Summary: Pori and Rovaniemi are among the areas to be worst affected in the coming decades, the Finnish Climate Change Panel warned in a new report.

Heavy rainfall, flooding and rising volumes of water are expected to pour over Finland in the next 30 years, according to the most recent report of the Finnish Climate Change Panel.
 The new report published on Thursday painted a fuller picture of the impact climate change will have on the whole of Finland, outlining the severity of the expected effects by province.
 The report further emphasised the urgency of adaptation measures alongside emission reductions and elevated the risk of severe flooding above that posed by heat waves, droughts or storms.
 Increased rainfall will be observed mainly between October and February, according toresearch professor at the Finnish Meteorological Institute and Head of Climate Change Impact Research,  Hilppa Gregow .
 "We can confidently deduce heavier rainfall from the analyses. Wind, for example, does not seem to pose as a growing risk as rain does," Gregow said.
 Southwest and North of Finland to see worst flooding
 Some areas will be affected by the increased rainfall worse than others. According to the latest report, Pori has the greatest flood risk in Finland, with Rovaniemi coming second.
 The southern coast of Finland and Kymenlaakso will have to battle with both heavy rains and sea floods which could see "drinking water and heating in those areas severely compromised," Gregow said.
 In Lapland, increasing amounts of snow will also cause additional flooding when it melts in spring. This is on top of the heavier rains during the rest of the year.
 "All urban areas should be carefully assessed for risks so that they do not end up in the same state as cities in Germany last summer," Gregow warned.
 Adaptation measures needed now, report warns
 The Finnish Climate Change Panel report further stressed that adaptation measures should already be well underway, adding that Finland should expect more severe effects resulting from the changing climate.
 "Our soil is not used to having year-round rainfall. We haven't really witnessed this in the past," Gregow said.
 According to the report, the impact of extreme weather events like flooding could cause damage worth approximately four million euros per year in Helsinki and Espoo alone. Without action, annual climate-related damages could grow between 16 and 120 percent by 2050 and even more by 2100.
 A key problem is heavier rainfall driven by the changing climate. Over the next ten years, rainfall is projected to grow by a further two to four percent, FMI meteorologist Gregow said.
 "If we go even further, the increase in rainfall will be 8-9% per year. That's five times more than we've seen so far," she told Yle.
 The summer floods in Germany were caused by rainfall six times the average.
 "And there were shocking disasters. That’s just the beginning, we haven’t seen anything yet," Gregow added.
 Story continues after photo.
 FMI metereologist Hilppa Gregow said that too much attention is drawn to the warming of temperatures arguing that the focus in Finland should shift on rainfall patterns instead. Timo Metsäjoki / Yle
 Sirkku Juhola , Professor at the University of Helsinki and member of the Climate Panel, seconds Gregow's concerns over Finland's lack of preparation.
 "Provincial adaptation and risk assessment are in very premature stages. There are no systematic risk assessments in any province," Juhola said.
 According to Juhola, large infrastructure projects should do more to take into account the possible future scenarios of climate change or risk becoming unusable by the end of the century.
 Juhola also urged people to come up with their own contingency plans for adapting to climate change and minimising any negative social and economic consequences.
 "Adaptation is the responsibility of the property owner. If one owns properties or forest areas that are prone to direct impact, they should check what types of insurance are available. As for the risk posed by sudden floods, one should think about what to do if water starts coming in through the door," Juhola explained.

Flooding in Finland is getting worse, new climate report says


Summary: Prosecutors have called for the former local politician to receive a suspended sentence following two previous convictions for the same offence.

Former Oulu councillor  Junes Lokka  faced charges of ethnic agitation for a third time at a trial that began at Oulu District Court on Thursday.
 Lokka, who has one finalised conviction for inciting hatred against an ethnic group and one conviction currently pending an appeal at the Supreme Court, could face a suspended prison term if found guilty.
 The prosecution claims that Lokka made public a message threatening asylum seekers and immigrants at a meeting of Oulu City Council in the winter of 2020.
 The meeting was broadcast live on the council's YouTube channel. Lokka's speech was subsequently taken down from YouTube in February last year.
 Prosecutors claim that as the former local politician has already been  convicted of ethnic agitation twice before , a fine would not be a sufficient punishment. Lokka was previously ordered to pay 70 day-fines following his second conviction last year.
 Lokka, who lost his Oulu council seat in the summer's municipal elections, also faces charges relating to four counts of defamation and invasion of privacy.
 He did not submit a written preliminary response to the district court, indicating his position on the charge. Oulu District Court is due to deliver its verdict on 7 October.
 Court battles
 The former Oulu politician has also found himself on the other side of court battles in recent years. In 2019 Oulu District Court  convicted investigative journalist   Johanna Vehkoo  of defamation after she called Lokka a "racist" and "Nazi clown" in a post on Facebook.
 Vehkoo was also ordered to pay Lokka 200 euros for the suffering he experienced. She was also told to pay the complainant’s legal fees, amounting to a total of 6,000 euros.
 In July Vehkoo was  granted leave to appeal her conviction  by the Supreme Court.
 Oulu District Court is also due to hear the case of Iltalehti journalist  Tommi Parkkonen , who Lokka accused of defamation over a tweet the journalist posted in April 2019.

Junes Lokka's third ethnic agitation trial begins in Oulu


The mayor of Vantaa, home to Finland's busiest airport, has criticised the government's plan to extend coronavirus-related border restrictions until the end of the year.
 On Tuesday, the government proposed that the current  entry restrictions  should be kept in place until the end of December.
 Mayor  Ritva Viljanen  said that as passenger numbers increase, there's a risk of "chaos" at Helsinki Airport due to health inspections of arriving international passengers.
 "There are insufficient facilities for [required Covid] inspections at the airport. The airport doesn't have facilities and there will be complete chaos," she said.
 Passenger volumes at the airport are expected to double from current levels by the end of the year. According to Viljanen, the facility is already congested due to the inspections.
 At the beginning of September it was reported that there were  intermittent periods of congestion  not seen in a long time at the airport.
 The City of Vantaa is responsible for carrying out the coronavirus-related operations at the airport, and spends about one million euros per week on those efforts.
 Stricter than EU
 Viljanen said that the government's decision to keep the border restrictions in place was also costly for Finland as a whole, adding that due to the country's broadened vaccination coverage, there was no longer a need to check the Covid status of every arrival from abroad.
 She said that Finland's border policy had deviated from practices across Europe, adding that an EU-wide Covid border policy should have been introduced by now. Finland's country Covid risk assessment is also stricter than that recommended by the EU.
 Viljanen said that Vantaa would need health care workers to take care of other tasks in the city besides monitoring arriving passengers.
 Generally, other European countries check passengers' vaccination certificates. But in Finland health authorities are required to interview each arriving passenger and to examine their documents.
 "If a person is arriving from a country with a particularly high risk, then of course targeted checks would be made, but otherwise spot checks are adequate," Viljanen said.

Vantaa mayor slams border restriction extension


Summary: This week APN asks why banking can be difficult in Finland for international customers, and also examines the Yle News approach to Facebook.

This week's All Points North podcast asks why some Finnish banks ask customers for a hefty deposit before they open an account — and why some banks are quicker than others to repay it when the account is closed.
 Sami Tanskanen  from the University of Eastern Finland says banking issues become pressing every September as Finland fills with international students, and this year the customer-owner fees have come to the fore.
 "They kind of admitted that it might pose some problems for students who might leave the country before the cycle was up, so I was quite convinced that international students or foreigners in general were not the first people they thought of when they designed these policies," said Tanskanen.
 No bank can decline to open a basic bank account, but there can be hefty monthly fees attached to those accounts. Some banks waive the fees for 'customer-owners' — that is, people who have paid a deposit for a share of the bank.
 You can listen to the full podcast using the embedded player here, via  Yle Areena ,  Spotify  or  Apple Podcasts  or on your usual podcast player using the  RSS feed .
 Article continues after audio.
 Of the two big banks that offer customer-ownership, S-Bank makes it easier to recover the deposit payment — saying they repay it in cash when the account is closed.
 OP, on the other hand, makes customers wait 1-2 years before they get their cash returned. And as it must be paid into a Finnish account, the account-holder must pay the monthly fees for the period between resigning as a customer-owner and the return of their investment.
 S-Bank might seem like a better proposition, then — but they don't offer service in English. Tanskanen said that is an issue more widely on his patch in Kuopio and Joensuu.
 "I think the issue stems from the lack of English-speaking staff and the general downscaling of bank services, which is affecting especially English speakers in our area," said Tanskanen.
 APN also asked the regulator what you should do if — like one APN listener — you are told by a bank you have a 'suspicious nationality'. The answer was clear: make a complaint. You can do that via the  Financial Ombudsman, Fine .
 Facebook "often antagonistic"
 As many listeners may know, Yle News stopped allowing comments on many of its Facebook posts back in April.
 The goal was to stop the increasing shift of reporting time to social media moderation for our staff, and find better ways to communicate with the audience.
 Since then the Canadian public broadcaster CBC has made a similar move, and concerns have grown about Facebook's role in a fractious global media system.
 APN asked  Paul Reilly , a Senior Lecturer in Social Media & Digital Society at the University of Sheffield, what makes Facebook a problematic forum for online discussions.
 "I think it encourages instant reaction, Reilly explained. "Most people who comment on things or respond to things do so in a hurry in an emotional state. And often the content that gets pushed towards them that they comment on is often designed to trigger that emotional response. It's often antagonistic."
 The problem is strongly linked to the platform, rather than users themselves. Facebook encourages certain behaviours and it might not be willing or able to change its systems to become a more constructive place.
 "Perhaps they can't," said Reilly. "They are commercial platforms and we have to always bear that in mind. They're not public service and they're not motivated by that, so perhaps it is a big ask to expect that they could self-regulate to address these problems satisfactorily."
 Get involved!
 This week's show was presented by  Egan Richardson and Zena Iovino . The producer was  Ronan Browne  and the audio engineer was  Joonatan Kotila .
 If you have any questions or would like to share your thoughts, just contact us via WhatsApp on +358 44 421 0909, on our Facebook or Twitter accounts, or at yle.news@yle.fi and allpointsnorth@yle.fi.

