America as an island (not Greenland?)...Glitches: Tariffs, Panama, Iran. Trump on a hotseat?...Prison at 80...For our paid subs: stock up your bomb shelter and those rolling suitcases & 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!
How others see America
…. as an island?
Donald Trump may want Greenland—at any cost—but increasingly it's America that he's rapidly turning into the world's largest island. And the whole world is watching. Indeed, Trump dominated the front page of France's leading newspaper, Le Monde, this weekend:
The banner headline:
Facing Donald Trump, the NGOs are in a pinch (literally seized by the throat)
The cessation of funding from the United States is forcing non-governmental organizations to make decisions with serious consequences
With the end of American foreign aid, support systems for displaced people are facing an unprecedented crisis
"It's not America first, it's America only," denounces Rony Brauman, former president of Doctors Without Borders France
Absorbed by their budgetary needs, Westerners give in to the temptation to reduce aid to development
Indeed, the paper's lead editorial observes:
The miscalculation of the withdrawal of international aid
The elimination of the majority of the programs of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is dangerously destabilizing humanitarian aid, and the non-governmental organizations responsible for it. The journal Nature estimates, in an assessment, that the loss of certain funding risks causing the deaths of 163,500 people per year….
Under the pretext of stopping the squandering of American taxpayers' money and reducing the United States' gigantic public deficit, the Trump administration has attacked one of the essential links in the international aid chain….
It's paradoxical for the Trump administration to want to combat illegal immigration while making decisions that only accelerate the phenomenon. Moreover, failing to contain the disease locally risks global pandemics, which will not spare the United States.
The authoritative British weekly, Nature, put some flesh on these numbers:
Severe acute malnutrition, or severe wasting, is the most lethal form of undernutrition and is responsible for up to 20% of deaths of children under the age of five years and affects 13.7 million children a year worldwide.
Left untreated, up to 60% of affected children might die…
In Nigeria, withdrawal of USAID Advancing Nutrition funding has meant that the charity Helen Keller International has had to stop a programme that provides nutrition services for 5.6 million children. In Sudan, almost 80% of emergency food kitchens are closed. In Ethiopia, supplies of nutrient-rich foods used to treat around one million severely malnourished children annually will run out by May.
How does a tariff increase work? The example of a toaster made in China and sold in the United States
The conclusion?
Donald Trump's new policy isn't just protectionist. With the unprecedented introduction of reciprocal tariffs, it puts an end to a trading system born after the Second World War, based on the principle of non-discrimination. Each country was required to apply the same tariffs to all its partners, except those with which an agreement had been signed, so as not to discriminate between powerful and weak nations, rich and poor. This principle has enabled the tremendous growth of global trade over the past sixty years. Rising US tariffs could lead to a rise in protectionism across the globe, that is, to a fragmentation of global trade, or, conversely, encourage other countries to expand their trade with each other to compensate for the loss of their markets in the United States.
Incidentally, another Le Monde editorial observed:
The US president may defend the strategy of 'peace through strength,' but he's struggling to achieve results in the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine….
Israel has resumed its war in Gaza, even though the Republican president had loudly claimed ownership of the ceasefire obtained at the start of his term.
Trump said he was confident of bringing the war in Ukraine to an end in record time. But the negotiations initiated with Russia without any preconditions have so far produced only mixed results….In reality, Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Witkoff said is not "a bad guy," looks to be the one setting the negotiations' pace.
At a time when the new US administration is stubbornly working to sabotage its relations with its historic allies, who are being treated with unprecedented hostility….
As for Greenland, as JD Vance, wife Usha in tow, and several other Americans, blew through the local American military base without ever really setting foot on Danish soil. Here's how The Guardian noted the Danish reaction [with emphasis from the newspaper]:
Rasmus Jarlov, chair of Denmark’s defence committee, offering his take on the US plans for Greenland, in stark comments, said:
“We can’t do it. We cannot hand over 57,000 of our citizens to become Americans against their will.”
He was also asked if he could envision a scenario where the US tries to use force to claim Greenland from Denmark.
“I certainly hope not, but that’s up to the American government. We’re not going to back down. We’re not going to hand over Greenland, regardless of what type of pressure is applied to us….There is a lot at stake here, because this is not only a matter of being reasonable to Denmark and Greenland. It is also a matter of the entire western alliance. Nobody’s going to be allied to a country that tries to annex parts of that country’s territory. So, if the US wants to be a global leader, and we’ve been very happy to let the US lead the world, but then you have to behave. You can’t just attack your allies and try to take their territory while at the same time trying to help Russia to gain more territory in Europe.
And perhaps not surprisingly, Trump even got a little pat on the back from Vladimir Putin, who warned in a major speech in Russia’s Murmansk, the world’s largest city north of the Arctic Circle, that it would be foolish to dismiss Trump's push for control of Greenland.
