#five euro commissions

[serpentgoat]

Dear Supporter,

I hope this message finds you and your family in good health and well being. My name is Dr.Eman Zaqout from Gaza. I am reaching you out to seek your urgent help in spreading the word about our fundraiser. I lost both my home and my job due to the ongoing genocide in Gaza and we are facing catastrophic living conditions. 💔

I kindly ask you to visit my campaign. Your support, whether through donating or sharing, will help us reach more people who can make a difference. Thank you for your continued support for the Palestinian cause. Your dedication brings us closer to freedom. 🙏🕊

Note: Verified by several people as 90-ghost and aces-and-angels. ☑

FREE MINI COMMISSIONS IN EXCHANGE FOR DONATION TO PALESTINIANS IN NEED

I am officially opening small sketch commissions in exchange for a 5 euro/dollar (the equivalent to that in your currency) donation to Palestinians in need.

How does it work?

-you find a legitimate go-fund-me/ donation campaign of your choice, and donate five euros/dollars.

-you send me the receipt/ evidence of your payment. If I find the evidence to be insufficient, you will NOT be receiving a commission. Lives are on the line, and scamming is unacceptable and unforgivable.

-I start working on your sketch commission, which you will recieve in two day's time. :]

Additional info: donations for Sudan will also be accepted.

[morb1dcan1d]

Honestly don't wanna do this, but it's come to a point where I will have to rely on saving up for top-surgery myself if I want it done sooner than later :,> So here is a sheet with all my commissions!

You can grab one via my carrd, or grab a PWYW on on Kofi! I still have four slots for the PWYW, and these normal ones have no slot limit.

Shares are genuinely very appreciated, and below the cut you can find both my carrd and kofi links

Carrd with order form, ToS and queue:

KoFi with remaining PWYW(pay what you want) slots and donation option:

[tulinentuherrus]

a vet visit left my bank account in two digits (plus a dentist bill that's yet to arrive) so i'm doing pay what you want commissions! the way it works is you tell me what you'd like me to draw, you pay what you want upfront and i'll draw it within reason (which just means i'm not about to draw ten characters for five euros unless you want them to be stick figures)

obviously doesn't have to be related to my current brainrot, these were just examples i had quickest on hand!

[dostoyevsky-official]

this a view of someone who's ignored european developments since 2007, opting for a rosy, outdated view of european politics, i.e. the exact type of american committing the exact type of mistake i'm warning about.

to address this point by point: not only has inflation been a global issue, but the US has consistently enjoyed the lowest inflation of any developed economy. american CPI has remained below the british, polish, and eurozone average numbers. european economies have to deal with fallout from the russian invasion of ukraine that the us can ignore: notably, in energy prices, as the US became self-sufficient in energy (and never imported any from russia to begin with, something squeezing the german economy). america is also not hosting millions of ukrainian refugees.

when discussing european instutions—and "europe" in general—one has to be more specific. do you mean the overarching institutions of the EU, criticized for a democratic deficit that many have pinpointed as one source for euro-skepticism and the rise of the far right? the EU Council, widely ignored and headed by charles michel, an incompetent, blatant nepobaby appointment whom everyone grinds their teeth over? the EU parliament, recently filled with a fresh batch of far-right hooligans, which functions more or less as a rubber stamp for the commission? the EU commission itself, headed by VdL, the latest in a string of failed local politician commissioners (who remembers the alcoholic swindler juncker?) masquerading as technocrats? the ECB, which smothers the monetary (and through the maastricht criteria, the fiscal) policy of eurozone members, thereby fueling resentment, far-right movements, and economic disparity? and all of this held hostage by the veto of one orban or fico, —or the german supreme court, when it decides it's had enough with public investment. those institutions, which remain so opaque that even educated americans—and europeans—aren't entirely aware of their function?

or do we mean the institutions of individual countries, ranging from undemocratic autocracies like hungary to the fief of the jupiter king, who called elections in june, lost them, refused to nominate a prime minister from the winning coalition, didn't name any for over a month, and then appointed a rightwing politician from a party that scored dead last, sidestepping his own centrist party? the UK, where sir keir is handing out five years in jail time to climate protesters, raising tuition fees, relying on private investment companies, and through rachel reeves' plan to fix the alleged budget hole left by hunt before further investment, again enacting austerity? this is all front-page headline news from the last half year.

