Hoax bomb threats to Finnair flights and a record high number of hate crime reports have been making the headlines in Finland this week.
Here’s a summary of the biggest news stories in Finland this week:
Two Finnair flights were targeted by hoax bomb threats. One of the flights was en route from Helsinki to Rome, while the second threat targeted a Helsinki to Vienna route. The incidents are not isolated cases, as similar bomb threats have been made over the past week against several airports and airlines across Europe.The number of suspected hate crimes reported to police in Finland hit a new record high for the third year in a row. A report by the Police University College noted that the most typical case involves a native Finnish perpetrator, a racist motive and a public location.Finland’s politicians and sporting bodies reacted strongly to a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) allowing Russian teams to return to ice hockey’s international tournaments. Sports minister Mika Poutala (CD) and Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen both condemned the decision, while the Finnish Ice Hockey Association said Finland will not play against Russia for as long as the Kremlin’s war of aggression in Ukraine continues.Finland’s finance ministry has suggested library users could pay a ‘reasonable’ annual fee of around 30 euros for a library card, which the ministry estimates could raise about 36 million euros a year for the state. However, free library use is a statutory right in Finland, enshrined in law nearly a century ago by the country’s first library act.
This week, we also reported on 16-year-old Cameron’s struggles to find a high school place in Finland. His mother Kristina Revonniemi told Yle News of her frustration with the “loop of bureaucracy” that means the very programmes designed to help her son are instead denying him a place in school.
Also, don’t forget to check the latest episode of our All Points North on Video podcast series.
Host Mark B. Odom is joined in the studio by clinical psychologists Harriet Francis-Ehnholm and Annabel Battersby to discuss communication styles, Finnish cultural ‘quietude’, and the lack of qualified English-speaking psychotherapists in Finland.