VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Lithuanians voted Sunday in the first round of parliamentary elections that could lead to the center-right governing coalition being replaced by the opposition Social Democrats and smaller center-left parties.
Despite economic successes, strict COVID-19 measures and an influx of migrants have cast shadows over conservative Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė’s government, which took office in 2020.
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A boy casts a ballot at a polling station during the first round of voting in parliamentary election, in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
A girl looks from a voting booth as her relative fills-in a ballot at a polling station during the first round of voting in a parliamentary election, in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
A woman with a child casts a ballot at a polling station during the first round of voting in parliamentary elections, in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
Residents cast their ballots at a polling station during the first round of voting in presidential elections in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
Local residents vote at a polling station during the first round of voting in a parliamentary election, in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
A woman leaves a polling booth at a polling station during the first round of voting in a parliamentary election, in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
A children stand near a voting booth during the first round of voting in parliamentary election, in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
FILE - Lithuania's Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte speaks during a news conference following his meeting with Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk at the government's headquarters in Vilnius, Lithuania, on March 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis, File)
Local residents wait at a bus stop, with a poster displaying leader of the Social Democratic Party Vilija Blinkeviciute in Vilnius, Lithuania, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
A man with a child casts his ballot at a polling station during the first round of voting in parliamentary elections, in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
An elderly woman casts her vote at the polling station during the first round of voting in parliamentary elections, in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
Although European Union member Lithuania has seen annual double-digit personal income growth and has one of the lowest inflation rates in the 27-nation bloc, many voters don’t seem to be impressed.
“There’s a lot of disappointment and discontent among voters,” said Rima Urbonaitė, a political analyst at Vilnius’ Mykolas Romeris University. “It is related to numerous crises and shocks and cannot be compensated by economic factors like positive change in purchasing power.”
Šimonytė has faced criticism for strict measures during the pandemic, with many complaining that her government didn’t do enough to help companies during lockdown. Others say thousands of people didn’t have proper access to health care services.
Šimonytė also has been lambasted for her handling of migrants arriving via Belarus. Lithuania has its eastern neighbor, as well as Russia, of orchestrating the influx of people, mostly from Africa and the Middle East.
A recent survey by pollster Vilmorus says that the Social Democratic Party, led by Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, would top the poll, with twice as many votes as Šimonytė’s Homeland Union. Nemuno Aušra, a newly registered party of right-wing politician Remigijus Žemaitaitis, who was impeached earlier this year for making antisemitic statements, would come in between them.
However no party would obtain more than 20% of the vote, forcing anyone hoping to govern to to look for alliances.
The Social Democrats have ruled out an alliance with Žemaitaitis’ party, meaning that three or four parties, likely small groups representing the political center, will be necessary to form a governing coalition.
“I have voted for the conservatives my entire life, but this year I’m thinking of giving my ballot to another good party, not to them,” said Darius Mikalauskas, a 51-year-old teacher in Vilnius. "Šimonytė and the entire Homeland Union looks battered, worn out and they would better spend some time on the spare bench.”
Analysts say a shift to the left wouldn’t bring significant changes to the foreign policy of Lithuania, which also borders Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave to the west. But the vote comes at a time when Russia’s war in Ukraine is fueling greater fears about Moscow’s intentions, particularly in the strategically important Baltic region.
“In this country, the foreign policy course is determined mainly by the president,” Urbonaitė said. Earlier this year, President Gitanas Nauseda beat Šimonytė in the presidential election to take a second five-year term.
In 2020, Šimonytė led her Homeland Union to victory in the parliamentary election. She later formed a coalition with two liberal parties, the Freedom Party and the Liberal Movement.
About 2.4 million people are eligible to elect 141 members of the parliament, or Seimas, for a four-year term in two rounds. On Sunday, 70 lawmakers will be elected by party lists, joined by those in single-mandate constituencies who manage to win more than 50% of votes. The runoff is Oct. 27, when the majority of single-member constituencies will vote to choose between the two leading candidates.
