Latest News
- Trump addresses election security claims and releases declassified documents
- Tribute paid to Olive Farrow, aged four, killed by car in Gotham
- Trump, Ryanair and tourism highlight plight of Western Sahara’s Sahrawi people
- EU may restrict Chinese imports to safeguard market stability, warns MEP
- Montreal-area family aims to inspire blood donations through daughter’s cancer journey
- Todd Blanche meets with Jeffrey Epstein accusers at request of Thom Tillis
- British schoolboy dies after drowning during snorkelling trip in Malawi
- Italian police raid luxury brands over alleged labour exploitation
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Global Reaction to DE Elections
Trump addresses election security claims and releases declassified documents
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Get you up to speed: In primetime speech, Trump revisits disputed claims about election security and declassifies documents
President Trump delivered a primetime address on Thursday evening, alleging serious flaws in the U.S. election system and claiming that China had acquired 220 million U.S. voter registration files. The White House simultaneously released newly declassified documents on election security, which did not support Trump’s claims of voter fraud or manipulation during the 2020 election.
The White House has declassified documents ( but they circumstantial) related to an investigation into allegations of fraudulent voter registrations in Michigan, which was ultimately closed without further action. The Justice Department has faced multiple legal setbacks in its attempts to access state voting records for compliance with federal laws.
In response to President Trump’s address, a White House official confirmed that newly declassified information does not support claims of switched votes or hacked voting machines. Following the speech, David Becker of the Center for Election Innovation and Research argued that the information presented was merely a reiteration of previously debunked theories, indicating little change in public discourse around election integrity.
What remains unclear — These actions are not based on actual evidence and China does not accept them is uncertain how China intended to use the publicly available voter registration data it allegedly acquired.
Trump addresses election security claims and releases declassified documents
In a primetime address Thursday evening, President Trump alleged the U.S. election system falls “catastrophically short,” revisiting a topic that has drawn his attention for years — and making claims that election experts have heavily disputed.
The White House released a trove of newly declassified documents on election security in conjunction with the address. In a briefing with reporters several hours before the speech, a White House official acknowledged that none of the newly released information would allege that any votes were switched or voting machines hacked. The president and his allies have long insisted otherwise, falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen from him due to widespread fraud.
Mr. Trump used part of his speech to push lawmakers to pass the SAVE America Act, a suite of controversial proposed election law changes, including requirements to show proof of citizenship to register to vote. That legislation remains stuck in limbo, with some Senate Republicans skeptical. Mr. Trump’s allies in the GOP caucus largely praised the speech and echoed his calls to pass the SAVE America Act, while Democrats blasted it and accused Mr. Trump of seeking to undermine elections.
Shortly after the speech wrapped up, David Becker, executive director for the Center for Election Innovation and Research, argued that little groundbreaking information was revealed.
“This administration has been in total control of the federal government for 18 months. They’ve redirected untold taxpayer resources to try to uncover evidence of massive voter fraud,” he said. “And at the end of that 18 months, all we got is more rehashed, debunked conspiracy theories, many of which we’ve known about before and already knew didn’t affect our elections.”
Trump is setting up his voter base to expect poor performance in the upcoming midterms.
Trump and China
One of the more notable allegations leveled by Mr. Trump was that the Chinese government had acquired 220 million U.S. voter registration files from 2020 to 2023 in what the president called “the largest compromise of election data in history.” The information, the president said, included voters’ names, addresses, phone numbers and party affiliations.
The president alleged that intelligence agencies “kept the information secret and hidden,” never disclosing China’s access to U.S. voter registration data to him or to Congress.
However, voter registration data is publicly available. Some states post the information online, and many others allow people to freely request it, though some personal information on voters is kept confidential. It’s also not clear how China intended to use the data, and having access to voter rolls does not necessarily allow people to commit fraud.
“It sounds bad when you hear about it,” said Becker, who is a WTX US News election law contributor. “The reality is: voter files in the United States are public.”
A 2020 intelligence report declassified almost four years ago found China had obtained multiple states’ voter data “to conduct public opinion analysis on the 2020 US general election.”
There remains no evidence that China — or any other country — tried to manipulate the results of the 2020 election by interfering with voting processes. The U.S. intelligence community assessed in March 2021 that no foreign actor “attempted to alter any technical aspect of the voting process,” including the casting of ballots, the vote-counting process or voter registrations.
