Summary: National vaccination registry data show 90 percent coverage in some areas, but less than 50 percent in other parts of Finland.

There are significant regional discrepancies in the number of young girls receiving vaccination against the human papilloma virus (HPV), according to the latest official data released by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).
 The HPV vaccine was introduced into the national vaccination programme in 2013, and the shot is currently only administered to girls born in 2006.
 Coverage is especially weak in the Swedish-speaking coastal area of Ostrobothnia, where less than half of girls eligible to receive the vaccine in the cities of Raahe, Pori and Jakobstad have done so.
 This contrasts greatly with the situation in other parts of the country, with a number of areas reporting that nine out of ten girls have received the HPV vaccine, including the municipalities of Naantali and Hanko in the south-west, Siilinjärvi in the east, and Inari in the north.
 Nationally the average is 70 percent of 12-13 year old girls that have been vaccinated against HPV.
 "Not advisable to postpone"
 In a press release,  Tuija Leino , Chief Medical Officer of THL, expressed surprise that the vaccination rate was comparatively low in certain areas.
 “In Sweden, the coverage of HPV vaccination is 85 percent nationwide. It is therefore difficult to understand why almost one third of Finnish girls do not take the vaccine. According to research, the vaccine is safe and provides the best and longest protection against cancer when taken early enough. Therefore, it is not advisable to postpone taking it, ” Leino said.
 Within the larger urban areas, vaccination coverage is highest in Vantaa, at 75 percent, with Helsinki very close behind on 74 percent. Of the bigger cities, Oulu had the lowest vaccination coverage with about 65 percent of girls in the age group receiving the shot.
 The Ministry of Finance included a proposal in the 2020 budget that young boys would also be vaccinated against HPV, starting from autumn next year. Parliament will decide on the new budget in December.
 HPV is known to cause cancer of the cervix, penis, anus, head and neck area.

Regional disparities in HPV vaccination rate of young girls


Summary: Homicides in Finland typically occur during drunken arguments in private homes.

Kriminologian ja oikeuspolitiikan instituutti (Krimo)

There were 95 violent deaths in Finland last year classed as various types of criminal homicide. Over 70 homicides were recorded as of the beginning of October of this year.
 While a large increase over 2018 is not expected, expert projections are for 90–100 such crimes this year.
 The 2018 figure was close to a 30 percent rise over 2017. At first glance, that looks like a shocking escalation of violence, but can be explained by 2017 being exceptional - fewer homicides were committed in Finland that year than in any year since 1895.
 For this reason, says  Martti Lehti , a researcher at Helsinki University's Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy, current levels do not represent any kind of "catastrophic situation".
 Booze, brawl, blade
 There is a direct link between drink and violent crime in Finland. Most people who commit homicide, as well as most of their victims, are inebriated at the time.
 An explanation for the resurgence of homicides has been sought in a recent easing of restrictions on alcohol sales. That doesn't hold up very well since no direct correlation between the level of the increase in  consumption  and the increase in violent crime has been found.
 On the other hand, total national consumption may not be a valid indicator of drinking habits among members of the groups most likely to be involved in homicides.
 Story continues after photo.
 Alcohol plays a major role in homicides in Finland, most clearly in Central Ostrobothnia where every criminal homicide since 2003 has been committed by someone who was drinking. Tiina Jutila / Yle
 The archetypal criminal homicide in this country has long been the same. Most victims are killed during a weekend brawl in a private residence. The killer and the victim are usually acquainted, middle-aged, and for one reason or another not employed. Both are most likely to have a drinking problem and are intoxicated at the time of the homicide. The most typical weapon used is a kitchen knife.
 Concerns about drugs
 Police are increasingly worried about further problems being created by  an increase in illicit drugs  and abuse of some prescription medications.
 Detective Chief Inspector  Anders Åfors , an officer with the police in Kokkola in the Central Ostrobothnia region, points to the growing availability of drugs bought online.
 "It appears that a mixture of drugs and alcohol has become a very common part of crimes committed by young adults, while the choice of older perpetrators is [only] alcohol," says Åfors.
 Last year was an especially dark one as concerned violent crime in Central Ostrobothnia and this year looks to be very much the same.
 Even so, since the demographic groups most likely to be involved in violent crime as either perpetrators or victims are relatively small, Åfors notes that general public safety in the region remains good.

Sharp 2018 rise in homicides leveling off


Summary: This marks the first presidential visit between Finland and Ethiopia, and President Niinistö’s first official visit to Africa.

Finnish President  Sauli Niinistö  congratulated fresh Nobel peace laureate Prime Minister  Abiy Ahmed  on an official visit to Ethiopia that started on Tuesday — Niinistö's first official trip to Africa.
 Niinistö met his Ethiopian counterpart President  Sahle-Work Zewde  and Abiy in Addis Ababa on Tuesday morning.
 The trip is the first presidential visit between Finland and Ethiopia.
 In addition to bilateral relations between Finland and Ethiopia, the Presidents discussed topical regional and international issues. Niinistö broached subjects such as Finland’s expertise in IT, education and clean water technologies.
 Niinistö told the Finnish media that in his opinion, the Nobel Peace Prize went to the right person.
 "We discussed the security situation in the region and peace in Eritrea and said that we often have the idea that war is endless. Now they have brought an end to that, which is a great model," Niinistö said.
 The Nobel Peace Prize 2019 was awarded to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed last week for his role in forging a historic peace deal with Eritrea.
 EU role in Africa
 In his talks with the Abiy, Niinistö also suggested that the EU should be able to pursue a stronger foreign policy in Africa. “The role of the European Union is not what it should be," said Niinistö.
 "China and Turkey are active here, but Africa is close to Europe and we have a lot of common interests. Europe must have some role here," Niinistö added.
 Jutta Urpilainen , t he Finnish nominee to the European Commission  is set to take charge of developing the international partnerships of the European Union. The ex-finance minister had said that developing a new "Africa strategy" would be an important part of her role. Finland currently holds the rotating EU presidency.
 Niinistö lauds Ethiopia's tree planting record
 Niinistö praised Ethiopia for setting a new world record in the summer for planting up to 300 million trees a day.
 "I really liked it. Instead of making statements, it is good to take concrete action. I have tried to talk about it in Finland, that people do not need to hear statements and feel anxious, but should look around to see what can be done," he said.
 Niinistö mentioned reducing food waste and developing the circular economy as concrete actions that Finland could focus on. The President spoke at a conference on climate change in Ethiopia.
 President Niinistö is also expected to visit a local primary school supported by Finland, together with Ethiopia’s Minister of Education  Tilaye Gete.

Niinistö meets freshly-minted Nobel laureate on Ethiopia visit


Summary: Finland took a big step towards qualification for the 2020 European Championships with a win over Armenia in Turku.

Finland stand on the brink of football history after a 3-0 victory over Armenia left them within touching distance of qualification for the 2020 European Championships.
 The ‘Eagle Owls’, who have never qualified for a major tournament before, went ahead in the first half when  Fredrik Jensen  flicked the ball home after Armenia goalkeeper  Aram Airapetyan  flapped at a cross.
 Norwich City striker  Teemu Pukki  added two more in the second half to bring his tally to seven goals in his last eight games for Finland.
 The victory put a spring back in Finland’s step after a deflating 4-1 loss to Bosnia and Herzegovina in Zenica on Saturday.
 “It was important after the loss to Bosnia to get a good result and play a good game,” said Pukki. “This is a good base for the final two games.”
 The in-form 29-year-old has also scored six goals in eight games in his first Premier League season, and was the focus of a publicity stunt on Tuesday morning when Finnish Prime Minister  Antti Rinne   tweeted  a picture of the Norwich shirt he’d been sent as a gift.
 Last month Rinne  handed  French President  Emmanuel Macron  a Finland shirt emblazoned with Pukki’s name as a gift during an official visit.
 Finland’s final two games of the qualifiers are at home against Liechtenstein and away against Greece in November. As Bosnia lost 2-1 to Greece later on Tuesday evening, Finland just need to beat Liechtenstein in Helsinki to qualify for the final tournament.
 EDIT 16.10.2019: Edited to add Bosnia result and implications for Finland's progression.

Finland edge closer to Euros with 3-0 win over Armenia


Summary: Finland wants more dads to care for their kids, but for some foreign fathers paternity leave can be a lonely experience.

