Criticism grows over Trump's Nobel Peace Prize nomination amid bombing of Iran
Pakistan 's nomination of Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize has caused a political firestorm, with critics denouncing it as an act of "crass flattery" and national humiliation.
The nomination occurred just hours before the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites, leading Pakistan to condemn the US attack as a "serious violation of international law" shortly after.
Opposition leaders, activists, and former officials argue the nomination is morally indefensible given Trump's support for Israel 's actions in Gaza and his approval of the US attack on Iran.
The nomination has put Pakistan in an awkward diplomatic position, as it has consistently supported the Palestinian cause and its neighbor Iran.
A resolution has been submitted in the Pakistani Senate demanding the withdrawal of the nomination, with calls for the government to rescind the decision.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
5 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Senators offer glimpse into actual result of Trump's Iran bombing campaign after classified briefing
Democrats remained skeptical after the classified briefing on the Iran bombing, as Republicans insisted Tehran's facilities had been 'obliterated.' CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Gen. Dan 'Raizin' Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, joined Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Capitol Hill to give the classified briefings, originally scheduled for Tuesday. Senators emerged from a classified briefing Thursday with sharply diverging assessments of President Donald Trump´s bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites, with Republicans calling the mission a clear success and Democrats expressing deep skepticism. Many Republicans left satisfied, though their assessments of how much Iran´s nuclear program was set back by the bombing varied. Sen. Tom Cotton said a 'major blow' and 'catastrophic damage' had been dealt to Iran's facilities. 'Their operational capability was obliterated. There is nobody working there tonight. It was highly effective. There´s no reason to hit those sites anytime soon,' said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Democrats remained doubtful and criticized Trump for not giving Congress more information. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the briefing 'raised more questions than it answered.' Some on the left repeated the mainstream media reports that Trump has raged against suggesting they didn't push back Iran's nuclear program very far. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said the strike appears to 'have only set back the Iranian nuclear program by a handful of months.' 'There's no doubt there was damage done to the program,' said Murphy, but 'allegations that we have obliterated their program just don't seem to stand up to reason.' 'I just do not think the president was telling the truth when he said this program was obliterated,' he added. 'It's still too early to know exactly what the battle damage was, and that's normal,' said Democrat and former CIA agent Elissa Slotkin. The session came as senators weighed their support for a resolution affirming that Trump should seek authorization from Congress before launching more military action against Iran. A vote on that resolution could come as soon as Thursday. Democrats, and some Republicans, have said the White House overstepped its authority when it failed to seek the advice of Congress. They also want to know more about the intelligence that Trump relied on when he authorized the attacks. A similar briefing for House members will be held Friday. A preliminary U.S. intelligence report found that Iran´s nuclear program had been set back only a few months, contradicting statements from Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the status of Iran´s nuclear facilities, according to two people familiar with the report. They were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. 'You want to call it destroyed, you want to call it defeated, you want to call it obliterated - choose your word. This was an historically successful attack,' Hegseth said at a Pentagon briefing Thursday. Hegseth went ballistic on reporters at a Pentagon press conference Thursday, lashing out at reports that U.S. airstrikes on Iran's nuclear facilities were ineffective. The defense secretary was joined by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Caine, to tout to reporters the 'historic success' of last weekend's B-2 bombing run. A fired-up Hegseth was also adamant that journalists in the Pentagon press corps are decidedly anti-Trump. 'You cheer against Trump so hard, it's like in your DNA and blood,' he accused the press in the room. 'You have to cheer against the efficacy of these strikes.' 'Your people are trying to leak and spin that it wasn't successful, it's irresponsible,' he charged. The press conference - a rarity for Hegseth - came within days of CNN reporting that the U.S. strikes would only set back Iran 's nuclear sites by a couple of months. The report cited seven individuals briefed on a battle damage assessment done by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) of the Iranian sites. It directly contradicted President Donald Trump and the defense secretary's claim that the sites were destroyed - and clearly enraged the administration. Trump has raged against those reports, calling out CNN and The New York Times and saying that the leakers should be in prison and the reporters fired. The outlets have stood by their reporting. On Wednesday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Ratcliffe sent out statements backing Trump´s claims that the facilities were 'completely and fully obliterated.' Gabbard posted on social media that 'new intelligence confirms what @POTUS has stated numerous times: Iran´s nuclear facilities have been destroyed.' She said that if the Iranians choose to rebuild the three facilities, it would 'likely take years to do.' Ratcliffe said in a statement from the CIA that Iran's nuclear program has been 'severely damaged.' He cited new intelligence 'from a historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years.' Most Republicans have defended Trump and hailed the tentative ceasefire he brokered in the Israel-Iran war. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., went as far as to question the constitutionality of the War Powers Act , which is intended to give Congress a say in military action. 'The bottom line is the commander in chief is the president, the military reports to the president, and the person empowered to act on the nation´s behalf is the president,' Johnson told reporters. But some Republicans, including some of Trump´s staunchest supporters, are uncomfortable with the strikes and the potential for U.S. involvement in an extended Middle East conflict. 'I think the speaker needs to review the Constitution,' said Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. 'And I think there´s a lot of evidence that our Founding Fathers did not want presidents to unilaterally go to war.' Paul would not say whether he would vote for the resolution by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., that would require congressional approval for specific military action in Iran. A simple majority in the Senate is needed to pass the resolution and Republicans hold a 53-47 advantage. 'I will have Republican votes, plural,' Kaine said. 'But whether it´s two or 10, I don´t know.' Kaine authored a similar resolution in 2020 aimed at limiting Trump´s authority to launch military operations against Iran. At the time, eight Republicans joined Democrats in approving the resolution. 'I think I have a chance to get some votes from people who are glad that President Trump did this over the weekend, but they´re saying, `Ok, but now if we´re really going to go to war, it should only have to go through the Congress,´' Kaine told The Associated Press before the briefing. While Trump did not seek approval, he sent congressional leaders a short letter Monday serving as his official notice of the strikes, which occurred Saturday between 6:40 p.m. and 7:05 p.m. EDT, or roughly 2:10 a.m. on Sunday in Iran. The letter said the strike was taken 'to advance vital United States national interests, and in collective self-defense of our ally, Israel, by eliminating Iran´s nuclear program.'
The Guardian
12 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Trump news at a glance: No mention of ‘big beautiful bill' July 4 deadline in president's final pitch
Just two days ago, Donald Trump told Republican members of Congress to cancel their vacation plans until his 'big beautiful bill' is sewn up and ready for his signature on 4 July. But in his final pitch to congressional leaders and cabinet secretaries at the White House on Thursday, he made no mention of deadlines, as his marquee tax-and-spending bill develops a logjam that could threaten its passage through the Senate. Trump stood before an assembly composed of police and fire officers, working parents and the mother and father of a woman he said died at the hands of an undocumented immigrant to argue that Americans like them would benefit from the bill, which includes new tax cuts and the extension of lower rates enacted during his first term, as well as an infusion of funds for immigration enforcement. 'There are hundreds of things here. It's so good,' he said. The bill is highly divisive and deeply unpopular with segments of the country. Democrats have dubbed the bill the 'big, ugly betrayal', and railed against what would be the biggest funding cut to Medicaid since it was created in 1965, and cost an estimated 16 million people their insurance. It would also slash funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), which helps Americans afford food. Republicans intended to circumvent the filibuster in the Senate by using the budget reconciliation procedure, under which they can pass legislation with just a majority vote, provided it only affects spending, revenue and the debt limit. But on Thursday, the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, ruled that a change to taxes that states use to pay for Medicaid was not allowed under the rules. Democrats took credit for MacDonough's ruling, with Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer saying the party 'successfully fought a noxious provision that would've decimated America's healthcare system and hurt millions of Americans. This win saves hundreds of billions of dollars for Americans to get healthcare, rather than funding tax cuts to billionaires.' Read the full story The US supreme court has paved the way for South Carolina to kick Planned Parenthood out of its Medicaid program over its status as an abortion provider, a decision that could embolden red states across the country to effectively 'defund' the reproductive healthcare organization. Read the full story The US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, defended the US strikes on Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities and said that Trump had 'decimated … obliterated' the country's nuclear program despite initial intelligence assessments that last week's strikes had failed to destroy key enrichment facilities and they could resume operations within just months. But he and the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Dan Caine, largely based that assessment on AI modeling, showing test videos of the bunker buster bombs used in the strikes and referred questions on a battle damage assessment of Fordow to the intelligence community. Read