Summary: This year the presidential couple has invited 1,700 guests to the formal reception at the Presidential Palace.

Knowledge and discussion are the themes for this year’s annual Independence Day Gala, the office of President  Sauli Niinistö  announced on Wednesday.
 "Finland’s strength has always been the ability to work together, making room for different opinions and using knowledge in diverse ways," Niinistö was quoted as saying in a statement.
 The president’s office said that technological development has changed people’s relationship with information, which is now more accessible and the threshold for engaging in debate is lower. On the other hands, the tone of national debate has hardened, the statement noted.
 "Everyone can help create a considerate discussion culture, promote confidence in scientific knowledge and expertise and, most importantly, respect truth. This builds trust," the president added.
 The president’s office has already begun sending out invitations to this year’s formal reception. Niinistö and his wife  Jenni Haukio  have invited a total of 1,700 guests. According to tradition, guests will include war veterans and Finland’s wartime medical volunteers, known as Lottas.
 Last year the theme of the gala was  the environment . The event is broadcast live from the Presidential Palace and is  one of the most-watched television programmes  of the year.

Knowledge, discussion the themes of 2019 Independence Day Gala


Summary: Papers report on a ministry report assessing "technical monitoring", retirement age increases, and the OmaStadi survey.

Ministerit, ministeriöt ja valtioneuvosto

Oulu-based newspaper Kaleva reports this Thursday on the  status of a government proposal that would have extended the use of ankle monitors to asylum seekers .
 The  controversial plan  would use ankle monitors to keep tabs on failed asylum seekers, as a less restrictive alternative to detention.
 So-called "technical monitoring" is already in use in Finland for criminals on probation or people subject to a travel ban. The ankle tag is connected to a device in the person's home that tracks their comings and goings. Any deviations from approved routines are then reported to a national monitoring system.
 Kaleva reports that an assessment being prepared by the interior ministry has so far determined that the use of ankle monitoring is expensive, and is not necessarily an effective substitute for detention. It has also stated that ankle tags cannot prevent people from fleeing or committing crimes, for example.
 State secretary  Olli-Poika Parviainen , who works for interior minister  Maria Ohisalo , tells the paper that other methods, beyond ankle tags, are also being assessed in the report.
 "The report also compares monitoring via a GPS phone or SIM card-based positioning system," he says.
 Kaleva writes that the interior ministry's report will be completed in a few weeks.
 People are working longer
 The tabloid Iltalehti carries a story on  the hike in the retirement age in Finland , which is keeping people on the job longer, as policymakers hoped.
 Labour market organisations agreed in 2014 to  incrementally raise Finland's official retirement age from 63 to 65 , and the reform came into effect in 2017.
 Many people objected to the change, as they wondered if they would have the stamina and if their health would allow them to work until they were 65 or older.
 IL reports that figures released yesterday from the Finnish Centre of Pensions show that the reform has already started to have the desired effect, as people's careers are indeed lasting longer. In 2018 the number of Finns who had starting collecting their pension dropped by 8,000 on the previous year, the pension centre reported, attributing the change to the reform.
 Of people eligible to retire in 2018 roughly 35 percent left work, while in 2017, the corresponding figure was 47 percent.
 "Those born in 1955 have continued working longer than those born in 1954. In other words, they have continued their working life at least up to the new retirement age. This was one of the key aims of the pension reform," development manager  Jari Kannisto  of the Finnish Centre for Pensions tells IL.
 For people born after 1965, the retirement age will be linked to future life expectancy. The tabloid links to the Centre for Finnish Pensions'  calculator , where you can find a projection of your future retirement age under the new legislation.
 Helsinki reaches out to residents
 The capital city-based daily Helsingin Sanomat features a reminder that  voting in the OmaStadi (roughly Your City) poll ends today , Thursday, for Helsinki residents. The city is reaching out to residents with a project it is calling "participatory budgeting", asking them to vote on their top choices for spending 4.4 million euros.
 HS reports that the projects that have received the most of the 32,000-plus votes so far include bids to plant more trees, provide more exercise and fitness opportunities and keep the city cleaner.
 The project started last year when Helsinki residents were invited to suggest projects to improve the city. 1,273 proposals were sent to the municipality, of which 296 were chosen. City workers tell HS that most ideas proposed improvements to the urban environment, parks in particular.
 If you are a Helsinki resident, you can still place your vote in English today by following  this link.  The service requires identification with online banking codes or mobile ID. Students over 12 years of age are also encouraged to vote and can sign in with their Wilma ID.

Thursday's papers: Costly asylum seeker ankle tags, longer careers, and Helsinki's project poll


Summary: The firm promises more ethical and responsible marketing, compulsory pre-game ID checks, and 3,500 fewer slot machines.

Kasinot, uhkapelit ja rahapeli- ja vedonlyöntipalvelut

The state-owned gambling monopoly Veikkaus promised on Thursday to make broad changes to its operations following public criticism of its practices. The remedial measures it is now committing to include slashing marketing of its games of chance, trimming its network of slot machines and introducing a system of compulsory identification for most of its products.
 Veikkaus confirmed the changes following a series of stumbles, including a  disastrous marketing campaign  that caused the public to question the firm's strategy.
 "Public debate has rightfully asked whether it's right that people in weak positions suffer for the common good. The fact that the money goes to good causes is not enough to justify the problems caused anymore," said Veikkaus President and CEO  Olli Sarekoski .
 Sarekoski said that an increasingly competitive field has meant that the company has focused on keeping its turnover steady, to the detriment of its work to reduce  problem gambling . During the press conference, he admitted that the company "has not done enough to reduce gambling problems". He said Veikkaus will now turn its attention to building a more responsible gaming environment for its customers.
 Start by removing a fifth of slot machines
 Outcry that started with the controversial ads soon spread to  discussion of Veikkaus' 18,500 slot machines , located in kiosks, shops, restaurants, and service stations throughout Finland. Research had determined that more slot machines were placed in shops and other locations in low-income areas than in other areas, when analysed on a per capita basis, for example.
 Veikkaus' corporate social responsibility  Pekka Ilmivalta  told the gathered press that 3,500 slot machines would be removed from public places in line with the new strategy, with a reduction of up to 8,000 machines planned by the year 2025.
 The gambling monopoly has also decided to bring forward the adoption of compulsory identification on slot machines by one year, starting a gradual rollout that will be completed by January 2021. The new identification requirement will apply to all Veikkaus gaming, excluding scratch cards and casinos.
 Compulsory identification will enable players to set a temporary or permanent ban on their slot machine gaming. It will also prevent underage gaming, the company said.
 Ilmivalta said that players who play excessively may get a warning message from Veikkaus in future, and warning texts will be added to the games to indicate how addictive they are.
 Marketing cut by a third
 A  September press release  from Veikkaus' Board of Directors said that marketing would be reduced by a third in future. Thursday's press conference did not mention specific percentages, saying only that there would be significant reductions in the gambling monopoly's marketing efforts.
 Veikkaus representatives said that all advertising content would be subject to an  ethics board  review moving forward, to ensure that it is ethical and responsible.
 Company management predicts that the new strategy will shrink its annual turnover by up to 200 million euros.

Gambling monopoly Veikkaus on new strategy: "We haven't done enough to reduce addiction"


Summary: Women account for only around 17 per cent of corporate board positions globally, according to a study by Deloitte.

Finland is one of just six countries where women hold more than 30 percent of board positions, according to a  survey  of 66 countries published by consulting firm Deloitte on Wednesday.
 The sixth edition of the 'Women in the Boardroom — A Global Perspective' report found that women account for nearly 17 per cent of corporate board positions globally — a slight uptick in the global average from 15 percent in 2016.
 Only Finland, Norway, France, Sweden, New Zealand and Belgium can claim an average higher than 30 percent, the report stated.
 Countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia sit at the bottom of the list with only 0.6 and 0.7 percent of all board seats held by women, respectively.
 Strong growth in Finland
 "Countries like Germany, South Africa, Finland, and Malaysia have increased the number of women on their boards by more than 6 percent since our 2016 edition,"  Dan Konigsburg , senior managing director at the Deloitte Global Center for Corporate Governance said in the report.
 The development is significant because it has taken place without gender quotas, said  Merja Itäniemi , a partner at Deloitte Finland, in the company's report.
 The Finnish economy relies heavily on the industrial sector, so male engineers are traditionally well-represented on company boards, she noted. However, the Corporate Governance Code developed by the association for stock market -listed companies recommends appointing both genders to boards. According to Itäniemi, the code has increased the number of board members who have studied business and law, for example, and as a result has seen a rise in the proportion of women.
 "Change is still too slow"
 Overall, the number of women in leadership positions in the private sector is growing — but slowly, according to the report.
 "The overall data reveals that change is still too slow. Globally, between 2016 and 2018 there was a 1.9 percent increase in women on boards. If the global trend continues at its current rate of an approximately 1 percent increase per year, we will be waiting more than 30 years to achieve global gender parity at the board level," chair of Deloitte Global  Sharon Thorne  said in the report.
 While women hold only 4.4 percent of CEO positions globally as stated by the report, CFO roles are three times more diverse at 12.7 percent.

Just one in three board members at Finnish firms is a woman - but that's still better than in most countries


Summary: The suspect will continue to receive medical care at the prison facility.

