Geniuses of Russian marketing. An ad for the Russian military contract reads: "A job for real men." The name of the bus stop: "Meat Processing Plant." Perfect.

A corner of Syria is now effectively a narco-state, run by former Assad officers and organized crime figures, and shielded by Israel. @charleslister1.bsky.social explains how it got this way and why outside powers are running out of options. newlinesmag.com/argument/how...

Q: Admiral Cooper was asked yesterday about the strike on the girls' school-- TRUMP: Well, it's under investigation Q: Are you able to confirm it was a US missile TRUMP: Who are you with? Q: BBC TRUMP: Fake BBC. You mean the ones that put AI in my mouth?

A really interesting @kyivindependent.com piece on the extraordinary Mendel Zelensky-trashing interview, giving context that has been missing elsewhere

In four years, Israel fell 30 points in the press freedom index. And this year’s ranking is the lowest it’s ever been, reflecting censorship, political interference, and killing of journalists in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon.

OTD in 1901 Witold Pilecki was born. He voluntarily entered Auschwitz to prove its existence and was later shot by Stalin's secret police for “working with foreign imperialism”.

Dutch officials are investigating two London-based private intelligence bureaus that collected sensitive personal information for months on employees of the International Criminal Court involved in the sexual assault charges against the chief prosecutor. nltimes.nl/2026/05/12/d...

One of the most chilling stories you’ll read. Exclusive: On Facebook, she was a beloved Damascus hairdresser with 7,000 followers. Inside prison, survivors knew her as the guard with the green pipe. newlinesmag.com/reportage/in...

The thing is: NONE of these people ever see it coming — from Pinochet to Milošević to Duterte. That can be true also for others—in Moscow, Jerusalem & elsewhere—who think they are safe for all time

“The desire not to have an argument means we rarely make an argument.” Deadly & succinct — a political obituary summarised

Tremendous work. “This report does not preempt the judiciary, because it is written alongside it. The documents have been handed over to the Syrian Transitional Justice Authority to facilitate accountability.”

The shameless ability to replace known truths with lies is remarkable. Little wonder that Trump and Putin so often share common language & goals

#ChemicalWeapons #Syria #Justice #WarCrime Syria arrests ex-Assad era general over 2013 chemical attack www.dailysabah.com/world/mid-ea... Syria’s Interior Ministry announced Friday the arrest of a former general from the era of ousted regime leader Bashar Assad over alleged involvement in a ...

The trial of Atef Najib opened in Syria on April 26, with Najib facing charges related to "crimes against the Syrian people." Perpetrators should be held accountable, but accountability only lasts if the process itself is solid. HRW's Hiba Zayadin is in Damascus ⤵️

WHAT a story, truly remarkable, full of such astonishing detail

Excellent 🧵 by @maitelsadany.bsky.social on prosecuting war criminals of the Asaad regime and the need for transitional justice

Great that this report by @coalitionfortheicc.org is gaining interest — governments have until now been absurdly unwilling to confront threat to global justice. Yes this is far from over. But also: yes, resistance to Trump’s destructive urges is badly needed

I’ve been hearing so much anger and disappointment from frontline workers about the BBC investigation into fraudulent asylum claims. One of the most damning responses has come from one of the experts they interviewed, solicitor Ana Gonzalez. It’s really worth reading her response in full:

They never know it’s coming … till it does. This is an important moment — may there be many more such to come

Tomorrow marks 3 years of senseless war in Sudan. A country torn apart by greed & violence. Exposed by failure & apathy from international community. 34m people - two thirds - need humanitarian aid: world's largest humanitarian crisis. My statement: bit.ly/4mqjIUi

Excited & honoured to be working with @hakusuisha.bsky.social on Japanese publication of Prosecuting the Powerful. — can there be a more important moment for discussing these themes?

Me for @prospectmagazine.co.uk on why we need to be a bit more robust than mere handwringing about why justice is allegedly dead. It’s not dead unless we let it be

Turnout is sooooo important — and depends only on each voter’s belief in change. Poland’s historic elections in 2023 had an even higher (!) turnout than when Poles gave Communism electoral knockout blow which led to fall of Berlin Wall five months later www.theguardian.com/world/2023/o...

