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Estonia's defense minister resigned on 2 September over a failed €70 million ammunition deal for Ukraine, ERR reported. The state procurement agency paid EU funds to companies that had never sold artillery shells. Estonian taxpayers may now have to cover the losses.
The Baltic states have poured billions into defense since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Estonia alone redirected €500 million toward air defense and drones. It pledged 0.25% of GDP in annual aid for Kyiv. Defense budgets have grown faster than the procurement systems managing them.
Hanno Pevkur has held the post since 2022. Amid the scandal, he told Estonian public broadcaster ETV he would step down.
"The minister does not count socks and ammunition," Pevkur said.
RKIK's former chief countered that no major decisions were made without the ministry's approval.
Three opposition parties called for his resignation before he announced it. Prime Minister Kristen Michal said Pevkur was not personally at fault but acknowledged political responsibility applied. The resignation followed a National Audit Office report released on 28 August. Estonia's Prosecutor's Office has also opened a criminal investigation into the procurement.
In 2024, Estonia's Center for Defense Investments (RKIK) signed four contracts with Datasel S.R.L., an Italian-registered firm. Eesti Ekspress reported that the Indian company Neco Defense Munitions owned it. Neither had ever sold a single artillery shell. RKIK paid roughly $81 million in advance using the EU's European Peace Facility. The first delivery was due in November 2024. Ammunition that arrived failed to meet quality standards. Estonia canceled the deals and filed a case at the European Court of Arbitration in Strasbourg.
Pevkur is the second Baltic defense minister to resign in four months. Latvia's Andris Sprūds stepped down in May after drone incursions from Russia's war destabilized the country's government.
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Judge says US Postal Service has told her nothing about how it plans to regulate mail ballots for midterm elections
A federal judge in Boston said on Thursday the US Postal Service had told her nothing about how it would implement a plan to regulate mail ballots for the midterms as she considers whether to let the plan proceed in the weeks before election day.
US district court judge Indira Talwani is deciding whether to extend her prohibition on the proposed regulation of mail ballots, an effort undertaken as part of an executive order by Donald Trump. The hearing in the closely watched case came a day before the first state begins sending mail ballots to voters.
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© Photograph: M Scott Brauer/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
© Photograph: M Scott Brauer/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
© Photograph: M Scott Brauer/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
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Wildfire victims rebuilt their homes in Lahaina only to find USPS had ‘eliminated’ their addresses – while houses that didn’t burn receive mail as normal
Two months after a devastating wildfire whipped through Lahaina in August 2023, Pam Reader was allowed back to see what was left of her home. With a heavy heart, she returned to the Hawaiian oceanside town now filled with endless blocks of burned houses. As she rounded her corner, she saw the only thing remaining was her bright turquoise mailbox.
“It was an old crappy mailbox,” Reader said. “It was metal, though, which is why I think it survived.”
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© Composite: AFP via Getty Images, Courtesy Pam Reader
© Composite: AFP via Getty Images, Courtesy Pam Reader
© Composite: AFP via Getty Images, Courtesy Pam Reader
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Selon le New York Times, Interpol, l’organisation internationale de police criminelle, a reçu depuis février 2024 le signalement de presque 5000 véhicules volés au Canada et retrouvés ensuite en Russie.
Les sanctions internationales actuellement en vigueur contre la Russie interdisent d’exporter des biens vers le territoire russe.
Une de leurs conséquences est que, en Russie, des consommateurs cherchent à se procurer des véhicules sur le marché noir.
Cette demande alimenterait les vols de voiture au Canada et dans d’autres pays.
[L'article La Russie serait la principale destination étrangère des voitures volées au Canada a d'abord été publié dans InfoBref.]
© Atul Loke for The New York Times
© Arash Khamooshi/Polaris for The New York Times
A Russian drone hit a fire truck driving to a call in the village of Kushuhum outside Zaporizhzhia on 1 September, injuring four rescuers, the head of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ivan Fedorov, reported. The crew was on its way to a house fire that Russian shelling had started. The strike came hours after a countrywide Russian air assault overnight.
