First things first: the fear of AI writing replacing that of humans is a big, over-cooked, red herring. A new study published in the Journal of Judgement and Decision Making in the US is being picked up by the panicky press to suggest that humans can’t always tell the difference between human-penned and machine-made prose. Shock horror. Can you hear the novelists and the journalists quaking in their boots yet? I can – but I’m not sure they should.

Beyond the headlines, if I’m permitted to venture so far, the “Bot or not” study suggests some caveats. True, the people polled can’t always tell the difference between work by ChatGPT and a human author but think about it. Are you surprised? Not all human authors are very good. Even fewer are unanimously popular. The study’s main conclusion could as easily have been summed up with a sigh and the phrase “there’s no accounting for taste”.
 
There’s also a perverse logic at play in the panic. Fretting that AI can write better than (some) humans is like pitting a powerful calculator against mental arithmetic, a hammer against a soft human hand or a Range Rover against a sprinter. Praising the tool misses the point. Human endeavour – in sport, literature, art, mountain climbing, whatever – is only interesting because it’s done by weak, fleshy, imperfect, irrational, flighty and benighted people like you (and me, I suppose).

With the complete works of Shakespeare, Baudelaire and Chekhov at its robot-writing desk, it stands to reason that a trained machine could scrabble together the rudiments of a pretty good yarn. There are rules to follow, text to copy and ideas to ape, a Moby Dick to dive into and a Frankenstein to borrow from.

The study suggests that stories composed by computers lack nuance, complexity or ambiguity. They mush rather than meld the human world that they misunderstand. What people like about them isn’t the awesome power of their insight; it is – the study says – their simplicity. But since when are the most rewarding or interesting things always just the easiest to read? How can we solve or discuss the issues we face if everyone is skimming the un-fact-checked dummy’s guide version of reality? Truth, beauty, irony, anger, art, justice, war – not simple.
 
Which brings me swiftly onto journalism and the renewed importance of the human editor (I would say that, of course). Much has been made of the capacity of AI to aggregate news but let’s not forget who’s gathering it. Without a source, a person on the ground to bear witness and be present, there’s no search business for the tech titans to tantalise us with or sell their advertising against. Human judgement, an experienced reporter, genuine insights and fresh ideas are becoming more, not less vital. They are valuable as the reservoir of AI slop and slurry deepens. Publications and people who deserve trust are at a premium, something to cling to in a sea of uncertainty. 
 
Pleasingly, the study also showed that people preferred things they were told were written by humans. Even the naïfs who didn’t spot a computer pretending to be human were rooting for their own species. In the end, we want connections, not “content”.  
 
And last but not least, as cleverer, more amusing people than me have noted long before this little rant, computers can’t do it all. They’re not funny. They lack a sense of irony, timing, whimsy and the absurd. They don’t get it.
 
Like most herrings, red or otherwise, the idea that human experience, insight or creativity can be replaced by a mirthless mimic machine is best enjoyed with a pinch of salt.

Josh Fehnert is inferior to a machine by almost any measure. But he is – for now – Monocle’s editor. Subscribe today to support our independent, human-made journalism.

Most museums are not grand institutions. They are compact, regional archives tucked behind market squares, housed in former chapels or sequestered in railway buildings. Often maintained by volunteers and built around private collections or singular obsessions, mini museums play important roles in documenting community histories and preserving niche portfolios. 

While large institutions often draw bigger crowds and boast impressive collections, small ones can offer an intimacy and focus you can’t find elsewhere. You can linger in exhibitions without being jostled, discover overlooked histories and see everything in a single visit. Though institutions such as the Louvre or The Metropolitan Museum of Art have a wealth of masterpieces, many visitors see only a fraction of what is on offer and still leave feeling a sense of museum fatigue. 

