US President Joe Biden awarded the Medal of Freedom to 19 recipients at a ceremony in Washington on Saturday, January 4.The Medal of Freedom is given to “great leaders who have made America a better place,” the White House said. It is the highest award a civilian can receive, alongside the Congressional Gold Medal.This year’s recipients included former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, musician Bono, athletes Lionel Messi and Earvin “Magic” Johnson, actors Denzel Washington and Michael J Fox, anthropologist Jane Goodall, World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres, writer George Stevens Jr, designer Ralph Lauren, Vogue editor Anna Wintour, TV presenter William Sanford “Bill” Nye, and three philanthropist-businessmen, Tim Gill, George Soros, and David M Rubenstein,Posthumous honors were given to former Secretary of Defense Ashton Baldwin Carter, voting and women’s rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development George W Romney, and former Attorney General Robert Francis Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968. Credit: The White House via Storyful