President Donald Trump reads a note handed to him by Secretary of State Marco Rubio telling him a peace deal in Gaza was close to being agreed.

Donald Trump has been passed over for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, despite mounting a not-so-subtle campaign to receive it.

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was given the ward by the Nobel committee on Friday.

They said she had been chosen “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy”.

The announcement came a day after Israel and Hamas agreed to Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, which led to increased speculation that the US president could scoop the prize.

However, that was never a real possibility as nominations to the Nobel committee closed on January 31, just days after Trump returned to the White House.

Nevertheless, it is understood he was among the nominees for his work on the Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and Arab states,........

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