HEAT WAVE...engulfs us...First the budget, then tariffs...Truce or consequences in Ukraine, Gaza...Elon helps jihadists...and for our paid: US thru a mirror darkly + our global 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—diving each week through 30+ newspapers & 100+ websites on every continent to distill the world. So, you may not want to read it all, but it's all here for you!
Hot stuff….
In 1974, as I prepared to head to Indochina for my first assignment as a foreign correspondent for The New York Times, I sat down for my obligatory exit conversation with the paper’s executive editor, A.M. Rosenthal. Abe had spent quite a lot of time overseas—winning his Pulitzer in Poland, but perhaps his most memorable stint was in India. And that’s what he wanted to talk about that wintry morning in New York:
You should bear in mind, David, that there is one constant—one ineluctable reality—in that part of the world. It determines the nature and shape of every aspect of life and society: politics and diplomacy, culture and the arts, sports, cuisine, every interpersonal relationship. And that is the heat. It is inescapable and ever present. And it changes the entire nature of humanity.
I think about Abe’s words that were so wise every time, like this week, when I see a banner headline in the leading daily in France where, for years, every summer the excuse for eschewing an air conditioner runs along the lines, “it never gets this hot in Paris.” But this summer much of the northern hemisphere has been truly like no other:
Overheating, the Mediterranean is becoming tropical
With 26C (79F) the sea reached, on June 30, the highest surface temperature ever recorded for the month of June.
Peaks approaching, or even exceeding 30C (86F) were recorded around the Côte d’Azur, Corsica, and the Balearic Islands.
“Exceptional,” “unprecedented,” “frightening,” researchers no longer know what to describe this phenomenon.
Linked to global warming, this accelerated tropicalization of the Big Blue has dire consequences. It could lead to a mass slaughter of species.
The BBC has been tracking all this from London:
A wildfire in Spain and high temperatures elsewhere in Europe have claimed another six lives as the continent swelters in temperatures topping 40C (104F).
Two farmers died when they became trapped by flames near the town of Coscó in Spain's Catalonia region. Authorities said a farm worker had appealed to his boss for help, but they were unable to escape as fire spread over a large area. In Italy, two men died after becoming unwell on beaches on the island of Sardinia, and a man in his 80s died of heart failure, after walking into a hospital in Genoa.
A 10-year-old American girl collapsed and died while visiting the Palace of Versailles south-west of Paris, reports said. According to French broadcaster TF1, she collapsed at the courtyard of the royal estate, in front of her parents, at around 18:00 local time on Tuesday. Despite efforts by the castle's security team and emergency services, she was pronounced dead an hour later.
France's ecological transition minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher said earlier that two heat-related fatalities had been recorded in France and that more than 300 people had been given emergency care.
The European continent is experiencing extremely high temperatures, a phenomenon that the UN's climate agency said is becoming more frequent due to "human-induced climate change," according to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Both Spain and England had their hottest June since records began. Spain's weather service, Aemet, said last month's average temperature of 23.6C (74.5F) "pulverised records", surpassing the normal average for July and August.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) added: "The effect of heat on human health is more pronounced in cities as a result of the urban heat island effect. This is where urban environments are significantly warmer than surrounding rural areas, especially during hot periods, due to an abundance of paved surfaces, buildings, vehicles, and heat sources.
Atop the front page of Poland’s leading daily, Wyborcza, a climate fire burns local with Poles in peril :
Fire Crete
Evacuation of 5000 tourists
A dangerous fire is ravaging forests near Jeraptry, on the southern coast of Crete. Authorities have confirmed that the fire is completely out of control. Residents and 5,000 tourists, including 80 Poles, have been evacuated from their homes and hotels….The authorities in Athens have sent help to the island. The firefighting operation involves 230 firefighters, as well as 46 vehicles and drones.
Fighting the fire was hampered by strong, gale-force winds, with speeds estimated at up to 9 on the Beaufort scale. According to the meteo.gr service, conditions in the area affected by the fire will remain extreme….
How others see America
First comes the budget….
America surpassed a record with, as many abroad saw it, an utterly profligate budget. Zurich’s leading daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung observed:
The dollar suffers its biggest drop since 1973—confidence in the US currency erodes
The US is losing its status as a "safe haven" on the foreign exchange market. Donald Trump's plan to massively increase debt is sending the dollar plummeting again.
America is at a crossroads. In a marathon session, the Senate debated whether to approve President Donald Trump's most important piece of legislation—he calls it the "Big Beautiful Bill." On Tuesday, the proposal was finally approved by a razor-thin majority. Because it proposes extensive tax cuts, the country's already dangerously large debt mountain will continue to grow.