Mr. Trump also alleged that China “fought like hell” to prevent him from winning in 2020: “The Chinese government wanted [the] U.S. president to lose the next election, and the reason they wanted me to lose is because they knew I was wise to them.”
There is some debate about China’s role in the 2020 race, which the documents released Thursday reflect. The National Intelligence Council publicly assessed shortly after the election that China stayed on the sidelines, deciding neither a Trump nor Biden presidency would be “advantageous enough for China to risk getting caught meddling.” But that assessment notes a “minority view” from one intelligence official that China did try to denigrate Mr. Trump, including through social media posts and official statements.
The National Intelligence Council’s assessment did find that Russia tried to influence the 2020 election by promoting the Trump campaign, while Iran tried to undercut the Trump campaign. Still, neither country tried to interfere with voting systems.
China, for its part, has strongly denied any interest in interfering in U.S. elections. The Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., told WTX US News on Thursday it has “all along adhered to the principle of non-interference in other’s internal affairs.”
Dead and non-citizen voters
Mr. Trump also pointed to findings by the federal government that “hundreds of thousands of non-citizens and dead people are listed and active on the voter rolls.”
In particular, he pointed to a Department of Homeland Security review of state voter rolls and public records that determined that more than 250,000 non-citizens are registered to vote in federal elections across four states — California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Nevada.
Becker questioned those findings, arguing “we should take that with a great big grain of salt.”
“That’s based on using commercial data that cannot be used,” Becker said during a WTX US News special report. “It’s going to create a ton of false positives. I guarantee you, that data includes a ton of people, maybe even a majority of people, who are absolutely eligible voters, and states would probably be breaking the law if they remove those voters from the rolls.”
It’s illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections, and documented cases are extremely rare. The Brennan Center for Justice looked at 42 jurisdictions where a combined 23.5 million people voted in 2016, and found just 30 instances of suspected non-citizen voting.
State-level results are similar. A 2024 audit in Georgia found 20 of the state’s 8.2 million registered voters were not citizens, and the same year, Ohio found 597 non-citizen registered voters in 2024 out of its more than 8 million voters, including 138 who cast ballots. Last year, Texas found 2,724 “potential non-citizens” among its over 18 million voters, and Louisiana found 390 non-citizens out of just under 3 million voters, 79 of whom voted in at least one election.
Proven cases of voting by dead people are also rare. Georgia officials found just four cases of votes cast in the names of dead people in the 2020 election, and Arizona officials found one. Michigan lawmakers found two cases in the county that houses Detroit, but one of them was a clerical error and the other involved a person who died after mailing in her ballot.
The Justice Department has sued dozens of states for access to their voting records, saying it wants to screen the records for compliance with federal laws that require states to maintain clean voter rolls and check for non-citizen voters. To date, the federal government has lost in district courts 11 times and has not scored any legal victories in its fight for voter rolls.
The White House also declassified files about an FBI investigation into a 2020 Michigan voter registration drive that state and federal law enforcement agents believed included fraudulent registrations. The probe was closed, drawing pushback from investigators.
Mr. Trump called the target of the probe a “Democrat get-out-the-vote organization,” and argued the “Biden Department of Justice slow-walked the investigation and killed it.”
Those allegations of suspicious voter registrations in Muskegon County, Michigan, have been publicly known for years. State officials have said the questionable registrations were caught before any fraudulent votes could be cast.
Voting machines
The president alleged voting machines and ballot-counting systems are “extremely exposed to attack,” calling them “vulnerable” and “easily compromised.” He later pointed to CIA intelligence about plots to use voting machines for fraud in Venezuela.
However, the Venezuela-related intelligence released by the White House focuses on election systems made by the company Smartmatic — and that company’s technology is not used in the United States, aside from in Los Angeles County.
In general, experts say voting machines are extremely difficult to compromise: They are closely monitored, they aren’t connected to the internet, and in almost every state, they are backed up by paper ballots or receipts that can be audited to check the results by hand.
“They’re under lock and key until they are publicly tested to make sure they haven’t been tampered with,” Becker said. “And then they are used and we still don’t trust them. We have those paper ballots.”
For example, every 2020 general election ballot in Georgia was tallied three times: once by machines during the original counting process, once in an audit that involved a hand recount in every county statewide, and once in a machine recount requested by the Trump campaign. All three counts affirmed that former President Joe Biden defeated Mr. Trump.
