Blue Monday incoming: European index of job satisfaction developed


By Dr. Tim Sandle
SCIENCE EDITOR

DIGITAL JOURNAL
January 16, 2026


People going to work. — Image by © Tim Sandle. London, UK.

The new year often brings a fresh wave of motivation, with many people reassessing key areas of their lives, from health to career ambitions. This is commonly associated with the so-called Blue Monday, which occurs on the third Monday of each January (this year falling on January 19th).

Despite many dismissing Blue Monday as a myth, something dreamt up by recruitment agencies, for others the apparent desire for role change by many workers is reflected in search behaviour too, with searches for “new job” typically rising by 45.2% from December to January.

To mark the so-called Blue Monday calendar trigger point, the company iSelect has created a new index exploring where in the world people are most content in their jobs. This may well influence those thinking… just thinking…about a career change.

Job satisfaction is not easy to define, and it unclear how the term was defined in the survey. In general terms, job satisfaction refers to an employee’s positive emotional state, contentment, and fulfilment from their job. This stems from how well their needs and expectations align with the work itself, environment, pay, colleagues, and management.

Based on experimental outcome, how happy are people when it comes to work–life balance, career progression, and overall job satisfaction?

The European Job Satisfaction Index

Rank	Country	Job Security	50+ Hours/Week (%)	Feel Trusted by Employer (%)	Confidence in Leadership (%)	Future-Skills Development (%)	Satisfaction Score  (/100)
1	Luxembourg	2.20%	2.80%	81.00%	74.00%	66.00%	100
2	Norway	2.90%	1.40%	89.00%	82.00%	59.00%	91.78
3	Switzerland	2.40%	0.40%	86.00%	76.00%	56.00%	91.27
4	Denmark	4.50%	1.10%	89.00%	83.00%	55.00%	87.95
5	Netherlands	2.60%	0.30%	87.00%	81.00%	50.00%	85.42
6	Australia	3.10%	12.50%	84.00%	79.00%	57.00%	78.47
7	UK	3.30%	10.80%	88.00%	81.00%	56.00%	78.14
8	Belgium	2.40%	4.30%	84.00%	76.00%	52.00%	76.33
9	Sweden	4.90%	0.90%	84.00%	74.00%	47.00%	74.11
10	Germany	1.40%	3.90%	83.00%	76.00%	48.00%	73.75

Luxembourg tops the list with a perfect Job Satisfaction Index of 100. The country stands out for its strong job security (2.2%) and high values alignment score (77.0%). Employees report a high level of trust in their employers (81.0%).

The UK is placed #7 in the world for job satisfaction. This is due to 3.3% of workers in the UK feel their job is insecure, while 10.8% work 50 or more hours per week. Furthermore, 88% say they feel trusted by their employer, and 81% have confidence in their leadership. Plus, over half, 56%, feel supported in developing their future skills.

MONOPOLY CAPITALI$M

Goldman Sachs’ profits jump on hot merger market


By AFP
January 15, 2026


Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon expects another solid year of deal flow in 2026 - Copyright AFP/File I-Hwa CHENG

Goldman Sachs’ quarterly profits jumped on robust merger activity as clients seize a “window” of opportunity during the Trump administration, bank officials said Thursday.

Fueled by higher revenues from merger advisory services and financial markets trading, Goldman Sachs reported profits of $4.4 billion in the fourth quarter, up 12 percent from the year-ago period.

Executives expressed a bullish outlook on continued deal flow in 2026, noting the potential for more initial public offerings and that its backlog of anticipated future deal revenue stands at a four-year high.

CEO David Solomon said corporations sense a better climate under Donald Trump after the Biden administration, where leading antitrust officials were viewed as broadly hostile to consolidation.

“CEOs definitely believe that the art of the deal and scaled consolidation is possible now,” Solomon said on a conference call with analysts.

Overall revenues were $13.5 billion, down three percent from the year-ago period, due largely to ending its credit card business with Apple.

However, Goldman’s profits were boosted by a $2.1 billion accounting benefit from dropping the Apple credit card venture.

Investment banking fees came in at $2.6 billion in the final three months of 2025, up 25 percent. The New York banking giant also scored double-digit increases in revenues for equities trading and fixed income, currency and commodities.

Goldman’s press release did not mention specific transactions, but the company advised Metsera in its buyout of up to $10 billion from Pfizer.

In prior quarters, Goldman has pointed to $12 billion deals involving energy company NRG and in Electronic Arts’ $55 billion deal to go private.

“I think CEOs, boards are looking and saying ‘Okay, we’ve got a window here a handful of years, to consider big, huge, transformative things,'” said Solomon.

“I think the world is set up at the moment to be incredibly constructive in 2026 in M&A and capital markets activity,” Solomon said.

“What could change that? Something could go on in the world, sort of an exogenous event, or macro event that changes the sentiment,” he said, adding that this is not the bank’s view of a likely scenario.

Goldman’s earnings per share topped analyst estimates while revenues lagged projections.

Shares jumped 4.6 percent in early-afternoon trading.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Fraudsters flee Cambodia’s ‘scam city’ after accused boss taken down


By AFP
January 16, 2026


Hundreds of people fled a suspected Cambodian cyberfraud centre, after the country's most wanted alleged scam kingpin was arrested and deported

 - Copyright AFP TANG CHHIN Sothy

Sally JENSEN

Hundreds of people dragged away suitcases, computer monitors, pets and furniture as they fled a suspected Cambodian cyberfraud centre, after the country’s most wanted alleged scam kingpin was arrested and deported.

