Thursday, July 09, 2026

Exclusive: Brussels puts trade ban with Israeli settlements on the table

By Mared Gwyn Jones & Maïa de la Baume & Luca Bertuzzi

Published on 09/07/2026 - EURONEWS

The EU executive has laid out several options to further restrict EU imports of goods produced in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, after a majority of EU foreign ministers called for clarifying what restrictive trade measures could be taken during a meeting in June.

Brussels has proposed fully or partially banning imports of goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements, alongside additional options to further restrict EU trade with settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, according to diplomatic sources.

The proposals come after a majority of member states urged the EU executive to propose tighter trading restrictions in response to the continued expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank.

An "options paper" circulated by the European Commission to EU member states on Wednesday, and seen by Euronews, outlines three measures to further tighten restrictions on imports of goods produced in Israeli settlements, which are already excluded from preferential EU tariff treatment.

They include a full or partial ban on the import of settlement-made products but also stricter export licenses, as well as prohibitive tariffs. EU ambassadors are expected to provide their initial feedback in a closed-door meeting in Brussels on Friday before EU foreign ministers gather for further discussions on Monday.

However, the paper only outlines options, not actual proposals, and no formal decision is expected on this matter next week. The next formal Foreign Affairs Council is only expected in October, which for some member states will further delay the measures.

"The Commission is quite clearly buying time, but there is also no consensus within the Council," an EU diplomat told Euronews under the condition of anonymity, adding that, while they did not see the initiative as ideal, maybe it set the ball in motion.

Israeli settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights are considered illegal under international law.

The first option would require companies importing goods from Israeli settlements to apply for an export license, which was among the solutions pitched by the French and Swedish governments in a joint letter to the European Commission in April.

Yet the Commission’s options paper warns that such a system remains vulnerable to circumvention.

Recent investigations have found that exporters in Israeli settlements continue to sell their goods in European markets free of tariffs despite existing restrictions, using methods such as mislabeling and mixing of settlement goods with products made inside Israel.

Secondly, the Commission has proposed introducing higher tariffs to make the import of goods from settlements prohibitively expensive, but acknowledges that this option is also vulnerable to circumvention methods.

The third option is a full or partial ban on imports from illegal settlements, which would require customs officers in national authorities to identify goods from Israeli settlements at the EU borders.

The paper leaves open the issue of the legal basis, whether it should be commercial policy, on which a qualified majority suffices, or the common foreign and security policy, which requires unanimity.

The Council legal services, the influential legal advisory branch of the institution, told EU countries in an oral opinion that using the commercial policy legal basis should be possible, depending on the details of the proposal.

By contrast, the Commission reiterated in its paper that it considers the foreign policy legal basis is required, which would make any proposals extremely difficult to pass.

Euronews understands that at least 20 member states called on the Commission to outline the options available to further restrict settlement trade when foreign ministers gathered for talks in Luxembourg in June.

Political momentum behind the move has increased since France and Sweden urged the Commission to put forward a proposal in April, citing the 2024 International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion on the illegality of the Israeli settlements.

Several UN resolutions spanning from the late 1970s to today also state that settlement activity in the Palestinian territories is illegal.

By contrast, the Israeli government rejects the designation of those settlements as illegal, classifying them as "temporary sites."

Speaking to Euronews in May, France’s deputy minister for foreign trade, Nicolas Forissier, said that calling for tighter restrictions was “"not an aggressive position”. “In terms of [international] law and human rights, it's normal that we say that,” he added.

Israel has recently introduced measures aimed at strengthening its control over the West Bank and East Jerusalem in areas including property law, planning and licensing. Those moves appear to contravene key agreements that were signed under the Oslo peace agreement in 1993.

More ‘deadly’ heat is on the way: Can Europe’s waterways cool us down and replace air con?

By Liam Gilliver

Published on 08/07/2026 EURONEWS

“District cooling offers clear benefits for cities aiming to safeguard public health and cut emissions.”

Europe’s next heatwave is already building over the Atlantic, as the World Health Organization (WHO) warns that more “deadly weeks may still lie ahead”.

