GAZA AID - President Biden has confirmed plans for the American military to build a temporary port in Gaza, to ensure more aid gets into the territory. Children in the war zone are said to be starving because of the difficulties of getting aid to those most in need. Delivering his State of the Union address to Congress, Biden said that while Israel had the right to go after Hamas, it had the fundamental responsibility to protect innocent civilians. Biden also used his speech to make several attacks on Donald Trump, who is all but certain to be facing him in November’s Presidential election.
In the coming days, a Belgian-Luxembourgish A400M will be dropping humanitarian aid over Gaza, with a pilot from the Grand Duchy participating in the mission. Over the weekend, the USA initiated its first airborne relief distributions. In a joint operation with Jordan, US transport planes dropped over 36,000 food packages over Gaza on Tuesday. France and Egypt also participated in the relief effort.
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY - Today is International Women’s Day. It has been officially registered by the UN since 1975, but even before that, it was a day to promote equality and emancipation and the right of women to vote. In 29 countries, for example in Russia, Ukraine, Poland and China, it is even an official holiday. In Luxembourg, the platform JIF, which is made up of a wide range of associations, is organizing a feminist march in the early evening. The meeting starts at 5pm in Place de Paris in the city.
GENDER PAY GAP - Luxembourg’s national statistics office Statec has released the latest figures on the gender pay gap. In 2022, women earned a slightly higher hourly wage on average compared to men, with €30.72 per hour compared to €30.50. However, the wage gap still favours men when it comes to annual salary, earning an average of over €73,000 per year, compared to an average of close to €63,000 per year for women.
UKRAINE AMMUNITION - Luxembourg has recently delivered 6,000 rounds of 155mm artillery ammunition to Ukraine. This was revealed in a press release from the defence ministry yesterday. The Grand Duchy is also taking part, together with Belgium and the Netherlands, in the Czech initiative to continue buying ammunition outside the EU, which should benefit Ukraine. Luxembourg, together with Estonia, will also play a leading role in modernizing the Ukrainian military in terms of communication capabilities and IT infrastructure.
CHINA VISA WAIVER - From 14 March onwards, citizens of six European countries, including Luxembourg will be permitted to travel visa-free to China. The new agreement applies to stays for up to a maximum of 15 days. China Southern airlines launched direct flights from Luxembourg to Zhengzou at the end of last year. According to a statement by the Chinese embassy, the new visa exemption is a further step to facilitate travel between the two nations.
BOTTLE CAPS - And from the 3rd of July, all bottle caps on containers under 3 litres must be attached, according to a new EU directive. Through attaching bottle caps to plastic bottles, this will ensure they are recycled together instead of being discarded in nature. However, this could prove an issue for some charities, such as the Luxembourg guide dog association’s “E Stopp fir de Mupp” (“a cap for the dog”). The charity is able to finance guide dog training through the collection and recycling of bottle caps, receiving €350 in exchange for a ton of bottle caps. The campaign has enabled them to sponsor training for ten guide dogs in recent years.
FOOTBALL - Liverpool thrashed Sparta Prague 5-1 in their first leg of the Europa League last 16. The manager Juergen Klopp praised the team’s performance. Elsewhere Brighton lost 4-0 away to Roma, Freiburg beat West Ham 1-0, Marseille dominated Villareal 4-0 and Rangers drew 2-all with Benfica in Spain
The evening begins with the 25th matchday in the German Bundesliga. Stuttgart meet Union Berlin at home. In France, Nice play Montpellier at home and in Spain, Barcelona take on Mallorca.
CYCLING - On the 5th stage of the Paris-Nice race yesterday there was another sprint victory for the Dutchman Olaf Kooij. The general leader is still the Australian cyclist Luke Plapp. Kevin Geniets from Luxembourg is currently in 46th place. Today there are 199 hilly km from Sisteron to La Colle-sur-Loup.
FORMULA 1 - This afternoon in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia is the last free practice, and qualifying races in the evening. The Grand prix is tomorrow.
It almost sounds too good to be true, but we are about to have a pleasant and sunny day in Luxembourg. And we should have a full day of sunshine! Temperatures will start at a suspicious 0 –1°C in the morning, but we’ll reach a decent 11-12°C by the afternoon.
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