TWTW: The World This Week / Episode #34
The world notices: abortion access in America…and Trump on trial….Macron heads to Beijing....Pillaging an historic crossroads in Afghanistan …and cartoonist Joep Bertrams' emperor with no clothes.
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.
How others see America
Abortion access in America
The Economist is only one of a host of global media horrified by the latest actions from the American judicial system—this time with respect to abortion rights.
The lead story Saturday in the British magazine's online edition, goes on to observe that the "extraordinary ruling—the first time a justice has substituted his judgment for the FDA’s in this way—means that residents even of abortion-friendly states could face more obstacles to ending pregnancies.”
"US abortion pill access in doubt after rival rulings," was the lead story on the BBC out of London on Saturday. The actions of two federal judges on access to the abortion pill somehow managed to push both Donald Trump and the racist actions of the Tennessee legislature off global front pages, at least for one news cycle.
As Robyn Levinson-King wrote for the BBC, "A Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas has ordered a hold on the longstanding approval of a widely used abortion drug, mifepristone. But an hour later, an Obama-picked judge in Washington state issued a competing ruling, ordering that access to the drug be preserved in 17 states. The pill has been allowed for over 20 years and is used in most abortions. The dueling court orders make it likely that the issue will escalate to the US Supreme Court."
And the Paris tabloid Le Parisien asked, "Who is this judge Kacsmaryk, at the origin of the interdiction of an abortion pill?"
There's always Trump, of course
"The giant Trump has shrunk to a citizen," wrote Stefan Kornelius, columnist for the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung. "The allegations against the ex-president may seem puny, but the case is not about politics. It is about the importance of law and the separation of powers.”
And Kornelius concluded, "So, the comforting message after Donald Trump's indictment is that even a former president with puffy ego and demagogic power is becoming an easy object of law and order in court."
Earlier in the week, the France's Le Monde led it front page with news of Trump's arraignment, the banner headline proclaiming, "Arraigned in New York, Trump tries to turn the lawsuits to his advantage."
Piotr Smolar, the paper's Washington bureau chief, in two major stories across two pages also points out that "the American television networks plunged back into their habitual attitude toward him," chronicling Trump’s every move from Mar-a-Lago to the courthouse and back.
And then there's Tennessee
"After the Nashville school shooting, in which a 28-year-old killed three adults and three children, three lawmakers called for new gun control laws," the Rome daily La Republicca reported. "The Republican-majority governing body voted to oust two of them, both African Americans. Biden: 'Shocking and undemocratic.'"
How others see the World
Macron playing peacemaker….again?
It was quite a week for efforts to bridge the gap between East and West—China on the east and democracies on the West. At least that was the mission French President Emmanuel Macron seemed to cut out for himself as he headed to Beijing, accompanied almost as an afterthought by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. "In the face of Emmanuel Macron, Xi Jinping is inflexible," headlined Le Monde, while pointing out that, "'Beijing and Moscow deepen their relations,' headlines China Daily before the arrival of Mr. Macron….The French chief of state tries to obtain from his Chinese counterpart an intercession with Russia, without result. President Xi, by contrast, underlines the independence Europe [should be adopting] in the face of United States, denouncing the logic of a 'cold war.'"
There was a whole host of issues, good and bad: The diplomatic "faux pas" by Macron who, at a bilateral press conference rambled on for at least twice as long as Xi while the Chinese leader appeared to fume and fidget. Singapore's Straits Times quoted Macron lecturing Xi, "'The Russian aggression in Ukraine has dealt a blow to (international) stability,' Mr. Macron told Mr Xi, alongside the Chinese President outside the Great Hall of the People. “'I know I can count on you to bring Russia back to its senses and everyone back to the negotiating table.'”
Later, the Chinese communist party organ People's Daily repeated Xi's mantra which seemed unchanged by the end of the visit when the two met for a final time in the resort of Guangzhou: "On the Ukraine crisis, Xi noted that its cause is complex and a prolonged crisis serves no one's interests. He said a ceasefire as soon as possible would serve the interests of all parties concerned, and a political settlement is the only correct solution."
By contrast, the Russian state-controlled newspaper Pravda observed after the session, "China may want to help Russia with lethal weapons before war for Taiwan starts."
Beneath a drawing of Chinese and Russian gears meshing neatly, Pravda continued, "China is preparing for a war over Taiwan, which may not be limited to the territory of the island. China's military assistance to the Russian Federation will allow Beijing to test its latest weapons in combat conditions, determine best tactics for military operations and weaken the West in all respects.”