APN podcast: Opening an account? Don't bank on it!


Summary: The money, which is part of an EU-wide €750bn package, is due to be announced at a Helsinki press conference next month.

Finland will receive the first instalment of the European Union's 750 billion euro Covid-19 recovery package in October, Yle has learned.
 Multiple sources familiar with the matter have told Yle that European Commission President  Ursula von der Leyen  and Prime Minister  Sanna Marin  (SDP) will announce the approval of Finland's national Covid recovery plan in Helsinki on 4 October.
 Finland's initial payment of some 200-300 million euros constitutes around 13 percent of the total funding package that was approved by a supermajority in Parliament in May after extensive delays, filibuster speeches by opposition MPs and a vote of confidence in the government.
 The bulk of the remaining money - roughly two billion euros - will arrive in 2022 and 2023, and will be used to fund the so-called "green transition" of the economy.
 Story continues after graph.
 Two governing coalition MPs from the Centre Party rebelled and voted against the proposed package in May
 In May, former Finance Minister  Matti Vanhanen  (Cen) said the package was "less of a stimulus, more of a reform programme".
 Finland's proposals are divided into four main areas: green transition, digitalisation, employment and health and social care.
 The details of the support package will be presented by von der Leyen and Marin at a joint press conference. Previous events in other EU member states have included the announcement of concrete spending proposals and projects to be funded by the incoming money.
 Among the 27 EU members, 20 have so far had their national recovery plans approved by the EU and 13 have already begun receiving money from the 750 billion euro fund.
 Yle News' APN podcast covered the debate among MPs from the opposition National Coalition Party, who were divided on whether or not to support the package.
 Article continues after audio.
 Before Finland's first instalment is delivered it must also be approved by the European Council, the body that comprises EU heads of state or government, as well as the president of the European Council  Charles Michel  and European Commission President von der Leyen.
 EU finance ministers will meet on 5 October, where the payment to Finland may be approved.
 Other EU member states have also faced obstacles in finalising their recovery packages. Proposals from Poland and Hungary have been shelved by the Commission on the grounds that they violate the democratic principles of the EU.

Finland to receive first instalment of €2bn Covid recovery package


Summary: Able to reach a maximum speed of 23 knots, the vessel will have six decks and accommodate up to 44 guests.

Shipbuilding firm Meyer Group, which has a shipyard in Southwest Finland, plans to expand its product range to include luxury mega yachts.
 The Germany-based company made the announcement at the Monaco Yacht Show on Thursday as it unveiled the 150-metre-long ONE 50, a mega yacht powered by fuel cells and batteries.
 Able to reach a maximum speed of 23 knots, the ONE 50 will have six decks and accommodate up to 44 guests. The yachts will also be outfitted with a spa, cinema and entertainment areas.
 The company said the yachts could be built at all three of its shipyards, including Turku as well as Papenburg and Rostock, Germany. The company said demand for mega yachts is expected to grow in coming years.
 Most of the ships built at the Meyer shipyard in Turku have been gigantic cruise ships that are able to carry thousands of passengers, but the Covid crisis caused a major slowdown to the cruise industry.
 In August 2020, citing a slowdown due to the crisis, Meyer confirmed it would  lay off 166 workers  at its facility in Turku.
 In August of this year the company announced it had signed a letter of intent to construct multi-purpose vessels for the Finnish Border Guard.

Shipbuilder Meyer plans electric-powered luxury mega yachts


Summary: The most recent case in which police have used e-scooter data was a suspected child harassment incident in Tampere.

Location and other information gathered from rented electric scooters is increasingly being used in police investigations.
 The relatively new strategy was most recently taken into use on Sunday in the city of Tampere.
 Officers in the city have utilised e-scooter data for a case in which a man who was suspected of indecent exposure had approached a group of children while on a ride on one of the devices.
 Head of the investigation and chief inspector  Vesa Järvenpää  said that the police have requested information from Tier, the e-scooter rental company used by the suspect.
 Tier: Complying within data protection laws
 Speaking to Yle, Managing and Commercial Director of Tier Mobility Finland,  Katja Ojala  said she was shocked by the suspected child harassment case.
 "Of course, we will help the police as much as we can within the framework of the Data Protection Act," Ojala said.
 According to Ojala, the company must safeguard the data of its users and will offer its assistance to the police within the Act's limitations. Tier scooters have unique identification numbers much like regular vehicle registrations, which help identify specific users in traffic.
 Järvenpää said he could not comment on the investigation any further, but he noted that the suspect had not yet been reached.
 The police have asked for information or sightings regarding the incident to be sent via e-mail long-term.pirkanmaa@poliisi.fi or by telephone (050 3998 024) during office hours.

Police turn to e-scooter data to trace suspects


Summary: MPs lamented the spread of conspiracy theories as they debated Covid passports, reports Hufvudstadsbladet.

Friday's  Hufvudstadsbladet reports  on Thursday night's parliamentary debate which saw sparks fly as MPs argued over the government's plans to introduce so-called Covid passports.
 The documents would allow people who have been vaccinated against, or recovered from, the virus to enter places like restaurants or bars without restrictions.
 According to Swedish-language HBL, the Finns Party accused the government of forcing people to take the Covid vaccine, with new leader  Riikka Purra  saying that the alternative of taking regular tests for the virus was prohibitively expensive.
 In response, HBL writes, Prime Minister  Sanna Marin  (SDP) said that Covid passports are only meant to be used if the pandemic worsens once again.
 "The virus is unpredictable, and the authorities may be forced to impose restrictions under the law on infectious diseases," she told MPs.
 Culture and science minister  Antti Kurvinen  (Cen) expressed concern that many people in Finland were trusting "tinfoil hat theorists" on the internet, rather than the science behind vaccines.
 According to HBL, this prompted MP  Leena Meri  (Finns) to ask Kurvinen if he was "calling people with medical conditions who are afraid to take the vaccine 'tinfoil hats'".
 Kurvinen responded that he was not, HBL reports.
 _ Would you like a summary of the week's top stories, straight to your inbox every Thursday? Then  sign up for our weekly newsletter! _
 No pushback from PM on income tax cut
 An interview with PM Sanna Marin in  Friday's Ilta-Sanomat  yielded the revelation that she is "open minded" to Finance Minister  Annika Saarikko 's (Cen) announcement that she intends to seek a cut to income tax next year.
 "We have just gone through a budget negotiation. No such proposal came from the finance minister during those negotiations," Marin told IS.
 "Of course, the Minister of Finance will make her own proposal in next year's budget session and we will discuss it on that basis. I am open-minded. I have discussed this subject with Minister Saariko in the past," she said.
 Story continues after photo.
 The finance minister said Finland may not need to wait for a change of government before seeing an income tax cut.  Jussi Nukari / Lehtikuva
 Saarikko's comments earlier this week  followed a Finland Central Chamber of Commerce event where a proposal was put forward to cut income tax by two percent across the board during the term of the next government.
 Marin's response comes after the prime minister (along with her  mildly controversial backpack , IS writes)  sat down with Ilta-Sanomat  to discuss the gradual return to normal after the coronavirus pandemic.
 The PM also told the paper that she had recently taken up running in order to help ward off the fatigue of handling the coronavirus pandemic.
 Ten-tonne record attempt
 West coast local paper  Satakunnan Kansa reports  on a world record attempt taking place on Friday in Pori.
 "Regular mum"  Pirita Ruusulaakso , will attempt to pull 10 classic Fiat 500 cars weighing 10,000kg as far as she can, the paper writes.
 Fitness instructor Ruusulaakso told the paper she wasn't certain she could pull off the feat.
 "It takes a lot of strength in your legs, core and arms. It's also hard on the spine, so I wouldn't recommend trying this," she said.
 According to the paper, Ruusulaakso feels the stunt is a way to blow off steam after the experience of the coronavirus pandemic.
 "People have been through so much crap, they're tired. This is something nice and different to make up for it," she told the paper.
 Ruusulaakso will attempt to pull the train of retro vehicles at Pori's Puuvila shopping centre at 5pm on Friday.
 _Don't forget to listen to  this week's All Points North podcast , where Egan and Zena discuss the obstacles some of Finland's foreign residents face when trying to open a bank account._
 You can listen to the full podcast using the embedded player here, via  Yle Areena ,  Spotify  or  Apple Podcasts  or on your usual podcast player using the  RSS feed .

Friday's papers: Tinfoil hats, income tax cut, 'regular mum' makes strongman record attempt


Summary: A survey commissioned by local government foundation Kaks found that less than 40 percent of eligible voters could cast a ballot.