As for the bill itself, this was NZZ’s conclusion
Debt up, taxes and social benefits down: what the "Big Beautiful Bill" means for Americans
In the end, they were once again subservient to Trump: The Republicans pushed a massive reform package through Congress.
London’s The Economist was even blunter:
The inglorious Fourth
The big beautiful bill reveals the hollowness of Trumponomics
Republicans mark America’s birthday with a profligate but insubstantial law
IN GREEK MYTHOLOGY the chimera was part lion, part goat and part snake, but wholly monstrous. Despite its name, there is a chimerical air to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (BBB), the Republican tax-and-spending plan that lurched through Congress this week. It sutures to a body of government-shrinking Reaganism an appendage of populist Trumpism, both disfigured by carve-outs and fillips for individual lawmakers. It will menace the American economy for at least a decade.
The BBB is a showcase for fiscal incontinence and ideological exhaustion. It extends existing, lavish, deficit-financed tax cuts well into the future, and adds a few more for good measure, as well as boosting spending on defence and immigration enforcement. It offsets some of the cost by cancelling green subsidies and cutting health care and welfare for the poor, but nonetheless enormously increases America’s debt. And to secure enough votes for this unappealing combination it is freighted with pet provisions intended to buy the acquiescence of particular lawmakers, such as a $50,000 tax deduction for Native American whaling captains that is dear to the heart of Lisa Murkowski, a wavering Republican senator from Alaska….
Mr Trump has indelibly altered America’s politics, but he is failing to reshape its economy to anywhere near the same degree.
Le Monde went back to America again on the Fourth of July for its page 1 lead:
Budget law: Trump bends Congress
The One Big Beautiful Bill defended by the American president was voted on July 3 by the House of Representatives and was to be promulgated on the 4th
The recalcitrant Republican elected officials in the face of this law that will greatly increase the debt ended up voting for it under pressure from the White House
This catch-all text will lead to massive expulsions of migrants, a reduction in taxes for the richest and a reduction in medical assistance
Its adoption establishes a little more the power of Donald Trump, who now dominates the Republican Party without sharing
And for its lead editorial:
A big beautiful bill with an exorbitant cost
Elected on the promise of restoring hope to the American working class, Donald Trump risks further despairing them with this law. Like a Robin Hood in reverse, he simply proposes taking from the poor to give to the rich. While the wealthiest 10% will benefit from a tax increase of several thousand dollars, 11 million to 15 million people will be deprived of health insurance, and millions more will no longer have access to food aid….According to polls, two-thirds of Americans are against it. Given how clearly this upward redistribution breaks with Trump's campaign promises to build a forgotten America, his party risks suffering the consequences at the ballot box. This law also prioritizes fossil fuels while ending support for green investments. Zero Lab, a research group at Princeton University, has calculated that the bill will lead to a 10% increase in CO2 emissions. By turning its back on the energy transition, the United States is opening a door to China in a strategic area.
This budget is built on a headlong rush, increasing the debt by more than $3.3 trillion over the next decade. The Republican Party is thus demonstrating that it can advocate a certain fiscal discipline when in opposition, but that it is capable of spending lavishly once in power. At a time when interest rates and inflation risks remain high, the law could permanently weaken the American economy.
Investors are already demanding increasingly high risk premiums to purchase American debt. By passing this law, Donald Trump is ignoring the warnings issued in recent weeks by the bond market. While his political victory is beyond doubt, the cost to the country is expected to be exorbitant.
Finally, here’s what The Economist thought of all this:
….and then beware the tariffs
Donald Trump is writing some notes and as he checks them twice, the world is holding its breath. A host of media around the globe picked up on a Reuters dispatch from Air Force One—among them Al Arabiya:
US President Donald Trump said he had signed letters to 12 countries outlining the various tariff levels they would face on goods they export to the United States, with the “take it or leave it” offers to be sent out on Monday. Trump, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One as he traveled to New Jersey, declined to name the countries involved, saying that would be made public on Monday.
Trump had earlier told reporters that he expected a first batch of letters to go out on Friday, a national holiday in the United States, though the date has now shifted. “Different amounts of money, different amounts of tariffs.”
The 90 days of grace expire Wednesday and there aren’t a whole lot of agreements, but a whole lot of grief that may hang in the balance. Not to mention markets in stocks, bonds, commodities and currencies whose investors are holding their collective breath. And then there are the governments and the companies. Of course there’ve been some winners, as Singapore’s Straits Times pointed out:
The headline takeaways are that the US will levy a 20% tariff on made-in-Vietnam products, with a 40% tariff applying on goods trans-shipped via Vietnam. In return, Vietnam has agreed to remove all pre-existing tariffs on US imports, as pledged by Hanoi from the outset of its trade negotiations with Washington.
