In the middle of the day, German Die Welt headlined, “IMF sees world on the brink of recession, and Germany is biggest loser.” Below, “Germany is particularly suffering the consequences of inflation and war, and Russia, of all places, is doing better than expected.”
At the end of the day, now with analysis, the statement remained almost the same, “Germany becomes the big loser”, but listing the problems, such as the negative trade balance and the expected “explosion” of energy supply, in the face of the new of Russian gas.
Pointing to “panic on both sides of the Atlantic”, the American CNN (above) then reported that Joe Biden hastily sent his energy coordinator to Paris to discuss contingency plans. “That was our biggest fear,” one official said, about the gas cut that could “boomerang” for US prices.
The American envoy is expected to cross in France with the Saudi ruler Mohamed bin Salman, who has started a tour of Europe and is expected by President Emmanuel Macron, according to the newspaper Le Figaro. It’s the “latest sign that the global pressure on MbS is subsiding,” notes the Wall Street Journal.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Germany, for its part, is already with former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in Moscow, according to Der Spiegel, for “negotiations on the delivery of gas via Nord Stream 1”, which could include a meeting with the President Vladimir Putin.
‘BIDEN IS WORSE THAN TRUMP’
A week ago, speaking to Bloomberg, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger criticized the foreign policy of Biden, Macron and Scholz – on these two, he said they “do not have the sense of direction and mission” of their predecessors. Now it was the turn of Scottish historian Niall Ferguson of Harvard.
Speaking to Die Welt, he criticizes the “shocking naivety of believing that Ukraine could win”. He assesses that the US made a “big strategic mistake” and that “Russia will only get stronger”.
“In Europe, people think Trump is the worst, but Biden is even worse,” he says. “Biden has done a lot more damage to the US-Europe and NATO alliance than Trump has. Trump wouldn’t do any of that. Instead, his rule would likely result in a trade deal with China.”
SQUID & EUROPE
Lula “is ready to reopen” the conversation around the “stopped” trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, reports Reuters (above), listening to former foreign minister Celso Amorim, who foresees adjustments.
The agency also cites a European parliamentarian who, leading a delegation to Brasília, said that “with Bolsonaro in government there can be no agreement, that is very clear”.
UNDER CIVIL CONTROL
“In Brazil, Biden’s Defense Chief Says Military Must Be Under Civilian Control,” in the Reuters headline for one of the few dispatches about the US secretary’s presence in Brasilia.
It was the message that had repercussions, including in Latin America, in vehicles such as the Argentine La Nación.