The 24-year-old man suspected of  a sabre attack in Kuopio in early October  has been moved from a public hospital to a prison infirmary in Hämeenlinna, according to the National Bureau of Investigation.
 The NBI said that he will continue to receive medical care at the facility. The suspect was injured when police responded to an alert concerning the incident, in which one woman was killed and nine other people were wounded.
 "The suspected [involved] in a violent act at the Savo vocational college in Kuopio has been transferred to the Hämeenlinna prison hospital, where the man suspected of offences such as murder and several counts of attempted murder will receive follow-up care,” the NBI said in a Tweet on Thursday.
 The suspect had been  remanded into pre-trial custody  on 4 October as he lay in hospital, having participated in the hearing via a video link.
 Police are continuing their investigations into the incident with interviews and technical examinations. The preliminary investigation is expected to wrap up in early 2020.
 Suspect shot in the leg
 On 1 October, police responded quickly to a call about the incident in which victims were attacked in a classroom at the vocational college.
 According to lead NBI investigator  Olli Töyräs , police stopped the suspect by shooting him in the leg. Police were said to have fired two shots towards the man.
 In Finland the prosecutor’s office investigates all instances where police officers discharge their firearms. In this case the prosecutor said that the responding officers were justified in shooting, since the suspect had approached them with a blade and an air rifle and did not obey the orders they issued.

Kuopio stabbing attack suspect moved to prison hospital


Summary: Finnair told flight tax campaigners it shared their objectives of reducing emissions but was not supporting a tax on flights.

Finnair’s Vice President for Sustainability told the All Points North podcast that climate activists campaigning for a flight tax should also work with the industry.
 Finnair told flight tax campaigners on Thursday that it shared their objectives of reducing emissions, but still was not supporting a tax on passenger flights.
 The company’s Vice President for Sustainability  Anne Larilahti  was a guest on the Yle News All Points North podcast alongside flight tax advocate  Tehila Auramo .
 Larilahti agreed that the world is facing a climate crisis, but when asked by Auramo to support the initiative she declined.
 "I don’t think I’m going to put my name on it but I would say that regardless of whether you get the names or not, we should continue the dialogue," said Larilahti. "Because we need to work together on this, because as I said at the beginning we have a common objective to reduce admissions."
 "We have different views on how to do that, but that’s the mother of innovation right? When you have different views around the same table, maybe we can figure out something really innovative."
 Tax like 'offering a beer'
 Auramo is one of the proposers of a citizens' initiative looking to introduce a levy on passenger flights. She argued that the proposed tax would be almost unnoticeable to many passengers, comparing the cost to the typical cost of a beer in Finland.
 "This is like offering a beer to European nature, because it’s like six euros," said Auramo, referencing the proposed level of flight tax for flights within Europe. "And [for long-haul flights] it’s like forty euros so it’s offering like a dinner for planet earth. So it’s such small amounts!"
 "Think about it, would you like to be friends with European nature, with global nature? I guess you would. Because you are a hundred percent dependent on nature. In every breath you take, in every meal you make, you’re so dependent on it."
 Larilahti argued that a tax was the wrong way to go about reducing climate impact, as it could have unintended consequences.
 She also defended the much-criticised CORSIA scheme for controlling aviation emissions, which could bring in rules that are actually less strict than those currently imposed by the European Union.
 She said that the details are not yet finalised and Finnair does not want laxer standards allowing a rise in emissions.
 On Thursday afternoon the flight tax citizens' initiative had just over 40,000 of the required 50,000 signatures.
 You can listen to the All Points North podcast at yle.fi/allpointsnorth. If you have any questions, or would like to share something on your mind, just contact us via WhatsApp on +358 44 421 0909, on our Facebook or Twitter accounts, or at yle.news@yle.fi.

Finnair VP to flight tax advocates: “We need to work together”


Summary: Low air fares mean flying is more popular than ever but should we cut back to try and curb climate change?

Climate activists say Finland should  introduce a flight tax  to try and wean people off their emissions-heavy flying diet. They point out that people in Finland in particular are responsible for  more flying-related CO2 emissions than many other countries .
 Activists have launched a citizens' initiative calling on government to consider implementing the tax., and they need to meet a Saturday deadline to gather the 50,000 signatures needed to get their proposal in front of lawmakers.
 Meanwhile Finnair says flying taxes are not an especially effective way of tackling the problem and that passengers simply haven't been interested in other measures like  purchasing carbon offsets  for their flights.
 APN looked at the issue this week along with guests  Tehilah Auramo , an environmental activist who helped launch the citizens' initiative and  Anne Larilahti , Finnair's vice president of sustainability.
 Join the conversation
 If you have any questions, or would like to share something on your mind, just contact us via WhatsApp on +358 44 421 0909, on our Facebook or Twitter accounts, or at yle.news@yle.fi.
 The All Points North podcast is a weekly look at what's going on in Finland. Subscribe via iTunes (and leave a review!), listen on Spotify and Yle Areena or find it on your favourite podcatching app or via our RSS feed.
 This week's show was presented by  Egan Richardson  and  Denise Wall  and our producer was  Priya Ramachandran D'souza . Our sound designer and audio engineer was Laura Koso.

All Points North #66: Does Finland need a flight tax?


Summary: November starts with a wide array of news and views in Finnish newspapers on Friday.

Julkisten ja hyvinvointialojen liitto (JHL)

Gambling monopoly Veikkaus unveiled a new strategy on Thursday aimed at tackling addiction, including compulsory ID checks, fewer slot machines and less advertising. A day later, the largest provincial daily,  Aamulehti  from Tampere, runs an op-ed by the state-owned firm’s board chair,  Jukka Gustafsson , in which he says that the number of public slot machines should be cut by up to half.
 Gustafsson also says that “four out of five of those with gambling problems who seek help have problems with foreign gambling firms’ offerings”. In response he argues that the government’s planned revision of the Lotteries Act should include a provision whereby the state could block Finnish citizens from playing on “unauthorised sites”. Gustafsson points out that 21 European countries already have such laws.
 In local news, AL reports on the opening of Tampere’s largest electric car charging park, the Noutoparkki parking lot near the railway station, where 50 of the 62 parking spots are reserved for electric vehicles. Ten of them offer 11kW rapid charging points while the rest have slow 1.8kW chargers, encouraging commuters to leave their cars charging while off at work for the day, for instance.
 TS: No school lunches?
 School lunch services could be interrupted in Turku at least if the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors (JHL) goes ahead with a threatened strike – that’s the lead story in Friday’s  Turun Sanomat .
 The southwestern daily quotes local JHL boss  Maaret Laakso  as saying the 600 employees of the city-owned catering firm Arkea are ready to walk off the job due to what they call arm-twisting, threats and wage-cutting moves from their employer. The union says it expects to finalise plans for the job action on Friday.
 TS also reports on a survey of more than 4,000 physicians and nurses who work with vaccinations gauging their views on such shots.
 As you might expect, nearly all said that vaccinations are safe and beneficial. Ninety-six percent of those with children reported accepting all childhood vaccinations for their own offspring.
 Asked how they respond to patients who are hesitant about giving their youngsters childhood vaccines, nearly 14 percent said they do not guide the patient in any direction. However less than half a percent of the healthcare workers reported that they guide hesitant patients towards not vaccinating at all.
 The study, published in the journal PLOS One, was carried out by the city’s two universities, Åbo Akademi and the University of Turku, in conjunction with the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) and the University of Bristol.
 KS: Gritty streets, scenic views
 In southeast Finland,  Kouvolan Sanomat  previews the upcoming winter on local roads, reporting that the city began applying sand to streets, bike paths and sidewalks on Tuesday.
 The city and its main road maintenance contractor, YIT, swear they are ready for whatever this winter will throw at them. They’re equipped with 3,000 tons of salt and 10,000 tons of sand for the rural roads and motorways outside the city centre, along with some 15,000 tons of grit and gravel reserved for city streets.
 And the paper offers some scenic viewing: images by nature photographer  Tea Karvinen , who has published coffee-table books in Finnish and English.
 She has spent the past nine years exploring all of Finland’s 40 national parks, including Repovesi NP just north of Kouvola, the subject of a photo gallery in the latest KS for your weekend perusal.

Friday’s papers: Gambling block, vaccination survey and possible school lunch disruptions


Summary: The pass provides entrance to over 300 museums throughout the country for a year.

Kulttuuri- ja taidetapahtumat ja -näyttelyt

Museot, näyttelyt sekä historiallisten paikkojen ja rakennusten suojelu

A new poll assessing the Museum Card, a pass with an annual fee that allows people to visit hundreds of museums in Finland on an unlimited basis, suggests that the card has been successful in improving museum visitor numbers and revenue. Finnish museums that are a part of the card's network have reported record visitor numbers every year since the Museum Card was introduced in 2015.
 The Museums Association-commissioned study of the Museum Card's performance determined that museum attendance improved by roughly a third for museums accepting the card.
 A poll with over 13,000 respondents found that people without a Museum Card visited a museum once or twice a year on average, compared to people with the card who reported an average of seven museum visits. Several Museum Card holders even reported frequenting museum exhibitions more than 10 times a year.
 "Owning a Museum Card clearly has an influence on the museum attendance culture," says  Juho-Petteri Huhtala , one of the researchers behind the results.
 Improved revenue
 The Museum Card was a hit in Finland as soon as it was launched, but many naysayers predicted that it would cut into museum profits. Researchers found that this was not the case.
 Cardholders pay a yearly fee to use the Museum Card, and this means that they can walk into over 300 museums without paying an additional entrance fee. But the museums that are part of the network still receive compensation for every cardholder visit. Cardholders also tend to bring in more paying customers in their wake. More than half of the people that visited a museum by using their Museum Card reported arriving as part of group of two or more.
 Respondents to the study estimate that they also spent about 10 or so euros on other museum services during their visit, in places such as the museum gift or coffee shop. This sum was the same for both cardholders and non-cardholders, but the poll indicated that Museum Card owners tended to spend money on the other services because they visited the museums more often.
 "The study showed that the Museum Card brought the museums both direct and indirect benefits," Huhtala said.
 From 5.2 to 7.1 million visitors
 The Museum Card was launched in May 2015. Since that time, the museums that are part of the network have reported record visitor numbers every year. In 2015, 5.2 million people visited Finland's museums, while in the following year, this number grew to 6.6 million. In 2017 and 2018, the number rose to 7.1 million.
 "We could justifiably talk about a 'Museum Card phenomenon'. People getting fired up about museums inspires others to hop on the bandwagon. Finland's museums are now sailing high," said  Seppo Honkanen , the Museum Card's development director.
 Figures show that there are 265,000 Museum Cards on the market, 185,000 of which are currently valid.
 "About half of all registered museum visits are currently free, but the Museum Card specifically increases the number of paid museum visits as well," Honkanen said.
 The 2019 Museum Card study was conducted by Aalto University in conjunction with the Nordic Institute of Business and Society think tank, with the support of the Finnish Museums Association.