But what, exactly, is considered a small museum? The Small Museums Committee at the American Association of State and Local History (AASLH) surveyed industry workers and found that common characteristics of small institutions include an annual budget of less than $250,000 (€216,960). But budget can often be an unreliable criterion: two museums of a similar square meterage and footfall can report wildly different figures depending on whether they’re independently funded or backed by a municipality, which absorbs certain costs that a private institution must carry itself. 

Visitor numbers offer a slightly steadier measure. The UK’s Association of Independent Museums defines a small museum as one with 20,000 visitors or fewer a year. But that, too, is a squidgy metric, as visitor numbers can vary widely depending on city size and other factors. In the words of the AASLH, “If you think you’re small, you’re small.” 

Setting our threshold at 30,000 visitors a year, we asked Monocle correspondents from around the world to send us their favourite small museums that offer insight into regional history, art or a specialist subject that is not celebrated elsewhere. For more on the importance of these institutions, listen to this episode of Monocle on Saturday. 

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Extinct Media Museum
Tokyo 

Unlike most galleries, which (not unreasonably) have a “look but don’t touch” policy, the Extinct Media Museum in Tokyo actively encourages visitors to pick up any of the hundreds of vintage mobile phones, cameras, cassette recorders and electric typewriters on display. A visit to this pocket-sized private museum, just a short walk from Tokyo Station, makes for an absorbing outing. On display are generations of electronic devices that were state of the art only a few years ago and already look like antiques. Coming here is both a nostalgia trip and a chastening reminder of how fast technology changes. 

Museum director Takuya Kawai has pulled in some milestone pieces – Sony’s first cassette recorder (1966) and Apple’s first iMac (1998) – but it’s the modest objects that catch the eye, remarkable not for their design but for how they once featured heavily in daily life. There are curiosities that would otherwise be forgotten: recording formats such as Minidiscs and Betamax that flourished in Japan but couldn’t thrive in an increasingly connected world, alongside picture discs, camcorders and car radios. There are boxes of catalogues, dozens of mobile phones and many, many cameras, including Double 8 movie cameras; the Minolta Hi-matic (from 1962), the first Japanese camera used in space; and a Victor GR-C1 video recorder from 1984 that appeared in Back to the Future. Nothing is off limits. 

Of the 4,000 items in its archive, Kawai says that about 80 per cent has been donated and, as the notice board reveals, the hunt for more continues. Though the museum is often open until 19.00, make sure to check its website for its opening hours before planning a visit.
extinct-media-museum.blog.jp

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Casa Broner
Ibiza, Spain

Weave your way up through Sa Penya, Ibiza’s white-walled labyrinth that was once the main port’s fishermen’s quarter, and you’ll eventually arrive at this house-museum. Perched on the cliff’s edge, it was built in 1960 and was home to Erwin Broner, one of the island’s most celebrated architects. It has been open to the public since 2011 thanks to a generous donation from his widow. A rendition of the traditional Ibicenco house, Broner experimented with a more tempered rationalist style to create a peaceful enclave tempered by perfectly framed views of the island’s southerly sea. 

Entry is free but opening hours are limited so it’s best to double check before venturing up the steep incline of the cobbled streets. Little known even to many locals, Casa Broner’s confines offer a great place to ponder the island’s ever-changing tides while learning about the artist movement that transformed the White Isle into the hedonistic hotspot that it is today. 
mace.eivissa.es 

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Villa Mairea
Noormarkku, Finland

Villa Mairea – completed in 1939 as a residence for industrialists Maire and Harry Gullichsen – is a key residential work by Alvar Aalto, Finland’s best-known architect. Renowned for shaping human-centred modernism, Aalto prioritised light, materials and everyday use in his work. The house blends modernist planning with natural materials and references to Finnish vernacular architecture. Privately owned but open to guided tours, the villa offers visitors a detailed walkthrough of its rooms filled with preserved original furniture and art. The surrounding pine forest is an essential part of the experience, inviting guests to explore both the architecture and the setting.
alvaraalto.fi

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Masa
Mexico City

Launched by a collective of artists, designers and architects, Masa was founded as a travelling showcase that offered a platform for experimental and collectable designs. After five years of producing site-specific installations around Mexico City and beyond, the project settled into a permanent home in Mexico City’s San Miguel Chapultepec neighbourhood in 2023.

