By SAMUEL PETREQUIN

PARIS (AP) — France’s government said Wednesday it is moving toward suspending access to the Shein online marketplace until it proves its content conforms to French law, after authorities found illegal firearms and child-like sex dolls for sale on the fast-fashion giant’s website.

The Finance Ministry said the government made the decision after officials found “large quantities” of illegal weapons on Shein’s popular e-commerce platform Wednesday, following the discovery last week of illegal sex dolls with childlike characteristics.

The ministry said if the prohibited items remain, authorities may suspend the site in France.

The decision came on the same day that Shein opened its first permanent store in Paris inside one of the city’s most iconic department stores. The opening drew crowds of shoppers to the BHV Marais, but also a small group of protesters who briefly disrupted the opening by waving anti-Shein signs before they were escorted out by security.

The director of the Bazar de l’Hotel de Ville (BHV) department store Karl-Stephane Cottendin cuts the ribbon at the opening Shein’s first physical store in Paris, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. ( Dimitar Dilkoff, Pool via AP)

The ministry did not say whether its decision would impact the physical store. It added that a first progress report would be provided within 48 hours.

Shein, founded in China in 2012 and now based in Singapore, pledged to work with French authorities to “address any concerns swiftly as we have always done and we are seeking dialogue with the authorities and government bodies on this issue.”

French authorities can order online platforms to remove clearly illegal content, such as child sexual abuse materials, within 24 hours. If they fail to comply, authorities can require internet service providers and search engines to block access and delist the site.

Ordering from Shein’s French website was still possible Wednesday following the government’s announcement.

Frédéric Merlin, president of Société des Grands Magasins (SGM,) which owns the BHV department store, praised the government’s move. “I am satisfied with this decision and I hope that, in the end, we will be able to stop selling illicit products on these marketplaces,” Merlin said.

Still, the backlash over the sex doll listings could be a “massive red flag” to investors and become a roadblock to the company’s ambitions of going public, according to Neil Saunders, managing director of research firm GlobalData.

A protester is being evacuated from the BHV department store as fast fashion Shein opens its first physical store, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

The episode feeds into the view that Chinese-founded marketplaces “are the Wild West of e-commerce, where there is very little compliance, and they don’t really adhere to established rules, that they don’t have full control over the platforms,” Saunders said. “And that is a problem because if you’re looking to expand, you have to abide by national laws.”

Saunders noted there’s a big difference in having counterfeit merchandise and questionable merchandise on a site. Child sexual abuse material “crosses an important moral boundary,” he said.

Store opening draws shoppers and demonstrators

SGM has called the sale of the sex dolls unacceptable, but praised Shein for its swift response to defuse the controversy.

Shein said earlier that it has banned all sex-doll products, and temporarily removed its adult products category for review. The company had also announced that it would temporarily suspend listings from independent third-party vendors in its marketplace, and launched an investigation to determine how the dolls listings bypassed its screening measures.

Even before the backlash over the sex doll listings, the decision by Shein to launch its first physical store in the heart of France’s fashion capital had faced criticism from environmental groups, Paris City Hall, and France’s ready-to-wear industry.

Frederic Merlin, CEO of SGM group which owns the BHV department store, answers reporters before fast fashion powerhouse Shein opens its first permanent store Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

The retail giant has long drawn criticism over its poor green credentials and labor practices. An online petition opposing the Paris opening surpassed 120,000 signatures

Ticia Ones, a regular Shein online customer living in Paris, said the main reason she visited the store on Wednesday was the opportunity to see items in person before buying.

“We can see what we order, touch the items, it’s a good thing,” she said, adding that the brand’s low prices were a strong draw despite the controversy. “I’m not going to comment on the quality, but price is definitely appealing.”

The BHV store has been going through financial struggles in recent years and its owners believe the arrival of Shein will help revive business — even as some brands have chosen to leave the store in protest.

“We are proud to have a partner who has spoken out firmly,” said Karl-Stéphane Cottendin, the chief operating officer of SGM. “We are very happy to be opening the boutique.”

