Anniversaries galore...tragedies on TrumpLand horizons: Europe, Asia & beyond... Elections: Ecuador, Bolivia & O Canada....And for our (lightly) paid: kids learn drones in Russia + our cartoon gallery
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
Indeed, it is much more about America than the world this week, as Donald Trump succeeds in dominating, even hijacking, conversations, largely in a most pernicious fashion on every front.
Anniversaries….glorious & toxic
This week marked a pair of quite momentous anniversaries, each remarkable in its own way, precisely two centuries apart. 250 years ago Thursday evening, Paul Revere, spying two lanterns in the spire of the Old North Church, along with two companions, galloped out of Boston toward the towns of Lexington and Concord to raise the alarm that "the British are coming" by sea (one lantern would have meant by land).
Forewarned, the English troops were met with a hastily-assembled colonial militia. And the rest is history.
There were no lanterns lit 200 years to the day later when, a half a world away and under a host of different circumstances, the Khmer Rouge rebels rolled into the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh and began with surpassing violence and alacrity dismantling a civilization that dated back a millennium before even Paul Revere's blessed ride.
photo by Dith Pran
I was not there for either one, but closer, certainly, to the Cambodian revolution as Unleashed Memoir #8 Part I explored last week. But more about all that if you read on below.
The White House did put out its own account of Paul Revere's ride that ended:
Paul Revere was a master craftsman, a husband, a father, and a proud son of liberty, who risked his life to help forge a new Nation. His courageous ride ignited patriots across the colonies who rose up to defend their families, their livelihoods, and their sacred liberties….We commemorate the enduring legacy of the famed Boston silversmith, patriot, and revolutionary hero, whose passion for independence and bold act of defiance set in motion a war of independence that changed the course of history and transformed the world.
There was no mention of some 100,000+ Ukrainian soldiers—31,000 in February alone—killed defending their nation (as colonial forces did ours). As for bringing an end to this war, lots depends on just to whom we want to listen. For indeed, there are talks going on right now with any number of Trump acolytes across the world that could dramatically alter America's place in the universe or even its outright removal.
The inimitable Stanley Pignal was writing under his most appropriate nom de plume, ancestor Charlemagne, in The Economist. He put it pointedly, while the magazine's illustrator Peter Schrank looked at the Statue of Liberty sailing, what, home?:
The thing about Europe: it’s the actual land of the free now. Europe’s very real problems don’t look so bad by comparison….
The EU’s top brass are unelected and sometimes unaccountable. Still, they would not dare be photographed playing a round of golf after having wiped out the savings of millions of their compatriots….
Europe freeloads on defence, not spending enough on its armed forces to single-handedly fend off threats….reflect[ing] a different understanding of what “defence” means. Nobody in Europe—outside Russia, at least—is even casually implying they will invade other countries. There is no Brussels quip about turning an unwilling neighbour into “our 28th state” (on the contrary, many of the EU’s neighbours are desperate to join the club). Nor do European vice-presidents fly uninvited to places they are seeking to annex, on the pretext that their spouse wants to watch a sledge race. Europe may have scrimped on intelligence-gathering, but its various leaders do know the identity of the aggressor who initiated the fighting in Ukraine (hint: it is not Ukraine).
To many Europeans the idea that free expression is under threat seems odd. Europeans can say almost anything they want, both in theory and in practice. Europe’s universities never became hotbeds of speech-policing by one breed of culture warrior or the other. You can express a controversial view on any European campus (outside Hungary, at least) without fear of losing your tenure or your grant.
No detention centres await foreign students who hold the wrong views on Gaza; news outfits are not sued for interviewing opposition politicians. Law firms are not compelled to kow-tow to presidents as penance for having worked for their political foes.
Across the Channel, it’s no better, as seven Le Monde writers, specialists in every conceivable scientific discipline, chronicled under a banner headline on page 1 and in an entire special section:
The antiscience politics of Trump affects the entire planet
Trump administration has launched such an offensive against American science and research that it is almost difficult to count its consequences. While research projects are internationalized, the American crisis is spreading like a domino effect. Programs are suspended, and access to shared databases is threatened….The interplay of international collaborations is transmitting the crisis, like a virus, to many countries….
More muted than the threat of budget cuts, the fear of losing access to reference data hosted in the United States is spreading. The closure of the Atomic Spectroscopy Department at the National Institute of Standards and Technology could come as another shock. This small, US-based group has a significant global reach. It is responsible for maintaining and updating valuable databases [with] "fingerprints" of all the atoms in Mendeleev's periodic table….crippling many researchers and industry players. An international petition has gathered more than 5,000 signatures [you may sign it here!] calling for a halt to the planned layoffs.
