Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas steps down to become EU's top diplomat

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Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas steps down to become EU's top diplomat

2024-07-15 20:59 Last Updated At：21:01

HELSINKI (AP) — Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has stepped down as the leader of the Baltic country to become the foreign policy chief of the European Union later this year.

Kallas, Estonia’s first female prime minister, handed in her formal resignation to President Alar Karis during a brief meeting at the Presidential Palace in the capital, Tallinn, on Monday.

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Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas smiles during her arrival at the NATO summit in Washington, Wednesday, July 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas speaking to members of the media at the NATO summit in Washington, Wednesday, July 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas speaks during her arrival at the NATO summit in Washington, Thursday, July 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas prepares to speak during her arrival at the NATO summit in Washington, Thursday, July 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas speaks during her arrival at the NATO summit in Washington, Thursday, July 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

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Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas smiles during her arrival at the NATO summit in Washington, Wednesday, July 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas speaking to members of the media at the NATO summit in Washington, Wednesday, July 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas speaks during her arrival at the NATO summit in Washington, Thursday, July 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas prepares to speak during her arrival at the NATO summit in Washington, Thursday, July 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas speaks during her arrival at the NATO summit in Washington, Thursday, July 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Estonia under Kallas, 47, has been one of Europe’s most vocal backers of Ukraine following the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022. She replaces Josep Borrell of Spain, who has served as the EU foreign policy chief since 2019.

Summing up Kallas’ 3 1/2 years at the helm of the nation of 1.3 million, Karis said in a statement that “it has been a time full of crises, the milestones (such as) the coronavirus, the economic recession and the war in Europe, when Russia destroyed our previous security picture with its aggression in Ukraine”.

The prime minister’s move automatically triggered the resignation of Kallas’ three-party coalition Cabinet, made up of her center-right Reform Party, the Social Democratic Party and the liberal Estonia 200 party. It will continue as a caretaker government until the new Cabinet is sworn in, most likely in early August.

In the last meeting of the outgoing Cabinet on Monday, Kallas underscored her government’s efforts to boost the security of Estonia, a NATO member that neighbors Russia.

“We have invested more in national defense than ever before and increased the annual defense budget to 1.4 billion euros (about $1.5 billion), which is 3% of GDP,” Kallas said, adding that in the past two years, the state defense budget has increased by nearly 70%. “These decisions help to ensure that Estonia is firmly protected and a safe place to live.”

The Reform Party announced on June 29 that it chose party veteran and Climate Minister Kristen Michal as the prime minister candidate to replace Kallas who represented Estonia at a NATO summit in Washington last week. Under Kallas' leadership, Reform scored an overwhelming victory in the 2023 general election and holds a mandate to the prime minister post.

The Cabinet's composition is likely to remain the same but Michal, who is set to succeed Kallas also as the Reform Party's chair, is currently holding talks with both the Social Democrats and the Estonia 200 to revise the current 4-year government program the three parties had originally agreed last year.

Michal’s nomination for Estonia's top job will have to be approved by Karis and the 101-seat parliament, or Riigikogu, where the coalition holds a comfortable majority. He has been serving as the minister for climate affairs since April last year. The 49-year-old former economics and justice minister has been active in the Reform Party, Estonia’s key political establishment, since the late 1990s.

Michal is known for a long and acclaimed political career focused on Estonia’s internal affairs but lacks international experience — almost the complete opposite of Kallas who has excelled in international arenas but was clearly out of her comfort zone when it came to domestic politics, leading to a major dip in her popularity among Estonians over the past year.

South and Midwest face potentially catastrophic rains and floods while reeling from tornadoes

2025-04-05 02:59 Last Updated At：03:00

HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Torrential rains and flash flooding battered parts of the Midwest and South on Friday, killing a boy in Kentucky who was swept away as he walked to a school bus stop. Many communities were left reeling from tornadoes that destroyed whole neighborhoods and killed at least seven people earlier this week.

Forecasters warned of potentially catastrophic weather, with round after round of heavy rains expected in the central U.S. through Saturday. Satellite imagery showed thunderstorms lined up like freight trains over communities in Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky, according to the national Weather Prediction Center in Maryland.

In Kentucky early Friday, a boy died after floodwaters swept him away while he was walking to a school bus stop in Frankfort, Gov. Andy Beshear said on social media.

The dousing inundated Kentucky highways, causing numerous road closures. A mudslide on a busy highway on the outskirts of Louisville caused a long traffic backup as crews worked to clear the road. The downtown area of Hopkinsville — a city of 31,000 residents 72 miles (116 kilometers) northwest of Nashville — was submerged. Water rescues were underway.

