Elections & BIG unravelings: Canada, Greenland, Romania ... Moscow, Kyiv, DC: wishin' & hopin' ... A trade riposte: who's buying those F-35s? ... For our paid: Bhutan on the ropes & our 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’re beginning this week with elections, which helps fulfill a core Unleashed pledge—to chronicle every national election everywhere—but also seems to epitomize what is transpiring, namely an unraveling of democracy, globally.
Elections 2025 : Canada, Greenland, Romania
Canada: A new government braces …
Even before Donald Trump was sworn into office back in January—but hardly before he'd begun calling its prime minister Governor Justin Trudeau and postulating in ever less jocular fashion that Canada would be a perfect 51st American state, The Economist came up with an even better idea.
The writer Is the columnist Charlemagne, who happens to be a direct lineal descendant of the great ruler, not to mention an heir of one of Canada's leading industrial and mercantile families. But his perspective today is of Europe, so he opines:
Both Europe and Canada may be in the market for upgraded alliances. Donald Trump’s return to the White House on January 20th brings with it the prospect of tariffs and jingoistic bluster. Nerves are jangling on both sides of the north Atlantic. Places on the fringes of the European Union are rethinking their ties to the club. Switzerland has agreed to a closer alliance, and Iceland will hold a referendum in 2027 on joining. Greenland, which left the EU in 1985 after gaining autonomy from Denmark, might consider rejoining, given Mr Trump’s obsession with it. But Canada may have the most to fret about….The EU should invite Canada to become its 28th member.
In short, Canada is vast and blessed with natural resources but relatively few people, while the EU is small, cramped and mineral-poor.
But Europe has more to gain from a tie-up with Canada than access to Quebec’s strategic maple-syrup reserve. Europeans can be sold on enlargement by the prospect of their union tripling its surface area while adding only 40m Canadians to a population of 440m. The EU would go from having a population density not far from China’s to that of America—assuming enough Greeks or Belgians volunteer to live in rather chilly conditions. Europe is short of energy, too; Canada has lots of oil, gas and hydro power. A rich new joiner would help the EU’s finances….
Alas, Europe still insists the EU is for Europeans. Canada would be reluctant to join a customs union that would jeopardise its vital trading ties with America.
So now, with Canada having now just inaugurated its new prime minister, it must find some path forward that does not impoverish it, maintains its independence, and stabilize its fraying body politic as it prepares for a national election by October. As the Toronto Star put it:
OTTAWA — Mark Carney marked his debut as Canada’s 24th prime minister by killing the Trudeau-era consumer carbon tax, paring back his governing cabinet, and promising a more businesslike approach to U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war.
Carney’s first acts suggested he’s got the bones of a plan. He signed a cabinet order slashing the consumer fuel charge to zero as of April 1, while retaining the carbon rebate cheques for the first quarter.
He took pains to say he respects the U.S. president, but dissed Trump’s 51st state talk as “crazy,” saying his government will protect Canadian jobs. He will head to Paris and London this weekend, at the invitations of French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, as Carney underscores he will diversify trade and security ties with other allies.
Sounds like he might just have been reading Charlemagne? Indeed, in England, despite King Charles III’s somewhat ill-timed invitation to Trump for a state visit, this weekend, as the Star reported:
A maple tree, a red dress and a ceremonial sword may seem like cold comfort for Canadians hoping to hear their head of state defend them against U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated pitches to annex their country. But royal watchers say King Charles is showing subtle support for Canada in the only way he can, given his politically neutral role.
The King presented a senior Canadian parliamentary officer, the Usher of the Black Rod, with a sword in a ceremony that appeared loaded with symbolism amid the Canada-U.S. trade war and Trump’s suggestions that the country become the 51st state.
The meeting at Buckingham Palace came after the King wore Canadian military honours on his uniform, met with Canada’s prime minister and planted an Acer rubrum—otherwise known as a red maple—on the grounds of the palace to commemorate the late queen’s commitment to forest conservation.
Some royal watchers believe Catherine, the Princess of Wales, also got into the pro-Canada act when she wore a bright red dress and coat, along with white pearl jewelry, to mark Commonwealth Day.
Greenland: And the next owner….
