On January 19th, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) held its hearing to consider the nomination of Mr. Antony Blinken to the position of Secretary of State. 

The Central and East European Coalition (CEEC) drafted and submitted questions to the Committee to highlight the CEEC’s areas of concern. 

The Estonian American National Council (EANC) Washington, DC Director has been heavily engaged in the CEEC’s work and in tracking the nomination process.

The CEEC’s questions covered a range of policy issues that the Secretary of State should be expected to tackle. 

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Published: January 24 2021

Žorik.   Photo: Raul Mee/AP

Žorik was mentioned in the article describing the Kassi/abi cat shelter calender on this page two weeks ago.

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Published: January 24 2021

Estonian State Supported VES Children's Edition

Last year, Estonian language newspapers and magazines could apply for grants from the state.

As part of a pilot project which hopefully will continue, KÜSK, the National Foundation of Civil Society offered financial support to seven Estonian publications abroad.

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Published: January 24 2021

Rendering showing regolith sample extraction using the SAMPLR robotic arm, also showing the CrystalSpace cameras.
Author: Dr. Mihkel Pajusalu, Tartu Observatory, University of Tartu, based on data from the NASA VTAD and LROC digital terrain model. License: CC-BY

Tallinn, Estonia, January 11, 2021 – Estonian company Crystalspace, partnered with the University of Tartu's Tartu Observatory and Krakul, has been selected by Maxar Technologies, a trusted partner and innovator in Earth Intelligence and Space Infrastructure, to build two cameras that will act as a stereo pair to monitor the operations of a robotic arm that will collect regolith samples from the Moon.

The Crystalspace cameras will be part of Maxar's robotic arm called Sample Acquisition, Morphology Filtering, and Probing of Lunar Regolith (SAMPLR).

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Published: January 17 2021

Saint Mary's guard Leemet Böckler was named the West Coast Conference Freshman of the Week for December 7, after helping the St. Mary's Gaels go 2-0 at home.

Böckler had a perfect shooting night against Nicholls in the Gaels' first game of the week going 2-for-2 from 3-point range, as well as 2-for-2 from the free throw line for eight points in 12 minutes off the bench.

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Published: January 17 2021

Estonian PM Resigns Bringing Down Coalition Government

Estonia’s prime minister Jüri Ratas resigned in the early hours of Wednesday January 13, after corruption allegations involving his left-leaning Centre party related to a €39-million loan to the Porto Franco real estate development in Tallinn were made public the day before.

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Published: January 17 2021

One of many fundraising kalendrid published by animal shelters (loomade turva/kodud) in Eesti. This one features whiskered kaane/tüdruk (cover girl) Maali. She is a triibik – with triibud (stripes), having the tabby stripe pattern coat type.
Photo: www.kassideturvakodu.ee

Head uut aastat lovers of kitties aka kiisud!

If you haven't yet visited the websites of animal shelters in Estonia, I suggest you do. (Web addresses listed at the end.)

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Published: January 10 2021

Legislation signed into law at the end of 2020 included several items relevant to the Baltic countries and the broader region. 

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (NDAA) and the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (FY21 Omnibus) had provisions for funding and policy that support Baltic and European security and democracy.

Most significant was the Baltic Security Initiative (BSI) in the NDAA, which consists of just under $169 million in International Security Cooperation Programs for Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

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Published: January 10 2021