NASA’s Artemis II rocket lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center.
Keystone/Swissinfo
As several Swiss papers noted this week, it’s hard not to have a sense of awe when looking at some of the photos taken by the Orion spacecraft from the far side of the Moon. It certainly puts the many problems back on Earth in perspective.
Welcome to our press review of events in the United States. Every Wednesday I look at how the Swiss media have reported and reacted to three major stories in the US – in politics, finance and science.
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People line a road in Nebraska on March 28 for the funeral procession of a US soldier killed in the Middle East.
Omaha World-Herald
The search for a US airman shot down in Iran “seemed, for a brief moment, to bridge the deep political divides” in America, according to Swiss public broadcaster SRF. But while the armed forces continue to have the support and respect of the public, the war in Iran could cost the Republicans dear in mid-term elections.
“Popular army, hated war” was the headline of an SRF analysis on Monday, the day after US President Donald Trump announced that a missing officer whose F-15 had been shot down in a mountainous part of Iran had been rescued.
SRF said the incident provided further evidence of the short shelf life of some of the president’s statements. “Just two days before a US jet was shot down, Donald Trump claimed that the US enjoyed complete air superiority in the war. Doubts are justified,” it said.
“The Trump administration will do everything it can to capitalise on this Hollywood-ready heroic story. And indeed, the search for the missing officer seemed, for a brief moment, to bridge the deep political divides – although there were clear differences in the tone of media coverage.” SRF noted that while presenters and experts on right‑wing conservative television channel Fox News emphasised how important it now was to pray for members of the armed forces, centre-left rival CNN focused more on critical analysis of the course of the war.
“On one point, however, political parties, the media and the public are largely in agreement: members of the armed forces deserve the utmost respect,” SRF said. “This appreciation is reflected in everyday life in various ways. Service members, for example, are given priority boarding at airports; countless shops offer special discounts for veterans; and when Americans encounter a fellow citizen in uniform in public, it’s often accompanied by the words: ‘Thank you for your service’.”
This is a small gesture of thanks with great symbolic value, according to RTS. “It expresses the importance that the population still attaches to its military – whether in preserving superpower status or in defending ‘national security’ through military actions abroad.”
SRF pointed out that while the image of the armed forces had suffered as a result of overseas deployments such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan, surveys show that the military still enjoys significantly greater trust among the public than other institutions such as Congress, the media, or large corporations.
When criticism is voiced, SRF concluded, it’s usually directed at political decision-makers – above all the president as commander in chief of the armed forces. “And in the case of the war with Iran, Donald Trump would likely need many more such heroic stories to bring about a shift in public opinion. Unlike in previous conflicts, a majority opposed military action from the very beginning of the Iran adventure. And history shows that the longer a war lasts, the greater the opposition among the population – and the greater the risk that Trump’s Republicans will be made to pay the price by voters in the midterm elections in November.”
Jamie Dimon says inflation could be the ‘skunk at the party’ this year.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
When Jamie Dimon, longtime CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the US, recently warned that the war in Iran could reignite inflation and keep Fed rates higher for longer, several Swiss newspapers pricked up their ears.
“On Wall Street, Jamie Dimon once again warns about the private credit time bomb” was the headline of an article in Le Temps on Tuesday, the day after Dimon described inflation as the potential “skunk at the party” this year in his annual letter to shareholders.
Dimon, “a survivor of the 2008 financial crisis, is once again warning of the risk of losses in private loans to heavily indebted companies”, the Geneva newspaper said, adding that Dimon believes that these losses “will be greater than many people think”, due to the relaxation of lending criteria.
Le Temps said that at the heart of Dimon’s concerns are the loans granted to companies whose debt levels are high in relation to their profits. “To illustrate the threat, the banker last year spoke of ‘cockroaches’, an expression that has since become part of the Wall Street vocabulary to describe problem loans.”
The Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) noted on Wednesday that Dimon broadly shares Donald Trump’s MAGA rhetoric “but, unlike Trump, he has not given up on Europe”.
According to Dimon, America needs Europe to be successful, but Europe is currently on a bad path. “In his judgement, he is almost as scathing as the president,” the NZZ said, pointing to Dimon’s belief that we were witnessing “the slow but constant decline and fragmentation of Europe. Europe is entering a decisive decade, and it is unable to act”.
In a photo taken on Monday, the Moon and the Earth are seen from the Orion spacecraft.
Xinhua News Agency.all Rights Reserved
Swiss newspapers have been raving about the stunning images being sent back from the Orion spacecraft, which has just travelled to the far side of the Moon. But for the Tages-Anzeiger, the record-breaking journey is an “act of nationalism” with one purpose: getting to the Moon before China.
“Little-known lunar craters, an Earthrise and Earthset, and a solar eclipse: following a Moon flyby packed with highlights, the four Artemis II astronauts have set off on their return journey to Earth,” Swiss public broadcaster RTS reported on Tuesday.
The crew – three Americans and one Canadian – also broke a record by travelling 406,000 kilometres from Earth, becoming the crew that has ventured the furthest into space. RTS explained that if this mission and the next, in 2027, go well, US space agency NASA plans to send astronauts to the Moon in 2028.
“We go for all humanity,” said Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman, reacting to the launch authorisation on Thursday night. But the Tages-Anzeiger in Zurich was in cynical mode. “As pure and noble as the thought is – and as much as one would like to take the impassioned-sounding astronaut at his word – it couldn’t be farther from the truth.”
The trip to the Moon by US space agency NASA was an act of nationalism and blatant self-interest, the paper said. “The contribution of the Moon flight to science is so minimal that not even NASA is trying to sell the journey as a research mission. The self-declared main objective of Artemis II is to test the spacecraft and the technology for further missions. The next steps: a Moon landing by people who are not from China; building a Moon base that is not Chinese; preparing for a Mars flight before China,” it wrote.
“So when Reid Wiseman and his crew fly around the Moon and photograph its far side, it quite rightly evokes a sense of awe. Orbiting the Moon is and remains an impressive achievement, and seeing the small Earth rise behind the Moon literally gives a different perspective on the state of the world,” the Tages-Anzeiger concluded. “But only people who have no ulterior motives can respond with pure enthusiasm for technology and wonder at the world around us. Trump is definitely not one of them.”
The next edition of ‘Swiss views of US news’ will be published on Wednesday, April 15. See you then!
If you have any comments or feedback, email english@swissinfo.ch
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