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.

Varro Vooglaid's recent exit from the EKRE group means that the Riigikogu now has more unaffiliated or independent MPs than at any time before in the 21st century.

Varro Vooglaid's recent exit from the EKRE group means that the Riigikogu now has more unaffiliated or independent MPs than at any time before in the 21st century.

EKRE MP Rene Kokk refuted claims according to which whether he will run for the party again in 2027 is somehow connected to the fate of Varro Vooglaid.

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.

The government has approved new pet identification rules requiring dogs and cats to be microchipped and recorded in a nationwide registry.

2022. aasta 24. veebruaril alustas Venemaa režiimi juht Vladimir Putin sissetungi Ukrainasse. Pärast seda, kui Ukraina lõi tagasi pealetungi Kiievile, on lahingute kese kandunud Ida- ja Lõuna-Ukrainasse. Postimees kajastab 1543. sõjapäeva sündmusi allolevas blogis.2026/ukraina-kalender 

Venemaa majandus kahanes 2026. aasta esimeses kvartalis 0,2 protsenti, mis on esimene kvartaalne langus kolme aasta jooksul Ukraina sõjast ja sanktsioonidest tingitud kasvava pinge taustal, näitasid eile avaldatud ametlikud andmed.

Mengele fled Europe after the war but for years there were rumours he spent time in Switzerland.

Among the victims in Kyiv was 12-year-old Lyubava Yakovleva, whose father was killed during the war.

Analysts say the moves have been fuelled by concerns a Burnham-led government would increase government borrowing.

The regulator say the energy supplier breached licence conditions aimed at protecting customers in vulnerable situations.

LONDON — Tommy Robinson, the far-right anti-Islam activist who will lead a march through London on Saturday, is broadly unpopular in Britain — except among voters supporting Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.  According to The POLITICO Poll by Public First, which questioned more than 2,000 people earlier this month, 36 percent of Reform UK voters have a “very” or “somewhat” positive view of Robinson. About as many Reform supporters — 31 percent — had a negative view of him.  Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has a history of criminal convictions for violence, fraud and possession of drugs, among other offenses, and co-founded the English Defence League. He is set to lead a “Unite the Kingdom” march of thousands of people through London on Saturday, to demonstrate for “national unity, free speech and Christian values.”  The march, and a pro-Palestinian demonstration expected to take place at the same time, drew intensive police planning, with 4,000 officers, armored vehicles, helicopters, drones and for the first time facial recognition technology deployed to keep order in the capital.  Nationally, Robinson is seen negatively by 47 percent of adults across all voter groups, compared to 17 percent who have a positive opinion of him. But the poll shows the extent to which Reform’s backers are sympathetic to the most extreme end of activism on the right.  With Reform now consistently topping opinion polls — and winning elections across the country — the opinions of its voters stand to influence how the country is run in years to come at local level and potentially from Westminster, too.  “Robinson has historically been a fringe figure in British politics, and that hasn’t changed. What has changed is that his supporters have, for the first time, coalesced around a party with a real shot at power,” said Seb Wride, head of polling at Public First.  “Half of those with positive views of Robinson would now vote Reform, and they make up roughly a third of Reform’s base,” said Wride. “If Reform achieves the political power its recent electoral performance suggests, a substantial chunk of its coalition will sit at the edge of what many voters consider acceptable politics, with real sway over who the party has to court to hold itself together.” Farage has sought to distance himself from Robinson in the past, saying he is not welcome in his party.  And the poll suggests that Reform’s surge in popularity over the past two years — from a fringe party before the 2024 election to polling dominance today — has diluted the support for Robinson within its voting base.  Among voters who backed Reform at the 2024 general election, 41 percent said they had a generally favorable view of Robinson, though that falls to 36 percent of people who said they would vote for Farage’s party today. Similarly, Reform voters today are more likely to have a critical view of Robinson than those who backed Reform two years ago — 31 percent, compared to 27 percent.  “Reform’s base today is much broader than it was in 2024,” said Wride. “Robinson’s supporters may have found a home in Reform, but they now share it with a far more diverse coalition. If anything, Reform’s challenge now is building a platform that can hold together those with positive views of Robinson alongside voters whose disappointment with the two main governing parties is much more mainstream.” More than half of respondents believe more people support Robinson’s protests than feel they can admit it. This doesn’t mean people secretly support the activist, according to Wride, but shows “how many people see his marches as the tip of an iceberg.”  “Voters from every main party, including Greens (who are his clearest opponents) feel Robinson has silent supporters out there,” Wride said.  The POLITICO Poll also sheds light on how public protests polarize opinion.  In addition to Robinson’s march at the weekend, thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators will take to the streets of London. Respondents to the survey, which was run before the weekend’s events, were asked for their views on Israeli and Palestinian marches.  When it comes to sympathy for protesters’ motives, there tends to be a clear partisan split. More than half of Labour voters — 53 percent — said they agreed or strongly agreed with the idea behind protests “against the actions of Israel in Gaza.” For Conservatives, the figure was 26 percent, and among Reform UK voters, 22 percent.  Nationally, 36 percent of respondents said they agreed with the idea behind the Israeli and Palestinian protests, and 28 percent said they disagreed. The remainder said they did not know, or neither agreed nor disagreed.  The POLITICO Poll by Public First surveyed 2,031 adults from May 8 to 11 across the U.K. 

