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A young Finnish person reported that British Christian police officer Luke Salmons, 46, won a legal battle against police administration. According to the report, Salmons challenged the claim that Islam is a religion of peace in diversity training and raised questions about jihad, Hamas, and Gaza. He was suspended from work two days after the training, and the police department deemed him guilty of a serious misconduct. Salmons was added to the Police Barred List, which effectively prevented him from working in law enforcement. The young Finnish person wrote that Salmons appealed the decision, and North Yorkshire Chief Constable Tim Forber later determined that it was not a serious misconduct nor a breach of professional standards. Salmons was then removed from the barred list. He subsequently filed a lawsuit for religious discrimination and harassment, as well as for violations of his freedom of religion and speech. North Yorkshire Police settled the matter before it progressed to an employment tribunal, and Salmons received financial compensation from the police. The amount of the settlement was not disclosed in the report. #oikeus #uskonnonvapautta #monimuotoisuus (translated)

Joni Juusela wrote that inheritance tax was one of the most harmful taxes in Finland and should be abolished. Working in the financial sector, he stated that he could see its practical disadvantages and said that Finland needed family businesses committed to growing in the country from generation to generation. Juusela believed that the impact on public finances should be considered when abolishing the tax, as government bond rates were rising globally, in his opinion. He warned of a repeat of the situation in Britain following Truss's mini-budget, when large unfunded tax cuts spooked the bond markets. To secure financing, he suggested cutting development aid and removing the tax exemption for foundations and associations. Juusela reminded that small inheritances were tax-free at that time. If inheritance tax were to be replaced with capital gains tax, he believed that the change should not drastically tighten the taxation of small inheritances, for example when selling old apartments. He proposed protective measures during the transition, such as a tax deferral right similar to Sweden's or deemed acquisition costs, so that the middle class could also have the opportunity to build wealth that spans generations. #perintövero #perheyritykset #kansankapitalismi (translated)

Henri Vanhanen wrote that Donald Trump's Russia policy may not have been guided by a coherent strategy. According to him, Trump made decisions one by one, seeking quick political gains, and then had to fix the consequences. In his assessment, Vanhanen linked Trump's diminished commitment to arming Ukraine, the energy price increases resulting from the war in Iran, and the recent diesel trade with Russia. He believed that trade could bolster the Russian economy and give Vladimir Putin a means to pressure Ukraine into halting strikes on Russia's oil refineries. Vanhanen also criticized Trump for condemning strikes that he claimed weakened Russia's war economy. Vanhanen noted that Trump’s administration had not sought significant new funding from Congress for arming Ukraine. According to him, previously agreed deliveries had continued, and European countries had purchased American weapons for Ukraine. He stated that Trump was not fundamentally on the side of Ukraine or Europe but was primarily pursuing his own interests. According to Vanhanen, Finland's security should not be built on the assumption that there is a plan behind Trump's decisions that would turn in favor of Europe. He urged preparedness for the possibility that U.S. aid could be delayed or smaller than expected, to strengthen the availability of defense equipment and air defense, and to deepen cooperation with Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Britain, Poland, and the Baltic countries. He also believed that Europe should be able to support Ukraine and maintain economic pressure on Russia by its own means. #Trump #Venäjä #Ukraina (translated)

Great Britain will try to restore its diplomatic presence at its consulate in East Jerusalem to the previous level in the coming months, and during the negotiations about this, it will not take countermeasures against Israeli diplomats working in Great Britain – British Foreign Minister Ed Miliband said on Thursday. #Izrael #BritDiplomácia #KeletJeruzsálem (translated)

Venla Manninen wrote that, in her opinion, there was evidence presented regarding the effects of mass immigration on Western countries and that the situation in Germany, France, and Britain, as well as statistics on sexual crimes, unemployment benefits, prisoners, and gangs could not be ignored. She believed that the differences between parties were evident in how willing they were to address the problems of immigration. According to Manninen, the Finns Party was the only credible party to solve these issues. She criticized the green-left for focusing on multiculturalism and stated that the Social Democrats had voted against nearly all of the government's immigration tightening measures. She also highlighted the border security law, claiming that six social democrats, including the party's vice-chairman, voted against it. Manninen criticized the Centre Party for its lack of direction and noted that the party had announced it was aiming for 40,000 net immigrants per year in this electoral term. She described the National Coalition Party as contradictory: according to her, the party spoke about deporting criminals while simultaneously wanting tens of thousands of immigrants for low-wage jobs. Manninen argued that only a small portion of labor immigrants found employment in jobs requiring special skills and that nearly all directed towards low-wage sectors. Manninen believed that the Finns Party was advancing Finland's and the Finns' interests and dared to say things that, in her opinion, other parties did not acknowledge. However, she pointed out that no party could change laws on its own. She stated that without the Finns Party in government, concrete legislative actions would not be taken to address immigration issues, and instead, tightening measures might be lifted and rules loosened. #maahanmuutto #Suomi #politiikka (translated)

Dennis Mitzner criticized Timo Stewart for suggesting that he believed Israel was an obstacle to the two-state solution. Mitzner argued that the Palestinians had not accepted Israel's state proposals in direct negotiations, the latest of which were the Camp David and Taba offers in 2000–2001, as well as Ehud Olmert's offers in 2008. He added that Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005. According to Mitzner, the PLO's decades-old support for the two-state solution did not indicate that the Palestinians accepted Israel's existence as a Jewish state. Mitzner wrote that Stewart viewed the destruction of Hamas's ideology as unrealistic without killing all people. Mitzner interpreted this to mean that Stewart considered all Gazans as supporters of Hamas's ideology, but he himself said he would not go that far. He referred to Hamas's election in Gaza and claimed that no Gazan had attempted to help Israeli hostages in the past couple of years. Mitzner compared the situation to the Allies' victory over Nazism and the defeat of Japan, as well as the actions of the United Arab Emirates against the Muslim Brotherhood. He stated that the Western left should stop rewarding Palestinian violence and anti-Semitism. According to Mitzner, Stewart claimed that there was no Palestinian state because Israel occupied the territory and did not allow it to become independent. Mitzner denied this and described the area's history: according to him, it belonged to the British mandate from 1917 and prior to that to the Ottoman Empire. He wrote that the Arab leadership rejected the UN's 1947 partition plan, after which Jordan controlled the West Bank and Egypt controlled Gaza without establishing a Palestinian state. According to Mitzner, the territories came under Israeli control in the 1967 war, which Jordan, Egypt, and Syria initiated with the intent to destroy, and the Arab world's negative attitude towards Israel continued with the Khartoum resolution of the three no's. Mitzner claimed that Stewart ignored Palestinian actions and concluded by asking whether the dispute ultimately related to the fact that the opposing side was the Jewish state of Israel. #IsraelinVastaisetAsenteet #Palestiinalaiskysymys #KansainvälinenPolitiikka (translated)

According to climate researcher Diána Ürge-Vorsatz, Europe's trend of drought is alarming, as recent data shows that alongside Hungary, other countries such as Spain, France, and the United Kingdom are also struggling with severe water shortages, and the proportion of drought-affected areas has significantly increased in recent years. #aszály #klímaváltozás #vízhiány (translated)

The Daily Bureaucrat wrote that Britain divided its colony of India into two states in 1947 because Muslims, in his opinion, were unable to live peacefully in the same state as Hindus. He stated that Hindus remained in India and Muslims settled in the Pakistan that was established for them. He believed that this historical event was somehow related to the present day, but he did not specify the connection. #historianopetus #Intia #Pakistan (translated)