Study: Annual card boosts visits to Finnish museums by one third


Summary: The number of signatures doubled within two days, reaching the required 50,000 late on Thursday.

More than 52,000 people have signed a  citizens' initiative calling for an aviation tax , surpassing the 50,000 certified signatures needed to send it to MPs for consideration.
 Any Finnish citizens aged 18 or over can sign or start such an initiative, which lapses if sufficient signatures are not collected within six months.
 The flight tax initiative was launched on 2 May, so would have lapsed on Saturday. As of early October, the initiative had only collected around 7,000 names. By Wednesday, that was up to 25,000. As Thursday began, that had risen to just over 33,000. In its final spurt on Thursday, it gathered more than 17,000 signatories to break the 50,000 barrier around 11pm. Signatures can be collected either in paper form or via a secured online system.
 Revenues would be earmarked for environment
 According to the initiative, an eco-tax or fee would be tacked on to all flight tickets. The revenues "should be earmarked so as to most effectively guide environmental policy" toward cutting emissions. As virtually all other forms of transport are now taxed, proponents argue that this amounts to a tax break or indirect subsidy for airlines.
 The initiative calls for the fee to variable and based on "the climate impact of various types of flights". It does not propose any specific tax rate but points out that the flight fee in neighbouring Sweden ranges between six and 40 euros per passenger.
 Sweden adopted an aviation tax last year, which was followed by a decline in flight passengers and rapid growth in train ridership.
 Austria, Britain, France, Germany and Norway also levy some form of aviation tax. Supporters hope that the growing number of national fees will lead to an EU-wide scheme. If no EU deal is found, the Netherlands plans to introduce a 7.50 euro ticket tax for departing passengers from 2021.
 Support among government parties
 Last December, the Finnish News Agency STT surveyed views on an eco-tax among the main parties in the Finnish Parliament.
 The strongest support was among MPs from the Left Alliance and the Greens, which both joined the new government in June. Taking the dimmest view were those from the opposition Finns Party and the Centre, which carried over from the past government into the current one. At the time, Centre MPs called for an international rather than national agreement.
 An Yle survey of European Parliament candidates last spring showed similar results, with the Greens and Left most supportive and the Finns Party the least enthusiastic.

Aviation tax initiative heads to Parliament


Summary: Finnish tax authorities say 3,000 short-term rental providers in Finland failed to report rental income last year.

The Finnish Tax Administration says that providers of Airbnb and other short-term rentals have failed to report rental income amounting to over 15 million euros in 2018. This is more than double the seven million euros worth of unreported earnings in 2017.
 Through landlords' payment transactions, the taxman has identified nearly 9,000 short-term rental providers, of which a large number are Airbnb renters. While the number of rentals has remained the same between 2017-2018, the number of owners who haven’t reported their income has risen.
 In 2017, 2,400 people failed to report rental income, but last year, the number was 3,000.
 All rental income must be reported to tax authorities as it is treated as capital income.
 "Risk of being caught is thought to be low"
 A part of the unreported income is unintentional and due to ignorance, but some of the renters are consciously trying to increase their by profits, according to  Timo Puiro , chief inspector at the Tax Administration's corporate taxation unit.
 "We have been following this matter for several years and it looks like rental providers are taking risks and not reporting their income," Puiro said.
 About half of the 8,800 landlords did not own the properties themselves, according to authorities.
 "They may be tenants themselves seeking income from short-term rentals to cover their living expenses. It could also be students or those on the move who want to want to make use of the free space in their homes." Puro observed.
 Authorities are also aware of high-income housing investors who have not reported rental incomes.
 “Some of them used to be traditional landlords. They may have moved on to a short-term rental arrangement in the hope of making better returns.
 "Maybe the risk of being caught is thought to be low,” Puiro thinks.
 Tax evaders are subject to criminal action
 Puiro, who is in charge of digital risk management at the Tax Administration revealed that his team obtains data from banks and payment service providers on all transactions from specific sources of payment. They can then, if necessary, investigate further.
 “If the non-reporting of income is found to be intentional, it is liable to criminal action,” Purio said, adding that several millions of euros in reported earnings can be collected in the form of back taxes.
 “The Tax Administration has a good view of what and how much is not reported.”

Tax Administration: AirBnb operators left 15 million euros' income undeclared in 2018


Summary: Saturday will bring snow, sleet and rain to most of the country but Sunday looks dry and bright.

Residents of Inari in Finnish Lapland awoke on Friday to this winter's coldest thermometer reading so far. According to the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), it was -26 degrees Celsius at Lake Kirakkajärvi — nearly as frigid at Nuorgam in the country's northernmost municipality, Utsjoki.
 October was about three degrees chillier than the long-term average in Northern Finland, says the FMI. The region's average temperature during the month was between -3 and -4 degrees. Meanwhile the country's mildest area was the southwestern archipelago, where the average was above +7, close to the long-term average.
 The warmest reading of the month was on 1 October in Helsinki when the mercury hit 13.4 degrees. The coldest was in the far northwestern village of Enontekiö where it sank to -24.2 on Monday.
 October was also rainier than usual, especially in North Karelia and other eastern areas.
 Slippery roads on Saturday
 More precipitation is in store on Saturday after a dry, partly sunny Friday, says Yle meteorologist  Matti Huutonen .
 It's expected to come down as rain in the southern third of the country as well as the Oulu region, with sleet in between and snow further north.
 Those driving in central and northern areas on Saturday should brace for poor driving conditions due to sleet or snow. Afternoon temperatures will range between +7 in the southwest to -13 in the northwestern arm of Lapland.
 Sunday now looks to be dry and partly clear, a brighter outlook than in previous forecasts. That goes for the early part of next week too, says Huutonen.
 While earlier projection models predicted up to 30cm of snow in southwest Finland by next Tuesday, the latest versions suggest that an expected band of precipitation may just graze the coast or miss the country altogether, he says.

November starts with cold blast in Lapland, milder weather on the way


Summary: The benefit cuts particularly affected elderly job seekers, a report published on Friday revealed.

The so-called  activation model  has not increased the employment rate of those receiving labour market benefits, according to a team of researchers who presented their final report to Employment Minister  Timo Harakka  on Friday.
 According to the report, the employment rate of those receiving earnings-related daily allowances, however, has increased.
 Overall, the effects of the activation model remain quite unclear, the team said in their report.
 "It is difficult to distinguish the employment effects of an active model from the effects of a good business cycle," the team stated.
 In the report, the research team did not comment on whether the activation model is beneficial or not for the unemployed or society. Neither did they make recommendations on whether or not the active model and the associated benefit cuts should be discontinued.
 Prime Mister  Anti Rinne has pledged  to dismantle the wildly criticised employment measure in 2020. The  unpopular scheme  introduced by the previous Juha Sipilä-led government that essentially penalises unemployed jobseekers for being unable to find work.
 "The idea that the active model did not affect anything is wrong," said  Roope Uusitalo , professor at the University of Helsinki and the VATT Institute for Economic Research.
 According to the study, the introduction of the active model increased the participation of the unemployed in employment promotion services such as courses.
 At the beginning of 2018, the Ministry of Finance estimated that the active model would increase employment by about 5,000 to 12,000 people.
 Benefit cuts most affected older jobseekers
 The activation model particularly affected the oldest among the unemployed, the report revealed. For those over 55 years old, the daily allowance decreased by about half.
 Data from Finland’s benefits agency Kela had indicated that  roughly half of people receiving unemployment benefits  had their payments cut at the end of the first three-month evaluation period in April 2018.
 Unemployment benefit is reduced by less than 5 percent if the job seeker does not work for 18 hours during a three-month period, study for five days in an employment course, or work as an entrepreneur with an income of less than 250 euros.
 Harakka has promised government decisions that will especially help the elderly unemployed land jobs.
 The government is reportedly preparing a job search requirement for the unemployed, based on an individualised employment plan. A bill on the new model will be completed next fall.
 The labour minister, however, didn’t give a direct answer about how the current government plans to replace the activation model.
 "When there are no exact numbers, we are bound by the 30,000 figure," Timo Harakka said referring to the government's goal of making decisions in the autumn budget round that result result in 30,000 more people being in work.
 The government programme states that the cut-backs and clauses of the activation model will be rolled back once measures with an equivalent impact on employment have been adopted.
 The Rinne-led government's target is to create 60,000 additional jobs by the end of the term in 2023.
 Social Affairs minister: No replacement model needed
 Based on the findings of the final report, the Minister for Social Affairs and Health  Aino-Kaisa Pekonen  interpreted the effects of the activation model as unclear.
 "In practice, this means that no separate action to compensate for the impact of the active model is needed, but the government will continue to come up with employment measures to meet the 75% employment rate target," Pekonen wrote in a Facebook post.

Report: Difficult to distinguish activation model effect from economic upswing


Summary: Mounting ADHD referrals have some asking if Finnish kids have been given too much responsibility at too young an age.

The number of primary school students in Finland being referred to psychiatric evaluations for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other neuropsychological symptoms has doubled in the last five years.
 According to figures from the National Institute of Health and Welfare (THL) requested by Yle, over 66,000 children between the ages of 6 and 13 were evaluated for ADHD, attention deficit disorder (ADD) or autism spectrum disorders such as Asperger syndrome in 2018, up from half this amount in 2014.
 Assistant professor  Päivi Lindholm  from Oulu University Hospital's child psychiatry unit says that it is not necessarily the case that school children are any more prone to mental health disorders than they were in the past, but that the social and parental requirements being made of children are changing.
 "Class sizes are huge, and people forget to provide the necessary support or don't have time to guide the children in the right way. The kids are left with too much freedom and responsibility," she says.
 New core curriculum to blame?
 Lindholm says neuropsychological disorders often involve various sensory sensitivities. Stimuli overload can overburden more sensitive children and weaken their ability to take in information and concentrate. She says Finland's  core curriculum , renewed in 2014 with an emphasis on open learning environments, presents challenges.
 "Children spend more and more of their time trying to control their physiological state, which affects regulation of their emotions and behaviour. At the same time, the onslaught of visual and audio stimuli is amplified in a large group, creating even more of a social load," she says.
 In this way, the school day becomes quite stressful for the students, the psychiatric professor contends, negatively affecting school performance.
 "Each of us has a stress threshold that is exceeded at different levels for different people. Some children can keep it together through the school day and then crash when they get home. Others reach their limit already at school," Lindholm explains.
 A problem the nation needs to address
 Assistant professor Lindholm says it is time for Finland to take a step back and look at the big picture, as the statistics show that children's mental health symptoms have moved beyond being a marginal problem.
 "It would be important to bring the experience of kids and parents, as well as education and social and health care professionals doing the practical work into the open," she says.
 Aslak Rantakokko , an equality specialist with the Finnish Parents' League, agrees that Finnish decision-makers and society should not just quietly accept the explosion of neuropsychological problems among school-aged children.
 "Now  we're trying to get more teachers, more counsellors, and more psychologists . That's all good, but isn't it in a way fundamentally accepting the problem? Why isn't Finland having a public conversation about the roots of the issue?" he asks.
 Medication should not be taboo
 Anita Puustjärvi  head of the Kuopio University Hospital's child psychiatry unit agrees with Lindholm's assessment of school changes, saying that modern learning environments and techniques are not supportive of children with special needs.
 "Some of the children can benefit from sitting on an exercise ball or lying on the floor while they work, but this introduces more disturbing stimuli to the space, as some of the kids are moving around the whole time. What we need to focus on is minimizing the disturbing factors and maximizing the benefits," she says.
 Puustjärvi says that education experts should explain better what the core curriculum means when it talks about  boosting independent study .
 "Being more self-directed does not mean that pupils study independently, it means that the teacher sets the framework within which the student can then choose things appropriate to their age level. A child is not a mini-adult, and this is often forgotten in schools. Cognitive control is still developing in children, and is not fully formed until they are in their early twenties," she says.
 Puustjärvi adds however that medication is not necessarily the bogeyman it has been made out to be in discussions on ADHD and similar disorders.
 "After all, we don't think it is a negative thing for a diabetic to take insulin," she says.

Surge in mental health problems among primary school pupils


Summary: President Sauli Niinistö says a four or five-year term of office would be better than the current six-year practice.

Finnish President  Sauli Niinistö  wants to shorten the length of the presidential term of office in Finland, reports the regional newspaper Savon Sanomat.
 Niinistö said in an interview with the paper that the term should be shortened, as the current six-year term is exceptionally long.
 Finnish law currently limits a president's total time in office to two terms, or 12 years in total.
 The president says that a four or five-year term would be a better model, with three four-years terms possible if the current 12-year limit continues, or two five-year terms if the limit would be reduced to 10 years total.
 He said the problem is not that the government changes every four years in the middle of the presidential term, as Niinistö said that the longer presidential term also brings continuity, but rather the sticking point is the nature of the work, as it is very demanding and requires a high level of commitment.
 "In opposition to general opinion, it is very time intensive job," Niinistö said.

Finland's President suggests shortening presidential term


Summary: Two unions representing health and social care professionals in Finland say they will fight to make up lost ground.

Next spring, Finland's largest trade union for health and social care professionals, Tehy, plans to join forces Super, another union representing practical nurses, to demand a 1.8 percent annual wage increase every year until salaries in the sector are on par with salaries in male-dominated fields.
 The average monthly salary for nurses in Finland is currently around 2,500 euros, while workers in industrial sectors tend to take home 500 euros more each month.
 The nursing unions calculate that that gradual increase they seek would make wages in their line of work equal to average industrial sector wages by the year 2090. About 90 percent of the Tehy union's 160,000 members and 94 percent of Super's 90,000 union members are female.
 "Tehy and Super are very realistic about Finland's economic situation. We are aware that there are members of our organizations that are insisting on 500 euros more each month right away, but that is not possible," says Tehy's leader  Millariikka Rytkönen.
 Not following the rules
 Finland's top two industrial unions are currently negotiating a collective agreement that traditionally sets the bar for other union negotiations about working terms and conditions, for example, in the area of wage increases.
 Rytkönen has reportedly annoyed her union colleagues and municipal decision-makers by breaking the unwritten rule about waiting for the first results before declaring her union's specific intentions.
 "Each union negotiation should take into account the special characteristics of the sector in question. I don't understand how the industry sector could in any way speak for the social and health care sector. No, we most certainly will not accept this," she says.
 Rytkönen says she is shocked by the amount of chauvinism she has encountered in her union work, a phenomenon most women don't dare to talk about. Very few of Finland's unions are led by women, and she says a "boy's club" mentality persists.
 More nurses have been promised
 Prime Minister Antti Rinne's left-leaning government promised to improve Finland's nurse-to-patient ratio upon taking office, in the face of an  acute shortage of nurses . In elderly homes, for example, the new rules require a ratio of seven nurses for every ten senior residents. In addition, the coalition has made several assurances that it will promote gender wage equality in Finland's job market, with 70 mentions of gender equality in its  government programme , for example.
 "They are the ones that started this whole thing, not just us. I am confused when I read about them praising the work of social and health care professionals and hear them talking about us in their speeches, but when it comes down to it, all of their lofty promises are forgotten," Rytkönen says.
 Money from cuts to corporate subsidies
 Finland's municipal workers have already weighed in that the 1.8 percent yearly salary increase would set them back an additional 8 billion euros. Tehy and Super predict an annual added expense of between 100 and 150 million euros.
 Rytkönen says it is up to the state to help the cash-strapped municipalities cover the difference. When asked how the state will come up with the money, the Tehy leader says it's not her job to decide, but she does have a suggestion.
 "I've often wondered why  corporate subsidies  are such a sacred cow. They can't be touched. […] That's where we could find the 100 million that we would need."

Nursing unions set sights on incremental salary increases


Summary: Finland is seeing the growth of the super rich, whose lightly-taxed capital income far outstrips other groups' earnings.

Finnish tax policy favours the accumulation of wealth among the country’s richest people, Tampere University professor  Matti Tuomala  saidjust one day before the tax administration Vero reveals the names of  the country's top income earners .
 Current tax policy has created a cohort of about 50,000 people that now includes the likes of game firm entrepreneur  Mikko Kodisoja  and cyber security firm F-Secure chair  Risto Siilasmaa , Tuomala noted.
 On top of that, the researcher has identified another group of roughly 5,000 super rich people, whose wealth accumulation is in a class of its own, according to public data. They live primarily on capital income.
 "When we talk about the top one percent of taxpayers, they are in a class of their own, and even more so if we look at the top one thousand," Tuomala declared.
 Tax burden shrinks as capital income grows
 Tuomala and his research team analysed Finnish tax policy since the 1990s and concluded that a major problem in Finnish taxation is the fact that individuals can ease their average tax burden paying taxes on capital income rather than earned income.
 Capital income and dividends from shares carry a relatively lower tax rate than wages and salaries. As a result, people have increasingly shifted income sources to limited liability companies and possible holding companies.
 Affluent owners of non-listed companies can also withdraw large sums of tax-free dividends from the firms they’ve invested in. And on top of that, Finland abolished a wealth tax about 10 years ago.
 Tuomala’s research group found that the larger the proportion of capital income in the overall income of the super rich, the less tax they pay.
 Studies have shown that for a long time, the average tax burden of the richest one percent in Finland has been significantly lower that than that of the top ten percent.
 Wealthy accumulating capital rather than investing
 On the other hand, the average tax rate has been rising since 2011 and is now around 35 percent, largely the equivalent of income taxes paid by middle income earners.
 "Our tax system is rather unusual in that your tax burden is largely determined by the composition of your income," Tuomala, summed up.
 He said that he is worried about the fact that the current tax regime encourages the wealthy to accumulate capital rather than to invest in new equipment or products.
 "From the business perspective, it encourages investment in non-essential matters such as property and securities."
 A finance ministry tax working group has drawn the same conclusion, given that the rate of investments in Finland has been declining in recent years.
 No tax evasion research in Finland
 The Tampere University professor said that income taxes should return to a progressive income tax model. He added that the tax rate should take account of total income, including wage and capital income. He recommended at least hiking taxes on capital income.
 Mika Kuismanen , head economist of the Federation of Finnish Enterprises, said that the focus of the current tax structure should not change because of a small group. Rather he noted that the gap has been caused by wider developments in the global and Finnish economies.
 "I see a positive side in this in that it’s not just about old money, but that hard-working and innovative people have a chance to really advance in terms of income and wealth," Kuismanen declared.
 He noted that in recent years new names, especially in the IT sector, have joined the ranks of the super rich.
 In his book " Markets, the state and inequality"  Tuomala cites Nordic research concluding that the rich are more likely to avoid paying taxes. The research, which was  published in an influential economics journal , reviewed sources such as the information revealed in the Panama Papers data leak.
 Researchers concluded that the top 1,000 wealthy people evade taxes many times more than is generally the case with people who pay personal taxes.
 Tuomala pointed out that tax evasion is one example of how due to insufficient data, income equality trends in Finland are underestimated. He also noted that similar research on tax evasion has not been conducted in Finland and that wealth comparisons are more difficult that income analyses.
 He estimated that significant amounts of wealth are hidden in holding companies as well as insurance portfolios.

Economist: Finnish tax policy creating a class of super rich


Summary: The tax administration said that over 200 high income earners have had their names removed from a public list.

The Chancellor of Justice is looking into a decision by the Finnish Tax Administration to remove the names of more than 200 top income earners from a list traditionally supplied to media outlets every year.
 The Chancellor’s office responded to a tweet about  the tax authority’s decision to remove some names  by  Jouni Kemppainen , editor-in-chief of Maaseudun Tulevaisuus, a farmers' lobby-backed newspaper.
 The Chancellor’s office tweeted that a complaint had been made about the decision and that it was looking into it.
 On Thursday, the tax administration said that 231 names had been removed from the list of people who earned 100,000 or more in 2018. The list is to be released to media organisations on Monday.
 Application deadline extended
 New EU data protection regulations and expanded national data privacy laws that came into force at the beginning of the year mean that people can now request that their names and income information be dropped from public lists.
 The authority said on Tuesday that although individuals may request an exception to the practice, it still has discretion whether or not to grant it. The authority added on Thursday that it had decided to accept late requests to withhold names from the list. It added that it had received about 100 requests on the day of the deadline, Monday, and had approved them all.
 The tax authority also decided to extend the deadline until Tuesday to process late applications. "We thought that it was humane," the administration's communications director  Katri Kalliomäki  told news agency STT on Wednesday.
 However the authority said it was not able to process all of the late applications and on Wednesday evening it removed the application form for the exemption from its website.
 The tax administration has pointed out that members of the public can still request income and tax payment data from local tax administration offices.

Chancellor of Justice probes exemptions from "tax day" list


Summary: It’s been especially cold up north but temperatures will be five degrees colder than usual for this time of year.

A high pressure zone over Finland will make for sunny, dry and very cold weather as the week begins. According to Yle meteorologist  Kerttu Kotakorpi , the cold spell will last until Wednesday and temperatures will be about five degrees lower than average throughout the country.
 Cold weather has held northern Finland in its grip for some time already this autumn. However conditions during the week ahead will be unusually frigid given the time of year, Kotakorpi noted.
 She added that up residents of the north can also expect between 10 and 40 centimetres of snow into the bargain.
 Daytime highs in southern Finland will hover around zero degrees Celsius, but will fall to between -5 and -10 degrees and will range from -5 to -20 degrees in the north. Wind will increase the chill factor.
 "Based on the current forecast, snow will not quite reach all the way to the south," Kotakorpi said.
 She added that the cold will loosen its grip after Wednesday and that more precipitation is in store as the week closes.

Sunny skies promise colder-than-usual spell across Finland


Summary: The industrial action is expected to last until mid-November.

Elektroniikan ja sähkölaitteiden valmistus

Unions representing technology and professional workers have announced an overtime ban starting Monday until 15 November.
 According to the Industrial Union, the action will affect about 100,000 staff working in technology as well as employees working with sheet metal and industrial insulation.
 Meanwhile Trade Union Pro said on Sunday that the ban on overtime work would cover all white collar employees in the technology sector.
 The unions declared the overtime ban after failing to see eye-to-eye with employers on a new collective bargaining agreement. The previous contract expired at the end of October.
 The Federation of Finnish Technology Industries which represents employers, said that the ban will complicate negotiations and make it difficult for businesses to operate and make deliveries to customers.
 The talks foundered on the 24 unpaid working hours that are a feature of  the previous government’s competitiveness pact  that aimed to make Finnish business more competitive by reducing the unit cost of labour. Employers would like to maintain the provision, but the unions want to eliminate it.
 A wage agreement in the technology industry is being seen as a weather vane for collective bargaining agreements in other sectors.

100K technology, professional workers to begin overtime ban


Summary: Finland publishes 2018 income data on Monday.

The highest earning person in Finland in 2018 was  Ilkka Paananen , the CEO of games firm Supercell. His combined income and capital income was 110 million euros.
 His income is up considerably from the 65 million euros he made in 2017.
 Second in the list was  Mikko Kodisoja , also of Supercell, who made 98 million euros.
 The information was released on ‘tax day’, the annual publication of tax data by Finland’s Tax Administration. In principle everyone’s income is public and available for a fee from the administration.
 This year, for the first time, some high-earners were  granted exemptions  and allowed to keep their name off lists of wealthier Finns. This year 231 names had been removed from the list.
 Yle has requested information about certain well-known and influential Finns not mentioned in the lists.

Supercell CEO once again tops Finland’s earnings list


Summary: The press today reports on the emergency situation facing Finland's healthcare centres, the big annual reveal of who earned how much in 2018, and the start of winter.

On Monday  Helsingin Sanomat (HS) reports that there is a crisis facing healthcare centres in Finland.
 According to the Finnish Medical Association (FMA), health care centres are experiencing their biggest crisis in history largely because funding for healthcare centres has remained at the same level for the last 15 years although demand for healthcare services has dramatically increased.
 “The longer one lives, the more chronic illnesses arise, ”  Samuli Saarni , president of the FMA, told the paper, referring to the impact of an ageing population on healthcare costs.
 In recent years, healthcare centres have also been given added responsibilities including specialised medical care, which means aftercare and follow-up duties that were previously handled elsewhere.
 More work, same budget
 Healthcare centres’ portion of the total healthcare bill was 20 percent of the overall medical budget in 2000, whereas now it’s at 13 percent. In terms of euros, healthcare centre funding is at the same level as it what is in the 2000s, writes HS.
 According to Saarni, the number of doctors has not increased on par with the larger workload – for example, in the last 15 years 4,200 new doctors have entered the workforce but only 330 of them have gone to work in healthcare centres.
 Doctors are now responsible for extra paperwork, including renewing electronic prescriptions and these time-consuming tasks take away from the time they spend with patients.
 “The current set-up doesn’t support doctors spending as much time as possible with patients,” Saarni told HS.
 As a result of the backlog, which has caused long line-ups for medical appointments, both patients and doctors have gone elsewhere. About 1.1 million people living in Finland have now opted for private medical insurance, according to HS. Every second child has private medical insurance, which means that they don’t need to use the public healthcare centres. Despite this, the public healthcare centres are still under strain.
 Public healthcare centres have lost experienced doctors and gained more young doctors (those under 30 and those between 30-39).
 “As a result, burnout by young doctors at healthcare centres is more common and not surprisingly,” Saarni told HS.
 The new government announced in October that it has earmarked an additional 70 million euros for healthcare centres to address the crisis in an effort to decrease wait times, and hire additional doctors.
 The rich get richer
 All the papers have extensive data, stories and background on the release of 2018's tax data.
 Iltalehti was early, reporting ahead of Monday morning’s official announcement by the tax authorities of who Finland’s top earners were for the 2018 tax year.
 IL reports that real estate mogul Jethro “Jeti” Rostedt earned more than one million euros last year . His official earnings were 1, 056,071 euros, a significant increase over the previous tax year when Rostedt earned 670, 800 euros.
 The realtor, a familiar face from many TV shows, told the paper that the money he’s earned has required a lot of hard work and he’ll continue “to work with humility.”
 Winter on its way
 Meanwhile, Ilta-Sanomat, the sister tabloid of HS, reports that the weather will be wintry weather throughout the country on Monday, with temperatures in many regions below zero degrees Celsius.
 Ilta-Sanomat reports that it will be windy in southern and central regions, and in southern Lapland.
 In the country’s southern and central regions temperatures will be between 0-5 Celsius, and between minus 10 and 15 degrees in Lapland.

Monday’s papers: Finnish health centre crisis, big earners, and wintry weather in store


Summary: Meanwhile hate crimes based on sexual orientation rose last year.

The number of suspected hate crimes reported in Finland has dropped. Last year police recorded 910 reports of suspected hate crimes, a decline of 22 percent from the previous year.
 According to a study carried out at the Police University College, seven out of 10 criminal complaints were related to ethnic or national background. The other largest groups of cases were based on the victims' religious background or sexual orientation.
 Hate crimes are not specifically listed as such in Finnish law. However punishment for a crime can be toughened if it is determined to be motivated by racism or hatred.
 The report defines a hate crime as an offence against a person, group or property that is based on prejudice or hatred of a victim's presumed or actual ethnic or national background, religion or beliefs, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or disability, for instance.
 Researcher cites distrust of authorities
 Police University College researcher  Jenita Rauta , who authored the study on hate crimes reported to police in 2018, says there is no clear reason why the number of complaints have declined. She speculates that it may be partly related to victims' reluctance to report incidents to authorities, though.
 Story continues after photo
 Police University College researcher Jenita Rauta Jani Aarnio / Yle
 "The reasons for not reporting hate crimes to police are related to more general distrust of authorities, the commonplace nature of hate crimes, fear as well as uncertainty and a need for support," she tells Yle.
 According to Rauta, news coverage and social media discussion of hate crimes may help to lower the threshold for reporting them.
 Number of asylum seekers a factor
 Rauta notes that in 2017 there was a spike in suspected cases of incitement against ethnic groups.
 "Now these reports of this type of crime dropped by one third compared to the year before," she says.
 She adds that this may be related to a declining number of asylum seekers in the country.
 According to the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri), just over 4,500 people applied for asylum last year, down from more than 5,000 the previous year.
 Most typical victim: Iraqi man
 Iraqi citizens were relatively most represented among victims, followed by Afghan and Somali nationals.
 Meanwhile the largest groups of foreign citizens in Finland, Estonians and Russians, were significantly less likely to be the victims of reported offences.
 Two thirds of all reported victims were men. Women were most likely to be targets of libel, while the most common reported crime against men was assault.
 Eighty-seven percent of suspected perpetrators were Finnish citizens, while three quarters of them were born in Finland.
 The largest share of such complaints, 27 percent, were filed in Helsinki. In relation to population though, the highest rate was in Lieksa, a town of some 11,000 people in North Karelia north of Joensuu and near the Russian border.
 More incidents related to sexuality and gender
 Victims of alleged hate crimes were most likely to be aged 15-34. Younger people experienced more gender-related hate speech and violence.
 In 2018 police learned of 73 reported crimes that were suspected to be based on sexual orientation, gender identity or atypical gender expression. There were 13 more of these cases than the year before, a rise of 22 percent.
 Such offences most often took place at bars, restaurants or dance clubs.
 So why were there more complaints about such crimes while those for other sorts of hate crimes dipped?
 "People who belong to different groups often have different thresholds for reporting their experiences to the police," says Rauta. "The increase in the number of hate crimes related to sexuality may partly stem from the willingness of those in this group to tell police about suspected offences."

Sharp drop in reported hate crimes against foreigners in Finland


Summary: A company registered in the Channel Islands allegedly shipped millions of euros' worth of drugs and other products into Finland.

Lääkealan turvallisuus- ja kehittämiskeskus

Finnish Customs suspects a company registered in the Channel Islands of illegally importing millions of euros of medications and other products.
 About 772,000 pharmaceutical tablets were shipped from the US to Finland's autonomous Åland Islands without a license from the Finnish Medicines Agency (Fimea), along with about 200,000 tablets classified as doping substances. The company also shipped foodstuffs and animal feed from the US to Finland.
 When the goods arrived in Åland, they were sold via an online store within the European Union area.
 Of the two companies involved in the operation, one was from Åland. The Åland company then took the products shipped to Finland and registered them under its own name, thereby being able to deduct the VAT on importation from its own taxation.
 A range of offences
 The goods shipped to Finland were labelled with an incorrect tariff heading, and thus paid low taxes. Additionally, the custom’s notice listed the wrong company on the shipping label, which is illegal.
 The arrangement allowed the companies to benefit from  Åland’s special taxation status . Finnish Customs suspects that the companies intentionally circumvented paying taxes to the tune of at least 2.2 million euros.
 The 12 suspects include Finns and citizens of other countries.
 The case, which features a range of charges including aggravated tax fraud and aggravated drug smuggling, will proceed to the prosecutor later in November.

Criminal organisation suspected of illegally importing nearly one million pharmaceutical tablets


Summary: A bank closes branch offices while a carmaker extends layoffs.

Teollisuudessa käytettävien koneiden tukkukauppa

Banking group Aktia has wrapped up redundancy talks launched in September. As a result 92 jobs will be eliminated, while about 50 employees will be offered new positions within the group.
 Originally Aktia predicted that the negotiations would lead to  a loss of up to 110 jobs . The talks involved 380 employees.
 Along with staff reductions, the bank will consolidate its network of branch offices. The bank now serves some 310,000 customers at 32 branch offices.
 Of these, 18 will either be merged with others or possibly sold off to independent operators. Some branches in small towns will be replaced with "new customer meeting points available by appointment". The changes will begin taking place in January.
 Aktia estimates that the cost-cutting measures now implemented will trim annual expenditures by about three million euros.
 According to  Carola Nilsson , director of the Private Customers division, Aktia is seeking growth in larger cities and "concentrating our competence to these growth areas". It will also centralise and beef up some operations in the west-coast city of Vaasa.
 Valmet sees output upswing in February
 Further south on the west coast, Valmet Automotive is re-starting layoff talks at its Uusikaupunki car plant.
 The firm says that a previous round of furloughs was insufficient. It plans to extend earlier-agreed temporary layoffs by another month. The rolling 90-day layoffs begin this month and are to continue until February.
 The carmaker says it needs to temporarily shrink its workforce by about 100 person-years due to a dip in production volumes. It says that it now expects manufacturing to return to its planned level in February rather than January as previously thought.
 At this point no job cuts are planned. The furloughs will not affect Valmet's battery plant in the southwestern town of Salo. In September the company said it planned to focus more on electric vehicles and fuel cells.
 With some 6,000 employees, Valmet Automotive is an upstream partner for manufacturers such as Daimler, BMW and Porsche. Last spring it said it planned to  hire around 1,000 employees  in Finland this year.

Aktia Bank cuts 92 jobs, Valmet Auto extends furloughs


Summary: The oval ice formations created by wave action were piled up on a Hailuoto beach.

Oulu resident and amateur photographer  Risto Mattila  was in for a bit of a shock when he came across a host of odd-looking "eggs" on a beach during a Sunday stroll on Hailuoto island, northern Ostrobothnia.
 Piled up on the Marjaniemi beach was a 30-metre-wide collection of objects that looked like large eggs. Mattila said he had never seen anything like it during 25 years living in the vicinity of the sea. Other people out and about on Sunday afternoon were also mystified by the egg-shaped ice and snow formations.
 "My wife and I stood there marvelling at the remarkable natural phenomenon. Since I had a camera with me I decided to preserve this unusual sight for posterity," Mattila added.
 A rare phenomenon
 Jouni Vainio , an ice specialist from the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), said that the ice eggs were not a supernatural phenomenon, although they were rare. He noted that the formations require just the right air and water conditions, which have to be near freezing.
 The shallow sandy beach and just the right ebb and flow of the frigid water would be almost enough for the "eggs" to form, he explained. However there would also have to be another factor to allow the ball of snow and ice to form around it.
 That could be a snowflake, a small stone on the beach or even a bit of flotsam in the sea. The water would then freeze around the object, while a suitable wind would ensure continued ice build-up with the back and forth movement of the water.
 "Too much wind would prevent the ball from forming. On the other hand, if it’s calm, [the water] would just freeze on the beach in an even layer," Vainio continued.
 Mattila’s encounter with the ice eggs was serendipitous, because they are usually only discernible for a short time. Regular shoreline conditions such as a high wind can easily cause them to accumulate into a large deposit of ice in which the individual eggs would no longer be visible.

Beached "ice eggs" astound strollers on Finnish island


Summary: Regional authorities are reviewing over 40 grievances filed in October, according to Yle's investigative programme MOT.

Complaints regarding residential mental health rehabilitation services have increased significantly this year, with regional administrative authorities grappling with more than 40 allegations of negligence in October alone.
 Reports of irregularities touched on inadequate staffing, lapses in medical care, problems with work routines and leadership and even endangerment of patient safety.
 Currently about 8,000 clients in Finland use in-house mental health rehabilitation services. Customers generally have serious mental health problems such as depression and schizophrenia.
 The residential services are supervised by regional administrative authorities (AVI) and the National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health, Valvira.
 Yle’s investigative programme MOT reviewed the current situation with regard to residential mental health rehabilitation services and found that addressing reported irregularities often takes a long time, while the investigating problems could take up to two years.
 "Respect for the decisions of the oversight authorities is not like it was before. Improvements are not implemented as quickly as in the past. We officials have been told outright lies about these things," Valvira senior inspector  Lilli Autti  commented.
 Inadequate personnel, lapses in care
 Psychiatrists working with the regional administrative authority have also had to deal with falsehoods.
 "A service provider might claim that they do not use personnel who are insufficiently trained. Then the next thing you know, a person who has no training whatsoever to work in a medical care facility is participating in medical care on the orders of the company or person in charge," regional administrative authority chief medical officer  Marja Kuronen  noted.
 Among the 40-odd reports lodged with regional administrative authorities, complaints focused on inadequate staffing as well as an "institutional" environment. In addition, complaints mentioned shortcomings in customers’ right to self-determination as well as problems with working routines and leadership. The worst cases even posed a danger to patient safety.
 "For example, people were not sent for follow-up examinations after serious illnesses, but were instead given inappropriate medication. Only when a situation had already gone on for a long time did other health care staff realise that an evaluation by a specialist physician at a university hospital was required," Kuronen recounted.
 Market controlled by health care giants
 Finland’s residential services market currently has about 250 service providers, with about 500 residential units. During recent years major providers Attendo, Esperi and Mehiläinen have snapped up smaller firms to cement their hold on the market. Among them, they control some 40 percent of residential units and more than half of customer places.
 Customers pay rent for their residential places, however this does not include meals and other forms of care. Providers are required to draw up a personal rehabilitation plan for each resident, the aim of which is to help them to learn to manage day-to-day matters independently.
 However due to staff shortages, many institutions become no more than a storage facility for mental health patients, MOT found.
 "Financial criteria are IN, mental health rehabilitation OUT"
 Social scientist  Markku Salo  has studied residential services for mental health rehabilitation patients. He said that some of the irregularities in care are the result of the concentration of services in the sector.
 "Financial principles determine what happens in residential services. You could say that financial criteria are IN and mental health rehabilitation is OUT," Salo added.
 Supervisory authorities also told MOT that they had noticed a change in focus.
 "After buyouts there have been efforts to scale back staff, reduce support services and outsource meal services. Over time these changes affect many [other] things," chief medical officer Kuronen observed.
 Relatives wary of flagging problems
 Supervisory actions by Valvira and regional administrative authorities have long been based on reports of irregularities. In the past only a few such issues have been raised because of the shame that still shrouded mental health problems.
 Mental health rehabilitation patients have few advocates. In some cases residents of care facilities are so ill that they cannot speak up for themselves. Meanwhile the fear of retribution may prevent relatives from flagging problems.
 However complaints about perceived misdeeds began to flood in last spring, after a number of instances of  mismanagement and negligence in elder care  began receiving heavy media coverage.
  Municipalities indifferent about service
 Local governments are responsible for procuring residential mental health rehabilitation services. In such cases, they assume a conflicting dual role as both service provider and supervisor. This sometimes leads to a situation in which oversight does not work effectively.
 "A municipality may even know about a problem, but will still place a patient in a unit for financial reasons and because it cannot offer an alternative," Valvira senior inspector Autti noted.
 According to regional administrative authority chief medical officer Kuronen municipalities are indifferent about services for mental health rehabilitation patients.
 "Municipalities have great difficulty understanding the needs of this group of people because they don’t have the expertise. One director of social services has even said that their tendering process assigns a weighting of two-thirds to price and one-third to quality. But because they don’t know anything about the quality it’s all about the price. This shouldn’t be the case. You must understand what you are buying," Kuronen declared.

MOT: Rise in complaints at mental health rehabilitation units


Summary: Entrepreneurs wonder if a flight tax will weaken the Lapland tourism sector's ability to compete.

Lapland tourism players are divided over a proposal to mitigate carbon emissions by introducing a flight tax. On Thursday,  a citizens’ initiative aimed at implementing a tax  passed the 50,000-signature threshold required for lawmakers to consider it. It notes that a similar scheme already in place in neighbouring Sweden adds between six and 40 euros to most airfares.
 The levy proposed in the initiative would be borne by passengers, effectively making airline tickets more expensive. The tourism industry in Lapland relies heavily on overseas visitors making the trip to the far north, so there have been mixed feelings about the proposed tax.
 One of the operators opposing the tax is  Ari Vuorentausta , CEO of Lapland’s largest hotel chain, Lapland Hotels. Vuorentausta said that the measure would have an extremely damaging impact on tourism in the region. He said he was afraid that the tax would weaken the position of Lapland tourism in relation to its competitors.
 "A flight tax would be very unfortunate given that we are [located] at the far end of Finland and flying is in practice the only option for getting here. The tourism industry doesn’t need any extra costs and they are certainly unsustainable in relation to competitor countries," Vuorentausta noted.
 Airlines, plane manufacturers looking for solutions
 The tourism industry in Lapland has seen rapid growth in recent years. Last year there were three million overnight stays, a record for the industry.
 Vuorentausta also questioned whether or not a tax on air travel would be an effective option for mitigating climate change. He urged people to wait for airlines and plane manufacturers to come up with new solutions to reduce emissions.
 "It’s good that airlines have woken up and are looking for solutions and airplane manufacturers are also looking for lower-emissions traffic," he added.
 Levi tourism entrepreneur  Päivikki Palosaari  said she supports the idea of a flight tax, adding that she does not believe that it would influence visitor traffic to Lapland or Levi. She pointed to Sweden, where a similar tax has not affected tourism.
 Apart from Sweden, Britain, France and Germany have also implemented a levy on flying. However in Finland, passengers currently do not pay a surcharge on airline fuel -- rather they pay a value added tax on domestic flights.
 Palosaari said she was taken aback to hear that airlines do not pay taxes in the fuel used in planes.
 Business in Lapland would suffer
 Lapland chamber of commerce head  Timo Rautajoki  said he does not support the proposed tax in the manner proposed in the citizens’ initiative. Rather, he said that a possible levy should be decided at the European level, adding that a flight tax would be detrimental to business in Lapland.
 "For example it’s not sensible to go to the capital region other than by flying because rail transportation has not been developed and there’s a proposal to increase fuel prices," Rautajoki noted.
 Business leaders in Kemi have also been pondering the possible benefit of a flight tax. The city now has a year-round snow castle designed to attract visitors.
 Susanna Koutonen , CEO of the Kemi tourist board, said she is doubtful about any benefits. She added that she is concerned that a possible tax would make internal connection flights in Finland even pricier.
 "I am sympathetic to green values, but the travel industry and all other forms of transportation are already highly taxed. Why would we need another tax if airlines are already upgrading their fleets?” she queried.
 On the other hand, she wondered how many Finns may have stopped travelling to Greece, where an accommodation tax is in place.

Lapland tourism industry divided over flight tax proposal


Summary: The First Lady becomes embroiled in a war of words with farmers over the welfare of Finland's farm animals.

Many papers carry reports of hate speech directed at employees of Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), particularly in relation to how the institute is managing Finland’s wolf population.
 Turku daily Turun Sanomat writes that  Luke staff have been accused  of lying, deliberately misrepresenting research results, relocating wolves, and "other conspiracies". The institute has even been referred to as a terrorist organisation, according to the paper.
 Sami Niemi , Advisory Officer at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, tells TS that although hate speech directed against Luke employees is not a new phenomenon as such, it has been particularly accelerated by social media.
 "There are also email campaigns, phone calls, crime reports and complaints to police," Niemi says. "One of the most repeated mantras is distrust of Luke. It seems like that almost goes without saying."
 Oulu daily Kaleva, which also carries the story, reports that these incidents of hate speech occur offline as well as online. Luke representatives are often subjected to intimidation whilst carrying out their duties, such as having their cars followed, the paper reports.
 Luke research professor  Ilpo Kojola  tells Kaleva that  the current situation is "worrying"  and is making the task of managing Finland’s wolf population more difficult. Kojola notes that individual employees are merely performing the duties assigned to them, usually by the ministry.
 "The criticisms seem very harsh," Kojola tells Kaleva. "Especially when it gets personal."
 The placebo effect?
 As the flu season begins to kick in, tabloid Iltalehti takes a  close look at the effects, non-effects and side-effects  of many over-the-counter and prescription medicines available at Finnish pharmacies. IL also provides some tips and warnings on which medicines to choose - and which to stay away from - if you are feeling under the weather.
 Vesa Mustalammi , Chief Medical Officer at Finnish Medicines Agency FIMEA, tells the tabloid that there are question marks over just how effective many over-the-counter medicines can be, but people are just in the habit of using them.
 "The primary problem with many of these drugs is the lack of reliable, current scientific information: there is no definitive information on efficacy," Mustalammi says.
 As an example, IL writes that many cough medicines are not recommended for the treatment of coughs, as they have been shown to be both ineffective and in some cases even potentially harmful.
 So why, Iltalehti wants to know, do pharmacies continue to stock and sell medicines that have been shown to have no effect at all?
 According to Mustalammi, the requirements to get a pharmaceutical product onto the shelves and sold over the counter in the past were not as stringent as they are today. However, many products are still popular even if they have little to no effect.
 "Unless there are significant safety risks, it is difficult to return a drug previously approved for self-care to [the status of] a prescription drug," Mustalammi tells IL.
 Farmer's beef with the First Lady
 Tabloid Ilta-Sanomat reports on the  response by Finland’s meat industry  to comments made by the President’s wife,  Jenni Haukio , when she collected an award at an Animal Welfare Gala in Helsinki last Friday.
 The tabloid details how Finland’s First Lady told the audience in her acceptance speech that over 70 million farm animals die every year in Finland, yet every one of them would have wanted to live.
 However, meat producer  Pasi Ingalsuo  tells IL that he is amazed by Haukio's statement, as the welfare of farmed animals in Finland is given great attention and the production process is closely monitored.
 "Animals only thrive with good care. We live from production, so animal welfare is our lifeline," Ingalsuo, a cattle breeder from Kokkola, tells the tabloid. "Everyone has the right to an opinion, but I would like to have factual views."

Tuesday’s papers: Wolf-related hate speech, ineffective medicines, Farmers vs First Lady


Summary: The court says it will dismiss the case if the elusive businessman does not show up for the hearing.

The Turku Court of Appeal has called on the businessman appealing a multimillion-euro damages ruling to appear in court for the start of the hearing, which began on Tuesday.
 Markku Ritaluoma , the man behind  an ambitious but failed plan to build Europe’s largest auto showroom  in Hämeenlinna, is appealing a lower court ruling ordering him to return 6.2 million euros from the bankruptcy estate of the failed Sunny Car Center.
 However the appeal court in Turku wants the former CEO of the infamous enterprise to appear for the hearing in person, according to local paper Hämeen Sanomat. Ritaluoma participated in previous hearings remotely from the United States.
 The appeal court has said however, that the scale of the case is so extensive that Ritaluoma must physically attend the hearing. Court documents detail 35 separate financial transactions over a period of several years, amounting to the 6.2 million euros that Ritaluoma allegedly pocketed and was ordered to repay. The main hearing in the lower court lasted exceptionally long for such a matter – a total of six days plus three additional reserve days.
 The appellate court said that the case turns on Ritaluoma’s actions and noted that he is the only one who can explain them. Additionally during a lower court hearing, the Skype connection in use was unreliable due to technical problems. As a result the Turku court said that Ritaluoma should participate in the main hearing or face the possibility of having his appeal dismissed in his absence.
 For his part Ritaluoma has told the appeal court that he will not appear in person for the hearing. However his legal counsel has said that there is no legal reason why his client should not attend.
 A long-running scandal
 Sunny Car Center went bankrupt in autumn 2015, following which  investors have attempted to recover their funds  from the bankruptcy estate.
 Ritaluoma as well as the former board member of the showroom venture and ex-Hämeenlinna city council chair,  Iisakki Kiemunki , appealed the sentences handed down to them by the Häme District Court in April 2018. At the time, the court ordered Ritaluoma to repay the missing 6.2 million euros to the bankruptcy estate and Kiemunki was called upon to pay 350,000 euros in damages.
 The complainant in the case against Kiemunki and Ritaluoma was the Sunny Car Center bankruptcy estate. It claimed that Ritaluoma had taken the money, so it was no longer available to creditors. Kiemunki was found guilty of being negligent and passive during his tenure as Sunny Car Center board chair and thereby facilitating the withdrawal of the funds.
 Both men denied the allegations made by the bankruptcy estate. In addition to the damages cases, the public administrator assigned to the venture’s bankruptcy estate filed a criminal complaint over millions of euros that went missing from the company. An investigation began in 2017, with authorities considering charges of aggravated debtor fraud and aggravated accounting offences.

