Latest Estonia News
news | ERR
Mass publication of data on deceased persons makes historians' work easier
In September, the Ministry of the Interior began publishing, as open data, the names, birth and death dates, and personal identification codes of deceased persons. For historians and name researchers, machine‑readable data makes research easier.
news | ERR
Survey: most employees handle personal matters during working hours
A CV.ee survey shows that the strict line between working time and personal time has long blurred in many workplaces.
Politics | ERR
Martin Mölder: Politicians' battle over attention and memory
The opposition wants voters under no circumstances to forget what happened in the previous elections — namely broken promises and the hiding of their real political intentions, notes Martin Mölder.
Politics | ERR
Higher‑ranking civil servants set for another pay rise
Although Finance Minister Jürgen Ligi criticized the tone with which rescue workers and teachers demand higher pay, the salaries of higher‑ranking state employees rise every year without anyone needing to protest, because their pay increases are indexed.
Society | ERR
Mass publication of data on deceased persons makes historians' work easier
In September, the Ministry of the Interior began publishing, as open data, the names, birth and death dates, and personal identification codes of deceased persons. For historians and name researchers, machine‑readable data makes research easier.
Society | ERR
Youth today have more chances to experiment, says Pärnu street artist
Pärnu street artist Kristjan Tamm, known as Kryptik, says young artists today have more legal chances to learn street art than when he first started more than 20 years ago.
Postimees
Eesti ettevõtjad tahavad, et riik aitaks paremini reklaami näidata
Septembris peaks Euroopa Liidus tehtama otsus uue digivaldkonna koondpaketi kohta. Osa Eesti ettevõtlusorganisatsioone näeb selles nii suurt ohtu oma ärile, et palub siinsel valitsusel selle vastu võidelda. Milles asi?
Postimees
Edvin ja Lembe Hiedeli nimeline toimetajaauhind läks Leena Tomasbergile
Tänavu anti 12. korda välja Edvin ja Lembe Hiedeli nimeline toimetajaauhind, seekordne laureaat on tõlkija ja toimetaja Leena Tomasberg.
BBC News
Russia targeting 'ordinary life' with attacks on Ukraine's data centres, Zelensky says
Such strikes aim to disrupt "people's ability to stay connected, study, work", says Ukraine's president.
BBC News
Pope warns against 'losing humanity' to AI machines
The pontiff delivered the warning on the first day of his trip to France on Friday.
BBC News
Andy Burnham refuses to back third runway at Heathrow
Andy Burnham said he would wait for the results of a consultation on a scheme estimated to cost £33bn
BBC News
Faisal Islam: The two big decisions the chancellor must make
He must consider the longevity of Iran war economic pressures and how to sustain modest optimism, writes the BBC's Faisal Islam.
POLITICO
Swiss say no to hardening neutrality principle, safeguarding sanctions on Russia
Swiss voters appear to have rejected a proposal to introduce a more rigid enforcement of the country’s neutrality principle — repudiating an idea which would have made imposing sanctions against Moscow more difficult. In a referendum which took place Sunday, around 7 out of 10 Swiss participants voted against the “safeguard Swiss neutrality” initiative, according to projections from the Swiss polling institute GFS Bern. Early official results put the “no” camp at 68%, with a participation rate of 46%. Counting is still in progress. If the proposal had been approved, Switzerland’s neutrality, enshrined in the Constitution since 1848, would have been interpreted more strictly, with the country not joining or participating in any military or security alliance, and not imposing sanctions on hostile states. There were concerns that a “yes” vote would have effectively prevented Switzerland from imposing sanctions on Russia — unless they were approved by the United Nations Security Council, where Moscow has veto power. Russia openly backed the initiative, which was introduced by the right-wing Pro Switzerland organization. Pro Swizerland argued that Swiss neutrality should always be applied and “not adjusted on a case-by-case or ad hoc basis.” Switzerland has largely mirrored the EU’s sanctions against Moscow. The country expanded its sanctions list in mid-August, following the EU’s 20th sanctions package. Both the Swiss government and the Swiss Parliament had advised rejecting the proposal. Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis, who leads the country’s foreign affairs department, had said that the country’s current neutrality regime “has proved its worth.” Swiss voters face another neutrality question later this year. In November, they will be asked to assess whether Switzerland’s arms export rules are still fit for purpose or whether the country should be allowed to export weapons to a defined group of 25 mostly Western countries, even if they are involved in an ongoing conflict. If approved, that change would tighten Swiss ties with Western countries and could boost its defense industry’s export earnings.
