Free Republic

"Russia has never threatened Finland in modern history. We had no reason for confrontation," said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, according to the Russian state news agency Tass. The tone intensified further after Finland announced a few days before Christmas that it was initiating a new defense agreement with the USA, granting the country access to 15 bases on Nordic soil. Both Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership last year after Russia initiated a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, fundamentally shaking the security situation in Europe. Sweden's application is still pending approval, while Finland formally joined the defense alliance as a...

President Donald Trump issued an ominous warning about the Justice Department and the FBI on Friday, promising further firings to get rid of a “lingering stench” following reports that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein discussed secretly recording the president. Trump, speaking at a rally in Missouri, did not explicitly mention the Rosenstein furor, which was first reported by The New York Times and confirmed by The Associated Press. But Trump lashed out against what he sees as anti-Trump bias in the Justice Department, touting the firings he has orchestrated, unnerving many in federal law enforcement and sparking fears about the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy should shed its jobless label this year with the creation of about 2.6 million new positions, the White House forecast on Monday. If realized, the jobs turnaround could help President Bush (news - web sites)'s re-election prospects. Bush has faced withering fire from Democrats over the lack of new jobs. In the annual Economic Report of the President, the White House said the number of workers on U.S. non-farm payrolls was likely to rise to an average to 132.7 million this year from a 2003 average it thought would come in at 130.1 million....