Former Tallinn Deputy Mayor Aleksei Jašin is leaving Eesti 200 to join the Social Democrats (SDE).

Estonia's newly appointed ambassadors to Ireland and Hungary have presented their credentials.

Former Tallinn Deputy Mayor Aleksei Jašin is leaving Eesti 200 to join the Social Democrats (SDE).

Center Party chair and former Tallinn Mayor Mihhail Kõlvart has confirmed he will step into the ring for a charity boxing match in November, Postimees reported.

Estonian prisoners gain access to nicotine pouches and uninterrupted sleep thanks to Swedish inmates.

The Social Insurance Board will pay out €200 for retirees who live alone together with the pension on 5 October.

USA president Donald Trump nimetab eeldatavasti riikliku luure direktori Jay Claytoni Valge Maja uueks tehisaru tsaariks, teatasid reedel uudistekanal CNN ja teised Ühendriikide meediaväljaanded.

Poola kaitseministeeriumi programmi MikroGLOB raames on orbiidile toimetatud kolm väikesatelliiti, teatas reedel kaitseminister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz reedel.

The defeat raises pressure on Sánchez to call a snap election, after a series of scandals affecting his party and allies.

A movement that started nearly two weeks ago has spread, and in France young people on the streets spells trouble, writes Hugh Schofield.

The coordinated release is aimed at heading off further price spikes and avoiding a ban on US diesel exports.

The rise in global oil prices has been pushing up the pump prices of petrol and diesel in the UK.

PARIS — French schools are getting torched. The far right’s brightest star is fighting for his political life after being accused of antisemitic remarks. And economic indicators are flashing bright red to warn of a potential sovereign debt disaster in the country. The crises that have rocked France in recent days are exacerbating partisan cleavages in the country’s increasingly no-holds-barred presidential campaign. In the words of one government adviser: “It’s the maxi merde.” Though that individual, who was granted anonymity to candidly discuss the current situation, was only referring to the increasingly violent demonstrations outside secondary schools and the government’s slow-footed response to them, it’s a sentiment likely shared by French voters after a week of particularly bleak headlines. If there are political winners, it’s not immediately clear who they are. Establishment candidates and moderate voices are still struggling to seize the narrative from far-right presidential front-runner Marine Le Pen and her surging far-left challenger Jean-Luc Mélenchon — both of whom want to fundamentally reshape France and its relationship with Europe. A survey by pollster Odoxa this week found that the French disapprove of the government’s handling of the student school protests, but they also disapprove of Mélenchon and his far-left party France Unbowed’s involvement. Mélenchon’s allies have joined demonstrators outside schools, saying they were there to show support and protect minors from confrontations with police. But the government and France Unbowed’s political opponents accuse them of fanning the flames of violence — allegations they deny. “There’s a battle over the narrative” between the political extremes, a Socialist Party adviser said. Whatever the case, the week’s crises are showing just how nasty the campaign can get with two populist candidates unafraid to stoke partisan divisions leading the polls. Diversion tactics The French government has tried to get a grip on the unravelling protests, holding a crisis meeting Thursday and meeting youth representatives on Friday. “Lecornu is always running behind the crises, he’s always reacting,” said a centrist adviser. Le Pen, however, blamed agitators for stirring up violence at the protests and accused France Unbowed of “giving a helping hand” to “agents of chaos and insurrection.” For her National Rally party, the crisis is a useful opportunity to try to convince voters that her party is the best choice for those concerned with public safety. “We have a government that is incapable of maintaining public order and a left that is stoking the fire,” said National Rally MP Laurent Jacobelli in an interview with POLITICO. “We are the only legitimate ones when it comes to [security],” he added. But the unrest is also a useful distraction for Le Pen as her party president and heir apparent, Jordan Bardella, tries to bat down allegations published Monday by investigative outlet Mediapart that he sent antisemitic messages on Facebook Messenger when he was a 17-year-old activist. Bardella vehemently denied the allegations and vowed to sue Mediapart, but the website on Thursday published another story outlining how it verified the claims, which included screenshots and conversation data downloaded directly from Meta with the help of their sources. Bardella was tipped to become Le Pen’s prime minister if she came to power, but his future appears to hang on a thread. “Do we need to unplug him? It’s Marine’s decision,” said a National Rally elected representative. “It all depends on whether the proof is serious.” But Bardella is no small player, and the National Rally’s opponents are hoping that the fallout of his possible resignation would damage Le Pen’s campaign durably. Budget trouble All of this comes just hours after Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s minority government introduced a 2027 budget with €43 billion worth of savings designed to reassure markets fretting about France’s massive debt and a stubbornly high budget deficit. But without a parliamentary majority, getting lawmakers to agree to painful cuts will be tough, even if the specter of a potential financial crisis is starting to loom large.  Borrowing cost have reached their highest levels since 2008 and the spread between French 10-year bonds and German ones — an indicator that measures investors’ appetite to hold French debt over more traditionally stable German debt — shot above 150 basis points on Friday, a level not seen in years. One lawmaker from President Emmanuel Macron’s party Renaissance said he doesn’t see how the presidential hopefuls from the political center — former PMs Edouard Philippe and Gabriel Attal — will be spared the fallout. “Every minute spent on the budget is a minute spent staring at our incapacity to get ourselves out of the mess,” the MP said. Meanwhile, Mélenchon has called for his party officials to join more protests planned next Tuesday and protect pupils against alleged police violence. That could propel him to center stage, but it could also backfire if he is seen as taking part in the unrest. Centrist MEP Sandro Gozi said the allegations against Bardella and the far left’s attitude to the protests “complicate the normalization strategy of the two sides.” “Both Le Pen and Mélenchon are extremists who are far from fundamental Republican and European values,” Gozi said. But as Macron’s term winds down, a sense is taking hold that France has been mismanaged and that parts of the country are falling apart. It’s a perception any would-be successor with links to the current president will struggle to combat on the campaign trail. Elisa Bertholomey and Sarah Paillou contributed reporting.

