How Others See America
Views of America's ordeals
Within minutes after Joe Biden finished his Independence Hall, Philadelphia address on America's dark shadows Thursday evening, the major European media were weighing in. "Scathing and optimistic, lucid and idealistic, Biden went on the offensive in a speech calling on his compatriots beyond their differences to defend American democracy," wrote Piotr Smolar, Washington correspondent for the French daily Le Monde. "Behind the president's back, in addition to the American flag and the marines on guard, an eerie red light illuminated the brick walls of Independence Hall, the building where the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution were adopted. It looked like the foundations of democracy were already ablaze."
"Biden calls for resistance to 'extremist' Trump," headlined Germany's great Munich-based daily Süddeutsche Zeitung.
"The U.S. is threatened by a dark force led by Donald Trump, US President Biden warns—and calls for a fight for democracy: January 6, 2021, was only the beginning," Süddeutsche Zeitung concluded.
"Biden banks on Democratic outrage, risking deeper U.S. divisions," headlined the Japan Times.
The Times of London's Washington correspondent Hugh Tomlinson observed that "Biden referred to Trump by, name, something he had previously refused to do, and said his Make American Great Again (Maga sic) movement 'represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.'" Tomlinson deadpanned that Biden delivered his address "in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia where the US declaration of independence and constitution were debated." Independence from Britain, of course.
Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported the "US president urged Americans to reject any candidate backed by his predecessor in the November midterms." The Israeli daily Haaretz headlined, "Biden Targets 'Extremist' Trump Allies as Democratic Threat in Fraught Political Moment."
In Beijing, People's Daily, the newspaper of the Chinese communist party, quoted The New York Times as reporting that "Biden shifts to confrontational election-season approach with aggressive political assault."
Meanwhile, in an echo across the pond, the French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche observed this morning that France’s Jean-Yves Le Drian, who served as Defense Minister then Foreign Minister until his sudden departure in May and who has been “silent since leaving the government…makes its media comeback.”
Le Drian “confides to having ‘become more serious, more anxious on the future of democracy and more demanding on the need to fight’ to defend it.”
In sharp contrast … to how leading American media from the Washington Post to The New York Times to CNN played Donald Trump’s parallel message of vindictiveness and hate in Wilkes-Barre. Pennsylvania early Sunday—burying it on their homepages or ignoring it altogether—France’s Le Monde led with the former president “replying to the attacks of Joe Biden, calling him “enemy of the state.”
The Straits Times of Singapore sent to Wilkes-Barre their US bureau chief, Nirmal Ghosh, who reported “Mr Donald Trump blasted United States President Joe Biden at a raucous rally on Saturday in Pennsylvania for the latter’s speech earlier in the week calling Maga Republicans a threat to the country….The former president also flayed the Biden administration for the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Aug 8 raid on his Florida residence….for “weaponising the Justice Department and the FBI like never ever before”.
America is shredding
Any number of media across the world are beginning to take notice of America coming apart. The Economist in England suggested "American states are now Petri dishes of polarisation (sic)."
Then The Economist elaborated: "Two states, two very different states of mind. On August 25th California banned the sale of petrol-powered cars from 2035, a move that will reshape the car industry, reduce carbon emissions and strain the state’s electricity grid. On the same day in Texas a “trigger” law banned abortion from the moment of conception, without exceptions for rape or incest. Those who perform abortions face up to 99 years in prison. These two events may seem unrelated, but they are symptoms of an important trend. Washington, dc, may be largely gridlocked, but the states are making policies at a furious pace."
And then there's the Arctic….
The French daily Le Figaro seemed delighted to report, "The United States announced the creation of an ambassador in charge of the Arctic, a sign of the importance they attach to this highly coveted strategic region in the face of competition from Russia and China, and in the midst of a climate crisis...."
"Earlier this year," Le Figaro continued, “seven of the eight member countries of the Arctic Council, including the United States, had suspended their participation when Russia took over the rotating presidency, in the midst of the war in Ukraine. The receding sea ice in the Arctic opens up significant economic and military opportunities thanks in particular to new maritime routes. Russia has also recently published a new naval doctrine in which it says it wants to strengthen its positions in the Arctic, both economically and militarily. The Arctic has warmed almost four times faster than the rest of the planet over the past 40 years, according to a recent study."
How Others See the World
Ukraine and Russia: Disparate approaches, potent impact
With Italy heading into a brutal election on September 25 [which Andelman Unleashed is following closely], some powerful political forces are being unleashed that could reverberate far from Europe's boot. The national Milan-based daily Corriere della Sera headlined: “Sanctions against Russia, Salvini: ‘They must be rethought, Europe is jointly responsible for the price increase.’" Then Corriere elaborated: "Lega [party] Secretary Matteo Salvini returned to talk about the sanctions on Russia - which the West had triggered against Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine - and the inflation that is also recorded in Italy, driven by the increase in prices of gas and electricity."
Salvini's populist Lega party is in alliance for a possible coalition with Giorgia Meloni's neo-Fascist Brothers of Italy, which is itself leading in national polls. Corriere continued, quoting Salvini (emphasis added by Corriere): "'We are facing the only case in the world in which the sanctions to stop a war, to bring a regime to its knees, to stop the attacks do not harm the sanctioned, but those who sanction,' Salvini said in Fano, on the sidelines of a meeting with investigators and candidates. According to Salvini, 'the Italians are losing out and the Russians are winning.' Evidently, in Brussels, ‘someone has miscalculated.'"
