Ülle Madise is now backed by more than 60 MPs, but Prime Minister Kristen Michal (Reform) still believes TalTech rector Tiit Land will also enter Estonia's presidential race.

The future of Latvian airline airBaltic is in the hands of its creditors, Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs said. Potential strategic investors are waiting for airBaltic to become viable and profitable. Under the new business plan approved on Wednesday, the airline will fly to fewer destinations but with higher frequency.

Ülle Madise is now backed by more than 60 MPs, but Prime Minister Kristen Michal (Reform) still believes TalTech rector Tiit Land will also enter Estonia's presidential race.

Sixty-two MPs have signed in favor of Chancellor of Justice Ülle Madise as a candidate at next month's presidential elections, up from the 55 received as of yesterday.

Estonia's bear population has grown for two decades, and one wildlife expert warns that new, tighter hunting limits could increase the risk of conflicts with people.

Economy Minister Erkki Keldo declined to approve a draft bill aimed at curbing the use of nicotine products among young people as the proposed changes could have a significant impact on sellers and importers.

Birminghami kergejõustiku EMi neljandal päeval tuli Leo Neugebauer 8611 punktiga kümnevõistluse Euroopa meistriks. Hõbeda sai Niklas Kaul (8573) ja pronksi Sander Skotheim (8433). Karel Tilga oli viies (8286), Rasmus Roosleht seitsmes (8199) ja Risto Lillemets 12. (8026). Marleen Mülla teenis teivashüppes seitsmenda koha, Karmen Bruus pääses kõrgushüppe finaali ning Henri Sai sai 200 meetris 23. koha. Postimees vahendas sündmusi otseblogis.

Soome on saunadest küllastunud, mistõttu keriseid ja muid saunatarvikuid müüa pole enam nii lihtne. Soomlaste saunaahjude ja -tarvikute tootja Harvia on aga leidnud probleemile lahenduse – Ameerika Ühendriikide turg.

In an exclusive interview with the BBC’s Steve Rosenberg, Dmitry Muratov says the Kremlin leader can only "destroy Ukraine, not conquer it", with the war now in its fifth year.

The Cernavodă plant, which produces 20% of Romania's electricity, is not expected to be restarted within the next 10 days.

Ofwat has given provisional approval for 13 water companies to charge customers more to pay for investments.

The department store made famous by sitcom Absolutely Fabulous had warned it would cease trading.

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar on Thursday cast doubt on a deal struck by his predecessor that would see Russia’s state nuclear company Rosatom expand Hungary’s nuclear power capacity. Weeks of extreme heat and drought have pushed the Danube River to record lows, slashing output at Hungary’s Paks nuclear plant — which normally supplies around a third of the country’s electricity — to little more than 10 percent. “These plans were accepted despite the fact that nuclear power plants that do not operate with a closed-circuit cooling system and are so exposed to the environment are no longer being built in the world,” said Magyar, per local media. Rosatom CEO Alexei Likhachev wrote that the Russian state nuclear company was still on schedule with two new reactors at Paks despite Hungary’s change of government in April, which saw Magyar oust Russia-friendly incumbent Viktor Orbán. Concrete preparation for Unit 5 is more than 80 percent complete, he said, while work on Unit 6 is advancing and reactor components are already being manufactured. “We are ready for dialogue,” Likhachev said, adding that Rosatom had received no questions from Hungary’s new government. Magyar challenged that account hours later. Under the original contract, Paks II should have been operating by 2024, he told reporters in a press conference Thursday. Instead, Hungary has spent roughly 1,000 billion forints (€2.8 billion) on a site he described as little more than depots and “two large concrete pits.” “I don’t really see that they have adhered to the contract,” Magyar said. His government is now carrying out a full review of the project, including its financing and cooling arrangements. The review cuts at one of Orbán’s signature deals with Russia. Orbán struck the Paks II agreement in Moscow in 2014, handing Rosatom the two-reactor expansion backed by up to €10 billion in Russian state financing. Two years later, he called it the “deal of the century.” Those ties survived Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. As recently as March this year, Orbán’s foreign minister Péter Szijjártó admitted to discussing EU sanctions with senior Russian officials after leaked calls showed him boasting that a bank linked to Paks had been kept off a sanctions list. Downstream, Romania shut the second and last operating reactor at Cernavodă on Thursday after the Danube fell too low to supply its cooling pumps.