The Mars rover accesses this every day. But is anyone listening….Elon??
And then the talks ….
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was stopping off in Paris, so why not a drop-by at the Elysée Palace? As Philippe Ricard observed in Le Monde:
Emmanuel Macron took advantage of the visit to France of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to also invite Ukrainian and European representatives. This format of exchanges is unprecedented since Donald Trump's inauguration, and it initially allowed Kyiv to reiterate its red lines….
Changing the course of the currently stalled peace negotiations for Ukraine. Attempting to revive them, as Donald Trump wishes, but by significantly increasing pressure on Russia. Sealing the breaches in Western ranks so as not to back down in the face of Vladimir Putin. These were the issues at stake during the discussions held in Paris during the visit of the Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Rubio….
In reality, the discussions went well beyond simple contact, sometimes amounting to a polite reprimand of the American negotiators. Andriy Yermak took the opportunity to hammer home Kiev's "red lines ," which the Americans would be wise not to cross in the event of a peace compromise: no neutral status for Ukraine; no demilitarization or limitation of its armed forces; non-recognition of Moscow's occupation of its territories; strong security guarantees to prevent further aggression; and the return of prisoners of war, civilians, and children deported to Russia….
However, opinions differ on the best way to monitor this possible cessation of hostilities: Ukraine is demanding the United States be responsible for monitoring the ceasefire, but without any commitment to this from Washington at this stage….
While negotiations are bogged down, the Russian bombing of the city of Sumy left 35 dead….Donald Trump, for his part, no longer hides his annoyance with Vladimir Putin's attitude. But he hasn't given up on his desire to end the war.
As Rocard concluded in a follow-up dispatch:
On Iran … a breakthrough?
Trump's personal envoy Steve Witkoff, with his finger in so many pies, appeared to have achieved some modest movement in his latest talks with Iran—at least enough of a breakthrough that there'll be expert-level discussions on Wednesday before another full-on weekend session. But the devil is certainly in the details as the Institute for the Study of War observed:
Anti-regime Iranian media reported that Iran proposed a three-stage nuclear deal proposal that capped Iranian uranium enrichment but preserved Iranian nuclear infrastructure, such as advanced centrifuges. The reported plan does not include a timeline for the phases of the deal. This proposal would likely preserve Iran’s ability to rapidly rebuild its nuclear program. Former UN weapons inspector David Albright warned that Iran could make enough weapons-grade uranium in 25 days, even with a small low-enriched uranium (LEU) stock, if it maintains all of its current centrifuges. Iran is also developing new advanced centrifuges, such as the IR-8, which Iranian officials have claimed is “sixteen times” more capable than the IR-1 centrifuge. Iran has increased the number of its operational centrifuges since it signed the JCPOA in 2015.
An unspecified senior Iranian official said Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will refuse any deal that requires Iran to dismantle centrifuges, halt uranium enrichment, and reduce its stockpile below Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) levels. The reported Iranian proposal lacks sunset clauses, but leaves Iran’s centrifuge infrastructure intact, which would allow Iran to rapidly rebuild its stockpile of enriched uranium.
And of course, how could Rubio miss sticking his nose in…
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio separately said the United States seeks a durable deal that will prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon both now and in the future.
In Asia, it's all about Trump
Trump says China’s talks with Vietnam are probably intended to ‘screw’ US
Crude remark comes as Chinese President Xi Jinping begins tour of three Southeast Asian nations targeted for high tariffs on exports to the US.
As Kushboo Razdan reported for Hong Kong'sSouth China Morning Post:
China’s efforts to deepen economic ties with Vietnam was likely part of a plan to “screw” the US, American President Donald Trump suggested on Monday while discussing tariffs and possible exemptions for automobiles and auto parts.
“I don’t blame China. I don’t blame Vietnam. I don’t. I see they’re meeting today. Is that wonderful? That’s a lovely meeting … like trying to figure out, how do we screw the United States of America?” he told reporters in the Oval Office, claiming his predecessor Joe Biden had lost “trillions of dollars” in trade to China.
“I don’t blame President Xi [Jinping],” he said in the Oval Office during a joint news briefing with El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele. “I like him. He likes me. I mean, you know, who knows?”
Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, told the Post that “rather than forming exclusive and closed ‘small circles’ that undermine mutual trust and cooperation among regional countries”, cooperation between countries should “contribute to peace, stability, and prosperity in the region”.
