TWTW: The World This Week #128

Musk's also taking Europe by storm...Front page news in Canada & Mexico...US weakens itself?...Ukraine crumbling...Curtains in Congo...For our paid: Headlines Trump shouldn't see...Amazing cartoons.

In this weekly feature for Andelman Unleashed, we continue to explore how the media of other nations are reporting and commenting on the United States, and how they are viewing the rest of the world.

To emphasize, we cover lots of ground….So, you may not want to read it all, but it's all here for you!

We are beginning with our launch mission, since it is counterculturally one issue that could prove transformative as we move through this year…. So do bear with us…. Or, if you prefer, scroll down to the front pages of top Sunday papers in Mexico & Canada !

Elections 2025: Germany

Musk: redux on the Rhine

These are parlous times in Germany, and barely three weeks before a landmark election that will choose the next Chancellor, Elon Musk has a match poised over the tinderbox of a far-right party, often called neo-Nazi, with Donald Trump just holding the bellows.

What’s worth highlighting are the deep, toxic stakes of someone with an office in the White House complex, and at times all but unfettered access to the President of the United States, inserting himself directly and deeply into German politics. And everyone's watching with fear as they see how DOGE has begun digging in back home.

That's because in Europe, Musk has been supporting, in an increasingly public and vocal manner, the candidates of Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party on his X platform which has some 15 million regular users in Germany. But beyond that, he has taken to German media, addressed vast throngs via teleconference, inserting himself deeply into this bitterly-fought campaign.

It is a move stunningly inappropriate and not unlike what Vladimir Putin has been accused of doing more surreptitiously, but no less toxically, in a host of countries including the United States. Indeed, it’s all just so bold and so toxic that the Bundestag—the German parliament—is looking into this as a potential violation of the nation's laws, even its constitution. The German newspaper Der Welt, flagship of the conservative Axel Springer media empire that also encompasses US-based Politico, was at the center of much of the hoopla as it published late last year an incendiary op-ed from Merz calling AfD leader Alice Weidel the best possible candidate to succeed incumbent Olaf Scholz as chancellor.

With that, Die Welt Opinion editor Eva Marie Kogel resigned observingm somewhat ironically on X, that she did so "after being put under pressure." Now, this week, the paper reported:

The Bundestag has initiated an investigation into whether US entrepreneur Elon Musk's involvement with the German AfD could be an illegal donation to the party. "In this case, the facts are currently being clarified," a Bundestag spokesman said in Berlin. Musk is currently heavily promoting the AfD on his platform X, and broadcast a conversation with AfD chancellor candidate Alice Weidel on X.

According to the Party Law, which was reformed at the beginning of 2024, election advertising by third parties is considered a party donation. In addition, party donations from non-EU countries are prohibited—Musk and his platform X are based in the USA. According to the Party Law, the German Bundestag is responsible for checking the correctness of party financing and election advertising.

But the stakes are even broader—across the entire 27-nation European Union, as our colleagues David Carretta and Christian Spillmann wrote from Brussels in their Il Mattinale Europeo newsletter, among the most widely-read commentaries in the EU:

Elon Musk, Ursula von der Leyen's X Nightmare

The attack is frontal. Elon Musk has put all the power of his X platform at the service of the German far right and hopes for its victory in the political elections of February 23. Musk has been attacking democracy in Europe since last summer and he does so with the support of President Donald Trump. The EU has the means to defend itself, but is reluctant to do so. The offensive led by Elon Musk is testing Ursula von der Leyen. Her Commission is ready to do battle, but the president is hesitating, and her advisers are annoyed by the pressure that could force her to act.

So, what does Musk want? First, to expand his cultivation of such EU conservative stalwarts as Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni ….

And then, he certainly wouldn’t mind bootstrapping some of these friendships into, oh perhaps most immediately, an end to European probes of X, as Carretta and Spillmann observed:

The question is whether Elon Musk manipulated the algorithms used by X to favor certain content, amplify and maximize its messages. The flaw must be found in order to “catch him” and “be unassailable.” Musk has hired an army of lawyers, including those who handled the procedures initiated against Google for violating EU antitrust law.

