The challenge for the European Union is always aligning its words with its actions. One day it adopts a firm rhetorical stance, asserting that "the time for a strong Europe" has arrived, as Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz grandiloquently proclaimed last Friday at the Munich Security Conference, and then immediately rises to applaud US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's speech and his mention of the European Union.

It's nothing new that Bruce Springsteen publicly condemns Donald Trump's policies. Now he's gone a step further and released the song Streets of Minneapolis, with which she expresses indignation, anger and dignity. "We will remember the names of those who died in the streets of Minneapolis," he sings as a tribute to Alex Pretti and Renee GoodThe two people shot dead by agents of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), "King Trump's private army," as described by Springsteen in the song.

Rob Riemen's (Netherlands, 1962) latest book is full of great names in the history of thought. George Orwell, Simone Weil, and Thomas Mann appear, but not in grand, ponderous texts on philosophy, but rather through a series of stories that are more reminiscent of oral tradition, tales that parents, grandparents, and teachers might tell us from a young age. Through them, Riemen champions humanism, classical European culture, and the word to combat fascism. The word that conquers death (Arcadia) is, in his own words, an essay on what true greatness is.

The murder of theinfluencer The pro-Trump Charlie Kirk—be warned that the article does not focus on this specific fact—has led to the expressions "culture war" and "ideological war" being used interchangeably, both in the media and in other contexts. Do they mean the same thing? Obviously, they are related terms, but this does not mean that they are strictly interchangeable. This juxtaposition may seem unimportant, but in fact, it ends up leading to confusing analyses. Although, in my humble opinion, the concept of "culture war" is already foreshadowed between the lines in the first volume of The Decline of the West (1918) by Oswald Spengler, the expression "culture wars"It was popularized by sociologist James Davison Hunter in 1991. It's worth paying attention to the date: in the early 1990s, once real socialism had been shamefully dismantled, it was very difficult to talk about ideological confrontations: defending the virtues of Ceausescu or Enver Hoxha was very complicated. It implied it. In the United States, Republican and Democratic intellectuals began to fight over other things. As time went on, Steve Bannon, advisor to Donald Trump, said that what was at stake was not capitalism or the like, but "the soul of America," that is, its values in theme, national identity, the practice of religion or gender. The traditional ideological wars of the 20th century, on the other hand, were focused above all on the notion of political system and the economy. casus belli during the Cold War, and this is just one example among many others.

This Monday, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, filed a lawsuit against the New York Times, four of its reporters, and the publisher Penguin Random House for at least $15 billion, alleging defamation and slander. According to a court document filed in Florida, the president claims the defendants have caused him reputational damage. Specifically, Trump's lawsuit cites a series of articles from the New York Times, including an editorial prior to the 2024 presidential election that claimed he was unfit for office. It also mentions a book published by the publisher in 2024 titled Lucky loser: how Donald Trump squandered his father's fortune and created the illusion of success [Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success]

We read in the NOW thatThe great warrior(Chief of war), by Jason Momoa, will be the first commercial series "spoken largely in Hawaiian," which, we also read, "has outraged Trumpist circles." The article explains that this language, currently co-official (and here we already know what that means, that of being a co-official language) was banned from the end of the 19th century until the 1970s (and here we also know what that means of being a banned language).

The times we are experiencing on a global scale and particularly in Europe are a difficult challenge, but they could also be an opportunity for many things, both internationally and within Spain. At the European level, we have begun to react by applying a principle that has been mentioned a lot here over the last two years: "making a virtue out of necessity." But in relation to Spanish politics there are no signs of change. Quite the opposite. The most classic patterns and the most deep-rooted tics and behaviours are repeated, with an exhibition of what we could call lifelong prejudices. I say this particularly because of the reactions to the agreement between the government and Junts on the matter of delegating powers on immigration, which has taken first place in internal political activity and has temporarily left behind the discussion on the proposals regarding regional financing and the debt of the communities. They say that Spain has once again dramatically broken down because of these initiatives, in a debate in which foregone conclusions replace the analysis of the result of a long negotiation. It is a waste of energy that, given the surrounding reality, is becoming a waste of time and a mechanism for channeling frustrations and revenge between parties.

The short-term evolution – a year? – of the transatlantic relationship is uncertain. Whether we look from Europe – today, Sunday, we will see whether the German elections give hope for the formation of a minimally strong European leadership – or from the US, which, I think, will be the most decisive factor. In an optimistic mood, I do not exclude that Trumpism, American or European, will begin to fall victim to its contradictions.

The brutal attack that the new Trump administration and its techno-oligarchy allies are carrying out against everything that sounds public is so exaggerated that it may seem simply bizarre to us, and as such become part of what we discuss with our work colleagues and friends when we have a moment. But the matter is much more serious, since when public spending, public servants, taxes and all the so-called institutional chiringuitos are attacked, behind it there are essential public policies and services for a large part of the population. On the other hand, it is not just another eccentricity of the new Trumpian era, but in Europe (and in Catalonia) there are many supporters of applying the same logic a public sector that is accused of wasting resources, of caring only about those who take advantage of the system and of having grown in an excessive way.

The short-term evolution – a year? – of the transatlantic relationship is uncertain. Whether we look from Europe – today, Sunday, we will see whether the German elections give hope for the formation of a minimally strong European leadership – or from the US, which, I think, will be the most decisive factor. In an optimistic mood, I do not exclude that Trumpism, American or European, will begin to fall victim to its contradictions.

Former NFL player and American writer Chris Kluwe was arrested in California after giving a speech against Trumpism at a city council meeting. During his speech at the Huntington Beach council, Kluwe protested against the city's decision to place a plaque on the town library containing the acronym MAGA. This is the abbreviation for President Donald Trump's slogan, Make America Great Again, which is also a movement that supports him. The former athlete said, specifically, about MAGA: "It's basically a Nazi movement."

Woke has become the preferred insult of the new extreme right, from Trump to Ayuso. If you are concerned about social inequalities and discrimination based on identity – sexist, racial, linguistic or whatever – you have already screwed up. You are woke up, a naive, an outcast who has had his brains brainwashed by communist radicals and who doesn't know what life is about. Life is about triumph, about power, about the freedom to do whatever you want. The poor should get their act together and the different, starting with the immigrants, have only come to piss us off and take advantage of our good nature. What's this nonsense about worrying all day about minorities? And the majorities, what? And the normal, what?