While Estonia has escaped the worst of the heat wave gripping much of Europe, hot weather and thunderstorms are still in the forecast as temperatures climb in the coming days.

As the war continues, a conference in Gdańsk brought together defense firms, policymakers and investors to plan Ukraine's postwar recovery and long-term security.

Estonia's rising debt burden reflects years of decisions by every major ruling party, not just the current coalition, says Bank of Estonia economist Kaspar Oja.

Former Reform Party leader Siim Kallas says the party needs a fresh direction and a clear platform ahead of the upcoming election and that the coalition will reach a consensus and elect Estonia's next president in the Riigikogu in early September.

While Estonia has escaped the worst of the heat wave gripping much of Europe, hot weather and thunderstorms are still in the forecast as temperatures climb in the coming days.

Tallinn's city-run Mere Cultural Center is covering up a Stalinist ceiling mural and details in a move officials say will make the space more neutral and easier to rent out.

Suur kosmosevõidujooks on kogumas tuure, kuid ilmnenud on ootamatu probleem – praegune kosmodroom Kennedy Kosmosekeskuses ei suuda kanda uusi raskeid maandureid. Kui SpaceX ja Blue Origin soovivad õhkutõusudega jätkata, peab NASA probleemi kiiremas korras lahendama.

Austraalia kahekordistab alla 16-aastaste sotsiaalmeediakeelu eiramise eest platvormidele määratavaid trahve, et tõkestada laialdast piirangutest möödahiilimist, teatas valitsus täna.

Germany's highest ever temperature of 41.3C is recorded provisionally in Saarbrücken, over the border from France.

A nine-year-old and five women were killed when Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen drove into the market in 2024.

The US president says "Numerous European countries" have been discussing bringing in such a levy.

King Charles paid £12.9m in tax for 2024-2025 - here's what we know about his unique tax situation.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s abrupt shift toward an aggressive and unpredictable oversight regime for artificial intelligence has some in the industry yearning for some Biden-style regulation. It’s a reversal that few would have predicted at the start of Trump’s second term, after he swept into office on a wave of donations from Silicon Valley billionaires who warned that former President Joe Biden’s AI safety policy would crush U.S. innovation. Trump had signaled an intention to leave AI alone to flourish, and in his first year he mostly focused on stopping states from regulating the technology. But the arrival of powerful new AI models from Anthropic and OpenAI caused the White House to clamp down this month on the firms’ ability to release their most advanced products, for fear that bad actors might use them to unleash cyberattacks. The shift to new AI controls has been chaotic and imprecise — leaving the American AI industry in limbo at the same time that its Chinese competitors are gaining ground. The unpredictability was on display again Friday when the Trump administration partially rescinded its export ban on Anthropic’s most advanced artificial intelligence model — de-escalating a confrontation that has caused confusion across the American AI industry. But a second advanced Anthropic model, called Fable 5, remains blocked for reasons that remain opaque. And Anthropic’s top competitor, OpenAI, limited the release of its most advanced model this week because of similar cyber concerns from the White House. The moves have whipsawed an industry that had come to believe it had a partner in the White House, but is now facing a growing bipartisan backlash and an uncertain regulatory regime whose scope and scale seems to change week by week. One senior executive at an AI company, granted anonymity to avoid retaliation, was bluntly critical of the hurdles the administration has put in the way of new models. “This seems like a de facto European-style licensing regime,” the executive said. Paul Lekas, head of global public policy and government affairs at the Software & Information Industry Association trade group, which represents some of the leading AI companies, said there is a “real need for a formal process.” “We want to avoid a situation where the release of any model or piece of software is based on an ad hoc process and a one-off license process,” Lekas said. One OpenAI executive, granted anonymity to describe discussions with the administration, said the industry is looking for “clarity” from the administration — a phrase repeated across interviews with half a dozen other lobbyists and industry representatives. But the industry representatives also said they’re wary of pushing the White House for answers, lest they end up hit with export controls or other blunt tools of regulation. “It feels like they’re walking on eggshells a little bit,” said one AI policy adviser who works with major frontier labs, granted anonymity to candidly describe the landscape. White House spokesperson Liz Huston, in a statement, defended the president’s efforts to facilitate innovation in the AI industry, including fast-tracking permits for AI infrastructure and signing an executive order that aimed to stop a patchwork of differing state laws on the technology. “President Trump has clearly and repeatedly articulated his goal: ensure continued American dominance in AI and other cutting-edge technologies,” Huston said. “President Trump and the entire Administration will continue to cement America as the world’s premier innovation powerhouse.” The first sign of the administration’s pivot on AI policy came in early June when, after weeks of debate, Trump signed an executive order that laid out a voluntary vetting process for companies developing advanced AI models. But before the order was implemented, the White House went much further — in mid-June, it imposed export controls on Anthropic’s Mythos 5 and Fable models, blocking the company from releasing its new product over potential security concerns. And this week, the administration pressured OpenAI to restrict the release of its new GPT-5.6 model to a small group of partners approved by the administration. Saif Khan, a former adviser on emerging technology in the Biden administration, called the Trump administration’s actions an overreaction to predictable safety concerns, and suggested it stemmed from the White House’s prior laissez-faire attitude toward AI rules. “Because there has been some dismissiveness of the risks, there’s been no preparatory work, no hiring of experts that you need to do this work,” Khan said. “And now you have this opaque, almost vibes-based system for what is going to get approved and what’s not.” Khan called the new White House approach far more damaging to the AI industry than anything the Biden administration had envisioned, including a rule introduced just as the former left office that would have imposed export controls for certain countries on both semiconductor chips and the weights of advanced AI models. “The administration’s current actions have resulted in an almost complete moratorium on new releases,” Khan said. “And that’s going to start seriously impacting companies’ bottom lines.” Dean Ball, a former Trump administration official and OpenAI’s incoming head of strategic futures, said it was inevitable that the White House would need to take a more heavy-handed approach, but added that it could have found a middle ground. “It can be true that a fully laissez-faire attitude is not appropriate to this technology, and it can also be true that, while the Trump administration’s concerns here are like 100 percent legitimate, there are various ways in which I think they are likely overreacting to these legitimate concerns,” Ball said. Despite the fast-spreading chaos, some in the AI industry are hopeful that the White House will revert to its previous hands-off baseline. “They are in the middle of a process,” said the OpenAI executive. The person suggested the administration will soon finalize the executive order that Trump signed earlier this month — and that once it does, it could replace the current crackdown with the voluntary vetting regime outlined in that order. “I think they understand that it’s important to get to a finalized framework as soon as possible,” the OpenAI executive said. “Because the labs are continuing to release models, and it’s important for the labs to continue to release models to ensure that the U.S. stays a leader in AI.” As a whole, many in the AI industry have come to agree that the White House’s new slant toward regulation is a necessary shift, even if they disagree with the execution. “In the bigger picture, like yes, there are things the administration is doing that I’m not so much of a fan of, in terms of the abruptness and the opacity and the strictness, but the more fundamental point is that I’m glad they’ve arrived to the conclusion that they have — to take this stuff seriously,” Ball said. Lekas also said that the tech industry is developing a “coordinated push for an actual framework” on advanced AI rules. And he said the tech lobby wants Washington to put it in writing — whether it’s through an executive order or more permanent levers in Congress. That effort will require the tech companies to agree on a standardized approach for AI safety. If they can’t row in the same direction, they may keep receiving the same unpredictable treatment. “It would behoove industry to coalesce around a best practice,” Lekas said.

