Minister of Energy and the Environment Andres Sutt (Reform) has completed a new version of the Climate Resilient Economy Act and plans to seek principled approval for it at the government's cabinet meeting on Thursday. The coalition plans to pass the law before next year's elections.

The Ministry of Finance continues to see a need for the state to retain its holdings in Levira, Eesti Loto, Eesti Energia and RKAS. The state justifies retaining its stake in the former on security grounds.

The Ministry of Finance continues to see a need for the state to retain its holdings in Levira, Eesti Loto, Eesti Energia and RKAS. The state justifies retaining its stake in the former on security grounds.

A bill that would define sexual intercourse without consent as rape has been sent to its second reading by the Riigikogu Legal Affairs Committee after additional amendments were added to define consent.

9. mai paraad Moskvas näitas, et Kremli hirmutamissõnum läänele enam ei toimi, on kolumnist Mart Kuldkepp veendunud.

Endla teatri tänavune suvelavastus «Omadega» märgib Karl‑Andreas Kalmeti esimest tööd lavastajana. Esietendus on 13. juunil Pärnus, samal ajal kui maailm elab kaasa jalgpalli maailmameistrivõistlustele.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky warns of "more waves" of Russian drone attacks on Wednesday.

A court in Bremen has found the manufacturer of the classic Alpine Milk chocolate bar guilty of "shrinkflation".

The travel operator says customers are delaying booking holidays over Iran war concerns.

The biggest tech firms are set to sell millions of smart glasses despite growing privacy concerns.

PARIS — It’s all kicking off between the French far right and the country’s biggest football star. A day after top striker Kylian Mbappé defended his decision to wade into the messy world of French politics in a Vanity Fair profile, the far-right National Rally leaders Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen trolled Les Bleus’ captain on social media. Le Pen and Bardella, both front-runners for next year’s presidential election, were quick to note that the year after Mbappé’s acrimonious departure from Paris Saint-Germain in 2024, the club won the UEFA Champions League — European club football’s most prestigious trophy — for the first time in its history and could do so again after qualifying for the final this year. “I know what happens when Kylian Mbappé leaves PSG: the club wins the Champions League! (And maybe even a second time soon.)” Bardella wrote on X. “He left PSG to join Real Madrid, saying it was to win the Champions League. In the meantime, PSG won it,” Le Pen said in an interview with French radio RTL on Wednesday. Le Pen and Bardella’s party has long had a contentious relationship with the country’s popular national football team. Far-right leaders have provoked consternation in the past by criticizing the racial makeup of the team, insinuating they are less French. In 1996, National Rally founder Jean-Marie Le Pen said that “it’s artificial to bring in players from abroad and call them the French national team.” Mbappé’s current club team, Spanish giant Real Madrid, dominated the Champions League for most of the past decade but has suffered through two uninspired seasons since the Frenchman’s arrival. The pressure is once again on the 27-year-old star as he captains the French team in this summer’s FIFA World Cup, hosted by Canada, Mexico and the U.S., as Les Bleus are considered favorites. In his interview with Vanity Fair ahead of the tournament, Mbappé defended his previous comments urging people to “vote against extremists that want to divide the country” ahead of snap elections in 2024. At the time, PSG star Ousmane Dembélé also urged voters to mobilize against the National Rally, calling its strong election results “alarming.” Forward Marcus Thuram said it was necessary to fight the National Rally as well. “We are citizens, and we couldn’t just sit there and tell ourselves everything is going to be fine and go play. We truly try to fight this idea that a footballer should shut up and play,” Mbappé told Vanity Fair, echoing the now-infamous comments U.S. conservative commentator Laura Ingraham made about NBA star LeBron James. “I know what it means, and what kind of consequences it can have for [this] country when those kinds of people take control,” said Mbappé. Many players on the current team are children of immigrants from France’s former African colonies or were themselves born abroad. Mbappé’s father was born in Cameroon and his mother is of Algerian descent. But as Marine Le Pen has worked to develop her party as a mainstream political force, she and many of her lieutenants have avoided targeting Les Bleus, especially as the national team has enjoyed sustained success over the past decade, including winning the World Cup in 2018 and reaching the final in 2022. Bardella even called Mbappé a “model of assimilation” in 2022.

