The Museum of Occupations and Freedom Vabamu has named researcher Maarja Merivoo-Parro as its next leader, who will take over the position in August 2026.

Russia is sorely tempted right now to test NATO and there is little comfort in assuming that as long as Russia remains tied down in Ukraine, it lacks the resources to challenge NATO directly. It still has ample capability for a targeted special operation, writes Peeter Kaldre.

A bill that would define sexual intercourse without consent as rape has been sent to its second reading by the Riigikogu Legal Affairs Committee after additional amendments were added to define consent.

There were no significant changes in party popularity ratings over the past week. Isamaa leads, with a 3.4 percentage point advantage over the second-place Center Party.

A bill that would define sexual intercourse without consent as rape has been sent to its second reading by the Riigikogu Legal Affairs Committee after additional amendments were added to define consent.

Emergency services extinguished fires at two hangars in the village of Iru on the outskirts of Tallinn on Tuesday evening.

Kuna juhtum on Tartuga seotud ja ka Tartu Postimehe toimetus on üpris põhjalikult selle kaasusega tegelenud, siis tunnen sundi järgnevat öelda. Seeläbi ka põhjendada, miks meie pole oma lugu avaldanud.

Eesti ainsa käsipalli-podcast’i «7 meetrit» kergelt erihõngulises osas võtsid saatejuhid Taavi Tibar ja Mihkel Jürisson kokku meeste meistriliiga hooaja ning vaatasid tagasi medalimängudele. Lisaks räägiti lühidalt Euroopa tippliigast ja naasti kodumaale esiliiga veerandfinaalide analüüsiks.

Andriy Yermak was named by Ukraine's two anti-corruption agencies as a suspect in a money-laundering scheme.

She told an EU summit that an expert panel was due to come up with steps on how to protect minors online by July.

The biggest tech firms are set to sell millions of smart glasses despite growing privacy concerns.

Sam Altman said Elon Musk tried many times for total control of OpenAI, which he's now suing.

BRUSSELS — The European Commission is considering a major restructuring of one of its oldest departments as President Ursula von der Leyen seeks more direct control over EU spending. The Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, known as DG REGIO, oversees almost a third of EU spending through the bloc’s cohesion policy — roughly €600 billion of cash designed to help poorer regions. But DG REGIO could become a casualty of the Commission’s broader effort to reorganize itself around new priorities, including competitiveness, defense and strategic investment, according to nine EU officials and diplomats familiar with the discussions. They were granted anonymity to discuss the confidential plans. The debate reflects a wider shift in how Brussels manages money. While traditional cohesion funds have been managed jointly by EU governments and regions, during the pandemic the bloc moved to a more centralized model, with national recovery plans negotiated directly between capitals and the Commission. That model showed the EU could move money faster when spending decisions were controlled more tightly from Brussels, the officials said, adding that the same logic is now shaping talks on the bloc’s next long-term budget. Von der Leyen has pushed to steer more EU money toward defense and competitiveness. Under two restructuring scenarios now circulating in Brussels, she would gain tighter control over major spending programs, officials said. One option is the creation of a new super-department, informally dubbed DG INVEST, that would oversee regional and social funds as well as the future competitiveness fund, four officials said. Such a move would give von der Leyen a chance to reshape a major part of the Commission around her own priorities, one of the officials said: “If you build a structure from scratch, you shape it in your own image.” A second option would stop short of scrapping DG REGIO outright, given its history and political weight. Instead, it could be merged with the Reform and Investment Task Force, known as SG REFORM, three officials said. SG REFORM manages the EU’s Covid recovery funds and already sits close to von der Leyen through the Secretariat-General. But Ľubica Karvašová, vice chair of the European Parliament’s REGI Committee, said the ideas were “a failure to understand what cohesion policy is really about.” Europe’s regions cannot be managed through an overly centralized investment model, Karvašová said. She also warned there would be political resistance if other Commission departments were strengthened at DG REGIO’s expense. Inside DG REGIO, anxiety is spreading. One official described staff as “an egg in the fridge” — carrying an expiration date — adding that while many officials have already moved elsewhere in the Commission, there is no “panic exodus” yet. The key moment for any overhaul is likely to be the Commission’s large-scale review, expected by the end of 2026 ahead of the next budget cycle in 2028, officials said. The expected retirement next year of Director-General Themis Christophidou is also fueling speculation that DG REGIO could be killed off altogether, two Commission officials added.