Finland is moving to catch up with its Nordic peers and even the parental leave playing field by encouraging more fathers to stay at home with their kids. The policy has been framed as a victory for egalitarian principles and a much-needed shot in the arm for  falling birth rates .
 But what's it like to stay home if you are not Finnish and know few Dads like you nearby? This week Yle News' the  All Points North  podcast spoke to some migrant fathers who are living the ideal as stay-at-home dads caring for their youngsters, but who say they feel isolated in their roles.
 Finding support in online dad communities
 James Cramer  first visited Finland during summer.
 "My wife convinced me that Finland isn’t as cold and dark as it’s made out to be," he laughs. Seven years on he knows better. More than the cold and darkness though, it was the loneliness Cramer experienced during paternity leave as a new dad in Finland that took him by surprise.
 "I had work colleagues, but my friends network in Finland, even after seven years, is pathetic. As I started to freelance, that network thinned further. So when I was on parental leave, I had no friends to reach out to or even anyone to socially connect with," Cramer says.
 The final straw for Cramer was at the end of three months at home. He had had minimal adult social contact, and when his toddler went about the house tossing freshly-washed laundry into the dog’s water bowl and throwing his toys around, Cramer lost his cool. With no one to turn to for advice, he reached out to the Expat Dads fathers’ group on Facebook.
 "When I wrote the post on the dads' group I was emotional, I knew my reaction was wrong and I needed feedback. I was surprised by the responses; my friends would have pulled my leg," he comments.
 Story continues after photo.
 James Cramer with his son Robin. James Cramer
 Within seconds of publishing the post support poured in, comforting responses lauding him for his honesty, acknowledging parental leave is tough and gets the better of most, urging him to ditch the self-doubt of whether he was a good enough dad, and that it is not possible to achieve everything in a day — from laundry to preparing a business plan — while taking care of a child.
 Comprising mainly foreign men, most of whom are in Finland because of a Finnish partner, the nearly 600-member group serves as a peer support network for all things dad. The group’s activities range from monthly 'pressure relief' meetups, where they socialise and discuss fatherhood experiences, to offering parental advice to cleaning hacks to trading ideas for activities to do with their children.
 For many dads it also helps to relieve social isolation in a country where few may have families or friends, often not even a job or a solid grasp of the language.
 Carrots and sticks for stay-at-home-dads
 The Finnish government plans to nearly double paternity leave to encourage more men to care for their kids at home. The proposed reform aims to increase earnings-related maternity and paternity leave to five months each. Both five-month options would be non-transferable between parents, in order to encourage more fathers to take time out to look after their kids. An additional five-month period would be available for both parents to share as they see fit.
 As Finland’s birth rate continues to drop, public discourse has raised the issue of providing more support for families, increasing paternity leave and encouraging fathers to use the maximum amount of leave.
 Political commentator  Sini Korpinen  tells Yle News that the government’s proposed 5+5+5 model will effectively push more fathers to take paternity leave.
 "The 5+5+5 model ensures more equality, provided the home care allowance doesn’t stay as it is. Otherwise, it is mothers who will end up using this allowance after 10 months. As is the case now," Korpinen suggests.
 For Korpinen, legislative reform is key to changing parental leave practices.
 "Our attitudes towards gender roles in Finland are still not on par with the other Nordic countries. The attitudes may change gradually, but the legislation may bring quicker results," she continues.
 Language can connect -- or divide
 In 2018  Oliver Lillie  started the expat fathers' group on Facebook, precisely to address that social void and to connect dads and dads-to-be.
 For fathers like Lillie the group is also a way to connect with other dads on playdates and encourage his children’s engagement with the English language. "Finnish is my children’s primary language, but I want them to interact and play with other kids in my mother tongue," says Lillie.
 Story continues after photo.
 Fabrizio Turci of Familia ry. Fabrizio Turci
 Bilingualism is a concern for many immigrant fathers. Familia ry, a non-profit organisation that works to enable a two-way integration of immigrants in Finland, runs a different fathers’ group to connect foreign fathers and combat social isolation. It also addresses a recurring concern among immigrant fathers of raising bicultural children.
 Familia meetings encourage dads to talk about everything from being an immigrant in Finland to how to be an intercultural family to masculinity to the kind of fathers they want to be. This often leads to discussions on their own childhoods and fathers.
 "We want to make sure fathers don’t feel alienated when their child only speaks Finnish at home," says  Fabrizio Turci , who works as the organisation's peer-support group facilitator.
 Fathers' changing roles
 The growing number of fathers' groups point to the increasing importance of fathers as primary caregivers, especially in the Nordics where paternity leave and staying at home alone with a child as mothers return to work is encouraged. Finland has a reputation for gender equality. A 2017 OECD gender equality report lauded Finland for being the only country in the developed world where fathers spend a total of eight minutes more with school-aged children than mothers, but Cramer argues that the state needs to encourage more fathers to take paternity leave.
 "When I was at home with my son for three months, I thought I would meet and connect with other fathers in our neighbourhood park, but there were only mums. My wife in her maternity leave used momzie, which is like tinder for mothers, where she would connect with other mothers who were similarly wired. Those women are still my wife’s friends two years on. There’s no such thing for dads," he adds, suggesting that maybe someone should make a similar dad link-up app.
 According to Siru keskinen, a statistical analyst with national benefits agency Kela, in 2017,  fathers on an average took 37 days of parental leave  and the average for mothers was 261 days. Available data suggest that the number of men staying at home with children increased after paternity leave was increased in 2003 in Finland. Research has also shown that fatherhood has become central to men’s identity, as more men are no longer primary earners.
 "Fathers want to play an active role instead of being purely breadwinners and those who enforce discipline. Finland gives them that chance. Also, some foreign men have secondary jobs, and their wives are primary earners. So, they see the value in taking paternity leave," Turci explains.
 Finnish dads lack support too
 Though the need to equally participate in parental care, find networks and connections with other dads is growing, parental support, even in egalitarian Finland, is geared towards mothers. Turci admits that social isolation is a problem for many immigrant fathers.. Finnish fathers who are not from Helsinki may face the same problem, but they have a linguistic and cultural advantage.
 Miessakit, a non-profit organisation that works for men’s wellbeing, runs a project 'Looks like dad' (Isän näköinen) in collaboration with the Finnish Federation of Settlement Houses (FFSH). The project provides men with a platform to talk about fatherhood and encourages them to be active parents so as to upend the still-widespread belief: that only women are suited to being primary parents.
 According to  Ismo Pitkänen , a project coordinator at Miessakit, while Finnish fathers may not face as much social isolation during paternity leave as immigrant fathers, they often lack networks as well. To Pitkänen peer support as well as sharing and learning from each other’s experiences are key to men’s well-being as fathers.
 Immigrant dad  Edgar Roberts*  agrees with Pitkänen’s assessment. "What I missed most during my paternity leave was not just someone to talk to, but just the lack of male role models who, like me, stayed at home with their child. Someone I could learn from."
 *Some names have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals.
 What do you think? What's it like to be a stay-at-home Dad in Finland?
 James Cramer and Fabrizio Turci will be joining us on this week’s  All Points North podcast  to discuss the problem from the ground up: what does it take to convince people to move to Finland? You can send comments or questions via WhatsApp on +358 44 421 0909, on our  Facebook  or  Twitter  accounts, or at yle.news@yle.fi.

APN this week: Finland wants more dads to take paternity leave, but foreign stay-at-home fathers struggle to find support


Summary: Professionals respond to falling populations, social service minister bemoans lagging services and the largest mall in the Nordics opens.

Finland's falling and aging demographic has been a source of  much clamour  and  hand-wringing  recently. Politicians have even urged voters to get busy in the bedroom to boost the plummeting population and avoid problems 9in the sustainability of the public finances.
 This Wednesday's  Helsingin Sanomat  addresses the severity of the problem and the need for new responses. The decrease  projected by current statistics  is historically steep, with Finland's total fertility rate expected to fall to a meagre 1.32 potential children per woman – but municipal managers in smaller towns are trying not to panic.
 "When will we understand that the permanent rate of settlement in any given place is not a measure of prosperity?" asked Kuhmo city manager  Tytti Määttä  on Twitter. "Finland needs new solutions to how wellbeing and vitality can be developed without population growth."
 Määttä has experience with regions where birth rates tend not to rise. With the trend soon extending to all of Finland, brow-furrowing discussions about making more babies should make way for seeking real solutions, she said in HS.
 "Efforts to increase overall population fertility do not work."
 Senior actuary  Markus Rapo  holds a similar position for environmental reasons, as the planet's resources are stretched ever further.
 "It's worth asking whether continuous growth is even something worth aspiring to," Rapo said in HS.
 Outrageous clinic queues
 One of the sectors that would face deep trouble without responses to an ageing Finnish population base is national health care, which has been  taking lots of hits  in recent years. Minister of Family Affairs and Social Services  Krista Kiuru  announced on Tuesday that each and every citizen should be guaranteed a doctor's appointment within seven days of asking for one.
 Tampere daily  Aamulehti reported  on Wednesday that the challenge is great: in the city's municipal clinic at Hatanpää, patients waited for an appointment for a median of 42 days. The Tammela health centre reported average waiting periods of 11 days, while private Mehiläinen clinics in the city saw patients in just two days.
 Kiuru said in HS that the crux of the problem is that the government has overlooked primary health care overwhelmingly in favour of specialised medicine. The paper wrote that since 2005, a total of 3,700 doctors have been employed in specialised health care, while basic health services have hired only about 300 doctors in the same period.
 "The situation simply cannot continue," Kiuru said.
 The government is dishing out some 70 million euros for municipalities to develop their health care systems. Head of the Pirkanmaa health sector consortium,  Jaakko Herrala  said that Tampere is planning a new "health care development centre" in the Kauppi area. The idea is to combine basic health care as well as teaching, research and development.
 "The centre would be a place to innovate new operating models and create new occupations," Herrala said in AL.
 Tripla centre a risky "clone"
 The largest shopping centre in all the Nordic countries will open its doors in Helsinki on Thursday.  Tabloid Ilta-Sanomat  runs a background story on the massive Mall of Tripla, a complex including a 250-store shopping hub, apartment buildings, offices and the Pasila train station.
 The station area, around the corner from the Yle news campus, has been the site of a previously attempted commercial centre, writes IS's Taloussanomat supplement. Some thirty years ago developers were unable to translate the station's 40,000-odd rail commuters into paying customers, and the mall went belly-up.
 "It's an illusion to think that lots of traffic automatically means lots of customers," said researcher  Tuomas Santasalo  from consultancy firm WSP Finland. "And contemporary shopping malls don't hold as much glamour as they used to back in the day."
 A lack of interest has plagued some of Helsinki's recent commercial mega-projects, such as the Redi centre. With 44 malls already in operation, Santasalo predicts that consumers are close to getting sick of the sheer volume.
 "Shopping centres are clones of each other, they're identical inside."

Wednesday's papers: Population dip revisited, health care access, biggest shopping centre


Summary: A citizens' initiative as well as the government programme both call for increases in mining guarantee fees.