Greenland's nightmare: how do its 56,000 people defend against an invasion by an American expeditionary force dispatched by Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth? Well, in fact, it may not have to do so. Because Denmark, which has overseen this quasi-independent world's largest and coldest island, bears the responsibility for its military defense. Which begs another question: could an American invasion lead to Denmark invoking Article 5 of the NATO treaty which provides "an attack on one (NATO member) is an attack on all." Which means it's then the US against 30 other NATO nations, all increasingly better financed and armed—thanks largely to pressure from Donald Trump himself.
Well at any rate, Greenland has now elected a new leader, head of the opposition center-right Demokraatit party, who will be looking to form a new coalition government. As Astri Edvardsen reported in High Country News:
Over 28,000 Greenlanders voted for a significant new composition of their parliament, Inatsisartut. The government formation process is now led by Demokraatit, which won the most votes. There is a majority in parliament for Greenlandic independence in the longer term.
In total, six parties competed for the Greenlander's vote to fill the parliament's 31 seats. The opposition party Demokraatit won the election by 29.9—an increase of over 20% percent since the last election in 2021. The party gained 10 seats.
"We did not expect the election to have this outcome. We are very happy. Although the election has concluded, the politics start now," said Jens Frederik Nielsen, the Demokraatit party leader.
Nielsen celebrates
"Greenland needs us to stand united at a time of great outside interest. There is a need for unity, so we will negotiate with everyone," he added.
With a view to the great international interest, especially from Donald Trump's USA, Nielsen stated the following on Facebook on election day: "This is our country. Our choice. Our freedom."
Like several other Greenlandic political leaders, he has also made it very clear that Greenlanders want to be Greenlanders—not Americans or Danes.
No friend of Trump, clearly. But when it all comes down to it, as London’s Guardian observed:
Greenland’s election was fought and won on domestic issues such as business, fisheries, pensions, people’s livelihoods and healthcare.
Naleraq, the most US- and Trump-friendly party, did well, coming second overall. But it was the centre-right Democrats, led by Jens Frederik Nielsen, who replaced former prime minister Múte B Egede’s Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA) as the party with the most seats – and thus now have the opportunity to form a coalition government. Naleraq advocates collaboration with the US in the pursuit of rapid independence from Denmark (which ruled Greenland as a colony until 1953 and still controls its foreign and security policy).
Nielsen favours a much slower transition, saying Greenland “must have a calm course”, and “must first build the foundation” for success as an independent country….Trump could now sell the result as a victory, because it is a rejection of the status quo. But the tone of US-Greenland relations may depend on whether Naleraq ends up inside or outside the coalition.
Romania: the firepan, the fire?
Just as the nation's supreme court seems to have enabled Romania to dodge a bullet of a deeply Kremlin-linked candidate for president in the lead for the second round of a fraught election process, along comes another challenge. As Politico.eu's Hanne Cokelaere reported:
Romanian far-right party leader George Simion has been cleared to run in the country’s tense presidential do-over vote in May, Romania’s electoral bureau announced. Simion, leader of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), the second-largest party in last year’s general election, had bowed out of the presidential race in support of ultranationalist Călin Georgescu. But Simion announced his candidacy after Georgescu was barred from the May ballot.
Simion and Anamaria Gavrilă, the leader of the far-right Party of Young People, announced they would both enter the race in defense of the “sovereigntist movement,” after Romania’s top court confirmed Georgescu’s exclusion from this year’s contest—though not necessarily from future elections. If both Simion and Gavrilă are cleared to run, one will withdraw, they said.
Georgescu emerged the shock winner of the first round in November, before the Constitutional Court canceled the results over concerns that Moscow had targeted Romania with an “aggressive hybrid action” to affect the vote.
Vice President JD Vance has already made pretty clear the Trumpworld view of the elections, charging the December vote was annulled “based on the flimsy suspicions of an intelligence agency and enormous pressure from its continental neighbors." That would be the European Union, incidentally, where most leaders are desperately afraid of losing Romania, its military forces, but especially its critical geopolitical position in Europe.
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To whet your appetite…here’s more about Jacques Leslie [in his own words]:
In the course of my career, I have come full circle. The first story of mine that seemed to resonate was a column I wrote for my college newspaper, the Yale Daily News—a humorous piece about prematurely growing bald, which I was painfully in the process of doing…I got immediately hooked on journalism.
My first full-time journalism job, at age 24, was as a war correspondent in Saigon for the Los Angeles Times. I became the first American journalist to enter and return from Viet Cong territory in South Vietnam…and earned me an expulsion. My astonishing year was 1975, when I covered the collapse of the Lon Nol government in Cambodia (and left Phnom Penh in an evacuation helicopter three days before the Khmer Rouge took control); the Pathet Lao’s toppling of the coalition government in Laos; Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s conviction for election malpractice and her declaration of a political emergency…(and, after three months, my expulsion from India)…In 1976, I resigned from the Times.
