George Soros donates to British pro-EU campaign

Billionaire George Soros has given £400,000 to Best for Britain via one of his foundations, The Telegraph reports. The paper calls it a “secret plot to thwart Brexit”, saying that Best for Britain is one of several groups that plans to target MPs and convince them to vote against the final Brexit deal to trigger another referendum or general election. Best for Britain was co-founded by Gina Miller, the SCM Direct wealth manager who was the lead claimant in a successful legal challenge against the UK government over parliament’s approval of the final Brexit bill. Miller resigned from Best for Britain after the June 2017 general election. SCM Direct is looking to domicile a unitised version of its Absolute Return portfolio strategy in Luxembourg.

Kidjo calls for digital copyright protection

Singer Angélique Kidjo, who won a Grammy with Luxembourg’s Gast Waltzing, is one of several artists calling for Europe to bring “fairness to authors in the digital world”. Kidjo co-authored a letter in her role as a vice president of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers. The letter, also signed by CISAC president Jean-Michel Jarre, calls for the parliament to take the lead in addressing the “transfer of value” or “value gap” which is caused by loopholes in the law, allowing some of the world’s largest digital platforms to deny fair remuneration to millions of creators. “EU law should not be a shield to allow such platforms to make vast revenues from creative works while not fairly rewarding the creators,” the letter states.

Delano celebrates seventh anniversary

Delano marked its seventh anniversary on Thursday evening with a special edition of its Delano Live event. Over 350 guests attended the event, which also saw on stage interviews with experts in the cryptocurrency and blockchain. Launched in January 2011, Delano is the only exclusively English-language print publication in Luxembourg, covering business, economics, current affairs, culture and news from the international community. A full picture report on the event will be published here later.

Daylight savings under review

The European Parliament is urging the European Commission to re-evaluate the merits of switching to daylight savings. In a resolution passed by its members on Wednesday, the parliament says that while the practice of putting clocks forward by an hour between late March and late October benefits the transport industry, helps outdoor leisure activities and reduces energy consumption, it is associated with disruptions to the human biorhythm. Luxembourg’s minister of agriculture Fernand Etgen had last year called for an end to summer time on his Facebook page, saying that the change did more harm than good.

Scots don’t want post-Brexit immigration curb

Scotland’s government says the country needs immigrants and is concerned that curbing immigrations after Brexit would damage its economy. Reuters cites Scottish foreign minister Fiona Hyslop as saying that: “The UK government’s policy of pursuing a reduction in net migration to only tens of thousands across the whole UK would be catastrophic for Scotland’s economy and do serious damage to our future prosperity.” The Reuters article points to forecasts that show that over the next 25 years the working population of Scotland will grow by only 1 percent, compared with an increase of 25 percent in the pension age population.