In a new @opiniojuris.bsky.social blog, HRC's @alexakoenig.bsky.social & @bmcg-leyh.bsky.social from @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social reflect on the challenges of running open source investigations labs at public universities: opiniojuris.org/2026/01/12/i...

Innovative but Precarious: The Challenge of Running Open-Source Investigations Labs at Public Universities

[Alexa Koenig, PhD, MA, JD, is a research professor at UC Berkeley School of Law, faculty director of UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Center, and director and co-founder of the center’s Investigations L…

opiniojuris.org

WELKER: Is the Cuban government the Trump administration's next target? MARCO RUBIO: Well, the Cuban government is a huge problem. Yeah. WELKER: Is that a yes? RUBIO: I think they're in a lot of trouble, yes

Just saw this today. This is a transparent attempt to KILL DUE PROCESS by lying about the job of immigration judge and stacking the deck through hiring only bloodthirsty lawyers who want to deport people. This comes after they pushed out over 100 judges deemed too likely to grant relief.

John Pfaff@johnpfaff.bsky.social · 9mo ago

DOJ is now recruiting for immigration judges by calling them “deportation judges.” That’s seems really bad.

U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses as hate symbols But don’t call Republicans Nazis and white nationalists www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses as hate symbols

The military service, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, has drafted a new policy that classifies such items “potentially divisive.”

washingtonpost.com

JIB/JAB is back for a new season - in Episode 41, I speak with @bcfinucane.bsky.social of @crisisgroup.org about the U.S. killings of alleged drug smugglers, and its implications for the international rule of law: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/j...

Q: How many layoffs have you authorized? TRUMP: It'll be a lot. And it'll be Democrat-oriented.

Washington Post dismantled the platform Jamal wrote on. Discarded the fellowship they created in his memory. They fired me unjustly for speaking the truth. But I’ll never stop talking about my friend, writer, and amazing human, Jamal Khashoggi. RIP, Jamal. open.substack.com/pub/karenatt...

Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post, and the Cost of Speaking Out

As Saudi Arabia hosts comedians and courts gamers, the silenced voice of Jamal Khashoggi still echoes.

open.substack.com

Monday’s internet shutdown in Afghanistan impacted virtually all WiFi connections and telephone services. It disrupted one of the last lifelines for many women and girls and also threw businesses, government offices and airports into disarray. https://wapo.st/46JVTzD

To explain: At the start of his opinion, Judge Young includes an anonymous note received by his chambers, which reads “Trump has pardons and tanks..what do you have?” Responding to the note, Young says we have our “magnificent Constitution” and “here’s how that works out in a specific case —“

Anna Bower@annabower.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Omg. I’ve never seen anything like this in a judicial opinion:

On Sep 2 and 15, Trump ordered the United States Navy to destroy small speed boats in the Caribbean. In both cases, all on board died. MARY ELLEN O'CONNELL on the lawlesssness of these targeted killings. verfassungsblog.de/killing-carr...

My optimism here is limited, but I really hope centrist institutions like universities and major news organizations understand that the plan is for the govt to dismantle them. They do not care if you fire your columnists or discipline staff for accurately quoting Kirk. They just want us all gone.

Alejandra Caraballo@esqueer.net · 11mo ago

In a Hitleresque speech, JD Vance says there can be no unity with the left and vows to use the government to dismantle non-profit NGOs and liberal civil society who he says promote violence and terrorism.

The free speech activist who built a list of professors he worked to get fired for their speech must be celebrated for his support of free speech, and anyone who quotes his speech accurately in context will be fired and/or face state punishment by the champions of free speech, do I have that right?

Another US strike on a vessel alleged to be smuggling drugs in the Caribbean. Once again, the specific entity and individuals targeted are not identified—simply labelled as "terrorists." 1/n

The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form.

Interesting interview with leading scholar on genocide, William Schabas. Btw, he was on the committee when I 2012 defended my doctoral thesis on evidence in international criminal trials. His account below on evidence & genocide matches my thesis spot on. www.populismstudies.org/professor-sc...

This statement is progress. But it's late, and it weirdly pretends the attacks on the #ICC and Judge Prost don't exist or don't come from the regime down South. Canada must speak out against those who threaten our judges and diplomats & be clear about how we will protect them.

