Latest news with #Lithuania
Associated Press
5 hours ago
- Business
- Associated Press
BTCC Exchange Honored with Triple Recognitions from FXEmpire in Comprehensive 2025 Industry Analysis
A Media Snippet accompanying this announcement is available by clicking on this link. VILNIUS, Lithuania, July 23, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BTCC, the world's longest-serving cryptocurrency exchange, is proud to announce that it has received three distinguished awards from FXEmpire following their comprehensive evaluation of over 50 centralized crypto exchanges in 2025. BTCC has been honored with the 'Lowest Fee Crypto Exchange,' 'Best Fiat-to-Crypto Trading Platform,' and 'Best Crypto Exchange in the USA' awards, cementing its position as an industry leader. The 'Lowest Fee Crypto Exchange' and 'Best Fiat-to-Crypto Trading Platform' recognitions underscore the platform's commitment to providing users worldwide with low fiat deposit fees across major currencies, including USD, CAD, EUR, and many others. Backed by multi-region licences, BTCC supports high transaction limits that ensure smooth and compliant fiat onboarding for traders globally. The 'Best Crypto Exchange in the USA' award recognizes BTCC's FinCEN licence in the U.S. and its commitment to transparency, as demonstrated by monthly Proof of Reserves reports that consistently maintain reserve ratios above 100%. 'We're truly honored and excited to receive these awards from FXEmpire,' said Aaryn Ling, Head of Branding at BTCC. 'These recognitions validate our commitment to providing traders with the most efficient, secure, and cost-effective cryptocurrency trading services, and reinforce our mission to uplift the industry's standard for quality trading.' With 14 years of proven security and reliability since 2011, BTCC continues to strengthen its position in the global cryptocurrency market. As an industry pioneer, BTCC remains committed to delivering reliable and accessible trading services to users worldwide. Learn more about the rewards on BTCC's website. About FXEmpire Established in 2011, FXEmpire is a globally recognized financial news platform. It offers up-to-date market news, detailed analysis, real-time quotes and charts, and expert reviews of brokers and crypto exchanges. About BTCC Exchange Founded in 2011, BTCC is a leading global cryptocurrency exchange with the vision to make crypto trading reliable and accessible to everyone. With a strong presence in over 100 countries and regions and a user base of over 9.1 million, BTCC continues to deliver innovation, security, and an unmatched user experience in the cryptocurrency world. Official website: X: Contact: [email protected]
The Guardian
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Toxic review – stylishly blank look at fashion's real victims
Lithuanian first-time director Saule Bliuvaite makes a real impression with this impressively acted and elegantly composed feature set in the tough suburbs of Kaunas where teen girls dream of escape through an international modelling career. Bliuvaite and her cinematographer Vytautas Katkus contrive striking tableaux and ambient setpieces, creating an emotional context for this drama: a world of alienation and desperate need, but also resilient humour. It's a disturbing essay in sexuality, poverty and sexual capital which reminded me a little of Ninja Thyberg's Pleasure and Isabella Eklöf's Holiday in its candid, affectless evocation of the young female body, and its vulnerability to weight-loss exploitation. Bliuvaite's style reminded me of the Austrians Ulrich Seidl and Jessica Hausner – the latter was incidentally president of the jury which gave this film top prize at last year's Locarno film festival. Newcomer Vesta Matulyte plays Marija, a shy girl who walks with a slight limp due to a disability; she has to live with her grandma while her mum fixes her relationship problems. After being bullied at her new school, she stands up to and finally befriends a girl who had tried to steal her jeans in the swimming pool changing room. This is Kristina (Ieva Rupeikaite), and together these two respond to an ad for a 'modelling school' audition which promises to send winning applicants on fashion trips to the far east and the US. However they must pay upfront for their photoshoots and other unspecified admin costs, and their parents must sign a contract permitting their daughters to work for nothing until the 'debt' is paid off. It is clearly abusive and exploitative on some level, with the penniless girls having to resort secretly to obvious measures to pay these initial fees; yet it may not be any more of a scam than the rest of the supposedly legitimate 'modelling recruitment' business. There are bleak, mordant touches in the reportage camerawork; we are often placed in longshot in relation to the action, or sometimes directly overhead, so that we can savour this blank context. Marija wears a Marilyn Manson T-shirt (the director leaves it up to us to ponder that celebrity's current associations) and Kristina's amiable dad Sarunas (Giedrius Savickas) – who is poignantly prepared to help his daughter get out of this gloomy place by any means necessary – wears a 'Queen Elizabeth II Rest In Peace' T-shirt: a very surreal touch. The truth is Marija and Kristina are hardly more than children, and to witness Kristina get a tongue piercing or swallow a tapeworm parasite for weight loss (cheaper than Ozempic) is to witness some terrible harm or self-harm. Periodically, Bliuvaite will show us the young women practising the catwalk slouch around the grim scrubland, sashaying 10 or 20 paces forward, halting with a hip-jut, swivelling and sashaying back – a stylised choreography of coercion and unhappiness. It's a very stylish piece of work. Toxic is on Mubi from 25 July.
