BRUSSELS — After its defeat by the British in the First Opium War, the Qing dynasty signed a treaty in 1842 that condemned China to more than a hundred years of foreign oppression and colonial control of trade policy.   It was the first of what came to be known as “unequal treaties,” where the bullying military and technological heavyweight of the day imposed one-sided terms to try to slash back its massive trade deficit. Sound familiar? Fast-forward nearly two centuries, and the EU is starting to understand exactly how that feels. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s dash to Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland last month to seal a highly unbalanced trade deal has raised fears among politicians and analysts that Europe has lost the leverage that it once thought it had as a leading global trade power.  Von der Leyen’s critics were quick to assert that accepting Trump’s 15 percent tariff on most European goods amounted to an act of “submission,” a “clear-cut political defeat for the EU,” and an “ideological and moral capitulation.” If she had hoped that would keep Trump at bay, a rude awakening was in store. With the ink barely dry on the trade deal, Trump doubled down on Monday by threatening to impose new tariffs on the EU over its digital regulations that would hit America’s tech giants. If the EU didn’t fall into line, the U.S. would stop exporting vital microchip technologies, he warned. His diatribe came less than a week after Brussels believed it had won a written guarantee from Washington that its digital rulebook — and sovereignty — were safe.  Trump can wield this coercive advantage because — just like the 19th century British imperialists — he holds the military and technological cards, and is well aware his counterpart lags miles behind in both sectors. He knows Europe doesn’t want to face Russian President Vladimir Putin without U.S. military back-up and cannot cope without American chip technology, so he feels he can dictate the trade agenda. EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič strongly implied last month that the deal with the U.S. was a reflection of Europe’s strategic weakness, and its need for U.S. support. “It’s not only about … trade: It’s about security, it is about Ukraine, it is about current geopolitical volatility,” he explained. The trade deal is a “direct function of Europe’s weakness on the security front, that it cannot provide for its own military security and that it failed to invest, for 20 years, in its own security,” said Thorsten Benner, director at the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin, who also pointed to failures to invest in “technological strength” and to deepen the single market.  Just like the Qing leadership, Europe also scorned the warning signs over many years. “We are paying the price for the fact we ignored the wake-up call we got during the first Trump administration — and we went back to sleep. And I hope that this is not what we are doing now,” Sabine Weyand, director-general for trade at the European Commission, told a panel at the European Forum Alpbach on Monday. She was speaking before Trump’s latest broadside on tech rules.   After its defeat by the British in the First Opium War, the Qing dynasty signed a treaty in 1842 that condemned China to more than a hundred years of foreign oppression and colonial control of trade policy. | History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images It is clear that Trump’s volatile tariff game is far from over, and the 27-nation bloc is bound to face further political affronts and unequal negotiating outcomes this fall. To prevent the humiliation from becoming entrenched, the EU faces a huge task to reduce its dependence on the U.S. — in defense, technology and finance. STORMY WATERS  The Treaty of Nanking, signed under duress aboard the HMS Cornwallis, a British warship anchored in the Yangtze River, obliged the Chinese to cede the territory of Hong Kong to British colonizers, pay them an indemnity, and agree to a “fair and reasonable” tariff. British merchants were authorized to trade at five “treaty ports” — with whomever they wanted.  The Opium War began what China came to lament as its “century of humiliation.” The British forced the Chinese to open up to the devastating opium trade to help London claw back the yawning silver deficit with China. It’s an era that still haunts the country and drives its strategic policymaking both at home and internationally. A key factor forcing the Qing dynasty to submit was its failure to invest in military and technological progress. Famously, China’s Qianlong Emperor told the British in 1793 China did not require the “barbarian manufactures” of other nations. While gunpowder and firearms were Chinese inventions, a lack of experimentation and innovation slowed their development — meaning Qing weapons were about 200 years behind British arms in design, manufacture and technology.   Similarly, the EU is now being punished for falling decades behind the U.S. Slashing defense spending after the Cold War kept European countries dependent on the U.S. military for security; complacency about technological developments means the EU now is behind its global rivals in almost all critical technologies. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has, for his part, declared the beginning of a new world order — which he dubbed the “Turnberry system” — comparing the U.S.-EU trade accord to the post-war financial system devised at the New England resort of Bretton Woods in 1944.    TURBULENCE AHEAD  With his attack on Monday, Trump demonstrated scant regard for the EU’s desire to bracket out sensitive issues from last week’s non-binding joint statement. The vagueness of the four-page text, meanwhile, leaves room for him to press new demands or threaten retaliation if he deems that the EU is failing to keep its side of the bargain.  More humiliation could follow as the two sides try to work out details — from a tariff quota system on steel and aluminium to exemptions for certain sectors — that still need to be ironed out.   “This deal is so vague that there are so many points where conflicts could easily be escalated to then be used as justification for why other things will not follow through,” said Niclas Poitiers, a research fellow at the Bruegel think tank.    Asked what would happen if the EU were to fail to invest a pledged $600 billion in the U.S., Trump said earlier this month: “Well, then they pay tariffs of 35 percent.”  With his attack on Monday, Trump demonstrated scant regard for the EU’s desire to bracket out sensitive issues from last week’s non-binding joint statement. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images It’s a danger the EU is acutely aware of.  The European Commission argues the $600 billion simply reflects broad intentions from the corporate sector that cannot be enforced by bureaucrats in Brussels. But Trump could well use the investment pledge as a trigger point to gun for higher duties.   “We do expect further turbulence,” said a senior EU official, granted anonymity to speak candidly. But “we feel we have a very clear insurance policy,” they added.     What’s more, by accepting the agreement, sold by the EU executive as the “less bad” option following Trump’s tariff threats, Brussels has also shown that blackmail works. Beijing will be watching developments with interest — just as EU-China ties have hit a new low and Beijing’s dominance on the minerals the West needs for its green, digital and defense ambitions hand it immense geopolitical leverage.  ESCAPING IRRELEVANCE But what, if anything, can the bloc do to avoid prolonging its period of geopolitical weakness?  In the lead-up to the deal, von der Leyen repeatedly emphasized that the EU’s strategy in dealing with the U.S. should be built on three elements: readying retaliatory measures; diversifying trade partners; and strengthening the bloc’s single market.     For some, the EU needs to see the deal as a wake-up call to usher in deep change and boost the bloc’s competitiveness through institutional reform, as outlined last year in landmark reports penned by former European Central Bank head Mario Draghi and former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta.    In response to the deal, Draghi issued a strongly-worded warning that Trump’s evident ability to force the bloc into doing his bidding is conclusive proof that it faces irrelevance, or worse, if it can’t get its act together. He also played up the failings on security. “Europe is ill-equipped in a world where geo-economics, security, and stability of supply sources, rather than efficiency, inspire international trade relations,” he said.   Eamon Drumm, a research analyst at the German Marshall Fund, also took up that theme. “Europe needs to think of its business environment as a geopolitical asset to be reinforced,” he said.  To do so, investments in European infrastructure, demand and companies are needed, Drumm argued: “This means bringing down energy prices, better putting European savings to use for investment in European companies and completing capital markets integration.”   In comments to POLITICO, French Europe Minister Benjamin Haddad also called for “investing massively in AI, quantum computing and green technologies, and protecting our sovereign industries, as the Americans do not hesitate to do.”   FREE TRADE For others, the answer lies in deepening and diversifying the bloc’s trade ties — Brussels insists the publication of its trade deal with the Mercosur bloc of South American countries is just around the corner, and it is eyeing deals with Indonesia, India and others this year. It has also signaled openness to intensifying trade with the Asia-focused CPTPP bloc, which counts Canada, Japan, Mexico, Australia and others as members.    “In addition to modernizing the [World Trade Organization], the EU must indeed focus on continuing to build its network of trade agreements with reliable partners,” said Bernd Lange, a German Social Democrat who heads the European Parliament’s trade committee.   “To stabilize the rules-based trading system, we should find a common position with democratically constituted countries,” added Lange.   Europe, said Drumm, faces a choice.  “Is it going to reinforce its position as a hub of free trade in a world where globalization is unwinding?” he asked. “Or is it just going to be a battlefield on which increasing competition between China and the United States plays out?” 

