Prime Minister and Reform Party chair Kristen Michal says Estonia's economy is growing twice as fast as the EU average, as Reform pledges a clear course in the 2027 elections.

A street-level public civil defense shelter in the heart of downtown Tallinn has been transformed with a mural featuring Estonian trees and wildlife.

Prime Minister and Reform Party chair Kristen Michal says Estonia's economy is growing twice as fast as the EU average, as Reform pledges a clear course in the 2027 elections.

Eesti 200 MPs Ando Kiviberg and Toomas Uibo say their struggling coalition party should skip next March's Riigikogu elections and instead focus on rebuilding for 2031.

A street-level public civil defense shelter in the heart of downtown Tallinn has been transformed with a mural featuring Estonian trees and wildlife.

Nearly a third of teachers at schools transitioning to Estonian lack the required qualifications, as heavy workloads and limited pay make recruitment and retention harder.

Prantsusmaa linna Limoges'i raekoda hävis laupäeval maskides meeleavaldajate süüdatud tules suures osas, ütles piirkonna kõrgeim ametnik AFP-le.

Septembri lõpus esilinastunud dokumentaalfilm «Magnus Kirt: Tagasitulek» puges paljudele hinge. Samas paari tunni sisse mahutati vaid tilluke osa kogu linateose tarbeks kogutud materjalist.

The US president temporarily ends many restrictions on Moscow recently passed by Congress over "national security" concerns.

The pontiff will give the traditional Angelus prayer and blessing in St Peter's Square on Sunday.

Senior banking executives have told the BBC they expect to be "on the menu" in the chancellor's Budget tax later this month.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk showcased the vehicle at a facility owned by his SpaceX company, which helped develop the model.

Starlink restrictions hampering Ukraine’s war effort are “a planned operation,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday. The satellite service operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX is still deactivated in Ukraine at speeds over 160 km/h, which prevents some of its drones to intercept high-speed Shahed drones used by Russia, Zelenskyy told reporters in a WhatsApp chat. He added that Ukraine conducted a test by sending Starlink-equipped vehicules to European Union countries, at speeds over 180 km/h. “Starlink kept working … The conclusion is this: the restrictions are in effect in Ukraine, but they are not in effect in European Union countries. So, this is a planned operation,” Zelenskyy said. The restrictions have revived questions on Ukraine’s reliance on the satellite system operated by a U.S. company amid escalating tensions between Kyiv and the White House. “This will cost many of us our lives,” an experienced Ukrainian officer told POLITICO and the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network earlier this week. “We’re reaching out to everyone at the military level, at the Ministry of Defense level, and at the diplomatic level, including to SpaceX. Right now, no one is responding to our military or the Ministry of Defense,” Zelenskyy told reporters. The European Union is under increasing pressure to provide Ukraine with an alternative to Starlink. But negotiations between Brussels and Kyiv over access to the bloc’s Govsatcom program — which gives participating governments secure communications capabilities— have been stalling. And IRIS², the EU’s in-house planned network to match Starlink, is only expected to come online in 2030. “The Europeans are now raising the question of alternatives themselves. And they’re already working on them. They’re already making progress, and they’ll succeed in this area. I can already see that,” Zelenskyy said. SpaceX did not immediately responded to a request for comment. Earlier on Saturday, Zelenskyy accused Russia of looking to create a blackout across Ukraine, amid attacks on energy infrastructure and the waiver of U.S. sanctions on Moscow. “Russia is trying to cause a blackout in Ukraine right before winter. Russia is trying to leave millions of our people without electricity and heating. Pressure is needed to stop this,” he said on Telegram. “An American sanctions blackout, easing pressure on the aggressor, monetary rewards for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin: all of this only encourages him to keep striking,” he added. The Ukrainian leader’s comments come after Russia carried out strikes on the war-torn country’s energy sector, including power generation and transmission facilities, with more than 320 jet-powered Shahed drones, loitering munitions, cruise and ballistic missiles. Power was reportedly cut for about 1 million people. They also come as U.S. President Donald Trump signed on Friday an executive order that waived key sanctions on Russia — a decision that Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s special envoy for investment and economic cooperation, described as “an important and truly historic moment.” Trump’s move comes only a few days after he made a deal with Putin over supplying barrels of diesel, leaving European countries and Ukraine stunned. “A decision was unfortunately made in America to completely ignore Lindsey Graham’s bill, which was supposed to introduce truly effective pressure on Russia to end this war,” Zelenskyy said. “This bill could have helped a great deal, and it still can! But the law needs to actually work, and every vote for it matters.” This article was updated. Veronika Melkozerova contributed reporting.

