TWTW: The World This Week / Episode #87

Ukraine relieved…America the smaller?…Elections 2024: India's debut…Beyond Ukraine: Niger, Sudan…Drones over Paris…Cartooning for Peace pleads for the life of Atena, imprisoned in Tehran.

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.

How others see America

The world held its breath, until a sigh of relief late Saturday as the GOP-dominated Congress was finally embarrassed (or bludgeoned) into approving military aid packages for the world's three leading crisis points—Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. For some, it appeared, the 311 to 112 vote in the House Representatives (with only 101 Republicans joining Democrats to approve) paralleled the angst of frontline Ukrainian soldiers.

Until that aid is finally released, if as expected the Senate approves and the President signs later this week, frontline Ukrainian forces will continue, as they have for months, rationing bullets and bombs to repel the all but unchecked onslaught of well-equipped Russian forces.

The Kyiv Independent, however, was more taken by the vote "to transfer seized Russian assets to Ukraine," as the paper continued:

The measure approved by the House on April 20 will enable the executive branch to seize immobilized Russian assets and use them to help Ukraine’s defense and recovery efforts. The majority of the Russian central bank’s assets that were frozen by the European Union  and Group of Seven (G7) are held in the EU. The U.S. holds around 5$ billion worth of Russian assets out of the total of $300 billion frozen by Kyiv’s Western and other allies.

While some partners, like the U.S., have been pushing to funnel these funds directly to Kyiv, European countries have been more hesitant, fearing economic and legal pitfalls.

The EU is instead working on a plan to use profits generated by the frozen assets to fund defense assistance for Ukraine. In a positive step on April 16, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) voted unanimously in support of a resolution calling for seizing frozen Russian assets and using them for a new fund for Ukraine's reconstruction.

Below, we'll visit in greater detail some of Putin's personal properties in the cross-hairs of the French judiciary.

Especially important is the comment on LinkedIn by a leading Baltics thinker—Linas Kojalas, CEO of Lithuania's Eastern Europe Studies Centre—who cuts to the heart of some of the language buried in the House bill:

Armaments and ammunition will reach Ukraine within a few days after approval. This is desperately necessary, especially given how much time has already been wasted. In addition, the law says that its purpose is "to help Ukraine defend itself and achieve victory over Russia." To date, there has been no such direct reference to victory—and an obligation on the US administration to submit a strategy to Congress within 45 days to achieve it. It also instructs the President to hand over long-range ATACMS missiles to Ukraine (with an obligation to provide an explanation if the administration does not do so for national security reasons). 

But before Saturday's vote, Le Monde's weekend front page featured a barrage of horrific headlines…

Ukraine, Gaza: the doubts and challenges of the american administration

·      The great gap in american diplomacy in the face of two major conflicts has enfeebled the voice and image of the United States in the world

·      Support for Kiev escapes neither the weariness of time nor political divisions

·      In the Middle East, Joe Biden seemed incapable of influencing his Israeli ally and charting paths for the post-war period.

·      The House of Representatives was due to vote Saturday on new budget packages to support Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.

Whither Trump?

To reassure everyone that I am not ignoring that court process in New York or the events surrounding the courthouse that have so captivated America's media attention, my examination of global media suggests that it has hardly been top of mind…..

Poland

Germany

Israel

Singapore

America the smaller?

London's The Economist has uncovered a uniquely sobering profile of an "America [that] is uniquely ill-suited to handle a falling population. Which is a worry because much of it is already shrinking." To examine this in some detail, it sends its team of reporters to Cairo….not Egypt, but rather Illinois.

….A town at the southern tip of Illinois founded in the early 19th century, Cairo was given that name because it was expected to grow into a huge metropolis. Located at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, it was the transport hub of a region that became known as “Little Egypt” because of its huge deltaic plains where farmers could grow anything.

Today, however, the name is redolent of lost civilisations. To walk around is a strange experience. Turreted Victorian houses gently crumble, being reclaimed by the weeds. What was once downtown resembles an abandoned film set. Cairo has no petrol stations, no pharmacies and no hospitals. It has gone from six schools to two, both half-empty….Cairo is on its way to becoming America’s newest ghost town. Its population, having peaked above 15,000 in the 1920s, had fallen to just 1,700 people by the 2020 census….the fastest-shrinking place in America.