Daniel Harper is a British Iranian multimedia journalist, residing and working in the EU, specializing in migration, women’s rights and human rights. His work has appeared in Euronews, Balkan Insight, GAY Times, Insider, among other publications. After a three-day mourning period, the flags above Austria’s parliament were raised from half-mast, where they’d been lowered following last month’s fatal school shooting in the country’s second city of Graz. The shooting at the high school was the deadliest in the country’s history, leaving 10 dead and several injured. Notably, the assailant had used a shotgun and handgun he’d obtained legally, despite failing a psychological screening for his required military service. According to a small arms survey, Austria is the 14th most armed country in the world, with 30 firearms per 100 inhabitants. Yet, it has often shirked from gun reform — even after the terrorist attack of November 2020, which saw assault rifles fired in central Vienna. So, for the issue to raise to the top of the agenda now, speaks volumes as to just how far this fatal incident has shoved the political dial on the country’s long-standing ambivalence to gun reform. “Nothing we do, including what we have decided today, will bring back the 10 people we lost last Tuesday. But I can promise you one thing: We will learn from this tragedy,” Chancellor Christian Stocker said, echoing that very sentiment a press conference held after the shooting. Question is, will Austria’s government finally be spurred into action? Austria’s hunting culture means gun ownership is deeply engrained in its society. Currently, 130,000 people — roughly 1.4 percent of the population — hold mandatory hunting licenses. And anyone who’s been to Austria can attest to the numerous animal heads and trophy antlers hanging on the walls of pubs and chalets. Moreover, two large weapons manufacturers, Steyr and Glock, are both headquartered in the country. And their lobbying of pro-gun political parties within the conservative faction has helped prevent previous gun reform attempts. “There is a big hunters lobby,” said Professor Roger von Laufenberg, managing director of the Vienna Center for Societal Security explained. “Especially [for] the major political parties. The Conservative Party, for example, has traditionally had a large share of voters [who are] hunters, which is why this was not really perceived as an issue for so long.” The last time gun laws were reformed in any major way in Austria was in 1997, following an EU directive imposing tighter restrictions on gun ownership — a change that, according to a report by the British Journal of Psychology, led to a drop in the rate of firearm suicides and homicides. Decades later, one of the main reforms now being discussed is raising the minimum age to buy firearms from 21 to 25. Other restrictions the chancellor suggested include raising the minimum age to own specific firearms like handguns, having gun permits expire every eight years, strengthening psychological testing and making it mandatory, sharing information across governmental agencies, as well as introducing a four-week waiting period for the delivery of a first weapon. These are all in addition to a suggested expansion of psychological support in schools across the country over the next three years. A woman leaves a candle at a makeshift memorial site near the school where several people died in a school shooting, on June 10, 2025 in Graz, southeastern Austria. | Georg Hochmuth/AFP via Getty Images This is a dramatic shift in how gun reform has been addressed by the government in previous years. Under current laws, anyone over the age of 18 can purchase certain shotguns and rifles without a permit, while other weapons, like hand pistols, require a three-day waiting period and a psychological analysis. The issue of psychological testing is especially a point of focus, as the assailant in the school shooting had passed the test to own a handgun. The process that’s drawing particular criticism is that a person is only tested once in their lifetime and never reassessed. Furthermore, despite the assailant failing his psychological exam for compulsory military service, this information was not shared with other agencies, including the police. Interestingly, just a couple weeks before the Graz shooting, Austria’s Green Party had put forward a proposal aimed at reforming gun laws. But the motion for a resolution was postponed with the votes of Austria’s coalition government. The proposed motion set out much of the same guidelines the chancellor shared with the press — tighter background checks, greater monitoring of private gun sales and a permanent gun ban for those who have restraining orders against them. The difference was that these reforms were specifically aimed at combating violence against women and girls — another problem Austria’s been dealing with for a long time. According to Green member Meri Disoksi, who proposed the reform, “almost one in two perpetrators of violence against women suffers from a mental illness” — hence the greater need for stricter psychological checks. Similarly, an Institute of Conflict Research analysis on femicides in Austria between 2010 to 2020 found that of the women assaulted with a firearm, 62.6 percent died. Even the use of illegal firearms involved with femicides has increased from 2016 to 2020, according to the study. Markus Leinfellner of the right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) — a party that often blocks gun reform legislation — had criticized the proposal, speaking out against the suggestion of psychological assessments for gun owners every five years, saying it would place a financial burden on gun owners and lead to an increased workload for psychologists. It’s evident just how much the Graz shooting has changed the conversation and forced the issue of gun reform back into play, as even FPO leader Herbert Kickl didn’t come out against the chancellor’s recent proposals. He simply told lawmakers: “I don’t think now is the time to pledge or announce that this or that measure will solve a problem.” Of course, it remains to be seen whether the proposed gun reforms will eventually pass. But with Stocker now promising the country will learn from this tragedy, it seems Austria has been forced to confront the consequences of being a society so intertwined with gun culture after decades of political ambivalence. The shooting in Graz has finally pierced the illusion that legal gun ownership guarantees safety, and the country’s political parties can’t sit on the fence any longer.

From almost every corner of the globe, the world has watched, often in horror, as conflicts erupt and societal structures crumble under the weight of violence. We grapple with the interconnected evils of drug trafficking, human exploitation and the brutal reality of civilian casualties in war zones. Yet often overlooked in the analysis is the silent enabler of the utterly unregulated and unaccountable trade in arms. While legitimate arms industries are subject to varying degrees of national oversight and international agreements, the illicit flow of weapons operates in a shadowy realm governed by greed and violence, with scant regard for borders or human life. This clandestine network, far from being a fringe concern, has a direct and devastating impact on some of the most pressing issues facing our world today, which, based on current trends, could be responsible for 630,000 deaths per year by 2030 — more than one life per minute.  Before going into the details, it’s important to understand the endemic problem of illegal armed violence. In almost every major city around the world, the easy availability of small arms and light weapons transforms disputes into deadly confrontations. These weapons, often diverted from conflict zones, leaked from insecure stockpiles or manufactured in the black market, empower non-state actors and criminal organizations to terrorize communities and undermine the rule of law. Recent examples include the shooting of an eight-year-old girl as she sat in a car with her parents in a leafy suburb of London, through to formerly peaceful societies such as Sweden, where a surge in gang violence “has led to one of the highest homicide rates in Europe, with official data showing that fatal shootings have more than doubled in a year”, according to Euronews. > The devastating reach of illicit weaponry continues to threaten initiatives > aimed at fostering peace and stability — including the Kimberley Process.” The insidious link between illegal arms and drug trafficking is equally undeniable, as clearly illustrated in a recent report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Global Firearms Programme and Flemish Peace Institute. Criminal cartels rely on a steady supply of weaponry to protect their operations, enforce their territories and intimidate rivals, with the profits generated helping to fuel the demand for more sophisticated and lethal arms, creating a vicious cycle of violence and corruption that destabilizes entire regions. In terms of trade, the devastating reach of illicit weaponry continues to threaten initiatives aimed at fostering peace and stability — including the Kimberley Process (KP). As a vital framework designed to eradicate conflict diamonds from the global supply chain, the KP relies on transparency and accountability. However, the presence of illegal arms in conflict zones remains one of the main contributors to undermining these efforts. Armed groups, fueled by illicit weapons, exploit diamond resources to finance their operations, perpetuating violence and undermining the integrity of the entire system. While the KP has directly reduced the volume of conflict diamonds out of the global supply chain from 15 percent to just under 0.2 percent,  the eradication of conflict diamonds cannot be fully realized while the free flow of illegal arms continues unchecked. It is also not reasonable for groups to suggest that the KP should be responsible for arms regulation or oversight, as highlighted in my recent article. At the same time, it isn’t enough for individual nations to operate in silo, albeit the United Arab Emirates’ recent seizure of ammunition destined for the Sudanese Armed Forces successfully removed “approximately five million rounds” of Goryunov-type ammunition from the supply chain, as noted in a report by Emirates News Agency. Ultimately, the responsibility for restricting the flow of arms requires more than just a national effort, but a global tripartite structure, similar to that of the KP. > The illegal arms trade is not peripheral criminal activity but a central > driver of global instability and human suffering. A concerted and coordinated > global effort is urgently required to address this unseen scourge” Consequently, and in the spirit of the KP’s Year of Best Practice, collaborations with entities including the United Nations-bound Arms Trade Treaty and the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms could represent a positive first step toward a more proactive, structured approach, particularly in achieving common goals. As an additional step, both entities could also consider adopting the KP’s tried and tested structure, including a unified approach that provides higher standards of monitoring, implementation and enforcement, as well as an institutional bridge to create a parallel dialogue on corporate accountability within the arms sector. In doing so, there is a unique opportunity to illustrate the negative impact small arms have on diamond-producing countries while holding the world’s arms exporters to account. Beyond collaborating with global organizations such as the United Nations, the international community must recognize the illegal arms trade not as a peripheral criminal activity but as a central driver of global instability and human suffering. A concerted and coordinated global effort is urgently required to address this unseen scourge and should start by enhancing levels of international cooperation. As an industry that has been grossly unregulated, particularly when benchmarked against commodities such as diamonds, it is time to bring the arms trade out of the shadows and into the light of global scrutiny. Accountability and decisive action will be required to reform our collective criminal justice systems and drive meaningful change toward reducing and eventually eliminating some of the world’s most egregious criminal practices.

