Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest 1999 Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest 1999 Lithuania returned to the Eurovision Song Contest in 1999, having withdrawn after their debut entry in 1994. Lithuania's second Eurovision entry came from Aistė, who performed "Strazdas" (The song thrush) at the 1999 Contest in Jerusalem, Israel. For Lithuania's return to Eurovision after five years, the Lithuanian broadcaster Lietuvos radijas ir televizija (LRT) held a national final to select the second Lithuanian entry. The contest was held on 27 December 1998, but was not broadcast on television until 31 December, and was recorded in the capital Vilnius, hosted by Vilija Grigonyte and Vytautas
United States recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel the primate of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, Patriarch Theophilos III, widely regarded as the most senior Christian figure in Jerusalem, and twelve other church leaders in the Holy Land sent a letter to Trump warning that his move “w[ould] yield increased hatred, conflict, violence and suffering in Jerusalem and the Holy Land, moving us farther from the goal of unity and deeper toward destructive division”. Apart from Theophilos III, the letter was signed by heads of Jerusalem's Syrian, Armenian, Ethiopioan and Coptic Orthodox patriarchates as well as the Roman Catholic Church's Apostolic Administrator for Jerusalem (the Latin Patriarchate