Elections to the new provincial councils created by the introduction of the government's health and social care 'sote' reforms could see unusually low voter turnout, a new poll has found.
 The survey commissioned by the Foundation for Municipal Development (Kaks) found that 43 percent of respondents said they would definitely vote in the elections, scheduled for January 2022.
 This compares to a similar poll carried out before June's municipal elections, where 60 percent said they were certain to vote.
 In reality, turnout in the municipal elections was 55 percent, which suggests that under 40 percent of eligible voters could cast a ballot to elect new regional authorities in January, Kaks said.
 Voter intention varies by group
 The 21 new regional authorities, plus the City of Helsinki, will take over responsibility for organising and providing health and social care from Finland's 293 municipalities.
 According to the Kaks poll, employees, the unemployed, Finns Party voters, less educated people and people in southern Finland were less likely to vote in the upcoming elections.
 By contrast, managers, recent immigrants, highly-educated people, pensioners, National Coalition Party voters and self-employed people were more likely to vote.
 The survey also found that around one-in-five, or 19 percent, of respondents were interested in being elected to the new regional authorities.
 An Yle survey of MPs carried out in September found that around a third of parliamentarians wanted to run for election to the incoming regional councils.
 Kaks commissioned polling company Kantar TNS to carry out the poll by interviewing 1,000 people earlier this month.

Low turnout predicted for January's provincial elections


Summary: Bringing a sliding scale to parking fines would require a change to Finnish law, however.

Some city officials in Helsinki and Tampere want to introduce escalating fines for parking violations that pose safety hazards.
 If parking violation fines were staggered, there would be higher fees for parking too close to a tram track or a zebra crossing compared to leaving a vehicle at a parking space too long.
 Currently parking fines in Finland's larger cities are generally two-tiered, depending on whether they're in the downtown or on the outskirts, but do not take into account the dangers or inconvenience posed by improper parking.
 For example, parking violation fines in Helsinki and Tampere are 60 euros but in the priciest zones they can be up to 80 euros.
 However, bringing a sliding scale to parking fines would require a change to the law.
 The conversation about changing parking violation fine arrangements was sparked earlier this month after the City of Helsinki published a report on the city's revised parking policy, which was  covered  by newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.
 Prepared by experts, the report stated that parking violation fines should be staggered according to the seriousness of the offence — so that fines would be higher for violations that endangered road safety.
 Story continues after photo.
 One of Tampere's new trams. Antti Eintola / Yle
 The experts wrote that fines should be at least equal to road traffic fines handed to drivers found to have not complied with road traffic signs. The current traffic violation fine for such non-compliance on the roads is 100 euros.
 Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee is considering a bill that would limit the monitoring of parking to being a public endeavour. According to a Helsinki parking working group, such an arrangement would allow escalating fines to be established.
 The City of Tampere's parking inspector,  Sami Hurinki , said the city should examine the possibility of implementing staggered or escalating fines.
 Tampere's nearly brand-new tram system has already caused parking-related problems.
 Hurinki explained that some cars park too close to the tracks when they stop to unload vehicles.
 When a mode of public transport like a tram is held up, it can cause delays to many people with the potential to cause major penalties and costs for society, but the maximum parking violation fine is currently 80 euros.
 "Sometimes it seems that 60 or 80 euros is not enough of a deterrent to change things," Hurinki said.
 Noting that he's in favour of staggered parking fines, he said people with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to bad parking decisions by other drivers.
 "In situations that involve the risk of danger or inconvenience, the fines could well be doubled," Hurinki said.

Finnish cities mull staggered fines for serious parking violations


Summary: "We should remember that hundreds of people die every year from the flu," the physician warned, recommending everyone get flu vaccines.

The coming influenza season will likely be more severe than usual, according to  Asko Järvinen,  infectious diseases specialist and chief physician at Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District (HUS).
 Following many months of relative isolation due to coronavirus-related restrictions, influenza was kept under control last season. However, due to that hiatus, people's immune systems are now lower than usual, he explained.
 "We had virtually no flu last year, so this season will likely be more severe than usual," Järvinen told Yle on Friday.
 However, with only a few isolated cases in the HUS area so far, the flu hasn't gotten a foothold yet, with Järvinen estimating the season will begin towards the end of year.
 The infectious disease specialist encouraged people to take the flu vaccine, emphasising that, in his opinion, at least people in risk groups should get the jab.
 RS cases also expected
 "We should remember that hundreds of people die every year from the flu," Järvinen said.
 "Personally, I recommend the flu vaccine to everyone. We have been vaccinating our family for 20 years," he continued.
 The autumn flu season, according to the chief physician, has started normally as contacts between people have gradually increased, kids are in daycare and schools have started in-person classes.
 The restrictions during the Covid crisis helped to reduce the incidence of flu and other respiratory infections by around 30 percent.
 The incidence of respiratory syncytial virus (RS) — which can affect all age groups but poses significant danger to infants — was nearly nonexistent during that period.
 However, this season, RS is expected to make a strong comeback, according to Järvinen.
 RS is not more dangerous for healthy adults than the common flu, but can lead to inflammation or even pneumonia in young children, particularly infants. The respiratory tract infection can also be very dangerous for the elderly.

HUS chief doc: Severe influenza season looming


Summary: The end of limits on public gatherings in Uusimaa on 1 October means the whole of Finland will be free of restrictions on assembly.

Restrictions on gatherings and public events in Uusimaa will end next week, the Southern Finland Regional State Administrative Agency (Avi) has announced.
 The Southern Finland Avi took the decision after the Helsinki Metropolitan Area Coronavirus Coordination Group proposed allowing the current limits on gatherings to expire on 30 September.
 Once Uusimaa's restrictions end on Friday 1 October, there will no longer be any limits on assembly imposed by Regional State Administrative Agencies in any part of Finland.
 Current recommendations on remote working and mask wearing will remain in place, as will hygiene requirements for indoor venues, the Southern Finland Avi said.
 This means that indoor facilities like shopping centres, sports facilities, museums, theatres and libraries will still have to provide hand disinfection facilities and ensure that service users and customers are kept as far apart as reasonably possible, the Avi said.
 The capital region's Covid coordination group had asked for swimming pools, gyms and group exercise classes to be exempted from safety distance requirements and other measures from the beginning of October.
 Improving situation
 Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District's (HUS) acting chief medical officer  Jari Petäjä  said on Tuesday that the capital region's coordination group made the decision to call for the ending of the restrictions because of the improving pandemic situation in and around Helsinki.
 The number of coronavirus-infected people requiring hospital care has remained at a relatively low level for a sustained period of time, Petäjä said.
 "Five or fewer than five patients have needed intensive care in recent days, and there have been just over 20 [coronavirus] patients in the wards," he said, adding that the current numbers are easily manageable by the HUS system.

Uusimaa Covid-19 gathering restrictions end next week


Summary: "I will do my best to give my son another chance and I hope others will do the same," Finns Party MP Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo wrote in a Twitter post.

Finns Party MP  Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo  confirmed on Friday that her adult son has committed an aggravated drug offence.
 Following a report from tabloid paper Iltalehti that her son was facing criminal charges in Southwest Finland District Court, Slunga-Poutsalo posted a message on Twitter confirming the news on Friday morning.
 "My son has committed an aggravated drug offence. He has done his best to shoulder his responsibilities and to [help] investigation of the crimes. He is also trying to break his addiction and change his direction upwards," Slunga-Poutsalo's first tweet read.
 "I will do my best to give my son another chance and I hope others will do the same," a second tweet continued.
 Slunga-Poutsalo's son, who is 27 years old, was charged with an aggravated drug offence, among other crimes at Southwest Finland District Court last Friday.
 According to court documents, the man is suspected of smuggling more than one kilogram of amphetamine and smaller quantities of other drugs into Finland from the Netherlands during 2012 and 2020 and sold them online.
 The suspect admitted during the pretrial investigation that he had ordered the drugs from the Netherlands and sold them.
 The prosecutor has demanded the suspect serve a roughly six year prison term.

Finns Party MP acknowledges son suspected of drug offences


Summary: Finnish recruiters and employers need to recognise and appreciate foreign qualifications and work experience, the TEK report recommended.

A report out on Thursday says that foreigners in Finland's labour market face prejudice, unnecessary language requirements, discrimination, lack of recognition of their qualifications and lower pay than their Finnish counterparts.
 Engineering union TEK commissioned the report, which found several faults with employers.
 "Many of the disadvantages they face derive directly from discrimination and prejudice in recruitment practices and hiring on the part of employers," the report stated.
 TEK launched the study earlier this year in an attempt to discover the reasons behind the relatively high unemployment rate among people of foreign background. In June this year, 27.5 percent of immigrants living permanently in Finland were unemployed, compared to a total unemployment rate of just 7.1 percent in July.
 The  report  found that some of the reasons behind the high unemployment rate for people with immigrant backgrounds, especially in the technology sector, included a requirement among employers for "fluent" Finnish language skills, a lack of recognition of foreign skills and qualifications, and Finnish bureaucracy.
 Fluent Finnish used as "excuse"
 With regard to the issue of fluent Finnish language skills, the report queried why this was such an important requirement for employers, especially as fluency is a "highly subjective" benchmark.
 "It often feels like "fluent Finnish" is just an excuse not to employ internationals," researcher  Patricia Virsinger  said. "Very often A2 or B1 level would be perfectly sufficient to do the job, versus native level, which is C2."
 The report recommended that recruiters and employers re-evaluate this requirement and determine the language skills needed for certain jobs, in particular in line with the level achieved for the Finnish National Certificate of Language Proficiency YKI.
 Report: Recognise foreign qualifications, work experience
 The report further suggested that there needs to be a greater recognition and appreciation of foreign qualifications and work experience in Finnish society.
 "The studies we examined show that immigrants are often assumed to be unskilled or that they are in need to be educated of "the Finnish way of doing work"," researcher  Shannon Nichols  said.
 "The assumption that immigrants don’t know how to work in Finland shows the discriminatory attitudes towards immigrants and their studies or work experience outside of Finland."
 This shows in migrants' pay packets, too. TEK found that "the median salary of non-Finnish nationals working in tech is lower than Finnish nationals. Finnish nationals’ median salary is 5040 euros, EU nationals’ median salary is 4440 euros, and a non-EU nationals’ median salary is 4000 euros".
 TEK's Research Manager  Susanna Bairoh  told the All Points North podcast that many foreigners earn lower salaries than their Finnish counterparts.. You can listen to the full podcast using the embedded player here, via Yle Areena, Spotify or Apple Podcasts or on your usual podcast player using the RSS feed.
 Article continues after audio.
 The report also noted that many immigrants in Finland are unable to secure employment in their own profession and are forced to change career paths.
 Nichols also commented on the bureaucratic barriers that immigrants face, highlighting in particular the "arduous" residence permit process.
 "The bureaucratic barriers to hiring non-EU nationals should be removed and the processing time for residence permits and the income requirements for visas should be reduced," she said.
 The full study can be read on the  TEK website .