For the co-founders, the 1846 colonial-era house immediately felt like a physical extension of the gallery, a place where the spirit of the project could continue to be explored and represented long-term. And that’s no coincidence – the museum site was once a gathering space for the neighborhood’s vibrant creative community. Under the curatorship of Su Wu, the gallery presents rotating exhibitions with previous shows including works by Héctor Esrawe, Jose Dávila and design practice Ex Soup.
mmaassaa.com

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Wing Luke Museum
Seattle, US

In 1910, enterprising Chinese immigrants to the US skirted a prohibition on foreign property ownership and erected the Kong Yick Buildings in Seattle’s burgeoning Chinatown. The four-storey brick edifices divided into single-room flats served as the first home for thousands of immigrants after their journey across the Pacific. A century later, the Smithsonian-affiliated Wing Luke Museum incorporated the heritage structure into a modern museum that celebrates Asian and Pacific American art, culture and history. A tour brings to life the cramped living conditions of young men seeking a better life, while a permanent exhibition honours the city’s famed son, martial artist Bruce Lee. 
wingluke.org

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Haida Heritage Centre
Haida Gwaii, Canada

More than two million cruise-ship passengers will ply the waters off Canada’s West Coast this summer en route to Alaska but the floating behemoths won’t stop at Haida Gwaii. About 30,000 intrepid travellers annually venture to this remote British Columbia archipelago, formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands. Last year Ottawa granted the aboriginal people’s land title – the first such voluntary recognition in Canadian history – whose isolated homeland has helped preserve their language and culture. The landmark decision was a cause for celebration at the Haida Heritage Centre, a modern interpretation of a traditional village site, where the next generation learns traditional crafts including carving cedar canoes and argillite sculptures.
haidaheritagecentre.com 

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The Intan
Singapore

This small, private museum in the historic Joo Chiat enclave is a jewel box of Peranakan (an ethnic group descended from Chinese settlers who intermarried with local Malays) artefacts. Founder Alvin Yapp has spent more than three decades collecting thousands of culturally significant objects, such as beaded slippers, mother-of-pearl inlaid furniture, hand-painted sarongs and enamel tiffin carriers. What truly separates the Intan from other Peranakan experiences are Yapp’s rich, personal stories on an array of cultural themes, from heirloom pieces to wedding customs and family rituals. Tour options include a one-hour tea experience (complete with traditional bite-sized nyonya kuehs) as well as a 90-minute lunch or dinner. Visits are strictly by appointment only. 
the-intan.com

It’s day three of a semi-planned, somewhat impromptu road trip that came together thanks to a little bit of direct intervention from some hotel managers (I’m of the view that a hotel is never fully booked), some flexibility with dates and the firing up of a vintage iPod packed with 25 years of my favourite hits. Let’s roll!

Honk, honk!
We set off from Zürich around lunchtime on Wednesday and after four hours and 30 minutes we were turning down the lane to Villa Arnica in Lana – the third time this year. As ever, the sunny crew were on hand to greet us, the pool was a perfect 26C and the menacing storm clouds made a few rumbles but – knowing better than to spoil the mood – politely stayed on their side of the peaks. My colleague Linda (more on our Südtirol outpost at the end of this column) joined us for a super dinner at 1477 Reichhalter and the following morning we set off south. Our destination: Lake Garda.

Wait! Where’s mom?
Worry not, she’s either minding the shop with Linda or she’s poolside at the Villa. Should you swing by our store on Dantestrasse in Merano over the coming days and a woman with big eyewear gives you a little painted ornament or upsells you something bold and graphic on canvas, she’ll likely be my mom. And no, dear reader, I won’t forget to pick her up on my swing back north.