Boarding tuk-tuks, Lexus SUVs and tourist coaches, an exodus departed Amber Casino in the coastal city of Sihanoukville, one of the illicit trade’s most notorious hubs.

“Cambodia is in upheaval,” one Chinese man told AFP. “Nowhere is safe to work anymore,” he said Thursday.

Similar scenes played out at alleged scam compounds across Cambodia this week as the government said it was cracking down on the multibillion-dollar industry.

But residents said many of the people working inside the tightly secured buildings moved out several days before the arrival of authorities, and an analyst dubbed it “anti-crime theatre”.

From hubs across Southeast Asia, scammers lure internet users globally into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments.

Initially largely targeting Chinese speakers, transnational crime groups have expanded operations into multiple languages to steal tens of billions annually from victims around the world.

Those conducting the scams are sometimes willing con artists, sometimes trafficked foreign nationals who have been trapped and forced to work under threat of violence.

AFP journalists visited several alleged internet scam sites in Sihanoukville, in the wake of the high-profile arrest in Cambodia and extradition to China of internationally sanctioned accused scam boss Chen Zhi.

Few of those departing the casinos, hotels and other facilities were willing to speak with AFP, and none were willing to be identified due to concerns for their safety.

“Our Chinese company just told us to leave straight away,” said a Bangladeshi man outside Amber Casino.

“But we’ll be fine. There are plenty of other job offers,” he added.

Studded with casinos and unfinished high-rises, the glitzy resort of Sihanoukville has become a cyberscam hotbed, where thousands of people involved in the black market are believed to operate cons from fortified compounds.

Before Chen was indicted last year by US authorities who said his firm Prince Group was a front for a transnational cybercrime network, the Chinese-born businessman ran multiple gambling hotels in Sihanoukville.

A 2025 Amnesty International report identified 22 scam locations in the coastal resort, out of a total of 53 in the country.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimates global losses to online scams reached up to $37 billion in 2023, and that at least 100,000 people work in the industry in Cambodia alone.


– Tipped off –


But the Cambodian government claims the lawless era has come to an end, with Prime Minister Hun Manet pledging on Facebook to “eliminate… all the problems related to the crime of cyber scams”.

Cambodia’s anti-scam commission says it has raided 118 scam locations and arrested around 5,000 people in the last six months.

Following Chen’s deportation to China, the Cambodian government has tightened the screws on some Prince Group affiliates, ordering Prince Bank into liquidation and freezing home sales at several of its luxury properties.

In recent months, China has stepped up its pursuit of the scam industry, sweeping up Chen and other key figures from across Southeast Asia to try them on its own soil.

But while Cambodia says it is “cracking down”, there are suspicions over the timing.

A tuk-tuk driver in Sihanoukville told AFP hundreds of Chinese people left one compound this week before police arrived.

“Looks like they were tipped off,” said the 42-year-old, declining to give his name.

Mark Taylor, former head of a Cambodia-based anti-trafficking NGO, said the “preemptive shifting of scam centre resources”, including workers, equipment and managers, had been seen ahead of law enforcement sweeps.

It was “seemingly the product of collusion”, he added, in a strategy with “dual ends” of boosting the government’s anti-crime credentials while preserving the scamming industry’s ability to survive and adapt.

Amnesty has accused the Cambodian government of “deliberately ignoring” rights abuses by cybercrime gangs, which sometimes lure workers with offers of high-paying jobs before holding them against their will.

AFP journalists saw several coachloads of Mandarin speakers leaving Sihanoukville on the main highway to the capital Phnom Penh.

Multiple people said they “didn’t know” where they were going or what their plans were, but appeared anxious as they anticipated law enforcement closing in.

Outside the Amber Casino, holding a fake designer hold-all, the Bangladeshi man fell in with the crowd, saying: “This is about survival now.”

How dark web criminals seek to recruit business insiders


By Dr. Tim Sandle

SCIENCE EDITOR

DIGITAL JOURNAL
January 12, 2026


Cybercriminals can find a "safe" space to operate in dark web marketplaces

. — © AFP PHOTO / Robyn BECK

Cybercriminals are actively searching for insiders from various organizations on the dark web. From dark web recruitment posts to private messages on LinkedIn, how cybercriminals enlist malicious employees to compromise a selected company.

This way cybercriminals can use malicious insiders as a direct means to access sensitive company resources, stealing confidential data or using the access to deploy a devastating cyberattack.

Real world examples

Researchers at NordStellar found dark web posts from users who claim that they are searching for employees from specific organizations over the past year. A significant part of these posts focuses explicitly on insiders who work for social media or cryptocurrency platforms.

Real world incidents highlight how these threats can translate into actual breaches — for instance, in 2025, the cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase revealed that cybercriminals bribed its employees to leak user information.

This is according to Vakaris Noreika, cybersecurity expert at NordStellar, who has told Digital Journal that while some cybercriminals openly recruit malicious employees through dark web posts, others are more discreet. Over the past 12 months, the NordStellar team identified 25 unique dark web posts seeking out insiders.
Insider threats take on a new dimension

“Employees can grant cybercriminals access to critical data, such as personal customer information and confidential business agreements,” says Noreika.