Union report: Migrants suffer lower pay, prejudice, discrimination in Finland


Summary: The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health said that vaccine coverage should reach the government's target by the middle of next month.

The nationwide recommendation for people to work remotely where possible should end on 15 October, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health have proposed in a joint press release.
 The proposal further suggests that a return to workplaces could begin earlier, depending on risk assessments and each region's epidemiological situation.
 "Extending the recommendation on remote work until mid-October gives workplaces, in consultation with employees, an opportunity to flexibly transition to an increasingly hybrid model that combines remote and in-office work," the statement said.
 The ministries stated that by the middle of next month vaccine coverage would be close to the government's  target for 80 percent  of the population aged 12 and over to be fully-vaccinated, allowing people to return to workplaces.
 Therefore, employers should begin preparing for workers to combine on-site and remote working, the ministries said.
 If the telecommuting recommendation does end, employers will assume more responsibility for occupational health and safety, they added.
 "With more people present in the workplace, protection against the coronavirus will continue to be necessary," the statement said.
 The ministries added that the proposal was based on assessments provided by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare THL and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health.

Ministries: Remote work recommendation to end in October


Summary: The Autobarometer 2021 survey also found that Finland's young people were becoming more interested in car ownership.

The coronavirus pandemic has reversed a trend that saw young people's interest in owning a car wane, a new survey released on Friday claims.
 The Autobarometer 2021 survey found that people under 36 years old were most likely to have increased their car use and reduced their use of public transport.
 Around a quarter of young adults in Finland said they had increased their car use in the last year, compared to 16 percent of the population as a whole.
 Almost half of those surveyed in Finland said the Covid-19 pandemic had no impact on their travel habits, while 29 percent said it had led to them cutting their use of public transport.
 "The coronavirus has broken the trend where young people preferred to travel by public transport or by renting a car when necessary," said  Altti Kuuri  of Danske Bank, which has commissioned the annual survey since 2013.
 "The popularity of private cars fell sharply until 2019, when just over half of young people saw themselves driving their own car in five years' time, down from 82 percent in 2015. Now, 60 percent of young people want to have their own car in five years' time," Kuuri said.
 Alternative power sources on the rise
 While the thought of a new generation of petrolheads may raise concerns about the impact cars have on the environment, the new survey also found that people in Finland were more open to buying a hybrid, electric or biogas vehicle than ever before.
 Almost half of those considering buying a car were thinking of buying an electric, hybrid or biogas-powered one. A year ago, that figure was 39 percent. In 2015, it was just 15 percent.
 "Media attention, technological advances and environmental awareness have clearly increased interest. Lower fuel costs have overtaken lower emissions as the main reason to buy an alternative car," Kuuri said.
 However, most of those surveyed said that the high cost of hybrids, EVs and other alternatives to internal combustion engine vehicles put them off making the switch.
 For people in northern Finland, the lead concern was the range of such vehicles when compared to petrol or diesel equivalents.
 26.9: Corrected headline to include hybrids.

Survey: Almost half of car buyers would consider an electric or hybrid vehicle


Summary: The incident took place at an amateur football game in Kouvola in July last year.

A man faces charges of ethnic agitation over racist abuse hurled at players during an amateur football match in Kouvola last year.
 The incident took place during a game between local teams Bar Joker and Kouvolan Lakut, an amateur side linked to the city's Saaga Multicultural Centre.
 The Saaga centre alleged that racist abuse against its players during the game - who are of immigrant background - came both on the pitch and from the stands.
 However, police investigations focused on the spectators at the match, following a report from a supporter who was watching the game.
 The man facing charges at Kymenlaakso District Court was also attending the July 2020 game as a spectator.
 "We have a good external witness who will also be heard in court in due course. The accused has also partly admitted his actions," prosecutor  Matti Torkkel  said.
 According to the prosecution, the case is unusual as it concerns racist shouting in public, rather than social media or other public writings. Convictions for ethnic agitation usually result in a sentence of several dozen income-linked day fines.
 "Incitement against a group of people is a serious crime, which the police are investigating with particular care. There were many hearings and interviews," said Detective Sergeant  Juha Lehtoranta  of the South-East Finland Police Department.
 In April this year a player in the Czech national team was punished for  racially abusing  Finland and Glasgow Rangers footballer  Glen Kamara  during a club match in Scotland.
 Czech player  Ondřej Kúdela  was  handed a ten-match ban  by European football authority UEFA which resulted in him missing the delayed Euro 2020 tournament.

Man faces trial over football match racist abuse


Summary: According to the group's estimates, the reforms will cost the average earner about 1,800 euros per year in extra municipal taxes for the first eight years of the reforms.

Broad reforms to Finland's social and healthcare system, colloquially known as 'sote,' will end up costing taxpayers billions of euros, according to  Eero Laesterä , director of the Finnish Consulting Group (FCG). The firm is owned by the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities (AFLRA).
 Once implemented, the reforms will change how social and healthcare services are organised and provided in Finland. Responsibility for the services is set to pass from the country's current 293 municipalities to 21 regional authorities plus the city of Helsinki by the beginning of 2023.
 Laesterä said that there will be around 6.4 billion euros in extra costs during the first eight years following implementation of the reforms.
 "You have to believe the figures when the officials have done the math," Laesterä said.
 According to his calculations, that 6.4-billion-euro sum equates to a municipal tax hike of five percentage points.
 Meanwhile, according to the Taxpayers Association of Finland, a five-percentage-point tax hike would cost an average income earner an additional 1,800 euros per year, while it would cost jointly-filing taxpayers around 3,400 euros extra annually.
 Equal services?
 Jukka Lindberg , who is leading the work on sote reforms in the Kanta-Häme region and has worked on sote matters since 2006, agreed that the extra costs will eventually be picked up by taxpayers.
 Story continues after photo.
 Jukka Lindberg Ville Välimäki / Yle
 He said the reforms have the potential to save money but that it doesn't seem to be a priority for policymakers.
 "The current government's ideas seem to be about securing services, not about costs. Finding savings in the process would require work and political courage, which is a rather precious resource," Lindberg said.
 One of the key promises regarding the sote reforms has been that there will be the same, equally-high level of social and health care services across the country.
 "I can't believe that anyone seriously believes this promise. Maybe a minimum level of service will be available everywhere, but [total] equality cannot be achieved," the FCG's Laesterä said.
 25.9: Added consultancy's ownership, clarified headline.

Social and healthcare reform will bring more costs rather than savings, says consultancy


Summary: Some 140 Elokapina activists were detained on Wednesday.

Tabloid  Iltalehti  reports that Finland's so-called "dancing ban" will stay in effect until Covid vaccination coverage exceeds 80 percent, according to authorities. The current rules mean that staff at bars and restaurants need to ensure each customer sits in their own seat when indoors.
 The tabloid writes that the public is now confused as to why the ban will continue to be in force despite the loosening of gathering restrictions at the beginning of October.
 Gathering restrictions are set out by the regional government agencies, known as "Avi." Restaurant restrictions, on the other hand, are in the hands of the national government, which issues a weekly decree on what kind of restrictions apply, Iltalehti explains.
 While the country anticipates the total lifting of coronavirus restrictions, slowing vaccination rates are causing concern,  Helsingin Sanomat  writes.
 Achieving the goal of 80 percent coverage by October is still possible, but it now rests on people's desire to get the jab, leading expert at the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL),  Mia Kontio  told the daily paper.
 Vaccination rates are looking good in older age groups with more than 90 percent of over-60s having received the first dose and 86 percent the second dose. Vaccine coverage is, however, lower in younger age groups.
 "For example, 20 to 35-year-olds, we are still well behind the target," Kontio said.
 Mannerheimintie protest broken up, 140 activists detained
 Police Finland detained some 141 activists of the Finnish branch of the global environmental movement Extinction Rebellion ( Elokapina  in Finnish), during Wednesday's Helsinki demonstration, according to  Helsingit Sanomat .
 The environmental group kicked off their "Autumn Rebellion" at 6 pm on Wednesday by occupying the capital's main thoroughfare, Mannerhimintie. The protest was however deemed illegal by police and was broken up by authorities merely an hour after it started.
 "The arrests were conducted peacefully," the department  tweeted .
 According to Elokapina, the demonstration is scheduled to last ten days, unless the government responds to the movement's demands. Helsinki Police reportedly told  Ilta-Sanomat  that they are already preparing for the activists to return to the area in front of the Parliament building.
 Agriculture sector facing "acute" crisis
 Rising production costs and a poor harvest year will mean a challenging autumn lies ahead for farmers, Tampere based  Aamulehti  reports. In proportion to the number of farms, the pork industry is suffering more than most, the paper writes.
 A price increase by 20 cents per kilogram would offer some quick relief, pig farmer  Reijo Keskinen  told Aamulehti. "This would mean an additional 10 cents per meat portion of half a kilo. That should not be an insurmountable jump in my opinion," Keskinen said.
 The Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK) wants more money flowing to farmers. MTK's chair,  Juha Marttila , wants banks to ease up on financing policies for farmers who need some flexibility.
 "The anguish is severe for many. We are not talking about months but weeks. The bill stack awaits," Marttila told the paper. "The harvest is gone, the feed is still to be paid, investments in fertilisers and seeds are pending, but the banks are not handing out a penny," he added.

