Trump

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.

DENMARK: The Danes have also largely adopted the "American Way of Life" with the entire "buy and throw away consumer culture." With today's geopolitical shift, a European political project should be formulated.

Freedom of expression is the last barrier against the dominance of media moguls.

THE ARMS INDUSTRY: The largest US arms manufacturers, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and RTX (Raytheon), have committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide under the Rome Statute. After three years of investigation and documentation of the major arms manufacturers, the Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal issued its final report in January.

USA: The European political-media elite portrays Trump as the new Hitler, but is nevertheless in a great hurry to subordinate itself to the USA economically, militarily and politically. Glenn Diesen analyzes the US situation now.

ENVIRONMENT:With the help of Project 2025, President-elect Donald Trump will stop all attempts to avert the climate crisis and accelerate an irreparable catastrophe. The project believes that the US has an "obligation to develop the enormous oil, gas and coal resources for which the country is responsible". Over the next few years, LNG exports alone will produce more greenhouse gases than every single car, home and factory in the EU.

USA: According to OECD statistics, less than a third of the American population has confidence in their government. From ethnic conflicts, a recently amended abortion law and widespread violence – the gun lobby is still fighting for the freedom to kill, even though the majority in the US wants more restrictive gun laws. Is the trade-off between freedom and security a failure?

SHAME: The Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg has noble motives for her outbursts against the establishment, but she is also part of a modern trend where shame and shaming have become part of everyday politics and the often dystopian debate on social media. This book takes a closer look at shame.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS: The experts say the danger of nuclear war has never been greater than right now. The danger of accidents, nuclear weapons going astray, cyber infiltration and misunderstandings has increased. Here comes a deep dialogue with the nuclear weapons philosophy, where intellectuals have tried to get a grip on the incomprehensible: the threat of the annihilation of the world. And what does Sergej A. Karaganov, foreign policy and military strategic adviser to Putin's government, say? Is the only thing we can do is to postpone the apocalypse, to avert it again and again?

DESPOTER: The totalitarian regimes of the 20th century caused disasters and crimes of completely different dimensions than any pre-modern tyrants could have imagined. But what qualifies those in power over the centuries to become tyrants?

PHILOSOPHY: Agamben's sketches for a theory of civil war are thus perhaps also a contribution to a new theory of revolution. Revolution beyond politics. Where the revolution is finally thought beyond any notion of a state and standing upright like a soldier who salutes. MODERN TIMES has chosen to print the afterword to Agamben's book about the civil war.

USA: Donald Trump broke down established norms and led democracy astray, but he would never have reached this far, if the groundwork had not been laid by others – this new tradition of imprecise wording, secrecy and dodgy methods.

Fascism: In his extensive studies, Hee Pedersen has mapped the political currents of the right wing with a focus on ethnicity and brought them into a historical context

PRE-FASCISM: Timothy Snyder's little textbook on tyranny – written for society "between Hitler and Stalin" – lies between patriotic obedience and political disobedience. The book is still current.

CAPITALISM: The West's 'thin' fascism, which Bolt analyzes, is there especially because there is currently nothing else. Which does not rule out that it will one day grow as "thick" as Russian and Chinese fascism.

USA / RUSSIA: It was a sad day for the world, but Russia's shocking military action should not stop us from looking at the United States' role in the situation that has arisen.