LONDON — Ministers have already spent hundreds of millions keeping British Steel afloat. Nationalizing the embattled steelmaker is set to cost taxpayers billions more, multiple steel industry figures have told POLITICO. Without a commercial buyer in sight, taking on the loss-making firm could see ministers forced to spend billions transforming British Steel’s Scunthorpe steel mill to a modern electric arc furnace fit for the future. The move to full nationalization, set out in Wednesday’s King’s Speech, is due to be “massively costly for the U.K. government,” said a senior steel industry figure, granted anonymity to speak freely about the plans. The taxpayer has already spent £419 million keeping the firm afloat since ministers seized control of the Scunthorpe site 11 months ago. At current rates, spending on British Steel could exceed £1.5 billion by 2028, a National Audit Office report found in March. Transitioning the site to a more environmentally-friendly, electric arc furnace would cost at least £1 billion, the senior steel industry figure and two others said. British Steel’s liabilities will also be taken on by the government, the steel industry figure said — potentially putting pressure on the exchequer to fork out even more taxpayer cash. The government’s Steel Industry (Nationalisation) Bill will also require the government to get an independent valuation of the firm’s assets to “determine what compensation, if any, is required.” The transition to a new furnace would take at least five years, the industry figure said, because British Steel “haven’t even got agreement for a national grid connection. They haven’t even got a contract in place to buy an arc furnace, decided where to buy, where to build it.” Any investor taking on the project is “not going to turn a profit for five years,” the industry figure added. “Not that tempting, if I’m honest.” “Ultimately, we have to find a way to do that transformation in Scunthorpe,” Industry Minister Chris McDonald told POLITICO in an interview last December, explaining British Steel “needs to be decarbonized.” McDonald said he’s “been clear that we expect that transformation to be a partnership between government and the private sector.”  Merger push The government is now left holding an asset long past its end of life with little to whet the appetites of potential buyers. With the EU’s carbon border tax and new steel quotas in Brussels factoring into its future commercial appeal, “everything has to align policy-wise to make investment attractive,” said a second steel industry figure.  Many in the steel industry see a way forward to appeal to investors if the government shoulders British Steel’s liabilities and merges the firm with Speciality Steel UK (SSUK), which has arc furnaces, after the government took control of the former Liberty Steel Group as it entered liquidation last year.  “Liberty has got the biggest electric arc furnace at the moment. The aerospace, defense and oil and gas sectors are selling well. It would make sense to put them together as an asset,” said a third steel industry figure. When it comes to national security, “you would want speciality steels in your artillery.” “There may be some opportunity to tie the two plants together,” the first industry figure said. “It’s definitely worth looking at.”

Rights groups condemn jailing of journalists for violating a gag order on allegations against President Mohamed Muizzu.

Trump faces mounting pressure amid stalled Iran peace talks as domestic discontent grows and geopolitical stakes rise.

CEO admits talks with Chery as other European carmakers discuss plans with Chinese firms to share factory spaceNissan’s chief executive has confirmed he would consider building cars for other manufacturers at the UK’s largest car factory in Sunderland, amid talks with China’s Chery.Ivan Espinosa said Nissan was “looking at options” for Sunderland and its 6,000 workers as the struggling Japanese carmaker on Wednesday reported steep losses for the year to March. Continue reading...

Around fifty people aboard the boat have shown symptoms of the virus, reports sayThe cruise operator, Ambassador Cruise Line, has just confirmed to the Guardian that “a number of guests and crew onboard Ambition have displayed or are displaying symptoms consistent with gastrointestinal illness” during their 14-night trip of western France and Spain.A number of people have reported experiencing symptoms of a stomach bug following the ship’s departure from Liverpool, it said. Continue reading...

Brussels seeks to replicate air travel bookings for trains, ferries and coaches

Meet the people trying to safeguard centuries of skills