Finland's government is committed to increasing the guarantee fees paid by mining companies to offset the environmental damages mine operations may cause, according to Minister of Economic Affairs  Katri Kulmuni .
 Increasing the payments is part of Mining Act reforms, which Parliament means to take up over the next year.
 A citizens' initiative  calling for the fee hike was discussed in a preliminary debate on the proposed reforms on Wednesday.
 "The shared concerns about mining company guarantees have been recognised by the citizens and the government alike, and they will be addressed," Kulmuni said.
 The deposit sums are intended to mitigate potential environmental damage and to cover the eventual cost of shuttering a mining operation. For instance, the Hitura nickel mine in Northern Ostrobothnia went bankrupt and cost taxpayers more than 16 million euros.
 A June report by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Development was the first to demonstrate the need for mining guarantee fee increases. In many cases the old deposit sum only covered minimal procedures such as fencing off a closed mining site.
 "That report has a very high standing among environmental and business groups alike. I don't think anyone would oppose this move," Kulmuni said.
 Tax to boost regions
 Kulmuni also said she hopes lawmakers will consider a new  mining tax . Politicians are on board with the plan, as seen in an Yle poll from early 2019 where every respondent from the government parties backed the tax or at least looking into the possibility of one.
 A mining tax could be collected from a company's turnover or the value of unearthed minerals.
 Government intends to reaffirm the position of municipalities and land owners in mining-related issues. Kulmuni said that tax euros should be funneled to mining regions, not to the government.
 "It would be important in terms of social acceptability that the taxman directs those sums to the region where the mining occurs. The municipality rakes in the benefits, but is also responsible for keeping the environment clean."

Mine operators to pay higher deposits for environmental damage


Summary: According to fresh figures, flying Finns are responsible for more CO2 per person than any other nation except Singapore.

People resident in Finland  cause more carbon dioxide emissions by flying  than those to and from airports in any other country in the world except Singapore, according to  new figures from the International Council on Clean Transportation .
 CO2 emissions caused by international flights to and from Finland are around the same as emissions from private cars in the country.
 Third in the ranking is Iceland, fourth is Australia and in fifth spot comes Britain.
 Story continues after graphic
 Leena Luotio / Yle,  Source ICCT
 The figures include passengers whose journeys start or end in Finland, but not transit passengers heading through Finland on their way to other countries.
 Singaporeans were responsible for some 1.2 tonnes of CO2 from flights, while Finns and Icelanders were the cause of around a tonne each.
 A tonne of carbon dioxide is emitted by, for example, driving the  average new car sold  in 2019 for around 6,000 kilometres.
 The data also stripped out foreign tourists by adjusting the dataset using data from the World Bank. If those visitors were included, the countries with the highest emissions would be the Domincan Republic, Croatia and Portugal.
 The biggest emissions in absolute terms, that is not divided by population, come from American, Chinese, British, Japanese and German flights.

Finns emit more CO2 by flying than every other nation bar Singapore


Summary: The combination service will initially be available as an app while a travel card will be introduced later on.

Starting next spring, commuters will be able to use Helsinki Regional Transport’s travel card app for public transportation in Tallinn, the Estonian capital.
 It's part of a long-planned combination travel service for use in Helsinki and Tallinn and will first be available as a mobile app.
 "We have a goal that next spring we will be able to offer tickets for public transportation in Tallinn here [in Helsinki] via the HSL app and vice versa as well," HSL division head  Mari Flink  said.
 The biggest winners under the proposed system will be Estonians travelling in Helsinki as they will be able to use a travel app purchased via the Estonian service pilet.ee to move around on HSL routes. Currently, they have to download the HSL app separately and link it to a bank card – or purchase tickets from automated ticket vending machines.
 Standing outside the Western Harbour in Helsinki, Estonian  Triin O’Brock  said she was excited to hear of the new combined travel service. She had downloaded the Discover Helsinki app on her smartphone in the mistaken belief that she would also be able to use it to buy tickets to travel on public transportation.
 "Well it didn’t work so now I’m queuing at this ticket machine. I missed one tram already so hopefully I’ll catch the next one," she added
 Estonian cards a step ahead
 It will be some time however, before a combination travel card can be used, because travel cards in Helsinki and Tallinn are very different. Although they appear to be similar at a glance, they are based on different platforms.
 The technical implementation of the Estonian cards is more modern, so Tallinn public transportation officials will have to wait for HSL to catch up and design a card that works according to the same logic.
 "I don’t think we are talking about years," Flink said about the waiting period. Her colleague  Tiit Laikso  from Tallinn was a bit more optimistic.
 "We are aiming for the combination card to be available in 2021," he commented.
 HSL is also looking into the possibility of using contactless payment options used already in Tallinn public transportation in the HSL fleet. But there is no fixed timetable for that project.
 "There a strong will to come up with some kind of timetable for implementing contactless payments in public transportation but that is a major step. We have more than 2,000 vehicles so that’s a large number of card readers," Flink pointed out.
 Card readers currently installed in public transportation vehicles do not offer a contactless payment option. HSL said that there would be no point in upgrading them, but noted that it is looking into the possibility of adding the feature via a separate add-on device.

Helsinki, Tallinn plan combination travel card by 2021


Summary: UTZ and Rainforest Alliance did not benefit plantation workers, said Finnwatch.

Low wages in tea production are still an indication that companies are not living up to corporate responsibility demands, says Finnwatch.
 The NGO noted in a report published on Wednesday that women working on tea plantations are in a particularly vulnerable position, yet they account for half of the workforce on estates.
 Finnwatch interviewed 120 workers on six plantations in India and Sri Lanka which supplied tea to major Finnish tea companies Forsman Tea and Nordqvist, as well as to international firms such as Twinings and Unilever.
 "Wages at tea plantations in Assam, India are even lower that the minimum wage in the agricultural sector and the pay earned by workers we interviewed in Sri Lanka was half of the, living wage. The tea consumed in Finland may be picked by someone working for less than two euros a day," Finnwatch researcher  Anu Kultalahti  said in a statement.
 Finnwatch is backed by a group of 11 local development, consumer, labour and environmental organisations.
 Nordqvist aiming for more ambitious responsibility goals
 Nordqvist was the only tea firm researched that provided Finnwatch with information about Indian and Sri Lankan tea producers in its production chain. According to CEO  Riku Nordqvist , the family business aims to improve its operations.
 "We have raised our goals. Instead of certifying everything in 2025, we have targeted faster certification. In 2020 nearly 90 percent of Nordqvist output will be certified products and the work will continue from there," the CEO told news agency STT.
 All of the estates that Finnwatch analysed were certified by sustainability watchdogs the Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade International or UTZ. According to employees interviewed by Finnwatch, the Fairtrade certification was the only one that benefitted plantation communities, as it provided financial support for activities such as professional training of workers' children.
 "Our understanding is that both Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade International are doing important work. There would be no tea farming without environmental protection. And without fair trade there would be no tea pickers," Nordqvist said.
 He added that the next step for the company would be to join the amfori BSCI international business association, which promotes sustainable business practices among its membership.
 Teamaker: Report ignores Finnish firms' contribution
 The report concluded that Forsman Tea's purchasing model is based on acquiring tea from plantations or farmers' associations. The company said that it visits suppliers' operations before deliveries begin. Finnwatch said that the firm doesn't have specific principles that govern social responsibility issues. It also resisted providing information about its Sri Lankan suppliers, citing the need to protect trade secrets.
 "It’s not possible to get everything in a measurable or written form. That’s because we are a small player," Forsman Tea chief executive  Ari Santamäki  explained.
 He noted that the firm will now pay special attention to ensuring that tea suppliers operate responsibly. He also criticised some aspects of the report, saying that it did not analyse the entire tea production process.
 "A major shortcoming in the report is that it places no value on the fact that Finnish suppliers are also processors," he added.
 He speculated that the value of the work that Finns do is four times that of the value of tea picking, given the time required and product-specific modifications involved in processing.
 "Tea manufactured in Finland is made according to Finnish regulations. That is important for consumers," he declared.

Finnwatch: Tea sold in Finland picked by underpaid workers


Summary: Urban sprawl has more than half of respondents worried.

A new survey by pollster Taloustutkimus finds that well over half of Finnish respondents would like government to slow the phenomenon of urbanisation. One-third said the government should have no hand in how fast cities spread, and just two percent supported more urban development.
 Sociology reseacher  Timo Aro  said that interviewees respond emotionally rather than practically when asked about the spread of cities.
 "On one hand the results show that people are often afraid or tentative of big trends such as urbanisation," Aro said.
 "Then again there is also a sense of rural revenge at play. People associate urbanisation with the capital region, Turku, Tampere and other big cities. When asked in polls like this, non-city dwellers feel the need to lash out at Helsinki or other urban centres."
 Widespread consensus
 The Taloustutkimus poll queried 1,005 people about their views on urbanisation, and found that female respondents were more likely to call for limits on urbanisation (61 percent) than men were (52 percent).
 "It's a mystery why this gender disparity exists," Aro said.
 Respondents aged 35-64 were most likely to resist urbanisation. Millennials aged 25-34 were most opposed to the government having any say at all in the rate of urbanisation (45 percent).
 In terms of regional differences, respondents in northern and eastern Finland were most in favour of slowing urbanisation (64 percent). By contrast, inhabitants of Helsinki and Uusimaa in the south were least in favour of slowing urban spread (50 percent). The poll's margin of error was +/- three percentage points.
 "Lots of people in the capital region have moved there from rural areas," said Finns Party MP  Arja Juvonen . "Many people leave for big cities to study and work, and realise during middle-age that the countryside is always an option. Rural areas are respected."
 Opinion on urbanisation based on party affiliation. Lasse Isokangas / Yle
 Municipalities bordering the capital region are outliers, with 57 percent of respondents living there saying the government should have no say in urbanisation.
 Respondents who supported the Finns Party and the Social Democratic Party were most likely to demand the government stop the urbanisation trend.
 "For both of these parties the ideal Finnish society is in the past," said Aro. "Democrats consider the welfare state and the Nordic model to be the blueprint for everything against which all changes are compared. The Finns Party wants to return to a nostalgic past that no longer exists."
 Government unable to slow spread?
 Aro said that for decades people have widely called for the government to step in when worried about keeping the entire country inhabited or seeing regions develop in a balanced way.
 He also said that the government's chances of slowing down urbanisation are questionable and even foolish in terms of economic growth.
 "If we want to take better care of far-flung cities than we do today, we should talk about the regionalisation of government jobs, more even distribution of educational opportunities, even regional subsidies and subventions. Measures like these aren't entirely unproblematic from the perspective of equality," Aro said.
 The government should not interfere with urbanisation either by increasing or diminishing it, Aro said, as people, companies and other players in society should be able to decide where they set up shop.

