ESSAY

RESISTANCE: We try to analyze President Trump as a late-capitalist fascist whose political program is based on racial exclusion, xenophobia, transphobia, misogyny and a vision of national rebirth. This in a country where more than 30 people are killed by firearms every year, an average of over 000 victims a day. But also: we see a return to political crime to suppress protests. This is the case everywhere today, but besides the US it is especially visible in Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Emirates and Iran.

FUTURE: Political systems and new technologies have given us a sense that the promises of the future have faded. Would it be a tragedy if there were no more humans on the planet?

TECHNOLOGY/ISRAEL: Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli military has been making extensive use of cloud and AI services from Microsoft and its partner OpenAI, with the tech giant’s employees deployed to various units to support the deployment in Gaza, a joint investigation shows. Microsoft personnel work closely with units in the Israeli army to develop products and systems. From October 2023 to June 2024, the Israeli Ministry of Defense spent $10 million to purchase 19 hours of engineering support from Microsoft.

ARCHITECTURE: Israeli Eyal Weizman is the founder and director of Forensic Architecture – a research group that uses architecture as an approach to investigating state violence and human rights violations. The group collaborates with artists, architects, researchers, lawyers and journalists – and sometimes with a court. Their main areas of work are Palestine and now Gaza.

LANYARD: We speak with Yahya Sarraj. Since 2019, he has had the least desirable job in the world: He is the mayor of Gaza City. In recent months, they have been preparing the plan “The Gaza Phoenix” for reconstruction – together with specialists not only from Palestine, but also from European, American and other Arab countries. A plan that was unanimously approved by all 25 municipalities in the Gaza Strip. “The Gaza Phoenix” is neither Hamas nor Fatah.

PROFILE: Chantal Akerman opens a cinematic space without demands for productivity. Her idiom is that of the auteur, where she has full artistic control over and ownership of the films. In her cinematic philosophy, time is a form where time seemingly stands still. And what does Christine Smallwood say about her work? MODERN TIMES has been on exhibition – and has read.