Summary: Police have identified 6,000 people in Finland who bought and sold illicit substances on darkweb site Silkkitie.

Police have launched thousands of criminal investigations into suspected narcotics offences, which came to light after  officials seized the server of drug-selling dark web site Silkkitie , or Silk Road, earlier this year.
 Finnish Customs, the National Bureau of Investigation and police departments across Finland are investigating thousands of suspected offences related to the Finnish drug-selling site Silkkitie on the hidden Tor network. Silkkitie, also known as Valhalla, began selling drugs and other illicit products on the dark web in 2013.
 Digital forensic investigators have been able to uncover the identities of thousands of Finnish sellers and buyers on the site.
 “Customs has already identified over 6,000 people,” detective superintendent  Jari Räty  from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said.
 Most of the suspects have no previous criminal background and come from all facets of society, according to Customs. Men make up 84 percent of suspects and women 16.
 “It is an enormous investigative effort throughout the country. At the moment, most police departments are going through the material received from Finnish Customs,” Räty explained.
 For several years, narcotics, doping substances, medicinal substances and weapons were brokered via the Silkkitie and Valhalla. Silkkitie was one of the oldest and internationally best-known trade sites selling narcotics through an encrypted network, according to Finnish Customs.
 Rural areas gain access to drugs
 Officials said Silkkitie considerably increased the supply of narcotics in Finland, especially beyond large cities while also supplying drugs to minors as young as 15.
 “The online narcotics trade has moved drugs beyond Finland’s largest cities,” Räty said, adding that the site made it possible to order drugs to one's doorstep using regular mail.
 Some 400,000 pseudonyms were registered on the site which featured 78,000 different products for sale. Silkkitie concluded some 500,000 transaction, resulting in a total turnover of 50 million euros. The administrator took an average five-percent commission of the trade carried out on the website.
 Some of the purchases made on Silkkitie were so large that officials suspect buyers resold the products.
 “In the encrypted network buyers believed that the online trade in narcotics and other illegal products was 'safe' because of the anonymity. This myth has now been broken, said  Hannu Sinkkonen , director of enforcement at Finnish Customs.
 German, French, Canadian and American officials as well as Europol cooperated in the case. The National Prosecution Authority has assigned a national group of 22 prosecutors to handle cases arising from the seizure.
 "Having specially assigned prosecutors handle the criminal matters related to Silkkitie ensures more effectively that criminal liability is imposed equally and uniformly, regardless of where in Finland an offence has been committed, specialised prosecutor  Anna-Riikka Ruuth  said in a statement.
 The Finnish darknet site used the same name as the US-run black market Silk Road, which the FBI shut down in 2013.

Police launch thousands of investigations into seized Finnish Silk Road server


Summary: Finland got a tough Euro2020 draw on Saturday in Bucharest.

Finland's football fans will have to brush up on their Russian next year after the Euro2020 draw gave them two games in Saint Petersburg, the nearest host city to Finland, either side of the Midsummer holiday weekend.
 In a ceremony in Bucharest on Saturday the 'Eagle Owls' were drawn to play against Denmark, Russia and Belgium in Group B of the 2020 European Championship finals.
 The good news for Finnish fans is that they will not have to travel very far to support their team in their first ever finals tournament — at least in the early stages —with the Group B games taking place in St Petersburg and Copenhagen.
 The bad news is that it's a very tough draw. In two of their matches they will be the away team, facing Denmark and Russia in Denmark and Russia. The third match is against Belgium, who are currently ranked number one in the world by the global governing body Fifa.
 "Exciting and inspiring time"
 Finland’s captain  Tim Sparv , who plays his club football for the Danish side Midtjylland in the Superliga, told Yle he is especially looking forward to the opening game.
 "It will be a very significant match for me personally. The Danes think they will win easily. I want to put them in their place," Sparv said.
 Although Sparv concedes Finland have been handed a tough draw, he believes the team should aim for the "ambitious but realistic" target of qualifying from the group and playing in the final stages.
 Story continues after photo.
 Finland men's team captain Tim Sparv. Tomi Hänninen
 "This is an exciting and inspiring time," Sparv said. "Playing in the the finals has been a big dream of ours for years, so it would seem silly to go there and not aim to reach the knockout stages."
 Finland kick off their campaign against the 1992 European Champions Denmark on Saturday June 13 in Copenhagen’s Parken Stadium.
 Next up for the Huuhkajat will be a trip to face Russia in St Petersburg — located a mere 300 kilometres from Helsinki —where the 64,000 capacity Krestovsky Stadium will host the second group game on Wednesday June 17.
 Finland's final group game will also be in St Petersburg, on Monday June 22 against Belgium, currently the best team in the world according to governing body FIFA’s official rankings.
 If Finland were to finish at the top of this group, they would then face one of the third placed teams from Groups A, D, E or F in Bilbao on June 28. A second place finish will see them face the runners-up of Group A on June 27 in Amsterdam. A strong third place finish would mean a trip to Glasgow on June 30 to face the winners of Group E.
 Scramble for tickets to begin this week
 Finnish fans -- along with supporters of the other 19 qualified teams -- will get the chance to buy tickets via the  UEFA website  when they go on sale at 3pm Finnish time on Wednesday 4 December.
 UEFA have allocated 14,000 tickets for fans of participating teams playing in the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, and 20,000 tickets for the Krestovsky Stadium in St Petersburg.
 According to the UEFA website, prices for the group stage matches in both cities will start at 50 euros, and over half the tickets being made available on Wednesday will be in the cheapest price category.

Eagle Owls plan Russian Midsummer after Euro2020 draw


Summary: Language proficiency and tight social networks may be the keys to secondary school success.

A comparison of large upper secondary schools by the STT news agency ranked 7 Swedish-language schools among the 10 best in the country, including Turku's Katedralskolan in the top spot.
 Among small schools, three out of ten are Swedish-language schools. The best in this category is Ilomantsin lukio, a Finnis-language school in North Karelia.
 STT included 350 upper secondary schools in the survey, less than one-tenth of which have Swedish as their primary language of instruction.
 Rankings were made by comparing the average grades of students at each school when they began their studies in 2016 with the results of school-leaving matriculation exams in 2019. The comparison is used as an indicator of academic improvement.
 Language makes a difference
 As Yle  reported earlier this year , students matriculating from Swedish-speaking high schools in the spring of 2019 had an average grade of 4.62 on a seven-point scale in four compulsory subjects,
 That compares to 4.35 earned by students matriculating from Finnish-speaking upper secondary schools.
 Swedish-speakers were also more likely to nab the top three grades of laudatur, eximia or magna. In both language groups, young women scored better results on the final exam than young men. However, boys from Swedish-speaking schools on average pulled down better grades than girls educated in Finnish.
 Pamela Granskog of the Finnish National Agency for Education sees language skills as one major reason for the edge Swedish-speakers have.
 "Swedish-speakers also have to know enough Finnish in order to function well in our other national language. English is fairly easy to learn as a Swedish speaker, so Swedish-speaking students get better marks in that subject," Granskog explains.
 Jan Hellgren, an expert at the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre agrees that there is a "language effect" at play which most likely accounts for the better results seen in matriculation exams.
 "If we think about how well the average Swedish speaker [in Finland] speaks Finnish, it is much better than the level of the average Finnish speaker in Swedish. We have also evaluated proficiency in English in basic education and Swedish speakers do better in that respect as well," says Hellgren.
 The principal of Turku's Katedralskolan, Marianne Pärnänen, also believes that language proficiency plays a big role. Her school topped the ranking.
 She does, however, point out that being bilingual is no automatic guarantee of academic success.
 "For example, our English teacher is very demanding and it’s not easy to pass courses. These results are the outcome of a lot of hard work by teachers and students," Pärnänen told Yle.
 Among friends
 Another special feature of Swedish-language upper secondary schools that may be significant in attaining high rankings is the close social network within most schools.
 Since Swedish is the native language of only 5.2 percent of the population, there are far fewer Swedish-language daycare centres, primary and secondary schools. Because of this, by the time pupils enter upper secondary school they already known many of their peers.
 "Indeed this is evident here. Katedralskolan is in Turku where we have only one Swedish-language middle school, which is where most of our pupils come from," notes Marianne Pärnänen
 Pamela Granskog also sees advantages in being part of a small school community.
 "It may be that that if most of the other pupils are familiar and some are friends, it's supportive. You have a network backing you that helps you keep up. This kind of social network supports young people. If someone is falling behind, the network finds them and is able to pick them up and encourage them," says Granskog.
 The top-10 STT ranking of large upper secondary schools (51 or more matriculants):
 1. Katedralskolan i Åbo, Turku
 2. Etelä-Tapiolan lukio, Espoo
 3. Gymnasiet Grankulla samskola, Kauniainen
 4. Korsholms gymnasium, Mustasaari
 5. Pargas svenska gymnasium, Parainen
 6. Mattlidens gymnasium, Espoo
 7. Kyrkslätts gymnasium, Kirkkonummi
 8. Helsingin Suomalainen Yhteiskoulu, Helsinki
 9. Kulosaaren yhteiskoulu, Helsinki
 10. Borgå Gymnasium, Porvoo
 Small upper secondary schools (50 or fewer matriculants):
 1. Ilomantsin lukio, Ilomantsi
 2. Savukosken lukio, Savukoski
 3. Kristinestads gymnasium, Kristiinankaupunki
 4. Leppävirran lukio, Leppävirta
 5. Helsinge gymnasium, Vantaa
 6. Helsingin ranskalais-suomalainen koulu, Helsinki
 7. Topeliusgymnasiet i Nykarleby, Uusikaarlepyy
 8. Sipoon lukio, Sipoo
 9. Polvijärven lukio, Polvijärvi
 10. Paraisten lukio, Parainen

Swedish-language high schools dominate best results list


Summary: The recipient of the award will also receive 300,000 euros from the Finnish government.

