00:00European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde told Your News in an exclusive interview that she is not a candidate for
00:07the upcoming French elections.
00:11German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the United States has approved the sale of long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Germany.
00:21At least 28 people were killed after a fire tore through a multi-story shoe factory in eastern China on
00:28Thursday.
00:30I think everybody sings...
00:32European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde told Your News in an exclusive interview that she is not a candidate for
00:38the upcoming French elections.
00:40Earlier in her career, Lagarde headed the French finance ministry under former President Nicolas Sarkozy.
00:46She became the first woman to lead a G7 economy and guided France through the 2008 financial crisis.
00:54Last week, Lagarde told French media that a strong European voice must be heard in the election and did not
00:59rule out leaving the ECB before October 2027.
01:04Lagarde now told Your News that while she is not a candidate, she would continue championing European ideals.
01:10I'm not a candidate for anything, but I'm very keen that Europe is protected, that Europe is the framework within
01:17which member states operate, including France.
01:19Lagarde's comments come in the wake of new developments in the French presidential election.
01:24This week, National Rally Leader Marine Le Pen said she still intends to run for president, despite her conviction for
01:31embezzling EU funds.
01:32Le Pen has long criticized the European institutions for their supranational powers, and has instead advocated for a return to
01:40a Europe of nations.
01:42Lagarde, on the contrary, has been an advocate of deeper European integration.
01:46Speaking to Your News, the ECB president addressed one of the bloc's most divisive issues, that of Spain's proposal for
01:53joint borrowing.
01:54But it's pretty obvious that we also need to have a European asset which can, you know, parallel with the
02:01U.S. treasury bonds, for instance.
02:04How we go about it, how the moral hazard is addressed, how it's allocated in terms of results to be
02:10decided.
02:11And I think it's great that a country like Spain, for instance, makes a proposal.
02:15And finally, Lagarde said any debate in Europe must be held with the aim of reaching a consensus among all
02:2127 member states, rather than what she described as a quote, over my dead body mindset.
02:31There is an opportunity to push for a new mechanism for EU joint borrowing, as the bloc seeks to strengthen
02:38the euro's international role, Spanish finance minister Carlos Cuervo told Euronews.
02:43With the United States resuming hostilities with Iran, the implications for Europe have returned to the top of the EU's
02:51agenda.
02:52Against a backdrop of heightened geopolitical uncertainty, the search for safe assets has become an increasing priority.
03:00In parallel, the EU is striving to give the euro an international role as a global reserve currency.
03:08I think there's a good window of opportunity to put that proposal forward now.
03:13We've been having discussions on the international role of the euro over the past few months, with very good contributions
03:17on the fact that we need a safe asset.
03:19Spain distributed a paper containing a detailed proposal on a new EU common borrowing mechanism called European Sovereign Facility.
03:29Annual issuance would reach 850 billion euros if all 27 member states, the European Stability Mechanism and the European Financial
03:39Stability Facility participated,
03:41enabling the EU to build a 5 trillion euros stock of joint debt within five years.
03:47However, Spain will have to win over countries that are strongly opposed to any kind of joint borrowing.
03:53Several Nordic countries, Germany and the Netherlands, are staunchly against taking any further joint debt.
04:03The European Parliament and EU governments are entering the final phase of negotiations on the digital euro after a vote
04:11in Strasbourg on Thursday.
04:13EU lawmakers are now ready to begin negotiations with member state governments on how the digital euro will work.
04:21The digital euro would be an electronic form of central bank money issued and backed by the European Central Bank.
04:28It is intended to complement cash and existing banking services rather than replace them.
04:34The ECB would provide the underlying infrastructure, while commercial banks and payment service providers would offer digital euro services to
04:42customers.
04:43According to sources involved in negotiations, the most delicate issue will be agreeing on the so-called compensation model.
04:51That means deciding which financial institutions should be compensated, how much they should receive and how the payment should be
04:58made for providing digital euro services.
05:06The United States has approved the sale of long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Germany.
05:12That's according to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
05:15So far, there are no European-made alternatives with similar range and strike capabilities.
05:21This leaves Germany as well as other EU countries dependent on the US.
05:25Merz, however, said Europe is working to develop its own.
