The Europeans are, alas, in trouble after it (8)
I believe the answer is:
italians
'the europeans' is the definition.
(Italian is an example)
'alas in trouble after it' is the wordplay.
'trouble' is an anagram indicator.
'after' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'alas'+'in'='alasin'
'alasin' with letters rearranged gives 'alians'.
'alians' put after 'it' is 'ITALIANS'.
'are' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for italians that I've seen before include "Natives of Tuscany, say" , "Romans, Florentines, etc." .)