As Putin put it, the move is unsurprising given America’s longtime interest in the island:
“It is a profound mistake to treat it as some preposterous talk by the new U.S. administration. Nothing of the sort,” Putin proclaimed, adding such plans go “as far back as the 1860s."
Anything to stir the pot in NATO wherever possible.
And from a U.S. Embassy, a spark for the tinder….
Remember who America's ambassador-designate to France is? The father of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, jailed for a host of offenses, then pardoned by the president in his first term, finally nominated as a diplomat. France's leading economic daily Les Echos, has found the embassy already making few friends at the highest levels:
The Quai d'Orsay expressed outrage at a letter sent by the American embassy in Paris to numerous major French groups, asking whether they still had their internal equality and inclusion policies in place.
"American interference in the inclusion policies of French businesses, such as threats of unjustified customs duties, is unacceptable," retorted the French Ministry of Foreign Trade. "France and Europe will defend their businesses, their consumers, and also their values," the government statement continued. The letter warns them that this could prevent them from working with the American government.
According to our information, the United States Embassy in Paris has been sending letters for several days to French groups and French law firms likely to respond to American federal calls for tender, in order to ensure that they have removed from their practices anything that even remotely resembles affirmative action policies.
"French law will continue to apply," said Aurore Bergé, Minister for the Fight Against Discrimination. "In French law, there is no positive discrimination; however, there is a law on equality between women and men and equal pay, and there are associated social rights." "There is a principle of non-discrimination, obviously, whether it be discrimination based on origin or discrimination against LGBT people," she said.
While "500,000 French people work for American companies in France," she said, the response "is not just French" but must be "European, because other subsidiaries within the European Union have also started to receive letters of this type."
Meanwhile, leave it to The Economist to capture this moment, and especially Elon Musk, to perfection:
Is Elon Musk remaking government or breaking it?
So far, there is more destruction than creation…America has got late-era Musk, radicalised by his own social-media platform, flirting with authoritarian movements and stuck in the same mind-numbing partisan thinking as millions of less talented folk…
So far, DOGE has stirred up animosity, as it has barged into one agency after another. It has broken laws with glee and callously destroyed careers. It has made false claims about waste and seized personal data protected by law….It does not inspire confidence Mr Trump’s inner circle can handle big tasks responsibly.
And then there's Panama….
That's the other invasion that Trump threatened to mount, to keep the Chinese from snatching the strategically critical Panama Canal from what, he devoutly believed, were the American hands that created it and therefor held full rights to it, we assume, in perpetuity. Crisis averted … Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison, operators of two critical port terminals that give onto the canal agreed to sell their ownership to an American consortium led by BlackRock.
Not so fast. The South China Morning Post had the story first and in greatest detail:
Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing’s CK Hutchison Holdings will not go ahead with the expected signing of a deal next week to sell its two strategic ports at the Panama Canal, the Post has learned, as Beijing revealed it will launch an antitrust probe into the sale.
The State Administration for Market Regulation said it was looking into the deal. The sale of CK Hutchison’s two ports at each end of the Panama Canal was part of a US$23 billion deal to sell 43 ports spread over 23 countries to a consortium led by United States investment firm BlackRock. CK Hutchison will pocket US$19 billion.
The investigation was announced after Hong Kong-based pro-Beijing media Wen Wei Po and Ta Kung Pao asked whether the deal required approval through an antitrust review.
“We have noticed this transaction and will review it in accordance with the law to ensure fair competition in the market and safeguard the public interest,” a spokesman from the [Beijing] anti-monopoly department said. The watchdog did not reveal when the investigation would be launched but its response was later reposted on the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office website.
Not the only disentanglement
London's Financial Times believes it's uncovered yet another hurdle for TrumpWorld to surmount, as the paper's editorial board member Katie Martin observed:
The problem for European investors in disentangling themselves from the US is that, deliberately or otherwise, they are in deep. Portfolios everywhere, retail and institutional, are stuffed to the gills with US stocks. This can lead you to one of two conclusions: First, that the outperformance in European stocks now under way is fun but ultimately a blip, and therefore the great disentanglement won’t happen. Or second, that we are at the start of a long and painful process for the US. I lean heavily towards the latter.
The widespread, almost universal belief among institutional investors that the US would dominate global stocks in 2025 has proven to be badly misplaced. The pro-growth, low-tax, anti-red-tape narrative of Donald Trump’s second presidency has collapsed under its own weight and given way to fears of a problem recession or stagflation.
On-again-off-again trade tariffs and widespread federal jobs cuts are gnawing away at corporate and consumer confidence. And the depth of the administration’s loathing for supposed allies in Europe has shocked investors there deeply…. European investors were offended in a way that Americans perhaps have not recognised. Markets are reacting as you might expect. The dollar is sliding, and European markets are streaking ahead of the US.
