Evening Briefing: Europe

European vehicle makers are feeling the pain of President Donald Trump’s trade policies. Volkswagen sold fewer of its most profitable cars in the second quarter as US tariffs cut into deliveries of its premium brands Porsche, Audi, Lamborghini and Bentley.

Meanwhile, Daimler Truck expects US orders to remain at “extremely” low levels until uncertainty over Trump’s policies subsides and freight volumes begin to recover, Chief Financial Officer Eva Scherer told us. Logistics companies have cut back on truck purchases amid a drop in shipments of tariff-hit goods such as steel and aluminum.

“We’re in a situation where it’s very difficult to predict from a CFO perspective,” Scherer said. “Scenario planning is more important than ever.” —Joshua Gallu

What You Need to Know Today

Germany and France are seeking to quell a growing squabble over the countries’ next-generation fighter jet when their leaders meet for high-profile consultations in Berlin later this month. Chancellor Friedrich Merz and President Emmanuel Macron are scheduled to meet during the week of July 21, but friction over the Future Combat Air System jet has moved to the top of the agenda, we’re told. Their meeting will be crucial to putting the next-generation warplane back on track.

An FCAS model aircraft. Photographer: Julien De Rosa/Getty Images

Kuwait’s state energy company said OPEC+’s latest super-sized supply hike and recent interactions with customers suggest persistent demand growth beyond the summer driving season. “We’re seeing some potential tightness in the market, which gives us an opportunity to capture market share in the future,” Sheikh Nawaf Al-Sabah, chief executive officer of Kuwait Petroleum, told us. Tanker tracking by Bloomberg shows that the Gulf state’s crude exports surged to a 19-month high in June as the OPEC+ alliance brought curbed barrels back.

The United Arab Emirates is set to exit the European Union’s “black list” of countries with deficient controls over illicit money flows, after the bloc’s lawmakers approved a revision to the ledger. The EU regularly assesses third countries’ efforts against money laundering and the financing of international terrorism. The UAE had previously raised concerns about remaining in the list after the country was dropped by global watcher FATF.

Ukraine detained two Chinese citizens on suspicion of espionage regarding the missile system Kyiv used to sink Moscow’s Black Sea flagship in the early stages of Russia’s full-scale invasion. A 24-year-old former student of a Kyiv technical institute and his father face as long as 15 years in prison after being apprehended trying to obtain documents on the production of Neptune missiles from a Ukrainian citizen involved in weapons design. Ukraine uses its domestically-designed Neptune missiles to restrict the movements of the Russian navy in the Black Sea.

Profane posts generated by the Grok artificial intelligence chatbot on Elon Musk’s X are unacceptable and could lead to a ban on the platform in Turkey, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said. “It is unacceptable to use tailored profanity,” and Turkey will ban X “if necessary” unless steps are taken to prevent such content. While Uraloglu didn’t name specific examples, his comments follow a series of posts by the chatbot that targeted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Insulting the president is a crime in Turkey.

Poland is scrapping plans to carve out unprofitable coal assets from state-controlled utilities and instead seeks to introduce new support measures to keep the country’s electricity system stable. Poland’s government has dragged its feet about the NABE carve-out project, which was drafted by the previous administration, as it seeks to reduce the role of dirty coal-fired power plants and roll out more renewable energy capacity.

South Africa’s financial-markets regulator is ramping up its operations to combat an explosion in online scams. The Financial Sector Conduct Authority will spend 200 million rand ($11 million) over the next 18 months to build up the supervisory muscle to beef up monitoring and enforcement. South Africa is battling rising attacks, with verification platform Sumsub recording a 1,200% increase in the number of deep fakes in Africa’s most industrialized nation between 2022 and 2023.