Summary: A fresh newspaper poll shows Social Democratic Prime Minister Sanna Marin is holding on to the top spot in party leader popularity.

Recent  minor media storms  surrounding Prime Minister  Sanna Marin  (SDP) do not seem to have significantly affected her popularity.
 According to  a fresh poll  commissioned by the Uutissuomalainen newspaper group, Marin continues to be by far the highest ranked party leader among the general public.
 In the survey of 1,000 voters, 22 percent named Marin as the most successful political party chair. A similar poll in March, gave her 25 percent.
 Left Alliance leader  Li Andersson  came in second, being viewed by 10 percent as doing the best job.
 Riikka Purra  of the Finns Party and  Petteri Orpo  of the National Coalition Party each polled 9 percent.
 Three-quarters of SDP supporters said they consider Marin the most successful party leader in the country.
 "Marin is still remarkably popular both among all respondents and especially among supporters of her own party. She has succeeded quite well in avoiding the erosion of popularity that holding the prime minister's post entails,"  Markku Jokisipilä , Director of the Centre for Parliamentary Research at the University of Turku, told the Uutissuomalainen group.
 Meatless or milkless?
 Another minor storm has been blowing through the Finnish media following an announcement by the City of Helsinki on Tuesday that from now on,  meat products will not be served  at events organised by public administration.
 The Swedish-language daily  Hufvudstadsbladet  tells its readers that the ban on meat is mostly a symbolic gesture, and what will be mainly missing is milk.
 Johanna af Hällström , who is a team leader at Helsinki's Urban Environment Division, told the paper that since the hospitality at most city events consists of coffee and snacks, the milk offered for use in coffee has a bigger climate impact than meat does.
 So, it seems the biggest change is that milk will be replaced by an oat-based substitute creamer.
 The farmers' union daily Maaseudun Tulevaisuus points out that Helsinki's decision to eliminate meat contains a loophole. Top city officials will still be allowed to offer game at meals for visiting dignitaries. Also, in these cases, the traditional fermented milk drink known as "piimä" in Finnish will also be allowed.
 The paper was critical of the new policy for not requiring that fruits and vegetables served at City of Helsinki events be of domestic origin.
 More electric cars
 The economic and business daily  Kauppalehti reports  that registrations of all-electric cars has shown a sharp upswing in Finland this year.
 In December 2020, 9,673 fully electric cars were on the road in Finland. By the end of September, that number had almost doubled to over 18,000.
 The paper does point out, however, that while popularity is growing, there are issues related to electric cars preventing a real breakthrough.
 The biggest concerns are related to operational distances and the availability of charging points.
 A survey of over 2,000 drivers found men more inclined to buy an electric car than women, and also found that the idea is most popular in Uusimaa and the Helsinki metropolitan area, where nearly half said they could consider a fully electric car for their next personal vehicle.
 Cold and slippery
 The tabloid  Ilta-Sanomat  reports signs that winter may be just around the corner, with colder temperatures in the forecast as we move into the weekend.
 Roads are likely  to become slipper y nationwide, and Foreca meteorologist  Joanna Rinne  advises motorists to be prepared for poor driving conditions all the way down to the southernmost parts of the country.

Thursday's papers: Marin retains popularity, meatless Helsinki, slippery roads


Summary: Health officials want to ensure care staff are vaccinated.

Finnish health officials want to bring in Covid pass rules for staff in care homes to ensure they're vaccinated, but the proposal could face legal hurdles.
 The National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) presented its proposal for temporary Covid pass rules to be brought in for care staff, to ensure they present less of a risk to their colleagues or those under their care.
 The rules could be brought in for the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic under existing laws on infectious diseases, according to THL.
 Earlier this week the Helsinki region's Covid steering group had asked for mandatory vaccination of care workers.
 Finland's Social Affairs and Health Ministry, however, says the THL proposal needs to be evaluated by legal experts.
 The ministry said in a press statement that the THL proposal takes a broad stand on issues that must be balanced against the rights of care staff themselves. The ministry said there could be problems around discrimination and equality as well as protection of private and personal data.
 Some workers, the ministry notes, are unable to get the vaccination for health reasons.
 Among health and social care workers in Finland, the lowest rates of vaccination coverage are seen among nurses who care for the elderly in assisted living facilities.
 Overall more than 90 percent of healthcare workers have received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine, and more than 80 percent are fully vaccinated with two doses.

THL wants Covid pass for nurses and care staff, ministry cool on idea


Summary: Some 15 young men were convicted of assaulting a minor.

Helsinki District court has convicted 15 defendants of assaulting a youth in the Pikku Huopalahti neighbourhood of Helsinki.
 The assault took place on 27 March this year. Several of those convicted received eight-month conditional jail sentences, while the majority were fined for their involvement.
 One man was given a month's jail term, because at the time of the assault he was serving a previous conditional sentence.
 The group included at least five men who had gathered at the Jumbo shopping centre in Vantaa to procure baseball bats and single-use gloves before the attack.
 The prosecutor had asked for all the defendants to be given unconditional jail terms for aggravated assault and aggravated robbery.
 The court ruled that it was not an aggravated assault, because the blows did not strike the 16-year-old victim's head, and there was no evidence the baseball bats had been used.

15 convicted over Helsinki assault


Summary: The app is available in all major app stores.

Finland is to notify users of the 112 emergency services mobile application about major data security threats and disruptions.
 The app enables those who have downloaded it to call for help and automatically transmit their location to first responders. Authorities can also use it to send warnings and information to users.
 In the case of cybersecurity disruptions and threats, the National Cyber Security Centre, a unit under the Transport and Communications Agency Traficom, will decide when to send alerts.
 According to Traficom, it's important to send alerts about data security disruptions and situations across multiple channels because most people in Finland use electronic services and devices connected to the internet in their everyday life.
 "The 112 Suomi app works as a new communications channel for private individuals," said  Sauli Pahlman  of the Cyber Security Centre. "The mobile phone is an excellent tool for this."
 The app currently has some 1.9 million users.

Finland to warn of cyber security threats via 112 app


Summary: The commission will assess historical and current discrimination against the Sámi people, including the role of the Finnish state.

The government of Prime Minister  Sanna Marin  (SDP) has appointed a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to examine historical injustices suffered by Finland's indigenous Sámi people.
 The commission's task is to identify and assess historical and current discrimination against the Sámi people, including the Finnish state's assimilation policy and violations of the indigenous community's rights.
 Another purpose of the commission will be to investigate how these injustices affect the Sámi people and their communities today, and also propose how links between the Finnish state and the Sámi people can be strengthened.
 "The commission's work is important because we need to look very transparently at what has happened in Finland's history, how the Sámi have been treated in Finland and what kind of treatment they still face in this country," PM Marin said at a press conference announcing the five members of the commission.
 "Only by understanding what the Sámi have experienced can we truly find solutions for the future," Marin added.
 Report due in November 2023
 The process of establishing the commission began in 2017, when then Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä  (Cen) entered into an agreement with the Sámi Parliament, and his government  set aside  200,000 euros in that year's supplementary budget to fund the creation of the commission.
 The current administration then included the establishment of the commission in its programme for government.
 Five members have been appointed to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, with  Heikki J. Hyvärinen  and  Miina Seurujärvi  appointed by the Sámi Parliament,  Kari Mäkinen  and  Hannele Pokka  by the Finnish state and  Irja Jefremoff  by the Skolt Sámi Siida Council.
 The commission's report is due to be submitted to the government, the Sámi Parliament and the Skolt Sámi Siida Council by 30 November 2023.
 Anni-Kristiina Juuso , who  compiled an extensive report  into Sámi people's views on the proposed truth and reconciliation process in 2018, welcomed the establishment of the commission.
 "Truth and Reconciliation Commissions are important tools for finding out what has happened, so that we can then ask why it has happened and finally think about how we can ensure that this does not happen again," Juuso told Yle.

Finland appoints Sámi reconciliation commission to investigate indigenous injustices


Summary: An Instagram reel of a surfer on an efoil board skimming across a Lapland river has so far been viewed nearly 32 million times.

A  video  published on Instagram by Rovaniemi-based photographer  Toni Eskelinen  of a surfer on an electric -- or efoil -- board skimming across a Lapland river has become one of the platform's most popular Finnish reels of 2021.
 The video — produced by Eskelinen and fellow photographer  Samuli Rosenberg  and featuring  Jaakko Tossavainen  on the efoil surfboard — has so far been viewed nearly 32 million times.
 Eskelinen told Yle that the trio have been overwhelmed by the popularity of the video.
 "I would not have thought that such a social media phenomenon would still be possible in 2021. Yes, it's difficult to comprehend," he said.
 Instagram introduced reels — short video clips — to the platform last year in order to compete with the hugely popular TikTok video-sharing service.
 Instagram therefore tries to turn the most popular reels into viral hits, according to  Katarina Laaksonen , a digital marketing specialist with the Oulu-based marketing agency Kuulu.
 "But more than 30 million global views is a huge figure," Laaksonen said.
 Viral hit recipe: beautiful, different and striking
 The most popular reels on Instagram can reach hundreds of millions of people.
 For example, some of  Khaby Lame 's  reels  — in which he wordlessly responds to 'life hack' videos — have garnered up to 280 million views.
 According to Laaksonen, reels go viral when they have a striking quality but are also easy to understand — both of which are the case in Eskelinen's surfer reel, especially as it is not dependent on understanding a certain language.
 "The viral video must be different from the other videos that are already on the platform, or very beautiful or funny, for example. This works especially well in tourism marketing, where one can provide a glimpse of specific natural conditions or cultures," Laaksonen said.
 Instagram becoming increasingly popular in tourism marketing
 The surfer reel has been shared by many popular accounts on Instagram, including 9GAG, which has 65 million followers, as well as many tourism-related accounts with large followings.
 Social media is a very important channel for photographers to market their own work, Eskelinen said.
 "A lot of work has gone into making the video really take off. I have tried to remember to thank everyone with whom I have been able to cooperate," he said.
 Eskelinen often collaborates with the travel marketing company Visit Rovaniemi, but the surfer reel was initially produced without a commission. The photographer said the main idea behind the reel was to showcase the "best of Lapland" in the hope of attracting more tourists to the area.
 Instagram has become an increasingly important tool for tourism marketing, Laaksonen pointed out, as the industry also invests in influencers.
 "Certainly the attention received by this reel will have a positive impact on tourism in Lapland. I would even say that this is the kind of advertising that money can't buy," she added.

