Pramod Thomas is a senior correspondent with Asian Media Group since 2020, bringing 19 years of journalism experience across business, politics, sports, communities, and international relations. His career spans both traditional and digital media platforms, with eight years specifically focused on digital journalism. This blend of experience positions him well to navigate the evolving media landscape and deliver content across various formats. He has worked with national and international media organisations, giving him a broad perspective on global news trends and reporting standards.
INDIAN-AMERICAN Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has said that Joe Biden's annual budgetary proposals were socialist in nature and a 'disaster for America'.
She even called Biden an 'ultimate socialist president'.
"We should be moving people from welfare to work. But Joe Biden is calling for no-strings-attached welfare checks with no work requirements," Haley said after Biden unveiled his $6.9 trillion budget.
In his annual budget, Biden came out with a series of social welfare measures and raised taxes for the rich.
"I think Biden is the ultimate socialist president. He loves to spend everybody else’s money. His answer to everything is to increase taxes," Haley told Fox News in an interview.
"We need to be realistic. We’re $31 trillion in debt. We are borrowing money to make our interest payments. This is not sustainable. The problem is Washington DC has a spending problem, and we need to put them on our diet and put an end to it," she said.
"The first thing Biden should have done is say we’re going to claw back the $500 billion of unspent Covid-19 money. The second thing he should have said is rather than the IRS agents going after innocent Americans, go back and go after the 100 billion dollars of Covid fraud that happened along the way," she said.
Haley, who announced her presidential candidacy on February 14, has been campaigning in Iowa and Nevada this week.
Meanwhile, Nikki Haley has called for changing the retirement age for Americans currently in their 20s.
She has also proposed limiting social security and medicare benefits for wealthier Americans.
Haley said, "What you would do is, for those in their 20s coming into the system, we would change the retirement age so that it matches life expectancy."
When pressed for a specific new retirement age she supports, the Indian-American said, "It’s the new ones coming in. It's those in their 20s that are coming in. You’re coming to them and you’re saying, the game has changed. We’re going to do this completely differently."
Recently, Haley had proposed altering the retirement age for young people and also outlined several changes to entitlement programmes.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said Machado was honoured for her efforts to promote democratic rights and pursue a peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy in Venezuela.
Maria Corina Machado awarded 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for promoting democracy in Venezuela
The Nobel Committee praised her courage and fight for peaceful democratic transition
Machado has been in hiding for a year after being barred from contesting Venezuela’s 2024 election
US President Donald Trump had also hoped to win this year’s Peace Prize
VENEZUELA’s opposition leader and democracy activist Maria Corina Machado has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said she was honoured for her efforts to promote democratic rights and pursue a peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy in Venezuela.
Machado, who has been living in hiding for the past year, was recognised “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,” said Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, in Oslo.
“I am in shock,” Machado said in a video message sent to AFP by her press team.
Frydnes said Venezuela has changed from a relatively democratic and prosperous country to “a brutal authoritarian state that is now suffering a humanitarian and economic crisis.”
“The violent machinery of the state is directed against the country's own citizens. Nearly eight million people have left the country,” he said.
The opposition has been systematically suppressed through “election rigging, legal prosecution and imprisonment,” Frydnes added.
Machado has been “a key, unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided,” the committee said. It described her as “one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times.”
“Despite serious threats against her life, she has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired millions,” it said.
Machado had been the opposition’s presidential candidate ahead of Venezuela’s 2024 election, but her candidacy was blocked by the government. She then supported former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as her replacement.
Her Nobel win came as a surprise, as her name had not featured among those speculated to receive the award before Friday’s announcement.
Trump’s hopes for prize
US President Donald Trump had expressed his desire to win this year’s Peace Prize. Since returning to the White House in January for a second term, he has repeatedly said he “deserves” the Nobel for his role in resolving several conflicts — a claim observers have disputed.
Experts in Oslo had said before the announcement that Trump was unlikely to win, noting that his “America First” policies run counter to the principles outlined in Alfred Nobel’s 1895 will establishing the prize.
Frydnes said the Norwegian Nobel Committee is not influenced by lobbying campaigns.
“In the long history of the Nobel Peace Prize, I think this committee has seen every type of campaign, media attention,” he said. “We receive thousands and thousands of letters every year of people wanting to say, what for them, leads to peace.” “We base our decision only on the work and the will of Alfred Nobel,” he added.
Last year, the prize went to the Japanese anti-nuclear group Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots organisation of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The Nobel Peace Prize includes a gold medal, a diploma, and a cash award of $1.2 million. It will be presented at a ceremony in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.
The Peace Prize is the only Nobel awarded in Oslo. Other Nobel Prizes are presented in Stockholm.
On Thursday, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Hungarian author Laszlo Krasznahorkai. The 2025 Nobel season concludes Monday with the announcement of the economics prize.
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