29 August 2026

About 30,000 people in Lithuania were still without electricity after last weekend's storm, with ESO using generators in some areas. The utility admitted its initial timetable for restoring supply to all customers was wrong, and parts of the network have to be rebuilt from scratch. Energy minister Lukas Savickas said the state would review both ESO's readiness and the government's own preparation for the storm, but any decision on management accountability would wait until power is back for everyone. Customers left without electricity for at least 72 hours will be able to apply from Sept. 1 for compensation capped at 220 euros.

Kaunas opened TS-LKD primaries on Saturday to choose the party's candidate for city mayor. About 2,000 party members and supporters are voting over two days among Šarūnas Jasiukevičius, Andrijana Filinaitė, Rokas Mickus, Audronė Baronienė and Dainoras Lukas. A candidate needs more than half of votes cast to win outright, otherwise a runoff will be held in two weeks.

Vilnius county police warned that fraudsters in Lithuania are increasingly targeting real estate as well as savings. Since the start of 2025, officers have opened 17 pre-trial investigations into very high-value property obtained by deception, and urged residents to warn relatives about calls and messages sent in the names of institutions. In the Širvintos district, a 46-year-old man fired several shots into the air in a public place overnight using a legally held weapon, and police later seized his guns. In health news, researchers linked recurring fever, skin rashes and joint pain to a CDC42 gene variant tied to familial Mediterranean fever and said earlier genetic testing could speed treatment with anakinra.

ESO said more generators will be provided to people still waiting for power to be restored. Lithuania's election commission said just over a week remains to establish new political organizations.

In Kyiv region's Bucha district, a Russian drone strike on a warehouse and the blast that followed killed at least 27 people and wounded 42. About 50 homes were damaged in Myla village, and 381 residents, including 59 children, were evacuated from the danger zone. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the strike hit a warehouse and triggered the explosion, and an investigation into official negligence has been opened. Rescue crews were still clearing the site on Saturday, and officials said the death toll could rise. Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi linked the attack to an early August strike on an ammunition depot in Vyshneve that killed 22 people.

Brig. Gen. Pavlo Palisa said on Saturday that Russia's political leadership had ordered its military to reach the administrative borders of Donetsk and Luhansk regions by Dec. 31. The Institute for the Study of War said Moscow already controls about 79.89% of Donetsk and 99.77% of Luhansk, but still faces the fortified towns of Kostiantynivka, Slovyansk and Kramatorsk. Palisa also said Ukraine had checked intelligence from several sources showing Russian planners were told to prepare offensive options for the Kyiv and Chernihiv axes. ISW said Russia is also intensifying strikes near the Ukraine-Moldova border to disrupt overland logistics with Europe.

That same day, Russian drone and missile attacks on several Ukrainian cities killed one person and wounded two others in the Kyiv region. Ukraine also remains short of Patriot missiles as Moscow keeps launching major strikes every few days. Zelenskyy ordered Ukraine's military on Friday to raise long-range drone strikes on Russia to 1,000 a day from about 300 now. In England, Manchester City beat Crystal Palace 4-1 in London on Friday to go top of the Premier League on six points, with Erling Haaland scoring in the 17th minute and Rayan Cherki adding two goals after the break.

Turkey summoned Ukraine's ambassador over attacks on ships in the Black Sea. Separately, another public appeal to Vladimir Putin warned that attempts to suppress the situation could trigger civil war.

Washington has entered a new phase of economic pressure on Iran six months into the war and is calling it an economic D-day. Iranian officials said today that foreign trade has shrunk by a third, but ruled out backing down and said they would retain leverage over the Strait of Hormuz. Donald Trump said on Friday that the Strait of Hormuz was open again to heavy shipping and that the U.S. Navy had cleared mines from the main channel. Trump also said there were no talks with Tehran and none were scheduled.

South Australia said yesterday that a dead common dolphin found at Goolwa tested positive for H5N1 bird flu, the first such detection in Australia. The same day, officials also confirmed H5N1 in a red fox near Adelaide, and the state logged 46 new confirmed H5 cases over the past day. Authorities said no infections have been found in poultry or livestock, expanded wildlife surveillance and told the public not to touch sick or dead animals.

An Israeli air strike in Jenin in the occupied West Bank killed Qais Bitawi and two other people yesterday. The Israeli military described Bitawi as a Hamas operative, and Hamas later confirmed he was a member and condemned the attack. Israel said the strike was a rare use of lethal air power in the territory, where it has been running a ground operation around Jenin for months.

In Brussels, Mark Rutte and Donald Tusk said today that Russian provocations cannot be ruled out. NATO planners are now testing scenarios in which Russia and China act in concert, while the alliance weighs how to respond to crises in Europe and the Indo-Pacific at the same time.

Israel said it struck a hospital complex in Gaza targeting a Hamas leader. In Niger's capital, a mutiny shook the city, but the junta said it had regained control.