“For investors looking at Vietnam as an investment thesis... they can now have a 20% baseline to work with,” said Ms Trinh Nguyen, a senior economist covering emerging Asia at Natixis. “They can then make their calculations whether or not it is still profitable to do business there.”
Both sides will likely consider the deal a major win. With time ticking down to the July 9 deadline, US President Donald Trump now has a significant deal in the bag that his negotiators can point to as a blueprint to potentially cajole other regional countries into emulating.
China, of course, weighed in early, as Singapore-based CNA reported from Beijing:
China warned on July 3 against trade deals that "hurt third parties" after US President Donald Trump said he had struck an agreement with Vietnam.
"China has always advocated that all parties resolve economic and trade differences through equal dialogue and consultation," foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said. "At the same time, relevant negotiations and agreements should not target or harm the interests of third parties.”
Beijing's commerce ministry said it had "always firmly opposed" US tariffs. "China's position is consistent," He Yongqian, spokeswoman for China's ministry of commerce, told a briefing. "We are happy to see all parties resolve economic and trade differences with the United States through equal consultations, but we firmly oppose any party reaching a deal at the expense of China's interests.”
But the fear is without question global. There is, for instance, hardly a whiff of a pact for the entire European Union. As leading German daily, Munich-based Süddeutsche Zeitung put it:
The memories of the first days of April have not faded for many investors: On the 2nd of that month, US President Donald Trump held up a sign in front of cameras that shook the world's stock markets. It read enormous punitive tariffs for almost every country in the world. The financial markets saw the global economy collapse and inflation skyrocket as a result…Trump was forced to react on April 9th: He suspended the punitive tariffs for three months…But in just a few days, on July 9th, these three months will be over….
The stock markets remained surprisingly quiet for almost three months….Ulrich Kater, chief economist at Deka Bank, finds the relative calm in the financial markets understandable: "Investors' blood pressure cannot be constantly at 180." Whether this will continue depends largely on how Trump's tariff policy develops after the moratorium….
"The tariffs are here to stay," says Manfred Schlumberger, chief economist at Fürstlich Castell'sche Bank. He expects tariffs of 10% to 20% in the long term…
How others see the World
Putin’s unrelenting lust for winning…
…Doesn’t seem to have fazed Donald Trump. The two spent two hours on the phone this week and in the end, Trump seemed quite prepared to leave Kyiv at the mercy of Putin. As the BBC put it:
Kyiv hit by barrage of drone strikes as Putin rejects Trump's truce bid
A night of intensive Russian strikes on almost every district in Kyiv. A pall of acrid smoke hung over the Ukrainian capital on Friday morning following hours of nightfall punctuated by the staccato of air defence guns, buzz of drones and large explosions. Ukraine said Russia fired a record 539 drones and 11 missiles.
The strikes came hours after a call between US President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin, after which Trump said he was "disappointed" that Putin was not ready to end the war against Ukraine.
Moscow says the war will continue for as long as it is necessary to reach its objectives.
The U.S. is withholding all new Patriot missile shipments to Ukraine. But others still apparently care about Ukraine, as The Times of Israel reported, stunningly:
In a rare and revealing moment, Israel’s Ambassador to Ukraine, Michael Brodsky, has publicly confirmed that Israel has transferred US-origin Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine — marking the first official acknowledgment of direct Israeli military support to Kyiv since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
“The Patriot systems we once received from the United States are now in Ukraine,” Brodsky said in an interview with Ukrainian journalist Marichka Dovbenko. “These were Israeli systems deployed in the early 1990s. We agreed to transfer them. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been widely discussed. But when people say that Israel hasn’t helped militarily — that’s simply not true.”
….and who’s still looking for more cannon-fodder, closer to home?
Russia tried to conquer Afghanistan back in 1979, which helped lead to the end of communism, the collapse of the Soviet Union and its ignominious withdrawal a bloody decade later. That was then, this Al Jazeera reported is now:
Russia has become the first country to accept the Taliban government in Afghanistan since the group took power in 2021, building on years of quieter engagement and marking a dramatic about-turn from the deep hostilities that marked their ties during the group’s first stint in power.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement saying that Moscow’s recognition of the Taliban government will pave the way for bilateral cooperation with Afghanistan. “We believe that the act of official recognition of the government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan will give impetus to the development of productive bilateral cooperation between our countries in various fields,” the statement said.
