Replicas of the obverse and reverse of the Nobel Peace Prize medal displayed at The Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo.

Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images

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Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images

Anticipation is growing and bookies around the world are taking bets on who’ll be awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, with President Trump among the most high-profile — and controversial — contenders.

On Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee will announce the winner. The committee says the award goes to the person or organization that has done the most “for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses.”

Trump has received multiple nominations and has never made a secret of his desire to win the prestigious accolade. And, as the first phase of his Gaza peace plan makes headway, the focus on the prospect of him winning is intensifying.

Here’s what to know ahead of this year’s announcement.

How did the peace prize come about? 

In his 1895 will, Swedish inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel declared his fortune should be divided into five parts to honor outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for work in peace.

The first prizes were given in 1901 and are now announced every October and awarded in a ceremony in December. In 1968, a new prize was established — the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences.

Thousands of people can choose to nominate a person or organization as a candidate for the peace prize, though you cannot nominate yourself. Those eligible to nominate a candidate include members of national governments, officials with international peace organizations, university professors and former recipients.

The recipients of four of the prizes are decided by a Swedish committee, while the recipient of the peace prize is decided by a Norwegian committee composed of five members appointed by the Norwegian parliament. The peace prize committee deliberates in secret for months before coming up with a shortlist and narrowing it down to pick the winner.

The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize receives a medal and about $1.17 million in prize money.

Who has won it in the past?

Some of the world’s most famous names have won in the past, including former South African presidents Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk in 1993 for bringing a peaceful end to apartheid and Martin Luther King Jr. in 1964 for his nonviolent civil rights struggle. Mother Theresa, the Dalai Lama and Malala Yousafzai are also all past winners.

The prize has also gone to people or groups that are not household names. Last year it was awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The awarding of the prize has also courted controversy. Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger received the prize in 1973 along with North Vietnam’s chief communist negotiator, Le Duc Tho, for establishing the Paris Peace Accords — which led to America’s exit from the Vietnam War. Tho declined the award, but the decision to award Kissinger shocked many of his critics who saw him as a warmonger.

Also controversial was President Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, just months into his first term. Some criticized the decision, saying the president hadn’t had time to prove himself. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed received the award for efforts to reach peace with neighboring Eritrea in 2019. He later went on to wage a brutal war in Ethiopia’s northernmost region of Tigray.

Leaders in the Americas, including Costa Rica and Colombia, as well as human rights defenders in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine have also won the award.

Who is nominated this time?

There are 338 candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize this year — 244 individuals and 94 organizations.

At the center of intense speculation about this year’s award is President Trump, who is currently engaged in negotiations to end the war in Gaza.

The Nobel website does not list the candidates, although some of the nominators have told the media who they’ve put forward. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have both confirmed they nominated Trump.

Trump has repeatedly said he deserves the prize, saying he’s ended multiple wars this year already, although fact-checkers dispute the claim as several conflicts he has attempted to end remain ongoing. Earlier this year he said at the White House: “They will never give me a Nobel Peace Prize. I deserve it, but they will never give it to me.”

Other names making the rounds as possible winners this year include Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms, a volunteer network helping civilians despite great risk in the midst of the country’s civil war, and Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

In terms of the likelihood of Trump winning, the Gaza ceasefire may come too late to change the outcome of this year’s award, and the committee is known to value sustained peace efforts over quick political wins.

However, as of Thursday morning, bookmakers’ odds had Trump and the Sudanese group as the joint favorites, according to Oddschecker.

Derrick Groves, seen here in a video of his arrest by Atlanta police, is expected to be extradited back to Louisiana.

Atlanta Police Department

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Atlanta Police Department

Derrick Groves, the last of the 10 men who escaped from a New Orleans prison in May, was captured in the crawl space of a home in Atlanta on Wednesday.

The escapees, who ranged in age from their teens to early 40s, broke out of the Orleans Parish Justice Center in the early hours of May 16 by climbing through a hole in the wall behind a toilet, scaling a fence and crossing an interstate.