A boy casts a ballot at a polling station during the first round of voting in parliamentary election, in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
A girl looks from a voting booth as her relative fills-in a ballot at a polling station during the first round of voting in a parliamentary election, in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
A woman with a child casts a ballot at a polling station during the first round of voting in parliamentary elections, in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
Residents cast their ballots at a polling station during the first round of voting in presidential elections in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
Local residents vote at a polling station during the first round of voting in a parliamentary election, in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
A woman leaves a polling booth at a polling station during the first round of voting in a parliamentary election, in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
A children stand near a voting booth during the first round of voting in parliamentary election, in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
FILE - Lithuania's Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte speaks during a news conference following his meeting with Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk at the government's headquarters in Vilnius, Lithuania, on March 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis, File)
Local residents wait at a bus stop, with a poster displaying leader of the Social Democratic Party Vilija Blinkeviciute in Vilnius, Lithuania, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
A man with a child casts his ballot at a polling station during the first round of voting in parliamentary elections, in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
An elderly woman casts her vote at the polling station during the first round of voting in parliamentary elections, in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
The Israeli military on Saturday renewed its orders for Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip to leave their homes and shelters as troops continue a weeklong offensive against militants.
Most of the fighting has centered in and around Jabaliya, which has been pounded by Israeli war jets and artillery. Residents said they have been trapped inside their homes and shelters.
Israel also has been escalating its campaign against Hezbollah with waves of heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and a ground invasion at the border after a year of exchanges of fire. Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and Hamas' ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not say how many were fighters but say women and children make up more than half of the fatalities. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times.
It's been a year since Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed into army bases and farming communities, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. They are still holding about 100 captives inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Here is the latest:
Israeli airstrikes on Saturday hit multiple areas in southern and eastern Lebanon, killing more than a dozen people and causing damage to hospitals, the Lebanese Health Ministry said, as fighting with the Hezbollah militant group continued.
Nine people were killed in Maisra village in the northeast, with 15 wounded, the ministry said. Four people were killed and 18 wounded in an apartment building on the edge of Barja south of Beirut.
The ministry said Rayak and Tal Chiha hospitals in the Bekaa Valley were damaged, while seven people were wounded in strikes on Brital and Temnine in Baalbek-Hermel province. In Nabatieh, eight people were wounded.
Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have previously faced heavy bombardment, have not been struck in the past 48 hours. Hezbollah functions as a state within a state there.
The total toll in Lebanon over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is now 2,255 killed and over 10,000 wounded, according to the ministry. More than 1,400 people have been killed since mid-September. It isn’t clear how many were fighters.
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is considering sending one of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems to Israel, U.S. officials said Saturday. A defense official said no final decision has been made.
A U.S. official said there were ongoing discussions late last week about deploying a THAAD to Israel. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
The U.S. has a wide range of missile defense systems arrayed across the Middle East and Europe, including Patriot systems. Officials have been discussing for months what types of air defense systems to deploy to the region and where to put them. Any move of a THAAD to Israel would involve the deployment of soldiers to operate the complex system.
A year ago, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the deployment of a THAAD battery and additional Patriot battalions to locations around the Middle East to increase protection of U.S. forces and to aid in the defense of Israel. According to an April report by the Congressional Research Service, the Army has seven THAAD batteries. Generally each consists of six truck-mounted launchers, 48 interceptors, radio and radar equipment and it requires 95 soldiers to operate.
The THAAD is considered a complimentary system to the Patriot, but it can defend a wider area. It can hit targets at ranges of 150-200 kilometers (93-124 miles).
— Lolita Baldor
NEW YORK — The Israeli army has eased restrictions in parts of the country’s north even as it continued to trade fire with Lebanon's Hezbollah.
The changes allow for schools to reopen in parts of the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights and parts of the Western Galilee if they have quickly accessible shelters. Some restrictions on gatherings were eased as well.
In other parts of the north, educational activity is still prohibited.
