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Heavy charges of espionage, treason, and obtaining secret information for a foreign power have been brought against the German intelligence officer August Hanning, which has attracted attention in Germany and led the media to describe the case as the biggest espionage scandal of the century. #vakoilu #Saksa #tiedustelupalvelut (translated)

Jukka Lepikkö wrote that 30 billion euros was a large amount to be given abroad while Finland's economy was in difficulties. He referred to the views of British economist Peter Bauer, according to whom in development aid the poor of rich countries transfer money to the rich of poor countries, and criticized the fact that Finland took on debt to provide money for aid abroad. According to Lepikkö, Finland became indebted and violated EU treaties when the debt ratio was 90 percent. He believed that the debt had built a large public sector, which also included the task of providing support to foreign countries. According to him, development aid led to dependency on support and increased immigration from Africa. Lepikkö referred to Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo, who argued that development aid harmed Africa and that dependency on support hindered positive development by corrupting local markets. He wrote that development aid should be stopped. #kehitysapu #velka #talous (translated)

Alpo Rusi wrote that liberal member of the Russian Duma Galina Starovoitova was shot in St. Petersburg on November 20, 1998, at a time when, according to him, her career was on the rise. Rusi mentioned that he had befriended Starovoitova in Italy in September 1990, and said she had estimated that the Soviet Union would collapse. He stated that the picture showed them walking and talking. Rusi added that Starovoitova had resigned from Yeltsin's administration in 1993 and had warned of a return of the KGB. https://t.co/Xkx1Lkk2gA #Venäjä #Historia #Politiikka (translated)

Sammallahti wrote that Joona Räsänen remarked that cuts do not necessarily kill economic growth. According to Sammallahti, Tytti Tuppurainen noticed that the journalist and photographer from Kuukausiliite were still listening at the door of the hall and directed them outside with her gaze. Sammallahti claimed this had undermined the SDP's most central economic criticism and wrote that the party is aware of this. He asked Antti Lindtman whether the SDP intends to continue scaring and misleading Finns. https://t.co/djE2iX7VHf #politiikka #talous #SDP (translated)

A Russian court in St. Petersburg sentenced animator Oleg Kuvayev to four years in a penal camp for anti-war videos that called on Russian soldiers to surrender, while the defense pointed out violations of his right to a defense and a lack of evidence. #Rusko #válka #Masjaňa (translated)

Sture Fjäder wrote to Jenny Kasongo that, according to him, the government had not taken anyone's own income or money, but had paid somewhat less in Kela benefits, housing support, and social assistance. He noted that the benefits are financed by taxpayers and mentioned that he had attached a picture of who receives and who pays. #kela https://t.co/Nie3wnLItV #Kela #verot #sosiaaliturva (translated)

Jari Mäkäräinen criticized Yle for what he perceived as giving Timo R. Stewart, whom he describes as a Hamas activist, an unchallenged platform to present his book. According to Mäkäräinen, the article adopted Stewart's view regarding the destruction of Gaza, genocide, and Finland's responsibility due to trade with Israel, without hearing the opposing side. Mäkäräinen emphasized that, in his opinion, genocide does not equate to heavy war. He wrote that the International Court of Justice had not ruled on the case against Israel and that interim measures were not a judgment. In his view, civilian casualties can occur in urban warfare where Hamas places rockets, command centers, and tunnels among civilians without the intent of destroying the group. He compared this to the battles of Mosul, Raqqa, and Fallujah, claiming that Stewart began using the term genocide after Israel succeeded in its war against Hamas. According to Mäkäräinen, the Yle article also lacked the starting point of the war: the attack on October 7, in which he claims over 1,200 people died, and which involved rapes and kidnappings. He wrote that Hamas aims for the end of Israel instead of a Palestinian state. He criticized the figures presented by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the article—over 21,600 by December 2023 and over 1,400 after ceasefires—and claimed that the ministry was subordinate to Hamas and that its figures did not differentiate between fighters and civilians. In his view, the article also lacked Israel's perspective that a significant portion of the dead were fighters. Regarding the two-state model, Mäkäräinen wrote that its failure was not solely due to Israel. He claimed that Hamas had rejected the model multiple times and that the Palestinian Authority had turned down offers, such as at Camp David in 2000 and Annapolis in 2008. He added that according to polls, the majority of both Palestinians and Israelis had abandoned the model. He described the cessation of support for UNRWA as a reaction to an organization that, according to him, had ample evidence of connections between its facilities and personnel to Hamas. Mäkäräinen believed that Yle, as a publicly funded media, should not advertise a single essayist as an expert. According to him, the article could have included opposing researchers, Israel's official stance, or addressed Hamas's responsibility for hostages and the use of civilians as shields. He concluded by asking why this had not been done. https://t.co/sHriNitmMo #Gaza #Israel #Hamas (translated)

Risto Siilasmaa wrote that Yle referred again the previous day to Google's 13 billion euro investment in Finland. He considered the amount justifiable in itself, but believed the repeated news coverage gave a rather misleading impression of the investment's significance for Finland. Siilasmaa asked if the reporting could be clarified. #investoinnit #Suomi #GooglenInvestoinnit (translated)

Sanna Haikala-Reyes wrote that Iran was attempting to infiltrate Iranian opposition groups, and that this had also happened in Finland. She reported receiving an English-language death threat that included a link in Persian, and speculated that the Security Police was monitoring the situation. According to Haikala-Reyes, a video recorded at a gathering of opposition activists held in Oodi, Helsinki, was sent to Iran's intelligence service. She wrote that a family member of a person who participated in the gathering while residing in Iran had been interrogated because of the video and that this person was now being threatened. Haikala-Reyes claimed that the events indicated that representatives of the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) had infiltrated the ranks of freedom activists in Finland. #Iran #Suomi #vapausaktivistit (translated)

