Tel Aviv-Yafo (Hebrew: תֵּל אָבִיב-יָפוֹ‎, [tel a'viv jafo], Arabic: تل أَبيب-يافا‎‎) is a major city in Israel, located on the country's Mediterranean coastline. It is the financial center and the technology hub of Israel, with a population of 432,892, making it Israel's second-largest city. Tel Aviv is the largest city in the Gush Dan region of Israel. Tel Aviv is also a focal point in the high-tech concentration known as the Silicon Wadi. Tel Aviv is governed by the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, headed by Ron Huldai, and is home to many foreign embassies. Tel Aviv is a global city, and is the thirty eighth most important financial center in the world. Tel Aviv is known to have the third-largest economy of any city in the Middle East after Abu Dhabi and Kuwait City, and has the 31st highest cost of living in the world. The city receives over a million international visitors annually. Known as "The City that Never Sleeps" and a "party capital", it has a lively nightlife and 24-hour culture. The city was founded in 1909 by Jewish immigrants on the outskirts of the ancient port city of Jaffa (Hebrew: יָפוֹ‎ Yafo). It is named after the Hebrew translation of Theodor Herzl's 1902 novel, Altneuland, meaning "Old New Land". The modern city's first neighbourhoods had already been established in 1886, the first being Neve Tzedek. Immigration by mostly Jewish refugees meant that the growth of Tel Aviv soon outpaced Jaffa's, which had a majority Arab population at the time. Tel Aviv and Jaffa were merged into a single municipality in 1950, two years after the establishment of the State of Israel. Tel Aviv's White City, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003, comprises the world's largest concentration of International Style buildings (Bauhaus and other related modernist architectural styles).

Riga (/ˈriːɡə/; Latvian: Rīga, pronounced [ˈriːɡa]) is the capital and the largest city of Latvia. With 696,593 inhabitants (2015), Riga is the largest city in the Baltic states and home to one third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga, at the mouth of the Daugava. Riga's territory covers 307.17 square kilometres (118.60 square miles) and lies between one and ten metres (3 feet 3 inches and 32 feet 10 inches) above sea level, on a flat and sandy plain. Riga was founded in 1201 and is a former Hanseatic League member. Riga's historical centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, noted for its Art Nouveau/Jugendstil architecture and 19th century wooden architecture. Riga was the European Capital of Culture during 2014, along with Umeå in Sweden. Riga hosted the 2006 NATO Summit, the Eurovision Song Contest 2003, and the 2006 IIHF Men's World Ice Hockey Championships. It is home to the European Union's office of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC). Riga is served by Riga International Airport, the largest airport in the Baltic states. Riga is a member of Eurocities, the Union of the Baltic Cities (UBC) and Union of Capitals of the European Union (UCEU).