Watch: Lapland electric surfer becomes viral Instagram hit


Summary: A 2019 European Parliament vote to end the practice of changing clocks every March and October has stalled in the EU Council of Ministers.

Clocks in Finland will move back one hour on Sunday night, for what was meant to be the last time.
 In 2019, the European Parliament  voted by a clear majority  of 410-192 to end the practice of Daylight Saving Time permanently from 2021.
 The process then moved to the EU Council of Ministers, where a final decision is still pending.
 "The EU Council has 27 member states, each with their own internal discussions and reports. There are no concrete positions as yet on whether the practice of changing clocks will end,"  Maria Rautavirta  from Finland's Ministry of Transport and Communications told Yle, adding that the Covid pandemic has slowed progress even further.
 "Certainly it has affected the kind of issues that are raised on the agenda in the negotiations. All urgent matters have been prioritised and others have been moved to wait for slightly less busy times," she said.
 Although Finnish authorities are in favour of ending the practice, other EU member states are not so keen. Rautavirta pointed out that the EU Council has not discussed the issue since Finland's six-month stint as president of the Council of the European Union in 2019.
 Opinions on the issue are divided, both between and within member states, and Rautavirta added that not all nations see the changing of clocks to be either necessary or topical.
 "No country has taken the debate forward. At the moment, there is no prospect of an EU Presidency for which the issue is so important that it would be put on the agenda," the ministry official said.
 Summer time or winter time?
 The biannual practice of changing clocks — forward in spring and back in autumn — has been uniformly regulated throughout the EU since 2002, and was already widely practiced prior to that.
 Finland has followed the custom since 1981, and was the last of the European countries to do so.
 Clocks are changed in all EU member states on the same day and at the same time, to avoid any confusion regarding international train and air traffic, for example. The changes are always made on the last Sunday of March and of October.
 If the practice does end, each EU member state will be free to choose which time zone it wishes to belong to, meaning Finland's government would need to decide whether to propose adopting either summer or winter time as the official, permanent standard.
 The matter would then ultimately be decided by a vote in Parliament.
 According to Yle's information, the government would be likely to collect the opinions of experts in the field, as well as those of the public. The Ministry of Justice conducted a survey into people's preferences in 2018, where a small majority were found to be in favour of making winter time permanent.
 Separately, a  citizens' initiative  in 2019 that called for the government to permanently change to summer time received over 50,000 signatures.
 However, according to Rautavirta, the decision will be influenced by many different factors.
 "We consider it important to look at how our neighbouring countries intend to proceed," she said, adding that the proposal is unlikely to advance in the EU's Council of Ministers until at least next year.
 This means that the practice of changing clocks back and forth is set to remain for a few more years, at least.

Clocks go back as Covid crisis delays EU decision


Summary: Today one in five Finnish reindeer herders is under 25, with the share of women herders growing.

More young women in Finland's far north are taking up reindeer herding, according to the Reindeer Herders' Association.
 Ida Wessman , 28,bought her family's herd of reindeer after her father passed away five years ago.
 "It's been going pretty well. With this industry is you've got high points and low points," Wessman said, alluding to  severe 2019-2020 weather  that killed 15,000 of the animals.
 Some 100,000 reindeer are slaughtered in a typical year, but last autumn this number was just half of that at 50,000, owing to unusually heavy snowfall which hampered grazing.
 Climate concerns
 Weather patterns and vegetation changes are affecting reindeer populations.
 That said, Finland's new generation of herders is increasingly concerned about how climate change will impact this traditional livelihood. In addition to bumper snow seasons affecting beasts' ability to dig through the snow to access lichen, recent years have also seen unpredictable mushroom seasons, also impacting herd survival.
 Young herders are also experiencing social scrutiny their parents didn't face in regard to animal welfare. A University of Umeå  study  found that one in three herders aged 18-to-29 in Sweden had contemplated suicide owing to various pressures, such as income insecurity, minority status and herd loss to predators.
 "I don't feel the outside pressure, especially in regard to how I handle the animals. Everyone tries to cause as little stress to the animals as possible. It can of course look brutal to outsiders," Wessman said.
 The Swedish study's findings has also prompted Finnish researchers to examine herder welfare.
 "Reindeer herders don't, for example, have access to occupational healthcare. Now that many things in the world are changing, it's probably a good thing to find out how the herders are doing," explained  Arja Rautio , a professor specialised in Arctic health at the University of Oulu.
 Finland is home to some 1,000 herders under the age of 25. All in all Finland has some 4,500 herders and 200,000 reindeer.
 "I believe young people will continue to see reindeer herding as a source of livelihood. It plays a central role in remote areas like this," said  Mika Kavakka , head of Finland's largest reindeer herding cooperative, Kemi-Sompio.
 Kavakka said women herders carry out all of the same duties as men, such as rounding up the reindeer and earmarking the youngest members of the herd.
 Wessman said she has felt she's on equal footing with her male counterparts.
 "Young women are taken just as seriously as young men entering the industry," she said.
 But when it comes to having a baby, women herders are only entitled to 200 hours of stand-in support, a social subsidy available to agricultural entrepreneurs.
 Tuomas Aslak Juuso,  President of the Sámi Parliament in Finland, told Yle that the group is currently in talks with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health to remedy the lack of maternity support for women herders.

Climate change worries Finland's young reindeer herders


Summary: The Swedish-language daily said that municipalities had agreed not to compete on pay.

Municipalities in Eastern Uusimaa agreed not to compete on pay for social workers, according to a report from the Swedish-language daily Hufvudstadsbladet.
 "We have discussed pay and how we can ensure they are at the same level so that wages are not a reason to change employers," the paper reports  Ann-Sofie Silvennoinen , who heads up health and social care in Porvoo, as saying.
 The Talentia trade union says the deal amounts to a 'pay cartel'.
 Sunday's HBL reports the union suspects that the agreement not to increase salaries was valid until the transition to new "wellbeing services counties", which are regional bodies that will take control of health and social care services in 2022.
 Elections to new assemblies to run these regional authorities are scheduled to take place in January.
 "At the same time as municipalities are making a lot of noise about a shortage of social workers, we have a large number of municipalities that are suspected of operating a social care worker pay cartel," said Talentia chair Jenni Karsio in a press release.
 "I'm stunned, although we have heard rumours about these cartels."
 Talentia says deals like this limit the free movement of labour. If there is evidence of an agreement not to compåete on pay, Talentia says it will take legal advice on getting it scrapped.

HBL: East Uusimaa employers colluding to hold down social worker salaries


Summary: Short term rentals remain below levels seen before the pandemic.

Finland's city bikes go into winter hibernation on 31 October, with Kuopio, Vantaa, Tampere, Espoo and Helsinki all seeing the rental bicycles packed away for the winter.
 In the system that covers Helsinki and Espoo, some 50,000 users made 2.8 million journeys. That's about 30 percent down on 2019, the last year unaffected by the pandemic and associated remote working practices.
 In Kuopio more than 900,000 kilometres were ridden on the city bikes, with an average of 6.6 journeys per bike per day.
 In Helsinki each bike was ridden an average of four times a day, while in Espoo the bikes were checked out twice a day on average.
 Each of the four city bike systems offers users the chance to check out a bike to be returned at another docking station in the network.
 Pricing ranges from a daily pass to permission to use the bikes for the whole season, which starts in the spring each year. Over the winter the stations and bikes are put into storage and serviced ready for the new season.

City bike season ends, usage not back to pre-Covid levels


Summary: The Helsinki club have won ten of the last thirteen Finnish titles.

HJK Helsinki were crowned Veikkausliiga champions on Sunday in a tumultuous 1-1 draw with their closest rivals, KuPS Kuopio.
 The game was played in front of a crowd of 7,980 people in Kuopio, a record crowd for KuPS, but they were left disappointed after the home side failed to get the win they needed.
 Miro Tenho  put HJK ahead on 13 minutes, before  Taneli Hämäläinen  equalised for the hosts five minutes later.
 It's the 31st Finnish championship for HJK's men's team. Since 2009 they have won ten out of thirteen editions of Veikkausliiga.
 KuPS took silver after finishing second in the league. SJK Seinäjoki finished third after winning 5-2 at Inter Turku on the final day, with both SJK and KuPS securing a spot in the qualifiers for the Europa Conference League.
 Inter Turku, Ilves and HIFK will now play off for Finland's final spot in the Europa Conference League.

HJK clinch Veikkausliiga with draw at rivals KuPS


Summary: Conservative groups are blasting Finland's Prosecutor General for charging MP Päivi Räsänen with hate speech.

Finland's Prosecutor General,  Raija Toiviainen , has been flooded with emails from people both in Finland and abroad criticising her for filing charges in April against MP  Päivi Räsänen  (CD) in relation to three counts of incitement against a minority group, reports  Helsingin Sanomat .
 The  charges  relate to discriminatory statements towards homosexuals.
 At the end of September a delegation claiming to represent CitizenGO, a Spanish ultra-conservative advocacy group, showed up at the office of the Prosecutor General in Helsinki. The group wanted to hand over a petition they claimed contained more than 200,000 signatures supporting Räsänen for expressing "Christian beliefs".
 Toiviainen did not meet with the group. She said that while she is immune to pressure in the case and that citizens have every right to express criticism towards her actions, she said she worries about concerted efforts attempting to influence prosecutors. Ultimately such situations can lead to prosecutors moving on to other jobs.
 Helsinki District Court is due to hear the case against the former interior minister next January.
 Vaccine mandate
 Finland is mulling making Covid passes mandatory at workplaces,  Hanna Nohynek , chief vaccinologist at public health institute THL, told  Kauppalehti .
 "It's under consideration. In terms of healthcare workers, it can be one tool to get the last unvaccinated individuals to take the shot," she said.
 The business daily notes that Finland has fallen short of achieving the 80-percent vaccination coverage the government set for mid-October. The paper notes that Italy made Covid passes mandatory at all workplaces to encourage inoculation against Covid.
 The THL on Friday  proposed a Covid pass  for nurses and care staff.
  New chapter of normality?
 Helsinki Book Fair, the first major public event since the start of the coronavirus crisis, had drawn some 52,000 visitors by the time it wrapped up on Sunday, according to  Hufvudstadsbladet .
 While fewer bibliophiles descended on the Fair Centre in Pasila than during peak years, organisers said they were still pleased with the turnout.
 Some publishers and book sellers even reported selling more books than at the previous fair hosted before the pandemic hit.

Monday's papers: Pressure on prosecutors, mandatory Covid passes and a new normal


Summary: Changes to Finland's Road Traffic Act have placed more responsibility on drivers to determine when it's time to use winter tyres.

Winter tyres must be used on Finnish roads from Monday 1 November, but with a significant caveat: if so required by weather or road surface conditions.
 Changes to Finland's Road Traffic Act, which  came into effect  last year, placed more responsibility on drivers to determine if winter tyres must be used between 1 November and 31 March, based on the prevailing conditions.
 Winter tyres can be either studded or non-studded.
 According to a press release by the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom, non-studded tyres — also know as friction tyres — are a better option for snow-covered roads.
 "On icy roads, studded tyres have better grip, but they cause more road wear than friction tyres do. In addition, studs detach fine particles, which have harmful effects on human health, from road surfaces," the statement said.
 The agency added that the main tread on all car and van tyres must be at least three millimetres thick, rising to five millimetres for particularly difficult driving conditions, such as slushy or snowy roads.

Finland begins winter tyre season


Summary: Customers had experienced difficulties while trying to make payments with Mastercard or Visa cards at S-Group and Lidl outlets from 8am on Monday.

An extensive disruption to card payments at S-Group and Lidl outlets that affected customers across the country from Monday morning has now been rectified.
 The service provider responsible for card payment routing and billing services to S-Group and Lidl stores reported very weak network connections, leading to problems paying with Visa or Mastercard cards. The first reports of the issue began around 8am on Monday.
 In a statement, S-Group said that its outlets were having trouble accepting Visa or Mastercard payments, but customers could still pay with cash or the group's S-card.
 The fault may have also applied to other stores that use the same service provider, but the nationwide K-Group chain reported that the disruption does not affect any of its outlets.

S-Group, Lidl stores resolve card payment problems


Summary: Former Minister of Transport and Communications Anne Berner began making her transition to the board of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB) in 2019, before her term ended.

The Supreme Administrative Court has ruled in Yle's favour in a case centred around a request for information about a former government minister's move to the board of a Swedish bank while she was still in office.
 The court on Monday ruled that the Chancellor of Justice's decision to withhold documents related to then Minister of Transport and Communications  Anne Berner 's decision to join the board of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB) in 2019 to be in contravention of freedom of information laws.
 The court has referred the matter back to the Chancellor of Justice's office for reconsideration.
 In February 2019, Yle journalist  Merja Niilola  requested documents, including email correspondence, from the Office of the Chancellor of Justice  Tuomas Pöysti  about Berner's appointment to the board of the bank while she was still an MP, a minister and member of the government coalition.
 The office refused to release the documents, citing confidentiality concerns.
 However, the Supreme Administrative Court rejected this interpretation, ruling that according to Article 12 (2) of the Finnish Constitution, documents and other recordings held by an authority are public, unless their disclosure is specifically restricted by law for reasons such as national security.
 In light of the administrative court's ruling, the Office of the Chancellor of Justice is now compelled to update its decision about the release of the documents.
 Background to request for information
 Former minister Berner led Vallila Interior, a family-owned interior design company, for many years before becoming an MP representing the electoral district of Uusimaa as a non-attached candidate with the Centre Party in 2015. Despite being a first-time MP, she was handed the transport and communications portfolio by then Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä  (Cen).
 Her ambitious attempt to reform Finland's transport infrastructure and introduce private ownership caused friction, most notably  within the Centre Party , while another proposal to eliminate vehicle taxes and set up a road usage fee never got off the ground.
 In 2019 Berner announced that she would not be seeking re-election at that year's parliamentary poll, and would instead take up a position on the board of the SEB Bank in Sweden.
 Her announcement received widespread media attention at the time as cabinet members are constitutionally prohibited from holding administrative roles in banks or financial institutions while in office.
 Berner said at the time that she would not take up the position until 29 April 2019, some two weeks after the election on 14 April, and this was deemed to be in line with Finnish law by the Office of the Chancellor of Justice. However, online news outlet Uusi Suomi  reported  that the board would actually convene for the first time on 26 March - while Berner was still a minister.
 SEB then published a statement, clarifying that Berner would not become a member of the board until 1 June.
 The Chancellor of Justice's correspondence about this matter around that time was the subject of Yle journalist Niilola's request for information.

Court rules Chancellor of Justice illegally withheld details on minister's move to bank


Summary: Demand for ivermectin, a deworming medicine, is growing in Finland.

Yhdysvaltain elintarvike- ja lääkevirasto (FDA)

The pandemic has increased demand in Finland for ivermectin, a trend also witnessed in other parts of the world, despite research showing no significant impact of the anti-parasitic drug on treating Covid.
 Some ivermectin studies have even been downright fraudulent, according to  The Guardian .
 "If ivermectin wasn't available, I’d probably take the vaccine,"  Sami Antinniemi  told Yle, adding that he's not opposed to vaccines, saying, "I believe in science."
 Ivermectin has been used to cure animals and people from worms and lice since the 1980s. Finnish pharmacies sell the drug under the brand name Stromectol, produced by US drug maker Merck.
 The University Pharmacy, Finland's largest pharmacy chain, has reported demand for Stromectol growing by 30 percent within the past year. A survey this past August by the Association of Finnish pharmacies (AFP) also reported increased interest in the drug.
 The University Pharmacy, however, noted that people are also illegally ordering the drug from outside the EU.
 Finnish Customs have reported a slight uptick in seized volumes of ivermectin. In 2020, customs officials intercepted three shipments of the drug, whereas by August of this year that number rose to eight, with packages containing a few dozen to several hundred pills.
 Petri dish vs real life
 Finnish scientists have studied the impact of ivermectin, along with thousands of other existing drugs, on treating Covid. The results were disappointing, according to  Olli Vapalahti , a University of Helsinki virologist.
 "The main problem is that ivermectin's beneficial effect is only achievable with doses too big to administer to patients," Vapaalahti explained of the drug's ability to prevent the virus from multiplying in a petri dish.
 Väänänen said he did not believe ivermectin pills on the market could shield people from the virus.
 "My understanding is that we don't have any proof of positive outcomes for ivermectin tablets taken orally. I recommend people get vaccinated," he said.
 Turku-based company Therapeutica Borealis is, however, developing an ivermectin-based drug to treat Covid. It reaches the body through the nose, and not the mouth, as is the case with pills like Stromectol.
 Kalervo Väänänen , one of the company's founders, said Therapeutica Borealis' drug is designed as a nasal spray.
 "Our hypothesis is that the spray coats the nasal membrane in a protective layer, preventing the virus from multiplying. This would reduce the viral load to the point that everyone infected with the virus doesn't necessarily get sick," he explained.
 The World Health Organization (WHO) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) do not recommend ivermectin for use in routine management of Covid patients. In the United States, where ivermectin sales have soared, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said it has not authorised or approved ivermectin for use in preventing or treating Covid-19.

Finnish vaccine opponents stocking up on ivermectin


Summary: A United Nations report says that if no further action is taken, it's possible that global temperatures will rise by 2.7 degrees Celsius by the end of this century, a scenario which would have devastating consequences.