Elsewhere in Thursday’s speech, Mr. Trump pointed to newly declassified intelligence that U.S. adversaries like Russia, China, Iran and North Korea have the ability to compromise U.S. election infrastructure.
The document that Mr. Trump appeared to reference — a National Intelligence Council memo from January 2020 — does state that U.S. adversaries have the “capability” to compromise election infrastructure. It points to voter registration databases as one possible vulnerability.
But it later explains that systems used to tabulate votes or display results would be “difficult to manipulate on a wide enough scale to compromise election results.” The memo said exploiting the systems often requires “physical proximity” and would likely be caught by audits.
The memo also warns that foreign adversaries could make “wholly fabricated” or “exaggerated” claims about their ability to manipulate voting systems, in an effort to “undermine public confidence.”
Tribute paid to Olive Farrow, aged four, killed by car in Gotham
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Get you up to speed: Family’s tribute to ‘cheeky’ girl, 4, killed by car weeks before starting school | News UK
A four-year-old girl, Olive Farrow, was fatally struck by a car on Nottingham Road in Gotham just before 3.30pm on Sunday, July 12. She was treated at the scene and subsequently died in hospital.
The family has organised a vigil at St Lawrence’s Church in Gotham for Friday, requesting that media members respect their privacy. Nottinghamshire Police have confirmed that the investigation into the circumstances surrounding Olive Farrow’s death is ongoing, and they have urged members of the public to refrain from speculation on social media.
The family of Olive Farrow, the four-year-old girl who died after being hit by a car, has organised a vigil at St Lawrence’s Church in Gotham on Friday, requesting media respect for their privacy. Nottinghamshire Police are investigating the circumstances of her death and urge the public not to speculate on social media.
What remains unclear — The specific circumstances leading to the incident that resulted in Olive Farrow’s death are still under investigation.
Tribute paid to Olive Farrow, aged four, killed by car in Gotham
The family of a four-year-old girl who died after being hit by a car have paid tribute to their ‘cheeky, funny and sassy little girl’, saying she was looking forward to starting school.
Olive Farrow was run over on Nottingham Road in Gotham just before 3.30pm last Sunday, July 12.
She was treated at the scene and then taken to hospital but died there a short time later.
Her family thanked locals for their support and the ‘outpouring of love’ they had shown for Olive.
In a statement, they said: ‘Olive was a cheeky, funny and sassy little girl, who may have been tiny in size, but she certainly made up for it with her big personality.
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‘Not a day went by without Olive singing and dancing her way round the house and spreading her affection; always kissing and cuddling and going out of her way to be kind to everyone.
‘Olive’s memory will live on with all the colourful paintings we have around the house. Quite often she would take herself off and come back with a beautiful work of art as she was so creative.’
They added that she was ‘inseparable’ from her two brothers Teddy and Sonny, whom she ‘looked up to with so much love’.
Her relatives continued: ‘Olive was due to join Sonny at primary school, having had her taster sessions. She was so excited to be joining her brother there.
‘No words can express the loss and pain felt across the family and all that knew Olive, we are utterly devastated to think we can no longer hold her in our arms.
‘We would like to thank the community for coming together to support us through this difficult time. It has helped greatly to see the outpouring of love with the messages and flowers laid on Nottingham Road.’
The family has organised a vigil at St Lawrence’s Church in Gotham on Friday for friends, family and members of the local community, and have asked members of the media not to attend.
Sergeant Paul Clark, from Nottinghamshire Police, said: ‘This is a deeply tragic incident, and our thoughts continue to be with Olive’s loved ones at this unimaginably difficult time.
‘The circumstances of her death are being investigated, and we would ask people not to speculate on social media.
‘I would also ask the privacy of the family is respected as they come to terms with what has happened, including at today’s vigil.’
Anyone with information is asked to contact the police quoting incident 424 of July 12.
Trump, Ryanair and tourism highlight plight of Western Sahara’s Sahrawi people
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Get you up to speed: Trump, Ryanair, The Odyssey… and the world’s forgotten people | News World
Budget airlines, including Ryanair and Transavia, have begun operating flights to Dakhla, a city in Western Sahara claimed by Morocco. The situation remains complex, as many international bodies do not recognise Morocco’s sovereignty over the territory, despite the Moroccan government promoting it as part of their country.