Ukrainian forces hit an artillery manufacturing plant in Russian Volgograd Friday night, in another show that Ukraine is ramping up its strikes inside Russia. So-called Flamingo missiles struck the “Titan-Barricade” manufacturing site in Volgograd, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on X. A fire broke out at the premises of the plant, he added. “This is a major industrial complex where the enemy manufactures artillery systems and specialized military equipment, including components for missile launchers used to strike our people,” Zelenskyy said. “Every Russian defense facility that serves the war against Ukraine is a just target for our long-range sanctions.” Andrey Bocharov, governor of the Volgograd region, confirmed the strike on Telegram, saying it resulted in one dead, a factory worker, and 11 others injured. Earlier this month, Ukrainian drones struck several targets in and around Moscow, setting an oil refinery on fire and forcing all four of Moscow’s airports to temporarily suspend departures and arrivals. Ukraine has also taken aim at Russian-occupied Crimea this week, with drones knocking out power in the Russian-occupied peninsula’s largest city, Sevastopol.

Cape Verde set sights on Lionel Messi's Argentina in last 32 as dream run continues at 2026 edition of FIFA's showpiece.

Hezbollah chief calls the deal 'null and void', raising questions if the latest agreement can lead to peace in Lebanon.

Forecasters say hottest conditions spreading into central and eastern EuropeAfter decades of climate warnings, why is Europe so unprepared for rising heat?Seawater is seeping into Italy’s longest river as the waterway starts to run dry in the heatwave, hitting a farming heartland that produces the milk for Parmesan cheese.The Po River has never fallen this low so early in the year, raising fears of a devastating drought in July in this corner of northern Italy. Continue reading...

US president says levy would be imposed immediately and supersede pre-existing trade deals with the country Donald Trump has threatened to place a 100% import tariff on any European country that imposes a tax on digital services from US companies.Writing on Truth Social on Friday, the US president said that “numerous European countries” had been discussing putting a digital services tax on American companies and that “some of these countries are close to actually doing this”. Continue reading...

Threat to industrial model of Europe’s largest economy mounts

Pension reform plan shows coalition government making bold moves to confront Germany’s problems