Putin-Trump phone call: ‘The art of the dealski’

We begin with a very public spat between US Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr and US President Donald Trump. As The Washington Post reports, it dates back to events over the weekend. Last Saturday, Chief Judge for the US District Court for DC James Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to turn around an aircraft deporting alleged gang members to Venezuela. The Trump administration justified the flight by the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, previously invoked only during wartime. The planes continued to their destinations but the White House has said it did not defy the judge’s directive. The order, though, prompted Trump to rant against Boasberg on social media, calling him a “radical left lunatic” who “should be impeached”.

Throwing around the word “impeached” did not go down well in the US Supreme Court. In a statement, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr issued a sharp, rare rebuke that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. It’s the most public battle between the two since 2018, as Politico notes.

The reaction in the press has been mixed, however. The Guardian‘swriter argues that Judge Roberts, a conservative justice, has paved the way for the impunity that enabled Trump to run for and win a second term. Steven Greenhouse reminds us that Roberts, since becoming chief justice in 2005, has sought to boost corporate America and consolidate Republican power. He was also author of the “startling” ruling that gave presidents far-reaching immunity from prosecution last year. This also helped lay the groundwork for Trump’s increasingly authoritarian presidency. Greenhouse asks: how could Roberts not realise that this would only serve to embolden Trump even more?

The conservative US magazine National Review offers a different perspective, saying it’s quite possible that Trump’s alleged noncompliance with the Boasberg order on the planes could be evidence in a future Democrat-led impeachment trial of Trump. If that were to happen, the chief justice would be presiding but he has now destroyed his impartiality with this statement. For that reason, the Review says it would have been better to refrain from publicly scolding the president.

We turn next to reaction from the illustrated press on Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin’s Tuesday phone call on Ukraine peace talks. The announcement of a 30-day pause on bombing energy infrastructure is seen sceptically by Chapatte, the Swiss paper Le Temp’s cartoonist, who sees Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky being strangled by the telephone cord itself. Andy Bunday, meanwhile, sees a phone with limited options in the Oval Office. Press one to disarm Ukraine, press two to give away land, press three to give away power plants, press four to bar Ukraine from NATO.

One of the most visual cartoons is from Pete Songi, who evokes the “art of the dealski”. He sees Vladimir Putin in his bathtub with a bath mat emblazoned with MYKRAINE, and the coalition of the killing, with a hockey helmet in the corner. Among the agreements between the two leaders is, bizarrely, that Russia and the US play a game of ice hockey, prompting British tabloid The Sun to ask “What the puck?”

Finally: we bring you the winners of the British Wildlife Photography awards. Simon Withyman won the Urban Wildlife category for his picture of a Bristol fox. Also in Bristol, John Waters won the Animal Behaviour category with a picture of fantastical speckled wood butterflies. One of the most striking snaps is from the winner of the Young Photographers category. Teenager Ben Lucas set up a GoPro camera inside an abandoned packet of chips and then waited to snap a gorgeous ground-view shot of pigeons approaching the leftover chips!

You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.