Finbarr Bermingham

If you know to ask that question then surely you also know which is which! 🥔

‘It’s a lonely job’: Neil Warnock on management, Guardiola and his ire for Ferguson Veteran manager tells Donald McRae about his 45-year-career, upcoming tour and missing out on Virgil van Dijk

Another fantastic profile piece in the Guardian this weekend. This time of the inimitable Neil Warnock, by the venerable Donald McRae

www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Yes!

Let's see which comes first...

"... So it would be better if we, the blues, could reach an agreement between us against the reds, because the question now is no longer so much who we let in, but how not to get kicked out.”

From the G7

"Meloni suddenly pulled two world maps from her bag and showed them to Trump, saying: “Look, Donald: all of this, in blue, is us 20 years ago, when we were still in charge. And this in red is trade today, ie mainly China... (1/2)

The shining: my trip to the G7 horror show with Emmanuel Macron | Emmanuel Carrère The long read: Deeply unpopular in France, President Macron relishes the international stage, where he projects himself as the leader best placed to handle Trump. Seven years after our last encounter,...

Thoroughly recommend this excellent piece on traveling with Macron. It's peppered with great anecdotes:

Bonne recalled that in one of his more expansive moments, Trump himself tapped Macron on the shoulder and said: “You’ll see, you and me, we’ll do a third.”

www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ju...

A few bits and bobs

Thank you - added to the list!

That one is on the list! Will see if I can tackle it in August, thanks

Cool, thanks for these!

Have read the first one and have the second in hard copy so won't do audio on that one

Already done that one, loved the narration :)

Anyone got any good audiobook recommendations?

Open to fiction or non fiction. Preferably not mega-long...

Finbarr Bermingham (@finbarrbermingham) Is EU’s global clout fading amid gruelling stand-offs with China and the US? I suppose this is, for most people, a rhetorical question. The last week has done little for the bloc’s global standing. A...

For those who are interested, I am posting longer-form notes on Substack, providing a little more background to the reporting in my SCMP stories.

Latest one here.

substack.com/@finbarrberm...

“By accepting this very lopsided deal, the EU’s put its lack of autonomy from the US on full display. In a situation where the US and China increasingly see each other in direct conflict, this might dampen hopes for renewed ties between the EU and China.”

“The EU-US deal shows the shambles of European foreign policy. You can’t ring-fence the economy from defence – if you are dependent in your security you won’t be autonomous in commerce,” said Niclas Poitiers, a trade specialist at Bruegel, a Belgian think tank.

“The two sides will take complementary actions to address non-market policies of third parties, as well as cooperating on inbound and outbound investment reviews, export controls, and duty evasion,” it read.

The sides vowed to resume cooperation to block imports of steel and aluminium emanating from “non-market global overcapacity”

A US fact sheet said that the pair would resume cooperation on “supply chain resilience”, in a passage alluding to previous joint work countering Beijing

For China, the EU-US arrangement may also have an impact. Sefcovic said the sides were “comparing notes” and implied that Brussels still wanted to collaborate with Washington, despite the perceived humiliation in Scotland.

“Finally, I want to thank President Trump personally for his personal commitment and leadership... He’s a tough negotiator, but also a deal maker,” VDL said.

European newspapers screamed with headlines about “capitulation”, “humiliation” and “vassalisation”.

EU trade negotiators – many of whom have tangled with Trump before – grimaced through forced smiles, with some mimicking Trump’s trademark hand pose under pressure in what one EU official described as “the embodiment of Stockholm syndrome”.

WhatsApp groups lit up with images of European negotiators posing awkwardly alongside Trump at his Turnberry golf resort, moments after sealing a deal. Von der Leyen, who days earlier had vowed to “defend our interests” in Beijing, flashed a beaming thumbs-up beside Trump.

The EU has erupted in a furious debate about its autonomy after it was forced to not only accept a deal hardwiring a 15 per cent tariff on EU-made goods, but to publicly thank Trump for the package after a meeting in Scotland on Sunday.

But after a weekend in which the bloc found itself being pummelled by Trump’s trade blows, doubts are deepening as to how much stomach Europe has for a fight – unless it is an internal one, for which appetite appears to be strong.

Returning from Beijing, one official said that it was clear that with Beijing unwilling to compromise on issues such as industrial overcapacity and subsidies, the “EU will have to stand its ground if it is to be competitive”.

“At the beginning of the year we hoped for better results,” Sefcovic said on Monday.

“But despite strenuous efforts... and several long meetings with Chinese counterparts, the list of accumulated issues on the table did not get shorter, but just grew longer.”

China continued to push for the EU to reopen the CAI and to negotiate an end to an EV dispute, but offered little in return, sources said.

On several occasions, VDL has said the trading relationship was at an “inflection point”.

This is the new mantra

Officials plan to meet in September to monitor progress in an upgraded rare earth licensing arrangement, according to sources, but for the most part, people involved found Xi and Premier Li Qiang to be immovable on trade.

A vague joint statement on climate was held up by Brussels as an important deliverable, given that Wang threatened to pull the plug on it weeks earlier during testy meetings in Brussels, but otherwise EU sources admit there were few concrete results.