Boris Johnson heading to Brussels
The British prime minister Boris Johnson will travel to Brussels to meet with the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen for last minute Brexit talks this week (probably Wednesday or Thursday). The move follows no progress in EU-UK trade negotiations over the past several days. After a 90-minute call on Monday evening, von der Leyen and Johnson stated: “The conditions for an agreement are not there due to remaining differences on critical issues. We asked our chief negotiators to prepare an overview of the remaining differences to be discussed in person in the coming days.” Sources: BBC, Bloomberg, DW, Financial Times, The Guardian and Politico.
NZ inquiry finds failures before Christchurch massacre
A royal commission into last year’s Christchurch mosque shootings concluded that the terror attacks could not have been prevented, but also that New Zealand’s security services were overly focussed on Islamic extremists. Sources: BBC, The Guardian, New York Times and New Zealand Herald.
Biden selects former general as defence secretary
US president-elect Joe Biden will nominate a retired general, Lloyd Austin, as his defence secretary. Austin would be the first Black American to lead the Pentagon. Sources: Associated Press, BBC, NPR and Reuters.
‘European Magnitsky Act’ passed
EU foreign ministers approved a new European sanctions regime for human rights violators, similar to the US Magnitsky Act. Sources: Axios, DW and Financial Times.
French agree to teleworking into new year
France and Luxembourg extended the waver on cross-border commuters working at home until 31 March 2021. Sources: Delano and Paperjam.
Belgian gov warns against Lux travel
Dr Yves Van Laethem, a virologist and Belgian federal government pandemic spokesman, advised Belgians to avoid travelling to high risk zones, including the Netherlands, Germany and “very especially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.” Sources: Delano and Le Soir.
Latest Luxembourg covid-19 update
Out of 776 PCR tests conducted on Sunday 6 December, 151 Luxembourg residents tested positive for the coronavirus. That is a rate of 24.12 per 100,000 inhabitants. The RT effective reproduction rate was 1.02, slightly above the target threshold of 1.00. There were 202 patients in hospital, including 39 in intensive care. Seven people died, bringing the national total to 360. Source: Health ministry.
Gift card sales strong on Lux site
Letzshop.lu, the publicly supported e-commerce platform for local businesses, said it sold €350,000 in gift cards over the past 6 weeks. Sources: Delano and Paperjam.
Ikea to discontinue catalogue after 70 years
The home furnishings giant Ikea will stop printing its catalogue next year, citing shoppers shifting to online purchasing. Sources: Financial Times, The Guardian, NPR and Reuters.
Soc Gén to close branches
The French banking group Société Générale said it would shut down 600 branches by 2025 as part of its plan to merge its namesake branch network with that of its subsidiary Crédit du Nord. Sources: Barron’s, Delano, Financial Times and Seeking Alpha.
Visa adds to Pornhub pressure
Visa has joined rival card network Mastercard in investigating Pornhub, owned by Luxembourg-based Mindgeek, over allegations it published videos of assaults against women and girls (as reported in yesterday’s breakfast briefing). Pornhub said the accusations are “irresponsible and flagrantly untrue”. Sources: Associated Press, Bloomberg and CNBC.
Dylan sells song rights for 9 figures
The singer-songwriter Bob Dylan sold his entire publishing catalogue, including ‘Blowin’ n the wind’, ‘Like a rolling stone’ and ‘The times they are a-changin’, to Universal Music, reportedly for more than $300m. Sources: BBC, Financial Times, The Guardian and Variety.
Uber stops self-driving car development
The ride-hailing and delivery service Uber sold its self-driving car subsidiary to a startup backed by Amazon. Sources: Bloomberg, CNBC, Marketwatch and Seeking Alpha.
Davos to be held in Asia for first time
The World Economic Forum’s annual confab will be held in Singapore, instead of the Swiss resort of Davos, next May due to covid-19 risks in Europe. Sources: BBC, Financial Times, Reuters and Straits Times.
Luxembourg to face Portugal in World Cup qualifier
The Red Lions will face Portugal, Serbia, Ireland and Azerbaijan in Group A of the European qualifications for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Sources: Irish Times, Sky Sports and Uefa.com.
New Olympic sport: breaking
Breakdancing (formally known as ‘breaking’), climbing, skateboarding and surfing have been added to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Sources: CNN, Reuters and Sky News.
Agenda
Tuesday 8 December, 11am: British Chamber of Commerce webcast with former BCC chair and TedX speaker Joanna Denton presenting “5 steps to start 2021 afresh”. Tuesday 8 December, 2:55pm-3:55pm: Webinar on the “product circularity data sheet” (and for an explanation of the PCDS, read this Delano interview). Wednesday 9 December, 10am: Alfi’s online workshop on implementing “Dac 6” (the EU’s new automatic cross-border tax reporting rules) in the funds sector. Wednesday 9 December, 4pm: LPEA’s “Mirror mirror on the wall, how will PE fare after the last Brexit call” webinar. Thursday 10 December, 11am-12:15: Luxembourg for Finance webcast on the financial sector outlook for 2021. Thursday 10 December, 2pm-2:45pm: Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce online workshop on insolvency for “struggling businesses”. Sunday 13 December, 2pm: Irish Club’s “drive-by Santa’s Grotto” in Howald (book ahead as space is limited). Monday 14 December, 10:30am-11:30am: Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce’s online workshop on preparing for Brexit.
Fucking, Austria, changes name
Having grown weary of gawking tourists, stolen street signs and bad online jokes, the Austrian town of Fucking voted to rename itself Fugging on 1 January 2021. Sources: Deutsche Welle, The Guardian and The Local Austria.
Latest instalment in monolithic tale
The saga of metal monoliths suddenly appearing and disappearing continues. (To catch up, scroll down to the bottom of Delano’s breakfast briefings on 27 November and 4 December.) In the latest chapter, a group of young Christian men tore down a monolith near the central California coast, per the New York Times. It was subsequently reinstalled (with a reinforced concrete base), along with another one being put up in a different park in the same county, per the San Luis Obispo Tribune. Meanwhile, more monoliths have been spotted on the Isle of Wight, per Metro UK, and in the Netherlands, per Newsweek.
Today’s breakfast briefing was written by Aaron Grunwald