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You're listening to the Monocle Daily. First broadcast on 20 March 2026 on Monaco Radio.
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How close did we really come to the Danish American War of 2026? Operation Epic Fury ends its third inconclusive week and conclusions from MIPIM. I'm Andrew Muller. The Monocle Daily Start. Hello and welcome to the Monocle Daily. Coming to you from our studios here at Midori House in London. I'm Andrew Muller. Our in house guests, Alexa Self, Carlotta Rebelo and Inzamam Rashid will discuss the day's big stories and we'll have our weekly review of what we've learned. Stay tuned. All that and more coming up right here on the Monocle. D. This is the Monocle Daily. I'm Andrew Muller. Now, morbidly attentive listeners to the Monocle Daily, like we have any other kind, etc. Will recall that for a few strange days in January we broadcast the show from the foyer of Catuac, the cultural center in downtown Nuuk, capital of Greenland. This was during the week in which it briefly appeared possible that the United States was serious about invading Greenland. Invading, that is the territory of a NATO ally, that is the kingdom of Denmark. Even at the time, this prosp seemed too absurd to take entirely seriously, though it has emerged this week how entirely seriously Denmark was taking it. I'm joined now by a fellow survivor of the Greenland expedition, Monocle's foreign editor, Alexis Self. Alexis, first of all, what does the reporting from Denmark tell us this week? Because it's, it's quite eyebrow arching.
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Yes. Well, good evening, Andrew. Thank you for having me. I think what it tells us is that like any sensible nation, Denmark was prepared for all eventualities. But yet to read this report from Dr. The Danish state broadcaster is still astounding. And I think the most salient thing to point out first is that the decision was taken by Copenhagen that its soldiers would fight if the US invaded. And what this looked like in terms of planning was that first of all they would blow up runways in Greenland in the territory which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and they shipped in stuff like blood in the eventuality of casualties. And yeah, like you said, it could have come to this. And I suppose when we were there, you know, even even though the hysteria around it and the media attention kind of seemed quite comic at the time, underneath that was the very real possibility that things could actually happen. And yeah, it's still amazing to think back on that now, part of those
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shows, and I thought a particular highlight was dispatching and not entirely maliciously, was dispatching you out into the subarctic freeze of midwinter nuke to trudge the snow covered streets to speak to the locals. Did you get much sense from those interactions of how actually scared they were?
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Yeah, I think it was. And actually, you know, this is a form that fear often takes, which is anger. And I think that that was the prevailing mood for me was a sense of anger that a country that was seen as a longtime friend, not just of Denmark, but of Greenland in particular, could be making these types of threats towards the country that seemed so unnecessary. Right. I mean, what could America possibly want from Greenland that it wouldn't get with a polite.
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Well, as more than one Greenlandic official we spoke to said, if the United States wants to build bases all over Greenland, sure, knock yourself out. You only have to ask.
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Yeah, or actually they don't really have to ask because the treaty that governs the relationship between Greenland and the US Stipulates that they can build what they want. Really. And we. Well, on my vox pop perambulations, I did actually meet some Danish, some jolly Danish soldiers who, as you would imagine, were about 12 foot tall and bearded and fans of free, free climbing out in the ice. But, you know, they took me to the base and, and to get a sense of, you know, even when, when, when we arrived, I was surprised how, how small Nook is. You know, even, even the military base, the JO base in Nook is like a kind of two story building. You know, it looks like a kind of suburban house in the U.S. but these, you know, there are U.S. soldiers there. You know, all of these exercises and the whole business of, you know, being a soldier in Greenland, a Danish soldier involves a lot of contact with Americans.
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So.