Fedorov said a Russian drone struck the State Emergency Service vehicle in Kushuhum as it drove to put out a fire. The truck took damage, and the crew was hurt. He said the men were under the supervision of medics.
The Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service in Zaporizhzhia Oblast confirmed the attack, and added that all four injured firefighters had been taken to hospital with injuries of differing severity. The directorate specified what the crew had been sent to: a fire in a detached house in the suburb, started by Russian shelling.
Over the past 24 hours, Russian attacks on Zaporizhzhia city and district killed two people and injured eight, Fedorov said. Russian forces carried out strikes on 57 settlements across the region.
Overnight into 1 September, Russia attacked with ballistic and cruise missiles, anti-radar missiles, Banderol munitions, and 218 Shahed-type strike drones, about a third of them jet-powered, Ukraine's Air Force reported. By preliminary data, air defenses downed or suppressed 199 targets. Odesa and Kyiv oblasts were the main directions of the strike.
Russia killed 12 people across Ukraine, among them a citizen of India, and injured dozens, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. Russia killed four people and injured 13 and damaged a five-story residential building, and 50 people were evacuated. Nearly 350 rescuers worked in Kyiv and the surrounding oblast alone.
In Kyiv, a ballistic strike on Ukrzaliznytsia railway facilities killed seven people, six of them railway workers, and one more employee remains hospitalized. The capital's overall toll for the night stood at eight killed.
In Odesa Oblast, Russian drones, guided bombs, and missiles injured seven civilian men, four of whom went to hospital, and struck the Orlivka ferry crossing on the border with Romania again, the regional prosecutor's office found.
As of May, Ukraine has documented 11,000 Russian first-person-view drone attacks on civilians, among them repeat strikes on the same spot once medics and firefighters arrive. Ukraine's UN envoy has built part of the case for expelling Russia from the Security Council on that practice.
Rescue workers in Zaporizhzhia have been caught that way before. After a strike on a Poltava Oblast gas site, Russia hit the crews who came to the fire. Firefighters in Chernihiv Oblast went to hospital mid-rescue. In Kryvyi Rih in August, a second Russian attack reached rescue workers thirty minutes after a drone strike on a shopping center, and a repeat strike killed a 20-year-old volunteer paramedic in Kyiv the same month.
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© Craig Sanderson, via Associated Press
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Sweden will transfer 10 coast guard boats to Ukraine, the Swedish government announced on 27 August 2026. Stockholm will also direct additional funds to multilateral defense programs for Kyiv.
Russia's full-scale invasion added to some 13,500 km² of Ukraine's rivers, lakes, and Black Sea coastline now potentially contaminated with explosive remnants of war, in the world's most mined country, and emergency service divers had cleared 190 km² of it by November 2025. Allied nations have committed billions in military support to Kyiv since 2022, from fighter jets to anti-drone systems.
Ukraine's State Emergency Service will receive the work and high-speed vessels in their current condition, after the coast guard removes their markings and equipment. The agency will use them for waterborne rescue operations, including clearing mines from river channels.
Sweden's Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin said Sweden is further strengthening Ukraine's maritime capabilities. He described towage, mine clearance, and transport as important capabilities that can now increase further. Sweden's Civil Defense Agency will handle transporting the boats to Ukraine.
The donation follows Sweden's broader naval support for Kyiv. In January 2025, Stockholm doubled its pledge of CB90 assault boats for Ukraine's navy to 32 and added 23 naval combat modules to arm them. The coast guard vessels serve a different purpose—rescue and utility work for a civilian agency, not combat operations.
