WEATHER HAVOC - Luxembourg’s police force were called out to a number of incidents due to Thursday’s wintry weather causing havoc across the country. Emergency operators dealt with more than 60 calls in 12 hours by midday on Thursday, due to sliding vehicles, buses or lorries getting stuck uphill, or other chaotic scenes on Luxembourg’s roads.
However, police had not increased the number of call handlers at the emergency centre, nor laid on extra staff in the field, because Wednesday’s red alert was reduced to an orange and yellow alert by national weather office Meteolux.
QUESTIONS OVER RESPONSE - National Roads Administration director Roland Fox responded to RTL’s questions over the state of the country’s roads on Thursday morning. Fox said snow removal teams were active from 1am on Thursday, with 3,000 kilometres of roads to clear. According to Fox, the chaos on the roads was caused by the high volume of traffic compared to the previous day, when a nationwide red alert saw schools shut and employees advised to stay at home.
EUROPEAN ELECTIONS - Luxembourg’s Nicolas Schmit, currently the European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, will lead the PES in the European elections this June. In a press release issued on Thursday, the Party of European Socialists confirmed Schmit would run for office as European Commission president, thus standing against the incumbent Ursula von der Leyen. Earlier this month, Schmit told Politico he was “open” to the role, after receiving strong backing from Germany and Spain.
NATO EXERCISES - NATO announced on Thursday that it would begin its largest military exercise in decades next week, involving 90,000 troops and testing the allies’ ability over months to engage in a conflict with an adversary like Russia. ‘Steadfast Defender 2024’ will run to late May and involve units from all 31 NATO member countries plus candidate-member Sweden. The exercise, composed of a series of smaller individual drills, will span from North America to NATO’s eastern flank, close to the Russian border. It will involve 50 naval vessels, 80 aircraft and over 1,100 combat vehicles.
MOON SHOT - Japan’s “Moon Sniper” spacecraft is preparing to make a historic lunar touchdown at midnight on Saturday using pinpoint technology the country hopes will lead to success where many have failed. With its ‘Smart Lander for Investigating Moon’ (SLIM) mission, Japan wants to become the fifth nation to pull off a fiendishly tricky soft landing on the Moon’s rocky surface. Only the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India have accomplished the feat so far.
HAITI UNREST - A deadly, days-long clash between armed gangs intensified on Thursday in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, as elsewhere demonstrators marched demanding accountability for the Caribbean nation’s spiraling security crisis. Witnesses confirmed that some people had been killed, without being able to specify the number. According to Pierre Esperance, director of the National Human Rights Defense Network, a humanitarian organization, at least 20 people have been killed since Sunday. Last year, the UN estimated that the gangs controlled around 80 percent of the capital.
TENNIS - Aryna Sabalenka and Jannik Sinner emphatically stated their Australian Open title credentials on Friday, pummelling their third-round opponents as a below-par Novak Djokovic prepared for another testing examination. Belarusian defending champion Sabalenka was unstoppable in a 6-0, 6-0 romp over 28th seed Lesia Tsurenko while Sinner dropped just four games in crushing Sebastian Baez, ranked 29th.
Mirra Andreeva, just 16, is also in action after stunning sixth seed Ons Jabeur to make it to the third round, where she faces France’s unseeded Diane Parry, herself only 21. Meanwhile, Djokovic’s bid for a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam crown will resume in the evening against in-form Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry.
RUGBY - Former Ireland coach Joe Schmidt vowed to “build a way forward” for the Wallabies on Friday as Australian officials confirmed he is taking over as coach to replace Eddie Jones. Jones acrimoniously quit in October after the team’s calamitous World Cup campaign, just 10 months into a five-year contract, having won just two from nine Tests. He has since been hired by Japan.
On Friday, the weather is expected to be mostly dry, featuring a combination of clouds and intermittent sunny spells.
In the morning, the country is set to experience chilly temperatures, ranging from approximately -6 to -7°C. The rest of the day will be only slightly warmer, with temperatures sitting around -1°.
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