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Henri Vanhanen wrote that Volodymyr Zelensky was ready to hold elections in Ukraine if Vladimir Putin agreed to a 60-day ceasefire. Vanhanen noted that this was not a new concession, as Zelensky had made the same proposal in February and required sufficient security guarantees to hold the elections. Vanhanen interpreted the proposal as a message to Donald Trump, who, in his view, had repeatedly questioned Zelensky’s position and called for elections in Ukraine. According to Vanhanen, holding elections would require the United States to get Russia to stop hostilities for a sufficient period. He found it contradictory that Ukraine was being asked to hold elections in the midst of an invasion, while Russia had not agreed to a ceasefire that would allow for it. Vanhanen also pondered how strong Trump’s pressure on Zelensky had become, referring to Trump’s recent statements regarding Ukrainian leadership. He believed that the replacement of the Ukrainian president should not become a substantive goal of peace negotiations, but rather that Ukrainians should choose their own leader. According to Vanhanen, Trump should have used his influence to promote a ceasefire rather than forcing Ukraine to defend the legitimacy of its democracy. #Ukraina #Zelenskyi #Trump (translated)

Mika Merano wrote that he had observed that some people who consider themselves conscious held the view that opposing Islam was racism. He questioned this interpretation and wondered why a Finn who converted to Islam but still viewed it and its teachings as harmful to Western modern democracies would, in his view, be considered a racist towards another Finn. Merano stated that he did not understand the logic of this reasoning. #rasismi #islam #demokratia (translated)

Yaron Nadbornik criticized Heikki Hiilamo's column published in Yleisradio, stating that it presented a one-sided image connecting the actions of Israel's leadership, Finnish Christian groups, and Minister Antti Häkkänen's visit to the structures of oppression. Nadbornik argued that the column's treatment of Israel and Zionism made Jews collectively responsible and expanded the criticism to also include Israel's supporters and Jews in general. According to Nadbornik, Hiilamo's text divided the parties into white and Christian oppressors and non-white and Muslim victims. He said this framing overlooked the Jewish roots, history, and vulnerability in the Middle East, as well as the fact that millions of people from various backgrounds lived in Israel. He also believed that the framework wrongly fit the conflict into a narrative of Western colonialism and racism and presented Israel as a refuge for a people without another homeland. Nadbornik wrote that the prejudices against Jews were based on their otherness. He noted that studies had shown that Jews living in the diaspora were unjustly held accountable for the actions of the state of Israel. He argued that Hiilamo's rhetoric, which connected Christian groups and ministerial visits with the suffering in Gaza, reinforced this framework. Nadbornik recalled the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, describing it as a massacre involving rapes, mutilations, and the abduction of civilians, including babies, festival-goers, and the elderly, into Israel. He called it the largest single act of violence against Jews since the Holocaust. According to Nadbornik, Hiilamo overlooked the fact that Hamas and Hezbollah openly sought the destruction of Israel in connection with Israel's military actions. He believed that framing the terror attack merely as a security threat or comparing it to Russia's invasion of Ukraine ignored the rights of Israeli citizens to exist and be protected. https://t.co/PFvBFdaoiQ #Israel #Juutalaiset #Rasismi (translated)

Mika Merano wrote that it was not about class but corruption. He claimed that Members of Parliament, other significant and former politicians, and their close circles received rewards on the boards of associations funded by tax money or directed funds to their own projects. According to Merano, organizational subsidies and, for example, the funds used for Garden Helsinki were taken from elsewhere and were also reflected in the support received by poor families living on subsidies. He accused politicians of pursuing their own and their close circles' interests and expressed his anger towards such activities. #korruptio #politiikka #veronmaksajat (translated)

Paolo Crepet, interviewed about Gianrico Carofiglio's proposal for a wealth tax, highlights how the growth of inequalities and the impoverishment of the middle class are influenced by the concentration of wealth in the hands of big tech, suggesting that a tax on wealth could be a useful tool to prevent social conflicts. #Patrimoniale #Disuguaglianze #BigTech (translated)

The author wrote that the tax on the windfall profits of oil companies was a banner of the government in Rome, but in Strasbourg it had turned into an amendment to be rejected. He added that on Tuesday the European Parliament rejected, with 347 votes against, 247 in favor, and 38 abstentions, the amendment to Kinga Kollár's report. #Petrolieri #ParlamentoEuropeo #Tasse #IT #EU (translated)

