are also really, really interesting.
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A
Well, sorry, Ramke, go.
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C
Yeah, I think how broad, especially from Europe's side, they hope for cooperation with India is shown by their visit right away in February of this year. The entire EU Commission minus one. So that's 26 of the most senior EU leaders went to visit Modi in India. It kind of stayed quiet after that visit, like nothing came out of it. I think that's just India way back then waiting to see what, what it can do with it. With Trump, who just got into office for a second term, maybe get a deal with him first before we start talking to Europe. India has now been dealt a sledgehammer by Trump, like with a 50% tariff with the new visa rules. So India now decides, well, you know what, what, let's go to Europe for, for our immediate needs, because there's a big hole right now in foreign policy of India and Russia won't fill it. The US walks away. There's not much left for India then to look at Europe as a geopolitical partner to deal with world issues.
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A
China, China could fill it. It was funny. We saw, you know, Modi and G having these sort of funny bilaterals. And I want to talk a bit about China because these sort of pivots that we're talking about, which are politically and economically expedient. China's already set its stall out, if you think about Belt and Road initiative and how it looks to these other markets. Africa, super interesting people have been tearing into the post Trump trade war data, haven't they, Alexandra? And we're seeing some pretty robust trade figures. I think the Belt and Road partner trade is up over 5%, which will, one would imagine, sort of please Beijing. But the sort of African connection is really crucial. And China has cemented its sort of of role as the African bloc's largest trade partner. Is this a little bit of a case study of how you can pivot and just kind of get on with the business of building without the US influence at all?
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B
To an extent, yeah. And China is showing that it's doing it remarkably well. I mean, the Africa connection is. Is interesting. It's been evolving for a long time. We, we sometimes tend to think about it or speak about it as something very recent. But I mean, Beijing's been paving the way, no pun intended, for, for. For quite a while now. You know, at the end of the day, Chinese exports to Africa, it's still a very small percentage of China's total exports, I think around 5%. You know, it goes up, it goes down, but it's not a significant economic play for, for China. I think Africa is particularly interesting for Beijing, particularly for diplomatic, more geostrategic reasons, you know, and the economic is kind of the carrot to get over the edge. But I mean, most of what, almost all of Xi Jinping's policy directives, whether they're domestic or foreign, they're aimed towards this vision of, you know, new world order, China's national rejuvenation. And so the African countries have become very important kind of in the same way as they were during the Cold War, actually for China when China then was kind of isolated it wasn't recognized by Washington, it wasn't represented at the un and so the CCP then went to Africa and it was really the African nations that kind of carried and carried China over the line, UN membership and so on. So we're seeing a similar dynamic at play now. And so we tend to focus on the belt and road, the trade. But actually where I mean, China is really pushing in is more on the soft power political warfare side. It trains journalists, it trains. Interestingly, this doesn't receive enough attention, but I think it should for a whole host of reasons. It trains African militaries every year, to give you an example, since 2016, every year, around 500 young officers from the Kenyan Presidential Guard are being trained in Beijing and by the pla and they're trained in Chinese military doctrine, strategy, and then also Chinese culture and language and all the fun stuff that comes along with it. So I think where that relationship starts to be or is most significant is exactly in those kinds of dynamics. Because then if you think like Beijing does not just five years down the road, but 10, 20 years down the line. What does it mean that you've trained cohorts of African military. It's that you've trained cohorts, reports of African journalists. And what does that mean not just for the China, Africa dynamic, but geopolitically. So trade is interesting, but I think that there's a lot more to that story. And as you said, as the US Pulls out, look who's waiting in the.
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A
I mean, I asked kind of playfully at the top of the show, you know, is this what a new diplomacy might, might look like? But are we seeing building blocks of that Remco? Is that a little bit. Am I, am I sort of racing a little too rapidly ahead of myself maybe?
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C
I mean, it was a few weeks ago when everybody who was interested in these things was talking about this rapprochement between India and China and finally that crisis is over. No way. Not, not for a long time. They have huge issues still. They don't even agree on what the issues are. China issue statements like, oh no, we're having a consensus and we're going to work on it as a whole. India says, what do you mean consensus? That word was never used used. We're having issues on economic front and the Himalayas with, well, the fact that the Dalai Lama is still in exile in India and India wants to negotiate those issues separately with China and they're not even there yet. So there's really a ceiling to the friendship they might develop just to get back to Africa real quick. It's not just the military assistance that China is providing. It's more and more and increasingly so the police and domestic security assistance and investment investments and help that China reach out to in Africa, but also the Pacific island nations, of course. And you do notice in African surveys that populations in these various countries are kind of starting to get a bit worried about do we want a Chinese style surveillance state. And at the same time, you see Europe, which is also what helped probably with negotiations with India over new deals, losing its obnoxiousness a bit because it doesn't have that position anymore and learning, you know what, let's just be pragmatic. Not completely like be untrue to ourselves, but and I think, yeah. That if you want to call that a new way of diplomacy, I think, yeah, that'll be the pragmatic side.