Poll: most Finns want government to curb urbanisation


Summary: Skolt Sámi journalist Sara Wesslin joined the likes of climate activist Greta Thunberg on the BBC list.

UK public broadcaster BBC has named Yle journalist  Sara Wesslin  one of the world’s most inspiring and influential women in 2019.
 According to the BBC, Wesslin, who resides in Ivalo in northern Finland, has worked to actively revive the Skolt Sámi language in Finland in her work as Yle’s Skolt Sámi journalist. She is one of just two such journalists in the world.
 Wesslin said she heard of her listing among other illustrious women on Wednesday morning.
 "It does feel good. I’ve never received this kind of recognition before."
 The list includes  artists, athletes, politicians, researchers and activists. One of the best-known in the latter category is Swedish climate activist  Greta Thunberg .
 "It makes me speechless to think of the people I have been ranked alongside. It includes activists fighting for human rights and one water advocate working to ensure clean water in the world," Wesslin pointed out.
 Skolt Sámi an endangered language
 The Sámi are Europe’s only indigenous people. Of the three Sámi languages spoken in Finland, Inari Sámi and Skolt Sámi have long been in danger of disappearing. There are just 300 people left who speak Skolt Sámi, while speakers of Inari Sámi are estimated to be even fewer.
 The most-frequently spoken Sámi language in Finland is Northern Sámi.
 According to Wesslin, her inclusion on the BBC list also represents important recognition for Sámi culture.
 "It’s wonderful that such a small minority culture can be visible in this way. It’s not obvious that our language is still alive. And that is a really big deal."

BBC lists Yle Sámi journalist among 100 most influential women in 2019


Summary: The Finnish press on Thursday covers the national uproar over a menu change at a Helsinki cafe, along with good news for the Greens.

A student restaurant's decision to  stop serving beef to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions  caused absolute uproar among sections of the Finnish political class this week, and the follow-up stories have been plentiful.
 Centre Party MP  Anne Kalmari   announced  the decision was a travesty perpetrated by the 'veggie mafia', and even falsely claimed that university restaurant Unicafe would 'probably' replace domestic beef with imported food and possibly increase emissions.
 Unicafe had clearly stated that they would replace beef with chicken and pork, and they only serve Finnish chicken and pork.
 HS  reports  that Kalmari's comrade in the agrarian Centre Party, Agriculture Minister  Jari Leppä , also chimed in to say he didn't think the decision was sensible. Antti Kurvinen, who chairs the Centre's parliamentary group, said the menu adjustment was part of a 'culture war', and questioned students' automatic enrolment in the student union that owns Unicafe.
 Iltalehti, meanwhile,  looks  outside the metropolitan centre of climate-conscious youth to ask if other student restaurants are going to follow suit.
 Perhaps not surprisingly they mostly answered that no, they did not want to immediately make a menu change they could expect to be criticised by some of the country's most senior politicians.
 Even so, in Jyväskylä and Oulu they said the proportion of vegetarian meals they sell is rising and they try to source their ingredients responsibly.
 Haavisto in the lead
 Alma Media outlets all carry  a poll  on the 2024 (!) presidential election. The race to succeed  Sauli Niinistö  is some way from getting started, but even so, the Green Party's  Pekka Haavisto  is in the lead.
 He commands the support of some 33 percent of all voters at the moment, a lead of some 22 percentage points on the next candidate,  Olli Rehn  of the Centre Party.
 Iltalehti is keen to stress that his lead is even bigger among young people: he commands some 45 percent of the vote among 18-29-year-olds.
 That is well clear of  Jussi Halla-aho  of the Finns Party in second place, who polled 18 percent among that group.
 With the election not due for another five years, this demographic could provide a clue to the likely direction of the race as older voters pass away and younger ones join the electorate.
 Happy Birthday Kimi!
 The tabloids go to town on Thursday wishing many happy returns to  Kimi Räikkönen , the Finnish Formula 1 legend.
 Iltalehti has  a story  asking if the 40-year-old will be the last veteran driver in formula one, given changes in the sport over the years that have made it much more demanding.
 Ilta-Sanomat, meanwhile,  digs into  the family photo album for a succession of shots of little Kimi before he became World Champion.

Thursday’s papers: Meat-free madness, Haavisto in pole position and Räikkönen’s birthday wishes


Summary: The goal of 400 seals was originally set for 2025.

Conservationists have succeeded in smashing a target for numbers of the rare and severely endangered Saimaa ringed seal, with more than 400 now apparently resident in eastern Finland.
 Finland's state-owned forestry enterprise Metsähallitus estimates that about 410 seals currently live in the Saimaa lake region.
 The Environment Ministry's protection strategy originally set out to raise the ringed real population to 400 by the year 2025, so numbers are now six years ahead of schedule.
 A total of 88 Saimaa ringed seal pups were born in the 2019 mating season. More than 80 pups have been born per year for four years running.
 The latest population size estimates are based on data on nest locations from 2018-2019, the number of born pups and observations of adult ringed seals sunning on the lake ice.
 Seal habitat covers whole lake complex
 The Saimaa ringed seal is a unique species, having diverged from other ringed seal species after the end of the most recent glacial period some 9,500 years ago. The isolated species numbered about 270 individuals in 2010, having grown more than 50 percent since then.
 Saimaa is the fourth-largest lake in Europe. Kalle Purhonen / Yle
 The seal's habitat extends all across the 4,400 square kilometre Saimaa lake district in south-east Finland. The population is very spread out, with communities of some 100 seals existing only in the Pihlajavesi and Haukivesi lakes.
 Fishing restrictions, man-made snow banks in warm winters and other measures to ensure safe breeding periods have helped raise the population beyond conservationists' expectations.

Saimaa ringed seal population tops 400


Summary: The firm said that its line of business and the investor’s military ties are unrelated.

Ministerit, ministeriöt ja valtioneuvosto

An investment fund with ties to the Turkish Army has purchased a controlling interest in one of Finland’s major manufacturers goods used for military purposes.
 The Ministry of Employment and the Economy gave a green light for the deal in Helsinki before it was finally closed on 8 April.
 Turkey’s OYAK pension fund purchases a 70-percent stake in the Raahe-based firm Miilux, which makes products such as reinforced steel for armoured vehicles.
 "It can be attached to the side of a bus or an armoured personnel carrier. It ensures that bullets cannot penetrate [the vehicle]. It’s not for use in weapons or ammunition," Miilux CEO  Pekka Miilukangas  said.
 OYAK is a pension fund that represents Turkish army officers, non-commissioned officers and officials. However in legal terms, it resembles a holding company.
 The fund is said to have ties to the country’s autocratic government. According to the UK’s The Guardian, the Turkish government had appointed former generals on the board and the defence ministry had attended annual general meetings.
 Miilukangas said that his company’s expertise in protective steel and the pension fund’s army links are unrelated although “someone might think they are”. He added that 90 companies from around the world also have a stake in the fund.
 Ministry knew of Turkey links
 The deal itself did not attract any special attention in Finland. The defence ministry, defence command, foreign ministry, finance ministry and the national emergency supply agency all backed the sale, which was undersigned by then-economic affairs minister  Mika Lintilä .
 The government must approve all arms exports by domestic manufacturers. In the Miilux case, officials considered whether or not the deal could be detrimental, for example to national defence. The buyer’s ties to the Erdogan government were known to decision makers at the time.
 "For the most part the transaction was considered from a national perspective, but of course we always determine what kind of player a new owner is and who’s really in control," economic affairs ministry specialist  Lasse Puroma  said.
 In an email sent on Wednesday, the defence ministry told Yle that Miilux is not a key player in terms of the defence forces’ security of supply. Miilux has supplied protective steel plates for the Finnish navy's minelayer the Pohjanmaa, but it also produces other products.
 No arms exports to countries at war
 Last week Turkish President  Recep Tayyip Erdogan  launched a military campaign in Kurdish-controlled parts of northern Syria.
 Based on the value of export licenses granted,  Turkey was Finland’s most important arms trading partner  last year. The number one export product was protective steel, with Miilux the biggest supplier in that area.
 Miilux still has six valid export licenses for sales to Turkey. Its customers are armoured vehicle manufacturers BMC, Otokar, Nurol and Katmerciler as well as shrapnel protector maker Roketsan.
 Current government policy is that Finland should not export arms to countries engaged in conflict. This means that it will not grant new export licenses to Turkey and the defence ministry is also reviewing previously-granted licenses with a view to revoking them.
 Miilunkangas said that he supported the government policy on arms exports. However he noted that if Miilux’s valid export licenses are nullified, it would have an impact at the Raahe factory.

Turkish pension fund buys majority stake in Finnish defence products manufacturer


Summary: Many migrant fathers on paternity leave in Finland face isolation but lack the resources to create peer networks.

