Derek Ward

(1) The accused declared, ordered, or otherwise indicated that there shall be no survivors or surrender accepted; (2) The accused thereby intended to threaten an adversary or to conduct hostilities such that there would be no survivors or surrender accepted; (3) It was foreseeable that circumstances would be such that a practicable and reasonable ability to accept surrender would exist; (4) The accused was in a position of effective command or control over the subordinate forces to which the declaration or order was directed; and (5) The conduct took place in the context of and was associated with hostilities.

✋ 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.

‘Medical records showed the detainee was taken to hospital in the summer of 2024 with injuries including broken ribs, a punctured lung and rectal damage, according to Israeli media reports on the indictment.’

We’ve never, ever had this before. A President completely untethered to truth. I mean completely untethered to truth. That’s such a bad thing. But you know what’s even worse? Way, way too many people don’t care. And way too much of the media no longer cares.👇

Trump allies are quietly buying up the information space.

They own most social media platforms and will soon own a massive chunk of traditional television networks.

Handing the entire public discourse over to a few partisan billionaires is incredibly dangerous

Meanwhile, in Vermont…

People are getting gassed for protesting ICE. Yep, that’s still going on. America sure is great, isn’t it?
#Vermont #ICE #SouthBurlington

Also known as "using insider knowledge for war profiteering."

8 March, Reform Deputy Leader Richard Tice,: ‘We wld be helping the Americans and the Israelis in any way they saw appropriate’ GB News 

👇

“Never once did Reform promise to cut council tax” insists an angry Nigel Farage to Sky News.

Here's some of the leaflets Reform have been putting out ahead of the local elections

🚨👀 Nigel Farage says Reform UK never promised to cut council tax. An election leaflet says otherwise...

Starmer needs to go on the offensive regarding the condition of our armed forces.

In 2010 the RN had 24 frigates/destroyers he inherited just 13 in 2024

In 2010 the RAF had 250 fighter aircraft he inherited just 150 in 2024.

In 2010 the British Army had 100,000 troops, he inherited just 74,000.

The story of the Paper Boat. A British Geriatric Society blog from 2018. Let me know if you’d like the full text & I’ll send it to you.

The story of the Paper Boat was a blog I wrote back in 2018 for @gerisoc.bsky.social.

It was an analogy that I found useful to explain to patients and families how difficult it can be to predict the future accurately.

Now as I and my friends get older, I find myself sharing it once again.

🧵1/n

The Chilcot Checklist, for how to optimally plan and execute military operations in light of learning from the Iraq War. It states: The Chilcot Checklist 1 VISION: why do we care? What does this mean for British interests? What are the risks of acting or doing nothing, including in the longer term? What is different now? 2 ANALYSIS: what IS happeNINg NOw? What are your sources of ground truth/evidence? Have assumptions been exposed to analytical tools or external challenge? 3 SCENarIOS: what might happen next? Have you looked at a range of options, and scenarios and consequences that could flow from these? 4 OptIONS: what should we do? Have you designed your options collaboratively, built in challenge and presented Ministers with clear information on risks, opportunities and costs? 5 LegaL ImpLICatIONS: how do we eNSure actION IS lawful? What is the wider legal context? Are Ministers aware of any legal risks? What are the policy implications? How will you ensure that any international legal basis remains sound if circumstances change? 6 POLICY AND Strategy: what does suCCeSS LOOk LIke? Does a clear strategy, and a feasible course of action that will meet policy objectives, exist? Is the approach supported by analysis? 7 reSOurCE: what do we need to deLIVer? What are the resource implications of your options? 8 PLANNING AND DOING: how should we do it? Have you planned for a range of possible contingencies? Who is accountable and responsible for what? 9 POLICY perfOrmaNCE: how wILL you mONItor performaNCe? How will you measure and evaluate success/failure? 10 EVALuatION: IS the pOLICy workINg? When and how will you review this policy? Has the context changed? Have UK objectives/interests changed? Do you need to change direction?

Way beyond military strategy & operations this checklist makes sense

Like any critical situation though the emotional urge maybe to think it’s a unique crisis & you should throw out the rules, my learning from Critical Care in health is that in crises you lean into what you’ve learnt not panic away

Uh oh looks like I may have triggered the snowflakes over at GB News ❄️

The School of Biosciences at University of Birmingham is recruiting FIVE Assistant/Associate Profs in areas including fungal biology, plant science and bioengineering. Full details below 🍄🌾🧬🧫

23 year old Ruben Ray Martinez’s last words? “I’m sorry sir”.

ICE shot him 3 times and killed him.

Renee Good’s last words? “It’s ok I’m not mad”.

Alex Pretti’s last words? “Are you ok?”

These are the people DHS calls domestic terrorists. Threats. Aggressors.

Abolish ICE

Quietly, calmly and forensically, BBC just dismantled the Trump communications shitshow on Iran.

No hyperbole, just laying out an unprecedented military, diplomatic and reputational shambles.

Worth a watch.

(🎥 BBC News/BBC Verify)

"would otherwise receive immediate access to welfare and social housing" is BS.

