About this Episode
Prime Minister Luc Frieden has set a year-end deadline to introduce a minimum social media age if no EU directive emerges, and has outlined measures on AI, healthcare, housing, security and the environment in his State of the Nation address; he promoted a Deep Tech Lab and an AI supercomputer, pledged hospital staffing and outpatient investments, defended plans to harmonise building rules and boost social housing funding, announced 500 new police officers since 2023, and previewed a defence bank proposal with Canada plus tax and family benefit reforms.
UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese declared at a Kirchberg conference that Luxembourg has a moral and legal duty not to enable Israeli sovereign bond sales, saying regulators who approved them risk complicity in alleged crimes. She argued the sales fund Israel’s actions in Gaza and called the approvals “morally and legally wrong.” Luxembourg’s regulator, the CSSF, has said its role was limited and found no valid argument to refuse a transfer after Ireland stepped back. Speakers at the event urged legal scrutiny and parliamentary debate of the decision.
Council of Europe data show Luxembourg has had one of Europe’s fastest-growing prison populations, up 20% last year. The inmate population has been predominantly foreign at 78.1%, nearly half EU nationals, and skews younger and male, with theft, drug offences and homicide most common. Nearly half remain in pre-trial detention. Despite rising numbers, Luxembourg’s prisons have low density, high staffing and a large budget per inmate, although escape rates are unusually high.
