The Newest Nobel Laureate—Not a Woman of Peace

Good morning,

It’s baffling that Donald Trump so covets a Nobel Peace Prize. It is an award not for real peacemakers, if there is such a thing in this world, but rather for the prize committee to make dubious political statements. Case in point: The newest winner of the prize is Navi Pillay.

[BRIEF]

Pillay is an outspoken enemy of the Jewish state. She recently chaired a United Nations commission that accused the Jews of genocide in Gaza and Israel’s president, prime minister and former defense minister of inciting genocide. She likened their actions to those responsible for the Rwandan genocide. Pillay’s report barely mentioned the inhuman Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre that provoked the entire Gaza war.

• In July 2022, Pillay defended a fellow commissioner after he asked why Israel was even a member of the UN and said social media was “controlled largely by the Jewish lobby.”
• She has called Israel an apartheid state and signed the 2020 boycott-divestment-sanction petition “Sanction Apartheid Israel.”
• As UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (2008–2014), she backed the Goldstone Report’s charge that Israel deliberately targeted civilians, and she kept backing it after Goldstone withdrew that finding.

Choosing her to receive the prize is a clear rebuke to President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who both rejected the UN commission’s Gaza report. Israel has accused Pillay of being a “Hamas proxy.”

Still, she is hardly the worst choice by a committee with a history of awarding its Peace Prize to people whose careers included terrorism, paramilitary command or large-scale civilian killing. Among the clearest cases:

• Yasser Arafat (1994, for the Oslo Accords), founder of the terrorist group that carried out the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre and other deadly attacks. Netanyahu, then Israel’s opposition leader, called it a farce to give the award to “the person who invented international terrorism.”
• Aung San Suu Kyi (1991, for nonviolent opposition to Myanmar’s junta), who, after she entered government, defended the military’s 2017 campaign against the Rohingya, which UN investigators described as genocide. Several institutions stripped her of honors; the Nobel was not revoked.
• Abiy Ahmed (2019, for the Ethiopia–Eritrea peace deal), who, within a year, launched the Tigray war, which a UN commission found involved war crimes and crimes against humanity and which killed hundreds of thousands.
• Barack Obama (2009, reason unclear, since he had been president for less than nine months), who—among other acts Gerald Flurry details in America Under Attack, backed the Islamist revolt that replaced Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak with the Muslim Brotherhood; ignored Iran’s 2009 uprising; signed a nuclear deal that freed Iranian spies, sent Tehran cash, and let Russia ship it enough uranium for about 10 bombs; approved an unauthorized 2011 war in Libya; stood down when Benghazi was attacked; and restored ties with Communist Cuba.

President Trump will be upset at being snubbed again, as he continues to boast of the “eight wars” he has ended, saying nobody in history is more deserving.

• But fighting has since resumed (or never stopped) in three of those eight conflicts, the value of American peace efforts in the others is in dispute, and the fiercest war of his presidency—Ukraine—continues despite all labors to stop it.

“The way of peace they know not,” wrote the Prophet Isaiah. True words, evidenced by all of human history—not least in our turbulent times:

• Last year saw eight interstate conflicts, the highest count since World War ii. In the first eight months of this year, Uppsala University’s Conflict Data Program shows 13 conflicts that have killed over a thousand people, and 63 with at least 25 deaths—matching last year’s war total with four months left in the year.
• Prophecy shows these wars and rumors of wars will climax in a world war on an unprecedented scale.

God alone knows the way of peace. Thankfully, He is about to enforce it and teach it to all mankind.

France Risks Biggest Bond Crisis Since Greece

• France is facing its worst bond-market situation since the eurozone debt crisis. Worries about French debt have pushed the euro to a 17-month low against the U.S. dollar. Yesterday, the yield on France’s 10-year bonds reached about 4.9 percent, the highest since 2002.

A higher yield means investors are demanding more interest to lend to France.

