We must not let the shooting of Charlie Kirk become Trump’s Reichstag fire | David Van Reybrouck

Take heed from European history: this could be the pretext for the repression of the US president's political opponents

If 2025 was already shaping up to be the worst year of the century for the post-1945 rules-based world order, the past week has been its most destructive week yet. Israel deepened its disregard for international conventions by sending 10 fighter jets to Qatar, bombing a Hamas delegation participating in ceasefire talks in Doha. The last meaningful forum for diplomatic negotiation may now have gone up in smoke.

At least 19 Russian drones violated Poland's airspace. For the first time in its history, Nato airpower was engaged against enemy targets inside a Nato country. Whether the incursion was a technical mishap or deliberate probing by Moscow, as western experts believe, this was the closest we have been to open conflict since the second world war," Poland's prime minister, Donald Tusk, said.

David Van Reybrouck is philosopher laureate for the Netherlands and Flanders. His books include Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World, and Congo: The Epic History of a People

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