“Neighborhood remains a priority in China’s diplomacy,” he added, emphasising that strengthening unity and cooperation serves the interests of both China and Vietnam.
As the world’s two largest economies remain locked in a tariff showdown, Xi embarked on a three-nation Southeast Asia tour, starting in Hanoi and including Malaysia and Cambodia, to present China as a reliable and stable trading partner.
Or as Alain Frachon, a former editor-in-chief of Le Monde, wrote:
What is at stake between China and the US goes beyond the economy. They are fighting for global supremacy.
Who will pick up the phone first? Xi Jinping, the Marxist-Leninist ideologue, convinced of the superiority of socialism with Chinese characteristics and his country's destiny to achieve global dominance? Or Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed political genius, so drunk on power that he plays with the global economy on a whim as if it were his own? The quiet Chinese or the loud American?
"We are waiting for a call from Beijing," Trump said this week. The king of negotiation, who subjected the planet to the fire of his tariffs, does not expect resistance: everyone must come begging for his discounts. But with Xi, the golfer from Mar-a-Lago has hit the Great Wall. There's no question of yielding to Washington. The two titans of the global playground have gone to war.
Now, Xi is lining up his allies across Asia, and quite likely far beyond. As the SCMP reported, there's always Brazil, for instance:
For the first time in nearly a decade, Brazil recorded a trade deficit with China in the first two months of 2025, driven by a sharp increase in Chinese imports, including solar panels and petroleum drilling platforms, the China-Brazil Business Council reported. The balance, however, shifted by the end of the first quarter, with Brazil reporting a US$700 million trade surplus with China. The unexpected deficit, which reached $3.2 billion in February, was a departure from the surpluses that Brazil has typically enjoyed with its largest trading partner, and largely attributable to a record-breaking surge in Chinese imports. The surge, analysts said, was fueled by concerns among Brazilian business executives about the growing trade war between Beijing and Washington.
Most striking, thinking back to my own time in Indochina, was the hostility back in those days between Hanoi and Beijing. Mao Zedong or his successors were hardly prepared then to match for North Vietnam the military might that Washington was mustering for the feeble and utterly corrupt (if nominally non-communist) South Vietnamese regime.
Although some potentially lethal bone spurs prevented Trump from contributing to an American 'victory' a half century ago, now he sees a dark conspiracy behind Xi Jinping's swing across Southeast Asia's particular targets of Trump tariffs—seeking allies in a battle on which side it is quite clear much of Asia is most inclined to line up.
And celebrations
Meanwhile, rehearsals for the 50th anniversary celebrations for the 'fall' of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) to the forces of North Vietnam and the Viet Cong on April 30, 1975, are now well underway as our fellow SubStacker Carl Robinson reports on the scene in his Grumpy Old Vietnam Hand:
Instead of NVA tanks ploughing into South Vietnam’s Presidential Palace, Hanoi’s Commie Boss is on bended knee begging America to please—pretty please, Mr Trump—don’t bomb us with those 46% tariffs.
Our entire economy wouldn’t survive without exports to America and all those remittances too.
Still, one might ask if Hanoi was really approaching Trump on such resolutely bended knees, would it have received Xi Jinping with such pomp and alacrity as it had just displayed?
On Wednesday, we will present Part II of Unleashed Memoir #8—my own coverage for The New York Times of the exit from Vietnam in April of 1975 with some most surprising twists. Part I from last Wednesday you can read here today.
Always those pesky tariffs?
By mid-week, despite all the smiles and handshakes between Italy's Giorgia Meloni and Donald Trump in the Oval Office, Le Monde had a decidedly more pessimistic view of how those tariff talks were going with Europe….In other words, there's only one decider and he has other issues on his mind:
While there are contacts between the Trump administration and the European Commission, which is responsible for trade matters, they have not yet led to the initiation of serious and structured discussions, at least from Brussels' perspective.
Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic noted this again, during a trip to Washington, where he met with Howard Lutnick, the US Secretary of Commerce, for the third time since the beginning of 2025. "Now it is necessary for the United States to define its position ," commented Olof Gill, the Commission spokesperson, adding: "We need an additional level of commitment" from them "if we want to move forward ."
Elections: Ecuador, Bolivia, ‘O Canada’!
Ecuadorian democracy?