By the time authorities discovered them missing during a routine morning head count, they were long gone, leaving behind a smiley face and several taunting messages — including “To easy LoL” — scrawled on the bathroom wall.

Three of the escapees were recaptured in New Orleans later that same day, and all but two had been taken into custody by the end of May. The ninth inmate, Antoine Massey, was apprehended six weeks after the jailbreak, in late June.

That left only Groves on the run. The 28-year-old convicted murderer eluded authorities for months, despite a multiagency effort to track him down.

Louisiana State Police Superintendent Robert Hodges told reporters on Wednesday that the task force investigating the jailbreak learned in early October that Groves was likely in the Atlanta area. They traced him to a particular residence through “information gathered via multiple search warrants and other investigative means.”

Police, U.S. marshals and a SWAT team arrived at the house in southwest Atlanta to execute warrants and ultimately took Groves into custody after what police described as a brief standoff.

“We deployed a number of canisters of gas to help move him throughout the house … he moved to the basement of the house,” Atlanta Deputy Police Chief Kelley Collier said at the scene. “Soon after, Clayton County K-9 was deployed in the crawl space of the location, and found him in that crawl space.”

Officials declined to say what brought Groves to that particular house or how long he had been there. But Collier said no one else was inside at the time of his apprehension.

A video of Groves’ arrest, shared by the Atlanta Police Department, shows Groves blowing a kiss to the camera as he is helped into the back of a cruiser.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry cheered the news of the 10th and final escapee’s capture on social media.

“You picked the wrong State,” Landry wrote. “Thank you to our incredible law enforcement officials from the federal, state, and local level who worked tirelessly to put each of these men back where they belong: BEHIND BARS.”

The Atlanta house where Derrick Groves was taken into custody on Wednesday, five months after he and nine other men escaped from a New Orleans jail.

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Charlotte Kramon/AP

What happens next? 

Groves was convicted last October and sentenced to life in prison on two counts of murder in connection with a 2018 Mardi Gras-day double shooting.

He was also convicted of two counts of attempted murder and a federal firearms charge, for which he was awaiting sentencing at the Orleans Parish Justice Center at the time of the jailbreak.

Groves, like the other nine escapees, has also been charged with simple escape. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said he has a hearing scheduled for Thursday at which he can choose to waive extradition, or else the state will initiate proceedings to bring him back.

“He will be arraigned on those charges as soon as we get him back from Georgia,” Murrill said at Wednesday’s press conference, adding that he will eventually join the other escapees in the Louisiana State Penitentiary.

Murrill said her office is looking into whether it can upgrade Groves’ charges to aggravated escape in light of the materials discovered at the Atlanta house, which she said “included weapons and drugs.”

She also said she expects Groves to be prosecuted in Georgia, “and possibly by the feds.”

“He’s got a lot of trouble and a lot of things to answer to, to both the state of Louisiana and the state of Georgia,” Murrill said, adding that the manhunt was expensive, as well as scary for district attorney staff, victims and witnesses in the cases that put Groves behind bars.

“It’s a very unsettling thing to have somebody out like this … so today is a very good day.”

A combination of photos provided by the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office shows all 10 recaptured escapees, from top left: Dkenan Dennis, Gary C. Price, Robert Moody, Kendell Myles, Corey E. Boyd. Bottom from left: Lenton Vanburen Jr., Jermaine Donald, Antonine T. Massey, Derrick D. Groves and Leo Tate Sr.

AP/Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office

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AP/Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office

Who else is facing charges? 

Murrill vowed that anyone who may have helped Groves will be arrested and prosecuted.

More than a dozen people have been arrested for aiding the escapees, both in prison and once they got out.

Those include a jail employee who told investigators that he turned the water off in the cell after one of the inmates “threatened to shank him” (he maintains he was just unclogging a toilet and was unaware of the escape plans), as well as another man being held in the same prison who faces 10 counts of “principal to simple escape.”

In the weeks after the jailbreak, authorities charged 11 other people with “accessory after the fact” for alleged actions including contacting the inmates by phone before and after their escape, transporting them on the outside and supplying some with food and cash.

