Blessed are the peacemakers

If I were to ask you to estimate how many nominations there were for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize you might, based on an assumption of seriousness, guess maybe 10-20. The actual number? 338. 

Who are they? We don't know and we won't until 2075, since the names are held secret by the Norwegian Nobel Committee - which is different from the Swedish bodies responsible for the Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature and Economics prizes. Alfred Nobel was Swedish but he stipulated in his will that the Peace prize be judged by a committee of five chosen by the Norwegian Parliament. The 2025 Committee members are:

• Jørgen Watne Frydnes – Chair, a former nonprofit leader & businessman, youngest ever committee head. 
• Asle Toje – Vice Chair, a foreign policy scholar and longtime contributor to peace and geopolitics. 
• Anne Enger – Former Centre Party leader and culture minister. 
• Kristin Clemet – Former Conservative Party cabinet member. 
• Gry Larsen – Former Labour Party state secretary and political adviser.

Despite the "50 year" secrecy, Roger Boyes in the Times of 12 August reported that Donald Trump was "nominated by Pakistan, Israel and Cambodia". Now there's a bunch of happy campers. Boyes doesn't reveal how he came about this information - perhaps an email from Netanyahu?

It seems to be a media "given" that Trump is seeking (maybe even expecting) the prize this year. Indeed, there has been much recently from the White House trumpeting (no pun intended, it just came out) that he has "stopped six wars" or he's "just ending five wars" (maybe one of the original six has started up again). Only the other day the obsequious White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt (no offence Karoline, it's a requirement for the job) said that "President Trump 'deserves' the Nobel Peace Prize." She went a step further, declaring that "it's 'well past time' he be awarded the prize". 

Let's have a look at the criteria for awarding the prize. Nobel's will requires the winner to be "...the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." From the point of view of Trump's claims, I'd say there's a difference between stopping a war, as in a ceasefire, and building a lasting peace. Having said that, some of the past recipients haven't scored too well on that metric. Abiy Ahmed, Prime Minister of Ethiopia, received the Prize in 2019 for "initiating a peace agreement with Eritrea, ending a decades-long “no war, no peace” standoff by agreeing to hand over the disputed border town of Badme and reopening diplomatic and travel links." In practice, nothing happened and a year later Ethiopia erupted in a brutal civil war. Aung San Suu Kyi (1991): Honored for non-violent resistance to military rule in Myanmar but later faced global condemnation for inaction—or complicity—in the Rohingya genocide. in 1973 Henry Kissinger & Lê Đức Thọ were jointly awarded the Prize for "ending the Vietnam War". Which not only didn't happen but Lê Đức Thọ, the Viet Cong leader, refused the prize, saying there was no peace.

Against these egregious examples of misguided decisions there are a few that remain widely respected (at least by the liberal intelligentsia) as being deserved and long-lasting, such as Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela alongside F.W. de Klerk, the latter showing a prediliction for "shared peacemakers" which horrifyingly might lead to Trump and Putin jointly winning for "stopping a bloody war in Ukraine". Although I'm not sure Trump is prepared to share the glory with anyone.

There are also interesting examples of organisations that have won, for instance the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (1997) and Médecins Sans Frontières in 1999. To me it seems more appropriate to honour the ongoing work of the hundreds of people in organisations that work peacefully, often in war-torn countries, than to feed the egos of politicians out for personal glory.

You can tell I'm probably not a fan of the whole circus. There are better things for the five people on the Committee to be doing with their lives for the next two months than shuffling paper in an almost certainly flawed exercise. But - hope for the best, plan for the worst!

By now the original 338 will have been whittled down to a dozen or so and extensive expert research will have been initiated. The winner is announced the second Friday of October—for 2025, that’ll be 10th October. The award ceremony is on 10th December.

Footy updates 2025/3

How many times have we Arsenal fans seen the team dominating possession and other stats in a game and then not win? Over the last few seasons, far too many. Yesterday, away to Manchester United, the opposite:

This is very un-Arsenal. Only 39% possession, only completing 74% of their passes, not what we'd expect. But only two metrics matter: goals conceded: 0, points gained: 3. Suck it up, critics! Defences win titles.

As for the Tractor Boys, yep Southampton are our nemesis, said it before. Two games, two draws. Badly needing some top level signings, not confident about promotion. I need cheering up.

For Charlton, a home win and an away draw is a great start after promotion through the playoffs. As for Wycombe, one point from three league matches is not promising.

I suppose I am obliged to mention Spurs. Good start to their Premier League campaign but we know Burnley are going to be bottom of the table so don't get too excited! Next up is away to Man City, we'll talk again after that.

Africa is bigger than you think

Cartographers in Africa are up in arms. They think the Mercator projection of the word

shows Africa as a tinpot little area they say. Whereas the real size Equal Earth map

"shows how important we are". 

Unfortunately the United States customs authorities are now on the case and threatening to impose 75% tariffs on all African countries unless they reduce their size. This has led to some countries reverting to Mercator, others proposing a combined Mercatequal Earth projection. US Customs have since withdrawn the tariff threat.

