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In part two, historian and genocide scholar Omer Bartov discusses Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decisions to prolong the plight of the Israeli hostages and the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza in order to remain in power. Bartov also derides the U.S. billionaires who pressured university presidents to break up pro-Palestine student encampments.

In a much-anticipated ruling, the ICJ has unequivocally denounced the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip as illegal. Israeli-American historian and genocide scholar Omer Bartov contextualizes Israeli society’s widespread justification of the occupation and how Israeli politicians and mainstream media pundits are cheering on the torture of Palestinian detainees. He discusses the recent release of footage documenting the rape of Palestinians at the Sde Teiman detention center and the storming of several detention sites by Israeli far-right mobs in defense of Israel’s “right to torture.”

By calling snap parliamentary elections, French President Emmanuel Macron took a political gamble: it resulted in the left-wing alliance, the New Popular Front, winning the most seats, and Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally failing to obtain a majority. Political analyst Yasser Louati breaks down Macron’s crushing electoral defeat and his undemocratic tactics in delaying the appointment of a new Prime Minister until after the Paris Olympics. The results reflect an increasing rejection of Macron’s neo-liberalism and anti-Muslim policies, such as his hijab ban for French female athletes at the Olympics.

Listen to the podcast or read the article. Tune in as we peel back the layers of Elon Musk’s surprising support for Donald Trump. Is the tech titan really championing meritocracy and free speech, or is there a hidden agenda? From self-driving cars to space rockets, we’ll explore how Musk’s business empire might benefit from a Trump presidency. We’ll dive into the contradictions between Musk’s green tech image and Trump’s climate denial, and examine how the world’s richest man views unions, regulations, and the future of AI. Plus, we’ll uncover the personal drama fueling Musk’s political shift. Get ready for a wild ride through the mind of a maverick billionaire and the potential consequences for us all. Is Musk’s vision of “Making America Greater” a technological utopia or a dystopian nightmare? Listen now and decide for yourself!

The assassination of Hamas’ top political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, on Iranian soil was an embarrassment to the Iranian regime and its new president, Masoud Pezeshkian. Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, lays out how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to corner Kamala Harris – should she win the presidency – into steering U.S. policy in the direction of an all-out war in the Middle East. Yet neither is her bearhug of Netanyahu, nor a war, inevitable.

During the hyper-masculine clown car that was the Republic National Convention, Trump and his VP nominee, J.D. Vance, spewed absurd anti-migrant accusations and supposed pro-worker policies. Journalist and author Jonathan M. Katz breaks down the reactionary rhetoric of MAGA Republicans and argues that Vance’s populism is anything but worker-friendly, given his well-established ties to Silicon Valley.

In part 2, French-Palestinian sociologist Dr. Sari Hanafi discusses right-wing movements in France and Italy and the misuse of the descriptor “hard left” or “extreme left” to misrepresent the platform of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s France Unbowed.

Against all expectations, the left coalition, aptly calling itself the “New Popular Front,” was able to win the most seats – 182 out of 577 seats – in the final round of the French parliamentary elections. French-Palestinian sociologist Dr. Sari Hanafi explains how the left quickly formed a political alliance to keep Marine Le Pen’s far-right party, the National Rally, from gaining enough seats to govern in the French parliament. He delves into the weaponization of antisemitism to smear Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of France Unbowed, which is the largest leftist party within the New Popular Front.

A recent Reuters investigation uncovered a scandalous Pentagon operation that sought to discredit the Chinese Sinovac vaccine and sow distrust among the population in the Philippines towards China. Col. Larry Wilkerson discusses previous unlawful Strategic Information Operations (SIOs) launched by the Pentagon and the particular depravity of this operation initiated in Spring 2020 under President Trump’s administration, at a time when countries such as the Philippines did not possess their own vaccine manufacturing capacity and were accepting a free supply of vaccines from China.

As the war of attrition between Russia and Ukraine continues to exact a catastrophic death toll for civilians and military forces alike, the prospect of a lasting peace remains elusive. Latvian politician Igor Pimenov denounces President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, calling it a colonial war that also adversely affects the Russian population. Pimenov lays out his proposal for a multilateral peace agreement between Ukraine, Russia, and its European neighbors. This is part 1 of the discussion.

In recent EU parliamentary elections, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party won 31.4% of the vote, while the coalition representing President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party garnered an embarrassing 14%. Renaud Lambert, journalist at Le Monde Diplomatique, contextualizes the rise of the far-right, and how President Macron’s decision to call snap legislative elections on June 30 and July 7 has prompted the left to form the New Popular Front, an unlikely coalition of four left-wing parties. Will this left alliance garner enough support to torpedo a far-right victory in the French parliament?

As Israel continues its campaign of destruction in Gaza, the situation in the West Bank has deteriorated, with the Israeli Defense Forces as well as settlers killing over 500 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7. Holocaust and genocide studies scholar Dr. Omer Bartov unpacks Israel’s genocidal strategy in the Gaza Strip, and describes the surge of settler violence towards Palestinians. Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has not only armed the settlers but has been incorporating them into Israeli forces operating in the West Bank.

