Valstybinė kultūros paveldo komisija ieško informacijos apie Lietuvai reikšmingus objektus užsienyje.

Sirija sekmadienį pranešė, kad laukia Prancūzijos prezidento Emmanuelio Macrono (Emaniuelio Makrono) vizito.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen is appealing against a verdict which found her guilty of misusing EU funds.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the target is key infrastructure "that generates revenue for Russia's war".

Employers are being urged to use their "common sense" to allow staff to work flexibly where they can.

Wedding lists are being replaced by cash requests, but guests are divided over how much to give.

VIENNA — The top brass of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe huddled in the Austrian capital this weekend to celebrate ALDE’s 50th anniversary — and debate how to face the far-right surge. The gathering in Vienna served as an opportunity for national parties — including Austria’s NEOS, the Netherlands’ D66, Belgium’s Reformist Movement, Romania’s USR and Germany’s FDP — to schmooze and scheme in the grand ballrooms of the Habsburg’s Hofburg Imperial Palace while debating current topics like social media restrictions, EU institutional reform, and the single market’s competitiveness. So who’s up in the liberals’ world, and who’s down? POLITICO reads the runes. WINNERS — Valérie Hayer Renew Europe leader Valérie Hayer was one of the biggest winners of the congress, quietly launching her campaign for reelection this autumn — despite not even belonging to ALDE. French President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance has always refused to join the European liberal party, yet it has led the European Parliament’s liberal group for years. Every leadership race revives the same question inside ALDE: Should the French lose the job? This year was no different. But despite the grumbling, few expect change. French MEP Valérie Hayer speaks at the congress of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE) on July 3, 2026 in Vienna. | Hans Klaus Techt/APA/AFP via Getty Images “She is doing a good job, there’s no appetite for change, and there’s also no real challenger,” said one MEP granted anonymity to speak freely. The only name mentioned was Sophie Wilmès, Belgium’s former prime minister and current European Parliament vice president. But neither she nor her party leader, Georges-Louis Bouchez, attended the congress. — Rob Jetten’s ego Rob Jetten may not have made it to the congress because of political turmoil back home, but he was still its biggest talking point. Still riding high off D66’s sweeping election victory in October, the Dutch prime minister embodied the optimism Europe’s liberals had been searching for after years of electoral setbacks — earning him ALDE’s Liberal of the Year award. His campaign against the far right, built around positive messaging and broad promises of a better future, became the dominant theme in Vienna. “We’re liberals because we believe change is possible,” Jetten said in a video message. “Authoritarians can sell fear, populists can sell anger, but we liberals, we can offer progress … the kind that makes people’s lives safer, freer and more prosperous.” Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten speaks to the media during the weekly press conference following the Council of Ministers, in The Hague on July 3, 2026. | Bart Maat/ANP/AFP via Getty Images Jetten’s victory also strengthened the socially liberal camp, which sees liberalism as about more than free markets, placing equal emphasis on civil rights, climate action and progressive social policies. D66, the U.K. Liberal Democrats and Progressive Slovakia all won vice presidencies, while Belgium’s liberals, backed by the party’s more classic market-oriented wing, lost out. MEP Svenja Hahn was reelected ALDE president, but none of the adopted resolutions reflected the German FDP-led camp’s push for sweeping deregulation. — The party’s donors Amid dozens of side events at the congress, only a few were held behind closed doors and by invitation only, including two “stakeholder roundtables” bringing together senior party officials and liberal MEPs with executives from companies that also happen to be ALDE’s biggest corporate donors. One session on Friday — “strengthening Europe’s pharmaceutical attractiveness” — included top executives of the EU-wide pharma association (EFPIA), Eli Lilly, Amgen and Bristol Myers Squibb, according to a guest list seen by POLITICO. A second session the following day — “made in Europe” — featured executives from the same three companies, joined by Vodafone. So far in 2026, Eli Lilly, Bristol Myers Squibb and Amgen have each donated €18,000 to ALDE. Eli Lilly logo on modern glass office building facade with partly cloudy sky, South San Francisco, California, October 16, 2025. | Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images “Our relationships with corporate stakeholders are governed by fully transparent agreements and comply with the EU rules applicable to all European political parties,” said Elena Linczenyiova, ALDE’s head of communications. “Dialogue between policymakers and stakeholders is a normal and legitimate part of the democratic process.” LOSERS — Kristen Michal and social media Estonia’s Prime Minister Kristen Michal was left with egg on his face after a majority of delegates backed a resolution calling for a minimum age for access to social media. The vote exposed one of the deepest divides within Europe’s liberal family, with 59 percent of delegates supporting the proposal and 38 percent opposing it. The issue dominated closed-door discussions throughout the congress. The split was on full display during a joint press conference with Michal and Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger, who also leads NEOS. “People need the skills to cope and also the most important is to retain the critical thinking,” said Michal, whose Reform Party opposes a ban and instead focuses on educating minors. Estonia’s Prime Minister Kristen Michal attends the 50th congress of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party on July 4, 2026 in Vienna. | Max Slovencik/APA/AFP via Getty Images Meinl-Reisinger’s party disagrees, and Austria’s government is preparing to introduce a ban while seeking to protect users’ privacy. “We have to make sure that this doesn’t lead to the end of anonymity in social media,” she said. — The Lib Dems Every ALDE congress is another reminder for the staunchly pro-EU U.K. Liberal Democrats that, after Brexit, they are no longer fully part of the club. “For them, every congress is a therapy session,” quipped one participant from an EU party. This year’s congress delivered another blow. Delegates approved reforms cutting the voting rights of non-EU parties and barring them from ALDE’s top leadership, implementing a new EU law designed to curb the risk of foreign interference in European parties that influence Brussels politics and policy. — Real debate This was a feel-good congress, with largely consensual resolutions on issues the party has long agreed on: backing Ukraine, defending the rule of law, reforming the EU, and boosting competitiveness and European technological sovereignty. Speeches were heavy on vague rhetoric — “reform,” “renewal” and “the future” — but light on hard debates, leaving some delegates frustrated as Europe’s far right continues to surge, topping the polls in countries including Germany, Austria, Romania and the Netherlands. “We need more tactical strategy planning, to talk about what we disagree on, what works and what doesn’t with voters — I already know the broad slogans,” said a senior attendee from a national party.

