Retired Maj. Gen. Riho Ühtegi, floated Friday by a group of public figures as a potential presidential candidate, says he considers himself a conservative and believes foreign policy has its place in the president's work, but that ensuring national unity is the job's most important task.

Rally Estonia takes place later this month, and some of the biggest names from the World Rally Championship have already been racking up test kilometers around South Estonia this week ahead of round nine of the championship.

Retired Maj. Gen. Riho Ühtegi, floated Friday by a group of public figures as a potential presidential candidate, says he considers himself a conservative and believes foreign policy has its place in the president's work, but that ensuring national unity is the job's most important task.

Riigikogu Speaker Lauri Hussar (Estonia 200) said he is considering convening the Riigikogu Council of Elders in August. The second deputy speaker, Toomas Kivimägi (Reform Party), likewise believes there is no need to hurry.

A fresh fruit retail chain has been offloading products past their best-before date without adequately notifying the public.

The Muraste viewing platform in Harku Municipality, built to connect the community, has turned out far more popular than expected. But locals say the beautiful view is overshadowed by poorly parked cars, noise and litter problems.

1894 - kuulutati välja Hawaii vabariik, mis ei jäänud küll väga pikalt kestma.

Saksamaa politsei valmistub sel nädalavahetusel valvama paremäärmusliku partei Alternatiiv Saksamaale (AfD) iga-aastast kongressi kümnete tuhandete antifašistlike meeleavaldajate eest, kes on kindlalt otsustanud selle toimumist takistada.

Tusk says Poland is preparing for "various" scenarios after media reports of a planned Russian attack.

A doctors' group says it "borders on madness" that patients will have to obtain the note in person.

Employers are being urged to use their "common sense" to allow staff to work flexibly where they can.

Wedding lists are being replaced by cash requests, but guests are divided over how much to give.

Ivo Daalder, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, is a senior fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center and host of the weekly podcast “World Review with Ivo Daalder.” He writes POLITICO’s From Across the Pond column. We are living through the worst crisis in transatlantic relations since the end of World War II. We have the data to prove it. The annual Atlas of Impunity, of which I serve on the advisory board, ranks 172 countries by a single measure: how far the power of the state operates without accountability. In its latest edition, the U.S. — the country that built the postwar order and guaranteed it for 80 years — now ranks 117th. Compared to its Western allies, the U.S. occupies a solitary position on this list. It outranks Poland by 25 spots in terms of impunity, while Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Britain and Australia all rank more accountable by 30 to 50 spots. It seems the club of democracies that America assembled and sustained for all those decades now has a growing hole in its center: the U.S. itself. But it would be a mistake to assume the rest of the West is immune. For Washington, this is not a momentary drift. It is a fundamental breach. The U.S. is currently the only wealthy democracy in the index that is moving up the list in terms of impunity. The damage is concentrated in the country’s governance and economy, and the underlying numbers are striking: The score for freedom from political killings got three times worse in a single year, while that of impartial public administration fell sharply. These indicators don’t suggest a gentle slope of decline. They represent cliffs. And it is the disparity in accountability between the U.S. and its Western allies — as well as the speed of this shift — that lies at the foundation of the current transatlantic crisis. Just as concerning is the fact that the current administration in Washington does not seem to care. On the contrary, it defends its new direction as fundamental to its America First view. The 2025 National Security Strategy made this crystal clear, recasting allies as free riders and alliances as transactions conditioned on immediate U.S. interests. It cast a zero-sum view of geopolitics and the global economy, and advocated a might-makes-right perspective for global engagement. Turns out the nation that wrote the rules has formally announced it no longer feels bound by them. This perspective is unlikely to be temporary given that the second hard truth underlying the current crisis is this: The U.S. will not again carry the burden of global leadership as it did after 1945 — and not just because of one president but because the America of today is no longer the country it was. It is more insular, more selfish, more insecure and far less accountable. While the immediate cause of this crisis lies in American politics and policy, a contributing cause lies in Europe’s weakness and self-delusion. People take part in an anti-government protest decrying corruption and calling for early elections following the collapse of a railway station canopy in Novi Sad that killed 16 in November 2024, in central Belgrade on May 23, 2026. | Andrej Isakovic/AFP via Getty Images For years the continent mistook dependence for partnership and treated American security guarantees as a law of nature. For too long, it relied on cheap Russian energy and an open Chinese market to propel its economy. Now, as all three of these elements of strategic dependence have come crashing down, Europe is being forced to step up on all fronts simultaneously. The deeper self-deception, though, may be the belief that the problem lies entirely across the Atlantic. The illiberal tide has already made its way inside Europe’s house. From Serbia’s crackdown after the Novi Sad disaster and Romania’s annulled presidential election to Hungary’s backsliding under former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to Slovakia’s far-right turn, the data underscores that this isn’t accidental. Illiberalism’s advancement has a very European path. It is no coincidence that in the four major Western European countries, the far right currently leads or rivals the lead in the polls: Britain’s Reform UK, Germany’s Alternative for Germany, France’s National Rally and Italy’s governing coalition. Elections will take place in most if not all of these countries — as well as in Poland — over the next 18 months. Whether this polling becomes electoral reality remains to be seen. But for the very first time, the U.S. is not holding the democratic center against this tide. It is funding the tide. The National Security Strategy warned that European nations face “civilizational erasure” and pledged to defend their “greatness” — against their own elected governments. A cap reading “Make Europe great again” is seen at the first Patriots Network conference in Paris on May 2, 2026. | Julie Sebadelha/AFP via Getty Images The U.S. State Department is now preparing to channel money from its Democracy Fund to the think tanks and civil society groups supplying Europe’s national-populist movements with their ideas. For 80 years, American power held the center. Now it’s bankrolling the periphery. This is why the crisis in transatlantic relations is so severe. When the anchor of a system declares the rules optional — tariffs by decree, sanctions on the international court, annexationist talk about Greenland, strikes on Iran that ignore the laws of war — it does not merely remove a guardrail; it issues a permission slip. The Atlas calls this “copycat impunity” — the normalization of the abnormal. And it is no longer the reserve of distant autocrats; it is for parties just one election away from power in Paris, London and Berlin, accompanied by American funding. Reversing this trend starts with seeing it clearly. The data shows that the gap between the most and least accountable countries is wider than at any point in recent years, that the U.S. is driving that divergence from within the democratic camp, and that the forces of impunity now have American strategy and money behind them. But that same data also shows the tide can be turned. Over the past five years, smaller countries like Fiji, Montenegro and Suriname rebuilt their accountability under severe constraints. The gravitational pull of EU membership carried Montenegro and Albania toward the rules, even as Washington walked away from them. These examples are proof that determined action by middle powers can hold the line. The question is whether Europe, Canada and Asia’s democracies will recognize the danger in time — and act not as dependents waiting for the U.S. to return but as custodians of an order they can no longer afford to leave in someone else’s hands. POLITICO occasionally publishes opinion pieces from guest authors to offer our readers a range of perspectives on the intersection of power and politics. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of POLITICO.

The Council of the European Union on Friday announced sanctions targeting six scientists and researchers suspected of being involved in the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. “The EU remains fully committed to countering the proliferation and use of chemical weapons,” read the Council statement. The sanctions include an asset freeze and a travel ban to the EU. Navalny, long seen as the most significant political opponent to President Vladimir Putin, died in a Russian prison in 2024. According to five European governments, poisoning was “highly likely the cause of his death,” as analyses of samples from Navalny’s body “conclusively confirmed” the presence of epibatidine — a toxin from a poison dart frog. The scientists targeted by the EU’s sanctions worked in the military sphere, and have researched and published articles on the synthesis of epibatidine. They worked for the Signal Scientific Centre and Russia’s State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology, a central part of the Russian Chemical Weapons program, according to the statement. Navalny had survived an attempted poisoning in 2020, which he said was carried out by Russia’s internal security service, the FSB, though Russia denied involvement. After leaving his country to receive medical care, he returned in 2021. He was then arrested and sent to a Russian penal colony, where he died in 2024.

The World Cup Round of 32 ends with Colombia beating Ghana 1-0, as Jhon Arias sends the South Americans through.

Despite the ups and downs between the two World Cups, Morocco have once again risen as the top Arab and African team.

Pope Leo has used his first major address to his home country to praise the US's history of ⁠welcoming immigrants, urging Americans to live up to the ideals put forward in the ⁠declaration of independence. In a speech broadcast live from the Vatican to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia ‌as he received the Center’s liberty medal, Leo said he hoped that ideals ​of 'unity, justice and peace' held by the founding fathers would guide the US as it celebrated its 250th anniversaryPope praises US history of welcoming immigrants in implicit rebuke to Trump Continue reading...

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Crackdown by European navies forces sanctioned vessels to take circuitous north Atlantic route around UK