Anita Anand@anitaoakvilleeast.bsky.social · 11mo ago

This morning, I was pleased to speak with Canadian Judge Kim Prost of the International Criminal Court, an institution of which Canada was a founding member. See my statement below⬇️

📣📣 Very excited to share that my new book, Transitional Justice in the United States of America: Justice for All? (Routledge, Transitional Justice Series, edited by Kieran McEvoy), is now out! 🎉🎉

Full text of the International Association of Genocide Scholars Resolution on the Situation in Gaza: genocidescholars.org/wp-content/u...

Melanie O’Brien, the IAGS president and a professor of international law at the University of Western Australia, said the resolution was “a definitive statement from experts in the field of genocide studies that what is going on on the ground in Gaza is genocide”.

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 12mo ago

Israel committing genocide in Gaza, world’s top scholars on the crime say

1/ Ten years after Russia first intervened in Syria, Airwars has published the final of nearly 5,000 incidents of civilian harm from Russian military strikes in the country, bringing to an end the largest documentation campaign in the organisation’s history. airwars.org/airwars-publ...

Airwars publishes final of 5,000 civilian harm incidents from Russian actions in Syria

Nine-year project involved tracking of thousands of strikes, and the deaths of up to 25,000 civilians

airwars.org

In healthy democracies, discourse is shaped by Verification, Deliberation, and Accountability (VDA). These guardrails help societies sort truth from falsehood and keep power in check.

If a president wanted to become effectively a dictator, he’d likely: 1. Purge govt of non loyalists 2. Weaponize law against opponents 3. Use military to police opposition strongholds 4. Threaten media, schools, businesses w penalties to get them to heel 5. Change election rules in his favor.

BREAKING: It’s official. The Trump regime will deploy the National Guard in D.C. Let’s be clear about what this is. This is NOT about homelessness or crime. This is an authoritarian regime using the US military to seize a Democratic city, terrorize its residents, and lock up Black & Brown people.

Trump Administration Live Updates: President to Deploy National Guard in Washington, D.C.

nytimes.com

"The BBC World Service has compiled material on over 160 cases where children have been shot in Gaza, and found that in 95 cases the child was shot in the head or the chest. In most of these cases the victim was under 12 years old"

I visited the cape coast and elmina castles while in accra last month w @bmcg-leyh.bsky.social it was from here that the dutch and british conducted their transatlantic trade of enslaved africans to plantations in the americas. What centuries long horror.

Essential reading by anyone who can get in front of a principal in their govt & raise hell. Thanks to authors @tomdannenbaum.bsky.social & Alex de Waal @justsecurity.org www.justsecurity.org/117962/mass-... Mass Starvation in Gaza and the Global Imperative

Time Has Run Out: Mass Starvation in Gaza and the Global Imperative

It is time for comprehensive, full-spectrum, sustainable, and coordinated humanitarian action. States globally must act without delay on that imperative.

justsecurity.org

The ICC Pre-Trial Chamber has found that Hungary failed to comply with its obligations under the ICC Statute by not arresting Benjamin Netanyahu when he was in Hungary. The Court refers the matter of Hungary’s non-compliance to the Assembly of States Parties.

Since the start of the Gaza war, leading Israeli legal scholars have written numerous letters raising concerns over grave international law violations. We are publishing these letters for the first time in a collected English edition, with a summary by Kai Ambos. verfassungsblog.de/internationa...

Migrants at a Miami immigration jail were shackled with their hands tied behind their backs and made to kneel to eat food from styrofoam plates “like dogs”, according to a report www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Migrants at Ice jail in Miami made to kneel to eat ‘like dogs’, report alleges

Incident in which migrants were shackled with hands tied of one succession of alleged abuses at jails in Florida

theguardian.com

Republicans voted to defund UNICEF and lie about it so that they don't have to acknowledge that they just voted to kill children. www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...

Republicans Gutted A Program That Saved Millions Of Kids. I Know Because I’m One Of Them.

Congress this week voted to eliminate funding for the United Nations Children's Fund — an organization that has been proven to save lives — including my own.

huffpost.com