To help pave the way for the Xi-Macron talks, there were carrots as well as sticks, particularly the signing of a contract by Airbus to add a second assembly line for A320 narrow-body jets at its Tianjin factory—and a plane order totaling 160 aircraft, somewhat of a slap at U.S. efforts to isolate China. As Frank Tang reported from Beijing in Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, "Boeing’s sales in China tumbled after 2018, when the US trade war began. Sales also fell following two deadly crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, which forced Chinese regulators to ground Boeing’s 737 MAX planes for almost four years."
Though there was tension between the Macron and Xi, on Saturday morning, the lead editorial in Le Monde concluded that the visit in the end had turned into "a dialogue, difficult but useful."
And then there's Brussels
Politico Brussels noted the stark contrast of the reception of Macron and von der Leyen: "The warm embrace and the cold shoulder: China mines Europe’s fractures during joint visit. French President Emmanuel Macron got parades and banquets. EU chief Ursula von der Leyen was mostly left alone. Macron walked down red-carpeted stairs from his Cotam Unité (France’s answer to Air Force One) to be greeted by Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, one of Xi’s most trusted aides."
"Von der Leyen was met by the lower-ranking Ecology Minister Huang Runqiu at the airport—and at a regular passenger exit."
"On Thursday morning, Xi descended the outsized steps of the Great Hall of the People to greet the French president with smiles and a handshake, before the two went inside for meetings," Politico Brussels continued. "Afterward, von der Leyen’s car arrived — and she walked up the Great Hall stairs in solitude with only a Chinese staffer by her side. Von der Leyen staged her solo press conference at the EU delegation to China compound in the evening, miles away from the state banquet with which Xi was lavishing his French guests. The message is clear: For Beijing, it's not Brussels that matters."
And there's still Afghanistan
While recriminations continue in the United States over whom to hold responsible for the chaos surrounding America's withdrawal from Afghanistan, Le Monde has published a remarkable investigation exposing how "In Afghanistan there has been a massive pillaging of an archaeological site attributed to the Islamic State."
As this map suggests, Dilbarjin, the centerpiece of the Islamic State's activities, lay squarely astride the route taken by the fabled Silk Road (Route de la Soie) between China, the Middle East and onwards to Rome. From the 6th century BC, the height of the Achemenide Empire to the arrival of Buddhism during its period of great expansion in the 3rd century AD, this region served as a crossroads of civilizations.
Le Monde undertook an analysis of satellite images of Dilbarjin between 2016 and 2022. It "perceived, in April 2019, the arrival of the first bulldozers. Four or five of them were operating on the site at the same time. In October 2019, they were building an access ramp to the north of the site. A year later, in November 2020 other access routes appeared to the west, then the south, that allowed the removal of excavated earth, sand, then objects. A methodical raking led to the disappearance of the entire promontory of the ancient citadel, dozens of meters high, under which the pillagers found treasures: inscriptions, manuscripts, jewels, gold objects or Buddhist antiquities from the 3rd to 4th centuries BC….the use of heavy engines are certain to have damage the most fragile artifacts."
It was expected that much of this loot made its way out of Afghanistan through "the porous frontier of Turkmenistan, barely 60 kilometers (40 miles) across the desert, or thanks to corruption at the heart of regional offices or the central government of the former regime in Kabul or among the Taliban, access to other frontier routes."
Finally, there’s …. Joep Bertrams
The great Dutch cartoonist Joep Bertrams has managed to capture the "Passion According to Donald," bearing his crown of thorns surmounted by the scales of justice, yet handcuffed and posed like the fabled emperor without his clothes.
Joep Bertrams, a 76-year-old Dutch cartoonist, for the past twenty years has drawn for the daily newspaper of Amsterdam Het Parool, then joined the weekly newspaper De Groene Amsterdammer in 2011. He also creates animated cartoons for the Dutch television show “Nieuwsuur.” He is featured by the extraordinary collective Cartooning for Peace.
Here's how sees Joep Bertrams sees himself:
Agreed ! Cooperation....and competition, too, in some places where mineral wealth and rare earths come into play!!
Thanks, though, Tim ! Certainly worth tracking !!
It was expected that much of this loot made its way out of Afghanistan through "the porous frontier of Turkmenistan, barely 60 kilometers (40 miles) across the desert, or thanks to corruption at the heart of regional offices or the central government of the former regime in Kabul or among the Taliban, access to other frontier routes."