Correct: "after 5 years working in a care home, would be eligible to apply for welfare and social housing on the same basis as the rest of us."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Deliberately misleading/disingenous.

Abbott posted then deleted a clip from a video game.

The High Court observed that caselaw confirms that ‘legitimate protest can be offensive at least to some – and on occasions must be, if it is to have impact’.

'Blasphemy' is not a crime. Big win for free speech today.

Epstein Files Are Missing Records About Woman Who Made Claim Against Trump

So, the Trump DOJ failed to release files concerning an Epstein accuser with claims involving Trump... but did manage to accidentally reveal that the files existed?

Americans are fed up with this administration’s mix of incompetence and corruption. Time to come clean.

Gallego: "They're going and racially profiling people and rounding up Americans until they can prove their citizenship. That money came from kicking millions and millions of Americans off Medicaid. It was the same bill. They cut Medicaid to expand ICE."

Reform UK have suggested introducing a new ‘patriotic curriculum’ based on Christianity to give children ‘things to take pride in again’. However, there is already plenty that children and young people can and do take pride in. 🧵

Economies for Healthier Lives A programme to strengthen relationships between economic development and health.

Our Economies for Healthier Lives programme funded five projects providing insights about developing effective partnerships that improve health through economic development, approaches to support these partnerships, and insights for policymakers.

Explore our learnings and policy recommendations ⬇️

👀The federal judges in West Virginia, where ICE has been pulling over and detaining people on the freeway, are literally screaming about ICE's tactics.

"It is an assault on the constitutional order," Judge Goodwin says. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

The political effects of X's feed algorithm https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10098-2 Received: 16 December 2024 Accepted: 4 January 2026 Published online: 18 February 2026 Open access • Check for updates Germain Gauthier,5, Roland Hodler?5, Philine Widmer35 & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya3,4,5 m Feed algorithms are widely suspected to influence political attitudes. However, previous evidence from switching off the algorithm on Meta platforms found no political effects'. Here we present results from a 2023 field experiment on Elon Musk's platform X shedding light on this puzzle. We assigned active US-based users randomly to either an algorithmic or a chronological feed for 7 weeks, measuring political attitudes and online behaviour. Switching from a chronological to an algorithmic feed increased engagement and shifted political opinion towards more conservative positions, particularly regarding policy priorities, perceptions of criminal investigations into Donald Trump and views on the war in Ukraine. In contrast, switching from the algorithmic to the chronological feed had no comparable effects. Neither switching the algorithm on nor switching it off significantly affected affective polarization or self-reported partisanship. To investigate the mechanism, we analysed users' feed content and behaviour. We found that the algorithm promotes conservative content and demotes posts by traditional media. Exposure to algorithmic content leads users to follow conservative political activist accounts, which they continue to follow even after switching off the algorithm, helping explain the asymmetry in effects. These results suggest that initial exposure to X's algorithm has persistent effects on users' current political attitudes and account-following behaviour, even in the absence of a detectable effect on partisanship.

A new paper shows that less than 2 months of exposure to Twitter’s algorithmic feed significantly shifts people’s political views to the right.

Moving from chronological feed to the algorithmic feed also increases engagement.

This is one of the most concerning papers I’ve read in awhile.

The President is Lying to the Public YouTube video by Governor Wes Moore

The President is lying to the public:

1) For the past century, the federal government has been responsible for the Potomac Interceptor – not Maryland. The sewage pipe is on federal land.

youtu.be/OKyIKHW8ONI

Work with us - FPH Join our team to help us improve people's lives

The Faculty is recruiting a new Chair of the Diplomate MFPH Examiners Committee, commencing June 2026.

The role supports our education team to ensure the Diplomate Exam continues to be delivered to a high standard.

Applications close 27 February.

www.fph.org.uk/about-fph/wo...

Mia Valentina Paz Faria A 7-year-old from Venezuela who was living in Austin, Texas Detained for 70 days “I don’t want to be in this place I want to go to my school.”

UPDATE: Staff at the ICE concentration camp in Dilley, Texas have begun raiding the dormitories of kids and their parents to confiscate and destroy letters from the children. This is in response to the ace reporting by @micarosenberg et al for ProPublica:

“I don’t want to be in this place I want to go to my school.”

- 7 year old imprisoned by ICE for 70 days in a concentration camp in Texas.

Today, after @propublica.org published this story, the camp was raided to confiscate letters from the children.

www.propublica.org/article/ice-...

Unemployment hits highest rate in nearly five years Getting a job is likely to be harder than before, as redundancies increase and the number of unemployed people per vacan

🏦 The Bank of England reported in October 2025 that Brexit had led to a 3-4% hit in employment.

📈 To boost opportunities, Britain must foster growth in our economy.

🇬🇧🇪🇺The easiest way to get growth is to align our goods and services with the EU.

do you know what would help!!!!!!!! living in a society that lets people experiment with their gender without treating it like the most important thing in the world!!!!!!! letting people get it right or wrong without politicising their decisions!!!!!!! just being chilled about gender!!!!!! aaahhhhhh