Member’s despatch, Week XX: Why would Donald Trump accept a $400 million jetliner from the dictatorship in Qatar? A rebel group fighting for almost half a century disbands. & A rare copy of the Magna Carta has been hiding in plain sight. + Music from Cybotron. What is electro? &c.
According to some recent stencil graffiti featuring Donald Trump’s face under the Connecticut Avenue Bridge in Washington, D.C., “Fascism Is Here.” It’s an idea that’s had a lot of currency for almost a decade now. Among established journalists and prestigious scholars, as much as not-bad graffiti artists, that Trump is not actually a fascist has been almost beside the point: Better to sound the alarm as loud as you can, so people across America and around the world might rally to save democracy. The problem is, it doesn’t work that way. If we don’t understand how little Trump has to do with fascist ideology, and how much he has to do with a very different, much older political style, we’ll always be looking in the wrong place. We won’t have a clue what to make of his transactional leadership, nepotism, or personalized power networks. And we’ll certainly never understand why he’s so enamored with the super-corrupt, and corrupting, dictators of the Persian Gulf whose company he’s been enjoying this week.
—John Jamesen Gould
The Signal—your loyal guide to a changing world. … In this week’s despatch:
Developments
Why would Donald Trump accept a $400 million jetliner from the dictatorship in Qatar? Why did a rebel group fighting against the Turkish state for almost half a century suddenly disband itself? & Why is the Philippines’ former president Rodrigo Duterte, on trial for crimes against humanity, still so popular in his country?
+ Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Istanbul. Escalating violence in Gaza. U.S. tariff negotiations with China. The challenge to birthright citizenship in America. & A rare copy of the Magna Carta hiding in plain sight.
Connections
Why does the Trump administration seem to be moving further from Russia and closer to Ukraine?
Features
Why are younger men increasingly voting for the populist right and younger women, the environmental left? Rosie Campbell on a new gender divide in the Western world.
& Why are millions of factory jobs leaving China? Victor Shih on the country’s extraordinary self-inflicted loss.
Books
From Max Smeets on what’s behind the rise in ransomware attacks; Arvind Narayanan x Sayash Kapoor on whether AI is overhyped; & MartinDaunton on whether Donald Trump is really upending the global economy.
Music
From Erika de Casier, Loscil, and Cybotron.
+ What is electro?
Weather report
25.7617° N, 80.1918° W …
Lara Jameson
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