Cargolux looks at further diversifying its business
Luxembourg all-freight airline Cargolux said it could continue diversifying its business in new directions to include emergency rescue services and producing and distributing the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) it will need in the future.
The global player in the business of transporting valuable cargo by air is already a year into a side business of renting out planes and pilots to fight wildfires as the Earth heats up and blazes become more common and dangerous.
Cargolux acknowledged that new direction and hinted at others in a document filed in Luxembourg’s business registry on 18 December describing the company’s main operating principles.
“In addition to its core business activities as described above, the company can also provide and/or invest in services or projects for the operation of any other aerial related activities, including but not limited to, fire spotting and firefighting, emergency rescue services, sustainable aviation fuel production and distribution, logistics,” a sentence added to the Cargolux articles of association said.
Netanyahu, Putin arrest warrants spell challenge for criminal court
Arrest warrants issued against Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and Russia’s Vladimir Putin are becoming a test of the global community’s commitment to the rule of law, as violations of the decision risk discrediting international courts.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) on 21 November issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant “for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024, the day the prosecution filed the application for warrants of arrest.”
Netanyahu in a statement called the decision “antisemitic”, while US President Joe Biden said it is “outrageous”.
The ICC has no mandate to enforce the warrants but instead relies on countries that are parties of the Rome Statute – which established the court – to arrest suspects at large. That includes all 27 EU member states.
How prevention could help cure Luxembourg’s overworked healthcare system
Luxembourg does not have enough healthcare practitioners to look after its growing population, but giving prevention a bigger place in the system could help reduce the strain on the overworked and understaffed sector.
Prevention and health promotion have remained a low priority in Luxembourg’s healthcare system, a report published last month by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies found. The country’s strategy instead consists of fragmented awareness-raising efforts on public health.
“Our system is built around people getting sick when what we want is to avoid them becoming sick in the first place,” Health and Social Security Minister Martine Deprez acknowledged in an interview with the Luxembourg Times.
In response, the government in its coalition agreement has promised to “elevate prevention and early detection to the same level as curative medicine.”
Luxembourg social dialogue looks fragile amid threat of industrial action
The so-called Luxembourg model of tripartite consensus between trade unions, employers and the government has rarely appeared to be so fragile as at the start of 2025.
Unions and the government are miles apart on the transposition of an EU directive on minimum wage, which includes a reform of the law governing collective bargaining that is supported by employer organisations.
The proposal has angered unions because they say it threatens to take away their monopoly on negotiating collective work agreements. At the end of October, they walked out of a meeting with Labour Minister Georges Mischo calling his stance on the law an attack on the Luxembourg social model.
Unions and employers have also engaged in a war of words over the rising rate of absenteeism and the government’s plans to tackle the pension reform is another potential sticking point.
CSSF to conclude probe into banks involved in Caritas affair by March
Luxembourg’s financial regulator, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), will conclude its investigation into whether BGL BNP Paribas and Spuerkeess violated anti-money laundering rules related to the Caritas affair by March.
The watchdog expects to publish its findings by March, CSSF Director General Claude Marx told the Luxembourg Times on Wednesday, after he appeared before a sitting of the special parliamentary committee set up to investigate the theft of €61 million from the charity.
“The CSSF is the competent authority to investigate and reach a decision on whether the anti-money laundering rules were violated by the banks. The process is ongoing, and we will issue our conclusions before March,” Marx said.