Lucia-pulla stated that she had posed several questions to Said Awmuss, to which she had not received answers. She had asked, among other things, what kinds of hobbies Muslim girls could engage in and whether twerking, hip-hop, and ballet were acceptable. Additionally, she inquired about the attitude towards dating a Finnish Christian, marrying a Jew or a Hindu, and the Muslim Brotherhood. On the day of Aleksis Kivi and Finnish literature, Lucia-pulla asked what the Finnish language, literature, and culture meant to Said Awmuss, and urged him to discuss it with her. She also wrote that Islam was not a race or ethnicity but a religion or ideology, and considered discussing racism in this context misleading. According to her, no one is born a Muslim. #uskonto #kulttuuri #kysymykset (translated)

Maria Rautanen questioned the transportation of foreign waste to Finland for energy production. She referred to information from Kaleva, which indicated that nearly 50,000 tons of waste had been brought to Oulu for incineration at Oulu Energy and Syklon facilities since 2021. According to her, waste had even been transported from the outskirts of a landfill in Rome and from the shores of the Arctic Ocean. Rautanen wrote that according to Kaleva, nearly a third of the imports had occurred with figures that had been mistakenly approved by the Finnish Environment Institute. She demanded a transparent investigation into the permit errors. Rautanen criticized the downsizing of Finland's domestic energy production, particularly the reduction of peat use due to taxation and emissions trading costs. According to her, Finnish contractors and energy entrepreneurs had ceased operations, machines had been sold, and expertise in the sector was disappearing as energy was produced by importing waste from thousands of kilometers away. Rautanen called for open life cycle assessments to justify the import of foreign waste, taking into account transport by road and sea, combustion emissions, ash, waste impurities, and domestic fuels replaced by imported waste. She also demanded information about the quality of the waste brought to Finland, its monitoring, and the effects of combustion on flue gases, heavy metals, and fine particles. Rautanen believed that Finland's energy supply should fundamentally rely on domestic raw materials, local labor, and supply security. She found it difficult to accept that waste transported from Rome was used for energy production while the use of domestic peat had been reduced, and she questioned whether this constituted sensible circular economy practices. https://t.co/2CjRydkxAO #ilmasto #energia #kiertotalous (translated)

Henri Vanhanen wrote that the agreement announced by Donald Trump with Vladimir Putin to bring millions of tons of Russian diesel to the global market would be very bad news for Ukraine. According to Vanhanen, the arrangement would give Russia new opportunities to earn from energy exports, even though its war of aggression in Ukraine would continue. Vanhanen assessed that the agreement could help Russia mitigate the economic impacts of the strikes on Ukraine's oil refineries. He wrote that the strikes had caused problems and fuel shortages for Russia. In his view, facilitating Russia's energy exports would also reduce the pressure on Putin to negotiate an end to the war. Vanhanen considered it possible that the promised deliveries might not materialize, as he claimed Russia's refining capacity had suffered from the strikes. Vanhanen speculated that Trump was aiming for lower fuel prices in the United States before the midterm elections, but questioned the agreement's impact on prices. He also found the political message of the agreement concerning: in his view, the Kremlin could present it as evidence that Russia is not isolated and that the U.S. president is willing to do business with it. According to Vanhanen, the agreement could place Ukraine's strikes on Russia's oil industry in conflict with Washington's fuel price objectives. He urged Europe to prepare for greater responsibility in supporting Ukraine and pressuring Russia, and maintained that Russia's war economy should not be helped to recover. https://t.co/gpRe9acHoW #Ukraina #Venäjä #Trump (translated)

EU sources confirm that work is being done specifically on these technicalities to see if a solution can be found "within the energy clause," as Giorgetti also said, while on the other point there seems to be a total closure from the Commission. #TassaBigOil #Inflazione #EconomiaEuropa (translated)

The proposal for a European tax on the extraordinary profits of energy companies seems destined to remain stalled, as the European Commission suggests that actions should be taken at the national level, while the Italian government is seeking to obtain greater margins on public accounts in view of the economic maneuver. #TassaBigOil #Inflazione #EconomiaEuropa (translated)

Former Saxony news wrote that BMW had canceled its promise of an official car after, according to him, a representative of the wrong party had ascended to the speaker of the Saxony-Anhalt parliament. He suggested that the decision would turn against the party itself and noted that some of its 18 million supporters might drive BMWs. https://t.co/sbftDRr6aO #BMW #SaksiAnhalt #poliitika (translated)

It has been agreed that the issue deserves further in-depth analysis and technical work. Meanwhile, Ecofin has approved further investigations into the possibility of introducing a European tax on the excess profits of energy companies, announced Irish Finance Minister Simon Harris, who is holding the presidency of the EU Council. #Tassazione #Extraprofitti #Energia (translated)

From the Commission's point of view, we believe that Member States are in the best position to take measures on the taxation of the windfall profits of energy companies. This was stated by European Commissioner for the Economy Valdis Dombrovskis, responding to a question about the possible presentation of a European legislative proposal and its timing. #Tassazione #Extraprofitti #Energia (translated)