Spanish police have arrested a man in connection with the 2023 shooting of two football fans in Brussels. Spanish police and Belgian prosecutors said on Saturday that the suspect was arrested at Malaga Airport the day before. Two Swedish nationals were killed and another injured in the attack, which took place after a qualifying game between Belgium and Sweden for the Euro 2024 football tournament. Belgian police shot and killed the gunman. Belgian authorities said the suspect arrested on Friday was believed to have supplied the firearm used in the attack.

President Donald Trump pardoned about 1,500 people who stormed the Capitol in his name on Jan. 6, 2021, instantly laying waste to the Justice Department’s four-year drive to punish the first disruption of the transfer of power in American history. The sweeping grant of clemency includes “full, complete and unconditional” pardons for some of the most notorious participants in the attack, including hundreds convicted of assaulting police, carrying firearms, destroying property or otherwise contributing to the violent rampage. Trump also ordered his Justice Department to shut down hundreds of pending Jan. 6 prosecutions, including many for violent crimes. Among those freed from jail with a stroke of Trump’s pen: Enrique Tarrio, the former national leader of the far-right Proud Boys, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for a seditious conspiracy related to the attack; Guy Reffitt, who carried a firearm during a standoff with police that helped facilitate the mob’s approach to the Capitol; and Ryan Samsel, the first rioter to breach police lines who was facing a long list of assault charges. Trump’s move largely erases the prosecutions that have crammed Washington’s federal courthouse and featured prominently in national politics since Trump attempted to derail Joe Biden’s 2020 victory. Trump had repeatedly promised during the 2024 campaign to pardon many Jan. 6 defendants, but until Monday night, it was unclear just how far he would go. Some political allies and even a federal judge he appointed had urged him to refrain from “blanket’ pardons of those who stormed the Capitol. And Vice President JD Vance said this month that people who engaged in violence “obviously” should not be pardoned. But only the president, Trump’s allies noted, gets to decide who receives clemency, and Trump had other ideas. “These people have been destroyed,” Trump said as he signed the pardons Monday night. “What they’ve done to these people has been outrageous.” Trump asked the Bureau of Prisons to facilitate the release of incarcerated defendants immediately. The Justice Department charged about 1,600 perpetrators for their role in the mob, including 600 accused of assaulting or impeding police during the chaos. About 1,100 of them pleaded guilty or were found guilty at trial. The other roughly 500 cases were still pending until Trump’s clemency. Those pardoned include Julian Khater, who pepper-sprayed Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick in the face (Sicknick died a day later from what a medical examiner said was natural causes); Patrick McCaughey, who helped crush D.C. police officer Daniel Hodges in a Capitol doorway; and Jake Lang, a rioter charged with numerous assault counts, including attacking police officers with a bat. Fourteen people received commutations instead of full pardons. A commutation is a lesser form of clemency that means those individuals will be released from prison immediately, but — at least for now — they will continue to have felony convictions on their records. Despite the pardon for Tarrio, Trump opted only to commute the sentence of others who were convicted of seditious conspiracy — including Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the anti-government Oath Keepers. The federal judge who sentenced Rhodes to 18 years in prison recently said the thought of him being released was “frightening.” Others whose sentences were commuted include Dominic Pezzola, a New York Proud Boy who led the crowd into the Capitol when he shattered a Senate-wing window and was serving a 10-year sentence; Ethan Nordean and Joe Biggs, who led hundreds of Proud Boys on a march from the Washington Monument to the Capitol, where they helped ignite breaches of numerous police lines; and some of Rhodes’ top Oath Keepers allies. Trump also directed his Justice Department to abruptly drop the 470 ongoing criminal cases against Jan. 6 defendants — including hundreds facing assault charges. The president told prosecutors to request that the cases be dismissed “with prejudice,” meaning they could not be refiled. Some of those cases had already netted guilty pleas, and the defendants were awaiting sentences. About 700 defendants had already completed their jail sentences or were never sentenced to prison at all. The effects of the mass clemency by Trump are likely to cascade through the federal courthouse in Washington, where prosecutors have churned through Jan. 6 cases daily for the past four years. Two felony cases were expected to reach jury verdicts this week. Other defendants began asking judges Monday night to dismiss their cases even before Trump signed the pardon paperwork.

A person of interest in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is in custody, according to New York City police officials. Police arrested 26-year-old Luigi Mangione in Altoona, Pennsylvania, a small city that’s a four-hour drive west of Philadelphia, on firearm charges on Monday, said Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch at a press briefing. A witness recognized the man from images of the suspect that were circulated by police after he walked into a McDonald’s on Monday morning. After police arrested him, they found a gun similar to the one used in the slaying of Thompson last week. Mangione is “a strong person of interest” in the investigation, said New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Mangione was carrying multiple fake IDs, including a fake New Jersey identification that matched the one the suspect used to check into a hostel before the shooting, Tisch said. He also had “a handwritten document that speaks to both his motivation and mindset,” she said. “It does seem he has some ill will toward corporate America,” said New York Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny at the briefing. Mangione was born and raised in Maryland and has ties to San Francisco, officials said. His last known address was in Honolulu, Hawaii. He had no prior arrests in New York City and no known arrests elsewhere. NYPD detectives are en route to Pennsylvania to interview him, officials said. Background: Thompson, the 50-year-old head of UnitedHealth Group’s insurance business, was fatally shot outside of a Hilton in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday. Police have since been searching for the shooter. The motive is unknown, but the killing has led to a wave of online vitriol against health insurers over how often the companies deny medical care and how they conduct business.

DAHLONEGA, Georgia — Fiona Bagley was born in Epsom, a historic spa town in a leafy corner of England. She owns an English goods store, a quaint tea room, two deadly crossbows and an AK-47 assault rifle. On Nov. 5, she will vote for Donald Trump. “I don’t particularly like Donald Trump,” the 64-year-old said, chatting over a cup of Earl Grey tea on the veranda of her café in the former gold-mining town of Dahlonega, Georgia. “I wish he would be a bit more presidential. But I like what he does.” Speaking in an accent from southern England (with an occasional American lilt), she described the Republican presidential candidate as “obnoxious,” “loud” and “brash,” and said he “doesn’t know when to shut up.”  “But the man knows how to run a country,” she added. Bagley is one of numerous British-born dual citizens in Georgia — a crucial swing state in the looming presidential election — who will back Trump over his Democrat rival Kamala Harris. The friends and families of these Brits back home — where Trump remains deeply unpopular — can scarcely believe they could support the controversial businessman.  But British Trump voters in Georgia canvassed by POLITICO said their experiences living in America under Democrat rule had made up their minds.  Trump-backing Brits typically cite the economic woes they experienced under the Joe Biden administration, including rampant consumer and business inflation, as reasons to cast their ballots for the Republican. Abortion, foreign affairs and the gender debate come up in conversation too — not to mention Trump’s perceived mistreatment at the hands of the media and the so-called Washington elite.  But certain U.K. political influences seem as difficult to shed as the enduring British accent. “I’ve got some socialist in me, particularly when it comes to healthcare and education,” said Mark, 69, a Trump voter from Hove on the south coast of England. (He asked that his surname not be published.)  Mark was not alone in expressing love for Britain’s treasured National Health Service, which provides free healthcare to U.K. citizens. By contrast, American-born Republicans like to paint the U.K.’s state-run health regime as a failed socialist experiment. Most Brits in the U.S. are squeamish about America’s love of guns, too — though not Bagley, who has embraced the culture. “I have an arsenal,” she said proudly, listing an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, several handguns and a shotgun among her haul at home, alongside the AK-47 and two crossbows mentioned above. “I’m probably very different to a lot of the Brits, who think the gun culture is out of control.” TEA AND TRUMP Crucially, Bagley was exposed to guns long before she lived in America. She served in the British armed forces, patrolling the Berlin Wall, where she met her American future husband. The pair moved to the U.S. 32 years ago, after she retired from the service.  Settling in Dahlonega, north of Atlanta, Bagley opened a bed and breakfast and tea rooms, a flower farm, and Crown and Bear, a British food and gifts shop on the town square. Her collective businesses employ 18 people.  The friends and families of British-born dual citizens back home — where Donald Trump remains deeply unpopular — can scarcely believe they could support the controversial businessman. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images The tea room is named after Waffles, her corgi dog, who attends Independence Day parades dressed as an English king. Bagley dresses as a British red coat soldier from the American Revolutionary War and throws tea bags at the crowd.  The shop, upstairs in an old townhouse, sells endless British-themed items including Sherlock Holmes candles, London Underground t-shirts and assorted royal family memorabilia. No one in the town knew what a crumpet was before Bagley opened the shop in 2020; now she has dozens of customers on speed dial for when a new pallet of tea-room delicacies arrives.  Bagley has been on her own journey of discovery in recent years. She says she would never have voted for Trump had he been a candidate when she first arrived three decades ago. “I would have thought, ‘wow, that man’s kind of rude,’” she said.  As recently as 2016 she berated a neighbor for backing Trump, branding the Republican a “fool.” But by the end of that election cycle she was backing Trump too: Now it’s her British friends and family back home who berate her for her political affiliations. “They are utterly shocked that I would vote for that man,” she said. “And I’m kinda shocked too.”  But she said she feels she has little choice, due to fears her businesses might not survive if the Democrats win again. “When he was in power, I had more money in my bank account,” Bagley explained. “Things weren’t as tight. In the last four years it’s been brutal for retail businesses.” TRUMP AS THE NEW THATCHER Other British Trump supporters argue their favored candidate should not be so unpalatable to folks back home. “There was nobody more brash and more forthright than Margaret Thatcher,” said Manchester-born Mike Long, 68, referring to the former U.K. prime minister who won three general elections despite being a hugely divisive figure. “The British loved her.” Long was speaking in the back office of Taste of Britain, another British shop that has been a fixture in Norcross, a suburb of Atlanta, for three-and-a-half decades. The store has an enormous range of British food products, including niche items like Smith’s Scampi Fries crisps, Soreen malt loaf, Bird’s custard powder and a full menu of Scottish pies.  Roxanna Aguilar, who has run the store for 12 years, was born in south London and grew up in Colchester, Essex. She has watched fellow Brits who move to Georgia slowly become more polarized — just like their American neighbors — the longer they spend in the U.S. Many now watch Fox News or other hardline conservative media, she said, and rail vocally against the more left-wing bias of other broadcasters. “In Britain, your political view is very personal. It’s not here,” Aguilar said in her Union Jack-themed office, where the rug, tissue box and baroque armchair are all splashed with the British flag. “But I think the English people that live over here have gotten used to that.” Some British Trump supporters argue their favored candidate should not be so unpalatable to folks back home. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images Certainly, the British-American voters POLITICO spoke to were open and generous in sharing their views — even the more controversial ones. One woman — who asked not to be named — repeated false claims that the 2020 election had been rigged against Trump, and accused the Inland Revenue Service, the CIA and other government institutions of colluding against him. The same person said of Harris: “If I see that laugh one more time, and that nodding head, I’ll put a baseball bat through the TV.” RARE SPECIES Not all British-born voters in the U.S. reject the Democrat candidate, of course. In fact, numerous people said Trump-voting Brits are few and far between.  Sonya Foley, 50, a cybersecurity contractor from Reading, a large town west of London, has been in the U.S. for 22 years. She voted for Harris under the early voting scheme in Georgia. “A woman’s right to choose what happens to her own body is critical for me,” she said of the abortion debate. “It affects us all.” She also said she feared a second Trump presidency would be characterized by “retaliation” against his opponents, and that the former president had tapped into latent racism, misogyny and classism in the U.S.  As for claims by Trump supporters that the Republican candidate would be the stronger leader, Foley replied: “I just don’t think being a bullying narcissist is showing leadership.” A week from polling day, these same arguments are playing out in households across a divided nation.

Thierry Henry is better known for his football punditry than for political commentary. But on Wednesday night he spoke out about a growing crisis close to home. The former Arsenal and France national team striker urged the French government to take action to combat a cost-of-living crisis that has escalated into a violent uprising on the French Caribbean island of Martinique. Martinique has been grappling with protests in response to the soaring prices of everyday goods. The unrest, which has included the use of firearms and arson, has killed four people and caused significant material damage over the last few weeks. “Life is expensive in Martinique and Guadeloupe,” Henry said on CBS, where he works as a football pundit. “I want to send a message of support. Please, enough is enough … Lower the prices because people can’t survive on what they earn,” he added, before delivering a message in Creole. Henry, who coached the silver-medalist French Olympic football squad this summer in Paris, was born and raised near the French capital, but his mother is from Martinique and his father hails from the nearby archipelago of Guadeloupe. According to a 2022 study by the French statistics office, food prices in Martinique are 40 percent more expensive than in mainland France, while a 2021 study found that the median income in Martinique is more than a third lower than in mainland France. The French government sent additional police units and imposed a curfew earlier this month as tensions rose. Last week, the state signed a protocol with private sector representatives aimed at cutting the price of the most-consumed goods in Martinique by 20 percent, but protests are showing no signs of slowing down. Martinique and Guadeloupe were colonized by France in the 17th century, and both territories became integral to the French transatlantic slave trade, with plantations heavily reliant on enslaved African labor. They remained French colonies until 1946, when they were granted the status of French overseas departments and included into the French administration.

Germany arrested a Libyan citizen suspected of plotting an attack against Israel’s embassy in Berlin, the federal prosecutor’s office said on Sunday. The authorities identified the man only as Omar A. and said he is “strongly suspected” of supporting the terror organization Islamic State (IS) and intended to carry-out an attack with firearms on the Israeli embassy. He would have discussed this online with a member of IS, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. The German government is under pressure to increase security measures and address migration after a series of violent attacks allegedly perpetrated by people who entered the country as asylum-seekers, like the knife attack in the western city of Solingen in August. In reaction, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has announced several measures to curb migration, including border checks within the Schengen area and a plan to speed deportations. Migration has also come to the forefront at the European level as leaders discussed the topic during this week’s European Council. The EU leaders seem to be backing deportation centers, sending migrants back to Afghanistan and Syria. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also promised tougher laws following the Council meeting. Meanwhile, Italy sent 12 migrants to processing centers in Albania this week, but had to bring them back after a judge said the move was illegal.

A man was arrested at a checkpoint outside of former President Donald Trump’s rally in Coachella on Saturday night for illegally possessing two loaded firearms, according to the California Riverside County Sheriff’s Department on Sunday. The Riverside County Sheriff’s department arrested 49-year-old Vem Miller of Las Vegas on Saturday night, before Trump arrived at the rally, according to Sheriff Chad Bianco on Sunday. Bianco said upon further investigation, Miller was found to be illegally possessing a shotgun, a handgun and a high-capacity magazine for the handgun in his car. The black SUV that Miller was driving was also unregistered with a fake, handmade license plate; deputies also discovered fake driver’s licenses and passports with different names, according to Bianco. Miller was taken into custody but released on bond less than 24 hours after the arrest. Bianco said the Sheriff’s Department’s investigation is complete, and they are actively working with Secret Service and the FBI “to ensure the person is followed up on.” It’s not clear if Miller meant to attempt to harm Trump or anyone else, but Bianco indicated he thought it was quite possible. “If you’re asking me right now, I probably did have deputies that prevented the third assassination attempt,” Bianco said when pressed during a press conference on Sunday. He later reiterated: “I truly do believe that we prevented another assassination attempt and it was solely by our effort of keeping those types of people out.” The Sheriff’s Office said there was no impact on the safety of attendees or Trump from this incident. “From my perspective, from a state law enforcement agency’s perspective, the firearms charges are what we arrested him for and booked him on,” Bianco said during a press conference. “Anything further will come from the federal government. And, quite frankly, I don’t know if we will be a part of that.” Shortly after Bianco’s comments at the press conference, United States Attorney Martin Estrada from the Central District of California released a statement saying the U.S. Attorney’s Office, U.S. Secret Service, and FBI were aware of the arrest. “The U.S. Secret Service assesses that the incident did not impact protective operations and former President Trump was not in any danger,” they wrote in a statement. “While no federal arrest has been made at this time, the investigation is ongoing.” Bianco said Miller was allowed to drive into an outer perimeter after telling authorities he was a journalist. At a checkpoint outside an internal perimeter, Bianco said deputies were doing more thorough checks and noticed “irregularities” from Miller and his car that sparked further investigation. This is when they discovered the illegal forms of identification and firearms and arrested Miller. During the press conference, Bianco repeated that an investigation into an assassination attempt would be at the federal level, not state: “If they were ever able to prove it was an assassination attempt — and I’m not saying they’re going to be able to — anything like that would be federal.” The Sheriff also noted that he was in attendance at the Coachella rally with his family, in VIP seating. Trump gave Bianco a shout-out during the rally. Bianco also addressed questions about Miller, who told other reporters after being released that he was shocked to be arrested and that he supports Trump. “I couldn’t care less what political party he belongs to,” Bianco said. “I honestly think that’s the stupidest thing in the world that we have to label something and we’re labeling this as politics. He was a lunatic.”