Then there’s always the children….
As the Institute for the Study of War reports:
Russia is training Ukrainian children to become drone operators for future service in the Russian military or employment in the Russian defense industrial base. 20 children from occupied Luhansk took part in the regional stage of the “Pilots of the Future-2025” drone operation competition…Participants, who range from seven to 18 years old, learn how to assemble, program, and control drones and compete against each other in drone obstacle races….
Russia has been gradually increasing the integration of Ukrainian children into its wider drone development, production, and operation ecosystem.
A Plea for a Veteran Journalist & Humanitarian!
This past week, it has come to the attention of Unleashed that Mike Morrow has fallen desperately ill and needs our help. A veteran journalist back to our time in Indochina a half century ago, Mike has spent much of his life in Asia.
For years now, has been helping the rural nomadic peoples of Mongolia who we ourselves have come to know and so deeply appreciate. As our colleague and friend, John Burgess, formerly of the Washington Post messaged us:
Mike Morrow has had one of the more unusual post-Vietnam careers, in Mongolia, where for years he's been helping nomadic peoples produce traditional cheeses for local and export markets as Executive Director of the Mongolian Artisan Cheesemakers Union. But I'm sad to share the news that that work is on hold. Now approaching his 80th birthday, Mike is in Seoul undergoing advanced treatment for throat cancer. And doing it without insurance.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is headed to the Oval Office as his negotiators arrive in Qatar for another round with Hamas, and Trump continues to press for a truce that he hopes might lead to a permanent peace in the Holy Land. The problem is that Netanyahu appears to insist that the war will not end without total victory over Hamas, a concept that he still has not fully defined. And, incidentally, the same end-point Putin continues to espouse in his war with Ukraine. Since Trump seems to be giving Putin his way in Ukraine, how could he possibly deny Netanyahu in Gaza? Which appears to be the bottom line of Al Jazeera’s timeline:
This is the third time this year Netanyahu will be meeting US President Donald Trump….Last week, Trump said Israel had agreed to conditions for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, which would allow all parties to work towards an end to Israel’s 21-month-long war on the besieged enclave.
On July 4, Hamas gave a “positive” response to Qatari and Egyptian mediators about the latest ceasefire proposal. After Hamas’s response to the proposal, Trump said there could be a “deal next week” and promised to be “very firm” with Netanyahu to ensure a ceasefire. Israel has since said that Hamas has requested changes to the proposal that it found “unacceptable”, but that Israeli negotiators would be going to Qatar on Sunday to discuss the proposal.
According to a copy of the deal obtained by Al Jazeera, the ceasefire entails a 60-day pause in hostilities and a phased release of some of the 58 Israeli captives held in Gaza since a Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023….
Netanyahu insists that the war will not end without a “total victory” over Hamas, a concept he has not defined. “About half the people in Gaza are very pessimistic… The other half believes this time could be different due to shared interests among Israel, the Palestinians, Arab states and the US to end this war,” he said.
When Netanyahu arrives, incidentally, it will be without some far-right wing baggage as the daily Haaretz detailed:
Netanyahu has fired his spokesman, Omer Dostri….While Dostri has not responded to Haaretz's inquiries, the Prime Minister's Office said Dostri "intented to conclude his role and continue on a new path."
Before his current position, Dostri was a panelist on the right-wing Channel 14, a researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, a conservative think tank, and a member of the Israel Defense and Security Forum ("Habithonistim"), a group of mostly right-wing security hawks. In the months preceding his appointment, he called for the conquest of the Gaza Strip and for "encouraging" its residents to emigrate, with Jewish settlements replacing Palestinians in the enclave.
"There is no victory over Hamas without three basic conditions: a military occupation of the entire Strip, holding the territory on a military and civilian basis, and the encouragement of Gazans to voluntarily emigrate," he wrote last January. Dostri also assailed the government of former U.S. President Joe Biden, as well as the media and demonstrators against the government.
Another reason to love Elon?
What happens when one has too much money, too big an ego, and too little heart? He becomes the darling of African juntas, jihadis, and terrorist gangs, as Célia Cuordifede of Le Monde Afrique uncovered:
Starlink, the new asset of rebel and jihadist groups in the Sahel
Billionaire Elon Musk's satellite internet system is increasingly being used by armed groups to communicate in areas not covered by traditional terrestrial communications infrastructure.
From Mali to Chad, Starlink kits, billionaire Elon Musk's satellite internet system, are now part of the baggage of jihadist and rebel groups. For two years, numerous images have circulated on social media, reporting the use of the network by these armed groups. The equipment, recognizable by its white satellite dish held by a tripod, appeared in June 2024 in a video by the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), about an operation conducted in the Gao region of eastern Mali against the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA).
