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The Monocle Daily
US government shutdown, alcohol to keep air passengers happy and Palestine’s Taybeh Brewing Co
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- [00:00]
A
You're listening to the Monocle Daily, first broadcast on 3rd October 2025 on Monocle Radio.
- [00:06]
B
The US Federal Government remains non operational. Is anybody noticing Canadian air travel to become somewhat more civilised? Germans eating pudding with forks. This is not a metaphor. I'm Andrew Muller. The Monocle Daily starts. Hello, and welcome to the Monocle Daily. Coming to you from our studios here at Midori House in London. I'm Andrew Muller. My guests, Laura Kramer and Chris Chermack. We'll discuss the day's big stories, we'll visit Palestine's finest brewery, 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 today by Chris Chermack, Monocle's senior news editor, and Laura Kramer, Monocle's senior producer and Bear Desk chief. Hello to you both.
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C
Hello, Andrew.
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B
Laura. First of all, it is, of course, the biggest week of the year on Monocle Radio's Bear Desk. It has been Fat Bear Week. The victor has been announced. I know you've talked about this across our other programming, but what did you make of this year's competition?
- [01:28]
C
It was truly a fight for survival, I'm not gonna lie. Because as we all know, Chunk has won the competition and he's a big boy. He's about 500kg now. He's really fattened up and it was a miraculous feat. I have to say, Andrew. He's got a broken jaw and it's going to be a lifelong deformity for him. So we didn't know if he could make it. We thought he might have to switch to soft foods, but.
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B
Oh, surely the winner of this should have been the bear who broke his jaw.
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C
Well, yeah, he was.
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B
No, the bear who broke Chunk's jaw. Because obviously if you've got a bear called Chunk who weighs like 500kg, whatever actually inflicted that kind of injury is a force to be reckoned with.
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D
Maybe it was self inflicted. Do we know?
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C
We don't know. We believe the locals believe it was a fight between two male bears over a female bear.
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B
Yeah, my money's on the other bear. Like, Chonk's a loser.
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C
No, but he still won the fattest competition. Like how? That's incredible. He had this mouth issue and he still managed to gain all this weight. People love an underdog.
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B
Andrew, do you think maybe he lost that fight because he is out of shape? I mean, I think there's a Lesson for us.
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D
Maybe that's it. The other one is nimble and therefore not as fat.
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B
Exactly. Yeah, Laura, maybe if they made it like, best bear rather than fattest.
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C
No, he was still the fattest bear.
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B
Despite the bears, despite all this. The other one was clearly better, is my point. Chris, you recently returned from Bali, so you are obviously used to the proximity by now of obnoxious Australians. That'll be good, good practice for the rest of the show.
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D
That is very good practice. Yes, that's true.
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B
How was it?
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D
It was a great trip, I have to say. Interesting for, like, little news developments. It was just after there was flooding in Bali, so a little bit of worry of whether to go or not. But, yeah, fascinating country. And I think it's one of those interesting cases we talk a lot about over tourism on these shows and in the news. But as with anywhere else, what struck me was as soon as you get out of the overdeveloped tourist areas and where the resorts are and you go to other parts of Bali, then it is nice, it is quiet, it is interesting. You get to meet interesting people in the local culture and. And we didn't see any signs of the flooding. There was. All the flooding was in the places that were overdeveloped.
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B
See, I've never actually been to Bali, Chris, and part of the reason for that is that I generally assumed it would just be absolutely overrun with my fellow citizens falling off mopeds.
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D
But this is exactly the point. It is overrun in certain areas of Bali, Absolutely overrun with Australians watching the rugby on in every bar you could imagine, which I also find, like this amazing thing, right? You go to this brand new country and new culture, and all you can do is sit in a bar and watch football or rugby from home. Like, I just. I never quite understand that version of traveling. But yes, as soon as you got out of those resorts areas, amazingly enough, they're actually local Balinese people to meet.
