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

Luxembourg 

PALESTINE RECOGNITION – Luxembourg and 14 other Western nations have issued a joint statement following a conference in New York, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, calling on countries worldwide to move to recognise a Palestinian state. Luxembourg Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel reaffirmed that a lasting political resolution, grounded in the two-state solution, remains the only viable path to a just and enduring peace.

SPUERKEESS FINED – Spuerkeess has been fined almost €5 million by the Financial Sector Supervisory Commission (CSSF) for shortcomings in its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing controls. The fine is believed to be in connection to the financial fraud case at Caritas.

ALZETTE RESCUE – The police and rescue services were called to Clausen yesterday evening after reports of a man in the Alzette. It was later confirmed that the man had jumped into the water. The man was pulled from the river and taken into care.

World

PALESTINE RECOGNITION – Canada has followed France and the UK with a plan to recognise the Palestinian state, making Canada the third G7 country to make such an announcement in recent days.

GAZA WAR – At least 30 people were killed and hundreds wounded after Israeli forces reportedly opened fire on a crowd waiting for aid yesterday. The UN is warning that limited humanitarian pauses are failing to prevent deaths from hunger.

TSUNAMI WARNING – Millions of people have returned home as tsunami warnings in the Pacific regions have been lifted. A powerful undersea earthquake off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula triggered tsunami alerts across the region yesterday, forcing evacuations in multiple countries and sparking widespread fears of coastal flooding. But fears of a catastrophe were not realised, with country after country lifting or downgrading warnings and telling coastal residents they could return.

EUROZONE ECONOMY – The eurozone economy unexpectedly expanded in the second quarter of 2025, official data showed yesterday, despite international trade tensions clouding the global outlook.  Since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, he has hit the EU with a series of painful tariffs, but the bloc struck a deal Sunday to avert an escalating trade war.

DEEP SEA CREATURES – A Chinese submersible has discovered thousands of worms and molluscs nearly 10 kilometres below sea level in the Mariana Trench, the deepest colony of creatures ever observed. According to the scientists, the discovery in Earth's deepest underwater valley suggests that there could be much more life thriving in the hostile conditions at the bottom of our planet's largely unexplored oceans than previously thought.

Sport

RIP LAURA DAHLMEIER – Germany's Olympic biathlon champion Laura Dahlmeier has died at age 31 after being struck by falling rocks while climbing Pakistan's Laila Peak, her management confirmed yesterday, prompting tributes from across the sporting world for the celebrated athlete and mountaineer. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called Dahlmeier "an ambassador for our country around the world (and) a role model for peaceful, joyful, and fair coexistence across borders". She won seven world championship gold medals, and at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang she became the first woman biathlete to win both the sprint and the pursuit at the same Games.

SWIMMING – Leon Marchand has smashed the 200m individual medley world record in Singapore with another breathtaking swim. Racing in the semi-finals at the world championships, the Frenchman clocked 1min 52.69sec to wipe more than a second off the previous record of 1:54.00 set by Ryan Lochte in 2011. Marchand said he would go all-out for the record in the semi-finals rather than conserve his energy for today's final.

CYCLING – Mauritian Kim Le Court has become the first African to win a stage on the women's Tour de France. Le Court edged Dutch duo Demi Vollering and Anna van der Breggen after a hilly 166km ride, the longest of the Tour. Today's sixth stage is a mountainous 123.7km ride from Clermont-Ferrand to Ambert featuring three ascents.

Weather

The day will start off cloudy but dry – a situation that will worsen as the day goes on. In the evening, rain showers are possible across the country. Temperature-wise, we’re looking at 11–13°C in the morning, with highs of up to 24°C as the day progresses.

---

Be sure to catch our full bulletin on the hour, every hour, and headlines at half past the hour on Today Radio. You can also access the news via Alexa and on RTL Play.