european countries indeed have cheaper healthcare costs, better pensions, and other public goods that the united states does not. when considering "quality of life," remember, however, that most european countries have unemployment rates considered astronomic in america, especially for under-35s:

to focus again and again on european social democracy is to ignore that it has been steadily eroded since the end of the cold war and especially since the great recession by neoliberal political forces that crush the left and open the door for the far right. in the most blatant example, beside's macron's legislative politricks, the IMF-ECB-EC troika cut off euro cash liquidity flow to greece when syriza was trying to undo austerity under varoufakis. the greek collapse consigned a generation to economic failure, killed seniors, and curtailed possibilities for the youth. this erosion happened even in the nordic model, long imagined by americans as nothing short of a utopia:

In part due to the scrapping of wealth and inheritance taxes and a lower corporate tax than both the U.S. and European averages, Sweden has one of the most unequal distributions of wealth in the world today: on a level with Bahrain and Oman, and worse than the United States. Perhaps most dispiriting for Sanders, Sweden also now hosts the highest proportion of billionaires per capita in the world. Many of the country’s trademark social services are now provided by private firms. Its private schools even benefit from the same level of state subsidy as public schools—a voucher system far more radical than anything in the United States and that Democratic politicians would be crucified for advocating. Both here and there, right-leaning commentators in 2020 decried Sanders’s portrait as little more than what Johan Norberg, Swedish author of The Capitalist Manifesto, has called a 1970s “pipedream.” On this, Swedish observers on the left gloomily agree: despite official rhetoric, the “Nordic welfare model” is now more nostalgic myth than reality. (x)

to problematize further, there's an unadressed first world perspective: who's getting the good quality of life, why are the main economies of the EU so wealthy, and how does the EU continue to enrich itself? there are certainly many living outdoors today, drowning in the mediterranean, or dying of exposure in białowieża. fortress europe is a crime against humanity—and it doesn't beat back the far right. it weakens civic and human rights, undermines legal oversight, and criminalizes humanitarian engagement, allowing an authoritarian creep.

you shouldn't understand the political and the historical as a snapshot in time, but as a moving train. this is the state of europe today. all of the above is necessarily a simplification and an abbreviation, but there's a trajectory you can begin to trace out: given all of the above, where do you think europe is headed?

[tobivos]

PLEASE HELP ME PAY MEDICAL BILLS (and groceries)

hi hello i dont have a very big platform here but i am an art student going through medical transition and because of a bunch of insurance bullshit i am forced to cough up a lot of money that i do not have! i aim to set up a proper commissions post in the near future when i am not travelling back and forth across the country but for now heres an EMERGENCY COMMISSIONS POST:

for a limited time only you too can enjoy drawings of YOUR OCS, YOUR BLORBOS, YOUR FURSONAS, ANYTHING YOUR HEART DESIRES for the low price of 15 EUROS!!!

some choice examples include:

WHAT YOU GET:

a COLOURED FULL-BODY SKETCH of your CHARACTER OF CHOICE

AND if you so fancy, for an extra FIVE EUROS i will SHIP THE DRAWING TO YOU

if you wish to commission me, please either DM me or hit me up on email @ tobiahspringer@gmail.com

payment will be exclusively through paypal for international payments, and through tikkie for dutch payments

SLOTS OPEN: 2/5

sharing is hugely appreciated please and thank you ❤️

[scratchybongvt]

THE SIDEMASCOTS SEASON 1 BONUS SHOW! (Sidemascots 1.16.1)

Mascots’ Secret Santa!

Starring…

THE SIDEMASCOTS!

Vinicius: Season 1!

(Technical difficulties)

Vinicius: “To Vini, the biggest piece of s**t I’ve ever seen.” Off to a bad start.

(Vinicius opens the present only to reveal a bomb that exploded. Thankfully, the explosion was harmless, but enough to have gunpowder all over his face)

Sumi: “This is for ignoring Miga all those months!” Ha, classic! I wonder what that is.

