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<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="20138372" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Lithuania" source="keywords">Lithuania</keyword> ranks as the <keyword id="23243125" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="happiest-place" source="keywords">happiest place</keyword> for those under 30, but it also has very high suicide rates.</li><li>On the surface, it seems like a paradox. But a closer look reveals a stark generational divide.</li></ul>Domantas Katelė, an official in Lithuania's Ministry of Social Security and Labour, is widely known as his country's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-sick-leave-pto-mental-health-work-from-home-2024-8">"Gen Z"</a> minister. Rings adorn Katelė's tattooed fingers, which he uses to proudly point to his "Politicians make me sick" door sign. At 25, he's the country's youngest-ever deputy minister (he still wears braces), and rarely lets visitors leave his office without taking a selfie. Katelė's portfolio includes <keyword id="20654323" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="youth-affairs" source="keywords">youth affairs</keyword>. "It's a golden age for the youth of Lithuania," he told Business Insider during a visit to Vilnius in August. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-lithuania-happiest-country-young-people-from-local-2024-6">The World Happiness Report</a> backs up his claim, ranking <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-lithuania-world-happiest-country-for-gen-z-millennials-education-2024-6">Lithuania as the happiest place in the world for those under 30</a> earlier this year. But it would be inaccurate to paint <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-lithuania-move-career-safety-progression-make-friends-2024-1">Lithuania</a> as some sort of dreamland, Katelė adds. After all, it's also Europe's <keyword id="23243126" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="suicide-capital" source="keywords">suicide capital</keyword>. <h2>A paradox?</h2>Though the suicide rates have declined since its independence from the Soviet Union in the 1990s, Lithuania still often leads the European Union in this grim statistic. Between 2019 and 2021, Lithuania had the highest rate of death by intentional self-harm in the 27-country bloc, and, according to the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.oecd.org/en/data/indicators/suicide-rates.html">OECD's most recent data</a>, it had the second-highest suicide rate globally. It seems paradoxical: How can <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vilnius-lithuania-happiest-gen-z-cheap-safe-fun-tech-hub-2024-9">a country be great for young people</a> while also being Europe's suicide capital? Katelė lists some of the reasons Lithuania is ranked so highly for young people — some of the<a target="_blank" href="https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/digpub/housing/bloc-2b.html"> most affordable housing</a> in Europe, free education for many Lithuanians, and a growing economy providing ample job opportunities. Walking the streets of Vilnius in the summer, you'll find stylish young people wherever you look — sipping Aperol Spritzes at Old Town bars, lounging by the river in the artsy Užupis district, or skateboarding at the Baltasis Tiltas Skate Park. <div type="image" title="Užupis waterway" height="4284" width="5712" msid="113488780" hostid="261"></div>Although the city is steeped in history — some very dark and recent — it feels modern and vibrant. But when you talk to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-men-women-leisure-spending-habits-differ-report-shows-2024-9">Gen Zers</a> in Lithuania about its preeminence, the reaction is often the same: disbelief. A few said it made them laugh. "I was very surprised, and my friends who are living in Vilnius were also surprised," said Adriana Doroškevičiūtė, 23, sipping on an iced coffee at a café in the capital. "I thought we were depressed," she added. "When we receive the opposite of that, you think, what is happening?" Richard Bogu, 23, was also shocked. It's not that he thinks Lithuania is a bad place for <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/young-people-are-developing-money-dysmorphia-2024-7">young people</a>; just that, like others, he has come to associate the country with bleakness. "We are known for being very sad people," he said, adding: "But, slowly, we're going toward being a small, happy nation." <div type="image" title="Richard Bogu sits down at a coffee table" height="4284" width="5712" msid="113488790" hostid="261"></div>Bogu said he feels optimistic about the future, especially for people his age — the tech industry, in which he works, is booming, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/2210828/average-wage-in-lithuania-up-12-sodra">salaries are rising</a>, and jobs are ample. "This country gave me opportunities," he said. A key benefit is that most Lithuanians can enter the workforce unburdened by <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/regret-paying-off-student-debt-instead-earning-passive-income-2024-7">student