Hey, Mr Deejay!
Last summer we drove the boxy little Jimny from Zürich to Lisbon via San Sebastián and relied on spinning the dial the whole trip to find the right radio stations across Switzerland, France, Spain and Portugal. The beauty of the exercise was picking up a few new songs and getting into various regional moods but the road trip most definitely lacked some of the classic playlists that vanished when my tiny iPod disappeared into some plush upholstery. Thankfully, a very observant reader took notice, went to the trouble of tracking down a fully functioning iPod and offered it as a most thoughtful gift. I’m not big on streaming services and would have been very happy if the Land Cruiser had a CD slot – but the return of the iPod has been nothing short of transformative. Miki Matsubara, Angèle, Saint Etienne, Lisa Ekdahl, Clara Luciani and many more have all been getting plenty of play time.

Another villa
Is it stay number 20? Could it be more? On Thursday afternoon, we rolled down the driveway and crunched to a stop on the gravel at Villa Feltrinelli. For the past 25 years, this establishment on the western shore of Lake Garda has been a summer constant. You know a GM (the delightful Herr Odermatt) and the owners are doing something right when many of the staff from your first stay are still around to look after you at breakfast, round the pool and on the massage table.

Take the plunge
There are few hotel swims quite as satisfying as doing a two-metre dive off the jetty at the Feltrinelli. The long, dark pool cut into the lawn has its fans but the best summer day starts with a pre-breakfast plunge into Garda’s cool, rolling waves.

Continue south
By the time you read this, I should be on the Med and lunching at il Pellicano. As ever, there’ll be a more timely update on Monocle on Sunday and, if you’re game for a thoroughly Monocle road trip across the Alps, take a ride with our Robert Bound as he guides you from Zürich to St Moritz to Merano and all the way back to our little shop at Zürich Airport.

Enjoying life in ‘The Faster Lane’? Click here to browse all of Tyler’s past columns. 

As Japan’s summers grow hotter, the country is trying everything to keep its cool. Wipes, sprays and fans are big business here; the nation is also a leader when it comes to fabrics that counter the worst of the season. Apparel makers are throwing resources into the latter sector for good reason. The global cooling-fabrics market is projected to be worth €2.5bn by 2030. And where Japan goes, others follow. Asia-Pacific is now the fastest-growing market for this sort of heat-busting clothing.

Technical fabrics, once reserved for sportswear, are moving into the Japanese mainstream. Take, for example, Muji’s Cool Touch line-up of shirts, dresses and trousers that uses uniquely shaped cotton and polyester yarns to allow fabrics to absorb heat and diffuse sweat more quickly. Uniqlo’s summer juggernaut is airism, the smooth, moisture-absorbing fabric that the brand developed with synthetic-fibre manufacturer Toray. The North Face’s Japanese line uses its breathable UV-blocking fabric Breeze Range for a fetching line of Aloha shirts.

Shoppers understandably don’t want their T-shirts and underwear to look or feel like workout gear, so makers have been refining their yarns to maximise comfort. After learning that sweaty undergarments were its customers’ biggest source of summer discomfort, Gunze set about tackling it. The brand’s sweat-busting Asedoron range of T-shirts, boxers and camisoles has sold more than four million units since its launch in 2024. “The market now is about even faster drying,” says Hidetoshi Takeyasu, Gunze’s general manager of merchandising strategy, “along with the development of hybrid fabrics that combine value-added features, such as UV protection, heat shielding and odour control.”

Sweltering temperatures have become a significant health concern. The Japan Meteorological Agency recently adopted a new term for days of 40c and above – kokushobi (literally, “brutally hot day”) – and employers can now be fined if workers’ smart watches show signs of heatstroke. Workman, a brand favoured by Japanese construction workers, is producing lightweight synthetic fabrics (such as Ice Assist) that cool, block UV and dry quickly while also being durable and cheap.

