Month: September 2023

The winner of the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Oct. 6 in Oslo. Here is a look at how the award works:

According to the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, the prize should go to the person “who has done the most or best to advance fellowship among nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the establishment and promotion of peace congresses.”

Thousands of people can propose names: members of governments and parliaments; current heads of state; university professors of history, social sciences, law and philosophy; and former Nobel Peace Prize laureates, among others.

This year there are 351 nominees, although the full list will be locked in a vault for 50 years.

Among oddsmakers’ favourites this year are Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russia’s Alexei Navalny, though experts say they are unlikely to win.

Zelenskiy is a war leader while the committee focused on Russia last year, lowering both men’s chances.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which consists of five individuals appointed by the Norwegian parliament, is the arbiter. Members are often retired politicians, but not always. The current committee is led by a lawyer and includes an academic.

They are all put forward by Norwegian political parties and their appointments reflect the balance of power in Norway’s parliament.

Nominations close on Jan. 31. Members of the committee can make their own nominations no later than at the first meeting of the committee in February.

They discuss all the nominations, then establish a shortlist. Each nominee is then assessed and examined by a group of permanent advisers and other experts.

The committee meets roughly once a month to discuss the nominations. They usually make their decision at the final committee meeting, which tends to be at the beginning of October.

The committee seeks a consensus on its selection. If it cannot, the decision is reached by majority vote.

The last time a member quit in protest was in 1994, when Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat shared the prize with Israel’s Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin.

While the full list of nominations is kept secret, nominators are free to disclose them.

Among the names disclosed are Greta Thunberg and fellow environmental campaigner Vanessa Nakate, jailed Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza and Chinese protester Peng Lifa.

Experts who follow the award say this year’s prize may highlight human rights activists in a year that marks the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The committee could also highlight climate change and reward the Fridays for Future movement, started by Greta Thunberg.

A medal, a diploma, 11 million Swedish crowns ($994,000)- and immediate global attention.

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the 1984 winner, said becoming a Nobel laureate was a double-edged sword. “One day no one was listening. The next, I was an oracle,” he is quoted as saying in his authorised biography.

The announcement will be made at 1100 CET (0900 GMT) on Oct. 6 at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo by the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen.

The ceremony will take place at the Oslo City Hall on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.

($1 = 11.0607 Swedish crowns)

The winner of the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Oct. 6 in Oslo. Here are some past winners – and one person who did not but should have.

The leader of the U.S. civil rights movement was “the first person in the Western world to have shown us that a struggle can be waged without violence,” according to the then chairman of the award body, Gunnar Jahn.

“He is the first to make the message of brotherly love a reality in the course of his struggle, and he has brought this message to all men, to all nations and races.”

At 35, he was also the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate at the time. Today the youngest winner is Pakistan’s education campaigner Malala Yousafzai, who was 17 when she won in 2014.

The Nobel Peace Prize has been controversial on many occasions but most agreed in 1993 that Mandela winning the award was “self-evident”, according to Geir Lundestad, the then secretary of the Norwegian Nobel committee.

Mandela spent 27 years in prison and still called for a peaceful transition to end apartheid in South Africa.

What was not self-evident was awarding the prize jointly with Frederik Willem de Klerk, the last white leader of South Africa, Lundestad said in his 2015 memoir.

Many said Mandela should have won alone, while others said Mandela could not make peace without a counterpart, recounted Lundestad. In the end, the prize was given to both to encourage the peaceful transition to a democratic South Africa, which was not completed by the time of the award.

Among the most controversial awards is the 1973 one to top U.S. diplomat Henry Kissinger and North Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho for reaching the January 1973 Paris Peace Accords under which Washington completed a military withdrawal from South Vietnam.

The Nobel committee’s decision shocked many at the time as Kissinger played a major role in U.S. military strategy in the final stages of the 1955-75 Vietnam war.

Le Duc Tho refused the prize on the grounds peace had not yet been established. Two of the five committee members resigned in protest.

Kissinger, while accepting the award, did not travel to Norway for the ceremony and later tried in vain to return the prize.