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And the American consulate, which is even smaller than that base, it's a kind of little cottage in the harbor, is right there. It's opposite the base. That's what I think it was, this feeling that a country seen almost as a big brother and a kind of protector of this territory was suddenly threatening
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it, as is always the case with President Trump. And we now have a decade or so's worth of experience of this. He does just say stuff. It's always clear how seriously he means it or how seriously anybody else should take it. But is it possible that there is a relationship between what happened or nearly happened or looked like it was about to happen in January and what is happening now? I. E. We are two months later on. Donald Trump has saddled up for a military expedition somewhere else entirely. Is Demanding that his European allies follow him into the fray, and seems kind of surprised that they're all going, no.
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Yeah. I think it's easy in hindsight, of course, to dismiss the whole Greenland crisis as sort of confected bluster, as I'm sure Trump probably would if he were asked directly now. But given what he's subsequently done in Iran and how few people thought that that would actually take place, then, you know, you have to take these things seriously. As I said at the beginning, every country that is competently organized should have this kind of disaster planning, at least on a piece of paper or on a computer somewhere. I think the thing with the Europeans in the US and why it's such a, you know, such a shock to the system, such a kind of psychodrama, is that every other eventuality would be prepared for, probably even France and Germany fighting again. But the idea that America, the guarantor of security, would be a threat, was never a consideration, I think, for its NATO allies. And it's why they've struggled so much to reacquaint themselves with this. This strange new world.
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I mean, just as a final hypothetical thought, and we should remind our listeners at this point that, as you correctly point out, Nuuk is tiny. It's also extremely isolated. There is only really one way in or out of it, or two ways, if you count the sea. But there is that Runway at Nuuk Airport which the Danes were proposing to blow up. Have you given any thought, since reading these, to thinking about what your new life in Nuuk would be now if we were still stuck there two months later? Because we would be.
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I think about it almost continuously. I would love to have been stuck there. Obviously not in. In such disastrous circumstances. Look, I'm more of an indoorsy person than an outdoorsy one, but I like to think that I could get acquainted with a harpoon and, you know, perhaps some big boots. What about you?
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I was thinking along similar lines. Like, would I have sort of found my inner seal hunter at this point? I don't know. It's a.
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We'll never know.
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We will possibly never know. Unless, I mean, Donald Trump's got three more years. He can always come back to this.
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Yeah. And I don't know about you, but I definitely want to return to Nuke.
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Oh, yeah.
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Could not possibly agree more. Big hello to all our listeners in Nuke. If you're tuning in. Lex Self, thank you for joining us. You're listening to the Daily on Monocle Radio. Now, all last week, Monocle Radio was at Mipim the the world's leading real estate fair in Cannes. And among Monocle's team thereat was Monocle executive producer Carlotta Rebelo, who joins me now. Did you enjoy my use of the word thereat?
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I absolutely loved it. Andrew, thank you for using just the best vocabulary for this segment.
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Yeah, I'm going to try and use the word thereat in conversation more often. I'm pleased with it. Today's edition of the Monocle Daily is brought to you by the word thereat. Carlotta, what does briefly go on at a mipim because you have now been to many.
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Yes, I've been to a few now. And Jim, it's your usual trade show. So this is where all the mighty and powerful from the world of urbanism and real estate gather. So we're talking property developers, investors, local authorities, architects, designers, you name it. If you can make a building, you'll be there. But it really is a chance to bring people from all over the world and from all these different parts of the industry together for a sense of scale. This year's Official numbers are 23 delegates were in town representing 90 countries. So for a week you get access to all these fantastic projects and people from all over the world without having to leave Cannes.
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Yeah. And you get stuck in Cannes for a week at this time of year, which is obviously awful.
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Yes, that is the worst part of it all. But to be fair, there is a fair share of just being stuck inside the Palais de Festival where each there's a series of exhibitors and this is again a mix of developers and local authorities and city authorities showcasing their projects. Some are there to spread the word about their project because they need tenants. Others are there to because their projects are at the start of the process or to gather investors so they can actually build these master plans. Others are there as cities or regions promoting what's been happening there. So more of a PR exercise. So it really is a chance to get a sense of what types of assets are being interested. Last year was all about data centers, for example. This year we saw a big move back again to residential and mixed use developments. And you really get a sense of where the attention and where the money is at.
