Dear Dazza, Bazza and Gazza,
Author's articles
British architect and artist David Adjaye was in Riga June 6 and 7 to present his proposed designs for a new Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art. Adjaye is one of a clutch of international architects competing for the €30m commission.
When a Latvian Prime Minister has been in office for 100 days, local media traditionally produces reports marking the occasion. There are two main reasons for this. The first is to get something on the record given the not-too-remote possibility that he or she will not last another 100 days. The second is that it is an extremely easy story to do because inevitably, not much will have happened in 100 days.
The pride of Kekava, Justs Sirmais will sing his Latvian heart out Thursday night as he battles against a selection of other European minor league tonsil-busters to win a place in the Eurovision final this weekend. Will he manage it? Read our not entirely serious account of what happened below!
It can be a great thing to go it alone. Everyone likes a plucky underdog, battling against far stronger forces. It is after all, part of the reason the Baltic states' own Singing Revolutions had such historical resonance.
As LSM has already reported, May 4 is Latvia's Restoration of Independence Day. This year in fact is 26 years since the country's official resurrection, and the powers that be are asking everyone to make a little extra effort in celebrating.
Relations with Turkey are at the forefront of European Union thinking right now for numerous reasons: NATO member Turkey's confrontation with Russia; the deal by which Turkey shoulders much of the burden of refugees fleeing Daesh from Syria and Iraq; and even in the decision of German Chancellor Angela Merkel to allow the prosecution of a comedian who satirized Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Rezekne, the Latvian town regarded as the capital of the eastern Latgale region of Latvia, took the fascinating and sometimes disturbing plunge into its Jewish history on Thursday and Friday at a groundbreaking conference.
The always controversial, unofficial March 16 parade in support of the Latvian Legion passed peacefully on Wednesday, with only one arrest made - and that of someone who clearly wanted to be arrested more than anything else.
What's the best ride in Latvia? Some might say it's careening down the Sigulda bobsled track on a sort of troika called 'Vuchko'. Others would suggest it is being hoisted into the air above Riga's Old Town and made to eat a three-course meal among non-sufferers from vertigo as part of a "dinner in the sky" experience.
Over the last few years - in fact ever since Latvia needed a massive bailout during the crisis and Estonia didn't - a popular belief has arisen that Latvia should be a lot more like Estonia. Identical if possible. Apart from the language and the flag, obviously.
OMG! LOL! WTF? Yes, get all your textspeak abbreviations ready because it's time for Latvia, the best country in Europe, if not the world, to choose its entry for Eurovision 2016. We'll bring you all the action as it happens or more accurately, a few seconds after it happens as it takes a while to type this stuff up.
One could not accuse the BBC's World War Three: Inside The War Room of understatement. From the giganto-epic title of the show (and let's give it its due as an entertainment show, not a documentary) to the high production value dramatizations of civil unrest and war crimes in Daugavpils, it certainly went for it.
On Wednesday evening the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) aired a show called World War Three: Inside The War Room. Advance publicity suggested it depicted a nuclear confrontation between Russia and the West including an invasion of Latvia.
LSM watched the show and provided a live text summary below.
A forthcoming show produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) simulates a full-scale Russian invasion of Latvia and the use of nuclear weapons in the Baltic - all for the purposes of entertainment.
With President Raimonds Vejonis recovering from a serious heart operation on January 20, there's minute examination of every release coming from the Presidential office, not only regarding his state of health but the constitutional implications of what looks certain to be an extended leave of absence.
If you were going to try your hand at influencing geopolitics, the office could not be better located, sharing the same building as the Georgian embassy, the Latvia-China Business Council and adjacent to the Ministry of Defense. From the third-floor window, the Foreign Ministry is within a snowball's throw if you have a good pitching arm.
On Tuesday evening, representatives of the three politicla parties in the outgoing coalition government met with President Raimonds Vejonis to discuss options for the country's next prime minister.
"From morning to evening they killed those whom they found, both women and children, together with three hundred of the better men and leaders of that province, not counting innumerable others."
It's that time of the year again when news publications produce their predictions for the coming twelve months in a desperate bid to pad out their pages. But LSM decided to break ranks and get detailed and reliable prophecies from world-renowned astrologer Isaac Bickerstaff. He looked at his crystal ball and tarot cards in a special and surpisingly affordable 'consultation' and here's what he says the stars have in store for Latvia in 2016!
It's more than a week since Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma informed Latvia she would in future prefer to be referred to as 'former' Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma, and several months since everyone else prophesied the fact.
The ground-breaking 'Esi Pats' (Be Yourself) online virtual museum has opened a brand new English-language site, telling the stories of child deportees to Siberia via video, audio and other means.
Dana Narvaiša's cellphone keeps buzzing - and it's hardly surprising after the young teacher from Cesis was named one of the top educators in the world, with congratulations pouring in from friends and colleagues.
Western media and the general public should stop calling Islamist terrorists in Syria and Iraq 'Islamic State' and instead refer to them as 'Daesh', experts at NATO's dedicated Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence (STRATCOMCOE) in Riga, said on Friday.
Latvia's financial regulator, the Financial and Capital Markets Commission (FKTK) is being sued for up to €10 million by the company that recently took control of Latvia's largest listed company, Ventspils nafta.
It's about time I wrote another Viewpoint piece. I know this because the things the editor-in-chief throws at me across the office have been getting heavier.
NATO officially opened a brand few facility in the Latvian capital Riga Monday, with a senior military officer saying the move was intended to deter Russia from trying its hybrid warfare tactics in the Baltic region.
German investor Ralf-Dieter Montag-Girmes revealed himself Monday in an effort to explain the reasons for his planned €52m investment in national airline airBaltic and to counter a whorl of speculation and leak engulfing government and media alike.
LSM's English-language editor Mike Collier comes clean about his true identity.
In August a novel new public fundraising effort began to collect cash for the Zemessardze, Latvia's volunteer National Guard. Primarily aimed at providing night vision equipment they currently lack, the initiative was supported by many leading figures and attracted widespread publicity.
The target was to raise €130,000, but with the end of the initial campaign approaching on Latvian Independence Day (November 18), around €20,000 has been found so far.
LSM asked Juris Ulmanis, one of the initiators of the campaign, for an update.
The Latvian police on Thursday detained a second man suspected of carrying out an act of vandalism against an open-air exhibition called 'The People of Maidan' in downtown Riga.
Latvia's demographic challenges are well documented: mass emigration and reducing fertility rates, plus other factors, have seen the population of the country shrink by more than 10% from 2000-10, with little sign of the outflow slowing down.
Now there are sightly fewer than 2 million people living in Latvia and those that remain are getting older, on average, every year. If Latvia is to continue to expand, the economy will be increasingly reliant upon finding jobs for a more mature workforce.