Your Weekly Recap for 22 - 26 May.

Here's 5 things you should know at the end of this week:

  • Employment in Luxembourg has risen, while unemployment rate remains mostly stable
  • Luxembourg City court convicted four men for their actions during the pandemic
  • Government announces subsidies for homes on Findel flight path
  • Florida Governor Ron DeSantis launches long-awaited presidential bid
  • PM Mitsotakis scores win in Greek elections, but falls short of majority

@rtl.today Here are the top 5 news stories in luxembourg this week. Check out the full weekly recap for more information on rtltoday.lu #luxembourg #luxembourg🇱🇺 #luxembourgnews #rtltoday #weeklyrecap ♬ original sound - Today Radio Luxembourg by RTL
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1. Employment in Luxembourg has risen, while unemployment rate remains mostly stable

Unemployment increased compared to last year - As of 30 April 2023, the total count of resident jobseekers registered with ADEM amounted to 15,330, representing an increase of 1,061 people (equivalent to 7.4%) compared to April 2022.

The number of jobseekers has consistently increased across all vacancy periods, with the exception of people whose registration periods exceed 12 months.

Vulnerable during crisis - The disparity between job requests and available positions has been widening, resulting in a projected increase in the medium-term unemployment rate.

Among those most affected by the prevailing circumstances are young people, who are often particularly vulnerable during times of crisis. Special attention and support are being directed towards this demographic to mitigate the impact of the challenging job market conditions.

Difficulties - Challenges persist with regards to long-term unemployment and other job seekers who are more difficult to place. The gap between the qualifications sought by employers in job advertisements and the profiles of job seekers is expanding once more, exacerbating the difficulties in finding suitable employment matches.

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© Laurent Weber

2. Luxembourg City court convicted four men for their actions during the pandemic

  • The Luxembourg City Court delivered verdicts on Wednesday, concluding the trial of four men charged with inappropriate behaviour during the Covid-19 pandemic.

  • The judge handed down a sentence of 120 hours of community service and imposed a €500 fine on each perpetrator.

  • Another verdict was reached on Wednesday afternoon involving a 33-year-old anti-vaxxer, who had insulted the Prime Minister on social media, considering Xavier Bettel the main person responsible for the introduction of Covid-19 measures.

What happened? -  On December 4, 2021, anti-vaccine demonstrations spiralled out of control when a group of protesters unlawfully gained entry to the Christmas Market, where the 3G rule (vaccinated, tested, or recovered) was in effect.

Later that day, a crowd gathered outside the residences of Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and Minister for Family Affairs Corinne Cahen to protest. Not all participants remained peaceful.

Three individuals faced sentencing at the Luxembourg City Court last Friday in connection with these incidents.

Xavier Bettel - The men were indicted, among other things, for insulting the Prime Minister. Two of the men, aged 25 and 33, threw eggs at the PM's house. During the trial, the defendants showed remorse for their actions.

The individual responsible for bringing the eggs was considered the instigator of the act, according to the representative of the public prosecutor's office.

Consequently, the 46-year-old received a sentence of 200 hours of community service and a fine of €1,000. The three defendants have 40 days to appeal.

Second case - Some of the images the 33 anti-vaxxer posted equated the treatment of unvaccinated individuals with the persecution of Jews during World War II. Several posts, which were still visible during the trial, trivialised the Shoah.

The defendant claimed to have forgotten the password to his account.

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3. Government announces subsidies for homes on Findel flight path

Beneficiaries - A parliamentary committee has agreed to provide 2,600 addresses with subsidies to insulate their homes against noise pollution from Luxembourg's airport.

Eligible households might receive up to €16,000 for houses and €8,000 for apartments, to be used for noise insulation purposes. The government has set a budget of just under €2.5 million for the project, which is planned to last around ten years.

In other Findel news - The kerosene reservoirs at Findel airport are to be replaced and expanded.

The depot in its current form holds 8,000 cubic metres and dates back to the 1970s. They'll be replaced with six new reservoirs, each having a capacity of 5,000 cubic metres.

Costs are estimated to be €86 million.

What's new at Luxair? - In a bid to enhance the culinary experience of its economy class passengers, Luxair has joined forces with young chefs from the Hotel and Tourism School of Luxembourg (EHTL) to introduce a fresh array of dishes.