The total [national] fertility rate—a measure of how many children a typical woman will have in her lifetime—was steady or rising for 30 years from the mid-1970s. In 2008, however, it fell below 2.1, the level needed to keep the population stable, and has since declined to 1.67. If it remains below 2.1, only immigration can keep the population growing in the long run. Yet net immigration, too, has been falling since the 1990s.

Death spirals tend to be worse in America because of the remarkable level to which the government is decentralised. Just 8% of spending on primary and secondary education comes from the federal government, for example, and less than a quarter of the spending on law enforcement. Local and regional authorities levy 48% of all tax collected in America, compared with just 20% in France and 6% in Britain. 

When high taxes combine with deteriorating public services, people leave.

Stand by for our look next week at this phenomenon—those fleeing America.

Elections 2024:  India

The process has begun. In keeping with its position as the world's most populous nation, its 1.42 billion people—with some 969 million (10% of the entire world's population) eligible—have just begun the world's longest vote—stretching on for six weeks until June 1. This week, polls opened in 102 constituencies. Hanna Ellis-Peterson, Delhi correspondent for London's The Guardian, reported:

Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party hopes to increase its parliamentary majority amid allegations that the country’s democracy has been undermined since it came to power 10 years ago. The elections have been described by analysts as the most predictable poll India has held in decades, with Modi and his BJP widely expected to win a third term in power….The BJP government is also accused of eroding the freedom of the press and attempting to suppress critical media….

Rahul Gandhi, a former leader in the Congress party who lost the past two elections to Modi, recently called the upcoming election a “rigged match”, describing the fight against the BJP as a fight for “India’s democracy and constitution”….

Modi’s strength going into the polls has been attributed in part to his fervent Hindu nationalist agenda, which has emphasised returning the country to past Hindu civilisational greatness and has garnered considerable support in the Hindu majority country.

This has been seen to come at a cost to India’s minorities, particularly its 200 million Muslims, who have faced increasing persecution, allegedly discriminatory laws and documented violence by the state and rightwing Hindu outfits affiliated with the BJP.

One footnote….it will be a challenge to find neutral, objective reporting from most Indian media these days, particularly during this election period. Reporters Without Borders ranks India 161^st of 180 countries, dropping 11 places in the past year with its political indicator at 169^th, down 24 places.

There's this commentary from RWB:

The violence against journalists, the politically partisan media and the concentration of media ownership all demonstrate that press freedom is in crisis in “the world’s largest democracy"….

Andelman Unleashed, in line with its pledge to chronicle every national election will follow the process throughout the voting  and onward to the final results due June 4.

Unleashed Voice

Andrew Nagorski

Taiwan's punching very much above its apparent weight

Recently, this veteran foreign correspondent, historian and author returned to the scene of one of his earliest reporting triumphs—the island of Taiwan—to test the waters at a most opportune moment. Just as Congress was bending itself into knots over aid and military supplies, support for its democracy indeed the very waters separating the island from mainland China, were being roiled by Beijing's leaders. They continue to insist the territory is little more than another communist Chinese province, its people subject to the whims of the ruling Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party. For Andelman Unleashed, Nagorski found a somewhat different story after his arrival.

Coming Wednesday morning on Andelman Unleashed

How others see the World

Beyond Ukraine or Gaza

Yes, there are other conflicts going on and none of them have been going especially well this week. In both cases—the former French colony of Niger, now led by a pro-Russian junta, and in civil-war stricken Sudan—Andelman Unleashed chronicled the early days of strife last August. Now matters are going from bad to catastrophic in each nation.

The United States, having gamely stood up to the junta that seized power in Niger in the early days, is now pulling out entirely. It will be abandoning, as I explained last August in my CNN Opinion column, a state-of-the-art drone base (with a $110 million price tag). The departure of the last American anti-terrorist forces from the Sahel will likely bring an end to any hope of America or France to contain jihadist terrorists who have set up bases across the region. French troops left months ago.