debt</a>, as university education is free for many. Wages are rising rapidly, and the expanding startup sector is <a target="_blank" href="https://unicorns.lt/en/news/lithuanian-startups-are-looking-hundreds-employees-not-just-it-specialists?ref=philomaths.tech">eager to hire</a> young talent. <h2>No country for old men</h2>But while things may be looking up for the younger generation, older Lithuanians don't seem to share the same optimism. According to <a target="_blank" href="https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ilc_pw01__custom_12656014/default/table?lang=en">Eurostat's 2023 overall life satisfaction survey of those aged 65 years or over,</a> older Lithuanians are nowhere near as happy as the country's youth. This generational divide bears out in the <keyword id="21021432" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="World-Happiness-Report" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="World Happiness Report" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="World Happiness Report">World Happiness Report</keyword>. While Lithuania ranked first for those under 30, it was 19th across all age groups, dragged down by its 44th-place ranking for those over 60. "If you don't have children or grandchildren to care for you, you're basically done," Bogu said. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/retirees-moving-social-security-cheaper-living-healthcare-canada-japan-mexico-2024-9#:~:text=Retirees%20are%20increasingly%20moving%20abroad,Canada%2C%20Mexico%2C%20and%20Japan.">Retirees</a> in Lithuania receive some of the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.etk.fi/en/work-and-pensions-abroad/international-comparisons/pensioners-income-level-internationally/average-pensions-in-europe/">lowest pensions</a> in Europe, and have <a target="_blank" href="https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/tespn060/default/table?lang=en&amp;category=t_ilc.t_ilc_ip.t_ilc_pn">among the lowest median relative income</a> of older people across the European Union. Data provided to BI by Lithuania's Ministry of Social Security and Labour shows that 62% of those who died by suicide in 2023 were over 50, with 8.7% under 30. It's a far starker divide than in countries like the US or UK, pointing to a chasm between the generations. <a target="_blank" href="mailto:grizas.antanas@gmail.com">Antanas Grižas</a>, a clinical psychologist specializing in suicide prevention in Lithuania, said the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-kid-baby-boomer-parents-generational-differences-parenting-lessons-2024-4">generational divide</a> is deeply felt in the country, as well as elsewhere in the former Soviet Bloc. He told BI that economic factors, such as <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boomer-retirement-savings-social-security-pension-budgeting-2024-7">low retirement incomes</a>, certainly impact mental health, but that the historical context is key, too. <div type="image" title="A Soviet-era building with a sign reading &quot;Vilnius&quot; is seen in Vilnius, Lithuania on 28 July, 2024." height="684" width="1024" msid="113488788" hostid="261"></div>"The changes after the fall of the Soviet Union were very fast and drastic," he says. Those who lived through this period faced a double trauma: enduring Soviet rule and navigating the chaotic transition to an independent capitalist nation. Plus, as Grižas points out, psychiatry was sometimes politicized under <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vintage-photos-show-life-behind-the-iron-curtain">Soviet rule,</a> with dissidents being labeled as mentally ill, which has strengthened a generational <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stephen-hays-mental-health-vc-what-if-ventures-addiction-2024-7">stigma over mental health.</a> "The <keyword id="19919711" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gen-Z" source="keywords">Gen Z</keyword>, haven't experienced that directly, " he noted. "So it makes total sense that they have different conditioning and a different mindset." Reports like the happiness rankings are also often based on self-assessments, and Grižas suggests that comparisons may play a key part in the variation between the generations. "The younger generation can easily compare and see the progress that we as a nation made," he said. <div type="image" title="Domantas Katelė in front of his office door" height="4284" width="5712" msid="113488778" hostid="261"></div>Katelė, the "Gen Z" minister, agrees that the positive self-assessments among the youth may have been influenced by their awareness of the hardships faced by their elders. While the previous generation was deprived of luxuries, he said Gen Z can relish the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-gen-z-feels-good-about-money-inflation-jobs-2024-6">freedom to spend</a> the equivalent of $160 on dinner, to vacation abroad, and to participate in democracy. "If they take a look and think about that," he said, "it's just not possible to not be happy." Correction: September 19, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated Domantas Katelė’s job title. He is a deputy minister, not a minister.

