Epic piece

I can't believe the EU thinks it's a good idea to start negotiations on sharing biometric data with the US at this particular point in time

The death toll has risen to 80 and will likely continue to climb www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...

Forty unnecessary deaths. Whether civilian or military is irrelevant. There is no armed conflict and no state of war. These deaths resulted from an illegal invasion of one country into the sovereign territory of another. 1/2 www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/w...

The New York Times has just confirmed that 40 civilians died in President Trump's invasion. This is the aftermath in one area

Hi @nytimes.com 👋. Fixed it for you.

🤷🏻‍♂️

Reading this EU response, the priorities are telling…international law and the UN Charter get a mid-thread mention. EU citizens’ safety gets the closing line. Pro-tip for fans of international law: if it’s actually a principle, lead with it.

The US drone strikes on Venezuela this morning are a direct extension of the Trump administration completely eschewing international law and the guardrails that it was built to provide. Countries that still find value in the rule of law must condemn these strikes as strongly as possible.

This is a dangerous escalation by the United States and yet another clear violation of international law. The international community must condemn this illegal, colonial conduct in the strongest terms possible before it gets worse.

"The lesson here is not that the Obama and Trump administrations are identical. Let me be clear: they are not. But ... once legal lines are blurred, future administrations, especially those less committed to ... the rule of law, will simply drive straight through them." - @jessicadorsey.bsky.social

@jessicadorsey.bsky.social : "If the architects of the post-9/11 lethal-force framework want to argue that today’s abuses represent a sharp break from the past, then they must first grapple honestly with the ways in which the past enabled the present." opiniojuris.org/2025/12/14/d...

How should #AI decision support systems be used in conflict? This excellent podcast with Heidi Kandiel (@icrc.org) & @jessicadorsey.bsky.social explores the risks they raise for compliance with #IHL & the need to ensure they support rather than replace human judgment. www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-9b...

If you missed the recent meeting of the CCW GGE on LAWS, the latest #ResponsibleBytesPodcast episode with @jessicadorsey.bsky.social goes into the details of the meeting & some of the key takeaways. You can listen to this episode anywhere you get your podcasts 🎧

How Israel used Microsoft technology to spy on Palestinians – podcast www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2...

Study highlighting the deskilling aspect of integrating AI; this time in medicine but concerns are the same within the military domain. Commanders who rely too heavily on AI-DSS also risk deskilling and cognitive erosion. Writing about this currently, expanding on this piece: hcss.nl/wp-content/u...

🕊️ 76 years since the adoption of the #GenevaConventions To mark this anniversary, the #ICRC will soon release the updated GCIV Commentary. Watch the teaser to learn more about why this remains essential in today’s conflicts. 🎥 www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8Ng...

Read the whole thing. Watch all the videos. Dry your eyes. Then do something meaningful to stop this inhumanity. Thanks for the incredible work, @manisha.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

“Intelligence drawn from the enormous repositories of phone calls held in Azure had been used to research and identify bombing targets in Gaza.” This reveals how large-scale human rights violations can fuel AI systems that enable genocide. 1/2 www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

“If we do not act now, there will be no one left in Gaza to tell anyone’s story. And that silence – those deaths – will be on us.” — CPJ’s CEO @jodieginsberg.bsky.social‬ writes in an op-ed for ‪@theguardian.com‬ Read more⤵️ www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

There's still some hope in the courts: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/30/u...

ICRC: "On Thursday, the Red Cross Field Hospital received 17 wounded women, with 2 declared dead on arrival. Those responsive said they had been trying to access distribution sites." "The situation in Gaza is appalling." "People cannot continue to live like this. More can & must be done."

Sigrid Kaag over de uithongering in Gaza, en de blaam die Nederland en andere landen van de internationale gemeenschap treft: "Ik kan niet meer uitleggen waarom de wereld toekijkt." www.nporadio1.nl/fragmenten/n...