The magazine Jeune Afrique updates us:

The number two in American diplomacy, Kurt Campbell, accepted the request from the Nigerien authorities to withdraw their troops, during a meeting in Washington with Prime Minister Ali Mahamane Lamine Zeine, several American officials said. The agreement provides for the sending of an American delegation to Niger in the coming days to agree on the details of the withdrawal of these troops engaged in the anti-jihadist fight. The US State Department did not immediately respond officially. The timetable for the withdrawal was not specified.

A footnote: Kurt Campbell's predecessor (ad interim) Victoria Nuland arrived in Niamey, Niger's capital, unannounced days after the coup last year, was effectively held hostage, then fled back to Washington which continued, all too briefly, to refuse any recognition of the junta or its "prime minister."

France 24 television added perspective and some chilling next steps:

Niger’s military government agreed in January to step up security cooperation with Russia after expelling French forces that were helping fight jihadist rebellions in several Sahel nations. On Friday, [Russia's] African Corps—successor of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group in Africa—confirmed it had arrived in Niger.

The Tele Sahel broadcaster showed a Russian transport plane arriving at Niamey airport. It said “the latest military equipment and military instructors from the Russian defence ministry” had arrived. Russia will help “install an air defence system... to ensure complete control of our airspace”, the report said.

One instructor was quoted as saying that “We are here to train the Niger army and help it use the equipment that has just arrived. The equipment is for different military specialities.”

The head of Niger’s military government, General Abdourahamane Tiani, spoke by telephone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 26.

The two leaders discussed security cooperation as well as “global strategic cooperation” against “current threats,” authorities said at the time, without elaborating.

As for Sudan … a sad milestone that sees no sign of an end, amid little attention. As Le Monde Afrique reported:

Sudan torn apart by a year of war

Sudan is collapsing, in relative indifference. Villages burned, towns bombed, corpses rotting in the streets without burial, mass rapes, civilians and children forcibly conscripted: 12 months of war imploded a nation of 44 million inhabitants.

Khartoum, devastated

It was around 8:30 a.m. Saturday April 15, 2023, when the first exchanges of fire tore Khartoum apart. Paramilitaries mounted on heavily armed vehicles stormed the airport, the presidential palace and the army headquarters in the heart of the Sudanese capital. This lightning offensive on the ground was responded to, from the air, by bombings by fighter planes of the regular army. In a few hours, the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (FAS) led by General Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Al-Bourhane and the Rapid Support Forces (FSR) of General Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, known as “Hemetti”, spread throughout the country.

A year later, the fighting has not stopped. On the brink of famine, Sudan now faces the world's worst humanitarian crisis, according to the UN.

Don't forget the Olympics….

Andelman Unleashed will be on hand in July, despite this somewhat disquieting revelation from the great French investigative (and satirical) weekly, Canard Enchainé [chained duck] and confirmed by the magazine Marianne:

Less than four months before the opening ceremony of the Paris Games, the anti-drone fight system leaves something to be desired. According to our information, two military exercises, one in Paris and the other in Marseille, failed.

Officially, the anti-drone system is operational for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. This is the conclusion of the “Coubertin LAD 2” exercise, which brought together a series of five tests carried out from March 11 to 15. The challenge: deploy the system and test its effectiveness. Supposed to identify, detect and neutralize drones, the Parade system is its flagship product. Problem: “On two of the sites where ‘Parade’ was tested, it did not work according to the expected performance,” an observer of the exercise confided to  Marianne. “That is to say, Parade stops the drones but in a much smaller area than expected.»

Clearly, Parade didn't do the job. This is all the more problematic as one of these two tests took place near a ministry, in the heart of Paris. Carried out within flying distance of Place de la Concorde and Champ-de-Mars, in the heart of the capital, the deployment of the Parade system did not work, a source close to the matter assures us.

Canard Enchainé elaborated:

The scenario of a swarm of explosive-laden drones sweeping in over the 300,000 spectators seated along the 6-kilometre stretch of the Seine during the July 26 opening ceremony would be nothing short of a nightmare for French police.

There are an estimated 3 million drones in France, many of them privately owned, and the police and the interior ministry are working hard to prevent any untimely flights over the capital.

