Summary: Police are looking into possible links between two overdoses and a Subutex seizure.

Following the deaths of two young men this past weekend in Joensuu, police are warning of potentially dangerous drugs on the black market.
 The men were found dead one day apart in private apartments in the eastern city. One was found on Saturday morning and the other on Sunday morning, both of apparent drug overdoses.
 "It's possible that there is some dangerous drug in circulation in Joensuu that we do not yet have more precise information about," Detective Superintendent  Kimmo Wetterstrand  of the Eastern Finland Police Department told Yle on Monday morning.
 "Apparently this substance has now caused these two people's deaths," he added.
 Police say the deceased were both local men in their late 20s and that neither had a criminal background or long history of drug abuse. They are looking into any possible ties between the victims.
 "Two drug-related deaths on the same weekend is not very common in a city of this size. These incidents usually occur less than once a year," Wetterstrand said. Joensuu, a university town with a population of some 75,000, lies less than 100 kilometres from the Russian border.
 Nearly 200 Subutex tablets seized
 Police say that both men had taken drugs before their deaths, including possibly buprenorphine, an opioid sold under the brand name Subutex. While generally prescribed as part of treatment for opioid addiction or for pain, it is also used recreationally.
 Authorities are awaiting the results of autopsies to determine what substances were in the men's bodies.
 Separately police this weekend detained another young local man who was in possession of nearly 200 Subutex tablets. They are looking to any possible link with the fatalities.
 "Generally there have not been any significant changes in the Joensuu drug situation of late," Wetterstrand said.
 He added that hard drugs mostly come to Eastern Finland from elsewhere in the country.
 "The eastern border does not play a major role in drugs ending up here," he said.

Joensuu police warn of drug danger after weekend deaths


Summary: The project was funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, which has pledged a million euros to support youth literacy.

The Finnish Cultural Foundation, a private organisation, has donated one million euros to provide every upper comprehensive school in Finland with a donation of more than 100 books.
 The project is aimed at promoting literacy among upper school students. The donated books have been selected by the Finnish Institute for Children's Literature.
 "The reaction from the students is the best part. They show genuine joy and enthusiasm when they receive the books. Many of them grabbed a book immediately and asked when they could borrow it,"  Lotta Luukila , a project coordinator from the institute, said.
 The book donation project was prompted by concerns about declining literacy levels among young people in Finland, especially boys.
 Story continues after photo.
 In addition to books, the literacy packages also contain various activities and assignments that teachers can use. Kirsi Matson-Mäkelä / Yle
 Primary school students have already received their own literacy packages. However, the seeds of future literacy are often planted before children even start school.
 Seventh grader  Milla Mäkinen  tells of reading to her little sister as she opens book packages in the newly constructed library at the Vuores comprehensive school in Tampere, southern Finland. Her sister is especially fond of Winnie the Pooh books, which were Mäkinen's favourite as well in her childhood.
 "I can read just about anything," she says.
 Mandi Nummela  also says that she reads many kinds of books, the Harry Potter series being her favourite.
 "I read about 20 pages in the evening, so maybe a book or two per month. Even if you're stressed out about something, you can become immersed in the book and forget everything else for a while," Nummela explains.
 Story continues after photo.

Mandi Nummela (centre) wants to read a book of poems by Kirsti Kuronen from the literacy package. In addition to novels and comics, the packages include short stories.   Kirsi Matson-Mäkelä / Yle
 Jiro Matikainen  estimates that he has read about 100 books in his life. "Comics are quite good," he adds.
 Teachers believe that selecting stimulating books is the key to promoting literacy and instilling a love of reading in students.
 "We do not give the biggest books to students who we know are a little weaker in reading," explains  Terhi Metsälä , a Finnish language and literature teacher at the Vuores school.
 The Finnish Cultural Foundation is a private foundation "dedicated to promoting art, science, and other fields of intellectual and cultural endeavour in Finland," according to its website. The foundation funds cultural and educational projects though one central fund and 17 regional funds.

Every upper comprehensive school in Finland receives gift of 100 new books


A day-long autumn heat wave is headed to southern Finland on Tuesday, according to Yle meteorologists and the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI). The heat wave threshold in Finland - locally known as "helleraja" - is when the thermometer breaks the 25 degree Celsius barrier.
 Such warm temperatures this time of year are rare but not unprecedented. As recently as 9 September, 2002, the heat reached 25.2 degrees in the south-western town of Mietoinen.
 On the first day of September of this year, the heat wave threshold was broken in western cities of Vaasa and Rauma, when temperatures reached 25.7 degrees.
 The highest autumn temperature ever recorded in Finland during September - 28.8 degrees - was in Rauma, on 6 September, 1968. The latest recorded day over 25 was 17 September, 1947 when the mercury reached 25.2 in Tampere.
 Not Indian summer
 Yle meteorologist  Anniina Valtonen  said the warm, sunny weather expected on Tuesday will be caused by two low pressure systems. She said that the heat wave threshold will almost certainly be broken, if for only one day, in south-western areas.
 However, the forecasted warmer temperatures will not amount to a so-called Indian summer, as that usually occurs after the thermal summer is over. There are two definitions for summer: thermal or meteorological and calendar. Thermal summer ends when daily temperatures do not exceed 10 degrees Celsius, so it is possible that an Indian summer could still be in store this autumn.
 According to the calendar, summer ended in Finland just over a week ago.

Unusually high temps headed to Finland on Tuesday


Summary: Some convicts may have gotten off scot-free due to a glitch in communication between criminal justice agencies.

District courts' failure to pass on information about hundreds of cases may have led to the statute of limitations running out on some prison sentences.
 The courts are supposed to send notifications about sentences on to the Criminal Sanctions Agency and the Legal Register Centre, which are responsible for enforcing imprisonment and fines. Now officials have noticed however that since 2013, data relating to at least 579 sentences were not transferred.
 The Ministry of Justice says that in some cases the statute of limitations may have run out on some sentences. In other words, some convicts may have avoided imprisonment or fines.
 "We consider this all to be extremely serious," says the ministry's Permanent Secretary,  Pekka Timonen . "The Legal Register Centre and the district courts will now go through these cases as quickly as possible to determine which sentences are still enforceable. Those that are will be implemented."
 Some may have gotten off scot-free
 The statute of limitations on convictions ranges between three and 20 years, depending on the severity of the sentence. Juvenile sentences and cases of imprisonment as a substitute for non-collectible fines generally expire in three years, while fines and shorter prison terms become outdated in five years if not enforced. So it is possible that some individuals who were sentenced to prison in 2013-14 may have avoided jail time due to the errors.
 The cause of the problem remains unclear. District courts pass the information using an application. Officials say it is possible that there has been an glitch in the app, but human error has not been ruled out.
 "We're first trying to ensure that no further damage is done and that the problem is not repeated. Then we'll find out what this is all about and the responsibility issues," Timonen says.
 Finland's district courts hand down some 50,000 sentences in criminal trials annually.

Hundreds of convictions in doubt due to data problem


Summary: The growth in sales of organic products has slowed, but is still more than twice that of groceries in general.

Sales of organic items at Finnish grocery stores totalled nearly 350 million euros from July 2018 to the end of June this year, the Finnish Organic Food Association Pro Luomu said on Monday.
 That was an increase of about seven percent over the previous year – relatively modest compared to the  preceding several years  when annual growth was as much as 15 percent. Still, it far outpaced the overall growth in grocery sales, which remained below three percent.
 The association's executive director,  Marja-Riitta Kottila , says the main change is that sales of organic milk have plateaued.
 "Milk is the second-largest organic product group, so it has a big impact. Apparently the public discussion about  climate emissions from cattle  has encouraged some people to opt for non-dairy products instead of milk," Kottila says.
 "Although the climate discussion seems to have reduced sales of organic milk products, this is not reflected in cheese or fresh organic meat, where sales have grown steadily," Kottila says.
 Bananas still #1
 Pro Luomu says that organic has a market share of 2.4 percent in the grocery sector. Its figures do not include direct sales from farms or sales by the national alcohol monopoly, Alko.
 Growth is still strong in sales of organic fruit and vegetables and baby food, as well as in beer and cider sold at a grocery stores, where the maximum alcohol content rose in January from 4.7 percent to 5.5 percent.
 The best-selling organic product groups remain fruit, root vegetables, coffee and eggs. The single best-selling items are bananas, while those with the highest market share are still vegetable oils, baby food and eggs.

Organic sales growth slows as some consumers switch away from milk


Summary: Papers in Finland report on a broad-scale police operation, the problem of school bullying and delays at the airport.

