Monday’s Nobel Prize announcements have begun, with expectations that the $1.2 million awards could go to GLP‑1 researchers, a Ukrainian children’s‑rights activist, and several female authors. After last year’s politically charged controversy surrounding the Peace Prize, this year’s ceremony is expected to be less contentious.
Issued on: 05/10/2026 – 08:10
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The medicine prize, announced on Monday, may be awarded to the scientists who pioneered GLP‑1 drugs such as Ozempic, which have transformed obesity treatment.
In 2024, Svetlana Mojsov, Joel Habener and Lotte Bjerre Knudsen earned the Lasker‑Debakey Clinical Medical Research Award for GLP‑1‑based therapies; the Lasker Awards are often seen as precursors to Nobel honors.
The physics prize will be unveiled on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday, and the economics prize will conclude the series on 13 October.
Each Nobel Prize includes a diploma, a gold medal and a cheque of roughly $1.2 million, which is shared among any co‑laureates in a given field.
Peace and pressure
The Nobel Peace Prize committee, set to announce its winner on 9 October, faced unprecedented political pressure last year when U.S. President Donald Trump publicly claimed he deserved the award.
Trump argued that he “deserved the prize” because he had helped broker ceasefires that resolved seven international conflicts.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado later presented Trump with a Nobel gold medal, saying she believed he merited it following the capture of President Nicolás Maduro.
“After last year’s prize, the committee may be seeking a less controversial outcome this year,” said Haakon Gjerlow, acting director of the Oslo Peace Research Institute, in an interview with Agence France‑Press.
Gjerlow suggested his preferred candidate would be a joint award for Save the Children and Mykola Kuleba, a Ukrainian children’s‑rights activist campaigning for the return of children taken to Russia from occupied territories.
Other contenders mentioned by Gjerlow include Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms, a volunteer network rescuing people amid war and famine; the Committee to Protect Journalists, noting the deadliest year on record for reporters in 2025; and even the International Space Station.
Women in the spotlight
The literature prize, to be announced on 8 October, is awarded by the Swedish Academy, and speculation among Swedish literary circles is intense—partly because nominees and jury deliberations remain secret for 50 years.
After honoring Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai last year, Swedish Academy critics polled by AFP anticipate a female writer this time. “In this new wave it’s women who are taking the lead, with writing often tinged with feminism, but also frequently dark and violent, punctuated by surreal touches,” said Lina Kalmteg, a literary critic for Swedish public radio SR.
Among the rumored contenders are Argentine author Samanta Schweblin, Antiguan‑American writer Jamaica Kincaid, and Chinese author Can Xue.
Only 68 of the 633 Nobel Prizes awarded since 1901 have gone to women, though the proportion has risen steadily since the early 2020s.
(with AFP)