1. 🇧🇪 BELGIUM CAN’T KEEP ITS OWN CAPITAL SAFE

The U.S. State Department raised its travel advisory for Belgium to Level 2 on July 23rd, urging American citizens to “exercise increased caution” due to crime, civil unrest, and even terrorism. The advisory warns that “petty crime is common, particularly in tourist areas,” including purse snatching and pickpocketing, and instructs travelers to avoid demonstrations, monitor local media, and stay on guard at banks and ATMs.

Brussels is home of the European Commission, the EU Parliament, and the entire bureaucratic apparatus that lectures the world on governance and security, and now American tourists are officially advised to watch their backs in the very city where EU officials set policy for 450 million people.

This past June, protests against education reforms devolved into riots, with e-scooters set ablaze and police deploying tear gas in the streets.

If EU technocrats can’t maintain order in their own capital, what exactly are they managing the rest of Europe for?

2. 🇩🇪 GERMANY BET THE HOUSE ON CHINA AND LOST

For decades, China was the golden goose for German automakers. Now it’s an albatross. China’s own carmakers have surpassed Volkswagen, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz in electric vehicle technology while offering lower prices in the world’s largest car market, which itself contracted by a fifth this year, forcing German brands into a brutal fight for survival they are already losing.

The fallout is staggering. BMW announced it is cutting 8,000 jobs in Germany by the end of 2027. Volkswagen is in negotiations to slash 100,000 jobs and shutter factories. Mercedes-Benz is demanding workers log a full 40-hour week for the same 35-hour pay. Meanwhile, Chinese car sales in the EU surged 63% in the first half of 2026, meaning China now sells more cars in Europe than Germany sells in China.

But the crisis didn’t happen overnight, and while Germany was wrong to get in bed with China in the first place… the EU shares blame. For years, Brussels pushed aggressive climate regulations that forced automakers to pivot to electric vehicles on a tight government-mandated timeline, regardless of whether the market was ready. Now the EU is even trying to push that overregulation agenda onto American companies with the CSDDD and CSRD.

The costly, rushed transition drained resources and left German brands flat-footed against Chinese EV makers who had a years-long head start and government subsidies of their own.

Bureaucratic caution in Brussels effectively handed Chinese automakers a longstanding German industry.

🇪🇺 BRUSSELS’ $1 BILLION GOOGLE FINE DRAWS BACKLASH IN THE US

The European Commission’s $1 billion fine on Google last week, the largest ever levied under the Digital Markets Act, has produced an emphatic response across the American policy and media landscape, which has both condemned the European Union’s action and backed President Trump’s retaliatory stance.

Several American experts have spoken out on the matter. The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation characterized the move as “further confirmation that the DMA functions less as a competition tool than as an extractive mechanism,” while an economic policy expert pointed out that “every DMA noncompliance penalty so far,” such as the penalty handed down to Google, has fallen on an American company.

Along with criticism from former Trump officials, this reflects a consensus within the United States that crosses traditional partisan and institutional divides, and that Brussels cannot easily dismiss.

President Trump’s decision to launch a Section 301 investigation, along with other further retaliatory steps, also drew widespread support. Paul McCarthy at the Heritage Foundation, lauded President Trump’s launching of a 301 investigation as “the right call,” while also recognizing the Administration for exposing the DMA for what it is: “a direct challenge to American economic sovereignty.” Another analyst further backed the Trump administration for being “firm in standing up for U.S. trade interests” while also noting the Administration “would be justified in responding forcefully to European policies that disadvantage trusted American companies.”

This spectrum of critical voices clearly validates the Trump Administration’s strategy, and underscores the fact that, with America as united as ever in its opposition to the EU’s regulation, now is the right time to keep the EU under sustained pressure.