A court has convicted fuel company Olerex and its majority owner and board member, Andres Linnas, of knowingly submitting false data to the state.

The government-convened Efficiency and Economic Growth Council will conclude its work at the end of October and prepare a final report summarizing the implementation of its proposals.

Estonia needs a national regional development strategy with a status comparable to sectoral development plans, and regional policy must be coordinated at the government level. Responsibility for considering regional impacts must lie with a sufficiently high management level in every ministry, write Rivo Noorkõiv, Veiko Sepp, Kersten Kattai, Garri Raagmaa, Mihkel Laan, Ülari Alamets and Mikk Lõhmus

Support for the Reform Party rose to 15 percent in Emor and ERR's September poll, the party's best result in more than a year. Parempoolsed also recorded its best-ever result, with 10 percent support.

A court has convicted fuel company Olerex and its majority owner and board member, Andres Linnas, of knowingly submitting false data to the state.

Estonia needs a national regional development strategy with a status comparable to sectoral development plans, and regional policy must be coordinated at the government level. Responsibility for considering regional impacts must lie with a sufficiently high management level in every ministry, write Rivo Noorkõiv, Veiko Sepp, Kersten Kattai, Garri Raagmaa, Mihkel Laan, Ülari Alamets and Mikk Lõhmus

Koomik Maiduk, kodanikunimega Mait Vesker, astub reedel Genialistide klubis üles tükiga «Investor Koomas». Nimi viitab Maiduki sõnul ta alter ego’le, funktsioneerivale elumehele.

Kaitseministeeriumi kaitsevalmiduse osakonna juhataja Gert Kaju annab reedel kaitseministeeriumis ülevaate olukorrast Venemaa agressioonisõjas Ukraina vastu.

The satellite station is used in part to provide internet coverage to neighbouring Ukraine, the government says.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described the measures as "common-sense tools that do not divide but really help to integrate".

Trump said he and Xi had "never gotten along better" as he hosted the Chinese president at the lavish White House event.

What's the smallest amount of money you would ask a friend to pay you back?

The European Commission has failed to keep pace with AI developments, Axel Voss, a key German conservative lawmaker on tech policy, said in an interview. An EPP ally of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in the European Parliament, Voss criticized the way the Commission is enforcing its artificial intelligence rules in the wake of a series of AI hacking incidents, including OpenAI-powered agents going rogue and breaking into the AI company Hugging Face. “The whole working method of the European Commission is not adapted to these extremely fast-changing … developments,” he said during a POLITICO podcast interview that goes live Friday. The enforcement of the EU’s 2024 AI Act, which mandates that companies take measures to avoid losing control of their models, “is not on the level [where] we would like to have it,” he added. The comments shine the spotlight on the European Commission’s Artificial Intelligence Office, which was put in charge of enforcing the AI Act in August. Voss also said the Commission’s overall response to the fast pace of technological developments is lagging, singling out von der Leyen’s State of the Union last week. “The Commission … also the State of the Union is not ambitious enough regarding digital developments,” said Voss, who is a member of the German Christian Democratic CDU, to which von der Leyen belongs. One area where Voss sees a need for further regulation is liability of AI companies when their technology does damage. “What has been wrong from the beginning of this mandate is not to think about liability of AI,” he said. “This can have an effect on every company.” POLITICO reported Monday that other European Parliament members have floated a proposal to add product liability provisions to address gaps in the AI Act.

BERLIN — Pope Leo XIV’s cardinal who heads the Vatican’s Commission on Artificial Intelligence has admitted he doesn’t use AI — despite being four months into a job intended to engage the Church with the AI revolution. Cardinal Michael Czerny was talking to host Anne McElvoy on the Brussels Playbook Week Ender podcast, and when asked whether he uses AI in his work, he replied: “No, not yet. I just haven’t had the time.”  Pope Leo appointed the Czech-born Canadian cardinal in May to chair the Vatican’s Inter-Dicasterial Commission on Artificial Intelligence, aligning the various administrative offices of the Vatican to study the impact of machine learning on humanity.  Pressed on whether he had any principled objection to the technology, he declared, “I’m quite willing and happy to learn,” he added. “I feel it’s my moral duty also to use it so that I have personal experience, and I hope it helps me with my work.”   Speaking on the fringes of Axel Springer’s WELT AI Summit in Berlin, Czerny called on European politicians and bishops to respond more clearly to warnings about the risks of frontier AI models forfeiting human control and oversight.   “There should be a dialogue between the bishops and the European governments to express the concern of the population to handle this with openness and with creativity … Otherwise, we will say five months or five years from now, ‘Oh, I felt there was a disaster coming, but there was nothing I could do.’” The Roman Catholic Church is stepping up involvement in recent discussions over the future of AI. Paolo Benanti, the Vatican’s adviser on AI, attended a meeting of tech executives convened by King Charles III in Scotland last week to discuss the opportunities and risks surrounding the technology. Anne McElvoy is a Global Reporter for the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network. The Axel Springer Global Reporters Network harnesses the resources of the company’s newsrooms to publish ambitious scoops, investigations, interviews, opinion pieces and analysis. It allows journalists — including those from POLITICO, The Telegraph, Business Insider, WELT, BILD, Onet and Fakt — to collaborate on major stories for an international audience of hundreds of millions across platforms: online, print, TV and audio.

First papal state visit to country in 18 years comes as church confronts contentious issues.

Prime Minister Balendra Shah says world leaders must act on climate change.

The pope will deliver a landmark speech on AI development and discuss Europe’s futurePope Leo will visit France this weekend, the first papal state visit to the country in 18 years, beginning with Paris today.During the visit, Leo is expected to seek to repair the Catholic Church’s standing after abuse scandals in the country, as well as deliver a landmark speech on AI development at Unesco and talk about Europe’s future in Metz, with some other European leaders expected to attend. Continue reading...

Catherine Corless’s exposure of almost 800 infant deaths at a home led by nuns prompted Neeson to bring the story to screenLiam Neeson still remembers his shock and shame when he read a New York Times article about the mother and baby institution in Tuam, County Galway.It was 2017 and the article chronicled the campaign by Catherine Corless, an amateur local historian, to expose abuse and neglect by Irish nuns that led to hundreds of children being buried in a mass, unmarked grave. Continue reading...

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