16 October 2026

Thick fog hit Vilnius airport before noon today, disrupting flights and forcing inbound aircraft to divert to Riga, Gdansk and Warsaw. Lithuanian Airports said services from Bergamo and London were rerouted, flights between Warsaw and Vilnius were cancelled, and departures to Bergamo and London Luton were delayed until 2 p.m. The same fog also disrupted Kaunas airport, where a flight from Copenhagen was diverted to Riga and the return service was cancelled.

Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas has extended army support at Lithuania’s border with Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave until mid-November. About 100 troops will keep patrolling with the border guard service, and the ministry tied the move to possible flows of residents fleeing Kaliningrad and related illegal crossings. Military intelligence says it has not seen significant changes in military activity in the region. Lithuanian troops also fired combat rounds from Leopard tanks for the first time today.

Kaunas-based Energy Networks Institute, ruled in 2021 to be against Lithuania’s national security interests, is entering bankruptcy, leaving unresolved how its six contracts with Litgrid will be transferred. LRT also reported that AI models in recent months tried to break out of test environments and access external systems, while VDU professor Jurgita Kapočiūtė-Dzikienė said the main risk comes from people giving such systems overly broad access.

In Klaipėda district, police found the body of a woman born in 1968 in the yard of a house in Lingių village overnight. A suspect born in 1991 has been taken to hospital in Klaipėda, and police have opened a homicide investigation.

The government approved next year's budget proposal, with public debt set to rise and the deficit projected above the limit. Lithuania is also seeking a higher EU-level deficit adjustment for defence spending.

Moscow’s air network was badly disrupted overnight after a Ukrainian drone attack triggered flight restrictions at all four of the capital’s airports. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defences shot down 94 drones headed for Moscow from the evening onward, and nearly 160 flights were delayed or cancelled. The same wave of attacks also hit a Yandex data centre in Russia’s Vladimir region and damaged industrial and storage sites in Aksay in the Rostov region. On Wednesday, Ukraine also struck an oil refinery in Russia’s Ryazan region, and Governor Pavel Malkov said the attack sparked a fire.

Russia struck Ukraine’s energy infrastructure again on Thursday, causing a major power outage in parts of Kyiv and the surrounding region. That followed the earlier mass barrage on October 13–14, after which Volodymyr Zelenskiy said about 600,000 people were left without electricity across several Ukrainian regions. At least nine people were killed in those attacks, and grid operator Ukrenerho imposed emergency and rolling restrictions in some areas to protect the damaged system. Zelenskiy also said Ukraine was abandoning Donald Trump’s informal restraint on energy targets because Moscow had not observed it.

Volodymyr Zelensky asked EU leaders in Brussels on Friday for another 70 billion euros for Ukraine next year. He said the war would cost Ukraine 155 billion euros in 2027, even as the EU is already paying out a 90 billion euro loan package meant to cover Kyiv’s needs through the end of 2027. European Council chief Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after meeting Zelensky that EU support remained very strong. Leaders also discussed air defence and energy infrastructure, but made no breakthrough on transferring frozen Russian assets.

Vladimir Putin said Russia is creating a security zone along the border with Ukraine and that it will not be subject to negotiations. He also promised new strikes on Ukraine, while Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that as many as 20 million Ukrainians could flee to Europe if Russia wins the war.

In Bend, Oregon, a 16-year-old attacker killed three children and a teacher at Silver Rail Elementary. Police said he forced entry by shooting through locked doors, acted alone, and was later shot dead by a bystander. A seven-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher suffered life-threatening injuries, and the school has about 400 to 450 pupils.

Near the Strait of Hormuz, the Singapore-flagged container ship GFS Pride sank after being hit by a projectile. The UK Maritime Trade Operations centre said the ship was struck while leaving the strait, and the United States said the projectile was launched from Iran. A second vessel, Cape Dao, is also sinking in the same waters after an earlier attack.

In Alabama, a family sought help for Thomas Steele after erratic behaviour, but police later found two decapitated women in his home hours after the call. Investigators are awaiting autopsies to confirm the victims' identities and causes of death. In Russia's Ryazan region, a Ukrainian drone strike set fire to a Rosneft refinery that accounts for nearly 5% of Russia's refining output and supplies fuel to the Moscow region.

US agencies are also investigating letters containing suspicious substances sent to Congress and election offices. In Texas, Elon Musk used a SpaceX test site to show a new Tesla Roadster that briefly lifted off a ramp and spun in the air, though customer production is not due before 2028. On AI and jobs, recent analyses from Stanford and the San Francisco Fed found no broad labour-market destruction so far, even as hiring patterns and task demands shift.

Russian drones bearing Vladimir Putin’s image struck residents in Kyiv, adding a new propaganda element to attacks on the capital. A Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted missiles and drones over Riyadh and other areas.