Finland's International Gender Equality Prize has been awarded to the global non-profit organisation Equality Now as a recognition of its work in tackling gender inequality and changing discriminatory laws around the world.
 The organisation will also receive 300,000 euros from the Finnish government.
 Yasmeen Hassan , Global Executive Director of Equality Now, collected the award on behalf of the organisation at a ceremony in Tampere on Monday afternoon, and thanked the Finnish Government for recognising the importance of gender equality by creating the prize.
 "Of course we are excited. Women's organisations are small all over the world and often lack the resources. That is why getting such recognition is fantastic," Hassan said.
 Equality Now was established in New York in 1992 with the aim of protecting and promoting the rights of women and girls around the world. Currently, the organisation is particularly active in Kenya, where it is trying to reduce child marriages, sexual abuse of women and female genital mutilation. According to Hassan, much work remains to be done.
 "Equality for women and girls is the solution to some of the biggest challenges the world is facing today – peace and security, poverty eradication and climate change," Hassan said. "In addition to being the right and just thing to do, it is also the smartest investment for humanity."
 Prime Minister  Antti Rinne  had originally been due to hand over the prize, but he was unable to attend. His place was taken by Finland's Minister for Gender Equality  Thomas Blomqvist .
 According to the organisation's  website , Equality Now is a non-governmental organisation that aims "to increase awareness of the violations to women's rights that happen every day around the world".
 300 submissions from around the world
 During the open nomination period, over 300 proposals from more than 60 countries were submitted for consideration for the award, and the final decision was based on the recommendation of an independent international jury.
 The jury included  Pekka Haavisto , Finland's current Minister for Foreign Affairs,  Eva Biaudet , President of the National Council of Women of Finland,  Katja Iversen , President and CEO of Women Deliver,  Anneli Jäätteenmäki , a former Member of the European Parliament, and  Dean Peacock , Senior Advisor for Global Advocacy at Promundo.
 Haavisto, who chaired the jury, said Equality Now's effectiveness in changing laws and harmful practices around the world was the key to it receiving the award.
 "The main obstacles for progress in global gender equality are negative attitudes and structures," Haavisto said. "Discriminatory laws and practices still exist in all countries of the world."
 In 2017, the International Gender Equality Prize  was awarded to German Chancellor   Angela Merkel .Sherequested that the 150,000-euro prize money be allocated to an anti-domestic violence organisation in Nigeria, which is using the funds to build a shelter for women.

Human Rights NGO wins Finland's gender equality prize


Summary: PM Antti Rinne’s fate hangs in the balance as the Centre Party leadership weighs support for the embattled premier.

Ministerit, ministeriöt ja valtioneuvosto

Centre Party MPs have signaled that they were not impressed by explanations offered by Prime Minister  Antti Rinne , following questions over the government’s handling of a labour market dispute involving postal workers and state-owned mail carrier Posti.
 Centre Party chair  Katri Kulmuni  said on Monday afternoon that while the coalition partner is committed to the current government coalition led by Rinne’s Social Democratic Party, there remains a crisis of confidence in the PM.
 "We have no confidence in the individual [Rinne]. We want the government to be functional and for it to be able to handle national issues," Kulmuni told reporters.
 When pressed whether or not this meant that the Centre no longer had confidence in Prime Minister Antti Rinne, Kulmuni responded simply, "We have no confidence."
 The party leader said that the party leadership would meet on Monday evening to consider the matter. Kulmuni stressed that the Centre is still committed to the government’s composition and programme.
 Her colleague  Antti Kurvinen , chair of the Centre’s parliamentary group told reporters that Rinne’s account of the government’s actions in the labour market dispute were found wanting.
 "The explanations given yesterday were not adequate," Kurvinen declared.
 Questions over what govt knew -- and when
 Party  meetings began on Sunday  and spilled over into Monday as government partners met to discuss the fallout between an apparent standoff between the lead government partner, the Social Democratic Party, and senior Posti leadership over the fate of 700 parcel sorting workers who had previously been transferred to lower-paid employment contracts.
 PAU, the union representing postal and logistical workers, had embarked on a 17-day strike over the treatment of the 700 workers as well as over a new collective bargaining agreement. The industrial action ended last Wednesday when  both sides reached a settlement .
 The apparent crisis of confidence over the prime minister’s leadership turned on what the government knew about the plan and when. The government -- and Rinne -- stressed that it had not been told in advance of the new contract arrangements for the affected workers.
 Posti board chairman  Markku Pohjola  was equally adamant that the minister responsible for state enterprise ownership and steering,  Sirpa Paatero , was in the know. Paatero  eventually resigned on Friday  over her role in managing the dispute.
 Backing from Greens, SPP holds steady
 On Monday, the Swedish People’s Party met and decided that Rinne should be given a second chance, according to party chair and Justice Minister  Anna-Maja Henriksson . "We need stability now. None of us is perfect. In this situation the SPP supports Prime Minister Rinne, but I hope that there will be further discussion within the government," Henriksson said.
 The minister noted that the government should no longer intervene in labour market disputes.
 "Our view is that the Posti matter was not managed as well we would have hoped. There have been communication problems and it should be more accurate," she added.
 Coalition partners had previously called on Rinne to give a detailed account of the circumstances leading up to the current situation, especially the Posti drama. On Monday morning, the PM told news agency STT that he had no comment to offer on the situation at that time.
 On Tuesday the government will answer an interpellation on the matter tabled by opposition parties the National Coalition Party, the Christian Democrats and Movement Now. The interpellation will be followed by a confidence vote in the government on Wednesday.
 Meanwhile the Chancellor of Justice has reportedly received several complaints about the PM’s conduct during the postal workers’ dispute.

Centre Party MPs signal "no confidence" in PM Rinne


Summary: A freight connection between Kouvola and China took off in 2017 but rail traffic slowed to just three trains this year.

A direct freight rail connection between the southeast Finland city of Kouvola and Xi’an in central China revved up in 2017. However traffic on the route has almost come to a standstill, even as the city is investing tens of millions in new terminal facilities.
 Yle’s investigative journalism programme MOT has revealed that the profitability of the direct freight link from southeast Finland to China relies almost exclusively on Chinese funding. According to MOT, this is a risky situation given that China alone decides on the magnitude of the grants.
 According to MOT, financial backing from Beijing could reduce by up to half the prices paid by European freight operators. At the same time, it helps China to increase trading relations with Europe.
 China tightens funding criteria
 After the rail connection was inaugurated, there was an explosion of freight traffic between China and Europe, much of it inspired by the generous contributions of the Chinese state.
 However China soon realised that it was also paying for empty containers to be delivered to its cities from thousands of kilometres away in Europe. As a result the central government in Beijing tightened the rules for granting funding in mid-2018, slowing freight traffic out of Kouvola.
 The first year of full operations for the freight line was still reasonable. According to  Valery Zhukin , CEO of route operator Unytrade, last year 24 trains travelled between Kouvola and Xi’an in China. However he admitted that the trains were not full.
 "The trains were not always full. There were trains that were only one-third or a quarter full. At the time China still allowed this," he added.
 He commented that the main reason that the freight trains were empty was a decline in the price of pulp and the deteriorating economic situation in China.
 Kouvola sinks €30m in new terminal
 Although trains have not been running to China, city officials in Kouvola are still building what will be Finland’s longest loading dock for locomotives. The construction of the terminal is predicated specifically on freight traffic to Asia.
 The project has a price tag of 40 million euros, with taxpayers in Kouvola contributing nearly 30 million. It is a staggering investment, especially given that the city still needs to cut spending on basic operations by roughly 20 million euros. The financial situation may even put the city at risk of becoming one of the country’s crisis municipalities that is unable to finance operations.
 However city officials have been pointing the finger of blame towards China.
 "Over at the Chinese end they have not been as enthusiastic about traffic in this direction. A train should be full in both directions," said Kouvola Innovation development director  Simo Päivinen .
 Päivinen added that the slowdown in rail traffic is merely a matter of teething problems. The city of Kouvola is currently trying to expand the rail connection to another Chinese city, Chengdu.

MOT: Chinese funding keeps southeast Finland freight line rolling


Summary: Morning papers report that PM Rinne is demanding a clear statement of support or rejection from Centre Party partners.

