In May 2023, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike. Just two months later, the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) joined them on the picket lines. Yet, while Hollywood suddenly ground to a halt due to these strikes, production continued and continues in “Hollywood North” without resolution.

On January 26, the International Court of Justice delivered an interim ruling in response to South Africa’s charge that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. This is a clarifying moment in modern history—the day the “rules-based international order” was given the coup de grâce, not by its enemies but by its authors. The gloves were off and so were the masks.

What will follow this historic ICJ ruling? Unless the US exerts leverage on Israel to rein in its genocidal military campaign against Palestinians, little will happen. While ICJ rulings are legally binding, Israel has never let international law moderate its violence, whether the massacre of civilians or the expansion of illegal settlements.

Western economists continue to argue that the Chinese economy is heading down the drain. As Michael Roberts argues, this critique is not factually correct, and it aims to distract attention from the reality that the Western capitalist economies (apart from the United States) are floundering in stagnation and near slump.

Since the current genocidal assault on Gaza got underway, we are seeing a redoubling of efforts to take the McCarthyist process further still, with even moderate criticism of Israel now treated as anti-Jewish hatred. Those mounting the charge are extending their efforts into the realms of criminal law and the policing of public protests.

A poem in memory of Hiba Abu Nada and Dr. Refaat Alareer. Abu Nada was a beloved figure in the Palestinian literary community and the author of the novel Oxygen is Not for the Dead. She was killed by an Israeli airstrike on October 20. Alareer was a poet, writer, literature professor, and activist. He was killed in a targeted Israeli airstrike on December 6.

Statements of political support by the US and Canada that Israel is abiding by the laws of war—contrary to the facts—cannot shield Israel or its allies from their legal obligations under the Genocide Convention. Those obligations—including to prevent genocide—are created via treaty and are interpreted by courts, the highest of which is the International Court of Justice.

A century ago, newspapers were the only fish in the pond, but the industry began contracting in the 1920s when radio came along. This new medium didn’t kill off newspapers despite predictions that it would. Television likewise didn’t kill off either newspapers or radio. Will the Internet prove the meteor that finally kills off the dinosaurs? It hasn’t yet, and it’s been 30 years.

It is clear from the ICJ’s ruling that it is fully aware of the magnitude of Israel’s crimes. This makes the decision not to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza all the more distressing. But the court did deliver a devastating blow to the mystique Israel has used since its founding: it made the word genocide, when applied to Israel, credible.

For legitimate reasons, the mainstream media today is struggling to maintain an audience and set political agendas as it did in the past. Young people no longer read establishment newspapers or watch CNN or CBC in the evenings. They now rely on social media for their news; they are interested in watching Palestinians document their lives.