Thursday's Papers: dancing ban, civil disobedience and farmers in despair


Summary: Due to Covid restrictions, only 74 MPs were allowed to participate in plenary sessions at a time.

All 200 of Finland's Members of Parliament will be permitted to sit in the plenary hall at the same time from 5 October.
 Due to Covid restrictions, only 74 MPs have been allowed to participate in plenary sessions at a time, but the office of the Speaker of Parliament announced on Friday afternoon that restrictions can be lifted as 82 percent of MPs are fully vaccinated.
 This figure means that 36 MPs have only received one or no doses of a coronavirus vaccine so far.
 Parliamentary committees will also be able to return to their designated meeting rooms, the office added.

Parliament returning to normal as 82% of MPs fully vaccinated


Summary: The sound effects creators behind The Underground Railroad and Sound of Metal discuss their path to acclaimed international projects and the awards recognition that has followed.

When the Emmy awards for outstanding achievement in television were handed out last weekend, there were a few Finnish names in the mix.
 Foley artists  Heikki Kossi ,  Pietu Korhonen  and  Kari Vähäkuopus  were each nominated for their work on Amazon’s  The Underground Railroad , a limited series about a woman’s escape from slavery in 19th century America.
 Most sounds heard on the screen — punches, footsteps, doors opening and closing, ringing telephones and other subtle details — are created after filming by audio experts known as Foley artists and these elements are assembled into the film's final form.
 Capturing the swishing of clothes and creaking of doors are all standard fare for a Foley artist. For Kossi and his crew, creating sound effects for environments that only exist in our imagination, like future space travel or the inside of your head, is where it gets really interesting.
 Award has pros and cons
 This is not the first time that the work of audio production company H5 has been recognised: They were  part of the team  that won an Oscar for best sound on Sound of Metal, a film about the experience of losing your hearing.
 Their Emmy nods, and  Juho Kuosmanen ’s  Grand Prix award  at this summer’s Cannes Film Festival for  Compartment No.6 , have put Kossi and his colleagues on a solid awards track.
 Peer recognition is an honour, Kossi tells Yle News, but joked that it can have an adverse effect on careers.
 "I remember when  Dominick Tavella  won the Oscar for  Chicago  and his phone stopped ringing for six months, because everyone assumed he was busy," Kossi says. "For us, thankfully, these events have resulted in people contacting us. Even before  Underground Railroad  premiered on Amazon, we got a few inquiries based on previews. These are small circles."
 International success through word of mouth
 There are currently more astronauts than Foley artists in the world, according to Kossi, which makes H5's prolific CV all the more impressive. In recent years they have made their mark on films like sci-fi flick  Ad Astra  starring  Brad Pitt ,  Sofia Coppola ’s  The Beguiled  and Finnish nouveau classic  Unknown Soldier .
 Kokkola-based Kossi’s international career trajectory started around 15 years ago, after he created a Facebook page for his company. Projects started to trickle in, most notably collaborations with Danish sound designer  Peter Albrechtsen , with whom they worked on the 2019 Oscar-nominated documentary  The Cave .
 "Peter is highly connected. In fact, when  Tim Nielsen , a sound mixer from Skywalker Ranch, came to mix one of his projects, he stopped the film after ten minutes and asked, 'Who did the Foley on this?' That’s how we landed  The Little Prince ," recalls Kossi, whose work stems largely from word of mouth.
 "I’ve always believed that good work pays off and we never make compromises when it comes to the quality of our work," he adds.
 Story continues after photo.
 Foley artist Heikki Kossi in the recording studio. Kalle Niskala / Yle
 The Underground Railroad  came to H5 through frequent  Barry Jenkins -collaborator  Onnalee Blank , best known for her Emmy-winning sound mixing work on  Game of Thrones .
 "She called me up and said she needed ‘a better Foley team'," Kossi says.
 The project, which consists of 10 one-hour episodes, presented Kossi, Korhonen and Vähäkuopus with an extraordinary amount of work.
 "From a Nordic perspective, the resources were next-level," he says. "People always think that a big budget equals a lot of coffee breaks, but it’s the opposite."
 "With this kind of project, every detail matters. We had a lot of recording days, which meant that you have ample time to create, and you don’t have to figure out which sounds to drop because you can’t get to it all," he adds.
 Human contact imperative in filmmaking
 The pandemic has not slowed them down professionally, but Kossi and Korhonen lament the fact that they have not been able to be in physical contact with their clients as much as they would like.
 "Filmmaking is based on human interaction, so you can imagine how difficult it has been to do our jobs over Zoom," says Korhonen.
 Kossi agrees with this, and adds that: "Foley work can be done remotely, but I think it helps tremendously, if you’re doing the sound design for an entire film, that you’re sitting in the same room."
 Because of current travel restrictions, Kossi and Korhonen were unable to attend the Creative Arts ceremony in Los Angeles on 11 September. While going to a glamorous event where your work is being honoured would be a fun experience, the true value of attending is scoring face-to-face time with colleagues and clients.
 "This is the kind of field where you form teams that want to do multiple projects together. This means that while much of the work has to do with your job performance, a lot of it depends on how you get along with people," he explains.
 What Kossi believes makes his company stand out, however, is the ability to deliver what others might not.
 "For the past ten years we have worked with some of the best people in the field, artists whose skills are at the highest level, and every job leaves its mark on us," he says. "The ability to really create nuance, which only comes with experience, has led us to some top projects. That has been truly gratifying."

Finnish Foley artists enjoy Emmy nominations, international success


Summary: Officers returned fire "to stop a dangerous person". The police officer who was shot has been released from hospital.

A police officer was shot while on duty on Friday night in the south-central city of Hämeenlinna.
 In a press release, Häme police said that the incident occurred around 11.30 pm in the courtyard of a block of flats while officers were responding to a call. In response, they said, "police used a service weapon to stop a dangerous person".
 Police said that the operation was still in progress as of about 3:30 am Saturday.
 According to the police, the situation was by then under control and no one was in danger any longer.
 The police declined to comment further on the matter at that stage, but promised to provide more details later.
 The prosecutor on duty was informed of the incident, as required whenever a service weapon is used in the line of duty, Häme police said.
 The case has been handed over to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). It said later on Saturday that the police officer had been released from hospital, but declined to release more details, citing the ongoing investigation.
 It is being treated as a case of attempted murder.
 Hämeenlinna is a city of 68,000, about 100 km north of the capital, Helsinki.
 Officers shot a month ago in Rusko
 The most recent shooting of police officers took place in Rusko, Southwest Finland, on 23 August. According to a preliminary investigation by the NBI, three police officers faced a life-threatening situation. The gunman was shot by police and died in hospital.
 Two years ago, two police officers were wounded in Porvoo by two Swedish brothers, who also fired at police during a car chase in Pirkanmaa.
 In mid- 2016, one police officer was killed and another wounded with an assault rifle in Vihti. In 2012, police in Hyvinkää were wounded during a shooting incident that left two people dead.
 14.20: Updated with more details.

Police officer shot in Hämeenlinna


The leader of the opposition National Coalition Party (NCP),  Petteri Orpo , has called for more foreign workers to meet the labour shortage in many sectors of the Finnish economy.
 Interviewed on the Yle TV1 talk show  Ykkösaamu  on Saturday, Orpo said that if elected to government, his party would work to slash the bureaucracy associated with work-based immigration.
 In Orpo's view, the idea that the labour shortage problem can be solved without more labour immigration is a non-starter.
 He argued that international labour recruitment is such an important issue that it should be centralised rather than scattered across different ministries.
 "This is [now] not really anyone's clear responsibility, but instead several ministries are handling this as a sort of secondary duty. We want to collect this responsibility under one entity, because this is such a critical issue for Finland," he said.
 Orpo suggested that, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, for example, could be ensure that those who want to work in Finland can quickly have deal with paperwork. He noted that there is a tremendous amount of red tape associated with work-related immigration.
 "Simply put, it's almost impossible to get to Finland, at least quickly," he said.
 The NCP chair pointed out that there is fierce competition for international experts and that Finland must assure it is an attractive option.
 Accuses Saarikko of "false little trick"
 Orpo also criticised Finance Minister  Annika Saarikko  for her comments on a possible income tax cut.
 "I see this as a false little trick," Orpo said. "She suggested tax cuts on earned income in 2023 but then said in almost the next sentence that this is unlikely to be accepted by her government partners."
 He pointed out that Saarikko's first budget proposal will be debated in Parliament next week, and that it does not include a word about reducing income taxes.
 In a speech to the Central Chamber of Commerce last week, Finance Minister and Centre Party chair Saarikko suggested that income taxes could be lowered during this legislative term – a measure traditionally sought by the pro-business National Coalition Party.
 The NCP has been  leading public opinion polls  in recent months. In Parliament, it is tied with the other main opposition bloc, the Finns Party, as the second-largest party. They each have 38 seats, just behind Prime Minister  Sanna Marin 's Social Democratic Party, which has 40. Saarikko's Centre is the fourth major party with 31 seats.
 Orpo was finance minister in 2016–19 after previous stints as interior minister and agriculture minister.

NCP chair Orpo: Slash red tape to attract more foreign workers


Summary: The 14th annual Finnish Giant Vegetable Championships drew gardening enthusiasts from all over the country to the south-central town of Mäntsälä on Saturday.

