WINGS: Women's International News Gathering Service

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Weekly half-hour radio program by and about women around the world. Series producer, Frieda Werden Listen to recent shows here: https://wingsradio.org/wordpress/ This Bluesky profile collects links from a wide range of sources

Coalition collapse. Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina resigned on Thursday, triggering the collapse of her coalition government just months before the country was set to hold an election in October. Silina will stay on in a caretaker capacity until her replacement is chosen. In the meantime, Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics will meet all parliamentary parties on Friday to begin determining a successor.

Silina’s resignation is a direct result of her tiff with Defense Minister Andris Spruds. Last Thursday, several stray Ukrainian drones flew into Latvian territory from Russia, one of which accidentally exploded at an oil storage facility. Although no one was injured, locals reported that they only received a warning text after the incident had already occurred. Latvia’s army chief confirmed that the country’s military had not detected the drones upon entry.

“The drone incident that occurred this week clearly demonstrated that the political leadership of the defense sector has failed to fulfill its promise of safe skies over our country,” Silina wrote on X on Sunday. To address this, Silina fired Spruds, blaming him for not developing anti-drone systems fast enough. In response, Spruds’s left-leaning Progressives party pulled its support from Silina’s coalition government, leaving her without a majority.