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Well, you have some audio which you are going to introduce.
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Yes, I do have some audio. One of the many people we spoke to and this was during our radio pop up. So throughout the week, Monocle Radio was recording interviews for the Urbanist and for other programs and trying to get a sense of some of these conversations. I was telling you About Andrew. And one of the people we spoke to was Ian Mulcahy, who's the cities and urban design leader and a strategy director at Gensler, the global architecture firm. Now, Ian and his team do a lot of work all around the world, but we specifically asked him about this incredible plan, which is the Baghdad Sustainable Forest Master Plan. Let's have a listen.
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So it's a vision of the government in Iraq who's saying, we know Baghdad, this great ancient city, biblical city, pre biblical city, it, hugely damaged by terrible generation of conflict, really a city still the capital, but a city that desperately wants to try and say to the world, hey, we're open for business. The day I saw their brief was the day I said, we want to do this project because the brief said, we want to take this enormous damaged piece of land, a former airfield damaged in the war, and we want to repurpose this as a sustainable urban forest. And, you know, very rarely people say the centerpiece of my urban redevelopment or urban regeneration is to build an urban forest. But when you look at the climate there and you look at difficulties of air pollution, you look at the lack of open space for the residents, you look at the quality of environment that a lot of people are having to live in, it makes perfect sense, actually. Why don't we take a significant piece of land and transform it for the benefit of the residents and do it in a way that really enables us to go globally and say, look, this city's pulling itself back together. This site on the banks of the River Tigris is actually once again going to be a really important part of our community or growing community.
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It's amazing because when I read the story in my mind, maybe I haven't updated my impression of where Baghdad, where Iraq is in its story of return, you say all those things that they're considering would be extraordinary for any city to have that list of priorities and to be willing to find the resources to deliver that is pretty amazing. So when you see this proposal, what's the stages for you to come up? And you have come up with a plan?
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Yes.
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Is that you going to Baghdad, your team going to Baghdad, or do you do this remotely?
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Are you there on the ground at the moment?
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We work remotely and we just work with the advice we're given that it's probably better to stay remote. At this stage, though, things are changing. We have consultants on the ground, we have a local architect and we have an engineer who we're working with. So we've got a lot of direct feedback from them about the local conditions and the process and procedures that we to follow. So it's actually worked very, very well and very seamlessly so far. We're at a very high level, strategic concept level. We've actually started moving parts of the scheme into phase one and actually there are works now starting holdings going up on part of the site. It will be a long project. It's going to take easily a generation to establish this. But once you establish a great park, a great forest, they tend to stay. The parks and the forest tend not to leave cities. And once they're there, they're there for generations to come. And that's what's so exciting about it.
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Tell me, that model that you've got in Baghdad, are you applying that in other cities as well that need this kind of big injection of energy to kind of change the narratives? As you said, some established cities, they want to change that direction. They want to be a bit more of an education hub or for life sciences or attract AI investors. But this is. You're talking about like properly pressing the reset button here.
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I think it's interesting. Again, we're talking at a major property conference and the focus is. Does tend to be on buildings and the land uses that are inside buildings. But actually, if you think about your memory of great cities or great places, it's nearly always the spaces between the buildings that you remember. It is the great street or it is the square or the fabulous park that you saw and experienced and visited that really provide some of the most, the greatest impact on people. And it is actually those spaces that actually form part of people's normal everyday human experience. Yes, within that there can be one or two special buildings, iconic buildings, important buildings, but actually it's really open space and the experience of nature that actually I think most human beings really, really crave. Neeli is always secondary in a lot of our planning. It didn't used to be, but a lot of our planning now it comes in as a secondary consideration. If you think back actually to the famous Ebenezer Howard, when he built these great new towns, he actually put it first. It was this notion of getting back to nature and the garden city. And I think people crave that, actually. I think they really crave that a more comfortable relationship with nature in their urban environment.