Environmental and ethical concerns

Shein has risen rapidly to become a global fast-fashion giant. Selling mostly Chinese-made clothes and products at bargain prices, the retailer has drawn criticism over allegations that its supply chains may be tainted by forced labor, including from China’s far-west Xinjiang province, where rights groups say serious human rights abuses were committed by Beijing against members of the ethnic Uyghur group and other Muslim minorities.

People visit the BHV department store as fast fashion powerhouse Shein opens its first permanent store, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Cottendin dismissed those concerns and praised Shein for doing a “tremendous job” to improve its practices.

“Today, it’s a brand that produces under much more legitimate conditions,” he said. “We ensured that the entire production chain, from manufacturing to delivery, complies strictly with French and European regulations and standards.”

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Fast fashion, characterized by a constant turnover of collections and very low prices, has flooded European markets with low-quality items, driving environmental, social, and economic costs. The United Nations has warned that the textile industry alone is responsible for nearly 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions and contributes to water depletion.

France is now moving to curb the growing influence of companies based in Asian countries such as Shein, Temu and AliExpress. A draft law targets fast fashion with measures such as consumer awareness campaigns, advertising bans, taxes on small imported parcels and stricter waste management rules.

“It’s a black day for our industry,” said Thibaut Ledunois, director of entrepreneurship and innovation at the French federation of women’s ready-to-wear. He added that Shein’s Paris opening was an attempt to justify “all the bad, and sad and horrible business that they develop all around the world.”

When the first round of ballots were counted on Election Night, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter outpaced Kaohly Her by 1,727 votes — or just over 2.5% of all votes cast in the mayor’s race.

Carter’s 41% of the vote fell short of the 50% threshold, and when a second round of ballots were sorted in the instant run-off election, Her’s share of votes climbed by nearly 10 percentage points. She soon went on to become mayor-elect and unseat an incumbent from her own party, a feat not seen in the capital city in 20 years.

Under the rules of ranked-choice voting in St. Paul, a winner is declared when they garner 50% of the vote, unless no one breaks that threshold. In that situation, which is what unfolded on Election Night, a process of elimination crowns the top vote-getter after all other ballots have been redistributed to the leading candidates based on second-choice, third-choice or even fourth-choice picks.

It’s a potentially thorny process that can take days under the city’s traditional hand-counting method, but Ramsey County Elections used “RCVis” open-source ballot software acquired by the city to accomplish the same task within hours of the polls closing on Tuesday. St. Paul is the first city in the state to do so.

In St. Paul, a recount cannot be requested by a losing candidate until after the city canvasses the results on Nov. 12, according to Ramsey County Elections.

Minneapolis and other cities that held ranked-choice or instant run-off elections on Tuesday were expected to break out spreadsheets on Wednesday and use their own method of reallocating ballots. Following the spreadsheet method, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey won re-election Wednesday morning.

Here’s a closer look at the numbers:

Keep in mind there were a total of 67,617 votes cast in the St. Paul mayor’s race, so 1% of the vote would equal 676 votes. A winner would have been declared instantly if anyone had broken the 50% threshold, or 33,809 votes. But no one did, even after ballots were redistributed from the trio of eliminated candidates.

In the first round of ballots, Carter had 40.83% of the vote, or 27,611 ballots, and Her had 38.38%, or 25,884 ballots. The other three candidates — Yan Chen (9.65%), Mike Hilborn (8.6%) and Adam Dullinger (2.39%) — shared 20.64% of the vote, or 13,956 votes between them. Write-in votes accounted for 166 votes, or about one-fourth of a percentage point.

After the first round of ballots are tabulated, Ramsey County Elections uses a process called “batch elimination” to drop all the candidates who have no chance of winning. Given their low numbers, there was no mathematical scenario in which Chen, Hilborn or Dullinger could overtake Her or Carter, so they were all dropped from the race.

In St. Paul, voters could rank up to six candidates in order of preference on their ballot. In the second round of ballot counting, the software examined any second-choice votes, and in some cases probably third choice or even fourth choice votes, on ballots where voters had picked Chen, Hilborn or Dullinger first.

