OSLO, Norway (AP) — The Nobel Peace Prizeoften considered the most prestigious award on the planet, will be announced Friday in Oslo, Norway.
Prognosticators say possible candidates this year include the International Space Station, emergency teams in Sudan, child advocates in Ukraine and two leading international courts. Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada has attracted attention in the prediction markets. US President Donald Trump – who is waging a war against Iran – has long coveted the prize and has repeatedly said he deserves it.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo received 287 applications for this year’s prize, and just over a quarter of them are organizations. Experts say the committee generally focuses on the sustainability of peace, the promotion of international fraternity and the quiet work of institutions that reinforce these goals.
Last year, the leader of the Venezuelan opposition Maria Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in the South American nation, earning recognition as a woman “who keeps the flame of democracy alive amid growing darkness.”
Machado presented Trump with his Nobel medal shortly after the United States ousted President Nicolas Maduro. But it was largely a symbolic gesture: The Nobel Committee said the honor itself could not be transferred.
Applications can be made by a selected group of people and organizations, including heads of state or nationally serving politicians, university professors, directors of foreign policy institutes, former Nobel laureates and members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee itself.
Four of this year’s Nobel Prizes were announced earlier this week. THE Nobel Prize in Medicine went to three scientists whose work led to a tool that uses light to help understand how the brain works. THE physics prize recognized a scientist’s efforts to demystify a rare group of neutrinos. THE chemistry prize rewarded two scientists for unraveling mysterious mirror images in molecules, a discovery that has been used to develop countless drugs.
Canadian poet, essayist and translator Anne Carson won the literature prize on Thursday for “bold and inventive” works that fuse the classic and the modern and blur the lines between poetry and prose.
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be announced on Monday.
This year’s prize money is 12 million Swedish crowns (about $1.2 million), whether for an individual, a small group of winners or an organization.
The Peace Prize celebrates its 125th anniversary
This year marks the 125th anniversary of the Peace Prize, which has so far been awarded to 112 individuals and 28 separate institutions since its inception in 1901. The Red Cross has won three times and the United Nations refugee agency twice.
Only 20 of the 112 individual winners were women, but eight of them received the award in the last 15 years.
Education activist Malala Yousafzai is the youngest winner; she won at age 17 in 2014.
The United States is the most credited country, with 24 awards given to American institutions or individuals, ahead of the United Kingdom (13) and Switzerland (11). Yet no winner listed as American has won since US President Barack Obama was awarded in 2009.
The prize has not been awarded on 19 occasions, most during the world wars. In 1948, the year Mahatma Gandhi was murdered, no prizes were awarded; he had been nominated 12 times and never won.
In 1939, a Swedish MP nominated Adolf Hitler, then withdrew his candidacy, saying it had never been taken seriously.
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Dazio reported from Berlin and Lewis from Stavanger, Norway.
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AP Nobel Prize: https://apnews.com/hub/nobel-prizes
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