“The main arteries through Hopkinsville are probably 2 feet under water,” said Christian County Judge-Executive Jerry Gilliam. “So the mayor has closed downtown down for all traffic. Our office is actually in the middle of it and we were here before the water rose. So there’s only one way we could get out.”

Tony Kirves and a group of friends used sandbags and a vacuum as they tried to hold back rising floodwaters that covered the basement and seeped into the ground floor of his photography business in Hopkinsville. He said the downtown area was "like a lake."

“We’re holding ground,” he said. “We’re trying to maintain and keep it out the best we can."

A corridor from northeast Texas through Arkansas and into southeast Missouri, which has a population of about 2.3 million, could see clusters of severe thunderstorms late Friday. The National Weather Service’s Oklahoma-based Storm Prediction Center warned of the potential for intense tornadoes and large hail.

The seven people killed in the initial wave of storms that spawned powerful tornadoes on Wednesday and early Thursday were in Tennessee, Missouri and Indiana. They included Garry Moore, chief of the Whitewater Fire Protection District in Missouri. He died while likely trying to help a stranded motorist, according to Highway Patrol spokesperson Sgt. Clark Parrott.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said entire neighborhoods in the hard-hit town of Selmer were “completely wiped out” and said it was too early to know whether there were more deaths as searches continued.

With flattened homes behind him, Dakota Woods described seeing the twister come through Selmer.

“I was walking down the street,” Woods said Thursday. “Next thing you know, I look up, the sky is getting black and blacker, and it’s lighting up green lights, and it’s making a formation of a twister or tornado.”

Heavy rains were expected to continue in parts of Missouri, Kentucky and elsewhere in the coming days and could produce dangerous flash floods capable of sweeping away cars.

In Hopkinsville, 5 to 8 inches of rain (12.7 centimeters to 20 centimeters) had fallen by Thursday morning, causing the Little River to surge over its banks.

A pet boarding business was under water, forcing rescuers to move dozens of dogs to a local animal shelter, said Gilliam, the county executive. On Friday morning, crews had already rescued people from four or five vehicles and multiple homes, mostly by boat to evacuate people, said Randy Graham, the emergency management director in Christian County.

“This is the worst I’ve ever seen downtown,” Gilliam said.

Kentucky’s road conditions website showed scores of state roads closed by high water on Friday morning. A landslide closed a nearly 3-mile (4.8-kilometer) stretch of Mary Ingles Highway in northern Kentucky early Friday, according to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. A landslide closed the same section of road in 2019 and it reopened last year, WLWT-TV reports.

Flash flooding is particularly worrisome in rural Kentucky where water can rush off the mountains into the hollows. Less than four years ago, dozens died in flooding across eastern Kentucky.

Extreme flooding across the corridor that includes Louisville, Kentucky, and Memphis — which have major cargo hubs — could also lead to shipping and supply chain delays, said Jonathan Porter, chief meteorologist at AccuWeather.

Forecasters attributed the violent weather to warm temperatures, an unstable atmosphere, strong wind shear and abundant moisture streaming from the Gulf. At least 318 tornado warnings have been issued by the National Weather Service since this week’s outbreak began Wednesday.

Homes were ripped to their foundations in Selmer, Tennessee, which was hit by a tornado with winds estimated up to 160 mph (257 kph), according to the weather service.

Tennessee Highway Patrol video showed lightning illuminating the sky as first responders scoured the ruins of a home, looking for anyone trapped.

In neighboring Arkansas, a tornado near Blytheville lofted debris at least 25,000 feet (7.6 kilometers) high, according to weather service meteorologist Chelly Amin. The state’s emergency management office reported damage in 22 counties from tornadoes, wind, hail and flash flooding.

The home where Danny Qualls spent his childhood but no longer lives was flattened by a tornado in northeast Arkansas.

“My husband has been extremely tearful and emotional, but he also knows that we have to do the work,” Rhonda Qualls said. “He was in shock last night, cried himself to sleep.”

Workers on bulldozers cleared rubble along the highway that crosses through Lake City, where a tornado with winds of 150 mph (241 kph) sheared roofs off homes, collapsed brick walls and tossed cars into trees.

Mississippi's governor said at least 60 homes were damaged. And in far western Kentucky, four people were injured while taking shelter in a vehicle under a church carport, according to the emergency management office in Ballard County.

Walker IV reported from Selmer, Tennessee, and Schreiner reported from Shelbyville, Kentucky. Associated Press writers Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas and Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed.