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The treasury secretary's comments come a day after President Donald Trump unveiled new tariffs against eight European nations who oppose Washington’s efforts to acquire Greenland.The Trump administration is intensifying its push to acquire Greenland, citing national security concerns as China and Russia expand their presence in the Arctic.Speaking Sunday on NBC News' "Meet the Press," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argued that the U.S. must move to acquire Greenland — which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark — because Europe is too weak to protect it from potential threats.IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | 'Fundamental disagreement': Danish official cites ongoing...

A revolutionary solid state battery was publicized globally in January of 2026, but not shown in person. If the announcement is true, the world will be dramatically changed. We interviewed the co-founder of Donut Labs, which made the announcement: • Donut Labs and Verge Motorcycles In Depth ... We dug up as much information as we could, including a few bit we haven't seen anywhere else. We found a billionaire and some intellectual property which could explain the amazing properties of this battery. Heck, we even take a guess at a specific battery chemistry and manufacturing method which might fit...

First, the country was a Nazi ally; then it became a NATO stooge. The latest allegation: It’s a reckless Russia-basher that deserves a ruthless response from the Kremlin. Who said Finland was boring? Amid all the focus on Russia’s war against Ukraine, it is easy to overlook another prime target of Moscow’s imperialist ire. Russia has long used a skewed interpretation of history as a weapon to attack and delegitimize its neighbors—and, if the Kremlin’s latest rhetorical escalation is any guide, it now has Finland in its gunsights. The Finns are understandably nervous, given recent precedent: In 2021, Russian leader...

The ship will be ceremonially commissioned in August in Juneau, Alaska, which is the vessel’s homeport. Until then, the icebreaker and two others will be berthed in Seattle, Washington, until infrastructure improvements are made at the ships’ homeport. ... The U.S. Coast Guard’s newest polar icebreaker is officially operational, which the agency says will bolster its Arctic operations. The 360-foot-long icebreaker departed from its assembly port in Pascagoula, Mississippi and was headed to Seattle, where it will be based until renovations are completed at its homeport in Juneau, Alaska. ... The USCGC Storis will join the USCGC Polar Star and...

The United States just signed contracts for Finland to build American warships, a stark admission that the world’s most powerful navy can no longer construct the specialized vessels it desperately needs.

Finland's prime minister apologised on Wednesday to citizens of Japan, China and South Korea after MPs sparked outrage by posting pictures of themselves making derogatory squinting gestures. The parliamentarians from the populist Finns Party, which is part of the right-wing coalition government, posted images on social media where they pulled back the corners of their eyes -- widely seen as a racist gesture targeting East Asian people. They claimed to have shared the pictures in support of the 2025 Miss Finland, Sarah Dzafce, who was stripped of her title last week for posting a similar picture on social media in...

CEO of the Miss Finland competition Sunneva Sjögren (centre), new Miss Finland and former first runner-up Tara Lehtonen (left), and former titleholder Sarah Dzafce, who gave up the Miss Finland title, at the Miss Finland organisation's press conference regarding the Miss Finland 2025 situation and related follow-up measures in Helsinki on 11 December 2025. Photo: Emmi Korhonen / Lehtikuva ============================================================================= Sarah Dzafce has lost her Miss Finland title three months after winning the 2025 competition. The decision followed public criticism of a photo shared on social media in late November. In the image, Dzafce is seen pulling the corners of...

Explanation: In a Finnish myth, when an arctic fox runs so fast that its bushy tail brushes the mountains, flaming sparks are cast into the heavens creating the northern lights. In fact the Finnish word "revontulet", a name for the aurora borealis or northern lights, can be translated as fire fox. So that evocative myth took on a special significance for the photographer of this northern night skyscape from Finnish Lapland near Kilpisjarvi Lake. The snowy scene is illuminated by moonlight. Saana, an iconic fell or mountain of Lapland, rises at the right in the background. But as the beautiful...

Oh, where do I even begin with Sisu: Road to Revenge? This is not merely a movie; it is a transcendent thunderclap of pure cinematic audacity. From the first frame, the film detonates onto the screen with the subtlety of a meteor strike, announcing itself as a masterpiece of gleeful excess. This is the movie that every other action film will envy for the rest of their lives. The landscapes are so gorgeously shot they look like nature itself hired its own personal glam squad. The score doesn’t merely accompany the action; it leaps off the speakers and demands that...

Germany, France, Canada, and Belgium are among 12 nations that signed on to the “Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change,” documenting the so-called “threats” that free speech and the free press pose to what U.S. President Donald Trump refers to as the climate “con job.”Signed at the United Nations’ COP30, the UN’s annual climate confab, the declaration marks the first time that “information integrity” has been on the docket for COP’s Action Agenda.The rise of independent media, social media, and the internet has created a source of non-establishment news that has elevated legitimate criticism of the so-called man-made climate-change...

