Estonian athlete Henry Räppo won the Ironman Tallinn 70.3 for the second year running. In the women's race, Italy's Marta Bernardi took victory, with Liis Kapten finishing third.

A book of condolences has been opened at the Stenbock House in memory of former prime minister Siim Kallas, who passed away at the start of the weekend, aged 77.

A book of condolences has been opened at the Stenbock House in memory of former prime minister Siim Kallas, who passed away at the start of the weekend, aged 77.

Estonian politician Siim Kallas, a former prime minister, foreign minister and vice president of the European Commission who also held several other senior positions, died overnight Friday into Saturday.

The Level 2 storm which hit Estonia on Saturday has started to subside, though strong winds and rain are still forecast for Sunday.

The impending arrival of Saturday's storm saw kitesurfers head out to catch the wind and the waves ahead of it making landfall.

Õiguskantsler Ülle Madise kandidatuuri presidendi kohale esitavad esmaspäeva hommikul 74 riigikogu liiget.

Swedbanki analüüsi kohaselt on keskmise netopalga ostujõud pealinna eluasemeturul aastatagusega võrreldes märgatavalt parem, kuna tulumaksureformi toel kiirenenud palgakasv edestab oluliselt korterite hinnatõusu. Kuid kui suur peab Tallinnas sissetulek olema, et saaks tõsiselt kaaluda elamispinna ostmist?

Mykhailo Fedorov has also called for wartime elections to be held in Ukraine.

A government minister says people have been taking risks by going into the water, with 301 deaths since 19 June.

The review of how rates are calculated in England and Wales could lead to reform of the system.

The fast-fashion giant's shares are due to start trading in Hong Kong on 1 September.

LONDON — The U.K.’s Brexit settlement scheme left a woman stranded at a foreign airport — after confusing her for her identical twin sister and stopping her from boarding her flight home. The error is the latest in a string of problems caused by the system’s design affecting tens of thousands of EU citizens living in Britain. When Brexit hit, EU nationals already resident in the U.K. at the time were given “settled status” granting them the right to stay once free movement ended. But instead of getting a physical document to prove their status, the Home Office decided they would only be given a digital “eVisa” stored on a Home Office computer. Just one problem: the information in the eVisa computer isn’t always correct. The Home Office system sometimes gets confused, including, POLITICO has learned, between identical twins. Known issue The system’s problem with identical twins is a “known issue,” the Home Office told Nidia Webb over the phone as she tried to work out why she had been stranded in a foreign country. When Webb, who has lived in the U.K. for eight years, tried to fly home from a holiday in Spain earlier this month, she was denied boarding at the gate. The problem? Her settled status wasn’t showing up in the system. The flight departed without her. After spending hours on the phone with a Home Office helpline, the problem became clear. “My digital settled status had become linked to my identical twin sister’s details rather than my own, meaning my status could not be properly matched to my identity,” she told POLITICO. “I was informed that this is a known technical issue affecting some twins within the Home Office system.” The Home Office did not dispute her account and said it would be contacting her to ensure the issue was resolved. Webb was assured over the phone that she would get an update when the issue with her eVisa account had been fixed. But in a result which failed to inspire confidence, the Home Office sent the confirmation email to her twin sister. The Home Office system sometimes gets confused, including between identical twins. | Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images “I had no idea the issue had been corrected until I was allowed to board my flight home,” Webb said — a fact which compounded an already stressful situation. “Had I not spent hours on the phone trying to resolve the matter, I have no idea how long I could have remained stranded abroad,” she added. Webb was forced to pay for a new flight home out of her own pocket — money her travel insurer said she should try to recover from the Home Office. The eVisa database keeps a record of a person’s full name, date of birth, nationality, and a facial photograph. But these traits are by definition often a very close match for identical twins, including Webb, whose name is similar to that of her sister. Many such cases Monique Hawkins, acting CEO of the3million, which campaigns for the rights of EU citizens living in the U.K., said problems with the eVisa system sometimes left people unable to prove their identity when they needed it most. “We have seen many cases where someone else’s immigration status is entangled with another person’s eVisa account. We had hoped, after repeatedly raising this issue, that the Home Office had taken more steps to prevent it happening. It just shows how, despite claims that the eVisa system is highly resilient, it can fail people at the critical moments they need it to work,” she said. Hawkins said it was “crucial that people have a genuinely stable means by which to prove their status” and described the digital-only system as “rushed,” adding: “We regularly see people not only denied boarding, but also compensation, as carriers and the Home Office play a blame game shifting responsibility between each other.” While a Home Office spokesperson did not dispute Webb’s account, they defended the eVisa system, arguing it had worked for many people. “Over 10 million people have already successfully used eVisas to prove their immigration status,” the spokesperson said. “As we expand our digital system, we are committed to data accuracy and ensuring that the safeguards in place to support eVisa users are accessible to anyone reliant on the digital system. In the rare cases where errors are identified, the majority of cases are resolved within 24 hours.” More than 76,000 people have their names, immigration status, or photographs mixed up in the U.K.’s immigration database, the Guardian reported in 2024. This number includes other nationalities subject to eVisa and not just EU citizens. Webb’s story comes after POLITICO revealed that the European Union’s own digital border system, EES, is also sometimes confused by identical twins. As identity and border systems are increasingly digitalized, twins are facing more problems across the board, say campaigners. “Too often twins are considered as one as opposed to as individuals and we urge those making these technological decisions to consider twins’ individuality,” Rafi Cooper, head of communications at Twins Trust, said.

