The New York Times won three Pulitzer Prizes and was named a finalist five more times on Monday, while its rival, The Washington Post, took the public service award.

The awards, given on Monday, make The Times a recipient of 135 Pulitzers since the awards began in 1917. Under outgoing executive editor Dean Baquet, The Times has been awarded 22 Pulitzer Prizes. 

The Times won for its national reporting on deadly traffic stops by police, another for international reporting for examining the failures of the U.S. air war in the Middle East, and a third for Salamishah Tillet, who writes on race in arts and culture.

The Times was also named a finalist for its coverage of the fall of Afghanistan and the assassination of Haiti’s president.

The Pulitzers, held annually by Columbia University, are the most prestigious awards for U.S. journalists. The awards place special attention on the public service award.

This year, The Washington Post won “for its compellingly told and vividly presented account of the assault on Washington on January 6, 2021, providing the public with a thorough and unflinching understanding of one of the nation’s darkest days,” Pulitzer Prize Administrator Marjorie Miller announced.

Established in 1917, The Pulitzer Prize was done in honour of newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, who died in 1911 and left money to help start a journalism school at Columbia University and establish the prizes.

The awards started with four categories in journalism, four in letters and drama, one for education, and five for travelling scholarships. The awards have evolved to include media reporting, writing and photography and an additional seven awards in books, drama and music.

The journalists of Ukraine were also awarded a special citation for coverage of the Russian invasion, as the Pulitzer board paid homage to the 12 journalists killed covering the Ukraine war this year. 

In March, Peoples Gazette reported that Sky News correspondent Stuart Ramsay and his four colleagues were ambushed by Russian forces.