Sweden will also channel 270 million Swedish kronor (about $28 million) to multilateral defense funds supporting Ukraine, mainly for air defense. Of that sum, $14 million goes to the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), to which Sweden contributed $108 million in June. Allies and partners fund high-priority American materiel through the US-led, NATO-administered program, and this package covers advanced air defense systems and ammunition for Kyiv.
The government said this marks Sweden's fifth PURL contribution. With the new payment, Stockholm's total PURL funding reaches $552 million.
In July, Sweden's defense minister confirmed Ukraine may use the Meteor missiles promised with its Gripen fighters against Russian aircraft over Russian territory.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to buy at least a million dollars worth of robots from Boston Dynamics, the company that makes the dog-like SPOT robots, with the purpose of improving “officer safety,” according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announcement.
The news shows that ICE continues to spend millions of dollars on new technology. On Thursday, U.S. procurement records showed that ICE has contracted to buy 6,000 pairs of electric shock gloves for $16.7 million, the Associated Press reported.
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L’ex-conseiller municipal du district de Newport, à Chandler, Bruno-Pierre Godbout fait face à de nouvelles accusations d’agression sexuelle impliquant deux présumées victimes.
En juin dernier, cinq chefs d’accusation ont été portés contre Godbout, qui purge actuellement une peine de 36 mois de prison. Il est accusé d’agression sexuelle, de harcèlement criminel, de séquestration et de voies de fait.
Les faits reprochés se seraient produits à Chandler, à Saint-Damien-de-Buckland, dans la région de Chaudière-Appalaches et à Montréal.
Une ordonnance de non-publication a été émise par le tribunal afin de protéger l’identité des deux plaignantes.
Godbout a renoncé à son enquête sur remise en liberté dans les nouveaux dossiers, lundi au palais de justice de Percé. Il a plaidé non coupable et les dossiers ont été reportés au 19 octobre pour fixer une date de procès.
Rappelons que l’ex-conseiller municipal avait été condamné à 36 mois de détention le 1er mai dernier après avoir plaidé coupable à six des 12 chefs d’accusation qui pesaient sur lui.
Il avait alors plaidé coupable à un chef d’agression sexuelle, un chef de voies de fait armées, deux chefs de voies de fait et deux de harcèlement criminel.
Godbout a reconnu avoir fait trois victimes entre 2010 et 2025.
Godbout est également accusé d’avoir fait de fausses demandes de remboursement en 2021 alors qu’il agissait comme maire suppléant de la Ville de Chandler. Lundi, ce dossier a été reporté au 8 septembre. Le montant de la fraude est estimé à 10 000 $.
La maison-mère de Facebook et Instagram était accusée par une quarantaine d’États américains d’avoir conçu ses réseaux sociaux pour les rendre addictifs auprès des jeunes.
L’entreprise américaine s’est entendue hier avec les États pour qu’ils mettent fin à leurs poursuites en acceptant de:
Dans ces États, les moins de 18 ans ne pourront désormais accéder à Facebook et Instagram:
[L'article Meta pourrait verser presque 17 milliards $US pour interrompre un procès a d'abord été publié dans InfoBref.]
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© Alex Kent/The New York Times
© Philadelphia Police Department
L’avocat criminaliste Pierre Gagnon, qui plaide régulièrement dans l’Est-du-Québec, a été radié par le Barreau du Québec pour une période de 30 jours, le 11 août dernier, après avoir été reconnu coupable d’infractions déontologiques. Sa radiation est en vigueur jusqu’au 11 septembre.
Me Gagnon a été déclaré coupable le 15 janvier 2026 par le Conseil de discipline du Barreau du Québec d’infractions commises à Chicoutimi, le 3 septembre 2023 et le 13 janvier 2025.
Il a fait défaut, à deux reprises, de déposer sans délai dans un compte général en fidéicommis deux sommes d’argent totalisant un montant 3 000 $ qu’il avait reçu de son client à titre d’avances d’honoraires et de débours, contrevenant ainsi à l’article 50 du Règlement sur la comptabilité et les normes d’exercice professionnel des avocats.
