I began to think in "un-"s after reading Naomi Klein's proposal for "unselfing" in resistance to a politics of self-preservation and algorithm-fuelled ego. Around the same time, I realised that adding "un-" to German words is a shortcut to expanding my limited vocabulary. This is how I came across the German word for severe weather, "Unwetter". "Unwetter" is the opposite of "Wetter" and literally translates as un-weather.

This week, the transatlantic weather of Trump's inauguration and the explosive fire weather of Los Angeles has been so severe, it has felt like both an Unwetter and an un-doing. That is to say, I can see in the people around me how the events of this week have undone certain beliefs about the past or expectations of the future.

At the same time, five days into the ceasefire in Gaza, Palestinians are reckoning with a new un-peace or Unfrieden.