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The Monocle Daily
Will organised crime be a key issue for Brazil’s upcoming elections? Plus: The Burberry and Monocle collaboration
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A
You're listening to the Monocle Daily, first broadcast on 31st October, 2025 on Monocle Radio.
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B
Brazil struggles to understand how its police could have killed 132 people. America's favourite pastime acquires international resonance. And do you enjoy a pumpkin spice latte or are you actually fundamentally sane? I'm Andrew Muller. The Monocle Daily starts. FOREIGN 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 Antonio Sampaio, Chris Chermack, Fernando Augusto Pacheco and Monica Lillas will discuss the day's stuff. We'll hear about Monocle's new collaboration with Burberry 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.
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C
FOREIGN.
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B
This is the Monocle Daily. I'm Andrew Muller. And we start in Rio de Janeiro, still counting the cost of a police raid on two favelas in the city's north earlier this week. At least 132 people are now known to have been killed. Among the many who have expressed their bewilderment is Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva. Police have claimed that they were confronted by organized and well armed criminals who attacked them with drone borne explosives, among other weapons. Well, I'm joined now by Antonio Sampaio, expert on Latin American politics and security. Antonio, do we have a clear understanding of what actually happened when the police went into these two favelas?
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D
Yes, we do, according to the police. But a lot of information is also coming out gradually from the communities themselves, which have a slightly different story. Of course, the police saying that they went in to arrest or kill several high level members of the Red Command criminal group, which is the largest criminal drug trafficking organization in Rio. And one of them being the head of the Red Command in that area, nicknamed Doka, who remains, you know, free. He was not killed or arrested in that, but the police used, as usual, a highly, you know, securitized, highly, highly militarized tactics that involved expelling or entering the favela with police officers and pushing the suspected drug traffickers into a nearby wooded area where other military police officers were waiting to ambush them. So you can see that the tactics used were quite, you know, warlike. They were not the type of action that police usually does. It's more like a war situation. So the community understandably has, you know, reacted with tremendous shock to that operation. The number of bodies that they had to Recover and line up on the streets. And it's the deadliest police operation ever in Rio de Janeiro, which is saying a lot given the track record of militarized and repressive police tactics there.
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B
I mean, you're correct to point out that violent confrontations between police and gangs in the favailers are not that unusual. But do we understand why this one escalated like it did? We assuming the police did not intend to go in and kill dozens of people? Yeah.
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D
Well, there are a lot of things that remain to be explained about this operation and it's not at all clear to me yet if the police indeed had at any point an idea of doing this operation smoothly or with a smaller death toll. I think the reason why they decided to escalate this operation so much and to create this sort of ambush in the woods against the drug traffickers expecting really to kill them, because there's no other explanation for an ambush, is the fact that they were trying to arrest or kill the leader of the Red Command there, which is nicknamed Docker, who is a very long standing figure in the Red Command. He was not, however, killed or, or arrested and remains at large. So in that sense the operation is, you know, didn't go according to plan for them. But it's not at all clear to me that they expected a smaller death to or I think they're just becoming bold. And actually some of the senior police officers there cited the example of El Salvador where the government adopted a highly repressive prison base, sort of incarcerating large amounts of people, some without due process, as a tactic to fight gangs. And I think that Brazilian authorities are looking at that and thinking maybe we can do that here and becoming bolder in their approach because of that.
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B
The governor, the state Governor Claudio Castro, ordered this raid. He has praised it. So he doesn't appear to think the police did anything wrong. Is it possible to get a sense of how many Brazilians are likely to agree with him? Is he gambling that there is actually quite a lot of popular support for taking measures like this?