Some of the best Japanese fashion brands, such as Aton and Comoli, work closely with domestic factories to produce custom fabrics with natural materials that perform well in the heat and humidity of a Japanese summer. History has other answers too. Tanaka Hat has been making its straw hats in Kasukabe, in Saitama, since the end of the 19th century. The hats are made from slender straw plaits – each hand-braided from seven strands of wheat stem – that are soaked in water, then sewn together on a special machine and shaped on a mould. It’s a highly skilled process that involves different craftsmen at every stage. Stray strands are then clipped by hand; the final touch is the decoration, usually a ribbon. “Straw hats breathe well due to the natural material,” says brand manager Kyohei Nakada.

“Consumer demand for cooling fabrics is growing rapidly,” says Gunze’s Takeyasu – which comes as little surprise. “Japan’s traditional four-season climate is giving way to more of a two-season pattern, with summer lasting far longer than it used to.” This shift is evidently motivating the problem-solving brains in the textiles business.

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Discover Monocle’s selection of Japanese products to keep you feeling fresh this summer in our seasonal newspaper:

Are you a plate flipper? I can’t stop myself. Same with glasses. The labels on the towels. Where is this stuff made, I wonder? Often the answer is a delight but too often a disappointment.

Hotel groups have – like lots of brands – locked on to the fact that people are seeking authenticity. And when that comes to travel it means delivering that cliché, “a sense of place”. Guests don’t want to arrive in a room stripped of connections to the spot where it sits and where, as you awake, it’s hard to recall if you are in Milan or Minnesota without opening the curtains.

The only trouble is, if you are a hotel group, it’s very hard to stop your central buying team from dispatching the same plates, towels and even art, to every property in your portfolio. It’s quicker and cheaper. 

I’m in Mallorca on holiday and have been doing a lot of crockery flipping. Last night we ate at a hotel where they emphasise the efforts they have gone to provide a made in Spain – and in particular Mallorca – experience. There’s lots to admire. Yet a quick flip of the plate reveals the mark of an Italian crockery company, the glasses are etched “made in Slovakia”, the pepper grinder is German.

Just down the road from our home in Palma is an example of what happens when a hotel is created by people who want you to flip the plates – and read the wine label, ask where the food is grown, even who made the sofas.

The Terreno Barrio Hotel, which opened this year (we have reported on the project), is owned by hotelier Lydia Piñero and was developed through a series of creative conversations with friends and designers. She was figuring out how to build a hotel that was truly of place and which could be of benefit to its neighbours (this would lead to adding co-working places, an outdoor gym now used by locals). And she signed Ohlab architects, an ambitious practice run by Jaime Oliver and Paloma Hernaiz, to deliver the scheme.

Instead of going to fast-turnaround contract furniture companies, Ohlab commissioned island makers to create as much as possible in Mallorca. It wasn’t easy, took time and required businesses to rescale. But as I sat at the rooftop bar the other night – drinking local wine, eating Mallorcan olives – I realised that there is a subtle manifesto about the future of hotel design in every fibre of this building.

There’s another take on this idea down the road in the new Mandarin Oriental resort at Punta Negra, which also featured in the supplement of our just out Med, Mountains & More newspaper. This Hong Kong-anchored hospitality player could have docked with a property that gave just a few nods to local talent to appease guests – but it hasn’t. And one of the best things they did was to hire the art advisor and curator Paloma Fernández-Iriondo, who filled the resort with specially commissioned artworks by artists based or born in Spain and whose stories reflect Mallorca’s history as a cultural crossroads. She installed works – such as Fran Aniorte’s tiled Balearic Constellation – that are riven with meaning but also fit with a Mediterranean hotel vibe. Fernández-Iriondo focused on finding artists without representation and located many of them by driving around the island, knocking on studio doors. It’s commendable – it took time and required them to ignore the easy path.

I don’t want to put Italian crockery makers out of business. But as hotel brands offer up increasingly elaborate stories of provenance, it’s important that they are true, that their stories withstand scrutiny. We need brands to do the hard work, to be genuine. Otherwise, the plate flippers will catch them out.

