TWTW: The World This Week / Episode #24
Election 2023: A break with Putin & new era for the Czech Republic … the world is horrified over Memphis …contests for hearts & minds in Africa… and tanks face off with Kichka.
This weekly feature for Andelman Unleashed, explores how the media of other nations are reporting and commenting on the United States, and how they are viewing the rest of the world. And of course we continue our coverage of every national election….Plus, heralding the Wednesday debut of our new feature: Unleashed Voices.
Updating with results of the weekend’s parliamentary elections in Tunisia.
Elections 2023: Czech Republic
A new direction for Europe? Certainly, a new president for the Czech Republic, with the victory Saturday of retired army General Petr Pavel over his billionaire challenger Andrej Babis by an unassailable 58% to 42% margin. A former chairman of NATO's military committee, Pavel's victory will clearly establish a new direction for this key nation that's just wound up the presidency of the European Union.
Wide stretches of central and eastern Europe, long held in thrall by Putin populists, will find Pavel, a former Czech military commander and chairman of NATO's Military Committee, setting a new course for his nation. Babis, a former prime minister who's known as one of the country's wealthiest men, held determinedly nationalist, anti-refugee views. Pavel has vowed to maintain a firm pro-Ukraine, pro-Western course, in sharp contrast to Babis, a firm supporter of Donald Trump. Throughout the campaign, Babis painted Pavel as a warmonger. Babis has questioned NATO's Title V clause which calls for mutual security for all members, implying that under his stewardship, the Czechs might refuse to leap to the defense of other alliance members.
Pavel's victory also marks a dramatic break with the decade-long rule of his predecessor Milos Zeman, who proved a stalwart supporter of Vladimir Putin.
The Czech presidency itself is a curiously hybrid office—largely ceremonial, but with the power to appoint cabinet ministers and the prime minister who serves as the head of government. The president also nominates justices of the Constitutional Court and serves as commander in chief of the armed forces. The election comes a month after the end of the six-month service of the Czech Republic in the presidency of the European Union.
Elections 2023: Tunisia
Barely 11% of eligible voters turned out for the second and final round of voting this weekend for Tunisia's 131 seat parliament, a vivid slap at the efforts by the nation’s ruling strongman, President Kais Saied to cement control over his nation and its government. "Tunisians issued a final verdict rejecting Kais Saied's process and elections," Nejib Chebbi, head of the main opposition coalition, the Salvation Front, told a news conference today after results of the elections were disclosed. Though the national assembly has been all but totally stripped of its powers by Saied, he was still anxious to demonstrate a veneer of democratic processes in the nation that more than a decade ago had given birth to the Arab Spring movement in the Middle East.
Saied’s determination to remake the politics of the nation and cement his unchallenged one-man rule had led to calls for a boycott by the opposition of the entire electoral process. That led last month to just 11.2% of voters turning out for the first round—the lowest turnout since the 2011 revolt that overthrew the Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Voices Unleashed
On Wednesday, Andelman Unleashed will launch its next new feature with a compelling two-part memoir by our debut voice, Audrey Topping, the extraordinary photo-journalist widow of Seymour Topping, longtime managing editor of The New York Times.
Andelman Unleashed is privileged to publish her memoir of the secret mission to North Vietnam of her father, Canadian ambassador Chester Ronning and his effort to bring an early end to the war in Vietnam in 1966. Be sure to subscribe (free!) so as not to miss this remarkable work.
How others see America
Violence in Memphis
Britain's BBC devotes its three top stories to "video [that] shows police beating and kicking Tyre Nichols. Correspondents Chelsea Bailey in Memphis and Jude Sheerin in Washington point out first that "US President Joe Biden said he was 'deeply pained' by the 'horrific clip." Then the BBC goes on to observe, "Peaceful protests took place in Memphis Friday night…while small-scale demonstrations were held elsewhere in the country."
The vivid images of the death of Tyre Nichols was the video of the day for the Milan daily Corriere della Sera. "The man—unarmed—had been stopped for speeding (but this detail is also now under investigation: it seems that Nichols had not violated any rule of the road). 'What did I do?' asks the 29-year-old to the agents, whose last words were 'mom, mom, mom.' Indignation and anger across America, in several cities where protests broke out."