BRUSSELS — The Cannes Film Festival started Tuesday, which means a lot of private jets are flying into Cannes–Mandelieu Airport despite the looming jet fuel crisis. Some campaigners are calling for private jets to be grounded, but the business jet lobby is shrugging them off, saying the sector isn’t large enough to make much of a dent in fuel use and pollution. While big airlines like SAS and Lufthansa are cutting thousands of flights due to rising fuel costs tied to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, private jet departures in Europe rose 10 percent last month, according to the Carbon Sky Index, a private aviation emissions tracking platform. Disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has pushed jet fuel prices in Europe to double pre-war levels. Goldman Sachs research shared with POLITICO estimates that commercial jet fuel stocks in Europe, excluding government reserves, could fall below 23 days of supply by the end of May or early June — a critical threshold flagged by the International Energy Agency. But that’s not deterring private jet users. Private jets accounted for 23,462 departures in Europe in April, up 10 percent from March, Carbon Sky Index told POLITICO. The platform said Easter may have been a “primary driver” of the increase. Nice Côte d’Azur Airport, for example, saw private jet traffic nearly double in the week of April 6 — a pattern also observed last year around Easter. The platform uses transponder signals from aircraft across Europe and processes them with the emissions methodology adopted by the air navigation organization Eurocontrol. However, the business-flying lobby says the numbers don’t indicate a problem. “A short-term weekly increase does not, in itself, indicate a structural surge in demand,” said Róman Kok, public affairs director at the European Business Aviation Association. “April includes strong seasonal and Easter-related effects, and wider European network traffic was still below 2025 levels in several April weeks,” he said, citing data from Eurocontrol. Data shared by Carbon Sky Index shows that April’s jump in private jet flights increased CO2 emissions to 83,847 metric tons, up from around 80,000 metric tons in March. Still, that’s only a tiny share of overall aviation emissions, which totaled 195 million tons of CO2 in Europe in 2025, according to green NGO Transport & Environment. But environmental campaigners aren’t buying the industry’s argument that the sector is too small to have an impact — hitting at the symbolism of the rich continuing to fly. “It’s luxury travel in a fuel crisis and climate crisis that’s really irresponsible,” said Katie Thompson, a former private jet pilot who now campaigns to reduce air travel. “Holiday travelers are looking nervously, waiting for that email telling them their flight’s going to be disrupted,” she said. She accused private jet patrons of using kerosene that “normal people need for their holiday flights, but that also, if things get worse, we’re going to need it for basic humanitarian needs and medical emergencies.” She called on actors and filmmakers to avoid private jets when traveling to the Cannes Film Festival and to follow the example of actor Pedro Pascal, who flew economy to last year’s gala. According to T&E, last year VIPs burned around 2 million liters of kerosene flying to Cannes — equivalent to the emissions of roughly 14,000 round-trip flights between Paris and Athens. “There’s no excuse for governments not to ground private jets entirely, given the fuel crisis,” said Jérôme du Boucher, the NGO’s deputy director of aviation. The private jet sector rejects those arguments. “Business aviation represents a small share of overall aviation activity  — around 7 percent of flights in Europe — with an even smaller proportion of total fuel consumption,” Kok said. Fuel savings from grounding those flights “would be limited and would not concretely contribute to addressing the broader energy challenge,” he added, pointing instead to scaling up sustainable aviation fuels as a solution. Campaigners are also calling on the European Commission to close what they describe as “loopholes” in carbon pricing rules under the Emissions Trading System regarding private jets. The EU’s carbon trading system generally only covers larger operators, while about two-thirds of private planes aren’t included. “Based on our estimations, we categorically reject that two-thirds of private jets are exempted,” Kok said, noting that the ETS exemptions “apply across aviation, not only to business aviation.” Thompson said campaigners will continue targeting major events that attract celebrities, the wealthy and their jets. “It’s definitely not just Cannes — we’re looking at the [FIFA] World Cup, Monaco Grand Prix and the Australian Open,” she said.

The MV Hondius hantavirus scare revived debates about luxury travel, public health and unequal vulnerability to disease.

The tremors have been felt in an area close to the Mosha fault, one of Iran’s most active seismic zones.

Sergei Lavrov comments before leaders of the ‘Bucharest Nine’ meet later today with Nato’s secretary general Mark Rutte Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military intelligence warned that Russia has launched “a combined … airstrike on critical facilities” in the country.They said that the Russian army is sending “a significant number” of drones to overload Ukraine’s air defence systems, followed by air- and sea-based missiles and ballistic missiles. Continue reading...

British pop-metallers’ frontman Oli Sykes suffers concussion after phone strikes him on the head, in latest in spate of similar incidents faced by musiciansEric Clapton and Bring Me the Horizon’s frontman Oli Sykes have both been struck by objects thrown at them while performing, the latter incident leaving Skyes with concussion.As Bring Me the Horizon performed in St Louis on Monday, a member of the audience threw a phone at Sykes, striking him on the head. Sykes continued to perform but cut one of the songs from the band’s set as well as a fan interaction section. Continue reading...

Also in this newsletter: EU edges closer to a social media ban for children

They lie at the intersection of almost everything that matters in geoeconomics and geopolitics