PRESS REVIEW – Friday, March 6: International papers discuss US President Donald Trump's "warrior transformation" and speculate about how the new war in the Middle East could benefit Russia. Also: the US Department of Justice publishes an interview that outlines sexual assault allegations against Trump. Finally, is the US president trying to distract attention from the Epstein files with the new war? This question has inspired quite a few cartoons.
Papers from across the world are following the war in the Middle East. Spanish daily El País writes that "two out of three Spaniards oppose the war against Iran". However, "61 percent support sending a frigate to Cyprus in response to the Iranian attacks" and as a commitment to defend the European Union.
French newspaper La Croix headlines with "Trump's warrior transformation". The attack on Iran shows a dramatic turnaround by the US president, who was once opposed to "endless wars". Lebanese newspaper L'Orient-Le Jour headlines with "an entire population forced to flee", showing a scared child on the street and massive traffic jams after Israeli forces ordered the evacuation of Beirut's southern suburbs.
Israeli papers are not always on the same page. An analysis in the left-wing paper Haaretz says that "Trump's fantasies for Iran go beyond regime change". It says that the joint US-Israeli war is a "bid to consolidate a new regional order in the Middle East". Trump's vision for this order is not democratic values, human rights or international law, says the analysis. The paper reminds us that his central partners in the Gulf states are authoritarian monarchies where the ultra-rich employ poor migrants from the Global South. Therefore, the new emerging order is driven by economic interests: defence technologies, AI, crypto, real estate and finance, where the Gulf is a "haven for capital," not limited by the "perils of democracy". An analysis in the right-wing paper The Times of Israel says that the Gulf states are living "their worst nightmare", because they've spent decades trying to avoid direct conflict with Iran. The article says that Iran hopes that inflicting enough pain on its neighbours will pressure Trump to end the war. But this strategy might end up backfiring: the Gulf states are cooperating even more closely with Israel, opening pathways to new alliances.
The Washington Post writes that "Russia could benefit from the new war", as Trump's attention may be totally diverted with weapons rerouted to the Middle East. Russian oil might be put back on the table amid surging oil prices. The Ukrainian paper The Kyiv Independent writes that "in the Middle East, chaos is Putin's new ally". The opinion piece says that people shouldn't be worried that Putin will intervene on behalf of Iran; he will instead try to exploit the new war.
Meanwhile, Politico reports that the US Department of Justice has published documents that outline sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump. It's a trio of FBI interviews with a woman who says that Trump sexually assaulted her when she was a young teenager, between the age of 13 and 15. She was introduced to him by Jeffrey Epstein. Her central allegation is that the president forced her to perform oral sex on him – she says she then bit his private parts to defend herself, after which he punched her. These files come as Democrats have been investigating whether the Justice Department withheld, on purpose, material that includes sexual assault allegations against Trump.
Finally, we take a look at some cartoons that imply Trump attacked Iran only to divert global attention from the Epstein files. "Operation Epstein Distraction" was renamed to "Operation Epic Fury" so that's it's not too obvious, says one of the cartoons wryly.
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