Another twist came in June, when a former correctional center employee — and Groves’ girlfriend — was arrested on a felony charge of conspiracy to commit simple escape “in connection with the recent escape of multiple inmates.”

Murrill’s office said Darriana Burton, Groves’ “on-again, off-again” girlfriend of three years, was a sheriff’s office employee from August 2022 until March 2023, when she was fired — but not charged — for bringing contraband into the jail.

The Associated Press, citing a police affidavit for Burton’s arrest, reported that Groves video-called Burton on a jail-issued iPad two days before the escape and she helped him speak with an unidentified man in a vague conversation that “appeared to coordinate communication on other, unmonitored lines.” A judge set her bond at $2.5 million.

Louisiana politicians say there are others to blame for the jailbreak, pointing the finger at each other as well as broader systemic failures.

Gov. Landry, a Republican who has pushed a tough-on-crime agenda, has blamed progressive politics and ordered multiple investigations into New Orleans’ criminal justice system. Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson has taken responsibility for the jailbreak but also blamed a lack of resources, from faulty locks to staffing shortages, as well as the escapees’ network of accomplices.

In July, another inmate at the same jail was mistakenly released due to what officials say was a clerical error stemming from two similar last names. Khalil Bryan was captured in August after a monthlong manhunt, and two deputies were fired over the incident. That same month, Hutson announced the facility had secured $15 million to make safety and security upgrades.

People can feel a lot of shame about being in credit card debt. They think it means they’re bad with money. That it’s something to avoid, or a burden they can never pay off.

But for financial educator Rita-Soledad Fernández Paulino, founder of Wealth Para Todos, we should simply see debt for what it is. “It’s just what we use when we don’t have access to cash reserves,” she says.

And unfortunately, our assumptions and emotions around debt can prevent us from managing our money with confidence, she says. They can stop us from being honest with ourselves about our financial situation, getting the support we need to pay off our debt or even leveraging debt to our advantage.

Here are three common debt myths and how they can affect our finances.

Myth: People in credit card debt are terrible with money 

Some people think that those with debt have a spending problem or don’t know how to budget, says Fernández Paulino. But that’s often not the case.

About 45% of respondents to a 2025 Bankrate survey said that their credit card debt came from emergencies or unexpected expenses. That includes car problems, medical bills and home repairs.

People also rack up debt during stressful life events. “The clients that come my way have usually dealt with the death of a loved one and are struggling with so much grief that they struggle to show up for work,” Fernández Paulino says. “Or they’ve been dealing with medical issues and are in debt for treatment.”

That’s why it’s so important to stash money away for emergencies while creating your plan to pay down your debt, she says. If an unforeseen event happens and you don’t have those funds, you may get stuck in another cycle of debt.

Create your plan to pay down debt. Sign up for Life Kit’s newsletter series. 

Myth: You should avoid debt at all costs 

People may feel scared or guilty about using a credit card for many reasons. Maybe they grew up in a family that struggled with debt, didn’t talk about finances or dealt with bankruptcy or a home foreclosure, Fernández Paulino says. “They grow up thinking: Debt is the problem, so I’m never going to use it.”

Others avoid credit cards because they grew up with misconceptions about debt, stemming from a lack of knowledge about how finances work in the U.S., says Fernández Paulino, who works with many immigrants. “So when they start using a credit card, they don’t know how to use it.”

Everyone should have at least one credit card in good standing, says John Kiernan, managing editor of WalletHub, a personal finance website. “It sends positive information to the credit bureaus each month, which makes your credit report look better and leads to a better credit score, which opens a lot of doors for lending.”

Learning more about how debt works can help you understand how to use your credit card strategically, Fernández Paulino says.

To learn more about how credit cards work, sign up for Life Kit’s newsletter series. 

Myth: Getting out of debt is impossible 

“It isn’t true that you can’t get out of debt,” Fernández Paulino says. “What’s true is that without enough monthly surplus — money left after fixed expenses and variable expenses, minimum payments and some saving — progress is slow.”