Spain’s weather agency AMET has declared a top level red heat alert in three eastern regions, warning that temperatures could reach a sweltering 42C this week. The Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia regions are predicted to be among the worst hit as the mercury rises.

Portugal and France are also bracing for temperatures to exceed 40C – with forecasts predicting more ‘tropical nights’. This is where the temperature never drops below 20C in a 24-hour period, leading many to sleep badly.

The looming heatwave comes as wildfires ravage huge parts of Europe, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes and prompting officials to ban spectators from a stage of the Tour de France race.

Europe’s warming climate – which is conclusively caused by the persistent burning of fossil fuels – has resulted in calls for the continent to embrace air conditioning. Even the UK, which is known for its dreary weather, has been told by the independent Climate Change Committee that 22 per cent of the country’s buildings will need active cooling in a future with 2°C warming.

But an innovative solution is gaining ground: Europe’s waterways could help cool down cities and replace the need for individual air conditioning as part of the EU’s innovative ‘Cities Refresh’ campaign.

Can Europe cool itself down sustainably?

While air conditioning has been proven to save lives during periods of extreme heat, the EU says it is not a “long-term solution”.

This is because air con systems are energy-intensive, often straining Europe’s already stretched grid and increasing the risks of blackouts, and drive-up greenhouse gas emissions.

Air con also contributes to the urban heat island effect – which is where hot air that gets dumped outside gets trapped in a city’s infrastructure, such as concrete and asphalt, where it is later released and drives up temperatures.

A solution to this is district cooling: where a central facility produces chilled water which is then distributed to local networks through an underground system.

“District cooling offers clear benefits for cities aiming to safeguard public health and cut emissions,” the European Commission states.

“It provides efficient cooling for all building types, uses less energy than individual air conditioning, and can be powered by local, low-carbon sources such as seat or river water, geothermal energy or waste heat.”

Under the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), cities with more than 45,000 inhabitants are now required to develop local heating and cooling plans. As a result, many urban regions are opting for district cooling infrastructure which increased by more than three per cent in 2023.

Marseille’s ‘sea-side detox’

Marseille is making the most of the Mediterranean by leveraging seawater to provide thermal energy for both cooling and heating.

There are already two networks (called Massileo and Thassalia) combining 4.4 km of pipes that connect seawater energy to heat pumps in urban districts, which then provide buildings with heat, cool air, and hot water.

These networks have resulted in an 80 per cent decrease in CO2 emissions in energy production compared to fossil fuels.

Following the boom in energy-intensive AI data centres, Marseille is now exploring how the waste produced from these sites could be recovered to heat residential homes and buildings in the colder months.

Cooling Paris with the Seine

The Fraîcheur de Paris network is one of Europe’s largest district cooling systems, and uses 120km of underground pipes to transport cold water from the Seine to provide low-carbon cooling for approximately 850 buildings, including the Louvre.

Instead of individual air conditioning units, buildings that benefit from the network use a heat exchanger. The building’s internal cooling system transfers its heat to the network’s cold water, which is then sent back to a specialised plant to be rechilled.

According to the bloc, it delivers over 100 per cent energy efficiency, reduces electricity consumption by 35 per cent, cuts refrigerant emissions by 90 per cent, lowers chemical use by 80 per cent, and decreases CO₂ emissions by 50 per cent.

Barcelona tackles the urban heat island effect

Spain already has one of the world’s biggest networks of climate shelters to help protect people from extreme heat. This is where public buildings like libraries and museums offer free water and collective cooling during heatwaves – reducing the need for individual air con and keeping vulnerable communities out of deadly temperatures.

Underground, Barcelona is also home to one of Southern Europe’s largest thermal energy distribution systems.

The network consists of four parallel pipes, two for hot water (supply at 90ºC and return at 60ºC) and two for cold water (supply at 5.5ºC and return at 14ºC), which transport energy from three production plants (one of which is cooled using seawater) to substations or energy exchange points in the customers' buildings.

This means it can be used to heat or cool buildings. So far, the network is connected to 192 buildings and has reduced fossil energy consumption by 96 per cent, according to Districlima, the network’s owner.

