Latvia

The winner of Latvia's 'Car of the Year 2025' competition is the new Škoda Kodiaq, chosen by a jury among seven finalists; a total of 32 car models participated in this year's competition

Banks and their branches in Latvia will have to pay a solidarity contribution - 60% of excess profits - over the next three years after a new law on bank super-profits will be introduced next year

The Latvian Ministry of Defence published what it called a 'White Paper' of its spending plans for 2025, calling next year's defence budget 'the largest in Latvia's history', reaching 3,45% of gross domestic product

All passengers will be able to travel free of charge on public buses, trolley buses and trams in Riga today 18 November, Latvia's Independence Day

The annual Riga Book Festival, a gathering of readers, publishers, authors and artists, will be held at the National Library of Latvia on 8 and 9 November hosted by the LNB and the Latvian Publishers' Association with 34 publishers

In 2022, more companies were born in Latvia than those that disappeared, better than the EU average for the birth rate of companies, which was 14,3% against 10,5% of the EU, about the double of the company death rate of 7,85%, against 8,7% of the EU

The Riga International Film Festival, to be held from 17-27 October, has announced the KIDS' REEL programme, suitable for 2-14 year olds

The Rīga Stradiņš University opened its first branch outside Latvia at the Elbe Kliniken in the German city of Stade: this is the first international branch of a Baltic national university in the field of medical studies

Following an incident involving a Russian combat drone flying over Latvian territory, the National Security Council decided to update and improve procedures for more effective action in the event of a security threat from unmanned aerial vehicles

Attempts to disrupt the functioning of Latvian websites continue, and last week there was another wave of attacks, which, however, in most cases only succeeded in slowing down the functioning of various pages, not blocking them completely

Residents of the village of Tirza are protesting against the planned felling of more than 20 apple trees as part of the road improvement works, demanding that the fruit trees be spared and sending letters to both Latvian highways and President Rinkēvičs

The reliability of trains in Latvia has improved since the beginning of the year, with problems with train services less frequent and train punctuality averaging 98%; in July, however, over 400 journeys were cancelled due to severe storms