30 August 2026

Kaunas is again looking back at one of Lithuania’s most shocking criminal cases today, as TV3 revisited the 2012 double murder in the Dainava district. Dovydas Kriaučiūnas remains the youngest person ever given a life sentence in Lithuania for killing two girls. The renewed focus has put the issue back on how courts weigh extreme youth, public danger and punishment for two victims.

Kaunas is also marking Freedom Day today at the VI Fort with a public event for the 32nd anniversary of the withdrawal of Russian troops from Lithuania. The programme includes displays of Lithuanian military and riflemen equipment, canine demonstrations and educational activities run by the Vytautas the Great War Museum. On defence policy, Lithuania has set this year’s military spending at 5.38% of GDP, or about 4.8 bln euros, but the State Audit Office says the share of failed procurements has risen 2.5 times in two years. President Gitanas Nauseda says the bottleneck is the procurement architecture built in 2007, while Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius wants a larger share of the next budget to go to air defence.

At Vilnius airport over the past two days, border officers detained two undocumented asylum seekers, including one man who had moved from Belarus into Latvia and was trying to reach Berlin through Lithuania. The State Border Guard links the case to the route from Belarus into Latvia and then through Lithuania toward Germany, while Latvian authorities have already intercepted, detained or turned back 10,181 migrants this year. Public attention also turned today to a new video by Skirmantas Malinauskas, who publicly identified a woman he says may be part of a broader fraud pattern affecting households. In health news, an updated review published this week linked higher fibre intake to lower cardiovascular mortality and lower risks of pancreatic cancer and diverticular disease, while the practical benchmark remains about 400 grams of vegetables a day.

Mykolas Alekna broke Lars Riedel’s 30-year-old record in Switzerland with a single throw. At the world rowing championships, Viktorija Senkutė finished fifth in the final and Lithuania’s eight set a new national record.

Russia said on Saturday it was preparing large-scale strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, and a Russian drone attack on Kyiv wounded at least three people and damaged several districts of the capital. On the same day, State Duma defence committee deputy Alexei Zhuravlev said Russia should be ready to use tactical nuclear weapons against Ukraine if needed.

In the Kyiv region, the death toll from Friday’s strike on a munitions depot in Myla rose to at least 38, with 42 people injured. Four children were among the wounded, nearby homes were damaged, a care facility for elderly and disabled residents was hit, and more than 370 people were evacuated. Ukraine’s security service opened an investigation into possible military and negligence liability, and President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was the second such incident in two months.

In the Donetsk region, Russian forces hit Bilbasivka with two guided bombs at about 11 a.m. on Sunday, killing two people, including a 13-year-old child. Two more people were injured, two private homes were destroyed and about 20 buildings were damaged.

Moscow also sharpened its message towards Europe over the past two days. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Europe saw Russia as an enemy, while Ukraine’s counter-disinformation centre warned a day earlier that the Kremlin was considering hybrid attacks on individual EU states, especially the Baltics. In Iceland, partial referendum results showed 51.2% backing a restart of EU accession talks, with 48.8% opposed. If that lead holds, Reykjavik can open negotiations with the European Commission in a process the foreign ministry says would take 18 to 24 months.

Military experts said Russian forces are advancing in Donbas, while Ukraine is preparing to defend its last strongholds there. In Germany, politicians called for a ban on radical AfD branches.

Russia's defence ministry said on Saturday it was preparing massive strikes on Ukraine's energy facilities. Moscow cast the threat as retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilian and oil infrastructure, and it came a day after a Russian strike on a warehouse near Kyiv killed at least 37 people.

A passenger ferry capsized off Kyrenia on the northern coast of Cyprus on Sunday with 267 people aboard. Turkish and Northern Cypriot rescue teams pulled 237 people from the water, while the death toll rose to seven. The vessel was sailing from Kyrenia to Taşucu in southern Turkey, and maritime investigators are now examining the cause of the accident.

China said on Saturday that 16 people were dead and 546 missing after a mudslide in Gyirong county in Tibet. The disaster was triggered by a glacier fracture on Nepal's Lirung Peak, and Chinese officials said 261 foreign nationals from 23 countries were among the missing on the Tibetan side.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent remained at the centre of the day's American coverage as he tried to contain the fallout from Donald Trump's tariffs, sanctions on Iran and a huge federal debt burden. US reports also pointed to fresh strain inside the White House, with some aides looking to leave before the November midterm elections. At Jackson Hole, Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said the central bank may still have more work to do if underlying inflation is not clearly returning to 2%. Wall Street sold off on Friday and the 10-year Treasury yield rose to 4.728%, showing investors are still pricing in tighter policy.

Ebola is spreading in Congo faster than aid can arrive, deepening the challenge of containing the outbreak. In Libya, rival groups signed a UN-backed agreement on elections.