If you want to pay off your debt faster, focus on “building a surplus so there’s significant extra cash to throw at balances,” she says. That might mean tightening your budget to save more money, or getting an extra source of income.

“When clients build that surplus, they can make dents quickly,” she says. “I’ve had clients eliminate five figures of debt in six months, others take 12-36 months.”

The timeline of when you pay off your debt is driven by three variables: starting balance, interest rate and consistent extra cash flow, she says.

Find out how to save money in your budget to pay off debt. Sign up for Life Kit’s newsletter series. 

Sign up for Life Kit’s Guide to Paying Off Credit Card Debt

In this one-month newsletter series, financial educators explain how to create a credit card payment plan that works with your budget, so you can save money and make a meaningful dent in your debt. Click here to subscribe to the newsletter now.

The digital story was edited by Clare Marie Schneider and Marielle Segarra, with art direction by Beck Harlan. We’d love to hear from you. Leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823, or email us at LifeKit@npr.org.

Listen to Life Kit on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or sign up for our newsletter.

Chinese and U.S. flags wave outside a technology company in Beijing, China.

Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images

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Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images

BEIJING — China introduced new restrictions on exports of rare earths and related technology on Thursday, in what analysts say is an attempt to boost Beijing’s leverage in trade talks with the United States ahead of an upcoming leaders’ meeting.

The main target of the Ministry of Commerce’s so-called “unreliable entities list” appears to be U.S. defense technology companies, which rely on rare earths from China. Halifax International Security Forum, an annual security summit held in Halifax, Canada, is also on the list.

The moves come less than a month before President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are expected to meet in South Korea on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit – the first face-to-face meeting between Xi and a U.S. president in nearly a year.

China processes around 90% of the world’s rare earths, which are critical inputs in everything from smartphones to advanced fighter jets. Beijing has used its dominance in rare earths to apply pressure to the United States as trade friction intensified this year following Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs.

According to a string of announcements from the ministry on Thursday, the new rules expand the list of controlled rare earths that require licenses for export, restrict the types of rare earth recycling and processing equipment that can be sent abroad, and clamp down on the use of Chinese rare earths in the overseas chip sector and in military applications.

Dan Wang, China director at the Eurasia Group, said the move signals “a deliberate effort to strengthen China’s bargaining position” ahead of the meeting between Trump and Xi.

“Rare-earth tech access will likely feature in negotiations over tariffs, semiconductors, and broader tech trade. By demonstrating China can calibrate controls, Beijing is showing a new level of confidence and sophistication,” she said.

“The policy could become an example for China’s broader approach to strategic commodities — like cobalt, graphite etc. — turning export control into a diplomatic lever. China’s dominance in resource and related tech will become a new choke point for global business.”

Samples of rare earth minerals from Bayan Obo mining district are on display at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, on May 17, in Beijing, China.

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China argues the export controls are for national security

A ministry spokesperson said the tightened export controls on rare earths were designed to enhance China’s national security.

“Recently, some foreign organizations and individuals have directly or indirectly transferred or provided rare earth-controlled items of Chinese origin, either in their original form or after processing, to entities and individuals in sensitive sectors such as the military,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

“These activities have caused significant harm or posed potential threats to China’s national security and interests, adversely affected international peace and stability, and undermined global non-proliferation efforts.”

It’s not the first time China has tightened exports of rare earths

In April, after Trump announced soaring tariffs on China and other countries, Beijing tightened exports of rare earths, leading to supply shortages – and a scramble to negotiate. Trump had a call with Xi in June that he said yielded progress on rare earths.

The two leaders spoke again in September to lay the groundwork for their meeting in South Korea. Trump said he accepted an invitation to visit China early next year, and that Xi agreed to visit the United States at an “appropriate time”.

In a separate announcement, the Ministry of Commerce added 14 foreign companies to its “unreliable entities” list, many of which are American aerospace defense firms. A ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying the move was a response to the firms’ cooperation with Taiwan, the self-governed island that Beijing considers part of China.

“These actions have seriously undermined China’s national sovereignty, security, and development interests,” the spokesperson said in a statement.