Latest news with #NobelPeacePrizes
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Seth Meyers Mocks Fox News Host for Bringing Up Trump's 34 Felonies to Suggest Nobel Peace Prize
Donald Trump and his supporters started a new push this week to get the president a Nobel peace prize, following his military strike in Iran, which he authorized without approval. But, in floating the idea on Fox News, one of the president's former press secretaries voluntarily mentioned his 34 felonies — a move Seth Meyers was tickled by. During his 'A Closer Look' segment on Tuesday night, Meyers first scoffed at the idea of Trump getting a Nobel peace prize for an Israel-Iran ceasefire that he originally announced before it was even real. More than that, Trump called the ceasefire a move that would 'end what should be called the 12 day war.' 'So Trump claimed there was a ceasefire in the war he started. Now, most normal human beings might think to themselves, 'You don't get credit for cleaning up your own mess unless you're under the age of five,'' Meyers said. 'But for Trump supporters, this supposed ceasefire was the single greatest achievement of any president ever.' At that, a clip of Kayleigh McEnany, one of Trump's former press secretaries, now a host on Fox News began, in which she indeed hailed the president once more, calling for the award. 'Rather than 34 felony counts, President Trump may end up with 34 Nobel Peace Prizes,' she said. 'That was for the leftists, you can clip this, and make it go viral and go nuts.' 'Well, joke's on you. We're on at one in the morning, which is the opposite of viral,' Meyers retorted. 'That clip is going to go bacterial.' But, the 'Late Night' host was more focused on the fact that, in order to even make that claim, McEnany had to draw attention to something Trump and his allies regularly dismiss and ignore. 'The funniest part of that clip is that in order to say the thing about the 34 Nobels, she had to remind everyone of Trump's 34 felony counts. That's not a good idea,' he said. 'Also, a Nobel doesn't erase a felony count. When Obama won his in 2009, he didn't say, 'Oh, the best part is, now I can knock over a liquor store!'' You can watch Seth Meyers's full 'A Closer Look' segment in the video above. The post Seth Meyers Mocks Fox News Host for Bringing Up Trump's 34 Felonies to Suggest Nobel Peace Prize | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
News18
4 days ago
- Politics
- News18
Opinion: As Trump Basks In Fordow Afterglow, Kremlin Has A Counterpoint
Last Updated: Russians believe Trump will scramble for peace in a hurry to hog credit for stopping Israel-Iran war. But Iran will invest all its energies to get past nuclear line in minimum time When bombs drop on the nuclear kitchens of the Ayatollah Khameini regime in Iran, billions rejoice. Some openly, some (especially the fast-transforming Sunni Arab powers) privately. Iran is a ruthlessly violent regime which has killed and targeted thousands of its own women for merely refusing to wear the hijab; runs terror proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis; and is widely seen as the biggest destabilising force in the Middle East. It has richly earned its comeuppance. But then the man who ordered the early morning bombings on Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan nuclear facilities is one who believes that jumping into every global conflict and claiming credit for solving those has earned him about five undelivered Nobel Peace Prizes so far. It is true that American B-2 stealth bombers have dropped six GBU-57, the deepest bunker-busting bomb in the world. Developed in the early 2000s, the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) weighs 13,600 kg, is 6 meters long, has a diameter of about 80 cm, and contains nearly 2,500 kg of explosives. It can target structures up to 60 metres under the ground. The B-2 bombers flew non-stop for around 37 hours from its base in Missouri, US, refuelling several times mid-air. The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) acknowledged the strikes. But it has downplayed these as superficial. No nuclear contamination detected after US strikes, it said. No changes in background radiation were detected in Saudi Arabia or other Gulf Arab states, the Saudi Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Commission (NRRC) confirmed. Russia, Iran's steadfast ally, remains unimpressed by the airstrikes. Russian news agencies mocked Trump through its X handle. 'Force far greater than what was witnessed tonight," boasted Trump — the man who thinks he deserves FIVE Nobel Peace Prizes," Sputnik posted. But sources close to the Kremlin break down the US airstrikes more technically. Since Russia is Iran's biggest backer and has helped set up its nuclear infrastructure, there could be bias in its analysis. But it is nevertheless worth considering because beyond Trump's narcissistic boasts and the democratic world's confirmation bias to believe Iran's Ayatollah regime's nuke toys are finished, there could be a reality check. Six GBU-57 bombs (some now say 12) pounded Iran's Fordow nuclear plant. They rely on mass, not firepower. Imagine 30,000 pounds of tungsten, delayed fuses, inertial guidance, and geological stress sequencing. But Fordow was built for this, the Russians say. It is designed to counter the MOP. Hence the curved tunnels, offset caverns, anti-penetration strata, and layered redundancy across ventilation. Fordow apparently has C2 and IR-6 centrifuge chambers. A single hit does not affect much, but two strikes can open up a tunnel mouth. To truly destroy the core, you would need tight sequencing, vector convergence, telemetry confirmation, and real-time damage layering, says the source close to the Kremlin. That apparently didn't happen. At most, the American bombs sealed an entrance, he argues. Iran has so far reported no core disruption, no enrichment halt, and no internal collapse. Russians estimate that to drop six GBU-57 bombs, three B-2 stealth bombers together or two conducting multiple flyovers deep in contested airspace flew in without strike escort in one of the most monitored radar corridors on earth. If Fordow was gone, you would see craters, electromagnetic rupture, emergency airlifts, seismographs lighting up, and infrared flares beneath the mountain, they say. Tomahawk missiles on Natanz and Esfahan add nothing, they claim. Cruise missiles are subsonic, non-penetrative, and designed for surface-level disruption. 'You don't decapitate nuclear infrastructure with Tomahawk Block IV missiles. You flick switches. You scorch perimeters," the source says. 'A thousand-pound warhead does not cut into fuel halls or disrupt cascade chambers beneath 20 meters of hardened casing." This was bravado by Trump aimed at placating pro-Israel pressure groups, Russians believe. Apparently Jewish groups in the US have been long pressing Washington to join the war. 'As of now, there is no synthetic aperture radar (SAR) confirmation. No crater clustering. No multispectral flash analysis. No underground fire signature. No battle damage assessment (BDA) loop," says the Russian source. The Russians believe Trump will now scramble for peace in a hurry to hog credit for stopping the Israel-Iran war. But Iran will invest all its energies to get past the nuclear line in the minimum time now. And Russia is likely to help it. The last quip is particularly acerbic: 'If the centrifuge of Fordow still spins tomorrow, Washington just pulled off the most expensive influence op in bunker-busting history, only to watch Tehran climb the escalation ladder unscathed." top videos View all Although Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Trump and America, he would not be pleased if the airstrikes serve only as Trump's headline and photo-op and makes Iran even more determined to procure the Bomb. Abhijit Majumder is a senior journalist. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views. First Published:
Saudi Gazette
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Saudi Gazette
Gaza now worse than hell on earth, ICRC chief says
GENEVA — Gaza has become worse than hell on earth, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross has told the BBC. In an interview at the ICRC's headquarters in Geneva, the organization's president Mirjana Spoljaric said "humanity is failing" as it watched the horrors of the Gaza war. Speaking in a room close to a case displaying the ICRC's three Nobel Peace Prizes, BBC asked Ms Spoljaric about remarks she made in April, that Gaza was "hell on earth", and if anything had happened since to change her mind. "It has become worse... We cannot continue to watch what is happening. It's surpassing any acceptable, legal, moral, and humane standard. The level of destruction, the level of suffering. "More importantly, the fact that we are watching a people entirely stripped of its human dignity. It should really shock our collective conscience." She added that states must do more to end the war, end the suffering of Palestinians and release Israeli hostages. The words, clearly carefully chosen, of the president of the ICRC carry moral weight. The International Red Cross is a global humanitarian organization that has been working to alleviate suffering in wars for more than a century and a half. It is also the custodian of the Geneva Conventions, the body of international humanitarian law that is intended to regulate the conduct of war and protect civilians and other non-combatants. The most recent version, the fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, was adopted after the Second World War and was intended to stop the mass killing of civilians from happening again. Israel, I reminded her, justifies its actions in Gaza as self-defense. "Every state has a right to defend itself," she said. "And every mother has a right to see her children return. There's no excuse for hostage-taking. There is no excuse to depriving children from their access to food, health, and security. There are rules in the conduct of hostilities that every party to every conflict has to respect." Did that mean that the actions of Hamas and other armed Palestinians on 7 October 2023 — killing around 1200 and taking more than 250 hostage — did not justify