Internal documents released in January of 2023 showed the then committee gave the award in the full knowledge the Vietnam War was unlikely to end any time soon.

One of the few women to win the award, Suu Kyi was one of a string of human rights campaigners in the 1990s to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, for her non-violent struggle for democracy against the military dictatorship in Myanmar.

For years she was hailed as one of the best recipients of the award, but that changed after the Myanmar military carried out mass killings and gang rapes “with genocidal intent” according to a United Nations investigation.

Suu Kyi, who led the Myanmar government at the time, has been criticised for failing to speak out against the army crackdown against the Rohingyas.

In 2021, following a new military coup, Suu Kyi was arrested again. The 79-year-old is currently in jail and her health is ailing, according to her son.

He was on the committee’s internal discussion list of candidates on five different occasions, with the body prepared to award him in 1948, the year he was assassinated, according to Lundestad.

The committee could still have given it to him posthumously – it was possible at the time but no longer is – but did not.

According to Lundestad, it may be because the committee did not want to offend close ally Britain, the former colonial power in India, or because the politics of Gandhi may have been perceived as too “foreign” or “anti-modern” by members of a Europe-centric committee.

The violence of India’s partition could also have played a part, he said. At least one million people were killed and 15 million were uprooted.

In any case, “among the omissions, Mahatma Gandhi stands in a class of his own,” writes Lundestad in his memoir.

“It is of course extremely unfortunate that the 20th century’s leading spokesman for non-violence never received the Nobel Peace Prize.”

(Reuters) – Saudi Arabia is determined to secure a military pact requiring the United States to defend the kingdom in return for opening ties with Israel and will not hold up a deal even if Israel does not offer major concessions to Palestinians in their bid for statehood, three regional sources familiar with the talks said.

A pact might fall short of the cast-iron, NATO-style defence guarantees the kingdom initially sought when the issue was first discussed between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Joe Biden during the U.S. president’s visit to Saudi Arabia in July 2022.

Instead, a U.S. source said it could look like treaties Washington has with Asian states or, if that would not win U.S. Congress approval, it could be similar to a U.S. agreement with Bahrain, where the U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet is based. Such an agreement would not need congressional backing.

Washington could also sweeten any deal by designating Saudi Arabia a Major Non-NATO Ally, a status already given to Israel, the U.S. source said.

But all the sources said Saudi Arabia would not settle for less than binding assurances of U.S. protection if it faced attack, such as the Sept. 14, 2019 missile strikes on its oil sites that rattled world markets. Riyadh and Washington blamed Iran, the kingdom’s regional rival, although Tehran denied having a role.

Agreements giving the world’s biggest oil exporter U.S. protection in return for normalisation with Israel would reshape the Middle East by bringing together two longtime foes and binding Riyadh to Washington after China’s inroads in the region. For Biden, it would be a diplomatic victory to vaunt before the 2024 U.S. election.

The Palestinians could get some Israeli restrictions eased but such moves would fall short of their aspirations for a state. As with other Arab-Israeli deals forged over the decades, the Palestinian core demand for statehood would take a back seat, the three regional sources familiar with the talks said.

“The normalisation will be between Israel and Saudi Arabia. If the Palestinians oppose it the kingdom will continue in its path,” said one of the regional sources. “Saudi Arabia supports a peace plan for the Palestinians, but this time it wanted something for Saudi Arabia, not just for the Palestinians.”

The Saudi government and the U.S. State Department did not respond to emailed questions about this article.

‘LESS THAN A FULL TREATY’

A U.S. official, who like others declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the parameters of a defence pact were still being worked out, adding that what was being discussed “would not be a treaty alliance or anything like that … It would be a mutual defence understanding, less than a full treaty.”

The official said it would be more like the U.S. relationship with Israel, which receives the most advanced U.S. weapons and holds joint air force and missile defence drills.

A source in Washington familiar with the discussions said MbS had asked for a NATO-style treaty but said Washington was reluctant to go as far as NATO’s Article 5 commitment that an attack on one ally is considered an attack on all.