Elusive businessman ordered to appear in multimillion-euro car dealership case


Summary: Paper giant UPM aims to cut costs and capacity in the face of declining demand for printing paper.

Forest products firm UPM has confirmed that it is permanently shutting down one of the three production lines at its Rauma paper mill, making 179 employees jobless. At the same time, the company is cutting 41 service centre positions in Tampere, moving their jobs to lower-cost Poland.
 UPM  announced in September  that it planned to decommission the massive paper machine, which has been in service since 1971, two years after the mill opened. It will be unplugged on Wednesday following the end of redundancy talks.
 Of the 179 people handed pink slips, 159 were permanent and 20 temporary employees. They represent roughly a quarter of UPM's staff in Rauma, which now includes 520 permanent workers.
 "We have focused on finding socially acceptable solutions for the employees affected with the clear intention to diminish the impact of this closure,” says  Anu Ahola , Senior Vice President at UPM Communication Papers, who adds that "the consultation process was fair, open and constructive at all times".
 Less demand for magazine paper
 The firm blames the shutdown on declining demand for graphic paper as more customers read periodicals in electronic form. The move will slash UPM's capacity for SC magazine paper production by 265,000 tons annually.
 On Tuesday UPM also announced that it is closing a service centre in Tampere, moving operations to a new centre being set up in Wrocław, western Poland.
 The 41 employees made redundant in Pirkanmaa are being offered the opportunity to move to Poland next year. UPM has more than 900 workers in Tampere.

UPM cuts 220 jobs in Rauma and Tampere


Summary: Mehiläinen's buyout of Pihlajalinna raises a number of questions for both clients and municipalities.

A researcher at the University of Tampere has warned of risks to Finland's private healthcare industry as Mehiläinen on Tuesday announced plans to buy out its rival Pihlajalinna in a deal worth an estimated 360 million euros.
 The merged company would employ nearly 25,000 people and could potentially become the largest private healthcare company in the Nordic region if the deal is given the green light by Finland's competition authority.
 However, health and social policyresearcher  Liina-Kaisa Tynkkynen  of Tampere University warns both clients and municipalities that there may be potential risks arising from the proposed deal.
 "Giants' bargaining power becoming unbalanced"
 In particular, municipalities that outsource their services to private operators might find their bargaining power diminishing.
 "The giants are starting to get so big that the bargaining power, especially of small municipalities, is starting to become unbalanced," Tynkkynen told Yle. "On a large scale, I see more systemic risks than opportunities."
 Private healthcare providers already provide a large share of Finnish nursing and occupational health services. This further concentration would reduce competition within the market and subsequently the choice on offer to customers and employees.
 "If there are two powerful players, it affects how they can influence prices or price increases. Of course, it can also begin to influence what is an incentive to provide good or quality service," she said.
 Last year, Terveystalo said it was on course to become the biggest player in the private healthcare market in Finland when it acquired rival Attendo's health services. Mehiläinen and Pihlajalinna are slightly larger in terms of number of employees and turnover than Terveystalo before the merger, but two fairly strong companies are emerging in Finland.
 One fifth of private sector social services
 The founder of Pihlajalinna, board chair  Mikko Wirén , explained the decision to sell by saying that the deal would come at a good time for the company to grow. Wirén considered the deal to be a unique opportunity as the companies have very few overlapping functions.
 Mehiläinen CEO  Janne-Olli Järvenpää  believes the deal will boost Mehiläinen's international growth, especially in digital services, as the company continues to grow in size. Järvenpää even suggested the deal could lead to a new health export sector for Finland.
 The net sales of the new company are estimated at 1.4 billion euros, which would represent about 1.7 percent of the Finnish social services sector. Approximately one fifth of the private sector social services would be provided.
 The first phase of the competition authority's review is expected to take a few months. The deal is likely to be completed at its earliest in March next year, but no later than the fourth quarter of 2020.

Researcher sees risks as healthcare giants merge


Summary: As many as 100 employees of the national carrier are suspected of inappropriate use of the in-flight service.

National airline Finnair has dismissed employees believed to have illicitly used passenger codes to access the internet during flights, Finnair communications team has told news agency STT.
 Jari Toivonen , chair of the Finnish Cabin Crew Association, SLSY, has said that he is aware of the issue.
 He added that he had no information about the number of employees who had been let go. He noted that Finnair had already informed personnel that it would continue to look into the matter during the course of this week.
 Finnair also told STT in an email that it would not comment on the number of staffers who were given the boot.
 Up to 100 employees under suspicion
 The company suspects that up to 100 employees used Wi-Fi login credentials assigned to customers without permission, resulting in a situation where passengers themselves could not use their access codes.
 In such cases customers were given new logins so they could use the in-flight service. The abuse of the system came to light as the company investigated an individual case.
 A few weeks ago, Finnair director of communications and corporate responsibility  Arja Suominen  told STT that no data security breaches had occurred as a result of inappropriate use of the Wi-Fi service.
 Tabloid daily Iltalehti first reported on the employee terminations.

Finnair sacks employees for using customer logins to access Wi-Fi


Summary: Finnish research finds the lingonberry can counteract many serious ailments caused by low-grade inflammatory conditions.

Lingonberries can have significant health benefits and counteract many problems caused by being overweight, according to a recent study by the University of Tampere, which looked at the impact of the boreal forest fruit on obesity and low-grade inflammatory conditions in the body.
 Although the health effects of many berries found in Finnish forests are well documented, the tart red lingonberry is one of the least studied berries.
 Professor  Eeva Moilanen , who led the research at the University of Tampere, told Yle the results are very promising, and supported the findings of similar studies conducted in Sweden.
 In the study conducted at the University of Tampere, mice were fed a diet high in saturated fat to correspond to a typically unhealthy human diet. The diet caused the mice to develop a metabolic syndrome of conditions, with weight gain and increased visceral fat. The levels of blood sugar, insulin and cholesterol also increased, and the mice developed low-grade inflammatory conditions.
 A separate group of mice was given lingonberry powder in the feed, which was discovered to prevent the harmful effects of the high saturated fat diet on cholesterol and sugar levels.
 The inflammatory values, obesity hormone levels, and hepatic metabolic changes of the lingonberry-fed mice were also lower.
 At this stage of the research, it is unclear what aspect of the lingonberry caused the health effects observed in the study, Moilanen explains, but it may be a single compound or a combination of several factors.
 Lingonberry research spreading to other industries
 Scientific research on the lingonberry has increased in Finland in recent years, and the results of previous studies have piqued interest -- especially in the commercial sector.
 In Kajaani, for example, research cooperation is currently underway between the Measurement Technology Unit of the University of Oulu and Finland's berry companies. One of the goals of this research is to find ways in which the berry can be further processed.
 Story continues after photo
 Many natural products, such as the blueberries in this picture, are studied at the Measurement Technology Unit of the University of Oulu in Kajaani. Elisa Kinnunen / Yle
 The interest in the lingonberry has also led to cooperation in the field of cosmetics, and the patent for making berry concentrate developed at Kajaani University Centre has already been sold to a cosmetics company.
 Mari Jaakkola , a researcher at the University of Oulu, explained that the health effects of the berry compounds used in cosmetics have been carefully researched, and is not just about marketing magic.
 "Consumers are very careful about what is used in cosmetics and how the ingredients work. With cosmetics companies, I have noticed that the research has only continued with active compounds," Jaakkola said.
 Is the Finnish lingonberry healthier?
 The anti-inflammatory properties of lingonberries may also help in the treatment of other diseases, according to Professor Moilanen, as the research results suggest lingonberry compounds could help with rheumatism and other inflammatory diseases of the body.
 Moilanen further speculates that berries and other natural products found in the Arctic may contain more health benefits than those grown further south, as the environmental conditions -- such as abundant summer light and low temperatures -- can affect the berries' phenolic compound.
 However, more research into the effects of the lingonberry will be required before the health benefits of the product can be marketed, as EU guidelines demand further evidence before a product's packaging can contain such information.

Study: Lingonberries can fight obesity


Summary: The grey seal population has grown by an average of five percent annually since the turn of the millennium.

More than 38,000 grey seals have been observed in the Baltic Sea this year, the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) said on Tuesday. Previous counts have suggested that the number has levelled off at around 30,000 in recent years. Less than half of the animals, some 14,200, are in Finnish territorial waters.
 Grey seals ( Halichoerus grypus ) can typically be seen on remote rock skerries in late May and early June, when they shed part of their winter fur. At this point most of them can be photographed from the air. In Finland the species is primarily seen in late spring on the outer islets of the southwestern Archipelago, around the same time as in maritime areas off central Sweden and western Estonia.
 The Baltic Sea's grey seal population has grown by an average of about five percent annually since the early 2000s. In recent years the growth has been most brisk in the southern Baltic, mostly due to seals moving there from other areas. Biologists note that the larger number of seals counted last spring may be partly due to better-than-usual conditions during the census period.
 Fluctuations linked to ice conditions
 The number of Baltic ringed seals ( Pusa hispida botnica ) counted in the Bothnian Bay has fluctuated in recent years.
 This year 12,800 Baltic ringed seals were detected in the Bothnian Bay, up from about 9,900 last year. In 2017 though the number was 13,600.
 Luke researchers say that these differences are attributable to ice conditions, which have varied sharply over the past six years. Larger groups of ringed seals are seen in years when the ice has begun to break up before the census. In these years the overall count is significantly higher than when the ice is still intact at census time.
 There are at least five subspecies of ringed seals, including the Baltic ringed seal, classified as a vulnerable species, and the endangered Saimaa ringed seal ( Pusa hispida saimensis ), which is endemic to eastern Finland's lake district. The latter population  recently surpassed 400 , but its future still remains in doubt.

Seal population on the rise in Baltic Sea