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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Prie Danijos krantų – Rusijos karo laivai ir superjachta, kuri, tikėtina, priklauso Putinui
Pirmadienį pro Daniją praplaukė trijų Rusijos laivų konvojus. Tarp jų, pasak pranešimų, ir laivas „Graceful“, kuris laikomas asmenine Kremliaus šeimininko Vladimiro Putino superjachta. Laivas pirmą kartą nuo 2022 m. įjungė atsakiklį, rašo danų žiniasklaida.
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Sinoptikė: jau netrukus Lietuvą užklups audringesnis ciklonas, bus vėsūs ir lietingi orai
Sinoptikė Elvyra Latvėnaitė savo „Facebook“ paskyroje dalijasi artimiausi dienų orų prognoze.
BBC News
Sixth person dies after shooting at youth welfare centre in Germany
Four women and a man were shot dead at the scene while a sixth person died in hospital, police say.
BBC News
Eleven killed after plane carrying skydivers crashes in eastern France
The pilot and 10 passengers - including five first-time parachutists - died in the incident, local officials said.
BBC News
Burnham's 'Manchesterism' could change the UK, but is not yet a full economic plan
Andy Burnham's speech depicted a different way of seeing and running the UK, though there are many other questions about the detail.
BBC News
Supreme Court blocks Trump's attempt to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook
The decision, seen as a win for central bank independence, sends the fight over removal back to the lower courts.
POLITICO
German politicians vow to stop VW’s mass layoff plan
BERLIN — German political leaders are responding to Volkswagen’s bombshell plan to slash 100,000 jobs — potentially one of the largest corporate layoffs in history — with predictable pledges to prevent the cuts, even as Germany’s economic reality grows darker. That sets up a clash between VW’s increasingly aggressive corporate management and the politicians and unions that sit on the automaker’s supervisory board — and who have the power to block the plans. It’s a fight that ties the survival of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s ever-more-unpopular coalition government to Germany’s increasingly bleak and potentially inescapable economic reality. VW’s push to cut nearly one in six workers and shut down four German plants is the most poignant sign yet of the growing desperation of Germany’s manufacturing sector and its once-vaunted car industry, which have been hit particularly hard by competition from China and U.S President Donald Trump’s tariff wars. The plan also shows that the problems inside Germany’s largest and most iconic automaker are even deeper than previously acknowledged — and that Chief Executive Oliver Blume is growing more forceful in his push to restructure the company and cut costs. Leaders of the parties in Merz’s coalition vow to resist the plan, and because Lower Saxony — home to VW’s headquarters in the city of Wolfsburg — is the company’s second-largest voting shareholder, they have considerable power to try to stop it. “The primary goal is to preserve the production sites of German manufacturers and to safeguard jobs,” Stefan Kornelius, Merz’s spokesperson, said Monday. The news of VW’s plan to cut 100,000 jobs, first reported Friday by Germany’s Manager Magazin and expected to be presented to VW’s supervisory board in July, could hardly have come at a worse time for Merz’s weak coalition government — consisting of the chancellor’s conservatives bloc and the center-left Social Democrats. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party — which has been hitting Merz’s coalition hard over the shedding of industrial jobs — holds a considerable lead over the chancellor’s conservatives in national polls — and is even further ahead in two state elections set for September in AfD strongholds in the former East Germany. “Germany’s industrial base is crumbling at a dramatic pace right before our eyes,” said Alice Weidel, one of the leaders of the AfD, in a statement on Monday. “Even long-established companies are fleeing the economic mismanagement of this federal government.” How far will VW go? Because of VW’s unique corporate structure — and its partial ownership by the state of Lower Saxony — politicians and workers’ representatives have an outsize role in how the company is run. The state, with its large number of factory laborers, is also one of the few remaining strongholds for the SPD, a party that has traditionally had close ties to labor unions. Olaf Lies, the SPD premier of Lower Saxony, sits on the supervisory board, along with the deputy state premier, Julia Willie Hamburg, a politician of the center-left Greens. Both have vowed to resist VW’s cost-cutting plans, and argue that its management instead needs a better plan to recapture lost market share. “Our task must be to ensure that we don’t seek solutions through simplistic measures like ‘We’ll lay off employees or close locations,’” Lies told public broadcaster ZDF on Sunday. “We have to be competitive; we have to be technological leaders. And we also have to be able to secure and capture markets again. And personally, that’s what I expect from the executive board of a company like this.” VW’s supervisory board would need to approve the reported layoffs and factory closures with a vote scheduled for July 9, according to the Manager Magazin report. But representatives of the workers’ side and state politicians currently hold a majority of 11 out of 19 votes on the supervisory board. It therefore appears unlikely that the proposed plans will be approved without significant amendments or the inclusion of additional safeguards for workers. The question will be how far VW’s management is willing to go in confronting politicians and trade unionists over its cost-cutting drive. One of the most potentially explosive elements of VW’s reported plan is the possible spin-off of at least parts of the company into a separate entity. Experts say management may be seeking to create a corporate structure that would give it greater freedom to decide the future of factories and jobs, without the constraints of state ownership or trade union representation. Under the current law regulating VW’s governance model, management would need a two-thirds supervisory board majority to close one of its western German factories. “It would be very radical,” Helena Wisbert, professor of automotive economics at Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, said of a possible spinoff attempt. Wisbert said such a step would be extremely difficult to pull off — in great part because the current supervisory board would have to approve a spinoff. Still, she added, if such a step were truly under consideration, “it would really show just how intense the pressure to cut costs is right now.” In an emailed statement to POLITICO sent on Friday, VW said it would “not comment on internal, confidential documents,” but added that “the entire Group — including its brands and subsidiaries — must undergo a profound transformation. To this end, the Group Executive Board has been working intensively over the past few months on a strategic plan for the company’s restructuring.” VW’s woes became clear in 2024, when management announced a plan to close three factories in Germany for the first time in the automaker’s then 87-year history. But after marathon negotiations at the end of that year — which labor unions hailed as a “Christmas miracle” — factory closures were averted. Both parties agreed that 35,000 jobs would be cut by 2030. But as the company’s outlook soured, VW announced this March it would increase job cuts to 50,000 by 2030 — an announcement met with relatively muted reaction. Now, plans to cut double that amount are facing far stiffer resistance. “As a state, we have a clear expectation that VW management will put forward a viable plan for the future,” Grant Hendrik Tonne, the SPD economy minster of the state of Lower Saxony, told POLITICO. “Plant closures are not a plan for the future and are therefore unacceptable.” Romanus Otte contributed reporting.