So let’s say, for example, a diehard Carter critic voted for Chen first, Hilborn second, Dullinger third and Koahly fourth. Their ballot would effectively “transfer” from Chen to Hilborn, and then from Hilborn to Dullinger, and finally from Dullinger to Kaohly. That’s called the “cascading method,” if you were curious.

Carter benefited from 2,807 transfers, most of them from Chen and Hilborn supporters, leaving him with 45% of the vote. Her, the more popular second choice, picked up 6,411 transfers, including a much heftier boost from Chen and Hilborn supporters, leaving her with 47.76% of the vote.

In the end, Her won by 2.77 percentage points, or 1,877 votes.

There were 4,904 ballots where the voter did not rank Carter or Her, if they ranked anyone. Those ballots were declared inactive because they had no viable choices left.

More data is available online from Ramsey County Elections at tinyurl.com/RamCoResults2025. The executive director of FairVote Minnesota, which promotes ranked-choice voting, has posted a video explaining the Ramsey County tabulation process at facebook.com/FairVoteMN.

The vote by precincts

An analysis of precinct data available from the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office shows Her won 29 of the city’s 86 precincts on the first ballot, or 34% of the city, and Carter won the rest. Turnout and population density varied heavily from precinct to precinct, and Her picked up hundreds of votes along Summit Avenue, where she resides.

The corridor, which is said to host the largest collection of Victorian mansions in the nation, has been a political flashpoint in the debate over a proposed protected bikeway that Carter has promoted. Her called for the project to be re-evaluated, though she stopped short of calling for its outright cancellation.

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The mayor had a strong showing overall throughout Ward 1, which includes his childhood Rondo neighborhood, where he won 11 of 13 precincts, though Her outpaced him in Ward 1, Precinct 2 — the Dale Street area intersecting Summit Avenue — by 300 votes.

Her also performed especially well in Ward 2, Precinct 6, which borders Dale and Summit to the south, again leading the mayor within that precinct by nearly 300 votes.

The two candidates split Ward 2, which spans downtown St. Paul and parts of surrounding neighborhoods, with Her picking up seven precincts there and Carter winning six.

By HELEN WIEFFERING, BILL BARROW and OLIVIA DIAZ

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Not everyone who voted in Northern Virginia in Tuesday’s election has felt the impact of President Donald Trump’s efforts to reshape the federal government, but even many who haven’t said they have colleagues or neighbors who are dealing with the consequences.

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“I’ve seen so many federal families lose their jobs, lose their income, lose their certainty here,” said Karina Valdez, who voted at the Barcroft Sports & Fitness Center in Arlington.

Valdez, a 40-year-old mom who works at an elementary school, said she voted for Democratic candidates across the ballot, adding her voice to a Democratic sweep of all statewide offices in the commonwealth that sent a blistering message to President Donald Trump and his party.

Abigail Spanberger, elected as the state’s first female governor, ran on a promise to protect Virginia’s economy from the aggressive tactics of Trump’s second administration, which has culled the civil service, levied tariffs and shepherded a reconciliation bill curtailing the state’s already fragile health care system.

An Associated Press analysis of Spanberger’s double-digit victory over Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome-Earle Sears showed a dramatic swing toward Democrats from four years ago, when Republican Glenn Youngkin won the state’s top office, and from last November, when Democrat Kamala Harris won Virginia by less than 6 percentage points in the presidential race.

The 2025 AP Voter Poll, an expansive survey of Tuesday’s electorate, found that voters with a federal government worker or contractor in their household were likelier than other households to support Spanberger, while a majority of Virginia voters said their family’s finances have been at least “a little” affected by federal government cuts under Trump.

Republicans acknowledge the blowback

Even Youngkin acknowledged that the federal government shutdown fueled “quite a turnout yesterday.”

Gov. Glenn Youngkin speaks at a post-election news conference in Richmond, Va., on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)

“People are going without paychecks. They’re worried about mortgages and rents,” he told reporters in Richmond on Wednesday. “They’re worried about how they’re going to feed their families. The challenge of this government shutdown is real, and I am incredibly understanding of that challenge for all Virginians. And I think it is, I think it caused quite, quite a turnout yesterday.”

Democratic House Speaker Don Scott said the election was about more than federal jobs. He noted that Democrats picked up roughly a dozen seats in Virginia’s 100-member House of Delegates on Tuesday — securing the party’s largest majority in three decades.

“We saw a little wave, but we didn’t see this doggone tsunami,” he said.

Trump himself acknowledged the effects in his first public appearance since Democrats swept governors’ races in Virginia and New Jersey, won the New York mayor’s race, flipped two Public Service Commission seats in Georgia and won voter approval to redraw California’s congressional district map to combat the president’s partisan gerrymandering push elsewhere.

Speaking at the White House on Wednesday to Republican U.S. senators, Trump called the shutdown “a big factor, negative” in the shellacking, and he urged lawmakers to end it.

Trump did not push for yielding to Democrats’ demands to extend premium subsidies for Affordable Care Act health insurance customers. He urged Republican leaders to end the Senate filibuster so they won’t need any Democratic votes to approve spending measures — or anything else — as long as the GOP retains its majority.

That may not be enough to appease some Virginia voters. Some Spanberger supporters on Tuesday made clear they blame Republicans in Washington, given GOP control of the White House and Capitol Hill.

Democrat Abigail Spanberger speaks on stage after she was declared the winner of the Virginia governor’s race during an election night watch party Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

“They have the majority and they should be able to get something done,” Sherry Kohan, a 56-year-old accountant, said at her Arlington polling place, where the former Republican voted for Spanberger.

Voters said they feel and see the effects

Paul Capetanakis, a 37-year-old restaurant owner, cited the ripple effects of Trump’s National Guard deployment in the nation’s capital, the shutdown and price hikes when explaining his votes for Spanberger and other Democrats.

“I lost probably $300,000 from the previous year,” he said, comparing this year’s receipts with 2024. “I’m still doing okay, but I could be doing much better.”

Tuesday’s voter poll found that about 6 in 10 Virginia voters reported that their family’s finances had been affected “a lot” or “a little” by federal government cuts this year. About two-thirds of those voters supported Spanberger, while about 6 in 10 voters who said they hadn’t been affected by the cuts supported Winsome Earle-Sears, the Republican nominee.

About two-thirds of voters who live in a household with a current federal employee or contractor voted for Spanberger, compared with just over half of voters in households without a family member who works for the government.

Alonzie Scott, a recently retired federal worker, is seen at an Arlington, Va., polling center on Tuesday, Nov. 4th, 2025. (AP Photo/Helen Wieffering)

Alonzie Scott, who voted early in Arlington, said he retired in September from the Office of Naval Research in disagreement with new performance plans that would require him to “faithfully execute the president’s agenda.”

“When I saw that, I told my bosses back then that I was going to retire,” Scott said. “I’ve been working for 40 years, and it was just time to walk out the door.”

Scott said he’d like to see the nation go down a better path and plans to volunteer with local politics as soon as he’s able.

Northern Virginia swings to Democrats

The swing toward Democrats was especially strong in Northern Virginia, near Washington, D.C, where many federal workers live.

Democrat Ghazala Hashmi speaks on stage at an election night watch party for Democrat Abigail Spanberger after Hashmi was declared the winner of the Virginia lieutenant governor’s race Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Four years ago, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe led suburban-exurban Loudoun County in 2021 by 11 points. Harris outpaced Trump there by 16 points. Spanberger’s margin Tuesday was about 29 points.

In Fairfax County, McAuliffe led by 30, Harris by 35 and Spanberger by 47. In Prince William, Spanberger nearly doubled Democrats’ 2024 margin, leading the county by 34 points compared with 18 for Harris. McAuliffe led Youngkin there by 15 points.

In southwest Virginia, meanwhile, a more rural, heavily Republican area with a smaller federal government footprint, Spanberger gained ground but typically by single digits.

Rebecca Wolfinger, a 49-year-old health care worker, said the shutdown fallout was a key issue for her.

“Everything that’s been going on with the federal government and people losing jobs all over Arlington and other places in Virginia affected my vote a lot,” she said. “I felt like the Republican candidate didn’t show a lot of concern for people losing their jobs,” she said.

Barrow reported from Washington. Diaz reported from Richmond. Associated Press reporters Josh Boak and Will Weissert contributed from Washington.

A jury has convicted a Minneapolis man of bringing a 14-year-old girl and a 20-year-old woman to his alleged accomplice’s Mahtomedi apartment where they were given drugs and sexually assaulted earlier this year.

Billy Ray Wiley, 52, was found guilty Tuesday in Washington County District Court of two counts of sex trafficking and one each of first- and third-degree criminal sexual conduct in connection with the case, which followed a multi-agency investigation led by the East Metro Human Trafficking Task Force.

Billy Ray Wiley (Courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office)

Wiley looked for women and girls in the Twin Cities area, often approaching them near grocery stores or in the street in Minneapolis and St. Paul. He would offer them rides, drugs or money.

“This case is a horrifying example of a predator preying on the most vulnerable members of our community,” County Attorney Kevin Magnuson said in a post-verdict statement. “I truly admire the courage of the two young victims who not only survived these horrific assaults, but also bravely testified at trial — despite being forced to relive their trauma when the defendant, representing himself, cross-examined them in open court.”

Jurors answered yes to all four questions on a verdict form, allowing the prosecution to argue for an upward departure from state sentencing guidelines. Wiley remains jailed ahead of sentencing, which is set for Jan. 7.

Michael Lewis (Courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office)

Co-defendant Michael Lewis, 69, of Mahtomedi, faces two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. He remains jailed, and is due back in court Friday.

According to the criminal complaints:

Officers were called to the Piccadilly Square Apartments, a 62+ housing community near Wildwood and Stillwater roads, on June 30 on a report of a teenager dancing in the parking lot and screaming, “no no no.” The person who called said an unknown man dropped her off about four hours earlier.

A man identified as Lewis stepped out the front door of the apartment. The teen, later identified as the 14-year-old, pointed to him and said she was with Lewis and one of his friends, the complaints said. Officers spoke with Lewis, who said he did not know the teen.

Officers searched her purse and found several unopened condoms and drug paraphernalia.

She was taken to the hospital, where investigators met with her and asked how she knew the man who brought her to the apartment. She said he was a “friend,” who she referred to as “Billy,” and she said he often drove around her neighborhood.

The teen told investigators in a follow-up interview several days later that “when Wiley picked her up, she knew she would be expected to engage in sexual acts in exchange for money and drugs.” She said Wiley had given her crack cocaine and brought her to the apartment, where she was sexually and physically assaulted by Wiley and the other man. She identified Lewis as the man inside the apartment after looking at a photo.

Earlier, on June 13, a 20-year-old woman reported to St. Paul police that a man, later identified as Wiley, picked her up while she was waiting for a bus on Lake Street in Minneapolis. She said he brought her to an apartment, where he physically and sexually assaulted her.

After the assault, Wiley drove her to downtown St. Paul. Once she got out of the car, she asked people on the street for help and they flagged down an officer.

She told police he recorded the sexual assault on his phone, and investigators later recovered the video and identified the location as Lewis’ apartment, the complaints said.

Law enforcement obtained a tracking warrant and arrested Wiley on July 8 when he drove by the Piccadilly apartments.

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Law enforcement also arrested Lewis, and drug paraphernalia was found in his apartment.

A 17-year-old girl was in the car with Wiley. She said that earlier in the day, in the area of Dale Street and University Avenue in St. Paul, Wiley “pulled up right next to her and asked her what she needed. He then gave her a cigarette and asked if she wanted to go for a ride,” the complaints said.

She said they drove around for several hours, and he “told her that she was pretty and had a nice body,” the complaints said. She said she told Wiley several times to drop her off, but he kept driving.

The teen also told officers “that many girls who are struggling with addiction hang around Dale and University” and “said that Wiley is known to pick up a lot of girls in the area,” the complaints said.