!['"Stones gathered for a meeting in #Käsmu, #Estonia."
(Photo courtesy of @[349274718461272:274:Estonian World])'](https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/q85/p526x296/14725624_1149748478413888_4518431901973127663_n.jpg?oh=853b59f58e1fa98c2077e6031a1b0e7a&oe=58BC6E99)
!['We at @[349274718461272:274:Estonian World] wish you all best luck for this coming year! May your New Year be filled with happiness, warmth, and wisdom; and may you pass on these to those around you too.
Photo: a proper winter has finally arrived to #Estonia (courtesy of @[10150091754905237:274:Puhka Eestis])'](https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/q82/p173x172/1936493_947684345286970_430057018414578585_n.jpg?oh=3ea03744229ef1606ee2000c4c191d96&oe=58B2BEB9)
FEATURE: #International #students have not only found #Estonia as a stop on their path – the country is increasingly seen as the place to advance one’s career and where to settle in.
"The opportunities that Estonia has to offer in matters of making #business, public and private services, #education or nature puts it on the top list of countries to live; it even makes you forget about the hard weather. I believe Estonia is a good place to settle,” says Carlos Ivan Vargas, originally from Mexico.
The Wall Street Journal writes how the #Estonian troops will never set up a base without a proper #sauna 
:)
"When setting up camp in a war zone, a sauna is typically the first thing—after housing—that #Estonia’s military builds. Saunas are such an integral part of Estonian war-making, in fact, that the ideal aspen and pine interiors and heavy, volcanic hot stones are shipped in specially from the #Baltics."
The former #Estonian president, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, has received the #Digital #Freedom #Award for his contribution to promoting digital culture in the #Baltics, Northern #Europe and beyond.
Enterprise #Estonia, the e-residency programme and the Tallinn Music Week festival will host the official opening party, Enter e-Estonia, of the international technology conference, #Slush, in #Helsinki, #Finland, on 29 November.
Slush is a leading technology conference in the #Nordic region, meant for #startups and #tech talent to meet with top-tier international investors, executives and the media.
The #Estonian manufacturer of electric #scooters, #Stigo, has announced it has developed a partnership with a #Swiss e-mobility distributor, TrendGroup.
#France is to send five #Leclerc #tanks, 12 infantry combat vehicles and 300 troops to #Estonia next year.
The #French armoured unit is to serve in #Tapa under the command of the #British #NATO battalion.
"In recent weeks, having read a number of articles that make a similar claim, I feel compelled to step up and set the record straight. #Estonia is in no way racked with fears about either migration or #Russia." - Kersti Kaljulaid, #Estonian president.
Over 1,000 entrepreneurs, investors, students and scientists will come together and more than 40 speakers will discuss successful business models at the first #international #business festival in #Tartu, the second largest town in #Estonia.
According to a recent survey by Intrum Justitia, a Swedish credit management services company, #Estonians are the most #optimistic nation in the #European Union.
For those who don't usually follow the internal #Estonian politics – Estonia has a new prime minister.
Jüri Ratas, the new leader of a party whose strongest support comes from the country’s ethnic #Russians, has been named the next prime minister of #Estonia.
Previously, the Centre Party that Ratas now leads, had been shut out of power for its links to the United #Russia party of Vladimir Putin.
...The three parties of the new coalition government – the Centre Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union – have confirmed that Estonia would remain committed to NATO and the European Union.
The previous prime minister, Taavi Rõivas, and his party, the Estonian Reform Party, will go into opposition (for the first time in 17 years.)
Estonian photographer Birgit Püve opens an exhibition of her works tonight at the 12 Star Gallery in #London.
Called "Estonian Documents", the exhibiton explores #Estonian faces with an aim to portray this Northern European nation as a whole.
https://www.facebook.com/events/370806603262720/
...A former journalist and editor, Püve’s work focuses on memory and identity. In case you missed it, Estonian World's Helen Wright interviewed Püve this spring.
The Climate Corporation, a San Francisco-based digital #agriculture company that examines #weather, #soil and #field data to help #farmers determine potential yield-limiting factors in their fields, has acquired VitalFields, an #Estonian #farm management #software company.
#Estonia has been selected to host the #Startup #Nations Summit in 2017; the event, organised annually by the Global #Entrepreneurship Network, will continue to explore the rapidly-growing #European startup hubs.
The #Estonian #delivery #robot #startup, #Starship Technologies, has been approved for pilot testing in #Washington, DC, and Redwood City, #California; this comes on top of similar approvals in Coeur D’Alene, ID, and five cities in #Europe.
According to the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report, #Estonia’s #primary #education system ranks eighth in the #world.
Considered among the ten most magical #Christmas markets in #Europe, the #Tallinn Town Hall Square becomes a romantic and atmospheric place where the local merchants sell a range of Estonian arts and crafts, as well as mulled wine and traditional food.
The Tallinn Christmas Market will be open from 18 November 2016 until 7 January 2017.
Mental Floss, an American magazine, writes about a balloonist called Charles Leroux, who entertained onlookers with difficult jumps in #Tallinn, #Estonia, and elsewhere in Europe in the late 19th century.
Eventually, Leroux’s derring-do got the best of him. On 24 September, 1889, while he braved a difficult jump from an airborne hot air balloon in front of an audience of onlookers in Tallinn, an errant wind swept him away toward the Baltic Sea. Leroux died – his body was recovered by fishermen two days later.
Today, a modernist monument in his honor stands in Tallinn, a little-known testament to a man who managed to withstand 238 jumps before his untimely death.
Filmmaker Michael Moore talks about Hillary Clinton's first visit to #Estonia in 1996 – the then first lady inspected among other things Estonia's universal healthcare, something that the United States still lacks, until this day.
Here's also a short AP video clip of #Clinton's first visit and meeting with #Estonian president Lennart Meri: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl4FSWmx2z4
