COVID RULES - From today, up to and including the 31 March, every person who has been in China in the 14 days before arriving in Luxembourg is obliged to declare their presence to the health inspectorate. Luxembourg officially advises against non-essential travel to China, where the coronavirus is still very present.
TRAM 2024 - Francois Bausch, the Minister for Mobility said that 2024 will be the year of the tram. In conversation with our colleagues at RTL 5minutes, he confirmed the Bonnevoie-Cloche d’Or section will be completed and put into service “in spring of 2024" while the section between Luxexpo and Findel will be connected “in autumn of 2024.”
POWER FAILURE - Several communes in the north of Luxembourg were in the dark this Sunday evening. The energy provider Creos has confirmed that a power failure affected the municipalities of Wahl, Grosbous and Esch-sur-Sûre for about thirty minutes, between 17:50 and 18:20. Wiltz and Wincrange were also affected until about 8.40pm.
CITY OF CULTURE 2023 - The official handover for the European capital cities of culture will take place in Athens at the Acropolis Museum today. Esch, Kaunas and Novi Sad will give up their titles and pass them on to the Capitals of Culture 2023. This year there will also be 3 - Timisoara in Romania, Veszprem in Hungary, and Elefsina in Greece. The opening ceremonies will be at the beginning of February.
BRAZIL RIOT - Thousands of supporters of Brazil’s far-right former president Jair Bolsanaro have stormed congress in Brasilia. Crowds dressed in the national colours and draped in the Brazilian flag overwhelmed police. Some reached the deserted senate chamber, others, the Presidential palace. Some people even smashed their way into the Supreme Court. The country’s new leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva described the protesters as fascist vandals and promised to punish them.
UKRAINE PRISONER - Yesterday, for the first time in the New Year, there was a prisoner exchange between Russians and Ukrainians. 50 Russian soldiers were flown to Moscow on a military plane. In return, 50 Ukrainian soldiers were also released. Meanwhile, Russian media claimed yesterday that more than 600 hundred Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in a missile attack in Kramatorsk , in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine’s armed forces have rejected Russia’s claim about the attack.
TENNIS AUSTRALIA - Top seed Novak Djokovic saved a match point before defeating Sebastian Korda to win the Adelaide International on Sunday. The 21-time Grand Slam winner needed more than three hours to stamp his authority on his unseeded American opponent, Sebastian Korda, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4. Djokovic now heads to the Australian Open, in his bid to secure the Grand Slam for the 10th time. In the women, Aryna Sabalenka won after beating Czech teenager Linda Noskova in 2 sets. Several top players from Naomi Osaka, Carlos Alcarez to Venus Williams have pulled out of next week’s Australian Open and several favourites will also be missing as they retired this year, including Ashleigh Barty, Serena Williams and Roger Federer.
SKIING - Norwegian skier Lucas Braathen held his nerve to win the men’s slalom in Adelboden on Sunday. The 22-year-old, who fell foul of the snow on Saturday when he did not finish the giant slalom, was quickest on the first run but only 16th fastest on his second on the soft snow. That was still good enough to give him victory as he was 0.71 seconds faster than his compatriot Atle Lie McGrath with the German Linus Strasser third. In the women’s slalom, Mikaela Shiffrin won the giant slalom at Kranjska Gora on Sunday. The o dominant runs to beat Italian skier Federica Brignone by 0.77 seconds. Shiffrin is on course for a fifth overall World Cup title with the world championships at the French Alps resorts of Courchevel and Meribel approaching next month.
We’ve got another day ahead of looking out the window to try to determine if it’s raining, only to realise we can’t really tell. The drizzle is there, with windgusts of up to 43 km/hour. It’s a bit colder than the last few days with morning temperatures starting off at 3-6 °C, rising to a 6-8 °C in the afternoon.
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