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That was Ian Mulcahy as cities and urban design leader and strategy director at Gensler, talking to Monocle's editor in chief, Andrew Tuck at mipim. Still with me is Carlotta Rebelo. I mean, that interview, obviously a Liked because this is somebody doing urbanism at its kind of its most fundamental. I know the war has been more or less over in Baghdad for a long time, but there is a lot that needs doing there. But if you think back on your own experience of this Mipim, what was a particular highlight for you?
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It's been interesting because it's usually these big city master plans that tend to stick to your mind and whether it is an entire city or a new neighborhood. For example, one of the ones we visited was Turkey's Ion river, which is a landscape led map master plan that is aiming to deliver 970 homes in a new district north of Istanbul by the water. And the whole philosophy is that it's a master plan guided by nature. So firms like Snohetta are heavily involved in the design. And the whole idea is putting well being and community and nature at its center. So you'll have your typical villas, but you'll also have some townhouses which are a bit more unusual. So townhouses with one or two apartments as part of the development and then all these cultural sites throughout. So it can be a music venue or a place for the community to gather. There's what they call preventative health, which is of course it's important to have hospitals and doctors, but what if you could be there a few steps ahead of that, preventing you from needing a doctor? So incorporating that into the master plan is some of the things that stood out to us. And it was interesting to visit their stand because it was designed in a way that they had this huge roundtable in the middle of it and the whole process is to engage in conversation. So every day, a few times a day, 30 people would sit around that table and just talk about something that they like about cities. And it was really a nice chance of hearing, you know, what are some of these approaches and the importance of human centric design.
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Do you come back from this is a question just occurring to me because most of the conferences I go to as, as presenter of the Foreign Desk, I'm mostly speaking to people whose job basically consists of as much as they can to stop things from getting even worse. Whereas you're actually going to a conference like MIPIM and talking to people who are actively engaged in trying to improve stuff. Do you come back yourself suffused with optimism and excitement?
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It's very difficult not to because, you know, at the end of the day, it's the whole philosophy behind, you know, the show the Urbanist is that the more people care and talk about what's happening in their cities, the better they will be. So hearing about, you know, how Turku in Finland is committing 4 billion to create an innovation district to promote sciences, for example, for a city of that scale, that is quite an ambitious project. And then to hear, you know, how even here in London, turning some historic buildings by the riverfront to bring mixed use, so it's not just business, it's not just residential, but actually that idea of putting community at its center. So, yes, it's very difficult not to come back just feeling optimistic and thinking that cities are the best place on earth.
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Carlotta Rebelo, thank you for joining us. You're listening to THE D. You're listening to the Monocle Daily with me, Andrew Muller. It's time now for our weekly assessment of what lessons we can usefully absorb from the last seven days. We learned this week of continuing evolution in the thinking of US President Donald Trump.
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I can't wait to try this guy.
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Tell me more.
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See where this goes.
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Knew you'd be intrigued. We learned that President Trump had reconsidered the view he held of the United States allies as recently as January, that is, that they were a burden, an impediment, a tedious sack of whining ingrates, just a colossal pain in the knackers all round.
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We have never really asked anything of them. You know, they'll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan or this or that, and they did. They stayed a little back, a little off the front lines. But we, we've been very good to Europe and to many other countries.
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But we learned excitingly that said US Allies were now vital strategic partners.
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Tonight, President Trump renewed calls for countries that rely on oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz to send warships to secure the shipping route, the strategic waterway now largely blocked for oil exports.
