Former Estonian ambassador to NATO Jüri Luik says it's troubling that the U.S. has allowed Russia to make demands about Europe's security alongside Ukraine peace talks.

Elderly residents in Ida-Viru County have lost the right to free bus travel after a pilot project's budget ran out in under two months due to uptake being underestimated.

The government must decide what level of readiness Estonia will achieve and by when, and then secure the funding and personnel needed to reach that goal. If readiness targets are lowered, that should be stated clearly. Otherwise, a misleading impression may emerge about the state's actual level of preparedness, Auditor General Janar Holm said in his annual address to the Riigikogu.

Political scientist Tõnis Leht said that the emergence of Social Democratic Party prime ministerial candidate Jonatan Vseviov has altered the dynamics among the parties' candidates for prime minister and pushed Isamaa leader Urmas Reinsalu into the background.

Elderly residents in Ida-Viru County have lost the right to free bus travel after a pilot project's budget ran out in under two months due to uptake being underestimated.

An outage affecting services provided by Microsoft disrupted operations at numerous Estonian institutions and businesses on Friday, including government agencies, many of which use the company's office software.

Sotsiaalminister Karmen Jolleri (RE) vedamisel plaanib riigikogu muuta seadust ja lubada perearsti pikaajalist asendamist praeguse aasta asemel kuni valitava ameti, sh ministri ametiaja lõpuni. Joller pole aga enne seadusemuudatust nimistust loobunud ja tema nimi ripub arstide nimekirjas edasi. Jolleri hinnangul on kõik JOKK.

Eluaseme soetamine on paljudele eurooplastele muutunud viimase kümne aasta jooksul üha suuremaks väljakutseks. Kuigi sissetulekud on kasvanud, ei ole see mitmes Euroopa Liidu (EL) riigis suutnud eluasemehindade tõusuga sammu pidada. Eurostati andmed näitavad, kui palju on olukord liikmesriikides muutunud.

A former adviser to Ukraine's pro-Putin ex-prime minister Mykola Azarov was seriously hurt, Russia says.

The Ukrainian president says it makes sense for European leaders to be involved as Ukraine hopes to eventually join the EU.

Microsoft says it is seeing "improvements" following a global outage but efforts to fully resume services are ongoing.

Jensen Huang's personal life may have triggered the crisis, but the questions now reach into the White House itself.

LONDON — A former Labour MP who was suspended from the party following allegations of sexual harassment has joined Plaid Cymru, the ruling party in Wales.  Geraint Davies made the announcement on the news website Nation Cymru, where he claimed that he was forced out as an MP because of “local rivalries and disobeying Keir Starmer’s orders to speaking [sic] out against killings in Gaza.” He described allegations of sexual misconduct against him as “untrue anonymous hearsay in the media.” In 2023, five women alleged that Davies, a former Commons select committee chair, subjected them to unwanted sexual attention, both physical and verbal, after coming into contact with them through his work as an MP. Davies had the whip suspended as a Labour MP immediately after the allegations were made public but remained a member of the party until 2025. When the claims against Davies were first reported by POLITICO, he said he did not “recognize” them, adding: “If I have inadvertently caused offence to anyone, then I am naturally sorry.” In these instances, the women had raised concerns about his behavior informally but had not complained in writing. At least two women later filed official complaints with the Labour Party, resulting in an investigation lasting more than a year. Davies was not eligible to stand as a candidate in the 2024 election because he was suspended, and quit the party ahead of a planned hearing on his conduct in 2025. As a result, the hearing never went ahead. The former MP for Swansea West argued in the article published Thursday that the party engineered his removal as a candidate for factional reasons. “I was made to wait 23 weeks without any complaints. When complaints were made, they were ‘to support other women’ who had not made any complaints. None were reported to Parliament,” he said. Two women who previously made allegations against Davies, and were granted anonymity to protect their privacy, contacted POLITICO on Friday to object to his statement to Nation Cymru. One, a sitting Labour MP first elected in 2015, said she had entered a formal complaint with the party to raise an allegation of unwanted touching. “Having been touched by Geraint against my wishes, I can say the allegations of sexual harassment are more than hearsay. Whilst I can’t speak for other women’s experiences, I know the way he touched me left me deeply upset and unsettled and I spent most of the years we were both MPs trying to put as much physical distance between us as was possible,” she said. A second woman said: “As someone who experienced this behaviour firsthand, I know that these claims are not hearsay. Women don’t come forward because of exactly this kind of platform and response.”  A Labour Party spokesperson said: “All complaints are assessed thoroughly in line with our rules and procedures. To protect the confidentiality of the complainants, we do not provide information about specific allegations made.” They added: “It is categorically untrue to suggest that the fact Mr Davies was not re-selected as a Labour candidate was unconnected to the serious allegations made about his conduct.”   A spokesperson for Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party, said: “Plaid Cymru treats all complaints of sexual harassment and abuse with the utmost seriousness. Every concern raised is taken seriously, and allegations are considered fairly and thoroughly, taking into account all available evidence. We encourage anyone who has experienced or witnessed inappropriate behaviour to come forward, so that concerns can be properly investigated and appropriate action taken.” Davies did not respond to a request for comment.  