For most of Russia’s years-long war against Ukraine, Russian civilians have been relatively insulated from Kyiv’s attacks. That is changing.  Since July, Kyiv has broadened its long-range drone campaign beyond conventional military targets, intensifying strikes on Russia’s oil and gas industry and hitting the vast warehouses of Wildberries, Russia’s answer to Amazon.  While these are primarily intended to cause economic damage, in the words of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, “to bring the war back home – to Russia,” they also mark another important shift. Ukrainian authorities are increasingly seeing Russian civilian casualties as a price they are prepared to pay for taking the war deeper into enemy territory.  The numbers help illustrate the change. In 2025, Ukrainian attacks inside Russia killed 253 civilians, according to the United Nations, which says it was not able to independently verify the numbers. This year, in the month of July alone, Russian authorities reported that 79 civilians were killed and 601 injured, a marked increase in the casualty rate.  Zelenskyy has said that Wildberries is a legitimate target because it has been “used by the aggressor to ensure the supply of sanctioned components for the production of drones and navigation equipment.” Russian soldiers supplement their equipment by purchasing items from Wildberries. Maryana Bezuhla, a Ukrainian lawmaker and one of the most outspoken critics of Zelenskyy and Ukraine’s military leadership, is unapologetic about the increased risk to civilians. “Russia’s logistics system is used to wage the war of aggression against Ukraine,” she told POLITICO. “Russia has been targeting Ukrainian civilians all the years of the war.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has denied accusations from Ukraine that Wildberries handles military supplies but conceded to journalists that “the situation is indeed difficult” for the company.  Dmitry Peskov attends a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on June 3, 2026. | Pool photo by Ramil Sitdikov via AFP/Getty Images There is no indication that Ukraine is deliberately targeting civilians — even as Russia continues to hit apartment buildings, hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure with ballistic missiles and drones. And yet, there is no indication that the rising civilian toll in Russia is causing Kyiv to reconsider its approach.  “It is a very important thing to stress from the outset, that any civilian casualties resulting from Ukrainian attacks are collateral damage,” said Jaroslava Barbieri, Ukraine expert at Britain’s Chatham House. “No Ukrainian strikes have deliberately targeted civilian districts.” “But we know that Russia has been systematically targeting Ukraine’s critical energy infrastructure and civilian districts with the deliberate intent to cause civilian casualties,” she added. “That’s an important underlying distinction to draw.” On Friday, a Russian drone attack on a busy shopping mall in Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy’s hometown, left 16 people dead and more than a 130 wounded, including children. The strike was a double-tap — that’s when second attack on a target is conducted around half-an-hour later and is designed to catch first responders, a tactic used frequently in northern Syria. The damage done to a shopping mall following a Russian strike in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine is pictured on Aug. 22, 2026. | Yan Dobronosov/AFP via Getty Images Since the war began, Russian officials have consistently denied their forces intentionally target civilians and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has instead accused Ukraine of deploying troops and heavy weapons close to civilian infrastructure.  