5 May 2026

Panevėžys court has set the next steps in the child-sex case against former MP Kristijonas Bartoševičius, while his lawyer Olegas Šibkovas is seeking to overturn the conviction. The court said the offences were committed while he was a sitting lawmaker, and prosecutors are seeking a 10-year prison term plus a five-year ban on work involving minors.

Attorney General Nida Grunskienė has asked parliament to strip Gintautas Paluckas of legal immunity in a suspected illicit enrichment case. Prosecutors cite assets worth almost 344,600 euros, and newer reporting says charges have also been brought against his wife. LRT reported that leadership changes at state-controlled companies have been happening quietly, with no clear sign of open competition, raising questions over who screened candidates and when the full record will be published. In coalition politics, Mindaugas Sinkevičius said he plans to settle the coalition issue within the next month.

Lithuania’s State Security Department said the pirate site filmai.in is registered in Russia and has shifted hosting locations six times in five years. The agency said a 2021 leak exposed 650,000 usernames, email addresses and passwords that are still circulating on the dark web and could be used against state bodies and strategic companies. A rare constitutional situation also emerged on Tuesday, when Lithuania was temporarily left without all three top state office holders.

Police said a Vilnius resident who had been abducted was later found dead in a forest. In the Vilkaviškis district, officers are still searching for an underage girl who left for school and did not return home. The Transport Ministry has proposed banning drivers from holding a phone even when briefly stopped in traffic, while parliament is also facing a dispute over large municipal waste-management funds and related tenders. Teltonika Group reported higher revenue and EBITDA and said it is continuing to invest in technology.

Lithuania’s election commission opened an inquiry into the possible use of state funds for the Freedom Party’s needs. In parliament, calls also intensified for Gintautas Paluckas to give up his seat after matters that drew law enforcement scrutiny.

Ukrainian drones set the JSC VNIIR-Progress military-industrial site ablaze in Cheboksary overnight, and Russia briefly halted operations at at least 18 airports as the threat spread. Other reported targets in Russia included oil refining facilities and companies linked to components for Shahed drones and Iskander missiles. Volodymyr Zelenskiy today released video showing Ukrainian forces launching Flamingo missiles into Russian territory. The system has already been used against the Votkinsk plant in Udmurtia, about 1,400 km from the Ukrainian border.

Russian strikes across Ukraine killed at least five people today in Kramatorsk and the Dnipropetrovsk and Chernihiv regions. In the Poltava region, two rescuers were killed in a separate attack, and emergency crews are still searching residential rubble after the overnight missile and drone barrage. Ukraine's parliament also backed ratification of a convention establishing an international commission to study damage caused by Russia's war.

In Moscow, 92-year-old nuclear weapons designer Yuri Baranov, linked to the Soviet RDS-37 thermonuclear programme, was found dead yesterday. Russian media said there were no signs of foul play. The Kremlin tightened security over the past 48 hours ahead of the May 9 parade, and the defence ministry said tanks and missiles will not be shown this year. In Sweden, Gitanas Nausėda is today holding talks on Baltic Sea security, military mobility, critical infrastructure protection and cyber security.

Russia struck Ukraine just before Moscow's declared truce, and Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the attack a terrorist strike. A Russian strike killed 12 people in Zaporizhzhia and at least five civilians in Kramatorsk. Arsenal reached the Champions League final for only the second time in the club's history.

The United States launched Operation Freedom on May 5 to reopen the Strait of Hormuz after fresh Gulf strikes pushed the Iran-US truce back toward collapse. The UAE said three cruise missiles fired from Iran on May 4 were intercepted and three Indian nationals were wounded. Trump has not said whether the ceasefire is still in force, while Tehran says shipping and energy transit have been put at risk. U.S. intelligence also assessed over the past day that earlier strikes on Iran did not significantly slow its nuclear programme.

Volodymyr Zelensky said on May 4 that Ukraine would observe a ceasefire from midnight on May 5 to midnight on May 6. Russia's defence ministry paired that with its own unilateral May 8-9 truce and a threat of a massive missile strike on central Kyiv if Ukraine tries to disrupt Victory Day events in Moscow. In Washington over the past day, Secret Service officers shot an armed man near the Washington Monument after he opened fire, and two people, including a minor, were taken to hospital.

In China's Yunnan province, an explosion at a fireworks factory today killed 26 people and injured 61. The blast hit a production site storing pyrotechnic materials, and local authorities opened an inquiry into the cause and possible safety violations. The United States today approved the first gene therapy for congenital inherited deafness, but pricing, access and specialist delivery in the U.S. market remain unresolved. Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said the island has the right to engage with the world as Beijing keeps up diplomatic pressure.

Donald Trump called the war with Iran a "minor clash." Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they would respond harshly to any ceasefire violation. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tehran must prove it is not seeking a nuclear weapon.