Lucia described the typical reader of Helsingin Sanomat as a 25–40-year-old, highly educated urban woman who lived in neighborhoods like Kallio, Käpylä, Kumpula, Pakila, Kalasatama, Töölö, or Lauttasaari. She noted that this woman would usually vote for the Greens, the Left Alliance, or the SDP and would frequent brunches, bars, and the Flow festival. According to Lucia, the woman she described might be in a relationship, live in a community garden cabin, and be the mother of one or two children. She listed names like Alvar, Oliver, Ariel, Kuura, and Kaura for the children. Lucia mentioned that the woman preferred public transportation but accepted her partner's expensive car, even if she suffered from climate anxiety and flying shame. The woman might also have a small dog. The author claimed that such a reader did not know any voters of the Finns Party and might consider her rural uncle, who had voted for the party at times, to be peculiar. She speculated that the woman worked in a field where she could aim to make the world a better place. Lucia called this a reader profile and target group for Helsingin Sanomat, whose interests and views, according to her, the paper's journalists anticipated. She wrote that HS did not aim for objective or neutral reporting, nor was it an agenda-driven media outlet. According to her, the paper's target group did not encompass all people regardless of their background, lifestyle, or viewpoints. She compared HS to a mirror held up by journalists so that the reader could be satisfied with what they saw, and concluded that the reader of the described profile was not the same as the writer of the piece. #Helsinki #ilmastoahdistus #lukijaprofiili (translated)

Matias Turkkila wrote that the leader of the French left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, had spoken about the end of capitalism at an event and said that a socialism based on white Catholic workers would not be realized in France. Turkkila compared Mélenchon to Finland's Li Andersson. According to Turkkila, Métapolitique interpreted the comment to mean that Mélenchon considered the old socialism focused on white trade union workers to be dead and wanted to build a foundation based on immigration and cultural diversity instead. He also mentioned that 69 percent of France's Muslims had voted for Mélenchon's LFI party in the first round of the presidential elections. According to Turkkila, The Jewish Chronicle and The Telegraph were among the critics who described this as an opportunistic alliance with the growing Muslim voter base instead of the traditional working class. He asked if this scenario sounded familiar. #sosialismi #Ranska #monimuotoisuus (translated)

Update to the forecast made on July 15, 2026: The correction in the stock market is coming to an end, and next up is a strong 6-month uptrend? The forecast drawn just over 2.5 months ago regarding market movements is almost spot on if copied to the S&P 500 equal weight index (see picture). It has the same stocks as the S&P 500 but with different weights. The equal weight index has fallen by 7.2% from the August peaks to yesterday's lows. Looking at the equal weight index, we can state that we saw: 1) a rise to new highs in July-August with a strong earnings season 2) a strong decline in September due to increased uncertainty (interest rates, oil/Iran, midterms, artificial intelligence) If the third wave of the forecast materializes, it would mean that the market bottoms out before the U.S. midterms and rises significantly over the next 6 months. #Osakkeet #Sijoittaminen #Markkinat (translated)

Your target retirement age is 69 years and 5 months, quite difficult to imagine that in 2056 people would still be carrying others up the stairs. A colleague who took the (secret) photo reassured that there's no need to imagine, since paramedics generally kick the bucket or drink themselves into being a patient before hitting sixty. 👍 https://t.co/jM1LhPEFRt #eläkeikä #terveys #työelämä (translated)

The press conference today clarified the suspicions related to parliamentarians' homes. According to Speaker Halla-aho, there is a significant number of cases. It is suspected that residences have been entered in the absence of the representatives. No signs of forced entry have been found, and nothing has been stolen, but traces have been left in the homes. The suspicions involve members of different parties, and the first case may go back as far as a year. There is currently no confirmed information about the perpetrator or motive. The background may involve criminal activity, harassment or stalking targeted at individual politicians, domestic extremist groups, or the actions of a foreign state. Not all reported cases may necessarily be related to each other. Now, it is the police's task to distinguish real intrusions from other observations and investigate possible connections between them. The possibility of a state actor must still be taken seriously. An especially interesting detail is the marks left in the homes. If the intention were solely to obtain information secretly, a successful intrusion would fundamentally be attempted to be concealed. If, instead, traces are deliberately left behind, being noticed may itself be part of the operation. In that case, intelligence is combined with psychological influence. Such methods are known in the history of Russian security services. There have been intrusions into the homes of diplomats, officials, and other individuals deemed interesting, with deliberate traces left behind. This does not prove anything about the perpetrators of these cases. It indicates why the possibility of a foreign state’s action must be thoroughly investigated. If it ultimately turns out to be state influence, the selection of targets would in itself be significant. Parliamentarians decide on Finland's defense policy, NATO cooperation, support for Ukraine, relations with Russia, and numerous other decisions in which foreign states may have strong interests. Coercion does not have to mean an attempt to change one vote in a single ballot. The aim could also be to gather information, map networks and vulnerabilities, or generate uncertainty about whether the consequences of political decisions extend to an individual's own home and loved ones. That is why Finland now needs a more open discussion about the kind of foreign intelligence, influence, and pressure directed at it. Confidential information should not be disclosed, but Finns should have a realistic understanding of the security environment in which we live and whether its change requires anything from decision-makers, companies, or ordinary people. And above all, keep a cool head. If the purpose of such acts turns out to be to generate fear and uncertainty in Finland, that is precisely the effect that should not be allowed. Serious suspicions will be investigated, efforts will be made to identify the perpetrators, and appropriate action will be taken if necessary. Finland's decisions will continue to be made in Finland, without fear and pressure. #turvallisuus #politiikka #tiedustelu (translated)