digdeeper

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7372022

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/20650

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado's gifting of her 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to US President Donald Trump raised eyebrows around the world Friday—but it wasn't the first time that the winner of the prestigious award gave it away.

Last month, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the peace prize to the 58-year-old opposition leader "for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy."

Machado joined a notorious group of Nobel Peace laureates who either waged or advocated for war, as she backed Trump's aggression against her country. This has included a massive troop deployment, military and CIA airstrikes, bombing of boats allegedly transporting drugs, and the abduction earlier this month of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

Trump has ordered the bombing of nine other countries during his two terms, more than any other president in history. US forces acting on his orders have killed thousands of civilians in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen. While running for president in 2016, Trump vowed to "bomb the shit out of" Islamic State militants and "take out their families," and then followed through on his promise.

Despite being passed over by Trump for installation in any leadership role in Venezuela so far, Machado presented Trump with her framed Nobel medal along with a certificate of gratitude during a Thursday meeting at the White House. Trump subsequently posted on his Truth Social network that “María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect.”

In 1943!!!“Nobel Literature laureate Knut Hamsun famously gave his Nobel medal and diploma to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels as a gesture of admiration for the Nazi regime, following his support for the occupation….”

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— Molly Jong-Fast (@mollyjongfast.bsky.social) January 16, 2026 at 10:56 AM

That gesture prompted the Norwegian Nobel Committee to issue a statement noting that the prize cannot be given away.

"Even if the medal or diploma later comes into someone else’s possession, this does not alter who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize," the committee said. "A laureate cannot share the prize with others, nor transfer it once it has been announced. A Nobel Peace Prize can also never be revoked. The decision is final and applies for all time."

The committee's statement was extraordinary—but this is not the first time that a Nobel winner gave away their prize. In 1943, Norwegian author Knut Hamsun gifted his 1920 Nobel Prize for Literature—awarded for his novel Markens Grøde (Growth of the Soil)—to Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels after a trip to Germany. Other Nobel laureates have donated or sold their medals.

The progressive media outlet Occupy Democrats said on social media: "Clearly, the similarities between Trump and Goebbels extend beyond just a mutual admiration for fascism. Both men possess(ed) the kind of spiritually sick, egotistical temperament that allows one to accept a prize that someone else has earned."

"Obviously, Donald Trump does not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize," the outlet continued. "He has bombed Iran, Yemen, Nigeria, innocent fishing boats in the Caribbean, Venezuela, and is in the process of turning the United States into a war zone. That said, Machado doesn't deserve it either."

"Anyone spineless enough to surrender the prize to an evil man like Trump in the hopes of obtaining power is not someone we should be celebrating," Occupy Democrats added.

Last month, Wikileaks founder and multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominee Julian Assange sued the Nobel Foundation—the Swedish organization that manages administration of the approximately $1.2 million-per-winner prize—in a bid to prevent Machado from receiving the money.

Machado's win also sparked protests outside the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo.

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

ASUNCION - Top officials from the EU and the South American bloc Mercosur signed a free trade agreement on Saturday in Paraguay, paving the way for the European Union's largest-ever trade accord after 25 years of negotiations.

The agreement, designed to lower tariffs and boost trade between the two regions, must now gain the consent of the European Parliament and be ratified by the legislatures of Mercosur members Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Starting on February 1st, 2026, all of the above mentioned Countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, The United Kingdom, The Netherlands, and Finland), will be charged a 10% Tariff on any and all goods sent to the United States of America. On June 1st, 2026, the Tariff will be increased to 25%. This Tariff will be due and payable until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/53601457

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/40655145

Source

Photo by Pierre Lavie. Yes this is me. And I threw my Leica. It landed on the bass plate with hardly a scratch. Another photographer grabbed it along with my phone and I was able to track him later. I was held face down tear gas deployed right in front of me and pepper sprayed directly into the eye.

-- John Abernathy

Source

Photo by Pierre Lavie. Yes this is me. And I threw my Leica. It landed on the bass plate with hardly a scratch. Another photographer grabbed it along with my phone and I was able to track him later. I was held face down tear gas deployed right in front of me and pepper sprayed directly into the eye.

-- John Abernathy

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/41759988

1. September 2024: Farage says Jenrick believes in nothing
2. October 2024: Farage brands Jenrick a hypocrite
3. April 2025: Farage versus Robert Generic
4. May 2025: Jenrick says Farage has had too many pints
5. August 2025: Jenrick claims he’s got Farage rattled
6. August 2025: Farage calls Jenrick a fraud
7. September 2025: Don’t let Farage run a school, says Jenrick

From the classrooms of Birmingham to the pages of Britain’s most powerful newspapers, one word has taken on extraordinary political weight: Islamist.

It is routinely presented as a neutral descriptor; a technical term separating religion from politics. But in practice, it functions less as analysis and more as accusation.

Once deployed, it renders Muslim political agency inherently suspect, irrational or dangerous. The term does not merely describe; it condemns.

British news is now firmly in the grip of what can only be described as an Islamism conspiracy theory: the idea that Muslims, imagined as a monolith, are hell-bent on undermining the state and “western civilisation” itself.

This same assumption now underpins the Prevent programme, where opposition to British foreign policy, anger over Gaza, or even robust expressions of Muslim identity are routinely framed as indicators of “Islamism”. Muslim political consciousness itself becomes the danger.

That assumption was on full display in the political mobilisation around the banning of Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters from a football match in Birmingham, amid well-documented concerns over racist chanting and public disorder. What should have been a routine policing decision was rapidly transformed into a national scandal.

Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor said Friday that a judge lacks the authority to appoint a neutral expert to oversee the public release of documents in the sex trafficking probe of financier Jeffrey Epstein and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer was told in a letter signed by U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton that he must reject a request this week by the congressional cosponsors of the Epstein Files Transparency Act to appoint a neutral expert.

U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, and Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, say they have “urgent and grave concerns” about the slow release of only a small number of millions of documents that began last month.

In a filing to the judge they said they believed “criminal violations have taken place” in the release process.

https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/202628

(c) Israel.—Of the funds appropriated by this Act under the heading “Foreign Military Financing Program”, not less than $3,300,000,000 shall be available for grants only for Israel: Provided, That funds appropriated by this Act under the heading “Foreign Military Financing Program” and made available for assistance for Israel shall be disbursed within 30 days of the date of enactment of this Act: Provided further, That to the extent that the Government of Israel requests that funds be used for such purposes, grants made available for Israel under this heading shall, as agreed by the United States and Israel, be available for advanced weapons systems, of which not less than $250,300,000 shall be available for the procurement in Israel of defense articles and defense services, including research and development.

Also:

(e) Facilities.—None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used to move the United States embassy to the State of Israel to a location other than Jerusalem.

of which not less than $6,500,000 shall be made available for refugees resettling in Israel

(A) (i) None of the funds appropriated under the heading “National Security Investment Programs” in this Act may be made available for assistance for the Palestinian Authority, if after the date of enactment of this Act—

4. taking credible steps to combat anti-Israel bias;