Julian Assange of Wikileaks has been awarded a golden peace medal by the Sydney Peace Foundation, a not-for-profit supported by the City of Sydney and associated with the University of Sydney. It is only the fourth time in 15 years they have given such an award. They are awarding Assange for “championing people’s right to know.”

New U.S. diplomatic cables released today on Wikileaks discuss new issues, among them the fact that the U.S. and a number of other countries such as Canada, Denmark, and Russia appear ready to go to war over Arctic oil.

The U.S. has convened a grand jury hearing in Washington D.C. on the passing of state secrets to Wikileaks. This is considered to be the first step toward deciding whether Wikileaks and Julian Assange can be prosecuted for Espionage, although some of the issues raised also point toward attempts to incriminate Bradley Manning. The Espionage Act was similarly applied, unsuccessfully, 40 years ago in the attempted prosecution of Pentagon Papers’ leaker Daniel Ellsberg. Glenn Greenwald analyses the subpoena in-depth.