The Tallinn Administrative Court has postponed a decision on a complaint filed by NGOs and private individuals seeking to halt the construction of a planned defence industry park near Pärnu due to noise concerns.

While the majority of Tallinn's education‑related construction projects this summer are on schedule, unexpected issues have arisen at the construction sites of Tallinn Secondary School of Science (Reaalkool) and Hiiu School.

As the September presidential election fast approaches, several names have emerged as potential candidates to succeed Alar Karis. ERR News outlines those who want to run and those who do not.

Presidential candidate nominee Indrek Laul says he wants to unite parties and different worldviews, following his nomination Thursday.

Estonian meat producer Rannarootsi is facing backlash as some say a new advertisement's imagery evokes the Russia-Ukraine war and uses derogatory slang for Russian-speakers.

The Baltic states have agreed to share and jointly procure critical reserve equipment for the electricity system to strengthen the three countries' energy security.

Neljapäeva õhtul alistas Tallinna Flora Konverentsiliiga teise eelringi avamängus Walesi valitseva meistri The New Saintsi seisuga 1:0. Eesti klubi peatreener Konstantin Vassiljev arvas, et võit andis meeskonnale hea lähtekoha, kuid edasipääsuks tuleb Walesis veel väga raske töö ära teha.

Ehkki kohtumise eel võis Paide Linnameeskonda pidada Aserbaidžaani kõrgliigaklubi Zirä vastu autsaideriks, siis Konverentsiliiga teise eelringi avamäng Pärnus rääkis teist keelt: Paide võttis teenitud 1:0 võidu.

Most of those evacuated were tourists from campsites around Arcachon Bay in France's Gironde region.

Mykhailo Fedorov refuses President Zelensky's offer to accept an alternative post, as the battle of wills continues.

The price of Brent crude rose more than 6% on Thursday as the war in the Middle East continues to escalate.

Pubs welcomed the support package, while other High Street firms asked why they were left out.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Thursday accused the European Union of creating renewed instability in the transatlantic trade relationship after it slapped a $1 billion on Google. European Union regulators found the U.S. internet search giant unfairly boosted its own shopping, hotel, transportation and sports results relative to its competitors and restricted app developers’ communications with users in its Play Store, running afoul of the bloc’s Digital Markets Act. The Commission on Thursday hit Google with a pair of fines of $523 million and $489 million. The U.S. has long argued that the DMA unfairly targets U.S. tech companies. Greer blasted the latest ruling and accused the commission of undermining ongoing talks on the issue. The announcement is “the latest in an increasingly aggressive approach targeting U.S. technology firms,” Greer said in a statement. “The EU often claims that it is looking for stability and predictability in our trading relationship, but these actions are driving massive uncertainty for U.S. exports of goods and services to Europe.” Greer noted that U.S. officials are “trying to resolve” their concerns with the law but added that the “EU’s recent actions undermine these efforts and pose a real risk to the continuation of transatlantic stability with respect to trade.” The scale of the fines are also exorbitant, Greer argued, surpassing the contributions of some EU member states. “Add in the recent announcement of the largest ever state-backed loan to Airbus, and it becomes clear that the EU continues to target the most competitive U.S. companies.” The European Investment Bank last month issued a more than $3 billion loan to the European jet-maker, reigniting long-running trade tensions over government support for the industry. Context: President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen inked a trade agreement, known as the Turnberry deal, last August that capped U.S. tariffs on most European exports in exchange for EU tariff reductions and efforts to address long-standing nontariff barriers. Trump, however, made additional tariff threats earlier this year over his aspirations to control Greenland. Meanwhile, European lawmakers added several provisions when they approved legislation to carry out the deal, including a sunset clause, which Greer has argued U.S. negotiators did not endorse. The Trump administration has also continued to press Europe to adjust its tech regulations, and the two governments launched a preliminary dialogue on technology issues last month. The Google case is not the first case the EU has brought against American tech firms under its DMA. The bloc opened similar cases with Apple and Meta which resulted in fines for both companies last year. Google has 60 days to comply with the ruling or face further penalties of up to 5 percent of worldwide turnover. The company has said it is evaluating its options, including an appeal. The decision emboldens those in the U.S. that have been pushing the administration to take a tougher stance with the EU on its digital trade practices. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a Washington-based think tank focused on technology policy, issued a fresh call Thursday for an investigation into unfair EU trade practices that could be used to justify new tariffs.

