General Information
Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, and the Russian semi-exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast to the southwest, with a maritime border with Sweden to the west. Lithuania covers an area of 65,300 km2 (25,200 sq mi), and has a population of 2.9 million. Its capital and largest city is Vilnius; other major cities include Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai and Panevėžys. Lithuanians are the titular nation, belong to the ethnolinguistic group of Balts, and speak Lithuanian.
- Population: 2,800,000+
- Area: 65,300 km²
- Coordinates: Latitude: 54.683334350586, Longitude: 25.316667556763
- Timezone: Timezone info not available
- Current Local Time: ailab
Latest Lithuania News
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Orai.lt: artimiausios paros – ramios ir su trumpu lietumi
Nusistovėjus pakankamai stabiliai sinoptinei situacijai, orai artimiausiomis paromis keisis nežymiai. Sekmadienis bus debesuotas su pragiedruliais, o trumpas lietus daugiausia pasieks vakarinius šalies rajonus. Vėjas pūs silpnas, 3–8 m/s, pietvakarių, pietų krypties, o aukščiausia oro temperatūra sekmadienio popietę pasieks 16–21 laipsnį šilumos.
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Kelyje Klaipėda–Vilnius žuvo automobilio partrenktas pėsčiasis
Raseinių rajone, kelio Klaipėda–Vilnius 157 kilometre, šeštadienio vakarą žuvo automobilio partrenktas pėsčiasis, pranešė Policijos departamentas.
BBC News
Trump's comments on a united Ireland may have targeted audience across the Atlantic
Nobody could have predicted that today's main global headline would be Trump's desire to see a unified Ireland.
BBC News
French officials investigate if malicious act caused train derailment
Officials say a rail fragment was found on the tracks after Friday's crash of a passenger train that left 44 people injured.
BBC News
US prices remain high as fuel costs squeeze household budgets
Prices in the US rose 3.4% in the 12 months to August, according to the latest official report on inflation.
BBC News
Ryanair boss O'Leary defends 'high-fare rapists' airlines remarks
O'Leary has said airline passengers "can't afford to fly with the high-fare rapists around Europe".
POLITICO
Will Lagarde bite the apple? ECB President leaves everyone guessing in Normandy
ÉPREVILLE–EN-LIEUVIN, France – As European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde shook hands and tasted oysters on the bucolic grounds of a Norman manor on Saturday, some might have seen a presidential candidate in waiting. But, Lagarde swears, there is nothing to see here. Speaking as a special guest at the Fête de la Pomme, an apple-themed political gathering organized by Normandy’s regional president Hervé Morin, Lagarde dodged questions over her involvement in the French presidential race and her early departure from the ECB — despite mounting speculation on both matters. On stage, she even encouraged reporters who made the trip to Normandy to cover her potential political comeback to pack up early, promising that they would be disappointed. But there are signs suggesting that the ECB chief, who entered into politics during the presidency of France’s apple-loving Jacques Chirac, is increasingly willing to weigh in on the campaign. While she promised to stay at least until the end of the year, Lagarde previously refused to rule out leaving before the end of her term, which ends in October 2027. Earlier this week, she announced that she would publish her first autobiography, Lady First, in January. She also waded into the French presidential debate by rejecting French far-left presidential contender Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s proposal to wipe out government debt. Her presence at the apple festival in the 15th-century Manoir de la Fortière — an unconventional locale for a central banker’s speech — might be yet another signal. Opening the event, Morin said that he tried to invite her for years but never managed to make it work. Until this year. Christine Lagarde at the Fête de la Pomme, France, on September 12, 202. | Giorgio Leali/POLITICO “Everyone is happy to have you here and I realized to what extent you have an exceptional reputation,” said Morin, who worked with Lagarde when they both served as ministers under conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy, including during the 2008 financial crisis. While Lagarde declined to say whether she would become involved in the campaign, participants to Morin’s annual political rally didn’t rule that out. “Several people mention Lagarde as a presidential candidate, but she is the only one who can answer that question,” said centrist senator Catherine Morin-Desailly. “She is a Norman, French and European figure who must, of course, play an active role in helping to shape and develop future platforms for the presidential election. Good candidates will call on her expertise, and I hope they do.” With centrist candidates Gabriel Attal and Edouard Philippe competing against each other and Bruno Retailleau, the leader of the conservative Les Républicains, also taking part in the race, the center-right side of the presidential spectrum is already crowded. For Kristina Pluchet, a senator from Les Républicains who backs Retailleau, other candidates including Christine Lagarde could very well join the race, but they should compete in a primary election. With French bond yields rising and the government led by Sébastien Lecornu struggling to cut the deficit, Lagarde’s financial résumé could prove to be an asset — although she complained to a local producer that the oysters she had during her time as the International Monetary Fund boss in Washington were washed with chlorine. The ECB President didn’t give any hint on her political future in her speech. Instead, she used repeated references to calvados, Normandy’s internationally famous apple brandy, to make the case for the benefits of EU membership. She said that calvados, which could be found on the stands of the fête, can be better exported across the world thanks to the EU’s trade policy and is protected by the bloc’s geographical indications. And, unlike calvados which can flow freely between member states without tariffs, capital and services still face internal barriers imposed by member countries, she added. “It is no surprise, then, that many of the people who want to build something new leave Europe altogether,” Lagarde said, calling for the emergence of a real capital markets union to rival the U.S.. As she walked back to a German-plated grey Mercedes S-Class, wearing a scarf with Normandy’s two-leopards flag, Lagarde stopped for selfies, but kept sidestepping questions about her future.
