Ugh, we're back to writing about Trump
+ I NEED to know - do you snooze your alarm or get up right away?
My crushes!! I forgot how much I LOVED getting all your emails sprinkling in throughout the day as a welcome reprieve to the world — hope you never stop doing that. This morning I did something I NEVER do which is sooooo boring to write about/ read about probs, but my alarm went off at 5am and I just… snoozed it. And then I snoozed it again, and again, and again and then it was 6:21 and I was like ‘LUCE YOU HAVE A NEWSY TO WRITE GET UP.’ Not sure why I’m telling you this, but I am sure that I’d like for you to vote on whether you snooze your alarm in today’s mundane poll.
Love love love you, enjoy the newsy xx
⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖ IN THE NEWS⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖
A quick guide to South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel
I told you yesterday that I was going to give you a brief explainer on South Africa’s International Court of Justice case against Israel, and since then I found this guide from Al Jazeera that of COURSE explains it better than I ever could, so I figured it would be better if I shared bits of that instead.
Here’s what the ICJ is:
“The International Court of Justic, also called the World Court, is the highest United Nations legal body that can adjudicate on issues between member states. It is separate from the International Criminal Court (ICC), which tries individuals in criminal cases.
The ICJ comprises 15 judges appointed for nine-year terms through elections at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and the Security Council (UNSC). The court’s rulings are binding and cannot be appealed by member states, but it depends on the UNSC to enforce the decisions.”
Here’s why the case was brought forward:
“The South African government brought the case against Israel on December 29, accusing it of “genocidal acts” in its assaults on Gaza.
Palestinians and pro-Palestine campaigners around the world are hoping the ICJ might halt Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza, which has seen more than 23,000 people killed – nearly 10,000 of them children.”
What is South Africa demanding?
South Africa is requesting that the ICJ move urgently to prevent Israel from committing further crimes in the strip using “provisional measures” – essentially an emergency order that can be applied even before the main case begins.
It argues that provisional measures are necessary “to protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people under the Genocide Convention, which continue to be violated with impunity”.
What comes next in the genocide case? (This is actually from The New York Times but felt important to include)
After two days of public hearings concluded on Friday, with South Africa presenting its case and Israel making its defense, the judges will deliberate behind closed doors. A final ruling will probably take years to come, but the court could issue a decision sooner, perhaps within weeks, on an interim measure seeking to stop Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza within weeks.
The decisions are legally binding with no possibility of appeal, but the court has few means of enforcing them.
As that last paragraph stated, the initial proceedings are likely to go on for a few weeks, but the wider case could take a few years.
If you want more info, go here!
Trump won in Iowa, celebrates by attending his defamation trial
Big news in Trumpworld, which ugh, I think we’ll be writing about a bit this year - sorry! First, he won Iowa by an ‘unprecendented’ margin, getting 51% of the votes.
He didn’t just beat the rest of the field. He won by a historic margin, trouncing his chief rivals, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley. One longshot contender, Vivek Ramaswamy, ended the night by dropping out and endorsing him. - Politico
These were the Iowa caucuses, and if you’re confused about what caucuses are, they’re basically one of the ways that Republicans or Democrats can select their candidates (the other way is via ‘primaries’ which is more popular.) If you’re still confused or want to know more - here’s a big explainer.
But there's nothing like attending a defamation trial against you to dampen your comedown! Shortly after his victory, Trump appeared at a courthouse in New York, where he faces a defamation lawsuit filed by E. Jean Carroll. She accused Trump of rape and is suing him for damages related to comments he made in 2019 regarding her and the allegations.
▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။|||| CULTURE VULTURE ▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။||||
UM NEW SEASON ALERT
This section of the newsy was brought to you by Neon, our fave NZ streaming service! Sign up and get a free 7-day trial at neontv.co.nz!!
I’ve just returned from a winter in Lisbon where it was getting dark SO early and all I wanted to do was sit down with something NEW to watch!! And yes - now I’m back somewhere hot and summery, but look - after a day at the beach I’m still looking for something to blob out to at night. I’ve been recommended by a bunch of people to start watching True Detective: Night Country which is gorge news because Neon (our fave New Zealand streaming service) have just dropped the latest season. Also, this season is headlined by JODIE FOSTER as the lead female detective, alongside Kali Reis, which means I’m already sold and you should be too. Can’t wait to watch it together (let me know if there’s any lore I need to catch up on before I dive in plz.)
If you wanna watch with me, sign up and get a free 7-day trial at neontv.co.nz!!
Also in culture:
Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo and Dua Lipa are all gonna be performing at the Grammys this year
I will read ANYTHING about Laufey - the singer bringing jazz to Gen Z
✿⊰𖡼𖥧𖤣❀ BEL CHIMES IN ❀𖤣𖥧𖡼⊱✿
This section is written by my all-time crush - and co-author of our debut book Make It Make Sense - Bel Hawkins. Each week Bel comes here to chime in about the things she’s been loling at, yearning for, or totally mystified by. Luckily for us, she also writes our Sunday newsy for all our paying supporters who want to make sense of the world!! Upgrade your plan to get her newsy here!
Crushes! Simply cannot believe it's been a whole month since we last spoke, when we were all hurling ourselves into one 'let's pick this up in January' email at a time. After that, I took myself on a clean-slating (new concept, very into it) hiking trip along the cliffs of Portugal in a simple bootcut exercise pant, had gorge encounters with strangers at the beach, restored the brain capacity and had a few serious deliberations over whether or not I could one day become a fisherman? A gorge reader wrote to us over the break referencing the concept of 'burrowing' — a phase that comes before Phoenixing and I really think there's something to it! So sending 🌹to anyone gently approaching 2024 still ~ figuring it all out ~
I'm super excited to be back writing to you each week, this year with this new style of Chimes designed to make you lol and ache at what's moving in the world on any given week. If you like them, well, you just might find more in our book that's out in July this year??? Life's a movie. Love ya!!
☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★ ON THE WEB ☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★
Literally all I want to share from the internet world today is the latest essay by rayne fisher-quann. It’s about grief. It reads like a knife:
All my computers know that I’m grieving. On Instagram, the algorithm serves me ads for ketamine therapy, online counselling services, and an app that describes itself, mystifyingly, as “Duolingo for anger”. It nudges me towards brightly-coloured infographics that say “HOW TO BE HAPPIER” or “Rough Patches Are Normal :)” in cheery, organic font, and then it politely directs my attention towards a baby-pink girlblogger post about suicidal depression and thinly-veiled anorexia.
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The alarms are more like reminders of what time it is rather than a real demand to get out of bed
People who get up right away are otherworldly I don’t get it