Nobel committee says prizes can’t be transferred, Equinor cleared to continue US project, Rødt party gets surge in members and more news from Norway this Friday.
Venezuela’s Machado ‘presents’ Trump with Nobel medal
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said she “presented” her Nobel Peace Prize medal to Donald Trump, in a bid to win over the US president who had sidelined her since overthrowing Nicolas Maduro.
Her “wonderful gesture of mutual respect,” as Trump called it Thursday, comes after the Republican said the award should have gone to him instead and after he refused to back Machado following the January 3rd US military operation to capture Maduro.
“He deserves it, and it was a very emotional moment,” Machado later told broadcaster Fox News in an interview.
“I presented the president of the United States the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize,” Machado told reporters outside the US capitol, where she met with lawmakers after having lunch with Trump at the White House.
Machado said it was “recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom.”
The Norwegian Nobel committee said in a statement its prizes cannot be transferred.
“Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others,” it said.
“The decision is final and stands for all time.”
US court clears Equinor to resume wind project halted by Trump
A US judge on Thursday authorized work to resume on Equinor’s Empire Wind offshore wind project, which 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, AFP reports, just three days after a different judge ordered the restart of a project by Denmark’s Ørsted.
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 6th filing that it needed to resume construction by January 16th.
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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 an AFP request for comment.
Increase in membership of far-left party
The leftist Rødt (Red) party has seen a considerable increase in membership.
The party gained more than 3,000 new members in 2025 and has passed the 15,000 mark for the first time, according to news wire NTB.
Membership growth was particularly strong during and after last September’s election, the party said.
The increase follows a sharp decline in 2023, when Rødt lost 731 members and ended the year with a total of 13,848. That was the first time since 2008 that the party experienced a drop in membership.
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Norwegian involvement in European military mission in Greenland as US aim ‘remains intact’
Two Danish troop transport planes landed in Greenland on Wednesday while Norway, Britain, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden have also announced the deployment of military personnel as part of a reconnaissance mission to Greenland’s capital Nuuk, under Denmark’s “Arctic Endurance” exercise organised with NATO allies.
The modest military reinforcements — 13 soldiers from Germany, for example — are meant to prepare armed forces for future exercises in the Arctic, according to European defence sources.
“A first team of French service members is already on site and will be reinforced in the coming days with land, air, and maritime assets,” French President Emmanuel Macron said.
Germany’s defence ministry said the aim was to “explore the framework conditions for possible military contributions to support Denmark in ensuring security in the region”.
With reporting by AFP.