POLITICO
Trump says he would ‘love’ to see a united Ireland
DUBLIN — U.S. President Donald Trump waded into another age-old conflict Saturday, declaring on a golf-focused visit to Ireland that he’d like to see the island unified — the nightmare scenario for Northern Ireland’s British unionists. Sitting beside Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin after an overnight flight from Washington, Trump said he couldn’t understand why Northern Ireland — the part of the island that remained in the U.K. when the rest of Ireland won independence over a century ago — hadn’t already joined the Republic of Ireland. “I’d love to see it unified. I think it’d be great. A great feather in everybody’s cap if that happened. It’s going to happen eventually,” Trump said, gesturing to Martin, who has spent years trying behind the scenes to build better relations with unionists, to little avail. “You’ve got the right man over here to get it moving. But I think it would be a fantastic thing. Now the U.K. will have something to say about it obviously. But I think it’d be a great thing. How can it be bad?” Nearly 3,700 people were killed in three decades of bloodshed over the constitutional future of Northern Ireland, a conflict largely settled by the U.S.-brokered Good Friday accord of 1998. Crucially, that peace deal specified that Northern Ireland should stay a separate part of the U.K. as long as most voters support this — a position unchanged, according to virtually all opinion polls, in the years since. Trump’s out-of-the-blue endorsement of Irish unity spurred an immediate rejection from Northern Ireland’s main pro-British party, the Democratic Unionists, who have been the island’s main supporters of Trump’s MAGA movement. “President Trump knows better than most that elections matter,” said Democratic Unionist leader Gavin Robinson. “Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom because that is the settled democratic will of its people,” Robinson wrote on X. “As unionists we are not interested in the destruction of our country by joining with the Irish Republic.” The Protestant unionist side of the community that once commanded a firm majority in Northern Ireland has been in seemingly terminal decline. Irish nationalists on the Catholic side of the divide, by contrast, have increasingly demanded a referendum on Irish unity following Britain’s exit from the European Union — a move that made it easier for Northern Ireland to trade goods with the Republic of Ireland, an EU member country, than with the rest of the United Kingdom. The Irish republicans of Sinn Féin, which long backed Irish Republican Army violence aimed at destabilizing Northern Ireland and ending the island’s partition, seized on Trump’s words to shift political pressure back on Martin, Ireland’s prime minister. Sinn Féin today leads the cross-community government in Northern Ireland created by the IRA’s 1997 cease-fire and the 1998 peace deal. But south of the border, it remains the main opposition party — the primary parliamentary thorn in Martin’s side. “The conversation on Irish unity has shifted, and the onus is on the taoiseach to begin planning,” said Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, appealing to Martin to push much harder on the issue. She lambasted Trump as a warmonger who “must stop arming Israel” and “must stop facilitating the genocide of Palestinian people.” Sinn Féin’s moderate competition for Irish nationalist votes in Northern Ireland, the Social Democratic and Labour Party, offered a far more light-hearted welcome for Trump’s apparent endorsement of their position. SDLP leader Claire Hanna drew gasps and whoops from the audience at her party’s annual conference in Belfast when she declared: “Donald Trump in the last hour has announced that he is in favor of a united Ireland.” “Turns out he’s not as orange as he looks,” she said, referencing Trump’s facial make-up as well as the main Protestant fraternal organization in Northern Ireland, the Orange Order. Trump quickly acknowledged that his Irish unity remarks would raise eyebrows and make headlines. At a later appearance at the official residence of U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Edward Walsh, Trump led his remarks by noting he’d just told journalists that a united Ireland would “be a very cool thing.” “I gave a nice answer, I think. We’ll read about it tomorrow,” he said to laughter from the audience, which included many of Ireland’s political leaders and corporate kingpins. “There’s no good answer, right?” This article was updated.
Al Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera
Trump says he would ‘love to see’ a united Ireland during Irish visit
US President Donald Trump said he would ‘love to see’ a united Ireland.
Al Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera
Houthi projectile wounds two, damages mosque in Jazan region, Saudi says
The Houthis claim their attack targeted a Saudi military base in Sharurah.
Europe
Trump says united Ireland ‘inevitable’ and ‘a very cool thing’
Off-the-cuff remarks from US president during a visit to Ireland anger pro-UK parties
Europe
The long shadow of quantitative easing
Central bank balance sheets will stay large
France 24 - International breaking news, top stories and headlines
Saudi Arabia closes East-West pipeline as Houthis tighten grip on Red Sea
Saudi Arabia on Saturday shut down the vital East-West pipeline after the conduit came under attack in the widening Middle East war, threatening to send energy prices soaring. The 1,200-km pipeline has served as the main route out for global supplies of Middle East oil for the past six months while the Strait of Hormuz has been largely shut by war.
France 24 - International breaking news, top stories and headlines
Céline Dion makes historic Paris comeback, six years after last tour
Beloved French Canadian singer Céline Dion on Saturday returned to the stage after years battling a rare neurological disorder with a sell-out concert in an arena west of Paris. The 58-year-old appeared visibly moved as she opened her first full concert in six years to a crowd of around 30,000 people.
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Saudi Arabia condemns attack on pipeline launched from Iraq
The Saudi Foreign Ministry said on Friday that a drone attack on its East-West Pipeline was launched from Iraq, causing injuries and damage.
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Cameroon's economic capital Douala wakes up underwater after heavy rains
A large area of Douala woke up underwater following the heavy rains that struck overnight from Thursday into Friday. While the full extent of the damage remains unclear, the meteorological service is warning residents to prepare for even heavier rainfall in the coming days.