News of the World

[kyonides]

Macron Says Europe Should Reduce Dependence
on US Dollar After Meeting With China’s Xi

Amid reports that some countries are “de-dollarizing,” French President Emanuel Macron suggested in a new interview that Europe should reduce its dependency on the United States.

There is a “great risk” that Europe “gets caught up in crises that are not ours, which prevents it from building its strategic autonomy,” he told Politico this weekend as he flew on an airplane from Beijing to Guangzhou in China after meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Xi and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have backed Macron’s “strategic autonomy” concept...

“The paradox would be that, overcome with panic, we believe we are just America’s followers,” Macron said in the interview. “The question Europeans need to answer … is it in our interest to accelerate [a crisis] on Taiwan? No. The worse thing would be to think that we Europeans must become followers on this topic and take our cue from the U.S. agenda and a Chinese overreaction,” he said.
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Europe must better fund its defense industry, develop nuclear and renewable energy and reduce dependence on the U.S. dollar to limit its reliance on the United States, Macron also said. Macron traveled to China with a 50-strong business delegation including Airbus and nuclear energy producer EDF, which signed deals during the visit.
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“Stability in the Taiwan Strait is of paramount importance,” [European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen] said she told Xi during the meeting in Beijing last week. “The threat [of] the use of force to change the status quo is unacceptable.”
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“Europeans cannot resolve the crisis in Ukraine; how can we credibly say on Taiwan, ‘watch out, if you do something wrong we will be there’? If you really want to increase tensions that’s the way to do it,” [Macron] told the outlet.

While in Taiwan, meanwhile, McCarthy called for “one voice” against CCP aggression and said he wants faster weapons delivery to the island nation. “Don’t send a balloon over our air space. Don’t use authoritarian bully tactics,” he warned the regime. “It won’t go far.”
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“If the tensions between the two superpowers heat up … we won’t have the time nor the resources to finance our strategic autonomy and we will become vassals,” he said.

...Saudi Arabia is also reportedly in active talks with Beijing to price some of its Chinese oil sales in yuan rather than the dollar.

In a statement from Brazil’s government last month, Brazil and China agreed to trade in their own currencies and won’t use the dollar as an intermediary. Instead, they’ll exchange the Chinese yuan with Brazilian reais rather than convert it to the dollar.

That deal came right after the Chinese regime settled its first purchase of liquefied natural gas via the yuan, according to Reuters. That transaction contained approximately 65,000 tons of LNG and was sourced from the United Arab Emirates after the China National Offshore Oil Corp.

At Least 11 Norfolk Southern Train Cars Derailed,
2 Crew Members Taken to Hospital

At least 11 cars in a Norfolk Southern train derailed in Alabama, leading to at least two hospitalizations, officials said.

“According to Norfolk Southern, the train crew was briefly trapped in the engine room because the engine tilted over. There were no major injuries, but RPS was called to the scene to evaluate the crew and transported two crew members as a precaution,” police in Jasper, Alabama, wrote in a statement on Saturday.

The statement added that “Jasper Fire called all personnel in to assist the crew in getting out of the train and managing the scene, along with Jasper Police. Norfolk Southern and Walker County EMA are remaining on the scene to return the track to service.”

Norfolk Southern officials told the police department that no hazardous materials were involved in the derailment.

Officials told ABC3340 that several cars went off the tracks and that heavy equipment is on the scene aiding in the cleanup efforts.

Saudi delegation arrives in Yemen to discuss truce

A Saudi delegation was reportedly in Yemeni capital Sanaa on Sunday to negotiate a potential truce.

An intervention led by Saudi Arabia has been supporting Yemen's internationally recognized government against the Iran-backed Houthi rebel group, which controls the Yemeni capital.

Yemen's government has been at war with the Houthis for eight years.

The AFP news agency cited a Yemeni diplomat as saying that Saudi officials are "in Sanaa to discuss moving forward to create peace in Yemen."
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Omani mediators also arrived in Sanaa on Saturday.

AFP cited an anonymous Yemeni government source as saying that Riyadh and the Houthis had agreed in principle to declare a six-month truce, which would pave the way for three months of negotiations and a two-year "transition" towards peace.

The Houthi group's news agency, Yemen News Agency (SABA), also confirmed the arrival of the Saudi delegation.

Germany: Hamburg issues a smoke warning as large fires rage

The fire department in the German port city of Hamburg issued a warning on Sunday morning as a large fire billowed out smoke and hazardous gases.

Police said around Sunday afternoon that "currently no elevated readings are detected," according to the DPA news agency, but the official warning remains in place.

The fire and smoke are classified as an "extreme danger" in an official warning.

Two warehouses at a truck stop in the Rothenburgsort district of the city had been in flames since the early hours of the morning, according to German media.

The fire broke out around 4:30 a.m. (0230 GMT), the DPA  reported.

Local public broadcaster NDR reported that hydrogen sulfide was leaking from the site, according to initial investigations. Firefighters were also reportedly only able to be on the scene with respirators.

Firefighters were still tackling the blaze several hours after it was first reported.