Finland’s former prime minister complained that she seems to be more known for infamous videos of her dancing than for her leadership. Sanna Marin became Finland’s youngest prime minister at just 34-years-old and quickly became a symbol of a new liberal movement in Europe. But two years into her term, videos of her gyrating in a lacy black tank top circled the internet and a separate video later emerged of her grinding in a club with a man that wasn’t her husband. Today, the ex-politician — who recently released a memoir and has 1 million Instagram followers — laments the...

A ceasefire in Ukraine is unlikely before the spring and European allies need to keep up support despite a corruption scandal that has engulfed Kyiv, President Alexander Stubb of Finland told The Associated Press. Europe, meanwhile, will require ‘’sisu,’’ a Finnish word meaning endurance, resilience and grit, to get through the winter months, he said, as Russia continues its hybrid attacks and information war across the continent. Stubb also needs that quality as one of the key European interlocutors between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. As the leader of one of Europe’s smaller countries, but one...

A Finnish politician and former Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen will face Finland’s Supreme Court on 30 October, marking the seventh year of a “hate speech” case over her public expression of Christian beliefs on marriage and sexuality. Räsänen, who has twice been unanimously acquitted alongside Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola, was charged in 2021 with “agitation against a minority group” after quoting the Bible in a 2019 tweet, a radio debate and a 2004 pamphlet. The tweet questioned the Finnish Lutheran Church’s support for the Helsinki Pride event, asking: “How can the Church’s doctrinal foundation, the Bible, be compatible with the...

When Finland joined NATO in 2023, the small Nordic nation brought with it one of Europe’s most comprehensive defense systems, built over decades of preparing for the worst along its border with Russia. Instead of a large standing army, Finland relies on universal conscription, a vast trained reserve pool, and a society where everyone has a role in national defense. As Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo put it in 2025: “By joining NATO, Finland strengthened its own security, but also the stability and security of the whole Alliance. We have over 1,300 kilometers of border with Russia, but we also...

A FINNISH security expert has proved to the supervisor of elections in Leon County Florida that it is a doddle to hack Diebold voting machines. Harri Hursti took part in a fake election in Leon County using what Diebold calls unhackable technology. At the beginning of the test election the memory card programmed by Harri Hursti was inserted into an Optical Scan Diebold voting machine. Hursti had pre-loaded the memory card with plus and minus votes. The eight ballots were run through the optical scan machine. Correct results should have been: Yes:2 ; No:6 However, just as Hursti had planned,...

You’ve probably heard of spooky black cats, chaotic orange cats, and distinguished-looking tuxedo cats. If you’re really into cats, you might have even lesser-known color variants like seal point and ticked tabby. But there’s officially a new cat color in town— salmiak, or ‘salty liquorice.’ You can see one here. The pretty black, white, and grey shade—named for a popular snack food in Finland, where this coat color has been making itself known—is thanks to a fur strand that starts off black near the root, but grows whiter and whiter out towards the tip. The coat was first spotted in...

A senior security official in Moscow has accused Finland of laying the ground for an attack on Russia by Nato, in comments that echo President Putin’s justifications for the invasion of Ukraine. Dmitry Medvedev, the former president and prime minister who is now the deputy head of Russia’s national security council, issued his warning after a visit to Russia’s 830-mile border with Finland. “After joining Nato, under the guise of defence measures, Helsinki is pursuing a confrontational course in preparation for war with Russia, apparently preparing a springboard for an attack on us,” Medvedev wrote in an article that was...

The Finnish air force was created in March 1918 following independence from Russia and actually predates the founding of Britain’s RAF. Its first military aircraft was donated to the fledgling air force that same year by Swedish aristocrat Count Eric von Rosen whose personal symbol just happened to be a swastika. This image, which was later to become a symbol of Nazi Germany was at the time considered to be quite acceptable and became part of the livery of Finnish air force planes for decades. Perhaps ironically, von Rosen supported the concept of National Socialism and was the brother-in-law of...

Finland has belatedly admitted its air force flags probably should not have a huge swastika in the middle. The Nordic country is set to remove the symbol from the standard because its presence has created 'awkward situations with foreign visitors'. The nation adopted the insignia as the emblem of its airborne military when it was founded in 1918.

In an interview with NBC News' Andrea Mitchell, Finnish President Alexander Stubb weighed in on the attempted peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. He likened the possibility of Ukraine ceding land to Russia to the U.S. giving up multiple states.