The announcement comes despite a barrage of rockets fired by Hezbollah into Israel Friday night and Saturday, celebrated in Israel as Yom Kippur, or the Jewish Day of Atonement. The military says some of the approximately 320 projectiles were intercepted, and no injuries have been reported.
The military also says it has struck 280 military targets in Lebanon and Gaza over the weekend, and that it killed 50 Hezbollah militants. It has provided no evidence for the latter claim.
Separately, Hezbollah says it launched an attack with explosive drones on the suburbs of Tel Aviv on Friday night. One drone directly hit a nursing home in Herzliya, a city north of Tel Aviv, Israeli media said. No casualties have been reported.
CAIRO — Israeli airstrikes flattened a residential area and killed at least 22 people including women and children in an urban refugee camp in northern Gaza, Palestinian medical officials said Saturday.
In an area where Israel’s military launched a major ground operation last week, one of the strikes late Friday destroyed an entire building, killing at least 20 people and severely damaging several nearby buildings in the center of Jabaliya camp, according to the Health Ministry’s Ambulance and Emergency service.
A different strike killed a mother, father and injured their baby in another part of Jabaliya, medical officials said.
First responders who rushed to the area before the strikes had ceased found a 20-meter (65-foot) deep hole within a house in the area.
At least 20 bodies had been recovered from the area as of Saturday morning, with many others said to be missing under the rubble, emergency service officials said, adding that at least six women and seven children were killed.
Gaza’s health ministry on Saturday said hospitals across Gaza received the bodies of 49 people killed over the past 24 hours. Hospitals also received 219 wounded. The deaths brought the death tally to 42,175 since the war began on Oct. 7 last year, with 98,339 wounded, according to the ministry.
Israeli military officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The strikes late Friday are part of Israel’s latest broadening offensive in northern Gaza.
The U.S. military said it conducted a series of airstrikes against multiple camps in Syria belonging to the Islamic State group.
The U.S. Central Command said the strikes on Friday will “disrupt the ability of ISIS to plan, organize and conduct attacks against the United States, its allies and partners, and civilians throughout the region and beyond.”
It said battle damage assessments were underway and did not include civilian casualties.
There are some 900 U.S. forces in Syria, along with an undisclosed number of contractors, mostly trying to prevent any comeback by the extremist IS group, which swept through Iraq and Syria in 2014, taking control of large swaths of territory.
BEIRUT — The speaker of Iran’s parliament on Saturday toured the scene of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut that killed and wounded dozens, vowing that Tehran would keep supporting Lebanese and Palestinians in fighting against Israel.
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf visited the bombed area after holding talks with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who said that Lebanon’s priority now was working toward a cease-fire.
His office said that Lebanon’s government still abides by a 2006 U.N. Security Council Resolution approved at the end of a 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah and was prepared to boost Lebanese army presence along the country’s border with Israel.
“We will keep standing with the Lebanese people during these difficult circumstances and also with the Palestinian people,” Qalibaf said during the tour, during which he was escorted by several Hezbollah officials.
Qalibaf added that Iran will aid the Lebanese people and “we hope that they will be victorious.”
It was the second recent visit by an Iranian official to Beirut after the foreign minister visited rarlier this month. Iran is a main backer of Hezbollah that has suffered major setbacks in recent weeks, including the killing of it leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Hezbollah started attacking Israeli army posts in October last year in solidarity with the militant Hamas group in Gaza. Since Sept. 23, Israel has intensified its airstrikes and forced the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese. Last week, Israel began a ground invasion of Lebanon, leading to clashes along the border with Hezbollah fighters.
CAIRO — The United Nations food agency said on Saturday that no food aid had entered northern Gaza since Oct. 1.
The World Food Program said that the primary border crossing into the war-ravaged area had been closed for about two weeks, warning that Israel’s ongoing ground operation has a disastrous impact on food security for thousands of Palestinians families there.
“The north is basically cut off and we’re not able to operate there,” said Antoine Renard, the WFP country director of Palestinian territories.
Concerns of a hunger crisis have risen in Gaza roughly a month after the U.N.’s independent investigator on the right to food accused Israel of carrying out a “starvation campaign” against Palestinians.