The Finnish Giant Vegetable Association hosted its annual national championships on Saturday in the garden of Keuda vocational college's Saari Manor House in Mäntsälä.
 The contest attracted dozens of competitors from across the country, most of them competing with several vegetables.
 The largest vegetable of the year was a pumpkin that weighed in at 306.2 kg. It was grown by  Marja  and  Timo Iisakkila  from Hauho, near Hämeenlinna.
 Pumpkin behemoths await their turn to be weighed at the Finnish Championships in Mäntsälä. Elina Vuori / Suomen Jättikasvisyhdistys ry
 The Iisakkilas' great pumpkin won out of a field of 18 huge pumpkins. Pumpkins have been designated as vegetable of the year by the Central Organisation for Finnish Horticulture.
 A rutabaga weighing more than six kilos, a beetroot of almost three kilos, gargantuan cabbages and many other vegetables competed in their own series for the 2021 mega- vegetable awards.
 This squash grown by Laura Pirhonen from Tohmajärvi set a new Finnish record of 52.11 kilos.  Elina Vuori / Suomen Jättikasvisyhdistys ry
 Growing giant vegetables is gaining popularity, according to  Elina Vuori , competition director at the Finnish Giant Vegetable Association.
 "There were probably more competitors this year than ever before, including some completely new faces in the crowd," she said.
 Various types of pumpkins and squashes on display at the Mäntsälä Finnish Championships. Elina Vuori / Suomen Jättikasvisyhdistys ry
 The association has also attracted more members than ever. Vuori said she was pleased that more children and young people have become enthusiastic about growing and competing vegetables.
 "We just measured a 180-kilo pumpkin grown by a child," Vuori told Yle, adding that she was also pleased to see hundreds of spectators despite chilly, damp weather.

306-kilo pumpkin wins Finnish mega-veggie championship


Summary: Following the chaotic withdrawal of western coalition forces from Kabul last month, Afghans in Finland face life in limbo.

Shortly before Finland evacuated 413 Afghan and Finnish citizens from Kabul  in late August , the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) announced that it would  suspend deportations  of asylum seekers to Afghanistan.
 While this came as relief to those who were facing imminent removal to one of the most dangerous places in the world, things are far from settled. Many now face a limbo, uncertain of their status and how long they will be permitted to remain in Finland.
 While Migri is not actively seeking to remove Afghans from Finland, it is not contacting them to explain the changed circumstances either. This causes stress and uncertainty for people who have fled an unstable and dangerous situation.
 "I spend most of my time crying alone"
 "Since August, I spend most of my time crying alone," said  Munir , who arrived in Finland in 2015 from Afghanistan’s Ghazni Province. Munir says he fled Afghanistan in 2011 after being targeted by the Taliban for his work with a foreign NGO.
 "All of us refugees are worried right now. As things currently stand, Migri could decide to send us back to Afghanistan the second our permits expire. Those of us who have lived under the Taliban already know that the country will not be safe any time soon," he told Yle News.
 Munir received multiple negative decisions from Migri, being granted a temporary residence permit in 2019 that is due to expire next year. He has not been contacted by Migri since deportations were suspended in July.
 Article continues after photo
 An Afghan mother and daughter in a Helsinki park. Terhi Liimu / Yle
 Munir explained that "everything has changed since the Taliban took over" and that he fears for himself and for his family. They remain stuck in Kabul, unable to leave since Finland suspended family reunification at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. He also describes the uncertainty of his situation and not knowing if he will ever be reunited with his wife as the worst part of his ordeal.
 "If the [Finnish] government hates us and does not want us in this country, it would be easier if they just said so. It is so much worse not knowing whether we will be able to build a life here," he said.
 "This is mental torture"
 "I am just so tired at the moment," said  Abdul* , an Afghan asylum seeker in his early twenties who has been in Finland for six years. Despite arriving when he was underage, Abdul has only received negative decisions on multiple asylum applications. His most recent rejection occurred while he was receiving treatment in hospital for a serious illness, despite his doctor writing a letter to Migri requesting that they take his deteriorating health into consideration.
 "This whole process has completely worn me down. My mental health is in a terrible state and Migri’s treatment of me is basically mental torture," he said. "I miss my mother, but she is not able to come here."
 Prior to Migri’s decision to suspend deportations in July, more than a third of Afghan asylum seekers had their  applications rejected , with some being sent back as recently as June. Most Afghan asylum seekers were sent to Kabul, as this was one of the only parts of the country designated as sufficiently safe.
 Abdul says he received a letter from Migri last month informing him that removal proceedings against him had been dropped, but that he has received no further guidance on what to do next.
 Need for clarity
 Katja Mannerström , Head of Public Affairs at the Finnish Refugee Council ( Suomen Pakolaisapu ) says that there is a "huge need" for greater clarity from the authorities right now, and that those in need are suffering without it.
 "All of our phones have been ringing constantly since the Taliban took over," explained Mannerström. "There are a lot of false rumours flying around, since Migri is not proactively contacting people who have had their negative decisions overturned."
 She urged anyone seeking asylum to re-apply if they have recently received a negative decision, in line with Migri's guidance. She also noted that Migri has loosened its criteria for asylum seekers who can apply for a so-called Alien Passport, which makes it easier to open a bank account and apply for jobs and housing in Finland.
 Despite these recent moves, Mannerström describes the current asylum process in Finland as "mentally breaking," with many Afghans waiting more than six years for a decision.
 "This is something that Finland needs to do better. It is obvious that Afghanistan has not been safe for at least the last six years and that there are a lot of people who should have been granted asylum but weren’t," she said.
 Refugee NGO concerned about protection
 Pia Lindfors , Executive Director of the Refugee Advice Centre (Pakolaisneuvonta) says that simply suspending negative decisions for the time being is not an adequate solution, and that more needs to be done to help vulnerable people.
 Article continues after photo
 Pia Lindfors, Executive Director of the Refugee Advice Centre Yle Svenska / Jessica Stoltzmann
 "We have never seen anything like this," said Lindfors. "Even before the events of the summer, the never-ending limbo that Afghan asylum seekers are subjected to by Migri and the courts has taken a devastating toll. Some of our clients are really falling apart right now."
 According to Lindfors, her group is not entirely confident that Afghans in Finland will receive the protection and reassurances to which they are entitled. In her view, Migri’s previous actions, based on decisions by previous governments, amounted to "creating a hostile environment" to force them to leave.
 She also says that the tendency of the Finnish system to apply a "very strict interpretation of the law" meant that many deserving applicants have been rejected despite being guaranteed protection under UNHCR guidelines.
 "Across the whole of the EU, the system is currently failing, even though it looks good on paper," said Lindfors. "The rhetoric we are seeing across the EU right now suggests that the environment towards Afghans will become more hostile in the future, which doesn’t bode well for people who are already here."
 "They could kill us at any moment"
 While asylum seekers in Finland have received some reprieve, those who have already been sent back to Afghanistan face even greater difficulties.
 "They could kill us at any moment. I wait up every night for the Taliban to come to our house," said  Jamil* , a journalist currently in Kabul with his family, after leaving Finland in 2018 following a negative decision from Migri.
 In Jamil’s official rejection letter seen by Yle, Migri acknowledged that he could be targeted by the Taliban for his work but concluded that he could be reasonably safe in the capital if he kept a low profile and did not continue openly working as a journalist. Migri also acknowledged in the letter that Jamil’s colleagues and acquaintances had been targeted and even killed by the Taliban, but that this did not constitute a significant enough threat to his own safety to warrant a positive asylum decision.
 "Nobody can trust the Taliban; they have already started killing journalists here," said Jamil by phone from his home in Kabul.
 Jamil also described the Finnish evacuation effort as "surprising," saying that he and his peers in Finland had expected the embassy to evacuate tens of thousands of people, as opposed to just over 400.
 "We asked for help from Finnish officials during the evacuation and they said that we were not eligible for assistance. Afghanistan is not safe for journalists, and I hope that Migri will correct its mistakes and give me and my family another chance," he said.
 Migri urges people to re-apply for asylum
 Antti Lehtinen , Director of Migri's Asylum Unit, told Yle News that anyone from Afghanistan who has received a final negative decision should re-apply now, so that their need for international protection can be re-examined.
 Article continues after photo
 A Migri service point (file photo) Antti Aimo-Koivisto / Lehtikuva
 Lehtinen added that anyone who is undocumented can come forward and re-apply without negative consequences, as "the situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated rapidly" in recent months and previous decisions do not apply.
 Asked whether authorities should have designated Afghanistan as unsafe earlier and stopped deporting people before the summer, Lehtinen replied that Migri "always uses accurate country of origin information" provided by agencies such as the European Asylum Support Office (EASO), which plays a major role in the EU’s common refugee policy.
 He noted that EASO will be releasing revised country guidance information for Afghanistan "sometime in November" and that Migri will issue new information for refugees after this. Until then, Migri urges Afghan asylum seekers to be patient.
 "Altogether, we have more than 2,600 hundred asylum cases pending at the moment. We have a lot on our plate, so it may take time for everyone to receive their decisions. However, know that we are not issuing negative decisions or removals for Afghans at this point," said Lehtinen.
 Afghans seeking guidance on the updated asylum policies and their rights can find information on the Migri website in  Dari  and  English . Guidance on applying for an Alien Passport is also available  here .
 *Name changed for safety reasons.

Afghans in Finland face an uncertain future


Summary: The Taxpayers' Association of Finland is calling for changes in tax deductions for home offices, as teleworking is here to stay.