BRIGHTON, England  — Green leader Zack Polanski has claimed credit for Andy Burnham’s recent arrival in No. 10. Now he’s trying to convince people that his party can still do more to move national politics. In his second speech as head of the left-wing populist party — and less than a week before his personal brand is tested at the polls in Holborn and St Pancras, where he’s fighting to snag Keir Starmer’s recently vacated Westminster seat — Polanski positioned his party as a corrective, not a spoiler.  “Vote Green, and watch Labour move,” was his message. “Between general elections, we change the government.”  Polanski added: “Through our sustained pressure — and our historic wins — we have held the worst instincts of the Labour government in check. And started to move them in the right direction.”  The Labour washout in May’s local elections, courtesy of voter defections to right-wing populist Reform UK as well as to the Greens, accelerated Starmer’s exit as prime minister over the summer. Burnham has since promised many of the things that under Starmer were within the Greens’ sole purview — public ownership, care, and housing.  The task for the Green leader now is to decide where to push Labour next. “It won’t surprise you to hear that I’m not hopeful about Labour’s backbone,” he told the crowd. Hackney Mayor Zoë Garbett, who won her job in May’s local elections, said there were still “key differences” with the governing party, particularly on Gaza, climate and rent control — but conceded that Burnham had made it more difficult for the Green message.  She said: “People were so fed up in May, they were done with people making promises and not delivering, but we need to put forward what our vision is as well, that’s what this conference and Zack’s speech is about.” Then there’s North London Walking on stage to Calvin Harris’ Let’s Go, Polanski’s galvanizing energy seemed to convince even some of the skeptics. “He brought the fire,” said one Green activist on exiting the conference hall, “in a way they’re not really bringing the fire in Holborn.” Campaigners have been fretting that the Greens haven’t done enough to “bring Burnham back down to earth.” One told POLITICO that next week’s vote would force the party to grapple with its failure to reckon with the new prime minister.  Polanski’s speech went some way towards defining how he might do this. He went hard on rent caps, the proscription of Palestine Action, and new drilling in Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields. And in doing so, he took the first steps toward clarifying where the new battleground is.  More in Common pollster Luke Tryl said that after being hit by the Burnham bounce and Polanski’s tumbling ratings, the Greens “need to make sure they don’t lose sight of the environment.”  Polanski seems to agree. “Our differences with this Labour government could not be clearer,” he said in Brighton, “While they play politics with our planet — we stick to the science. While Andy Burnham barely whispers the word climate — we seek urgent action.”  That was the one time Polanski mentioned the new prime minister’s name, as he joked that the outcome of the post-wildfire government COBRA meeting was to ban outdoor grills.  The Green leader, currently a member of the London Assembly, also attacked Labour MPs for voting for the proscription of Palestine Action.  “Our MPs didn’t troop through the yes lobby. Our MPs were cowed by fear or malicious attacks in the press. They stood up for the principles we hold so dear,” he said.  Polanski is trying to position the party as the full-fat version of Burnham’s “end of neoliberalism” offering. This was set out in a strategy document earlier this summer, according to the Guardian, “He is really speaking to what a lot of those disillusioned progressives wanted from Labour, and the reason why they left,” Tryl told POLITICO, arguing that the Greens should focus on the cost-of-living crisis and the environment as areas where they can claw back support.  A “timid budget” would “offer the opportunity for the Greens to come back in,” he said.  Tryl warned, however, about the “barnacles” on the party that may drive voters away, like a “Zionism is Racism” motion set to be debated Sunday.  Amid those debates on whether the party takes on a more radical agenda, Tryl said: “The question for Greens is do you want to be a pressure group that is pushing Labour to the left, or do you want to beat them outright.”

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Transits via Northern Sea Route quadruple as melting ice makes journey more passable and vessels avoid the Middle East