Lithuania is the world's happiest place for under 30s, but it's also Europe's suicide capital

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Donald Trump said Gaza could be rebuilt into one of the most beautiful places in the world.</li><li>There is still not end in sight to the Israel-Gaza war that has now stretched on for a year.</li></ul>Former President Donald Trump says the Palestinian people have not done a good job of utilizing their ocean-front views and that if Gaza is rebuilt the right way, it could become "one of the best places in the world.""I've said it for years, when I've been there and it's rough, it's a rough place before all of the attacks and back and forth, what's happened over the last couple years. I said, 'Wow, look at this.' I mean, they have the back of a plant facing the ocean, you know," Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Monday. "They'd have, there was no ocean as far as that was concerned. They never took advantage of it. You know, as a developer, it could be the most beautiful place – the weather, the water, the whole thing, the climate."<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WWa78WNXQ5M?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" title="Former President Donald Trump on the First Anniversary of the 10/7 massacre in Israel"></iframe>Hewitt had asked Trump to talk about Gaza as a developer and whether it could be built into a destination rivaling a locale like Monaco, the glittering state on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.Trump was addressing the future of Gaza on the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/middle-east-israel-iran-lebanon-high-alert-october-anniversary-attacks-2024-10">first anniversary </a>of the October 7 terrorist attacks, where Hamas militants killed roughly 1,200 people in Israel. Israel responded by launching air strikes and a ground invasion of Gaza. Roughly 42,000 people have been killed in Gaza.The former president isn't the only one in his family who has thoughts about Gaza's future. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jared-kushner-lauds-valuable-gaza-real-estate-opportunities-post-war-2024-3">Jared Kushner</a>, Trump's son-in-law and a former top White House official, previously said Israel should move civilians out of the area while it builds up Gaza."Gaza's waterfront property, it could be very valuable, if people would focus on building up livelihoods," Kushner told a Harvard-affiliated program in February. "If you think about all the money that's gone into this tunnel network and into all the munitions, if that would have gone into education or innovation, what could have been done?"President Joe Biden and other world leaders have tried to pressure the two sides to agree to a ceasefire, but thus far diplomacy has failed to bring an end to the conflict. Approaching the anniversary, Israel stepped up strikes on Lebanon in the wake of an Iranian rocket attack. Trump has claimed the conflict would have never occurred under his watch but hasn't offered many details on how he would secure an end to the war.Even as the conflict continues, international voices have tried to plot a path forward for Gaza's future. Last December, a mixture of consultants and other leaders met in London to propose future potential developments for the area, including a soccer stadium, The New York Times reported.Part of the issue is it remains uncertain who will control the area. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly opposed the creation of an independent Palestinian state and has argued that Israel needs to maintain a military presence in Gaza to prevent Hamas from launching future attacks.Gazans likely have much more practical considerations than building oceanfront property. Even before the current conflict, more than half of its population lived in poverty. A UN official said in May that rebuilding could cost $50 billion. Experts told Bloomberg that the cost <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2024-gaza-who-will-pay-to-rebuild/">could balloon to $80 billion</a>, making it clear that whenever the conflict ends, Gaza will need a post-war plan resembling the scope of the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe after WWII.

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<ul class="summary-list"><li>As Hurricane Milton hit, TikTok was filled with live streams from people in Florida.</li><li>But even though there were plenty of live videos, it was hard to follow for breaking news.</li></ul>As <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-milton-landfall-florida-housing-market-insurance-fema-2024-10">Hurricane Milton</a> approached Florida this week, my TikTok "For You" Page was full of videos of people battening down windows, piling up sandbags, and livestreaming their surroundings as the weather grew more ominous by the hour. As night fell and power outages swept the coast, I watched live streams of palm trees swaying in the dark rain.On one hand, this live video was exactly the kind of thing that I wanted to see. And it's a dream for some tech moguls — as <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-border-doesnt-need-elon-musks-citizen-journalism">Elon Musk has said about X</a> — to host on-the-ground citizen journalists streaming unvarnished live video.But it was also utterly confusing. Scrolling through the live streams, I wasn't sure if they were filmed in the direct path of the storm or somewhere else in Florida. Were these pre-recorded? Or filmed during another hurricane? Or were they truly live? What, exactly, was I looking at here? Regardless, I couldn't look away.Reporting live from a hurricane has been a staple of news since before Dan Rather's famous soaked-trenchcoat broadcasts. (The modern version would be Anderson Cooper getting nailed in the face with flying debris Wednesday night on CNN.) It's a visceral human experience to be in awe of extreme weather.