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D
Yes, he is right that there is quite a lot of popular support and security, Public security policies in Brazil have become, I'm afraid, as most issues today in the world have become highly polarized according to right or left political ideologies. And there's definitely support for the operation, a lot of popular support, especially from those leaning towards the right. A lot of politicians in the National Congress and governors, state governors have voiced publicly support for the operation and said that it was a cleanup, that all of the dead were drug trafficking, they were bandits and that the only, you know, they expect Lula to voice his surprise because he's always been lax and soft against drug traffickers and security. Or so goes the argument among the right leaning politicians and governors and in fact, a group of governors of other states that align with the right wing and are supporters of Bolsonaro and Jair Bolsonaro, former president. They went to Rio de Janeiro this week after the operation to voice the support in person to the governor and obviously also hoping to have a photo opportunity with him, signaling that this line of tough against crime and highly militarized operation lethal persecution of criminals tends to become a very important flag for the Brazilian right in the months and years to come. And remind, remembering that next year is an election, a presidential election in Brazil.
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B
Antonio Sampaio, thank you for joining us. You're listening to the Daily on Monocle Radio. This is the Daily on Monocle Radio. Now, if you purchase a cup of coffee from Monocle's cafe on Chiltern street here in London or in Monocle's cafes in Paris or Tokyo Roundabout now, and why would you not, you will notice something slightly different about the cups. They commemorate a new collaboration between Monocle and Burberry. And here with more on that is Monocle's publisher, Luke Courtier. Luke, welcome to the Daily.
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E
Thanks, Andrew.
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B
It's not just the cups, is it?
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E
No, weirdly, it's not just the cups. We built a slightly larger world. We started with we had a bit of fun working with Babrian. We started in print. We started with this kind of cool, illustrative take on archetypes or characters you find in London wearing Burberry items illustrated by, by our art team. And then from that we built out cafe and shop takeovers in London, Paris and Tokyo, which all went live on Monday. And they include said cup. They include artwork running through the stores, vinyls, menus. They even include US Stockings and Burberry items in our shop with those characters on the labels that match those items.
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B
Tell us a bit about how a collaboration like this comes about. What gets talked about when a brand wants to welcome Monocle into its world or vice versa.
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E
I think there are probably two things. I think one, one, I suppose particularly with Burberry, they had a new or they had a take on Britishness that they wanted to start playing more with. That was about a witness and the humor and I think this sort of lightness of touch. And they, they came to us to say they wanted to look at London, but They wanted to do it in a way that felt kind of original, kind of different, and they knew that we have an audience that we talk to that is their target. But they. They kind of trust us to use the creativity that we have to take Burberry, filter it or refract it through Monocle's lens to talk best to that audience. So it's. It's about a meeting of minds between their brand and. And our brand and what they're trying to do, and the way in which we talk, through text, through imagery, through illustration, to the audience that we know in the voice that they trust.
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B
Is it not just asking, generally, not about this particular collaboration? Because I'm curious, is it ever difficult to persuade a brand, especially one like Burberry, which obviously takes its brand very seriously, to relinquish that amount to, I guess, place that amount of trust in Monocle?
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E
I mean, yes, yes, I think it is. I think it comes to playing with the tenets of brand and where rigidity and repetition are very important in vision and identity, but also where are those moments of flex and surprise? I think, particularly in fashion and some of the work we do in the luxury space. I think with Burberry, we sort of saw them starting to play with both, Especially when Josh Shulman took over as CEO and Jonathan Keeman came in as cmo, there started to be this new vision that was an interesting mix of where those areas were where they could, I don't want to say be a bit looser, but they could play outside some of the sort of brand tenets, as it were. So, yes, I think it's tricky. I think we've been doing what we do for a long time, so I think there is a sense, if you're going to do something creative that's a bit beyond what a standard content commercial partnership might be. We would be the ones to do it. But, yeah, it is a point of tension, which, I mean, not that there's ever any tension in anything we do.
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B
Obviously not. But if we bring it back again to this particular collaboration, are there any particular aspects of it that you were especially pleased with or came up even better than you thought they might?
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E
I think that the quality of the illustration is so good and I think that they went with us in terms of, like, we have the retired socialite as this rather elegant, illustrated Chelseaite lady who sort of.
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B
I did see some of these illustrations in the cafe on Chiltern street earlier.
