Phil Orchard

US pressures Vanuatu at UN over ICJ’s landmark climate change ruling A cable seen by Al Jazeera says the US 'strongly objects' to the island nation seeking support for the ICJ's ruling.

The US is seeking to pressure Vanuatu to withdraw its draft UNGA resolution which will recognise the ICJ ruling that countries have a legal obligation to act on climate change: www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/...

Nazi concentration camp prisoner population by year

ICE is currently holding around 80,000 detainees. Nazi Germany didn't reach this number in its formal camp system until 1942, nine years after seizing power and three years into the war.

The U.S. killed two more civilians in a boat strike today. A survivor will likely die at sea.

Filed under things children will read in the future when they learn about mass human rights violations committed during this period in US history

My Daughter Lived the Liam Ramos Nightmare. It Turned Out Worse for Us. The constant threats took a toll on my health. My daughter’s health deteriorated even faster.

Kelly Vargas writes about what happened to her, her husband, and their 6yo daughter in the family camp in Texas.

Filth, illness, medical abuse—her child has lasting complications from being injured by a staff member.

We don't know the half of what's happening in the camps, but we know enough.

Federal Agents Left Behind “Death Cards” After Capturing Immigrants ICE agents dropped customized ace of spades playing cards, recalling a practice by U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War.

Federal Agents Left Behind “Death Cards” After Capturing Immigrants

ICE agents dropped customized ace of spades playing cards, recalling a macabre practice by U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War.

theintercept.com/2026/02/03/i...

Human Rights Watch researchers resign after report on Palestinian right of return blocked The organization claims the report, which finds Israel’s denial of the right of return is a crime against humanity, is ‘paused pending further analysis and research’

Two HRW employees that make up the entirety of the organization's Israel and Palestine program are stepping down after the leadership blocked a report that deems Israel’s denial of Palestinian refugees the right of return a "crime against humanity." www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...

A correction for the ages (from The Guardian's review of 'Melania'):

Paul Blume @PaulBlume FOX9 • 1h SHOCKING FEDERAL COURT MOMENT: DOJ attorney Julie Le, "The system sucks, this job sucks" to Judge Jerry Blackwell who pressed her on why so many court orders are being ignored by ICE/Trump admin. She asked to be held in contempt just so she could get 24 hours of sleep. @FOX9 Q 39 1）419 • 1.3K Ill 124K 贝企 Paul Blume *• @PaulBlume_FOX9 Judge Blackwell had ordered the SHOW CAUSE hearing because he was frustrated that in 5 Habeas cases he was presiding over, he felt his orders were being ignored, leaving immigrant detainees unconstitutionally locked up for days. Ms. Le said that govt lawyers just cannot keep up. 3:37 PM • Feb 3, 2026 • 13.3K Views

I have confirmed the gist of this report out of federal court in Minnesota today from a source familiar.

If you have more information about the District of Minnesota—either the court or the U.S. Attorney's Office—and how they are handling all of this, please reach out. I am at crg.32 on Signal.

What are the odds? The RBA has raised interest rates – for no real reason other than to meet the desires of speculators | Greg Jericho The prospect of a cash rate increase on Tuesday changed dramatically over the past month. One wonders if the Reserve Bank listened more to the commentariat than the data

My take on the interest rate rise.

The RBA wants unemployment to rise to prevent high wages growth at a time when wages are growing slower than inflation. Yeah that makes sense.

www.theguardian.com/business/gro...

In many of the first generation of modern concentration camp systems (near the turn of the twentieth century), the vast majority of deaths were caused by disease and malnutrition. Most of the victims were women and children.

convergence of Trump policies is exponential escalation of the catastrophes he has unleashed

wow

Here's a thread that you should all read, even though it will make you want to punch a wall

BREAKING: A federal judge has ordered that 5-year-old Liam Ramos and his father be freed from ICE detention.

Families don't belong in detention.

And with one email Chomsky joins that long list of left wing scholars you pick up with tweezers and handle carefully because of the dirty mess they made of themselves...

Israel accepts health authorities’ Gaza death toll is broadly accurate, saying 70,000 have died Israeli military’s U-turn in accepting official figures comes after years of attacking data as ‘Hamas propaganda’

After two years of arguing it is Hamas propaganda, the Israeli Defence Forces have accepted the figure that 70,000 people have been killed in Gaza is ‘broadly accurate’: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Not just any journalist, she won the goddamn Triple Crown of broadcast journalism (an Emmy, a Peabody, and a Murrow) in 2024 for her reporting on Gaza.

This is textbook censorship of the highest degree

An extraordinary document. Read it.

“Attached to this order is an appendix that identifies 96 court orders that ICE has violated in 74 cases. … ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.”

Interested in getting the Oxford Handbook of Norms Research in International Relations that I co-edited with @sassangholiagha.bsky.social Gholiagha and @antjewiener.bsky.social ?
OUP is providing a 30% discount when ordered from them using the code AUFLY30: global.oup.com/academic/pro...

The Oxford Handbook of Norms Research in International Relations Abstract. Norms research in International Relations (IR) has developed sufficiently over the past 35 years to become its own subdiscipline within the field

academic.oup.com/edited-volum...
Please feel free to access The Oxford Handbook of Norms Research in International Relations edited by @sassangholiagha.bsky.social @philorchard.bsky.social @antjewiener.bsky.social
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They are never, ever going to win in Minnesota.

The 5-year-old arrested by ICE In Minnesota is detained at Dilley. We reported on conditions there in the below article.

Parents said the food was contaminated with mold and worms & that children were so under so much stress that they were hitting their own faces & wetting themselves.

I came to Minneapolis to report on what's going on, and one of the main questions I showed up with is "just what is the scale of the resistance?" After all, we're all used to the news calling Portland a "war zone" or whatever when it's just some protests in one part of town.

Have a friend my age who contracted polio as a child—because she was a refugee living on a beach in an impoverished country.

Not clear why a society would voluntarily reintroduce that particular scourge.

"I'll speak today about the rupture in the world order, the end of the pleasant fiction and the dawn of a brutal reality in which great-power geopolitics is unconstrained."

An extraordinary speech from Canada's prime minister.

The ARC’s processes are back to being farcical, @jasonclaremp.bsky.social

You advocated for a streamlined, efficient, faster ARC, but all that progress has been undone.

How can they claim to fund “innovation” with more than a year between initial proposal & outcomes? It should be 6 months, not 16!

ARC’s new schedule is at www.arc.gov.au/funding-rese...

It will now take A YEAR, or more, for researchers to know whether their grants are successful or not.

For example, early-career researchers are to submit DECRA proposals 11 March this year but they may not be announced 'til 9 March NEXT YEAR!

World news María Corina Machado says she presented Trump with her Nobel peace prize medal The Venezuelan opposition leader did not confirm whether the US president accepted the award

breathtakingly embarrassing for absolutely everyone involved lol

Really interesting piece by adhaque@bsky.social arguing Myanmar may have changed its position at the ICJ, arguing its actions were part of a counterterrorism response, rather than (as they had argued previously) an intent to deport the Rohingya. He suggests this defence is less likely to succeed.