European Union

A Spanish Nato fighter jet has accidentally fired a missile over Estonia. The Estonian armed forces reported that the Eurofighter unintentionally fired the projectile containing up to ten kilogrammes of explosives near the city of Otepää in southern Estonia. It is currently being searched for. Estonia's media find the incident unnerving.

For many children the first day of school is a big adventure, while for some it's a source of fear. All over Europe children will be starting school in the next days and weeks. Journalists in various countries describe how stressful the school years can be for children and parents, and who needs most support during this time.

The UK's ex-foreign secretary Boris Johnson is coming under increasing pressure from within his party after his contentious remarks about women wearing burqas (he described them as resembling "letter boxes" and "bank robbers"). Several leading Tory politicians, including Prime Minister Theresa May, have demanded that he apologise. Johnson refuses to do so. Is he right to stick to his guns?

Jordan warned on Wednesday (8 August) that a severe financial shortfall facing a United Nations agency that helps Palestinian refugees could have a "catastrophic" impact on the lives of millions of refugees in the region.

Drought is causing severe problems for farmers in the Nordic region and the Baltic countries. This is the third year in a row that the region has experienced extreme weather conditions, pushing farmers' financial situation to a breaking point.

Belarus on Wednesday (8 August) detained at least six more journalists in Minsk including a freelance correspondent for Deutsche Welle in an ongoing crackdown on independent media, ostensibly over unauthorised access to a state news agency.

A petition urging multinational Bayer to withdraw an appeal against a top EU court decision on banning neonicotinoids has gathered more than 150,000 signatures in just two days, increasing pressure on the German firm.

Washington said on Wednesday (8 August) it would impose fresh sanctions on Russia by the end of August after it determined that Moscow had used a nerve agent against a former Russian agent and his daughter in Britain.

French-Algerian businessman and activist, Rachid Nekkaz, has pledged to pay fines issued in Denmark for breaches of a new law against face-masking garments, known as the 'burqa ban', after a 29-year-old woman became the first to be penalised under the law, which came into effect last week. Nekkaz told Berlingske he already paid hundreds of thousands of euros for women fined in Belgium, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands and Germany.

Greek defence minister Panos Kammenos threatened on Wednesday to pull his nationalist Independent Greeks (ANEL) party from the government if a name deal with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) is put to a vote in the parliament, rather than a referendum. "I will not allow this deal to go through," he told the Greek internet radio. Greek MPs are set to vote on the deal in September.

With 60 percent of babies born outside marriage, France leads a trend in Europe of more births occurring in non-marital relationships, cohabiting couples and to lone parents. In contrast, 80 percent of live births in Greece, Croatia and Cyprus were registered within marriage, 2016 figures from Eurostat showed. Overall, 43 percent of births in the EU were outside marriage, up 15 percent since 2000.

Italy on Wednesday (8 August) cut its forecasts for economic growth and said the country's public deficit this year and in 2019 would be larger than previously forecast, potentially lining it up for a clash with Brussels.