TALLINN: Italy beat Estonia 3-1 in Saturday&#39;s 2026 World Cup qualifier in Tallinn before a Group I fixture with Israel which will be flanked by pro-Palestinian demonstrations.&nbsp;Goals from Moise Kean, Mateo Retegui and Pio Esposito were enough for Italy to move three points ahead of Israel in second place, which offers a play-off spot for qualification to the finals in the USA, Canada and Mexico.&nbsp;Gennaro Gattuso&#39;s team are on 12 points, six behind group leaders Norway who have a goal difference which is 19 superior to Italy&#39;s and are all-but guaranteed a place at the World Cup.&nbsp;Estonia, who scored through Rauno Sappinen in the 76th minute thanks to Gianluigi Donnarumma dropping a cross at his feet, have three points and cannot qualify.&nbsp;&quot;I&#39;m very pleased, we&#39;re on the right track. The boys showed desire and professionalism,&quot; said Gattuso.&nbsp;&quot;We&#39;re progressing match after match, but often the second game (in the international break) is the one which causes us more difficulty.&quot;&nbsp;The Azzurri might be without Kean for Tuesday&#39;s match with Israel as the Fiorentina striker hobbled off the field with an ankle problem shortly after curling in his sixth goal in four games for his country in the the fifth minute.&nbsp;Kean&#39;s striker partner Retegui doubled Italy&#39;s lead in the 38th minute, making up for failing to score from the penalty spot on the half-hour mark.&nbsp;And Inter Milan forward Esposito made sure of the points two minutes before Donnarumma&#39;s howler with his first international goal, drilling home Leonardo Spinazzola&#39;s cross from the left.&nbsp;Italy have a game in hand on both third-placed Israel and Norway and can effectively secure second in the group in Udine next week, but the match is destined to be a sideshow.&nbsp;Only 5,000 tickets have been sold for the fixture, meaning that the Bluenergy stadium is set to have huge patches of empty seats while potentially thousands more protest elsewhere in the city.&nbsp;The demonstrations will be in response to Israel&#39;s military operation in the Gaza Strip. During massive strike action in support of the Palestinians earlier this month, demonstrators went to the Italian national team&#39;s training centre in Florence to demand the match be called off.&nbsp;Udine&#39;s mayor Alberto Felice De Toni has also asked for the match to be postponed over fears of potential violence in the small city, in Italy&#39;s far north-east.

Football

Italy defeated Estonia 3-1 in a World Cup qualifier with goals from Kean, Retegui, and Esposito. The win moved Italy to second place before their next match against Israel, set amid planned demonstrations in Udine.

Italy beat Estonia in World Cup qualifier before Israel clash

<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">NEW YORK: The United Nations General Assembly features many voices each year. While some dominate headlines, others do not. Here are some notable remarks from the second day of the 2025 debate that might not have captured the headlines.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sierra Leone&rsquo;s President Julius Maada Bio emphasized equality among nations, saying sovereignty is not diminished by size and that it is &ldquo;equal, and our responsibilities are the same. Leadership is not the loudest voice in the room. It is the clearest voice for justice,&rdquo; he said.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Spain&rsquo;s King Felipe VI underscored the importance of rules and how they &ldquo;shape behaviors to which the vast majority of international actors adhere. Even when they are breached, they provide a basis for accountability and enforcement. Rules are the voice of reason used in international relations,&rdquo; he said.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He called rules &ldquo;the best defense against the rule of the strongest.&rdquo; He warned that without adherence, the world risks sliding back to &ldquo;the Middle Ages.&rdquo;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kenyan President William Ruto cautioned that global institutions lose relevance when they resist change. &ldquo;Institutions rarely fail because they lack vision or ideals. More often, they drift into irrelevance when they fail to adapt, hesitate to act, and lose legitimacy. To remain relevant, institutions must be re-imagined, reformed, renewed, and aligned with emerging realities,&rdquo; he said.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Estonian&nbsp;President Alar Karis spoke bluntly on global conflicts, declaring, &ldquo;Brutality prevails. We simply cannot let this go on.&rdquo;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Croatian&nbsp;President Zoran Milanović linked peace efforts to breaking cycles of past violence. &ldquo;Peace is more than silencing the guns. It requires preventing new wars and breaking the cycles of violence from the past,&rdquo; he said.

Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio addresses the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Asia

Africa

Europe

The United Nations General Assembly features many voices each year. While some dominate headlines, others do not. Here are some notable remarks from the second day of the 2025 debate that might not have captured the headlines.

UNGA 2025: World leaders in their own words

Estonia summoned a Russian diplomat to protest after three Russian fighter aircraft entered its airspace without permission Friday and stayed there for 12 minutes, the Foreign Ministry said, just over a week after NATO planes downed Russian drones over Poland and heightened fears that the war in Ukraine could spill over. Foreign Minister Margus Tsakhna said that Russia violated Estonian airspace four times this year &ldquo;but today&rsquo;s incursion, involving three fighter aircraft entering our airspace, is unprecedentedly brazen.&rdquo; Russian officials did not immediately comment. Russia&rsquo;s violation of Poland&rsquo;s airspace was the most serious cross-border incident into a NATO member country since the war in Ukraine began with Russia&rsquo;s all-out invasion in February 2022. Other alliance countries have reported similar incursions and drone crashes on their territory. The developments have increasingly rattled European governments as U.S.-led efforts to stop the war in Ukraine have come to nothing. Italian F-35 fighter jets respond to Russian incursion The Russian MIG-31 fighters entered Estonian airspace in the area of Vaindloo Island, which is a small island located in the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea, the Estonian military said in a separate statement. The aircraft did not have flight plans and their transponders were turned off, the statement said, nor were the aircraft in two-way radio communication with Estonian air traffic services. Italian Air Force F-35 fighter jets, currently deployed as part of the NATO Baltic Air Policing Mission, responded to the incident, according to the statement. &ldquo;Russia&rsquo;s increasingly extensive testing of boundaries and growing aggressiveness must be met with a swift increase in political and economic pressure,&rdquo; Tsakhna, the foreign minister, said. The Russian charge d&rsquo;affaires was summoned and given a protest note, a ministry statement said.

Americas

Three Russian jets entered Estonian airspace, sparking NATO response. Tallinn calls incursion “brazen” amid rising fears of Ukraine war spillover.

Articles tagged with "Estonia"

Italy beat Estonia in World Cup qualifier before Israel clash

UNGA 2025: World leaders in their own words

Estonia: 3 Russian fighter jets entered its airspace in 'brazen' incursion

Italy beat Estonia in World Cup qualifier before Israel clash