• At the end of June, public debt was €3.6 trillion (us$4 trillion), 119 percent of gdp. The deficit is around 5 percent of gdp, and investors are not convinced that the French government will improve the situation before the 2027 presidential election.
• Money is moving into German, Dutch and other safer European bonds.

That widens the gap between French and German borrowing costs and makes it more expensive for the French government to finance itself. Interest payments are €79 billion in 2026 and are projected to reach €91 billion in 2027. As old debt is replaced at today’s higher rates, more of the budget goes to interest.

The rest of the eurozone is exposed too.

• France is the bloc’s second-largest economy.
• The selloff is already lifting yields in Italy, Spain and other higher-debt countries.

The Greek bailout is not a reusable model. From 2010 to 2018, eurozone governments and the International Monetary Fund lent Greece €257 billion. France’s debt is €3.6 trillion, about 14 times that amount, and France plans to borrow hundreds of billions more next year.

France’s troubles benefit Germany, which has regained its place as Europe’s main bond-market safe haven. They also threaten the eurozone. If France lost market access, the bloc could not rescue it the way it rescued Greece, and that financial shock could break the currency union apart.

The euro is the dollar’s main rival, but it has never matched it. One reason is that it is not backed by a single national government, so investors cannot be sure how the union would share debts, or how long it would hold together, in a real crisis. The French selloff puts that weakness back in view.

The late Herbert W. Armstrong predicted that a financial crisis starting in the United States would eventually push European nations into a full fiscal union. Revelation 17:12-13 say that 10 kings will give their power and strength to the beast. That points to a more centralized economic order coming to the eurozone.

French Start-up Launches Europe’s Most Powerful AI Model

French artificial intelligence start-up Mistral launched the public preview of its ML4 model, nicknamed “le Chonk,” on Tuesday ahead of its full release later this month. It claims this will be the top non-Chinese, open-weight (meaning its training parameters are downloadable) model.

This advances Europe toward becoming a much more powerful force in the rapidly advancing world of AI—which advances Europe toward becoming a technological, economic and military superpower.

• According to Mistral’s vice president of science, Pierre Stock, ML4 is comparable to the models of other major AI companies yet took a “fraction” of the computing power to build compared to the competition.
• Specifically, just 3,800 Nvidia graphical processing units were used to train it which Stock claimed is half to a third of what Chinese models use and far smaller than the 100,000 used by OpenAI to train its latest model (gpt-6 Astra).

Although Europe lags behind the U.S. and China in the race to develop advanced AI models, it is apparently learning to achieve more output with less input.

This is about European sovereignty: Mistral stated ML4 was “Forged in Europe. Built for AI sovereignty.”

• This race for European AI sovereignty stems from Europe’s desire to become a superpower, which requires separation from and ultimately power against American technology.

A race toward a European superpower, as the Bible warns, is a race toward constructing a modern iteration of the deadly Holy Roman Empire.

IN OTHER NEWS

China’s Arctic strategy strengthens Russia’s position: China’s increasing investment and presence in the Arctic are helping entrench the Russian military in the region, the American Security Project wrote yesterday. Chinese shipping company NewNew Shipping plans to move 1 million tons of cargo through Arctic waters next year and make substantial investments in the Russian ports of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, which will increase the capabilities of Russia’s Northern Fleet, including its nuclear-armed submarines. Russia already maintains the Arctic’s largest military presence and most extensive infrastructure, and Chinese investment will further strengthen its position in this increasingly strategic region.

New Italian election paves the path for authoritarianism: Yesterday, Italy’s Chamber of Deputies approved a law granting election winners bonus seats in parliament. The move will reduce political instability by providing the prime minister with more power. Opponents compare it to a 1923 law that helped Mussolini cement personal power over the Italian government. The Bible prophesies that Europe is about to become extremely authoritarian, with its “kings” lending their power to one overall dictator. Legislation such as this helps prepare Italy for one of those kings.

Germany orders additional warships: German lawmakers approved the purchase of four MEKO A-200 naval frigates yesterday for an estimated $6.3 billion. This comes in addition to the four approved in July.