The Today Radio news team brings you the latest headlines for Wednesday, 31 July.

Luxembourg

BETTEL JORDAN – After his visit to Latvia yesterday, Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel is today and tomorrow on an official working visit to Jordan. He is meeting his counterpart Ayman Safadi in the capital city of Amman. Bettel will also be visiting UNRWA refugee camps – they are run by the United Nations for Palestinian refugees in the Middle East. A week ago, there was a lot of criticism of the Israeli parliament because a resolution was passed labelling UNRWA as a terrorist organisation. According to Safadi, the Knesset is trying to destroy the agency and thereby the main aid work in the Gaza war. There are more than two million Palestinian refugees registered in Jordan.

PETITIONS – Another petition has reached the threshold of required signatures for the issue to be discussed in Luxembourg’s parliament. In the course of the day yesterday, the barrier of 4,500 signatories was met, who agree that smartphones should be banned in school. The petition runs for one more week. Among other new proposals is a counter-petition to the much-debated one about the exclusion of LGBTQIA+ subjects in school. The Parliamentary Petitions Committee unanimously approved this counter-petition on yesterday morning.

FINANCE INTELLIGENCE UNIT – In 2023, Luxembourg's Financial Intelligence Unit (CRF) blocked €610 million across 153 cases, according to its annual report released on Tuesday. The CRF is responsible for receiving and analysing reports of suspicious transactions that may involve money laundering, related offences, or terrorism financing. The €610 million figure represents a threefold increase from the previous year.

LUNAR ROBOT – In the Gare neighbourhood of Luxembourg City, the European subsidiary of the Japanese company ispace is developing a mini-robot designed for lunar exploration. This mini-robot, the size of a beer crate, currently navigates through a large sandbox filled with coarse sand, simulating the lunar surface. It is a prototype of the rover set to journey to the Moon early next year. The mission aims to prove that a private company can successfully develop and deploy such a vehicle.

World

MIDDLE EAST CRISIS – Israel's military says it has killed a senior commander in the Lebanese-armed group Hezbollah. Officials say Fuad Shukr was behind a rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday, that killed 12 young people. Hezbollah has denied it was responsible. Meanwhile Hamas says its leader Ismail Haniyeh has been killed in Tehran. Israel has not yet responded to reports of this death.

UK STABBING – Violent clashes broke out on Tuesday in the northern England town where a mass stabbing at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event claimed the lives of three children. Around 100 protesters battled police and lit fires, with thick plumes of smoke rising above the front line. Videos circulating on social media appeared to show a police van on fire and protesters pelting police with missiles, with a local mosque the apparent target. Police have said they are not treating Monday's attack as terror-related, but have not released any details of the suspected attacker other than that he is 17 years old and originally from Wales.

FRANCE HEAT – After heavy rain drenched last week's opening ceremony, the Paris Olympics on Tuesday wrestled with entirely different conditions as temperatures soared to 35°C. The forecast return of some wet weather may come as relief to athletes, spectators and officials who baked in unforgiving weather throughout the day. Some venues had lamppost-like devices which provided spectators with a dousing of water rather like a weak shower.

Sport

OLYMPICS 2024 – The organisers of the Olympics say the men's and women's triathlons will go ahead this morning. The events had been postponed because of concerns about pollution in the river Seine. Luxembourg’s triathlete Jeanne Lehair is competing at 7.50 this morning. The 56 female athletes will swim 1500 meters in the Seine, cycle 40km, and finally run 10km. You can watch this live on RTL.

At 11 o'clock Luxembourg’s table-tennis champion Ni Xia Lian is competing against the number one in the world, China’s Sun Yingsha.
And this afternoon, Nicolas Wagner will be in action in dressage riding. With his horse Quarter Back Junior he has to convince the jury of the perfect harmony between horse and rider. It is Wagner’s second Olympic Games after Tokyo.

In the women's team gymnastics, the US team around superstar Simone Biles secured gold ahead of Italy and Brazil. Biles electrified the crowd with a gravity-defying floor routine that featured two of her signature skills – a double back flip with a half twist and the "triple-double" of two back flips with three twists.

In the women's rugby sevens gold went to New Zealand, who beat Canada. In fencing, there was a team gold for the French women's team.

In swimming, Australian Kaylee Mc Keown won the gold medal, with a new Olympic record in the 100m backstroke. There was a first swimming gold for Ireland. World champion Daniel Wiffen was unstoppable in the men's 800m.  And Team GB won a gold medal in the men's 4 x 200m freestyle relay.

In his Olympic debut, Ralph Daleiden Ciuferri finished the freestyle qualification round with a time of 49.12 seconds, placing second in his heat but ranking 30th out of 79 swimmers, thus missing out on the semifinals.

Today, among other things, competitions will include the triathlons, rowing, BMX freestyle, swimming, and judo.

In the medal table, after the fourth day, Japan continues to lead with seven gold, two silver, and four bronze. Next is China and Australia with six gold medals each.

Weather

The heatwave continues, as the Meteolux weather alert remains in place for the whole country from 1pm until 6pm. Although the morning will be dry with scattered clouds, the weather will take a turn in the afternoon, offering up the possibility of isolated showers and thunderstorms across the country. The likelihood of storms increases as we head into the evening, with rain showers to be expected throughout the night. Some areas could see up to 15 litres of rainfall per square metre, while wind gusts could reach up to 75 km/h.

Temperatures start off at 18–20°C, rising to highs of 30–32°C by the afternoon

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