Want to read more of Andrew’s columns? Click here

Settling on a scent for the summer is a delicate pursuit. The warmer months call for bright, clean perfumes to wear on coastal holidays and weekend escapes. From a chilli-and-lime-infused scent by Australian perfumer Flâner to a heady combination of fig and cedarwood from Italian luxury house Bottega Veneta, we have selected our favourite options for your seasonal rotation.

Five of our favourites are listed below, and the full ten feature in Med, Mountains & More, our seasonal summer newspaper. If you’re not a subscriber, pick up a copy of the paper here. Subscribers can enjoy the printed copy delivered to their door, and read the digital version here.

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Copenhagen Fashion Week has been celebrating its 20th anniversary edition in the past week, drawing international buyers and editors to the Danish capital as it continues to carve out a distinct identity in an increasingly crowded fashion calendar. But whether it’s the brands being showcased or the mission underpinning the week, that effort to be distinctive hasn’t always gone according to plan. 

On the mission front, a key element of Copenhagen’s positioning in the past few years has been a framework for sustainability, which was introduced in 2020 to establish the city as a benchmark for responsible fashion. Among its provisions was a requirement that at least 60 per cent of each participating brand’s collection be made using recycled or deadstock materials. But that requirement was suspended for the spring/summer 2027 season, while the criteria is apparently undergoing revision.

Still, the event’s appeal has always extended beyond its sustainability ambitions. This season once again brought together many of the designers who exemplify Copenhagen’s collaborative and close-knit creative community. Showcases favour intimacy over spectacle, opting for pared-back settings – from the garden of a museum to the backyard of a family home – rather than the grandeur associated with some of the industry’s larger fashion capitals. “Copenhagen Fashion Week has always been about something broader than the runway,” says Isabella Rose Davey, chief operating officer of Copenhagen Fashion Week. “I’ve seen inspiring creativity across every aspect of what goes into making each edition better than the last and it’s those elements that continue to set Copenhagen Fashion Week apart.”

The schedule also served as a reminder of the region’s most compelling emerging designers. Among the highlights was Nicklas Skovgaard, a semi-finalist for the 2025 LVMH Prize, who staged another of his signature theatrical presentations in a deserted car park on the edge of Nordhavn. Models emerged from vintage cars, wearing colourful, checked, 1960s-inspired silhouettes that were co-ordinated yet distinctly individual. “The collection is ultimately about different expressions of femininity, where glamour, emotion and individuality exist side by side,” Skovgaard tells Monocle. The designer, who has shown at Copenhagen Fashion Week for the past three years, attributes much of the event’s appeal to the network of designers, makers and collaborators behind it. “It has never lost sight of the local creative community that makes it unique,” he says. “There’s a real sense of openness and collaboration here.” 

Among this year’s signature moments was the homecoming of By Malene Birger. Founded in 2003 by its namesake designer and long regarded as one of Denmark’s leading fashion labels, the brand returned to Copenhagen Fashion Week for the first time in six years. Its showcase also marked the runway debut of newly appointed creative director Emilie Martinsen-Kønigsfeldt, who presented a collection built around the brand’s signature sleek tailoring and a restrained monochrome palette. For Martinsen-Kønigsfeldt, returning to Copenhagen was as much an introduction to her vision for the house as it was a gesture towards the city where the brand was founded. “It’s a way to reconnect with the community that has helped shape Danish fashion on the global stage,” she adds. “The show itself is intended as both a celebration of our return and a statement of where the brand is today.” 

At a time when some of the week’s best-known names have chosen to look elsewhere – Ganni, arguably Denmark’s most internationally recognised fashion brand, left the Copenhagen schedule in 2023 in favour of Paris – the return of an established house such as By Malene Birger suggests that there is still confidence in Copenhagen Fashion Week’s ability to shape the conversation around Nordic fashion. As it enters its third decade, the real question is not whether it can compete with the scale of Paris or Milan but whether it can remain true to the qualities that have made it distinctive. In a city that is modest in size yet rich in creativity, the event’s greatest strength is the innovative ideas and people behind it.