LONDON — Labour’s warring factions can at least agree on one thing: Nigel Farage risks throwing their plans to topple Keir Starmer into disarray. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham looks to have emerged from an bitter internecine battle this week as the best contender to dislodge the deeply unpopular Labour prime minister from office. But to challenge the PM he must first win a by-election in northwest England that promises to be a political circus like no other.  Farage has vowed to “throw absolutely everything” at the battle to win Makerfield, which is expected next month. There’s good reason to think his surging Reform UK party could win. Farage’s poll-topping band effectively deployed a “Vote Reform. Get Starmer Out” slogan to triumph at recent local elections. “You can’t really use that line in a campaign where the Labour candidate is objectively doing that in a much neater way,” said one MP in the region, who was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive party matters. This will be a case of “Vote Burnham. Potentially Get Starmer Out,” whether the Labour campaign can explicitly say it or not. Even Labour’s rival camps are preparing to put their differences behind them to get Burnham into the Commons so a fair contest can be held. Wes Streeting, whose resignation as health secretary accelerated the leadership contest, spoke to Burnham after quitting on Thursday in what amounted to a ceasefire offering. The centrist candidate for the leadership even offered to campaign for him in Makerfield, one of Streeting’s allies told POLITICO. His team insisted no deal was cut and Streeting would certainly challenge Burnham for the Labour top job regardless. “Wes will be a candidate in the forthcoming contest,” the ally added. Lucy Powell, the Labour deputy leader who’s a close friend of Burnham’s and is preparing to take on a senior role in the by-election campaign, used a union speech on Friday to stress that Streeting as well as the third possible major contender Angela Rayner will be “key players” in the party’s future. In move that could be as much of a sign of his diminished authority as it is a peace offering, Downing Street indicated Starmer won’t seek to block Burnham’s candidacy. He tried that before, in the Gorton and Denton by-election, and the Greens and Reform kicked Labour into third place, ending decades of dominance in the Manchester suburb. Why Farage is a threat The Makerfield constituency of Wigan suburbs and former mining towns was once safe Labour territory. But last week Labour lost all 22 seats it was defending on Wigan Council to Reform. Reform is some nine points ahead of Labour in the national polls — and the psephologists all reckon Farage’s candidate would win it with anyone but Burnham as the contender. The local election results in Wigan would suggest, at least, that the Greens sapping votes from Labour’s left shouldn’t be a major factor in this race.  But one Green party official insisted they had focused their efforts elsewhere in the locals and that they will direct a “big activist base in the area” to fight the by-election that Burnham is trying to win. The Labour campaign is already trying to paint the whole thing as a “straight fight between Labour and Reform” — a pitch voters weren’t buying when they opted to go Green in Gorton and Denton. But Makerfield is a far less ethnically diverse constituency. It’s about as old-school a working class Labour heartland as you can get. Burnham is a different breed of candidate too. The former cabinet minister who quit Westminster for the mayoralty in 2017 earned his “King of the North” nickname by successfully sparring with Boris Johnson during the Covid pandemic. “Some estimates of his personal vote suggest he could have added up to 20 points or so to Labour’s vote share in Gorton and Denton, and 5 points on top of Labour vote intention nationwide,” as YouGov analyst Patrick English put it. “He’d need every bit of that personal boost to hold off Reform in Makerfield.” Farage’s team are vowing to throw money, activists and major national attention at the contest — and they’re planning for the leader to spend a lot of time on the ground in the campaign. “I struggle to see locals thinking voting Labour gets Starmer out,” said one of Farage’s advisers. There is early evidence though that the message will get across. The Social Market Foundation has been examining online notice boards as part of research into misinformation — and its analysts have already been picking up on conversations in Makerfield groups about how they’re potentially electing the next prime minister. There will be other distractions too. This is a by-election forced by the resignation of Josh Simons, who was only elected in Makerfield in 2024.  He has made no secret of the fact he acted to clear the way for a Burnham leadership pitch. But those who know Simons have all been asking what kind of deal he has cut. That question, as well as why Simons quit on his constituents, will be a feature of the campaign. Danny Fletcher, a Wigan councillor spared by his seat not being contested in the latest elections, praised Burnham’s name recognition and local connections, having grown up in the region. But he warned the contest “shouldn’t be about a constituency being a pawn in someone’s career, no matter who that is.” If Burnham wins, then it’s off to the Commons to be in place to challenge Starmer, perhaps as soon as this summer.  But if he fails to beat Reform — then what?  The man thought of as Labour’s most viable challenger will remain in the wilderness. Starmer will still be governing a parliamentary party that wants rid of him. The internal war that would inevitably ensue would be even more chaotic and bitter than it is now — and potentially dash Labour’s hope of ever being able to prevent Farage himself becoming prime minister. Noah Keate and Esther Webber contributed reporting.

Lebanon's Ministry of Health said Israeli attacks have killed 2,951 people since March 2, with at least 8,988 wounded.

Members of Extinction Rebellion scaled the Eiffel Tower to hang a Palestinian flag for Nakba day.

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The odds of a global inflation problem are rising. Bond markets are taking note

Panmure Liberum goes back to the future