Social Democratic Prime Minister  Antti Rinne  told the newspaper  Helsingin Sanomat  late Monday night that he wants to see a written statement from the Centre Party on Tuesday, laying out the reasons it  no longer has confidence in him  to lead the five-party coalition government.
 "Only then, when I have received a detailed written answer from the Centre, will I be able to determine what I will do," Rinne said in a telephone interview.
 The Centre Party's parliamentary group and party leadership on Monday announced they had lost confidence in the PM. In his interview with Helsingin Sanomat, Rinne slammed the Centre for being too vague about its intentions.
 "If I am accused of poor communication, it has to be said that the Centre has at very least set a new national record for a lack of clarity in this matter. I demand an unequivocal yes or no about whether or not we continue together, not just as political parties, but also as individuals."
 Rinne declined to discuss whether or not he and his Social Democratic Party still trust the Centre and its chair  Katri Kulmuni , simply stating that up until now the SDP has had no complaints about its coalition partners.
 Asked if he will turn in his resignation on Tuesday, if the Centre presents clear and detailed reasons for a lack of confidence in him, Rinne gave no definitive answer.
 "As I said, there must be concrete and unequivocal reasons why they feel they have no confidence in the prime minister."
 "Resign or government falls"
 The newsstand tabloid  Ilta-Sanomat  was among the papers reporting that there is building pressure within the Centre Party to oust Rinne from the premiership.
 Centre Party leader Kulmuni on Monday evening did not call for Rinne's resignation, but did say that Centre Party members were not "completely convinced" by Rinne's explanation of events surrounding the recent Posti labour dispute, and that the Social Democratic Party should draw its own conclusions now.
 Ilta-Sanomat presented statements from three Centre Party MPs who were more straightforward on the condition of anonymity.
 The verdict of all three was that the prime minister should resign before a scheduled debate in parliament at 2pm this afternoon.
 "There has been an attempt to be considerate. It is quite clear that there is no going back now - either Rinne resigns, or Rinne fights and the government falls," said one MP.
 Another of the centre MPs interviewed stated that there was no desire to "publically butcher" the prime minister.
 "It has been attempted to get the message across both privately and publicly. His reaction shows something about his capacity to read the situation."
 The third told Ilta-Sanomat that the Centre Party strongly believes in the composition of the current coalition government and in its programme, but that it has ”the wrong skipper”.
 Haavisto denies repatriation plan
 Foreign Minister  Pekka Haavisto , a member of Finland’s Green League, has denied a Monday  report in the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat  claiming that he ousted a top ministry civil servant from his post for refusing to take part in a plan to repatriate children of Finnish ISIS fighters being held in the al-Hol camp in Syria.
 Turku's  Turun Sanomat  reports that later on Monday parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee asked for an explanation about the claim and Christian Democrat MP Sari Essayah filed a formal written question to be answered by the government.
 Haavisto not only denied that he had pressured the ministry official, he told the media that no such plan ever existed.
 "The mysterious plan in the news is a mystery to me, too. I was not involved in preparing such a plan, nor am I aware that ministry officials would have prepared such a plan," stated Haavisto.
 He added that the idea itself seems strange considering that the Kurdish administration in the area does not allow families to be split up and does not allow children to travel alone.
 Commenting on the claim that he had lost his temper with the head of the ministry's consular section over the matter, Haavisto said simply, "I'm not the short-tempered type."
 Yes to Roma, no to Pride
 Lapin Kansa  reports that the city council of Rovaniemi voted on Monday to start the practice of flying the flag of the Roma people on city buildings on International Romani Day, April 8th.
 At the same meeting a motion that would have also seen the rainbow flag of the sexual minorities' movement on city buildings on national Pride Day and Arctic Pride Day was narrowly defeated. In Lapin Kansa's words, "the rainbow flags will stay in the closet".
 Late last month, the LGBT rights organisation SETA announced that the Arctic Pride event that has been held annually in Rovaniemi since 2013 will not take place next year. The local SETA chapter said that it has been unable to recruit enough volunteers to organize the event in 2020, but hopes it will be possible again the following year.
 Heat wave coming
 Iltalehti 's definition of "heat wave" may not be everyone's, but the paper was excited enough about a forecast of rising temperatures this week to throw an exclamation mark into its headline.
 Temperatures on Thursday and Friday this week are likely to be well above freezing again, even in Finnish Lapland.
 The paper quotes Foreca meteorologist  Ilkka Alanko  as saying that on Friday, Independence Day, temperatures along the south coast will be 5C-6C and in central regions 2C-4C.
 This warmer weather, combined with rain, will mean that at least in the south of Finland the present snow cover will melt away.
 For those hankering after a white Christmas, the good news is that the "heat wave" will be short-lived. Temperatures will fall after the weekend and Finland, including southern areas, may get its snow back well before the holidays.

Tuesday's papers: Gov't crisis deepens, Haavisto hits back, heat wave


Summary: The latest party image poll adds to the worries of the beleaguered government.

The latest opinion poll indicates sinking confidence in both of the main parties in the centre-left coalition.
 The results suggest that public confidence in Prime Minister  Antti Rinne 's Social Democratic Party (SDP) was dropping quickly even before  the latest turns and revelations  surrounding the labour dispute at the state-owned postal firm.
 Meanwhile, a change in leadership at the second-largest government partner, the Centre Party, has not improved its image or popularity. In September,  Katri Kulmuni  took over as Centre chair from the previous prime minister,  Juha Sipilä . She also holds the posts of Minister of Economic Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister.
 Halla-aho's populists leap to top of the chart
 The Kantar TNS tracking poll was carried out in the first half of November, while the Posti strike was underway. The parties received the results last week, but Yle and other media did not obtain it until Monday.
 It shows the SDP dropping to fourth place in terms of image. It was in first place before last spring's parliamentary election, which it won by a narrow margin.
 Now it has been surpassed by the nationalist Finns Party, government partners the Greens and the other main opposition group, the conservative National Coalition Party (NCP).
 The Finns Party, led by immigration hardliner  Jussi Halla-aho , leapt from fifth place to the top of the chart, for the first time since 2010.
 The Centre meanwhile slid to the bottom of the list, with the Greens the only government party to see an improvement in its public image. They remain in second place, as they were last spring.

SDP image plunged even before Posti scandal, confidence in Finns Party up


Summary: SDP deputy chair Sanna Marin says she will "not shirk her responsibility in this difficult situation".

Prime Minister  Antti Rinne  has resigned in the face of a parliamentary challenge that was to have begun on Tuesday afternoon.
 Rinne said at noon on Tuesday that he would tender his resignation to President  Sauli Niinistö , two hours before MPs were to begin debating an interpellation filed by opposition parties.
 Just over half an hour later, Niinistö accepted Rinne's resignation at the presidential residence, Mäntyniemi.
 That meant that Rinne's cabinet had formally resigned and would continue on as a caretaker government.
 Current coalition likely to continue
 On Tuesday afternoon Speaker of Parliament  Matti Vanhanen , a former Centre Party prime minister, urged "the old government coalition to carry matters forward."
 The current five-party government looks likely to carry on after a cabinet reshuffle.
 The SDP's main coalition partner, the Centre, which triggered the crisis by expressing doubt in Rinne, is unlikely to want new elections. The nationalist Finns Party, the second-largest group in Parliament, has seen  rising popularity .
 However its chair,  Jussi Halla-aho , said on Tuesday afternoon that he did "not see re-thinking the makeup of the government as the primary alternative".
 The political upheaval comes as Finland wraps up its six-month  presidency of the European Council . A two-day EU summit begins in Brussels on Thursday next week.
 Rapid sequence of events
 Rinne's five-party centre-left coalition took office just under six months ago after his Social Democratic Party (SDP) won April's parliamentary election  by a whisker .
 Events have proceeded quickly since the SDP minister in charge of overseeing state-owned firms,  Sirpa Paatero ,  resigned on Friday .
 That came amid revelations that she knew in advance of the postal company's plans to shift some workers to a lower-paying contract, and misled MPs about it. Since then, there have been indications that former union boss Rinne, too, knew of the plan and tacitly approved it in August, before a  protracted postal strike  this autumn.
 Late Sunday evening, the five government party chairs held a crisis meeting. On Monday, the Centre expressed a lack of confidence in Rinne in a vaguely-worded statement. On Monday evening, Rinne declined to step down, instead demanding further clarification from the Centre.
 All eyes on Sanna Marin
 According to Yle sources, Rinne decided to wait for the Centre to directly call for his resignation. The tabloid Iltalehti reported that he and the SDP demanded that Centre chair  Katri Kulmuni  provide details in writing as to why the premier should be replaced.
 Story continues after photo
 Minister of Transport and Communications Sanna Marin Jussi Nukari / Lehtikuva
 Rinne and Kulmuni met in the late morning at the Council of State building.
 Meanwhile SDP deputy chair  Sanna Marin , who led the party during Rinne's  extended sick leave  last winter, rushed back from a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday.
 Speaking to reporters on arrival at Helsinki Airport around 11.30am, Marin said she would "not shirk her responsibility in this difficult situation."
 Iltalehti says Marin is to lead attempts to form a new government. Marin, 34, a second-term MP from Tampere, has been Minister of Transport and Communications  since June .
 If she takes over, she would be the youngest prime minister in Finnish history. The Centre's'  Esko Aho  was 36 when he took office in 1991.
 The leader of the SDP's parliamentary group,  Antti Lindtman , 37, also said he would be ready to become prime minister.
 Asked at his post-resignation press conference about the name of a probable successor, Rinne declined to speculate, saying only that "We have many people who are competent to do the prime minister's job.”
 He also announced that he plans to continue as SDP chair and to seek reelection to the post at next summer's party congress.

Finnish PM Rinne resigns


Summary: Finland’s proposal calls for more spending on digitalisation, and 25 percent of funding going to battle climate change.

Kansainväliset organisaatiot ja sopimukset

Finland, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, on Monday put forward a proposal for the European Union's budget covering the period of 2021–2027.
 The budget proposal equals 1.07 percent of the 27 EU member countries' combined gross national income (GNI), some 1,087 billion euros.
 The sum is close to that of the current 7-year budget, but below the 1.11 percent of GNI proposed by the European Commission and the 1.3 percent advocated by the EU Parliament.
 Even though funds earmarked for more traditional sectors such as agriculture and cohesion policy (otherwise known as regional development), are down, they still make up a larger share than sought by the EU Commission.
 Net contributors
 In general, the budget proposal reflects pressures from net budget contributors. It is expected that eastern and southern members of the bloc will raise objections to lower spending on cohesion policy.
 Finland's caretaker Minister for European Affairs,  Tytti Tuppurainen , said in Helsinki on Monday that while the share of the budget designated for agriculture is above the Commission's suggestion, Finland sees a need for the development of rural areas.
 A quarter of the budget is linked to measures to fight climate change. The proposal also makes the receipt of EU funds conditional on respect for the rule of law.
 EU member states will begin talks on the budget proposal at ambassadorial level on Wednesday. Ministers for European Affairs are scheduled to have discussions on the proposal next week, before it is taken up at an EU summit 12-13 December.
 Modern budget
 Responding to initial criticism heard in Brussels, Tuppurainen said that Finland had drafted what she described as a "modern" budget that had input from a wide range of sources.
 For example, she pointed out that in comparison with the current budget, the new proposal increases funding for digitalisation. However, the total is half of what the European Commission has put forth as a planned budget for its Digital Europe programme.
 "Achieving that would not have been politically feasible," Tuppurainen told Yle.

Finland proposes "modern" EU budget


Summary: Finnish girls' reading skills outpaced boys' more than in any other country in the survey of educational proficiency.