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B
It has, in fairness, Chris, just been the finals in the Australian football, although given how the grand final went, something of a sore point. So we shall move briskly on. More from both of you shortly. Now, first of all, on tonight's show, running a business is difficult in the best of times, but what about when your operations are threatened by occupation and war? That is the reality for Taybe Brewing Company, based on the west bank in Palestine. What started as a hobby became a family business when the brothers Nadim and David Khoury founded operations in 1994. And today Taiber is widely recognized as the Middle East's oldest microbrewery with Nadim's daughter, Madis Khoury, carrying the legacy forward. Now, in partnership with the Scottish company Brew Gooder, she's launched a new lager sun and Stone, with the aim of sharing Taiba's story of fierce resilience with drinkers here in the uk. Well, earlier Monocle's Monica Lillas spoke to Madis Kouri and began by asking her how the story of the brewery began.
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A
My father, my uncle, my grandfather started Taibe Brewing Company in 1994 and we are the first microbrewery in the Middle East. As kids we all grew up here in the brewery. I was here since I was 9 years old and after college I graduated and I was the first one from my generation to book a one way ticket from Boston and move to Palestine and work with the family and live here. Beer. The brewery started as a beer making was a hobby for my dad when he was in College. In the 70s, 80s he was in Boston and he was just making beer at the dorms. And then he continued his studies, became a master brewer in the US and then he and my uncle were thinking of opening a brewery in Boston in the early 90s. But then also happened which was supposedly peace and a hopeful future for Palestinians. My grandfather wanted his two sons to come back to Palestine and he wanted us kids to learn the language and culture and to be close with the family. So he told them, why not open a brewery in Palestine? We don't have one. So my dad and uncle, actually they challenged him and told him, if you can, if you can get us the permits and licenses to open a brewery, we'll move back. If not, we're staying. So immediately my grandfather bought the land, built the building, got the permits and licenses, got the blessing even from Yasser Arafat and told them yallah, which means.
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E
Come on and you're the first female brewer in the region from what I understand. What has the response been to that and what has it been like?
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A
Yeah, as far as I know, I'm, I'm the first and only female brewer in the Middle East. I love it, I love brewing beer, I love doing what I'm doing and I enjoy shocking people when they tell me what I do at the brewery and I tell them, oh, I brew the beer. And they're like, really? You brew? So I enjoy that. But it wasn't easy, you know, to get in the industry. I think now after being in the fully involved in the business for the past 18 years, I think people are now mostly have gotten used to me and rather talk to me and do business with me and are more accepting. I feel the younger generation that are opening hotels and bars and restaurants are more open, but the older generation, when I first started, it was a bit more difficult and challenging.
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E
I want us to talk a little bit about kind of why we're talking today. The new lager that you're bringing out called sun and Stone with Brugada. Why did you decide to collaborate with a Scottish brand in particular?
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A
Well, it first started when James, the co founder of Brew Gooder, had read an article a few years ago about Thai Bibbit Brewing company. They themselves have worked with contributing to communities that are in need of whether clean water or help and stuff like that. And I think when James contacted us and we spoke to him a couple of times, you know, we had the, I think the same working values and they, they just aligned. We are in UK market already. We do export our beer to London, but we're not everywhere. So I think collaborating with Brew Goodr and doing something good and giving back to the community and also expanding the market in the UK was a successful opportunity. I hope people in the UK get the chance to try it, share it with their friends and families, enjoy it, you know, sip on it, talk about whatever they want, but also perhaps question or want to know more or learn more about Palestine and Palestinians, about what's going on, what we're doing, who we are, why we actually did the collaboration and who's benefiting from this collaboration and also maybe, you know, stir some questions and hopefully get people to come and visit the country when things are peaceful.
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E
So we'll go into, I guess, the more difficult questions now with Tabor, you know, dealing with all the challenges of being a brewery in the west bank, you know, water shortages, threats of settler attacks, you know, Israel now threatening to annex the place entirely. What's that been like and how are the operations dealing with that?