<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Want to know what it feels like to be inside a hurricane? Turn on <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CNN</a>. Here's <a href="https://twitter.com/BillWeirCNN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BillWeirCNN</a> losing his hat a few minutes ago: <a href="https://t.co/EZNnpz3K6e">pic.twitter.com/EZNnpz3K6e</a>— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) <a href="https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/1844184995826647291?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2024</a></blockquote><h2 id="7d74e87a-975e-41f3-97b8-eb0285f4fe9f">TikTok amplified controversial characters</h2>But there was another modern element happening with the TikTok coverage — a weird, ugly theme that TikTok uniquely has seemed to encourage: the viral villain.Like "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/couch-guy-tiktok-cheating-evidence-boy-viral-receipts-video-2021-10">couch guy</a>," "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/katienotopoulos/caleb-from-west-elm-meme">West Elm Caleb</a>," or the "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/womblands-saga-tiktok-true-crime-podcast-1322062/">Womblands</a>" messy breakup, TikTok is good at creating a deluge of negative focus on characters. It's slightly different from the classic idea of the "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/maplecocaine/status/1080665226410889217">main character of the day</a>" on old Twitter since the algorithmic nature of the TikTok FYP strips away context.And indeed, TikTok found controversy for Hurricane Milton. A <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13941749/hurricane-milton-wealthy-florida-mom-refuses-evacuation-order.html">woman posted a series of videos earlier this week of her large home</a>, saying she wouldn't leave even though she was in a mandatory evacuation zone near the water. She said, "My husband built this house commercial ... it's residential, but it was built commercial-grade. It's solid concrete."The videos went viral, and she became the "villain" of the day. (She turned off comments for her more recent videos that showed that she made it through the hurricane safely; BI has reached out for comment.)Having seen the destruction of Hurricane Helene just weeks ago and the devastating flooding in North Carolina, people were primed for outrage at Floridians who <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-milton-tampa-mayor-castor-evacuation-orders-die-warning-helene-2024-10">ignored evacuation orders</a>.There was also outrage on other platforms about people who didn't evacuate, like controversial <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/caroline-calloway-hurricane-milton.html">memoirist Caroline Calloway</a>, who Instagram-storied her way through the storm. On the streaming platform Kick, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/DramaAlert/status/1844089029291278373">a man attempted to ride out the storm</a> on an air mattress in exchange for $70,000 offered by streamer Adin Ross, who had recently interviewed Donald Trump. The streamer eventually gave up, but Ross gave him $10,000 for the effort.If you feel like you lost several IQ points reading that last paragraph, you are not alone.Max Read wrote about these villainous hurricane streamers in his <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://maxread.substack.com/p/the-future-of-live-news-online-suck">newsletter</a>:<blockquote class="blockquote"><section class="blockquote-wrapper">None of these people are particularly informative or helpful; they're barely even entertaining. All these videos —&#xa0;which are generally what surfaces to the top when you search "Milton" on TikTok or Twitter — are new recombinations of the same kinds of awful reality-TV motifs that now dominate every social network: endurance challenges to unclear end; wealth porn and self-aggrandizement; and, most importantly, mental illness as a form of entertainment. It's just that, instead of watching them because you're bored, you watch them because they're what comes up when you're looking for information about an ongoing news event on social media.</section></blockquote><h2 id="a7855313-2131-4719-bf95-7fbb759d7ce5">TikTok had the best live video on the ground in Florida, but no good way to make sense of it</h2>It's certainly true that the attention economy rewards attention-seeking trolls and bad behavior, and loves a good dogpile. This, I think, is a problem with the way that TikTok served the content. There were many videos showing people's experiences preparing for and riding out a historic storm — but only the most anger-inducing people went viral.Normally, the "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-live-all-night-clickbait-grifts-scams-sleep-streamers-twitch-2023-2">Live" section is a mishmash of ASMR creators, randos, and people trying to hustle for digital coins</a>. But Wednesday night, there actually was a lot of live, interesting, compelling news footage of an important event happening in a specific location. That was far different from on X, which <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/hurricane-milton-elon-musk-x-twitter-useless-news-emergency.html">previously used to be the best place to get live news.</a>The problem was that TikTok's warping effect always leads us toward these specific outrageous stories. Instead of some sort of curated live feed of storm coverage, I saw multiple videos discussing two or three people who had decided against all good judgment to stay in their homes.TikTok isn't meant for live, breaking news, and I imagine it probably doesn't want to be. Turns out, platforms have realized that's a bad business to be in! But at this moment, I see how TikTok could — with some tweaks in the algorithm — be useful for the sort of coverage we'd otherwise get from TV news.

TikTok was the best place to tune into Hurricane Milton coverage — even if its algorithm focuses on the villains

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