Family doctors in Latvia are considering going on strike in autumn 2023, LETA reports. Speaking in an interview with TV3, Ainis Dzalbs, board member of the Latvian Association of Rural Family Physicians (LLGAA), insisted that the lack of budget funding made it impossible to provide proper patient care. He noted that patient queues currently exceeded…
The number of foreign citizens living in Lithuania totalled 195,500 at the end of the first half of 2023, which was an increase of more than 6,000 from 189,411 in the beginning of 2023, according to the Lithuanian Migration Department (LMD), BNS reports. Foreigners accounted for 6.83% of the total population, which was up from…
Latvian municipalities will be able to organise their school networks in accordance with the financing available, Education Minister Anda Caksa stated, LETA reports. Speaking in an interview with TV3, Caksa said that any school closures were for the municipalities to decide. Under the Education Ministry’s proposal, schools in cities will have to have at least…
An increasing number of Lithuanian emigrants are considering going back, according to a poll carried out by the Employment Service (UzT) in May 2023, LRT reports. The survey showed that 55.1% of respondents would like to return to Lithuania, which is 14.6 percentage points higher than in 2020. The majority of those who wish to…
Police in Estonia’s capital, Tallinn, briefly detained Ukrainian journalist Arkady Babchenko after he threw eggs at the Russian embassy in Tallinn’s Old Town, ERR reports. Babchenko told Postimees that he threw four eggs at the embassy building, and that the motive “should be obvious.” Such a reaction to Russian aggression in Ukraine was natural, he…
A Lithuanian family who abducted their children from temporary foster care are linked to the so-called “sovereign citizen movement” (SovCits), according to the State Security Department (VSD), LRT reports. VSD said that the SovCits are guided by an “anti-state extremist ideology” that denies the legitimacy of the state. The children were taken into foster care…
Estonia’s capital, Tallinn, received 82% of the average rainfall for July in less than 24 hours on 25 July 2023, BNS reports. According to Harku weather station data, 67.3 mm of rain fell on Tallinn, whereas the average amount of rain in the city is 82 mm in July. The heavy rain was caused by…
The European Commission (EC) has criticised Estonia and Lithuania for failing to transpose an EU directive on the rights of child suspects properly into national legislation, BNS reports. The EC opened an infringement procedure by sending a formal notice for failure to transpose the EU directive on procedural safeguards for children suspected or accused of…
Around 400 bicycles have been reported stolen in Estonia so far in 2023, ERR reports. Reported thefts in Harjumaa county number 300, which is 70% more than a year earlier. Kaido Atspol, detective at the East Harjumaa Police Department, said that most cases of bicycle theft took place in central Tallinn. Owners usually buy new…