the full story The US state department has been advised to terminate grants to nearly all remaining programs awarded under the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, which would effectively end the department's role in funding pro-democracy programming in some of the world's most hostile totalitarian nations. Read the full story A critical federal vaccine panel has recommended against seasonal influenza vaccines containing a specific preservative – a change likely to send shock through the global medical and scientific community and possibly impact future vaccine availability. Read the full story Health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr's reconstituted vaccine advisory panel recommended a new treatment to prevent respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in infants. The treatment, a new monoclonal antibody called clesrovimab, was recommended by the powerful committee after being approved by the Food and Drug Administration roughly two weeks ago. The tortured vote took place a day late and after rounds of questions from the panel's seven new members – all ideological allies of Kennedy, who views 'overmedicalization' as one of the greatest threats to American children. Read the full story A US army veteran who lived in the country for nearly 50 years – and earned a prestigious military citation for being wounded in combat – has left for South Korea after he says past struggles with drug addiction left him targeted by the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. 'I can't believe this is happening in America,' Sae Joon Park, who held legal permanent residency, told National Public Radio in an interview before his departure Monday from Hawaii. 'That blows me away – like [it is] a country that I fought for.' Read the full story The dollar has fallen to a three-year low following a report that Trump is considering soon announcing his choice to succeed the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell. The US justice department sued the Maryland federal judiciary over an order that bars deporting undocumented immigrants for at least one day after filing a challenge. Clothing prices are starting to rise in the US as Trump's tariffs on imported goods start to have an effect, according to the CEO of H&M. Catching up? Here's what happened on 25 June 2025.
The Independent
13 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump threatens to sue New York Times and CNN over Iran bomb strike reporting
President Donald Trump has threatened to sue The New York Times and CNN over its reporting on the amount of destruction caused by U.S. military strikes on Iran's nuclear program. The U.S. bombed three nuclear sites in Iran at the weekend over what it said was to stop the country from obtaining nuclear weapons. Trump did a victory lap afterwards, claiming the strikes 'obliterated' Iran's nuclear program. On Tuesday, CNN, followed by the Times, published the findings of a preliminary report that suggested the bombings only set Iran's nuclear program back by a few months, contradictory to Trump's boasting. Despite his administration confirming the American intelligence assessment on the effectiveness of last weekend's airstrikes on three key Iranian nuclear facilities is indeed real, the president took to his social media platform on Wednesday afternoon and demanded CNN terminate the reporter who broke the story. Trump targeted the two media outlets on social media, referring to them as the 'Failing New York Times' and 'Fake News CNN,' and calling their reporters 'BAD AND SICK PEOPLE.' And now, the Times is reporting Trump's lawyer, Alejandro Brito, has threatened to sue the publication, claiming it damaged the president's reputation. The Times cited a letter written by Brito and sent to the publication on Wednesday, in which he asserted that the Iran bombings were a 'historic and resounding military success' and that the Time s reporting about the preliminary report 'undermined the credibility and integrity of President Trump in the eyes of the public and the professional community.' Brito demanded that the Times 'retract and apologize for' its reporting, which he called 'defamatory' and 'unpatriotic.' The Times said its lawyer, David McCraw, wrote a letter in response, which stated, 'No retraction is needed.' McCraw said the publication would not apologize, adding, 'We told the truth to the best of our ability. We will continue to do so.' A CNN spokeswoman told the Times that it had responded to a similar legal threat from Trump's team. On Wednesday, CNN released a statement that read, in part, 'We stand 100% behind Natasha Bertrand's journalism and specifically her and her colleagues' reporting of the early intelligence assessment of the U.S. attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.' Bertrand, one of the authors of CNN's reporting on the preliminary report, was called out directly by Trump, who said on social media that she should be fired and 'thrown out 'like a dog.'' When CNN released the findings of the preliminary report, it included a statement from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, which read, in part, 'This alleged assessment is flat-out wrong.' Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth revealed Wednesday that the preliminary report did exist. During a press conference Thursday morning, Hegeth lashed out against the press, saying, 'You cheer against Trump so hard.' CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced what they said were new findings Wednesday revealing apparent further damage to Iran's nuclear program. Ratcliffe said in a statement Iran's nuclear program had been 'severely damaged' and that it 'would have to be rebuilt over the course of years.' Gabbard also said it 'would likely take years' for Iran to rebuild the bombed nuclear sites in an X post.