His personal account has 200 million followers, and he puts it at the service of Alice Weidel, giving her an audience that none of her political opponents enjoy. Elon Musk goes very far in interfering in German political life and his behavior is often defamatory. He insults his detractors and has called German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier an “anti-democratic tyrant.”

And then there's Tesla with a new "Gigafactory" in Berlin-Brandenburg—its first in Europe—with 12,500 workers, designed to turn out 500,000 cars a year.

But there's a bigger question posed by Carretta and Spillmann:

Can the EU sanction Musk, and if so, on what grounds? [European Commission President] Ursula von der Leyen is hesitant. She doesn't even dare to take a position. She is afraid of upsetting Donald Trump and is following the positioning of German leaders. If the government in Berlin moves, she will move. The EU is divided. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni defends her friend Elon Musk, with whom she does business. She is negotiating a contract with Starlink for secure communications. Meloni sees no problem with Musk [backing] the AfD.

The [socialist] Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, on the other hand, is very angry and is demanding action to counter the actions.

Finally, though, it's worth pointing out an analysis from Alexander von Humboldt Institut für Internet und Gesellschaft, which has been monitoring Internet traffic for the major German political candidates, observing especially the activity for Weidel:

We see two sharp jumps and a steady but faster increase in between. The first increase occurred around 20 December. At this time, Musk posted that only the AfD could save Germany….In the days leading up to 9 January, Musk mentioned and retweeted Alice Weidel several times, which earned her as many as 24 million views for one post, and on 10 January her number of followers increased by almost 150,000.

Just imagine how indebted Weidel could be to Elon Musk. And this before there's any campaign money, that we know of, changing hands.

How others see America

Largely through the prism of money, tariffs, and MAGA. This weekend, it's largely about tariffs. So, what's the media in Mexico and Canada been saying on Sunday?

From Mexico

Reforma

Their editorial cartoon from Paco Calderon, though, says it all:

"They'll be shooting themselves in the foot."

El Universal

25% for the "Narcogovernment" / Mexico denies it and prepares tariffs

La Jornada

Trump: There is nothing they can do to avoid tariffs

Tariffs of 25% on Mexico and Canada, and 120% on China; plans to expand war

The agricultural and industrial sectors anticipate losses in the millions

Sheinbaum: We have a plan; we respond with a cool head. There are dispute resolution panels in the USMCA: [Secretary of Economy Marcelo] Ebrard

Cars, computers, televisions and food will become more expensive in the US

From Canada

Toronto Star

Globe & Mail / Toronto

Vancouver Sun / British Columbia

Canada's provinces may be digging in as hard as the government in Ottawa. Even before Trump formally signed his order, the premier of British Columbia was weighing in, as the Vancouver Sun reported:

British Columbia Premier David Eby was quick to retaliate to the “crushing” 25 per cent tariffs announced by the U.S. on Saturday, including targeting U.S. liquor. “It’s a declaration of economic war against a trusted ally and friend,” said Eby in Vancouver from a press conference.

Eby said a few immediate measures have been launched in response to the tariff announcement. He has directed the BC Liquor Distribution Branch to immediately stop buying American liquor from “red states,” as well as pulling existing stock from store shelves.

Eby said he has also directed crown corporations such as BC Hydro, ICBC, and health authorities to immediately halt buying American goods and services and instead buy Canadian goods and services first. The province is also expediting permits for 10 private-sector projects worth $20 billion, including mines, renewable energy and natural gases. Eby said this process is expected to create 6,000 jobs in northern and rural communities.

“We will never again allow ourselves to be beholden to the whims of one person in the White House,” said Eby.

One fear across the Atlantic is that the next target of Trump could well be Europe. As Swiss cartoonist Patrick Chappatte pointed out, Trump and his henchmen at any moment could show up at the door of the EU with extortion on their mind, reminding a shocked Ursula von der Leyen…."You have a nice business here. It's important that nothing happens to it."

Especially chilling, though, is how this is all going down in the concentric political circles surrounding the various power brokers of Europe. So, an extraordinary survey of 400 such individuals was undertaken by the European Union Institute for Security Studies:

It found eight high risks to Europe, but at the top, the report noted:

The withdrawal of the United States from its security guarantees towards its allies is seen as having as high an impact on the EU as a Russian nuclear strike. This metric captures EU reliance on the United States for its security. Experts clearly take seriously the rhetoric of US president elect Donald Trump of not automatically backing up US pledges towards NATO allies making US isolationism a top high risk in our assessment.

At the same time, the report continued:

Experts overwhelmingly view Ukraine as a critical shield for EU interests, with a ceasefire favourable to Russia emerging as the highest risk for 2025.

Especially nervous is Denmark, fearing some bizarre effort to seize its territory of Greenland by Force, as Politico's EU Playbook reported:

It’s no longer a joke. After initially provoking disbelief, U.S President Donald Trump’s audacious plan to acquire Greenland — potentially by force—has triggered frantic talks among European leaders aiming to stop him.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen dashed between Berlin, Brussels and Paris to shore up support in the face of Trump’s increasingly aggressive overtures toward the territory. The pair clashed in a reportedly fiery 45-minute call two weeks ago, when it became clear to the Danish leader Trump was deadly serious.

“Vow of silence”: Copenhagen has asked its allies not to react to Trump’s Greenland threats to avoid provoking a public confrontation with the president.

The whole issue of just how Trump might handle Europe more broadly—or the converse for that matter—has captured global attention. As Finbarr Bermingham, Brussels correspondent for Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, which increasingly has seemed to reflect Beijing thinking, reported:

European Union, out in the cold in Trump 2.0, braces for a more transactional relationship

In Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s efforts to speak with Trump have gone unreturned. Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, invited Rubio to a meeting of the bloc’s 27 foreign ministers, but got no reply….a reminder of how difficult the mercurial Trump will be to deal with over the next four years…. There is rising anxiety that Trump’s second term will be even more unbalanced than his first.

“He hates Europe,” said one diplomat from an EU member state who was stationed in Washington during Trump’s first term, adding that the bloc “doesn’t have the capability” of working with a leader who cares little for established rules and norms.

"The U.S. is weakening itself….

.…by freezing its international aid" is how the lead editorial in Le Monde put it:

Donald Trump's decision to instantly block thousands of food and health programs threatens to have consequences for the very defense of his country's interests.

The Republican believes, according to the executive order that instantly blocked thousands of food and health programs, that these "are not aligned with American interests and, in many cases, contrary to American values."

Gesturing is one thing, wielding a chainsaw is another, doing both simultaneously is not recommended when one's goal is to defend the interests of one's country.

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How others view the World

While everyone's looking at America….

Yes there's a full-blown war still going on in Ukraine. And as The Economist reported most disquietingly:

Amid talk of a ceasefire, Ukraine’s front line is crumbling

An ominous defeat in the eastern town of Velyka Novosilka

The final battle for the small Donbas town of Velyka Novosilka dragged on for six days, though the outcome was obvious long before that. Things became critical early in the new year, when Russian troops took over villages immediately to its north-east and west, pinching the Ukrainian defenders on three sides. By January 23rd the narrow corridor to what had become a nearly-isolated pocket had become impassable. The order to retreat came as soon as a mist descended. It was a nightmarish task that had to be completed on foot, under drone-filled skies, and across a river. The evidence of triumphant Russian propaganda channels suggests that many failed to make it.

Russia’s small victory in Velyka Novosilka (population just 5,000 before the war) followed a familiar pattern: relentless infantry assaults, devastating casualties, collapsing Ukrainian defences, and their eventual retreat. The immediate focus for the units that had been fighting there will now probably shift back to Pokrovsk to the north, a much-bigger logistical hub that Russia has been attacking at various intensities for the past six months. The fighting there has already prompted the Ukrainians to abandon a crucial coking-coal mine—one that previously provided half the needs of the domestic metallurgy industry. Russian forces are also advancing nearby towards the site of useful lithium-ore deposits.

The minimum requirement of its “special military operation” [invasion] appears still to be occupying the entirety of the Donbas region (comprising the provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk), regaining control of Russia’s own Kursk region, which Ukraine has partly occupied, and holding on to the “land bridge” it seized in the early stages of the war connecting Crimea to Russia.

I still can't get out of my mind a briefing at the CIA I received before I left for Cambodia and Vietnam 50 years ago, as I summarized in Unleashed Memoir last month….

