Archive
Every section, ordered by publication date. 509 stories in the archive.
Administrative cases at first instance took an estimated 720 days in Luxembourg in 2024, up from 479 a year earlier. The European Commission says delays rose throughout the court system even as its backlog remained among the EU’s lowest.
The United States struck bridges, an airport and port facilities in southern Iran. Tehran retaliated against Gulf countries hosting US forces, damaging a Kuwaiti power and desalination plant.
Luxembourg has unveiled seven measures to restart residential construction, including €300 million for state purchases, higher buyer support and new tax incentives. Most elements still require legislation and will be monitored for price effects.
French MPs approved a legal right to assisted dying by 291 votes to 241. The bill sets strict medical and residency conditions and now faces constitutional review before it can enter into force.
Luxembourg’s parliament has extended Klimabonus Wunnen for eligible energy renovations through 2035. The reform changes how technical installations are subsidised and prepares upfront financing for heat pumps from 2027.
The EU has finally adopted its first major revision of air-passenger rights since 2004. From 2027, travellers flying from Luxembourg will gain clearer claims procedures, fare transparency and new protections without losing the three-hour compensation threshold.
Austria's defence minister, Klaudia Tanner, announced in Luxembourg on Monday that Vienna intends to buy secure communications capacity on GovSat-2, the Grand Duchy's €301 million military satellite. It is the first foreign partner for the project, and the two ministers signed a broader letter of intent on defence cooperation.
A person who died without heirs left roughly €400 million to the Luxembourg state, Finance Minister Gilles Roth confirmed while presenting the half-year public accounts. The windfall almost exactly covers the €432.5 million tripartite relief package voted on 9 July — and flatters a budget that would otherwise show a far deeper deficit.
EU foreign ministers failed on Monday to agree any new measure against Israel over Gaza and the West Bank, splitting over whether a ban on settlement trade needs unanimity or a qualified majority. Luxembourg's Xavier Bettel told RTL he was 'at my wit's end'.
Japan's National Intelligence Agency begins work this month — the country's first centralised spy service since the Second World War, with about 700 staff and FBI backing. The launch comes as a New York Times investigation exposes a Russian military-intelligence unit procuring missile and drone components from Aeroflot's Tokyo office.
President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Sunday that Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko will step down as part of a sweeping renewal of Ukraine’s government and law-enforcement leadership, less than a year after she took office. She is widely tipped to become Kyiv’s next ambassador to the United States.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard declared the Strait of Hormuz closed “until further notice” on Saturday after firing on the Cyprus-flagged container ship GFS Galaxy, leaving one crew member missing. Within hours, US forces began a third round of strikes on Iran this week — burying the ceasefire agreed in June and putting a fifth of the world's oil back at risk.
At least 12 people have been killed and more than 20 are missing after a wildfire swept through hills near Los Gallardos in Spain's Almería province. Most of the dead were foreign holidaymakers and residents, including British and Belgian nationals, many overtaken as they fled along a dry riverbed while flames driven by extreme heat and wind bore down on them.
Luxembourg's government has presented a single national building regulation to replace the roughly 100 separate codes its communes each maintain. The rulebook, due in force on 1 January 2028, standardises construction requirements and aims to shorten planning procedures by months, part of a wider push to build more housing faster.
Jens Kreisel, rector of the University of Luxembourg since 2023, will not seek a second mandate and will leave office at the end of 2027. His decision comes as the Grand Duchy's only public university is shaken by harassment allegations, a ministerial intervention and three separate audits into its governance.
As Luxembourg's environment ministry prepares to rule on the permit for Google's long-delayed data centre in Bissen, the country's largest green group is threatening to challenge any approval in the administrative courts over its energy, water and transparency concerns.
Luxembourg's Chamber of Deputies on 9 July approved subsidies on motor fuel, gas, electricity and heating oil for households and businesses, part of a €432.5 million tripartite package prompted by an oil-price shock from the Strait of Hormuz. Opponents backed the aid but criticised its cost and its late start.
Luxembourg's Chamber of Deputies voted 42 to 18 on Wednesday to widen police powers to remove people from public places, allowing 48-hour bans within a one-kilometre radius and 30-day municipal bans for repeat cases. The reinforced Platzverweis passed over objections from the human rights commission, the Council of State and the courts.
UniCredit said on Wednesday that its takeover offer for Commerzbank had lifted the stake it can oversee to 47.6%, even though only about 1% of the German bank's free-float investors tendered shares. Berlin, holding roughly 12%, still refuses to sell, and the European Central Bank must now decide whether the Italian lender counts as being in control.
The Paris Court of Appeal on 7 July upheld Marine Le Pen's conviction for misusing European Parliament funds but shortened her ban from public office, allowing her to run in France's 2027 presidential election. She declared her candidacy the same evening and said she would appeal to the Cour de Cassation.
Luxembourg's public prosecutor has carried out a fresh round of searches at the Immigration Directorate and the Ministry of Research and Higher Education in a sprawling case in which more than 200 third-country nationals allegedly obtained residence rights and social benefits with forged documents. Twenty-five people have been charged since the inquiry opened in 2023.
NATO's 32 leaders opened a two-day summit in Ankara on Tuesday, chaired by Mark Rutte and hosted by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, under pressure from Donald Trump to lift defence spending toward a new five-percent target. The gathering convened hours after Russian missiles and drones killed at least 16 people in Kyiv.
The Philippine Senate convened as an impeachment court on 6 July 2026 to try Vice-President Sara Duterte on charges of misusing public funds, amassing unexplained wealth and threatening to have President Marcos killed. A conviction, requiring 16 of 24 senators, would remove her and could end her expected 2028 presidential run.
Luxembourg's national railway, the CFL, will close its busiest cross-border line, between Luxembourg and Thionville, from 16 July to 23 August 2026 for track works, forcing tens of thousands of French commuters onto replacement buses. The TGV to Paris is suspended for much of the summer too.