The expert adds: “This data can be utilized to deploy ransomware attacks, sell intel on business agreements to competitors, or to carry out sophisticated phishing scams on unsuspecting victims whose personal data they managed to get their hands on.”

According to Noreika, insider threats can be challenging to spot and, therefore, may go undetected by security teams for a significant amount of time. Employees are trusted members of the organization and have legitimate access to company resources. Consequently, it can be challenging to pinpoint any anomalies in their behaviour.

“Unlike external threats, insiders may not trigger typical security alerts, such as unusual login attempts or data transfers,” adds Noreika. “Insiders are also familiar with the organization’s internal security policies and weaknesses, allowing them to adjust their actions to avoid suspicion.”

Direct insider recruitment

Noreika emphasizes that although some cybercriminals are searching for insiders on the dark web, the recruitment process is usually carried out privately. Bad actors target specific employees within the organization, especially those with technical capabilities that aid in their operations or have access to highly sensitive company data.
Safeguarding against insider threats

For businesses seeking to protect themselves, Noreika emphasises that high observability into system and data usage is the foundation of an insider threat-resistant cybersecurity strategy. He explains that any unexpected system behaviour or access patterns must be flagged, reported, and thoroughly examined.

“Patterns of unusual behaviour are the first indicator that the user might be an insider,” says Noreika. “Security teams should keep an eye out for employees who are frequently accessing sensitive information and make sure that they have the proper authorization. Data exfiltration to external parties or devices is another major red flag to look out for.”

According to Noreika, an incident recovery plan is a significant requisite in minimizing the fallout of a cyberattack caused by insider threats. An effective recovery plan should cover incident detection and outline the key steps the organization should take to contain the threat and mitigate damage.

Google and the dark web – related news

Google will start shutting down its dark web monitoring tool — the Dark Web Report — which was designed to scan the dark web for users’ exposed personal information:January 15, 2026: The scans for new dark web breaches stop.February 16, 2026: The dark web report is no longer available, all data related to the report will be deleted.

Google previously stated its intention to focus on tools that provide customers with clearer, more actionable steps to protect their online information. However, no concrete announcements regarding new cybersecurity tools have been made by the company to date.

Niger faces dilemma over uranium shipment stuck at airport

ByAFP
January 15, 2026


Niger is one of the world's leading producers of uranium 

- Copyright AFP/File I-Hwa CHENG

Pierre DONADIEU, with Patricio Arana in Paris

A huge uranium shipment that left northern Niger in late November has been stuck for weeks at Niamey airport.

The cargo has created a diplomatic headache for the junta that seized power in 2023 and has since turned away from traditional ally France and closer to Russia.

Here is what we know about the shipment, estimated at more than 1,000 tonnes, which the Sahelian country — among the world’s leading producers of uranium — wants to sell:



– Shipment at airport –



Nigerien uranium — long mined by French firm Orano (formerly Areva) — is at the heart of the junta’s push to assert sovereignty over its resources.

In June, the military leadership announced the nationalisation of the Somair mine, an Orano subsidiary located in Arlit in the north.

Weeks later, it said it would sell Niger’s uranium on the international market.

Using satellite images, AFP has established that 34 trucks arrived at Niamey airport between December 3 and 5.

While the contents cannot formally be confirmed, several sources — including Wamaps, a group of west African journalists specialising in Sahel security — say it is the uranium shipment that left Arlit in late November.

The trucks remained inside the airport compound for nearly a month, but by January 14, only four were still visible.

“The cargo is entirely within the airport; it has been moved to secure locations,” a source familiar with the matter told AFP.

“It is not intended to leave the country anytime soon,” the source added.



– A risky route –



Moving goods out of landlocked Niger usually requires access to a neighbouring country’s port.

Niger shares borders with Nigeria and Benin.

But the junta’s relations with Abuja are tense and ties with Cotonou are even worse.

Niger accuses Benin of seeking to destabilise the country and has closed the border.

That means that the most direct route via Benin’s port of Seme-Kpodji is not an option.

The alternative would be to move the “yellowcake” — a concentrate of uranium — through Togo.

But that entails crossing western Niger and Burkina Faso, which is rife with jihadist violence.

The route would go through Torodi in southwestern Niger where the local prefect was killed earlier this year.

“Niger is hesitating because of growing security risks,”, the source said.

The Tillaberi region bordering Burkina Faso became the “deadliest region across central Sahel” in 2025, according to ACLED, an NGO that monitors conflicts.



– The air option –



The uranium could also be transported by air.

Satellite images show two Russian-made Ilyushin Il-76 cargo planes at Niamey between January 9 and 13.

But flight-tracking data analysed by AFP to identify the aircraft owners revealed no registered movements.

At this stage, the buyer of the uranium remains unknown and Moscow has not officially expressed interest in the shipment.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said she would “look into the matter” and would respond “without fail”, when she was asked by AFP during a briefing Thursday.

During a visit to Niamey in the summer, Russia’s energy minister declared Moscow’s “main goal is to mine uranium” in Niger.

Russian atomic agency Rosatom later also signed a memorandum on civilian nuclear cooperation with Niger.



– Legal challenge –



In December, France launched a probe into the suspected theft of this uranium “in the interests of a foreign power”.

