🇱🇻🌽🚜 — Agricultural and Livestock farming are one of the major pillars of Latvia's domestic economy, with 67% of Latvia's population living in a rural setting, they can be reliant on farm-related work to account for as much as 20% of their regional employment opportunities.

For the rest of Latvians, this is a statistically low form of work, with the overall total of careers related to Agriculture totaling to 6.81% in 2021. However, this does not take away from the importance of industries such as dairy and grain production, whom have had the misfortune of experiencing this past year and a half's trend with inflation, increase in the cost of living, and the prospect of low crop yields.
Residents in Riga know especially well how volatile the food inflation rates are, and how much it can effect their lives. With the minimum wage for employees in Latvia hitting 113 euro/month, the maximum being 932 euro/month, and the consensus for the cost of a single person living in Riga sitting around 800 euro/month without considering rent/utility costs. The ability to maintain a stable price for the essentials such as milk, flour, and meats becomes crucial for the livelihoods of those in the capital's outer districts. Last week, a report was made stating that 54% of Latvian families were forced to borrow or budget themselves simply to send their children to school. Food prices growing last autumn forced many young couples and old folk alike to penny pinch just to get by, which was simply a result of the sanctions placed on Russia backfiring. How, then, would a agricultural recession effect peoples lives?

Recent articles discussing the possibility of the Latvian dairy and grain industry collapsing, which Latvia trades domestically and internationally. The effects of a bad harvest would disrupt the livelihoods of all Latvians, but disproportionately, of those belonging to the Russian minority within the larger cities. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the left-behind Russians have been neglected by the state, and the then majority was left without citizenship in the new Republic of Latvia. Employment has been made a difficulty, as Latvian employers are keen on hiring Latvians solely because of their nationality, forcing the resident Russian population into jobs typically considered untouchable in places like Riga. A shift in prices, a bit of inflation, and every employment opportunity denied will reverberate that much more turbulently for the ethnic Russian minority

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Christian Front of Lebanon calls for increase in number of UNFIL forces to ensure stability

https://syriacpress.com/blog/2023/08/31/christian-front-of-lebanon-calls-for-increase-in-number-of-unfil-forces-to-ensure-stability/

The UN extends the mandate of the UNIFIL forces for one year.

China and Russia abstained.

⋯ The UN will be allowed to operate without consent or coordination of the Lebanese army.

Lebanon's representative to the UN:

"The council didn't take into consideration Lebanon's sovereignty regarding the UNIFIL forces' mandate."