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E
Correct. The Heath Rambler. There are so many, like, I think that there is a beauty in not always trying to over explain a brand, I think this came out so well and I think sometimes in illustration there's just this lightness of touch and there's this lyricism that you can't find anywhere else. And I think it's quite interesting for a brand like Burberry to have come to us and said, you know, we don't, yes, there's product involved but we can lean on something that's fundamentally more emotional. And just the print piece is beautiful. It's just good print, well done. And I think you see it in the November issue. Well done to them because they work with us. In a way the issue pretty much falls open onto that piece. But that was great. And then I think it was cool for us to activate London, Paris and Tokyo at the same time on Monday, which also was not a stressful thing to do at all. So there were lovely moments of surprise and I think it's, you know, it was interesting being in Milan and talking to other brands who sort of, sort of said, well, you know, why didn't you? How do we do that? So that was, that was fun as well.
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B
Luke Courtier, thanks for joining us. You're listening to the Daily. This is the Daily on Monocle Radio. Major League Baseball's World Series is often mocked outside the United States for the apparent hubris of its name. This year's World Series, however, is an international event pitting the Toronto Blue Jays against the Los Angeles Dodgers. And given the grand scheme of U.S. canada relations, it is something of a grudge match. Despite the astonishing heroics of Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani, the Blue Jays have a 32 lead in the Series and can wrap it up in front of a home crowd later today. Well, I'm joined now by Monocle's senior news editor and America's favourite pastime desk chief Chris Chermack. For Canadians there is a lot on this because they thought they were going to get their revenge earlier this year, Chris in the Stanley cup, the ice hockey, but they did not because the Florida Panthers knocked over the Edmonton Oilers. So has this become seen in Canada as US versus Canada?
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C
This is absolutely seen in Canada as US versus Canada. Maybe predictably, just like in politics, Americans care less. Canadians care a huge amount at this point about how this is potentially going to go. Just watching all the scenes, like even when Toronto plays in Los Angeles cuz they've, they've flipped. Sometimes they play in Los Angeles, sometimes in Toronto. The stadium in Toronto has been showing the games. The Roger center and is absolutely packed with Mad Canadians who are really going for this. So it is just interesting to see how a country has come together. Also, unlike the Stanley Cup, Toronto is the only Canadian baseball team in the league. So everyone in Canada is rallying around this in this moment of such, you know, tense Canadian American relations. And that's, of course, what brings it home even more than in February as well.
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B
So have usual internecine hostilities within Canada been suspended? Is everybody grudgingly deciding we are all Torontonians this week?
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C
They are absolutely deciding that they're all Torontonians, even the Americans there. And that's what I find fascinating, I have to say. Been interesting reading some of the quotes, like the sports. Obviously the stars don't really want to get into politics. That's not what they're there for. They're here to play the game. But Toronto's manager is an American, John Schneider. He's born in New Jersey, but even he had to sort of admit coming ahead of this, that he feels more Canadian than American right now. He said, it's such a fulfilling job, an entire country hanging on every pitch. I feel like I'm more Canadian. I love drinking beer. I like drinking Tim Hortons. I'm one of them. So you've had these. And even another star that I'll just mention, George Springer said, I'm so happy for our team, our fans, our city, our country, the guys from Connecticut.
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B
How subtle or otherwise have Canadian politicians been about clambering aboard the bandwagon?
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C
This is what's interesting too, because until today or the last couple of days, Canadian politicians were not really jumping on the bandwagon, at least of the politics of it. Obviously, they're supporting the team. But what prompted me to come on this show was it's fascinating that even now, Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, he of the Reagan tariff ad fame that torpedoed the tariff negotiations between Canada and the U.S. wrote an op ed in the Washington Post comparing the World Series with what's happening in U.S. canadian politics, talking about how Canada is always underestimated and sort of linking it in that way. And he is right that also in the sense that the Dodgers are the big team, Los Angeles with all the money, all the superstars. Shohei Ohtani, as you mentioned as well, it's sort of been pitched as this David versus Goliath thing. And he really leans into that saying, you know, the Blue Jays are now up to three, two. You know, even if it's a David versus Goliath, this is never the case. Americans are underestimating The Jays, Canada's team, isn't some small market afterthought, just like the country is. So it's just, he's kind of. It's interesting how everyone has leaned into the politics of this to make clear, no, we are not just your northern neighbor that you can forget about. We can win things. We can be better than you.