POLITICO
MEPs urge FIFA to investigate chief Infantino over Trump peace prize
Fifty members of the European Parliament are demanding that FIFA investigate its president, Gianni Infantino, over alleged violations of the football federation’s own political neutrality rules. In a letter obtained by POLITICO, the lawmakers express support for a complaint filed by human rights NGO FairSquare, asking FIFA’s ethics committee to look into “the decisions to introduce an annual FIFA Peace Prize and then award the prize to President Trump.” The World Cup “is supposed to unite the world,” said Renew MEP Barry Andrews, who wrote the letter. “When FIFA President Infantino favours one President over another, this brings FIFA and the whole tournament into disrepute.” “With the eyes of the world on FIFA this summer, the organisation must address FairSquare’s ethics complaint,” the letter reads. “This complaint represents an opportunity for FIFA to prove its commitment to political neutrality, transparency, and accountability.” Trump was awarded the inaugural prize by Infantino on Dec. 5, 2025. Fairsquare’s initial complaint was filed three days later. The football federation chief did not inform the FIFA Council before creating the prize, and critics saw the award as a naked attempt by the FIFA boss to ingratiate himself with the U.S. president. MEPs argue that Infantino’s public statements in favor of the U.S. president breach the federation’s statute, which states that “FIFA remains neutral in matters of politics and religion.” FIFA acknowledged receipt of the complaint in December but has not yet responded to the MEPs’ letter. FIFA did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s request for comment. Members of the European Parliament had previously blasted FIFA over its decision to award the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia, a country plagued by human rights concerns. EU lawmakers said at the time that FIFA was undermining its own principles in awarding the World Cup, a claim which a FIFA official later rebutted. “We are merely asking for the FIFA Ethics Committee to fully investigate the awarding of the inaugural FIFA Peace prize to President Trump, and to ensure that due process is done,” Andrews said.
Al Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera
‘Miracle’: Man pulled from rubble four days after Venezuelan quakes
A 21-year-old man was pulled alive from the rubble of an apartment building in La Guaira, Venezuela.
Al Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera
Undocumented migrants flee South Africa amid rising anti-immigrant protests
Thousands of undocumented migrants in South Africa are rushing to leave after anti-immigrant protests.
Europe
English cricket thrown into uncertainty by Ben Stokes’ chaotic exit
Abrupt retirement of brilliantly aggressive captain comes after tensions with sport’s hierarchy
Europe
Orbán hid half of Hungary’s budget deficit, new PM says
Péter Magyar says his predecessor ‘lied’ about 2026 shortfall of 8% of GDP
France 24 - International breaking news, top stories and headlines
What aftermath for Venezuela? Earthquake relief hampered by political crisis
Kudos to Venezuela's first responders and all the brave citizens still pulling survivors from under the rubble of the 774 buildings that collapsed in last Wednesday’s double earthquakes. Is the sudden pancaking of so many structures - structures built during the boom years of high oil prices, a tipping point for an under-sanctions nation dogged by decades of eroding services and infrastructure? The interim president of a regime in survival mode was copiously booed Saturday in Caracas as many accuse the successor of Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro of putting the security apparatus before disaster relief.
France 24 - International breaking news, top stories and headlines
Pragmatic diplomacy: Dawud Al Ansari says 'Oman is committed to de-escalation & peace in the region'
As French President Emmanuel Macron meets Sultan Haitham bin Tariq of Oman amid efforts to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East, François Picard welcomes Dawud Al Ansari, a geopolitics and energy analyst. As diplomacy in the Gulf is once again being tested by renewed military tensions, Al Ansari offers a nuanced assessment from an Omani perspective, arguing that Oman is playing an increasingly valuable strategic role.
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Senegal MPs back sweeping constitutional reform
Police fired tear gas as protesters clashed with security outside Senegal's National Assembly, where lawmakers approved a major constitutional reform that would significantly reduce presidential powers.
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Thousands flee as South Africa braces for anti-migrant deadline
Thousands of Malawians were awaiting clearance in makeshift encampments in South Africa Friday as tension mounted before an unofficial June 30 ultimatum for undocumented migrants to leave the country.