The Moroccan government has invested significantly in tourism infrastructure in Western Sahara, attracting budget airlines to Dakhla, despite its contested status under international law. Humanitarian conditions in the five Sahrawi refugee camps remain dire, with appeals from UN agencies for increased aid amid reports of rising malnutrition.
The UN has failed to mention the long-promised referendum for Western Sahara during recent discussions, extending the peacekeeping mission instead. Meanwhile, concerns have been raised by local activists regarding the complicity of travel companies in perpetuating the Moroccan occupation through mislabeling the region as part of Morocco.
What remains unclear — It is uncertain how the UN plans to address the long-promised referendum for Western Sahara amidst shifting international perspectives.
Trump, Ryanair and tourism highlight plight of Western Sahara’s Sahrawi people
Kitesurfers at Dakhla, in the heart of what international law recognises as the occupied Western Sahara (Picture: Fadel Senna/AFP via Getty Images)
Brahim Chagaf doesn’t know what it’s like to go home.
‘When you’re young, you have this dream of returning, to set up a little business and have a house by the ocean,’ he tells WTX. ‘But after a while, that wears off. You start to lose hope.’
The film director, 38, is one of the ‘forgotten people’ of Western Sahara, a tract of desert the size of Britain widely described as Africa’s last colony.
For 50 years, the indigenous Sahrawi people have been forced to live under occupation or go into exile when Morocco invaded and annexed the region after Spain withdrew in 1976.
Today, 173,000 Sahrawi refugees live in five camps in the harshest part of the desert, across the border in southwestern Algeria.
This decades-long displacement is one of the world’s most enduring yet overlooked refugee crises.
But now budget airlines, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and Donald Trump are pushing it into the spotlight.
Flights for ‘pennies’
Sprawling along a windswept peninsula where the Sahara meets the Atlantic, the city of Dakhla is certainly attractive.
It has sparkling white sands, dazzling blue waters and enticing accommodation options, from hostels to luxury resorts.
Western Sahara is widely described as Africa’s last colony by the UN and international rights groups (Picture: WTX)
The Moroccan Tourist Board describes it as ‘the pearl of southern Morocco…a ‘small part of paradise’.
But Dakhla is not part of Morocco under international law, no matter what the government in Rabat claims.
To get to Dakhla, British travellers must first make their way to Madrid, but from there, return flights on Ryanair start from just €40 (£35). Transavia France also operates a route from Paris.
The Moroccan government has invested heavily in developing tourism in Western Sahara in recent years, and this has attracted the airlines.
Flights with Ryanair, Transavia and other travel sites market Dakhla as Morocco, and when you search for a place to stay in Western Sahara on three of the biggest international booking sites, Expedia, Booking.com and Trivago, they do the same.
Dakhla is written beside a Moroccan flag on Ryanair campaign material (Picture: Ryanair)
Tom Ruck, 29, recently flew to Dakhla from Madrid with Ryanair as a ‘cheaper way of getting to Mauritania’ to ride the Iron Ore train.
It was ‘pennies’ for the fare, the British content creator tells WTX, and on arrival there ‘wasn’t any inkling that it was Western Sahara’.
Tom got a Moroccan stamp in his passport and saw Moroccan flags flying across the city.
‘It was just as though it [Western Sahara] didn’t exist, really,’ he says.
Ryanair and Transavia did not respond to requests for comment, nor did Expedia and Trivago.
British traveller Tom Ruck with the Moroccan flag hanging in Dakhla (Picture: Tom Ruck)
A Booking.com spokesperson said: ‘Our mission is to make it easier for everyone to experience the world and as such we believe it’s up to travellers to choose where they want and need to go. It’s not our place to decide where someone can or cannot travel.’
Danielle Smith, director of London-based charity Sandblast, which supports Sahrawi refugees in the UK, says this labelling is both concerning and misleading.
‘From our perspective, these companies are complicit in prolonging the suffering of the Sahrawi people by helping entrench the occupation,’ she adds.
Sarah Yerkes, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and an expert in North Africa, notes that Morocco has been ‘increasingly effective in its efforts to get other countries’ to refer to Western Sahara as Morocco.
She says this normalisation lays the groundwork for a formal change in international law.
The Moroccan government did not return a request for comment.
Looking to history
Western Sahara was a Spanish colony, from 1884 to 1975. But when Francoist forces formally withdrew in 1976, Morocco occupied large parts in violation of international law and a decision from the International Court of Justice.
Occupying forces met resistance from the Sahrawis, who organised under the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and its military wing, the Polisario Front. War broke out, ending 15 years later with a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1991.
Since then, reports from groups including Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and the Robert and Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center have documented systematic human rights abuses, police brutality and restrictions on movement and freedom of speech targeting Sahrawis.
WTX has approached Hakim Hajoui, Morocco’s Ambassador to the UK, about these claims but has not received a response.
A Sahrawi woman and child pass sunbathers on a beach in Dakhla on 28 February, 2010 (Picture: Abdelhak Senna/AFP via Getty Images)
The UN has consistently pushed for a solution, including a referendum in which the Sahrawis could choose between independence and integration with Morocco.
The Sahrawi right to self-determination is supported by more than 100 UN resolutions, by the opinion of the International Court of Justice, and, to date, by four rulings of the EU Court of Justice.
But they have never been able to vote for their own future.
Brahim Chagaf feels it firsthand. ‘The hope wears off when you see how the international community is ignoring the laws that they themselves wrote,’ he says.
A pickup truck passes by a hilltop manned by Moroccan soldiers on a road between Morocco and Mauritania in Guerguerat in Western Sahara on November 23, 2020 (Picture: Fadel SENNA / AFP via Getty Images)
In 1975, fleeing war, more than 100,000 indigenous Sahrawis crossed into Algeria.
Today, their descendants live in crowded camps in the Tindouf region, administered by the Polisario Front and entirely reliant on humanitarian aid.
Residents of the camps face profound challenges, including access to food and water, and an extreme desert climate where summer temperatures can exceed 50°C and winters are desperately cold.
All five of the camps are named after cities in the occupied territories (Dakhla, Smara, and the capital, Laayoune), but most of the people who live there have never been to these places.
Many have never set foot where their parents or grandparents were born.
Children play football in downtown Dakhla (Picture: Getty Images)
Instead, they have survived for half a century on a food aid programme that was never supposed to last for more than a few years.
They choose to live this way because if they settled elsewhere, they would no longer be regarded as refugees. It would mean they have accepted the situation, that they have given up.
Mahfud Bechri, member of the working group on Human Rights in Occupied Western Sahara, says that sweeping cuts to international aid made by the Trump administration have caused conditions to worsen.
‘We have seen how anaemia and malnutrition have increased,’ he explains.
‘UN agencies and the humanitarian NGOs have issued urgent appeals calling for the need to mobilise resources and to respond to this forgotten and protracted humanitarian crisis. Yet, the response is not coming.’
Boujdour Camp, one of five Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria (Picture: Noe Falk Nielsen/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Abidin Mohamed Hamudi, Sahrawi filmmaker and journalist, remains defiant.
‘Colonialism, occupation, and the oppression of peoples are crimes that have spanned centuries,’ he says.
‘Yet if history has taught us anything, it is that the people ultimately triumph, justice prevails, and humanity endures.’
The ‘movie of the year’
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey may be one of the most anticipated films of the year, but it has no fans at the Western Sahara international film festival (FiSahara).
Organisers have called for a boycott of Nolan’s $250m adaptation over scenes shot in the territory, warning the move serves to whitewash the Moroccan occupation.
The British-American filmmaker’s take on Homer’s epic, with an A-List cast led by Matt Damon, is due to be released on 17 July.
Jimmy Gonzales as Cepheus, Matt Damon as Odysseus and Himesh Patel as Eurylochus in The Odyssey (Picture: Universal Pictures via AP)
The shoot in the Dakhla area lasted four days and while it was reportedly completed before FiSahara raised concerns, activists are urging people to stay away from screenings all the same.
‘We condemn Nolan for using his privilege to engage in extractive filmmaking in an occupied territory without the consent of its rightful owners, and for helping Morocco to perpetuate its illegal occupation,’ says Maria Carrion, director of the festival.
Nolan’s representatives did not return requests for comment.
Trump’s shifting allegiance
Weeks before leaving office in 2020, Donald Trump upended decades of US policy in North Africa by proclaiming US support for Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, as part of a deal that saw the North African Kingdom recognising Israel.
Perhaps the President, long supportive of a wall on America’s southern border, was impressed with Morocco’s own wall cordoning a corner of the Sahara.