For more on Copenhagen Fashion Week, tune in to Monocle Radio’s conversation with CEO Cecilie Thorsmark on ‘The Globalist’.

At its best, a summer reading list isn’t one list at all. It’s a set of options matched to conditions and mood. What you might want to read on a plane isn’t the same as what you’d want to read on a beach lounger at 16.00, half asleep and sun-drunk – or even drunk-drunk. It’s about finding books that match both mindset and situation. 

Long-haul flights need scale, something big enough to swallow the hours. Poolside afternoons need pace and perhaps a little mischief, narratives you can dip in and out of without losing the thread. A warm evening on a terrace is for a story that could spark your dinner conversation. And when the rain comes, reach for something a little more weighty.

As the host of Meet the Writers on Monocle Radio, I’ve read many different books in many different places. I’ve learned the key to choosing a good book is to match it to the place you’re in and the weather in your head, not just the conditions outside. Here are 14 titles that do just that. 

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American media loves a political bunfight, especially an intraparty one. The New York Times reports that moderate Democrats are preparing for war with the party’s progressive wing after the victory of Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan state primary this week. The Third Way, a centrist Democratic group, says that it plans to spend $15m (€13m) to help defeat the democratic-socialist movement, as embodied by the likes of El-Sayed and New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani.

For a party that should be on the upswing, thanks to the general unpopularity of Donald Trump, spending money against a wing of your own party is obviously not a good look. But nor are many of the prescriptions of democratic socialism, not simply because they’re further left but because their chief ideas are not new. “Medicare for All”, the key policy platform of El-Sayed that would bring an NHS-style system to American health care, is a well-worn topic. So are promises to “take money out of politics”.

The current battle among the Democrats is largely about whether moderate common sense or stick-to-your guns progressivism is the best way to defeat the Republicans in November’s midterms. Progressives present themselves as the ones with the passion, beliefs and conviction needed to oppose Trump’s Maga ideology, compared to the moderates sorely lacking in identity and backbone. But the focus, for both sides, should be less on who’s most passionate and more on new and innovative ideas. Let’s be clear: Medicare for All is a pipe dream in a country as hopelessly divided as the US, something that has been talked about for decades without ever having a real path to becoming law. So is abolishing ICE. For all the agency’s faults and misuse under Trump, it’s responsible for monitoring US borders. How about some pragmatic, daring, left-wing fixes for American health and border security that actually have a chance?

Agree or disagree with his approach, Trump has upended traditional policy and got things done: for example, through pressurising pharmaceutical companies to sign deals giving the US “favoured nation” status, thereby lowering drug prices. It’s a surprisingly statist bit of intervention from a Republican president (one that Democrats probably wish they’d thought of) but at least it’s something new. Democrats need bold-but-enactable policies in response. Because while they might succeed in rallying their own voter base by keeping the state-run health-care dreams of Bernie Sanders alive, it won’t win them elections in moderate swing states.

The UK’s prime minister, Andy Burnham, has made some steps in this direction: a more left-leaning Labour leader than his predecessor, Keir Starmer, he’s started off with practical fixes aimed at tackling the spiralling cost of living. Italy’s Giorgia Meloni is an example from the other end of the spectrum, a right-winger who preached political stability (a rare feat in Italy) as a means of staying in office. Therein lies the rub: any anti-establishment candidate who enters government still has to adapt when their ideals collide with the realities of office. If we really want to rebuild trust in politicians, why not try campaigning on things that are actually enactable?