Finnish students continue to rank among the best in the world in terms of literacy and numeracy,  according to the latest results  of the Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) survey, released on Tuesday.
 However while Finland’s 15-year-olds appear to be holding their own in the educational attainment ranking, the gender difference in proficiency in reading was among the widest of all the countries that participated in the triennial survey in 2018.
 The results of the survey are based on tests of about 8,000 15-year-olds organised by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in the spring of last year. According to the outcome, Finnish students outperformed the OECD average in reading, mathematics and science. However the organisation noted  in its country report for Finland  that mean scores in these areas continued to decline from 2006 onwards.
 Students from China, Singapore and Estonia outshone their Finnish peers in reading, while Canada, Ireland and South Korea also fared well.
 Growing impact of family background
 According to the analysis, Finnish students' scores in mathematics declined rapidly in surveys after 2010, but now appear to be levelling out. Many Asian countries as well as neighbouring countries Estonia and Denmark have overtaken Finland in terms of students' mathematics performance. In the comparison of 79 countries, Finland now stands in 16th place.
 Finland’s results in science have been declining steadily and the country is now sixth in that ranking. It also ranks sixth in reading proficiency, along with Canada.
 It has long been held that one advantage of basic education in Finland is its guarantee of equality regardless of individual background. However Tuesday’s PISA report suggests that family background also influences learning outcomes in Finland as well.
 The reading skills gap between the highest and lowest socioeconomic groups in Finland was 79 points in the latest survey. This corresponds to a difference of two years of schooling.
 This outcome is due to the fact that the results of the lowest socioeconomic quarter have deteriorated between 2009 and 2018, while those of the highest quarter have remained the same.
 Two-thirds of boys read only if they have to
 According to Tuesday’s survey, the difference between boys’ and girls’ reading proficiency was the largest among OECD countries. The point difference was 52 in favour of girls, with the average split along other OECD countries being 30 points.
 Gender differences in proficiency in science and mathematics were more moderate, however.
 The attitudes of Finnish students to reading have become more negative, according to the latest survey. A growing number of 15-year-olds said they did not enjoy reading and that it was not one of their hobbies. Additionally, 63 percent of boys said they read only if they have to.
 The report suggests that those attitudes are reflected in levels of competence. Students who said they were not interested in reading fared poorly, and as more students underperformed, the group average fell.
 Students: Less emphasis on PISA, please
 Yle asked ninth-year students whether or not Finland’s PISA results should be a cause for concern.
 "Maybe a little," said ninth-year pupil  Milja Vertola , a student at Helsinki’s Suutarinkylä comprehensive school. Neither she nor her friends  Said Hanate  or  Maria Nieminen  had done the PISA tests, but they are the same age as the test group.
 "We all use the internet a lot. You have to read things there every day," Vertola said.
 For Hanate, time spent reading meant time away from other activities.
 "There’s the internet, games and training. There are so many new things. Young people don’t buy books or go to the library to read when everything is online," he noted.
 Nieminen said her teacher helped her to find books in genres that she finds interesting. "I've noticed that I like horror stories and murder and crime mysteries," she added.
 Hanate said that students should be given more leeway to choose the books they read at school. "Teachers usually tell you what themes and how many pages you have to read. Reading should be more relaxed and you should be able to read what you're interested in," he argued.
 Meanwhile Vertola said that it was odd how much emphasis Finland places on PISA results. "We’re only just 15 years old. Are we being put under too much pressure because of these tests?"

PISA: Gap between girls' and boys' reading skills largest in Finland


Summary: Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto refuted claims that he had sidelined a senior ministry official from the project.

A majority of MPs on parliament’s foreign affairs committee have voted to clear foreign minister  Pekka Haavisto  of alleged wrongdoing in a plan to repatriate  Finnish nationals currently at a refugee camp in Syria .
 On Tuesday morning Haavisto appeared before the committee to explain his ministry’s actions with respect to Finns living at the al-Hol refugee camp. On Monday, the minister revealed that the ministry had been looking at different options for repatriating the wives and children of fighters for the extremist group Isis.
 Haavisto refuted  allegations reported by the tabloid daily Ilta-Sanomat  that he had sidelined consular head  Pasi Tuominen  from the repatriation project. He said that Tuominen will continue in his role, but noted that he had assigned a separate official to handle the al-Hol case.
 Committee chair: MPs kept in the dark
 After Haavisto delivered his account of events, the committee voted on whether or not to accept the minister’s explanation -- a majority accepted his version of events.
 Chair of the foreign affairs committee,  Mika Niikko  said that the Finns Party held the view that the committee had not been given timely information about the ministry’s efforts to repatriate the Finnish women and children to Finland.
 Niikko said that the last time the committee had been briefed on the matter, there was no mention that another civil servant had been assigned to the project. He added that the committee had the impression that people would receive support if they independently sought consular assistance.
 The committee chair charged that MPs had been kept in the dark, even as the president and the government had been informed about the project.
 Haavisto said that the repatriation project was not a government initiative, but that it originated from official duty as well as a response from the Chancellor of Justice to complaints made about the issue in October.

Parliamentary committee clears minister over plan to repatriate Finns from al-Hol camp


Summary: Siilasmaa spent 12 years on the Nokia board, eight of them as chairman.

Finnish networks equipment firm Nokia announced on Tuesday that it would nominate former head of its networks unit,  Sari Baldauf , to replace outgoing board chairperson  Risto Siilasmaa .
 Siilasmaa, who has been a board member for 12 years and served for eight years as chair since 2012, is expected to step down at the company’s annual general meeting in April 2020. At that time, he is likely to announce that he will no longer serve on the board.
 Story continues after photo.
 Outgoing Nokia chair Risto Siilasmaa. Lehtikuva
 Nokia said that it will name Baldauf to replace Siilasmaa as chair and that shareholders will vote on her nomination at the AGM. She led the company’s networks unit from 19988 to 2005 and joined the board as an independent member in 2018 and was later named vice chair.
 She sits on the executive boards of a number of Finnish and European companies including car maker Daimler AG, energy giant Fortum, equity management firm Capman and cyber security company F-Secure. She was chair of the Fortum board until 2018.
 Nokia also nominated Sampo financial group president and CEO  Kari Stadigh  to become the new vice chairman.

Former networks boss Sari Baldauf to replace Risto Siilasmaa as Nokia chair


Summary: One story dominated the papers on Wednesday.

Tuesday’s big news was  the departure of Prime Minister  Antti Rinne .
 His hand was eventually forced over his failure to adequately explain how and why he and his SDP colleague and Minister for State Ownership Steering  Sirpa Paatero  had handled  a plan to lower pay for 700 postal workers .
 The ex-union boss was premier for six months, first  establishing and then leading a coalition of five parties  but it was one of those parties — the Centre — that eventually did for him.
 What’s ‘Appening
 Iltalehti has a  detailed story  based on a groupchat of Centre Party MPs suggesting that Rinne’s fate was sealed on Friday evening after Posti published a statement suggesting the government had been informed about their pay reduction plan.
 By that point, Paatero had already  resigned as the minister who had been in charge of managing contacts with Posti .
 IL reports that Paatero’s scalp wasn’t enough for Centre MPs from ‘revivalist movement and business’ backgrounds, referencing the twin pillars of Centre support among rural entrepreneurs and Laestadian Lutheran groups.
 Business leaders in the Centre Party have been uncomfortable, according to IL, with a PM who had such a strong trade union background.
 Revenge in mind
 Messages seen by the paper include one from ex-PM  Juha Sipilä , sent on Friday in response to other MPs saying their party faithful out in the provinces were unhappy with Rinne.
 "Yep, that’s all I’ve heard too. Are we having a parliamentary group meeting before the confidence vote debate?"
 Other MPs chimed in and even those cautious about getting rid of the premier were suggesting that more explanations were needed if the party was to lend Rinne its support this week.
 Publicity-hungry Lapland MP  Mikko Kärnä  chimed in to suggest supporting SDP MP  Antti Lindtman  as an alternative, as revenge for the 2003 machinations when the SDP had lost confidence in and sought the resignation of Centre PM  Anneli Jäätteenmäki .
 "Give the job to Lindtman. Remember [the] Jäätteenmäki [affair]," said Kärnä.
 In terms of entertainment, IL clearly beat tabloid rival Ilta-Sanomat which  published the historic but rather dry email  in which Centre group chair  Antti Kurvainen  officially told Rinne that the Centre Party did not have confidence in his leadership.
 The email was sent on Tuesday at 10:29, shortly before Rinne said his goodbyes to the SDP parliamentary group and went to see the president to submit his resignation.
 SDP direction change?
 HS  looks at  the new premier, who is likely to be appointed next week. The two candidates are Antti Lindtman, the 37-year-old Uusimaa MP who heads up the SDP’s parliamentary caucus, and  Sanna Marin , the Transport Minister from Tampere who at 34 would be Finland’s youngest-ever Prime Minister.
 The two options represent clearly divergent paths, according to HS reporter  Marko Junkkari . He characterises Marin as an idealist and Lindtman as an realist, outlining the difference in approach as follows:
 "In Marin’s opinion it would be good if the SDP’s election programme included a ban on internal combustion engines. Lindtman might be of the same opinion but he certainly wouldn’t write it in the election manifesto."
 Marin has the support of Rinne, with whom Lindtman’s relations have been 'cool', according to HS. whether Rinne’s support is an advantage or disadvantage remains to be seen, as the party meets next week.
 Lindtman's ability to work with parties to the right of the SDP would be greater than Marin's according to Junkkari. Under Marin, therefore, there would be a greater chance of a red-green 'block' developing in Finland, in which left-of-centre parties work together and broader coalitions rare, as is the case in Sweden.

Wednesday’s papers: Rinne resignation fallout


Summary: Finnish prisons are creating separate units for gang members, reports local news conglomerate Lännen Media (LM).

Finland’s closed prisons will soon feature gang wards, writes Lännen Media (LM). The move aims to protect other inmates, according to Finland's Criminal Sanctions Agency (Rise).
 In the future, Finland will also have two maximum security facilities for the country's most dangerous inmates. Rise said the changes aim to ensure the safety of inmates not affiliated with gangs.
 While some of Finland’s closed prisons already feature gang units, Rise is requiring that all penitentiaries establish separate areas for housing gang members.
 Law enforcement officials are meanwhile looking to  improve the safety of prison guards  by introducing more security checks for prison personnel.
 The organised crime syndicate United Brotherhood exercises great unofficial power in Finnish prisons, according to LM.
 The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has said United Brotherhood dominates the prison drug trade, forcing inmates and their families to commit crimes.
 Rise has earlier described the United Brotherhood — a coalition of three previously independent criminal groups — as the most powerful and  feared criminal organisation in Finnish prisons , which employs tactics such as violence, threats, blackmail, invented debts and promises of brotherhood membership.