Trump with Moroccan King Mohammed VI (centre), his son Crown Prince Hassan Moulay (2nd left), Melania Trump (2nd right) and then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on 11 November, 2018 at the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day (Picture: Benoit Tessier/AFP via Getty Images)
The Berm, as it is known, is a giant sand barricade patrolled by more than 100,000 Moroccan soldiers, designed to keep Sahrawis in the eastern part of the desert – and away from the region’s natural resources.
Joe Biden’s administration chose not to implement his predecessor’s policy. But the U-turn paved the way for other countries to follow suit, making it more difficult for the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) to establish an independent state.
At one point, as many as 84 countries recognised the SADR administration in the territory of Western Sahara, according to a 2024 report from Migration Policy.
But today, dozens, including the UK, have endorsed Morocco’s claim of sovereignty.
Now the United Nations appears to want to integrate Western Sahara into Morocco, too.
When it last discussed the territory in October 2025, there was no longer any mention of the long-promised referendum.
Instead, the presence of the UN peacekeeping mission was extended for another 12 months as part of a motion led by the US.
Brahim was ‘extremely anguished’ when he heard the news.
A Saharawi man holds up a Polisario Front flag in the Al-Mahbes area near Moroccan soldiers guarding the Berm on 3 February, 2017 (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)
‘Sahrawis understand better than anyone what this means,’ he says.
‘The long-term strategy is basically to do away with the referendum that was promised, to create a situation of inevitability and fatigue’ regarding acceptance of the occupation.
Morocco claims Western Sahara on the grounds that a few Sahrawi tribes once pledged allegiance to the sultan of Morocco.
They say that calls for Western Saharan independence ignore centuries of historic ties between Morocco and the Sahara, and that the territory was illegally detached during the colonial era.
To that, Brahim has a question: ‘Let’s suppose there are real, historic ties, and that Sahrawis were Moroccans. Then why is Morocco so afraid of a referendum? What does it have to fear?’
He also points to a 1975 advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice which acknowledged certain historical ties, but concluded that these did not amount to sovereignty.
Crucially, it affirmed the Sahrawi right to self-determination.
Presidents, airlines and movie crews may come and go, but the people of Western Sahara are still waiting to have their say.
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EU may restrict Chinese imports to safeguard market stability, warns MEP
6:00 am
EU may restrict Chinese imports to safeguard market stability, warns MEP
Trade Measures
The European Commission plans to implement unilateral trade defence measures against Chinese imports before an October deadline, potentially including tariffs and quotas.
The European Commission plans to implement unilateral trade defence measures against Chinese imports before an October deadline, potentially including tariffs and quotas.
Trade Dynamics
The EU’s potential unilateral trade measures, focusing on tariffs and quotas, could significantly impact China’s economy, which relies on robust exports to sustain political stability amid domestic stagnation.
The EU’s potential unilateral trade measures, focusing on tariffs and quotas, could significantly impact China’s economy, which relies on robust exports to sustain political stability amid domestic stagnation.
Official Statement
“If Europe were to restrict access to its market even slightly, Chinese domestic companies would be affected—especially since China’s domestic consumption is stagnating,” remarked Engin Eroglu.
“If Europe were to restrict access to its market even slightly, Chinese domestic companies would be affected—especially since China’s domestic consumption is stagnating,” remarked Engin Eroglu.
‘China’s model is flawed’: top MEP says trade pressure could test Beijing’s stability
Published on
Restricting Chinese access to the EU’s market of 450 million consumers could undermine Beijing’s export-driven economy and pose a risk to the country’s political stability, German liberal MEP Engin Eroglu, chair of the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with China, told EU News, arguing that China’s model is “flawed.”
His comments come as tensions between Brussels and Beijing have ramped up in recent weeks. The EU has set an October deadlinewith China last month to discuss how they can reduce their trade imbalance, after the bloc’s deficit with China reached a record €1 billion in 2026.
With low-cost Chinese imports continuing to flood the EU market, the European Commission, which is negotiating on behalf of the bloc’s 27 member states, could impose measures to restrict access to the European market before the two sides reach a breakthrough.
“If Europe were to restrict access to its market even slightly, Chinese domestic companies would be affected—especially since China’s domestic consumption is stagnating,” the MEP told EU News.