A massive police operation to curb organised crime has resulted in 18 arrests, one jail sentence and numerous seized weapons and drug shipments, according to top-selling daily  Helsingin Sanomat .
 The week-long series of busts all targeted the crime syndicate known as the United Brotherhood. Police carried out operations in Tampere, Turku, Jyväskylä, Lahti, Joensuu, Vantaa, Porvoo, Tuusula and Helsinki.
 "Home searches have yielded a large number of firearms. Illegal drugs have also been confiscated from several locations," said detective  Ari Lahtela  from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in HS.
 Police arrested a total of 18 people over the course of the broad-scale raids, some of whom are high up in the United Brotherhood command chain. Nine people were taken into custody on Monday 2 September in the Turku region alone, HS writes.
 "The Turku operation targeted persons who are suspected of smuggling narcotics into prisons for enormous gains," detective superintendent  Aki Lahtinen  from the South-West Finland police department said in a statement. "They were imprisoned on Thursday suspected of aggravated drug offenses."
 The Criminal Sanctions Agency's  Sami Peltovuoma  said in a press conference on Monday that the United Brotherhood is a coalition of three previously independent criminal groups with significant power in Finnish prisons. He said members of the Brotherhood employ tactics such as violence, threats, blackmail, invented debts and promises of brotherhood membership.
 Prosecutor  Leena Metsäpelto  said that the United Brotherhood – deemed the most dangerous organised crime group in Finland in terms of violent offenses and drug crimes – should be abolished based on the Associations Act, even though the organisation is not technically an association.
 Local education clause hinders anti-bullying work
 Bullying continues to be a serious problem in Finnish schools, and government must do more to address it, Minister of Education  Li Andersson  said, according to  Tuesday's Ilta-Sanomat . Her comments follow last week's news about an Oulu woman whose social media post detailing her daughter's schoolyard harassment gained broad attention.
 Andersson said that a single harassment case is one too many, and that anti-bullying programmes would be very high on the list of the new coalition government's priorities.
 "Everyone is entitled to a safe primary education. Finland has worked for many years  to curb school bullying , and the work must continue," Andersson told IS.
 The paper writes that many readers of bullying news have wondered why bullies are not simply expelled from school. Andersson said that municipalities may in some cases transfer a bullying student to another school, but only with their guardians' permission.
 "There is that option. The law also says that temporary expulsion is possible in serious cases," she said.
 Another obstacle stands in the way of simply sending bullies away from their victims.
 "Parental permission in expulsion cases is very difficult to overturn, because Finland guarantees a child's right to nearby, local education," Andersson told IS. "The same law guarantees that special needs children receive the support they need in their own vicinity."
 Passport tech glitches
 New automatic passport-checking machines at the Helsinki Airport are malfunctioning and slowing down passenger traffic, according to  a report from tabloid Iltalehti .
 Passengers have been complaining all summer long that long queuing times have caused further trouble at baggage claims and with connecting flights.
 Finnish Border Guard control officer  Petteri Mattila  told IL that the new system has indeed had a bumpy start.
 "This is a pilot phase in the testing of these machines," he said. "There is new technology in these devices and they are different from the previous models. The process is being developed constantly based on feedback such as this."
 The new passport-checking machines were introduced in early July, and eventually the old models from 2008 will be phased out entirely.
 A further 10 machines will soon be added to arrival terminals, and 20 more to departure terminals, according to the paper.
 "The new technology is intended to support border control operations and improve border security," Mattila said.

Tuesday's papers: United Brotherhood sting, anti-bullying priority, passport machine malfunction


Summary: The Finnish postal service reports problems with online services and deliveries on Sunday.

The state-owned postal and logistics firm says that its Posti.fi web portal has been down since at least 5.30 am Sunday due to an IT glitch.
 "The problems are due to a widespread telecommunications problem at Posti's service provider Tieto," Posti's communications director  Ulla Parviainen  told Yle.
 She was unable to estimate when the problem would be resolved.
 Due to the malfunction, Posti's customer service chat lines and Omaposti services were not working properly. With the online chat lines down, Posti's traditional telephone call service was overloaded.
 Paper routes from memory
 Some customers were calling to enquire about Sunday morning newspaper deliveries, which were delayed in some areas . For instance the leading daily Helsingin Sanomat warned its subscribers of delivery disruptions around 7.30 am.
 The disruptions were apparently due to delivery staff's inability to access subscriber information. However a Posti manager in charge of early deliveries,  Eikka Urpilainen , told the news agency STT around midday that some 95 percent of papers were eventually delivered, as distributors remembered the correct addresses.
 Posti's corporate website, Posti.com, has been accessible. There have been notifications of delays on its Finnish version but not the English version. The state-owned company's site does not carry any information in the second official national language, Swedish.

Posti website down, newspaper deliveries delayed


Summary: Various species can be spotted in different parts of the country till early October due to warm weather in the south.

According to nature conservation organisation Birdlife Finland, small migratory birds from Lapland were observed in the southernmost parts of Finland in early September, later than is common. These include birds such as such as bluethroats, rustic buntings and red-throated pipits, which reside in the Lapland in summer.
 According to the organisation, while most small, insect-eating birds have already migrated south, birdwatchers should not hang up their binoculars yet. Enthusiasts might be able to spot the birds at the end of September and even October.
 In a species welfare status update published last Friday, Birdlife Finland said that there have been a large number of sightings of rustic buntings travelling from eastern Finland towards the south-east. Since the record migration that took place in the last week of August, birdwatchers can still spot thousands of migrating birds in Hanko, southern Finland on a good day.
 Story continues after photo.
 The red-throated pipit AOP
 The arctic warbler, a rare bird native to the Lapland, was sighted in Pori on the last day of August, despite expectations that it would begin its journey from North Lapland or North Karelia towards Southeast Asia between July and August. The elusive bird, dubbed the grey mouse of the avian world due to its modest appearance, will not return to the north till next June.
 Other rare birds were sighted last week: a steppe eagle in Vantaa and two black storks in Espoo, Southern Finland; pectoral sandpipers in Pori; and hoopoes in Närpio and Naantali in the west.
 There have also been an unusually high number of red-footed falcons, which have never nested in Finland before. While there are occasional sightings of this species every year, a record number of red-footed falcons flew to Finland at the turn of August and September.
 "The species did not nest here at all, but some years the fledglings wander off at the end of summer. There has now been a very significant invasion, due to the south being warm and the south-east wind. Around a thousand red-footed falcons migrated from Latvia and ended up in Finland on Wednesday," said  Jan Södersved , a spokesperson from Birdlife.
 The "invasion" of the red-footed falcons took place in the first week of September, and the species can still be spotted in southern Finland. AOP

Migratory birds still sighted as far as southern Finland


Summary: The bank said the redundancies are part of a strategy update that aims to save three million euros per year.

Helsinki-based Aktia Bank plans to enter co-determination talks with worker representatives in a bid to cut up to 110 jobs, according to a bank press release issued Tuesday.
 A total of about 380 workers will be represented in the co-determination negotiations. The firm said that some of the affected employees could be laid off or shift to part-time work.
 "The change in customer behaviour and the demand for location-independent services, as well as the increasing demand for personal financial advice, will lead to even less frequent visits to the bank branch," the bank stated.
 The firm said it expects its updated strategy to generate around three million euros in annual savings, starting next year.
 Long-term goals
 Aktia's board said the bank's long-term financial goals included raising its comparable operating profit from 80 million to 100 million euros per year, increasing its return on equity to 11 percent from 9.7 percent, as well as other measures.
 The bank said it aims to pay out 60-80 percent of its profits to shareholders.
 Aktia's strategy update is made up of three main themes, including improving its asset management department, boosting private and corporate customer rates and the standardising and automation of its operations.
 Aktia Bank's 45 branch offices serve approximately 350,000 private and 30,000 corporate customers around the country and the bank is owned by Aktia foundations, bank foundations, institutions, firms and private individuals.
 As of March 2018 the firm employed just under 800 full-time workers, a company report stated.

Aktia Bank prepares to cut up to 110 jobs


Summary: Not a single Russian patient was treated at the South Karelia Central Hospital's maternity unit so far this year.

Etelä-Karjalan sosiaali- ja terveyspiiri (EKSOTE)

The South Karelia Social and Health Care District ( Eksote ) has been unsuccessful in  attracting patients from Russia  to its Lappeenranta maternity ward, despite attempts to ramp up marketing for the service after the  long decline of Finland's birth rate .
 Contact between Eksote and its maternity programme's main focus point in St. Petersburg has also fallen silent, the South Karelia Central Hospital announced.
 The health care district said in early 2019 that it would rely on Russian health tourism to keep the maternity unit's doors open. At least three births per week would be needed for the ward to stay open.
 Eksote health and elder care service chief  Tuula Karhula  said one reason for the lack of expecting Russian customers in Lappeenranta is that the Hyvinkää hospital some 200 km to the west has been able to receive patients in spite of ongoing renovations. It is also able to offer the same maternity service for the same 10,000-euro fee. The difference is that patients in Hyvinkää do not need to check in one month before their expected date of delivery, or stay on after giving birth, which Eksote requires.
 "Previous queries about maternity services in Lappeenranta have not been followed by any action. Apparently there is little awareness of this option," Karhula said.
 Future of maternity ward unclear
 Karhula added that she was "not surprised" at Russians staying away, as the process of marketing the maternity service has taken much longer than originally anticipated.
 Eksote announced the launch of its maternity service campaign in August, 2018, but the programme did not start until several months later.
 Eksote and private hospital Hyksin Ltd  came to an agreement in early 2019 , with Hyksin handling most of the marketing on social media, at trade fairs in Russia and on board international trains.
 "We've done some of our own, too," Karhula said.
 As no maternity patients from Russia have used the service over the past nine months, Eksote will have to enter talks with Hyksin Ltd to decide what to do with the Lappeenranta ward.

Lappeenranta maternity ward struggles to attract Russian patients


Summary: The recall applies to one-litre Valio Tuuti baby formula packages with a best-before date of 3 January, 2020.

Valio has announced that it is withdrawing a batch of Valio Tuuti baby formula from stores due to suspected quality defects in the packaging that may have affected the contents.
 The batch in question is one-litre sized cartons with a best-by date of 3 January, 2020. Consumers can safely use other batches and sizes of the same product, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
 According to Valio, this particular batch of baby formulas has faulty packaging that could result in bulging. The company recommended avoiding using the defective cartons altogether. The formula inside may be lumpy or have a strange smell or taste. It could go bad or may already be contaminated due to the packaging defect, Valio said.
 Children who consume the affected formula might experience symptoms such as an upset stomach, it warned. It added that there is no cause for concern if the child has already eaten formula from this particular batch as long as the packaging and contents appeared normal.
 This is not the first time that this product has been recalled. Valio also withdrew tainted batches of Valio Tuuti from stores in  2018  and  2017 .

Valio recalls baby formula over contamination fears


Summary: UPM said that decommissioning the magazine paper machine will help make the firm more competitive.

Forestry products company UPM announced Tuesday that it plans to shutter a magazine paper manufacturing machine at its plant in Rauma, southwest Finland, in a move that would terminate about one-third of positions at the facility.
 The SC paper machine was manufactured in 1971 and the firm said that it will cease operations by the end of this year. UPM said that it was launching redundancy talks to terminate 179 positions associated with the decommissioning of the machine.
 Fourteen of the 179 workers affected by the retirement of the paper machine are on fixed-term employment contracts. Altogether UPM employs 520 permanent workers at the Rauma plant.
 The company said that production will continue as usual on the two remaining paper machines in Rauma.
 "This is a dark day for the Rauma paper plant but it’s not a big surprise. The reduction of capacity has been going on for many years and now it’s our turn. Furloughs are not enough," plant manager  Timo Suurtala  said.
 UPM aiming for improved competitiveness
 The paper products firm said that it will also implement other operational changes in a bid to eliminate redundancies in paper production capacity and ultimately to improve competitiveness.
 "During the past 10 years the market has weakened steadily. That decline has now become sharper and we have too much capacity. At the moment, the SC paper machine in Rauma is the least profitable," Suurtala explained.
 The factory director said that shuttering one machine would also weaken competitiveness of the two remaining machines, as fixed costs are more easily shared by three than by two machines.
 The last time a paper machine was shut down in Rauma was in 2013,  when nearly 90 people  lost their jobs.
 Factory up for sale in France
 UPM said that it is also planning to sell the Chapelle newspaper factory in Grand-Couronne, France.
 Implementing the planned decommissioning and plant closures would mean a 265,000-tonne reduction in UPM’s SC capacity and a 240,000-ton decrease in newspaper production.
 However, the firm estimated that ending production on the SC paper machine would save roughly 20 million euros annually.
 UPM said that it plans to set up a new service centre in Wroclaw, Poland, a proposal that it said would affect 168 employees at 11 different locations.
 Mayor: Rauma will help affected employees
 Rauma mayor  Kari Koski  described the UPM announcement as "unfortunate" for a paper production municipality.
 "This was a blow that no one wished for, but now that it has come it must be dealt with. This is the way of the world and that grade of paper cannot be produced competitively in Finland," Koski said.
 The mayor added that he has no precise information about the details of the redundancy plans, referring to the possibility of retirement as an exit for some employees. However he noted that the city would do its best to help the people who will become jobless.
 "The impact on employment in Rauma will be about one percent, but you have to remember that the situation is difficult for everyone affected," he pointed out.
 "Rauma will have more than 1,000 new jobs so we will overcome this, but of course they won’t be the same as in the paper factory, because salaries there are rather high," he commented.

UPM to shutter paper machine, slash 179 jobs


Summary: Countries with similar levels of tertiary education include Latvia, Austria and Slovenia.

Kansainväliset organisaatiot ja sopimukset

Ministerit, ministeriöt ja valtioneuvosto

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)  published a report on Tuesday  suggesting that the ratio of highly-educated people in Finland aged 25 to 34 remains below the average among similar groups in EU and OECD countries, at 41 percent. The OECD average is 44 percent educated at university level.
 The study found that while Finland's proportion of tertiary-educated citizens has risen along with the other countries studied between 2008 and 2018, Finnish higher education has not caught up with the rest of the 35 OECD member states.
 Countries with the same proportion of highly-educated citizens as Finland include Latvia, Austria and Slovenia.
 Nordic countries Sweden and Norway, along with English-speaking nations such as the United States and Australia, continue to exceed the OECD average.
 Finland's long-term goal is to have about 50 percent of the population educated at a university or technical college by 2030. To reach that objective, it must increase the number of university-level graduates by 9 percentage points in a decade. The growth rate of Finland's tertiary graduates from 2008 to 2018 was three percentage points.
 The Ministry of Education and Culture said that Finland's low score is due to the fact that tertiary education usually begins at a later age (24 years old) than the OECD average (22 years old).
 "It is more important than ever that young people learn the knowledge and skills needed to navigate our unpredictable and changing world," OECD Secretary-General  Angel Gurría  said in a release. "We must expand opportunities and build stronger bridges with future skills so that every student can find their place in society and achieve their full potential."
 Government programme promises boost
 The Education Ministry tapped professor  Jussi Kivistö  from the University of Tampere to make an expert assessment of the OECD report. Kivistö said that comparisons are difficult to rely on, because different countries have such different education systems.
 The government under PM  Antti Rinne  states in its programme that it means to increase the number of starting places in institutes of higher education significantly during its term to raise the level of education, ease the jam-packed applications system and get more professionals to fill gaps in the job market.
 Professor Kivistö said that Finland's target of 50 percent, or indeed any target, oversimplifies the concept of higher education.
 "I believe we should look at sectoral supply and demand, as there are huge discrepancies between sectors," he said. "And how do we know we can offer highly-educated people jobs in 10 years? On the other hand, we are in a reasonably good position with respect to highly-educated professionals in Finland. Their employment has improved in recent years."
 Ministry calls 5K new admissions
 The report also found that Finland actually invests more of its national budget in higher-level education (1.7 percent of GDP in 2016) than the OECD average (1.5 percent of GDP). The Netherlands and Sweden, for instance, provide about as much funding for tertiary education.
 The United States invests far more, some 2.5 percent of its gross domestic product, but Kivistö said that private funding is far more prevalent there than in Finland.
 "Finland commits a great deal of public funds to higher education, almost more than any other country except Denmark, Norway and Austria. We only get 2-3 percent private funding here."
 Kivistö said that only private donations could possibly help raise Finland's standing in the OECD metric, because compared to international levels public funding in Finland has already been "played out".
 The Ministry of Education and Culture suggested in its budget proposal that Finnish institutes of higher education should increase the number of first-year student places by at least 5,000. The ministry proposed spending 40 million euros on that effort next year; 24 million for academic universities and 16 million for universities of applied sciences.
 Altogether, the ministry recommended earmarking 3.5 billion euros in funding for tertiary teaching and research in 2020, an increase of 257 million euros.
 Negotiations on the funding specifics are still ongoing, and plans for the additional millions will be finalised in autumn's budget talks.

Report: Finland trails EU, OECD averages for highly-educated millennials


Summary: The SDP's Jutta Urpilainen won the nod of the EU Commission president-designate for the international partnerships post.

Jutta Urpilainen , a former finance minister in the  Jyrki Katainen  administration, has been nominated for a European Commission post as commissioner responsible for international partnerships. The portfolio is a new position created by EU Commission president-designate  Ursula von der Leyen .
 Commenting on the appointment, Prime Minister  Antti Rinne  said that Urpilainen’s position is "extremely important in the current global situation."
 "In a situation in which a rule-based world is being challenged, trade wars are ongoing and when peace must be brokered, then I think this portfolio is extremely important. It is also important from an economic perspective," Rinne noted.
 Finland was vying for an influential post in development, training or defence and Rinne discussed the prospects with von der Leyen over the weekend.
 "When I heard about the details of the position I was very satisfied. It’s right for Jutta and for Finland," the PM added.
 Rime said that he was not disappointed that the role of economy commissioner went to the Italian  Paolo Gentiloni  and described the line-up of prospective commissioners as balanced.
 Focus on Africa
 Urpilainen was the first female chair of the Social Democratic Party, which she led from 2008 to 2014 before relinquishing her role as finance minister when she was toppled from the chairmanship by current party leader Rinne. Urpilainen told Yle that she was pleased with the nomination.
 "I am very satisfied with the assignment. It involves both economic and external relations," she remarked, adding that she would leave it to others to assess the prestige of the post.
 "I have the Commission’s largest division – foreign relations – at my disposal. As an administrative arm it is the third largest in the EU budget. The main focus is development issues, in other words where we can support reaching sustainable development goals by the year 2030," she commented.
 The former school teacher said that developing a new "Africa strategy" would be an important part of her role.
 "We must build a new strategic partnership with Africa in which the private sector is also actively involved in creating investments, jobs and permanent wellbeing."
 The commissioner-in-waiting said that the international partnerships role will tackle major generational issues such as climate change, new security threats, the growth of inequality and a crisis of democracy. She noted that the challenge of immigration was that EU member states had not been able to implement agreed measures.
 "What is essential is that we address the root causes of immigration and create a situation where people do not see their only hope as leaving their home countries," she declared.
 New Commission portfolio
 Commission president-designate Ursula von der Leyen said that it is important for the EU to invest in neighbouring territories. She referred to Urpilainen’s work as finance minister, as a member of Parliament’s foreign affairs committee and as a special peace envoy, a role that she performed between 2017 and 2019 during her term as an SDP MP. At the time she visited countries such as Ethiopia.
 The current EU Commission doesn’t have a separate portfolio for international partnerships and the new role will place special emphasis on relations with Africa. According to von der Leyen, one aspect Urpilainen’s mission will be to broker partnership agreements with migrants’ countries of origin as well as transit countries as part of the new Africa strategy she will design.
 "By this von der Leyen is sending the message that there is a crucial connection between Africa and Europe. To influence migration so that it’s on a sustainable level in the future we must be able to improve living conditions in countries of origin," Urpilainen declared.
 The incoming commissioner said that this approach would include conflict resolution as well as investment and job creation.
 Von der Leyen noted that a separate portfolio with responsibility for Africa had been proposed at some point, but it had been set aside because the African Union, an organisation comprising 55 continental member states, would have seen it as a problem.
 The commissioner nominees will next face scrutiny by the relevant committees of the European Parliament before the body greenlights the appointments. Once that happens, the European Council will formally appoint the next European Commission, including the president (von der Leyen) as well as all of the vice presidents and commissioners.