"Drones represent a very high-level threat because they are easy to use, there are a huge number of them in France and converting them into weapons is simple and very affordable. It doesn't require much logistical organisation," defence consultant Marc Chassillan said. The system can shoot down drones directly, but this is a last resort because the debris generated by such an explosion could injure or even kill people on the ground.

Andelman Unleashed arrives in Paris on July 17. Can't wait!

And then there’s Putin's properties …

While there's still considerable debate in Washington and much of Europe whether or how much of Russian properties and funds seized in the wake of the Putin invasion of Ukraine might be diverted to helping Ukraine win the war or rebuild, France for one has not hesitated to jump in. Le Monde reported with some degree of schadenfreude, while also giving us a glimpse of how this other 1% lives:

A villa in the Basque Country linked to the ex-wife of Vladimir Putin and a Paris apartment owned by the ex-wife of the Kremlin spokesperson were seized as part of money laundering investigations.

Two years after the start of the war in Ukraine, the legal front opened in France against those close to Russian power continues to progress. According to the Paris prosecutor's office, the courts have ordered the seizure of two new real estate properties. If these are not the most luxurious goods seized so far, the symbol nonetheless remains important, insofar as it refers to the direct entourage of the Russian head of state, Vladimir Putin.

One of the criminal seizures concerns the Villa Souzanna, in Anglet (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), which was the target of anti-Putin graffiti: “ Fuck Putin,” “Glory to Ukraine!», in Ukrainian, or even “Putin’s mafia”. Presented in the press as the property of Lioudmila Otcheretnaïa (formerly-Poutina), wife of the Russian president from 1983 to 2013, the Art Deco style villa, located 300 meters from Dunes beach, is officially owned by a real estate company controlled by Artur Ocheretny.

Artur Ocheretny, current companion of the former Mrs. Putin, 20 years his junior, whom he married in 2015, acquired the Basque property in 2013 for 5.4 million euros – to which must be added 3.5 million euros for the work. "Nothing explains how he was able to become the owner of real estate of such quality," affirmed the OCCRP (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project)….We only know that the money arrived from Russian bank accounts."

France's La Dépêche elaborated:

Vladimir Putin's ex-wife and her new husband, Arthur Ocheretny, own a magnificent villa on the Basque Coast which was recently tagged.

The only woman to have officially appeared on the arm of Vladimir Putin, Lioudmila Alexandrovna Chkrebneva was married to the Russian head of state in 1983 and is the mother of the President's two eldest daughters. After thirty years of union, the couple separated in 2014. To the Russian press, the former first lady spoke about her separation: "It is a joint decision in fact. Our union is over because we almost never see each other. Vladimir Vladimirovich is completely immersed in his work…"

Finally, there’s …. Atena

This is the cartoon for which the gifted Iranian cartoonist Atena Farghadani has been jailed in Teheran again, again, and now again. A collection of Iranian members of Parliament, depicted as animals, are casting their ballots for a law criminalizing voluntary sterilization.

That was in 2014, the first time she was arrested and the first time the Paris collective Cartooning for Peace notified the world of her treatment.  After two months of imprisonment in Evin prison, she was released, paying a high bail. In December 2014, she shared a video on youtube, showing the conditions of her detention in Evin—which led to her arrested again on January 10, 2015. In June 2015, she was sentenced to 12 years and nine months in Gharchak prison.

Atena began a hunger strike to protest against her detention and mistreatment, eventually taken to the hospital following “a heart attack and a brief loss of consciousness.” In September 2015, she received the Courage Award in Editorial Cartooning, awarded by Cartoonist Rights Network International (CRNI). On May 3, 2016, Atena was released after an appeals court in Teheran shortened her sentence. It was hardly the end of her ordeal, or her artistry.

Last June, she was arrested again, accused of insulting the Supreme Leader and Minister of Intelligence in this cartoon she published on her widely-followed Instagram account….

Last week, she was arrested yet again, Human Rights Activists in Iran first reported and Cartooning for Peace confirmed, for publicly displaying her art on the street in Tehran.

This is the fearless Atena Farghadani….