The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC, a network of experts) confirmed that groups such as GSIM and ISIS-WA "are exploiting Starlink to strengthen their operational capabilities ." According to Nigerien security forces, Starlink devices have also been confiscated during counterterrorism operations in the Tillabéri and Tahoua regions (west).
A Nigerien gendarme stationed in Agadez says Starlink helps armed groups evade detection by allowing them to communicate even where security forces have no network: " They know the desert better than we do, and with Starlink they're always connected. It's like they're playing a game where they can see every movement and we're playing guessing games.
Before their legalization in March, kits were reportedly smuggled into Niger through smuggling networks based in Nigeria, before transiting to Mali, according to a map of Starlink device trafficking routes produced by the GI-TOC. The technology was made available in countries like Niger, where it had not yet been licensed, because Starlink offers several subscription plans, one of which promises roaming "for RVs, campers, travelers, and work while traveling," according to the company's website. The subscription thus provides the ability to receive network reception in neighboring countries.
To use the Internet through Starlink, it is necessary to purchase a kit including the famous white dish, but also to subscribe to a monthly subscription, as is customary for traditional telecom operators, by providing your identity and a means of payment by credit card. "But there are many flaws in the Starlink subscription system and we have noted a lack of rigor in identity verification, details the author of the GI-TOC report. Smuggling networks exploit them and it turns out that some of their final beneficiaries are jihadist networks."
"We have already seen Starlink cut off the connection of illegal kits at the request of the authorities, for example in South Africa ," says Thecla Mbongue, research director for Africa and the Middle East at the research firm Omdia, who suggests the company cut off communications in areas controlled by jihadist groups.
OK, well perhaps Elon hasn’t seen this plea yet? But then again, it’s South Africa where Elon’s heart really lies.
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. We took the Fourth of July off … BUT we’re back this coming Friday, July 11 with a very special guest:
Callaway Climate Insights’ founder and editor-in-chief, draws on his experience as an award-winning journalist and commentator, former president of the World Editors Forum, former editor-in-chief of USA Today and MarketWatch, and chief executive officer of TheStreet Inc. But especially relevant these days, he’ll be talking about his brilliant and exciting new book: Un-regulated Militia
“A nation born and raised on gunfire suddenly confronted its worst nightmare, deadly aerial terrorist attacks on its own people from an unknown enemy, perhaps its own government….Each new drone attack raises the prospects of martial law and the dismantling of America's 250-year experiment with armed democracy.”
What’s new on ‘paid’
Now, for our most highly valued, but lightly paid, members .... a farewell and quite stunning glance through the rear view mirror at America from the departing North America correspondent of Switzerland’s Neue Zürcher Zeitung, plus a portfolio of heat waves around the globe courtesy of Cartooning for Peace and Le Monde….
Speaking of cartoonists…repression…..
From our most valued partners, Cartooning for Peace, comes this most disquieting dispatch:
Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Cartooning for Peace, and Cartoonists Rights condemn the violence and arrests targeting the opposition satirical Turkish magazine LeMan in Istanbul. These organizations call on the authorities to release the journalists and the cartoonist, and to ensure the safety of the entire editorial team under threat.
As Plantu, the great Le Monde cartoonist and co-founder of Cartooning for Peace expressed himself (with the horrified reaction of his signature mouse!):
Update: Cartoonist Dogan Pehlevan, who created the offending cartoon, editor-in-chief Zafer Aknar, graphic designer Cebrail Okcu , and editorial director Ali Yavuz have been remanded in custody by an Istanbul judge on charges of “incitement to hatred .” An arrest warrant has been issued for Tuncay Akgün , co-founder and former editor-in-chief of LeMan , and Aslan Ozdemir, editor-in-chief, both of whom are currently abroad.
A few hours later, a dozen individuals attacked the media outlet's offices located in the Beyoglu district of Istanbul. This is a new attack on press freedom in Turkey. While the country ranks 159th in the World Press Freedom Index and journalists are regularly obstructed, the editorial staff of the satirical magazine LeMan is now being targeted.
A character says from atop rubble and bombs: “Salam aleykoum, I am Mohammed,” to another who replies: “Aleykoum salam, I am Musa (Moses).”
The prosecutor’s office has decided to seize copies of the issue containing the incriminating cartoon. LeMan’s website is no longer accessible. The presidential communications chief Fahrettin Altun, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc, and President Tayyip Erdogan himself have successively denounced the cartoon.