In Poland, a NATO member, with more Ukrainian refugees than any other nation, the war is very much on everyone’s mind. So, the leading Warsaw daily, Gazeta Wyborcza, whose editor-in-chief, Adam Michnik, is perhaps the nation's most renowned journalist, a longtime dissident when the nation was controlled from the Kremlin, headlined with a degree of glee: "The Russian army no longer knows how to replenish the casualties, Putin (on paper) increases his army by 135,000. soldiers. But this is fiction…."
"Today he has less than 700,000 under arms," Gazeta Wyborcza continued, military, and in warfare, Russia's deficit of recruits, i.e. cannon fodder, is critical. Vladimir Putin ordered that more than 1.15 million people [should] serve in the armed forces by January 1, or 135,000 more than (nominally) today. The entire army, including civilian personnel, is to count exactly 2,039,758 heads. If Putin really wants to implement what he wrote in his decree, he would have to conscript to the army or recruit to the contract service not 135,000, but about 400,000 people. Because Russia only has an army of millions on paper."
Hong Kong: The brutal end of illusions
This is how France's Le Monde summarized on page one of its weekend edition a riveting four pages on how China is in the process of eviscerating the one-time British crown colony bit by bit:
“At Hong Kong airport, almost deserted due to the rigid zero Covid policy, a family is preparing to leave for Europe, the two girls, violins on their backs, the cats boarded up in cages. The former British colony, long a destination of refuge, has become a starting point. The region, handed over to China twenty-five years ago, is undergoing a severe takeover by Beijing. In a few years, she lost her identity and, with it, her dreams of autonomy. The feeling of freedom or even political recklessness has given way to a form of latent terror, where every act and every word is weighed, in public, at work, on social networks and even in private.”
The capstone of this brilliant work of reportage from the paper’s Hong Kong correspondent, Florence de Changy, is a full page of graphics that so vividly illustrate the trajectory of the one-time British Crown Colony, now an appendage of a vengeful China, as Le Monde, in its characteristically low-key fashion, describes it: "More Chinese, Less Attractive: The island, international center, attractive for decades, records more departures than arrivals" (today).
China preoccupies its neighbors
Some, with long experience in the region recognize that it may not be a good long-term strategy to bait Beijing. London's Financial Times Singapore bureau reached out to "Malaysia’s former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad [who] has blamed 'US provocation' for the increased tensions over Taiwan and urged south-east Asian countries to move closer to China. The 97-year-old politician, who is the country’s longest-serving leader and last stepped down as prime minister in 2020, told the Financial Times in an interview that China was a 'big market' for Malaysia and the region and maintaining that economic relationship was crucial.”
“Mahathir added that China’s philosophy — unlike the west — was not to conquer and occupy nations. 'Yes, China is claiming the South China Sea as theirs, but they haven’t invaded us . . . They want to influence methods in Asean countries, but they have not occupied us, they have invested in us,' he said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a political and economic bloc. 'China is a very good trading partner.' Asean, which includes the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, needs to stay away from the US and the west’s 'provocation' of China, referring to [last] month's controversial trip by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan. The visit infuriated China."
In Africa: From the polls to the courts, without passing 'go'
The results of leadership elections in two leading African nations—Kenya and Angola—both chronicled in Andelman Unleashed—are in the hands of the Supreme Court in their respective countries. A decision is expected Monday in Kenya, as Betty Njeru reported in Nairobi's daily Standard, "Bated breath as Kenya awaits Supreme Court verdict…. The Supreme Court has adjourned a three-day presidential election petition hearing ahead of a verdict on Monday, September 5. Chief Justice Martha Koome, in her concluding remarks on Friday, said they will communicate the exact time of the judgement, as D-day nears."
"The seven-judge bench has retreated to write the judgements, in a case challenging the declaration of William Ruto as President-elect, following the August 9 polls…..'We shall give you a notice indicating the exact time. I am reminded that Monday runs up to midnight,' Koome noted." Police are on nationwide alert. AfricaNews website added: "Kenya's Supreme Court said it had identified nine issues to determine the outcome of petitions challenging the result of the August 9 presidential election, including whether any irregularities were substantial enough to nullify the poll. But unlike some previous elections the situation has remained peaceful." In Angola, the only daily newspaper, Jornal de Angola, that is owned by the government still quoted a leader of the opposition UNITA party as saying: "These definitive results are not correct and the MPLA [government party] did not win with an absolute majority…..[We] will prove with the minutes in possession of the Constitutional Court that the MPLA did not win with an absolute majority." The court is supposed to rule within a week. Stand by.
And then there's Iran ….
…the pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat expressing, in no uncertain terms, its opinion of the pace of negotiations over a resumption of the Iran nuclear deal:
Finally, paying to park…a scooter? What’s Paris coming to?
There's always some new wrinkle to make "le grand retour" (the great return from vacation) which happens every year precisely on August 31-September 1 very special indeed. So, this year, the leading Paris daily Le Parisien goes all in on something new—and to many Parisians utterly horrifying—that kicked in last Thursday (September 1): "Parking on two-wheelers becomes chargeable. Parisians or inhabitants of the inner suburbs, users of motorcycles and thermal scooters are preparing to undergo, between anger and resignation, the transition to paid parking for their vehicles in the capital, from this Thursday….Discontent rises among users." But when it's painted permanently along city streets, "payant" means just that. You pay.