“Sometime while you are there, it will all be over,” [my CIA briefer] said evenly. “North and South Vietnam will be united, and the North will have won.”

"The first indication," he said, "would be a small skirmish in a village somewhere in the Central Highlands, likely between main force North Vietnamese troops and ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam/South Vietnamese) forces. Then, there’ll be a brief quiet period—a few days or even a couple of weeks. That will be followed by a larger battle, likely for Buôn Ma Thuột, a major crossroads in the Central Highlands, which will quickly fall to NVA forces. At that point, a precipitous effort to flee the major Central Highlands city of Pleiku will ensue and within days, the North Vietnamese will be rolling, all but unchecked, down Highway One and a very short time later will be in Saigon. It will all be over."

I'd love to hear what that briefer might be telling me about Ukraine today. I do fear for the worse.

And then, there's Africa

In the Congo….Just another African massacre? Not exactly, as Le Monde's correspondent on the scene began:

The inhabitants of the provincial capital of North Kivu, which fell into the hands of the M23, supported by the Rwandan army, are rediscovering with concern their city under rebel control.

A bloated body floats in the waters of Lake Kivu. On his back, bare-chested, his forearms raised at right angles to the sky as if in a final silent prayer. In front of this house directly overlooking the expanse of water, four bodies have thus slowly drifted since the beginning of this day of Thursday, January 30.

Five days after the outbreak of fighting in Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu, in the far east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), how many bodies are being carried by the lake? How many are left in the northern part of the city, still considered a no-go zone where, according to various sources, soldiers of the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC) and Wazalendo militiamen who were unwilling or unable to lay down their arms are entrenched, with little way out?

And The Economist pointed out the stakes:

Rwanda does a Putin in Congo: Rwanda’s reckless plan to redraw the map of Africa

To understand the seizure of Goma, consider a parallel with Ukraine

Something awful is happening in Congo. A rebel group called M23 seized control of Goma, the biggest city in the east of the country, on January 27th, killing several UN peacekeepers and prompting hundreds of thousands of locals to flee. Hardly anyone outside central Africa knows who M23 are or why they are fighting. So, here’s a helpful analogy: Donbas.

In 2014 Vladimir Putin grabbed much of Donbas, an eastern region of Ukraine, and pretended he had not.

Rwanda’s dictator, Paul Kagame, has copied these tactics in eastern Congo. The M23 rebels are armed, supplied and directed by his regime. They claim to be protecting Congolese Tutsis from persecution, but the threat to them is exaggerated. M23 is in fact a proxy for Rwanda, allowing it to grab a big chunk of Congolese territory while pretending not to. Thousands of Rwandan troops have crossed into Congo to help. Rwanda denies something that observers on the ground can plainly see.

13 years ago, already some 12 years into his rule, I spent 90 minutes talking with Kagame at the United Nations for World Policy Journal:

He insisted he would not be around forever, only until his nation had been stabilized in the wake of the 1994 genocide, as he told me:

We have the Constitution in place. We have term limits. I'm serving my second and last term. I'm just hoping that another suitable person will come and continue with the work we are doing and not reverse it or break it up.

Guess what? He's still there, still in charge, every inch a dictator.

Meanwhile, in Washington, the ducks are being lined up, as Politico Influence reported:

FARA FRIDAY: Ballard Partners re-upped its agreement to lobby for the Democratic Republic of Congo several months early—and for a larger fee—amid escalating violence in the central African nation….

According to documents filed with the Justice Department this week, Ballard signed a new contract with the Congolese Ministry of Communication and Media on Inauguration Day to provide advocacy and advice on enhancing relations between the U.S. and Congo and conducting outreach with U.S. officials, businesses and NGOs on a number of issues, including “human rights issues in East Congo.”

Ballard has worked for Congo since 2022 under a contract that was automatically set to renew each March. The new contract will also automatically renew each year and increases the cost of Ballard’s monthly retainer from $75,000 to $100,000.

What’s new on ‘paid’

And now, for our most highly valued, but lightly paid members, we'll conclude with a couple of tips for Trump he might've missed.

And we'll wind up with our great partner Cartooning for Peace regular bonus gallery from cartoonists around the world on events today and tomorrow…