It’s important to understand just how unusual this is. Germany’s Dax stocks index has outperformed the US S&P 500 in just two of the past 12 years….This is shaping up to be the best year for outperformance in the Dax in any year since 1960. Similarly, the dollar’s woes are for the history books. It has fallen further by this point in the year only six times since 1969….Trillions of investment dollars can leave the US.
Special for the Paid !
Andelman Unleashed has unleashed new, (lightly) paid tiers.
For new paid subscribers, an inscribed copy of my latest book, “A Red Line in the Sand”
Along with a weekly portfolio of cartoons, largely from Cartooning for Peace … and Friday a weekly live conversation with Andelman.
THIS FRIDAY, WE'LL HAVE A pair of SPECIAL GUESTs….
Dennis Redmont and Zeynep Tinaz Redmont LIVE from Lisbon
A husband-wife team of Associated Press veterans. Dennis ran AP bureaus in Brazil and Rome, then all of southern Europe, reporting from 80 countries, traveling with a half dozen popes, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and veteran commentator!
The week after, live from Paris, Patrice de Beer, former chief correspondent for Le Monde in Washington and London
So do sign up here and get the zoom link to Andelman Unleashed Conversation … cheaper than a monthly mocha grande.
This will also help us support great journalism across the globe.
Meanwhile, an excerpt from our conversation with Claire Atkinson from last Friday…with the full recording below the fold for our paid subs !
How others see the World
Remember those nukes?
Rack em up. Another failure of Donald Trump's vaunted person-to-person negotiating skills. As Orestes Georgiou Daniel put it in Euronews Sunday morning:
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Sunday that the Islamic Republic is ruling out direct negotiations with the US on its nuclear programme.
"We don't avoid talks," Pezeshkian said in televised remarks during a cabinet meeting. "It’s the breach of promises that has caused issues for us so far. They must prove that they can build trust.”
Pezeshkian was speaking in response to a letter sent by US President Donald Trump to Tehran on 12 March, the exact contents of which were not revealed. Iran's reply, which was delivered to the US through the sultanate of Oman, did however leave the door open for potential indirect negotiations with Washington.
Institute for the Study of War offered more background:
Senior Iranian officials expressed support for indirect negotiations likely aimed to reassure the Iranian public the regime is willing to take steps to secure economic relief amid Iran's deteriorating economic situation. [These officials] have, however, heavily caveated that Iran should remain cautious in negotiations. Iranian Supreme Leader Adviser Ali Shamkhani said two days later that Iran's response to Trump's letter is “restrained” and emphasized Iran's readiness to "confront" threats. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf similarly criticized US attempts to "impose [its] demands" on Iran. Iranian officials have also explicitly rejected any concessions on Iran’s missile program or its role in leading the Axis of Resistance—likely to appease hardline elements within the regime that oppose negotiations with the West.
[Those] Iranian officials who have expressed support for indirect nuclear negotiations may be trying to avoid snapback sanctions. The E3 (the United Kingdom, France, and Germany) reportedly gave Iran a June 2025 deadline to conclude a nuclear deal before the E3 imposes snapback sanctions. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) snapback mechanism allows JCPOA signatories to reimpose UN Security Council sanctions on Iran in the event of “significant non-performance by Iran of JCPOA commitments." The snapback mechanism expires in October 2025.
And then there's Ukraine … where to begin?
How about Paris, even the Elysée? The goals of Emmanuel Macron and all of Europe's NATO leaders he was able to convene for a most exciting day in the French capital, seemed hardly calculated to run chills of joy up the spines of Putin or Trump. The Guardian offered quite a complete menu of the decisions, and the stakes, leading not with what should be done, but particularly what shouldn't:
Key European leaders stressed it was “not the time” to start lifting sanctions against Russia, as they called out Moscow’s delaying tactics in responding to a US-led ceasefire proposal in Ukraine.
Macron outlined the structure of a future security guarantee proposed by the “coalition of the willing,” with further support for the Ukrainian army, a reassurance force stationed away from the frontline but offering support in “strategic” areas, and a broader push to rearm and coordinate better among the participating countries.
Macron said there was currently no unanimity among all participants in the Paris summit on sending a European-led reassurance force to Ukraine, although he stressed it was not required to advance plans for its deployment.
The French president said Europe must prepare for any scenario, including one where its security initiative would not be supported by the US, but he appeared to repeatedly suggest that Trump could change his mind once it becomes clear that Russia does not engage with his plans in good faith.
UK prime minister Keir Starmer confirmed plans for French, British and German army chiefs to travel to Kyiv to help with planning support for a future Ukrainian army, as part of a broader push to offer reassurance to the country, and a new Ukraine defence contact group meeting “to marshal more military aid and keep Ukraine in the fight”.