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A
I'll consider that a validation of my vainglorious remark that I made. Let's talk a little bit more about China in a different context. Again with Trump. We've had sort of claiming counterclaim about when, when they're sort of going to be sitting down. It seems like they will meet, but maybe in the early next year rather than in the, in the autumn. I, I was quite struck. The U. S. Ambassador to China said they really described the relationship as actually very good and very encouraging. And I'm putting the emphasis on actually because I thought he was sort of saying unlike what you might think a.
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C
Week after his boss called China the deepest, darkest.
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A
Well, exactly right. Which is interesting. Alexandra. I don't know. What will be on this is an impossible question. What will be on the agenda when they do sit, sit down in the new year? Do you think.
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B
It'S an impossible question?
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A
What would, if you were put in charge of the agenda, what might you kind of throw into the mix?
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B
I think it's going to be a smorgasbord of issues that are top of mind for the US Administration. Everything from security, defense, tech. You know, the Trump has been railing on to an extent correctly regarding fentanyl and China, China's role in that. So I think most issues that are going to be front and center will tie back to US national security. And that really runs. Runs the gamut of everything. I can't say, oh, it'll be X, Y and Z, but it'll be, it'll be fairly sweeping.
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C
I believe yesterday or today the Joint Committee on China in the US Congress issued a statement for the first time in six years.
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B
Yep.
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C
Calling on both governments to to really discuss the Chinese military development and how they can communicate better with each other, the US Military and the Chinese military. And I don't know who it was, the Democratic chair of that committee said, well, yeah, but if China now is going from 100 to a thousand nuclear warheads, then we need to start talking. And it to me kind of felt like a full like, like, ah, so now you, now you're waking up and now you want to talk, but maybe it's too late now. Yeah, no, go ahead to that point.
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B
No, there have been some and maybe to your question as well, why it's maybe perhaps difficult to speculate is that there seems to have been a bit of a shift in US China policy from when the administration first came in. You early on had guys like Bridge Colby who are very, you know, razor focused on, on China and very hawkish on China. And now to Remco's point, there seems to be more of the sense of not necessarily pulling back, but maybe we have to shift tactics a little bit and sit down together, talk about, you know, military. I mean, to that point, though, Pete Hegseth has not yet well, he's spoken with his Chinese counterpart, but they haven't actually met in person. So there seems to be, seem to be these little shifts and a good deal of debate too.
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C
And I think we continue this trend seen from Washington and the behavior of Trump, Trump and the statements he makes and the executive orders. For example, with the tech visa, China in August introduced a new category of tech visa, the K visa for highly trained. Exactly. The people the US Is now blocking pretty much if they keep it up longer than China is definitely going to have to upper hand in negotiations or in any talks either in the fall or in January or whenever they'll need.
- [27:57]
A
Guys. Absolutely fascinating. Great to get your insights. Remco, Tanis, Alexandra at Tizi, thank you both very much for being with us on the program this evening.
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C
Thank you.
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A
28 minutes past three in Canberra, 28 minutes past 19 o' clock here in Zurich. Returning to the Unger, the real value of attending any such event isn't one hopes to listen to the speeches necessarily not this year in any case, but to grab a private networking moment with fellow national leaders. Rajas was talking about this earlier. One leader apparently doomed to be thwarted in his desire to meet the US President though, is the Aussie PM Anthony Albanese. Andrew Muller listening in from London. Andrew, tell me, and I should qualify, Andrew, that we are sitting in our cafe in case you can hear the sort of clink of icing glasses and a bit of chatter in the background. Why does it matter if Albanese is thwarted in his attempt to sit down with Donald Trump?
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D
Well, speaking on behalf of my fellow Australian citizens, Tom, which is not something I get the pleasure of doing very often, I don't think it actually matters all that much, empirically speaking. It is one of those things that has been hallucinated into becoming an issue by the Australian media. And if you'd consumed much Australian media over the last week or so, you would possibly think that the question of whether or not Anthony Albanese will meet Donald Trump is the most urgent, urgent issue presently confronting humanity.