According to the Taxpayers' Association of Finland (TAF), the system of tax deductions for home offices should be overhauled due to the sharp – and apparently permanent – rise in working from home since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
 Kati Malinen , chief legal officer at the taxpayers' lobby, argues that the current one-size-fits-all deduction system is no longer workable as the situations of those who work from home vary so greatly.
 Under the current system, those who work from home for more than half the days in a year receive a standard home office deduction of 900 euros. Those who work remotely less than half-time automatically receive a deduction of 450 euros. In addition to this, specific telework-related purchases such as equipment and furniture can also be submitted for possible further tax deductions.
 According to the taxpayers' group, today's working arrangements are too complex and variable to fit into this scheme.
 Due to teleworking demands, "there are many wage-earners who have bought bigger homes, which really increases their costs. On the other hand, owners of detached houses and owners of housing shares are in different positions, as shareholders cannot deduct the purchase price of a work room," Malinen told Yle.
 According to Malinen, increasing teleworking could also lead many to start calculating their actual costs and submitting itemised statements to tax authorities instead of opting for the standard deduction, which would increase the administrative burden on tax officials.
 Determining the cost of work is tricky
 The lump sum solution was made because of the difficulty of determining the real costs of the work itself when telecommuting. The present scheme is intended to be clear and simple for both taxpayers and authorities.
 "It is made to compensate for the wear and tear on the home and equipment, which is difficult to calculate. It is also difficult to break down what else the premises at home are used for," explained  Sami Varonen , Head Tax Advisor at the Tax Administration.
 Even with the rise in teleworking, Varonen does not agree that home office deductions should be increased, as in his view the current compensation level is sufficient.
 "The law stipulates that the actual expenses incurred in obtaining income may be deducted, and that tax officials interpret which ones may be deducted," he noted.
 Varonen also points out that the tax administration has been rather permissive about allowing deductions for purchases such as additional monitors and desks. Malinen also notes this policy with approval.
 Commuters' deductions may be revised
 Instead of increasing the workroom deduction, Varonen is considering a reform of business travel deductions. These have been based on the cost of the cheapest public transport tickets available, which is simple and easy to determine.
 "As teleworking becomes more widespread, this brings a new challenge. Now, it may no longer be the case that, for example, a monthly ticket is the cheapest. Recording and checking single tickets and work trips is really time-consuming, so may not make sense," he said.
 Varonen even suggests that the tax deduction for commuting between home and work could be removed, but that deductions for longer, more expensive business trips should be kept in place.
 According to Malinen, Varonen's suggestions toward simplifying travel expenses are welcome, but she points out that not everyone can work remotely.
 "Their right to deductions must not be undermined," Malinen said.

With telework here to stay, tax officials eye changes to commuters' deductions, but unlikely to raise home-office deductions


Summary: Vantaa's mayor said that "the change was necessary to alleviate chaos at the airport".

Helsinki Airport has set up a so-called 'green line' to expedite processing of fully vaccinated travellers as air traffic begins to return to normal.
 Ritva Viljanen , Mayor of Vantaa, where the airport is located, said on Sunday that the express line has been created for fully vaccinated people, who make up 80-90 percent of all passengers. Viljanen said that for these travellers, Covid certificates will only be checked randomly.
 In a tweet on Sunday, the mayor said that "the change was necessary to alleviate chaos at the airport", adding that "now there will no longer be huge queuing situations".
 On Thursday, Viljanen  strongly criticised  the government's decision to continue Covid-related border restrictions until the end of the year.
 Like Customs authorities' "nothing-to-declare" green lines, the express line's use is largely based on the honour system, though spot checks are always possible.
 Until now, international passengers' Covid certificates have been checked at Helsinki Airport upon departure, at check-in, and again upon arrival.
 Finavia: Comprehensive screening no longer possible
 In a statement last week, airport operator Finavia said that comprehensive screening would become impossible as passenger numbers increase. Passenger volumes are projected to double between now and the end of the year.
 "When the vaccination coverage in Finland is already at a good level and the majority of newcomers are vaccinated, comprehensive screening activities are no longer justified from the point of view of epidemic management," the former civil aviation authority said.
 The cities of Helsinki and Vantaa have teamed up with the Helsinki and Uusimaa hospital district (HUS) to create a model for random checks on passengers within the framework of current legislation.
 Finavia noted that elsewhere in Europe, the verification of Covid certificates is primarily the responsibility of travel operators, and that certificates are no longer routinely checked at borders.
 "The certificates of passengers arriving at the airport have, for the most part, already been checked once by the travel operators, and, in any case, the majority already have full vaccination protection," Finavia said.

Helsinki Airport no longer checking all arrivals' vaccination documents


Summary: People in Finland are thinking about returning to the office, but what will that look like?

Large companies in Finland are planning for a return to the office, according to business daily  Kauppalehti .
 Finland's remote work recommendations are set to  end in mid-October .
 Finnish employers' lobby EK told KL that instead of a mass return to the office, company teams will decide on the optimal mix of contact and remote work.
 "Companies won’t be issuing blanket return-to-office policies for employees," said  Markku Rajamäki , an adviser at EK.
 No kids, please
 Helsingin Sanomat  explores why a growing number of couples in Finland are saying no to parenthood.
 "Before effective contraception, you just had kids. By the 80s and 90s people talked about how many children they wanted. Today the question among those in their 20s is whether they want to have them at all,"  Venla Berg , director of population research at the Family Federation of Finland ( Väestöliitto ), told HS.
 The paper noted that while people often put off having children in the midst of economic uncertainty, many told the paper they were never interested in having children in the first place.
 The federation has reported that 12.3 percent of respondents in its most recent family survey from 2018 said their ideal number of children was zero.
 Minority in a majority
 Most new schools under construction for Swedish-speaking pupils will be housed inside Finnish-language institutions, reports Swedish-language daily  Hufvudstadsbladet .
 Studies indicate that bilingual schools do not erode the minority Swedish language, according to  Fritjof Sahlström , an education expert at Åbo Akademi.
 He, however, noted that bilingual schools will have to make a conscious effort to truly serve both languages. This means that beyond teachers, cleaning and cafeteria staff must also be able to communicate in Finnish and Swedish, according to Sahlström.

Monday's papers: Finland's office re-entry, childless by choice and protecting a minority language


Summary: Absences due to physical illness have remained unchanged or decreased, but the share of absences related to mental health issues has increased.

Employers in Finland are increasingly offering employees easier access to get help for personal problems that might otherwise affect their job performance.
 A person's ability to function at home is reflected in their work lives, according to  Mervi Lamminen , from well-being services firm Auntie Solutions.
 The company focuses on improving workers' lives by targeting areas that could benefit from assistance. The help can be targeted to address issues like over achievement or self management but also personal matters such as insomnia or relationship problems.
 The service is meant to be used as a preventative measure before workers find themselves seeking help from occupational health services.
 "For employers, a day's absence is a day's absence, whether it is due to the end of a long-term relationship or because of a broken leg. If any [life event] causes a person's performance to decline, yes, employers should be interested in helping them to holistically get their lives back on track," Lamminen said.
 Skills to cope — and to work
 The most common way the company assists clients is helping them to learn stress- and self-management skills, but the majority of the firm's corporate customers select support packages offering personal support to struggling workers.
 Apart from facilitating workers to find solutions to personal problems, employers are also increasingly interested in preventative measures to avoid fatigue and maintain good mental health.
 Mental health issues have become the most common cause of disability retirement in Finland and the Covid crisis saw a dramatic increase in people seeking help from occupational health services.
 Last week, the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health — an arm of the Social Affairs and Health Ministry — published  a toolkit  for employers to support mental health in the workplace.
 Mieli Mental Health Finland's  Sari Nuikki  heads up the organisation's Mental Health at Work Unit. She said that employers should be interested in the health of their workers' personal lives and in the amount of exercise they're getting.
 While the gritty personal details of workers' lives shouldn't be available to employers, life situations do affect people's ability to work and it is good for employers to be interested, according to Nuikki.
 Good at home — good at work
 "Recovering [from life events] can take place during work hours, but people mainly recover in their leisure time. Which means it matters what a person does and how they take care of themselves in their free time," Nuikki explained.
 Low threshold services similar to Auntie Solutions are increasing and the industry is likely to grow, according to  Auli Rytivaara , an expert physician at the business lobby Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK). She is involved with the steering group of the social affairs and health ministry's Mental Health at Work Programme.
 According to Rytivaara, on the whole, absences due to physical illness have remained unchanged or decreased, but the share of absences related to mental health issues has increased.
 There are a variety of strategies that can be used to improve well-being among workers, including morning coffee meetings where people can talk about non-work issues, as well as separate sessions during which various life challenges can be tackled, according to Rytivaara.
 "When things are good at home, the employee also copes better, is more motivated and more committed to work," Rytivaara said.

Employers seek help to ensure workers are well-rested, happy


Summary: A study finds that nearly 40 percent of CSAM (child sex abuse material) users have sought direct contact with children after viewing illicit images.