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We learned, however, that the response from said vital strategic partners was broadly analogous to the one any of us might expect from our own circle if we whimsically took a big old kick at a hornet's nest, elicited the response, which might be broadly expected from hornets which had had their nest kicked, then turned around and cried, come on, lads, who's with me? Which is to say that as of this broadcast, nobody seems all that keen to get involved. As we learned, or at least inferred from the president's inability to name so much as a single member of his proposed coalition of the grudging numerous countries
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have told me they're on the way.
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Crucially, none of them appear to have stated where they are on the way to we continued to learn anyway of the importance of the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf pinch point, which is also somewhat annoyingly, on balance, the entrance to and exit from a goodly proportioned of the world's energy fields. We learned that despite the exhortations of the US President, the owners, insurers, and crews of oil and gas tankers remained unaccountably reluctant to sail what are essentially enormous floating bombs through a shooting gallery. But we learned that also among those vexed by the pettifogging insistence of sensitive seafarers in focusing on the negative was US Secretary of Defense and almost tragically obviously fall guy in waiting Pete Hegseth.
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The only thing prohibiting transit in the straits right now is Iran shooting at shipping. It is open for transit should Iran not do that in much the same
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way, for example, that the Little Bighorn river was open for forwarding by General George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry, if only Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and the warriors of the Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho nations had chosen to cheerfully wait them through. Yes, thank you. We are aware that this is not a strictly accurate precis of the events of June 25, 1876, but it just about holds as a comparative illustration of the perils of hubris for purposes of satirical commentary, as all reasonable people will agree. But somewhat surprisingly, We learned that at least one member of the US Administration could stand no more of this nonsense. We just learned, get this, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, has just announced he's resigning. We've still got that chorus about former UK Minister of State for Health and Secondary care, Will quince quitting in 2023. Right? Play that, but with someone saying Joe Kent over his name.
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Joe Kent? Surely not Joe Kent. Jo Cant Joe Kent what are we gonna do?
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Surely not.
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For we learned, if you'll forgive the leaden sarcasm, which, to be honest, if you're still listening, we'll just take as read that the outgoing director of the National Counterterrorism center is maybe not quite the decent, principled yet humble whistleblower we might have hoped would take the stage circa this point in proceeding.
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He is as MAGA as they come. Donald Trump endorsed both of Mr. Kent's failed runs for Congress. Kent is an election denier through and through. He peddled the fringe conspiracy theory that the FBI instigated the January 6th insurrection. He's appeared alongside far right militia groups and associated with white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
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We learned anyway, that we were not alone in surmising that John Joe Kent might not be any great loss to the counter terrorism field generally.
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I always thought he was weak on security, very weak on security.
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Because whether we agree with President Trump about anything else, we can surely get together on the proposition that the last thing you want in someone in that role is weakness on security. And we, for one whimsical news monologue, tremble for whichever bungling clown, trousered idiot gave Kent the job when Donald Trump gets hold of them.
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President Trump picking former Washington state congressional candidate Joe Kent to be director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Trump announced the nomination on Truth Social, saying, as a soldier, Green Beret and IA officer, Joe has hunted down terrorists and criminals his entire adult life anyway.
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We did, however, learn of a potential new role for someone with Mr. Kent's expertise in subterfuge and camouflage. We learned that farmers in India had been driven to inventive desperate measures by crop thieving macaques.
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And in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, farmers have found a unique way to tackle the money menace and save their crop.
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Well, they are trying to save against the monkeys and farmers are dressing up as bears. Yes, we learned that the small holders of Uttar Pradesh, weary of involuntarily feeding the local monkey population, had resorted to shambling about their paddocks in bear costumes, which are, upon reviewing the footage, frankly, not all that convincing. But then, monkeys aren't that bright. Don't like it? Write to the editor. That's right, you can't. You're a monkey. We hoped to learn anyway more about the thinking behind this adoption of ursine disguise and accordingly contacted the Uttar Pradesh Farmers Union, but they've been a bit slow responding. We will in due course send a follow up asking. To explain the big pause.
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Taxi. For what we learned.