Orano says the cargo still belongs to it, a claim Niamey rejects and accuses the company in turn of owing 58 billion CFA francs ($102 million) in debts and unpaid bills.

The legal case could complicate matters for any country through which the shipment might transit — starting with Togo.

“This complaint has changed the balance of power,” the source said.

“Togo is now hesitating because, under its international commitments, the cargo would have to be seized immediately if it entered its territory,” the source added.

US court clears Norway’s Equinor to resume wind project halted by Trump


By AFP
January 15, 2026


Wind turbines shown in 2022 generating electricity at the Block Island Wind Farm near Block Island, Rhode Island - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File JOHN MOORE

A US judge on Thursday authorized work to resume on a New York offshore wind project that had been suspended under an order by President Donald Trump’s administration.

US District Judge Carl Nichols granted a preliminary injunction to the Norwegian company Equinor for its Empire Wind project, just three days after a different judge ordered the restart of a project by Denmark’s Orsted.

Trump’s Interior Department in late December suspended all large offshore wind projects in the United States, affecting five projects.

Empire Wind had requested the court’s intervention on an emergency basis, arguing in a January 6 filing that it needed to resume construction by January 16.

Without restarting by that time, “the project faces likely termination due to disruption of a tightly choreographed construction schedule dependent on vessels with constrained availability, delay costs, and the existential threat to the project financing,” said the filing.

The venture’s legal brief described the suspension order as “arbitrary and capricious.”

Nichols granted the motion after a telephone hearing Thursday with the parties. He did not rule on Equinor’s underlying challenge to the Trump administration’s action.

The project, expected to be fully operational by the end of 2027, could provide enough energy to power 500,000 homes.

Equinor has already invested more than $4 billion in the venture, which is about 60 percent complete, the company said.

Empire Wind “will now focus on safely restarting construction activities that were halted during the suspension period,” the company said.

“In addition, the project will continue to engage with the US government to ensure the safe, secure and responsible execution of its operations.”

The underlying lawsuit “will continue to proceed,” it added.

The US Department of Interior did not respond to a request for comment.



– ‘Ugly monsters’ –



The Interior Department on December 22 said it had paused leases for Empire Wind and four other offshore wind projects under construction, citing “national security.”

A press release pointed to “radar interference” due to “the movement of massive turbine blades and the highly reflective towers.”

The US Department of Energy says wind turbines “can interfere with radar systems if they are located within the line sight of these systems,” according to its website.

“In most cases, however, thoughtful wind farm site selection, planning, and other mitigations have resolved conflicts and allow wind power projects to coexist effectively with radar missions,” the agency adds.

Trump has long complained that windmills ruin views and are expensive. During a trip last summer to one of his UK golf courses, the US president urged Britain to stop subsidizing the “ugly monsters.”

The order on Empire Wind comes after US District Judge Royce Lamberth on Monday cleared another project, Revolution Wind off the coast of Rhode Island, to resume construction.

Orsted has a 50-percent stake in the project alongside a renewables infrastructure developer that is part of the BlackRock investment group.

In a one-page order, Lamberth wrote that Revolution Wind was likely to succeed in underlying litigation, faced “irreparable harm” without an injunction, and the venture’s request was “in the public interest.”

Other projects affected by the Interior Department December action are Sunrise Wind, also in New York state and the CVOW project in Virginia.

The fifth project, Vineyard Wind, has filed a challenge to the Trump action in federal court in Massachusetts.

Surveillance, harassment and bribes: everyday life for migrants in Russia


By AFP
January 15, 2026


Migrant workers are vital for Russia's economy, which is facing labour shortages amid the Ukraine offensive - Copyright AFP/File Alexander NEMENOV

Victoria LOGUINOVA-YAKOVLEVA

Facing digital surveillance, bribes, humiliation and street harassment, Kyrgyz taxi driver Alym never has an easy life in Russia.

“We have to pay, pay, pay for everything,” the 38-year-old father of two told AFP near Moscow.

“The police are constantly demanding bribes for every document, every stamp: registration, a patent, a work permit,” he said, adding some documents can cost as much as $300 off-the-books.

Pressure on the estimated 6.5 million foreign citizens in Russia — mostly labour migrants from Central Asia who work in low-skilled jobs and send wages to family back home — is ramping up from all sides.

Officials try to block their access to work and schools with tighter immigration rules, while xenophobia in the country — always high — is rising further still.

Every day Alym must send his location to authorities via the state-run Amina surveillance app, which he has to keep installed on his phone.

“If you don’t do it for three days in a row, you’re put on a blacklist that’s hard to get off,” he explained.

Being added to what is officially called the “register of monitored persons” means having bank accounts frozen and raises the risk of losing a job, being expelled from university or even deportation.



– ‘Nuts’ –



The toughening of rules was codified last year when Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a new policy designed to “limit the presence of migrants’ family members in Russia.”

According to the document, the new measures should “reduce the burden on the social and healthcare services.”

Among some of the requirements rolled out are ultra-tough language tests for the children of migrants looking to enter Russian schools.

Anna Orlova, a Russian language teacher at the Migratory Children project, has criticised both the tests and the overall policy.

“We should, on the contrary, be glad that migrants come to us. It means the Russian economy is growing,” she said.

The complicated tests, combined with other bureaucratic hurdles, led to 87 percent of migrant children being blocked from entering school in 2025, according to a federal regulator.