Starmer also repeatedly called out Russia for “playing games and … playing for time,” saying he would want to see progress in “days and weeks, not months and months”.
Ukrainia's Zelensky warned Russia does not want peace in Ukraine and seeks to divide Europe and America, as he urged the US to take a stronger line and impose sanctions on Russia for refusing to accept an unconditional ceasefire and called for a “reaction” to Moscow’s repeated violation of limited arrangements in place.
Zelenskyy also said the US was “constantly” shifting its approach to a minerals deal with Ukraine, but insisted Kyiv remained willing and “sending positive signals” on the agreement.
On the ground, meanwhile, Le Parisien, in its Sunday editions, pointed out how little attention Putin is giving to any sort of ceasefire:
Words repeated a hundred times, and an attempted truce that seems a mirage every day. On the 1,130th day of the war in Ukraine, Russian drones struck a military hospital, a shopping mall, residential buildings, and other targets in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city.
In total, six targets were identified and two people were killed. According to regional governor Oleg Synegubov, the two deceased were a 67-year-old man and a 70-year-old woman, while a 15-year-old girl was seriously injured. Four other children, aged 5 to 17, were injured, three of whom required hospitalization.
"According to initial reports, there were injuries among servicemen undergoing treatment at the medical center," the army's general staff also said on the Telegram messaging app. It denounced the "deliberate and targeted shelling" of the facility, which, it said, "adds to the long list of despicable and cynical crimes committed by the Russians since the beginning of the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine." Targeting a hospital is strictly prohibited under international conflict law. Kyiv accused Russia of a "war crime" after this series of strikes, and of having "violated the norms of international humanitarian law."
Oh, and if there was any doubt that Putin's playing the long game, Russian news agency Tass erased all doubt this week:
MOSCOW, March 26. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has submitted the treaty on Russia's comprehensive strategic partnership with Iran to the government for ratification.
The comprehensive strategic partnership treaty was signed during the visit of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to Moscow. The document establishes the legal framework for the further development of cooperation between Moscow and Tehran in the long term. The treaty consolidates the status of Russia and Iran as strategic partners and covers all spheres, including defense, counter-terrorism, energy, finance, transport, industry, agriculture, culture, science and technology.
Prison in Algeria for an 80-year-old
The great cartoonist POV, aka William Rasoanaivo, of Madagascar focused on Boualem Sansal, the Franco-Algerian author imprisoned in Algiers for a front page cartoon in Le Monde …
… as Natasha Booty reported for the BBC:
France's President Emmanuel Macron is urging Algeria to free an 80-year-old writer who was sentenced to five years in prison, following accusations he had undermined Algeria's territorial integrity.
Boualem Sansal was arrested in Algeria after apparently telling a French far-right media group that, during the colonial era, France gave too much land to Algeria and too little to Morocco.
Le Monde Afrique added fuel to the fire:
Very little was known about the health of the 80-year-old novelist, who suffers from prostate cancer, and his conditions of detention. Consular visits usually permitted to detainees were denied to French authorities, and the presence of his French lawyer, François Zimeray, was made impossible since his two visa applications were still pending. This heavy silence has been broken episodically by the inflammatory speeches of political leaders on both sides of the Mediterranean….
The judge pronounced the sentence in Arabic, in the presence of the impassive author, who approached the magistrate to inform him that he had not fully understood the sentence. The latter then repeated, aloud and in French, the sentence imposed on him.
Faced with the risk of seeing the Sansal affair reduced to a matter between states whose relations have deteriorated sharply since Emmanuel Macron recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara in July 2024, his defenders have attempted to break this bilateral straitjacket and give their fight international visibility. This approach took the form of a referral to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights….
Still, there is hope, for Sansal and for relations between these two Mediterranean nations, as Le Monde Afrique concluded:
The North Africa and Middle East advisor to the President of the Republic visited Algiers in recent days. Anne-Claire Legendre is reportedly preparing a trip by [French foreign minister] Jean-Noël Barrot for the first week of April, to meet with the head of Algerian diplomacy, Ahmed Attaf, and perhaps even President Tebboune.
Full disclosure: it was Legendre who, as then French consul general in New York, proposed the Legion d'Honneur for Andelman.
What’s new on ‘paid’
Now, for our most highly valued, but lightly paid members, we'll conclude with warnings to stock up your bomb shelter or pantry for the coming apocalypse in Europe … and then there’s those rolling suitcases making quite a racket on the cobbles of Dubrovnik (remember 'Game of Thrones').
And we'll wind up with our great partner Cartooning for Peace and Le Monde delivering a bonus gallery from cartoonists around the world on the end of democratic radio and tutti quanti.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Andelman Unleashed to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.