(Sumi opens and a boxing glove springs out and punches him in the face)

Burke: “To Burke, Atlanta’s #1 United fan, I present to you: THE BEST TEAM!” Yippee!

(Transition which reveals Burke wearing an Orlando City jersey)

Burke: Ugh, Good luck in the conference final otherwise. You’re gonna need it.

Borobi: “To Borobi, who bought two tickets for an AFLX match that never happened” Let’s see… oh my! A footy signed by Eddie Betts? The Deadly Captain?! Yippee Mate!

Miraitowa: This Miraitowa sweater?

Burke: Sewn by me!

Miraitowa: Oh, thanks.

(This terrible image is commissioned by @jaymewolf999 (sorry for calling it “terrible”, I already know you don’t have the right equipment to draw digital art properly), if you want to illustrate one part of any Sidemascots episode, DM me!)

Sumi: Ooh, ooh, ooh! I also hired someone to sew a sweater for you!

Miraitowa: Which is…

Sumi: “Default Olympic mas-

(Sumi is hit by a pan by Miraitowa)

Someity: 10 free boxes of Lunchly after it is recalled? You do know I’m vegan, right? RIGHT?!

Honohon: What’s this giant gift box?

(Uzumin pops out of the gift box)

Uzumin: Haiiiiiiii!

Honohon: I quit!

Uzumin: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Clyde: What is this?! NO ENGLAND NO PARTY?!

Wenlock, Mandeville, and Crackhead: It’s coming home, it’s coming home, it’s coming, Christmas’ coming home!

Crackhead: “To Crackhead, revenge for episode 9!” Hmmm… (opens giant gift box) WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?! OLYMPIC PHRYGE?!

(Sacha chokes Crackhead)

Sacha: Disrespect the Phryges again and I’LL BREAK YOUR NECK!

(Vinicius, Powder, and Sumi come into the studio holding microphones with Burke wearing referee gear)

Sumi: Oh my! The largest Phryge fan is choking the largest Wenman fan!

Burke: One, two, three, four, five!

Vinicius: She won’t stand a freaking chance!

Burke: Six, seven, eight, nine, ten! Knockout!

Sacha: VICTORY IN CHRISTMAS! HALA MADRID- I MEAN PHRYGES!

Olympic Phryge: What am I supposed to do now? And where’s my sister?

Powder: I don’t want this series to have an insufferable drunk again so I didn’t revive her.

Olympic Phryge: Oh. Off to therapy, I go…

(Sacha choked Powder)

Sacha: THE FUCK YOU SAY?!

Powder: Okay, okay… ack…

Honohon: Another gift box? Please it isn’t Uzumin……

Uzumin: It’s me again!

Honohon: I QUIT!

Uzumin: COME BACK HONOHON! COME BACK!

Vinicius: Wow…

Sumi: The friendship between Honohon and Uzumin is like a fantasy story you tell your children on Christmas.

Vinicius: “To Vini Jr.” Let me guess… A ballon D’or? Why don’t you try and find Vini’s ACTUAL address?

Borobi: Oh crikey! A Gold Coast United shirt signed by all of its former players? Thanks mate!!!

Powder: *gasps* WarioWare Move It? Yippee! I get to see my idol Penny Crygor! If only I have a Switch… damn.

Sacha: The Paris 2024 commemorative 2 euro coin! YES! I have been looking for this for so long!

Paralympic Phryge: 6 packs of Red Bull?! WAHEY!

Olympic Phryge: For fuck sake, Para!

Tina: A 5000-piece jigsaw puzzle of San Siro? I can relive those memories of dissing AC Milan fans!

Vinicius: Finally! Something that is NOT the Ballon D’or! Oh no…

Sumi: What’s wrong?

Vinicius: Fluminense…

Sumi: Unlucky.

Miraitowa: *gasps* A signed copy of Trailly… FROM MY CREATOR?! THANK YOU SO MUCH, RYO!

Tina: A Luce minifigure? Who sent this? The Pope?

Powder: Arizona Coyotes! Yippee! Now I can relieve Arizona’s glory days knowing that they won’t return ever again *cries*

Sumi: There, there, Powder…

Wenlock: A postcard from Sir Keir Starmer?!