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You are listening to the Daily on Monocle Radio with me, Andrew Muller. Finally, to the Persian Gulf, where after three weeks of joint US Israeli military action against Iran, US President Donald Trump sounds more annoyed with America's nominal European allies than he does with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Speaking a short while ago, Trump declared that it would be easy for those allies to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz and that they were cowards for declining to do so. I'm joined now by someone with a view of the Strait of Hormuz. Monocles Gulf correspondent in Zamam Rashid in Zamam has anything been coming or going today?
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Absolutely nothing. The only thing that has been coming and going is fighter jets from the US in the early hours of this morning. I am looking over the Strait of Hormuz right now, Andrew, and I can see in the distance dozens and dozens and dozens of lights lit up in that very dark water in front of me because they are vessels, ships, oil tankers, waiting in the Oman Gulf, in the Gulf of Oman, waiting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, waiting for a green light so that they can take their goods, their oil to wherever it needs to go. What we're learning tonight, though, is that the Iranian military's position on the Strait of Hormuz is that they will not discuss reopening this waterway whilst the US Continues its attacks, Andrew. And as I mentioned, they continued their attacks overnight, particularly along the coastline of Iran here near the Strait of Hormuz, around 50 miles from where I am in the UAE. They sent in low flying attack jets over the water, blasting Iranian navy vessels and deploying Apache helicopters to shoot down Iran's drones. Now, this has come directly from the American military. In response, the irgc, the Iranian military have said that there's been no damage done, that all their missile sites are still working. But the US say that this is part of a wider operation from the Pentagon, a multi stage plan to reduce the danger from Iran. Armed boats, mines and cruise missiles which have halted the ship traffic through this waterway since the conflict began. We know that Iran has targeted a number of vessels as they've tried to pass through and in some instances they've, they've killed some seafarers, they've damaged many ships as well. And I've been speaking to U.S. sources tonight, official U.S. sources, and they say that if the danger can be reduced, the danger that they're targeting, then the US could send warships through the straits and eventually escort vessels in and out of the Persian Gulf. That, though, is looking very unlikely purely because of the geography of this place and also because Donald Trump specifically been calling on European allies, NATO allies to come and support, and they're just not heeding his call. They're in fact turning their back on him essentially, and saying, look, it's not our fight to fight and we don't need to come out there with our military might to do that for you.
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We have also heard today, or so we are told, from the new Iranian supreme leader, Mojtada Khamenei. Of course, recall that we still have not actually seen or heard from him since he got the job. He has said that attacks on Oman and Turkey in recent weeks actually weren't by Iran. What would be the point in Tehran making that statement, what are they hoping to accomplish?
D
Well, look, Iran wants to, at the end of the day, try and provide, approve some sort of kind of masterful at adaption in a way. They're trying to adapt to an asymmetric power situation in the Middle east over the last 20 years with this kind of axis of resistance and the use of militias. Now that they're facing, I guess, a very different kind of challenge, a more direct challenge from the US And Israel, they're figuring out a way to use economic power out here as well. And I think what Iran is essentially preparing for is the eventuality of a ground invasion. I think unless huge numbers of troops are deployed, they may have some kind of home field advantage in any sort of confrontation. And so I think what they're trying to do is keep as many nations as they possibly can on side. We know also in his address, he specifically spoke directly to Pakistan. Pakistan is a huge ally of Iran and has been for many, many years. It's also got a defense pact with Saudi Arabia, Remember, probably the only country right now that has come close to actually really threatening Iran with attacks. The only country in the Gulf that is really threatening Iran with attacks. So, look, Iran's trying to keep as many friends close to it as possible. We know that it's having conversations with Russia all the time. In fact, some of those Shaheed drones which were originally manufactured in Iran were then sent over to Russia for them to use and are now being manufactured in Russia and being sent back to Iran to use in this conflict. So, look, many countries are involved. The conversations are constantly happening, and there is obviously still huge amounts of military aggression in this region. Andrew,
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it is odd in many respects that Trump is so insistent on badgering his European allies because there are obviously some American allies with a more obvious stake in this, which is those Gulf states which have come under fire very definitely from Iran in the last few weeks. Qatar obviously suffering that massive strike on its LNG field yesterday. There have been similar attacks elsewhere. Is there any prospect of or any talk of them getting into the fight directly? Because they would not necessarily be making a token contribution. I mean, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates between them can put about 200 modern combat jets in the air.