PARIS — A wave of mass protests swept across France Saturday, with dozens of peaceful marches taking place alongside scenes of violent clashes between demonstrators and police forces. The demonstrations were also a battleground for candidates ahead of next year’s high-stakes presidential election: The far-right’s Marine Le Pen sided with law enforcement while the far-left’s Jean-Luc Mélenchon backed protesters.  Throughout the day, media reported incidents in the country’s largest cities including Lyon, Bordeaux, Marseille and Paris. Dozens of rioters clashed with law enforcement on the capital’s Place de la République, next to a much larger number of demonstrators gathered for an authorized march that started from Paris’s central square. Media also reported looting across multiple cities later in the day. French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu posted a message on X backing police forces and slamming violent rioters. He accused “ultra-left groups” of “organizing violence” and said looters would be brought to justice. Lecornu is overseeing a crisis meeting on Saturday evening, AFP reported. French President Emmanuel Macron echoed Lecornu’s comments on Saturday evening, although he didn’t mention “ultra-left groups.” “No place for violence in our Republic,” he said. “We will stand together against those who seed chaos, who only seek to tear down our institutions and who prevent those who peacefully express their demands from doing it.” Students, farmers and members of the Yellow Jacket movement, among others, took to the streets on Saturday in a “convergence of struggles” to protest rising living costs, sluggish wages and deep disagreements with the government. About 800,000 protestors took to the streets across the country, according to organizers. France’s interior ministry said 550,000 people took part in the protests. “A very large majority of people are protesting without violence,” Paris’s police prefecture said on Saturday afternoon. Around 4,500 secondary school pupils and university students involved in the Yellow Vests movement demonstrated side by side against the cost of living in Pau, south-west of France on 17 October 2026. | Jean-Christophe Chartre/AFP via Getty Images Saturday’s demonstrations grew out of the student protests that began last month with school blockades and calls for better study conditions, more teachers and more funding. The movement has since spread nationwide — and become a political issue as the campaign for next year’s presidential election heats up. In recent weeks, the government has struggled to deal with the crisis — which Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu described as “urban violence” — and is hoping the student movement will now fade because of a two-week school holiday that started Friday evening. “The mobilization is marked by a very strong involvement of the ultra-left movement, which is only looking to cause disorder,” Nuñez’s office said Saturday, adding that the minister reiterated his “instructions of utmost  firmness” to local prefects and police forces. Footage showed Lyon’s tourist board office engulfed in flames on the city’s Place Bellecour. A police station was vandalized in Marseille, where a group of “rioters” also entered city hall, Mayor Benoît Payan said. He toldBFMTV that “damage was objectively fairly limited,” although the act of vandalism was “unacceptable.” The headquarters of right-wing TV channel CNews in Paris was also targeted, authorities said. The government has defended the law enforcement response to the student protests despite numerous allegations of police brutality, including incidents that left one teenager with a severed hand and another blind in one eye. Nuñez said the use of “stun grenades” was authorized on Saturday, after a temporary ban on their use against students. About 163 people had already been arrested in Paris by mid-afternoon, authorities said. The far-left France Unbowed slammed the police response to the protests. The party’s presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon participated in the demonstrations in Paris and backed protesters — he also criticized the media for only showing violent clashes while “everything is proceeding peacefully, with tens of thousands of people calmly taking part.” On the other side of the political spectrum, far-right leaders Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen pledged support for the police. “Legitimate social demands have once again been hijacked by the far left,” Le Pen said, as an increasing number of polls show she could end up in the second round against Mélenchon. Bardella said on Saturday that protests were made up entirely of “chaos professionals,” adding: “As we said, working France, which is taking the full brunt of inflation and cost-of-living struggles, did not take to the streets today.” The police and protesters clashed in other European countries on Saturday, too. A student-led protest against corruption and unemployment in Albania’s capital Tirana reportedly turned violent, asdid another one in Brussels. This story was updated. Victor Goury-Laffont contributed reporting.

Protesters in Albania accuse riot police of brutality as clashes turn violent outside the Education Ministry.

Al Jazeera’s Rosie Rosie Birchard was harassed by protesters looting shops in Rennes, France.

Police fire teargas in Paris and protesters storm town hall in Marseille – with officials blaming violence on ‘ultra-left’More than 400 people were arrested in France on Saturday after protesters supporting high school student grievances clashed with police.Police fired teargas in confrontations with protesters, as demonstrations across France were boosted by other groups angry over high prices and the fraying of a social welfare system. Continue reading...

Police fired teargas and blocked streets in Paris during protests supporting high school student grievances, high prices and the fraying of the social welfare system. A peaceful march was seen to turn violent as rioters threw fireworks around Place de la République in central Paris.Student protests started last month over absent teachers and decrepit school buildings, and has developed into a bigger movement over cost of living and falling standards. Demonstrations broke out nationwide with hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets in Paris, Marseille, Lille and NantesPolice clash with protesters as tens of thousands take to streets across France Continue reading...

Clashes overshadow day of protests by tens of thousands over high living costs and dissatisfaction with the education system

President says restrictions only apply in Ukraine and are hampering efforts to intercept Russian attacks