President  Sauli Niinistö  and the Finnish delegation arrived at the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, UK on Monday, with the president scheduled to deliver the country's national statement on Tuesday.
 Leaders and policymakers from around the world are at the conference which was arranged to accelerate reaching the goals of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
 Late on Monday afternoon, after a day listening to leaders and experts about possible climate catastrophes on the horizon, Niinistö told Finnish reporters that the overall spirit of COP26 was much more serious than previous climate summits, saying that the reason for the change in attitude was clear to him.
 "It's reality. We can see that climate change is progressing and we know that it cannot continue," he said.
 The president noted that while the spirit of attendees is more ambitious, the effort to combat climate change is also faced with difficulties such as the 100 billion euros in financing for the effort remains up in the air.
 Regarding Finland's perspective on the matter, Niinistö highlighted the Nordic country's forestry policy and expertise, saying that the country's expansion of forest areas and resulting economic benefit was an example the possibility for profitability while combating climate change at the same time.
 "The equation is not impossible," he said.
 Many have sharply criticised the absence of Russian and Chinese presidents  Vladimir Putin  and  Xi Jinping  at the summit, but Niinistö noted that the two countries still had representatives at the event.
 "The aim here is to increase country-specific commitments and promises," he said.
 Story continues after tweet
 Members of the Finnish delegation include Minister of the Environment and Climate Change  Krista Mikkonen  (Green), who said on Monday morning that participants in the conference need to send a clear signal that countries are prepared for new and ambitious reductions in emissions on a tight schedule.
 She said that she believes the conference will help to get countries to expedite their climate efforts but that it remains to be seen whether that will be enough to prevent further deterioration of the situation.
 1.5 degrees
 Experts now say that countries can no longer postpone taking action against climate change. According to a report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), if countries do not take further action, it is possible that global average temperatures will rise by 2.7 degrees Celsius by the end of this century, a scenario which would have devastating consequences.
 On the other hand, keeping temperatures from rising beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius would require the nations of the world to halve current greenhouse gas emissions within the next eight years.
 At the opening ceremony in Glasgow, UN climate chief  Patricia Espinosa  said that the world's countries need to change their ways or accept that "we are contributing to our own extinction."
 Although no further emissions reductions are planned to be negotiated at the two-week meeting, many countries have made new commitments, according to minister Mikkonen.
 "Many large countries have announced carbon neutrality targets, but then we're talking about the years 2050 or 2060. We would need significant emissions reductions before 2030," Mikkonen said.
 G20 pledge
 At the G20 summit in Rome, Italy on Sunday, leaders of the world's 20 largest economies called for meaningful and effective measures to limit global warming to 1.5-degrees Celsius.
 However, the meeting's resulting document still lacks concrete measures and there were no provisions to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, a goal that scientists think is crucial to preventing climate events like extreme droughts, storms and floods around the world.
 The chair of the independent think tank the Finnish Climate Change Panel,  Markku Ollikainen , said he was still pleased about the G20's stated commitments.
 "If the G20 commits to the 1.5-degree target, it will be a major turning point in international climate policy. I see that decision as a very encouraging signal being sent to Glasgow," Ollikainen told Yle on Sunday, just before he departed for the COP26 meeting.
 Glasgow hosts the COP26 conference, which aims to accelerate countries' carbon emissions targets. Andy Buchanan / AFP

Finnish president at COP26: "Climate change is progressing and it cannot continue"


Summary: Both the delivery firm and the agency are hoping to solve the employee-or-entrepreneur issue in Administrative Court.

People who deliver food and other items for the Finnish mobile app-based courier service Wolt should be considered employees of the company, not entrepreneurs, according to a decision by the occupational safety and health authority of the Regional State Administrative Agency of Southern Finland (Avi).
 The agency said the authority's decision was based on several factors indicating that Wolt couriers are explicitly employed by the company and no one else.
 In its decision, Avi reiterated  previously-issued  instructions for Wolt to keep a record of couriers' working hours, in accordance with Finland's Working Time Act.
 Wolt said in June that it would not comply with Avi's instruction as the couriers are not employees.
 Now, Avi has given the company a 14-day deadline to comply with the instructions.
 Wolt's co-founder,  Juhani Mykkänen , said the company plans to appeal Avi's decision at the Administrative Court.
 "More than 70 percent of our couriers are of the opinion that the freedom as entrepreneurs is more important to them than the security of being employees," Mykkänen said, adding that many of the couriers hoped to take the case to court.
 New work models
 He noted that Avi has also said it wants to settle the matter in court.
 Avi said it was difficult to take a position on a case such as this, as legislation is not up-to-date on modern working situations like Wolt's, according to an Avi press release on the matter.
 Mykkänen said that shifting the status of the couriers from entrepreneurs to employees would bring about major changes.
 "We would [need to] terminate the contracts of more than 5,000 couriers and thousands of people would be out of work. After that, perhaps a good couple thousand would be hired full-time, where they would have shifts and supervisors. In addition, earnings levels would fall and the freedom of work would decrease," Mykkänen said.
 According to Mykkänen, Wolt wants to offer another option to the labour market and that the firm's current arrangement with couriers could not be done in an employer-employee relationship.
 "The law does not allow a person to be completely free to decide, in real time, whether to work or not, or agree to all gig offers or not. This is a new way of working. If it's banned in Finland from the start, it will have quite serious consequences," he said.
 Mykkänen said Wolt's couriers have more freedom than other food delivery services around the world.
 "We do not engage in algorithmic management or control of the couriers, we do rank the couriers and if a courier refuses a delivery there is no repercussion of any kind," Mykkänen said.

Avi: Wolt couriers should be considered employees


Summary: The OmaStadi poll found many residents want the outdoor Olympic Stadium pool to be open year-round, an effort that would cost around 300,000 euros annually.

Thousands of Helsinki residents have voiced their opinions about how to spend nearly nine million euros on city development projects, in the so-called  OmaStadi  (roughly, Your City) online crowdsourcing poll.
 The poll, which closed last week,  asked residents  what kinds of improvements they think the city needs, with the city setting aside 8.8 million euros to implement those ideas.
 Among many other proposals, residents said they wanted the outdoor Olympic Swimming Stadium to remain open year-round, rather than just in the summertime.
 The city's development manager  Kirsi Verkka  said it would cost about 300,000 euros per year to keep the large pool open all year and that an investigation about that proposal was in the works.
 About 1.8 million euros out of the total sum is to be allocated to projects that jointly benefit all residents of the city. Meanwhile, each region of Helsinki will be beneficiaries of the remaining funding.
 Projects moving forward next year
 The most expensive project given the green light by residents will cost around 550,000 euros for development of outdoor activity areas around the Malmi Airport.
 A half-million euro project towards hobbies and activities for city youths as well as a new skate park in western Helsinki.
 Verkka said the exact location of the park had not yet been decided, however.
 The planning and implementation of OmaStadi-generated project ideas will start as early as next year.
 Around 47,000 out of 580,000 eligible residents took part in the poll. Verkka said that efforts were made to encourage widespread participation in the survey, including offering the opportunity to take part in several different languages..
 "Of course we'd like people to participate even more actively in the future," Verkka said.

Helsinki residents offer ideas to spend €8.8m on city projects


Summary: Feminists say military call-ups for women should be voluntary following a parliamentary committee recommending they become mandatory.

A cross-party parliamentary committee has recommended military call-ups be extended to include women in Finland. Mandatory military service would, however, be limited to males only.
 Eekku Aromaa , Secretary General at Feminist Association Unioni, told  Iltalehti  that a shift towards gender neutrality on the issue was a move in the right direction.
 "But it should be on a voluntary basis, and not force militarisation on women," she said.
 Aromaa said many young people today don't feel Finland's male-only conscription system is fair.
 "The current system maintains a level of unfairness in society that targets both men and women. For men it means an obligation that women don't have. It preserves a gender system in which men are able, can and must do things," she explained.
 _Would you like a summary of the week's top stories sent straight to your email inbox every week? Then  sign up  for our weekly newsletter!_
 Vaxxed but unwanted
 British journalist  Luke Harding  had no trouble arriving in Helsinki last week after showing proof of two AstraZeneca Covid shots, but he was turned away from a downtown bar after the bouncer's Covid reader app did not recognise his proof of vaccination, reports  Helsingin Sanomat .
 "It felt a bit like when you're a kid in school and nobody picks you for their team in gym class," Harding said of being left behind.
 So far, 18 non-EU countries, including the UK, have joined the EU Digital Covid Certificate  system .
 Mika Pihlajamäki , an information architect at public health institute THL, told HS the problem was due to the digital formating of some of the older vaccination certificates, whereas  Jari Suhonen  at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health said UK Covid passes were not fully integrated into the EU-wide system until 1 November.
 "There are third countries whose Covid passports are accepted at the border but who aren't a part of the EU certificate network. In practice that means THL's Covid pass reader app isn't able to recognise these certificates," Suhonen added.
 Protecting pollinators
 Finland is planning its first national strategy to protect the country's pollinators, according to  Hufvudstadsbladet .
 The Swedish-language daily notes Finland has become increasingly concerned about the long-term survival of its bees.
 The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry noted that pollinator populations have diminished to a worrying degree in many parts of the world. The decline can have serious consequences on ecosystem functionality, and ultimately, food production.

Tuesday's papers: Call-ups for women, Covid pass confusion and precious pollinators


Summary: Finland's wolf population has hit a 100-year high, but a conservation report found the numbers are too small to remain genetically viable.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is preparing a permit that will allow for the culling of 20 wolves next year.
 In a statement released on Monday, the ministry said that granting the permission is aimed at securing a balance between a viable wolf population and meeting the needs of people living in areas where wolves roam.
 "Hunting regulates the growth of the wolf population, prevents injuries and fosters the acceptability of wolves," Minister of Agriculture and Forestry  Jari Leppä  (Cen) stated in the ministry's press release.
 Greens call on ministry to await agency report
 Maria Ohisalo ,Interior Minister and chair of the Green Party, tweeted her response to the ministry's statement on Monday evening, calling the plan "outrageous".
 Other MPs have also publicly expressed their opinions, with a clear dividing line between Centre Party politicians and Greens.
 Minister of the Environment and Climate Change  Krista Mikkonen  (Green) was also opposed to the ministry's plans, writing on Twitter that the decree should be shelved until a report by Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) has been completed.
 "The [report's] premise is that wolves will receive a scientifically- and independently-determined level of protection, and that this level is not exceeded or compromised. The analysis work will be completed in autumn 2022," Mikkonen wrote.
 Luke's two-year research project aims to identify and propose ways to conserve Finland's wolf population, and the institute echoed Minister Mikkonen's criticisms of the culling plans.
 "The Natural Resources Institute Finland condemns the wolf quota hunting plans as premature, as the assessment of the conservation level of the country's wolf population is still in progress," Luke said in a press release.
 Leppä: Ministry cannot wait for Luke's report
 Luke published an interim report on the conservation project at the beginning of September, with one key finding being that Finland's wolf population is currently too small to remain genetically viable.
 However, Agriculture and Forestry Minister of Leppä told Yle that injuries caused by wolves, as well as feelings of fear and insecurity, have increased at such a rate that the ministry cannot wait any longer for Luke's research to be completed before taking action.
 "The number of wolves is now increasing very rapidly in Finland, and we need this one tool that is currently missing from managing the numbers. That is why we want to get moving. However, we first wanted to wait for Luke's interim report," Leppä said, adding that Finland's long Eastern border with Russia will ensure that the genetic diversity of the wolf is maintained.
 Luke's interim report stated that inbreeding is reflected in the wolf population in southwestern Finland, which is not affected by the migration of wolves from the Karelia region of Russia.
 Wolves are protected, endangered species
 According to the EU Habitats Directive, the wolf is a strictly protected species outside the reindeer husbandry area of Finland. However, protection may be waived if a clear hunting quota is set and authorities can demonstrate that there is no other satisfactory solution.
 The quota set by the ministry for next year would be 20 wolves outside the reindeer husbandry area and would not apply to wolves killed by police order, or to injury and safety-based exemptions granted by the Finnish Wildlife Agency.
 The ministry aims to issue the decree in early December, meaning hunting of wolves could begin after the turn of the year.
 According to Luke's latest figures, there were about 28 wolf packs in Finland in March and about 20 "pairs" of wolves.
 "The term "pack" refers to a group of three or more wolves that mostly move together and share the same territory, while "pair" refers to two wolves that move together and share a territory. A majority of the wolf population lives in packs or pairs during the wintertime," the institute explained the terms.
 Finland's wolf population is currently at its highest level during the past 100 years, the figures reveal.

Ministry proposes cull of 20 wolves


Summary: Last year was the first time the share of renewable sources rose above 50 percent, Statistics Finland said.

More than half of the electricity produced in Finland last year came from renewable energy sources, according to preliminary figures released by Statistics Finland on Tuesday.
 This marks the first time the share of renewable sources has risen above 50 percent, the number-crunching agency noted.
 "Electricity produced with renewable energy sources totalled a record amount of 34.7 TWh. For the first time, renewable energy sources covered more than one half of Finland's electricity production: 52 percent," the agency's press release stated.
 The rise in renewables was mostly driven by the "considerable" increase in the use of hydro and wind power, which accounted respectively for 45 percent and 23 percent of all renewable electricity generated in 2020.
 _Yle News' podcast All Points North recently explored new findings that  onshore wind farms  will blow away other energy production methods in Finland. Article continues after the audio._
 In terms of total electricity production, 82 percent was covered by domestic production and 18 percent by net imports of electricity from the Nordic countries, Russia and Estonia.
 Of the domestic production figure, some 34 percent was produced with nuclear power and 14 percent with fossil fuels and peat.
 The amount of electricity produced with fossil fuels last year was therefore down by 20 percent compared to 2019, while use of peat was down 29 percent and coal by 44 percent, Statistics Finland's figures further revealed.

Report: Over half of Finland's electricity in 2020 came from renewable sources


Summary: Proponents say universal call-ups would help prevent marginalisation and attract more women into military service.

A cross-party parliamentary committee has proposed extending military call-ups to women, but not conscription, which is mandatory for Finnish males.
 The committee argued that a universal call-up could help prevent social marginalisation as officials would reach out to everyone in a certain age group.
 Call-ups would also be an opportunity for more women to learn more about carrying out voluntary service. That said, Finland is widening its net as more men opt out of military service, either for personal or health reasons.
 "The call-up system would be entirely renewed, becoming more of a time to check-in with an entire age group,"  Joonas Könttä  (Cen), the committee's vice-chair said, adding that these meetings would provide 18 year-olds with information on defense and personal health.
 While the committee did not take a position on what types of sanctions missing a call-up would entail, Könttä said the consequences of not showing up should be the same for women as for men.
 The government has yet to take a stance on the work of the committee, which is expected to present more detailed conclusions later this month. Defence Minister  Antti Kaikkonen  (Cen) has said he will comment on the matter once the committee presents its final report.
 Defence Forces lukewarm
 The Defence Forces are meanwhile not keen on organising universal call-ups simply for the purpose of preventing marginalisation, saying such matters fall beyond the scope of the Defence Forces.
 The committee has also looked into possibly shortening civilian service or introducing a new type of citizens' service as an alternative to non-military service.
 Kaikkonen has previously said civilian service should better support various security needs in society.
 The Left Alliance said it plans to publish a dissenting opinion to the committee's report because it did not take a stance on shortening the duration of civilian service, according to MP  Jari Myllykoski  (LA).
 The Left Alliance has called for shortening the duration of non-military service, which now lasts 347 days, compared to military service which can be carried out in 255 or 347 days.

Finnish women may be called to military service in the future


Summary: World leaders and policymakers are meeting in the Scottish city of Glasgow to expedite climate commitments.

In an address on Tuesday at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, Finnish President  Sauli Niinistö  said that after more than 40 years of discussing climate change, the world needs to act now.
 "We have reached a point where we need to move beyond goals and pledges. Change may seem inconceivable but only until we act. Combating climate change is one of our weightiest human responsibilities," he said, adding that the effort will cost money.
 "Ensuring adequate climate finance is crucial. Finland is doing its part by almost doubling its climate finance to developing countries. By co-chairing the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action, we also encourage the integration of climate action into national budgeting. Many truly impactful measures lie in this domain," he said.
 "As an arctic country, Finland is particularly concerned about the fast-warming Arctic region. Everyone else should be concerned too: if we lose the Arctic, we lose the globe. In the Arctic, reducing black carbon and methane emissions is essential," Niinistö said.
 A transcript of this speech can be found  here .
 Forestry's role
 In an earlier address on Tuesday Niinistö spoke about the important role that forestry plays in efforts to tackle the crises of climate change and biodiversity loss.
 He also spoke at the at the world leaders summit about the vital role forests play in Finland's economic and social development.
 "For Finland, this topic is particularly close to heart. Seventy five percent of our area is covered with forests. In many ways, forests are our lifeline. They have been fundamental to our economic and social development – and are perhaps one of the reasons Finland is the happiest country in the world. Moreover, forests play a big role in achieving our target of climate neutrality by 2035," Niinistö said.
 "Finland’s forest resources are continuously growing. The annual increment of forests has more than doubled since the 1950s. Every year, 150 million trees are planted in Finland. During a decade, that means more than a billion. In the EU, the aim is to double the amount of trees grown annually from 300 million to 600 million," he said, adding that Finland has shown that sustainable forestry can also be profitable while increasing their positive climate impact.
 Niinistö noted that Finland is currently running a 96 million euro programme which aims to "investigate and pilot climate mitigation and adaptation measures in the land-use sector."
 During the summit on Tuesday, more than 100 leaders from around the world vowed to stop and reverse deforestation and land degradation by the end of this decade, according to Reuters. The leaders backed the pledge with more than 16.3 billion euros in funding from private and public sources for the investment in protecting the world's forests.
 Leaders also pledged to slash emissions of the greenhouse gas methane, in order to slow climate change.
 A transcript of this speech can be found  here .

Niinistö at UN Climate Summit: "If we lose the Arctic, we lose the globe"


Summary: The deal means that every game of the tournament will be broadcast on free-to-air, terrestrial television in Finland.

Kansainväliset jalkapallo-ottelut ja -turnaukset

Public service broadcaster Yle and commercial broadcaster MTV will share the Finnish rights to next year's football World Cup finals in Qatar, meaning every game will be available to audiences in Finland on free-to-air, terrestrial television.
 Under the terms of the agreement, Yle will broadcast 42 matches — including the opening game and the final — while MTV will show a total of 22 games.
 In addition, all games will be available to view afterwards on the viewing platforms of both broadcasters, meaning matches shown live on MTV can also be viewed later on Yle Areena.
 "The most important thing for us at Yle is to ensure that significant sporting events are freely available to all people living in Finland,"  Panu Pokkinen , Director of Yle's Sports and Events unit, said. "There is increasing competition for sports broadcasting rights. Using these new types of partnerships, we ensure both responsible use of money and survival in the intensifying marketplace."
 Yle and MTV have also agreed to jointly broadcast the men's 2026 World Cup, and the football partnership is one of a number of different collaborations Finland's public service broadcaster has entered into regarding sports broadcast rights. For example, the rights for last summer's Tokyo Olympics were shared with Discovery.
 "It is great that the previously agreed collaboration for the 2026 World Cup will remain in place and that cooperation between MTV and Yle will begin for the 2022 World Cup," MTV's CEO  Johannes Leppänen  said.
 The deal with MTV means that Yle has full or partial rights to broadcast almost every European Championship and World Cup tournament this decade, for both the men's and the women's games.
 For the men's game, Yle will show the 2024 and 2028 European Championships, as well as the World Cup finals in 2022 and 2026. Meanwhile, the rights to the women's European Championships in 2022 — which  the Finnish team has qualified for  — and 2025, as well as the World Cup in 2023, have already been secured.
 In 2018, matches broadcast on Yle television of the previous men's football World Cup finals reached a total of 3.9 million residents in Finland. The 2020 European Championships, played this year because of the Covid pandemic, delivered similar figures, with 3.8 million people in Finland watching.

Yle, MTV share broadcasting rights for 2022 World Cup


Summary: Helsinki wants a more sustainable menu.