“The education ministry has set the goal of no longer accepting non-Russian pupils in schools. It’s nuts,” said Orlova.

Alym’s daughter, now in kindergarten, will soon have to take the test.

There are signs that high levels of societal xenophobia are seeping into the classroom.

Alym’s son, already in school, was recently beaten up by his Russian classmates.

In December, a teenager with neo-Nazi views stabbed a 10-year-old Tajik boy to death at a school near Moscow.

“A migrant’s life in Russia is difficult. The migrant becomes an enemy on whom the discontent in society is funnelled,” said Svetlana Gannushkina from Civic Assistance, a migrant rights group, which has been labelled a “foreign agent” by the authorities.

“We’re being told that they steal our jobs and undercut wages,” she added.

Those kinds of anti-immigration narratives — prevalent in many countries — have taken on an extra edge in Russia, where inflation is high and the Kremlin has hiked taxes to fund its military as the war in Ukraine enters its fifth year.



– Draft fears –



Gannushkina said the policy response has been “full of fear,” ushered in following a March 2024 massacre at a concert hall near Moscow, which killed 149 people.

The four alleged assailants, currently on trial, are from Tajikistan.

The anti-migrant sentiment has also boosted the popularity of some political groups, like the LDPR, an ultra-nationalist party allied with the Kremlin.

“I’m constantly travelling around the regions, and illegal immigration is often the top issue raised by our fellow citizens. We’re fed up with this situation,” party leader Leonid Slutsky said in a YouTube broadcast.

Slutsky accused migrants of “undermining the principles and traditions” of Russian society.

He declined to comment when contacted by AFP.

Alym wants to leave Russia by 2030, when he expects to have paid off his mortgage in Kyrgyzstan.

“Many of my compatriots have already returned, because their children weren’t admitted to school,” he said.

After four years in Russia, Alym no longer wants a Russian passport, as he once did, because of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.

“I don’t want to be drafted,” he said.

Trump Isn’t the First to Be Gifted a Nobel Prize He Didn’t Win—Joseph Goebbels Got One Too

In 1943, the Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun gave his Nobel Prize for Literature to the infamous Nazi criminal.


US President Donald Trump holds a framed Nobel Peace Prize medal given to him by Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado—the actual 2025 winner—at the White House in Washington, DC on January 15, 2026.
(Photo by the White House)

Brett Wilkins
Jan 16, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

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.”



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.

Can a Nobel Prize be gifted or sold? Some have done it in the past

Copyright AP Photo

By Aleksandar Brezar
Published on 16/01/2026 

EURONEWS

Although Machado's gesture marks a rare instance of a living laureate parting with their medal shortly after receiving it, it is not unprecedented. Rules state that Machado could give away her actual medal but not the honour itself.

In a largely unusual move, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to US President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday, in what she said was "recognition for his unique commitment to our freedom."

Machado was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her leadership of Venezuela's opposition movement amid a crackdown by Nicolas Maduro, most notably in the much-maligned 2023 presidential election in the South American country.

In the meantime, Trump ordered a blitz US military operation on 3 January that resulted in Maduro's capture. The former Venezuelan leader and his spouse now face drug trafficking-related charges in New York.

“I presented the president of the United States the medal, the Nobel Peace Prize,” Machado told reporters as she departed the White House on Thursday.

Trump confirmed on social media that Machado had left the medal for him to keep, and he said it was an honour to meet her.

“She is a wonderful woman who has been through so much. María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done,” Trump said in his post. “Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you María.”

Although Machado's gesture marks a rare instance of a living laureate parting with their medal shortly after receiving it, it is not unprecedented, and rules state that Machado could give away her actual medal but not the honour itself.

The Nobel Foundation's statutes and Alfred Nobel's will — which dictate the merits awardees should have — state that the title of the winner belongs personally to the individual and cannot be legally shared or reassigned to another person.

The medal or the associated diploma can be physically given, sold or auctioned, but this does not confer the award's title on anyone else.

Several other Nobel laureates have previously given away or sold their medals, although the circumstances and motivations varied.

Auction for Ukrainian refugees

Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 — alongside Maria Ressa of the Philippines — for his efforts to safeguard freedom of expression in Russia, auctioned his medal in June 2022 for a record-breaking $103.5 million (€89.1m).

All proceeds from the sale held at Heritage Auctions in New York to an anonymous buyer were donated to UNICEF's fund for Ukrainian child refugees following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February of that year.

People point to the screen showing the final price for Dmitry Muratov's 23-karat gold medal of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize after being auctioned in New York 20 June 2022 AP Photo

The auction came just months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Muratov is the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia's last independent newspapers.

The publication suspended operations in March 2022 after receiving warnings from Russian authorities amid a crackdown on dissent and criticism of the Kremlin's actions during the early weeks of the war.

Wartime fundraising and infamous gestures

In the early days of World War II, Nobel medals belonging to Danish physicists Niels Bohr and August Krogh, who won in 1922 and 1920 respectively, were auctioned to raise funds for Finnish civilian relief during the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union in 1939-1940.

The medals were later donated to museums in Denmark.

During World War II, German physicists Max von Laue and James Franck, both Nobel laureates, gave their medals to Niels Bohr as Nazi Germany occupied their countries.

