The Monocle Minute

LA CoMotion’s aim is simple: to look at the future of urban mobility with a perspective shaped by being in Los Angeles. And while this city of freeways usually gets a bad rap on the mobility front, at this year’s event – which concluded at the weekend – much of the talk was about how LA is spending big to change that reputation. Its sharp-suited mayor, Eric Garcetti, said he wants this to be a “city that tries not to say no” but instead opens up to mobility players working in “the age of acceleration”, where ideas get turned into reality ever faster. So that’s why there are electric ride-share scooters all over the city, the LAPD now chases robbers on Bosch e-bikes and plans are in place for 15 new rail and rapid-transit lines. By the time the Olympics come to town in 2028, LA will be like Copenhagen but with sunshine – well, that’s the vibe. For now, when you look at your travel app and see that the journey from your hotel to LA CoMotion will take 75 minutes on public transport but 30 minutes in an Uber, you take the car.

Pulitzer prize-winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario’s new book Of Love and War features images captured over the course of her career shooting war and human-rights crises in places such as Afghanistan, Sudan, Iraq and Libya. But Addario has had more comfortable gigs, including photographing her friend Gwyneth Paltrow’s recent wedding, which she shot straight after returning from Yemen. Yet as Addario told Monocle 24, the process of shooting a sumptuous event isn’t so different to shooting a humanitarian crisis. “I’m still looking for the same things: I’m looking for light and composition and beauty. I am me behind the camera and that never changes. The same baggage and personality and character and drive that I bring to every story, I bring to everything I do,” she says. “It’s stressful.”

This week the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) will release its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin in Geneva. The report will provide an update on the average yearly concentration of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases present in the atmosphere. Professor Pavel Kabat, WMO chief scientist and research director, and Dr Oksana Tarasova, chief of the Atmospheric Environment Research Division, are scheduled to deliver an address that is unlikely to provide a sunny outlook. As wildfires unprecedented in scale continue to rage across California, research scientists are warning that the smoke from such outbreaks significantly adds to the build-up of greenhouse gases. Fingers crossed that alongside the bad news, the latest bulletin also contains actionable strategies.

Germany may be a world leader in many fields (car manufacturing, green energy and, surprisingly, asparagus) but the one thing it’s certainly not known for is artificial intelligence. However, all that might be set to change thanks to the new digital strategy that chancellor Angela Merkel announced last week. Following a meeting in Potsdam, it was revealed that the country plans to invest €3bn in AI by 2025. Germany’s new digital strategy will involve increasing access to high-speed internet, educating citizens about digitisation and implementing AI in workplaces across the country. Merkel gets an A for effort but considering China’s plans to create a state-funded €130bn industry by 2030, there’s a lot of catching up to do.

We are joined by Richard Dennen, editor of ‘Tatler’, Beth Wilkinson from ‘Lindsay’ and Daniela Falcão, who oversees Condé Nast titles in Brazil, including ‘Vogue’ Brazil.

Things are looking sharp on the fashion scene in Hungary’s capital, with a new collection of boutiques, budding young designers and ground-breaking brands.