So what is happening in those barely populated areas linked to the North Atlantic ocean?

Google News app expanded to the Baltic countries, yay!

Except that the sources for Estonia are in Russian only, primarily featuring Sputnik fake news mill. Sources for Latvia are in English only. Sources for Lithuania are in Lithuanian (good), but you can't get e.g. Finnish news (dealbreaker), says this article https://tehnika.postimees.ee/4489140/google-news-pakub-eestlastele-ebameeldiva-ullatuse

Note: I personally never have taken a look at Google News app or site or whatever it is. I have browser bookmarks instead.

It doesn't look too bad but I don't really see the point of it.

This is primarily for the viewing pleasure of @Mr. Tennessee

https://youtu.be/ALsNFGGu6eQ

@ersi I was at the Estonian embassy in Brussels today.

@Frenzie Awesome. How did it go? (I've never been to Belgium. The only EU capital I have been to was Frankfurt.)

I had to be one street over. The picture I took on my phone didn't turn out very well but I'll post it in a bit.

Here you go.

Just the flag indicates something (and is there the EU flag next to it as it should be, just behind the tree?) and it's nearly a miracle you got it on camera. It's an as unimpressive building as the one next to it...

Yes, the tree is hiding it.

It's an as unimpressive building

For an unimpressive country.
You don't need a more impressive embassy, it won't give you more EU funds.
Our embassy in Brussels is a shithole just like that and I think that's too much money spent with Belgians. A tent would be enough.

If I recall correctly the Estonian pavilion at the World Expo in Hanover (2000) was pretty impressive actually.

Edit: I recall correctly https://steemit.com/architecture/@refuel/world-expo-architecture-hannover-expo-2000-estonian-pavilion

I wonder how the Dutch pavillion's doing.

US ambassador to Estonia resigns

Well then. :-/

The full story is here https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/06/29/u-s-ambassador-to-estonia-resigns-in-disgust-after-trump-anti-europe-rants-nato-european-union-diplomacy-transatlantic-alliance/

I don't think that the rate of ambassador resignations is extraordinary. But the reasons are. Anyway, this is U.S. news really.

I wouldn't know, but I think in a way the bigger story is that in many places there are no replacements.

It's only a story if you think ambassadors serve an important purpose. Trump doesn't think so. He has many posts empty in the administration.

Tallinn named as one of the world's top cruise destinations

...the top 5 destinations of the Baltic Sea and Scandinavia region are:
1. St. Petersburg;
2. Flam;
3. Tallinn;
4. Geiranger;
5. Copenhagen

What is "Flam"? Is it Flåm, Norway? And Tallinn is placed after that tiny village?

Fjord tourism is among the more popular forms of cruise tourism. Not very surprising, given that staying on oversized ships is actually quite long-winded and pretty boring, and fjords add a bit of drama. The two destinations on the list, Flåm and Geiranger, are both on the same fjord. Flåm is part of a packaging deal, Norway in a Nutshell, where you mix/match the railroad between Oslo and Bergen, the connecting Flåm line railroad to Flåm, terminus and port, cruise ships, bus, or bicycle. Then you take plane home from either Bergen or Oslo. You spend a weekend or a week, and you have "done" Norway. Next year New Zealand.

Lithuania warns Russian taxi app could be snooping on users

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) -- Lithuanian authorities on Tuesday "strongly" urged consumers, especially public servants, not to install the app of a popular Russian taxi-booking service because it may unlawfully be collecting user data.

Rytis Rainys, head of Lithuania's National Cyber security center, said they were running "various tests" of the Yandex Taxi application.

[...]

Aram Sargsyan, Yandex's global strategy director, told the Baltic News Service agency that the company "processes and stores data of (European Union) users strictly according to EU regulations" -- but said it was willing to submit itself to a check.

A Swedish Air Force jet fighter crashed Tuesday near an air base in southern Sweden after striking several birds as it was about to land, Sweden's Armed Forces said.
source

"Birds down Swedish fighter jet. Russian ornithologists suspected."

A Swedish Air Force jet fighter crashed Tuesday near an air base in southern Sweden after striking several birds as it was about to land, Sweden's Armed Forces said.
source

"Birds down Swedish fighter jet. Russian ornithologists suspected."

As Trump would say, those are fake news.. Russian ornithologists always were loyal to the USA. They have named a series of Russian birds with American names...

The world is entering that kind of mad euphoria that have always precede the start of hostilities. War for the western bourgeois is coming soon.
With their blood this time, instead those African / middle east "second level people".

The jet fighter invaded the birds' air space, which has belong to them for millennia. They just fought back.

Brave birds! Never surrender.

Then you take plane home from either Bergen or Oslo. You spend a weekend or a week, and you have "done" Norway. Next year New Zealand.

I propose a tourist hunting season every year at all countries. Your living room with the walls decorated with your tourist trophies, that's quality of life.

Phase III

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2lTSbDqm2s

Court in Finland finds pro-Kremlin trolls guilty of harassing journalist