A signed summary of BBC Newsline.

Latvia parliament approves new gov't after drone dispute toppled coalition Latvia's parliament has approved a new coalition government that will lead the European Union and NATO member country in the coming months after its predecessor collapsed following an argument over its handling of stray drones suspected to be from Ukraine. By a margin of 66 deputies in the 100-seat assembly, lawmakers on Thursday confirmed 47-year-old centrist Andris Kulbergs as prime minister, who will lead the Baltic nation of more than 1.8 million people until parliamentary elections on October 3. She quit after Defence Minister Andris Spruds, a member of the Progressives Party, was forced to resign over the government's handling of multiple incidents involving stray drones suspected to be from Ukraine crossing into Latvian territory. Silina accused the minister of not deploying anti-drone defences fast enough to parry two wayward Ukraine attack drones, which are thought to have been knocked off course by Russian jamming. At the time, she said Spruds had lost her trust and that of the public.

A year to go until France chooses its next president, the big question is who can save the election from being a battle of the extremes. For now, and perhaps only for now, the answer is pretty clear. It is President Emmanuel Macron's former prime minister, Edouard Philippe. Latest opinion polls concur that the 55-year-old centre-right politician is the only figure capable of beating a hard-right candidate in round two of the vote next May, whether that is Marine Le Pen or her young deputy Jordan Bardella. In any other polled scenario, the other candidate would lose and France would have a populist-right head of state.

Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina has resigned following a political crisis over Russia-bound Ukrainian drones straying into Latvian territory. She had fired her Defence Minister Andris Spruds last week after two drones crashed down in eastern Latvia, criticising his response and appointing a replacement. In protest, Spruds's Progressives party pulled their support for Silina's governing coalition, causing it to collapse months before a planned general election in October. Seeing a strong candidate for the post of defence minister... political windbags have chosen a crisis, Silina said on Thursday. I am resigning but I am not giving up.

Government departments and other public bodies in the UK must consider requests to release information about AI-produced content, regulators have confirmed. The move follows a successful request by New Scientist for the release of a minister's ChatGPT logs The use of AI chatbots is subject to the UK's Freedom of Information laws Text, images and other content produced by UK government departments and other public bodies using artificial intelligence are subject to freedom of information (FOI) laws, regulators have confirmed - potentially opening the door for the public to gain access to ministers' ChatGPT or other chatbot records. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data-protection agency, has released new guidance confirming that "If staff at a public authority use AI for work purposes, the information generated will be subject to FOIA [the Freedom of Information Act] along with the prompts used". Last year, successfully requested the then-UK tech secretary Peter Kyle's ChatGPT logs under FOI legislation, in what is believed to be a world first. That triggered subsequent requests from other news outlets to obtain other information, but many have either been rejected on cost grounds or labelled as "vexatious", an umbrella term that allows authorities to reject a request.

The UK has said it will contribute drones, fighter jets and a warship to a joint mission aimed at safeguarding shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Defence minister John Healey announced the package at a virtual summit of defence ministers on Tuesday. It includes autonomous systems to detect and clear naval mines, drone boats and Typhoon jets for air patrols. More than 40 other nations are involved in the mission, which Healey said would begin when conditions allow. For months Iran has been controlling the Strait of Hormuz - one of the world's busiest oil shipping channels - in retaliation for US and Israeli attacks.

Varun Chandra advises Keir Starmer on trade negotiations including AI investment. Varun Chandra advises Keir Starmer on trade negotiations including AI investment. Exclusive: Varun Chandra's talks with Google, Meta, Apple and others raise fears of'lobbying behind closed doors' An influential government adviser close to Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves held 16 undisclosed meetings with top US tech executives, the Guardian can reveal. The No 10 business aide Varun Chandra discussed regulatory changes, AI and Donald Trump's second administration with tech corporations during confidential meetings between October 2024 and October 2025. In one meeting he offered to help a top executive meet the prime minister directly.

Epstein's shadow: Why Bill Gates pulled out of Modi's AI summit Microsoft founder Bill Gates has cancelled his keynote speech at India's flagship AI summit just hours before he was due to take the stage on Thursday. Gates, who has faced renewed scrutiny over his past ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, withdrew to "ensure the focus remains on the AI Summit's key priorities", the Gates Foundation said in a statement. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi had billed the summit as an opportunity for India to shape the future of AI, drawing high-profile attendees, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Instead, it has been dogged by controversy, from Gates's abrupt exit to an incident in which an Indian university tried to pass off a Chinese-made robotic dog as its own innovation. So, what exactly went wrong at India's flagship AI gathering and why has it drawn such intense scrutiny?

Child sex abuse is becoming increasingly complex to police and officers are arresting an average of 1,000 potential offenders each month, the National Crime Agency (NCA) says. It says an increasing reliance on online platforms and advances in technology, such as AI image creation, are exacerbating the problem, with algorithms and digital communities connecting offenders to share and promote child sex abuse material. According to the NCA, the number of arrests has roughly doubled in the past three years. Statistically, potential offenders are in every community and victims in every school, the NCA said. It added that police cannot address the issue alone and called on technology companies to do more.

Trump's new world order has become real and Europe is having to adjust fast Downtown Munich is best-known for chic shops and flashy fast cars but right now its streets are bedecked with posters advertising next generation drones. Europe's security under construction boasts the slogan on an eye-catching set of sleek black-and-white photographs, festooned across a scaffolding-clad church on one of this town's best known pedestrian boulevards. Such an unapologetic public display of military muscle would have been unimaginable here just a few years ago, but the world outside Germany is changing fast, and taking this country with it. The southern region of Bavaria has become Germany's leading defence technology hub, focusing on AI, drones and aerospace. People here, like most other Europeans, say they feel increasingly exposed - squeezed between an expansionist Russia and an economically aggressive China to the east, and an increasingly unpredictable, former best pal, the United States, to the west.