Brianne McGonigle Leyh

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.

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...

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 —“

Qutoe from our published author Mary Ellen O'Connell: "The killings in the Carribean are President Trump's most dangerous assaults on the rule of law to date."

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.

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?

This morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a SECOND Kinetic Strike against positively identified, extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility. The Strike occurred while these confirmed narcoterrorists from Venezuela were in International Waters transporting illegal narcotics (A DEADLY WEAPON POISONING AMERICANS!) headed to the U.S. These extremely violent drug trafficking cartels POSE A THREAT to U.S. National Security, Foreign Policy, and vital U.S. Interests. The Strike resulted in 3 male terrorists killed in action. No U.S. Forces were harmed in this Strike. BE WARNED — IF YOU ARE TRANSPORTING DRUGS THAT CAN KILL AMERICANS, WE ARE HUNTING YOU! The illicit activities by these cartels have wrought DEVASTATING CONSEQUENCES ON AMERICAN COMMUNITIES FOR DECADES, killing millions of American Citizens. NO LONGER. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!

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.

⚖️ I hope the book sparks new conversations about justice, repair, and transformation in the U.S. today!
 
👍 For anyone interested in diving deeper, Routledge is offering 20% off the book—see the attached flyer/promo for details. Tell your university libraries!

💥 At a time when Trump and his allies are rolling back civil rights protections, undermining accountability, and openly rejecting human rights and international norms, we must be vigilant. Protecting the rule of law and advancing a more comprehensive justice narrative is more critical than ever.

💡 U.S. initiatives can and should be connected to global human rights and transitional justice norms, creating opportunities to learn from international experiences while adapting them to local realities.

💡 Without federal leadership, funding, and a unifying national narrative, these important efforts will remain piecemeal and unable to fully address systemic injustices.

💡 Civil society has been the driving force behind many initiatives, showing remarkable creativity and persistence—but progress has been fragmented and uneven.

Some key takeaways:
💡 Transitional justice in the U.S. goes beyond truth and reparations. It also includes accountability, reforms, and memorialization, often taking shape in implicit or unexpected ways.

Too often, TJ in the U.S. is only associated with truth commissions and reparations. My research shows that in the U.S. it can and should be seen as much broader. I examine more than 50 examples, both historical and contemporary, that illustrate a fragmented yet powerful justice landscape.

📣📣 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”.

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

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...

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.

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

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.

"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.

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.

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

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.

Quote: “We publish these documents also to make clear that we – as international lawyers – are all together in the struggle for international law, in Gaza and beyond.”

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 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

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...