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A
Right. And the other thing that's interesting about the Aussie media obsession, Andrew, is it's somewhat. Well, it seems to be somewhat arbitrary and a bit selective because I guess they don't like writing, you know, complimentary pieces. But he seems to have pretty good relationships with other world leaders. That doesn't get the column inches. Is that just because the. Your mob love beating up on their political leadership?
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D
Partly that. I mean, by and large, Anthony Albanese, for all that he has been elected Prime Minister twice, operates in a fairly hostile media environment. Most Australian newspapers are not massive fans of him or the Australian Labor Party. But it is partly a reflection of Australia's obsession. And this is not just a media thing. There are certainly plenty of politicians guilty of this absolute obsession with the United States and whoever happens to be running it at the time. I mean, as you insinuate, Anthony Albanese enjoys famously and obviously good relations, for example, with the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Sakir Starmer, who, you know, in their way, are not unimportant figures. But none of this matters to the current Australian media. It is all about your closeness to the president. And that's become much more amplified when Donald Trump's been president, because I think Australian media, like media all over the world, greatly enjoy the reality show spectacle. So it has become this thing of like, will they meet, won't they meet? And I think on this occasion, rare for a journalist, I am actually going to cede the floor to the Prime Minister, who last week was quoted as saying, in the real world, no one cares.
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A
Okay, well, but I guess whatever your political stripes, there are certain matters of, you know, national security, political expediency. What about US Submarines? Andrew? We've talked a lot on Monocle Radio about the provision of those from the US To Australia. I mean, presumably that's the kind of deal I don't Know, are people concerned that maybe that starts to slow down or grind to a halt if these guys aren't able to kind of press the flash?
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D
It should be the kind of thing that concerns the media, but it's not. It is literally just about whether there will be a photograph at some point of Donald Trump and Anthony Albanese shaking hands awkwardly and looking like, you know, and pretending they can stand each other, which obviously they can't. The submarines thing. Australia is having its own version on that front of the angst that all of Europe is now having. Because when this deal was agreed, it was in that sort of happy moment or during that happy period where everyone was still able to think of Donald Trump being president as just a bit of a glitch, one of those things that happens, a bit of a bump in the road, things will get back to normal sooner or later. Whereas now everybody has to be thinking, seriously, was Biden the glitch? Is this what the United States is now like? And Australia, since World War II, even more than Europe, which is or should be in its own right, a nuclear armed superpower, Australia has entirely, pretty much based its defence and its strategies pertaining to its defence on an absolutely rock solid relationship with the United States. And because of where Australia is in the world, we don't really have anybody else that we can decide to partner up with. So this is the sort of question as to things like how, how reliable is now, the orcas relationship. What happens if President Trump wakes up tomorrow and decides it's the worst thing in the world and tears the whole thing up? That is the sort of thing that should be preoccupying Australian media, but pretty much isn't.
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A
Well, speaking as a sort of dedicated representative of your nation, then what should Albanese's priorities be if he's a Trump meeting less Andrew, what does he need to be thinking about? Obviously the big, you know, the big issue that are dominating the agenda, Palestine, you know, the climate crisis. Although according to Donald, we don't need to worry. Is that where his attentions should best be focused or are there other areas that might be, I don't know, even more productive?
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D
I think those will be his focus. Australia, certainly Albanese's government is quite keen on climate change, by which I mean they're not actually in favour of it, but they are in favour of doing something about it. Australia is among the clutch of Western countries which have this week recognized Palestine. There will be more on that in this week's Foreign Desk Explainer. I can exclusively reveal, but also Australia has some other ideas it wishes to take to the global market. For example, its idea of banning social media for under 16s. Questions remain, of course, as to how remotely enforceable that actually is. But I think in a world in which there is, you know, a bit late in the day, starting to be serious conversations had about regulating social media, you know, that's a contribution. That is the sort of thing about which I think people should be talking.
- [34:41]
A
Andrew, commendable ideas. Thanks for making sense of them. That's our Andrew Muller back in London in his regular Daily hot seat, which he will be occupying unchallenged by me from tomorrow. That, though, brings us to the end of this special edition of the Monocle Daily. A big thanks to all our guests today, Rajas merchandise in New York, Alexandra Tizio and Remco Tanis here, and a special grazie to Andrew Muller in London. The programme here was produced by Laura Kramer and Desiree Bundley and researched by Daniela Brausmith in London, where our sound engineer was Elliot Greenfield. My thanks to them, one and all. I'm Tom Edwards here in Zurich. The Daily's back tomorrow with Andrew. Goodbye. Thanks for listening, Sam.