The Monocle Minute

The shifting of the seasons brings a raft of new launches and initiatives, products and openings, from diplomacy to the arts, fashion to F&B. Amid the deluge it can be difficult to discern the wheat from the chaff. Monocle’s October issue, which arrives today with a pleasing thud on doormats and kiosk counters worldwide, does just that. Encompassing the renewed focus and fresh ideas of the northern hemisphere autumn, and the joy and optimism of the southern hemisphere spring, its frontpage declares, “New”.

And there is much that is novel, including a glossy section of essays confronting contemporary debates around ‘human-centred’ design, technology’s effect on children and what is and isn’t acceptable to laugh at these days. But there are also plenty of familiar comforts, such as our annual style special, which will delight and instruct with advice on what to wear and who to watch out for on the runways and among the shopping arcades this October.

Both of these sections, like the whole magazine, offer a more considered way of absorbing information. Many of us undergo a daily multimedia assault on the senses that frays our nerves and shreds our attention. Almost nowhere is this more evident than in the US election campaign, which brings with each new day some event or utterance described in the first instance as seismic and the next as inconsequential. To explore the stories beneath the story, we go on patrol with the Dallas PD to find out why the city is on the frontline of the national debate around law and order, and meet five top media figures (from newspaper editors to podcast hosts and TV anchors) who will have much influence over those going to the polls in November.

As other titles get slimmer and become more in thrall to celebrity and social media, this issue’s 300 pages of global reporting are a signal of optimism in the future of print media and the reading public. After flicking through its pages, you will know more about international affairs, business, culture, design, fashion and hospitality – and you will feel better for it.

Alexis Self is Monocle’s foreign editor. Our bumper October issue is out now. Pick up a copy today or subscribe so you never miss an issue.

New York mayor Eric Adams was indicted on corruption charges late on Wednesday evening, throwing the future of his administration and the leadership of America’s most-populous city into serious doubt. In a statement, Adams said he had done nothing wrong. The full charges are expected to be made public later today. When that happens, it will be the first time that a sitting mayor of New York has faced federal criminal charges and it follows weeks of investigation into the mayor’s inner circle. On 12 September, then New York City police commissioner Edward Caban resigned after the FBI raided his home and authorities seized the phones of key people in Adams’s staff.

Adams has been under federal scrutiny for the past two years over alleged connections to the Turkish government and whether or not his campaign had illegally received donations from overseas. Elected in 2021, the mayor promised to restore law and order, and bring a little of his own brand of “swagger” to the city in an effort to shift the narrative from the travails of the coronavirus pandemic. Yet now, and too often throughout his administration, it is the mayor himself who has ended up at the centre of the story.

InnoTrans 2024 closes tomorrow following its largest-ever edition, which has seen 2,940 exhibitors from 59 countries converge in Berlin. Unsurprisingly, 21st-century technologies, such as automation and hydrogen, have dominated discussions among government ministers, mobility experts and business leaders in the German capital. Bashar Khaled Almalik, CEO of Saudi Arabia Railways, announced plans to test more hydrogen-powered trains and Chinese manufacturer CRRC unveiled its Cinova H2 hydrogen train, which is fully automated and has touchscreens on its windows.

Elsewhere, Stadler launched the RS Zero battery/hydrogen-powered train, while Siemens delivered ComfortJet, the first push-pull train for Czech Railways, with two sets due to begin regular service between Prague and Berlin at the end of the month. But while space-age gear and Gulf money might grab the headlines, more analogue mobility solutions were also on display. To this end, French multinational Alstom showcased the longest tram ever ordered by the German capital’s public transport system. Proudly advertised as 10 elephants in length (that’s 50 metres), this time-tested piece of transportation is perhaps a more accurate reflection of where the cash-strapped public sector is currently at.

For more from InnoTrans, tune in to yesterday’s episode of ‘The Briefing’ on Monocle Radio.

Lionel Barber was editor of the Financial Times from 2005 to 2020. His latest book is Gambling Man: The Wild Ride Of Japan’s Masayoshi Son, a biography of the mercurial billionaire CEO of SoftBank.

Your book suggests that Masayoshi Son might have made and lost more money than anyone who has ever lived. Are there any tycoons, past or present, who he reminds you of?
He is known as the Howard Hughes of Japan, after the slightly mysterious American entrepreneur, but Son is an operator. He has run a successful mobile phone and broadband business, he’s a global investor in the dotcom bubble and latterly during the tech-credit bubble. He’s also different in that he’s Korean-Japanese – an outsider in Japan. He’s one of the very few Japanese entrepreneurs who started from nothing and has gone totally global.

You spoke to Son for the book: how hard was it to persuade him?
Extremely. You cannot believe the seduction that went on over a period of 18 months. I thought, “I’m not going to beg, it’s not an authorised biography.” But once I got Bill Gates to talk to me, or the great venture-capital investor Mike Moritz, or Joe Tsai, the co-founder of AliBaba – I had something to bring to the table. After telling one Indian SoftBank executive that Son was harder to track down than a Bengal tiger, he said, “Mr Barber, I suggest you bring a goat.”

When you did meet him, he told you: ‘This is a mediocre, shitty life. I’ve done nothing I can be proud of.’ Do you think that he actually believes that?
It’s one of the most fascinating things about him. He’s never satisfied. He’s constantly reinventing himself. He’s a bit like Sisyphus trying to roll that boulder up the hill. There’s something slightly tragic and inspiring about Masayoshi Son.

To listen to the full interview with Lionel Barber, tune in to ‘The Monocle Daily’ on 2 October.

Real-estate developer Adam Gordon talks about Wildflower Studios, the state-of-the-art media facility in New York City which he co-founded with Robert De Niro, aiming to create a hub that supports the Big Apple’s local and creative communities. Plus: we meet the founders of Rally, a new music festival.