As time went on, I devoted increasing attention to water scarcity, a facet of the ever-deepening planetary environmental crisis. In 2000, I did a cover story for Harper’s, “Running Dry: What Happens When the World No Longer Has Enough Freshwater?“ one of the earliest warnings of water woes. I discovered that at the core of most arguments over water are dams, those modern pyramids, generators of extravagantly apportioned electricity, water storage, and environmental and social disasters. I spent four years writing Deep Water: The Epic Struggle Over Dams, Displaced People, and the Environment, portraying an anti-dam activist in India, an anthropologist in southern Africa, and a river basin administrator in Australia—as they went about their dam-related activities. Then came an e-book calledA Deluge of Consequences about a stunning high-altitude project in Bhutan to counter the threat of lethal flooding caused by melting glaciers.
Of which [Bhutan!] much more, below the fold !
How others view the World
Wishin' and hopin' and thinkin' and prayin'….
No Dusty Springfield here, though the prescription "show him that you care" appear to be falling on deaf ears, at least in the Kremlin. Wouldn’t really be that surprised of course….
One of the most astute observers of the European, and trans-Atlantic scene, is Giles Merritt, founder of Friends of Europe.
This week he spelled out "Four blunt messages Europe needs to send to Trump"….
In just a few weeks, the Trump administration has done more to strengthen the EU than Europeans themselves achieved over the last two decades.
Insulated from the wider world by his White House entourage of ideologues and sycophants, Trump is bent on policies that will weaken America’s power and influence while strengthening the European Union. So four key points must be conveyed in terms that leave no room for misunderstanding.
These are that Russia is, as Trump would put it, “a loser”. Despite his poker playing skills, Putin doesn’t hold a winning hand of cards. Also, that the pre-eminent global role of the US makes it more vulnerable to hostile reactions than Trump realises. His ‘America first’ policies are doing more to transform the EU from trading bloc into political powerhouse than envisaged by the wildest euro-enthusiasts. Here are the four messages for MAGA:
In choosing Russia, Trump is backing the wrong horse.
Europe’s backing means Ukraine, not Russia, will win the waiting game.
Trump is embarking on a wider but un-winnable economic war.
Thank you, Donald Trump, for hugely boosting European integration.
Donald Trump has upended US foreign policy and threatens a chaotic disruption of the international rules-based order built up over the last 80 years. He has also signalled to European political leaders that the United States is no longer either a defence or economic cornerstone of the EU and NATO. Their next step must be to tell him in no uncertain terms that they have understood, and accept his challenge.
Still, Putin's been pretty clear on this and all but unwavering from the start, as Le Monde noted this weekend on its front page:
Truce in Ukraine: Putin poses his conditions
The Russian president does not immediately reject the ceasefire agreement proposed by the United States and Ukraine, but mentions "nuances."
The demilitarization of the country, the departure of Volodymyr Zelensky and the annexation of the occupied territories remain Russia's red lines.
Ukrainian president denounces a 'manipulative' reaction by Moscow and fears negotiations that drag on.
The ball is now in the court of Donald Trump, who welcomed Putin's 'very promising remarks, while noting they were 'not complete'.
But if Le Monde was playing gentle, the leading Polish daily Wyborcza was mincing no words….
Euroarmy
Will the French die for the Suwalki Gap…
The European soldier wins against the Russians in terms of training, quality of weapons and morale. He knows for whom and for what it is worth fighting. But when the Americans leave, will the French general not look down on the British, and the German captain ask: why should I listen to the Italian colonel?
This is the question preoccupying Europe more than any other these days and with no clear answer.
So it may actually all come down to Trump and Putin, just as we feared from the get-go. As London's Telegraphreported:
Donald Trump is expected to speak to Vladimir Putin this week as Washington and Kyiv’s allies press Moscow to accept a temporary ceasefire agreement. US envoy Steve Witkoff, who spoke with Putin for several hours in Moscow, said he assumes the highly anticipated call between the two leaders will be “really good and positive”.
“I expect that there will be a call with both presidents this week, and we’re also continuing to engage and have conversation with the Ukrainians," adding he hopes to see “real progress” in ending the conflict soon.
