The shortlist of candidates for TIME’s 2017 Person of the Year was unveiled Monday morning on NBC’s Today. Since 1927, TIME has identified the Person of the Year, recognizing the person or group of people who most influenced the news during the past year, for better or for worse.
In recent years, the shortlist for Person of the Year has included Hillary Clinton, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Black Lives Matter activists, CRISPR scientists and Beyoncé.
In alphabetical order, the 10 finalists selected by TIME editors this year are:
Colin Kaepernick His decision to silently take a stand — or specifically, a knee — against racial inequality cost him a promising and lucrative career in the NFL. It also turned the former quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers into a flashpoint between professional athletes, in and outside of football, and politicians, particularly Trump.
The #MeToo Movement The roots of the movement started last year after a 2005 audio recording of Donald Trump bragging in vulgar terms about how he treated women surfaced during the presidential campaign.
Jeff Bezos Founder and chief executive of Amazon.com, Bezos is the richest person in the world. He saw his net worth top $100 billion last month following Black Friday sales, although it has since dropped just below the milestone. Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, was TIME’s Person of the Year in 1999.
The Dreamers The name applies to nearly 800,000 undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as young children. The group are at risk of deportation as the Trump administration rescinds the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, commonly referred to as DACA.
Patty Jenkins Her mega-blockbuster “Wonder Woman” made history when the movie raked in the biggest domestic opening ever for a female director. The flick also made Jenkins the first female director of an American studio superhero movie.
Kim Jong Un Trump has called him a “sick puppy” as well as his favorite, “little rocket man,” yet the insults only embolden the North Korean leader. They also intensify tensions within the international community over concerns about Kim’s arsenal of ballistic missiles and North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
Robert Mueller The former FBI director was appointed in May as the special counsel leading the investigation of the Russian government’s efforts to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Mueller’s probe already has netted several Trump advisers who have admitted contacting Russian officials, most recently former National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn.
Mohammed bin Salman Elevated by his father, Saudi King Salman, to crown prince this past June, Prince Mohammed is one of the most dynamic royals in the Arab world’s wealthiest nation. Depending on who’s describing him, the 32-year-old heir has either demonstrated bold and revolutionary leadership — or proof of his reckless and impulsive nature.
Donald Trump The U.S. president embraced the Person of the Year moniker in 2016, calling it “a tremendous honor” at the time. However, he recently expressed his thoughts about possibly receiving the title for a second consecutive year on, where else, Twitter.
Xi Jinping In October, China’s ruling Communist Party voted to elevate President Xi JinPing to the same exalted status as its founding founder, Mao Zedong, by writing Xi’s name and ideas into the party constitution. With the move, Xi, who was elected into office in 2012, now appears set to govern China far beyond the next five years.