Vinicius: PRANK!

Sumi: It’s Sir Keir Starmer… on character.ai! (Wenlock throws the postcard on Sumi) OW!

Someity: Prime? Who do you think I am? A carnivore?

Tina: Another Luce merch? Ugh… I get it…

Milo: A prosthetic leg?

Powder: Made by me!

Milo: I’m already familiar with walking with a leg and a tail.

Powder: Oh…

Polar Bear: Flag of the Individual Neutral Athletes? Wow…

Ettie: A memorabilia of that Weakest Link episode I hosted? Gee, thanks!

Yodli: “Nothing but the new mascot in town!” The new mascot in town?

Maddli: Maddli! Albart’s Swiss nephew and the official mascot of the 2025 Women’s Euro! Woof woof!

Sumi: That’s MY catchphrase!

Burke: Sounds like something coming from EA Sports…

Chenchen: (plays ukulele) Last Christmas, I gave you my…

Vinicius and Sumi: BATS! AND THE VERY NEXT DAY, YOU SNEEZE IT AWAY!

Olympic Phryge: Quit the Sidemascots in return for $1000?

(Sacha rips the letter)

Sacha: DON’T YOU DARE TOUCH SCAMS!

Polar Bear: A flag of the Russian Olympic Committee? Thanks! Now I can relive those glorious Tokyo 2020 days!

Miraitowa: You’re welcome! As long as you continue using performance-enhancing drugs!

Polar Bear: Hahahahaha… what?

Vinicius: An unmodded copy of FC25? YIPPEE!

Wenlock: A very very early version of FM25?! YIPPEE!

OC IV: A print copy of the Sidemascots Season 1?! YIPPEE!

Vinicius: “To Vinicius, good luck supporting Botafogo in the final, you moron.” Tickets to the Copa Libertadores Final?! I can’t fly to Buenos Aires but YIPPEE!

(The present box explodes)

Vinicius: A bad ending…

THE SIDEMASCOTS!

Vinicius: Hope you enjoy this Christmas special we made for you! Especially @sashley1912!

Crackhead: BIASED!

Sumi: Season 2 is coming next February! So hit like! We want to surpass NinnyHuan’s cringe novel on Wattpad! So hit like there too! We will not respond to @crackheadfromsainsbury in the comments. *spits*

Crackhead: DOUBLE BIASED!

Vinicius: Merry Christmas from all of us at Sidemascots! And BFO is over!

Sumi: Make sure to…

Vinicius: This has been the Sidemascots!

Sumi: What?

Everyone: GOODBYE!

Sumi: …

Tom: HEY VINI, DO YOU LIKE MY PRES-

[whencyclopedia]

Red Horse's Account of the Battle of the Little Bighorn

Red Horse (Tasunka Luta, l. c. 1822-1907) was a chief of the Miniconjou Lakota Sioux best known for his firsthand account of the Battle of the Little Bighorn (25-26 June 1876) and his 42 ledger book drawings depicting the engagement. The account was given in 1881, the same year that Red Horse drew the images, which were rediscovered in 2016.

Red Horse Pictographic Account of Little Bighorn

Red Horse (CC BY-ND)

Little is known of Red Horse outside of his participation in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. He was a subchief, married twice, and had three children. In his accounts of the battle (there is another beside the one given below), his focus is on the event itself, not his participation in it, although he makes clear that he was in the thick of the fight. In 1881, Dr. Charles E. McChesney of the Smithsonian Bureau of Ethnology commissioned a study of Native American sign language and art ("picture-writing") which inspired the drawings of Red Horse and his account of the battle, which he gave using sign language which was then translated to English.

The best-known version of the account was published by Garrick Mallery in Picture Writing of the American Indians (1893) along with copies of some of the drawings, but these were not seen by many outside of the Bureau of American Ethnology, and the original artwork was sent to the Smithsonian Institution's National Anthropological Archives where they were carefully stored in drawers and forgotten, until Professor Scott D. Sagan of Stanford University, California, and his research assistant Sarah Sadlier (a Miniconjou Sioux) brought them to light in 2016 when they were featured in the exhibit, Red Horse: Drawings of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, at the Cantor Arts Center, California.