D
I think initially on the point of help for the Strait of Hormuz. And of course, Trump asking NATO allies for support. And the response, as I mentioned, hasn't been great. The UAE have said that they will support the US in this mission, that they will bring military power to the Strait of Hormuz in order to assist. They didn't say, you know, that it would be used to attack, but potentially us, potentially navy vessels to help escorts in the water. The UAE has always been pretty clear that it's got the right to defend itself, but they don't want to essentially escalate this conflict, and they feel they would do that if they were to attack. As I mentioned, the closest to have come to it is Saudi Arabia. The foreign minister yesterday was pretty clear in a speech that he gave where he reminded Iran that the patience that the Gulf countries are showing is not unlimited. And he reminded Iran that Saudi Arabia has got the capabilities to attack if it wants to do so. I think the important point here, Andrew, is that all the Gulf states essentially have to be on the same page for some form of attack on Iran to happen. And right now, I don't think that is necessarily the case. The UAE probably doesn't want to target Iran right now. They don't want to see an escalation. They essentially can't afford an escalation. They're losing hundreds of billions of dollars because of tourism being impacted here. Saudi Arabia wants to clearly strike Iran. In fact, they've been pushing Donald Trump to get the job done, to essentially cut the head of the snake. But then you've got countries like Oman who've tried to be a mediator in all of this, who tried to essentially have those talks at the very beginning, before this conflict even be. And they were the host of those. Those conversations. So you've got Gulf nations who are all on different pages. And I think essentially at the end of the day, for Gulf nations to attack, to bring some military might to this conflict, they all need to be on the same page, at least in
B
Zamam Rashid overlooking the Strait of Hormuz. Thank you very much for joining us. And that is it for this edition of the Monocle Daily. Today's show was produced by Carlotta Rebello, and sound engineer was Elliot Greenfield. I'm Andrew Muller here in London. The Daily is back at the same time on Monday. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend.
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Sam.
Episode Topic: What would Denmark do if the US invaded Greenland? Plus, latest updates from the Gulf
This episode revolves around two major themes:
The conversation draws on first-hand reporting, expert panel insights, humor, and analysis.
Timestamps:
Timestamps:
Timestamps:
Timestamps:
The episode features Monocle’s signature blend of sharp reporting, wry humor, and accessible analysis. Panelists maintain an irreverent but informed tone, moving between serious geopolitics, urbanist optimism, and satirical news monologue seamlessly.
| Segment | Topic / Content | Start Time | |---------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------|------------| | Denmark/US-Greenland Crisis | Defensive planning, local reactions | 00:07 | | Mipim Real Estate Fair | Trends, interviews on urban renewal | 10:11 | | Baghdad Sustainable Forest Plan | In-depth project discussion w/ Gensler | 13:03 | | Weekly Review (“What We Learned”) | Satirical look at global news/US politics | 21:57 | | Gulf Crisis Live Update | On-the-ground reporting from Strait of Hormuz | 29:21 |
For listeners who missed the show:
The episode expertly dissects the absurd yet significant standoff between Denmark and the US over Greenland, gives a hopeful look at post-conflict urban renewal in cities like Baghdad, and wraps with a sardonic take on world affairs in crisis mode, from the Gulf to Uttar Pradesh’s monkey menace. Panelists blend first-hand insights, expertise, and humor, making for a rich, lively discussion on today’s most pressing news stories.