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Travel + Leisure
a day ago
- Travel + Leisure
These 2 Countries Have the Cleanest Coastal Waters in Europe, Report Finds
If you're dreaming of a European beach vacation, there are two countries with exceptionally clean water that you might not have considered. The European Environment Agency (EEA), in cooperation with the European Commission, has released their European bathing water assessment for the 2024 bathing season, which declares that Slovenia and Lithuania have tied for first place for the cleanest coastal waters in the world. The report assesses bathing water quality across 22,127 sites in the 27 EU member states, plus Albania and Switzerland. In the most recent assessment, 85 percent of the locations met the stringent standard of 'excellent' bathing water quality, while 96 percent met the minimum quality standards. The sites include beachers, rivers, lakes, and swimming holes, which are all tested by national and local authorities for bacterial quality of coastal bathing waters—defined as waters "situated on the sea or transitional water coastline"—was found to be generally better than that of rivers and lakes. It's all part of the EU Bathing Water Directive, which was adopted in 2006. It's important to note that both Slovenia and Lithuania, while rated most highly, also had a relatively small number of sites tested, with only 21 tested in Slovenia and only 16 in Lithuania. But, the sites cumulatively gained top marks. 'The results … show that Europeans can confidently bathe in the vast majority of the EU's bathing sites that meet the EU's bathing quality standards,' Jessika Roswall, Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy, said in a statement obtained by Travel + Leisure. Slovenia, which famously has 29 miles on the Adriatic Sea, recently announced the launch of a digital nomad visa that will be available from November 2025 and will allow remote workers to live in the country for up to a year, similar to schemes available in other EU countries including Greece, Portugal, Spain, Croatia, Germany, and Estonia. The most popular bases for a coastal Lithuanian vacation are Palanga, Neringa and Klaipeda. In 2024, Lithuania was ranked the happiest country in the world for young people under the age of 30, according to the World Happiness Report. In 2024, Slovenia's neighbor Croatia was ranked the highest for the cleanest coastal waters by the report, with 894 bodies of water tested.
BBC News
a day ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Who do Blues, Larne and Swifts face in Europe?
Whilst Cliftonville's European journey came to an end following defeat in extra time by St Joseph's last week, three more Irish Premiership sides remain in the Uefa Conference Cup winners Linfield drop into the second qualifying round of the competition after an aggregate defeat by League of Ireland champions Shelbourne in Champions League progressed to the second round of this competition with a penalty shootout win against Auda in Riga as they aim to reach the league phase of the Conference League for a second successive Swifts, by virtue of winning the Irish Cup, are only entering the Conference League now and are primed for their first European game in over a of all three playing the first legs of their second-round ties on Thursday, BBC Sport NI takes a look at their opponents. Lithuania awaits for Linfield Linfield have only had a week to prepare for their Conference League game against Lithuanian side will be looking to bounce back from the Shelbourne defeat, but it will be a difficult game against a side who have some pedigree in became the first Lithuanian club to qualify for the group stages of a European club competition when they reached the Conference League group stage in finished bottom of their group but managed five points including a win from their six games. Last season's A Lyga champions have struggled this campaign, they currently sit fifth in their domestic league with 20 games first leg is away in Vilnius and kicks off at 17:00 BST on Thursday, with the second leg at Windsor Park next David Healy's side manage to win over the two legs, the Blues will face Vikingur from the Faroe Islands in the next round. Larne host Prishtina at Ballymena Showgrounds Larne will still be on a high from their penalty shootout win against Auda and will be determined to build on that victory as they plot a route back to European league stage football after last year's Rooney's side welcome FC Prishtina to the Ballymena Showgrounds for the first leg which kicks off at 20:00 BST on second leg will take place next Thursday in Pristina and the side that progressed will face the winner of the tie involving Portuguese side CD Santa Clara and Croatian outfit NK Prishtina are the most successful club in Kosovo, having won 11 Kosovan Superleague titles, nine Kosovar Cups and 11 Kosovar are back in European competition for the first time since the 2021/22 campaign after winning the Kosovar Cup final in Kosovan side began in the Europa League but lost 5-2 on aggregate against Moldovan side Sheriff Tiraspol and dropped down the Conference League. Swifts travel to Liechtenstein Dungannon Swifts will be raring to go for their first European tie in 18 years as they travel to Liechtenstein to take on FC Vaduz on Thursday in the first leg of their tie which kicks off at 18:30 Irish Cup winners have twice played in Europe before, when they lost in the 2006 Intertoto Cup to Keflavik IF in the first round and in qualifying for the 2007-08 Uefa Cup, when they were defeated by Lithuanian side FK FC Vaduz are from Liechtenstein, they curiously play in Switzerland, the second tier Challenge League to be exact, after relegation from the Swiss Super League in won the Liechtensteiner Cup final against Balzers to reach the second round of Conference League qualifying. Vaduz made history in 2022 as by beating Rapid Wien they qualified for the group stages of the Conference League, becoming the first ever club from Liechtenstein to reach the group stages of a European club finished bottom of a tough group that included AZ Alkmaar, Apollon Limassol and Dnipro, picking up two points from their six is a potential big prize at stake for the winners of this tie as they could face Dutch giants AZ Alkmaar or Finnish side Ilves in the third Irish Premiership clubs can progress past this round of qualifying then they are potentially four matches away from replicating Larne's historic run to the League stage of the Conference League last season.