Outside observers called it a fair fight, but a landslide, after a first round nail biter in the ostensibly democratic nation of Ecuador? As The Guardian's South American correspondent Tiago Rogero described it:
Ecuador’s vice-president, Verónica Abad, has accused the country’s president—her former running mate Daniel Noboa—of “violating the democratic code” by using the state apparatus to gain an advantage over the other candidates in the country’s runoff election.
The rightwing incumbent defeated the leftist Luisa González by a considerable margin after narrowly beating her in the first round. Although Abad said she did not support the opposition’s claim that electoral fraud occurred during the vote, she argued that the election was unfair because Noboa refused to step down from office while running—as required by the constitution.
in happier times
They stopped speaking even before taking office, and she claims the president has since then taken successive steps to sideline her—actions she describes as “gender-based political violence.” Abad said she still did not know the reason for the sudden rupture, after which Noboa immediately sent her to Israel to serve as a “peace envoy.” He later appointed her chargé d’affaires in Turkey.
Abad claims that Noboa’s main goal was to prevent her from assuming the presidency. Despite Noboa’s refusal to step down, Ecuador’s electoral authorities allowed the election to go ahead. After a tight first round in which he edged out González by fewer than 17,000 votes, Noboa won the runoff by nearly 1.2 million—a result no opinion poll predicted. Shortly before the second round, however, Noboa announced $560m bonuses and social aid packages for seven different population groups, including police and military personnel, farmers, and young people aged 18 to 29.
González has called for a recount, but observers sent by the European Union and the Organization of American States said that, although there was an “imbalance” and “conditions of inequity” between the candidates, there was no indication of fraud.
And Bolivia to come
We’re just beginning to get the first inklings of what is shaping up to be quite a dramatic election this summer in another South American democracy—Bolivia. As El País reported:
Bolivia begins the road to elections with its sights set on a young political heir to Evo Morales.
Despite being the former president's successor, Andrónico Rodríguez, 35, is in a tight race with him. Fourteen parties are running to participate in the August elections. Both the ruling party and the opposition are divided.
Bolivia began its path toward the August 17 elections with the presentation of political parties to the Electoral Tribunal. Fourteen parties expressed interest in participating, including the ruling Movement Toward Socialism (MAS). The MAS will nominate President Luis Arce, despite his poor position in the polls. There are two other candidates from the left, resulting from the divisions within the so-called "political instrument," which ended up in Arce's hands by a decision of the Constitutional Court.
The surprise of the moment is the young president of the Senate, Andrónico Rodríguez, who has appeared first in polls that did not include former President Evo Morales , a historic leader of the Bolivian left.
Many define Andrónico as the only hope for progressivism to retain power at a time of strong demand for change due to the crisis of the economic model implemented by Morales and Arce twenty years ago, and the fratricidal dispute between these two leaders.
Then, 'O Canada’
In an effort to fend off threats from below the border of becoming Trump world's 51st state, Canada is hurtling toward a definitive vote in eight days… indeed as Gary Mason, national affairs columnist for Toronto's The Globe and Mail described:
Canada is heading toward an election outcome not witnessed in generations
Support for the Conservatives and Liberals, when combined, is likely to breach 80% of the vote. It has been two generations since Canada held [such] an election….Current polls suggest [such an outcome] in what many consider the most consequential election of their lifetime.
According to the latest tracking by Nanos Research for The Globe and Mail, conducted between April 15 and April 17, the Liberals have the support of 45% of decided voters, while the Conservatives have 37%. Meantime, the NDP are at 8%, the Bloc at 6%, the Greens at 3% and the Peoples Party of Canada at 1%.
The last time more than 80% of Canadians voted for one of the two main parties was 1958. That year, John Diefenbaker’s Tories won a massive majority, gaining 53.7% of the vote. The Liberals got 33.4%. The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation primarily made up the balance….
“Trump’s intervention into the existence of Canada has really traumatized the country,” former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien Chrétien, 91, told The Globe and Mail in an interview. “And Canadians are deciding which of the two main parties can best represent our interests and make sure we remain a completely independent country.”
Or more simply as the competing Toronto Star put it:
Carney's Liberals were at 42.4% support and poised to win a majority with 177 seats in the 343 member House of Commons. Poilievre's Tories were at 40.2%, which would translate into 130 seats.
And in Canada's parliamentary system, it's the majority of seats that chooses the next prime minister—Carney appears to be heading for a five-seat majority under this accounting. Still, no doubt, as the Star headlined:
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How others see the World
And then there are the markets….and the (almighty?) dollar …. As The Economist thought it might represent such an issue with a stranglehold on the world:
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