It helps to do some research and have a plan for activities to enjoy with your toddler when you're on paternity leave, says  James Cramer , a stay-at-home dad from the United Kingdom. Cramer told APN that  when he began paternity leave  in Finland, he hoped to meet other parents casually at the playground, strike up conversations and make friends along the way.
 "I wished I had prepared better. I wish I had spent some time selling the idea of parental leave to other dads so we could have gone through this journey together," he added.
 Even as the current government is trying to even the parental leave playing field by offering both parents five months of parental leave and an additional five months to be divided as they deem fit, stay-at-home dads say the the experience can be lonely, with little face-to-face human interaction.
 "I quite naively thought by going there [to the playground] everyday, I would meet the regulars and that there would be a lot more social opportunities. But it soon became apparent to me that it's just going to be my son and me," Cramer told APN this week. "I just wasn't seeing people and people were not available. It was tough to come to terms with."
 During the early weeks of paternal leave, it was also difficult to break free of the tyranny of work-related emails, action plans and to-do lists, Cramer said. Getting into a head space where child-rearing and not work was the priority took some time, he added.
 Affirming identity through language
 Fabrizio Turci , a peer support group facilitator with the family-oriented NGO Familia, said that fathers he talks to often grapple with reconciling the father figures they have known with the fathers they want to be.
 "A lot of fathers want to be more involved in their child's lives, much more than their fathers or father figures were. But they don't have enough tools because of the conditioning about traditional gender roles. They want to show a different side of masculinity but they don't know how to do it," said Turci, who runs a fathers’ group that connects foreign fathers.
 Fathers, especially immigrant dads with Finnish partners, often don't have the support they need to share their native language with their children, simply because it may not be a language that both parents speak at home. In some cases, they give up the attempt to impart their language altogether, Turci noted.
 He added that others even see their language and name as an impediment to their child's ability to fit into Finnish society and they may give them up as a result.
 "Bilingualism is not just about the language, but about the connection to their culture and identity. The father's language is sometimes the only one that children can speak to their grandparents. It is very important that the child shouldn't feel something is wrong with having two cultures, but know that it empowers them as humans," Turci said.
 Claiming new spaces
 In spite of the push to get more fathers to stay at home with their kids, Cramer noted that men may sometimes feel uncertain about entering spaces that have traditionally been dominated by women, such as playgrounds and even public child care facilities where carers can change a diaper.
 Those rooms can feel like female spaces, Cramer observes. "Even walking into those rooms felt quite intimidating because you get looks, as the women feel the room is designated for breastfeeding. A lot of spaces feel off-limits. In the playgrounds, mothers would often huddle and it feels odd to approach them."
 Turci noted that the more men venture into these common spaces, the less they will feel like intruders. "The more fathers that are out there, the more playgrounds are going to have fathers around. A lot of dads just stay at home thinking no one else is out there. It's just a matter of reaching out."
 Join the conversation
 Remember you still have some time to invite Yle News  to have coffee with you . If you want to share your ideas on Yle's work and media in Finland in general, send us an email, tell us about your group and why you think we should visit you and we may just show up with some cinnamon buns to share with you. Send your email to yle.news@yle.fi by  31 October .
 If you have any questions, or would like to share something on your mind, just contact us via WhatsApp on +358 44 421 0909, on our Facebook or Twitter accounts, or at yle.news@yle.fi.
 The All Points North podcast is a weekly look at what's going on in Finland. Subscribe via  iTunes  (and leave a review!), listen  on Spotify  and  Yle Areena  or find it on your favourite podcatching app or via our  RSS feed .
 This week's show was presented by  Denise Wall  and  Ronan Browne.  Our producer was  Priya Ramachandran D’souza  and the audio engineer was  Anders Johansson.

All Points North #64: Foreign dads seek community during parental leave


Summary: Women's homelessness is decreasing slower than men's due to systemic inequality.

Thursday, 17 October is the international Night of the Homeless, declared by the United Nations as a day against poverty and social exclusion since 2002.
 In Finland, the Night of the Homeless Citizens' Movement ( Asunnottomien yö ) organises live events, demonstrations, food distribution, movie screenings and more in numerous cities around the country.
 This year the theme of nationwide events is homeless women in particular, as they are statistically at greater risk than homeless men of violence, sexual assault and other dangers .
 Finland is the only EU country that has managed to decrease its rate of homelessness in recent years. Even so, female members of the homeless population do not receive as much care and assistance as men do.
 Story continues after photo.
 Night of the Homeless. Marja Väänänen / Yle
 Project manager  Leena Lehtonen  from  the Y Foundation's NEA project  – a programme focusing on the needs of homeless women – said that the disparity stems from systemic problems.
 "A majority of homeless people are male, and so housing and care services have been developed with only men in mind," Lehtonen said. "This has been successful in decreasing homelessness; but women's concerns are different than men's in many cases, and the system does not address them enough."
 A key issue in helping women cope with homelessness and get them off the street is quite simply safety and calm, according to NEA and to displaced women themselves.
 "Women need more safe places where they can go to figure out their situations," said  Emma , a woman who recently spent a year without a consistent residence (surname omitted). "It would be safer if women helped other women."
 The "Blue Ribbon Foundation" ( Sininauhasäätiö ) offers support for people without homes and announced it would be establishing day centre activities specifically for women.
 The  Monika Multicultural Women's Association  also offers assistance, guidance, activities and refuge from domestic violence or other crises.

Night of the Homeless highlights women


Summary: Caesarean operations don't cause allergies but may be tied to asthma, a Finnish study found.

A  long-term study published on Thursday  found that caesarean deliveries do not carry the risks most commonly associated with them.
 Researchers in Finland and Barcelona followed the health data of more than 1.4 million infants born in Finland from birth to adolescence, comparing those born by C-section with the rest. The study found no connection between the operation and a higher risk of children (born between 1990 and 2014) developing chronic problems such as allergies, Type I diabetes or obesity.
 Researchers also found that caesarean did not increase the risk or rate of infant mortality, but could potentially compromise a baby's lungs.
 "Our results suggest that avoidable unplanned C-sections increase the risk of asthma, but do not affect other immune-mediated disorders previously associated with C-sections," the abstract reads.
 The study was conducted by the Institute for Economic Research (VATT), the  Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare  (THL) and researchers from the University of Turku and Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona.
 Previous studies inadequate
 Researcher  Lauri Sääksvuori  pointed out the significance of the study's findings, saying that previous attempts to tie C-sections to long-term health risks were flawed.
 "Prior research has tried to make connections by comparing children born by vaginal delivery with those born by C-section. However, we know that infants are very different from one another for a host of reasons, as well as the mothers giving birth. Our new method resolves all the problems associated with previous research," Sääksvuori said.
 About 16 percent of children in Finland are born via caesarean section. THL reported that in 2018 doctors performed a little over 4,300 urgent C-sections and 390 emergency C-sections. A little over 3,100 scheduled caesarean operations were performed.
 Urgent operations are for situations where a moderately serious problem arises that can be solved with a C-section, such as when the mother runs out of strength and cannot push. Emergency caesareans are for cases where the mother's and/or child's life is directly in danger, with only minutes to spare, such as when the baby's breathing is obstructed.
 Different gut bacteria, implications unknown
 A  separate study  published in Nature in September found that babies born by C-section have different gut bacteria than those born vaginally. Essentially, vaginally born babies received most of their gut bacteria (known collectively as the microbiome) from their mother, whereas C-section babies "had more bacteria associated with hospital environments in their guts", the  press release  reads.
 The research conducted by scientists from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, University College London (UCL) and the University of Birmingham discovered the connection between microbiome make-up and delivery method, but the researchers were unable to pinpoint the implications of the different bacteria types.
 "The exact role of the baby's gut bacteria is unclear and it isn't known if these differences at birth will have any effect on later health. The researchers found the differences in gut bacteria between vaginally born and caesarean delivered babies largely evened out by 1 year old, but large follow-up studies are needed to determine if the early differences influence health outcomes. Experts from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists say that these findings should not deter women from having a caesarean birth," UCL announced.
 EDIT 18.10.2019 This story originally stated that "more than 1.4 million infants" were "born in Finland by emergency C-section". This is incorrect. 1.4 million is the total for live births, not the total of caesarean deliveries.

Study: C-sections less risky for babies than previously thought


Summary: Friday’s newspapers include stories about police reporting ethical transgressions and moans about parking prices.

At the start of the year the National Police Board established an ‘ethical channel’ for cops to report on suspicious activities among their fellow officers.
 The idea was to avoid a situation like the  Jari Aarnio   case , where rank-and-file police had suspicions about the disgraced ex-narcotics cop, but did not report it to their superiors.
 Helsingin Sanomat  reports  on Friday that since the channel was established, some 170 complaints have been received.
 Many of them were humorous or hostile to the idea, but there were some nuggets of potentially corrupt behaviour.
 One reported a restaurant that offered uniformed officers a 30 percent discount on lunch, while another suggested that wearing a police uniform in a Tinder profile picture might damage confidence in the force.
 HS reports that a total of three cases have been passed to the prosecutor for consideration.
 Tripla parking charges grate
 Iltalehti  reports  on the opening of a new mall and huge railway station at Pasila in Helsinki.
 The development opened its doors on Thursday with throngs of excited shoppers turning up to savour the frantic atmosphere of a busy retail experience.
 IL reports, however, that motorists were upset that the parking facilities at Tripla are on the expensive side at five euros per hour.
 Quite why anyone would want to drive to a public transport hub with connections to every part of the country was not explained, but the tabloid culled comments from a local FB group and made a story about them.
 Housing hopes
 Helsingin Sanomat is both Finland’s paper of record and the local news outlet for its biggest city, and this autumn HS has been running a series of articles about council housing in the capital.
 Heka provides municipally-owned housing to those who need it, but HS suggests the system is easily abused. There are income requirements and a need requirement before tenants are allocated a home, but on Friday the paper  reports  on one anonymous Heka customer who managed to fiddle the system.
 ‘Kim’ says he landed a plum apartment near the city centre by persuading his landlord to convert his ongoing lease to a temporary one, thus making him homeless--on paper.
 That paper was enough to get him the flat, where he now lives paying a rent that’s well below market rates in the country’s dearest rental market.
 HS says that Heka staff say they should spot such trickery, and that they sometimes call landlords to check, but the system is what it is.
 Kim’s landlord tells the paper that it’s not the fault of those who fiddle the system.
 “Don’t hate the player, hate the game,” said the landlord.