Finnish prisons to establish gang wards


Summary: In the past 15 years, the number of people seeking sexual reassignment has grown 20-fold in Finland.

Researchers at Helsinki University Hospital want to find out how many people regret transitioning and how many are requesting gender reversals after undergoing reassignment.
 Since 2010, the number of people seeking gender reassignment in the western world has soared.
 In Finland, Tampere and Helsinki University Hospitals run gender identity clinics for people wanting to undergo gender reassignment. Between 2003 and 2007, around 20 people a year sought treatment at these centres but over the past few years that number grew to 200-300 annually. In 2018, doctors referred 400 people to these programmes, which are tasked with vetting whether a person has a transgender identity ahead of any medical intervention.
 “About half of people come in with a trans diagnosis,” said  Niina Puustinen  from Helsinki University’s gender identity clinic.
 This year the clinic launched a study to chart patients who have detransitioned after regretting gender reassignment. Researchers hope the study will shed light on how to prevent transition regrets. The study will be published next year.
 "I wish I'd never done it"
 Twenty-seven year-old Nita said her mental health problems were not adequately addressed before she began a medical female to male transition.

 Nita, who doesn’t want to provide her full name, spent several years living as a man, but has since transitioned back to a woman.
 “I wish I’d never started the transitioning process. I should have had other ways of coping with my problems,” she said.
 Nita said she's not alone and that she knows several people who have transitioned back to their original gender.
 Irreversible effects
 Nita began transitioning to male in her 20s, saying she approached sexual reassignment lightly, akin to getting a tattoo. To make her body more masculine, Nita took testosterone and had a mastectomy.
 “The whole trans process injected meaning into my life. There was a constant goal to work towards,” she explained. “Now it bothers me that I’m a 27-year-old woman who sounds like a teenage boy.”
 Nita told Yle she has dealt with a range of mental health issues since her teens, including depression, eating disorders and self-destructive behaviour.
 “But even despite my mental health history, doctors easily gave me a transgender diagnosis,” she explained.
 Nita said she was always a tomboy and that as she grew into an adult, she began feeling disassociated from what she saw in the mirror.
 Nita said she had a several trans friends. Constructing a transidentity was easy.
 “We had the same types of experiences and problems. Through this group of people, I began framing my gender experience in a new way. I started thinking I’m something other than a woman.”
 She said she spent a lot of time with others who didn't identify with binary gender.
 “This made things somewhat one-sided,” Nita explained.
 She said any concerns she had about undergoing sexual reassignment surgery were brushed away by her friends.
 “They claimed any uncertainty about undergoing the process was related to deep-seated phobias against trans people.”
 After joining online support groups, Nita said her bubble grew bigger. She said online friends suggested severing ties with people questioning her trans identity.
 Unknown territory
 Going through with a medical transition was straightforward, according to Nita.
 “It feels unreal that the medical community allowed a seriously traumatised woman like myself to do all of these things to her body—cutting out healthy tissue,” Nita said. “It was all so easy.”
 She told Yle doctors should have dug deeper into the roots of her body dysphoria.
 Deputy chief doctor  Katinka Tuisku  from the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District (HUS) said officials don’t maintain records on how many people have detransitioned.
 “But it’s possible that we only find out about a small number of these cases. Some of these people have come back to us for treatment. We try to help them any way we can.”
 Tuisku said transgender reversal surgery is very challenging as some changes can't be undone.
 Nita is considering breast augmentation as well as laser hair removal as having received testosterone means she now has to shave every few days.
 While Nita said she believes she was allowed to transition too easily, others say Finland should provide better access to treatment.
 “[Doctors] are too careful in Finland, and it’s causing a lot of young people to be unwell,” said  Tanja von Knorring  of Trasek, a Finnish association for transgender and intersex rights.
 Nita meanwhile said she faces an uphill battle to journey back to where she was.
 “It feels incredibly difficult to go to a public health centre doctor to get a referral back to the gender identity clinic to say, ‘Hey, I regret my transition’”.

Study aims to chart sex change regret in Finland


Summary: Customers can expect to pay €2.90 if the value of the delivery is valued at over 22 euros.

Finland’s national mail carrier Posti has announced that recipients of parcels sent from outside the EU will from next February be charged a handling fee of 2.90 euros.
 The levy is due to come into force on 31 January 2020 and will only apply to shipments worth over 22 euros. Currently the majority of deliveries arriving into Finland are below the 22 euro threshold, "which at this stage will not be affected by the charge," Posti said in a news release.
 The payment is intended to cover the costs of the cost of "handling, reporting and storing" the increasingly high volumes of items bought online arriving into Finland.
 "The cost of international e-commerce is thus borne by these activities. This is important for fair trade and for the competitiveness of domestic e-commerce," said  Sami Finne , Director of International E-Commerce Services at Posti, in a press release announcing the introduction of the new charge.
 VAT notifications
 Postal services in other Nordic countries, such as Sweden and Iceland, have also introduced similar charges for shipments from outside the EU.
 Finnish customs  must be notified  of the value and VAT status of packages from outside the EU, which creates an administrative requirement for the delivery company.
 In practice, customers will receive either a paper-based arrival notification or an electronic notification of the shipment via the OmaPosti online service.
 This arrival notification will instruct the customer on how to pay the charge, which must be received by Posti 20 days after the shipment's arrival date.
 Once the payment has been made, Posti says it will deliver the parcel to the customer. Non-payment of the charge will lead to the parcel being returned to the sender.

Posti to charge for deliveries from outside EU


Summary: Police believe the event organiser is a group with the same active members as the banned Nordic Resistance Movement.

Helsinki Police department has banned a planned march by the neo-Nazi ‘Towards Freedom’ (or  Kohti vapautta  in Finnish) Movement in Helsinki city centre on Independence Day.
 The movement is seen as a successor to the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement (PVL), which was  the subject of a temporary banning order by the Supreme Court  in March this year. Police believe the PVL and the Towards Freedom Movement have the same active members.
 Organisers had indicated to Helsinki police they wanted to march from Narinkkatori in the Kamppi district of downtown Helsinki to the Töölö Sports Hall — a distance of about 2 kilometres — between 2:30 pm and 6pm on Friday December 6, Finnish Independence Day.
 However, Helsinki police decided that the procession could not be considered a legitimate and peaceful demonstration within the terms of the constitution, the terms of Finland's Assembly Act, or according to international human rights treaties and the European Court of Human Rights.
 The Towards Freedom movement organised a demonstration in the centre of Helsinki on 9 November this year.
 The National Bureau of Investigation suspects the movement of engaging in illegal activities, and that the PVL is  has continued to operate despite the temporary ban .
 In addition to having the same active members, police further believe that the two movements have a common visual identity, the same ideas and objectives, which are pursued with the same slogans. Both organisations also have links on their websites to shops which publish the same material.

Helsinki police ban neo-Nazi march on Independence Day


Summary: The Centre Party needs to come clean about the real reasons for ex-PM Antti Rinne's ouster, says Yle's Katri Makkonen.

The Finnish political scene is in turmoil after Prime Minister  Antti Rinne   stepped down after just six months  on the job, so in a special edition of All Points North we asked Yle political journalist  Katri Makkonen  what just happened and what might come next.
 There is now a two-horse race to succeed Rinne as the next SDP Prime Minister, with the party board due to meet on Sunday.
 "It's a long time until Sunday and anything can happen," Makkonen said.
 The two main contenders for the position are current Transport and Communications Minister,  Sanna Marin , and chair of the SDP parliamentary group,  Antti Lindtman . Rinne left office under a cloud after the SDP's coalition partner  the Centre Party said it had no confidence in him  after questions arose about his role in a labour market dispute.
 Unanswered questions
 According to Makkonen, Rinne isn't the only one who hasn't explained himself adequately. The Centre Party have also left open questions about exactly why they declared a loss of confidence in the PM. Makkonen drew a parallel to two years ago when the Centre's  Juha Sipilä -led government  splintered and reformulated itself  in a way that many saw as undemocratic.
 "One could say that this somehow was not very democratic either, to throw out a prime minister without stating very clear reasons why this had to happen. They just said that there is no more confidence towards him [Rinne] but have yet to explain themselves better," Makkonen pointed out.
 The veteran journalist noted that the APN audience are not the only ones still scratching their head over the current political drama -- Finns are also perplexed by the ongoing theatre.
 "Even Finnish people don't know what's going on. It's very hard to try to answer these questions as we don't really know yet what happened with the Posti thing," she said
 "We don't really yet know why the Centre Party decided this thing. We don't really yet know if it will be good for them or for the Social Democrats. We don't know who will will or who will lose," Makkonen concluded.
 Join the conversation
 If you have any questions or comments or would like to participate in the discussion, contact us via WhatsApp on +358 44 421 0909, on our Facebook or Twitter accounts, or at yle.news@yle.fi. You can also give us your feedback on our English language news services via our  survey .
 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  Egan Richardson  and  Denise Wall ,and the sound engineer was  Tuomas Vauhkonen .

Politics in Finland: What just happened?


Summary: Other aspects of Aarnio’s drug smuggling case are currently before the Supreme Court.

Finland’s Supreme Court has denied convicted former drug cop  Jari Aarnio  leave to appeal a 10-year prison sentence after he was found guilty of a welter of offences relating to drug trafficking and official misconduct.
 In June,  the Helsinki Appeal Court upheld a lower court verdict  that found the once-celebrated drug buster guilty of smuggling hashish into Finland in barrels – resulting in the "barrel case" moniker. Aarnio was sentenced to 10 years in prison on five counts of aggravated drug offences, aggravated evidence tampering, witness intimidation and several counts of official misconduct.
 The Supreme Court’s refusal to grant Aarnio leave to challenge the appellate court’s ruling means that his prison sentence will remain in force. Altogether, he will serve a 13-year sentence: 10 years for the drug and official misconduct offences and three years in a separate case in which he used his position as a police squad chief to purchase equipment from a company in which he was involved -- the  so-called Trevoc case .
 However the Supreme Court will continue to hear appeals regarding other aspects of the ex-cop's drug smuggling case. One of the appeals relates to a female defendant convicted on a series of drug offences, as well as an appeal related to the sentencing and dismissal of one of Aarnio’s subordinates. The court will provide a limited hearing of these challenges.
 In the latter case, the district court had ordered the dismissal of Aarnio’s subordinate. The appeal court reversed that order, but the prosecutor appealed the higher court’s decision. The individual later resigned from the Helsinki police department.
 Apart from Aarnio, his subordinate and the female defendant, all of whom filed appeals, the Aarnio case features other central figures. One of them is the so-called "Malmi woman" who was sentenced to three years in prison for aggravated drug offences. The other was former gang leader  Keijo Vilhunen . In both of those cases, the court’s sentence remained in force.
 New suspicions: Senior police officer accused of helping Aarnio
 On Wednesday a new suspect emerged in the web of crime surrounding Jari Aarnio. The Helsinki prosecutor’s office said that it had laid charges against a senior Helsinki police officer suspected of official misconduct.
 According to the charge sheet, the detective chief inspector in question had, at Aarnio’s request, checked to see whether or not police were in the process of obtaining information about Aarnio. The suspected offences are believed to have occurred between November and December 2016.
 The suspect has denied the charges and the case will be heard later on in the Helsinki district court. Two other suspects were also under investigation for the same reason. Aarnio and another police officer are believed to have pressed the suspect to fulfill Aarnio’s requests.
 However no charges were laid against Aarnio over these suspicions, as they would not have affected his other sentences. He had already been convicted and had lost his position as head of the Helsinki drug squad.
 In the case of the other suspect believed to have acted in concert with Aarnio, investigators did not find sufficient evidence of wrongdoing. During the preliminary investigation he admitted to asking his colleague "to back Aarnio up mainly to calm him down", but he received a negative response.

Supreme Court denies appeal to convicted ex-drug cop Jari Aarnio


Summary: The introduction of free birth control in other municipalities in Finland has been linked to a lower abortion rate.

The city of Turku in southwest Finland will provide free contraception to people under the age of 25 in a new initiative launched earlier this week.
 Young people in the city will receive birth control pills, vaginal rings, transdermal patches and other long-term contraceptives free of charge.
 Condoms will also be made freely available, regardless of gender.
 "We consider it important to support young people's sexual health and to prevent unwanted pregnancies," said  Tuula Cornu , Director of Preventive Health Services from the City of Turku. "Free prevention brings equality and reaches everyone."
 "This is a really important thing"
 The new initiative immediately proved to be popular, as there were 158 calls to the city’s Birth Control Clinic on Monday - three times as many as a normal day.
 One of the first to arrange an appointment at the clinic was  Neea Laine , who pointed out the importance of free contraception for people her age.
 "For a low-income student, this is a really important thing. And especially since contraception is often left to women, it's good to have support," Laine said.
 Another visitor to the clinic,  Vilma Karjalainen , fully supported the new initiative.
 "Teenage pregnancies are quite common and lead to abortions that affect mental well-being. Not all young people can afford prevention," Karjalainen ponders.
 According to Cornu, this is another reason why long-term contraceptives are gaining in popularity.
 "The Sexual and Reproductive Health Action Plan recommends long-term contraception because it is safer and not user-dependent," Cornu explained, adding that one in three people now choose a long-term method of contraception.
 Decrease in abortions
 The provision of free birth control has become more common in Finland in recent years. An estimated 50 to 60 Finnish municipalities already offer free contraception to young people, each with their own specific conditions.
 The experience has been broadly successful. In the district of Vantaa, for example, where free birth control has led to a  30-percent reduction in teenage pregnancies in three years .
 On a national scale, the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), has attributed the fall in Finland’s abortion rate to the the provision of free contraception. In 2018, the number of abortions in Finland was its lowest level since the introduction of abortion legislation.
 In a recent survey of young people, THL found that  about 20 percent of teens had not used any form of contraception in their most recent sexual encounter .
 Free birth control is also included in the government program announced in June this year, but if and how young people take advantage of the offer still depends on where they live.

Turku launches free contraception initiative


Summary: One story dominates the Finnish press: Will Sanna Marin or Antti Lindtman take over as premier?

"Marin leads with ministerial experience," is the leader headline in main daily Helsingin Sanomat (HS) , which goes on in its editorial to outline the reasons that  Sanna Marin , 34, will likely become Finland’s next prime minister. This follows in the wake of former PM  Antti Rinne ’s dramatic resignation on Tuesday following the fallout from the postal workers' recent industrial action.
 "Marin is the favourite as the next SDP prime ministerial candidate," writes HS, citing its own poll carried out on Tuesday evening. "Thirty percent of respondents supported Minister of Transport and Communications Marin, while MP and Social Democratic Parliamentary group chair  Antti Lindtman  received only 12 percent support."
 HS writes that Marin is former PM Rinne’s choice of the two potential candidates. Marin also has previous party chair experience, as she took over for Rinne when he was on sick leave last winter.
 HS goes onto say that while Lindtman is only 37, voters may feel that he’s long been in politics although in reality this is only his third term as an MP. A schism arose between Rinne and Lindtman during the 2017 SDP party political conference, when there were suggestions that Lindtman would challenge Rinne’s position as chair, but that didn’t happen.
 Furthermore, writes HS, last spring Rinne offered Lindtman the Labour Minister portfolio, which Lindtman turned down. This is an issue that will no doubt arise in the contest for the prime ministerial role.
 HS concludes in its editorial that the competition is down to the fine line between an experienced minister and an ungrateful political portfolio rejector.
 He shoots, he scores
 The  Iltalehti tabloid's sports pages lead with a story about Finnish Chicago Bulls basketball player Lauri Markkanen ,who scored 15 points and five rebounds on Wednesday night in an NBA tournament game against the Memphis Grizzlies, with a final winning score for the Bulls of 106-99.
 “Now this feels good!” said Markkanen in an interview with American TV network NBC News.
 This is the first time this season that the Chicago team is on a winning streak, having won two games in a row.
 Slippery weather in store
 Ilta-Sanomat (IS), the sister tabloid of HS, warns readers that sidewalks throughout the country are very slippery this morning as the Finnish Meteorological Institute has issued a warning about poor pedestrian conditions  throughout Finland with the exception of Lapland.
 Freezing temperatures overnight have turned water-covered icy patches into slick skating rinks.
 Correction: This story was amended to reflect that Sanna Marin has party chair experience (not prime ministerial experience), as she took over for Rinne when he was on sick leave last winter.

Thursday’s papers: Finland's next PM, basketball news and slippery weather in store


Summary: The November poll, the last for the Rinne government, shows rising support for the nationalist Finns Party.

The rising popularity of the Finns Party shows no signs of slackening. The largest opposition party has extended its lead over its closest rival to 5.7 percentage points. In second is the other main opposition group, the conservative National Coalition Party (NCP).
 The Yle/Taloustutkimus tracking poll suggests that 24.3 percent of voters would back the Finns Party if an election were held now. This is the strongest support level in the nearly quarter of a century since the party was founded.
 Its previous peak of popularity was in 2011, when it had 23 percent support under former chair and co-founder  Timo Soini . Since mid-2017, the party has been led by immigration hardliner  Jussi Halla-aho .
 Story continues after photos
 Opposition leaders Jussi Halla-aho (Finns Party) and  Petteri Orpo (NCP).
 Tuomo Turja , research director at pollster Taloustutkimus, tells Yle that the party is gathering support from both the politically disaffected and previous supporters of the government parties.
 "The Finns Party is gaining supporters from the Centre, the SDP and those who have been previously undecided, in other words, people who aren't very engaged with politics," Turja says.
 On Tuesday, the final day covered by this poll, the leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP),  Antti Rinne , stepped down as prime minister. After less than six months in office, his five-party centre-left coalition became a caretaker government pending the naming of a new prime minister and talks on re-forming the coalition.
 NCP begins to recover
 The NCP also seems to be benefiting from being in opposition. The pro-business, pro-Nato group's popularity has edged up to 18.6 percent since last spring's parliamentary election, when it scored 17 percent support.
 Story continues after photo
 Centre chair Katri Kulmuni Mikko Stig / Lehtikuva
 The SDP sees its backing decline to 13.2 percent, compared to 17.7 percent in the election.
 Suffering the worst losses among the government partners is the Centre, which led the previous government. Despite choosing a new leader in the early autumn, the party sees its support slump by 2.3 percentage points to 10.6 percent. That's the lowest ever in its 113-year history.
 "The biggest beneficiary has been the Finns Party, but the Centre is also increasingly leaking support to the NCP. There is also a significant bloc of previous Centre voters who have now increasingly withdrawn to the sidelines," observes Turja.
 Government parties support at 50%
 The five government parties had the combined support of half of respondents. The most popular of them at the moment appears to be the Greens at 13.9 percent, dipping slightly in recent months.
 Story continues after photo
 Left Alliance chair Li Andersson Akseli Muraja / Lehtikuva
 Of the government parties, only the Left Alliance saw a rise in popularity last month, nudging up half a percentage point to 8.4 percent.
 There were no significant changes in support for the small parties, which all scored below four percent.
 Between 11 November and 3 December, Taloustutkimus interviewed nearly 3,000 people, of whom just over 2,000 expressed a party preference. It estimates the margin of error at 1.8 percentage points.

Yle survey: Finns Party extend lead as most popular, Centre slumps to all-time low


Summary: Opposition parties are challenging the new cabinet over repatriation of Finns from Syria's al-Hol refugee camp.