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A
Well, it's actually terrifying what's happening. The situation in the west bank is escalating. The aggression, the violence by the settlers. On a daily basis. We've had settler attacks here in town of Taiba, where we live. Also there have been settler attacks on the main water spring that supplies water to 14, 100% to 14 towns east of Ramallah, which also including Taiba, our town, and also five other partially five other towns. Before all of these attacks, we still don't get a lot of water as Palestinians in the west bank, we get limited amounts. And now with these attacks, it's even more limited. And that, of course, it affects the business because 95% of the beer is water. And so when you don't have enough water, obviously you're not going to be able to produce enough. That's one issue. Another issue is exporting or importing. Because we are under occupation. Anything that goes in and out of the country has to go through Israel. And we have now a shipment that's supposed to go to Denmark. And it's been two weeks and we still didn't get the permit from the Israelis to send the beer to the port, to Ashdod port to make it to Copenhagen. And so we're living under occupation and nothing is in our control. Nothing is, we're controlled by our lives are controlled on a daily basis.
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E
It's such a story of resilience that you continue to build your business and, you know, stand your ground.
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A
We do. Yeah, we do. I mean, I don't know if we're crazy or if we're naive or what it is or how. Or maybe we're just super hopeful that we're just going to have an Independence Day. We're going to be free. This can go long for so long. You know, things are going to change. And we just keep investing into the country. We keep investing in our business. We're expanding the brewery. My family has roots that goes back 600 years in Taiba. And they're not going to pick up and leave after, you know, being here for so long and investing so much and investing as kids into the country as well and just and leave. That's not an option. We're just, we continue to build and we continue to grow and hope that we're going to have a peaceful future.
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B
And that was Madis Khoury of the Tabor Brewing, Brewee Brewing Rather company of the west bank, speaking to Monica Lillis. Three attempts to pronounce the word brewing, all two syllables of it. The kind of quality broadcasting you get here on the Daily with me, Andrew Muller. And welcome back to today's panelists Chris Chermack and Laura Kramer. And to the United States, where all is chaos. Nobody has any idea what is going on. Everybody is furiously blaming everyone else. And now there's a federal government shutdown as well here week and so forth. As the shutdown gets into day three, US President Donald Trump is threatening to use the interregnum to further gut the federal government, targeting what he referred to as Democrat agencies. It does appear the case that the White House intends to postpone or cancel federal funding earmarked for stuff in Democrat leaning states. Chris, first of all, to our international listeners, who I suspect will be generally bewildered by the idea that you can just kind of yank the plug on the federal government and not to put too fine a point on it, what is in fact actually going on here? This seems silly.
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D
Well, I have to say, I don't know. I wonder if international listeners are that bewildered in that it does feel like every few years we hear the term government shutdown and we have a bewildered international audience. It's like, what is going on in the United States? So this is a regular occurrence for about five decades now in the U.S. every opposition basically party uses their leverage in this situation either when it comes to a budget for the United States, this is something that has to be passed every year, or in other cases when it was under the Biden administration, for example, the debt ceiling and whether the US Would pay its bills under the debt ceiling, Republicans used that to try and hold the government hostage. So basically, the opposition likes to hold the party in power hostage, use the little bit of influence that they have. And in this case, of course, maybe even more so because Democrats have felt so powerless when it comes to everything that Donald Trump and his administration has been doing over the last few months. This is the one lever that they feel they have in order to enact some kind of change. And they focused in this case purely on health policy as something that they feel probably is popular with the public health care costs. Extending subsidies for Obamacare. They focused on this because it's popular for Americans to lower health care costs. But also it's something that's a little harder maybe for Donald Trump to change as soon as any kind of deal when it comes to averting a government shutdown might be reached. Money. It's money in the pockets of Americans. He's less likely to change that later on. So this fight really just comes down to that. Democrats saying they want subsidies for healthcare to be extended in order for a government budget to be agreed and the shutdown to end.