POLITICO
Northern Ireland standoff puts peace and power-sharing at risk
PORTADOWN, Northern Ireland — Hard-liners in Northern Ireland are reviving an age-old dispute rife with bitter symbolism that pits the rights of British Protestants against those of Irish Catholics — and risks the destruction of their supposed unity government. Hundreds of residents of the Garvaghy Road, the main Catholic district in the otherwise staunchly Protestant town of Portadown, near Belfast, stood in the roadway in pouring rain overnight to block a Sunday morning parade by Northern Ireland’s main Protestant brotherhood, the Orange Order — a parade that had been banned since 1998 because of the widespread violence it triggered. The Parades Commission, the British government-appointed group that for decades has adjudicated such zero-sum disputes, stunned Garvaghy Road residents by ruling Friday that a drastically pared-down Orange parade should be allowed to pass through the area Sunday morning. It had refused more than 1,300 previous requests from the group seeking to “finish” the parade it was blocked from completing in 1998. A series of unprecedented late-night legal challenges followed Saturday, capped by a ruling from Northern Ireland’s senior judge after midnight stating that the courts had no power to overturn the commission’s independent judgment. The scene is now set for a revival of a standoff with no obvious end point — and no apparent way to deliver a “win” for both sides. The Police Service of Northern Ireland deployed several hundred officers to the site. Many of them sat Sunday morning in scores of armored Land Rovers parked on the narrow country lane that separates the would-be Orange marchers on a hilltop church from the Garvaghy Road demonstrators, out of sight beyond houses and hedgerows. The two main parties in Northern Ireland’s cross-community government — revived only two years ago following a lengthy breakdown over Northern Ireland’s peculiar Brexit rules — are lining up on opposite sides of this renewed street battle of wills, raising the political stakes. Sinn Féin, the Irish republican party that represents most Catholics and has grown to become the largest party in Northern Ireland, rallied in force alongside the Garvaghy Road protesters. The Sinn Féin first minister of Northern Ireland’s government, Michelle O’Neill, won cheers as she told the partisan crowd: “The Garvaghy Road residents deserve to live free from sectarian harassment and intimidation.” “Does anybody think this is a good idea? No right-minded person would make this decision,” said O’Neill, who expressed bewilderment over the Parades Commission’s U-turn. “Why, after 28 years of determinations to block a march down this road, did the Parades Commission think this is the right idea today to bring this mess back on to this community?” But Northern Ireland’s main pro-British party, the Democratic Unionists, stood alongside the blocked Orangemen as they waited in hope that the police would enforce the commission’s ruling by pushing the Catholics out of the road. The last time this happened, in 1997, it triggered three nights of Irish republican rioting across Northern Ireland. “It’s a big day for Portadown. Obviously we have had a seismic win within the courts. The law is on our side,” declared the Democratic Unionist MP representing Portadown, Carla Lockhart. She singled out O’Neill for criticism, branding the first minister as a law-breaker leading a mob. “What does it say when you have an absolute rabble, thousands chanting, and our self-proclaimed ‘first minister for all’ leading the chants and standing unlawfully?” Lockhart said. “But these men will continue to stand here,” she said, gesturing to a few dozen Orangemen standing outside the Anglican church, many of them under umbrellas. “They’ve the law on their side. We’ll ensure that the parade is put lawfully down the road.” Sinn Féin and other Irish nationalist politicians appealed to the British government to intervene. But U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he would reverse the commission’s parade ruling only if Northern Ireland’s police commander, Chief Constable Jon Boutcher, recommended another policy U-turn on security grounds. Such a decision would risk the growth of a Protestant counter-protest at the confrontation zone, as happened repeatedly in the 1990s, spurring widespread rioting and isolated killings across Northern Ireland. “There