Israel's destruction of the Gaza Strip and the killing of more than 50,000 Palestinians? "It's no justification for the disrespect or hollowing out of the Geneva Conventions. Neither party is allowed to break the rules, no matter what, and this is important because, look, the same rules apply to every human being under the Geneva Convention. A child in Gaza has exactly the same protections under the Geneva Conventions as a child in Israel." You never know, Ms Spoljaric added, when your own child might be on the weaker side and will need these protections. The ICRC is a reliable source of information about what is happening in Gaza. Israel does not allow international news organizations, including the BBC, to send journalists into the territory. The reporting of the more than 300 ICRC staff in Gaza, 90% of whom are Palestinians, forms a vital part of the record of the war. Ms Spoljaric, the ICRC president, has been talking every day to their team leader in Gaza. The ICRC surgical hospital in Rafah is the closest medical facility to the area where many Palestinians have been killed during chaotic aid distribution by the Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Like the UN, the ICRC is not taking part in the new operation. A fundamental flaw of the new system is that it funnels tens of thousands of desperate, starving civilians through an active war zone. Ms Spoljaric said there was "no justification for changing and breaking something that works, with something that doesn't seem to be working". In the last few days, the ICRC surgical teams at their field hospital in Rafah near the GHF zone have been overwhelmed at least twice by the volume of casualties in the turmoil of the food operation. "Nowhere is safe in Gaza. Nowhere. Not for the civilians, not for the hostages," said Ms Spoljaric. "That's a fact. And our hospital is not safe. I don't recall another situation that I have seen where we operate in the midst of hostilities." A few days ago, a young boy was hit by a bullet coming through the fabric of the tent while he was treated. "We have no security even for our own staff... they are working 20 hours a day. They are exhausting themselves. But it's too much, it's surpassing human capabilities." The ICRC said that in just a few hours on Tuesday morning its Rafah surgical teams received 184 patients, including 19 people dead on arrival and eight others who died of their wounds shortly afterwards. It was the highest number of casualties from a single incident at the field hospital since it was established just over a year ago. It happened around dawn on Tuesday. Palestinian witnesses and ICRC medics reported terrible scenes of killing as Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinians who were converging on the new aid distribution site in southern Gaza. It was "total carnage" according to a foreign witness. An official statement from the Israeli military described a very different picture. It said "several suspects" moved towards Israeli forces "deviating from the designated access routes". Troops "carried out warning fire... additional shots were directed near a few individual suspects who advanced towards the troops". A military spokesperson said they were investigating what happened. It has denied shooting Palestinians in a similar incident on Sunday. Ms Spoljaric said the ICRC was deeply concerned about talk of victory at all costs, total war and dehumanization. "We are seeing things happening that will make the world an unhappier place far beyond the region, far beyond the Israelis and the Palestinians, because we are hollowing out the very rules that protect the fundamental rights of every human being." If there is no ceasefire, she fears for the future of the region. "This is vital. To preserve a pathway back to peace for the region. If you destroy that pathway forever for good, the region will never find safety and security. But we can stop it now. It's not too late." "State leaders are under an obligation to act. I'm calling on them to do something and to do more and to do what they can. Because it will reverberate, it will haunt them, it would reach their doorsteps." The ICRC is considered the custodian of the Geneva conventions. The fourth, agreed after the Second World War, is designed to protect civilians in wars. The Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023 were, she said, no justification for current events. "Neither party is allowed to break the rules, no matter what," Ms Spoljaric said. Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas' cross-border attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. At least 54,607 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including 4,335 since Israel resumed its offensive on 18 March, according to the territory's health ministry. Appealing to parties to stop the hostilities, she said: "We cannot continue watching what is happening. "It defies humanity. It will haunt us." She called on the international community to do more. "Every state is under the obligation to use their means, their peaceful means, to help reverse what is happening in Gaza today," she said. — BBC