The source said Biden’s aides could consider a pact patterned on those with Japan and other Asian allies, under which the U.S. pledges military support but is less explicit about whether U.S. troops would be deployed. However, the source said some U.S. lawmakers might resist such a pact.

Another template, which would not need congressional approval, would be the agreement signed with Bahrain on Sept. 13, in which the U.S. pledged to “deter and confront any external aggression” but also said the two governments would consult to determine what, if any, action would be taken.

The source in Washington said Saudi Arabia could be designated a Major Non-NATO Ally, a step which had long been considered. This status, which several Arab states such as Egypt have, comes with a range of benefits, such as training.

The second of the regional sources said Riyadh was compromising in some demands to help secure a deal, including over its plans for civilian nuclear technology. The source said Saudi Arabia was ready to sign Section 123 of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act, establishing a framework for U.S. peaceful nuclear cooperation, a move Riyadh previously refused to take.

The Gulf source said the kingdom was prepared to accept a pact that did not match a NATO Article 5 guarantee but said the U.S. had to commit to protecting Saudi Arabia if its territory was attacked. The source also said a deal could be similar to Bahrain’s agreement but with extra commitments.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hailed the possibility of a “historic” peace with Saudi Arabia, the heartland of Islam. But to secure the prize, Netanyahu has to win the approval of parties in his a far-right coalition which reject any concessions to the Palestinians.

MbS said in a Fox News interview this month that the kingdom was moving steadily closer to normalising ties with Israel. He spoke about the need for Israel to “ease the life of the Palestinians” but made no mention of Palestinian statehood.

Nevertheless, diplomats and the regional sources said MbS was insisting on some commitments from Israel to show he was not abandoning the Palestinians and that he was seeking to keep the door open to a two-state solution.

Those would include demanding Israel transfer some Israeli-controlled territory in the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority (PA), limit Jewish settlement activity and halt any steps to annex parts of the West Bank. Riyadh has also promised financial aid to the PA, the diplomats and sources said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said any bargain must recognise the Palestinian right to a state within the 1967 borders, including East Jerusalem, and must stop Israeli settlement building. However, all the sources said a Saudi-Israeli deal was unlikely to address those flashpoint issues.

Netanyahu has said Palestinians should not have a veto over any peacemaking deal.

Yet, even if the U.S, Israel and Saudi Arabia agree, winning support from lawmakers in the U.S. Congress remains a challenge.

Republicans and those in Biden’s Democratic Party have previously denounced Riyadh for its military intervention in Yemen, its moves to prop up oil prices and its role in the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who worked for the Washington Post. MbS denied ordering the killing.

“What’s important for Saudi Arabia is for Biden to have the pact approved by Congress,” the first regional source said, pointing to concessions Riyadh was making to secure a deal.

For Biden, a deal that builds a U.S.-Israeli-Saudi axis could put a brake on China’s diplomatic inroads after Beijing brokered a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which Washington accuses of seeking nuclear arms. Tehran denies this.

“There was a sense that the U.S. has abandoned the region,” said one diplomat. “By courting China, the Saudis wanted to create some anxiety that will make the U.S. re-engage. It has worked.”

The Nobel prizes, arguably the world’s most prestigious awards, are being revealed over coming days, starting Monday.

The prizes, with a 11 million Swedish crown ($994,000) award each, are given for achievements in physics, literature, medicine or physiology, chemistry and peace.

The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who in his will dictated that his estate should be used to fund “prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.”

Nobel died in 1895 but it took until 1901, following fighting over his will, before the first awards.

Nobel named the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to award the prizes for chemistry and physics, the Swedish Academy for literature, Sweden’s Karolinska Institute university for physiology or medicine, and the Norwegian parliament for peace. It is not known why Nobel chose Norway, which at the time was in a union with Sweden, to hand out the peace prize.

In 1968, when Sweden’s central bank was celebrating its 300th anniversary, it established the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel with a donation to the Nobel Foundation. The prize is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, according to the same principles as the other prizes.

Notable Nobel laureates include scientists like Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr and Marie Curie, authors like Ernest Hemingway and Albert Camus, and inspirational leaders like Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa.