05:29We have also agreed at the end of the NATO conference in Ankara with the American government,
05:35that American Tomahawk rockets are acquired by us and will be stationed in Germany.
05:41We will close a strategic path in our defense.
05:46And we will at the same time work to develop own European systems and stationery in Europe.
05:55Germany considers long-range cruise missiles as a key part of its deterrent strategy against Russia.
06:01The missiles are mainly launched from submarines and warships and can travel more than 1,600 kilometers.
06:09Merz did not say when he expected the Tomahawks to be delivered and the number of missiles acquired would remain
06:15classified.
06:20Unions have warned that Volkswagen's managing risks a major conflict with workers as the struggling German car giant thrashes out
06:28what could be the biggest ever restructuring in the global car industry.
06:33Workers staged protests outside factories in Germany on Thursday over the car makers reported plans to cut up to 100
06:41,000 jobs and close four factories.
06:44This would account for 16% of the company's workforce worldwide.
06:52Europe's biggest car makers is under pressure from US tariffs, weaker profit margins on electric vehicles and above all fierce
07:00competition in China.
07:03Volkswagen whose 10 brands range from Seat to Porsche is already cutting 50,000 jobs in Germany by 2030.
07:12Those cuts were agreed with unions at the end of 2024 alongside a pledge to avoid plant closures in Germany
07:19until at least the end of the decade.
07:27A law allowing scanning of online communications meant to detect child sexual abuse material has been amended by MEPs to
07:36protect users' privacy.
07:38The European Parliament adopted on Thursday amendments excluding the likes of WhatsApp from a controversial temporary regime that allows electronic
07:47communication services to put voluntary measures in place to detect child sexual abuse material.
07:53MEPs want to exclude communication services applying end-to-end encryption from the scope of the law which would force
08:01platforms such as WhatsApp and Messenger to no longer be able to take voluntary measures derogating from EU e-privacy
08:09rules to identify users suspected of sharing child sexual abuse material.
08:14End-to-end encryption is a technology to secure electronic communications in such a way that only the receiver and
08:22the sender can decode the content of the messages.
08:26The temporary regime has been dubbed as chat control by its critics due to its privacy implications while its supporters
08:34consider it crucial to protect minor's rights and combat the dissemination of child pornography.
08:39The vote on the amendments was extremely tight and showed a deep split among the parliament's political groups and internal
08:47fractures within some of them.
08:49An unusual alignment of liberal, radical left and far-right parties supported the changes, outnumbering the two largest political forces,
08:58the EPP and the centre-left, Socialists and Democrats.
09:09At least 28 people were killed after a fire tore through a shoe factory in eastern China on Thursday, state
09:15media reported.
09:16Footage shared by state television showed firefighters dousing the facade in the interior of the large multi-storey building as
09:24thick black smoke poured out.
09:26People could be seen taking refuge near the windows and on the roof of the building while the blaze tore
09:31through the lower floors.
09:33Hours after the fire broke out at the factory, there were fears that people were still trapped inside the building.
09:40Chinese President Xi Jinping said that the cause of the accident must be identified as soon as possible and that
09:46those responsible should be held accountable.
09:49In November, China launched a campaign against fire hazards in high-rise buildings after a blaze tore through a residential
09:57complex in Hong Kong.
09:58A month later, a fire in a residential building in southern China's Guangdong province killed 12 people.
10:23We give back people capacities and functionality that they've lost.
10:27So for patients like ALS, stroke, spinal cord injuries, they lose the capacity to communicate, to speak or to move.
10:36An inability neurotech with a brain implant, meaning that device, we implant it in the brain.
10:42We record brain functions that are completely intact.
10:46We extract this information out and with really unique AI capacities, we can reconstruct what they were intending to do.
11:00We've created AI for good in 2017.
11:03And if you think about it, that's an eternity in terms of AI years, right?
11:07Because AI is moving so fast.
11:09I think we're now entering what I would call a zero-click world where we're not,
11:12AI agents are not waiting for our prompts, but they're actually acting on our behalf autonomously.
11:17And then looking at the more physical manifestation of AI in the form of advanced robotics,
11:22autonomous mobility, brain-computer interfaces, and even space computing.
11:27Music
11:28.
11:30.
11:30.
11:37Transcription by CastingWords
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