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B
Is there a potential difficulty here for the Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney? Obviously, we assume he is. All aboard for the Blue Jays and hopes they win it tonight or indeed hopes they win it eventually. They don't have to win tonight's game. They do have, you know, a bit of room to maneuver still. But if, if Canada does win this, by which I mean if the Blue Jays win this, there is going to be an amount of Canadian triumphalism beyond anything he might be able to, that's not likely to go over tremendously well south of the border. I mean, does he just decide, look, the Americans are going to be unhappy about this anyway, I might as well just pile in on it for whatever domestic political credit is there to be gained or do I have to be a little bit gracious in victory? Should indeed victory be what occurs?
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C
It's a good question. I mean, this brings us back to this Ronald Reagan ad. I mean, the kind of things that can irk Donald Trump, we just never know what that might be. The fact that simply an ad would end up torpedoing the relation that the trade talks between Canada and the U.S. so in that sense, maybe there's a risk. But I think given he is the leader of Canada, if Toronto actually wins this thing, he'd probably run the risk, a greater risk of losing the next election if he did not lean into the fact that Canada was the superstars winning winners of the World Series going forward. So I think he's going to have to. There's obviously going to be a parade in Toronto which you would expect the whole of Canada to be invited to.
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B
And so the thing for him to do is just to turn up at the next trade negotiations wearing a blue Jays cap.
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C
Absolutely. Wear a blue Jays cap.
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B
Why?
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C
Why not?
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B
Chris Chermack, Monocle's senior news editor. Thank you for joining us. You're listening to the D. You're listening to the Daily with me, Andrew Muller. I am joined now by Monocle's senior correspondent Fernando Augusto Pacheco and Monocle's associate producer, Monica Lillis. And we will look, or we'll start with a look at the Billboard chart, specifically at what isn't in the Billboard charts. For the first time since 1990, there is not one track in the top 40 which could be characterized as rap or hip hop. Granted that there is less room in the top 40 than usual with fully 12 places occupied by Taylor Swift, but still. Monica, I have to ask you first because your other job title here beyond associate producer is Taylor Swift desk chief here at Monaco Radio. Is this all Taylor Swift's fault?
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A
I suppose in a way it kind of is her fault because she is occupying over a quarter of the places because she released her new album earlier this month and I guess she's just really popular and people are streaming her music a lot. But I guess the Billboard, the US charts is quite. I don't know if peculiar is the right word. Fernando probably knows more about this than me, but it's based solely on popularity as opposed to in the UK where there's a kind of a cap on how many songs can go in the chart from one album. So if an album is really, really popular and people are streaming it it front to back, all those songs will end up in the top 40 or the top 10 or whatever.
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B
So that being the case, Fernando, is it possible that reports or inferences of the death of rap and or hip hop have been greatly exaggerated?
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F
Oh, of course they've been greatly exaggerated. Having said that, I mean, we also have a scheduling problem here because I think the top two hip hop artists, at least in the U.S. when it comes to sales and streaming, I think they're a bit of in a low at the moment, especially Drake. There haven't been, you know, at least a current release. Kendrick Lamar as well. There's been some album releases like Cardi B, which. But I don't think the album sold as many copies as she was thinking it would as well. And it's interesting, Andrew, because only five years ago I think rap was at its peak in the charts. I think 30% of the whole American music market was rap. Now I think it's around 23% or something like that. So maybe it's not at its peak and pop is having its moment. We must talk about that. So I don't think that rap is going through a bad time. I think it's because pop is at its peak and it's a different type of pop. I mean, it's the pop that Taylor Swift does. It's a more gentle, you know, we have Olivia Dean in the charts, we have Benson Boone, we have Alex Warren. It's not a very electric, electrifying pop. It's not the pop I Like, sorry, I was trying my best to say something. It's this genteel pop that's dominating the charts in the United States at the moment.
