This week’s EU news (20-27 July) – The EU is strengthening security in online marketplaces like AliExpress, and ensuring fair competition regarding search engines and apps stores. The European Commission is also preparing support for the care sector in Europe, while a new package of Sanctions against Russia was adopted. Finally, The EU Civil Protection Mechanism has been activated to help the fight against wildfires in Spain and France.
#EUNews#google#AliEpxress#Russia#Sanctions#Wildfires#firefighters
There is no mechanism within international law that allows countries to charge ships wishing to cross the Strait of Hormuz, the Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) says. ‘There’s no imposition of charges. It’s not a mechanism that introduces any charges or fees. And that is something that has to be very clear,’ says Arsenio Dominguez.
The EU is changing how Big Tech operates in the digital economy, from data protection and online privacy to the Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act, and AI Act. Learn how new EU rules limit what tech companies can do with your data, ban unfair app store practices, ban social scoring and biometric surveillance, and make online shopping and crypto safer for consumers. Discover how the EU protects your rights in the digital economy.
00:00 Intro
00:45 EU & Digital Economy
02:03 DMA & DSA
03:07 Fair taxation
03:35 Why does this matter to you?
04:03 Outro
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Source: United Kingdom UK House of Lords (video statements)
Members discussed the potential impact of a visitor levy on the cost of UK holidays, debating its effects on families, tourism businesses and local economies.
Read a transcript of this question https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2026-07-21/debates/691A6F81-2FF0-48C2-BC82-64ACC89F4F41/DomesticTravelAndHolidaysVisitorLevy
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Press Conference by Karla Quintana, Head of the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic on missing people.
“We have the names of around a little bit more than 600 cases. Some of them we know for sure are alive, and some of them have already gotten back to their families,” the head of the UN’s Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria (IIMP) said.
ASG and IIMP’s chief, Karla Quintana, however emphasized while briefing reporters in New York, that that hundreds of thousands of Syrian families are still waiting for concrete answers about their missing loved ones, more than a year and a half after the fall of the Assad regime. “Over the past year we have been implementing our mandate. We have already been delivering news and information to families. We are building a system that is enabling us in analyzing information that is enabling us to give, every time, more information to families in Syria and abroad. We have been working not only in Syria, but in other countries with the diaspora: in Türkiye, Lebanon, Jordan, and Germany,” Quintana said.
Quintana also said the joy that followed the collapse of the Syrian government on 8 December 2024 was not shared by all families, many of whom are still searching for answers. “Those people are still waiting for answers, and those people are still missing. So, the answers are there waiting, can only be built with information flow, again, scientific methodologies directed to finding the missing, political will at all levels, and trust. And we know this from comparative experience,” she said.
The IIMP chief added that her office has so far identified more than 600 cases involving missing children, though she cautioned against raising expectations while investigations continue. “We have to be very cautious about how we manage the expectations with the families of the missing. When we talk about the concept of ‘the missing,’ this is very broad. So, we’re not only talking about forced disappearances and the modus operandi where we know that many of the persons who were in prisons are dead — that’s just the information we have now, but we cannot affirm that 100 per cent. And we also know that there might be some trafficking, so that’s a possibility as well. We cannot, again, raise expectations until we have information,” Quintana said.
She noted that while access to Syria has improved under the new authorities, the IIMP still lacks a permanent office in the country, something she has raised with the General Assembly. “So hopefully we can have an office in Syria, which will enable us to better implement our mandate, build trust with families, with Syrian authorities, and, in the end, be able to give more answers to families,” she said.
Remarks by António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, on strengthening the mechanisms for the peaceful settlement of disputes: follow-up to Security Council resolution 2788 (2025).
Guterres told the Security Council that the situation in the Middle East “is getting out of control” and “teetering on the edge of unimaginable,” but stressed that “geopolitical divisions are not a reason for inaction or abdication.”
Addressing a high-level open debate on Strengthening the Mechanisms for the Peaceful Settlement of Disputes, the Secretary-General said, “conflicts are increasing in number, complexity, length and scope,” with increased disregard for international law, impunity, and violations are going unanswered.
He said, “each violation unanswered becomes the next violations precedent. Trust is eroding and negotiated settlements are becoming harder to reach and maintain.”
The Middle East region, Guterres said, “is being pulled into an ever-widening circle of confrontation. One crisis feeds another. One escalation triggers the next,” and “as this dynamic spreads, the political objectives are becoming increasingly obscured by the confrontation itself.”
In Gaza, he continued, “despite the so-called ceasefire, civilians continue to pay a heavy price every day. People are being killed in their homes, in their communities, and while carrying out ordinary acts of daily life as Israel increases its control.”
In the occupied West Bank, the Secretary-General said, “we see creeping annexation with violence, settlement expansion, extensive Israeli military operations and large-scale displacement,” while in Ukraine, the Sahel, Sudan and many other places, “conflict is inflicting enormous suffering, disrupting livelihoods and uprooting populations with dire humanitarian consequences.”
He said Security Council resolution 2788 “reminds us of a fundamental truth. Diplomacy may not have succeeded in preventing these conflicts, but it still holds the power to stop them.”
Resolution 2788, authored by Pakistan, requested the Secretary-General to provide, one year following the adoption of the resolution, concrete recommendations to further strengthen mechanisms for the peaceful settlement of disputes.
To conclude, Guterres said, “most situations on the Council’s agenda are complex. The best path to peace is through compromise and finding common ground. I urge all members of this Council to summon the spirit of compromise that is essential to peace. Keep the channels of dialogue open and spare no effort in the pursuit of peaceful settlement of disputes, a founding principle of this organization.”
Source: International Monetary Fund – IMF (video statements)
What do World Cup sponsorships have to do with GDP and global trade? In this episode of The Economy – How Do You Measure That?, Jim Tebrake and Jannick Damgaard explain how sponsorship deals are recorded in economic statistics, why they’re treated as advertising services rather than donations, when they’re measured, and how cross-border sponsorships appear in the balance of payments. Discover the economics behind the logos you see on the world’s biggest sporting stage
There is no mechanism within international law that allows countries to charge ships wishing to cross the Strait of Hormuz, the Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) says. ‘There’s no imposition of charges. It’s not a mechanism that introduces any charges or fees. And that is something that has to be very clear,’ says Arsenio Dominguez.
