TWTW: The World This Week / Episode #51
Trump on the ropes … Show me the money … All roads lead to Jeddah? … The grain from Ukraine … Niger: last one turn out the lights … Raining on Singapore’s parade … cartoonist KAL balances out Trump
This weekly feature for Andelman Unleashed, continues on its mission 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. Reporting this last week from our base in Paris…next week from Cyprus.
How others see America
Trump on the ropes
Hardly a corner of the media universe failed to jump on the indictment and arraignment of the man who hopes again to lead the free world, so many fear, down a rabbit hole to disaster. The French center-left daily Libération perhaps captured the mood most directly with its headline: “The bad loser Donald Trump indicted for conspiracy against the American state.”
The leading French daily, Le Monde, pointedly and even more broadly observed simply, “Trump charged with conspiracy against democracy,” with correspondent Corine Lesnes reporting “for Donald Trump, the legal disputes take on the appearance of an election campaign. The former US president denounced the ‘persecution of a political opponent’ by pleading not guilty to charges related to his ‘criminal’ maneuvers to declare himself the winner of the 2020 election.”
On the right, Le Figaro, led its homepage with a perspective that would not have felt much out of place on Fox or Drudge for that matter: “To close ranks, Donald Trump denounces instrumentalized justice,” while following up with answers to its question, “Why Trump should be able to run in the 2024 presidential election despite his indictments.” The lead story across its front page on Thursday elaborated: “Surrounded by justice, Trump still believes in his return.”
The Munich daily Süddeutsche Zeitung focused on Trump’s co-conspirators, with a photo of an unfazed Rudy Giuliani exiting his car to a waiting microphone….
For readers of Singapore’s The Straits Times, US bureau chief Nirmal Ghosh asks: “Why Trump is still front runner for Republican presidential nomination, even after latest indictment.”
And answers: “The party has little choice. Trump remains well ahead of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, his top challenger.”
“Donald Trump's political career has entered uncharted territory,” the Spanish daily El Pais reported, adding most colorfully: “But the gravity of the facts that are imputed to him now, in a year of judicial vertigo for the Republican candidate, even exceeds the two previous accusations. Nothing less than assaulting the foundations of democracy, in the institution that represents it, in a maddened and ultimately failed effort to cling to power.”
Not surprisingly, both leading Israeli dailies Ma’ariv and Ha’aretz went with the headline: “Trump Team Compares Latest Indictments to Nazi 'Persecution'” or “persecution like in Nazi Germany.”
The leading Kremlin-backed daily Pravda, reported on the arraignment, “Trump said Washington under Biden has become a dirty and ruined city. Washington's desire to get rid of a political opponent through prosecution could put an end to all American democracy, said former US President Donald Trump.”
But Pravda reserved bigger play to a report from Irina Guskakova on Joe Biden: “’Drowsy look, stooped’: a psychologist found a pathology in the behavior of Joe Biden….The well-being of 80-year-old US President Joe Biden worries many today. There is a reason for this—the ambiguous, regularly repeated ‘strange’ behavior of the politician.”
Show me the money
The move by Fitch to snatch America’s impeccable credit rating away had a mixed reception abroad, even at home. As Kate Duguid in New York and James Politi in Washington reported in London’s Financial Times, “The reaction to Fitch Ratings’ downgrade of the US’s pristine debt rating played out on a split screen: outrage from the White House and relative calm among investors in the market for Treasury bonds assessed by the agency.” As for why this happened, there was America’s “‘growing debt burden’ and an ‘erosion of governance,’ including on fiscal matters. The action came two months after the country narrowly averted default amid political wrangling over the federal borrowing limit.”
It should not have come as a big surprise. After all, the FT continued, “The action by Fitch came after S&P similarly downgraded the US to double A plus in 2011, following a debt ceiling showdown when Democrat Barack Obama was president.” Oh and incidentally, as if to prove Fitch’s point, the FT added, “The Treasury department on Wednesday announced that the US would have to borrow more in the coming months.”
How others see the World
All roads lead to Jeddah?
The end of times, or the end of war, is the aim of Saudi Arabia in convening a “peace conference” on Ukraine. Or maybe, closer to home, making the nominal leader of the kingdom, Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) feel important? In any event, he called, and folks came running. As many as 30 invited nations including the United States and Ukraine, where President Volodymyr Zelenski took another opportunity to push his 10-point peace plan that Russia has utterly ignored.
One of those not on the list? Kazakhstan. But it may have its own reasons. Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on a Russian move in its vital Central Asian neighbor: “The equivalent of an immediate bonus of 5,000 euros and a fixed monthly salary are advertised to join the Russian army. The Internet adverts … show Russian and Kazakh flags and the slogan ‘shoulder to shoulder.’ In return for signing a contract with the Russian military, the advertisements promise a one-time payment of 495,000 Russian rubles (almost 5,000 euros or $4,470) and a monthly salary equivalent to at least 1,850 euros ($2,020).”
Indeed, the ad promises full state insurance and medical, help to buy your own house, holidays, food and clothing allowances, and cash bonuses.
Süddeutsche Zeitung concluded “the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan on the border with Russia is home to more than 3 million ethnic Russians and has traditionally been one of Russia's closest allies. However, the government in Astana does not support Russia's actions in Ukraine and has called for peace.”
More evidence of Russia desperation, Andrea Marinelli and Guido Olimpi report in the Milan daily Corriere della Sera “the distribution of military equipment to territorial militias formed in the Belgorod area, a city in Russia often targeted by unmanned Ukraine aircraft and commandos. Identical provision in Kursk. The army has delivered assault rifles, machine guns, off-road vehicles but also anti-drone vehicles. According to local sources, around 3,000 civilians have been recruited to patrol the area and assist regular troops.
But the real offensive right now seems to be targeting Ukraine’s efforts to continue supplying its grain to the world.
“Russian drones attacked port and grain storage facilities in the south of Ukraine's coastal Odesa region in the early hours of Wednesday,” France 24 reported, “including the inland port of Izmail across the Danube River from Romania, in a fresh blow to the country's critical grain exports.”
Last one out, turn out the lights?
France has begun a systematic evacuation of its citizens (there are at least 600 of them) from Niger, whose new military leadership that took power after an unexpected coup seems to want little to do with its former colonial master. Central to the equation may be the reality that France relies on Niger mines for a large part of the uranium that fuels its 56 nuclear power plants. Still, as Le Figaro reported, “General Abdourahamane Tiani, who took power in Niamey at the head of putschist soldiers, estimated that the French ‘have no objective reason to leave Niger,’ at a time when several hundred of them are evacuated by Paris. French nationals 'have never been the object of the slightest threat' and they have 'no objective reason to leave Niger,' the general said in a televised speech on the eve of Independence Day of the country.”
In a potential taste of much worse to come, Le Monde reported, “ECOWAS [Economic Community of West African States], whose delegation has arrived in Niamey, has imposed heavy sanctions and says it is ready for military intervention if constitutional order is not restored by Sunday.”
As it happens, much of the language being used globally to describe the coup in Niger is not unlike the language being used by America’s right-wing media to describe the indictment and arrest of Donald Trump in the United States.
Turkey’s Andalou Agency reports on “the decision to cut the broadcasts of France 24 and RFI radio in Niger after the military seized power on July 26. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs … described this decision as an ‘authoritarian step of repression.’"
Of course, immediately after the coup, France had suspended all aid for what had been a determinedly pro-western nation in the heart of the Sahel…which now risks tilting toward Russia and outright dictatorship following many of its neighbors down the same path.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meanwhile, continues to talk with the ousted president of Niger, the latest State Department bulletin stating that he has “continued his engagement with President Bazoum to discuss developments in Niger. The United States remains committed to the restoration of the democratically-elected government, consistent with the position of ECOWAS, the African Union, and international partners. We reiterate that the safety and security of President Bazoum and his family are paramount. The United States is dedicated to finding a peaceful resolution that ensures that Niger remains a strong partner in security and development in the region.”
On the Niger street it’s “France must leave” …. “Long live Niger, Long live Russia” not to mention “Down with foreign bases in Niger.” None of these good omens.
So, just in case, as Le Figaro continued: “A number of American citizens boarded French and Italian repatriation flights on Wednesday from Niamey….The United States strongly condemned the overthrow of President Bazoum but, unlike France and other European countries, had not so far ordered evacuations nor suspended aid to Niger, which numbers in the hundreds millions of dollars.” It will also be interesting to see how the junta and the Biden administration deal with another reality, as Le Figaro concluded, “the United States also has some 1,000 soldiers deployed in the country as part of the fight against jihadist groups in the Sahel.” Not to mention the $100 million drone base the US built and would need to abandon unless it could be defended.
The magazine Jeune Afrique tried to put a lot of this in context without really explaining how it was that President Bazoum was able to conduct so much international business while under apparent house arrest?
“In Niger, as in a large majority of African countries,” commentator Amadou Sadjo Barry wrote in Jeune Afrique, “a president cannot be sure of finishing his mandate in a normal way if he does not seek legitimacy from the military. In most cases, elections give their winner international legitimacy in a purely formal way. However, they do not tie political power to popular sovereignty. In this sense, many African countries have not broken with military regimes, even where the president is a civilian. Because, in fact, it is less the law and the constitutional devices which guarantee the power than the art of melting the State into the military body.”
Eventually, though, in Niger and across a broad swath of Africa, it will all come down to grain—and feeding 400 million of the most deeply impoverished.
A coming attraction….
On Wednesday, Unleashed Voices will have an inside look at the profound wounds being inflicted on Africa and beyond by Russia’s embargo on Ukrainian grain shipments. Our conversation will be with David McNair, executive director for global policy of the One Campaign, who has been monitoring the horrors in store for millions of Africa’s most challenged from Russia’s latest salvo in its war on Ukraine.
Meanwhile, as the U.S. took over the chair of the UN Security Council for August, Blinken “criticized Moscow for withdrawing from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, emphasizing that ‘hunger must not be weaponized,’” the Kyiv Independent reported. “Blinken said Russia's war against Ukraine sparked ‘an assault on the global food system. ‘Every member of this council, every member of the United Nations, should tell Moscow: enough. Enough using the Black Sea as blackmail; enough treating the world's most vulnerable people as leverage; enough of this unjustified, unconscionable war,’ the U.S. official said, adding that 91 U.N. member states had already signed a new joint communique ‘committing to end the use of famine, starvation, and food as weapons of war.’”
Finally….want to do your bit for the climate?
Well if you’re in Singapore, it’s going to cost you. The lead story in The Straits Times proclaimed: “Private rainwater harvesters, desalination plants to be taxed from early 2025. As Cheryl Tan and Shabana Begum wrote, “Private companies that harvest rainwater and those that treat seawater on a large scale will be taxed by national water agency PUB from early 2025.”
“This will apply to suppliers who provide non-potable water for their own use or for sale….This comes as water demand is expected to almost double by 2065. Singapore currently consumes about 440 million gallons of water per day—equivalent to about 800 Olympic-sized swimming pools. In total, there are around 300 private water suppliers, of which the majority are small-scale rainwater harvesters, such as in HDB estates and schools. This accounts for about 20 per cent of privately harvested water.” There are also a small number of private desalination plants. What they’re really worried about is a drought—when there’s just no rainwater to be harvested. Suddenly, the state would have to jump in. As The Straits Times concluded, “Rainwater harvesters, which collect rainwater in a harvesting tank for treatment, would have to turn to [state]-supplied water sources in the event of a prolonged drought.”
Finally, there’s KAL
Kal has regaled readers of The Economist in London with no end of cartoons with Donald Trump as the centerpiece. His latest, examining the real or imagined popularity of the thrice-indicted candidate for president, speaks volumes as to the roots of (Republican) support.
Cartoonist Kevin Kallaugher, who draws under the name KAL, has published more than 8,000 cartoons in more than 140 magazines. He’s contributed to The Economist since 1978. Earlier, he worked for 10 years in London as a cartoonist for publications such as The Observer, The Sunday Telegraph, Today, and The Mail on Sunday. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2015 and is a member of the great Paris-based collective Cartooning for Peace.
Here’s how KAL imagines himself:
indeed.... PLAMEGATE revisited !
Thank you Valerie...and Tim for bringing it again to our attention!
Takes great readers with a superb sense of history !!!
d.
You are such a smart & attentive reader...thank you, Judith !