New EU packaging rules could saddle micro‑businesses with heavy costs and bureaucracy when selling across borders, prompting the European Commission to signal it may allow flexibility for the smaller firms, a senior official said during a visit to Estonia.

Kenyan runners dominated the Tallinn Marathon half‑marathon on Saturday, winning both the men's and women's races and setting new event records.

At its Thursday session, the government dismissed Ministry of Defense permanent secretary Kaimo Kuusk from his position.

The four opposition parties have differing opinions both on the recent dismissal of a top defense ministry official and the wisdom of holding snap elections.

A hunter captured on film an interesting and unusual spectacle as both a lynx and a moose were spotted in the same field.

Across Estonia, 485 young people remain without a school place after Thursday's deadline, with 245 in Tallinn alone, though officials say technical delays may mean the real figure is lower.

2022. aastal avastasid astronoomid absurdselt ereda ja pikaajalise gammakiirguse purske GRB 221009A, millele pandi hüüdnimeks «BOAT» ehk «Kõigi aegade eredaim».

Enefit Power taotleb Keskkonnaametilt luba kasutada eeloleval talvel Narva kaugkütte tagamiseks kuni 23 000 tonni põlevkiviõli, sest maagaasi hind on kerkinud juba ligi 95 euroni megavatt-tunni kohta. Ettevõtte hinnangul võiks põlevkiviõli kasutamine vähendada nii tarne- kui ka hinnariski.

Princess Astrid "represented the Royal House in a warm and dutiful manner", the new king, Haakon VIII, said in a tribute to his aunt.

Kramatorsk and Slovyansk are now the main focus of Russian ground assaults, and residents are being told to leave.

O'Leary has said airline passengers "can't afford to fly with the high-fare rapists around Europe".

Prices in the US rose 3.4% in the 12 months to August, according to the latest official report on inflation.

Portugal’s minister for agriculture has a burning desire for the next EU long-term budget: more goats. José Manuel Fernandes wants Brussels to help pay shepherds to let goats, cows and sheep graze on shrubs in areas at high risk of wildfires — a low-tech approach that experts say the EU has been ignoring for too long. Portugal and some regions in Spain are already running their own programs. “We are using our national money, but it is work that we are doing for all the European Union,” Fernandes told POLITICO at an informal meeting of ministers in Dublin, arguing that preventing fires helps lower carbon emissions. As a disastrous summer of droughts and wildfires turns into fall, some countries are grabbing the opportunity to convince counterparts to keep spending billions on farmers in the EU’s next long-term budget. While some nations have called for reducing spending on “traditional” topics like cohesion and agriculture, ministers like Fernandes argue it’s not just about paying farmers, but adapting the food system and the countryside to more extreme weather. “A lot of people don’t know that 42% of the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) is for environmental objectives,” said Fernandes. “The best friends of the environment are the farmers.” The summer of drought It’s not just Portugal. As European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen drafts her big State of the Union speech for Wednesday, setting out her priorities for the next year, the agriculture commissioner has said he hopes she’ll announce some action to prepare farms against future droughts. “We need to do more,” said Agriculture and Food Commissioner Christophe Hansen, including making sure there’s enough water to put out wildfires and to irrigate the fields in dry times. The current negotiator at member-country level, Ireland’s Agriculture Minister Martin Heydon, has also hinted he wants the Commission to include agriculture in its upcoming “climate resilience framework” slated for October. Spain’s Agriculture Minister Luis Planas has also called for more EU money to secure farms against droughts, arguing that crops bred using new gene-editing techniques, which the European Parliament voted to allow in July, could be a part of the solution. As to where the money should come from, Portugal’s Fernandes has an idea: Using funds from the EU’s Emissions Trading System to support the grazing goats. “If I give money to the transport sector to reduce emissions with ETS, why not also give money to have this fund, where we also have civil protection?” he asked.