Today, the ledger drawings and account are more widely known and, like the Cheyenne and Arapaho description of the Battle of the Little Bighorn and Washita Massacre, Yellow Hair: George Armstrong Custer, present the Native American view of the battle and the wider conflict known as the Indian Wars of the mid- to late 19th century.

Background & Red Horse's Account

The Battle of the Little Bighorn is the best-known engagement of the Great Sioux War (1876-1877) and among the most famous in American history. Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer (l. 1839-1876), leading the 7th Cavalry, met the combined forces of Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho, gathered by the Sioux chief Sitting Bull (l. c. 1837-1890), near the Little Bighorn River in modern-day Montana. Custer and five divisions of the 7th cavalry were wiped out, and the US government retaliated by pursuing the bands of the Plains Indians, eventually pushing them onto reservations.

The battle was presented in the US press of the time as "the massacre of our troops", as though the 7th cavalry had been out for a jaunt one day when they were suddenly attacked and killed by "savages" for no reason. Actually, the Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and other nations had been trying to negotiate peaceful relations with the Euro-Americans since the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851. This treaty was never honored by the United States, and neither were the others, including the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867 and the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. Westward expansion in the name of Manifest Destiny would not be paused just because the Plains Indians had been living on the land long before the first Europeans reached North America.

Red Horse Depiction of Sioux Casualties at the Little Bighorn

Red Horse & G. Mallery (Public Domain)

Sitting Bull called for the great gathering at the Little Bighorn (known to the Natives as the Greasy Grass, and so their name for the conflict is the Battle of the Greasy Grass) to hold council with the other chiefs and try to find a way to defend their lands from the ongoing invasion. Custer had been sent to find their camp, kill the warriors, and capture the women and children to be held as hostages.

Although he had been warned by his Native American scouts that Sitting Bull's camp was larger – and had more warriors – than anyone had expected, Custer ignored them. He divided his troops to surround the camp – as he had successfully done at the Washita Massacre – and launched the attack, which would result in his death and those of five divisions of his cavalry.

Red Horse's account does not touch on any of these details but focuses on the battle itself. The details he includes match those of other Native American reports later given on the chaos of the conflict, including the one by the Sioux warrior Rain-in-the-Face (l. c. 1835-1905) and the one by the Oglala Sioux medicine man Black Elk (l. 1863-1950) given as Black Elk on the Battle of the Little Bighorn from Black Elk Speaks. Although Red Horse mentions Custer in his account, most of the reports make clear that no one knew Custer was on the field that day owing to the cavalry's swift attack and the dust raised by the horses.

Accompanying Red Horse's account were the 42 ledger book drawings of the battle depicting casualties on both sides, hand-to-hand combat, and each side leaving the field. Ledger art was drawings or paintings done on cloth or paper used in ledgers and was adopted by the Plains Indians in the 1860s. Previously, Native Americans of the region used hides (primarily of buffalo) for their art, but, as the US government systematically exterminated the buffalo herds to deprive the Plains Indians of their major food source, the animals became scarce, and so cloth or paper were used as canvas.

Lakota Chief Red Horse

D.F. Barry (Public Domain)

Ledger art of the Plains Indians depicts many aspects of everyday life including courtship rituals and hunting parties but primarily focuses on battles. The artist was always careful to depict the events in detail and so, as in the case of Red Horse's work, one can tell who the people are, what nation or band the warriors belonged to, and even, roughly, the locale and terrain. Taken together, Red Horse's account and artwork present one of the most interesting depictions of the Battle of the Little Bighorn extant.

Continue reading...

[dogboyklug]

heyhey! here are my main commissions!! if you're interested, you can also commission a refsheet or two over here! [link]

additionally, for more information, as well as significantly more examples of my work, please check out this! [link]

you can pay me through ko-fi [link], though i'll also be researching other payment options later

didnt really mention this very well, but the doodles will be made in mspaint OR firealpaca! if you have a preference, just tell me :] firealpaca doodles are likely to be fancier with more colors, while mspaint doodles might have more detail.

there's a transcript under the cut for those who need it!

[mspaint] doodle

3 euros

[pt: doodle. 3 euros. end pt.]

Little to no color (outside of outlines)

EXTREMELY low-effort but very comfortable for me :]

First extra character is free, then it's +1 for every character

Designs may be simplified, but not so they become completely unrecognizable!

Simple drawing (lined/lineless)

15 euros

[pt: simple drawing (lined or lineless), fifteen euros. end pt.]

Each extra character is +5 euros.

Additional, slightly different versions of the same drawing (such as one with or without glasses, with a different pride flag, etc.) are free

As with every other commission tier, please make sure to check with me about pricing differences for fullbody/halfbody/etc.!

Heavy shaded (or) fully rendered

35/40 euros

[pt: heavily shaded (or) fully rendered. 35 or forty euros. end pt.]

Full rendering is very taxing, so fully rendered drawings are 40

Each extra character is five euros

More complex designs are an additional 3 euros

Full shading is only 35, as it isn't as hard for me to draw.

Extra characters are still five euros

More complex designs are free, as it's easier for me to shade them than render them.

[yourfaveisantiship]

as much as i rlly dont wanna do this (especially with how much ive joked abt it in the past), im going to switch requests into a paid format. im going to be moving out soon, and i currently have 0 source of income and probably will continue not to have one for the forseeable future, so rn i need to save up anything i can get

if you want to see more on this blog, then send me 2 euros or more on ko-fi, or commission me, and you can get 1 antiship request.

at the same time, though, people in gaza need far more financial help than me. so, if you send a donation to crips for esims for gaza, or any other verified org/fundraiser, and give me proof of the donation, you can request up to five "your fave is" images for yourself and others, as well as three sketch requests.

https://www.unrwa.org/

again, thats one request per any commission to me, and five requests per any confirmed donation.

to contact me, send me a DM request on my art account @dogboyklug

thank you

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this EcoWatch story:

The five biggest countries in the European Union spend 42 billion euros each year on subsidizing fossil-fuel-powered company cars, a new study commissioned by Transport & Environment (T&E) says.

The report by Environmental Resources Management (ERM), “Company car fossil fuel subsidies in Europe,” called for increased subsidies for electric vehicles (EVs).

“This is completely illogical and completely unacceptable, that we’re still pouring billions of taxpayer money into a technology that’s completely contradictory to the European Commission’s green transition agenda,” Stef Cornelis, T&E’s fleet director, told Reuters.

About 60 percent of new cars sold in Europe are company cars.

“Company cars are seen as perks provided to employees as a part of their salary. While they are partially intended for work travel, they are also used privately – such as for commuting – to the benefit of the driver,” a press release from T&E said. “This is the first study of its kind that calculates these subsidies for every car model registered in Europe’s six biggest car markets, rather than relying on archetypal averages or example models.”

According to the study, Italy gives 16 billion euros annually in fossil fuel company vehicle subsidies, followed by Germany’s 13.7 billion euros.

France provides 6.4 billion euros in dirty fuel company car subsidies each year, with Poland close behind with 6.1 billion.

“Very high fossil fuel subsidies are found in Italy, Germany, France and Poland. This is mainly due to significant benefit-in-kind (BiK) tax breaks for petrol and diesel company car drivers. This tax break overwhelmingly benefits the most affluent consumers, with company car drivers earning nearly double as much as the average European consumer,” T&E said in the press release.

[beardedmrbean]

One of the leading daily Helsingin Sanomat's most widely read stories on Monday examined the problem of Finland's plummeting birth rate and shrinking pension funds.

Trade unions are currently negotiating pension reforms at the behest of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP). Simultaneously, a working group led by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the Ministry of Finance is also mulling pension reform. The report is due by the end of January 2025.

The reform is driven by Finland's low birth rate, which has fallen from 1.9 to below 1.3. Without immigration, a rate of 2.1 is needed to maintain the population. With the current birth rate, the reform is necessary to keep the pension system functional for younger generations, according to the HS report.

Negotiations aim to achieve an annual adjustment of around one billion euros and to ensure the stability of the agreed contribution level through some automatic mechanism. Options include raising contributions, cutting benefits or boosting birth rates and immigration.

Experts from the Finnish Centre for Pensions (ETK) have calculated that a shortfall caused by declining birth rates could be offset by increasing pension contributions by about one percentage point.

But if the decline in birth rates is not addressed in time, pension contributions would need to be increased by 2–3 percentage points in the future.

"Alternatively, the scale of the issue could be addressed by reducing pension benefits by about three percent," the CEO of ETK, Mikko Kautto, told HS.

Last spring, Kautto told business daily Kauppalehti that the pension system's financing situation could be balanced if annual net immigration were 30,000 people or the total fertility rate rose to 1.5–1.6.

Finland addressed rising life expectancy in its 2017 pension reform. The system links retirement age to life expectancy, with the minimum age currently at 64 years and 9 months, rising to 68–69 years for those born in 2000.

Criticism for plans to cut household tax credit

The government aims to save 100 million euros by tightening the conditions to receive tax credits for household expenses starting next year. The proposed changes have been opposed by multiple organisations, according to a report by Aamulehti.

The plan includes reducing the maximum deduction amount from 2,250 euros to 1,600 euros and lowering reimbursement rates from 40 percent to 35 percent. The out-of-pocket share would increase from 100 euros to 150 euros.

Finland's tax credit for household expenses provides deductions that allow individuals to claim a percentage of costs for services such as cleaning, childcare, nursing care and renovations performed in their homes.

Several organisations, including the Taxpayers' Association of Finland, the Federation of Finnish Enterprises, the Finnish Homeowners' Association and the Finnish Commerce Federation among others have opposed the move.

They argue that the cutbacks could drive the growth of the black market, negatively impact employment in the construction sector, lead people to delay necessary home repairs and make it harder for the elderly to manage in their homes.

However, the VATT Institute for Economic Research said household tax credit mostly benefits high-income households, costing around half a billion euros annually. They view the proposed reduction as a suitable measure for budget adjustments and suggest further cuts could be considered.

Study: Newspapers most trusted media

Tabloid Ilta-Sanomat reported on a recent study commissioned by the trade association News Media Finland (Uutismedian Liitto) that found newspapers to be the most trusted media across all age groups.

Nearly four out of five respondents considered printed or digital newspapers reliable. Television channels and their online services were trusted by three out of five respondents, while just over two out of five found radio channels and their websites trustworthy.

Social media, YouTubers, and blogs were trusted by only 1–5 percent of respondents.

The study also revealed that nearly 90 percent of respondents prioritise reliability as the most valued quality for news and current affairs media, followed by expertise and independence. Newspapers ranked high in all categories.

The survey, conducted in August by IRO Research, included 1,000 Finnish adults and has a margin of error of over three percentage points.

[follow-up-news]

Google won a court challenge on Wednesday against a 1.49 billion euro ($1.66 billion) European Union antitrust fine imposed five years ago that targeted its online advertising business. The EU’s General Court said it was throwing out the 2019 penalty imposed by the European Commission, which is the 27-nation bloc’s top antitrust enforcer. “The General Court annuls the Commission’s decision in its entirety,” the court said in a press release. The commission’s ruling applied to a narrow portion of Google’s ad business: ads that the U.S. tech giant sold next to Google search results on third-party websites. Regulators had accused Google of inserting exclusivity clauses in its contracts that barred these websites from running similarly placed ads sold by Google’s rivals. The commission said when it issued the penalty that Google’s behavior resulted in advertisers and website owners having less choice and likely facing higher prices that would be passed on to consumers. But the General Court said the commission “committed errors” when it assessed those clauses. The commission failed to demonstrate that Google’s contracts deterred innovation, harmed consumers or helped the company hold on to and strengthen its dominant position in national online search advertising markets, it said.

[mariacallous]

Revisiting the evidence that Russian officials are still covering up their role in the Beslan school siege’s death toll

Novaya Gazeta journalist Elena Milashina recently published an update to her ongoing investigation into the Beslan school siege, which killed 333 people, including 186 children. For the tragedy’s 20th anniversary earlier this month, President Putin visited the area and met for the first time in 19 years with a support and advocacy group of parents whose children were among the siege’s victims. During that meeting, Putin expressed surprise that the government’s official investigation into the terrorist attack is still unfinished. The president dodged responsibility for the delay and suggested appealing to Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin instead. According to Elena Milashina, federal investigators have deliberately dragged their feet and classified evidence to prevent the public from learning that the authorities didn’t prioritize saving hostages when they raided the school to end the siege.

