In the wake of bank bail-outs and car industry rescue plans, retail giants could find themselves standing next in line with begging bowls in hand. But it’s a re-think that’s really needed to keep the high street healthy.

What Australian PM Kevin Rudd uses to get around, the PE teacher crusading for a revival of Maori sports, and the new city in the Aussie outback.

Violence in the Caucasus, the last stand of the world's one remaining communist government, and teaching the French to cook.

How Google navigates geopolitics, why Mexicans are set to shrink, and why Atlantic City is betting on building more casinos. Plus, our Washington column looks at Obama's recruitment drive for new US ambassadors.

The King of Bhutan's dashing way with national dress, Korea's scheme to produce more babies, and Japan's downsized family meals.

Kenya's drink-driving crackdown, a new island in the Med and a new metro for Algiers, 40 years after its initial conception.

Monocle reports from the IDEX arms fair in Abu Dhabi, and why the US should support struggling nations against insurgents.

Psychotherapy vouchers for French workers, an interview with Iceland's "minister of ideas", and why renewables are an attractive investment in hard times.

A welcome addition to airport retail, new routes to Colombia, and the essential addresses for your visit to Helsinki.

Monocle talks to the head of the French edition of the most established internet journalism brands - the political and cultural website Slate. Plus, Saudi Arabian satellite channel for poor people and a Belgian film museum.

Books: Real-life football yarns, a fictional White House exposé, and an ode to the migrating swallow. Film: Armando Iannucci's political satire goes stateside, and Michael Sheen as Brian Clough in The Damned United. Art: New shows at Tokyo's Mori and Paris's Pompidou.

Christie's contemporary sale in Dubai, bodybuilding muses under the hammer in New York, and a Q&A with the director of new art fair Tokyo 101.

A round-up of the new lines, collaborations and designers that have caught our eye.

Monocle's picks from the Stockholm furniture fair, an interview with Salvadoran duo the Washingtons, a layered house in Hokkaido and a pad that warms the cockles in the chilly far north of Norway.

Native American tribes in the US and Canada have become powerful business and political forces and have learnt how to get Obama and Ottawa on their side. Monocle meets the chiefs leading the renaissance.

The Palestinians have unique assets and the potential to build a strong economy. But most of them live in dire poverty and increasingly people are asking, wouldn’t the chances of peace be greater if the Palestinians were better off? Here’s how experts believe their country could prosper.

Since 2007, the Colombian government has made over €50m from the sale of property confiscated from busted drug barons. And there are currently an estimated 1,200 buildings waiting to be sold. Plus a large collection of shoes.

In Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, multinational companies are setting up shop, ports are being built to serve the forestry industry and property is going cheap. All the city needs now is a new generation of global enterpreneurs.

In today’s world of throwaway consumerism, it’s good to know there are still tradesmen out there who pride themselves on giving your cherished possessions a new lease of life – from a cobbler in Milan who will lovingly repair your favourite brogues to the Buenos Aires luxury watch atelier.

Despite years of turbulence between Taiwan and China, this island’s pop culture leaves the mainland standing. From idols to protest singers via television talent shows, Taipei pop is the country’s new heavy industry.

we peruse the shelves of the thriving, eclectic magazine shop Papercut in Stockholm.

Car sales have collapsed but the economy is not the only problem: too many vehicles are design lemons – just see our list of 2009 sinners in issue 19. But this could be the year car design makes its comeback.

Il Salone del Mobile, the world’s biggest furniture fair, is a bellwether of the industry and a showcase for new ideas. As brands gear up for this year’s show, Monocle finds out that the immediate future looks promising.

Wars and volcanoes have made Goma a dangerous place to call home. But with a fragile peace now in place in the DR Congo, everyone from Lebanese traders to Serbian pilots are arriving in town. The lure: the region’s vast mineral wealth.

Bernard-Henri Lévy, France’s leading philosopher, is no ivory-tower thinker. This January he went to Gaza (conclusion: the Israelis get a bad press). He says Pakistan is the worst rogue state, and he is also a critic of President Nicolas Sarkozy.

As president of Japanese company Fast Retailing, the parent company of Uniqlo, Tadashi Yanai is the richest man in Japan. After record sales in 2008, he is taking his low-cost chain to Paris and Singapore and hunting for big game in the US.

Forensic scientist Porntip Rojanasunan is loved by the Thai public for her fearless exposing of corruption in high places – and also for her unconventional dress sense.

A special report on the state of global retail and how to go about fixing it.

Russia’s boom years raised the profiles of its ‘second cities’, nowhere more so than in Ekaterinburg. But even as the cranes fall silent, the city’s entrepreneurs say the good times are not over yet.

For our series that decodes the DNA of success, we peruse the Japanese daily paper “Yomiuri Shimbun”, which has the biggest circulation in the world and is part of a group that owns a baseball team and department stores.

Monocle makes for a rendezvous in the quiet backstreets and canals of Paris’s 10th arrondissement in spring’s freshest ensembles for work days and weekends.

April in the northern hemisphere always provides wardrobe challenges to test the best in rainwear, tailoring and knitwear. Monocle heads to the streets and cosy shelters of Hayama – one hour south of Tokyo.

Additions to our desks, shelves and cupboards include a Japanese wooden cutlery set for children, a perfect pencil case and a Spanish pencil sharpener fashioned with military precision.

Gumpendorferstrasse, in the Mariahilf area, gets the award for the most diverse shopping experience so far in Monocle’s series on stand-out streets around the world. Let the late 19th- to mid-20th-century signage that crowns the shop windows guide your way.

Talla clogs are produced in a barn in the village of Myrskylä. Originally workwear for the medical profession, the clogs are now a hit on the high street thanks to a collaboration with a Japanese designer.

Kurt Andersen is a novelist, columnist, broadcaster and founder of the satirical Spy magazine. After a career of ironic experimentation, it is fitting that his last meal is at José Andrés’ playful food temple, The Bazaar in LA.

Viking line’s M/S Gabriella and M/S Mariella ply the route between Helsinki and stockholm daily. Except for some backpackers getting cheaply from a to b, the 48-hour round trip is used for one chief purpose: the intensive sale and consumption of tax-free alcohol. Monocle booked a berth on the baltic booze cruise and witnessed up close the teenagers, swingers and hard-drinking sailors stocking up and knocking back.

How can a nation get its voice heard on the world stage and encourage trade and tourism? If you don’t have resources and the weight of numbers on your side, then maybe it’s time to wield some ‘soft power’. By Tyler Brûlé.