President Donald Trump has recast a generations-old transatlantic alliance built on shared democratic values into a framework he’s more comfortable dealing with — a business. He’s persuaded NATO members to turbocharge their own defense spending and to invest heavily in American arms for Ukraine. This week, at the annual meeting of alliance leaders, the U.S. president will again turn the focus into how much Europeans can spend on American military equipment. The shift, which reflects the administration’s increasingly transactional approach to some of America’s closest allies, risks muscling out discussions about how to expand membership or defend NATO’s eastern flank against Russia. And it has strained the bonds that once kept the group intact — turning the alliance into one shaped more by national interest than shared ideals. “Europe is still dependent on the U.S. for a while,” said a European diplomat. “It is therefore not in our interest to pick fights. But we also need to make the U.S. understand in assertive ways that Europe is not [to be taken] for granted, that we have our interests, too.” Matt Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, emphasized the economic aspect of this year’s summit, which will take place in Ankara, Turkey, on July 7 and 8. Washington “is welcoming European efforts to increase defense production and reduce regulations,” he told reporters days before the forum. “But we certainly do not support the protectionist language that oftentimes many European defense initiatives have included. That’s one area that may come up during the summit, and that we expect that we can come to some agreement on.” Whitaker praised allies for having committed nearly $120 billion in defense spending over the past year, with half of it on American-made equipment, and called it a “good start.” That investment is significantly higher than last year’s summit, where allies crowed about the extra $90 billion they had invested. It follows Trump’s demand that allies boost their defense spending from 2 percent of GDP to 5 percent or risk losing U.S. support. The president has repeatedly threatened to leave the alliance if countries do not follow through. And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has tied higher defense spending with the faster sale of U.S. arms to allies. That business-first attitude has, to some degree, spanned each of Trump’s six annual summits across his two terms. But it has become increasingly clear as the president floats seizing Greenland, wavers on U.S. support for Ukraine and slaps harsh tariffs on NATO members. The approach also pulls from the Trump playbook of demanding that the world buy American, without much in the way of reciprocal trade agreements. Europe is playing the game — at least for now. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, in a visit to Washington last month, said European investments support 110,000 American jobs through $300 billion in orders for U.S. arms. And the United Kingdom and Germany, days before the summit, announced plans to produce U.S. weapons in their countries under license. “The secretary general wants to make the summit into a deal-making event where companies announce collaborations,” said a second European diplomat, who like others was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic. “If Trump sees the defense industry event as positive, then he may also consider the Ankara summit and hopefully NATO as a positive thing.” European officials concede they won’t be able to come up with anything nearly as dramatic in Ankara as they did at last year’s summit in The Hague. But they point to plans to announce deals worth billions of dollars, along with a defense industry forum that will take place alongside the summit. “We want to get in there, make our spending and security pledges and get out before anything goes wrong,” said a third European diplomat. “We need to do it for our own security, but also obviously, there is another element to it.” The White House and Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment. But Trump on Thursday decried countries such as Germany for not doing their part financially. “The United States spends more money on NATO than any other country, by far, to protect them, without getting any benefit from so doing,” he wrote on social media. NATO members have felt particularly stiff-armed in recent months after Trump surprised NATO allies with announcements of troop pullouts from Germany and canceled deployments to Poland. Europe also remains on edge over the Ukraine war and Russia’s forays closer to NATO’s eastern edge. Leaders are grappling with how the continent will defend itself with an America that is less interested in sacrificing blood and treasure on the continent. The Pentagon is expected to cancel a plan to send Tomahawk missiles to Germany, partly because officials are concerned Russia will view it as an escalation, leaving Berlin with few answers for its pressing long-range weapons needs. The Defense Department this year also moved two offices that have traditionally handled foreign military sales under its acquisition and sustainment shop. The move is part of a wider reorganization meant to prioritize defense exports and encourage countries to buy American equipment. The administration has, in recent weeks, made even more clear its desire to refashion the alliance. Hegseth delivered a browbeating to NATO defense ministers last month in Brussels, criticizing Europe’s political culture and warning officials the U.S. was reconsidering its military footprint on the continent. He also said the Pentagon has launched a review of troops stationed there. NATO is little more than a “paper-tiger” that maintains an “unhealthy codependence” on U.S. forces, the Pentagon chief said. He complained that allies didn’t help the U.S. in the Iran war, although they were neither briefed on it beforehand nor asked for assistance until Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, which about 20 percent of the world’s oil passes through. The alliance “needs to go back to a real hard-line military alliance,” he said. One “that has real military capabilities capable of deterring right here on the continent and taking the lead for the conventional defense of Europe.”

Separatist Tuareg-led group and regional al-Qaeda affiliate have claimed responsibility for attacks on army positions.

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Over the weekend, the Palace of Versailles celebrated the 250th anniversary of American Independence with a historical re-enactment. The French government provided covert support to US states to help them obtain independence from the British.

France is through to the round of 16 after a fierce battle with Paraguay. Paraguay sat in a low block and tried to frustrate les Bleus, often committing bad fouls, all of which went unpunished. Kylian Mbappé scored the only goal of the game, converting a penalty. Morocco were slightly stunned by Canada in the first half of their game in Houston, unfortunately, the Canucks were unable to keep the pressure going and conceded the first goal of the fixture just after half time. Last minute risks did not pay off for the co-hosts who suffered two more goals at the hands of the Atlas Lions. That 3-0 win means that Morocco will face France in the quarter finals, a dramatic remake of the 2022 World Cup.

President Donald Trump's speech included soaring rhetoric on American exceptionalism and warnings about the threat of communism.

Al Qaeda ‌affiliate, Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin, and the Tuareg-led Azawad Liberation Front have claimed responsibility.