The Trump administration proposed a 30-day halt in fighting in the war after high-level talks with Ukraine in Saudi Arabia, with Kyiv accepting the proposal. Earlier on Sunday, Moscow said Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, called his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and discussed “concrete aspects of the implementation of understandings” established at a US-Russia summit last month.
Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders have accused the Kremlin of trying to prolong the war so its forces can improve the situation on the battlefield.
And sadly, that now seems to be working. As the Telegraphcontinued, citing Ukrainian sources and theInstitute for the Study of War:
Ukraine is clinging on to just a narrow stretch of land in the Kursk region as Moscow’s forces continue to drive Kyiv’s retreating troops out of Russia. Ukraine’s months-long incursion is nearing its end, according to analysis, with open source maps showing its military now holds only 30 to 40 square miles and a few villages.
Russian soldiers deploy, Friday, in a village in the Kursk region, just taken from Ukrainian forces. —Le Figaro
Kyiv’s forces invaded the western border region of Kursk last August in the largest attack on Russian territory since World War II, seizing around 528 square miles of land. Yuri Podolyaka, an influential pro-Russian military blogger, said that while Russia continues to push back Ukrainian forces, intense battles are still underway.
The Institute for the Study of War think-tank confirmed that Russia has not yet recaptured Kursk entirely and denied reports that Ukraine’s troops are surrounded. In a major loss, Ukraine’s military command on Sunday also reported its troops had retreated from the key logistics hub of Sudzha, three days after Russia claimed control of the town.
It comes as Volodymyr Zelensky warns that Vladimir Putin is preparing for a fresh ground invasion of Ukraine’s Sumy region, which borders Kursk.
How others see America
And so, it all boils down to trade?
In fact, across Europe, retaliation is already in the crosshairs—and not over any increase in tariffs, which could spark more toxic reciprocity, but hurting Magaworld where it would really hurt, as Amélie Lauren detailed in France's Les Echos:
Just hours after taking office on Friday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney ordered a review of his country's contract for the purchase of F-35 fighter jets. The former central banker has asked his Defense Minister, Bill Blair, to work with the armed forces and his department to "determine whether the F-35 procurement contract, in its current form, is the best investment for Canada and whether there are other options that may better meet Canada's needs," a Defense Department spokesperson said.
Other countries are questioning their interest in purchasing American fighter jets. Portugal is considering all options, from American F-35s to European aircraft, to replace its army's soon-to-be-ended F-16s. "The recent position of the United States, in the NATO context and at the international geostrategic level," should prompt consideration of the "best options," Nuno Melo, the Portuguese Defense Minister, said.
In Switzerland, elected officials are also questioning the deal, three years after signing a contract to purchase 36 F-35s for 6.2 billion euros. The agreement is now being questioned in Parliament, given the geopolitical context. In Germany, future Chancellor Friedrich Merz has declared he wants to take "radical measures" to strengthen European defense without relying on US military equipment. Germany is among the European countries that have signed F-35 purchase contracts in recent years, along with Italy, Britain, and, more recently, Romania and Greece.
In Canada, the contract with American manufacturer Lockheed Martin is for 88 F-35s to replace the country's aging fleet of warplanes. The contract, worth €13.2 billion, was finalized in 2023…. Mark Carney declared during his campaign that he wanted to redirect his country's military budget toward Canada. And not "80%" toward the United States."
How many American jobs (and voters) does that represent?
But who'll now hear about any of this?!
As The Washington Post just reported:
Trump issued an executive order that directed VOA and an array offederal offices to “be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.” About 1,000 journalists were placed on indefinite leave. Those who showed up to work to broadcast their programs were locked out of the building.....
Trump’s directive targeted the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America, and severed contracts for privately incorporated international broadcasters the agency also oversees, including Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia and theMiddle East Broadcasting Networks. All told, roughly 3,500 journalists and other media workers were affected by the moves.
Special for the Paid !
Our special guest last Friday was Mort Rosenblum, the former Editor of the International Herald Tribune and chief international correspondent of the AP. Here’s a brief excerpt of his remarks…the full conversation is below the fold for our paying subscribers! But for a little taste of the master’s thoughts (which you can read regularly at his MortReport:
Then, for our most highly valued, but lightly paid members, we'll conclude with the saga of how the nation that's home of Gross National Happiness wound up on Donald Trump's red list ….
And we'll wind up with our great partner Cartooning for Peace and Le Monde delivering a bonus gallery from cartoonists around the globe.
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