Finnish ex-finance minister nominated for new EU commissioner post


Summary: Finland's press looks at growing job cuts, developments in the Posti affair, Namibian artefacts and a military mishap.

Turku-based daily Turun Sanomat writes about a  worrying wave of layoffs  that appears to be gaining speed in Finland. News on Tuesday of planned job cuts at forestry companies  UPM  and Stora Enso, as well as Aktia Bank and the construction company Lehto Group pushes the list of companies that have let go of employees this year to past 30, the paper writes.
 The country's almost million-member-strong labour confederacy, SAK, tells TS that it is watching the development carefully, and it appears to be affecting every sector.  Ismo Kokko , the union's senior advisor for collective bargaining, tells the paper that the "increase is not yet alarming".
 TS notes that economic downswings usually start with poorer performance in exporting companies, who must adapt to changing competition parameters quickly. They point to signs of this in recent downsizing at  Finnish forestry companies , as well as such global manufacturers as  Sandvik ,  Nokian Tyres ,  ABB ,  SSAB  and the once-booming  Valmet Automotive car factory  in Uusikaupunki.
 The paper warns that trade wars currently threaten the world economy, while Brexit is creating uncertainty in the EU.
 "When the situation is unclear, companies don't dare to invest and many projects are put on ice. This is bad for Finland, as a large share of its revenue comes from exports," TS concludes.
 Posti salary cut could extend to 8,000
 Daily Helsingin Sanomat reports the latest developments in a plan to lower postal salaries that has generated much debate in the last few weeks. HS has now learned via interviews that the national postal carrier  Posti plans to lower the wages of up to 8,000 employees  – one third of the 22,000-worker total and  ten times more than the 700 or so the state-owned group had originally announced .
 Prime Minister  Antti Rinne , whose government has promised to  review salary policy  at the company, told HS that his coalition was aware of Posti's plans and said it is considering offering a lump sum payment to the employees affected, although he wouldn't speculate as to the amount.
 The public debate over the salary cuts intensified when it was revealed that Posti CEO  Heikki Malinen 's  near-million-euro annual salary  has increased by 65 percent in the last four years, while the firm has steadily let go of hundreds of workers.
 Returning lost property
 The tabloid Ilta-Sanomat carries a story on a  special stone from Namibia . It seems that back in the nineteenth century, Finnish missionary  Martti Rautanen  brought a piece of a sacred artefact to Finland, and now the Vice President of Namibia,  Nangolo Mbumba , wants it back.
 Mbumba met with PM Rinne this week, and he has requested that the culturally significant Ondonga Power Stone be returned to Namibia from its current place in the ethnographic collection of the Finnish National Museum, so that it can be put on display in a local museum.
 Originating in Ovamboland, an ancient northern kingdom of Namibia, the stone is a piece of a meteorite that fell to Earth in 1883 or 1886. The Finnish museum describes Artefact 5620 as "believed to symbolize good government, stability and connection with the forefathers' spirits". Among other things, the stone was revered in northern Namibia for its rain-making properties.
 Finnish National Museum curator  Heli Lahdentausta  says both countries' museum authorities are open to returning the stone to Namibia. The Finnish Government already repatriated two other important artefacts to Namibia since it gained independence in 1990: the Power Stone of the Kingdom of Oukwanyama in 1990, and a stone that was part of the regal symbols of Ombalantu in 2014.
 Next July, Finland and Namibia will celebrate 150 years of close relations, and Lahdentausta says the stone will likely be repatriated sometime during the festivities.
 Tank swerved to avoid reindeer
 And lastly, Oulu-based newspaper Kaleva reports on  a collision in Finnish Lapland involving two military tanks and a reindeer .
 Two Patria Pasi armoured personnel carriers collided in the city of Kemijärvi on Tuesday evening when one of the tanks swerved to avoid hitting a reindeer. The paper writes that 27 conscripts from the Kainuu Brigade were affected by the crash, along with one instructor.
 Five conscripts were immediately brought to Lapland Central Hospital in an ambulance and seven more were later transported to the hospital for monitoring. These 12 young men were held in the Rovaniemi hospital overnight, while the other 15 were monitored in a field hospital. An army spokesman told the paper that "no serious injuries resulted".

Wednesday's papers: Redundancy fears, postal service salaries, power stones, and tanks vs reindeer


Summary: The Reuters Institute comparison of eight public broadcasters found that Yle was most trusted by the audience it serves.

European public broadcasters face an uphill battle against social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube which have caught the attention of younger news consumers, according to a review of eight European broadcasters published Tuesday by the Reuters Institute.
 The public media assessment examined the reach of offline and online content, efforts to reach audiences under the age of 25, the reach broadcasters have among those with limited education, trust among audiences with diverse political views as well as trust in public media among people with populist and non-populist views.
 Several of the eight public broadcasters reported declining younger audiences over the past three years. At the beginning of this year, some 27 percent of Finnish residents under the age of 25 consumed news from Yle on a weekly basis.
 Yle editor-in-chief  Jouko Jokinen  said the company had created a network focused on creating news content specifically for younger audiences.
 Meanwhile, Yle and other broadcasters are increasingly competing with a broad and ever-growing variety of digital news channels.
 "Facebook is more widely named by young audiences as a source of online news than public service media in seven of the eight countries covered, and YouTube in six of eight countries covered," a press release on the report stated.
 "The main challenges facing public service media (PSM) today are clear. In addition to (1) competing with private sector peers for audiences, PSMs also (2) have to contend with platform companies who account for a large share of people’s media use, even as (3) political and social upheaval in many countries complicates the ambition to provide a shared, widely trusted, universal service," the report's introduction read.
 Yle trusted by domestic audiences
 The Finnish Broadcasting Company, Yle, was the public broadcaster most trusted by the audience it serves, the report found.
 Apart from Finland, the national broadcasters that took part in the survey include Germany (ARD), United Kingdom (BBC), Czech Republic (Český rozhlas), Spain (RTVE), Italy (RAI), France (France TV/Radio France) and Greece (EPT).
 Yle was found to have offered the most balanced news content in relation to viewers', listeners' and readers' political leanings,  according to the report .
 Yle was also found to be the most trusted. On the survey's trustworthiness scale of 1-10, Yle ranked 7.77.
 Around 2,000 people from each of the participating countries took part in the survey, which was carried out earlier this year.
 The report -  Old, Educated, and Politically Diverse: The Audience of Public Service News  - was published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford and received support from Yle, the sole public broadcaster noted to have been involved in the effort.
 However, the report's authors said the "data collection, analysis, and presentation have been conducted independently by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism."
 The institute also noted the report's creators received comments and suggestions from  Atte Jääskeläinen , Yle's former editor-in-chief.
 Jääskeläinen resigned from the company in 2017,  after a months-long discussion about Yle's independence , following  controversial decisions over how to cover the Prime Minister Juha Sipilä's family links  with a sub-contractor of a state-owned mining firm.

Public broadcasters struggling to attract younger audiences, report says


Summary: Close to two thirds of those polled want to stop using peat as an energy source.

Independent police complaints commission

A clear majority of Finnish residents approve of Finland ceasing to use peat as a source of energy, suggest poll results in a  Wednesday story  from the Uutissuomalainen news consortium.
 The story cites a recent survey conducted for the 15-newspaper syndicate that suggests that 62 percent of Finnish residents would like Finland to end the practice of using peat for fuel, either quickly or by weaning off burning the natural resource gradually.
 Just 18 percent of the 1,000-odd respondents to the mid-August poll said they opposed a peat burning moratorium.
 Peat bogs galore
 Finland's climate and geography favours bog and peat bog formation, and the Finns use the abundant resource to produce heat and electricity. Finland's trade ministry calculates that peat provides around 6.2 percent of Finland's annual energy production.
 The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) classifies peat as a "slowly renewable" fuel. The average re-growth rate of a single peat bog is between 1,000 and 5,000 years. Many drained and used peat bogs are forested in Finland instead of being allowed to renew, leading to a lower CO2 storage rate than that of the original peat bog.
 The IPCC has measured the carbon dioxide emission intensity of peat as higher than that of coal and natural gas. The contribution of peat to greenhouse gas emissions of Finland may exceed 10 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per year – equal to the total emissions of all passenger-car traffic in the country.
 Minister refuses to cut state subsidies
 In a related  interview  in the Keskisuomalainen daily, Finance Minister  Mika Lintilä  rejected a recent proposal from conservative National Coalition Party parliamentary chair  Kai Mykkänen  to end state subsidies for the peat energy industry. The Finnish government supports the industry each year with a tax rebate.
 Mykkänen suggested using the funds previously devoted to such tax relief to cancel out planned tax increases for petrol and diesel. Lintilä defended the subsidy, telling the paper that there are "clear grounds" for using peat as a domestic fuel for heating.
 The current government programme has committed to halving the country's peat energy output by the year 2030. The IPCC has called on Finland to end the practice altogether, in order to  protect Finland's carbon sink  – a valuable weapon in the fight against climate change.

Most Finns support a ban on peat burning, poll suggests


Summary: Only two parties have never had a female leader: the Finns Party and the conservative National Coalition Party (NCP).

