Nobel Prize winners will be announced next week. What to know about prestigious awards
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Stockholm (AP): The Nobel Prize winners will be announced next week.
The awards are considered among the world's most prestigious honours for achievements in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, economics and peace.
The winners will join the pantheon of Nobel laureates, from Albert Einstein to Mother Teresa.
For the Nobel Peace Prize, US President Donald Trump has been nominated several times by people within the US as well as politicians abroad since 2018. His name was also put forth in December by a Republican congresswoman for his brokering of the Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and some Arab states.
Here are some things to know about the Nobel Prizes:
A history of the Nobel Prizes
The Nobel Prizes were created by Alfred Nobel, a 19th-century businessman and chemist from Sweden. He held more than 300 patents, but his claim to fame before the prizes was having invented dynamite by mixing nitroglycerine with a compound that made the explosive more stable.
Dynamite — which became popular in construction, mining and the weapons industry — made Nobel a very rich man. Toward the end of his life, he decided to use his vast fortune to fund annual prizes “to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.”
The first Nobel Prizes — in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace — were presented in 1901, five years after his death. In 1968, a sixth prize was created, for economics, by Sweden's central bank. Though Nobel purists stress that the economics prize is technically not a Nobel, it's always presented together with the others.
The Nobel nomination process
None of the nominations are announced by the prizes' respective committees, and the Nobel statutes prohibit the judges from discussing their deliberations for 50 years. But those doing the nominating may choose to make their recommendations public.
A person cannot nominate themselves, though they can be nominated multiple times by others — including members of each prize's panel.
Each prize committee operates slightly differently, but they all strive to honour Nobel's wish that the winners have conferred benefit to humankind.
The peace prize committee is the only one that regularly rewards achievements made in the previous year, and the prize is the only one awarded in Oslo, Norway. For the science prizes, awarded in Stockholm, winners often have to wait decades to have their work recognised by the Nobel judges, who want to make sure that any breakthrough stands the test of time.
The program for this year's Nobels
The 2025 Nobel Prize announcements kick off Monday with the medicine prize being announced by a panel at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.
Nobel announcements continue with the physics prize on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday, and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on Oct. 13.
The awards will be handed out on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death. Each prize carries an award of 11 million Swedish kronor (nearly USD 1.2 million), and the winners also receive an 18-carat gold medal and a diploma. Up to three laureates for each award can share the prize money.
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345 Indian fishermen stranded in Iran return home via Armenia
New Delhi (PTI): A group of 345 Indian fishermen, who were stranded in Iran amid escalating regional tensions, returned to India via Armenia on Saturday, officials said.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar thanked his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan for assistance in return of the Indian nationals.
The Indian nationals arrived in Chennai this evening, the officials cited above said.
The circumstances that led to them being stranded in Iran were not immediately known.
"Thank FM @AraratMirzoyan and the Government of Armenia for facilitating the evacuation of Indian fishermen today from Iran, through Armenia to India," Jaishankar said on social media.
Over 1,500 Indian nationals have left Iran through land border crossings in Armenia and Azerbaijan since the start of the West Asia conflict over a month ago.
"A group of Indian fishermen, stranded in Iran, are returning home via Armenia today; their flight is expected to reach India this evening," a government statement said.
It said the Ministry of External Affairs continues to closely monitor the evolving situation in the West Asian region, with the safety, security and welfare of the Indian community being accorded the highest priority.
It also made a mention of five Indians being injured in Abu Dhabi on Friday.
According to Abu Dhabi authorities, the Indian nationals were among the 12 people injured by debris from an intercepted missile.
"In an attack in Abu Dhabi, five Indian nationals were injured; four have been discharged, one remains under treatment," the Indian government's statement said.
It said the Indian mission in Abu Dhabi is extending "full" assistance and coordinating with local authorities, adding that their flight is expected to reach India this evening.
