Fresh off the passage of Estonia's consent law, Social Democrats (SDE) are pushing to criminalize the nonconsensual creation and spread of sexually explicit deepfake images.

Banks in Estonia are rolling out a more secure version of the Smart-ID authentication system designed to better block common scam tactics with small extra steps for users.

Eesti 200 leader Kristina Kallas said that the party does not agree with the governing coalition backing away from the goal of making family benefits means-tested and thereby saving €100 million annually.

A failed bid by EKRE chair Martin Helme to appoint a political ally to a key post in Viljandi may cost a deputy mayor in that town her job, Sakala reported.

Police say most stolen bicycles in Estonia are quickly resold, often online or through pawn shops, making them difficult to trace and leaving little chance of recovery.

Fresh off the passage of Estonia's consent law, Social Democrats (SDE) are pushing to criminalize the nonconsensual creation and spread of sexually explicit deepfake images.

Pühapäeval on Eestis küüditatute mälestamiseks lipu- ja leinapäev.

Eesti tennise teine reket Daniil Glinka jõudis Stuttagartis peetaval ATP 250 muruturniiril koos kreeklase Stefanos Sakellaridisega paarismängus finaali.

The Scandinavian country is currently grappling with children being recruited into violent gangs.

The Pope is appealing for a humane approach and respectful welcome for migrants seeking a better life.

Musk is now worth $1.11tn according to the Bloomberg rich list, while SpaceX listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange with a value of $2.2tn.

The ban forms part of the government's package of sanctions on Moscow due to the ongoing war with Ukraine.

BERLIN — Canada expects to pick a preferred bidder within 30 days for a submarine program that could become the country’s biggest-ever procurement, Secretary of State for Defence Procurement Stephen Fuhr said. The decision would mark a key step in a closely watched contest between Germany’s TKMS and South Korea’s Hanwha Ocean, as Ottawa looks to replace its aging submarine fleet and expand its ability to patrol the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic. “I would suspect we will have an answer on our direction in 30 days,” Fuhr told POLITICO at the ILA Berlin air show. Fuhr underscored the scale of the project, saying that if Canada buys all 12 submarines and builds the required infrastructure on both coasts, “this could be the biggest procurement Canada does.” However, the move would not amount to a final contract award, but would push one of the two qualified suppliers into detailed negotiations with Ottawa. “Right now we have two qualified suppliers,” Fuhr said. “We’re going to now select a preferred supplier. This does not mean we’re going to have a contract. Then we’ll negotiate with the preferred supplier to come to a contractual arrangement.” The submarine race has drawn intense lobbying from both Berlin and Seoul, with each side offering a different strategic proposition for Canada. TKMS is pitching its Type 212CD, a German-Norwegian design that would bind Canada more closely to European and NATO naval industry. Hanwha is offering its KSS-III submarine, leaning on South Korea’s reputation for rapid shipbuilding and promises of wider industrial investment. For Canada, the program is about more than replacing aging boats. Ottawa wants submarines that can operate across three oceans, including in the increasingly contested Arctic, where melting ice and growing Russian activity have sharpened allied concerns over the High North. Fuhr said the speed of the process reflected the priority Ottawa is placing on the file. “If we get the matter out the door for a preferred supplier in the next 30 days, which I’m confident we can do, I think that’s an unbelievable timeline,” he said.

BERLIN — Germany’s top military space commander said he cannot rule out that Russia is working on technology to place a nuclear warhead in space, warning that such a move could cripple satellite services and make parts of orbit unusable for decades. “At the very top end of escalation, there is the suspicion that Russia may be working on technology to place a nuclear explosive device in orbit,” Major General Michael Traut, commander of the Bundeswehr Space Command, said in an interview with POLITICO at the ILA Berlin air show. Asked whether he considered that realistic, Traut said: “I cannot rule it out.” A nuclear detonation in space would not look like a conventional strike on Earth. But its effects could be devastating for modern societies and militaries that rely on satellites for communications, navigation, banking, transport, weather forecasting and military targeting. “If something similar to Starfish Prime happened today,” Traut said, referring to a 1962 U.S. high-altitude nuclear test, “up to one-third of all satellites in low-Earth orbit” could stop functioning over the following weeks and months. That, he warned, would worsen the problem of space debris and increase the risk of cascading collisions — the so-called Kessler effect. “It is even conceivable,” he said, “that certain orbital altitudes would no longer be usable for decades.” The warning comes as Berlin is moving to turn space into a central pillar of its defense policy. Germany’s new space security strategy says the Bundeswehr must be able not only to protect German and allied access to space, but also to restrict an adversary’s ability to use it. Traut said the threats in space have “massively developed” in recent years, from GPS jamming and lasers to physical attacks on satellites. At the lower end, he said, electromagnetic disruption and laser interference are already a daily reality. “The best example is GPS jamming in the Baltic region,” he said, adding that it affects civilian aviation and maritime traffic. Germany’s response, he argued, cannot be reserved. “You don’t go into the arena only with a shield,” Traut said. “A functioning deterrent always has an active, offensive component.” He stressed that “offensive does not mean aggressive,” but he said Germany must be able to seize the initiative in a conflict. That includes acting against an adversary’s space systems — not necessarily in orbit, but across the wider infrastructure that makes satellites work, from ground stations to jammers. Germany, he said, will acquire non-kinetic systems including jammers and lasers, as well as inspection satellites and, over the longer term, spaceplanes to protect German satellites, inspect adversary systems and potentially act against them. Berlin is also planning a sovereign military satellite communications constellation under SATCOMBw 4, designed to meet the Bundeswehr’s growing demand for secure connectivity. Traut said the system should not be seen as a rival to the EU’s IRIS² secure connectivity constellation. “We do not see IRIS² as competition, but as a complementary addition,” he said, adding that Germany’s own constellation would also take pressure off the EU system and leave more bandwidth for others. Germany also wants partners to be able to use the future network. The aim, Traut said, is to bring “as many European partners as possible into the boat,” especially countries that cannot or do not want to build their own satellite constellation.

World Cup fans reveal how much they paid for a seat at the US’s opening game against Paraguay.

Henry Ensher says the US–Iran agreement is not a final settlement but only the start of a process that can go wrong.

The far-right proposal would require the government to put restrictions in place to limit the population by 2050 A national ballot on an unprecedented far-right proposal to limit Switzerland’s population to 10 million concludes this weekend, amid warnings of devastating consequences for the country’s economy if voters back the initiative.A “yes” vote would require the Swiss government to take steps to cap the population at 10 million by 2050, enacting tough restrictions on family reunification, residency permits and asylum if the number reaches 9.5 million before that date. Continue reading...

Geert Wilders’ PVV altered sketch of jailed Syrian brothers to make them look more menacingA Dutch court artist has received damages after an MP for the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) used one of her drawings without permission and manipulated it with AI to make the subjects look more menacing.Petra Urban, a court artist for 19 years, was shocked to discover a drawing she had made last year of two Syrian brothers jailed for the murder of their sister had been reworked and used in a video on Instagram and Facebook by the party’s Noord-Brabant region. Continue reading...

The collapse of Paris and Berlin’s joint venture raises the question of whether either country can do defence alone

Malign social media automates division — I saw the effects in our city this week