The Monocle Minute

Sabotage of undersea electricity and data cables in the Baltic Sea has become disturbingly common. Finland is grappling with finding the right response and, so far, that has been to “keep calm and carry on”. The Nordic country, which recently joined Nato and shares a 1,300km land border with Russia, refuses to point fingers in fear of escalation. For now, this is the correct approach. Let’s assume for a minute (and it’s not beyond the realm of possibility) that neighbouring Russia is behind the sabotage. Hybrid attacks such as these are meant to provoke, sow discord and expose weakness. So keeping a cool head, letting the relevant authorities deal with the damage and stressing the insignificance of the effects to Finland’s energy and data supply can reassure Finns that the country won’t be shaken by bully tactics.

But this approach has its limitations. For one, when faced with impunity, bullies often choose to continue bullying. Similarly, giving the impression that these attacks don’t matter can poke the bear – whether Russian or not. What if the sabotage attacks become a monthly or a weekly nuisance? At some point, Finns will start demanding more resolute action. This is where Nato and the EU need to show leadership too.

The creed that “an attack against one is an attack against all” should also apply to these more subtle forms of warfare – it is entirely possible to project strength without escalation. First, Nato has to increase its patrols in the Baltic Sea and the EU must respond to aggression with proper investigations and economic sanctions. Staying resolute is not enough. Lessons should be drawn from Ukraine’s experience: you can only dismiss a bully for so long.

Petri Burtsoff is Monocle’s Helsinki correspondent. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.

Japan’s largest convenience store chain, Lawsons, has hired its first overseas employee: a Japanese national living in Sweden. Confused? So are we. Labour shortages in Japan mean Lawsons is looking to recruit remote workers from Europe and the Americas who can hold the fort at its unmanned convenience stores or konbini. The eight-hour time difference means that the remote cashier can assist shoppers in the early mornings via a digital avatar.

Japan’s population may be shrinking but are we really at the stage when someone living in Stockholm or São Paolo has to helm a corner shop in Osaka? If the new recruit proves successful the model could be expanded to shops in rural and mountainous regions. But further isolating communities that often have elderly populations is not an ideal solution. Japan’s personal approach to retail has often been the envy of the world – let’s keep it that way.

The first phase of Toyota’s Woven City project is complete and ready to welcome residents this autumn, according to the motoring group’s chairman. Akio Toyoda revealed the details of the prototype community, a human-centred test course for developing autonomous-vehicle technology, at the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) yesterday. Some 4,500 exhibitors from about 160 countries have descended on Las Vegas for the event, which aims to showcase the entire technology landscape over five days.

Last year’s show was dominated by excitement around AI and language-model development but the focus in 2025 is on innovation and technology in mobility. “There has always been a philosophy of trying to build technology that helps people in their daily lives,” says James Kuffner, a senior fellow at Toyota Motor Corporation. “Woven City is not just about one place. It’s about how to accelerate the development of technologies that will help address many of the problems people encounter all over the world.”

For more on Toyota’s Woven City, tune in to Andrew Tuck’s interview with James Kuffner for‘The Urbanist’.

As US president-elect Donald Trump has renewed interest in buying Greenland, Denmark’s King Frederik X changed the country’s coat of arms to accentuate the symbolism of Greenland and the Faroe Islands – two semi-autonomous territories of the realm. The crest, redesigned for only the fourth time since 1819, now features an enlarged polar bear and ram to represent Greenland and the Faroe Islands respectively. While the design initially prompted little fanfare in the Danish media, overseas observers were surprised given the timing.

Greenland’s prime minister, Múte Egede, reiterated that the country is not for sale but the recent news that Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, was set to visit Greenland on a personal trip has caused a stir. As Don Jr arrived in Nuuk, Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, stated on TV that it was for Greenlanders to decide their future for themselves. Frederik X’s redesigned blazon is as subtle as it is symbolic – an art that royals have mastered over the centuries.

We start the year off with a bang by celebrating the release of two fantastic new films. We hear from director RaMell Ross about Nickel Boys, a formally inventive and beautifully rendered adaptation of a Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Colson Whitehead. Then: erotic thriller Babygirl, starring Nicole Kidman, depicts a lustful affair between a CEO and an intern. Monocle’s Fernando Augusto Pacheco sits down with director Halina Reijn to find out more.