How Others See the World
Whither those heavy tanks
A barrage of promises of advanced main battle tanks from Ukraine from western powers was the highlight of the war in Ukraine this past week, with vastly divergent prospects of when they might be delivered and in what quantity. On the high end was the declaration by Ukraine's ambassador to France, Vadym Omelchenko, who told listeners to the 24-hour news channel BFM/TV that "a number of countries have confirmed officially their agreement to deliver 321 heavy tanks to Ukraine."
That’s triple the estimate of 100 or so given to me by former Ukraine defense minister Andrii Zahorodniuk in a telephone interview from Kyiv for my CNN Opinion column.
Going for hearts & minds in Africa
The battle for territory, not to mention hearts and minds, is now extending well beyond Ukraine. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin, fresh from a stop in Davos for the World Economic Forum, headed for a three-nation swing through Africa—Senegal, South Africa, and Zambia. Across this continent, Russia and China are facing off against the United States. It's a long-standing battle that the United States has been losing. As AfricaNews reported from Yellin's debut stop in Senegal: "On a wet but remarkably cool Friday in Dakar, United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen shuttled between a government building and a business incubator, ending her day at the president's residence, broadcasting a message about the mutually beneficial relationship between the United States and Africa."
"She came," AfricaNews continued, "to talk about the need to make multilateral banks—like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund—more fair to the interests of developing countries, to build new projects such as the largest wind farm in West Africa and to commit new funds for education and health care on the continent. Attempting to set the tone for African self-determination after countless years of colonial brutality, she shared a very broad view of Africa's potential trade projects with the United States….'We intend to invest over $350 million to expand affordable internet access and boost digital skills and entrepreneurship,' she said, warning of the risks of exploiting this growth, pointing to China's massive investments in African countries, which critics say contain unfair terms and conditions and leave countries saddled with debt….In Zambia [her stop] will highlight the enormous debt of this country towards China, its main creditor. Zambia is renegotiating the nearly $6 billion debt, and Ms. Yellen has criticized China's failure to move the talks forward."
Meanwhile, China has other carrots
Yellin had competition in Africa. Foreign Minister Qin Gang and China's ambassador to the Republic of the Congo, "gave support to an African push for permanent seats at the G20 and the UN Security Council."
Until two weeks ago, Qin was China's ambassador to Washington. Now he's deep in the competition for Africa, Jevans Nyabiage, reported in the Hong Kong daily South China Morning Post. In Ethiopia where "Qin Gang was starting his week-long tour of five African nations…[the foreign minister] said China is taking the lead in supporting the African Union’s admission to the G20…. 'We should boost the representation and voice of developing countries, especially those of African countries, in the UN Security Council and other international organizations, and work together to make the global governance system more just and equitable.’"
And then there's the next sanctions
The next round of sanctions against Russian oil products kicks in February 5 when the European Union will "ban imports of refined Russian fuels, adding to its embargo on seaborne Russian crude oil that began in December," the South China Morning Post also reports. "But while China and India eagerly snapped up discounted supplies of Russian crude that Europe shunned, they are unlikely to buy refined Russian fuels that were once sold to the EU….Russian products could [instead] flow to West Africa and Latin America."
Belarus resurgent?
Far from Minsk or Moscow, and beyond the grasp of Putin pal Belarus autocrat Alexander Lukashenko, the 24-year-old Belarusian tennis phenom Aryna Sabalenka captured the first of the year's grand slams, the Australian Open, beating back Russian-born powerhouse Elena Rybakina in an explosive three-set match (4-6, 6-3, 6-4).
Neither player, however, plays under the flag of the nation of her birth. As Le Monde writer Elisabeth Pineau observes, Sabalenka is the first to win a grand slam event "sous bannière neutre" (under a neutral flag). And for her part, Rybakina plays under the flag of Kazakhstan, itself no longer a reliable ally of Vladimir Putin.
And finally, there’s …. Kichka
This brilliant Israeli cartoonist, Kichka, imagines the new reality that is the hope for all Ukrainians, not to mention all who care for the victory of democracy over autocracy—a Russia tank facing down the behemoth of the Leopard 2 arriving, thanks to Germany's (finally) doing the right thing.
Our cartoonist is the Israeli Michel Kichka, a Belgian-born architecture student turned illustrator. Editorial cartoonist for Israeli and French television, he draws frequently for the French Courrier International and was decorated chevalier (knight) in France's Ordres des Arts et des Lettres in 2011. Of course, his work is featured by the extraordinary collective Cartooning for Peace.
Here's how Kichka sees himself: