Lithuania

A legal investigation has detailed how a single former lawyer became a major landowner by buying up restitution rights from people who had waited decades for their land to be returned. By paying original claimants a fraction of market value and reselling the plots for millions, the scheme turned a slow-moving bureaucracy into a private windfall. It is not the only property scandal this morning: officials have also discovered that a prominent family plot in the capital grew by 1,000 square meters without any legal basis.

The state is looking for its own windfalls, with the Prime Minister suggesting a new tax could target ten specific companies. Other ministries are busy preparing for next year's regulations, which include a car pollution tax and a mandate for replaceable phone batteries. Whether the public is ready for more state oversight is unclear; during a family night in Panevėžys, residents watched fighter jets fly overhead only to discover the city's designated shelters were locked.

The paper trail for one major polluter may have reached its end, as Grigeo Klaipėda faces a €48m fine that exceeds its total assets. In the courts, an unmarried woman has challenged the law after being denied assisted reproduction, while a judge in Kėdainiai witnessed what was described as a medical miracle—or a legal convenience—when a man with incurable dementia suddenly regained his faculties just as his guardian was revealed to be a criminal.