Netanyahu and Trump attack Navi Pillay's Nobel Peace Prize win

The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that Judge Navi Pillay from South Africa won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize today (Friday) for her “efforts to promote peace and international law,” according to Reuters.

The committee stated that Pillay (85 years old) held leaders of countries accountable, brought hope to victims of violence and conflict, and demonstrated a steadfast moral compass during her long career.

The committee added: “There is a common denominator that extends from the beginnings of her career defending Nelson Mandela and others who struggled against the apartheid regime, to her work as a judge in some of the most important international court cases of our time.”

Pillay chaired the independent international commission of inquiry into the occupied Palestinian territory, which concluded last year that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. Israel rejected the committee's findings, describing them as "disgraceful."

The Peace Prize is the fifth Nobel Prize awarded this week after the prizes for literature, chemistry, physics and medicine. Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won the Peace Prize in 2025.

The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 12 million Swedish krona (about 1.2 million dollars), is scheduled to be presented in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who recommended these awards in his will in 1895.

A survey conducted by Abacus Data showed that 51 percent of Canadian shoppers avoid buying American products whenever possible, compared to 38 percent in February 2025, amid trade tensions between the two countries, according to the British newspaper The Independent.

The survey, which was conducted in September, showed that 77 percent intend to reduce their purchases of American products to a minimum or avoid them completely.

Required to provide alternatives

70 percent of respondents want to remove American goods from grocery stores, while 89 percent call for clear labeling of domestic products, and 87 percent want to expand the supply of Canadian and non-American alternatives.

These demands come as Prime Minister Mark Carney seeks to double Canada's trade with other countries within ten years, and strengthen trade ties with the European Union, India and China.

Prices are a barrier for buyers

Despite the demand for alternatives, 61 percent of Canadians believe that local products are more expensive than their American counterparts. Also, less than half of respondents could determine whether the brands displayed in stores were owned by Canadians.

OpenAI announced Thursday that it had thwarted two information influence campaigns linked to Russia and Iran that used the GBT chat platform to create fake journalist identities and operate a “research center” with the aim of secretly promoting anti-Ukrainian propaganda.

The American company said that it banned a group of “GBT Chat” accounts originating from Russia and Iran, which were used to support fictitious entities dedicated to promoting messages related to geopolitical issues and conflicts, according to what was reported by Agence France-Presse.

The Iranian operation included seven “journalist” figures who said they were from Western countries, including the United States, and were used to publish long articles in media outlets around the world.

OpenAI added: “We identified nearly 100 articles published or republished under the names of these figures on about 12 electronic media platforms around the world,” noting that these platforms were small or medium-sized and generally focused on international affairs and Middle East events.

The company explained that the oldest article it monitored was published in July 2025, while the most recent articles date back to October 2026.

She noted that the operation produced comments on social media that addressed topics related to the US-Iranian war.

Among these is a person named Irvin B. Hoskins introduced himself as an “independent American writer,” and had accounts on several platforms, including “X” and “Instagram.”

According to the company, transparency data on the “X” platform showed that the account was connected through an application operating from West Asia, while “Instagram” data indicated that the account was based in Iran. It appeared that both accounts were later suspended.

As for the Russian campaign, according to Open AI, it used people in Latin America “without their knowledge” to manage what was called the “Social Research Center,” and it was used in secret activities aimed at undermining Ukraine’s image in the region and influencing local politics.

The company said: “Available evidence indicates that the center’s employees in Latin America were not aware that they were working for a Russian group.”

She added that the center relied on exploited employees to produce the majority of its original content, describing the process as “the most complex attempt to create a fake facade that we have been able to thwart over the past two and a half years.”