When the Centre Party elected  Katri Kulmuni   as its new leader last weekend , Finnish political history turned a new page: now a majority of party chairs are women. Of the eight parties in Parliament, five have female leaders.
 On Tuesday yet another glass ceiling was shattered as  Jutta Urpilainen  became the first Finnish woman to be  an official nominee to the European Commission . She was previously the first woman to serve as finance minister and to lead the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
 Women's progress to the top level of Finnish politics has been slow. In 1907 Finland became one of the world's first countries to allow women in Parliament, electing 19 female MPs that year, while Finland was still a Grand Duchy under the Russian Tsar. The country gained independence a decade later but it was not until the 1990s that women began to hold powerful political positions.
 Still, female progress in politics has been relatively fast compared to that in the business sector, for instance, according to  Ilkka Ruostetsaari , professor of politics at the University of Tampere.
 "Women form a larger share of the political elite than any other elite groups. Politics has been a more open channel for women to rise," he tells Yle.
 Women are still under-represented in upper-level corporate management, Ruostetsaari notes. And employment roles are still often split by gender.
 Glass ceiling breakers Finnish female firsts Jutta Urpilainen (SDP): European Commissioner-designate 2019 -, Finance Minister 2011-14, SDP chair 2008-14 Tarja Halonen (SDP): President 2000-12, Foreign Minister 1995-2000 Anneli Jäätteenmäki (Centre): Prime Minister April-June 2003, Centre chair 2002-03 Riitta Uosukainen (NCP): Speaker of Parliament 1994 - 2003 Elisabeth Rehn (SPP): Defence Minister 1990-94 Heidi Hautala (Greens): Parliamentary group chair 1987-91 Helvi Sipilä (Lib): Presidential candidate 1982, UN Assistant Secretary-General 1972-1980 Miina Sillanpää (SDP): Government minister 1926-27 Sirkka Hämäläinen: Bank of Finland Governor 1992-98 Riitta Prusti (SDP): labour union leader (TVK) So far no women have served as: Commander of the Finnish Defence Forces Chair of any employers' confederation Archbishop of either state-supported church
 "We still have a lot of sectors in working life that are dominated by either men or women. So there is certainly plenty of work to be done to advance equality," Kulmuni says.
 NCP and Finns parties stick to male leaders
 All five female chairs have been elected by party members at large. Besides Kulmuni, the include three ministers in the current cabinet: Minister of Justice  Anna-Maja Henriksson  of the Swedish People's Party, Education Minister  Li Andersson  of the Left Alliance and Interior Minister  Maria Ohisalo  of the Greens.  Sari Essayah  is chair of the small opposition Christian Democrats.
 Meanwhile the two main opposition parties are the only ones that have never had female leaders: the nationalist Finns Party and the conservative National Coalition Party (NCP).
 "Of course different issues make it onto the agenda when people with very different backgrounds make it into Parliament," says Ohisalo. She points out that people with disabilities, for instance, are still under-represented in decision-making processes.
 According to Andersson, "there is still work to be done on traditional equality issues such as domestic violence, segregated workplaces, wage equality and family leave."
 Centre boasts several firsts
 Ohisalo's and Andersson's parties, the Greens and the Left Alliance, have had several female leaders, as has the Centre.
 "It's particularly positive that Kulmuni has also become a party chair. The Centre has had female leaders, although from a gender perspective it is a more conservative party," says  Johanna Kantola , professor of gender studies at the University of Tampere.
 Indeed, the Centre was the first of the traditional 'big three' parties to have a woman as leader when  Anneli Jäätteenmäki  took over in 2002. She went on to become the first female prime minister, but her term was cut short by a scandal over leaked documents after just two months. The only other female PM, the Centre's  Mari Kiviniemi , only held office for a year.
 In 2007, Centre prime minister  Matti Vanhanen 's second cabinet became Finland's  first with a female majority . The current government, led by SDP chair  Antti Rinne , includes 11 women and eight men.
 Three of the parties in the five-party coalition are led by women under the age of 35. Kantola says this a positive development as it shatters and expands Finns' images of young women.
 The share of women in Parliament has risen from 9.5 percent in 1907 to 47 percent in the current legislature, elected in April.
 "But as long as there are not as many women as men in Parliament, we still have work to do," says Kulmuni.

Women now lead most Finnish political parties


Summary: The main suspect, who has been in custody since March, is suspected of drugging girls before sexually assaulting them.

A 64-year-old Helsinki man and a suspected accomplice have been charged with an array of sex crimes against minors. Prosecutors say the suspected crimes took place at the man's flat in the Laajasalo district between 2006 and early this year, when he was arrested. There are 19 female plaintiffs in the case, nearly all of whom were underage at the time of the crimes.
 The dozens of charges include aggravated rape, aggravated sexual abuse, aggravated drug offences and possession of unlawful materials.
 Both defendants deny any wrongdoing. Prosecutors have requested that the case be heard behind closed doors and that all the trial materials remain sealed in an effort to protect the plaintiffs.
 Police say that the suspected assaults took place at the man's home, where he plied the girls with alcohol and other intoxicants. Some of the victims are adults by now.
 The main suspect has been detained since early March. In late July, police said they had launched a formal investigation,  published the man's photograph  and asked the public for any information about his activities. Within a week they received dozens of contacts, including new potential victims.

Two face charges in Laajasalo sexual abuse cases


Summary: In 2018, 59 percent of farm animal abuse cases in the courts were resolved with a fine or were dropped.

Last year in Finland, 3,178 suspicions of animal abuse were reported to animal welfare authorities, but only 188 cases went to trial.
 Yle investigated the court rulings on those cases and found that 10 were dismissed, while 61 dealt with livestock and 88 concerned pets.
 Judges in 36 of the 61 cases involving farm animal abuse issued a fine as punishment.
 Tarja Koskela , the only PhD-level researcher of crimes against animals and animal welfare supervision in Finland, says few judges have experience with animal abuse matters, and may have a hard time appraising such cases.
 "Animal rights are not a part of lawyer training, so how many of them can understand animal suffering without some kind of specialisation?" she said.
 Aggravated charges for cruel treatment
 Animal abuse offences in Finland are only judged to be aggravated if they are particularly harsh or cruel, involve a very large number of livestock, or have been perpetrated for economic gain.
 Koskela has analysed 70 animal protection court rulings from 2011-2018. She said that in close to half of the cases she examined, the charges against the defendant were for aggravated offences, but the sentence ended up being for the lesser charge of animal abuse.
 "Livestock can be standing in a half-metre of manure, their food can be mouldy, there's little water to be had and the animals are sick. Some may be left to lie there dead because the owner hasn't bothered to move them. Even in cases like these, the most common sentence is a fine," she said.
 Her research has determined that the average fine in Finland for animal abuse is a 43-day fine.
 Major regional differences
 Koskela called for court that specialises in animal protection cases in Finland, a move she said would introduce consistency in rulings.
 Yle discovered large regional variations in the severity and type of penalties handed down by courts, a trend confirmed by Koskela's own research.
 "It is clear from the sentences that there's a lot of room for interpretation and the variations among different areas is considerable. This lack of uniformity can be seen not just in terms of sentences, but also in monitoring, police and prosecution work," said Koskela, a University of Eastern Finland lecturer in criminal and process law.
 Pirkanmaa's district court ruled on the highest number of animal abuse cases in the 2000s, despite the fact that it has no more farms proportionately than any other region. Courts in the regions of Satakunta, Kainuu and North Karelia each heard just one animal abuse case each last year. Due to resourcing problems, 30 percent of monitoring visits in eastern Finland were not completed.
 "I doubt that farms in Pirkanmaa treat their animals twice as bad as those in other areas. The assumption is that there is just a better functioning chain between the animal welfare authorities and the police, the prosecutors and the courts," Koskela noted.
 Small farms struggle to survive
 Yle's research found that many of the cases tried followed the same formula; small family farms suspected of livestock abuse. Often, the sole heir to farms is trying to keep operations afloat, battling burnout and fatigue. The situation has often continued for several years.
 "Bigger farms have more resources. Smaller farms are not as profitable, so there are not necessarily resources to care for the animals as they should be cared for," Koskela said.
 When authorities try to tell such farmers about the shortcomings they see, the conversation inevitably turns to the farmer's personal problems.
 "There are repeated attempts to cover things up when it comes to crimes against animals. In one case, a farmer set his barn on fire to hide the number of deceased livestock and the sorry state of the animals that were left," Koskela continued.
 Only as strong as the weakest link
 The investigation raised the question of why only 60-80 cases out of 3,000 suspicions reach the courts in Finland, and why sentences are so lenient?
 The Finnish Food Authority's unit head  Jaana Mikkola  says it's due to a dearth of expertise, ability and daring to interfere with lapses in the chain.
 "Even if the animal welfare authority does its job perfectly, if the police don't investigate or the prosecution doesn't come up with charges or the courts don't hand down decent sentences, the chain doesn't function - and vice versa. There is a lot of work to do in this area," she said.
 Finland has been developing a new animal protection bill since 2010. Last spring, work on the draft legislation was delayed by a government shutdown, which also put many other sweeping regional administration changes on ice.
 The new act seeks to distribute responsibility for animal welfare to larger regional bodies, and make several changes to existing animal welfare monitoring practices.

Yle investigates: Animal abuse rarely leads to sizeable penalties in Finland


Summary: Netflix viewers in India, the Philippines, Colombia and Canada get the best value for money.

