From Hillary Clinton, Ralph Loren to Soros and Messi: Biden to honor 19 with highest US civilian honor

According to the White House, the recipients have made “exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavours.”

Four medals will be awarded posthumously. These include Fannie Lou Hamer, who founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and was instrumental in laying the groundwork for the 1965 Voting Rights Act; former Attorney General and Senator Robert F. Kennedy; George W. Romney, who served as Governor of Michigan and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; and Ash Carter, a former Secretary of Defence.

Kennedy was the father of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services. Romney was the father of former Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney, one of Trump’s most vocal conservative critics.

Among the prominent philanthropists being honoured are Spanish-American chef José Andrés, whose charity, World Central Kitchen, has become one of the world’s leading food relief organisations, and Bono, the frontman of the rock band U2 and a renowned social justice activist.

Notable figures from the world of sports and entertainment include professional footballer Lionel Messi, retired Los Angeles Lakers basketball legend and entrepreneur Earvin “Magic” Johnson, actor Michael J. Fox—an advocate for Parkinson’s disease research—and William Sanford Nye, popularly known as “Bill Nye the Science Guy.”

Other honourees include conservationist Jane Goodall; Vogue Magazine’s longstanding editor-in-chief Anna Wintour; American fashion designer Ralph Lauren; American Film Institute founder George Stevens Jr.; entrepreneur and LGBTQ+ activist Tim Gill; and David Rubenstein, co-founder of the global investment firm The Carlyle Group.

Last year, Biden also presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 individuals, including the late Medgar Evers, House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, and actor Michelle Yeoh.