Ruffled Republicans, the cost of LA fires, and Disney goes AI

Anna, Olaf and Kristoff in a scene from Disney’s ‘Frozen’. (AP Photo/Disney, File)

Welcome to our press review of events in the United States. Every Wednesday we look at how the Swiss media have reported and reacted to three major stories in the US – in politics, finance and science.

It’s been a week to forget for US President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, according to some Swiss papers. Hollywood creatives will also be drowning their sorrows – although fans of fare such as Frozen will no doubt be delighted at Disney’s deal with OpenAI, letting them prompt their favourite characters to do whatever they want.

A protester outside the Indiana Senate Chamber in Indianapolis on December 11 after a bill to redistrict the state’s congressional map was defeated. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Election defeats, internal revolts and lousy polls – the Republicans are unsettled, says the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ).

“Something remarkable has happened in Indiana,” Swiss public broadcaster SRF wrote on Friday. “The Republicans have denied Donald Trump a wish.”

The US president, SRF explained, had wanted the state’s electoral districts to be redrawn so that the Republicans could win additional seats in parliament. Elsewhere, such as in Texas, the Republicans complied – but not in Indiana, where some Republicans refused, despite Trump’s angry threats on his social network.

“There is further evidence that Trump is no longer in complete control of the party,” SRF said. “When a vote on the release of the Epstein Files was forced in the House of Representatives, four Republicans helped the project to a breakthrough, despite attempts at pressure from the White House. Marjorie Taylor Greene went from being a loyal ally to an outspoken critic of Trump.”

What’s more, the Democrats convincingly won the gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia – in an electoral district that was actually safe for the Republicans. And in Miami, a Democratic mayor was elected for the first time in almost 30 years.

“Trump is an exceptional political phenomenon – and experience shows that he shouldn’t be written off too early. However, his poll ratings are poor, especially when it comes to his economic policy,” SRF said, noting that some people reckoned Trump was already a lame duck.

The Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) pointed out that there was still almost a year to go until the mid-term elections next November, “but even Republican party veterans like Newt Gingrich are sounding the alarm”.

“Trump had promised American voters a ‘golden age’,” the NZZ wrote on Saturday. “However, according to a recent survey, citizens are still not feeling any of this. Only 31% are satisfied with the president’s economic policy. In March, the figure was 40%.”

Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance is asking voters for patience. It will take time for the president’s tariff policy or tax cuts to bring the desired results, he says. However, as the NZZ concluded, “the Republicans don’t have much time left before the mid-term elections to ensure the dawn of the golden age”.

• ‘Donald Trump is showing weaknessExternal link’ – SRF (German)

• The Republicans are unsettledExternal link’ – Neue Zürcher Zeitung (German, paywall)

Firefighters monitor flames in Castaic, California, on January 22, 2025. Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

The fires that devastated Los Angeles in January cost insurers $40 billion (CHF31.8 billion) – the most expensive forest fires ever recorded.

Storms and hurricanes caused additional damage totalling $50 billion, with the global bill for insured natural disasters set to reach $107 billion for 2025, the Tribune de Genève reported on Tuesday.

More than 12,000 homes, buildings and vehicles were destroyed or damaged by the fires that ravaged “posh districts” of LA, the paper wrote.

The Swiss media at the time were sympathetic for those who had lost everything but also fairly critical of US society. “For centuries, Americans have been building their houses exactly where they like. After the inferno in Southern California, this has to stop. For too long, the state has protected homeowners from their own stupidity,” wrote the Neue Zürcher Zeitung on January 11.

The Tages-Anzeiger looked at the anger generated by superrich people hiring private fire brigades to protect their property, while the less privileged lost all their possessions. “More and more units are offering their services exclusively to the rich,” it wrote on January 9. “They hardly advertise this as the business is controversial. But word of mouth among the wealthy suffices to attract enough customers.” But buyer beware: during fires in Malibu in 2019 the private firefighters didn’t turn up as ordered “and the residents fought the fire themselves”.

Despite the dramatic pictures from LA, on Tuesday the Tribune de Genève pointed out that while insured damage caused by natural disasters came to $107 billion worldwide, this was down 24% compared with 2024. Adding on human-made disasters, estimated at $11 billion, the total bill for insurers for 2025 will be $118 billion, down 22%.

• ‘Los Angeles fires cause global insurance bill to soarExternal link’ – Tribune de Genève (French)

• ‘The old American Dream burns down in Los AngelesExternal link’ – Neue Zürcher Zeitung from January 2025 (German, paywall)

• Millionaires pay for private fire services and irritate neighboursExternal link’ – Tages-Anzeiger from January 2025 (German, paywall)

Prompting Nemo. Keystone

Disney’s investment in artificial intelligence (AI) is clever marketing, argues the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), but it jeopardises the core of the film industry: creativity.

“Disney authorises OpenAI to use its characters and will use AI to expand its offering” Swiss public broadcaster RTS reported last week. It explained how media giant Disney and OpenAI, the firm behind ChatGPT, had done a deal that will see more than 200 characters – from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars – used on Sora, the platform for videos created using generative AI. In return, Disney will become a “major customer” of OpenAI, in which it also invested $1 billion (CHF800 million), using its AI models to “create new products, tools and experiences”.

For the NZZ, the move “takes Disney’s recycling of old content to the extreme”. “How about Elsa from the animated film Frozen singing happy birthday to your children? Or sending your work colleagues a motivational greeting from Luke Skywalker on a Monday morning?”

Disney, it pointed out, was the first Hollywood studio to grant the rights to its characters to OpenAI. “This is a turning point in the film and media industry. AI companies have been using content from the creative industry to train their models for ages. Disney management may have thought why not use this for themselves.”

But, the NZZ continued, the investment is more than damage limitation – it’s a business calculation. “From a pragmatic point of view, licensing the characters is a marketing expense. If Disney wants to exist in the digital world, it has to get its content out to the people. This is particularly easy if it lets its users create and distribute the videos themselves.”

The paper warned, however, that Disney should be wary of making its content even more generic by using AI. “Not only is Disney’s creativity at stake, but also the work of the creatives behind the characters,” it wrote. “Disney already shoots sci-fi series against digital backgrounds and rejuvenates actors using computers. The collaboration with OpenAI suggests that automation will be expanded in the future.”

For its part, Disney has emphasised that its foray into AI is not detrimental to creatives. “We can only hope that the company is right,” the NZZ concluded. “It should be careful not to disempower those on whose work its success is based.”

• EditorialExternal link in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (German, paywall)

• Coverage of Disney’s decisionExternal link – RTS (French)

• The Disney statementExternal link

• How AI is affecting Switzerland’s creative workforce – Swissinfo archives

The next edition of ‘Swiss views of US news’ will be published on Wednesday, January 7. See you then!

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