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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Kėdainiuose ir Šiauliuose pavogti trys dviračiai, Rokiškio rajone – telefonas
Kėdainiuose policija pradėjo tyrimą dėl dviejų dviračių vagystės, tuo metu Šiauliuose praėjusią parą taip pat pavogtas dviratis, o Rokiškio rajone – telefonas.
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Ukrainos atstatymo konferencijoje Lenkijoje Kyjivas užsitikrino daugiau kaip 10 mlrd. eurų paramą
Lenkijoje vykusioje Ukrainos atkūrimo konferencijoje Kyjivas užsitikrino daugiau nei 10 mlrd. eurų tarptautinės paramos ir investicinių susitarimų, penktadienį paskelbė portalas „TVP World“.
BBC News
Europe's deadly heatwave breaks German record and halts public events
Germany's highest ever temperature of 41.3C is recorded provisionally in Saarbrücken, over the border from France.
BBC News
Christmas market attacker jailed for life for murdering six in Germany
A nine-year-old and five women were killed when Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen drove into the market in 2024.
BBC News
Trump threatens 100% tariff on European nations over tech tax
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BBC News
Three unusual things about the King's tax bill
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POLITICO
Trump administration partially lifts Anthropic’s AI export ban
The Trump administration on Friday partially rescinded its export ban on Anthropic’s most advanced artificial intelligence model — deescalating a confrontation that has caused confusion across the American AI industry. The release clears the way for a select group of more than 100 companies and agencies to gain access to the Mythos 5 model, two weeks after the administration imposed restrictions amid fears that the software could be used to launch cyberattacks. But a second advanced Anthropic model, called Fable 5, remains blocked. Meanwhile, pressure from the White House led Anthropic’s leading competitor, OpenAI, to limit the release of its most advanced model this week because of similar cyber concerns. The series of back-and-forth actions on AI, from an administration that has promised to unleash American companies to dominate the technology, has caused concerns in the industry about how heavy a hand President Donald Trump plans to take in overseeing what kinds of products U.S. developers can release to the market. It’s been less than four weeks since Trump signed an executive order rejecting mandatory federal controls on AI, instead asking leading tech companies to submit new models to a voluntary government review before making them widely available. Conversations between Anthropic and the administration are expected to continue through the weekend on restoring access to Fable, according to a person who was granted anonymity to describe the private discussions. The conversations have also focused on determining a standardized framework to evaluate cases of suspected security bypasses in the future, the person said, beyond just addressing the recent episode. POLITICO reported last week on discussions of a technical assessment that would create ground rules for these kinds of disputes. “Since the issuance of my June 12 letter, Anthropic has worked with the U.S. government to address risks associated with the Covered Models,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick wrote in a Friday letter to Anthropic’s chief compute officer Tom Brown, obtained by POLITICO. “These efforts have yielded significant progress.” Semafor first reported on the new letter Friday night. Anthropic, which has disputed the concerns about its cyber controls, issued a statement later Friday welcoming the administration’s turnabout.“We received notice from the U.S. government that Mythos 5, our strongest cybersecurity model, can be redeployed to a small group of cyber defenders and infrastructure providers,” the company said. “We are working to provision the approved set of providers and restore their access to Mythos 5 as quickly as possible. We are pleased to see this progress and continue to work with the government to expand access to Mythos 5 and make Fable 5 available for general use again.” But others across the industry have expressed a desire for more clarity about the administration’s long-term intentions. Those included OpenAI, which announced Friday that, at the administration’s request, it is making only a limited release of three versions of its new GPT‑5.6 model. “We don’t believe this kind of government access process should become the long-term default,” OpenAI said in a blog post Friday. “It keeps the best tools from users, developers, enterprises, cyber defenders, and global partners who need them.” Friday’s reversal on Mythos came after Anthropic staff and senior White House officials met over the last two weeks to discuss ways to defuse the dispute, including technical questions about whether the company had done enough to prevent its AI products from being used to launch cyberattacks. The action allows the company to restore access to its Mythos 5 models to a list of more than 100 “trusted partners,” including companies and federal agencies approved by the government, an administration official familiar with the move granted anonymity to discuss it said. “In just two weeks, we have worked diligently to ensure America remains the global leader in AI while safeguarding our security,” said Benno Kass, a Commerce Department spokesperson. The administration had slapped the export restrictions on Fable and Mythos, banning their use by foreign nationals, after a series of tense calls with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei about whether the company’s safety guardrails were as solid as promised. Anthropic then announced it was cutting off access “for all our customers to ensure compliance” — while insisting that “we believe this is a misunderstanding.” Amodei and Trump later sat across from each other during a G7 lunch with allied leaders and AI executives last week in Évian-les-Bains, France. The administration’s frantic effort to address the safety issue raised a host of questions about how it would deal with future security concerns in the rapidly evolving AI industry, as well as whether Trump’s aides were unfairly singling out Anthropic after previous clashes with the company. It also left U.S. allies in Europe and Canada abruptly unable to use the new Anthropic models to identify and patch their own cybersecurity vulnerabilities, renewing calls for the EU to lessen its reliance on American technology. Meanwhile, reports of rapid advances in Chinese AI technology have raised worries across the industry about whether U.S. companies will lose their competitive advantage while waiting for administration approvals.