Le 3 juillet 2026, le Conseil de discipline imposait une radiation du Tableau de l’Ordre pour une période d’un mois pour ces manquements. Cette sanction imposée par le Conseil de discipline était exécutoire à l’expiration des délais d’appel, selon l’article 158 du Code des professions.
Pierre Gagnon est donc radié du Tableau de l’Ordre du Barreau du Québec pour une période d’un mois à compter du 11 août.
Me Gagnon avait été radié du Barreau pour 15 jours en avril 2025 et pour 30 jours en mai 2026. Il avait alors fait défaut de déposer sans délai dans un compte général en fidéicommis la somme de 2 000 $ qu’il avait reçue de son client le 6 avril 2024 à titre d’avance d’honoraires.
Il avait aussi, entre mai 2024 et avril 2025, fait défaut de rendre compte à son client périodiquement ou sur demande de l’évolution de son dossier.
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© Anna Rose Layden for The New York Times
Ukraine opened a nationwide investigation into soldiers' payments five days ago. The State Bureau of Investigation has now charged a deputy commander of a separate security and servicing battalion in Odesa Oblast with issuing travel orders that sent his subordinates to fake combat groupings on paper, the bureau reported on 25 August.
Combat pay in Ukraine runs on paperwork. Assault and zonal payments depend on time spent on each mission and require documentary confirmation, with the highest rates going to troops on the line of contact.
The soldiers collected the additional payment known as the Defender's Bonus for combat participation that did not happen, taking about $15,600, without grounds, according to the agency.
"In fact, soldiers remained in Odesa. Despite this, they were paid an additional bonus," officers said.
Part of that money went back to the officer who arranged it. He was detained and charged under Part Five of Article 426-1 of the Criminal Code, which covers a military official exceeding authority and carries a sentence of up to 12 years.
The bureau launched the operation, called Justice for Soldiers, on 20 August together with the General Staff, conducting 72 searches and preparing suspicions against 22 people.
Most of the cases concerned money wrongly paid to soldiers. Twelve proceedings were related to the illegal calculation and receipt of payments by soldiers, with 58 searches conducted and suspicions planned against 20 people.
Twelve of those proceedings deal with the illegal calculation and receipt of payments by soldiers. A separate strand covers commanders using troops for private labor.
A separate strand targeted the misuse of soldiers themselves. Five searches were conducted in a case involving the illegal use of military labor, in which subordinates, instead of performing military duties, were used for construction, household, and other work in the commanders' private interests.
Le maire de Saint-Antonin, Denis Fortin, qui fait face à deux chefs d’accusation d’agression sexuelle en lien avec des évènements survenus en 2016 et en 2017 était de retour à la cour au palais de justice de Rivière-du-Loup, lundi, pour donner une orientation à ses dossiers, mais cette étape a été reportée au 26 octobre.
L’accusé a comparu une première fois le 29 juillet dernier pour être formellement accusé d’agression sexuelle et d’agression sexuelle armée.
Selon le Code criminel, il est passible d’une peine maximale de 10 à 14 ans, s’il est reconnu coupable.
Il a été remis en liberté sous conditions dès sa première comparution. Les dossiers avaient alors été reportés au 24 août pour orientation et déclaration, c’est-à-dire l’enregistrement d’un plaidoyer et le choix du type de procès désiré advenant un plaidoyer de non-culpabilité.
Une ordonnance de non-publication protège l’identité de la victime présumée dans le dossier.
Rappelons que Denis Fortin s’est retiré temporairement de ses fonctions de maire au lendemain de sa comparution, le 30 juillet. Martine Saint-Pierre agit comme mairesse pour une période indéterminée.
Denis Fortin avait été élu en novembre 2025 après une tentative infructueuse en 2021. Le producteur agricole a été conseiller municipal pendant plusieurs années.
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