President Donald Trump is paving a legal pathway for U.S. companies to launch cyberattacks on foreign cybercriminal gangs — a significant and potentially controversial measure that would put approved tech and cybersecurity firms on the front lines of digital combat. The presidential memorandum, released late Wednesday, comes as the Trump administration has repeatedly pushed for more aggressive action to counter foreign scams and cyberattacks, which the White House said cost Americans nearly $21 billion last year. The memo represents one of the biggest shifts in U.S. cyber policy undertaken in recent years. It would empower tech and security companies — whose data and control over internet infrastructure often offer unique insight into foreign hacking operations — to mount state-sanctioned digital strikes. While many such companies already work closely with U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies, a web of legal and political constraints has long prevented them from taking direct action inside foreign networks. Companies that want to participate would be required to sign contracts with both the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security and to undergo what the memo describes as “rigorous vetting” while working with the government. The overall effort would be overseen by a National Coordination Center, established in an earlier Trump administration executive order, with co-executive directors from DOJ and DHS. However, the memo states that no operations by the companies would be approved until the executive directors at DOJ and DHS establish “consensus procedures” with the White House Homeland Security Council guaranteeing “complete oversight and control of Participating Companies’ performance.” Those procedures, it notes, should be drafted within 60 days. They are likely to be extensive. They will outline steps for participating companies to obtain approval for proposed offensive hacking operations, so the government can confirm that the targets are criminal gangs and ensure that operations are consistent with U.S. law and don’t undermine ongoing U.S. intelligence efforts. Companies could propose surveillance operations to help identify criminals or “effects” operations to degrade the systems they use to stage their attacks. Participating companies would have to pass minimum standards for technical expertise and personnel vetting, and would be required to notify the federal government if they believe approved operations may result in the loss of life or rise to the level of use of force under international law. Some see the memo as a critical step to help the U.S. government counter foreign cybercriminal gangs that operate outside the reach of U.S. law enforcement. “For years we’ve called the American technology industry a strategic asset but left it on the cyber sidelines,” Joe Lin, the CEO and co-founder of Twenty, a start-up that builds offensive cyber tools for the U.S. government, said in a statement. “This administration is changing the paradigm.” The memo notes that companies will only be authorized to target criminals that are “not an institutional part of a foreign government or wholly operated under a foreign government’s direction.” Even with the help of the U.S. intelligence community, making that distinction could be difficult. Adversaries such as Russia, China and Iran have persistently targeted U.S. critical infrastructure, including water systems, ports, and telecommunications infrastructure, while multinational crime syndicates have defrauded billions of dollars annually from Americans via complex online schemes. But many cyber gangs in Eastern Europe are thought to operate with the tacit consent of the Russian government, while state hackers in Iran and China sometimes moonlight as cybercriminals to earn extra money or deflect blame for their governments’ attacks. More broadly, it is not always easy for digital investigators to determine who is responsible for a given cyberattack, or who different computer networks belong to — another risk the memo contemplates. Companies that accidentally carry out operations targeting a U.S. citizen or network will be required to immediately pause the operation and notify the U.S. government, the memo states. It does not appear to preclude activities that are deliberately “directed” at a U.S. person, so long as they receive “any necessary authorization, judicial or otherwise, prior to approval of the operation.” Under U.S. law, a “U.S. person” can refer to an American business or organization. Many lawmakers and security experts have broadly supported calls for the private sector to play a larger role in responding to cybercrime, though not all approve of granting them the ability to launch active hacking efforts. In recent years, some House members have debated the idea of issuing “letters of marque” to private companies to carry out cyberattacks on behalf of the U.S. government, similar to the U.S. Navy authorizing private ships to disrupt British shipping during the War of 1812. As part of a more assertive cyber posture, Trump has turned to U.S. Cyber Command to mount digital attacks in tandem with U.S. military operations, including in Iranand Venezuela. He signed an executive order this March to clamp down on countries that fail to take action against scam centers operating within their borders. That same month, the White House called on the private sector to broadly help it “disrupt” foreign adversaries in its new national cyber strategy, though it stopped short of telling private companies to take riskier and more consequential steps, such as directly launching attacks against foreign criminals. Some of the most prolific online fraud operations are believed to emanate from scam compounds in Southeast Asia. But hackers from North Korea — who for years have stolen hundreds of millions in cryptocurrency from victims around the world — would likely be exempt from targeting by U.S. companies since they work at the direction of the North Korean government.

Supporters of Andrew and Tristan Tate gathered outside a Miami detention centre ahead of their bail hearing.

Israeli drone strikes killed at least 2 people and wounded several others in Gaza on Thursday.

Donald Tusk says it is first time ‘someone on the order of Russia’ has sought to attack US citizen in Nato countryA Russian plan to kill a Ukrainian American citizen in Warsaw was thwarted by Poland before it could be carried out, the Polish prime minister has said.Donald Tusk said it was the first time that “someone on the order of Russia” had sought to attack a US citizen on the territory of another Nato country. Continue reading...

A former UK government scientific adviser warned amid the ‘shattering’ heat that worse is still to comeMet Office has just offered an update on temperatures across the UK, with several stations already reporting temperatures above 30C – and it’s not even 11am.It’s 30.4C in Wych Cross, 30.3C in Charlwood, 30.2C at Kenly Airfield. Continue reading...

Three carriages on the Southern Rail service are flipped on to their side

Business columnist Pilita Clark and climate correspondent Attracta Mooney replied to reader questions