Henkilökohtaisten esineiden ja kotitalousesineiden vuokraus

The value-for-money that Netflix subscribers in Finland get is among the lowest in the world, according to a recent study of 77 countries carried out by comparitech.com, a UK-based website that, among other things, aims to educate consumers about tech services.
 Netflix is a US-based online company offering movies, TV series, documentaries and children's shows for a monthly subscription fee. Subscribers are able to stream content to TV sets, desktops, laptops and mobile devices, but depending on where that content is consumed, there are major discrepancies in the amount and variety of programmes offered.
 The  comparison  not only showed that there are significant differences in the amount of content available, but also different pricing schemes, depending on the country in which subscribers live.
 Netflix offers different three different tiers of service. Its basic subscription allows a single viewing session to take place at a time, while the firm’s standard plan permits two concurrent sessions. The company’s premium plan allows four simultaneous viewers - as well as access to high definition (HD) and ultra high definition (UHD) content when available. Comparitech’s study took the service tiers into consideration in its evaluation, according to the company.
 Story continues after info tables
 Ten countries where Netflix Premium package cost-effectiveness is lowest:
 Ten countries where Netflix Premium package cost-effectiveness is highest:
 Netflix customers in the US were found to have the broadest variety of titles from which to choose, but they are not getting the best deal compared to other countries. Comparitech said there are big disparities in cost-per-title, adding that the combination of low prices and number of titles gives Netflix customers in Colombia and India the best value for money.
 Meanwhile the country with the lowest number of shows and movies to choose from on Netflix (2,301) was Iran.
 Lots of content available in Finland
 Tommi Rissanen , a consultant from tech business consulting firm Digital Media Finland, said that content disparities are due to copyright deals, which are negotiated separately in each country.
 He said that the amount of content that Netflix offers in Finland is moving in a positive direction, noting that when the streaming service opened for business in the country, there were far fewer shows available.
 According to Netflix, the firm has about 150 million subscribers worldwide. Meanwhile, citing estimates from market data portal Statista, business publication Kauppalehti reported last year that there would be about 850,000 Netflix subscribers in Finland by 2020.
 "The quantity of available programming content in Finland is exceptionally good and, apart from Netflix, the Nordic countries have had HBO Nordic for a long time, something that’s not available in many other countries," Rissanen said.
 He noted that while it would be great to have all the possible shows and movies available in Finland, it’s still a small country that only trails behind other Nordic countries by a narrow margin.
 The quantity of content available on Netflix Finland is slightly higher than in Norway, but a bit less than in Sweden and Denmark. However, far ahead of the others, Iceland has more than 1,000 extra titles than its Nordic counterparts.
 Relatively good deal
 Comparitech found that Europeans pay a significant amount for Netflix, despite the fact that libraries on the continent are generally relatively small compared to the rest of the world. The study found that the dearest subscription rates are being paid in Europe.
 In June, the country’s biggest daily Helsingin Sanomat reported that Netflix was planning a price hike in standard and premium subscriptions in Finland. The standard package was raised by one euro to 12 euros, while premium subscriptions increased by two euros to 16 euros per month. The monthly fee of Netflix’s basic plan was kept at eight euros.
 Internationally, Netflix pricing schemes vary greatly. Standard package subscribers in Colombia pay the least in the world - around 6.55 euros per month. But that could be due to lower licensing fees in the South American country, according to Rissanen.
 Additionally, if the cost of living and relative average local incomes around the world are taken into consideration, Rissanen said amounts Finnish residents pay for Netflix are very competitive.

Netflix subscriptions in Finland among least cost-effective in the world


Summary: The UK wants assurances that citizens will receive guarantees similar to ones offered to EU nationals living in Britain.

More than three years after a narrow majority of UK residents voted to leave the EU, the terms of the country’s departure are still shrouded in uncertainty. An estimated 5,000-odd UK citizens resident in Finland are watching and waiting for clear signals about what they can expect if and when Britain separates from the regional bloc.
 Yle News posed the question to British Ambassador to Finland,  Tom Dodd , who said that British nationals living in Finland can count on having their current rights guaranteed -- if there is a deal to govern future relations between the two sides.
 "If we leave with an agreement, then there are provisions within the transition agreement for the rights of British nationals in Finland -- and in fact additional arrivals after we leave -- to continue, essentially as they are now and into the future," Dodd commented.
 On the other hand, if the UK and the EU divorce without a deal -- a so-called "no-deal" scenario -- then the playing field for UK citizens across Europe and for EU nationals in the UK will differ from place to place.
 "If we leave without a deal, then the situation for British nationals varies country by country within the rest of Europe."
 "In the case of Finland the last government here passed legislation in March which guarantees the existing rights of registered British nationals in Finland until December 2020 in any scenario," Dodd added. He noted that he is in ongoing talks with the Finnish government to determine what will happen after 2020.
 UK wants parallel agreement from Finland
 The ambassador said that the government in London will be pressing for "equivalency" across the continent once the country leaves the EU.
 "In the UK, we have given, essentially, a guarantee that the rights of European Union nationals who are resident in the UK after Brexit day – that their rights will be continued in perpetuity and we would like to see that reflected across the European Union in any circumstances and that’s what we are pressing for," he explained.
 In the case of Finland, Dodd said that would mean "we would like a parallel agreement from the Finnish government to what we’ve said we’ll do in the UK for EU nationals in the UK."
 The ambassador said that the policy of the UK government is that it would like to negotiate an agreement with the European Union and have it agreed at a meeting of the European Council due on 17-18 October, before leaving with a transition period for further negotiations on the details. He added that if no agreement is reached then the position of the government is that the UK should leave on 31 October.
 The British embassy in Helsinki has been hosting a number of town hall meetings across the country to help answer questions that Brits in Finland may have about Brexit. The ambassador recommended using the " Living in Finland " guide, which he said offers guidance on what people need to do in a deal or no-deal scenario.
 Yle News will examine the latest Brexit developments and the implications for British citizens in Finland as well as Finnish nationals in the UK during our All Points North podcast on Thursday 12 September. Guests are British Ambassador to Finland Tom Dodd and Helsinki University researcher  Timo Miettinen .

UK seeks post-Brexit 'equivalency' for Brits in EU, ambassador says


Summary: Residents want lower taxes, the EU says hate crime is growing in Finland and a cleaning firm provides mail workers for Posti.

Nearly 70 percent of Finns said they believe  lowering taxes  for low- and middle-income earners would be the best way for the government to reach its 75-percent employment goal, including getting 60,000 more people in jobs. That's according to a survey commissioned by national daily Helsingin Sanomat and carried out by pollster Kantar TNS.
 Many also said they wanted to see the government expand  wage subsidy programmes , making it the second most popular employment-boosting tool put forward by residents, with 56 percent in favor of the measure.
 The third most popular suggestion, enjoying a 32 percent backing among respondents, was increasing the use of  local agreements , meaning that decisions regarding working time, wages and benefits would move from trade unions to individual employers.
 Finland doesn't have a nationally-appointed minimum wage. Instead, the country has practiced collective bargaining since the 1970s, whereby employers and trade unions regularly negotiate wage agreements on the national and industry-specific level.
 Kantar TNS interviewed more than 1,000 adult mainland Finns for the poll last month.
 Growing hate crime in Finland
 The number of police personnel working to combat online hate crimes in the country has dropped from ten to two officers in the past few years, writes Swedish-language daily  Hufvudstadsbladet , following up on a fresh  report  by the Council of Europe, which said racist and intolerant hate speech in public discourse and online  has been escalating  in Finland.
 Hate speech is mainly targeting asylum-seekers, Muslims, persons of African descent, LGBT persons, Roma and the Jewish community, according to the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), a human rights body.
 The report also pointed out that certain extremist organisations, particularly  Neo-Nazi groups,  engage in the systematic use of hate speech. The council's assessment found that there is a serious problem of underreporting such crimes in Finland.
 The ECRI also called on Finland to review its law  requiring transgender people to be sterilised  before having their new gender legally recognised.
 Postal work at 8.90 euros/ hour
 This past spring cleaning services company SOL established a logistics arm to its business and has been providing mail sorters for national postal service Posti since last May, according to online business news site  Taloussanomat .
 A work agreement obtained by the publication showed SOL paying 8.90 euros an hour for tasks such as mail sorting. SOL's logistics business follows a different collective agreement than its personnel services unit - which also provided workers for Posti - but paid workers in excess of 11 euros an hour.
 The postal workers' union (PAU) said that in some areas Posti was turning full-time work into gigs.
 Posti has been at the centre of a media storm since it became widely known that its chief executive was pulling down an annual salary  close to a million euros  while postal workers earning around 2,000 euros per month were facing 30-50 percent pay cuts this autumn.

Thursday's papers: Lower taxes, growing hate crime and postal workers in the gig economy


Summary: Extreme weather again caused harvests to dwindle last year, says Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).

Finland suffered a second poor harvest in a row last year, the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) confirmed on Thursday.
 Last autumn marked a second poor grain harvest in a row, according to  Anneli Partala , a senior actuary at Luke.
 "Extreme shifts in weather conditions have affected the harvest size," she explained. "Summer and fall of 2017 were rainy and last year the weather was too dry."
 Hanna Aho , a climate justice expert from Kepa, a development NGO, previously told Yle News that temperature swings in Finland were  affecting domestic food production .
 Finnish farms sold over half of the 2.7-billion-kilo grain harvest they produced last year. The majority of grain produced in Finland is used to feed livestock. Rye is the only grain exclusively used in food production.
 Lack of fodder curbs livestock
 Many farms are now trying to cope with having less animal feed, making efforts to conserve fodder and sourcing it anywhere they can.
 "Figures show a drop in animal numbers — with some livestock production ending and some domestic animals being taken to slaughter," said Partala.
 Last year, grain exports sank to the lowest level in decades, with a quarter of cereals sold by farms headed overseas.
 Oat and barley were the most popular Finnish export cereals.

Finland sees smallest grain harvest in decades


Summary: The government has announced that it will fund companies to complete rapid rail projects in Turku and Tampere.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications has said that it has begun negotiations with municipalities and other parties to set up project companies for a  one-hour train to Turku  in the southwest as well as a line to Tampere, also known as the Finland line, in the south.
 At a press conference on Wednesday, the Minister of Transport,  Sanna Marin,  disclosed plans to fund companies that will develop rapid railway links. The primary task and function of these companies will be planning and financing railway projects until their construction is completed.
 The Ministerial Committee on Economic Policy discussed the matter on Wednesday. The new companies are being funded by capital that the previous government had allocated for the railway project company Nordic Railways Ltd. The projects require an additional 15 million euros or so, which will be taken from the budget.
 In the initial stages, the state would own a stake of at least 51 percent in the companies, while other shareholders would hold a 49 percent stake.
 Marin: Current government won't have time to decide on rapid railway links
 Marin stressed that the investments are large and that designing the new, rapid railway links will take six to eight years, with the lines likely to begin operating in the 2030's at the earliest.
 Stakeholder discussions will also examine whether the new links should take a quick, direct route from the airport to Tampere or be based closer to the main railway line.
 According to Marin, the government is applying for EU funding for the planning stage of the one-hour train to Turku and the main rapid railway link projects. Marin stated that the current government will probably not be able to make decisions about the construction of the new, rapid railway links during its term, as the project designs are still incomplete.
 She said that the government could still decide on certain aspects, such as the construction of the new railway line in Espoo, which will travel within the Southern city from Leppävaara to Kauklahti. The new companies will not be involved in plans for the city line, as the project is already at an advanced stage.
 The Ministry of Transport also intends to introduce smaller projects related to making rail travel faster at the budget session. These include improving and reducing the travel time of railway links from Seinäjoki (South Ostrobothnia) to Vaasa (west), Tampere to Jyväskyla (west) and Tampere to Pori (west).
 Railway company VR has previously said that it is prioritising speeding up the railway links from Seinäjöki to Vaasa and Tampere to Jyväskylä. The company includes these links in their list of top projects.
 Focus on links to Turku, Tampere and eastern Finland
 New rapid railway links have been the subject of much debate for the past year. New connections would include faster and more direct links from Helsinki to Turku, Helsinki to the airport in Vantaa via Tampere and Helsinki to eastern Finland.
 The projects are in different stages of planning. The link to Turku is already underway, while other projects like the Espoo city line could begin construction soon.
 A new direct connection from the airport in Vantaa to Tampere is potentially in the works. There has also been extensive research on how to increase the speed of the current links.
 The price tag for every brand-new, rapid railway link is in the billion euro range, and it is challenging to find funding for mega projects.

Finland one step closer to one-hour train to Turku


Summary: Trade wars, Brexit and a shaky global economy pose problems, but Pellervo Economic Research said there are bright spots.

Despite the threats posed by the ongoing trade war between the US and China as well as the economic impact of Brexit, there are many positive trends taking place in the economies of Finnish residents, according to a fresh report from analyst group Pellervo Economic Research PTT.
 There is a possibility for further consumption growth, according to the group, but consumers appear to be more likely to put their money away for rainy days, due to improved employment rates and salary increases.
 Consumption growth levels have fallen by about half since 2017, likely due to consumers' increased uncertainty about the future, the report said.
 Last year consumption growth levels were largely hurt by a collapse in auto sales, due to emission standards problems, the group said. But now, the vehicle trade has recovered, fuel has become more affordable and savings levels have returned to normal levels - factors which the economic assessment said were good for households.
 Retail sales were also positive over the summer and outlooks within the service sector are also bright, according to the PTT report.
 Growth expected, barring no-deal Brexit
 One looming, dark economic cloud has been the decline in industry, which can be observed in the sector's recent spate of job cuts and stagnating wage growth, according to the report.
 However, PTT estimated that the Finnish economy will grow by 1.3 percent this year and by 1.2 percent in 2020.
 The group noted that much of that growth depends on how Britain's planned departure from the EU and the global trade war unfold, saying that a so-called no-deal Brexit would bring economic growth to zero, unless government takes action.
 The group also said it expects that the US and China will not come to agreement and that the uncertainty surrounding Brexit will continue into next year. Additionally, US President Donald Trump's administration has not increased corporate confidence, as firms are unable to rely on the free movement of goods and have been forced to rethink supply chains.
 The problems within the global economy have also been reflected in Finland's trade and exports have slowed. However, the group said there are some domestic economic bright spots, particularly within the paper industry.
 Demand for paper has again restarted in China, but there has been inadequate supply in the Asian country, which means that Finnish paper goods exports to China will increase towards the end of this year, according to the report.

Economy not as bleak as many think, institute says


Summary: Finland's newspapers look at changing asylum seeker demographics, housing disruption, unreported Airbnb income and more.

Southwest newspaper Turun Sanomat reports that so far this year,  Turks, Russians and Iraqis make up the largest group of asylum seekers applying for international protection in Finland .
 The paper says that the number of Turkish applicants will grow by 45 percent compared to last year, if the trend continues, as 283 people from Turkey sought asylum between January and August. Increases of asylum seeker applicants have been seen throughout the EU. European Asylum Support Office figures, which include Switzerland and Norway, state that over 24,000 Turkish citizens sought asylum in 2018. Most of the applicants say the threat stemming from their real or perceived membership in the Gülen movement is behind their decision to flee their home, according to the paper.
 Most of the asylum applications submitted to the Finnish Immigration Service Migri continue to come from Iraq nationals. Last year, there were 880 Iraqi applicants. TS notes that this is nevertheless a dramatic drop from the 20,000-plus Iraqi asylum requests recorded in 2015.
 The haves and have nots
 The daily Helsingin Sanomat  examines Finland's current "two-tiered housing market" , whereby prices on homes in rural areas plummet while urban housing prices stay strong.
 The paper reports of real estate broker websites full of remote mid-size row homes available for as little as 12,000 euros and well-maintained detached homes with a selling price of just 40,000 euros. Because they are located in remote areas, however, there are  no buyers . In 45 different municipalities, fewer than 10 homes were sold last year, forcing many homeowners to hold on to properties in the hope that the market will improve.
 The problem is that it probably won't.  Ari Pauna , CEO of Finland's Mortgage Society, told HS in 2015 that only one-third of Finnish municipalities had healthy housing markets. Now, his verdict is even gloomier, the paper reports, as he has limited his positive prognosis to only the three metropolitan areas of  Helsinki, Tampere and Turku .
 Airbnb hosts dodge taxes
 The tabloid Ilta-Sanomat covers a Uutissuomalainen news consortium story that says  one-third of people peddling short-term housing rental agreements have not paid taxes on their income .
 Tax authorities reported that about 3,000 of the 8,800 taxpayers that drew income from renting out property for short periods had not reported their resulting earnings.
 "It's very strange that so many people failed to report this income, even though the Tax Administration has given plenty of guidance and told them that we can detect rental income, even when they don't report it," taxman  Timo Puiro  tells the news agency.
 Three thousand people may not sound like much, but the income they failed to report is estimated at 15.4 million euros, which means a loss of about five million euros in tax revenue for the state.
 The largest short-term rental facilitator operating in Finland is Airbnb. Tax authorities would not reveal how many of the delinquent taxpayers were associated with the San Francisco-based broker, but they did say that the offenders ran the gamut: from poor university students to rich real estate investors.
 New Swedish FM visits Finland
 And lastly, Kuopio-based newspaper Savon Sanomat highlights the  first visit to Finland of  Ann Linde  in her new role as Sweden's foreign minister  today.
 Linde will arrive in Helsinki to meet with her Finnish counterpart  Pekka Haavisto . She has previously served as Sweden's minister for foreign trade and minister for Nordic cooperation.
 Sweden's new Social Democratic minister was named to the post just three days ago, after her predecessor  Margot Wallström  stepped down after five years of service for family reasons.

Friday's papers: Asylum seekers, a two-tiered housing market, tax dodgers, and a Swedish visit


Summary: Helsinki Regional Transport has announced plans to stop paying commissions to ticket-selling R-kioskis and other shops.

Helsinki Regional Transport (HSL) has announced that from the start of next year, it will no longer pay shops and kiosks to load  travel cards  — a move that will save the company five to six million euros annually, according to HSL chair  Risto Rautava .
 The change will mean that each vendor can decide how much they will charge for the service and could result in public transport users' ending up paying to top up their cards.
 HSL’s board was not unanimous on the decision to remove commissions, with the Social Democrats, Greens, and Left Alliance party representatives resisting the proposal.
 Meanwhile, Rautava, a conservative National Coalition Party member, said he believed competition among vendors would mitigate any costs trickling down to individual consumers.
 "Only time will tell, but I do believe in competition. Loading travel cards may even become more affordable for users if shops use the service as a means of attracting customers," he told Yle.
 HSL users can currently  top up  their transport cards at R-kioskis, hotels, bus and tram stops, as well as some supermarkets and shops across the region. Single tickets can be bought at several car parks outfitted with ticket automats around the city, as well.
 As of last year, HSL has been  encouraging users to migrate  from physical cards to the company’s ticketing app.

Topping up Helsinki transport travel cards could become pricier


Summary: "We support you and are in solidarity," Niinistö told the Ukranian President on Thursday.