In part 2, political scientist Dr. Saeed Rahnema discusses his experience in the workers' council movement leading up to and during the Iranian Revolution of 1979-1980 and addresses the Islamic Republic's opposition to unions. He also contends that modern-day working classes in the West are ideologically and culturally segmented and that the left has failed to mobilize at numerous historical junctures.

The workers' council movement took shape in several forms across Europe, Russia, Tito's Yugoslavia, Algeria, and Iran. Political scientist Dr. Saeed Rahnema discusses the failure of workers' councils in these different historical contexts and traces out the tensions between workers' control and workers' participation under capitalism. Is real workers' control feasible under capitalism, and do struggles for increased workers' participation and higher wages necessarily lead to workers' control?

Adolph Reed argues that the left should vote for Biden in the coming presidential elections, even though Corporate Democrats defend the underlying system, Trump and the forces that back him represent a more overt form of fascistization.

Paul Jay welcomes Adolph Reed, an academic, author, activist, and organizer, for part two of their discussion. Reed says there should be no illusions about corporate Democrats’ aggressive foreign policies, especially in Gaza and Ukraine, but there should also be no illusions that Trump won't be dangerously worse.

The Biden administration has denounced ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan for seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismael Haniyeh, and Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri. Middle East analyst Assal Rad underscores the U.S. government's complicity in Israeli war crimes in Gaza by arming Israel despite numerous ICJ rulings calling for Netanyahu's government to adhere to its commitments under the Genocide Convention, and most recently, to immediately halt its operation in Rafah. She also discusses the potential implications of the recent deaths of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

In part 2, journalist Tom Stevenson discusses the nuclear threat posited by the ongoing war in Ukraine, with Russia recently staging tactical nuclear exercises close to the Ukrainian border, allegedly in response to provocative statements made by U.K.’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron endorsing Ukraine’s potential use of British-supplied weapons to strike Russian territory. He also breaks down Israel’s destructive aims in Gaza and why certain bloody conflicts, such as the war in Tigray, have been forgotten.

The post-World War II era was characterized by decolonization in Asia and Africa, with resistance movements leading to the unraveling of the British empire in colonies such as former British Kenya, where the Mau Mau launched a lengthy uprising between 1952-1960, as well as in former British India, with the dissolution of the British Raj and creation of an independent India and Pakistan in 1947. Journalist Tom Stevenson provides historical examples illustrating how the rise of American hegemony following the decline of Britain’s imperial power was bolstered by British foreign policy at every juncture.

Due to its prime geographical location in maintaining global value chains and shipping routes, the U.S., via the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), as well as India’s Adani Group and China, are all investing in Sri Lanka’s ports. In part 2, sociologist Asoka Bandarage discusses how many countries and multi-national corporations treat Sri Lanka as testing and dumping grounds, exemplified by reports that the Dali ship, which crashed into the Baltimore Bridge, was carrying hazardous waste to Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan government turned to the IMF for a near $3 billion bailout to repay loans provided by India and Japan, as well as international sovereign bonds issued by foreign creditors such as BlackRock. Dr. Asoka Bandarage, sociologist and author of Crisis in Sri Lanka and the World, suggests that Prime Minister Rajapaksa's declaration of bankruptcy in 2022 and the subsequent IMF bailout under Prime Minister Wickremesinghe was not an absolute necessity, but an attempt to shift Sri Lanka further under the umbrella of Western and Indian institutions, and away from Chinese loans.

Thousands of guns used by Mexican cartels, as well as other gangs throughout Latin America, have been traced back to U.S. gun manufacturers. Journalist Ioan Grillo describes how the flow of guns to Mexico from the U.S. exacerbates the drug war and its accompanying forced displacement of people. Baroncelli and Grillo debate drug legalization and whether it can break up cartels that use American guns to maintain global drug distribution. Cartels increase their profit margins by cutting their product with fentanyl and other lethal substances at the expense of people's lives.

Israel's accusations against a total of 19 UNRWA staff members alleging their involvement in the October 7 attacks prompted 16 countries to pause or suspend $450 million in funding to the agency. A UN investigation resulted in one of the 19 cases being closed and four suspended due to a lack of evidence. Of the 12 staff members initially accused by Israel, 10 of them were fired by UNRWA, while the other two were killed. Israeli claims that 10% of UNRWA employees have ties to Hamas have yet to be substantiated. As Sari Hanafi explains, UNRWA provides critical infrastructure, housing, and education to Palestinians in Jordan, Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza.

Following Israel's killing of 7 WCK aid workers, Western politicians appeared to reconsider their unwavering support of Netanyahu's government, if only for a brief moment. Iran's attack on military targets in Israel, in response to Israel's strike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Damascus, has since been cited by the U.S. and Germany as a justification for continued military support for Israel. Sari Hanafi, Professor of Sociology at the American University of Beirut, discusses Germany's past genocidal war crimes as well as the ICJ case brought by Nicaragua examining Germany's complicity in genocide in Gaza.

Paul is asked about the lack of healthcare resources and growing opposition to immigration in Canada.