Helsingin Sanomat leads with  a story on violent crime  among young teenagers. The paper reports that police stats suggest increased reporting of assaults among the under-15s after several high profile bullying cases.
 HS says police are now seeing reports of cases that wouldn't have been reported in years gone by, because parents and schools now know that officers can investigate even if perpetrators are under the age of criminal responsibility, which is 15.
 The paper reports that police are seeing an increase in cases seemingly aimed at social media, where victims are humiliated and the assault is filmed for publication online.
 Covid passes in the workplace?
 The Uutissuomalainen group of newspapers publishes  a survey  on Wednesday with one central question: should employees be compelled to tell their bosses whether they have been vaccinated against Covid?
 Some 60 percent of respondents said yes, people should have to tell their employer their vaccination status. At the same time, 27 percent were opposed and 13 percent were on the fence.
 Markku Tervahauta  of the National Institute for Health and Welfare said the results were not unexpected.
 "It suggests that citizens regard vaccine protection as important and there's a desire for people to take common responsibility," said Tervahauta. "It's thought that this is a means to protect the community."
 Meanwhile Ilta-Sanomat publishes a feature interview with THL Director of Infectious Diseases  Mika Salminen , who says that 80 percent vaccine coverage might not be enough for a full reopening of society.
 He said the problem is that we don't yet know what kind of coverage provides sufficient protection against widespread circulation of the virus.
 Helsinki goes meat-free
 Social media has seen a bubbling debate about the City of Helsinki's decision to stop serving meat at events. The municipal nibbles will be plant- and (responsibly-sourced, local) fish- based from next year onwards.
 Coffee, tea and bananas (for example) will have to be sourced from fair trade providers, and the city is aiming to stop serving its snacks and refreshments in single-use containers.
 The decision applies to food served at meetings, seminars, workshops and public events, and it has not been greeted with delight by everyone.
 Iltalehti  reports  the reaction from politicians, which mostly follows expected culture war divides.
 Centre Party Secretary  Riikka Pirkkalainen   tweeted  that it was a shame if the decision also applied to domestically-produced meat.
 The Centre's base is in rural, agricultural regions, and it got 2.4 percent of the vote in Helsinki at this year's local elections, securing two of 89 places on the council.
 Kirsi Piha , meanwhile, who withdrew from the Helsinki mayoral race after securing the nomination of the National Coalition Party, said it was a "good, responsible and forward-looking decision".

Wednesday's papers: Violent teens, Covid pass in the workplace, and Helsinki ditches meat


Summary: Transgender high jumper Jade Nyström describes the hate speech aimed at her, as the heated conversation around the status of trans-athletes in professional sports continues.

The messages received by 17-year-old high jumper,  Jade Nyström , are frightening, if not downright vile.
 "You'll never be a real woman. You don’t have a uterus, you don’t have ovaries. You are a homosexual man, and the artificial hormones you take act as the ultimate mockery of nature’s perfection.”
 When Nyström expressed her support for  Laurel Hubbard  last summer, her Instagram was instantly flooded with messages. Hubbard had made history moments earlier by competing as the first transgender woman at the Olympics.
 "I probably received close to 50 messages in just one minute. Adults, who have families, berating me. It became apparent how childish grown-ups can be," says Nyström.
 The following message, however, is not childish, it is repugnant. This is what the uncensored life of a teenage trans-athlete looks like: Hate speech, harassment, anger.
 "Too much is too much. You’ll buy a rope, tie a noose, put it over your neck and dive into the cold abyss."
 A sister's encouragement changes the course of a life
 One ordinary weekday morning, it finally happened. Eighth-grader Nyström had long been observing her big sister Erica from the sidelines, as she applied her makeup for school.
 Nyström told her sister that she wished she could go to school with makeup, too.
 Erica replied: What’s stopping you?
 Story continues after photo.
 Sisters Jade and Erica Nyström. Yle/Sebastian Backman
 Jade Nyström had played with dolls and dress-up as a child, while other boys in the village of Pukaro in Lapinjärvi were playing war games in the forest. This all ended when she heard that boys don’t wear dresses or behave like that.
 It is hard to stand out in a small town. She knew this when she left for school wearing makeup. She has been stared at and ridiculed. Bullying has been a part of her daily life throughout her youth.
 Over the years, she has hardened. Insults hurled at her no longer hurt. She has decided that she has the right to be herself.
 After turning 17 last winter, Nyström came out as a transgender woman. Last summer, the three-time Finnish boys' champion made her debut in the Kaleva Championships in the men's series, remaining in the qualifiers.
 Professional athletics are not safe from bullies. Nyström says she has heard every insult under the sun.
 "I don't think sports are a tolerant environment in any way. At the Youth Championships, the other contestants cheered each other on, saying 'Jump well so that Jade doesn't win,'" she recalls.
 Nyström won.
 "Everyone is an individual"
 The debate over the status of transgender contestants in sports has intensified since Laurel Hubbard participated in women’s weightlifting in Tokyo.
 The conversation is largely a matter of trans-athletes’ – in practice, primarily trans-women’s – rights to take part in competitive sports. Should they be allowed to compete in the women’s series and under what conditions?
 Linda Sällström , the all-time top scorer of the national football team, and  Anni Vuohijoki , a weightlifter in the Rio Olympics, have followed the heated debate, including the exaggerated reactions to it.
 "People want to simplify a complex issue. Even those who know nothing have strong opinions. I encourage everyone to get acquainted with the facts before saying anything," Sällström says.
 "The debate is terribly base. People are scared when talking about something that is not understood. The trans discussion has revealed our narrow-mindedness. We should learn to understand each other’s differences – then we wouldn’t have these confrontations," adds Vuohijoki.
 Story continues after photo.
 National football player Linda Sällström.  Yle/Magnus Eklöv
 In considering the role of transgender women in top sports, at least three different perspectives must be taken into account: inclusion, fairness and the safety of athletes.
 Testosterone levels serve as a starting point for sports regulations. The male athlete has an average of about 10 to 40 nanomoles of testosterone per litre in his body, while the corresponding figure for women is less than 2.
 According to the current rules of the International Olympic Committee, a trans-athlete’s testosterone levels must remain below 10 nanomoles for the duration of a year to be allowed to compete. Gender reassignment is not required. It is sufficient that the athlete has identified as a woman for a sufficient period.
 According to Nyström, the current legislation works, citing Hubbard as an example.
 "I do not see it as unfair, nor as her having an advantage. Everyone is an individual and everyone has their own advantages," she says.
 Vuohijoki: I couldn’t compete against a man
 The rules keep changing and vary from sport to sport.
 The IOC has been trying to update its rules for some time, but due to internal disagreements, no decisions have been made. The plan is for the update to come next year, but it was originally scheduled to be announced a couple of years ago.
 In athletics (yleisurheilu), a trans-woman's testosterone limit is five nanomoles per litre. Rugby is the only sport to ban transgender women from its professional series, citing the safety of the players.
 "You shouldn’t discriminate against human rights, but sports must also be fair and safe. This is such a complex issue that I don’t think there is an easy solution that fits all sports across the board," Sällström says.
 Story continues after photo.
 Olympic weight-lifter Anni Vuohijoki Yle/Sebastian Backman
 Scientific studies have found male puberty to be the watershed moment. Athletes who have gone through puberty receive benefits that are not offset by hormone treatments and lower testosterone levels.
 Vuohijoki says that she could not successfully compete against a man of her size, who’s in serious training.
 "In weightlifting, the difference in the world record between men and women is about 30 percent. After just one year of lowering your testosterone, a fair starting point will not be achieved," Vuohijoki says, adding that a year is a short time for a person with a strong athletic background.
 "I suspect even trans-women would like to compete in the women's series without the heated debate. The rules and regulations should be established as such, so that any debate is unnecessary," says Vuohijoki.
 Researcher: There is no way to end discrimination
 It is simply not possible to find a solution that satisfies everyone. This is what  Tommy Lundberg , a Finnish researcher at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, claims.
 According to Lundberg, studies clearly show that the effect of hormone therapy is very small, in the grand scheme. Muscle mass decreases by about five percent per year. Therefore, a year is far from sufficient in levelling the playing field.
 "Many sports federations are talking about how to strike a balance between inclusion and fairness. The truth is that it is completely impossible. Sports must choose which value to prioritise and who is discriminated against, either transwomen or cis-women," he says.
 The most extensive study on the subject, to date, was completed this autumn in the UK. Its conclusion is that the best – or, least terrible - solution is to create a new, open competition class.
 This would mean, in plain terms, that trans women would not be able to enter into the women's series but would compete against men in the "open" series.
 This would apply to sports where men have a physical advantage over women. Not all sports are included here, but most are.
 "It is important to emphasise that I have never met anyone who thinks that trans athletes should not have the right to play competitive sports. But we are talking about the right to choose the series in which to compete. And that is a completely different conversation," Lundberg says.
 "It is really important to understand that this is about the rights of transgender people, but also about the right of cis-girls and women to a fair competition. And open series do not work in most sports. That's just the way it is, unfortunately," he adds.
 A loophole for totalitarian states?
 Critics have expressed concern that overly lax regulations would flood women’s series with men whose hunger for success would make them identify as transgender.
 There is no evidence that this is even a likely scenario. Trans women have been allowed to participate in the Olympics since 2003, but before Hubbard, no one has taken advantage of that opportunity.
 However, Vuohijoki sees an opportunity for fraud. In weightlifting, she has seen up close how certain totalitarian states are trampling human rights in order to win medals. She believes, however, that this is not the case in Western countries.
 "In contestants from certain countries, you can see the systemic doping of children and young people competing in weightlifting. These athletes have no human rights. Imagine what it might look like when they realise this is an option to them. That is when we will wrestle with even bigger human rights issues," says Vuohijoki.
 But in the end, trans athletes are people who love sports and want to do what they love. This is emphasised by both Vuohijoki and Sällström.
 Story continues after photo.
 Jade Nyström.  Yle/Sebastian Backman
 A beautiful woman smiles in the mirror
 Nyström turns 18 in January and is on the verge of some tough decisions. As an adult, it is possible for her to start the process of gender reassignment.
 As a high jumper, her goals haven’t changed. She still aims to enter major championships, specifically in the men's series. In the near future, her goal is to exceed the two-metre limit, from which she is five centimetres away.  Ella Junnila 's women's record in Finland is 196.
 "I probably won't change categories, but I haven't made any decisions about it yet," Nyström says.
 Even if she decides that she wants to change series, it won’t happen at the drop of a hat. She has noticed that many assume that one course of hormones is enough to change series.
 "That is not how it works. It is a multi-year project, which would mean a break from sports for several years," Nyström states, pointing out, among other things, the long queues for admittance to the trans clinic, after which the long-term hormone treatments can begin.
 Nyström knows she wants hormone therapy. It would help her feel more feminine, even though she is already at peace with her own self.
 "When I look in the mirror, I see a beautiful woman. I’m really happy about that, because when I was younger this seemed like an impossible notion."

Trans-athletes face hate speech on and off the field


Summary: Yes, there's another election, and yes foreigners can vote in it.

Finland will go to the polls on Sunday, 23 January to elect regional assembly members that will have responsibility for provision of social and healthcare services.
 Here's what you need to know.
 Wait, there's another election coming up?
 Yes! Fans of democracy will be pleased to discover that Finland is scheduled to hold an election of one form or another in each of the next four years, starting with the regional elections in January 2022. Then there will be parliamentary elections in 2023, Presidential and European elections in 2024 and municipal elections again in 2025.
 So what are we voting for this time?
 People are voting for 21 brand spanking new regional assemblies to take control of health and social care. They take those powers from Finland's 310 municipalities — except for Helsinki, which is big enough to serve as a regional assembly (or 'wellbeing services county', in the official jargon) all on its own, and the autonomous archipelago of Åland, which falls outside the scope of the reforms.
 The Helsinki council will assume those powers, so there'll be no election there.
 You can see a breakdown of the 21 regions on the map below.
 Story continues after the map.
 Yle Graphics
 Wellbeing services counties. That's quite a mouthful. What kind of responsibilities will these organisations have?
 They will organise primary healthcare services, specialised healthcare, dental care, emergency services, mental health services, social care and a host of other such services within their region.
 These are public services financed by tax revenue, and the regional assemblies can decide whether to provide the services themselves or to buy them from private providers.
 They won't initially have tax-raising powers, so central government will have to pay the bills.
 And why do we need this reform?
 The idea was to streamline bureaucracy. There has been some inequality between different regions as to the speed and quality of services.
 Some regions are losing population too, making it more difficult to justify services in every town.
 The reform includes a provision whereby every patient has the right to use their mother tongue when accessing services, and if there is no common language the onus is on the service provider to ensure that the patient or client can access the service in a language they understand.
 That sounds good. When do we vote?
 Election day is 23 January 2022, when polling booths will be open between 9am and 8pm.
 You can also drop off your ballot during the advance voting period, which is from 12 to 18 January in Finland and 12 to 15 January abroad. You will probably spot the advance voting stations in your local library, town hall or shopping mall.
 How do I find out if I am even eligible to vote?
 Just like at municipal elections, citizens of any country registered as having a "municipality of residence" in Finland for two years before election day can vote. People from the EU, Iceland and Norway can vote after just 51 days of residence.
 And if that is not clear, you can double-check your eligibility from the  canivote.fi  website, which was developed by students from Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK) and Aalto University's Media Lab.
 What are the main issues?
 That remains to be seen! Parties will try to push their own themes, and they have started to publish their party platforms, but the responsibilities of the assemblies are quite narrow. National politics will intrude on the campaign too, if debate about health policies prove too narrow for Finland's politicians.

A Really Simple Guide to Finland's County Council Elections


Summary: Millions of kilogrammes of the country's recycled clothing and textiles will now be made into more than just woven rag rugs.

Finland throws out about 100 million kilogrammes of textile waste every year, and the material has remained a poorly-recycled resource.
 But a new textile recycling centre in Paimio, Southwest Finland, opened on Tuesday and aims to begin solving that problem.
 The facility has a capacity of processing about 12 million kilogrammes of textile annually, or roughly 10 percent of the country's cloth material waste.
 The new facility, which is a joint effort between textile recycling company Rester and waste firm LSJH, is the first in the Nordics that will turn waste textile materials into recycled fibres on a large scale.
 The companies say they have developed a commercially-viable solution of recycling and processing industrial and household textile waste into raw materials.
 Story continues after photo
 Recycled and processed textile fibre that can be used to make new cloth products. Lassi Lähteenmäki/Yle
 Rester's CEO,  Outi Luukko , said manufacturers are increasingly interested in using recycled fibres, due to growing concern for the environment and tightening regulations in the EU.
 LSJH's ( Lounais-Suomen Jätehuolto ) role at the plant will be to take care of household fibre waste, according to the company's CEO,  Jukka Heikkilä .
 Story continues after photo
 From left: LSJH's CEO Jukka Heikkilä, Minister of the Environment Krista Mikkonen and Rester's CEO Outi Luukko. Lassi Lähteenmäki/Yle
 "We have been collecting and sorting residents' waste textiles since 2015 and have explored the possibilities of recycling and processing in numerous projects for nearly 10 years," he said.
 There are plans to build similar plants across Finland, based on the experiences of the Paimio facility.
 It will become mandatory to sort textile waste in Finland in 2023, and a similar change is planned across the EU in 2025.

Nordics' biggest textile recycling centre opens in Finland


Summary: The broad study found that for children in out-of-home care there was an increase in risk of adverse social and health outcomes in adulthood, compared with siblings who were never placed in care.

Children placed in out-of-home care face elevated risk of problematic outcomes in adulthood, according to a joint Finnish-UK study.
 The study, carried out by researchers from the University of Helsinki, the University of Eastern Finland and Oxford University, was unusually broad and included all children born in Finland between the years of 1986-2000.
 During that time, out of roughly 890,000 kids, about 30,000 children were placed in out-of-home care
 The study found that for those children there was a 1.4 to 5-fold increase in risk of adverse social and health outcomes in adulthood, compared with siblings who were never placed in care.
 Among other factors, the researchers examined issues such as mental illness, lack of social and financial skills, a tendency to become victims of violence, criminality, self-destructive traits and mortality.
 Placement often only answer
 As kids who were placed in care outside their homes approached adulthood, their life situations worsened on all levels that were examined, according to the research.
 Additionally, the children who were placed in out-of-home care, that had siblings, fared worse than their brothers and sisters who were not placed outside the home.
 "There is a great concern about the quality of child protective services. It is important that out-of-home care practices are developed and investments are made to prevent out-of-home placements in general," University of Helsinki Professor  Heikki Hiilamo  said in a statement.
 However, most of the time, out-of-home placements are the only option to secure a child's environments, Hiilamo said, adding that such care is very helpful in cases where the parents are abusing or completely neglecting their children.
 The study, Long-term Health and Social Outcomes in Children and Adolescents Placed in Out-of-Home Care, was  published  late last month in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network.

Study: Kids placed in out-of-home care face more problems as adults than peers


Summary: The elections take place on 23 January 2022.

Finland goes to the polls in the country's first ever County elections next January, and Yle is collecting ideas for questions to include in the election compass.
 We will pick the most relevant to include in the election compass.
 You can read more about the county elections in our ' really simple guide ', which explains what's happening as Finland elects a new layer of government to manage health and social care services.
 The election compass is a tool for voters to check which candidates and parties most closely align with their own views.
 They are extremely popular in Finland, and most media produce their own. Yle's will be available in English, just like  the one we produced for the municipal elections this year .
 The elections are scheduled to take place on Sunday 23 January, with advance voting to start on 12 January.
 You can answer the survey to tell us what you think should be in the election compass  here .

What do you want to ask county election candidates?


Summary: So-called "import emissions" are keeping Finland’s carbon footprint high, according to a study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

As world leaders ponder carbon reduction measures at COP26 in Glasgow, it is worth noting that Finland's emissions have fallen by some measures — but risen by others.
 A study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) last year found that the carbon footprint of the average Finnish household is not getting any smaller, and so-called "import emissions" are a major reason why.
 Some measures of emissions count sources within Finland, such as energy and food production, but exclude emissions associated with products imported to Finland but produced elsewhere.
 The population of Finland acquires many consumer goods and other products from abroad, and the emissions generated by the manufacturing of these products may have actually increased Finland’s carbon footprint over the past 20 years.
 While carbon emissions have been declining domestically, emissions generated abroad to service Finnish consumers have in part negated these reductions. Total emissions per capita, including those emissions abroad that relate to Finnish consumption, have hardly declined at all.
 According to Finland's climate targets, carbon emissions are to be reduced annually until reaching net zero in 2035. In recent years, emissions have declined by about 4 percent a year.
 However, these climate targets do not take into account what people wear, the transportation people use or and where industry and municipalities acquire their materials. These things also generate emissions.
 Finland's consumer needs are largely met through imports, which nearly double the carbon footprint of people living in Finland when added to the Finland-specific emissions.
 Consumption-based emissions on the rise
 According to data supplied by the OECD , the carbon emissions of Finnish households, excluding land use emissions, are at the same level as they were in 2000 and remain one of the highest in the world.
 Finland is one of the few countries where about half of the nation’s carbon emissions are generated outside its borders, the OECD study found. The research also revealed that Sweden and Denmark have even larger shares of emissions coming from outside their own borders than Finland.
 Consumption-based carbon emissions were not calculated in Finland prior to 2000, making it impossible to know whether the household carbon footprint has decreased since the 1990s.
 According to official statistics, emissions in 1990 and 2000 were at around the same level, but only regional data is included in these figures, and not consumption-based emissions generated outside of Finland’s borders.
 The most recent figures for household consumption are from 2019. At that time, 47 percent of household carbon emissions were generated abroad. According to information provided by Finland's government, emissions generated by the Finnish population have increased by 4 percent, if the increase in population from 2000 to 2019 is also taken into consideration.
 "If we ignore international trade, we are fooling ourselves and blaming other countries for large regional emissions. We must remember why China produces and exports so much to different countries," said  Hannu Savolainen , a researcher at the Finnish Environment Institute, who has compiled consumption-based statistics.
 Story continues after photo.
 Consumption-based emissions have not declined in 20 years. Most household emissions come from transportation and energy consumption.
 Majority of Finland's import emissions come from Russia, China
 Calculating consumption-based emissions is an inexact science. However, according to the OECD's estimate, most of Finland's outsourced carbon emissions come from Russia, with China a close second. Data from 2015 revealed that these two countries account for about a third, each, of the production-based emissions generated by Finnish households from outside of their own borders.
 India and the United States account for about 5 percent each.
 While the EU is committed to reducing its carbon emissions by 55 percent by 2030, China's goal is to reverse their emissions growth by that same year. The climate actions taken by Russia have also been criticised as inadequate.
 "The emphasis on the consumer would not have to be heavy if all countries were striving for carbon neutrality. It is, however, still worth looking at the problem from the perspective of the consumer's carbon footprint, even after we reach our own carbon neutrality goal," said environmental adviser  Jarmo Muurma  from the Ministry of the Environment.

Consumption emissions boost Finnish carbon footprint


Summary: A fresh newspaper poll shows Social Democratic Prime Minister Sanna Marin is holding on to the top spot in party leader popularity.

Recent  minor media storms  surrounding Prime Minister  Sanna Marin  (SDP) do not seem to have significantly affected her popularity.
 According to  a fresh poll  commissioned by the Uutissuomalainen newspaper group, Marin continues to be by far the highest ranked party leader among the general public.
 In the survey of 1,000 voters, 22 percent named Marin as the most successful political party chair. A similar poll in March, gave her 25 percent.
 Left Alliance leader  Li Andersson  came in second, being viewed by 10 percent as doing the best job.
 Riikka Purra  of the Finns Party and  Petteri Orpo  of the National Coalition Party each polled 9 percent.
 Three-quarters of SDP supporters said they consider Marin the most successful party leader in the country.
 "Marin is still remarkably popular both among all respondents and especially among supporters of her own party. She has succeeded quite well in avoiding the erosion of popularity that holding the prime minister's post entails,"  Markku Jokisipilä , Director of the Centre for Parliamentary Research at the University of Turku, told the Uutissuomalainen group.
 Meatless or milkless?
 Another minor storm has been blowing through the Finnish media following an announcement by the City of Helsinki on Tuesday that from now on,  meat products will not be served  at events organised by public administration.
 The Swedish-language daily  Hufvudstadsbladet  tells its readers that the ban on meat is mostly a symbolic gesture, and what will be mainly missing is milk.
 Johanna af Hällström , who is a team leader at Helsinki's Urban Environment Division, told the paper that since the hospitality at most city events consists of coffee and snacks, the milk offered for use in coffee has a bigger climate impact than meat does.
 So, it seems the biggest change is that milk will be replaced by an oat-based substitute creamer.
 The farmers' union daily  Maaseudun Tulevaisuus  points out that Helsinki's decision to eliminate meat contains a loophole. Top city officials will still be allowed to offer game at meals for visiting dignitaries. Also, in these cases, the traditional fermented milk drink known as "piimä" in Finnish will also be allowed.
 The paper was critical of the new policy for not requiring that fruits and vegetables served at City of Helsinki events be of domestic origin.
 More electric cars
 The economic and business daily  Kauppalehti reports  that registrations of all-electric cars has shown a sharp upswing in Finland this year.
 In December 2020, 9,673 fully electric cars were on the road in Finland. By the end of September, that number had almost doubled to over 18,000.
 The paper does point out, however, that while popularity is growing, there are issues related to electric cars preventing a real breakthrough.
 The biggest concerns are related to operational distances and the availability of charging points.
 A survey of over 2,000 drivers found men more inclined to buy an electric car than women, and also found that the idea is most popular in Uusimaa and the Helsinki metropolitan area, where nearly half said they could consider a fully electric car for their next personal vehicle.
 Cold and slippery
 The tabloid  Ilta-Sanomat  reports signs that winter may be just around the corner, with colder temperatures in the forecast as we move into the weekend.
 Roads are likely  to become slipper y nationwide, and Foreca meteorologist  Joanna Rinne  advises motorists to be prepared for poor driving conditions all the way down to the southernmost parts of the country.

Thursday's papers: Marin retains popularity, more on meatless Helsinki, slippery roads


Summary: Political squabbling over cultural sector funding cuts, afterparties and 'Boomers' may have contributed to a drop in support for two government parties, Yle's latest poll reveals.

A dispute between two governing coalition partners  over culture sector funding  has led to a drop in support for both parties, according to the results of Yle's latest monthly voter survey.
 The Social Democratic Party (SDP)'s clashed with the Centre Party over planned cuts to funding for sports and culture groups because of shrinking revenues from state gambling firm Veikkaus, a move that was  eventually reversed .
 However, support for Prime Minister  Sanna Marin 's (SDP) party fell by one percentage point to 18.1 from the  last poll  published in October, leaving the governing party in second place overall.
 Meanwhile the Centre Party saw its backing among voters fall by 0.7 percentage points to 11.9 percent.
 "The decline in SDP support started in the second week of the polling period and coincided with a wide range of political events," Research Director  Tuomo Turja  of polling research firm Taloustutkimus told Yle. "There was the controversy over the distribution of  Veikkaus funding , commotion about the Prime Minister  organising an afterparty  in Kesäranta [the PM's official residence] and the  boomer update ."
 With the boomer update, Turja is referring to PM Marin posting a story on Instagram last month in which she posed with fellow SDP MP  Ilmari Nurminen  to the backdrop of Finnish pop singer  Benjamin Peltonen 's lyrics "Hey boom-boom-boomer, stay calm, be cool."
 The post was widely interpreted as a slap-back from the prime minister against criticism over her social media activities.
 Turja noted that support for the SDP declined in particular among the older age group with no evident increase in support among the younger demographics.
 "I would not call this revenge for the 'Boomers', but this discussion around the SDP may not have pleased the older generation," Turja said.
 The term 'Boomer' was explained by many Finnish media outlets as referring to the post-war generation born between 1945 and 1950, but tabloid  Iltalehti  pointed out that the term is often used to refer to people "stuck in the past."
 NCP remain in pole position
 The National Coalition Party (NCP) retained its place as the country's most popular political party — as it has been in every one of Yle's monthly voter polls since the municipal election in June — with its backing among voters remaining exactly the same, at 21.9 percent.
 According to Turja, 20 percent and above is a very strong result under the current political climate, where support is being shared more widely among the parties.
 "There are rarely such high numbers of support at the top of the polls. Today, the situation seems to be that there is not as clearly a top party," Turja said, adding that the current situation looks promising for the NCP as the parties begin preparing for the  county council elections  in January.
 The Finns Party remained in third place in the latest poll, with their support among voters increasing very slightly to 17.9 percent.
 "Support has not changed in one direction or the other. Party chair  Riikka Purra  has continued the line of her predecessor [ Jussi Halla-aho ], and it has certainly been a line that the supporters like," Turja said.
 Other government parties see modest gains
 The other government coalition parties had a better polling period than the SDP and the Centre, with the Green Party seeing a one percentage point jump in support, reversing a recent downward slide.
 "The Greens saw a clear decline last month but the latest poll shows a return to the previous level of support. This time, the Greens saw gains in support among groups where the SDP lost out," Turja said.
 Among the other coalition parties, the Swedish People's Party were up 1.1 percentage points to 5.2 percent while the Left Alliance stayed on 8.6 percent.
 "The increase in support for the Swedish People's Party is explained by the fact that this time the party really held on to its own voters," Turja explained.
 Support for the opposition Christian Democrats fell slightly to 2.6 percent while backing for Movement Now remained the same, at 1.7 percent.
 Taloustutkimus interviewed 2,535 people between 6 October and 2 November 2021 for the survey. Altogether 1,753 voters revealed their party affiliation and the margin of error was +/- 2 percentage points.

Yle poll: SDP and Centre support slips, Greens gain, NCP retain lead


Summary: MP Mikko Kärnä alleged on Twitter that Professor Tuomas Ojanen had written the Green Party's objection to the ruling on Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto's actions in December 2020.

Centre Party MP  Mikko Kärnä  has announced on Twitter that he has been charged with the defamation of Helsinki University's Professor of Constitutional Law  Tuomas Ojanen .
 In December 2020, Kärnä hinted on Twitter that Ojanen had written objections on behalf of MPs  Mari Holopainen  and  Bella Forsgrén  to the ruling of the Parliament's Constitutional Law Committee that Foreign Minister  Pekka Haavisto  (Green) should not be prosecuted over his handling of the repatriation of Finnish citizens from the al-Hol camp in northern Syria.
 Ojanen vehemently denied that he had written the dissenting opinion and said that at the time that he intended filing a defamation suit.
 Prosecutor  Maija Päivinen  confirmed the filing of the charges to Yle, adding that the proceedings will likely start in Helsinki District Court next year.
 Kärnä claims that the prosecutor's interpretation of the suit significantly restricts the constitutional rights of a Member of Parliament to publicly discuss the opinions of experts used by Parliament.
 "I take the matter very seriously and intend to defend myself against the accusation," Kärnä wrote on Twitter.
 Ojanen told news agency STT that he did not want to comment any further on the matter.

Prosecutor charges Centre Party MP with defamation