On Friday Finnish President  Sauli Niinistö  began the second day of a two-day official visit to Ukraine.
 The day before, Niinistö met with Ukraine President  Volodymyr Zelensky  for the first time at Mariyinsky Palace, the president's official ceremonial residence in Kiev.
 At a joint press conference on Thursday, Zelelnsky told reporters he had warned Niinistö about Russia's Nord Stream 2 natural gas undersea pipeline project, which is still under construction.
 When completed, possibly by the end of this year,  Nord Stream 2  will carry Russian LNG to Germany beneath the Baltic Sea. Several firms are involved in the international, Russian-led project, including Finnish energy company Fortum.
 "Nord Stream 2 is a threat to all of Europe," Zelensky said he told the Finnish president, noting that it is important to Ukraine that its international partners do not falter in implementing sanctions against Russia.
 Meanwhile, Niinistö said he had brought greetings to Ukraine from the Finnish people.
 "We support you and are in solidarity," Niinistö said.
 On Tuesday, the supreme court of the EU, the European Court of Justice overruled a decision to permit Russian energy firm Gazprom to deliver more gas via the Opal gas line - which connects with the Nord Stream line - to Germany, according Reuters news service.
 The ruling was controversial in Poland and some eastern European countries, because Gazprom plans to sidestep legacy pipelines through Poland and Ukraine. Meanwhile, Germany defended the project, as Poland claimed that the scheme would disrupt gas supplies to the region.
 Finland  issued its final regional permit  for the Russia-Germany pipeline in April.
 Broad talks on eastern Ukraine crisis
 The presidents also discussed the crisis in eastern Ukraine, which has continued for the past five years.
 Zelensky said he has been working toward a resolution of the situation but fell short of making promises on reaching positive results.
 The Ukrainian president reiterated his support for the Normandy Four - also known as the Normandy contact group - a diplomatic body consisting of high-level representatives from Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France, which aims to end the eastern Ukraine war.
 Zelensky also mentioned the importance of the Minsk Protocol, in which Ukraine and Russia agreed to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine in September 2014. The agreement called for a ceasefire in the region but the truce has been violated on a nearly daily basis.
 Niinistö said that since the regional conflict began in February 2014, Finland has offered assistance in establishing contacts with both the countries and is still prepared to do so.
 The Finnish president also noted that he recently met with  Russian  and  French  leaders, saying that it was an honour to also meet Ukraine's new leader.
 The presidents of both countries praised the cooperation between Finland and Ukraine. Zelensky, who has been president since May, expressed satisfaction with investments, energy as well as environmental projects and cooperation in education which Finland has provided.
 On Friday, the second day of his visit to Ukraine, Niinistö is scheduled to speak to attendees at the Yalta European Strategy (Yes) Annual Meeting in Kiev.
 This year the Yes forum invited more than 400 politicians, diplomats and dignitaries from 26 countries to discuss issues on the topic of governance for happiness and the challenges of such efforts.

Finnish President Niinistö visits Ukraine with message of support, solidarity


Summary: Daily Helsingin Sanomat estimated that the tunnel project could cost up to 1.4 billion euros.

Plans to build an underground tunnel running nearly seven kilometres from Helsinki's Sörnäinen to the West Harbour will be considered by the city's board next Tuesday. Helsinki's West Harbour is Finland’s busiest passenger harbour, hosting passenger ship traffic between the capital city and Tallinn and St Petersburg, as well as international cruise ships.
 In the latest iteration of the plan, an extra stretch of so-called "Sörnäinen tunnel" would connect to a longer proposed tunnel that could in future make it possible to bypass the city centre and drive underground all the way from Sörnäinen to several harbours.
 Helsinki already began consideration of a bypass tunnel in 2010, and now zoning and excavation plans have developed to the point that the city board can start making decisions about whether the proposal could be passed on to the city council.
 City envisions "underground distributor road"
 A  strategy paper released by the city for the years 2017-2021  makes mention of an "underground feeder route" to reduce Helsinki congestion and the heavy traffic to and from harbours. At the time, the city said the distributor road would largely be financed through road tolls.
 Last winter, nine different options were still being presented to Helsinki decision-makers, but now the options have been narrowed down to just one plan for the board to consider.
 Yle sources indicate that the proposal on offer most closely resembles the one put forward by the Finnish construction firm Lemminkäinen in 2017, a company that has since been acquired by YIT.
 Daily Helsingin Sanomat was the first to report on the latest tunnel developments. The paper estimated that the cost of the tunnel could run up to 1.4 billion euros. Yle tried to reach city representatives to confirm this figure without success.
 Tunnel would allow for expansion of pedestrian zones
 The city strategy says the construction of an underground feeder route would make it possible to expand Helsinki's pedestrian zones. A list of streets that could be closed to vehicular traffic in future includes the southern shoreline of Eteläranta, Pohjoisesplanadi near the Helsinki Market Square, and Postikatu near the Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum. Another option under consideration is narrowing traffic on both sides of Helsinki's Esplanade boulevard to just one lane.
 If the board recommends that the tunnel plans proceed to the city council, they will likely face stiff resistance. Councillors from the Green and Left Alliance parties, for example, have said they oppose the tunnel plan because Helsinki should be exploring other methods beyond tunnels for making the city more pedestrian friendly.

Helsinki mulls construction of underground tunnel to ease harbour access


Summary: The Left Alliance has criticised the decision to set the price of the site before deciding on the layout of the project.

The Helsinki city council began discussions about Garden Helsinki, a proposed multi-purpose arena in Täkä-Töölö, on Thursday.
 The real-estate project, which is privately funded, would include apartments, a hotel and commercial properties. The site is located next to the old ice rink on Nordenskiöldinkatu.
 The project was initiated by ice hockey team Helsinki IFK and has been criticised for being too large. The council decided on the estimated cost at which the city would lease and sell the site to the builders on Thursday.
 Reservations from the Left Alliance
 Some council members, primarily from the Left Alliance, have expressed concerns about the priority of the decisions made. "The order in which the decisions were made seems unusual. The question of financing arose before anything else was decided,"  Anna Vuorjoki , a council member representing the Left Alliance, said.
 "I believe that we should first think about whether we want the entire hall, and what kind of hall we want. Only then should we decide what price we could sell the site for," she added, recommending that the proposal should be revisited from the beginning.
 Paavo Arhinmäki , another council member from the Left Alliance, said that it seemed strange that the council had already set a price even before the layout for the garden hall had been discussed.
 "It is far too early to set the terms of the transfer. Especially because all of us know that it will be a long process including appeals. So why are they already thinking about the terms of the transfer?" Arhinmäki asked.
 Story continues after photo.
 An illustration of Garden Helsinki. Helsinki Garden
 Mayor, deputy mayor defend decisions
 Deputy Mayor  Anni Sinnemäki , who is in charge of city planning, said that the large scale of the project necessitated that the decisions be made in this order. Sinnemäki said that the current priority will help the project move forward. "The estimated cost will be updated if any relevant changes occur before the land is sold," she added.
 The mayor of Helsinki,  Jan Vapaavuori , defended the proposed arena before the council, saying that it was a big project worth 700 million to 800 million euros.
 "The project will make the city more appealing and enjoyable. It will bring only good things to our city. The project has been split into different parts to make it easier for the developers," Vapaavuori said, indicating that builders could now plan project costs better. "I refuse to entertain claims that this plan has not been transparent. It has been in the works for years and we have all been aware of it."
 While a site has been designated for the Garden Helsinki project, it has not been handed over to developers yet. Construction will begin only after the city council makes its final decision following amendments to the layout plans.

Proposed Helsinki garden hall causes dissent in city council


Summary: Some prison officers are said to be afraid to work in cell blocks controlled by the United Brotherhood criminal gang.

Finland’s Criminal Sanctions Agency, Rise, has said that there are indications that prison personnel have had a hand in trafficking forbidden items to prisoners.
 In an expert report, Rise said that prison authorities have regularly come across items such as phones, knives, narcotics and other prohibited items in all of its closed cell blocks. The statement said that this indicates that members of staff have participated in smuggling at least phones and phone accessories to inmates.
 The report obtained by Finnish news agency STT is part of evidentiary material included in a lawsuit filed by the National Police Board. Police top brass and the prosecutor are calling for the courts to immediately impose an interim suspension on the United Brotherhood - a Finnish underworld network and its offshoot the Bad Union - and to ban them.
 Attempts to intimidate prison staff
 Based on information received from gang members, there is also reason to suspect that prison employees have been pressured to work for the benefit of inmates who are members of organised crime groups.
 Authorities have also found lists, which Rise has said contain the addresses of prison officials considered by the United Brotherhood to be uncooperative, as well as registration information and descriptions of their cars, trailers and boats. Officials believe that the aim of such activities has been to intimidate officials and their families.
 According to the report, some prison personnel are afraid to work in cell blocks controlled by criminal gangs. Rise described the United Brotherhood as the most powerful and feared criminal organisation in Finnish prisons.
 Gang members on the outside attempt to help their incarcerated peers by any means, regardless of the crimes they may have committed. The group’s inmates may be provided with financial assistance by way of random account transfers or hard cash that is handed over during prison visits.
 Prison officers' org pushes back against report
 Meanwhile the prison officers' association VVL said that it is outrageous that matters still under investigation are revealed to the public and described the report as a smear.
 "In no circumstances can you discredit all prison staff, if you are talking about a few isolated cases," union president  Antti Santamäki  said in a statement on Friday.
 The association noted that since spring it had stressed that threats, violence and coercion by the United Brotherhood had increased.
 "UB has crossed a line. Apparently the central government has also crossed a line in the most egregious way by blaming the entire staff for smuggling contraband into prisons. This exposes in stark language the government's appreciation for employees," Santamäki added.

Prison authorities suspect personnel of smuggling contraband to inmates


Summary: More than 1,000 first-time students and a similar number of returning students are still awaiting permits, Migri says.

The Finnish Immigration Service Migri has said that more than  1,000 international students  are awaiting residence permit extensions so they can continue their studies in Finland. In a release issued on Friday, the agency said that 1,075 students were still waiting to have their permits extended and that applications that it received on 26 June were waiting to be processed.
 Migri also noted on Friday that another 1,035 students were waiting for first-time permits to begin studying at various universities and universities of applied sciences or polytechnics. In those cases the agency said, applications that arrived on 25 June were next in the processing queue.
 Migri: Insufficient staff processing applications
 Migri added that all student residence permits were being processed as matters of urgency. the organisation has come under close scrutiny over what some describe as gratuitously long processing times.
 In Yle News’  All Points North podcast on the subject  last week, Migri Senior Officer  Leena Turku  said that delays this year were due to summer workers taking up their duties later than usual in mid-June rather than at the beginning of the month.
 On Monday, Migri said in a release that delays were caused in part by insufficient staff processing students’ applications. It also noted that the number of student applications received this year rose seven percent compared to last year.

Over 2,000 international students still without residence permits