POLITICO
Trump administration asks high court to OK its unprecedented immigration detention policy
The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to bless its massive expansion of ICE detention — a policy that federal district courts have overwhelmingly rejected. Solicitor General John Sauer is urging the justices to resolve whether people residing in the U.S. without incident for years — sometimes decades — may be subject to mandatory ICE detention while their deportation proceedings play out. It’s a fight that could determine the fate of millions of people, and it could also help define the reach of due process rights for those accused of being in the country illegally. The U.S. Justice Department is asking the justices to sign off on a policy that has been overwhelmingly rejected by federal district court judges across the country, who have described it as a draconian violation of the law and constitutional due process rights. Judges have delivered more than 9,300 rulings against the administration’s unprecedented policy, which targets people who have resided in the U.S. for years and requires them to be detained without the opportunity for a bond hearing while their deportation proceedings are underway. Despite the lopsided result in district courts, Sauer described an “untenable divide” at the appeals court level. Five appellate circuits have ruled on the issue, breaking 3-2 against the administration. A divide among appeals courts typically makes the Supreme Court more likely to intervene. The matter is still pending in another six circuits and could result in additional rulings at any moment. The Trump administration is appealing a ruling of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, which rejected the administration’s approach last month and also found people subject to the administration’s new view of mandatory detention have a constitutional due process right to a bond hearing. “Especially given the volume of cases involved, this Court should grant review and resolve this case as swiftly as practicable,” Sauer wrote in a brief urging the court to take up the issue. The result of the administration’s new policy, adopted on July 8, 2025, has been a tsunami of emergency lawsuits filed by people swept up by the new policy. Those cases have inundated courts in every corner of the country, straining the judiciary, inflaming tensions between judges and the Justice Department, and exposing ruptures between DOJ lawyers and their counterparts at ICE. The cases have spiked amid enforcement crackdowns like Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota and Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago, which have coincided with broader, sometimes violent encounters between anti-ICE demonstrators and law enforcement. Since Congress updated immigration laws 30 years ago, the modern system has required detention primarily for people apprehended crossing the border or soon after. Those with established roots in the country — often with spouses and children who are U.S. citizens — have been afforded bond hearings in immigration court, a chance to prove they can live safely in their communities while their deportation proceedings pend for months or years. But the Trump administration adopted an unprecedented reinterpretation of the law, treating people apprehended anywhere in the country — no matter how long they’ve lived here — as though they had just crossed the border, subjecting them to mandatory detention without bond. At its essence, the fight is over what it means to “seek admission” to the U.S.. Immigration law labels nearly anyone who arrives in the country without permission as an “applicant for admission.” And it says any “applicant for admission” who is “seeking admission” to the country must be detained without bond. Most judges who have rejected the administration’s approach say the phrase “seeking admission” underscores that the policy was meant to apply to border crossers, as opposed to those in the interior of the country who are no longer “seeking” to get inside. Each of the last five presidential administrations — including Trump’s first — viewed the law this way, they note. And the Supreme Court, in a 2018 ruling by Justice Samuel Alito, described the availability of bond hearings as the “default” rule for “aliens already present in the United States.” But the Justice Department contends that the phrase “seeking admission” is a largely superfluous description of “applicant for admission,” drawing no distinction between people arriving at the border and those who crossed it years earlier. And DOJ attorneys argued Friday in a letter to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that the Supreme Court may have tipped its hand in the Trump administration’s favor with a ruling Thursday in a case about the administration’s policy on asylum for people arriving at the border.
Al Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera
Who profits from Africa’s gold?
African governments seek greater control over gold, but much of its value continues to flow abroad.
Al Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera
Belgium reach World Cup knockouts as New Zealand exit tournament
A double strike from Arsenal's Leandro Trossard against New Zealand carried Belgium to top of Group G, ahead of Egypt.
Europe
Turkey launches security crackdown ahead of Nato summit
Activists have been arrested, journalist accreditations denied and public assemblies banned before July meeting
Europe
Baltic states urge EU to speed up ban on Russian oil imports
Talks about the phaseout stalled after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz sparked concerns of an energy supply crisis
France 24 - International breaking news, top stories and headlines
Belgium, Egypt into World Cup last 32 as Iran face anxious wait after stoppage-time drama
Iran were deprived of a certain place in the World Cup knockout phase when a goal in stoppage time that would have given them a 2-1 win against Egypt was disallowed. The draw means the Pharaohs advance to the last 32 along with Belgium, who demolished New Zealand 5-1 to clinch top spot in Group G.
France 24 - International breaking news, top stories and headlines
World Cup: Dembélé reacts to scoring first hat-trick for France
Ousmane Dembélé scored a magnificent hat-trick on Friday, his first with Les Bleus, as France beat Norway 4-1 to finish top of Group I. Here's what the striker said when asked if this was his best ever performance with France
Africanews RSS
Cape Verde makes history, Iran left waiting & Senegal shatters records
Cape Verde is through to the World Cup knockout stage in its tournament debut. A 0-0 draw with Saudi Arabia sealed an incredible run after holding Spain national football team and Uruguay national football team earlier in the group.
Africanews RSS
Frozen feasts and cool pools help Rome zoo animals survive heatwave
As a severe heatwave grips Italy, Rome's Bioparco is helping its animals stay cool with frozen treats, chilled pools and climate-controlled shelters while the capital remains under a red heat alert.