Where does Milashina get her information?

After dozens of unsuccessful lawsuits challenging the lack of progress in Russia’s Beslan investigation, the terrorist attack’s victims and their relatives turned to the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled partially in the plaintiffs’ favor, finding that Russian special forces used “excessive deadly force” and ordering the government to pay 3 million euros in compensation. The verdict had no impact on the official Beslan investigation, but it did publicly release some case documents that the Russian government provided to the European Court in its own defense. 

Elena Milashina studied these records and republished testimony excerpts from soldiers, rescuers, and firefighters who participated in emergency services after special forces stormed the Beslan school. She also compared these accounts to former hostages’ eyewitness statements collected by State Duma deputy Yuri Savelyev, who wrote a minority report in 2006 on the school siege, challenging the findings of a special parliamentary commission.

Where the witness testimony clashes with Russia’s official narrative

Russian officials insist that special forces didn’t storm the Beslan school until after two explosions rocked the gymnasium building and a fire broke out. The authorities say all the hostages who died in the terrorist attack were killed in these explosions and the gym fire. When the military supposedly learned that no living hostages remained in the school, commanders authorized the use of flamethrowers, tanks, and explosives to destroy the ceilings in the school’s southern wing, where the last remaining terrorists were hiding in the basement.

However, former hostages told Yuri Savelyev that the gym was attacked from outside with grenade launchers, not bombed by the terrorists. Additionally, the case materials shared with the ECHR include testimony from FSB officers who admitted that Russian forces used grenade launchers, flamethrowers, tanks, and other indiscriminate weapons during their initial assault on the school. 

The Russian authorities assert that hostages were never moved to other parts of the school, but surviving eyewitnesses told Savelyev that the terrorists moved roughly 300 captives to the cafeteria and classrooms in the school’s southern wing, where they forced people to stand in front of windows as human shields, waving torn curtains at soldiers. In the case records she reviewed, Milashina found testimony from two tank commanders who said the FSB’s operational headquarters ordered them to fire on the school. “But we refused to shoot at the school because the hostages were standing in the windows and waving little white cloths,” one of the tank commanders testified. 

Milashina found that investigators collected “carbon copy” testimonies from emergency workers who said in virtually identical statements that they found only five bodies in the school’s southern wing, claiming that the bodies couldn’t have been moved beforehand because investigators had already inspected the scene. (However, the case records show that investigators didn’t arrive until after emergency workers finished inside the school, meaning that the officials who collected these testimonies knew they were false.) Milashina also discovered that the Russian government’s evidence shared with the ECHR inexplicably included an account from one emergency worker that contradicts everyone else’s testimony, claiming that first responders removed roughly 60 bodies from the school’s workshops, cafeteria, and first-floor classrooms.

On September 4, 2004, emergency workers laid the bodies of 237 hostages in the Beslan school’s courtyard. Of the victims, 116 had been removed from the gym building, their remains burned almost beyond recognition. To this day, the authorities remain silent about where the bodies with gunshot and shrapnel wounds were evacuated from. Officials conducted no autopsies to determine the actual causes of death for those killed in the school.

Milashina’s conclusions

The Novaya Gazeta journalist argues that FSB forensic explosives experts reached the school before state investigators could cross the military’s concentric barricades and access the site. The FSB agents seized the terrorists’ weapons and removed the bodies of hostages killed in the southern wing. Milashina argues that the authorities concealed these deaths to evade responsibility for storming the school without regard for the hostages’ safety. State investigators say independent researchers can’t find anyone who saw hostages killed outside the gym because no hostages were killed in the school’s southern wing. “But in reality, it proves the opposite: No one survived in the southern wing,” writes Elena Milashina.

[maxellminidisc]

Hello

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[fandomele]

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[angryducktimemachine]

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