Opposition party leaders hit back at Reform Party Chairman Kristen Michal's criticism on Sunday, accusing him of fearmongering and offering no vision for an alternative future.

Junior coalition party Eesti 200's board on Sunday said Estonia needs radical, fundamental and long-term changes in tax policy, the labor market and pension system.

Opposition party leaders hit back at Reform Party Chairman Kristen Michal's criticism on Sunday, accusing him of fearmongering and offering no vision for an alternative future.

Junior coalition party Eesti 200's board on Sunday said Estonia needs radical, fundamental and long-term changes in tax policy, the labor market and pension system.

A court has sentenced a teacher in South Estonia to seven years' prison time after finding him guilty of pedophile offenses, Lõuna Postimees reported.

The Estonian Education Personnel Union (EHL) will demand during teachers' salary negotiations that the government fulfill its pre-election promises by raising teachers' minimum salary to 120 percent of the national average.

Ukraina president Volodõmõr Zelenskõi pidas pühapäeval Euroopa Ülemkogu eesistuja António Costaga läbirääkimisi Euroopa riikide kaasamise üle tulevastesse rahuläbirääkimistesse, edastas uudistekanal Ukrinform.

Pühapäeva õhtul saabus Leedu ametivõimudele teade, et Samane külast leiti alla kukkunud droon, teatas Leedu riiklik kriisiohje keskus.

Eight people were injured, four seriously, before passers-by gave chase and stopped the man.

Staff Sgt Mohamed Mahdhee died while diving in the search-and-rescue operation, the Maldives government tells the BBC.

The government is cracking down on third parties who use bots to buy tests and resell them at inflated prices.

The launch of a new £335 pocket watch has drawn criticism after queues of shoppers built up again.

MADRID — The conservative People’s Party won an election in Spain’s Andalusia region but looks to have lost its majority in the local parliament, in a setback for the party’s moderates as they prepare for next year’s general election. The underwhelming result — which saw the PP lose seats to its left and to its right — means the party will almost certainly need the backing of the far-right Vox party in order to form a new government. “We didn’t graduate with first-class honours,” said Juanma Moreno, the PP candidate and incumbent regional president, of the result. “But we did get an outstanding grade.” The PP is in opposition at the national level in Spain, and polling ahead of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist Party ahead of next year’s national vote. With the PP well ahead in polls throughout the Andalusian campaign, the main question ahead of the election was whether Moreno would be able to secure his second consecutive majority in the region, the most populous in Spain. With 99.8 percent of votes counted, the PP is on track to secure 53 seats in the 109-seat parliament, a loss of five seats. Moreno is the leading figure of the PP’s moderate wing. The loss of his party’s majority — albeit by a narrow margin — is a blow to those who saw his centrist politics as a potential model for the national leadership to follow into the next general election, scheduled for 2027. Adelante Andalucía candidate Jose Ignacio Garcia celebrates his party’s results in Jerez de la Frontera on May 17. | Roman Rios/EPA Moreno had appealed to conservative and moderate Socialist voters to turn out to ensure he secured a majority, which he argued would provide the region with continued stability.  On the campaign trail he also criticized the central government over a train accident that killed 46 people near the city of Córdoba in January. Looking leftward, Sánchez’s party also had a bad night, registering its worst-ever result in Andalusia, which used to be its biggest electoral stronghold. It won 28 seats, down from 30 four years ago, with parties to its left performing well. Adelante Andalucía, to the left of the Socialists, made substantial gains to win eight seats, ahead of the left-wing coalition Por Andalucía, which registered five.  The Socialist candidate, María Jesús Montero, campaigned heavily on healthcare, accusing the PP of negligence following a scandal related to the management of breast cancer scan results in the region. “These are not good results for us,” Montero said. “We take note of what Andalusians have told us at the ballot box.” In third place, Vox gained one seat to secure 15 in total, and is seen as the only possible governing partner of the PP. Turnout was 65 percent. The Andalusia election follows three other regional ballots in recent months, in Extremadura, Aragón and Castilla y León. The PP won all of those convincingly but each time falling short of a majority and leading it into arduous negotiations with Vox to form governments. In each of those regions, Vox has demanded a tougher line on immigration. In Extremadura and Aragón, the PP agreed to implement a “national priority” policy, which the ultra-nationalist party says seeks to give Spaniards access to public services and benefits ahead of foreigners. Vox said it also wants to introduce this concept in Andalusia. “Andalusians have spoken clearly and they have told the Andalusian government what they want,” said Vox’s candidate, Manuel Gavira. “They want national priority.”

Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te urged the Trump administration to continue arms sales to the self-governing island in order to ensure “regional peace and security” in a Facebook post Sunday. U.S. support is essential in pushing back against Beijing’s increasingly aggressive regional military footprint, Lai said. “China has never abandoned its intention to annex Taiwan by force and continues to expand its military capabilities in an attempt to alter the regional and cross-strait status quo,” Lai said. U.S. arms sales and security cooperation “are not only necessary but also key elements in maintaining regional peace and stability,” he added. Lai’s post follows President Donald Trump’s comments on Air Force One and in a Fox News interview Friday that he’s delaying approval of a $14 billion arms sale to Taiwan as a “negotiating chip” with Beijing. “I haven’t approved it yet. We’re going to see what happens. I may do it, I may not do it,” Trump told Fox News’ Bret Baier. Trump spoke following a two-day summit with China’s leader Xi Jinping in Beijing that otherwise produced few substantive outcomes. Ending weapon sales to Taipei has been a longtime demand of Beijing, which claims the island as Chinese territory and has pressed its claim by ratcheting up military intimidation of Taiwan. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Trump’s comments didn’t signal a backpedal on U.S. ties to Taiwan. “The president was really clear about this — there’s no change in American policy on Taiwan,” Greer told ABC News on Sunday. Trump said that he had discussed U.S. arms sales to Taiwan “in great detail” with Xi. That’s an apparent violation of a 1982 pledge former President Ronald Reagan made to the island that it wouldn’t consult with Beijing on those transactions. Withholding weapon sales to Taiwan would also violate the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act which commits the U.S. “provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character” to deter potential Chinese aggression. That pledge is “the most important deterrent against efforts to undermine regional peace and stability,” Lai said. Trump suggested that weapon sales to Taiwan might embolden its government to declare formal independence — a potential trigger for conflict with Beijing. “We’re not looking to have somebody say, ‘Let’s go independent, because the United States is backing us,’” Trump said. Xi reiterated China’s longtime warning that doing so risked conflict with Beijing in his meeting with Trump last week. “’Taiwan independence’ and cross-Strait peace are as irreconcilable as fire and water,” Xi said, per a Chinese Foreign Ministry readout. Lai repeated Taiwan’s position that it is already “a sovereign and independent democratic nation” that Beijing has no legal claim to. And he warned of the consequences of a possible Chinese invasion attempt that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said was potentially “imminent” in a speech last year. “Any act that undermines peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is not only a blatant challenge to international rules and order but will also have a significant impact on Indo-Pacific security, global supply chains, and the world economy,” Lai said.

The US president has pressured Iran to concede to demands including dismantling nuclear programme and missile stocks.

At least five people have been killed in Israeli air attacks on several locations in southern and eastern Lebanon.

Wave of almost 600 drones launched across 14 regions, after Moscow’s deadly three-day attack on Ukraine last weekOne of Ukraine’s largest ever drone strikes against Russia’s regions, including Moscow, has killed at least four people and wounded a dozen more, the Russian authorities have said.The wave of almost 600 Ukrainian drones struck overnight across 14 Russian regions, as well as the Crimean peninsula and the Black and Azov seas, the Russian defence ministry said on Sunday, with the area around the capital among the worst-hit. Continue reading...

Canal+ head says he will not work with hundreds of actors and directors who signed protest against Vincent Bolloré’s political swayThe head of France’s biggest film producer, Canal+, has said the group will no longer work with hundreds of cinema figures who signed a petition voicing concern over the growing influence of the rightwing billionaire owner Vincent Bolloré.The open letter, published earlier this week to coincide with the opening of the Cannes film festival, was signed by more than 600 figures, including the actor-director Juliette Binoche, the director and photographer Raymond Depardon, the French-Iranian film-maker Sepideh Farsi and the director Arthur Harari, who co-wrote the Oscar-winning Anatomy of a Fall and is premiering his film The Unknown in the main competition in Cannes. Continue reading...

Ukrainian president claims responsibility for attacks in retaliation for Russia’s bombardment of Kyiv

Brussels’ proposed quota reduction could cost Kyiv up to €1bn in lost export revenue