Estonia's share from the 2025 auction of carbon dioxide units totaled €256.5 million, the Climate Ministry said.

Indrek Aru, head of the Police and Border Guard Board's (PPA) North Prefecture border guard bureau, said that in the past two weeks police have caught 99 people who are believed to have no legal basis for staying in Estonia.

Minister of Social Affairs Karmen Joller (Reform) has dropped plans to seek tens of millions of euros from the state budget to cover free child healthcare, leaving the issue to the next administration.

Potential presidential candidate Ülle Madise currently has the backing of 67 members of the Riigikogu, Eesti 200 chair Kristina Kallas said Thursday.

Indrek Aru, head of the Police and Border Guard Board's (PPA) North Prefecture border guard bureau, said that in the past two weeks police have caught 99 people who are believed to have no legal basis for staying in Estonia.

Estonian raspberry growers are reporting a strong season this year as farms turn to new growing methods to protect crops from increasingly unpredictable weather.

Vahel, kuigi harva, tulevad lood mulle peaaegu koju kätte. Avatud talude päev jõudis kodukanti Suurupisse. Üks koduõu avanes nii umbes kilomeetri kaugusel. Seal pidi mees köie peal kõndima ja naine hingele pai tegema. Kelle hing ei tahaks pai saada. Läksin asja uurima. Vaatasin ja leppisin kokku uue kohtumise. Lugu sai järgmine.

1974 – USA president Richard Nixon teatas tagasiastumisest, see oli USA presidentide seas esmakordne.

Italy introduced border controls following an influx of about 78,000 migrants from Morocco into the neighbouring Spanish exclave of Ceuta.

The group moved synthetic drugs from Spain to Algeria, then used the return journey to smuggle migrants and weapons.

The incident raised questions about how a disrupted power supply can have such a widespread impact.

The firm is a key supplier of components to UK and US frigate and submarine programmes.

