TRIPARTITE MEASURES - Minister of Finance Yuriko Backes presented the growth and stability programme in the Chamber of Deputies yesterday. Backes said that the government and social partners managed to agree on “measures related to jobs, purchasing power, and inflation that will strengthen the country. The measures will cost a total of €425 million in 2023 and another €900 million in 2024. According to Yuriko Backes, this money is well invested.
NORTH ISSUES - Adrien Wouters from the association “Canton of Clervaux” has told RTL in an interview that residents of northern Luxembourg are frustrated and feel abandoned. He criticised the disappearance of services and the crumbling infrastructure, citing the closed Schieburg railwaytunnel as an example.
ELECTRONIC TAGS - Five months after its opening, the new prison in Sanem is already filling up: 238 people are being held in pre-trial detention. At the same time, 50 women and men are still being held on remand in Schrassig prison. According to Justice Minister Sam Tanson, examining magistrates have not yet made use of electronic tags to monitor a person in pre-trial detention so far.
GERMANY MONOCAMS - Following the success of a pilot project in Trier, the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate intends to install “Monocams” - mobile speed cameras that can detect if drivers are using their smartphones - across its territory. The federal state’s aim with this new mobile speed camera technology is to “reduce accidents caused by distracted driving.”
AFGHANISTAN EXECUTION - The Taliban have killed the senior Islamic State group leader behind the August 2021 suicide bombing outside Kabul airport that left 13 US service members and about 170 Afghans dead. The IS leader, whose identity has not yet been released, was killed in southern Afghanistan in early April as the Taliban conducted a series of operations against the Islamic State group, according to officials.
SUDAN FIGHTING - Fighting in Sudan has eased after the army and a rival paramilitary force agreed to a three-day truce, allowing more Sudanese to flee and foreign countries to extract their citizens. The warfare that erupted between the army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitaries on April 15 has turned residential areas into war zones, killing at least 459 people, wounding over 4,000, and cutting water, power and food in a nation already reliant on aid.
EU SOCIAL MEDIA - The European Union says 19 online platforms will be subject to stricter rules for content from August. The services which include TikTok, Instagram and Twitter will have to crack down on illegal and harmful content, and insure stricter protection for children or risk hefty fines. The EU’s internal market Commissioner said platforms would not be abler to act as if they were too big to care.
EU DRUGS - The EU is also unveiling a long-awaited proposed reform of legislation governing pharmaceutical drugs to make them cheaper, prevent shortages and speed up delivery of new compounds. EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides tweeted that the overhaul aims to bring “timely and equitable access for patients to affordable drugs.
MOON LANDING - The Japanese start-up ispace has said that its attempt to make the first private moon landing has failed after losing contact with its lander, concluding it has most likely crashed on the lunar service.
BELAFONTE RIP - Harry Belafonte, the superstar entertainer who introduced a Caribbean flair to mainstream US music and became well known for his deep personal investment in civil rights, has died. He was 96.
FOOTBALL SPAIN - Girona striker Taty Castellanos became the first player to score four goals in one game against Real Madrid in La Liga since 1947 in his side’s 4-2 triumph on Tuesday. Castellanos hit two goals in both halves to secure Girona an impressive victory over Carlo Ancelotti’s team.
FORMULA 1 SPRINTS - Formula One has approved a shake-up to the sprint format, in time for this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix. In Baku, which stages the first of this season’s six sprints, the 100-kilometre dash becomes a standalone event on the Saturday of race weekends. Formula1 hopes that with its new standalone event, status drivers will have an added incentive ‘to go for it’, knowing any incidents will not have a bearing on where they start in the Grand Prix.
CYCLING - Josef Cerny was a surprise winner of the short, flat prologue of the Tour of Romandie on Tuesday, raced on the shores of Lake Lehman. Surrounded by the stunning snowcapped Alps which await the peloton on Thursday’s Queen stage, Cerny completed the 6.8km course in 7min 25sec.
After freezing temperatures overnight, the morning will bring dry conditions which will stick around all day. The odd ray of sunshine may peek through the clouds from time to time, but it’s not quite ready to beam at us all day long.The morning’s temperatures will start off unseasonably cold at 0-2°C, rising to around 10°C in the afternoon.
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