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B
Do you see from your vantage point, Monica, on the Taylor Swift desk, the influence spreading? Are we starting to get noticeable amounts of popular artists who've become popular by trying to sound as much like Taylor Swift as they can possibly get away with?
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A
I do think people do emulate her sound. Yes. So if you think about people like, I guess just off the top of my head, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, two artists that have dominated charts in the last year or so, they see her, Gracie Abrams, they see her as this storytelling genius and they do kind of try and emulate her sound as much as possible, but they do have their own twists on things. But I think it's maybe just the case of tastes are just changing. And Rapp Elliot, our studio manager, made a really good point earlier that it doesn't mean that rap isn't, you know, popular anymore. It just means that it's not necessarily mainstream in the same way that it is. But that's kind of. Me and Faye also were talking about this earlier. It's, you know, the US when it comes to music, isn't the be all and end all, as we know and in the UK. Dave, one of the UK's biggest rappers, released a new album last week and I, I believe that three of his singles are in the top 40 in the UK. So it's still. Still popular over here. It's kind of having a lot. I always talk about rap music and I guess we can verge into hip hop music a little bit too. About my uni years, sort of 2016, 2017, everything in the club was hip hop and rap. It was really, really popular. It's just having a bit of a lull at the moment, I think.
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B
Well, on the subject of things changing, we shall turn now to London, where, as residents or recent visitors will have noticed, its nightlife is other than what it was. Many may be familiar with the we trudge involved in attempting to find anything to eat or drink. After about 10pm one chain of eateries has had an idea which we will come to. Fernando. But first of all, as listeners may be aware, you are ideally placed to assess the scale of the change because you actually live, for reasons surpassing my understanding, in the. In the heart of London's nightlife in Soho. Is it noticeably quieter now than it was when you first moved?
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F
Listen, I got to be very honest, I've been depressed for a bit, you know, about the lack of options for late night dining here in London. It's been quite sad, you know, it's a wonderful big city, you know, buzzing. Well, buzzing until 8pm But I genuinely, I genuinely think things are changing slowly. I can feel it in the air. We will discuss this as well because I am a late night diner, you know, and I was in New York. I just came back from New York in the weekend and I booked myself a latate door at 10 and I told my New York friends and they were like, Fernando, are you crazy? There'll be no one in the restaurant. Because even in New York it's not that buzzing as it used to be. But you know what? I had a great time. I think 10pm is a perfectly reasonable time to go and have dinner. And I had time to have a drink with a friend at 6, another one at 8 and then have my dinner at 10.
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B
I did actually, in fairness to London, Monica, as recently as last night, manage to find somewhere that was open relatively late. Late for a drink. I was skeptical when my friend I was with announced that we were embarking on this ambition, not least as he was not even from London, but visiting from overseas. But, but there it was, it was open and it was. It actually verged on the pleasant. But is, is this something you've noticed as well as the resident young person at the table?
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A
Yes, and I, I do think that I am the reason it's going downhill. I.
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B
This is all personally your fault.
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A
My fault? It's my generation's fault because I, I just love.
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B
No, I like the narrative that it's somehow all personal, just your fault, not that of your generation. London. We've found a scapegoat.
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A
We've found the culprit. It's Monica Lillis. No, but I do really like just going out after work, maybe on a Friday night, grabbing a drink, having not necessarily an early dinner, maybe like 7 8pm and then being home by 11:30, going to bed at midnight and getting. I mean, I don't really get up that early. I don't know why I'm spreading propaganda, but getting up relatively early and not feeling really hungover the next day.
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B
Serious question. Because this is a thought that people have raised and certainly it's something I hear a lot of. Is it the fact that it is just too expensive? I mean, you don't need to think back all that far to think to be able to recall when 20 or 30 quid was actually quite a decent night out. Whereas now it's barely a round of drinks.
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A
Yeah, no it is really expensive. A dining out is brutal, is brutal. So drinks are expensive enough as they are and then food on top of that. So it's kind of, I suppose me and my partner we do a toss up. We either go out for a drink or we go out for dinner and we don't usually do both. So that's possibly one of the reasons.