Russia has “a clear pattern” of targeting Kyiv and other urban centers with large civilian populations, Rosemary DiCarlo, the U.N. under-secretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, told the U.N. Security Council in July. The U.N. has verified that at least 16,874 Ukrainian civilians, including 820 children, have been killed since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale assault on the country in 2022. Ukrainians believe the toll is likely higher, arguing there are many unrecorded deaths near the front lines and on territory occupied by Russian forces. DiCarlo also expressed concerns about Ukraine’s drone attacks. “Any attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, wherever they occur, are a clear violation of international humanitarian law,” she said.  It is an argument that infuriates Ukrainian officials, who bristle when asked about the risks to Russian civilians with the tactical switch. Even asking the question triggers accusations of echoing Moscow propagandists. “You are helping Russia by pushing this civilian stuff,” a presidential aide said. He declined to answer when asked whether Ukrainian commanders adhere to any pre-strike procedures to assess risks to civilians. The change in tactics has alarmed some European officials, according to Adrian Karatnycky, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and author of Battleground Ukraine, who regularly meets with senior European officials and diplomats. “They have always been low-risk and fearful of Russian escalation,” he said. The shift, he added, has been enabled by Ukraine’s growing ability to manufacture its own long-range drones and by cuts in U.S. assistance that have reduced Washington’s leverage over Kyiv. “There will be noncombatant casualties, but in an existential war you can’t fight with a hand tied behind your back,” Karatnycky said. “Ukraine’s ability to counterpunch is a relatively new phenomenon.”  How will the Ukrainian attacks play out in Russia — will they weaken Putin politically?  Tim Willasey-Wilsey, a former U.K. diplomat now at the Royal United Services Institute, a defense think tank in London with close ties to Ukraine’s defense ministry, said Kyiv must try to minimize civilian casualties with the long-range drone campaign.  “There are some risks,” he said. “As we know from the history of warfare, the bombing of civilians tends to actually harden people’s resistance rather than weaken it. Just think of the London Blitz, but also Ukraine now. And second, there is a danger of losing what still is a remarkable degree of Western support for Ukraine.”  “But you cannot wage war without casualties,” he added.

A fast-moving wildfire near Reno, Nevada, has forced 42,000 people to evacuate and put another 45,000 on alert.

As Kenya courts data-centre investment, communities fear growing pressure on an already stressed water system.

PM will use independence day trip to announce sharing of classified information about Storm Shadow componentsBritain will boost Ukraine’s capacity to make its own long-range missiles, Andy Burnham will announce on Monday, as he travels to Kyiv for the country’s independence day on his first foreign visit as prime minister.Burnham will arrive in the Ukrainian capital on Monday morning at a crucial time in the war, with Kyiv braced for another wave of Russian missile attacks and the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, facing his most direct domestic challenge. Continue reading...

Embassy in London says Andrey Kelin left last month after seven years in diplomatic postRussia has withdrawn its ambassador to the UK, it has emerged, as the Kremlin continues to try to put pressure on Britain over its support for Ukraine.Andrey Kelin left last month after seven years in the diplomatic post, according to the Russian embassy in London. Continue reading...

UK prime minister will shrug off warnings from Russia in first overseas visit

Fifth consecutive full-year loss exposes tension in mandate of lender set up by SNP-led government