While most achievements are still celebrated, some awards have not aged well, such as Egas Moniz’ 1949 prize in physiology or medicine for the since banned and discredited practice of lobotomy.

Many peace prizes have also been criticized, including those for Henry Kissinger, Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin, and Shimon Peres. Failure to give the prize to Mahatma Gandhi before his death in 1948 is also seen by many as a mistake.

The Nobel prizes are presented to the laureates on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death. The peace prize is handed out by the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel committee in Oslo, while the other prizes are presented by the Swedish king in Stockholm’s Concert Hall.

During the evening some 1,300 guests are treated to a lavish banquet at Stockholm City Hall. The banquet requires extensive planning and the food is prepared by a head chef, eight head waiters, 210 waiters and waitresses, five wine waiters and 20 cooks.

Months before the banquet, three menus suggested by selected chefs are presented to the Nobel Foundation for tasting. The selected menu is kept secret until the day of the Nobel Banquet.

The menus aim to have a touch of Scandinavia and last year’s menu included a starter of seaweed baked pike-perch, main course of venison filled with morel and sage, and desert of baked cheesecake and plum compote.

($1 = 11.0622 Swedish crowns)

“By September 24, over 2,500 people were accounted as dead or missing in 2023 alone,” Ruven Menikdiwela, director of the UNHCR New York office, told the U.N. Security Council.

That number marked a large increase over the 1,680 dead or missing migrants in the same period in 2022.

“Lives are also lost on land, away from public attention,” she added.

The land journey from sub-Saharan African countries, where many of the migrants hail from, to departure points on the Tunisian and Libyan coasts “remains one of the world’s most dangerous,” Menikdiwela said.

The migrants and refugees “risk death and gross human rights violations at every step,” said Menikdiwela.

In total, some 186,000 people arrived by sea in southern Europe from January to Sept. 24, landing in Italy, Greece, Spain, Cyprus and Malta. 

The majority, over 130,000 people, arrived in Italy, marking an increase of 83% compared to the same period in 2022. 

As for departure points, between January and August of this year it is estimated that more than 102,000 refugees and migrants tried to cross the Mediterranean from Tunisia and 45,000 from Libya. 

An estimated 31,000 people were rescued at sea or intercepted and disembarked in Tunisia, and 10,600 in Libya, Menikdiwela said. 

The House late Thursday night overwhelmingly approved $300 million in new aid to Ukraine.

The 311-117 vote came after House GOP leaders on Wednesday stripped the Ukraine assistance from a Pentagon funding bill. All “no” votes came from Republicans.

Though it drew broad support, the funding has been a source of controversy for the past week.

The $300 million was initially included in legislation funding the Department of Defense for fiscal year 2024, which drew opposition from hardline Republicans.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters last week that he would remove the $300 million from the defense bill and hold a separate vote on the funding after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) joined a band of conservatives in sinking a procedural vote to advance the Pentagon measure.

But the Speaker backtracked one day later, announcing that he would not separate the Ukraine aid from the defense bill after realizing that the appropriations measure to fund the State Department also included assistance for Kyiv. He said it would be “too difficult” to remove the Ukraine aid from the State Department legislation, and would ultimately leave both as they were.

The House went ahead and adopted a combined rule — which governs debate on legislation — for the two measures and two other appropriations bills. Greene was the lone “no” vote.

An amendment sponsored by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) that would strip the $300 million from the legislation was voted down on Wednesday in a 104-330 vote, with all support coming from Republicans.

House Republicans also soundly rejected an amendment from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to prohibit security assistance for Ukraine in a 93-339 vote.

But late Wednesday night, amid uncertainty over whether the legislation had enough support to pass, the House Rules Committee convened a last-minute hearing to strip the $300 billion from the Pentagon bill and hold a separate vote on the funding.

Support for Ukraine in its battle against Russia has become a hot-button issue in the House Republican conference, with some lawmakers pushing to curtail assistance for Kyiv and others saying the U.S. must support its embattled ally.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the Capitol and met with lawmakers last week. McCarthy told reporters that Zelensky had asked to address a joint session but he declined because “we just didn’t have time.”