London flights resume
London City Airport will reopen on Tuesday, following the safe removal of a WWII era bomb, Luxair said in press statement. Flights between Luxembourg and London City will be operated “as scheduled”, according to the airline. It has six flights each way planned for Tuesday. The airport was shut down after unexploded ordinance was discovered in the nearby Thames river on Sunday morning.
EIB invests €52.5m in e-mobility battery plant
The European Investment Bank, based in Kirchberg, will co-finance (along with the Swedish government) the development of Europe’s biggest battery cell plant, reported Reuters. The Northvolt facility will compete with Korean, Japanese, Chinese and American battery makers in the electric vehicle market, the news service said. The European battery cell market is forecast to reach €250bn annually by 2025, European commissioner Maros Sefcovic said separately on Monday.
Cross-border police cooperation centre 15 years old
The German news agency DPA profiled the police and customs cooperation centre in Findel that brings together officers from Luxembourg, Belgium, France and Germany. “Without direct contact with our colleagues here at the centre, there’s probably a lot that we would never find out,” DPA quoted Roland Weber, Luxembourg’s coordinator, as saying. There are 40 such exchange centres in the EU, but Luxembourg’s is the only one that brings together four nations to fight cross-border crime, according to DPA. It has received 341,290 queries, as of December 2017.
Facebook privacy policies breach German law: court
A Berlin court has ruled that Facebook’s privacy and user data policies do not comply with German law, according to The Guardian. The judgement agreed with the consumer group that brought the case, VZBV, that Facebook did not provide enough information about its default settings, such as automatically revealing the location of its smartphone app users. Other policies, such as allowing data to be used for commercial purposes, were also ruled invalid. Facebook said it would appeal. Separately the social media firm has said it would revamp its privacy rules and was preparing for the introduction of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which sets stricter standards across the EU.
Zuma to face “recall” from party
South Africa’s ruling political party, the African National Congress, will order Jacob Zuma, the country’s president, to resign, according to the BBC and Financial Times. Cyril Ramaphosa, the recently elected party head, will then replace Zuma as head of state. The ANC’s executive committee took the decision after a marathon meeting that ended early Tuesday morning. Zuma has been accused of corruption, which he has always denied, and mismanaging the country’s economy. Constitutionally, the party’s order has no effect, The Economist noted last week, but the ANC controls South Africa’s parliament, which elects the president, and can force a no-confidence vote.