Source: Politico
The Israeli Air Force launched a series of airstrikes early Saturday targeting what it said were hundreds of heavy engineering vehicles used by Hezbollah to rebuild its military infrastructure in southern Lebanon.
Sunday, October 12, 2025
Lebanon’s Justice Minister Adel Nasser has appointed a number of judicial investigators to probe political assassinations that have taken place in the country over the decades.
Friday, October 10, 2025
Nearly a year after the end of Syria’s civil war and the fall of the Assad dictatorship, the country has embarked on a long and complex reconstruction process. The destruction is staggering: entire neighborhoods lie in rubble and basic infrastructure (roads, power grids, and water systems) has collapsed, and public institutions are dysfunctional. Millions of Syrians remain displaced inside and outside the country, schools and hospitals are incapacitated, and what remains of the economy is crippled by unemployment, inflation, and the lingering impact of sanctions (even as many have lately been eased). Ongoing sectarian violence and a deepening humanitarian disaster, with more than 14.5 million Syrians facing food insecurity, compound the crisis. As the international community re-engages in Syria, reconstruction will require many hundreds of billions of dollars in aid and investment as well as assistance to restore governance, security, and stability.
Thursday, September 25, 2025
Recently, during the session of a Lebanese parliamentary committee on a new election law, two of the country’s Shiite parliamentarians, one from Hezbollah and the second from the Amal Movement, floated an idea the government in Beirut should examine closely. The two MPs, Ali Fayyad and Ali Hassan Al Khalil, called for reform of the political system and full implementation of all the stipulations of the Taif Accord of 1989 – the agreement that ended Lebanon’s civil war and sought to update its confessional political model.
Wednesday, September 24, 2025
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola says the club expects to learn the outcome of the hearing into its 115 charges of alleged Premier League financial rule breaches "in one month".
Saturday, February 8, 2025
Former Brazil and Real Madrid defender Marcelo has announced his retirement from football, bringing the curtain down on a trophy-laden career that included five UEFA Champions League triumphs.
Friday, February 7, 2025
Friday 10 October 2025 14:49:29
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday did not win the Nobel Peace Prize he has long sought, with the award going to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.
Trump this year has forcefully lobbied for the prize, claiming to have solved seven to eight wars over the course of this term — though the reality is more complicated. Seven world leaders endorsed him for the prize, according to the White House.
He punctuated that work this week by finalizing the first phase of a peace deal in Gaza, although it is widely assumed that the winner was selected weeks ago.
Machado “has spoken out for judicial independence, human rights, and popular representation” in a time of declining democracy, Nobel Committee Chairman Jørgen Watne Frydnes said. “She has spent years working for the freedom of the Venezuelan people.”
“We live in a world where democracy is in retreat, where more and more authoritarian regimes are challenging norms and resorting to violence,” he added, saying Venezuela is “not unique,” with “rule of law abused by those in control.”
Machado is a fierce critic of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro’s regime and has lived in hiding in Venezuela for the last year.
The prize has loomed large in Trump’s mind; he has frequently brought it up since he returned to the Oval Office. “They will never give me a Nobel Peace Prize,” the president told reporters in February. “It’s too bad. I deserve it, but they will never give it to me.”
He rehashed those concerns Thursday, telling reporters: “I don’t know what they’re going to do, but I know nobody in history has solved eight wars in a period of nine months … They’ll have to do what they do. Whatever they do is fine. I know this: I didn’t do it for that.”
Crowds of tourists braved the icy wind blowing off the Oslofjord to watch the live transmission of the announcement of this year’s winner on screens installed in front the Nobel Peace Center in the city’s waterfront.
After moments of palpable tension in the lead up to the announcement, there was an audible sign of relief and happy cheers when Venezuela’s Machado was revealed as this year’s winner.
“I’m so glad the orange guy didn’t win,” said Ulf Smilowsky, a German tourist watching the live broadcast of the announcement on the screens installed outside Oslo’s Nobel Peace Center. “I think he was the only one who thought he’d win, and I’m glad he didn’t.”
Elliot Roberts, an exchange student from Montana, agreed and said the decision to award this year’s prize to a democracy activist sent a powerful message “back home.”
“I’m glad the Norwegian Nobel Committee resisted the pressure and gave it to someone who truly deserves it at a moment when democracy is under attack around the world.”
Former NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, among others, have speculated that Trump wouldn’t actually be eligible for this year’s prize. Despite the recent movement toward a peace deal in Gaza, nominations for this year’s prize were due 11 days after Trump’s inauguration for a second term.
“If the Middle East peace process will be a success, if the 20-point plan will actually be implemented, and we will see a sustainable long-term peace in the region, that’s an important step. And if, through increased pressure on Putin, he can create peace in Ukraine, I think he would be, and should be, a strong candidate,” he told POLITICO.
The award, which comes with around a $1 million prize, is given annually to a person, group or organization “who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses,” according to the Nobel organization.
Four U.S. presidents and one vice president have won the award, including former Presidents Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt; and former Vice President Al Gore. Roosevelt was the last Republican president to nab the award, in 1906.
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