31 October 2026

Packages from China and other non-EU countries will cost more in Lithuania from tomorrow, as a 2 euro handling fee will apply to each item rather than each parcel. Lithuanian customs says the EU-wide charge is meant to cover extra document checks and monitoring, with some shoppers seeing it built into prices and others paying on collection.

Lawmakers on Friday gave a positive first reading to Donatas Skarnulis as the next head of Lithuania’s State Border Guard Service. Interior Minister Martynas Katelynas is backing the long-serving officer, who has led the agency in an acting role since August after Rustamas Liubajevas stepped down. From January 1, 2027, municipalities will also take over state land administration in rural areas, completing the second stage of the reform. Environment Minister Ieva Andriulaitytė said decisions on leases, use rights and some consents will move closer to local level, while the National Land Service will keep oversight of legality and the public interest.

Vilnius has reopened a dispute over drivers’ medical checks because anyone without a valid medical certificate has been unable to drive legally in Lithuania since the start of this year. Officials are weighing administrative fines for those who miss the check, while critics argue that the approach shifts attention from prevention to punishment. The Health Ministry has also ordered the State Accreditation Service to examine the direct and indirect causes of a patient’s death at a Kaunas hospital on October 15. The hospital has opened an internal audit, police have started a pre-trial investigation, and the ministry says its next steps will depend on the findings.

Swimmer Smilte Plytnykaite has started studying and training at the University of Virginia under Todd DeSorbo. The Lithuanian junior champion is already competing in U.S. college meets, and her early results suggest she has adjusted quickly to an elite programme.

Ukraine's air defences shot down 105 of 134 Russian drones overnight, with strikes reaching several regions. In the previous night's separate attack, Russia launched 113 drones including Shahed, Gerbera and decoy Parodiya models, with Kyiv, Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk among the main targets. That earlier barrage also included ballistic and guided missiles, forcing Ukraine to counter several threat types at once. Debris fell in five locations in that attack, and the air defence operation was still under way by morning.

In Sumy region, Russian strikes over the past day killed a 43-year-old woman and injured 12 other people. The attacks hit 13 settlements, including civilian infrastructure, and investigators opened war-crimes cases. Ukraine's General Staff said today that Russia lost 1,670 troops in the previous 24 hours, along with 19 artillery systems and two air defence systems. It said total Russian manpower losses since February 2022 had reached about 1,588,170, while October's losses had already been described as the highest monthly figure of the full-scale war.

In Astrakhan region, Russia lost another Su-57 fighter jet today after the aircraft burned at an airfield. Initial indications pointed to an engine-start accident before takeoff, making it the fourth known Su-57 loss this year. In Moscow, the U.S. embassy issued an urgent alert over a credible threat of an incident that could cause mass casualties at the Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve. The embassy told people to avoid the site and said it was coordinating its response with Russian authorities, who had not publicly commented.

Iran braced for possible new US strikes today as Qatari mediators travelled to Tehran to try to stop a wider war from restarting. The Pentagon told Congress the conflict has already cost US taxpayers $47.1 billion. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran was still leaving room for diplomacy, even as Washington warned regional allies to prepare for possible Iranian retaliation.

China’s AI stock rally ran out of steam this week. Shares in robot maker Unitree have halved since early August, while memory chipmaker CXMT has lost more than a quarter of its value over the past month. AI-linked companies account for about 42% of China’s market capitalisation and 57% of trading turnover, leaving the broader market exposed to the sell-off. CNN says the AI boom has supported growth this year, but it has not offset weak domestic demand or the wider slide in Chinese equities.

In Atlanta, Sergey Lavrov said he had a brief but “decent” talk with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting. European objections to Russia’s presence led US hosts to scrap the traditional group photo. Lavrov said Moscow’s position on Ukraine was unchanged, while Washington argued diplomacy with Russia remains necessary if there is to be any path to ending the war.

In US politics, former Swiss model Beatrice Keul said she received an anonymous threatening call after a congressional report made public her rape allegations against Donald Trump over an alleged 1993 assault at New York’s Plaza Hotel. The Wall Street Journal reported that Pavel Prigozhin has kept the Wagner business network alive in the Central African Republic after his father’s death, with support from President Faustin-Archange Touadéra, control of local vodka and beer sales, and gold shipments into Belarus over the past three months. In Brazil, 24-year-old entrepreneur Priscila Lacerda Custodio was shot dead after telling her much older boyfriend by phone that she was ending the relationship, and the man, said to be about 60, has been identified as the main suspect.