Canada will be deploying 15 Leopard 2 tanks along with support personnel and equipment to Latvia, joining a NATO-enhanced battle group meant to respond to any potential security threats in the Baltic Sea region, says National Defence Minister Anita Anand. On June 16, Anand told reporters during an online news conference she held from Brussels, Belgium, that Canada’s…

The Chinese communist regime’s ambassador to France publicly claimed on Friday that Crimea “belongs to Russia from the very beginning,” and that post-USSR republics “have no effective status” in international law, infuriating European leaders. Lu Shaye, the Chinese regime’s “wolf warrior” diplomat who often makes aggressive and controversial remarks, was interviewed by French media on…

Two men have been convicted of running a racket supplying fugitive drug traffickers and murderers with “genuine” passports that allowed them to pass through border control all over the world without any trouble. Christopher Zietek, who changed his name from McCormack after marrying his Polish girlfriend, and his sidekick Alan Thompson were convicted on Friday…

HELSINKI—Firefighters worked for a second day Wednesday to fully extinguish a blaze at a U.S. company’s drone plant in Latvia, as police said no indications of sabotage have been found so far. Latvia’s State Fire and Rescue Service was alerted Tuesday afternoon that a fire had broken out at Edge Autonomy’s drone production plant in…

Defence Minister Anita Anand met with allies on Wednesday to discuss reinforcing a Canadian-led battlegroup in Latvia with thousands more soldiers, even as uncertainty swirled around what this country can—and will—provide. Anand revealed the discussions while attending a NATO defence ministers’ meeting in Brussels, where she announced another $47-million worth of military aid for Ukraine,…

HELSINKI—Latvia’s ruling party won the most votes in the country’s general election, according to results published Sunday. With over 99 percent of the votes counted, Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins’ New Unity party had captured 19 percent support, while the opposition Greens and Farmers Union was second with 12.5 percent and the new electoral alliance United…

HELSINKI—Human remains and debris have been found in the Baltic Sea during a search operation off Latvia’s coast where a private jet crashed in mysterious circumstances, likely killing all four occupants. Lt. Cmdr. Peteris Subbota, head of the Latvian military’s Marine Search and Rescue Coordination Centre, told The Associated Press that “remains of human bodies…

RIGA—A prominent German businessman was aboard the private jet that crashed into the Baltic Sea off Latvia after flying half way across Europe from Spain without responding to controllers’ calls, his company, Quick Air, said on Monday. The jet, an Austria-registered Cessna 551, left Jerez in southern Spain on Sunday afternoon, turning at Paris and…

Three people in Wales face jail after being convicted of forcing a vulnerable Latvian immigrant to work off an ever-increasing “debt” that included a fictional sum to pay for the costs of Brexit. Normunds Freibergs, 40, Jacobus Stankevicius, 59, and his wife Ruta Stankeviciene, 57, were convicted at Newport Crown Court under Britain’s Modern Slavery…

Authorities in Latvia began dismantling a Soviet-era monument in the capital city of Riga on Tuesday after the country’s government agreed that communist monuments in public spaces should be removed. The statue, which commemorates the Red Army’s victory over Nazi Germany, was erected in 1985 and stands like a high-rise in downtown Riga’s Victory Park. It has been…