A new study by a Finnish NGO suggests that most of those who view CSAM (child sexual abuse material) online started to do so when they were children themselves.
 Protect Children, a Finnish NGO working to protect children from sexual violence, conducted the study on the dark web. Nearly 8,500 CSAM users around the world responded to the NGO's survey called ReDirection.
 Users searching for CSAM on the dark web received a link to the survey, which the organisation said was opened more than 150,000 times.
 The NGO has now launched a  programme  that aims to help people to stop viewing CSAM based on the results of the survey.
 "We already know quite a lot about people convicted of sex crimes. But we don't know as much about people looking at these types of images," said psychologist  Nina Nurminen  who worked with the initiative.
 "I was 11 years old"
 Many CSAM users were children themselves when they were first exposed to CSAM. Some 70 percent of respondents said they were minors the first time they encountered CSAM. Thirty-nine percent said they were 13 or younger.
 "I don't know how to stop looking at this material. I was 11 the first time I saw it and now I feel guilty," one of the respondents said.
 The dark web survey has been available in 12 languages, including Finnish. Seventy-three people have so far responded in Finnish.
 Nurminen said learning that many of the users were young was an important discovery.
 "The earlier we can make prevention efforts, the better we can intervene," she explained.
 Around half of respondents said they accidentally stumbled on CSAM.
 "Exposure to CSAM under the age of 13 can be seen as an adverse childhood experience, with potentially far-reaching negative and harmful impact on wellbeing and development," said psychotherapist  Nina Vaaranen-Valkonen , executive director of Protect Children.
 Modifying behaviour
 In collaboration with prison psychologist  Mikko Ylipekka , Nurminen has now drawn on the survey results to develop a self-help programme for CSAM users called ReDirection. The programme applies techniques employed in Finnish prisons.
 On Monday, Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District (HUS) published the ReDirection self-help programme on its  mental health portal .
 People searching for CSAM on the dark web will also receive a link to the programme, which is available in English and Spanish.
 The three-pronged self-help programme first encourages users to reflect on their reasons for searching illegal images and to consider how this behaviour impacts their lives. They are then asked to analyse what triggers them to seek out CSAM. The third and final phase aims to "redirect" users away from this habit. The survey report noted that the approach differs from traditional ways of preventing the use of CSAM, and is inspired by "compassion-focused therapy."
 "With current technology it's impossible to remove all of the CSAM available online. That's why we have to help people who want to stop viewing illicit material," said  Anna Ovaska , a legal specialist at Protect Children.
 Online to real life
 Survey results found that 40 percent of those who view CSAM online seek out kids in real life after looking at images. Some 60 percent of respondents said they feared that looking at CSAM would lead them to perpetrate sexual acts on children.
 Some 45 percent of respondents admitted to watching live streaming of child sex abuse.
 "I haven't tried to stop [looking at images] because I don't know where I can get help," one respondent said.
 However many of those looking at abusive material didn't believe it was hampering their life in any way. Fewer than half of respondents said their actions in relation to CSAM were problematic.
 Nurminen said many CSAM users don't consider themselves to have a problem despite accessing material sexually exploiting children.
 She said that while some CSAM users are sexually motivated, others may be socially awkward and struggle to make contact with people. Some may also feel they need to dominate others.
 It's not a crime in Finland to look at CSAM online, but spreading it is and can carry a penalty of up to six years in prison. Storing CSAM is also a punishable offence.
 Finnish police say that reports of CSAM images doubled in 2020, when children were home for longer periods as restrictions were brought in for contact teaching and some hobbies.

"I don't know how to stop": Finnish initiative offers self-help for people viewing sexually exploitative images of children


Summary: Finland's GDP is expected to grow by 3.3 percent this year, but will begin to slow down next year and drop to 1.4 percent by 2023.

The Finnish economy is recovering quickly from the Covid crisis, the Ministry of Finance has announced, but the pace of the recovery will start to slow down next year and into 2023.
 The ministry forecasts that Finland's economy will grow by 3.3 percent this year, by 2.9 percent next year and by 1.4 percent in 2023, according to figures released during a press conference on Monday.
 The rapid pace of recovery has been driven by three main factors, the ministry added: the steady rollout of vaccinations, the lifting of coronavirus restrictions in line with the increase in vaccine coverage and the strong confidence that  households  and businesses have in the future.
 However, while the outlook looks promising, the ministry's Head of Department,  Mikko Spolander , said at the Monday morning press conference that there are still causes for concern.
 "The rate at which Finland is ageing cannot be sustained at the current level over the longer term," he said.
 Spolander also highlighted the issue of employment, noting that while the  nation's employment rate has improved  with the recent economic growth, there are still many areas for improvement.
 Story continues after the graphic.

 "Long-term unemployment remains high, there are plenty of job vacancies and the shortage of skilled labor has once again been highlighted as a constraint on economic growth," Spolander added.
 In addition to improving the employment rate, Finland should also focus on attracting more investment in order to cope with expected structural changes in the global economy, Spolander said.
 Attracting investment will require a functioning labour and housing market, strong education and research infrastructure, a smooth immigration process and a competitive taxation rate, he noted.
 "We do not have to be the best in the world at everything, but we should be as good in each [of these factors] in relation to competitors," Spolander said.
 The ministry does not expect any potential continuation of the epidemic to affect the economic recovery, but uncertainty over viral variants and vaccine coverage do impact the overall economic forecast.
 Debt-to-GDP ratio rising
 The global economy has also recovered rapidly from the Covid crisis, the ministry further noted, mainly due to the release of pent-up consumer demand.
 This in turn has helped to boost Finnish exports, but growth is hampered by a shortage of industrial components in some sectors as well as by logistical issues.
 Inflation also accelerated in the first half of the year, mostly due to rising energy prices, but price rises have  become more widespread  over the last few months.
 The ministry said that Finland's budget deficit, that is the imbalance between revenue and expenditure, will not be completely corrected by the expected economic growth and rise in GDP but it will have an effect on shrinking the deficit.
 Finland's debt-to-GDP ratio increased by 10 percentage points last year to almost 70 percent, an all-time record high figure, and is expected to climb to about 73 percent by the middle of this decade, the ministry said.
 Increased spending on healthcare and care for the elderly — especially as Finland's population ages — could lead to the budget deficit increasing further over the coming decade.

Finance Ministry: Economy recovering quickly, but fastest growth phase is over


Summary: The announcement comes after the government decided to reduce the police's budget allocation for next year.

Finland's police force will begin codetermination negotiations with staff representatives aimed at reducing personnel numbers by between 200 and 250 person-years.
 Person-years is a human resources (HR) unit of measurement that calculates the amount of work carried out by one member of staff throughout the entire year, expressed in the number of hours. The police are therefore looking to make savings equivalent to the cost of employing between 200 and 250 people.
 In a statement released to the media on Monday afternoon, police chief  Seppo Kolehmainen  cited the  government's decision to reduce the force's budget allocation  next year as the reason behind the beginning of co-determination talks.
 He also said that the number of study spots available at the police training college would likely be reduced.
 "The police's biggest cost item, staff numbers, must be adjusted to the level set by the budget, so that the number of police cadets can be planned for the long term," Kolehmainen said. "The effects of the reduction in training places will not be visible until three years from now, so police officers will probably be made unemployed next year."
 The government's draft budget for 2022 has allocated about 807.9 million to the police, compared to 838 million allocated this year, the police's press release noted.
 Interior Minister  Maria Ohisalo  (Green) previously spoke about the possibility of police co-determination talks and subsequent staff reductions during a parliamentary session on 16 September.
 "The police are currently making adjustment plans. They will be reviewed later and it is hoped that there will not be a need to lay off a large number of staff. I say a lot because there is a risk that this money will not be enough because it will go to many other things. I want to be open and honest here," Ohisalo said at the time.

Finland's police begin talks aimed at cutting up to 250 staff


Summary: The two-seater aircraft crashed as it was coming in to land at Hyvinkää airport.

A two-seater light airplane has crashed during a failed landing at Hyvinkää Airport, according to a report from the Central Uusimaa Emergency Services.
 There were two people in the plane at the time, on duty firefighter  Tommi Leppioja  told Yle, confirming that the pilot had died and the passenger had been taken to hospital.
 "A two-seater plane tried to land at the airport, but the plane hit the ground just before the runway", Leppioja said, adding that the conditions at the scene were sunny and clear.
 Story continues after the graphic.
 The airport is located a few kilometres from the centre of Hyvinkää. Ilkka Kemppinen / Yle
 According to Hyvinkää airport manager  Jukka Helminen , the plane was being used for flight training at the time of the crash. The drill involved an emergency landing scenario.
 Police and the Safety Investigation Authority Otkes have both launched investigations into the exact course of events leading up to the incident.
 Finland's last fatal civil aviation accident  occurred in Laukaa , Central Finland, in 2017.

One dead, one injured following light airplane crash in Hyvinkää


Summary: Regarding other potential dangers, security agency Supo said that most significant terrorist threats were individuals and small groups from "right-wing or radical Islamist ideologies."

Finland is a continuous target of state-sponsored cyber espionage, according to the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service's (Supo) National Security Overview, published on Monday.
 The authors of the report said the security agency does not expect to see a decline in cyber espionage, 'even in the long term.'
 Supo said the espionage was being carried out by authoritarian states to be used to back up their own policies as well as to influence policymakers in Finland. The cyber spies also target Finnish companies and educational institutions, according to the report.
 Despite that the majority of cyber crimes committed are driven by financial motives, some threaten the country's national security.
 The agency said that targeted extortion attempts on essential services — like water supply or health care infrastructure — also pose a threat to Finland.
 Russia and China are watching
 "Some Finnish business or branch of public administration is likely to fall victim to a ransomware attack. Data security must be managed throughout the subcontracting chain," Supo Director  Antti Pelttari , said in a statement.
 Finland is also the target of foreign espionage in the non-cyber world, with large-scale operations by countries like Russia and China expected to continue, Supo said.
 Regarding other potential dangers, the security agency said that Finland's most significant terrorist threats were individuals and small groups from "right-wing or radical Islamist ideologies."
 "Far-right terrorist attacks remain possible in Western countries, and even in Finland the possibility of such an attack cannot be ruled out. Supo has gained some indications of preparation for concrete actions," the report stated.
 "[Islamic State] and al-Qaeda remain the most important radical Islamist terrorist organisations internationally. Though radical Islamist operators have interpreted the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan as a victory, these events have no immediate impact on the terrorism situation in Finland. The radical Islamist movement in Finland mainly focuses on support operations, though attacks also remain possible."

Supo: Finland 'continually targeted' by foreign cyber espionage