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Nobel Foundation Withdraws Invitation to Russia, Belarus and Iran to Attend Ceremonies

FILE - The Nobel laureates and the royal family of Sweden during the Nobel Prize award ceremony at the Concert Hall in Stockholm, Saturday Dec. 10 2022. (Pontus Lundahl/TT via AP, File)
FILE - The Nobel laureates and the royal family of Sweden during the Nobel Prize award ceremony at the Concert Hall in Stockholm, Saturday Dec. 10 2022. (Pontus Lundahl/TT via AP, File)
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Nobel Foundation Withdraws Invitation to Russia, Belarus and Iran to Attend Ceremonies

FILE - The Nobel laureates and the royal family of Sweden during the Nobel Prize award ceremony at the Concert Hall in Stockholm, Saturday Dec. 10 2022. (Pontus Lundahl/TT via AP, File)
FILE - The Nobel laureates and the royal family of Sweden during the Nobel Prize award ceremony at the Concert Hall in Stockholm, Saturday Dec. 10 2022. (Pontus Lundahl/TT via AP, File)

The Nobel Foundation on Saturday withdrew its invitation for representatives of Russia, Belarus and Iran to attend this year’s Nobel Prize award ceremonies after the decision announced a day earlier “provoked strong reactions.”
Several Swedish lawmakers said Friday they would boycott this year’s Nobel Prize award ceremonies in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, after the private foundation that administers the prestigious awards changed its position from a year earlier and invited representatives of the three countries to attend, saying it “promotes opportunities to convey the important messages of the Nobel Prize to everyone.”
Some of the lawmakers cited Russia's war on Ukraine and the crackdown on human rights in Iran as reasons for their boycott. Belarusian opposition figure Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya on Friday called on the Swedish Nobel Foundation and the Norwegian Nobel Committee not to invite representatives of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s “illegitimate regime to any events.”
On Saturday, she welcomed the Nobel Foundation's decision. She told The Associated Press that it was “a clear sign of solidarity with the Belarusian and Ukrainian peoples."
“This is how you show your commitment to the principles and values of Nobel,” Tsikhanouskaya said.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who said Friday he wouldn’t have allowed the three countries to participate in the award ceremonies, was also happy with the decision. He posted on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that "the many and strong reactions show that the whole of Sweden unambiguously stand on Ukraine’s side against Russia’s appalling war of aggression.”
The foundation said Saturday it recognized “the strong reactions in Sweden, which completely overshadowed this message" and therefore it had decided not to invite the ambassadors of Russia, Belarus and Iran to the award ceremony in Stockholm.
However, it said that it would follow its usual practice and invite all ambassadors to the ceremony in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded.
Saturday's announcement was widely praised in Sweden by politicians. Even the Swedish Royal House reacted with spokeswoman Margareta Thorgren saying, as quoted by newspaper Aftonbladet, that “we see the change in the decision as positive”. She added that King Carl XVI Gustaf was planning to hand out this year's Nobel awards at ceremonies in Stockholm “as before.”

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As Trump Returns to the White House, Families Prepare for Mass Deportations

Venezuelan Jorluis Ocando (4th L) listens to directions before crossing the border to El Paso, Texas, United States with other migrants to attend their CPB One appointment in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on October 22, 2024. (Photo by Guillermo Arias / AFP)
Venezuelan Jorluis Ocando (4th L) listens to directions before crossing the border to El Paso, Texas, United States with other migrants to attend their CPB One appointment in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on October 22, 2024. (Photo by Guillermo Arias / AFP)
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As Trump Returns to the White House, Families Prepare for Mass Deportations

Venezuelan Jorluis Ocando (4th L) listens to directions before crossing the border to El Paso, Texas, United States with other migrants to attend their CPB One appointment in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on October 22, 2024. (Photo by Guillermo Arias / AFP)
Venezuelan Jorluis Ocando (4th L) listens to directions before crossing the border to El Paso, Texas, United States with other migrants to attend their CPB One appointment in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on October 22, 2024. (Photo by Guillermo Arias / AFP)

Parents around Nora Sanidgo's large, rectangular dining table had lunch before signing documents to make the Nicaraguan immigrant a legal guardian of their children, entrusting them to her if they are deported. She gave a list of what to carry with them: birth certificates, medical and school records, immigration documents, her phone number.
“Talk to your children and tell them what can happen, let them have my phone number on hand, let them learn it, let them record it,” Sandigo said Sunday.
For the group at Sandigo's southwest Miami home and for millions in the United States illegally or with temporary legal status, the start of Donald Trump's second term as president on Monday comes with a feeling that their time in the US may end soon. Trump made mass deportations a signature issue of his campaign and has promised a raft of first-day orders to remake immigration policy.
“You don’t have to be afraid, you have to be prepared,” Sandigo told the group of about 20 people, including small children, who watched a demonstration of how to respond if immigration officers knock on their door. “Take precautions wherever you are.”
Sandigo, who came to the US in 1988, has volunteered to be guardian for more than 2,000 children in 15 years, including at least 30 since December. A notary was on hand Sunday.
Erlinda, a single mother from El Salvador who arrived in 2013, signed legal rights to her US-born children, ages 10 and 8. She said she applied for asylum but doesn't know the status of her case.
“I am afraid for my children, that they will live the terror of not seeing their mother for a day, for a month, for a year,” said Erlinda, 45, who asked to be identified by first name only due to fears of being detained.
Plans for deportation arrests appeared to be in flux after news leaked of an operation in Chicago this week. Trump's “border czar” Tom Homan said on Fox News Sunday that Chicago was “not off the table, but we’re reconsidering when and how we do it.” He said the leak raised concerns about officer safety.
So-called sanctuary cities, which limit how local police cooperate with federal immigration authorities, have been a favorite Trump target, especially Chicago. Reports that his initial push would be in the nation's third-largest city brought a new sense of urgency and fear.
Chicago became a sanctuary city in the 1980s and has beefed up policies since, including after Trump first took office in 2017. Last week, the City Council heartily rejected a longshot plan calling for exceptions allowing local police to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on deportation cases for people accused or convicted of crimes.
The Rev. Homero Sanchez said he didn’t realize the depth of fear in the Chicago immigrant community he serves until someone asked him to handle the sale of their family’s home and other finances if they are picked up after Trump takes office.
“They feel they have been targeted for who they are. They feel like they’re reviving this fear they had eight years ago,” said Sanchez, who serves the St. Rita of Cascia Parish on Chicago’s South Side. “They’re feeling like something is going to happen. This is not their city because of the threat.”
Sanchez, whose congregation has consisted mostly of people of Mexican descent since the 1980s, devoted Sunday Mass “to solidarity with our immigrant brothers and sisters.”
Cardinal Blase Cupich, who leads the Archdiocese of Chicago, said reports of the city being targeted by immigration officers were "not only profoundly disturbing but also wound us deeply.”
“We are proud of our legacy of immigration that continues in our day to renew the city we love,” Cupich said Sunday during a visit to Mexico City, according to a copy of his prepared remarks.
ICE arrests a fraction of targets in its street operations, though Trump is expected to cast a wider net than President Joe Biden, whose focus on picking up people away from the border was largely limited to those with serious criminal histories or who pose a risk to national security.
Biden’s administration also ended the practice of mass worksite arrests, which were common under Trump, including a 2019 operation targeting Mississippi chicken plants.
Trump aides have said immigration officers will arrest others, such as spouses or roommates, who are not targets but happen to be in the country illegally.