Finland's new five-party coalition government, headed by SDP Prime Minister  Sanna Marin , hit its first serious bump on Wednesday when opposition parties in parliament filed a motion leading to a vote of no-confidence over  the repatriation of Finnish citizens currently in the al-Hol refugee camp in Syria .
 The motion, initiated by the Finns Party, gained the backing of the Christian Democrats late Tuesday and of the National Coalition Party (NCP) on Wednesday morning. It is also being supported by the sole MP of the Movement Now (Liike nyt) group.
 At a press conference Wednesday morning, opposition Finns Party chair  Jussi Halla-aho  questioned whether Finland has an obligation to aid the women and children of Isis fighters. He did concede, however, that Finnish citizens always have the right to return to the country.
 "This is a question of the adult women. They are a concrete security risk to Finland. Once back in Finland they could continue their terrorist activities," Halla-aho stated.
 Halla-aho added that he wants to know if Foreign Minister  Pekka Haavisto  has supplied accurate information on the issue.
 "Recently we've seen a disconcerting cat and mouse game. In terms of parliamentary oversight, the situation has been unbearable," said Halla-aho. "Are Isis families being brought to Finland? Have parliament and the media been misled?"
 Backing from NCP
 The second main opposition party, the NCP decided Wednesday to back a vote of no-confidence in the government. Its parliamentary group leader, MP  Kai Mykkänen  challenged the new prime minister, Sanna Marin, to shoulder responsibility.
 "You cannot avoid responsibility. Hopefully the government understands now that this is a serious matter," said Mykkänen.
 "There is now great uncertainty whether or not the government has made a political decision and issued a mandate to repatriate Finnish citizens who took part in the operations of the Isis caliphate," Kai Mykkänen stated in parliament.
 The leader of the Christian Democratic Party's parliamentary group,  Päivi Räsänen , echoed a Finnish Security Intelligence Service evaluation that the women in the al-Hol camp would be a security risk. Räsänen did say she would be ready to help the children, though.
 "However, a clear political decision must be made, without hiding being the backs of civil servants," Räsänen continued.
 The NCP's Mykkänen was also in favour of aiding the children, if a way can be found to do so without compromising security.
 According to Mykkänen the government's statements on the issue have been evasive and those by Foreign Minister Haavisto have been contradictory.
 The NCP's position is that a political decision by the government is required if Finnish citizens in the al-Hol camp are to be actively assisted in returning to the country.
 "If this does not conform to the normal operations based on the law on consular services, but rather on exceptional action, then of course the government must make a political decision. It is extremely corny that apparently an effort has been made to pressure a foreign ministry official to act illegally, without the government's mandate," said Mykkänen.

Marin cabinet facing opposition call for no-confidence vote


Summary: Four would-be migrants paid more than 10,000 euros each for what they thought was entry into the EU.

Ulkoasiain hallinto, maanpuolustus ja järjestystoimi

A man who fraudulently charged four would-be migrants more than 10,000 euros each with the promise of entry into the EU from Russia has been detained and will likely be charged by Russian authorities.
 The men seeking to enter the EU were taken across a bogus border crossing erected in the woods near the Finnish-Russian border.
 Last week, the con artist transported the four men along a winding route through the forests near Vyborg, Russia, by car and on foot towards the mock border post that he had set up.
 At one point, the man even led the four men around a lake while carrying a rubber boat. They were eventually taken over the fake border crossing and believed that they were in Finland, although they were still in Russia.
 Further charges pending
 Russian authorities detained the would-be smuggler and the four would-be migrants on 28 November. On Wednesday, a St Petersburg court imposed a fine on the victims of the scam and ordered them to be deported from Russia.
 Reportedly, the four men who hail from Asia, were eventually discovered by real border guards, who told them they were still in Russia.
 The man who engineered the scam is reportedly also from Central Asia.

People smuggler scams migrants with fake Finnish-Russian border crossing


Summary: Helsinki police said they will break up processions deemed to be a risk to public order and security.

Helsinki police said that they had received notice of five Independence Day processions as of Wednesday afternoon. Chief Inspector  Seppo Kujala , who is responsible for overseeing the Independence Day marches, said that this year there will likely be fewer small processions than in previous years.
 Friday 6 December marks the 102nd anniversary of Finnish independence.
 Police said that they expect the observances to proceed peacefully, in spite of tensions that emerged in the past.
 "But of course we will have to prepare for bumps in the road and then we will have to be on hand to maintain public order and security," Kujala added.
 Still time for new marchers to come forward
 Organisers can inform police of their intention to gather for demonstrations up to 24 hours before the event. That means there was still time on Thursday for police to receive new notifications.
 "Of course sometimes there are also gatherings that have not been announced in advance and of course we will be prepared to deal with those as well," Kujala said.
 For example the far-right group Soldiers of Odin said on its website that would be organising a demonstration on Friday.
 In a statement issued on Wednesday, Helsinki police noted that it could intervene in demonstrations if the pose a threat to public order and security or if they disrupt traffic. Police said that they could also break up processions deemed to be unlawful.
 Earlier in the week police announced that  they had barred the neo-Nazi Towards Freedom group  ( Kohti Vapautta!  in Finnish) from organising an Independence Day procession. The group is considered illegal and is widely viewed as an offshoot of the banned neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement (PVL).
 Demonstrations across Helsinki
 3pm – 5.30pm
 A procession in honour of Independence Day will gather near the National Museum in Taka-Töölö and proceed toward Mäntymäki Field at around 4pm. Police have assessed this march as being a far-right event.
 4pm – 7pm
 The fourth annual "Helsinki without Nazis" march will assemble at Narinkkatori Square and proceed to the Taivallahti plaza or the park near Hesperiankatu. Marchers will set off at about 5.30pm.
 The "Helsinki without Nazis" event has traditionally been held to protest the far right in Helsinki. According to organisers, in previous years it has attracted between 2,000 and 3,000 participants. Organisers have said that they want to condemn the 612 far-right torch procession, which starts at 6pm.
 5pm – 6pm
 Helsinki’s traditional university students’ Independence Day procession will depart from Hietaniemi and make its way to the Presidential Palace before ending at Senate Square.
 6pm – 8.30pm
 The sixth annual far-right 612 torch procession is expected to move from the market square in Töölö on Runeberginkatu toward the Hietaniemi cemetery. Marchers are expected to get moving from 7pm.
 The 612 procession has been profiled as far right, as it has brought together intensely nationalist and anti-immigrant participants. Members of the banned Nordic Resistance Movement have joined the ranks of this procession in recent years.
 9pm – 11.30pm
 An Independence Day memorial will take place in the park outside the Parliament Annex building.

Police set to intervene in unlawful Independence Day marches


Summary: The parties in the caretaker government will try to form a new coalition before choosing a prime ministerial candidate.

The board of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has proposed that party chair and caretaker Prime Minister  Antti Rinne  lead negotiations on forming a new government – a cabinet that would be led by someone else. The party's parliamentary group is to decide on the issue on Thursday afternoon.
 The opposition, particularly the conservative National Coalition Party (NCP) has criticised the choice of Rinne to assemble a new cabinet, as he was ousted from the premiership earlier this week.
 That came after the second-largest government partner, the Centre, expressed a vaguely-worded lack of confidence in him. Rinne  resigned as PM  on Tuesday but said he intended to carry on as party chair and MP.
 "In historical terms, it's in no way exceptional that a departing prime minister, the speaker of Parliament or another corresponding person would lead talks on forming a new government," SDP party secretary  Antton Rönnholm  told Yle.
 Rönnholm said the Centre Party has in no way sought to influence the choice of who will try to form a government. He said he expects the Centre to work to build trust between the government parties.
 PM candidate to be chosen on Sunday
 On Thursday, the SDP board also decided that the larger party council will choose a prime ministerial candidate on Sunday evening.
 So far two politicians have said they would be interested in the post: Minister of Transport and Communications  Sanna Marin , who is the deputy party chair and a  former acting party chair , and  Antti Lindtman , leader of the SDP parliamentary group.
 An Yle straw poll of SDP council members on Wednesday gave Marin a narrow lead, with 20 councillors supporting her versus 14 for Lindtman. However 20 others said they had not decided yet, and seven could not be reached.
 The parties aim to carry out government talks before choosing a new prime ministerial candidate. Eventually the premier will be elected by Parliament and appointed by the president.
 Both Marin and Lindtman have said they do not think it would be fair for either of them to be named to form a new government at this stage. Centre politicians said on Wednesday that they were not opposed to having Rinne lead negotiations.
 Friday would have marked the end of the Rinne government's first six months in office.

SDP to pick PM candidate on Sunday, wants Rinne to lead talks


Summary: Author Kjell Westö says Finns have long found it difficult to discuss the traumatic events around Finnish independence.

You can listen to our weekly All Points North podcast via this embedded player, Yle Areena, Spotify, iTunes or your normal pod player using the RSS feed.
 This Finnish Independence Day All Points North met author  Kjell Westö , who said that pragmatism helped Finns navigate the first hundred years of independence.
 Finns have long found it difficult to discuss the traumatic events around the country’s independence, but author Kjell Westö has swum against that tide.
 In books including  Where We Once Walked  and  Mirage 38 , Westö’s stories are set in the interwar period when Finland struggled to heal the wounds of a bloody civil war.
 The traditional narrative of Finnish independence is that the country came together to fend off the attack of the Soviet Union in the Winter War that broke out in 1939.
 Westö told the All Points North podcast that he agreed with the premise but that Finns’ inner pragmatism would eventually have prevailed.
 "My interpretation of us Finns is that, even if we are silent and restrained, there is a certain hot-bloodedness behind this peaceful or restrained surface, but there’s also a lot of pragmatism," Westö said. "We wouldn’t have survived the 20th century without this pragmatism."
 Difficult to write about
 Westö told APN that the war and the post-war camps claimed the lives of some 35,000 people. There was real cruelty on both sides, and the wounds ran deep.
 While Westö says it was ‘difficult’ to write about the period, the growing discussion and gradual opening up about the events of 1918 did help his creative process. He cites the main character in  Mirage 38  — a young survivor from the camps — as a key example.
 "She was totally crucial to this novel. I would not have written it without reading some new research that brought to attention for the first time that in the aftermath of the civil war in 1918, young girls had been put into the camps for having done at times basically almost nothing."
 Painful sporting moments
 Westö vividly evokes the society of the time, and his work does touch on painful moments in the run-up to the Second World War. In  Mirage 38 , Westö sets a scene at an athletics meet at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki where  Jewish runner  Abraham Tokazier won the 100m race but was officially placed fourth.
 The Helsinki-born author said it is revealing that norms can easily break down.
 "It’s an example of how insecure we are, in the end. If maybe tens of thousands of people can see someone win a 100m race, and he is brutally placed fourth, and nobody says anything or does anything... I know that at that point in time in 1938 there were people who tried to contact high-ranking people in Helsinki to correct it but it didn’t happen."
 That changed in 2013 when the  Finnish Sports Federation announced it would retroactively change the result of the race,  awarding Tokazier the victory.
 Sport has not been a stranger to politics in Finland, as Westö notes.
 "If you go as far back as the 1920s, immediately after the civil war, we had working-class football and athletic clubs and 'white or bourgeoisie’ football and athletic clubs," said Westö. "They even competed in different series — things were too tense and people were too ravaged by the war."
 Join the conversation
 If you have any questions or comments or would like to participate in the discussion, contact us via WhatsApp on +358 44 421 0909, on our Facebook or Twitter accounts, or at yle.news@yle.fi. You can also give us your feedback on our English language news services via our  survey .
 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  Egan Richardson,  produced by  Priya Ramachandran D'souza  and the sound engineer was  Laura Koso .