Friday’s papers: Tinder police, Tripla parking and Helsinki housing


Summary: Families with children receive less in social benefits than other segments of the population.

Families with children are more financially insecure than other groups in society and there are large variations in how well they fare, according to new research from the National Institute for Health and Welfare, THL.
 The study of differences in income and wellbeing among families with lower comprehensive school-aged children was based on a 2017 survey of 33,000 parents of fourth- and fifth-grade children, 86 percent of whom were mothers.
 A Statistics Finland analysis of the data gathered indicated that since the year 2000, up to 36 percent of families with children have experienced varying levels of financial distress. As many as a quarter of families with children found that their expenses outstripped their incomes.
 Real value of child allowance falling
 The THL said however that the proportion of families experiencing financial distress has shrunk since 2015. THL research head  Minna Salmi  speculated that the reason could be an easing of the wider financial crisis and an increase in employment.
 Salmi also pointed out that the position of single parents has improved because of a small increase in the national child care allowance paid to children under the age of 17. She added that even relatively small increases in income could lift an individual above the poverty line, or conversely, it could push them below it.
 She said however that the real value of income transfers to families with children by way of social benefits has declined since the 1990s.
 "Social security income transfers to families with children are lower than in many other groups," she commented.
 Research has shown that it is possible to provide relief for overburdened parents by increasing the real value of income transfers to families with children.
 More services needed
 Financial insecurity is also reflected in the uptake of family-oriented services such as those provided by school nurses and doctors as well as psychologists and counselors.
 "On the one hand, there’s a high level of usage of these services, but on the other hand, services have not been available when they are needed," Salmi observed.
 The research chief said that service providers should be able to bring up the subject of a family’s financial means when relevant and should be able to guide parents to seek assistance from other possible channels.
 "Increasing incomes as well as service resources are both important. It wouldn’t be enough to focus on just one area."
 The study also indicated that boosting incomes would also ease pressure on services, while eroding incomes would create a continuous need for new services.

Study: Families with children struggle more to make ends meet


Summary: The scam being investigated concerns EU citizens that register in Finland, max out on payday loans, and then disappear.

Finland's National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is investigating a series of cross-border crimes in which Finnish banks and registry offices have been manipulated in order to commit wide-scale fraud.
 The investigative police unit suspects that organised criminals are behind a number of EU citizens that came to Finland, registered as residents in order to get an ID number, and then opened a bank account. After this, the account and identification data were transferred to the masterminds of the scam, who established fake companies and obtained the maximum amount of payday loans and credit card debt.
 The plaintiffs in the case include several finance companies and one international credit card firm. It is suspected that loans and credit cards were granted to over 40 individuals and several fraudulent companies as part of the scheme.
 Over 700K in damages
 NBI says that damages reported by the plaintiffs in the case total some 725,000 euros.
 Ten or so individuals are suspected of having orchestrated the scam, some of whom lived in Finland for a time. Dozens more participated in the actual fraud.
 Police have seized numerous credit cards and debit cards, bank documents, and a large amount of IT equipment that they suspect is linked to the suspected offenses. Close to 20,000 euros in cash were also confiscated.
 The pre-trial investigation has determined that most of the funds were then withdrawn in cash from an ATM or used to purchase items from online retailers. Some of the money was also transferred abroad.
 Online sites hacked
 The pre-trial investigation also detected traces of website hacking that targeted several Finnish associations. In some of the cases, the perpetrators successfully downloaded material that should have been unavailable to the public, such as membership lists.
 "The data breach targeted fewer than ten small organisations and firms that work on a national level. They are aware of the situation, but I can't say outright whether they have informed their members and employees," says the NBI's chief inspector in the case,  Mikko Laaksonen .
 Finland's investigative police have worked extensively with several other international authorities to get to the bottom of the suspected scam. The pre-trial investigation compiled a list of over 30 different crimes that are thought to have taken place between late 2016 and the summer of 2017, including aggravated fraud, illegal register use, aggravated breach of data, tax fraud and forgery.
 The case will progress to the prosecutor's office yet this autumn.
 The NBI says that there have been increased efforts in Finland to establish fraudulent operations like the one in question. Cooperation between the different organisations to prevent, detect and identify fraudulent activity is paramount, the authorities say.

NBI investigates suspected scammers over cross-border credit fraud


Summary: The proposed tunnel from Sörnäinen to the West Harbour was rejected last week by the city's Urban Environment Board.

Helsinki mayor  Jan Vapaavuori  has revealed via Twitter and his personal blog that he intends to refer the already-rejected  downtown tunnel project  back to Helsinki city council for further consideration. The council  voted against proceeding with the project  in September, and Helsinki city's Urban Environment Board rejected further planning for the underground tunnel project last week.
 The proposed subterranean tunnel would have run for seven kilometres from Helsinki's Sörnäinen district to the West Harbour, allowing motorists to bypass Helsinki city centre, but the 1.4 billion euros price tag was considered too expensive by the board and less of a priority than making the capital more pedestrian friendly.
 However, Vapaavuori believes that the preparations for the tunnel have not been fully or sufficiently investigated, and used his right as mayor to refer the issue to the city board for discussion even though it was rejected by the planning committee after the Social Democrats announced they would not support it.
 "My intent is not to try to advance the downtown tunnel through the city council, but to ensure that the normal decision-making process is followed. Nor is it my intention to open up a new exploration of the tunnel project, but rather a new overall traffic plan", the mayor wrote on Twitter.
 Chairman of the city council,  Otso Kivekäs , told Yle that he has not yet seen Vapaavuori's new proposal, but he does not believe that the central tunnel will be explored any further.
 "It is of course possible to make presentations and explanations from different angles. The same groups that made the decision on the downtown tunnel in the Urban Environment Committee also have a majority in the city government and the city council. I think it is clear for all groups that the decision has now been made,” Kivekäs said.

Helsinki Mayor not giving up on underground tunnel


Summary: Next year Finland will host an exhibition of works from Vincent van Gogh.

Kulttuuri- ja taidetapahtumat ja -näyttelyt

Länsimaiset taidesuuntaukset ennen 1900-lukua

Museot, näyttelyt sekä historiallisten paikkojen ja rakennusten suojelu

After years of waiting to sign the contract to borrow them, Didrichsen Museum in Helsinki will next year host an exhibition of works by Dutch master Vincent van Gogh.
 It is the museum's 'most costly' exhibition ever, according to Maria Didrichsen, but she did not expand on how much the museum paid.
 "I can only say that this is our biggest investment ever," said Didrichsen.
 Van Gogh works have been on show in Finland before, but next autumn’s exhibition will be the first van Gogh-specific exhibition featuring a broad range of his output.
 The museum has been working to secure the loans for six years, once they identified the Kröller-Müller museum in Holland as their preferred partner. The Dutch institution has the world’s second-largest collection of van Gogh’s art.
 Story continues after picture
 This self-portrait will be in Helsinki in 2020. Didrichsenin taidemuseo
 "The works are constantly in demand all over the world," said Didrichsen. "Museums of course want to put on show their own rare works, so we had to wait for quite a few years before we got the art."
 Among other considerations, the Didrichsen Museum had to agree strict security arrangements with the works' owners before the contract was agreed.
 Mainly sketches on show
 The works heading to Helsinki will try to show how van Gogh became an artist, as well as displaying some of his lesser-known works.
 Those looking for his world-famous sunflower paintings will be disappointed. The Finnish exhibition will comprise 39 sketches and two oil paintings.
 The artist's self-portrait, on the other hand, will be coming to Finland.
 "The show is mainly based on sketches," said Didrichsen. "Many of them are quite large. This is a chance to see the artist’s handiwork up close."
 The only van Gogh currently in Finland is owned by the Ateneum Museum, and is named ' Street, Auvers-sur Oise '.
 The van Gogh exhibition opens at the Didrichsen Art Museum on 5 September 2020.

First-ever van Gogh exhibition comes to Finland


Summary: Newspapers on Thursday chew over a political poll, suspicious-sounding salesmen and how to fight food waste.

Helsingin Sanomat  publishes  the latest iteration of its party support polling on Thursday, with the Finns Party still in first position with 20.5 percent of respondents saying they’d vote for the party.
 The party is up 0.7 of a percentage point on the last monthly poll HS conducted, although the difference remains within the poll’s 2.1 percentage point margin of error.
 The Centre Party, meanwhile, has seen only a small shift in its support numbers since Katri Kulmuni took over as leader in September, with this month’s number up 0.3 of a percentage point.
 The combined total of support for parties in  Antti Rinne’s  government now stands at some 55.6 percent, down 0.4 percent since last month.
 Pori problem
 Finnish is a notoriously difficult language to learn as a foreigner, but surely it must be easier if you’re born and raised in the country? Not necessarily, as one case covered in Ilta-Sanomat  reveals .
 The tabloid reports on a mysterious case in Kangasniemi, North Savo, where people reported suspicious-sounding men in a white van.
 Rumours spread on Facebook that the men’s Finnish sounded so strange they must have foreign roots, and the police eventually investigated.
 It turned out the men had indeed come a long way--all the way from Pori on the west coast.
 The strong Pori accent had so confused many locals they were apparently unable to decipher what was going on, but IS tracked down some satisfied customers who reported that the men were only selling meat, cheese and preserved vegetables.
 The pulled pork was delicious, reported the Kangasniemi locals, but the 6.7 kilo packs were perhaps a little too big for their small household.
 Food waste on agenda
 Buffet breakfasts caused a stir on social media this week after a chef in Ikaalinen  posted pictures  of the food left over after hungry visitors turned out not to be quite as hungry as they thought.
 Some 43 kilos of food were left over after breakfast, and the pictures caused a storm on social media. Yle and other media including Ilta-Sanomat  reported  the pictures, and outrage duly followed.
 One possible solution did emerge, however: charging customers for their leftovers. Sprinter Noora Toivo  suggested  on Twitter that a British innovation of weighing the leftover food and charging people for leaving it could nip the problem in the bud.
 If things don’t change soon, that might help people estimate their appetites more realistically.