BRUSSELS — The EU has delayed a key vote to hike tobacco and nicotine taxes until November to allow extra time for Sweden to form a new government after its national election on Sunday. Stockholm has emerged as the main holdout against the Commission’s proposal to raise levies on cigarettes, vapes and other nicotine products. The tax hikes are designed to wean smokers off cancer-causing tobacco while also preventing younger people from taking up addictive nicotine products, which affect brain development in teens and increase cardiovascular risks. The European Commission proposed increasing levies on cigarettes and setting minimum rates on newer products like vapes, heat-not-burn tobacco and nicotine pouches in July last year. The plan has become a flashpoint for Sweden, which has a long tradition of using snus — a pouch of tobacco that sits between the gums. As such, Stockholm has strongly opposed raising taxes on similar nicotine pouches. Delaying the vote gives extra time for Sweden to appoint a new finance minister and for the capitals to negotiate a way out of the current stalemate. The Irish presidency of the Council of the EU, which is steering the talks, confirmed the vote has been pushed from October to November’s ministerial meeting. Four diplomats granted anonymity to speak candidly about the sensitive negotiations said the postponement is meant to give Sweden’s next government extra time to change its mind. A spokesperson for the Irish presidency said they will “continue[s] to engage bilaterally with the aim of securing unanimous political agreement at the November ECOFIN” meeting of finance ministers. Pushing for a deal The original plan was to vote on the latest text on Oct. 9 — just over one week after the new Swedish parliament is convened. But negotiations to form a new government in Sweden took one month after the last election in 2022. Given the precedent, the diplomats said there’s little chance Sweden will change its mind before Oct. 9, as the outgoing minister has no mandate to make commitments on behalf of the government. “If Sweden’s minister says that it doesn’t have a mandate to approve the legislation [in October], then it’s over,” said a senior EU government official. As with all tax files, the so-called Tobacco Taxation Directive requires unanimity. While other countries besides Sweden oppose the legislation for different reasons, Stockholm’s resistance is seen as the most serious stumbling block, said two of the EU diplomats with knowledge of the discussions. With elections looming, Swedish politicians across the political spectrum have campaigned against the EU’s plan to hike taxes on nicotine pouches. The topic is particularly sensitive in Sweden, where nicotine pouches are firmly embedded in the national culture. “Other countries do not get to decide over our snus,” wrote Swedish finance minister Elisabeth Svantesson in June. Help or harm? The EU executive initially suggested taxing pouches at either 25 percent of the retail price or €71.50 per kilogram. That would mean a steep price increase for consumers in Sweden, where the national levy is only €18.36 euro per kilogram.  Sweden counters that its low tax rate should be applied across the bloc, arguing that nicotine pouches have helped drive down the smoking rate. EU government officials will meet on Sep. 14 — the day after the Swedish election — to discuss the details of the latest compromise proposal, which has renewed a long-running debate over the so-called Swedish experience. Supporters of nicotine pouches say the plan to raise taxes limits smokers’ ability to access a less harmful product that can help them quit cigarettes. Tobacco and nicotine companies frequently cite Sweden to demonstrate the success of alternative nicotine products like snus and pouches as a smoking cessation tool. Snus is illegal in all EU countries except Sweden, which won an exemption when it joined the EU. The proportion of Swedes who smoke daily has fallen dramatically from just over 30 percent in 1980 to 5 percent in 2024. Up until the current government, there was “no acceptance of a harm reduction or harm minimisation approach,” said Karl Fagerström, a researcher on tobacco and nicotine who has received consulting fees from tobacco companies. He said he was not against taxes on nicotine pouches as long as the levies on cigarettes are higher. However, the Public Health Agency of Sweden, an arm of the government, pointed to tobacco control policies including bans on tobacco advertising, tax regulation, age limits and smoking bans for how Sweden achieved its low smoking rates. “The decline in cigarette use has been going on for a long time, and to date, there is no scientific evidence that recent changes in the use of snus and nicotine pouches have contributed to this decline,” said the agency in a statement. Anti-smoking campaigner Helen Stjerna, secretary-general of the non-profit A Non Smoking Generation, said the government’s position was a “tragedy” given Sweden’s historically strong stance on tobacco control. “We’re really going backward. All these things we’ve been doing for decades, it’s all forgotten,” she said. The issue is also controversial across the bloc with EU countries such as France banning nicotine pouches for public health reasons and stirring a diplomatic row with Sweden. The World Health Organization has warned countries not to follow Sweden in its permissive approach toward nicotine pouches. It frames nicotine pouches as an attempt by tobacco companies to create a new generation of nicotine addicts as cigarette sales fall.

The CIA have declassified documents showing US presidents were warned about Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda before 9/11.

More than 900 people have been killed or injured and at least 5,000 families have fled their homes in less than a week.

US president is meeting politicians and business leaders, and playing golfTrump has now made his way to the Farmleigh estate, where he was greeted by taoiseach Micheál Martin.Speaking ahead of the visit, Martin said he was looking forward to welcoming the US president to Ireland and “discussing the many issues of mutual interest and reaffirming the strong economic, cultural and people-to-people ties between Ireland and the United States”. Continue reading...

Latest poll shows 0.3-point gap between left and right blocs, with country’s reputation as global champion of human rights said to be at stakeSweden goes to the polls on Sunday in an extremely close election that could see the far right enter government for the first time if the country’s rightwing parties can form a majority.Opinion polls show the centre-left opposition alliance ahead, with Magdalena ⁠Andersson of the Social Democrats the favourite to become prime minister again after four years in opposition, but her bloc’s lead has narrowed considerably in the final days of the campaign. Continue reading...

The disturbing global decline in test results rests on wrong-headed curriculum changes

Social Democrat-led victory would offer rare respite for Europe’s centre-left, but its poll lead is narrowing