12 August 2026

Klaipėda’s state seaport authority is planning a 775 million euro investment programme for 2026–2029, with almost 600 million euros earmarked for the southern port expansion. Parliament has already given the project a legal basis, opening the way for about 100 hectares of new port territory and military mobility upgrades. The port says it has run out of room within its current footprint, and procurement is already under way, including work on the southern gates.

Lithuania’s Defence Ministry has submitted an updated counter-mobility plan that calls for engineering parks near the borders with Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad region by the end of 2028. The plan also adds a new belt of obstacles in the most exposed border sectors and reserve barriers on key state roads. The ministry has previously said 9 million euros has been allocated to the project in the civil protection programme through 2030.

Customs officers in Karmėlava near Kaunas stopped a truck from Latvia and found 360,000 packs of Winston Blue cigarettes worth about 1.98 million euros. The cargo filled 18 wooden pallets and 720 boxes, and prosecutors from the Kaunas regional office are overseeing the case. In Kaunas, a technology company has leased an additional 1,000 square metres in SBA Urban’s Hermanas business centre, the city’s first new modern office project after a long lull. In Šilalė district, human bone fragments found in the yard of a residential house were handed to police, who are examining whether they come from an old burial or another incident.

A priest was sentenced to life imprisonment for sexual exploitation. Lithuania's Foreign Ministry said Žygimantas Pavilionis's actions over the embassy in the United States could warrant an ethics investigation over a possible conflict of interest.

Kherson region was hit by an overnight Russian drone attack that killed two people and wounded two others, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Wednesday. Russia struck other parts of Ukraine the same night, and Ukraine's air force said Moscow launched 138 long-range strike drones and an unspecified number of missiles. Ukraine's air defence said it neutralised 112 drones. Earlier this week, Russian attacks on Zaporizhzhia killed seven people and injured 21.

Novorossiysk was hit by a nighttime drone strike that killed an eight-year-old child, while another person later died in hospital in the Temryuk district, Krasnodar governor Veniamin Kondratyev said. Homes were damaged in the Black Sea port, a key Russian naval hub, and local authorities declared a state of emergency. Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine struck the naval base in Novorossiysk. In Germany, the military this week warned about hundreds of suspected drone flights over military sites.

The EU's new 3 euro customs duty on low-value parcels from outside the bloc is already pushing some online sellers to stop shipping to customers in other member states. The charge applies to goods worth up to 150 euros and is meant to push merchants towards EU-based warehousing instead of direct-to-consumer parcel flows. Eurostat's 2026 demographic edition showed that Latvia's population fell 17 per cent between 2005 and 2025, Lithuania's 14 per cent and Estonia's 4 per cent. In the Baltics, demography is now a labour-market and fiscal issue as much as a social one, and Ukrainians made up 1.9 per cent of Lithuania's residents at the start of 2025.

The United States and its allies also kept up pressure on China over ballistic missile tests with too little advance warning. Washington said Beijing gave only a few hours' notice before a nuclear-capable missile test, while experts pointed to the Hague Code of Conduct as the closest benchmark because it calls for at least 24 hours' notice. In Germany, politicians this week called for the closure of Berlin's House of Russia, while the past day also exposed both functioning parts and clear gaps in the EU's migration system.

The late headlines were dominated by the war in Ukraine: at least 375 Ukrainians have died in Russian captivity, and Ukrainian intelligence said Russia is forming battalions from Ukrainian prisoners of war. Ukrainian forces also struck four Russian warships near Novorossiysk in what was described as a first-time combination of weapons.

Congo’s Ebola outbreak has killed at least 2,000 people since May and infected 4,200. The WHO says the virus was spreading before the outbreak was officially declared, leaving responders behind as fighting, poor roads and pay disputes slowed the effort in eastern Congo. Health officials now describe it as the fastest-moving Ebola outbreak on record.

Volodymyr Zelensky said on August 11 that the Kremlin is preparing a fresh mobilisation for the autumn after what he called a sham parliamentary election. He said Russia could draft several hundred thousand more people and deepen North Korean involvement in the war. Ukrainian drones struck Novorossiysk and occupied Crimea overnight, with explosions and air raid alerts reported along the Black Sea coast. Novorossiysk is a critical Russian outlet for oil and grain exports, while Crimea remains central to supply lines for the southern front.

The U.S. military said in June that it hit the tanker Jalveer in the Gulf of Oman with two Hellfire missiles after the crew ignored orders and the ship was suspected of moving Iranian oil. Tensions around the Strait of Hormuz remain high after Donald Trump said he wanted Iran to pay compensation and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran would hold to its conditions before reopening the waterway. Washington and Tehran are still negotiating the shipping regime, with the dispute now centred on who sets the rules for traffic through the strait.

In Zimbabwe, at least 44 people were killed when an overloaded state-run ferry capsized on Lake Kariba. Officials said the vessel was built for 90 people but may have been carrying as many as 153, and search teams were still working on the lake on Wednesday.

Global sea temperatures hit a record high. The United Nations said 2.4 million Afghan girls have been denied access to secondary education.