Thursday’s papers: Poll numbers, Pori suspicions and food waste


Summary: A public list of non-compliant firms is meant to spur them to meet the requirements of a new anti-money laundering law.

Finland is planning to establish its first "wall of shame" for companies and other so-called "reporting entities" that have not taken the necessary steps to prevent money laundering in line with the 2017 Anti-Money Laundering Act.
 The list would for example include automobile dealers or real estate brokers who have not fulfilled the obligations of the law, which include doing due diligence on their customers and providing appropriate employee training on the subject. For instance, the new law requires business owners to check the identity of anyone making a purchase worth more than 10,000 euros.
 An investigation into company negligence in this area is almost finished, and state authorities are expected to levy their first administrative fines and penalty payments by the end of the year. A prerequisite for all the sanctions is that the violation or neglect was either intentional or the result of negligence.
 "The law isn't credible if the reporting entities don't take care of the basics," says chief inspector  Vesa Härmälä  of Southern Finland's Regional State Administrative Agency (AVI).
 FATF raps Finland over enforcement
 The inter-governmental Financial Action Task Force, formed in 1989 to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, criticised Finland in the spring for failing to impose punishments that would promote enforcement of the new law. The public list is a response to this criticism.
 Finland's Financial Supervision Authority, the Police Lottery Authority, the National Board of Patents and Registration, and the Finnish Bar Association will join the AVI units in supervising compliance.
 "Companies that neglect to monitor their customers and evaluate the associated risks will be made subject to public reproach, which is more effective than being charged in an isolated money laundering case," says  Pirjo Jukarainen , a researcher at the Police University College.
 Very few money laundering cases are ever tried in a court of law, yet it is feared that the illegal practice is growing in Finland, especially in the real estate market.
 Helsinki's District Court recently  dismissed all charges  in a case that would have been Finland's largest in history, as there were insufficient grounds to establish the criminal origin of the money in question.
 Better enforcement of the Anti-Money Laundering Act is hoped to make it easier to crack down on these kinds of offenses.

Finland founds "wall of shame" to prevent money laundering


Summary: Despite being a world leader in icebreaking technology, Finland's own fleet of eight icebreakers is ageing fast.

State-owned icebreaker company Arctia is assessing its fleet of eight icebreakers to determine which must be completely replaced and which can be modernised to meet modern-day maritime demands. The oldest vessels in the fleet date back to the 1950s and 1970s.
 The freight and cruise ships that the icebreakers clear the way for have grown larger over the years, which means that icebreakers have to meet expanded requirements. Wider avenues will have to be forged for maritime transport, and climate change is also expected to create more pack ice.
 "Not only are the ships wider, but their engine power is lower due to environmental regulations. This will also increase the need for assistance," says  Maunu Visuri,  Arctia CEO.
 Minister for State Ownership Steering  Sirpa Paatero  has promised that a strategic decision about a renewal to the fleet will be made during this legislative session.
 "We have to consider the cost of modernisation in relation to the projected user life," Paatero says.
 Of the eight icebreakers in the Arctia fleet, only one can make the required 31-meter-wide break in the ice that has become the new standard in the industry.
 Visuri adds that the icebreakers have had sizeable upgrades over the years, and so there is no need to panic just yet, even if there is a clear need for renewal. He says it is important to proceed carefully, to ensure that any new purchases will be able to meet all of Finland's future needs.
 Charting more cooperation with Sweden
 Minister Paatero says that the renewal process could cost hundreds of millions of euros, and that both the Border Guard and the  Navy  are also investing heavily in new ships at present.
 "We'll have to schedule a possible icebreaker investment with these other projects in mind," she says.
 Part of the assessment of the icebreaker fleet includes consideration of the special needs of Finland's coastal areas, and how Finland could work together more closely with Sweden in this area in the future.
 Paatero stresses that Finland has no plans to buy joint vessels, but to simply increase a better division of labour with its western neighbour.
 "For example in the Bothnian Bay, it would make sense to order the services of the icebreaker that happens to be closest," she says.
 The minister points out that  Finland is one of the world's leading builders of icebreakers , and the state plans to utilise this top competence. Unfortunately, the order books at most of Finland's shipyards are already quite full for the next few years, so if the state plans to order a new icebreaker, negotiations need to start soon.
 Arctia provides icebreaking services for the Finnish Transport Agency during the winter months, and also works for private companies in the offshore gas and oilfield sector. The company is headquartered in the Katajanokka district of Helsinki, where most of its icebreakers are moored when not in use.

Finland's icebreaker fleet in need of update


Summary: In a country with over two million saunas, Jiri Lindén thought it would be handy to have a towel that stays on easily.

"It sure would be great if towels had straps because then they would stay on!"  Jiri Lindén  said to his mum one day in the summer of 2018, while he was cooling off after a sauna in his hometown of Jämsä, Finland.
 His entrepreneur mother  Katja Lindén  immediately hooked up with another local business owner to design a prototype to meet Jiri's specifications.
 After a brief period of product development, Jiri and his mum applied for a so-called "utility model" with the Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH), which grants exclusive rights in Finland to use certain inventions.
 Utility models were developed to let people register their ideas quickly. In contrast, the process for applying for a patent in Finland lasts an average of two and a half years, as among other things, PRH examines the novelty of the invention to make sure that nothing similar has been invented before.
 Jiri's slogan "The Towel That Stays On" was born just as easily as his product. The men's design features a towel at the waist with straps that cross in the back. Both the straps and waist are adjustable, to fit every body size.
 During Finland's  Sauna Day  in July, Jiri and his father attracted a great deal of attention when they played football wearing nothing but Jiri's new invention.
 "People were wondering how it's possible that something like this hasn't been invented before; that no one had thought of such a simple thing. It just goes to show that people should take the time from the hustle and bustle of everyday life to really listen to children. There are a lot of good tips out there," says Jiri's mum Katja.
 Finland losing its inventive edge
 Inventors like Jiri are needed in Finland, as the number of patented granted by the Finnish Patent and Registration Office each year have fallen by half in the last decade. Finland used to be among Europe's top countries in terms of patents per capita, but now it has dropped to fifth position.
 "It's clear that Finland is consistently behind its peers in terms of research and development investment. This is major cause of concern, as that is how patents are generated, and patent numbers are a good indicator of a nation's wellbeing," says PRH's director of patents and trademarks  Jorma Hanski .
 But what can Finland do to reverse this trend? Management consulting firm Witas' innovator  Jari Heilmann  says the answer is to start young.
 "Innovation starts in school. Schools should be equipped to provide instruction in programming and robotics, for example. This is how we inspire more young people to become inventors," he says.
 Story continues after the photo. .
 Lindén says he had thought about making a towel with straps for a long time. Jussi Lindroos / Yle
 Born to be a business man
 Jiri Lindén has been an ideas man from a very young age, according to his mum.
 "He's got great business sense. He said already when he was 3 or 4 that he wanted to run his own company, and we kind of laughed it off, but now it looks as if he really does have it in his blood," Katja Lindén says.
 It's unclear whether "The Towel That Stays On" will be available in stores soon, but Jiri and his family hope to have larger-scale production in motion by next summer.
 "Seamstresses in Jyväskylä will do their best over the Christmas season. We have already started negotiations with a larger manufacturer," Katja explains.
 The newspaper Maaseudun Tulevaisuus was the first to report on Jiri Lindén's invention.

7-year-old bucks downward patent trend, invents towel with straps


Summary: Respondents could name the president, Sauli Niinistö, but only 31 percent knew the name of the second-highest in command.

Two-thirds of Finnish residents don't know who is currently serving as speaker of parliament, suggests a new poll from Taloustutkimus. Commissioned by the Lännen Media news consortium, the poll found that only 31 percent of the 1,005 survey respondents were able to name Speaker of the Parliament  Matti Vanhanen , despite the importance of the position. The speaker of the parliament formally ranks second in Finland's leadership protocol, after the president.
 The survey found that most respondents were quite familiar with Finland's Prime Minister  Antti Rinne  and current issues in party politics. An exception is Interior Minister  Maria Ohisalo , as only one-third of the survey respondents were able to correctly identify her as the Green Party chair. Only 39 percent of respondents who self-identified as Green Party supporters knew that she was the current party leader.
 The margin of error in the poll was three percentage points in either direction.

Survey: Only a third of Finns can name parliamentary speaker


Summary: Education Minister Li Andersson says more psychologists and counsellors are needed to stop bullying in Finnish schools.