Kjell Westö: "Finns wouldn’t have survived 20th century without pragmatism"


Summary: Workers across several industrial sectors will strike on Monday after stalled collective bargaining agreements.

The Industrial Union, Trade Union Pro and the Federation of Professional and Managerial Staff YTN, have all declared an intention to begin a three-day strike starting next Monday.
 In addition, workers in the building and electrical sectors have announced solidarity strikes, bringing the total number of employees embarking on industrial action to nearly 100,000.
 In a separate development, electrical workers began a four-week strike on Thursday as a result of a dispute over trade union representation in the workplace.
 The strike action was confirmed by the office of national labour conciliator  Vuokka Piekkala  in a tweet on Thursday afternoon.
 "This round of negotiations has ended but it’s still not over yet. All strikes will proceed from 9.12," the conciliator’s office declared.
 Extended strike could disrupt petrol delivery
 Daily Helsingin Sanomat reported Thursday that in addition to the export sector, the strike could affect the availability of medicines and petrol -- if it continues.
 Oil refining company Neste said in a statement issued on Wednesday that a possible continuation of the situation and resulting disruption to fuel deliveries could cripple land, sea and air transportation and at worst could suspend Finnish exports altogether.
 "It would affect the operations of rescue officials, the delivery of heating oil and the operations of other industrial facilities, among others," Neste added in the statement.
 Technology Finland, the organisation representing employers in the industrial sector, said that the three-day strike will result in production losses of hundreds of millions of euros.
 The national conciliator has led discussions between employer and employee representatives regarding a new collective bargaining agreement for the past week. Talks have also been conducted in the technology sector, as well as the chemicals and mechanised forestry industries.
 On Thursday the national conciliator said that there were insufficient grounds for a settlement proposal between forestry companies’ representative Finnish Forest Industries and the Industrial Union.
 On Monday national labour conciliator Piekkala presented a settlement proposal to industrial worker and employer representatives, but the union rejected it, although Technology Finland was satisfied with the offer.

Up to 100,000 industrial workers to begin three-day strike


Summary: From 2020 income during pregnancy will determine an expectant mother’s maternity allowance.

A women’s NGO has expressed concern about new rules for calculating maternity allowances that will take effect from the beginning of next year.
 Starting 1 January, expectant mothers’ maternity benefit will be based on their income in the 12 months before they go off on maternity leave. In practice this means that income earned during pregnancy will have more of an impact on the benefit.
 The objective of the reform is to better reflect an expectant mother’s real income level and to simplify the per diem allowance system that many see as unclear.
 Gig workers face constant financial insecurity
 While the new system may achieve that goal, others are concerned about the impact the reform may have on maternity benefits for gig workers.
 Tampere resident  Maaria Kiemola  raised the issue in an opinion piece in daily Helsingin Sanomat, where she charged that society does not understand the constant financial insecurity that gig workers live with.
 In the gig economy where employers are not committed to employees, many young women may find that employers will not renew their fixed-term contracts when news of their pregnancy gets out.
 Under the new system, period of unemployment will likely affect the size of a woman’s maternity benefit more than they did in the past.
 Pregnancy discrimination widespread
 Annica Moore , chair of the NGO Mothers in Business, said that while the reform is positive in many ways, it also carries many risks.
 "The reform serves the large segment of the population with permanent jobs. At the same time, however, it ignores a significant number of young women who are in fixed-term of part-time work. They may become unemployed because of discrimination during the pregnancy," she pointed out.
 More than 20 percent of women in a Mothers in Business survey said that they had experienced discrimination related to pregnancy or parental leave.
 According to the Ombudsman for Equality, pregnancy discrimination is still widespread in the Finnish labour market.
 Moore noted that lone entrepreneurs and freelancers would also find themselves in choppy waters as maternity benefits will increasingly be determined by work done during pregnancy. In situations where a woman is experiencing a difficult pregnancy and cannot work as much or at all, the allowance could be much smaller than she would otherwise expect.
 Reassurances from ministry
 In spite of these concerns the Social Affairs and Health Ministry said that other improvements to daily allowances will level out the effect of possible stints of unemployment that gig workers might face.
 In the future, daily allowances will take account of a self-employed person’s income declaration for the purpose of statutory pension payments, as well as other benefits such as unemployment benefits or student financial aid.
 "This was discussed during the preparatory phase but we thought that factoring in other benefits would compensate for fixed-term workers’ possible unemployment periods," ministerial adviser  Eva Ojala  said.
 Another change is that irregular income will also be taken into consideration when maternity benefits are calculated. According to Ojala it will encourage mothers-to-be to accept even brief positions as the income will help boost their maternity allowance.
 In evaluating the impact of the reform, ministry officials estimated that 70 percent of the changes introduced would be minimal. Expectant mothers in low-income groups will see their maternity benefit rise, while there might be a small decline for women in higher-income groups.
 "We will constantly monitor what happens with different income groups and whether any marginalised groups are created," Ojala concluded.

Gig workers, freelancers fear changes to maternity benefit rules


Summary: The internationally renowned cultural figure has denied all of the allegations against him.

Sexual violence (sexual act or attempt to obtain a sexual act by violence or coercion)

New allegations relating to abuse and sexual assault have emerged in the case of theatre luminary  Veijo Baltzar , who is already  suspected of aggravated human trafficking .
 Police said on Thursday that investigations have progressed but that several individuals were still to be interviewed. In addition they said that many leads still needed to be followed up.
 "It is still early in the preliminary investigation so unfortunately I still cannot say more about the matter without preventing issues from being investigated. We will provide more information as soon as possible," Helsinki detective inspector  Saara Asmundela  said in a statement.
 The alleged human trafficking is believed to have taken place between January 2016 and autumn of this year in Tammisaari and Helsinki.
 At the end of November, the Helsinki district court remanded Baltzar into custody on suspicion of having committed aggravated human trafficking. The court also remanded a 36-year-old woman on suspicion of committing the same offence.
 The thespian has also been accused of manipulating and preying on young women involved in his theatre company.
 Baltzar has denied all of the allegations against him. The 77-year-old is a well-known writer and patron of the theatre in Finland, through  his cultural association Drom . His body of work includes several novels, plays, poetry and art.

New abuse, sexual assault suspicions swirl around alleged theatre predator


Summary: Every year, dozens of dual Finnish nationals living abroad complete military service in Finland.

Last year, 65 Finnish dual nationals reported for military service in the country, with the majority arriving from Sweden, the United States and the United Kingdom. Most of them said they were serving to strengthen their bond to Finland and keep their Finnish citizenship.
 Finnish male citizens living outside of Finland are subject to the conscription call-up when they turn 18 -- just like their counterparts living in the country. Finnish men living abroad can, however, apply for exemptions from military service and still retain their Finnish citizenship.
 Story continues after photo.
 Iida Hakkarainen said she now knows what it feels like to have freezing fingers and toes. Niko Mannonen / Yle
 Nineteen year-old Finnish-American  Iida Hakkarainen , whose family relocated to Florida when she was a baby, is now completing a nine-month stint at the Air Force Unit in Tikkakoski, north of Jyväskylä.
 Hakkarainen, who is about halfway through her service, is in military police training.
 “I wasn’t sure what I wanted to study after finishing high school. My older brother had completed his Finnish military service and recommended I do it too,” Hakkarainen said.
 Story continues after photo.
 Niko Mannonen / Yle
 When sitting out on a watch alone, sleep deprived and in the freezing cold, Hakkarainen said she sometimes wonders if she made a mistake.
 “It’s been a mental challenge,” she told Yle. "I start considering what I’m doing here, but then I have to remind myself that it's all new and a learning experience.”
 Hakkarainen is the only woman in her unit and lodges separately from the other conscripts. “Physically I’ve done alright, sometimes it’s been rough, like when completing a 20-kilometre march through the rain while carrying a full kit,” she explained.
 Story continues after photo.
 Hakkarainen said she got in shape back home by dancing, jogging and working out at the gym before donning army fatigues. Niko Mannonen / Yle
 Hakkarainen told Yle she has enjoyed training related to military technology, particularly marksmanship where it’s easy to track improvement.
 She said fellow male and female conscripts have not been too understanding of her decision to volunteer for service. But she said being Finnish was always an important part of her identity. Her family spent summers in Finland and spoke Finnish at home.
 “We celebrated all of the holidays Finnish-style and prepared Finnish food at home. When I was younger, we also attended a Finnish church.”
 Hakkarainen said she has become accustomed to the joking and teasing in the barracks and has slowly made some new friends.
 “Initially it was a culture shock for me to meet people that weren’t friendly right away in the way Americans are. It takes time for people to warm up. It’s strange and has taken some getting used to.”
 Hakkarainen said the first thing she plans to do when returning stateside is running into the ocean and eating a burrito. “Mostly I miss my family, our dog and American food -- Florida has such a great variety of fresh fruit.”
 Story continues after photo.
 Iida Hakkarainen
 "Overall, I think this experience has made me physically and mentally stronger. I’ve also gained some independence and learned more about my Finnish roots.”

From West Palm Beach to Tikkakoski: Dual Finnish nationals explore roots through military service