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B
Laura, what do you and your fellow Americans, when in America do during a government shutdown? Can you, can you just stay home from work, stop paying your taxes, do what you like? What goes on?
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C
Well, I suppose it depends on who you are because for most people, life just kind of carries on as usual. The lights stay on, their Social Security checks still go out, the mail still gets delivered, but a lot of visible services suddenly vanish, like national parks, close museums shut passport applications, stall, things like that. The real hit, of course, is to the Hundreds of thousands of federal workers who are told to stay at home without pay until the fight ends. And actually speaking back to Bear Week, not to draw everything back to Bear Week, but had it been just a week later, we probably wouldn't have had it in the way that it was because that is a national park in Alaska. That happens with all the live cameras there and the Twitter accounts that they run. So they got off really lucky, those bears.
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B
Chris. It does seem somewhat absurd, but Donald Trump in particular does seem fond of them, which is not to say they never happen during Democrat administrations. There were a couple, I think during Obama's stint. There weren't any, if memory serves, during Biden's. But Trump has to beat the 35 days of 2018, 19. Do you like his chances? Will it go on another month?
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D
Well, I think there's a good chance of that for two reasons. Yes, Donald Trump likes a fight. I think it's as simple as that. And also, especially in this administration, arguably the most anti government administration we've had, he doesn't really like the federal workforce. He wants it cut along with Elon Musk back in the day. Now he's kind of doing it himself. So on the one end, you have Donald Trump as somebody who doesn't really want the government necessarily. So he's very happy for a fight about a government shutdown. On the other hand, what's so interesting about this one is I think Democrats are ready to call Trump's bluff. And all of this bluster, these threats about taking away Democratic initiatives, as you said at the outset, mass firing of federal workers, Democrats are basically saying you would have done that anyway. Like, this has nothing to do with the government shutdown. You were already doing this. You were already targeting many of our initiatives. You are already laying off a lot of workers and shuttering agencies and so on and so forth. So that's what makes this such a protracted fight because neither side wants to blink. And even Trump's usual threats that he uses in order to get what he wants, I think in this case ring hollow because he's been doing it in anyway.
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B
Just finally on this one, Laura, is it fair for our listeners to assume, and this is a leading question, that American media is covering this as it does everything else, like an inane partisan bun fight where you already know exactly who anybody's going to blame before they've even opened their mouths?
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C
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the media is framing it as red team versus blue team, blaming flying in all directions. But I think for ordinary Americans, it feels less like, you know, this partisan sport and more like, you know, their lives are being essentially used as bargaining chips really. Especially if your federal worker is suddenly missing out on paychecks. It's about this political muscle and who gets to say what America's priorities are. But of course, the citizens get kind of lost in the battle of it all.
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B
Well, two aviation news and encouraging tidings for Canadian passengers who may fall in the Venn diagram. Overlap of people who would be amenable to a free crack at the drinks trolley even when sitting towards the back and people sitting towards the back who would rather not have their kept shattered by the kind of irredeemable sociopathic oaf who reclines their seat on short haul flights. On the former count, Air Canada is to recommence the serving of free booze in economy class. On the latter, WestJet is to introduce what it calls fixed recline seats, which is a pointlessly coy way of saying they don't. Chris, let's address the in flight free booze trolley first with you because you have recently returned from a longish flight back from Indonesia.
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D
Are you a massive 13 hours from via Malaysia, from Kuala Lumpur?
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B
Yes. You're talking Australia, Chris. We can do that. We can do that one standing up. But are you a massive inflight tippler?