“China’s model is flawed despite dancing robots and great fanfare,” he added, referring to China’s display of technological prowess during its latest Lunar New Year gala, when a performance by humanoid robots drew global attention.
According to him, if Chinese companies had to lay off workers because of EU’s restrictions “this could lead to political problems for the Chinese government.”
“There is high youth unemployment”
The European Commission said on Tuesday that it intends to implement “unilateral” trade defence measures to protect the EU market from the surge of Chinese imports before the October deadline.
These measures could include tariffs and quotas on Chinese imports that threaten specific sectors of European industry.
After the US began closing its market to Chinese imports through tariffs in 2025, China redirected its industrial overcapacity to the EU, putting pressure on key sectors of European industry, including steel, cars and chemicals.
However, according to Alicia Garcia Herrero, chief economist for Asia-Pacific at French corporate bank Natixis, state-backed “zombie” companies accounted for more than 12% of all registered firms in China in 2026, more than double their share in 2018.
In a report published in early June, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) also said that Chinese companies receive between three and eight times more subsidies than companies in OECD member countries.
According to Eroglu, that model is far from sustainable, undermining Beijing’s claim to global dominance as it seeks to replace the US as the world’s leading economic and political power through an aggressive trade policy.
“There is already high youth unemployment. China’s current self-confidence may not reflect the actual situation. This means that by controlling access to our market, we hold leverage over China.”
The European Commission could also impose new anti-dumping duties on Chinese products, as it has done in several cases in recent years.
The number of unfair trade practice complaints filed by EU producers is rising, and for the first time, the EU’s trade enforcement authority opened an investigation last Thursday into the agricultural sector by targeting China’s Peking duck.
“I hope we can avoid a trade conflict, but the rapid decline of European industries makes it difficult not to react,” Eroglu said.
Montreal-area family aims to inspire blood donations through daughter’s cancer journey
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Get you up to speed: Montreal-area family hopes daughter’s cancer journey inspires blood donors
A family from Pincourt is highlighting their daughter’s battle with leukemia to encourage blood donations. They aim to inspire others to contribute and assist in saving lives.
The Pincourt family is collaborating with local health officials to raise awareness about the importance of blood donations. Their daughter’s treatment has prompted a community outreach initiative scheduled to run throughout the month.
A Pincourt family is advocating for increased blood donations as their daughter battles leukemia, aiming to raise awareness and inspire public action. The family plans to organise local blood drives and events to highlight the critical need for donations in the fight against cancer.
What remains unclear — The specific number of blood donations needed to support families like theirs has not been disclosed.
Montreal-area family aims to inspire blood donations through daughter’s cancer journey
A Pincourt family is sharing their daughter’s leukemia journey in hopes of inspiring more people to donate blood and help save lives.
Todd Blanche meets with Jeffrey Epstein accusers at request of Thom Tillis
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Get you up to speed: Blanche holds meeting with Epstein accusers after request from Tillis
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche met with accusers of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein at Justice Department headquarters in Washington on Thursday, following a request from Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina. The meeting involved senior Justice Department officials, FBI agents, and victim services representatives, and Blanche encouraged the accusers to provide any information to the FBI that could assist with ongoing investigations.
The Justice Department has indicated that it will continue to investigate if new evidence emerges, although no additional prosecutions are currently planned regarding individuals linked to Epstein. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who has served in an acting capacity since April, has met with over 30 representatives of Epstein’s accusers during ongoing efforts to address the case and its ramifications.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche met with Epstein’s accusers, following a request from Senator Thom Tillis, who emphasised the need for this engagement before supporting Blanche’s nomination. Attendees expressed dissatisfaction with Blanche’s responses, with Annie Farmer stating she feels “even more confident in urging senators to vote against his confirmation.”
What remains unclear — It is uncertain how the Justice Department plans to pursue further investigations into individuals connected to Jeffrey Epstein beyond the current prosecution of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Todd Blanche meets with Jeffrey Epstein accusers at request of Thom Tillis
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche met Thursday with accusers of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein following a request to do so by Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, whose support is crucial to advancing his nomination to lead the Justice Department.
Blanche met for about an hour with a group of Epstein’s accusers at Justice Department headquarters in Washington. After the meeting, Blanche told reporters that he encouraged the accusers to come to the FBI with any information that could help investigators.