To prevent the medals from falling into Nazi hands, Hungarian chemist George de Hevesy, who worked in Bohr's laboratory, dissolved them in acid.

After the war, the gold was recovered, and the Nobel Foundation recast the medals, which were returned to von Laue and Franck's family.

The aftermath of Mosquito planes of the Royal Air Force raid on factories working for the Nazis in Copenhagen, 10 February 1943 AP Photo

Not all stories around Nobel Prize medals are positive, however, and some of the choices made by laureates were quite controversial.

Norwegian author Knut Hamsun, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920, reportedly gave his medal to Nazi Germany's Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels during World War II.

Hamsun, who met with Adolf Hitler and Goebbels in 1943, was a Nazi sympathiser who supported the German occupation of Norway. Historical accounts indicate he gave his Nobel medal to Goebbels as a symbolic gesture of support.

Hamsun's reputation was destroyed after the war, although his literary works continue to be studied.

The case of James Watson

James D Watson sold his medal amid controversy at Christie's auction house in December 2014 for about $4.8 million (€4.13m).

Watson, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962 alongside Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins for discovering the structure of DNA, said proceeds would support scientific research institutions and conservation causes.

He became the first living Nobel laureate known to sell his medal.

Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov purchased the medal only to return it to Watson at an official ceremony in Moscow in 2015, saying the scientist "deserved" to have it.

People queue to attend a lecture by US Nobel laureate biologist James Watson, at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 17 June 2015 AP Photo

Watson's decision to sell came amid financial difficulties and following controversial statements about race and intelligence, especially regarding people of African heritage, that damaged his reputation and led to his departure from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he had served as chancellor.

The laboratory stripped Watson of his titles and cut all ties with him in 2019. Watson initially apologised over his remarks, but later said his views remained unchanged.

The EU sanctioned Usmanov in 2022, imposing a bloc-wide travel ban on him and freezing all his assets over his links to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government. Watson enjoyed close ties with Russia late in his career.

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Crick's Nobel Prize medal, won together with Watson and Crick, was also sold at Heritage Auctions in 2013 for $2.27 million (€1.95m). Part of the sale proceeds were donated to the Francis Crick Institute in London.

Norman Angell's Nobel Peace Prize medal from 1933, won for promoting international understanding, was sold at Sotheby's in 1983. The medal is now held by the Imperial War Museum in London.

Aage Bohr, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1975, had his medal sold at auction in 2011 and again in 2019. Bohr was the son of Niels Bohr, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922.
Prize money donations

Some laureates have donated their Nobel prize money rather than parting with their medals.

Albert Einstein, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921, left his prize money to his first wife Mileva Marić and their children under a pre-arranged divorce settlement. The agreement was made before Einstein won the prize.

In 1979, Macedonian-born Albanian Peace Prize laureate Mother Teresa asked for the traditional Nobel banquet to be cancelled and that the funds, together with the prize money, be donated directly to the poor.

Paul Greengard, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2000, donated his full prize earnings to establish the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize, an annual award supporting women scientists.

Prof Albert Einstein poses with sailboat presented to him for his 50th birthday by Berliner Handelgesellschs Ftm, a German bank, June 1929 AP Photo

Günter Blobel, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1999, donated his prize money to restoration projects for Dresden and to the construction of a synagogue in his hometown.

E Donnall Thomas, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1990, donated his prize money to his research centre to support ongoing work in bone marrow transplantation.

The Nobel Prize currently includes a monetary award of 11 million Swedish kronor (around €1 million), although the amount has varied over the decades.

Here’s How We Pressured an Airline to End Its Contract With ICE


ICE is not invulnerable. The Avelo Airlines win proves what happens when we refuse inevitability and fight together.

Op-Ed
By Umme Hoque & Daniel Hunter , 

Truthout

January 14, 2026

A rally near the Albany International Airport along Albany Shaker Road on July 26, 2025, in Colonie, New York. Protesters called on Albany County to drop Avelo Airlines from the airport roster because of its participation in ICE deportation flights.

Jim Franco / Albany Times Union via Getty Images

The same day that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jonathan Ross killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, a little-known airline named Avelo announced that it would no longer fly deportation flights. Though the announcement was overshadowed by the news in Minneapolis, it is a major victory: The biggest commercial carrier of kidnapped and detained souls is ending its estimated $150 million contract with ICE.

The campaign targeting Avelo was more than just a boycott. Like the historic grape boycott or the more recent Tesla Takedown movement, it required a mix of local and national organizing, direct action, and political pressure alongside the better-known boycott. Organizers targeted an ICE-enabling contractor with a public-facing brand, financial fragility, and political dependencies. This was not a symbolic protest — it was leverage. It sent a definitive signal to other commercial airlines to keep distance from ICE deportations and opened space for pressure on other ICE enablers.

Exposing a Hidden Pillar of Support

The campaign did not begin as a national strategy. It began the way many effective movements do: with people noticing something meant to remain unnoticed.


In Connecticut, word got out in March that Avelo — a commercial airline branded as a local carrier — had quietly signed a contract with the Department of Homeland Security and was scheduled to begin ICE deportation flights in May 2025. Avelo was headquartered in the state, received public subsidies, and now stood to profit from deportation — all without public debate, disclosure, or consent.