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B
Because I have myself, Fernando, as someone who likes to go out for something to eat and something to drink but you can only do so much of realizing I've seen, spent actually quite a lot of money on something that wasn't really all that good. So we turn now to what Cafe Morano is doing to try and solve this problem. What is it and is it going to work?
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F
I think it's going to work. Cafe Moreno, which I love and they recently opened one right in front of the office so we can even go there later. So basically after 9pm Monday to Saturday there's a different pricing for some of the meals. I think you can get any bowl of pasta in the menu for £15 and a drink as well which includes a martini and a glass of wine for £5. I think that's very reasonable price.
- [28:29]
B
So £20 for a late night snack that's not actually too bad at Cafe.
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F
Moran we're talking about as well. And there's another example I can give you to you which I've been recently, which is the park, the new Jeremy King's restaurant, you know, close to Queensway. There will be a discount in your bill I think of about 20 to 25% if you book after 9pm as well. So I feel it's a bit of a movement there happening and I'm so happy because you know they're giving basically incentives for people to eat out late and I'm happy to say I'm going. I have a dinner booked at 8:45 Hammersmith at the River Cafe. They're not giving the discount though. I wish they would.
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A
You know what though? I'm really glad this is happening. Late night dining on one level because especially when I go to the theater in central London there's nothing I despise more than a pre theatre menu restaurant like it. It really stresses me out. There's so many people, it's so rushed. The theater food's probably cold, not gonna name any names but at least now if the, if the theater finishes at 9:30 I can just check my watch and say okay, I'm gonna go to Cafe Morano and St. James's and go for my 15 pound bowl of pasta. And I'm not being funny, any other options? Sort of fast food adjacent. You know, they're gonna cost you about £15 anyway.
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B
15 quid barely gets you out of Chipotle.
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A
Yeah, genuinely so. So hopefully other places do pick up on this trend. People want to eat good food.
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F
I'm the eternal optimist. I'm quite happy with the new developments.
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B
Yeah, well, this being All Hallows Eve, time to consider another American import. Arguably even more annoying than the obligation to trudge back and forth from your front door buying off children draped in theatrical cobwebs with handfuls of confectionery. The pumpkin spice latte, which, it says here in the New York Times, apparently divides opinion in Europe. And indeed it should. Those opinions being terrible and revolting. Fernando, by way of research, and actually we should note, listeners, that Fernando is wearing a distinctly pumpkin spice latte shaded shirt. You're missing this, but you're just gonna have to take our word for it. You went out and bought one, Fernando?
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F
I did. And to be fair, it was kind of a slightly different one because it was iced and with oat milk. But.
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B
Sorry, without milk or with oat milk?
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F
Oat milk.
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B
Okay. Actually, either of those sounds.
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A
It wouldn't be a latte without milk.
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F
Listen, I never tried.
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B
No one likes a pedant moniker, as I have learned from living my life.
- [30:56]
F
I was curious because I'm. I'm pro pumpkin. I love pumpkin.
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B
You're pro pumpkin?
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F
Love pumpkin Again.
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B
Is this what is expressed by the shirt? Exactly?
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F
I do like the color orange, but I have to say, my God, it's overrated, that drink. And, and, and the problem is, when I was drinking, it was fine. It's very mild taste. I like the cinnamon touches to it. That was the highlight, but the aftertaste was quite bad, actually. I'm not actually feeling that well after having my first pumpkin spice latte. You know, my God, the amount of sugar there. I don't know how people can drink that every single day.
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B
Counterpoint, Monica.
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A
I'm scared.
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B
The pumpkin spice latte is not overrated. As Fernando said, it is disgusting.
- [31:38]
A
I really like a pumpkin spice latte.
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B
You're wrong. You're outvoted.
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A
Okay? But I do. I'm an advocate. I like it. I like the cinnamon notes. I like the. The comforting flavors of autumn and, you know, leaning onto the Christmassy side. I like it. I find it soothing.
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B
We may, Fernando, be at some sort of genetic disadvantage, apparently, when it comes to appreciating the pumpkin spice latte. Because it says here in the New York Times writing about European culinary habits. And we know, of course that everything the New York Times writes about European habits is absolutely correct and never, ever, ever wrong. But. But they say that there is a north south divide, which is that the people sort of Belgium, Germany and upwards. All aboard for the pumpkin spice latte. Whereas people in Italy, Spain, Greece, etc are less convinced.
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F
Of course we are.
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B
We are even more southern than they are.
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A
It makes sense, I suppose, in terms of like culinary taste generally. And I've written in my notes, Italians are stubborn because they're not going to change that espresso for anyone, are they?
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C
Let's.
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A
It is what it is.
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B
It's all our Italian listeners are drinking. Address your complaints to Monica Little as personally. Not Monocle as an institution.
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F
Can I add an extra rant here? Because I haven't been to Starbucks for five years. I don't know.
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B
I mean, you won't be going back after this.
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F
It's so bare inside. Because I remember my early days at Starbucks used to be quite cozy, you know, a lot of kind of browns and greens. Now it's just kind of white. It looks like I'm going to a hospital. So if the CEO of Starbucks is.
- [33:12]
B
Well, if what you're saying is true, you might be going to one later anyway.
- [33:15]
F
Exactly, exactly. So if the CEO is listening, please.
- [33:19]
B
Well, just finally, then it is, of course, Halloween. I do have to ask, what are you both planning to dress up as later? Monica, you first. Upstairs. Is there a pointy hat and a broom you're going to.
- [33:31]
A
That's just my everyday gown anyway, isn't it? I'm gonna.
- [33:35]
B
I was waiting for you to say, that's how I got here, etc.
- [33:38]
A
I'm gonna whack on some devil horns and red lipstick, go out with my sister, drink a ghoulish martini.
- [33:46]
B
I don't know, Fernando, you already have your devil horns on. But again, it's Friday. Are you planning to, to go beyond that for Halloween?
- [33:54]
F
To be fair, I'm quite basic and I do like a sexy Halloween costume. But I think as, as, as a. Fernando, I would, I would.
- [34:01]
B
Fernando, please, please tell us, when you think of a sexy Halloween costume, what are you thinking of?
- [34:07]
F
Either Indiana Jones or Che Guevara? One of those outstanding.
- [34:11]
B
Just. Yes. Every day. Fernando is an education. Monocle senior correspondent Fernando Augusto Pacheco and Monocle's associate producer Monica Lillis, who I think we have now broken. Thank you both for joining us. Finally, on today's show, it's our weekly attempt to calculate what the last seven days have taught us. You're up to see the Lizard, the wonderful Lizard. The of. We learned this week that the extremely former UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is to star in a pantomime. Oh, no, he isn't. Oh, yes, he is. Or to be clear, for the benefit of listeners who may have been following the somewhat slapstick birthing spasms of Corbyn's putative new political party, another pantomime, we learned that Corbyn had agreed to an on screen cameo in some ghastly sounding production in a small theatre in his North London constituency in which he will appear as the wizard of Oslington.
- [35:14]
G
Oh, no.
- [35:16]
B
We did not learn, however, and remain mystified by the decision of producers to cast Corbin as any variation of the wizard of Oz. After all, one is famous as a vainglorious charlatan who encouraged a cast of picturesque naifs to undertake a bewildering journey on the ultimately empty promise that that he could solve all their problems with a variety of nebulous magic. And the other first appeared in a novel published by L. Frank Baum in 1900, later adapted into a popular MGM musical starring Judy Garland. Look, we checked, right, and all the Widow Tankey jokes had been done. And at any rate, we would have then had to do a whole thing for international listeners about how Tanky is a colloquial term for obdurate Stalinist and Widow Twankie is a character in the popular pantomime Aladdin. So actually, surely Widow Tankey is genuinely very witty. Well done to everyone who got there before we did. But we learned that Corbyn was not the only Labor Party leader, past or present, UK or elsewhere, having an arguably awkward interaction with popular culture. And we also learned that fatheaded culture war bun fights over nothing whatsoever, not an exclusively American province.
- [36:40]
H
Arriving back in Australia from his overseas trip, the Prime Minister stepped off the plane proudly wearing a T shirt with the name of a band, Joy Division.
- [36:49]
B
We learned, yes, that Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had descended the stairs of his official aircraft wearing a Joy Division T shirt and that Australians were up in arms. Let's have a sound effect effect of an up in arms Australian struth. We learned upon further, frankly reluctant investigation, that the upness in arms, strewth, being encouraged by Australian opposition leader Susan Lay, was not over the Prime Minister's taste in music as such. As indeed, Joy Division made many fine records, as all discerning persons agree, or even over the proprietor of 60something Men, never mind prime actual ministers wearing band T shirts in public. But over the admittedly unsavoury etymology of Joy Division's name.
- [37:39]
H
The name was taken from the wing of a Nazi concentration camp.
- [37:44]
B
We did not learn from this, obviously that Albanese endorses the policies and or sentiments to which Susan Lay alluded, because he doesn't. But we did learn that Albanese was big enough not to note that Susan Ley chose to put that double S in her name during her own teenage punk years. Just saying etc. Or that she once drove a Volkswagen. We learned anyway, and at least that not even all of Sue SS and lay's coalition partners were willing to go along with this twaddle.
- [38:15]
H
There's a lot to legitimately criticise the Prime Minister about trillion dollar debt, skyrocketing house prices and job losses in our heavy industrial sector. Wearing a tee shirt isn't one of them. I'm part of the troubled and forgotten ex generation that came of age listening and dancing to Joy Division and New Order.
- [38:36]
B
So we learned of Lee's attempt to weaponize Joy Division and we worked on this upcoming bit for some time. Pay attention that far from creating a hostile atmosphere for the Prime Minister with her transmission, she has merely caused her own colleagues to wonder if she's lost control. And at least Albanese didn't get off the plane in Washington in a dead Kennedys top. And on the subject of national leaders leaving Washington D.C. on official aircraft, we learned as U.S. president Donald Trump embarked on a tour of Asia, that Earth's most powerful individual, the man upon whose whim human civilization lives, lives from one minute to the next, is capable of telling the difference between certain large wild animals. So that was something.
- [39:26]
G
They're really aptitude tests I guess in a certain way, but they're cognitive tests. Let AOC go against Trump. Let Jasmine go against Trump. I don't think Jasmine the first couple of questions are easy. A tiger, an elephant, A giraffe. You know when you get up to about 5 or 6 and then when you get up to 10 and 20 and 25? They couldn't come close to answering any of those questions.
- [39:51]
B
Although we learned from which that someone in the circle of the President of the United States appears to think it useful that he at least semi regularly takes the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test which is used to identify symptoms of dementia. Although we're sure reviewing his appearances on his Asian tour, there's absolutely nothing to worry about on that front, now known.
- [40:14]
G
As the Gulf of America. Is it nice they say it now routinely. I heard the news today. The Gulf of America weather is wonderful. They don't say it with a smile. It's called the Gulf of America. How did that happen? Right.
- [40:28]
B
We further learned that his plans for re establishing US hegemon in the Caribbean and we will further concede having been beaten to all the Donro doctrine zingers. Well done everybody. May not have ended there. The U.S. department of Defense announced it was moving the U.S. gerald 4 aircraft carrier and its strike group from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean to add even more firepower to the situation. We learned that, yes, some old fashioned gunboat diplomacy is being brought to bear upon a particular Latin American capital, Caracas. It does seem at best an eccentric undertaking. Yes. For Monocle Radio, I'm Andrew Mullo. And that is all for this edition of the Monocle daily, it being October 31st. Please enjoy our hilarious Halloween themed credits. A big thanks to our panelists today. Antonio Vampaio, Monica Lillis, Spook, Courtier, Antichrist, Chermac and Fearnando or Ghost o Pacheco. Today's show was produced by Monica Lillis and researched by Crow Animosa. Our sound engineer was Heliot Greenfield with editing assistance from Murray Heller Bhuvan. I'm Andrew Murderer here in London. The Daily is back at the same time on Monday. Thanks for listening.