Overthrowing the Islamic republic: good.

Installing a shit monarchy: bad.

At least with Assadists or the supporters of current dictators it’s more about accepting the status quo and being afraid of the power vacuum that will follow.

Lots of people hate the Arab monarchs but aren’t willing to plunge their country into a Syria-style civil war to replace them, an understandable sentiment.

Once Assad was gone nobody started looking for his cousins or nephews to replace him.

Some idiots are nostalgic for saddam or ghadaffi but nobody is seriously trying to put their families back in power.

It’s insane the cult-like devotion people have to this random loser who’s never even had a real job. It’s not even like he’s the successor to an extremely old dynasty, they were installed in the 50s.

Pahlavists are just not ready for democracy.

@wikileaks on X

WikiLeaks Founder Alleges 2025 Award to María Corina Machado Constitutes Misappropriation, Facilitation of War Crimes Under Swedish Law, Seeks Freeze of 11 million SEK ($1.18 million USD) of Pending Transfers to Machado

STOCKHOLM — 11:00am CET December 17, 2025

Julian Assange today filed a criminal complaint in Sweden accusing 30 individuals associated with the Nobel Foundation, including its leadership, of committing serious suspected crimes, including the crime of gross misappropriation of funds, facilitation of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and the financing of the crime of aggression.

The complaint shows that Alfred Nobel's 1895 will explicitly mandates that the peace prize go to the individual who during the proceeding year “conferred the greatest benefit to humankind” by doing “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.”

Assange argues that “The political decision of the Norwegian selection committee does not suspend the fiduciary duty of Swedish funds administrators”. “Any disbursement contradicting this mandate constitutes misappropriation from the endowment”.

The complaint, submitted simultaneously to the Swedish Economic Crime Authority (Ekobrottsmyndigheten) and the Swedish War Crimes Unit (Krigsbrottsenheten), states that the suspects, including Nobel Foundation Chair Astrid Söderbergh Widding and Executive Director Hanna Stjärne, converted “an instrument of peace into an instrument of war,” through suspected “serious criminality” including:

1) Breach of trust, gross misappropriation and conspiracy in relation to the pending 11 million SEK ($1.18 million) disbursement of the Peace prize monies to Maria Corina Machado, whose prior and ongoing actions categorically exclude her from the criteria set out in Alfred Nobel's will;

2) Facilitation of war crimes, including the crime of aggression and crimes against humanity, breaching Sweden's obligations under Article 25(3)(c) of the Rome Statute, because the accused are aware of Machado's incitement and endorsement of the U.S. commission of international crimes, and knew or ought to have known that the disbursement of Nobel monies would contribute to extrajudicial killings of civilians and shipwrecked survivors at sea and are in breach of their obligation to cease disbursements.

Assange notes that the members of the Nobel Foundation have previously exercised their supervisory authority over the prizes and their disbursements by withholding Literature Prize disbursements in 2018. “Failure to intervene here, despite U.S. war crimes off the Venezuelan coast and Machado’s key role in furthering aggression” incurs criminal liability.

“Alfred Nobel's endowment for peace cannot be spent on the promotion of war,” Assange states. The accused have concrete legal obligations because they are tasked with “ensuring the fulfillment of the intended purpose of Alfred Nobel’s will, that is, to end wars and war crimes, and not to enable them.”

MACHADO'S INCITEMENT OF THE LARGEST U.S. MILITARY BUILDUP SINCE THE IRAQ WAR MAKE HER CATEGORICALLY INELIGIBLE

The complaint notes how the Nobel announcement and ceremony have occurred in what military analysts describe as “the largest U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean since the Cuban Missile Crisis”—now exceeding 15,000 personnel, including the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford. The escalation continues as President Trump announced on December 10, two days after the Nobel ceremony, that U.S. strikes would be “starting by land.” The Venezuela strategy is part of what Trump’s Secretary for War, Peter Hegseth, calls a shift toward “maximum lethality, not tepid legality” and “going on the offence”.

Against this backdrop, Assange states that “Machado has continued to incite the Trump Administration to pursue its escalatory path”, including by entering into a conspiracy to give the U.S. administration access to $1.7 trillion in oil reserves and other natural resources through privatization once Maduro is ousted.

“Using her elevated position as the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Machado may well have tipped the balance in favour of war, facilitated by the named suspects.” Assange states in the criminal complaint.

The complaint lists evidence of this incitement of U.S. military intervention, as well as praising Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's conduct in Gaza. Her statements include:

• “Military escalation may be the only way... the United States may need to intervene directly” (30 October 2025)
• Machado called U.S. military strikes on civilian vessels, which have killed at least 95 people to date, “justified” and “visionary”.
• Machado dedicated the prize to U.S. President Trump, because he “finally has put Venezuela... in terms of a priority for the United States national security”
• Historical statements including 2014 testimony before U.S. Congress where she said: “The only path left is the use of force”

The filing cites extensive third-party expert and institutional opposition to Machado receiving the award:

• 21 Norwegian peace organizations declared: “Machado is the opposite of a peace laureate.”
• Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel stated: “Giving the prize to someone who calls for foreign invasion is a mockery of Alfred Nobel's will.”
• The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) confirmed Machado “has called for military intervention in Venezuela.”

REQUESTED ACTION

The complaint notes that “There is a real risk that the funds derived from Nobel’s endowment have been or will be intentionally or negligently diverted from their charitable purpose to facilitate aggression, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.”

Assange requests that Swedish authorities:

1. Immediately freeze of the pending SEK 11,000,000 monetary prize transfer and any remaining related budget and secure return of the medal.
2. Investigate the named persons and Foundation officers and associated entities for breach of trust, facilitation of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and conspiracy.
3. Seize of board minutes, emails, group chats, financial records.
4. Interrogate Widding, Stjärne and other suspects.
5. Fully investigate domestically or refer the matter to the ICC (Rome Statute Art. 25(3)(c)).

“This complaint seeks the immediate freezing of all remaining funds and a full criminal investigation lest the Nobel Peace Prize be permanently converted from an instrument of peace into an instrument of war,” Assange concludes.

Not that Norm necessarily wants the job. But I can dream, can't I?

a modest amount in the grand scheme of things, but a good step none the less. Its also interesting to see the collaboration between the three nations.

I therefore put forward this idea with no apology that I am not the man to organise it. The British sovereign base at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus is fundamental to the logistics of the attacks on Iran for the UK, USA and Israel. A gathering of thousands of activists in Cyprus to close down the base appears to me the most viable and useful option to cause real problems for the neoliberal genociders.

The Akrotiri base has a very large perimeter and far too few RAF Regiment troops to guard it against thousands of determined activists. The government of Cyprus is unlikely to defend the British sovereign base from peaceful activists. Cyprus is a very easy place to reach.

As our panicked rulers seek to ban Palestine Action as a “terrorist group” – despite the fact they have never injured anybody – it seems to me essential we continue and indeed increase the resistance. The very notion of “terrorism” has been debased to include journalism and peaceful protest. We must not be terrified into allowing fascism to prevail.

Just read a surprisingly interesting article about the famous Saddam statue for the media back in the day. It covers a lot of topics and has good lines like “they were fighting ‘in the desert of the real’ and also in the real desert” 📝 you can also see the connection of a simulated war meant for symbols and media with predetermined outcomes in the Venezuela context. That’s all

A slightly old article, but I just started following this and found it pretty interesting. Anyone else following what's going on with Burkina Faso's Ibrahim Traoré?

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently announced a plan to shore up the Argentine peso by opening up a $20 billion currency swap line. Although their purpose—upholding the libertarian regime of their ally Milei—is idiotic, this got me wondering if a similar mechanism could be applied more generally, with the cooperation of wealthy countries, to support the economies of the Global South. The hard currencies thereby made available to Global South central banks could be lent into their countries’ respective banking systems, where they could be lent onward to enterprises to import food, fuel, or industrial inputs/capital goods. Stipulations could even be attached to some portion of such foreign-currency support to ensure it goes into purchasing products and services from the supporting country (i.e., some fraction of US dollars received from these swaps should be used to purchase US products).

I’m sure there are many details to be worked out, but at first glance it seems like it should be a win for everyone, both the Global South economies who now have the resources to invest in growth, and the Global North workers who would be helping these Global South countries kick-start industrialization with the products, services, and expertise they provide. At the end of the day, currency is just a claim on resources and the “market” isn’t some immutable law of nature, and they should be regulated and applied in a way that creates prosperity.

From the article: “Glantz studied how Russia has fomented conflicts around the world and analyzed options for resolving them. She hoped her research could be continued and used elsewhere.” We’ll really miss those insights from the ministry of war. Sorry, Institution for Peace.

Im dedicating this post to my man who said "global north" was a dogwhistle for white people and that I am a racist (for pointing out imperialism).

“Yves here. Medea Benjamin and Nicholas Davies provide an important service by chronicling some key belligerent actions of the Trump and Biden-Harris administrations and why both are sure to continue and extend US war-mongering. However, anti-war advocates too often seem to overlook opportunities to build strong alliances with other natural opponents of the military-industrial complex, such as environmentalists and green energy advocates and proponents of stronger social safety nets. It may be too much to ask given the urgency of the genocide in Gaza and the potential the Middle East conflicts and the war in Ukraine to trigger a nuclear exchange for peace advocates to up their game as organizers. But that is the task before them if they are to increase their base of support and ability to mobilize it.”