UPDATE María Corina Machado wins Nobel Peace Prize

The most influential opposition leader in Venezuela receives the award.

The chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, praised Machado as a"courageous and dedicated champion of peace" who "keeps the flame of democracy burning in a time of deepening darkness."

María Corina Machado is a prominent Venezuelan politician, industrial engineer, and opposition leader. She is the national coordinator of the liberal political party Vente Venezuela, founded in 2013.

Machado was an elected member of the National Assembly of Venezuela from 2011 to 2014, where she was noted for her vehement criticism of institutional abuses and repression during the Venezuelan regimes led by Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro. She was actively involved in denouncing the humanitarian crisis and human rights violations in Venezuela.

Machado was a presidential candidate in the 2012 Venezuelan opposition primary elections and again became heavily involved in opposition activities surrounding the 2014 protests against Nicolás Maduro.

She won the primary election for the 2024 presidential election, but was later disqualified by government authorities. Due to political persecution, she is in hiding from the 2024 presidential election, fearing for her life and freedom.

UPDATE The event to announce this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner has begun. The announcement will be made shortly. Mediafax will report in real time all the information from the event in Oslo.

Although there is much speculation about the winner at the moment, María Corina Machado seems to be the favorite according to several betting sites.

Nobel Peace Prize

The nominations for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize included 338 candidates, including 244 individuals and 94 organizations.

Persons entitled to nominate include members of national assemblies, governments, heads of state, members of international courts, university professors in relevant fields, directors of peace research institutes, Nobel Peace Prize laureates and members or former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

US President Donald Trump was nominated by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the governments of Pakistan and Cambodia, Republican US Representative Earl"Buddy" Carter and, briefly, a senior Ukrainian politician (ed. who later withdrew his nomination).

Other well-known nominees include Francesca Albanese, Ivan Alekseyev (Noize MC) and Elizaveta Gyrdymova (Monetochka).

The Norwegian Nobel Committee receives nominations by January 31 each year, then reviews them and selects approximately 20-30 candidates for further consideration, with expert advice, before deciding on the laureate, aiming to reach a consensus or majority vote if necessary.

This year, the announcement of the award comes amid significant international attention, partly due to a high-profile campaign by US President Donald Trump, who has actively sought the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to mediate peace agreements and ceasefires, including between Israel and Hamas.

Despite Trump's public campaign and multiple nominations, experts believe it is unlikely that he will receive the award this year.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision was reportedly made before the recent ceasefire announcements, according to sources, and the committee stresses that its deliberations are rigorous and independent of political pressures. The committee consists of five members appointed by the Norwegian Parliament, who work under strict confidentiality to select the laureate.

Who has won the Nobel Peace Prize so far?

Martin Luther King

The leader of the US civil rights movement was"the first person in the Western world to show us that a struggle can be fought without violence," according to the then-chairman of the award committee, Gunnar Jahn.

"He is the first to turn the message of brotherly love into reality in the course of his struggle and to carry this message to all people, all nations and races."

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

Nelson Mandela

The Nobel Peace Prize has been controversial on many occasions, but most agreed in 1993 that Mandela deserved the award, according to Geir Lundestad, then secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Mandela spent 27 years in prison and continued to advocate for a peaceful transition to the end of apartheid in South Africa.

What was not obvious was the awarding of 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 have made peace without a partner, Lundestad said. Ultimately, the prize was awarded to both to encourage the peaceful transition to a democratic South Africa, which was not yet complete at the time of the awarding.

Mahatma Gandhi

He was on the committee's internal list of candidates on five separate occasions, and the committee was prepared to award him the prize in 1948, the year he was assassinated, according to Lundestad. The committee could have awarded him the prize posthumously — that was possible at the time, but is no longer possible — but it did not.

According to Lundestad, this may have been because the committee did not want to offend Britain, Norway's close ally and former colonial power in India, or because Gandhi's politics may have been perceived as too"foreign" or "anti-modern" by members of a European-centered committee.

Four American presidents have won the Nobel Peace Prize

Theodore Roosevelt (1906) – He was the first American to win the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the end of the Russo-Japanese War and for his contribution to negotiating the Treaty of Portsmouth.

Woodrow Wilson (1919) – Awarded for his role in founding the League of Nations after World War I, which aimed to promote world peace through international cooperation.

Jimmy Carter (2002) – Honored for his lifelong dedication to peace and human rights, particularly through his work with the Carter Center in mediating international disputes and monitoring elections.

Barack Obama (2009) – Received the award at the beginning of his presidential term for his efforts to strengthen international diplomacy, promote nuclear disarmament, and encourage global cooperation.

Who are the winners of the other Nobel Prizes in 2025?

Medicine: Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi for their discoveries of peripheral immune tolerance, which prevents the immune system from harming the body and has implications for cancer and autoimmune diseases. More details here.

Physics: John M. Martinis, John Clarke and Michel H. Devoret for their discovery of macroscopic quantum tunneling and the quantization of energy in an electrical circuit. More details here.

Chemistry: Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi for the development of metal-organic frameworks. More details here.

Literature: László Krasorkaiznah, Hungarian author,"for his compelling and visionary work which, amidst apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art."