BRUSSELS — The European Union knew its €890 million fine against Google risked poking the bear in Washington. And the timing couldn’t be worse. President Donald Trump, who’s lashed out at previous EU fines against U.S. tech companies, is in the final hours of deciding a new regime of tariffs, expected when a temporary 10 percent levy is due to expire Friday. That hastily imposed global tax on imports was imposed after the U.S. Supreme Court had struck down Trump’s “Liberation Day”  global tariffs in February.  The fear in Europe is that Thursday’s fine — the highest-ever imposed for violation of the EU’s signature Digital Markets Act that regulates major tech platforms — could trigger Trump to respond in what he sees as a tit-for-tat trade war.  European officials insist that the two-part fine on Google that includes €460 million for favoring its own search services and €430 million for the unfair way the Play Store is installed on smartphones, has nothing to do with trade policy. Brussels says the penalties reflect normal enforcement of EU law, like a similar fine against China’s Alibaba earlier this week. They also note that the total penalty is relatively modest, amounting to around 0.22 percent of the global annual turnover of Google’s parent company, Alphabet. “We’d rather have a very friendly relationship with all our partners but we are not going to refrain from acting because one of our partners doesn’t like our law,” said Teresa Ribera, the European Commission’s executive vice president for competition policy. But that European attempt to keep the Google case separate from trade policy is unlikely to count for much in Washington as Trump gears up for his new tariff round. U.S. trade czar Jamieson Greer said the “EU’s recent actions … pose a real risk to the continuation of transatlantic stability with respect to trade” while Andrew Puzder, the U.S. ambassador to the EU, called the Google fine “the latest example of Brussels using regulation as a blunt instrument against American innovation.” U.S. lawmakers this week also called on Trump to push back against the EU’s “discriminatory” digital policies and keep up the pressure on Brussels in order to defend American interests. The Republican legislators thanked the president for his “recent threat to impose tariffs” on countries imposing a digital service tax. The appeal underscored how the EU’s regulation of U.S. tech firms has become intertwined with domestic politics, particularly ahead of the U.S. midterm elections in November.  The expiration of the temporary 10 percent tariffs on Friday opens the way for the administration to rebuild its tariffs against Europe using other legal mechanisms. The U.S. is now studying potential duties based on Europe’s alleged failure to crack down on imports of goods made with forced labor — a measure specifically combating manufacturing from America’s trade rivals in Asia. Washington is also probing alleged industrial overcapacity in Europe and is considering expanding its investigation into pharmaceutical pricing policies —  currently only focused on Germany — to other EU countries.  The European Parliament’s trade chief Bernd Lange praised the European Commission for pressing ahead with the Google fine, despite that looming tariff threat. Bernd Lange praised the European Commission for pressing ahead with the Google fine, despite the looming tariff threat. | Mast Irham/EFE via EPA With the fine against Google, “the Commission has shown backbone despite uncertainty over U.S. tariffs after 24 July,” Lange said on X, celebrating from the U.S., where he is meeting with American officials together with fellow European lawmakers. But it “must not become pretext for US tariff retaliation,” he warned.  On track for more tariffs Greer has suggested action is imminent to replace the 10 percent tariffs. He hinted as much on Wednesday when he quipped to reporters that “you all are just going to have to stay tuned. You’re going to be busy the next few days, probably.” The key question, however, is whether Washington will honor the hard-fought 15 percent tariff ceiling on EU exports enshrined in a fragile transatlantic truce struck just a year ago at a summit in Scotland.  Publicly, Brussels is projecting confidence in Washington that it will respect the Turnberry commitments. Privately, officials acknowledge the White House could always unveil a new wave of higher tariffs.  During a meeting with the EU’s 27 envoys on Wednesday, the newly appointed head of the Commission’s trade department, Ditte Juul Jørgensen, said that although Brussels was confident Washington would respect the commitments listed under the Turnberry deal, it was ready to react if it didn’t, three EU diplomats familiar with the conversation told POLITICO.  One added that ambassadors would be ready to convene an extraordinary meeting next week “to talk strategy and discuss possible countermeasures.”  In the meantime, though, nobody knows when exactly the next tariffs will come.  “We’re not focused on a particular timeline. We’re focused on fulfilling the legal and statutory requirements,” Greer said after a hearing in the U.S. Senate.  Even if the administration has yet to finalize tariffs under the most immediate investigation into imports made with forced labor, it has several legal avenues available to avoid any gap once the temporary tariffs — imposed under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 — lapse.  Washington could still reissue the 10 percent tariff for another 150 days, or declare that any new tariffs retroactively began on July 25, according to Greta Peisch, who was general counsel for the U.S. Trade Representative under former President Joe Biden. These options are legally precarious, however, with a U.S. trade court already ruling that Trump’s use of the measure to set the existing 10 percent duty is illegal. In Brussels, when asked whether the U.S. had reacted to the Google fine, the Commission’s deputy chief spokesperson Olof Gill said: “The Commission maintains regular contact with its U.S. counterparts across the full range of our very deep and comprehensive cooperation.” Striking a less diplomatic note, other European officials would have liked to see a heftier fine. “The EU is still incentivizing tech companies to build monopolies and kill competition,” said Alexandra Geese, a Green member of the European Parliament from Germany, calling out a fine that “feels performative.”  Daniel Desrochers and Ari Hawkins in Washington contributed reporting. 

Mexican journalist Alejandro Leyva Aguilar was shot dead while eating at a street food stall in Oaxaca.

Yemen has proven oil reserves estimated at three billion barrels, but the security environment hinders its export.

Some parts of Mediterranean Sea 5C hotter than normal, with air temperatures above 44C expected in SpainBrutal heat torching southern Europe has forced nearly 20,000 people to flee wildfires in France as a marine heatwave scalds the Mediterranean and researchers warn that “Dantesque” scenarios cannot be ruled out as infernos worsen.A “particularly intense” wildfire on France’s southwestern Atlantic coast prompted the evacuation of more than 18,800 people, including thousands of tourists from campsites and holiday homes, as firefighters struggled to control the blaze. Continue reading...

Mykhailo Fedorov says only in his former post could he ‘combat procurement corruption and complete the army’s transformation’EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has offered a bit more detail on the new package of sanctions, saying they are “the largest round in four years,” and will “hit Putin where it hurts most.”In a statement, she said:“We have agreed on the 21st sanctions package against Russia. It delivers sweeping measures targeting Moscow’s financial system, its military-industrial complex and energy sector, that keep Russia’s war economy running. Continue reading...

EU competition chief says it is bloc’s ‘duty to defend rule of law’ while delivering ‘strong message’ to search giant

Miatta Fahnbulleh’s visit to Aberdeen comes as companies hope to sway Burnham’s government on new drilling licences