Philip Patrick

Relief. That was the overriding emotion in the Japanese financial markets and society at large today when, after months of speculation and discord, a trade deal was finally struck between President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s trade representative Ryosei Akazawa. The Japanese envoy, who has made eight trips to Washington in pursuit of an agreement, finally pulled it off just a week before the 1 August deadline (after which a hefty 25 per cent levy would have been imposed on all Japanese goods to the US). With the deal, that will be reduced to a probably manageable and reciprocal 15 per cent. Included in the package was an agreement that Japan would invest $550 billion in the US (details to be announced).

Tenzin Gyatso, otherwise known as His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, will celebrate his 90th birthday on Sunday. Despite once predicting he would live to 110, the Dalai Lama has perhaps prudently decided that the time is right to discuss his succession. He will host a conference of Lamas and luminaries (including the actor Richard Gere) to discuss the question. China, which annexed Tibet in 1959, causing the then young holy man to flee to India, will be following the preemptive Buddhist conclave with great interest. Whoever the next Dalai lama is will have large sandals to fill and is unlikely to be as charismatic or affable Traditionally, a Dalai Lama is found according to an ancient system of mystical rites, rather than chosen.

Nissan has announced that hundreds of jobs will be cut at its Sunderland plant. The Japanese auto-maker said the lay-offs would be in the form of ‘voluntary redundancies'. The move is part of the beleaguered corporate behemoth's plan to reduce its global workforce by 15 per cent following several disastrous years, not least because of slow demand for its fleet of electric cars. Some sympathy is due perhaps, at least for Nissan in the UK While the cuts only affect four per cent of the plant's 6,000 workers, the question now is whether this is just the start. So serious is the state of Nissan’s finances – it announced losses of $4.5 billion (£3.3 billion) in 2024, with this year not expected to be any better – that it would be foolish to assume this is where it will end.

Brian Glanville, who died this week at the age of 93, was a unique voice in the crowded and often hysterical field of football writing and a uniquely important one. His historical reach was unparalleled. He published his first book (a ghosted autobiography of Arenal striker Cliff Bastin) at the age of 16 and attended 13 World Cups, starting with the 1958 tournament in Sweden.  His lean, elegant, novelistic style, informed by his parallel career as a fiction writer, could be found nowhere else in the UK. As Patrick Barclay put it, ‘most football writers fall into two categories: those who have been influenced by Brian Glanville and those who should have been’. Glanville was simply different.

Yoon Suk Yeol, elected South Korea’s president in 2022, has been removed from office. The Constitutional Court in Seoul has upheld Yoon’s impeachment over his actions in the ultra-short-lived declaration of martial law last December. After lengthy deliberations the court delivered a decisive eight-zero verdict. A snap election must now be held within 60 days with Prime Minister Han Duck-soo serving as acting president in the interim. Yoon’s PPP (People Power party) accepted the verdict and the man himself issued a humble apology to the nation saying, ‘I deeply regret not being able to live up to your expectations. It has been the greatest honour of my life to serve our nation.