COALITION TALKS - Luc Frieden, lead candidate of the CSV and leader of the coalition talks, has announced that his party and the DP successfully completed coalition talks over the weekend. A new government is expected to be confirmed by the end of the week. In a joint press briefing yesterday afternoon, Luc Frieden, Xavier Bettel and Claude Wiseler said they would not go into detail of the coalition agreement yet, as it is still to be signed on Thursday, but praised the smooth coalition talks and efficient workflow.
MOTOR SHOW - The International Motor Show Luxembourg welcomed well over 30,000 visitors at LuxExpo this weekend. The event was entirely geared towards cars and motorcycles, an show which the organisers hope to bring to Luxembourg every two years from now on. Highlights included the Formula 1 car of Max Verstappen, the possibility of speaking with Dylan Pereira, two flagship exhibitions on Porsche and Harley-Davidson as well as stunt shows, drifting and X-cars.
FIREFIGHTING PLANES - Findel Airport will soon be home to specialised planes used to combat forest fires. Cargolux has bought a dozen “Air Tractor Fire Boss” planes for an estimated 72 million US dollars. These propeller-motored planes are single-person operated and can land on large water surfaces, collecting water to release over wildfires.The plan is to participate in tenders across Europe next year.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR - US President Joe Biden has urged Israel to do everything possible to protect civilians trapped inside Gaza’s largest hospital. Israel says Hamas is using Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital as a military base. After days of heavy air strikes around the hospital, witnesses say tanks and armoured vehicles are metres from the gate of the besieged facility, which has become a focal point of the five-week-old war. The United Nations believes that thousands, and perhaps more than 10,000 people may be inside and unable to escape because of fierce fighting nearby.
In the face of mounting pressure, Israel has agreed to daily pauses in military operations around specified humanitarian “corridors” to allow Gazans to flee the fighting. Israeli leaders have so far insisted there will be no broader ceasefire before hostages are released. Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’s military wing, said on Monday that a possible deal would involve the release 100 Israeli hostages in return for 200 Palestinian children and 75 women held in Israeli prisons.
In a joint declaration in Brussels yesterday, EU foreign ministers demanded that corridors for humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip must be opened immediately. It was also the last EU Council for Jean Asselborn. He was Luxembourg’s foreign minister for almost 20 years. He once again appealed to Hamas to release the more than 200 hostages. And to Israel, to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
FRANCE FLOODING - A new spell of rain in northern France yesterday has forced school closures and brought fears of fresh misery after devastating floods hit the department of Pas-de-Calais last week. The intensity of the rain is expected to increase today - four rivers in the Pas-de-Calais and Nord regions are on orange alert for flooding.
UK POLITICS - British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will chair his first cabinet meeting at Downing Street today since shaking up his top team ahead of a general election expected next year. Sunak has appointed the former Prime Minister David Cameron as his new Foreign Secretary. Cameron quit as prime minister in 2016 after losing the Brexit referendum. SPACE SEX RESEARCH - A Dutch entrepreneur is pioneering space sex research, with the eventual aim of natural conception and birth in the partial gravity environment found on Mars. Actual sexual intercourse in space presents many difficulties, chief among them the lack of gravity, so Spaceborn United is first trying to conceive an embryo in space. tarting with mice, before eventually moving to human sperm and egg cells, the firm has created a disc that mixes the cells together, with the aim of producing a viable embryo.FOOTBALL - Thousands of people lined the streets of Manchester yesterday, to pay their final respects to Manchester United and England great Bobby Charlton, with Alex Ferguson and Prince William among the mourners.The 1966 World Cup winner, widely regarded as one of England’s greatest players, died on October 21 at the age of 86 after a fall at his care home.
FERRARI AUCTION - A 1962 Ferrari sports car has sold for $51.7 million, making it the second most expensive car ever sold at auction. The legendary Scuderia sports car had finished second in a race of 1,000 kilometers on the German Nurburgring circuit, as well asseveral years of competition in Italy.
We can expect dry conditions with mostly cloudy skies this morning. However, in the afternoon, intermittent rain will make a comeback, particularly in the northern part of Luxembourg.
For a second day in a row, Luxembourg’s meteorological services have issued a yellow warning due to elevated wind speeds, particularly later in the day.
Wind speeds are forecast to reach 65 to 80 km/h between 4 and 10pm on Tuesday. A similar alert had already been issued on Monday and numerous trees fell victim to the stormy weather at the beginning of the week.
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