Israel has denied such allegations and insisted that it has allowed food and other aid into Gaza in significant quantities.
“Israel has not halted the entry or coordination of humanitarian aid entering from its territory into the northern Gaza Strip. As evidence, humanitarian aid coordinated by COGAT and international organizations will continue to enter the northern Gaza Strip in the coming day as well,” COGAT, the Israeli military body overseeing aid distribution, said in a statement on Wednesday.
The WFP said its food distribution points, as well as kitchens and bakeries in northern Gaza, have been forced to shut down due to airstrikes, military ground operations and evacuation orders. It said that the only functioning bakery in North Gaza, supported by WFP, caught fire after being hit by an explosive munition.
The WFP said its last remaining food supplies in the north -- including canned food, wheat flour, high-energy biscuits, and nutrition supplements -- have been distributed to shelters, health facilities and kitchens in Gaza City and three shelters in the northern areas. It is unclear how long these limited food supplies will last, warning that the consequences for fleeing families will be dire if the escalation continues.
JERUSALEM — The European Union said Saturday it was deeply concerned about draft Israeli legislation that would ban the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees from operating in Israel and likely scale back aid distribution across war-ravaged Gaza.
Earlier this week, an Israeli parliamentary committee approved a pair of bills this week that would ban UNRWA from operating in Israeli territory and end all contact between the government and the U.N. agency. The bill needs final approval from the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
“If adopted, (the bill) would have disastrous consequences, preventing the U.N. agency from continuing to provide its services and protection to Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, and Gaza,” the EU said in an online statement.
Israel has alleged that some of UNRWA’s thousands of staff members participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war.
The U.N. has since fired more than a dozen staffers after internal investigations found they may have taken part in the attack that killed 1,200 people in southern Israel.
The U.N. agency has been the main supplier of food, water and shelter to Palestinian civilians during the 12 month conflict in Gaza.
Concern about the Israeli bill was echoed by UNRWA’s chief, Philippe Lazzarini, on Wednesday, who said all humanitarian operations in Gaza and the West Bank could “disintegrate” if the bill was implemented.
When UNRWA was created by the U.N. General Assembly in 1949, it was meant to provide health care, education and welfare services to about 700,000 Palestinian refugees from the 1948 conflict with Israel.
CAIRO — The Israeli military on Saturday renewed orders for Palestinian in the northern Gaza Strip to leave their homes and shelters amid a week of intense fighting with militants there.
Avichay Adraee, a spokesman for the Israeli military, told people that the area includes parts of Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood and other parts in and around Jabaliya, the urban refugee camp.
In a post on X, Adraee asked people living there to head south to Muwasi, a packed area in southern Gaza designed by the military as a humanitarian zone.
Most of past week fighting centered in and around Jabaliya with Israeli war jets and artillery pounding the area. People there said they have been trapped inside their homes and shelters. The military also ordered the three main hospitals in northern Gaza to evacuate patients and medical staff.
Residents sit on the roof of a building and have dinner as Dahiyeh suburb, background, remains in darkness after Israeli airstrikes, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf waves to residents as visit the site of Thursday's Israeli airstrike, in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, center, visits the site of Thursday's Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, right, meets with Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, left, waves to residents as visit the site of Thursday's Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Residents sit on the roof of a building and have dinner as Dahiyeh suburb, background, remains in darkness after Israeli airstrikes, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Rescue workers keep searching for victims at the site of Thursday's Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Residents of a building damaged in an Israeli airstrike return to collect their family's belongings at the site of Thursday's Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Cyclists ride on a car-free highway during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Kamal Khatib, a volunteer with the Animals Lebanon rescue group, kisses kittens after rescuing them from debris of destroyed buildings at the site of Thursday's Israeli airstrike, in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Lebanese women pass near destroyed cars, at the site of Thursday's Israeli airstrike, in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Rescue workers search for victims at the site of Thursday's Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Women react in front of their destroyed apartment at the site of Thursday's Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