Vienna’s ‘efficient energy loop’

Over in Austria, a new district cooling centre at the MedUni campus uses chillers powered by electricity and district heating to produce cold water for cooling.

This system captures excess indoor heat using a heat pump, which is then repurposed for winter heating, creating what the bloc describes as a “seasonally efficient energy loop”.

Compared to conventional air conditioning systems, the district cooling centre at the MedUni Campus Mariannengasse in Vienna saves 1,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.

"From here, we will connect the district cooling network around Vienna's city centre with the AKH and the Spittelau district cooling centre,” says Michael Strebl, CEO of Wien Energie, the firm behind the network.

“Summers are getting hotter and the demand for climate-friendly cooling is growing. That is why we have been continuously expanding district cooling since 2007. We will invest a total of €90 million here by 2030."

EU remains main export market for Moldova’s pro-Russian separatist Transnistria

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By bne IntelliNews July 9, 2026

The European Union remained the main export destination for companies in Moldova's separatist Transnistria region in the first half of 2026, accounting for nearly 77% of the region's exports, according to Moldova's Reintegration Bureau cited by Newsmaker.md.

Between January and June, 76.9% of Transnistria's exports were shipped to EU member states, virtually unchanged from the same period a year earlier, the bureau said.

The EU also supplied 41.5% of the region's imports during the period, underlining the bloc's importance as both an export market and a source of goods for businesses operating in the breakaway territory.

Romania, Italy and Slovakia were the largest export destinations for companies from Transnistria, while Ukraine, the European Union and China were the region's main sources of imports.

The Reintegration Bureau said the figures demonstrate the region's continued economic integration with the European market despite its unresolved political status.

"These data confirm the Transnistrian region's strong commitment to the EU trade space, which directly contributes to the country's economic reintegration. This approach brings both banks of the Dniester closer together economically, as access to the European market requires companies in the region to comply with uniform rules, procedures, documents and standards in force throughout Moldova," the bureau said.

The trade data come as the Moldovan government moves to further align the separatist region with the country's fiscal framework. The Ministry of Finance has proposed requiring businesses in Transnistria to pay VAT and excise duties on selected imported goods from August 1, 2026, with the draft legislation currently under public consultation.

The measure is part of a broader reform aimed at gradually eliminating Transnistria's preferential tax regime and integrating the region into Moldova's national tax and customs system by 2030.

Macron says Syria must not be destabilised after bombs wound 18

French President Emmanuel Macron warned on Tuesday that Syria must not be destabilised after twin bomb attacks near the Damascus hotel where he spent the night, during a landmark state visit to a country emerging from years of civil war.

Issued on: 08/07/2026 - RFI

Emergency personnel work as smoke and fire rise at the site where explosive devices blew up near a hotel where French President Emmanuel Macron was meant to be staying, in Damascus, Syria, in this screengrab obtained from a video, July 7, 2026. © 路透社图片

The attacks cast a shadow over the first trip of a European Union head of state since Bashar al-Assad was toppled in late 2024, as President Ahmed al-Sharaa tries to rebuild the country's image after more than a decade of conflict.

The two leaders vowed to step up economic and diplomatic ties with new ambassadors to be installed in each country.

In a joint press conference with his Syrian counterpart, Macron said we must "not let ourselves be destabilised" by such attacks, before which he had already left for the presidential palace in the heart of the Syrian capital, and reiterated Paris' support for the country.

Sharaa saluted Macron's "courage" for carrying on with his visit despite the bombings.

France's President Emmanuel Macron and Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa shake hands on the day they meet in Damascus, Syria, on 7 July, 2026. REUTERS - Mahmoud Hassano

A team of French press agency AFP saw Macron arrive for a meeting with Sharaa, while other journalists heard at least one blast echo through Damascus before seeing a plume of smoke rising near the hotel, where security forces closed a road and ambulances rushed to the scene.

Syria's interior ministry said one bomb had been placed inside a car parked on the side of a road, while the second was planted in a garbage container.

It said they exploded "while preparations were underway" to dismantle them.

Syria state media said the blasts wounded 18 people, including four police officers.

An AFP photographer near Syria's tourism ministry, opposite the hotel, saw windows damaged by one of the explosions, amid a heavy security presence.
Economic forum

France's Elysee Palace said Macron would continue his trip until his expected departure on Tuesday evening, when he travels to Ankara for a NATO summit and holds talks there the following day with Turkey's president.

The explosions are the second in the Syrian capital since Thursday, when 10 people were killed in a bombing in a Damascus cafe.

The French president had postponed announcing the date of his visit until his plane landed on Monday, for security reasons.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said that Macron's visit marked a "pivotal point" in the two countries' relations, vowing to continue to "confront terrorism in all its forms".

Sharaa also announced "our agreement to begin the process of exchanging resident ambassadors between Damascus and Paris as soon as possible, signalling the return of diplomatic relations to their normal state".

The blasts came moments before Syrian state television announced Macron's arrival at the palace.

The visit included an economic forum during which the two sides signed 15 bilateral agreements in several sectors, including civil aviation, health, banking, water infrastructure and roads, although French investors remain cautious about the situation.

"After the Strait of Hormuz crisis, the world realises the value of a safe and stable corridor," Sharaa said at the forum.

"Here the importance is highlighted of the geography of Syria, which today has regained its vital role as an indispensable link in the global corridors market."

Macron was accompanied by several economic players including Rodolphe Saade, chief executive of maritime transport giant CMA CGM, and TotalEnergies head Patrick Pouyanne.

Before the Damascus blasts, Pouyanne said that "the security situation still doesn't allow us to operate, but I think it is a positive initiative to come here, to Damascus".

TotalEnergies to discuss Syria offshore exploration, still wary of insecurity

TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné said security concerns still rule out a return to onshore oil operations, but confirmed the French company is rebuilding its Iraq-Syria oil transit routes.

Issued on: 08/07/2026 - RFI

France's President Emmanuel Macron and Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa shake hands on the day they meet in Damascus, Syria, on 7 July, 2026. REUTERS - Mahmoud Hassano

Pouyanné, said on Tuesday that he would discuss signing an offshore exploration contract with Syrian officials, but added that lingering insecurity meant a return to onshore oil activities was still not a viable option.

The CEO was accompanying French President Emmanuel Macron on his visit to the country as part of a business delegation, but the meetings were overshadowed by bomb attacks in the capital Damascus on Tuesday.

Prior to pulling out of Syria in 2011 owing to EU sanctions, Total produced around 30,000 barrels of oil per day in the country's east, as well as some gas.

"Clearly the security situation still does not allow us to work here today," Pouyanné told journalists in Damascus.

"Today the sector is in poor condition. Various groups continued producing during the conflict, but in a completely irregular way. Frankly, Syria is not a major oil story," he said.

Pouyanné was speaking shortly before the bomb attacks. A Total press representative declined to comment on whether his schedule had been affected by the incident.

The blasts wounded 18 people near the Four Seasons hotel, where Macron had spent the night. Macron, whose motorcade had left the hotel shortly before the blasts, did not hear the explosions. He pressed ahead with his visit, meeting President Ahmed al-Sharaa at the presidential palace.

Offshore exploration

Total signed a memorandum of understanding with the Syrian Petroleum Company in May to explore an offshore block in the Mediterranean.

"Syria's offshore area has never really been explored historically, so we have partnered with other companies to look into it. We will discuss it today with our Syrian counterparts to see whether we can move towards a contract," Pouyanné said.

TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne on 23 March, 2026.

REUTERS - Danielle Villasana

"Obviously, we'd rather find oil than gas, but in the eastern Mediterranean most discoveries so far, in Cyprus and Israel, for example, have been gas," he added.

Total has also recently spoken about the need to build pipelines through Syria to transport oil from Iraq as an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz in the wake of the US-Israeli war with Iran.

Pouyanne reiterated on Tuesday that projects to rebuild oil transit routes between Iraq and Syria, such as the Kirkuk-Baniyas pipeline, were the priority.

No project site visits were planned for Total during the trip, the CEO said, because the terrain was not safe enough to send teams in.

"We need to give the government time to establish control over the country, we also have to be realistic with a country emerging from 15 years of civil war. We need patience, this will be part of our discussions," he said.
Looking to rebuild

France and Syria will begin restoring €51 million in confiscated Rifaat al-Assad assets, the Elysée said.

Macron said France was working to redefine its security and military cooperation with Syria, including possible support from French special forces in the fight against Islamic State, which has claimed several attacks on Syrian forces this year.

Posting on the social network X shortly after the blasts, Macron said his visit was continuing and praised the "dignity, courage and determination" of the Syrians he had met.

Rebuilding Aleppo brick by brick

"We are not naive about the risks, but they are being managed," Macron

said later in a news conference with Sharaa. "Certain groups" sought to prevent "Syria's full and complete reintegration into the international community", he added.

Macron led calls for the lifting of Western sanctions on Syria last year, and said France was ready to help rebuild Syria's economy and banking sector.

The Elysee said the logistics company CMA CGM signed a partnership deal with Syria, including air cargo freight handling at Damascus airport, and that France and Syria would start a process to restore to Syria €51 million of assets confiscated from the late Rifaat al-Assad, Bashar's uncle.

China weaponises port inspections to punish Panama over ports ruling

Strip the sovereignty rhetoric from Washington and Beijing, and what remains is a resource fight over who controls the infrastructure bookending the world's most valuable shortcut / bne IntelliNews

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By Alek Buttermann July 8, 2026

Panama's top maritime officials land in Beijing on July 16 with a mandate that looks technical and is anything but. Officially, Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) administrator Luis Roquebert leads a delegation to renew a bilateral shipping treaty and discuss inspection protocols. In reality, Panama is going to beg its way out of a blockade dressed up as bureaucracy, one that has already driven over 200 vessels off its flag.

The case

Strip away the geopolitics and the underlying dispute is simple. Since 1997, Panama Ports Company, a subsidiary of Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison, has run Balboa and Cristóbal, the container terminals sitting at the Pacific and Atlantic mouths of the Canal. These are not the waterway itself, which Panama has operated independently since 1999, but they are the chokepoints on either side of it: whoever runs them controls the first and last mile for a large share of the roughly 14,000 vessels transiting the canal each year.

In 2021, that concession was quietly extended for another 25 years, to 2047, without competitive bidding. In January, following an audit which found Panama had collected barely a third of what it was owed under the contract, the Supreme Court ruled the 1997 concession law and its 2021 extension unconstitutional. The court's core finding: the deal was never put out to public tender, a breach of Article 266 of the constitution, and its terms caused direct harm to the public interest. Hutchison lost both ports. It has since filed an international arbitration seeking more than $2bn in damages.

Washington's fingerprints all over

The ruling did not land in a vacuum. A year earlier, after Trump accused China of "running the Panama Canal," Hutchison struck a $22.8bn deal to sell its non-Chinese port empire, Balboa and Cristóbal included, to a consortium led by BlackRock and MSC's Terminal Investment Limited. Beijing's antitrust regulator froze the sale as capitulation to American pressure, and Hutchison spent 2025 trying to appease both capitals by inviting Chinese state-owned COSCO Shipping in as a co-investor.

The court's ruling landed in the middle of that stalemate, and the White House did not hide its satisfaction, touting it as a decisive blow against Chinese-linked control of the canal's flanks. Panama then handed interim operations to Maersk and MSC's TiL, the exact consortium that Trump's pressure had assembled a year earlier. Panama's court may have ruled on solid procedural grounds. Yet coincidentally, it also delivered Washington the outcome it had spent a year manufacturing, which makes Panama's insistence on pure judicial independence a harder sell than officials in Panama City want to admit.

China's punishment campaign is real

None of that, however, legitimises what Beijing did next. China weaponised Port State Control (PSC) the way only a dominant port authority can: quietly, deniably, devastatingly. Tokyo MOU records show detentions of Panama-flagged vessels at Chinese ports climbing from 20 in February to 92 in March, 135 in April, and a peak of 140 in May, easing only to 64 in June as diplomatic heat rose. COSCO suspended its own Balboa service in solidarity. The message needed no press release: cross a Chinese state-linked firm, and Beijing makes your flag radioactive.

It has worked. Panama's open registry, its single greatest commercial asset at 8,638 vessels and 233.2mn tonnes representing the world's largest merchant fleet, is now its greatest vulnerability, and shipowners have already voted with their re-flagging.

Beijing then overplayed its hand in public. At the Organisation of American States (OAS) General Assembly in late June, China's permanent observer Xie Feng told Panama to "correct its errors," a demand for a democracy to overrule its own top court that foreign minister Javier Martínez-Acha threw back hard by revealing Chinese officials had asked him directly, more than once, to intervene in the ruling. US ambassador Kevin Cabrera called Beijing's denial of any link between the detentions and the ruling an outright lie.

US counterweight is self-interest wearing a rule-of-law mask

Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) Chairman Laura DiBella's July 7 statement escalated things further, warning that China's "retaliatory and unjustified" inspections could trigger a US investigation and corrective measures against Chinese-controlled carriers. The legal hook is genuine. So is the self-interest: Washington spent a year engineering Hutchison's exit and will not now watch Beijing claw the outcome back through customs paperwork. Trump's claim that "China's trying to take over the Panama Canal" conflates commercial terminal operators with sovereignty over the waterway itself, a narrative his administration has found useful since it first floated retaking the canal outright.

Peel back the sovereignty rhetoric from both capitals, and what remains is a resource fight over who controls the infrastructure bookending the world's most valuable shortcut. China is punishing Panama for a ruling Washington did much to engineer. The White House is defending a rule-of-law outcome it spent a year manufacturing for its own strategic ends. Panama, caught in the middle, dispatches a technical delegation to Beijing and hopes Roquebert can squeeze out a renewal of the treaty, prolonging a ceasefire neither superpower has much incentive to make permanent.

HRW: German Government Is Curbing Freedom Of Information Act

July 9, 2026
By Eurasia Review

Key Takeaways

Germany Plans Major Rollback of Transparency — The government intends to amend the Freedom of Information Act by requiring proof of “legitimate interest,” excluding non-EU citizens and organizations, removing fee caps, and allowing routine redactions of officials’ names.

Changes Would Severely Undermine Accountability — The amendments would make it much harder for journalists, civil society, and the public to access government records, hindering oversight and increasing the risk of corruption and abuse of power.

Moves Violate Human Rights Standards — Restricting access to information breaches Germany’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, threatening democracy and public trust.

The German government should abandon its plans to gut Germany’s Freedom of Information Act, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday. The proposed amendments will threaten core human rights essential to transparency and public participation in a democracy based on the rule of law.

On July 2, 2026, the coalition committee of the German government, comprised of the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD), decided to significantly amend Germany’s Freedom of Information Act. The changes will severely restrict the ability of the public, including civil society and journalists, to obtain public records that relate to the actions of the government and authorities.

“The German government seems to perceive transparency and freedom of information as threats and an administrative burden instead of essential safeguards in a democracy,” said Almaz Teffera, senior Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Restricting access to public records denies everyone basic information, makes it harder to hold the government and authorities to account, and risks increasing public distrust in their actions.”

The government seeks to adopt five key amendments to Germany’s Freedom of Information Act:People will have to prove a “legitimate interest” to obtain official information, giving authorities broad discretion to reject information requests and deter people from seeking information of public concern. The government provided no further details on what would constitute a “legitimate interest.”
Non-EU citizens who do not live in Germany would not be able to obtain public records, regardless of whether they may be able to prove a legitimate interest.
Only individuals would have access to public records, preventing civil society organizations like Human Rights Watch or media organizations from making requests.
The government would remove the cap, currently at €500, on fees for information requests, which risks creating financially prohibitive barriers, deterring and excluding people from access.

The government would allow routine redactions of names of public officials, which would obscure individual responsibility for government actions.

FragDenStaat, a German civil society platform for freedom of information, called the government’s plans “the most serious attack on state transparency in the history of the Federal Republic [of Germany].” They suggest that removing the cap could result in fees of thousands of euros.

Reporters Without Borders and German journalist networks have criticized the government’s plans as barriers to information for journalists and attempts to limit the media’s oversight, since they would make it significantly more difficult for journalists to do their jobs of monitoring the actions of politicians and the authorities.

The government’s plans also drew criticism from state-level independent watchdogs like Berlin’s commissioner for freedom of information, Meike Kamp, who said that “Now more than ever, the state and its authorities should have an interest in ensuring that their actions can be reviewed and understood by the public” to create trust and strengthen democracy.

Currently, anyone can request access to government documents and thus monitor the actions of authorities and the government. Civil society and media investigations using information requests based on the act have exposed numerous political and corruption scandals in the past, including some that involve allegations linked to officials of the current government who are now pushing for the amendments.

In its coalition agreement adopted last year, the government set out a commitment to reform the Freedom of Information Act to provide “added value for citizens and the administration.” However, the government’s plans to limit freedom of information in Germany would breach not just its own commitment but also international and European human rights law, Human Rights Watch said.

Germany is bound by international and regional human rights standards that protect the right to seek and receive information as part of the right to freedom of expression, including the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The European Court of Human Rights has recognized that access to information is especially important for journalists, civil society organizations, and other public watchdogs, whose ability to inform public debate depends on obtaining relevant public records. Restrictions on access must be lawful, necessary, and proportionate to a legitimate aim. Blanket exclusions, redactions of government officials’ names, and arbitrary eligibility rules are inconsistent with a transparent government and risk chilling journalism and civic participation, key pillars of a functioning democracy.

“Political transparency and public scrutiny do not have an off switch when it gets uncomfortable for the government,” Teffera said. “The German government should reverse course on this dangerous pursuit to gut Germany’s Freedom of Information Act and preserve meaningful access to official records for individuals and organizations alike.”

Kenya journalist escapes abduction after criticism of president, says CPJ

The Committee to Protect Journalists has called for an investigation into the attempted kidnapping of a senior journalist in Kenya, which followed angry criticism of his newspaper by President William Ruto.

Issued on: 08/07/2026 - RFI

A Kenyan reads national daily newspaper The Standard, with a headline reporting the election of Kenya's 5th President elect William Ruto, in Eldoret, in August 2022. AFP - SIMON MAINA

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called late on Monday on Kenyan authorities to investigate the attempt by heavily armed men to snatch The Standard Group associate editor Alex Kiprotich from his car, and to ensure those behind the incident are brought to justice.

The incident happened days after the president criticised the media house.

"The attempt to forcibly disappear Alex Kiprotich, three days after President William Ruto railed against The Standard Group, reflects the growing dangers that journalists face in Kenya, despite the president's earlier promise to allow the press to work freely," said CPJ Africa director Angela Quintal.

"Kenyan authorities must respect the democratic role of the media in commenting on the government's achievements and shortcomings ahead of next year's elections and bring an end to this horrific trend of enforced disappearances," she added.

Criticism and threats

On 27 June, Kiprotich was driving to work in the central city of Nakuru when a car intercepted him and three men in plain clothes, armed with AK-47 assault rifles, stepped out, the journalist told CPJ.

Kiprotich said his assailants were in a Toyota Probox, a car that has been used to seize numerous activists in Kenya, which investigations by The Standard Group found was owned by the police's Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau (CRIB).

One assailant opened the passenger door to check that Kiprotich was alone and then walked towards the driver's side. Kiprotich said he locked all the doors and sped away.

"As the editor responsible for The Standard's content, I knew I had become a target," said Kiprotich, adding that he and a witness gave statements at the local police station.

Press freedom at lowest level in 25 years, warns Reporters Without Borders

On 24 June, Ruto criticised The Standard Group, one of Kenya's largest media houses, in a post on X addressed to "GMoi" – in reference to politician Gideon Moi, the son of late former President Daniel arap Moi, whose family are majority shareholders in The Standard Group.

Ruto said the group was producing "5 days a week EXTORTIONIST propaganda HEADLINES on me & my administration's transformative track record".

Political implications

The two politicians are heading rival parties ahead of August 2027 elections in which Ruto is likely to seek a second term.

The Standard Group has been critical of Ruto's administration, including a KTN News series this month called "The Gallery of Ruto's Lies."

When Ruto won the 2022 election, he said he believed in media freedom and encouraged journalists "to criticise us when we go wrong".

But rights groups have reported dozens of abductions of government critics in Kenya in recent years.

Forcible disappearances of government critics have soared in Kenya in recent years, including of Tanzanian journalist Maria Sarungi Tsehai in 2025.

Although a Kenyan court ruled that police unlawfully killed Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif in 2022, no one has been held to account.

In response to CPJ's question as to whether the police were involved in the incident, police spokesperson Muchiri Nyaga said via messaging app: "Police and abduction in the same line? You need to get your facts right."

Nyaga did not respond to CPJ's request for comment on the letter from Kiprotich's lawyer to the police, which included the names of the officers involved in the 27 June incident.

World Cup sparks wave of racist misinformation online

By James Thomas

Published on 09/07/2026 - EURONEWS

False claims and AI-generated videos with racist overtones have circulated during the FIFA World Cup alongside genuine incidents of racism and xenophobia.

The FIFA World Cup quarter-finals are about to begin, and as the pressure on each team ramps up, so too has the misinformation surrounding the tournament.

AI-generated images, false claims and fake news reports have all spread online over the past couple of weeks, many with racist overtones aimed at European teams that have already been knocked out of the competition.

For example, one TikTok video allegedly shows the Netherlands' manager, Ronald Koeman, launching into a racist rant after Morocco knocked his team out on penalties on 30 June.

The clip amassed more than three million views and tens of thousands of shares and likes, but, it was posted by an account that clearly labels itself as an "AI football account". The video itself also contains a tag saying it was artificially generated.

Elsewhere, posts circulated online claiming that German fans had started a petition to ban African and Muslim players from their national team after Germany was knocked out by Paraguay on 29 June, also in a penalty shootout.

The posts cite German news outlet Deutsche Welle as the source of the story, and take particular aim at Jonathan Tah, the centre-back who missed the decisive penalty that sent Germany out of the cup.

However, there is no evidence that such a petition exists, and there is no mention of it anywhere on Deutsche Welle's platforms.

Nevertheless, fabricated reports exploiting tensions at the World Cup sit alongside genuine racist incidents that have attracted widespread condemnation.

Perhaps the most high-profile to have emerged is the spat between French football star Kylian Mbappé and Paraguayan senator Celeste Amarilla.

The senator sparked outrage after posting a tirade against Mbappé on X following France's victory over Paraguay on 4 July.

She falsely claimed that he was a "colonised Cameroonian" trying to pass himself off as French. Mbappé responded that Amarilla was a "despicable woman" who did not represent Paraguay.

Paraguay's Ministry of Foreign Affairs itself posted on X that it rejected Amarilla's statements and that it was committed to human rights and the fight against racism and discrimination.

Amarilla later posted an open letter to Mbappé online, in which she partly doubled down on her attack against the footballer, but also said that she regretted insulting him and that she had deleted the post. However, as of the time of publishing, the post is still visible on her X account.

She said she was angered by his "arrogance and contempt" and that she was hurt by his "refusal to shake hands with our goalkeeper," which occurred at the end of the tense and heated match between France and Paraguay, which saw Les Bleus win 1-0.

The game was marred by controversy due to repeated rough tackles, scuffles between players and an apparent attempt by Paraguay to scuff the penalty spot before Mbappé scored the winner. Social media users and football pundits alike branded Paraguay's style of play as "dirty" and unsportsmanlike.

Others have also weighed in on the war of words between Mbappé and Amarilla: UN Human Rights said on X that the senator's remarks were "despicable" and "regrettably not isolated", and Spanish club Real Madrid, which Mbappé plays for, said it expressed its "strongest condemnation of the deplorable racist and xenophobic remarks".

President Emmanuel Macron also posted his support for Mbappé, touting the values of "dignity, respect and fraternity" in the face of racism.

French prosecutors have since launched an investigation into aggravated public insult and incitement to hatred or violence over the matter, after the national unit for combating online hate received a complaint from the French Football Federation.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment