24 October 2026

Rukla has begun the first phase of a military infrastructure project jointly financed by Lithuania and Germany. The defence ministry plans workshops, warehouses, a wash facility, a fuel station and other support assets there, and says more than 60% of the money stays with Lithuanian companies.

Robertas Kaunas said over the past day that about 100 U.S. troops have already arrived in Lithuania, with the rest of the rotation due by mid-November. Gitanas Nausėda has warned that the overall U.S. military footprint in Europe is still shrinking. Lithuanian troops and NATO allies also began the Budri Pelėda exercise today across ten municipalities, and the drills will run until Dec. 4. The exercise is taking place in the districts of Jurbarkas, Lazdijai, Šakiai, Šalčininkai, Šilutė, Švenčionys, Varėna and Vilkaviškis, as well as in Druskininkai and Pagėgiai.

In Vilnius, police and border guards checked hundreds of foreigners and drivers in a night raid. Officers stopped a drunk foreigner driving without a licence and opened both drink-driving proceedings and a review of his legal status in Lithuania. Two Vilnius county police officers were also injured within hours today in separate incidents, one on Pramonės Street during the arrest of a 1995-born drug suspect and another in a hotel on Didžioji Street involving a 1990-born man. Both officers were treated as outpatients, and one suspect was taken to detention.

The domestic political agenda also included the Liberals' preparations for local elections and a protest near the government over climate risks. Delfi also repeated health guidance on the Astravyets nuclear plant: potassium iodide tablets should be taken only after an official order, because there is no emergency now and excess iodine can harm health.

Airspace restrictions were imposed over Kaunas airport and flights were temporarily halted because of contraband balloons. In the Ukmerge district, a woman was killed and others were injured in a two-car collision.

Crimea suffered sweeping overnight power cuts after drone strikes hit energy infrastructure across the Russian-occupied peninsula. Electricity went out in Sevastopol, Simferopol, Yalta, Feodosia, Dzhankoi, Alushta and Yevpatoria, while Sevastopol-installed governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said critical facilities were running in emergency mode after key substations were damaged.

Moscow and Kyiv are again discussing possible trilateral talks with the United States after Vladimir Putin said he agreed in principle to resume negotiations. Within hours of that signal, Russia launched a deadly barrage of ballistic missiles and drones at Kyiv. Separate secret contacts involving Melania Trump and civilian negotiators produced a local ceasefire around Oleshky in southern Kherson region to allow aid deliveries. The Institute for the Study of War said Putin’s talk of “historical Russian lands” points to claims that go beyond Donbas and could extend to all of Ukraine.

Ukrainian drones have struck three major Russian data centres this month, including sites tied to Yandex, Sberbank and VKontakte, disrupting services linked to search, cloud computing and AI. Kyiv also said today that Starlink and Starshield speeds had been restored to more than 400 km an hour after more than a week of restrictions that commanders said caused lost drones and broken communications. Neither SpaceX nor the US government has publicly taken responsibility for the slowdown.

In Paris, Sotheby’s unveiled the Blaquier Arrieta collection, a 12-work group valued at 500 million euros and unseen in public for decades. The trove includes Cézanne’s Harlequin and Van Gogh’s Blooming Chestnut Trees, while the opening Grand Prix figure skating event in the United States has Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto leading the women’s field and Olympic champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara on top in pairs.

Thousands protested in Turkey over journalists' arrests and media shutdowns. In France, nearly 1,000 people were arrested during protests marred by violence.

Iran said on Saturday that U.S. warships will never be allowed into the Persian Gulf. Armed forces chief of staff Ali Abdollahi delivered the warning on state television, while U.S. ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack said Washington could strike Iran as soon as this weekend. U.S. intelligence chief Jay Clayton warned on Saturday that Iran has stepped up efforts to target Americans in the Middle East and beyond. Tehran also said it has restricted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz since the war with the United States began on Feb. 28, and two supertankers carrying more than 4.5 million barrels of crude hit mines on Friday and were left adrift.

In the Philippines, two Air Force SF-260 trainer planes collided during a training flight at Fernando Air Base in Batangas on Friday, killing all four pilots on board. The military said the aircraft were flying in formation and came down at about 3:51 p.m. local time, and the Air Force has grounded its SF-260 fleet pending an investigation. A shallow earthquake struck near Vanuatu on Saturday, with the U.S. Geological Survey first measuring it at 7.2 before revising it to 6.9. The epicentre was about 200 km northwest of Port Olry, a separate 6.3 tremor was recorded nearby, and the tsunami warning was later lifted.

Uganda launched clinical trials of a new Ebola vaccine in Masaka on Saturday and enrolled five volunteers in the first phase. The study aims to recruit 110 people, and the shot was developed by Oxford University, manufactured in India and designed for the Bundibugyo strain, which still has no approved vaccine. The trial opened after the WHO declared Uganda's outbreak over in August, but confirmed deaths in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo have reached at least 4,500 and African health officials are due to hold an emergency meeting next week.

Saudi air strikes in Yemen killed 11 people. In a separate escalation, the Houthis attacked Aden, where explosions were reported.