Not the Onion

PARIS, Jan 18 (Reuters) - A draft charter sent to about 60 countries by the U.S. administration calls for members to contribute $1 billion in cash if they want their membership to last more than three years, according to the document seen by Reuters.

"Each Member State shall serve a term of no more than three years from this Charter’s entry into force, subject to renewal by the Chairman," the document, first reported by Bloomberg News, shows.

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.

Argentina's President Javier Milei said on Saturday that U.S. President Donald Trump had invited him to join the "Board of Peace" meant to oversee post-war Gaza.

Sharing an image of the invitation letter, Milei wrote on X that it would be "an honor" to participate in the initiative which is chaired by Trump and already has US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and former British prime minister Tony Blair among its members.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel will honor the late Charlie Kirk for his work combating antisemitism at a conference in late January, four months after the conservative activist was assassinated while speaking at an American university.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday evening that Kirk will be given an award at the International Conference on Combating Antisemitism in Jerusalem. Several pro-Israeli leaders are expected to attend the event, among them Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.

"Quantum theory provides a foundation for describing systems that are probabilistic, interdependent, and evolving (Busemeyer & Bruza, 2012; Haven & Khrennikov, 2013). Translating these ideas into tourism produces a model that explains how behaviour, feedback, and innovation interact across cognitive, relational, and systemic levels. This complements entropy reduction in tourism (Li et al., 2025), which conceptualises tourism as an open system that shifts between stability and disruption. While entropy theory focuses on energy and order, the quantum perspective explains the structure of uncertainty: how multiple possibilities, relational ties, and networked feedback generate adaptation and innovation."

Annals of Tourism Research Volume 117, March 2026, 104115 (nothing about April 1). No mention of Sokal in the article or its references. Not the Onion. I'm at a loss.

“As journalists, we stand united behind the U.S. government’s decision to investigate our colleague Hannah Natanson, search her home, and seize several of her electronic devices,” read the piece, which was signed by the famed newspaper’s editorial board and outlined the many ways in which Natanson deserved to be punished for doing her job conducting investigative reporting into the Trump administration.

“The Washington Post has a long history of groundbreaking journalism, and we invite FBI director Kash Patel to raid, arrest, or jail anyone involved with such efforts. In the United States, federal agents are born with certain unalienable rights.

We cannot in good conscience allow our reporters to infringe upon that freedom.” At press time, the famed newspaper’s readership had reportedly skyrocketed after the editorial board called on President Donald Trump to publicly execute its entire staff.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/60050040

Considering the pickup EV has been an enormous commercial flop, only selling barely a fraction of Musk’s promised 250,000 to 500,000 Cybertrucks a year, there’s a good chance Tesla is using the mercurial CEO’s other venture to boost the numbers ahead of the end of an otherwise disastrous year.

memo via https://xcancel.com/kenklippenstein/status/1998829304856068344

Fifa had pledged an apolitical event, but this was anything but.

On a snowy Friday at the prestigious John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, the football federation, in conjunction with the Trump administration, brought together celebrities, delegates from around the world, and almost the entirety of the president's cabinet and family to watch the draw for the 2026 Fifa World Cup Finals.

The event was custom-made for US President Donald Trump.

"Mr. President... you definitely deserve the first Fifa Peace Prize for your action, for what you have obtained in your way, but you obtain it in an incredible way, and you can always count, Mr President, [on] my support and the support of the entire football community or soccer community to help you make peace and make the world prosper," Fifa boss Gianni Infantino said, as he awarded Trump a gold medal, a certificate, and a gold trophy far bigger than the World Cup itself.

His remarks followed a video montage of Trump's meeting with world leaders, praising him for - as he always puts it - "ending eight wars".

Crossposted from https://slrpnk.net/post/29666121

Slightly modified the title to clarify that they banned the naming not the actual product itself, but they did serve it under the banned term naming

With hours to go until the announcement of this year’s Nobel peace prize, Norwegian politicians were steeling themselves for potential repercussions to US-Norway relations if it is not awarded to Donald Trump.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee pointedly said on Thursday that it had reached a decision about who will be named 2025 peace prize laureate on Monday, several days before Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire under the US president’s Gaza plan.

Taking into account the timeframe and the composition of the independent five-person committee, most Nobel experts and Norwegian observers believe it is highly unlikely that Trump will be awarded the prize, leading to fears in the country over how he will react to being overlooked so publicly.

None of the 40 vessels participating in the Global Sumud Flotilla, which Israel intercepted on Yom Kippur, was carrying humanitarian aid, according to the Israeli Foreign Ministry.