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© AFP

4. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis launches long-awaited presidential bid

  • DeSantis' long-awaited bid comes as a challenge to fellow Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump, who is still leading the polls.

Long-awaited bid - After months of speculations, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis finally threw his hat into the race to become the next US president.

Too late? - DeSantis' bid might come late as he has started to fall in the polls, even after leading Donald Trump when speculation about the Florida Governor's bid first arose.

'Florida, where woke goes to die' - DeSantis made a name for himself in recent months due to his ongoing war on cancel culture, most notably in a feud with Disney. The battle has resulted in a number of legal cases, including revoking Disney's self-governing status, with Disney claiming Florida is "punishing its free speech".

DeSantis meanwhile continues with his crusade, often dubbing Florida the place where "woke goes to die".

Technical hiccup - Despite personal support from Twitter owner Elon Musk, DeSantis's long-awaited entry into the 2024 presidential campaign descended into a fiasco on Wednesday as the opening of the live Twitter event intended to announce his candidacy was derailed by glitches.

Trump response - Trump joked on his Truth Social platform that "My Red Button is bigger, better, stronger, and is working" -- an oblique reference to a war of words he once had with North Korea's Kim Jong Un.

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© AFP

5. PM Mitsotakis scores win in Greek elections, but falls short of majority

  • Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' conservatives scored a resounding but indecisive victory in Sunday's election.

  • Voters handed the conservatives their best result in 14 years, crediting the party with bringing economic stability back to a nation once known as an EU laggard.

  • But it fell short of an outright majority, leaving Mitsotakis with the option of either seeking a coalition or calling a new vote.

Awaiting re-vote - A senior Greek judge, Ioannis Sarmas, was asked Wednesday to lead an interim government tasked with organising a second national election by late June, the presidency announced.
None of the three parties that led Sunday's polls was willing to form a coalition government, after failing to secure a majority.

PM Mitsotakis, 55, on Monday told Sakellaropoulou that he could not form a coalition and called for elections "possibly on June 25".

Who is Kyriakos Mitsotakis? - Mitsotakis has offered his country a rare respite from economic instability in the face of unprecedented global upheavals like the coronavirus pandemic and war in Ukraine.

But a damaging wiretapping scandal and public anger arising from a deadly train crash in February blighted the record of Mitsotakis, whose family has dominated Greek politics for decades. His father was the 7th prime minister of Greece from 1990 - 1993.

The former Harvard graduate who worked at US financial consultancy McKinsey will be tasked by Greece's head of state President Katerina Sakellaropoulou with forming a government.

First elected lawmaker in 2004, Mitsotakis had been at the helm of his New Democracy party for three years before he took Greece's top job in 2019.

Growing economy - In power over the last four years, Mitsotakis had steered the country through the pandemic which devastated Greece's vital tourism industry.

On his watch, the erstwhile EU economic headache has enjoyed a post-Covid revival, booking growth of 5.9 percent in 2022.

With unemployment and inflation falling, and growth this year projected at twice that of the European Union average, Greece's outlook was a far cry from the throes of the crippling debt crisis a decade ago.

Scandals - Mitsotakis' term was blighted, however, by a wiretapping scandal as well as a train crash that killed 57 people in February.

The government initially blamed the accident -- Greece's worst-ever rail disaster -- on human error, even though the country's notoriously poor rail network has suffered from years of under-investment.

Nevertheless, neither the accident nor the wiretapping scandal appeared to have dented support for his conservatives -- who scored a far bigger win than that predicted by opinion polls ahead of the vote.

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The best of.. 📚

  • Business & Tech - The EU and Google want voluntary rules on AI before a new law comes into force in the bloc to regulate the rapidly advancing technology, the bloc's industry commissioner Thierry Breton said Wednesday.

  • Science & Environment- German police on Wednesday carried out raids across seven states targeting climate activists of the "Letzte Generation" (Last Generation) group, which has sparked controversy with street blockades involving protesters glueing themselves to the asphalt.

  • Entertainment - Rock legend Tina Turner, the growling songstress who electrified audiences from the 1960s and went on to release hit records across five decades, has died at the age of 83, a statement announced Wednesday.

  • Sport-Spanish police arrested seven people Tuesday over two incidents of racial abuse targeting Real Madrid's Brazilian star Vinicius Junior, including one this weekend that sparked an international outcry.

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And in case you missed it ⚠️

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Your Weekly Recap is published every Friday at noon. Read earlier versions.