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D
I am a fan of in flight drinking, yes. Because I think it's an important aspect of the flight you want to, I would say in this case, long haul. Yes, obviously, because you also want to sleep and so like a nice glass of wine just puts me to sleep. So but even on a short haul flight, yes, there is something nice about drinking, having a glass of wine in my case usually I just love those little bottles that you get anyway on the planes as well for wine. So that's my, my drink of choice. And yeah, I really, I remember the days living in Germany in particular because Lufthansa was one of the ones that held out about the longest when it came to this. So on lufthansa flights until 2021 you could get alcohol on the flights. Then they finally ended it along with so many others, even on short haul flights. They trialed it again last year and they've ended it again now. But that was just very nice. Yes, absolutely.
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B
I mean, Laurie, you can still often get a drink on a plane in Europe, but you are now expected to pay for it. I, I wondered if you agreed with Air Canada's rationale for this, which is, and I quote, that the free beverages have a disproportionate impact on customer satisfaction?
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C
They do for me because I love drink in flight.
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B
What drink do you have while you're thinking this is having a disproportionate impact on my satisfaction?
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C
Champagne if it's going.
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B
Champagne.
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C
I, I upgraded economy class Champagne if it's going.
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D
Hello.
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C
I think, you know, I think, I think at the end of the day it's clever marketing, isn't it? Because, I mean, people will probably not remember a slightly cramped seat or maybe a slight delay. I say slight because if you're delayed very long, you will remember that. But they do remember hospitality and being offered something nice without extra charge and the experience on the flight. And if it's a low cost to the airline and it's got high value to passenger goodwill, I think it's a small gesture that pays dividends and loyalty, let's say.
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B
Chris, let's move on to what. What I for one think is the more significant move forward here, and this is the abandonment by WestJet of reclining seats. So my question to you is, if you think about the kind of person who does recline their seat on short haul flights, should that person be immediately thrown out of the aeroplane without a parachute or merely bound and gagged and carried the rest of the flight in the hold?
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D
I mean, is there an option for all of the above?
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B
What, you put them in the hold for a bit and then throw them out of the plane?
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D
I think that would be the best way to go.
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B
Absolutely fine.
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D
I am absolutely in favor of this. Obviously we cannot show this here, but I am a tall person. Doesn't come across on radio, but he.
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B
Does not lie listeners.
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D
So, yes, this has always been something. It's dated back in our family, even going back to my dad. I will say, I don't want to say this to too many listeners because then you'll catch on. But, but this started with my dad, that whatever we do on reclining flights, he basically always will just dig his knees into the back quietly.
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B
Oh, no, I'm right there with him. I'm not as tall as you, but I'm tall enough. I'm a knee digger.
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D
So that people don't realize that's also the trick. Cause you don't really want to start a whole fight about it. But if you just kind of keep the knees there and you have a sense that somebody might be reclining, then that's the way for them to think, oh, maybe the seat is broken. And it's amazing how many people, maybe they also just don't want to start the fight, but yes, this is absolutely something I am in favor of so that I. I don't have to keep digging my knees into the back of a chair. Why not just have the seats not recline instead? Absolutely. Fair enough.
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B
Laura, you are shaking your head. What the hell is wrong with you?
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C
Your seat also reclines. You can also recline.
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B
But what if. Chris. But what if.
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A
Chris.
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D
But that doesn't help my knees, Laura. That doesn't help my knees. And I will actually add to that, that in the back when I do sit, I look behind me. If somebody short is behind me, then I will recline. If they're tall like me, I won't recline. So I wish people would do the same for me.
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C
I see, so you discriminate based on body types, Chris?
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D
I do.
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B
No, I absolutely do not recline ever. On short haul flights, on longer flights, like transatlantic, I will ask the person behind me if it's okay, which is.
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C
What I would say. I think there is a way of going about it.
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B
But people don't.
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C
Okay, people don't.
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D
Exactly.
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B
People don't. So are you trying to tell us, Laura, where people can hear you, that you are a seat recliner?
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C
Yep.
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B
Justify yourself if you can.
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C
It does it. It's a button I can push and it does it. Any button I can push and it does something, I'm going to probably do it.
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B
The spirit that made America what it is.
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D
Can I just say, looking online ahead of this, I was amazed. Like, this is such an interesting. Because like all the stories you read about this, the divide is like 50, 50. So it's perfect that even in this situation, like we have one person. Person for and one against.
- [24:28]
B
No, you've got, you've got, you've got.
- [24:30]
D
You as well. So there are two in this case.
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B
So Laura is among the guests. Laura is outvoted and therefore wrong. That's how democracy works.
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D
There's always outrage in both directions. I just find that so funny. There's this case that I was reading of some TikTok that went viral of somebody who was literally for eight hours holding their hands up against the seat.
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B
That person is a hero reclining.
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C
I don't mind that. Just because there is a sense of such deep pettiness in that person that I just have to respect them for it. And I think it's great. And you know, I'm just gonna keep on doing it.
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D
That's why it has to be for eight hours. I would have my knees in the back for the entire flight. If Laura was sitting.
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B
Genuinely, my final point on this is that I think the one rule basically to being not only a passenger on public transport, but basically a citizen, is that if anybody else notices anything you're doing, you're probably being a jerk. So you shouldn't. To Germany now, where it says here the young folk are gripped by what may be the 2025 equivalent of the French dancing plague of 1518, in which hundreds of people in Strasbourg danced themselves to the point of exhaustion and even death. Look it up. It happened. As of this broadcast, no casualties are reported. As a consequence of the modern German craze of gathering in parks and other public spaces to eat puddings with for. But you can't say you weren't warned, Chris, you are the nearest thing to an actual real life German at this table. Therefore, what is going on here?
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D
First of all, can we just all say it after me, because we've been doing this all week, so I want us all to say it in German. Pudding mit Gabel.
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C
Pudding mit Gabel.
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B
Pudding mit Gabel.
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D
Very good, very good. You all passed.
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B
Sounded briefly, strangely Welsh there.
- [26:19]
D
This is a thing that started in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe and it has spread. I do find this one fascinating. Bizarre as trends go. It's just a social exercise at the end of the day.
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B
And to be clear, we're not doing a thing here. This is literally what it is. People are gathering and eating puddings, but they're doing it with a fork.
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D
Chris, this was literally what was announced. It was an initiative that started in Karlsruhe where a group simply said and posted online, please, everyone come to the park, bring your puddings and eat them with a fork. And hundreds of people showed up for it.
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B
The thing is, Chris, Germans and your Austrian, which we're going with, is near enough, but are stereotyped as a famously and indeed commendably practical people. Whereas eating extremely liquid desserts with a fork is, it's, it's, it's whimsical. It's the sort of thing you would.
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D
Expect of Italians, which is very obviously why this is a Gen Z thing even in Germany. So it is perhaps an element of that, even in Germany, that it is the young people who are saying, no, we are not going to follow those traditional German rules. We are going to eat pudding with a fork. But at the end of the day, what's so interesting about it is it's mostly just been stylized as a way for people to get together and have a bit of social interaction in a park, which I'm just Kind of amazed that people don't do more regularly. Anyway, suggesting that this was needed in.
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B
Order to, I guess we should acknowledge that rebell young German people of previous decades have, you know, kidnapped bankers and hijacked airplanes. So this is, this is probably preferable to that. But by way of Radio Actual gold, we are going to conduct an experiment. Listeners, both Laura and Chris are going to eat puddings with a fork. Laura, if you want to open yours first. Authentic pudding opening sound. There it is.
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D
Okay, we're doing this.
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B
Okay. And now, Laura, you might be the first person ever to do this on live radio.
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D
I don't know. Surely there were some in Germany as well. What do we think, Laura, You've gone for it.
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C
Well, I think we should explain to some of our listeners what pudding actually is because in the uk, here in London, we had some confusion about what a pudding was.
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B
At first there was.
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C
People thought that it was like a dessert because here, and it's weird for me as an American, people call pudding like a dessert. Like it's a solid thing, but really it's like a dairy type, not solid situation.
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D
We've gone for chocolate mousse, we've gone.
- [28:59]
C
For a chocolate with caramel situation. And I should say on the COVID of it, the design, it has a spoon on it because of course it does. That's how you usually do it, I think. You know, I've been thinking about this trend a lot. When I first brought it up to Chris, he thought it wasn't a real thing. He's like, what are you saying? Because I said it to him. Am I saying it right? Putting midgabble? He's like, I think so. But I don't think you mean to say what you're saying, but I think, I think it follows a recent trend of, that involves kind of these humorous real life gatherings in which, I mean, last year we saw gatherings of celebrity lookalike contests where Timothee Chalamet actually attended one of his own. Earlier this year we saw the so called performative male contest in which men show up with like drinking matcha and have their feminist books and carrying tote bags. And you know, it's, it's meant to appear woke and enlightened. And I think it links all these things and there is a ridiculous element to it. But I think at the heart of it all is a generation that grew up chronically online who were promised that these digital spaces could be their community. But really they're realizing the value of face to face interactions and connecting in the real World, they don't know how to go about it. Maybe they just need a funny little thing, a reason to do it in the silly way.
- [30:16]
B
But counterpoint to that, are these in themselves, these gatherings of young Germans eating pudding with forks, not in themselves performative and commodified for social media?
- [30:28]
C
Well, absolutely it is, but it's also sweet, it's funny, it's something you go talk about. Do you remember when we all did those flash mobs? No, I did a flash mob.
- [30:41]
D
I gotta say though, actually slight counterpoint to that. If you watch the video videos of this in Germany, they're not doing it with lots of posting on social media. The whole point of it is to actually go with your friends and have a conversation and a chat while doing this. So it wasn't like everyone is sitting there with their phones out taking pictures of themselves the entire time. It was seen as a genuine thing of like a hundred people get together and have a chat.
- [31:07]
B
Just finally then, now that you have both eaten pudding with a fork, would you recommend it, yes or no?
- [31:14]
C
No. I think a spoon is clearly better for this soft pudding, obviously.
- [31:24]
B
Chris, what about you?
- [31:25]
D
No, I wouldn't recommend it either. I'm gonna say personally, I would say if you want the social interaction, lean into a hobby you like. That's what I do. Like meet people with something that you enjoy doing. I don't know why you need to do the fork with a pudding side of it.
- [31:40]
B
So it's official. Young people of Germany, you're idiots. Laura and Chris, thank you both for joining us. Finally on today's show, time for our weekly assessment of what the last seven days have taught us. We learned this week just how far the human toe, when prompted by second hand embarrassment, can curl. We learned this from US Secretary of Defense and man who absolutely doubtlessly wears his baseball caps backwards, Pete Hegseth, who summoned America's toppest brass for a meeting which could have been, if not an email, then certainly a leaked signal chat. We learned anyway that Secretary Hegseth was concerned that the US military, the United actual States actual military, had become unacceptably effete, louche, decadent, slovenly, dissipated and woke basically an 850 billion dollar production of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
- [32:46]
F
It's tiring to look out at combat formations or really any formation and see fat troops. Likewise, it's completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon.
- [32:56]
B
We learned, however, that there may be better ways to to warm an audience up than by telling them that they're a sorry sack of shiftless lack witted lard buckets. For we learned that Secretary Hegseth's punchlines were not landing quite as he may have anticipated when rehearsing them shirtless in the mirror with the soundtrack from Patton playing in the background, as indeed it is right now. And you see once again how meticulously excogitated the weekly what we Learned monologue on Monocle Radio is anyway in other.
- [33:29]
F
Words, to our enemies.
- [33:31]
B
F a f o tough crowd and any prospective crafter of topical racy zingers, for rarely grateful audiences can but sympathise. But we learned that there are few crowds tougher than a hangar full of senior military personnel, a great many decorated combat veterans among them, who after several decades in the service of their nation have been abruptly whisked from their posts, many of them a long way away and presumably reasonably busy, what with one thing and another to be told what a lousy job they've been doing by a preening bozo who used to host the morning show on Fox News.
- [34:07]
F
No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more division distraction or gender delusions. No more debris. As I've said before and will say again, we are done with that shit.
- [34:22]
B
We also learned that beards are indicative of defective character.
- [34:26]
F
We don't have a military full of Nordic pagans, but unfortunately we have had leaders who either refused to call BS and enforce standards or leaders who felt like they were not allowed to enforce standards.
- [34:38]
B
In fairness, he does have to work with JD Vance, but we learned mostly that there is no silence quite so silent as the silence emitted by silence several hundred flag officers and senior NCOs at the end of such a harangue. No wait. Quite so agonizing as the wait for their applause as one slinks sweatily from.
- [34:59]
F
The stage, move out and draw fire because we are the War Department. Godspeed.
- [35:11]
B
We absolutely did not edit that that we may have added that, but we learned that Secretary Hegseth did have kind of a point, as we learned very quickly of the perils of obviously overweight and manifestly unfit commanders. For we learned that the Commander in Chief also wanted a word oh no. From which we learned that modern warships are the wrong shape.
- [35:48]
G
I'm a very aesthetic person and I don't like some of the ships. An ugly ship is not necessary in order to say you're stealth.
- [35:58]
B
That White House stationary either is or used to be insufficiently sturdy. Not easy to tell.
- [36:04]
G
I want the A paper, not the D paper we used to sell a piece of garbage. I said, this man's going to be a general, right? Yeah. I don't want to use this. I want to use the big, beautiful.
- [36:14]
B
Firm paper that stairs can be difficult.
- [36:18]
G
I'm very careful, you know, when I walk downstairs for, like, these stairs, I'm very.
- [36:22]
B
I walk very slowly, although not for everybody.
- [36:26]
G
So one thing with Obama, I had zero respect for him as a president, but he would bop down those stairs. I've never seen.
- [36:32]
B
Then after that, among many, many other things, of which it did not occur to Lincoln to speak at Gettysburg, but we learned that the president may have had other things on his mind, or at least other bees in his bonnet, we learned that the president had resolved to come clean at last, put the truth before the American people, clear up the issue which has hung over his presidency and the nation too long, and declassify all the files relating to Earhart. It's President Trump calling on his administration to declassify and release all government records related to Amelia Earhart. Dubbed the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, the aviation pioneer vanished nearly 90 years ago, from which we seem likely to learn that spoiler alert, she still misses missing and slash. But we learned that the president, though famously fond himself of having his learned friends shake down his bemused enemies, may have met his match. Where vexatious litigation is concerned, we learned that Trump is being sued for $40 trillion. That is a bit north of the United States entire annual GDP by Jacob Chansley, better known as the QAnon Shaman. That is that guy who participated in the botched insurrection of January 6, 2021, while wearing a furry hat with horns in it. Not those kind of horns, but appreciate the effort. We learned from the details of Chansley's suit that he also seeks settlements from the Federal Reserve, the National Security Agency, the International Monetary Fund, Wall, Warner Brothers, T. Mobile, Israel, and Elon Musk. And why not? And furthermore believes himself to be the rightful President of the United States. We, for one whimsical news monologue, look forward to this looming legal showdown between an absurd, weird looking social media addled dingbat and convicted criminal. Clearly not entirely with us mired in loopy conspiracy theories. Theories. And who could not capably lead ants to sugar, never mind the free world and the QAnon Shaman. Come on. You'd have been disappointed if we hadn't. And that is all for this edition of the Monocle Daily. Thanks to our panelists today, Laura Kramer and Chris Chermack. Today's show was produced by Carlotta Rebello and researched by Daniela Brau Smith. Our sound engineer was Steph Changu Amandrum Mulligan here in London. The Daily is back at the same time on Monday. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend.