World

All eyes on von der Leyen and Macron’s high-stakes trip to China

Published

2 years ago

April 3, 2023

All eyes on von der Leyen and Macron’s high-stakes trip to China

Following European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen’s calls final week to reassess EU diplomatic and financial ties with China, all eyes at the moment are on her joint journey with French President Emmanuel Macron to Beijing.

Von der Leyen will maintain a trilateral assembly with Macron and Chinese language President Xi Jinping on Thursday, on the sidelines of the French chief’s state go to to Beijing.

Industrial ties together with market entry and truthful competitors practices are anticipated to be mentioned then. The EU has accused Beijing of utilizing bullying ways to blackmail smaller international locations into downplaying criticism of Chinese language insurance policies.

In 2022, China was the third largest companion for EU items exports and the most important companion for the bloc’s imports of products, an essential indicator of the place relations between the 2 actually lie.

For Alicja Bachulska a coverage fellow on the European Council on International Relations (ECFR), the journey might be exploited by Chinese language President Xi Jinping with a view to persuade some European leaders to return to enterprise as common.

“We now have the largest gamers, corresponding to Germany and France, and the enterprise circles in these two international locations, which have very huge, actually, actually huge pursuits when it comes to returning to enterprise as common,” Bachulska stated in an interview with Euronews.

“With Macron, this enterprise delegation, it is positively a sign in direction of Beijing that financial cooperation continues to be very excessive on the agenda in Paris, but additionally, you recognize, on the degree of the EU as a complete. And this was very seen in Von der Leyen’s speech, Europe just isn’t about decoupling, this American-style decoupling.”

Von der Leyen has described it as de-risking slightly than decoupling, however Bachulska added that this is not going to simple.

“This might be very, very tough in follow, given the scope of Xi Jinping’s revisionism, the best way our financial system has been politicised within the latest decade and in addition given his ambitions, you recognize, create this dependency to additionally protect China from exterior shocks,” she stated.

Macron needs to discourage China from getting even nearer to Russia, however some analysts warn that there’s not a lot room for manoeuvre on condition that the character of relations between Beijing and Moscow is very strategic.

Antoine Bondaz, a senior lecturer at Sciences Po Paris, advised Euronews that what the French President and his European Fee counterpart can do, is warn China of potential penalties in case of additional navy assist to Russia and additionally attempt to get extra readability on the likeliness of Russia deploying nuclear weapons in Belarus.

“President Macron, after all, has the legitimacy to ask and lift the difficulty with China for 2 causes. First, France is, after all, a nuclear weapon state. And second, France, not like the US and the UK, just isn’t a part of any nuclear sharing settlement as these two international locations are,” Bondaz stated.

“The French president have to be and must be very conscious of the restricted leverage he has over Xi Jinping. France, in comparison with China, is a light-weight at the moment, regardless that France is a everlasting member of the UN Safety Council.

“The connection could be very uneven and there’s little that Macron can persuade Xi Jinping of. It is good to strive. It is good, after all, to depart channels of communication open, however we should be very practical in our expectations and to maintain very restricted expectations.”

On the similar time, each specialists agree that delicate applied sciences are key to this relationship, however this doesn’t imply that China has the higher hand, as China continues to be an export powerhouse and it is vitally a lot depending on sustaining these exports and getting access to European markets.

Alternatively, European coverage will focus extra on having its personal technique to take care of these cutting-edge applied sciences as an alternative of being depending on one actor or one other.

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World

Italian state railways plans 1.3 bln euro investment in solar plant

Published

3 hours ago

December 22, 2024

Press Room

Italian state railways plans 1.3 bln euro investment in solar plant

Italian state railways Ferrovie dello Stato plans to invest 1.3 billion euros ($1.36 billion) in a photovoltaic plant with an initial 1 gigawatt (GW) capacity that would cover 19% of its energy needs by 2029, the CEO said in a newspaper interview.

World

Christmas in Puerto Rico is a 45-day celebration with caroling, festive decorations, family feasts and more

Published

4 hours ago

December 22, 2024

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Christmas in Puerto Rico is a 45-day celebration with caroling, festive decorations, family feasts and more

Christmas, Navidad in Puerto Rico, extends far beyond Dec. 25.

The island proudly proclaims itself as having the “longest holiday season in the world,” according to the website Discover Puerto Rico.

On average, the holiday festivities in Puerto Rico last about 45 days, per the source, commencing right after Thanksgiving, and stretching all the way through mid-January.

The Christmas season in Puerto Rico typically lasts around 45 days. (iStock)

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The holiday season in Puerto Rico is full of rich traditions beloved by families.

One tradition those who visit Puerto Rico will immediately notice during the holiday season is decorations.

In Puerto Rico, decorations are typically put up by Thanksgiving, and kept up until the season concludes in mid-January, with opportune picture moments at every corner.

Parrandas, Christmas caroling, is a holiday staple.

17 SECRET TRAVEL TIPS FOR FALL AND WINTER THAT AREN’T SO SECRET AFTER ALL

Carolers choose houses of family and friends to visit, typically starting around 10 p.m., performing aguinaldos (traditional Christmas songs), with not only their voices, but often with instruments as well, according to Discover Puerto Rico.

The group you begin caroling with is likely not the same group you end with.

In Puerto Rico, when carolers visit a house, they’ll often stop inside for conversation, food and drink before moving to the next residence.

Coquito is a popular beverage enjoyed during the holiday season in Puerto Rico. Coconut, vanilla and rum are among the ingredients. (Mayra Beltran/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)

Usually, the residences of the house visited will join the group for the next house, according to Discover Puerto Rico.

CHRISTMAS TREES IN GERMANY WERE DECORATED WITH APPLES INSTEAD OF ORNAMENTS IN THE 1600S FOR ‘ADAM AND EVE DAY’

A night of serenading loved ones can last quite a while, often stretching into the early morning hours of the following day, according to the source.

The biggest day of the holiday season in Puerto Rico actually isn’t Christmas, but instead, the night before.

In Puerto Rico, Dec. 24 is Nochebuena. On that day, loved ones gather for the exchange of gifts, caroling and a large feast.

Many families will also attend a midnight Mass on the day, known as Misa de Gallo.

FLIGHT ATTENDANTS REVEAL THE SURPRISING DAY TO TRAVEL AHEAD OF THE CHRISTMAS RUSH

After Christmas passes, the festivities go on in Puerto Rico.

Another big event in the holiday lineup is Three Kings Day on Jan. 6, a holiday that “commemorates the visit that the Three Wise Men paid to Jesus after his birth,” according to Discover Puerto Rico.

On the eve of the day, children fill up a shoebox with grass to be left for camels to munch on while the Three Kings leave behind gifts for them, according to PuertoRico.com.

For a particularly festive Three Kings Day, Juana Díaz is the place to go, as it hosts the largest celebration in Puerto Rico for the holiday. In Juana Díaz, there is an annual festival and parade in honor of Three Kings Day that brings together over 25,000 people every year, according to Discover Puerto Rico.

Gifts are primarily exchanged between loved ones on Christmas Eve in Puerto Rico. (iStock)

Then, eight days later is Octavitas, a post-holiday celebration where families get together and celebrate one last time for the season.

The end of the holiday season is marked with the San Sebastián Street Festival.

This festival, spanning over multiple days, takes place in Old San Juan, and is filled with live music, dancing, shopping and parades.

Ashlyn Messier is a writer for Fox News Digital.

World

Small plane crashes into Brazil town popular with tourists, killing 10

Published

4 hours ago

December 22, 2024

Press Room

Small plane crashes into Brazil town popular with tourists, killing 10

Twin-engine plane crashed in largely residential neighborhood of Gramado shortly after takeoff, authorities say.

A small plane has crashed into a tourist hotspot in southern Brazil, killing all 10 people on board and injuring more than a dozen people on the ground, officials have said.

The twin-engine Piper PA-42-1000 hit the chimney of a home and the second floor of a different house before crashing into a shop in a largely residential neighbourhood of Gramado shortly after takeoff from Canela, Brazil’s Civil Defense agency said on Sunday.

Rio Grande do Sul Governor Eduardo Leite told a news conference that the aircraft’s owner and pilot, Luiz Claudio Galeazzi, was killed along with nine members of his family.

Leite said that 17 people on the ground were injured, 12 of whom were still receiving treatment in hospital.

Galeazzi’s company, Galeazzi & Associados, confirmed that its CEO and Galeazzi’s wife and three daughters had died in the crash.

“Luiz Galeazzi will be forever remembered for his dedication to his family and for his remarkable career as a leader of Galeazzi & Associados,” the company said in a post on LinkedIn.

“In this moment of immense pain, Galeazzi & Associados is deeply grateful for the expressions of solidarity and affection received from friends, colleagues and the community. We also sympathize with all those affected by the accident in the region.”

Gramado, located in the Serra Gaucha mountains, is a popular destination for vacationers, especially during the Christmas season.

The crash comes a little more than a year after Brazil suffered its worst air disaster in nearly two decades when a twin-engine plane crashed in the southeastern city of Vinhedo, killing all 62 people on board.