Related Stor

Activists Are Fighting Tax Subsidies for Airline Running ICE Deportation Flights
Connecticut activists are making big gains in their campaign against the airlines ICE is using to abduct people. By Umme Hoque , Truthout  May 15, 2025


“Avelo used to call itself New Haven’s hometown airline,” Anne Watkins, an organizer with the New Haven Immigrants Coalition, explained. “We don’t want a company that is profiting directly off of [deportation and detention] to be here in New Haven.”

Experts on civil resistance explain that defeating an authoritarian requires removing a regime’s “pillars of support.” An authoritarian leader can give orders — but they are only enacted if multiple institutions implement them. As noted in The Nation, “even the most despotic of regimes can’t rule without the backing or consent of powerful external institutions. Businesses are society’s most important non-state institutions, and most of the biggest ones in America are collaborating with Trump, making themselves a very steady pillar of support for his rule.”

This understanding led the campaign. It wasn’t a symbolic protest; it was built on the understanding that without the logistical support of Avelo, ICE deportations would be materially hampered.

Before flights started, the New Haven Immigrants Coalition launched a local campaign: protests, a demand for an end to public subsidies, and a boycott petition. Within days, tens of thousands had signed the petition, many outside the state.

Small, decentralized actions emerged, including protests in other cities, alongside social media pressure. The flight attendants’ union raised alarms about safety, stating: “Having an entire flight of people handcuffed and shackled would hinder any evacuation and risk injury or death.… We cannot do our jobs in these conditions.”

These efforts weren’t centrally coordinated. They didn’t yet add up to enough significant pressure to win. But they did the most important thing at that moment: raise awareness of a vulnerable target and begin assembling the people needed to win.


Identifying the Target’s Weaknesses

Deportation flights are rarely debated in city councils or mentioned in glossy corporate reports. They are subcontracted, routed through regional airports, and handled by companies designed to be forgettable — mostly private charter firms insulated from scrutiny. Deportation infrastructure depends on that invisibility.

Nikki Marín Baena — co-director of Siembra NC, a Latino base-building organization leading efforts to protect community members from ICE and build power in North Carolina, where Avelo also had multiple bases — told us: “These flights are purposely hidden and purposely in the shadows. It’s despicable that any U.S. corporation would seek to profit off our government’s immoral actions, and we needed to bring what they were doing — and why — more visibly into the light.” (We are connected to Baena because Umme Hoque leads national campaigns and trainings at Siembra NC.)

With Avelo now a target, campaigners began to home in on its vulnerabilities. Matthew Boulay, an activist in Oregon, put together a website and an ad hoc coalition (involving calls and shared spaces) for groups working to Stop Avelo. Siembra NC added this campaign to its many ICE defense campaigns and strategies, including leaning on the research firm LittleSis to identify Avelo’s weaknesses.

Avelo proved unique: a commercial airline with a recognizable brand dependent on ticket sales. Like many airlines, Avelo needed state and municipal subsidies and struggled to raise capital in a tight market.

That made it vulnerable to public pressure — even as it hoped deportation flights would, as CEO Andrew Levy explained, “provide us with the stability to continue expanding our core scheduled passenger service.”

Working with Mijente and the Coalition to Stop Avelo, Siembra NC’s national immigration defense network, Defend and Recruit, called on more groups around the country to join the campaign and take action. In this fast-moving phase, research, tactics, and approaches began to be shared across the movement.

Local demands were tailored based on how that location or group intersected with Avelo. In cities on flight routes — including Mesa, Arizona; Burbank, California; Baltimore, Maryland — the focus was airport and airport authorities. And if Avelo didn’t fly into a city, protests were held to make it clear it never could.


Deportation infrastructure is not sustained by ideology alone. It is sustained by contracts, zoning decisions, labor, reputational cover, and silence. Those can be undone.

Subsidies, previously framed as an economic opportunity, were recast as citizen investments in state violence and to be opposed in places like Delaware. Activists pushed elected officials to pass resolutions and legislation to refuse to fly the airline, their own form of boycott, and won in California. Connecticut moved from stopping subsidies to severing partnerships. In New York, pressure targeted both state policy and Jefferies Group, an investment firm raising money for Avelo.

The tactics varied but were based on a consistent theory: Deportation infrastructure is not sustained by ideology alone. It is sustained by contracts, zoning decisions, labor, reputational cover, and silence. Those can be undone.

Scale Without Flattening

Things started bubbling: Activists pulled together a nationwide week of protests in late May, with actions across 22 states. First-time activists joined with seasoned labor organizers. Faith leaders, activists, and frequent flyers played central roles.

Rev. Cathy Rion Starr from the Unitarian Universalists Association, which mobilized congregations nationwide, shared why: “As people of faith, we know that safety is created through care, not punishment — and that transformation happens in the community.”

An elected official in New Hampshire paid for protest billboards himself. Attorneys general released letters.

More national organizations began to join the campaign. Tristan Call, an international committee member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), saw opportunities to get involved. “We had DSA chapters in 44 of Avelo’s 51 key cities, many of whom were already looking for ways to get involved in defending their immigrant members and neighbors,” Call told Truthout. “So we saw the Avelo campaign as a tremendous opportunity both to bring the leverage of tens of thousands of DSA members to the fight against ICE’s corporate profiteers, and to train our members in how to run effective corporate boycott campaigns.”

