21 September 2026

Lithuania’s education unions demanded an extra 50 million euros today, saying the ministry miscalculated funding for teacher pay and other promised measures. The dispute follows the education ministry’s 2026–2028 implementation plan, which pledged faster wage growth for teachers and a target of at least 170% of the base salary coefficient by the end of 2028. Union leaders say they are ready to go to court and escalate to strikes under Lithuania’s labour code if no funding deal is reached.

Health minister Linas Kukuraitis said today that Lithuania should change how the severity of bodily harm is assessed after the Anykščiai district rape case involving a 15-year-old pupil. He said sexual violence cases must account for psychological harm, not only visible physical injury, after the victim in that case was assessed as having suffered only minor harm. The ministry must now decide whether to amend the assessment rules or pursue a broader legal change.

Andrius Kubilius said on Sunday that Lithuania was right to shoot down the drone, but its air-warning system still has clear gaps. He pointed to a false alarm over a flock of birds on Friday evening, while defence minister Robertas Kaunas confirmed the downed drone carried explosives and was neutralised. The ministry is now working on an integrated anti-drone system due by the end of 2027.

Lithuania will test its national alert system next week, with sirens sounding for three minutes and warning messages sent to mobile phones. In the last drill, about 1,160 sirens were activated and 2.6% did not work, while authorities also plan to add 275 new sirens and connect 600 existing units to a central control system. In business, Swedbank analysts and Enlight Research ranked EfTEN Real Estate Fund among the strongest property names in the Nordic-Baltic region, with portfolio occupancy at 97.7% at the end of the second quarter. In the wider region closely watched in Lithuania, humanitarian conditions in Russian-occupied Oleshky remain severe, with residents forced to use water drained from radiators and blocked from leaving the city.

Lithuania secured U.S. gas supply for 10 years for the first time. Economy and Innovation Minister Lukas Savickas said the LNG import deal with U.S.-based EQT Corporation is worth hundreds of millions. Late in the evening, Vilnius Airport imposed airspace restrictions after radar picked up markings consistent with balloons.

Ukraine’s air force said it shot down or jammed 147 Russian drones overnight and destroyed one newer Banderol-type guided munition. Russia launched 172 attack drones from several Russian regions and from occupied Donetsk and Crimea, and strikes still hit 14 locations.

Russian attacks across Ukraine killed at least six people and injured 38 over the past day. In Kramatorsk, two Russian aerial bombs hit the city yesterday and one struck an evacuation point, injuring two people and damaging a preschool, an educational facility and four apartment blocks. In Katerynivka in the Lozova community of Kharkiv region, Russian drones killed one woman this morning and left a 13-year-old boy with severe burns after a five-drone attack that also damaged residential, administrative and rail facilities. In Zaporizhzhia, a Russian drone strike overnight burned out a large part of building No. 3 at Zaporizhzhia National University, wounded six people and damaged two more university buildings, two apartment blocks and a shopping centre.

Russia’s pressure on NATO moved back to the top of the European agenda after Baltic intelligence chiefs warned that Moscow was preparing more decisive action in Europe. Donald Tusk said Russia could hit NATO territory with drones or missiles in the coming months and try to pass it off as accidental, while Mark Rutte said the alliance still has response options below the Article 5 threshold. Ursula von der Leyen this week called for a NATO-style mechanism to counter drones, sabotage and cyberattacks after the historical-context incident over Lithuania, where a NATO jet shot down a drone that Italy’s defence minister said was most likely Russian.

Politico reported that internal Rosatom papers set out a plan to add 500 tonnes a year of military-grade carbon fibre at the Alabuga-Volokno plant in Tatarstan by 2029. The expansion would support production of about 28,000 additional Shahed-style attack drones a year, and US and Ukrainian officials judged the documents authentic.

Moscow's oil refinery halted operations after a Ukrainian drone attack. Reuters reported that Volodymyr Zelenskiy met CIA Director William Burns in Ireland on his way to the United States.

Zaporizhzhia was hit by a Russian overnight strike that injured one person and damaged two apartment blocks, an educational institution and a shopping centre. Fires broke out at the impact sites, and local authorities are still assessing the full extent of the damage.

Iran said yesterday it had received information that the US was preparing to resume action against the country. Tehran said any new US attack would trigger sustained strikes on American bases and interests across the region. Donald Trump told Fox News yesterday he was in "deciding mode" on the war with Iran and said "very big things" were coming soon. Today, Iran's Revolutionary Guard said the war was not over and warned that any new US strike would bring new weapons, tactics and targets.

In Gaza today, three people, including a child and a woman, were killed in Israeli fire and 11 others were wounded in the central and southern parts of the enclave. One victim died from earlier injuries, while two others were killed by shelling and gunfire despite a ceasefire that has formally been in place since October 2025. South Korea's military said three soldiers were injured today in a suspected mine blast inside the Demilitarized Zone, with one seriously hurt. The explosion happened during an operation by the 25th Infantry Division, and the military has not determined whether the mine was laid by North Korea or was an old explosive on the South Korean side.

In Austin yesterday, an ICE agent shot 28-year-old Venezuelan man Wilber Rafael Garces Perez. He was left in serious but stable condition in hospital.

The U.S. vice president said the end of the war in Ukraine is only a matter of time. Separately, a source said Yemen's leader asked Donald Trump for help in fighting the Houthis.