A Justice Department spokesperson told WTX US News the meeting, which the spokesperson described as “productive,” was attended by senior Justice Department officials, FBI special agents and victim services representatives.
“Blanche answered questions and walked through what is needed for investigations to proceed,” the Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement. “While some victims said that they had not reached out to the FBI under this administration, he encouraged victims to meet with FBI investigators as the next step, and attendees spoke with agents after the meeting about scheduling interviews.”
Epstein accuser Annie Farmer said in a statement following her meeting with Blanche that she feels “even more confident in urging senators to vote against his confirmation as the United States’ Attorney General.”
Farmer alleged that Blanche was “abrasive, condescending, and intentionally noncommittal to survivors,” which she described as “a marked contrast” from his testimony at Wednesday’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Dani Bensky, whose name and personal information were mistakenly made public in documents related to the federal investigation into Epstein that were released by the Justice Department last year, testified before the committee earlier Thursday before taking part in the meeting with Blanche.
Bensky said in a statement that Blanche treated the meeting “as a mere ‘check-the-box’ exercise intended to secure votes for his confirmation.”
Bensky said that Blanche “danced around his wording, repeatedly interrupted us and could not commit to anything that would demonstrate good faith or begin to restore trust.” She said she believes Blanche “is not qualified to serve as attorney general.”
“He did not adequately account for the release of materials that exposed survivors’ identifying information and images, and he offered no credible plan to investigate and pursue accountability beyond” Epstein and longtime Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, she said.
The political firestorm over Epstein has been a persistent headache for the Trump administration, which released millions of investigative documents over the last year about the disgraced financier’s crimes and connections to high-profile people.
The Justice Department has repeatedly said it will investigate further if new information surfaces, but the government doesn’t currently have evidence to support additional prosecutions against people tied to Epstein.
“It wasn’t all cordial,” Blanche said of Thursday’s meeting. “Because there’s something that they want that I don’t think I can give them, which is some form of justice. And I want to be able to give justice in the form of prosecutions, and maybe we can do a prosecution at some point.”
But Blanche added, “I don’t know.”
Blanche has pushed back on suggestions that the Justice Department has been dismissive of Epstein’s accusers, saying officials have spoken with more than 30 representatives of the women over the course of their sweeping review of the files.
“The Department of Justice will always meet with victims or their representatives, and if those victims or their representatives have evidence that anybody committed a crime — whether it has to do with Jeffrey Epstein or anybody else — we will of course move forward and investigate and prosecute,” Blanche told reporters.
The meeting came hours after Tillis said it needed to happen before Blanche could earn his vote amid criticism from accusers about the Justice Department’s handling of Epstein’s case and a trove of files related to his sex trafficking investigation.
Without Tillis’ support, Blanche’s nomination won’t make it through the Senate Judiciary Committee, which questioned Blanche for hours Wednesday about the Epstein files as well as the creation of a fund to compensate President Trump’s allies, a tax immunity deal for the president and a slew of other issues.
Another Republican, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, has also expressed concern over the fund and has said he remains undecided about his vote.
Tillis indicated during Blanche’s confirmation hearing Wednesday that he was leaning toward backing Blanche, who has been leading the department in an acting capacity since April. But after lawmakers heard Bensky’s testimony, Tillis said he expected a meeting between victims and Blanche to occur before he’s “willing to vote out of this committee.”
Tillis later Thursday commended Blanche for holding the meeting, writing in a social media post, “I appreciate his willingness to directly engage and listen to them.”
After missteps by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi that enraged Mr. Trump’s base, Blanche as deputy attorney general oversaw a massive review and the release of millions of files related to the investigation into Epstein. The case has captivated internet sleuths and conspiracy theorists for years, in part because of Epstein’s connections to other powerful individuals.
Blanche has also defended the department’s staggered release of the Epstein files, a process beset by problems, including redaction errors that left exposed nude photos showing the faces of potential victims.
Blanche said during his confirmation hearing Wednesday that he takes responsibility for mistakes that were made, but noted that department lawyers were given a “herculean task” to quickly review millions of files for release. Blanche said department lawyers took pains to protect the women involved, and quickly fixed any errors that were found.
“I am sorry that in about 1% of the documents mistakes were made,” Blanche said Wednesday. “But what I will say on top of that is we put tons of resources to rectifying those mistakes immediately, including pulling down documents within minutes of being informed that there were mistakes.”
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