Geek Vibes Nation
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Vibes Nation
'Drowning Dry' Review - A Paralyzing And Unsettling Look At Trauma
From the outset, Drowning Dry immerses us in a feeling of unease and queasiness. A placid lakeside retreat for two sisters and their families takes an unexpected and tragic turn. Even in the examination of the mundane, such as a family opening up their lake home or cheap attempts at foreplay between spouses, there is a feeling that something is amiss. We are not in for fun in the sun, but instead, a devastating deconstruction and dissolution of a family. Told partially through the use of flashbacks and shifting points of view, Drowning Dry plunges us into the deep end and lets the water of memories and regret wash over us. We begin in media res. Lukas (Paulius Markevičius), a mixed martial arts competitor, wins a competition. To celebrate, he, his wife, Ernesta (Gelminė Glemžaitė), and their children organize a lakeside retreat with Ernesta's sister, Justė (Agnė Kaktaitė), her husband, Tomas (Giedrius Kiela), and their children. However, tragedy strikes while the children are swimming and the parents are talking finances, resulting in both Ernesta and Justė becoming single mothers. Drowning Dry. Photo Credit: Dekanalog Dry drowning or secondary drowning is a rare complication that happens if water gets into the lungs. A small amount of water can irritate the lungs' lining and fluid can build up, causing a condition called pulmonary edema. Director/writer Laurynas Bareiša utilizes dry drowning as both a plot device and a structural element for the film's narrative. While the literal event occurs, the rest of the film analyzes the trauma of the experience. Dry drowning can be seen both as a literal plot device and as a metaphor; trauma affects everyone in different ways. The film becomes a riveting treatise that highlights the fact that there are no easy answers. Anyone who has been in the water and had a momentary loss of control knows the fear. Bareiša drives this point home by having the audience relive this experience repeatedly throughout the film. The effect is not done ad nauseam, but enhances the film's theme. Trauma lingers and takes hold in ways that defy convention and expectation. Running at under an hour and thirty minutes, Drowning Dry leaves no room for air. A few additional minutes might allow us to ponder for a bit longer. The film simulates the drowning effect on the audience. It forces us to lose control as the adults in the room attempt to unpack the emotional damage wrought by the dry drowning event. Easily the film's greatest attribute is its deliberate effort to prolong the inevitable. As we find from the beginning, there is something in the air. We cannot put our finger on it, but like anyone with a premonition or uneasy feeling, we know there is more afoot than a family reunion. Paulius Markevičius in Drowning Dry . Photo Credit: Dekanalog The event itself happens without warning, and instantly, we jump forward. The movie follows a semi-non-linear structure, keeping us off balance as the events and moments leading up to it replay. We never quite know what happens as the situation reshuffles itself, forcing us to pay attention to the tiniest detail in the frame. It is only upon the second flashback that we see a fuller account, and even then, we are unclear. The psychological reckoning is effective, and it adds to our tension. The story unfolds after the near-drowning in the lake, and the family attempts to resume normal activities, including a party for Tomas' birthday. Still, as earlier in the film, a sense of imbalance persists. Something is about to happen, and we, like the characters, don't know how or when it will occur. There is one particular shot of Tomas as he sits in the living room, alone with the rain pouring outside. He eventually gets to close the door. It's a brief scene, but it drips with subtext. We have nothing but loneliness and the isolation of thought. Later, towards the end, we see the remains of the birthday party. The food is rotting, and any sense of merriment is long gone. Again, the film reminds us of life's frailty and the instantaneous arrival of the unexpected. Drowning Dry. Photo Credit: Dekanalog The intimate nature of the cinematography betrays us, creating a sense of distance and deception. We are left puzzling over the double meaning of smiles; is the kick to the head during the martial arts competition more than meets the eye? The film invites us in as though we are guests, but we instantly regret pulling up a chair and joining this family discourse. Reality itself bends as we are left questioning what we saw with our own eyes. The flood of memories and biased perceptions clutters what happened. Drowning Dry is an unsettling watch, particularly in terms of its portrayal of the effects of the titular experience. However, perhaps more devastating is the emotional wreckage the film wrought, not only on the family but on us in the audience. This is a film that seeps into the soul and persists without mercy, much like dry drowning itself. Drowning Dry is currently playing at the IFC Center in New York courtesy of Dekanalog. The film will expand to Los Angeles on July 30th followed by additional major U.S. cities.