have been big gains made in Northern Ireland and we don’t want to see things go backwards,” Burnham told the BBC. “Obviously (it’s) a challenging situation today. But it’s very important that we work to bring calm.” Burnham’s secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Chris Bryant, said what happens next depends on the judgment of the police chief, not his own. Underscoring the risk of a rapidly deteriorating security situation, he left the Labour Party’s annual conference in Liverpool to fly back to Belfast. “This is primarily a policing matter now,” Bryant told Sky News. He noted that the demonstrators blocking the Garvaghy Road did not have approval from the Parades Commission. “The law states that if you want to mount a protest against a parade, you have to lodge an application with the Parades Commission,” he said. “It means the protest that is going on at the moment is unlawful.” The Orange Order was founded near Portadown in 1795 to oppose the Catholic community and to celebrate their own side’s 1690 military triumph under the command of King William of Orange. The group mounts thousands of parades annually, concentrated on July 12, the anniversary of that 17th century victory. The Catholic side broadly loathes the parades as demonstrations of Protestant power, and since the 1990s has tried to block any Orange parades that pass near or through their communities. Boutcher, the police commander, issued a carefully worded statement that underscored his desire to avoid physically confronting the Garvaghy Road protesters if possible. Instead, he said officers would collect video and photos to identify those breaking the law — potentially including, though he didn’t specify this, the Sinn Féin leaders — for eventual prosecution. “The policing operation thus far has helped ensure there has been no violence or disorder,” Boutcher said. “We have an evidence gathering operation in place to detect any offenses and will continue to do this throughout today. I appeal to everyone to remain calm and peaceful.” Bracing for potential militant reactions elsewhere to the Portadown standoff, the Northern Irish police this weekend received more than 100 reinforcement officers from Police Scotland.
Al Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera
‘Better deal’: What’s behind Trump’s rejection of Iran’s truce offer?
Experts say Trump sees economic sanctions as key to extracting more concessions but he risks losing leverage.
Al Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera
Swiss voters set to reject tighter neutrality rules in referendum
About 71 percent of voters oppose initiative to impose stricter limits on neutrality, projection suggests.
Europe | The Guardian
Pope Leo urges healing of ‘deep wounds’ before meeting child sexual abuse survivors in France
Catholic church must reckon with its ‘painful errors’, pontiff tells crowd in Lourdes during four-day tourThe pope has called on the Catholic church to heal “deep wounds” and “painful errors”, before a meeting with survivors of child sexual abuse as he continues his four-day visit to France.Addressing a crowd in a large field near the Catholic shrine of Lourdes on Sunday, Pope Leo XIV called on the church to reckon with its past, without directly referencing sexual abuse scandals in France that affected at least 330,000 children over seven decades. Continue reading...
Europe | The Guardian
‘Hell on earth’: last residents eat weeds to survive in Russian-occupied Oleshky
Ukrainian forces airdrop supplies in to city where bodies are left to be eaten by dogs because of deadly risk from dronesThe phone message sent out of Russian-occupied Oleshky was grimly matter of fact: food for the 2,000 or so civilians – including 50 children – remaining in the city and its surrounding villages had finally run out.“We’re in Oleshky [and] we can’t get out. We’re going hungry … Right now, I’ve got absolutely nothing to eat,” read the message from a woman in the besieged city who was waiting to be evacuated by the occupying forces. Continue reading...
Europe
Northern Ireland in tense stand-off as protests stall Orange Order parade
March unable to proceed as police say they cannot facilitate Protestant route down largely Catholic road
Europe
Milan Fashion Week seeks the fizz
Demna offered retail therapy at Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana made the case for maximalism while Louise Trotter got crafty at Bottega Veneta