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BERLIN — Europe’s reserves of natural gas are running dangerously low, risking fresh energy woes if the Iran war rages on and cold spells drive up heating demand over winter. But the continent’s top energy user doesn’t seem too bothered. Germany is the EU’s biggest vulnerability because its sheer size means gas shortfalls there could be felt in neighboring countries, driving up prices across the bloc if it fails to restore its reserves. That’s prompted growing calls for Berlin to do the unthinkable: intervene outright to direct its state-controlled energy giants to buy gas at any price, abandoning years of free-market doctrine on energy policy. So far, the government has refused to budge, even as it falls short of EU targets and faces the risk of physical supply shortages as early as November. It’s a gamble that the markets will figure everything out, even as war and hot weather distort traditional incentives and upend global supply chains. “Storage levels are not only exceptionally low for this time of year, but historically low,” said Sebastian Heinermann, the managing director of Germany’s top gas storage association, INES. But Germany, he warned, is still relying on an outdated, market-oriented approach to refill its reserves, even when there are “hardly any market-economic incentives left.” Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, EU countries have been required to hit gas storage targets of 90 percent of national capacity by winter to prevent serious supply shortfalls. The EU lowered that target to 80 percent following the outbreak of the Iran war to prevent panic buying. Typically, refilling is the responsibility of traders and utilities, which buy gas cheap in the summer to store and then sell in the winter for a profit. But buyers say higher summer prices as a result of the Iran war and climate change have upended that dynamic, leaving gas reserves across the bloc at around 58 percent of national capacity, 16 percentage points below the five-year historical average and the lowest level since 2011.  The low reserves have already added to the increased pressure on gas prices linked to renewed tensions around the Strait of Hormuz, with the European natural gas benchmark now consistently higher than it was for the first four months of the Iran war. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, has said the bloc faces no winter supply risks. But a report by energy analytics firm Rapidan projects that reserves will rise to only 65 percent of total storage capacity by November, arguing that hitting the EU’s target by winter won’t be possible without “materially higher prices.”  That risk has been exacerbated, analysts say, by the bloc’s move in recent years to replace its long-term supply deals with Russia with short-term purchases of globally traded liquefied natural gas. These seaborne cargoes are highly mobile and go to the highest bidder — leaving buyers more exposed to volatility on international markets, especially in the wake of the loss of key supplies from Qatar and rising demand in Asia. A tanker passes through the Strait of Hormuz on Feb. 25, 2026. | Fadel Senna/AFP via Getty Images Germany, the bloc’s largest gas consumer, has seen its reserves fill up even more slowly than others, in part thanks to its more hands-off, market-led approach to restocking than many of its neighbors. As a result, reserves stood at only 47 percent of national capacity in August, according to the latest data — the lowest fill level since records began. That’s especially worrying as the country’s reserves are important for the bloc as a whole, representing over 20 percent of the EU’s storage capacity.  Nevertheless, Berlin is staying the course. While its energy ministry has acknowledged the country’s historically low reserves, it has refused to intervene to direct its main state-controlled gas buyers, SEFE and Uniper, to buy gas at current prices to ensure its targets are met, instead of waiting for market conditions to improve. “It is the responsibility of companies and traders to fill the storage facilities for the winter,” a spokesperson for the German energy ministry told POLITICO. “Government-led filling of the storage facilities would further constrain the gas market and drive prices even higher. The supply situation over the coming months would actually deteriorate.” Whether this is the right approach will become clearer by winter, said Laurent Ruseckas, a senior gas analyst at S&P Global. If temperatures are unseasonably low, traders may be forced to buy additional supplies at late notice, driving up prices, especially if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. On the other hand, intervening could raise prices prematurely if winter turns out to be mild. “If you start buying now to get storage to some politically predetermined level you’re making prices higher now to get insurance that you won’t get higher prices in the winter when it’s cold,” said Ruseckas. Germany’s reluctance to move quickly also highlights the difficulty the EU’s fragmented energy sector has in competing with more centralized Asian economies that have acted more quickly to secure supplies, consistently outbidding European countries even as their reserves run low. Others warn that physical supply strains are also possible. Heinermann, of INES, warned that even filling the country’s reserves to 76 percent of capacity — which SEFE says is achievable — would not necessarily meet its supply needs if winter is “exceptionally cold.” That could ripple out to neighboring countries to which Germany is treaty-bound to provide emergency gas assistance, including Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Denmark. Heinermann called on the German government to encourage faster restocking by lowering network charges at storage facilities or abolishing the conversion levy, fees imposed for the conversion of gas on national grids. Berlin has already unveiled plans for a new emergency gas stockpile, but that will only cover 10 percent of the country’s gas capacity and kick off officially next summer. It’s no surprise that other major gas consumers have already waded into the private sector. The Netherlands, another free-market champion suffering from low gas reserves, earlier this summer allocated €1.2 billion for its state energy company, EBN, to more swiftly top up its reserves.  But Berlin’s energy giants are sticking to their guns — for now. A spokesperson for SEFE told POLITICO that even though “international conflicts” could weigh on European storage levels, the 70 percent target “remains achievable” without intervention. He pointed out that 78 percent of German storage capacity has already been booked, though acknowledged that doesn’t necessarily translate to actual volumes of gas stored.  Regulatory measures could be useful if “necessary” but could distort markets and increase costs, he added, without specifying what. A Uniper spokesperson was less confident, warning it would be “increasingly challenging to reach the target storage levels before the winter season starts” at the current rate of filling. But she too stopped short of calling for intervention, arguing instead for better incentives for refilling — mirroring growing calls from gas lobbyists in Brussels to scrap the rules outright.

Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi had cancelled an earlier Saudi trip after deadly July 29 US-Saudi strikes on Iraq.

The US Senate approved its strongest move against Russia under Trump.

Move comes in response to Rome imposing similar measures after mass migration rush to CeutaSpain has announced it will introduce temporary border checks on visitors from Italy in response to Rome imposing similar measures after a mass rush of people from Morocco into Ceuta.The checks, which come “amid the persistent irregular migration pressure” facing Italy, will start at midnight on Saturday and last until 7 September, Spain’s interior ministry said in a statement. Continue reading...

Taxi driver says he acted as middleman between Yorgen Fenech and three men already convicted of €150,000 contract killingThe businessman accused of paying for hitmen to murder the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was impatient for the killing to take place, and once texted from his boat to say he was “preparing champagne” to celebrate, a jury in Malta has heard.Yorgen Fenech, the 44-year-old heir to a property empire that includes several Hilton hotels, is on trial in Malta for complicity in the murder of Caruana Galizia. She died in a car bombing in October 2017 after publishing a series of revelations about senior politicians that were so damaging they triggered a snap general election. Continue reading...

Move widens rift between Pedro Sánchez’s government and rightwing Italian premier Giorgia Meloni

On the ground in Clacton; plus, what Badenoch’s backing for a former neo-Nazi says about her leadership style