Fermi Energia's investment decision is contingent on the state guaranteeing a price difference compensation mechanism for the nuclear plant, similar to the one used for wind farms.

At the Estonian Olympic Committee's regular general assembly, former Estonian Athletics Association president Erich Teigamägi was elected the organization's president for the next two years.

The most popular choice for Estonia's next prime minister is Urmas Reinsalu, the latest poll by NGO Ühiskonnauuringute Instituut and the research firm Norstat has found.

The Riigikogu on Wednesday passed amendments to the law that will require police to warn drivers about mobile speed cameras in the future.

Fermi Energia's investment decision is contingent on the state guaranteeing a price difference compensation mechanism for the nuclear plant, similar to the one used for wind farms.

Attorney-at-law Kristjan Tuul has asked the Ministry of the Interior to initiate an oversight procedure into the Estonian Internal Security Service (ISS) over its alleged practice of obtaining the contents of email inboxes without a legal basis or court authorization.

2022. aasta 24. veebruaril alustas Venemaa režiimi juht Vladimir Putin sissetungi Ukrainasse. Pärast seda, kui Ukraina lõi tagasi pealetungi Kiievile, on lahingute kese kandunud Ida- ja Lõuna-Ukrainasse. Postimees kajastab 1577. sõjapäeva sündmusi allolevas blogis.2026/ukraina-kalender 

NATO peasekretär Mark Rutte ütles neljapäeval, et Venemaa kulutab praegu kaitsele 48 protsenti riigieelarvest ehk 75 protsenti maksudest ja sellistesse kulutustesse tuleb suhtuda täie tõsidusega.

A refinery and a shopping centre burned after almost 200 Ukrainian drones struck an area to the south-east of the Russian capital.

The US defence secretary's move follows a US decision to scale back its commitments to a high readiness force within the alliance.

Analysis showed how much the UK could have grown if it had not exited the EU.

Some insist on splitting the bill, others say the asker should pay, while many still see a man paying as romantic.

BRUSSELS ― Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz struck out against the EU for opening up communication with Vladimir Putin, putting the leaders of Europe’s two largest countries on collision course with a large part of the rest of the bloc. In an unexpectedly discordant late-night summit in Brussels ― the first since 2010 without longtime contrarian ex-Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orbán ― the French president and the German chancellor scorned efforts by European Council President António Costa, who acts on behalf of all 27 governments, to reach out to the Kremlin, according to five EU diplomats and officials briefed on the behind-closed-doors conversation. Significantly, other leaders took Costa’s side. The clashes bring to light simmering tension at the heart of the EU over its approach to Russia and who should talk on Europe’s behalf. Leaders from some of the most staunchly anti-Russia countries, as well as Denmark and the Netherlands, rallied behind Macron and Merz, with some displaying unprecedented fury with Costa, three of the officials said. “The European Union cannot assume the role of mediator in these negotiations,” Estonia’s Prime Minister Kristen Michal told POLITICO. “Suggestions that alternative channels or backdoor diplomatic tracks are needed are misguided … History offers a clear warning about attempts to pursue alternative negotiating frameworks with dictators.” The EU has been discussing for months what sort, if any, communication it should have with Putin, and if so, who should lead it. The urgency has increased since U.S. President Donald Trump struck his provisional peace deal with Iran and signaled at the G7 summit in France earlier this week that his attention was turning back to Ukraine. Friedrich Merz speaking with the President of the European Council, António Costa, and the Slovenian Prime Minister, Janez Janša, at the start of the EU Summit on June 18, 2026, in Brussels, Belgium. | Thierry Monasse/Getty Images Costa’s chief of staff, Pedro Lourtie, contacted officials in Moscow twice over the past few weeks, five officials said. With U.S.-led attempts to end Russia’s war against Ukraine appearing deadlocked, European capitals have been divided over how much to prioritize diplomacy over helping Ukraine to win on the battlefield. Setting record straight Thursday night’s discussion on Russia and Ukraine ― held without aides or even cellphones because of the sensitivity, and which lasted two hours longer than scheduled ― revealed the emergence of two main camps. The position of Macron and Merz is that the time is not right to talk to Putin, and when that moment comes, the “E3” of France, Germany and the U.K. should take the lead. “I think the [French] president has set the record straight and put things in the right order,” a French government official said, signaling that Macron had made his case to Costa during the summit. Other leaders ― “a huge number,” according to one official from an EU country ― took the opposite stance, saying it was the EU’s role and backing Costa. “The first question is whether Putin wants to negotiate. Until then … no one other than Costa can represent the European Union,” Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever told POLITICO when exiting the talks. “If he [Putin] shows a willingness to negotiate, then I believe we will have to decide again how we should proceed.” All officials and diplomats were granted anonymity to talk about the behind-closed-doors discussions. E3, E5 or EU? Thursday evening’s summit exposed several faultlines: In addition to the Costa vs. E3 divide, Italy and Poland (forming an informal “E5”) were frustrated by their exclusion from initial talks between the E3 and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ahead of the summit, two of the officials said. Other EU officials questioned why the European Council should take on the mantle on behalf of the bloc rather than the European Commission or External Action Service, the EU’s foreign policy wing. Merz’s message to his fellow leaders was that while Costa represented the EU he should not act as a mediator, according to a diplomat of a major European country briefed on the discussion. Although Merz wanted to avoid an open conflict with Costa around the summit table, he made it clear to him “in other ways,” according to the diplomat. Costa was “highly unprofessional,” the diplomat said, because he concealed the extent of his contact with Russia, which only became clear in media reports on Wednesday. Some countries were “furious” about the Russia outreach, according to a European diplomat working on the issue. Several leaders learned about the calls only after they appeared in the media and were angry about it, a further three diplomats said. Costa’s team said the contacts “had the mere objective of establishing a channel of communication in order to, when the moment comes, have a diplomatic channel with Russia to defend EU’s interests,” adding that they were “brief” and contained no substance. Costa’s cabinet did inform Germany, France and the U.K. and the Commission before the calls took place, one of the diplomats said. Three other diplomats, however, said Berlin had not been warned. Antonio Costa, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ursula von der Leyen at the start of the EU Summit, where support for Ukraine and strained ties with Russia have dominated discussions. | Thierry Monasse/Getty Images ‘Taking action’ In order for talks with Moscow to work, “we need to have system of mandating and debriefing,” another EU diplomat said. Portuguese Lourtie, who has a reputation in Brussels as something of a dealmaker, addressed ambassadors from the EU’s 27 governments on Wednesday when news of the calls, first reported by Bloomberg, became public. While complaining that they had been leaked to the media, he justified them by saying they followed a direct request by Zelenskyy for Europe to get involved in the peace negotiations, according to another EU diplomat with knowledge of the meeting. “We need a format that is capable of taking action,” said a senior German official, adding that such a format would get its “legitimacy” from “involving the other European partners as closely and as trustingly as possible” as well as coordinating closely with Kyiv and Washington. Poland and Italy have also pushed for a role in the talks. Merz is hosting Macron, and the prime ministers of the U.K., Poland and Italy in Berlin on Wednesday, discussions that diplomats say will likely include the question of dialog with Russia. Carlo Martuscelli, Hans von der Burchard, Seb Starcevic, Max Griera, Zoya Sheftalovich, Gerardo Fortuna, Ferdinand Knapp and Milena Wälde contributed reporting.

The Conservatives decisively beat the Scottish National Party in the Aberdeen South by-election Friday morning — after weeks of hammering the ruling Scottish Party over restrictions on oil and gas drilling. The Tories overturned a more than 3,000-vote majority in the Scottish seat, a thumping Conservative win — and their first by-election gain north of the border since the late 1960s. Douglas Lumsden, a long-serving member of the Scottish Parliament, will now make the leap to Westminster, after a campaign that the Tories made largely about loosening restrictions on oil and gas drilling, a significant issue in a place where local jobs are on the line. The Conservatives bagged 14,308 votes to the Scottish National Party’s 8,258. The victory is a rare boost for Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, whose party was ejected from national office in 2024 and has been challenged from the right by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. The Tories threw significant weight behind making the Aberdeen South by-election a referendum on drilling in the North Sea. Badenoch has moved the Tories sharply away from green policies, ditching the net-zero targets her party created and embracing the oil and gas industry. “The industry is the economic lifeblood of the north east,” Badenoch said during the campaign, before laying into the Westminster Labour government’s “ban on new drilling, backed by the SNP.”

BC Place was a battlefield as Kone was stretchered off, Qatar got two red cards, and both teams brawled after full-time.

Former US President Barack Obama opened his presidential centre in Chicago, using the occasion to call for unity.

US defence secretary addresses allies in latest attempt to get Europe to raise military budgetsPete Hegseth has announced a review of the US military presence across Europe, in a combative address to Nato allies where he threatened to cut force numbers in countries spending the least on defence.The US defence secretary, speaking at a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Brussels, accused some countries of “free riding” and others of being shameful for not allowing their airbases to be used by US jets bombing Iran in the spring. Continue reading...

Former negotiator believes in an unstable world, it is ‘perfectly possible’ the UK can rejoin the EU with old opt-outsUK could keep special pre-Brexit terms if it rejoined EU, Michel Barnier saysA couple of years ago, Michel Barnier spent a weekend with Boris Johnson’s father, Stanley. It was not some ghoulish Brexit spin-off of The Traitors, but the result of the former EU negotiator’s wife, Isabelle, being a close friend of Johnson’s French cousin, Anne du Boucheron, the owner of Château de la Baronnière, a 19th-century estate in Mauges-sur-Loire, in western France.“We spent a weekend together in a French castle. Very friendly. Long promenades in the forest,” Barnier recalls of Johnson senior, with whom he discussed the former prime minister’s motivation to back Brexit. “It was interesting. Boris was much more European at the beginning. Even if he was critical. I don’t see it as a motivation but it is, perhaps, a method or attitude: to be pragmatic in some way. Cynical. Cynical to get power.” Continue reading...

Edi Rama defends controversial $4bn project that has triggered weeks of angry demonstrations

Draft report by European Commission aims to boost performance of lenders in bloc compared to US rivals