The point here is that, whether they’re progressive or moderate, fresh ideas are the way forward. Democrats of all stripes need to work together ahead of November to reform their manifesto and expand their voter base, rather than merely playing to their die-hard supporters. Trump was re-elected in 2024 not by his base but because of inroads he made into minority communities, independents and even younger voters. Democrats can wring their hands as long as they like about how he achieved such a miracle but it’s a reality that still needs to be addressed by the party. Otherwise, despite an unpopular war and the rising cost of living, Republicans will once again hold on to Congress in November.ublicans will once again hold on to Congress in November.

Milan is a city of bakeries. In some areas, it feels as though there’s one on every street corner, peddling the sweet delights that Italians often start their days with (we’re thinking pistachio-cream-filled croissants). In recent years, a new wave of bakers has been setting up shop alongside old-school businesses. From spots serving ancient grains and cinnamon rolls to babka and cruffins, here are five of Monocle’s favourites.

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Signor Lievito
Run by Latvian baker Natalia Nikitina, a resident of Milan for more than 15 years, Signor Lievito is a small Nordic-inspired bakery located in Porta Romana. You can place online pre-orders for bakes ranging from cinnamon rolls and lemon cruffins (a cross between a croissant and a muffin) to flan parisien (a vanilla custard tart) and pick them up the following morning to avoid queues. The shop’s design was overseen by Hannes Peer (who recently worked on Merano’s Hotel Aurora) and features terracotta tiles, abstract line drawings and a Foglio wall light by Tobia Scarpa. One thing: this bakery’s name definitely sounds better in Italian. In English, it translates to “Mr Yeast”. 
Via Maestri Campionesi 26; signor-lievito.com 

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Tondo
This tucked-away spot in the Isola neighbourhood refers to itself as a “radical oven” for artisanal bread. Set up by Silvia Cancellieri in 2020 and focused on sourdough, Tondo cares deeply about the provenance of its raw ingredients, including the organic flour. Bread is always centre stage here, with special loaves made from ancient grains and buckwheat. Pick up a slice of speciality focaccia or a brioche filled with cream and topped with blueberries. Planning on staying in Milan a little longer? Tondo also teaches courses in bread- and focaccia-making.
Via Cola Montano 12

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Davide Longoni
Davide Longoni arguably set off the new wave of bakeries in Milan. His café-cum-bakeries mean that you can sit down for a coffee, juice and a pastry, or alternatively take away a loaf. Longoni uses grains grown south of Milan and sells everything from dried pasta to wine. His shops have expanded into nine locations, two of which are inside markets. Longoni is also a serial entrepreneur, opening a vegetarian Indian restaurant Govinda in the city centre and founding food magazine L’Integrale in 2020, which is run by Iperborea publishing house.
Various locations; davidelongoni.com 

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Slow Bread Lab
This off-the-beaten-track bakery might be the best spot for bread in Milan right now. To reach the shop, visitors must ring a doorbell and walk through an inner courtyard, where they can enter the kitchen to buy takeaway goods. The space was founded by husband-and-wife team Michele Dogati and Kaisli Kiuru, who changed professions to open the business. Kiuru says that they bake pastries and seeded loaves with the same love as when preparing something for their own family – and we would be hard-pressed to disagree. After picking up a loaf, cross the street to visit another Monocle favourite, Balay, for Philippine-inspired dishes.
Via Achille Maiocchi 29

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Pan
“This is the kind of space that you can find in New York, London or Tokyo,” says Pan co-founder Alice Yamada. “But it was missing from Milan.” She has a point: the Japanese-inspired bakery and café that she founded with business partner Yoji Tokuyoshi wouldn’t look out of place in any of the world’s great metropolises. Its clean neutral tones, prevalence of wood and flashes of green details seem to be going down well with punters, if the tables of people eating ham-and-cheese shokupan (Japanese milk bread) sandwiches are anything to go by. Yamada and Tokuyoshi turned to Studio Wok for the interiors with sage-green drapes hanging from the ceiling, which are inspired by noren curtains. Recent additions include takeaway counter Piccolo Pan and lunch-focused Pan Deli in Porta Nuova. 
Various locations; panmilano.com