Finland's president discusses Ukraine ceasefire, icebreaker deal with Trump
Trump has threatened to impose new sanctions on Russia and buyers of its oil, including India and China, unless President Vladimir Putin agrees by Friday to end the 3-1/2-year war in Ukraine.
"President Trump's deadline for a ceasefire is approaching. Finland supports all efforts towards an immediate ceasefire. Longterm negotiations must lead to a lasting and just peace," Stubb said in a post on X.
Stubb added that his call with Trump also covered ongoing discussions about icebreakers.
In June, Trump mentioned the U.S. is negotiating the purchase of 15 icebreakers from Finland.
"Finland has built 60 percent of the world's icebreakers. We have the capacity to build them reliably and fast," Stubb said on Monday.
Trump has consistently advocated for the U.S. to acquire as many as 40 new icebreakers to enhance national security in the Arctic. Those icebreakers could help companies with logistics and keep open supply lines for potential oil and gas and mineral development in the rugged and frigid region.
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CNN
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Flood, one of few members of his party to hold in-person events during spring's congressional recess as the GOP looked to avoid blowback from the president's DOGE initiative, heeded the National Republican Congressional Committee's updated guidance to focus this August district work period on selling Trump's agenda. 'With the One Big Beautiful Bill signed into law just a few weeks ago, this is a critical opportunity to continue to define how this legislation will help every voter and push back on Democrat fearmongering,' the memo from the NRCC, the House GOP's campaign arm, stated. But as he did earlier this year, Flood met a largely hostile crowd. The congressman was pressed on everything from the president's sweeping tax and spending cuts legislation to veterans' issues, Medicaid funding and the war in Gaza during a wide-ranging question-and-answer period – all against a backdrop of near-constant heckling, chants and booing from the audience. 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Washington Post
18 minutes ago
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Even before last week, there was concern among some policymakers and staff that government economic data was getting harder to collect and analyze reliably, because of budget strains and falling response rates to government surveys. The revisions to May and June's jobs numbers showed a much bleaker labor market picture than previously thought — but revisions to job reports are common. Early versions of the jobs report rely on larger business that respond quickly to surveys, while responses from smaller businesses — often more affected by economic headwinds — filter in later. 'As more information comes in, the numbers get revised. That's just a part of the process,' Abraham said. 'There's a trade off between getting numbers out quickly and having them be as accurate as possible.' Trump previously criticized another downward revision last year during the Biden administration, falsely saying the figures weren't so much a 'revision' as they were a 'lie.' He was referring to last August, when the BLS reported that the U.S. economy had created 818,000 fewer jobs from April 2023 through March 2024, marking the largest annual 'benchmark' revision to federal jobs data in 15 years. This initial annual adjustment was part of a standard process in which the Labor Department updates its monthly payroll survey estimates with more comprehensive — but less timely — state unemployment tax records. Former BLS leaders have criticized the firings as unfounded. The commissioner does not produce the job numbers, nor view them until they are finalized in a report written by career staff, several former commissioners told The Washington Post. William Beach, who served as commissioner during the Trump administration and into Biden's term, said the commissioner has no ability to alter the reported data under the current system. 'He's making a claim that is just not possible,' Beach said, referring to Trump. 'It's like saying the moon is five miles away. 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