On Baltic Sea Day, TalTech Professor Urmas Lips said there are reasons to be positive, and improvements are being made every year.

The volume of retail trade turnover rose 4 percent on year to July and to a total of €982 million, Statistics Estonia reported.

Presidential candidate Ülle Madise said on ETV's "Esimene stuudio" talk show that she is a conscientious and resolute leader in times of crisis who, like a ship's captain, would not abandon ship when difficulties arise.

Center Party leader Mihhail Kõlvart cannot bar Riigikogu members from his party voting in next week's presidential election, one expert said.

On Baltic Sea Day, TalTech Professor Urmas Lips said there are reasons to be positive, and improvements are being made every year.

An interactive work by acclaimed French visual artist Maxime Touroute will light up Tallinn's Patarei Sea Fortress walls as a shared canvas Friday night.

Briti ringhääling BBC kinnitas, et menukas autosaade «Top Gear» naaseb ekraanile pärast nelja-aastast pausi, mille põhjustas Freddie Flintoffi võtteplatsil juhtunud ränk avarii.

Poliitikasuvi on olnud võrdlemisi rahulik ning erakondade toetusnumbrid märkimisväärselt muutunud ei ole. Samas on tulemas riigikogu valimised ning eeldatavasti tormiline poliitikasügis. Eesti parteisüsteemi hetkeseisust ja võimalikust lähetulevikust räägivad politoloogid Martin Mölder ja Tõnis Saarts.

Remembering its role in the World Wars is a key aspect of modern Germany's identity but the AfD argues it is time to take a more positive view of the past.

On Saturday, Iceland will vote on EU membership talks, amid economic and geopolitical tensions.

Perhaps our days of doomscrolling are numbered, writes the BBC's technology editor Zoe Kleinman.

The UK government claimes panels could help homes "significantly cut" energy bills.

PARIS — France’s Economy Minister Roland Lescure said on Thursday a “stable public deficit” was the goal for next year’s budget. The government was initially aiming to bring France’s 2027 deficit below 5 percent of GDP, the current estimate for this year, in its upcoming budget bill, with a target reportedly set at 4.9 percent. But grim economic forecasts and a fractured parliament are making its deficit reduction trajectory more and more elusive, including a government commitment to bring back the deficit under 3 percent by 2029 to abide by EU rules. Lescure was speaking at a high-profile gathering of business leaders organized by French business lobby Medef, where he said his government was working on providing “stability” in the upcoming months, with no tax increases and an effort to further tighten the administration’s belt. He also confirmed that the government was looking into a partial pension freeze in an effort to keep the deficit under control. The government is facing a new harrowing budget season, with a deadlock parliament and opposition parties unlikely to cooperate as the 2027 presidential election campaign swings into full gear. Leftist candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon has already said his party was readying for a no-confidence vote over the budget bill.

BRUSSELS — The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Sweden today called on Brussels to return to the controversial topic of leveraging Russia’s frozen state assets to plug the gaping hole in Ukraine’s war-ravaged budget. The four countries issued the rallying call in a letter, seen by POLITICO, to the European Commission’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, and Irish Foreign Minister Helen McEntee, ahead of next week’s informal gathering of fellow foreign ministers in Wicklow, Ireland. The letter, dated August 27, throws weight behind earlier calls to return to the Russian asset debate amid concerns that Kyiv will soon run out of money again. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday revealed that he’s already facing a €23 billion defense funding hole. “Ukraine needs more financial support in both the short and long term,” said the letter, which copied in the Commission’s economy and enlargement bosses, Valdis Dombrovskis and Marta Kos. “We believe now is the time to revert to the issue of how we can make further use of Russia’s immobilised assets for the benefit of Ukraine.” EU leaders in December failed to agree on a plan that would leverage €210 billion of frozen Russian state assets, most of which reside in the Brussels-based depository Euroclear, to underpin a massive loan to Kyiv. Belgium resisted the plan and demanded unlimited guarantees from the rest of the EU to protect itself against a legal and financial backlash from Moscow, a request that EU leaders deemed too steep. EU leaders instead decided to raise common debt from financial markets to fund a €90 billion loan to Ukraine. The EU will disburse the loan over the next 18 months, subject to reforms that the Ukrainian government must carry out. Zelenskyy wants the EU to frontload the money now, although it’ll be difficult to convince all EU capitals to advance the funds without Kyiv implementing the reforms first. The Belgian government has in recent weeks said it’s open to returning to the Russian assets debate but reaffirmed its demands on the rest of the bloc to provide financial safeguards against Russian retaliation — a key issue that has not gone unnoticed in The Hague, Madrid, Stockholm, and Warsaw. “We are well aware that this question is complex, and that we must look for solutions that take legitimate interests into account,” said the letter, calling on the Commission’s experts to explore “new options” that  “ensure that the risk rests with all EU Member States and where no Member State holds a disproportionate burden.”

After two decades at Guantánamo Bay, trials for four alleged 9/11 conspirators have been set for 2028.

There are signs both sides could be ready to de-escalate, at least militarily, analysts say.

Allegations Nathan Cofnas was unqualified for Ghent role and would cause ‘negative impact’ made to senior leaders months agoNathan Cofnas, the academic who accused Jason Arday of plagiarism, has been accused of having “very limited expertise” for his academic role by professors also working at Ghent University, who say he has a “far-right agenda”.Cofnas secured a postdoctoral research role “on the future of liberalism” at Belgium’s Ghent University in March. Weeks later, Ghent’s department of philosophy and moral sciences handed a 19-page statement to university officials, setting out why it believed it was “improbable” that Cofnas was the best candidate. Continue reading...

Comté, beaufort and abondance makers can temporarily supplement cows’ diets as there is ‘no grass left to eat’Strict production rules will be loosened for some of France’s most famous cheeses after drought and repeated heatwaves dried out grazing pastures, threatening the livelihoods of traditional dairy workers.Comté, a hard cheese made from raw cows’ milk in the Jura mountains, is France’s top-selling traditional cheese, with more than 62,000 tonnes produced last year. The government announced on Wednesday that its producers would be granted a temporary change to strict rules on grazing after farmers said extreme heat had scorched their pastures, putting production at risk. Continue reading...

Sweden, the Netherlands and Spain back plan to solve Kyiv’s latest funding crisis

Also in this newsletter: Dutch push ahead with Israeli settlement trade measures