Very rare for the ICRC: "Every political hesitation" in failing to bring the "abhorrent" practice of extreme deprivation and indiscriminate attacks to an immediate and decisive end "will forever be judged as a collective failure to preserve humanity in war" States "must do more"

A horrifying statement published today by the Editorial Committee of the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency. "Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die" Translation from French to English by @cnorristrent.bsky.social:

Western allies condemn ‘horrifying’ civilian killings in Gaza https://on.ft.com/4m9ugpO

Every morning a similar story, civilians waiting for food or water being shot at by the IDF. Some die, some are injured (without access to hospitals). Some get bits of sustenance, some continue to be pushed toward starvation. The cruelty is the point, it seems. www.nytimes.com/article/isra...

"Suddenly, tanks surrounded us and trapped us as gunshots and strikes rained down. We were trapped for around two hours,” said Ehab Al-Zei, who had been waiting for flour. ”I will never go back again. Let us die of hunger, it’s better.”

BBC Verify dug into Israel's widespread demolitions in #Gaza. Main legal points: ✖️It isn't plausible that every case is covered by imperative military necessity. Destruction of property in occupied territory without imperative mil necessity is a war crime. www.bbc.co.uk/news/resourc...

Further Israeli attacks would of course violate int'l law & implicate US legal restrictions on arms transfers. US has leverage to stop it. And any such "mowing the grass" strikes would likely be intended to draw the US in again to directly (and illegally) attack Iran. www.wsj.com/world/middle...

My government is imposing sanctions on a UN mandate holder for doing her job, including calling on the ICC to do its job: holding perpetrators of international crimes accountable for their actions. This is behavior worthy of a crime family, not a member of the United Nations.

New: my very long post @opiniojuris.bsky.social explaining why the "last window of opportunity" test for self-defence, used by both the #US and #Israel to justify attacking #Iran, is not the law -- and shouldn't be. opiniojuris.org/2025/06/24/t...

The whole piece is well worth a full read. But it's important to contextualize how we got here: a long trajectory of incremental dismantling of the international legal order: administration by administration, precedent by precedent, president by president...

“So, bottom line – all of these arguments are really trying to dress up purely preventative action into something more legally respectable. These arguments are not just weak, they are fatally weak.” Peak Marko. Hang it in the Louvre.

Quick Monday-morning calculation: at $500M per GBU-57 (not even considering the $2.2B price tag on the B-52 bombers), America’s illegal bombing mission cost over $7,000,000,000. That’s twice as much as the annual budget of the United Nations. nypost.com/2025/06/21/w...

It took less than a day for the mission creep to set in.

So he’s on record that the threat was not imminent, then. This is not a hard one for the rest of the world to condemn, if we’re interested in salvaging a modicum of and fighting to resurrect what might still be left of international law

How I feel Sunday will go

The U.S. strikes on Iran fueled fears that Israel's war with Tehran could escalate to a wider regional conflict, and other countries began reacting with calls for diplomacy and words of caution. Here is a look at reaction from governments and officials around the world.

What a strange way to announce your aggressive, illegal use of force.

Important work by @elkeschwarz.bsky.social Britain’s plan for defence AI risks the ethical and legal integrity of the military theconversation.com/britains-pla...

Defence companies are making unattainable promises about the effectiveness and safety of #AutonomousWeapons Don’t believe the hype. @elkeschwarz.bsky.social explains why ⤵️

In de moderne oorlog kiest AI wie er zal sterven, schrijft collega @jessicadorsey.bsky.social en Marta Bo van @tmcasser.bsky.social In tegenstelling tot autonome wapensystemen blijven AI-DSS grotendeels buiten het publieke debat en de internationale regelgeving. www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/...

Very problematic analysis here; given the current adminstration's fetish with "more lethality," it dangerously crescendos by proposing cross-border armed force for law enforcement. The only thing we should be drone-striking here is the unable/unwilling concept. lieber.westpoint.edu/cross-border...

In a question posed by @jessicadorsey.bsky.social to upwards of 50 military lawyers at the annual conference of the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War in Galway, only one considered that the principle of proportionality is being applied meaningfully. A grim state of affairs.

📢 Be a part of the dialogue! AI in Military Decision Making: A Dialogue on How to Enhance IHL Compliance Can AI tools help uphold the laws of war? Join the conversation → www.icrc.org/en/event/eve... #IHL #MilitaryAI #ICRC #AIinWarfare #HumanitarianLaw