Finland's Minister of Education  Li Andersson  wants to more closely address bullying in schools. Appearing in an Yle Ykkösaamu interview on Saturday, Andersson said that 29 million euros in additional funding will be devoted to increasing counselling resources in Finnish schools during the current government term.
 "Bullying at school leaves life-long scars and life-long trauma. It should be treated as a violent act, as it is often a matter of both mental and physical violence," she said.
 The 29-million-euro sum will be used to improve the availability of psychologists and counsellors in both primary and secondary schools. Andersson says her ministry is preparing new pupil-to-professional ratios that will be enforced on a nationwide level to ensure that all schoolchildren will have equal services.
 "We've set an ambitious goal to raise our education level, so this means we've also got to make sure that all children feel confident about going to school," the minister said.
 Too much regional variance
 She said that there is currently too much variation in the availability of professional help at Finland's schools.
 "One single school counsellor can have between 700 and 2,000 pupils as clients at present, or be responsible for up to 12 different locations," Andersson said.
 Andersson said that the education ministry plans to introduce the new ratios in Finland's secondary schools already during this parliamentary term.
 "It is linked to the government's goal of extending compulsory education. If we enact a major change that aims to make all young people study until the age of 18, then we have to make sure that student support services are improved," she said.
 United message required
 Andersson hopes that she can entice all of Finland's parliamentary parties to participate in drawing up a national action plan to combat school bullying.
 "I'm inviting all of the parliamentary parties to join this work because this is a matter that transcends party lines. We need a united message from the nation's decision-makers that conveys the seriousness of the situation," she said.
 During the interview, Andersson also discussed a  pilot project  to assess changes in learning outcomes if early childhood education in Finland was extended from one year to two years, and her initiative to do away with sibling supplements to home care allowances in order to encourage better participation in early childhood education opportunities.

Minister pledges €29m to improve school counselling services


Summary: KuPS Kuopio will compete in the Uefa Champions League in the 2020-21 season.

Savo was celebrating on Saturday after KuPS Kuopio sealed the 2019 Veikkausliiga title with a 2-0 win away at Inter Turku.
 The victory ended a 43-year wait for the title for KuPS, who were last crowned champions of Finland in 1976.
 “I’m speechless,” said KuPS captain and Kuopio native  Petteri Pennanen . “I’ve dreamed of this since I was little, and in the last few years the title has been our clear target. Now there’s a bit of an empty feeling, but I’m proud and happy.”
 An even first half left Inter some hope, but after the break KuPS stepped on the gas. First Ilmari Niskanen put the visitors ahead on 51 minutes, before  Reuben Ayarna  hammered the ball home from 25 metres three minutes later out to all-but-seal the win.
 Inter kept plugging away but eventually their discipline frayed and  Niko Markkula  was sent off on 81 minutes for a second bookable offence.
 Inter striker  Timo Furuholm  somehow remained uncautioned despite several animated altercations, but KuPS stayed in control and saw the game out to secure the trophy.
 KuPS owner  Ari Lahti  was on hand to dish out the medals in Turku, wearing his other hat as chairman of the country’s FA.
 It was a happy moment for the investment banker, who has bankrolled the Kuopio side for years.
 European places up for grabs
 KuPS had the chance to win the championship two weeks ago in their home match against FC Honka. A win would have confirmed KuPS as champions, but Honka equalised in the 82nd minute through Robert Ivanov to set up the title decider in Turku.
 Inter now enter the Europa League in the 2020-21 season while kuPS will compete in the Champions League. Ilves also qualified for the Europa League by winning the Finnish Cup in June.
 The final Europa League place will be decided by a playoff between the teams who finished in positions 5-8, who will playoff for the right to play FC Honka, who finished third, for the final spot.
 VPS Vaasa were relegated to the first division, while KPV Kokkola will enter a play-off with TPS Turku for the final place in the top flight for the 2020 season.

KuPS end 43 years of waiting for Finnish title


Summary: Finnish police report that some of the demonstrators did not follow police instructions, compelling them to use force.

Police in Helsinki, Finland report using force at a demonstration against the Turkish incursion into Syria on Saturday. In a tweet issued at around 4 pm, Helsinki Police said that "some of the protesters did not follow police instructions. […] We were forced to intervene by preventing the organizers' vehicle from joining the march, which took place on foot."
 An earlier tweet from the force reported that officers were being resisted in the Narinkkatori square, the starting location of the protest in front of the Kamppi shopping complex. "Police were compelled to use force," the tweet said.
 Demonstrations gathered in the Finnish cities of Helsinki, Turku and Tampere on Saturday to oppose Turkish actions and the war in Syria, according to a bulletin from the Rojavan Puolesta group promoting solidarity with Syria's Rojava region. Several people on the group's Twitter site commented that the police were carrying tasers.
 Law enforcement estimates that about 300 people participated in the protest in Helsinki. A march departed from the Narinkkatori square and walked the city centre area, causing traffic disruptions, before ending at Kansalaistori (Citizens' Square).
 In Turku, some 200 people made a similar march through the city. Local police report that the demonstration proceeded without incident.

Police in Helsinki quell defiant Turkish invasion protesters


Summary: Ville Heikkinen became the fourth wildlife photographer in the competition's history to have received the award twice.

A silhouette of a bear and raven captured the grand prize at Finland's 39th annual Nature Photo of the Year competition, held on Saturday, 19 October at Finlandia Hall in Helsinki.
 Ville Heikkinen 's "Bear and Raven" was praised by the competition's jury for its epic atmosphere.
 "The photo has a strong story that you want to revisit. It calls to mind the fables of our youth. Just what has the raven fooled the bear into this time?" the panel enthused.
 The jury also pointed out the subjects' careful placement in the shot.
 "A setting like this, where all of the elements are in perfect alignment, is not born in a moment. It demands patience. This is nature photography at its best: bringing these kinds of experiences to others who can't get to places like this for various reasons," it said.
 Over 14,000 photos from 844 different photographers were entered in this year's competition, competing in eight different categories plus a youth category. The main prize in the competition is 10,000 euros.
 The 90 photos that were selected for the final competition were also put out to an audience vote, via Facebook groups and other channels. The 2019 Audience Favourite was "Looking for the Future", from photographer  Markku Pihlajaniemi .
 The 2019 Audience Favorite Markku Pihlajaniemi
 All of the winners of the competition will be assembled into a Nature Photo of the Year exhibition that will tour Finland for the next year. The annual competition is organized by the Finnish Nature Photographers Association, with 2,800 professional and amateur nature photographers as members. It is the largest competition of its kind in the Nordics.

Silhouette of bear and raven wins Finnish nature photo prize


Summary: The aluminium catamaran "Augusta" was built in Kokkola and is well suited to shallow coastal waters.

A new research vessel was christened in Helsinki this week that will improve and modernize Finland's Baltic Sea research capabilities. Among other things, the Augusta vessel will help study the sea floor, measure water mass, and keep tabs on blue-green algae in coastal waters.
 The 18-meter catamaran will be used by the Tvärminne Zoological Station, part of the Helsinki University's biological and environmental sciences faculty. Located at the entrance of the Gulf of Finland near the municipality of Hanko, the station has conducted scientific research for over a century, providing long-term data for studying environmental changes.
 "The catamaran has been specifically designed to navigate Finland's complex archipelago. Coastal areas are rich in marine life and tend to be very diverse. But they have also suffered from eutrophication," said  Alf Norkko , professor of Baltic Sea Research at the university, in a Radio Suomi interview.
 Rapid algae and cyanobacteria growth have led to a depleted oxygen supply in the waters off of Finland.
 "The Baltic Sea has a long history of eutrophication. It is the biggest problem that it has confronted, as it affects coastal diversity," Norkko said.
 The professor said that the addition of rising temperatures to the mix will have grave consequence, as the Baltic Sea is relatively shallow.
 "We have measured the sea's temperature very closely for almost one hundred years. Because we have such a long timeline, we can detect changes. Ever since around the early 1990s, temperatures have risen by about two degrees Celsius at a depth of 30 metres," he said.
 "We can't protect what we don't understand"
 The Augusta will make it possible for the Tvärminne team to study coastal marine life and see how its ecosystem works. Norkko told Radio Suomi that this kind of research is essential for marine conservation efforts.
 "We can't protect what we don't understand. Basic research plays a central role in decision-making," he said.
 The new vessel is equipped with appropriate lifting and winch devices for lifting sampling equipment to and from the sea floor. The deck is large enough to accommodate field courses of up to 30 people, in addition to the crew. The powerful engine will also make it possible to cover more extensive ground on day trips, which will also cut back on expenses.
 "We wanted the boat to be fast, so we could make it back to the Tvärminne Zoological Station, where we have special laboratories, that same evening," Norkko explained.
 The 1.9-million-euro aluminium catamaran was purchased with 800,000 euros in donated funds, paired with the government's counter-financing programme.

Helsinki University christens new marine research vessel for offshore research


Summary: Police say the deaths of a 25-year-old woman and 21-year-old man were not related and there were no signs of violence.

Two dead bodies were found overnight on the Tallink Silja Europa passenger cruise ship while it was anchored at a port in Tallinn, Estonia. The deceased were both Finnish citizens, one a 25-year-old woman and the other a 21-year-old man.
 Estonian police say the first body was discovered at 3am and the second was found at 5am. They say that the incidents do not appear to be related and that neither case indicated that there had been any violence involved.
 The bodies of the deceased have been sent for an autopsy to determine the cause of death.
 Estonian police say the deceased had spent the night in their cabins on the cruise ship while it was docked at the Tallinn port. The cabins were not located close to each other on the ship.
 Tallink Silja communication director  Marika Nöjd  said that the bodies were both discovered by their fellow passengers, and an Estonian police patrol and ambulance were then called to the scene.
 "Usually if someone dies on a ship, it is an older person. Now it seems as if this turn of events was purely a coincidence, as the deceased were travelling with different parties," she said.
 Nöjd said that the passengers on the cruise ship did not exit the ship during the night.

Bodies of two Finns discovered aboard cruise ship in Estonian port