In other news, Belgian cartographers......

Footy updates 2025/2

I've had the flu. Still have it but slowly improving, enough to update you on all things football.

Wycombe Wanderers are away to Bromley in the second round of the EFL Cup, who dumped Ipswich out in round one. Charlton away to League Two Cambridge, so every chance for optimism.

Spurs were back to being Spursy against PSG in the UEFA Super Cup on Wednesday; 2-0 up at 85 minutes, they collapsed and allowed their opponents to draw level then win the penalty shootout. They went gung go physically for those 85 minutes whereas PSG were clearly rusty after almost no pre-season. Spurs then ran out of steam and, if there is anything we know about PSG, it's that they can spot a weakness and exploit it. Spurs will benefit from a proper pre-season match.

Liverpool start their defence of the Premier League at home to Bournemouth tonight. I'm hoping they will be as defensively porous as they were against Palace in the Community Shield.

Finally a history lesson. Arsenal came 2nd to Manchester United in the 1998-99 Premier League season. And again the following season. Again in 2000-01. Then they won the League and FA Cup double in 2001-02. Zooming forward to more recent times, Arsenal came 2nd in 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25. It's an omen!

Away to Man U on Sunday; a tricky start. Following the Tractor Boys' first home match this season, vs Southampton who have been a nemesis for a while. Hope they are 400% better than they have been so far. Omari Hutchinson has gone to Forest but Maybe Chuba Akbom will befit to start.

Footy updates

Just thought that the way to keep my football-loving readership up to date with events in the world's most important sport and at the same time give the others a get-out is to include 'footy' in the title. You'll know what you're going to get and can read the post or not, according to your inclination.

I've always thought that treating cup competitions with disdain by playing your second string and academy players is a stupid idea. I get it for clubs in the top third of the Premier League, which have European competitions and hence busy fixture lists, and whose second string and academy players could probably beat the first elevens of most other clubs, but for Ipswich Town of the Championship and Bromley of League Two surely it's a chance to progress in a competition, give the supporters some joy and make a bit of money. But no, Bromley made 7 changes from their usual starting eleven and Ipswich 8. Effectively saying "this competition is completely unimportant and peripheral to our season-long goals so we're not going to treat it seriously and we don't care whether we win or lose." So I tuned in to the game more out of loyalty to my team (Ipswich) rather than an expectation of quality football.

It was an awful, disjointed match and Ipswich got what they deserved - defeat. I'm worried about them based on their performances so far. Their squad is thin and not of a level which is likely to lead to promotion. It's true that they have some players coming in but not yet match fit (surely this was an opportunity to get them some minutes?) but they need more incomings. They've already lost their top striker and are likely to lose their most creative player Omari Hutchinson. Momentum is important and a lucky draw in their first league match and a defeat to a team two divisions lower is the wrong kind of momentum.

In the same competition, Wycombe got a 95th minute winner (where have we heard that before this season?) away to Leyton Orient and Charlton smashed Stevenage 3-1, so they'll both be in today's draw for the second round. Presumably Ipswich will be relieved not to be in it.

Elsewhere, Tottenham Hotspur play Paris Saint Germain in the European Super Cup - a definite step up for a team finishing 17th in the Premier League last season. Let's see if new manager Thomas Frank can improve them. As an Arsenal supporter I had no intention of mentioning our North London rivals but there was outrage that I didn't mention them, so I'll try not to be too rude.

We need to support Brazil

This is not about football 📣. It's about açaí, specifically Brazilian açaí (apparently pronounced ah-sigh-EE). Açaí is a small, dark purple fruit that grows on the açaí palm tree in the Amazon rainforest. It's low in sugar, high in antioxidants, healthy fats and fibre. So it's a kind of superfood and you can get it (if you can find it and afford it) frozen or powdered for use in smoothies or juice blends. I checked out Tesco online and they sell, through their marketplace, Açaí body butter, Açaí body mask (neither of which I'll be buying because I wouldn't know what to do with them) and Organic Açaí powder, which I guess you might chuck into smoothies instead of whey protein powder and I think I might be able to get in my local Holland and Barrett. Alternatively, Ocado does scoopable frozen Açaí sorbet, Organic Açaí Drops, smoothie packs, the TriActive Super Good Bar "with Benefits" Almond & Acai Berry and smoothie bowls. I've never actually used Ocado [any recommendations or otherwise?] so maybe I'll give some of these a try for my debut purchase.

Why should we care about this? Because the great United States of America has slapped 50% tariffs on Brazilian imports into the USA and this threatens the livelihoods of farmers in the northern Brazilian state of Pará, which supplies 90% of the açaí sold to the US. I feel the world should stand up to bullies and we in Cornwall must shoulder some of the burden. Go buy your açaí and support the Amazonian farmers!

Late News: Ocado don't deliver to my area, it says. Although I'm sure I've seen their vans around. Bummer. H&B it is...

I shall report in due course.