By July, the fight notched its first win: Avelo stopped its West Coast flights. Nationwide, this small win barely registered outside of the movement. But it promoted momentum inside the movement’s orbit.

How national groups showed up really mattered. They amplified local fights, shared research and tools, and helped grow local pressure from everywhere at once. Groups like Jobs with Justice, the SEIU, and other worker bodies grew more involved with local leaders and workers. Pilot whistleblowers sharing inside intel and responses from the company and stakeholders helped all groups understand whether tactics were having an impact inside the company.

Rolling weeks of action augmented local pressure and strategies. While Indivisible chapters across the country had already been active, nationally it, too, joined the effort — adding to what was now a stampede of hundreds of cities finding ways to pressure and cause economic pain to Avelo.

No group controlled a brand, created a singular identity, or created a singular national approach; instead, they allowed multiple strategies and shared resources across the movement to pressure the target. Over a few months, at least 40 groups took action across the country, with hundreds of people joining protests. Tens of thousands boycotted Avelo.

Similar to the Tesla Takedown campaign, it was a generative combination of centralization and decentralization. The pressure proved too great for the airline.

In early January, Avelo quietly announced that it would shutter its operations at Mesa Gateway Airport in Phoenix, Arizona. It was getting out of the deportation business.

Why We Won

This was the mosquito strategy: many tiny bites until it was too painful to continue. Some city bites were quite painful, forcing Avelo to leave the West Coast entirely or to re-evaluate its own “hometown” brand. Others were less successful — but still part of the overall effect.

“From the tarmac to the ticket counter, our organizing created a sustained pressure campaign that Avelo could no longer ignore.”

This was a victory — and it should be named as one. As Boulay explained, “At a time when immigrant communities are under relentless attack, [this campaign] offers proof that resistance works. From the tarmac to the ticket counter, our organizing created a sustained pressure campaign that Avelo could no longer ignore.”

But no one mistakes this victory for an ending to our organizing. ICE’s aggression is escalating. People continue to be harmed and killed by immigration enforcement and policing.

Still, removing one company from ICE’s chain weakens the overall system. It adds to the win of the Spotify boycott: Spotify is no longer airing ICE recruitment ads, likely in part due to collective pressure.

The networks formed through this Avelo fight are now turning to new contractors, other state and municipal policies, and toward a national story that we can do better. One key strategy to reduce ICE’s power is to target ICE collaborators.

Organizers in Minneapolis have called for residents to stop giving ICE and other federal occupation forces food, shelter, and transportation. These include companies like Signature Aviation, Hilton, and Enterprise. Their first victory — coupled with — was getting a local Hilton to refuse service to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE.

As Adam Shah, director of national policy for Jobs with Justice, has stated, now is a choice point for these pillars:

From Avelo to Amazon, all corporations must weigh their options. Democracy or authoritarianism. Community or violence. If you are profiting from a partnership with ICE, then you are in opposition to democracy and will face an organized coalition of working people determined to win a future free from the exploitation of the deportation machine.

More than anything, this campaign proves the fragility of the system. ICE and the security forces of this current government are not invulnerable. This win proves what happens when we refuse inevitability and fight together. That lesson is dangerous to any system that survives on our silence and our resignation to the idea that we can’t change anything. Because we can and did — and there’s more to come.


This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the terms of the license.

Umme Hoque
Umme is a writer, editor, and organizer leading campaigns and trainings at Defend and Recruit, a national network supporting the movement for immigrant defense. A Bangladeshi-Texan, she’s spent the past two decades fighting local and global campaigns with trade unions and worker bodies, immigrant rights and racial justice organizations, climate justice groups, and debtor unions. Her writing has appeared in Prism, In These Times, Filter, The Guardian, and The Progressive.

Staggering cost of Pentagon push to change DoD to 'Department of War' revealed

 name change could cost anywhere from $10 million at the low end to $125 million on the high end.

U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks about Javelin anti-tank missiles next to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in Washington D.C., U.S., August 11, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Carl Gibson

January 14, 2026

ALTERNET

One of the more high-profile changes to the federal government that President Donald Trump made early on in his second term was to change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War. The total cost could be in the nine-figure range.

That's according to an estimate released Wednesday by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and posted to X by CBS reporter Scott MacFarlane. The CBO estimated the cost under two scenarios — a per-person approach and a per-organization approach. MacFarlane crunched the numbers and estimated that the name change could cost anywhere from $10 million at the low end to $125 million on the high end.

The new estimate sparked outrage among multiple elected officials, journalists and others on social media. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) — who is a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army and Purple Heart veteran — noted that the $125 million cost could be used to "feed 55,000 hungry Veterans."

"Find someone who loves you the way this administration loves wasting money," New York Times contributor Molly Jong-Fast wrote on X.

Army veteran Drew Rogers, who describes himself as a "former Republican" on X, noted that the Trump administration's attempted name change isn't official without an act of Congress. He called the name change "illegal" and said all money dedicated to the effort should be "swiftly refunded to taxpayers."

"It’s DoD until the legislative (lawmaking) branch of the U.S. gov’t says otherwise," Rogers wrote.

Rogers' point was recently made in December, when the House of Representatives was writing the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to fund the military through next year. Despite Trump's executive order announcing he was changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, the final version of the NDAA used the old name, meaning the Pentagon will be formally known as the Department of Defense through the next calendar year.