U.N. World Food Programme wins the Nobel Peace Prize 2020, beating out Donald Trump

After a tumultuous week, Donald Trump has missed out on the Nobel Peace Prize for the third time. Here’s who beat him to take out the award.

After a tumultuous week of coronavirus diagnoses and Twitter outbursts, Donald Trump has once again missed out on the Nobel Peace Prize.

The prestigious accolade arrived in a year dominated by a global pandemic, conflict and uncertainty, with the World Health Organisation (WHO), teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg and New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern among the favourites to take out the award.

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The US President was nominated for the third time since entering office, over the “historic” deal his administration brokered between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

“For his merit, I think he has done more trying to create peace between nations than most other Peace Prize nominees,” Norwegian politician Christian Tybring-Gjedde, who nominated Mr Trump, told Fox News.

“The committee should look at the facts and judge him on the facts, not the way he behaves sometimes. The people who have received the Peace Prize in recent years have done much less than Donald Trump.”

Alas, it wasn’t mean to be.

BREAKING NEWS:
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize to the World Food Programme (WFP).#NobelPrize #NobelPeacePrize pic.twitter.com/fjnKfXjE3E

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 9, 2020

The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the United Nation’s World Food Programme (WFP) “for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict”.

The WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian organisation addressing hunger and promoting food security – last year providing assistance to almost 100 million people across 88 countries, who are victims of acute food insecurity and hunger.

Chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen, noted the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on global food supplies during the winner’s announcement.

“The coronavirus pandemic has contributed to a strong upsurge in the number of victims of hunger in the world,” she said.

“In the face of the pandemic, the World Food Programme has demonstrated an impressive ability to intensify its efforts.

“As the organisation itself has stated: until the day we have a vaccine, food is the best vaccine against chaos.”

In a post on Twitter, the WFP said it was “deeply humbled” to receive the accolade.

“This is in recognition of the work of WFP staff who put their lives on the line every day to bring food and assistance to more than 100 million hungry children, women and men across the world,” they wrote.

Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Dan Smith, said the Nobel Committee wanted to send a message of both hope and “support for international co-operation”.

“Hunger, like climate change, the pandemic and other issues, is a world problem that can only be properly addressed through co-operation. The World Food Programme is an institute of global co-operation,” he said.

“Unfortunately, in too many quarters, especially among the great powers, there is a declining appetite for co-operation.”

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Donald Trump “hasn’t done anything that is deserving” of the Nobel Peace Prize. Picture: Mandel Ngan/AFP

As always, the contenders for the award are not revealed by the Committee – with 318 candidates this year, of which 211 were individuals and 107 were organisations.

So while Mr Trump was nominated, it doesn’t necessarily mean he was made a candidate.

“Trump is more likely to get the Nobel prize in literature for his tweets than to get the Nobel Peace Prize,” director of the Peace Research Institute of Oslo, Henrik Urdal, said earlier this week.

“And that’s not because he is Donald Trump, that’s because he hasn’t done anything that is deserving of the prize.”

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“Stunner” Trump fails to win #NobelPeacePrize. It goes to The United Nations World Food Programme for its work to fight hunger.

— PETER MAER (@petermaer) October 9, 2020

The @WFP has been awarded the 2020 #NobelPeacePrize for its efforts to combat hunger, to the World Food Programme. @realDonaldTrump FOILED AGAIN. #NobelPrize2020

— John G Hertzler (@JGHertzler) October 9, 2020

It’s been a rollercoaster week for the President, who just last Friday announced that he – along with wife Melania and a slate of other White House staff – had tested positive to coronavirus, having likely contracted it from one of his closest advisers, Hope Hicks.

In the days following his diagnosis, Mr Trump went on to suggest that he might be “immune” to COVID-19 and urged people not to let the disease – which has killed some 215,000 Americans – “dominate you”.

“Don’t let it take over your lives. Don’t let that happen. We have the greatest country in the world. We’re going back, we’re going back to work. We’re going to be out front,” he said.

“As your leader, I had to do that. I knew there’s danger to it, but I had to do it. I stood out front, I led. Nobody that’s a leader would not do what I did. And I know there’s a risk, there’s a danger, but that’s OK.”

After a bizarre overnight Twitter spree on Tuesday, Mr Trump gave his first public interview since he tested positive to the virus today, with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo.

It was a rambling, 55-minute affair that involved – but wasn’t limited to – mentions of “mentally (in) capable” Joe Biden, his “Obamagate” conspiracy theory and Kamala Harris being a “communist”.