EU countries are set to announce a deal on Monday to send rejected migrants to a deportation hub in Rwanda, three people familiar with the scheme confirmed. Austria, Denmark, Germany, Greece and the Netherlands have been meeting regularly to lay the groundwork for a deal with to set up centers outside EU territory to which they can deport migrants without a legal right to stay in the EU. The deal is part of a broader push by the bloc to gain greater control over who enters the EU — and who gets to stay. The anticipated deal, which is set to be announced in Vienna, would only apply to asylum seekers who have already run through all of their options for securing legal residence in the EU and were rejected. The countries previously confirmed that they aim to close the first deals to set up the off-shore centers in 2026, with plans to make them operational as of next year. The deportation hub in Rwanda would function as a pilot project and deals with other countries and involving other EU countries are likely to follow. A recent reform of EU rules made it possible for EU members to cut deals to set up such deportation hubs with other countries on the condition that they meet international human rights standards. Specifics of the scheme, including the nationalities of the people that would be moved to the hubs, their living conditions there and oversight of the deal, all depend on the agreement countries cut. But human rights groups have warned that the hubs risk opening the door to human rights abuses, far removed from EU oversight or recourse. Plans by the Conservative British government plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda were slapped down by the U.K. Supreme Court in 2023, which ruled the scheme unlawful. After coming into power in 2024, the Labour government shelved the plans, with then-Prime Minister Keir Starmer calling the Rwanda plan “dead and buried.” The U.K. had aimed to move people to Rwanda to process their applications remotely, whereas the incoming deal of the EU countries would target people who have been ordered to leave the bloc’s territory. Seb Starcevic contributed to this report.

Several children and the bus driver were among those killed, officials said, with the death toll expected to rise.

This is a breaking news story.

Kaja Kallas warns against agreeing to Russia’s proposed sequence of events on talks on UkraineHungary’s Péter Magyar is also here, looking very elegant as always…… but it looks like he took a slight detour on the way back to hotel last night to try and pour a perfect pint of Guinness. Continue reading...

Signing of agreement to smooth movement of food, plants and animals next week will not recoup huge sums firms were forced to spendThe removal of border checks and paperwork on plant imports will “dissolve” £60m of annual costs for the horticulture industry when the UK and EU’s new post-Brexit deal comes in, the environment secretary has said.Before the UK-EU summit on 20 November, Angela Eagle said she hopes paperwork headaches for importers will “disappear” after the changes, although the move will not help businesses recoup the large sums they spent to deal with border controls. Continue reading...

German government says it ‘anticipates a very big impact’ on economy

A match made in denim, fashion on film, atmospheric Christmas shopping and more