Congrats on brilliant & unmissable reporting. Also serves to remind of unhelpful competing narratives, “it’s all a conspiracy against him, a brave voice!” vs “Gaza warrants were intended to distract from his guilt!” Facts can just be… facts — & need investigation, not conspiracies from either side

The degrees of failure are surreal. eg @nytimes consciously downplays Trump’s deranged „open the Fuckin’ Strait” line — merely „Trump escalates threat” as if all is normal. But… you can’t run away from insanity. Looking at newspapers in 1938 and early 1939 — too many parallels

Muntazini was a leader in the fight against impunity for serious crimes. The international community should defend his legacy by pushing for meaningful justice in #DRC while ensuring that the Special Criminal Court in #CAR has the resources it needs to continue its work. www.hrw.org/news/2026/04...

If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe it: In the middle of a war against Iran, Trump is confused about who is that country’s president. He thinks there’s a new one. Iran has the same president today that it had before the war, Masoud Pezeshkhian.

“Nazism was punished for its crimes, not met with a partial easing of sanctions”. Can’t argue with that

The last line of this story is the absolute best (and best held till the end)

Truly remarkable. Destruction of energy & other infrastructure is one of list of crimes mentioned by #ICC in arrest warrants for crimes in Ukraine and Gaza alike. Trump boasts of such crimes ahead of time –- no doubt to be followed (again) by silence elsewhere

Pete Hegseth strikes two black and two female officers from promotion list. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/27/u...

www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc... bsky.app/profile/robe...

"Russia is close to completing a phased shipment of drones, medicine and food to Iran, according to western intelligence reports that detail Moscow’s efforts to keep its embattled partner fighting" giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Democrat Emily Gregory will now be Trump’s state representative in FL after she flipped a district Trump won by 11 points in 2024. She defeated Trump-endorsed Jon Maples.

Tickets still available! Come hear great @johnsimpsonnews.bsky.social talking to me on justice themes tomorrow oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-e...

A "military operation." Maybe even a special military operation?

Published BEFORE the attack on the four ambulances....

Americans' sympathy for Palestinians is higher than Americans' sympathy for Israelis for the first time ever. Is that because of big spending by the Palestine lobby? Or is it possible that money isn't everything in politics, and millions of Americans form opinions based on reaction to events?

This is really interesting — and welcome. For years, Germany has argued that its own history means it must stand with Israel in all circumstances, no matter what. Now it has (partly) recognised that defending Netanyahu and alleged genocide = a worse look

“This man fought our war for 10 years." The reward for fighting for Trump's America is discrimination & death. Afghan man who fought w US forces & was legally evacuated to the US after the fall of Kabul dies within a day of being arrested by #ICE officers: www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

“But, as you see, it's a beautiful day, the Strait of Hormuz is open and people are having a wonderful time.”

Can we just take a moment to recognise the US "Secretary for War" has explicitly stated the United States intention to violate, among others the: 🚨Hague Convention 🚨Geneva Convention (III) 🚨Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court 🚨Article 40- Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions

This, 💯

Not even the Nazis expressly announced they were committing war crimes. Indeed, at Nuremberg war crimes were denied. But here, openly, the US Secretary for Defense is explicitly admitting to committing war crimes.

⚡️ 'Murders for the sake of Russian propaganda' — Ukraine identifies 13 collaborators accused of war crimes in Izium. "They thought the occupation would hide their faces, but they were wrong," Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko said.

This may not get huge headlines but.. this Belarus story is really interesting, — ways that ICC can investigate/prosecute cases changed significantly/creatively in past few years, meaning leaders of Russia, Myanmar, Israel and now Belarus are all in the frame, despite “non-membership”

One of my favourite BlueSky accounts, for delivering daily one-liners which are far too close to reality

✋ Former USG war crimes lawyer here. Apropos of SecDef's remarks this morning: Denial of quarter—even the declaration of no quarter—is a war crime. And recognized as such by the US Government. From DoD's Manual for Military Commissions.

By blocking Chevening scholars from coming to the UK the Home Secretary has officially put paid to any arguments that her hostile anti-immigration/asylum policies are anything other than right wing xenophobia. These are the best and the brightest, and she is blocking them.

Good clear analysis of what increasingly looks like a very muddy mess. Lots of potential losers — including most obviously #ICC itself