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A Bug’s Life: Finland’s New Food Economy

Food producers in Finland are moving ahead with plans for production and harvesting of insects, after the Food Safety Authority Evira approved a change in the way existing legislation is interpreted, to allow certain insects to enter the human food…

Fire Alarm: Minority Report

Helsinki Rescue Department is making progress in its efforts to attract more firefighter students from diverse backgrounds. Until recently, the capital city had no firemen with minority backgrounds, but that’s now slowly changing. "We partly succeeded" Matti Waitinen, Principal of Helsinki…

New Lessons Aim To Speed Up Refugee Integration

A group of refugees are the first to try a new way to integrate into life in Finland. Through the Finnish Refugee Council Pakolaisapu they will receive Finnish lessons, and separately, a class in their own language to help them navigate…

How Cheap Is Your Beer?

New research shows that tax increases on alcohol on both sides of the Baltic Sea won’t be enough to stop Finns going to Estonia to buy cheap booze. The study was commissioned by the Finnish Grocery Trade Association PTY and…

Hope Floats: Turku’s Economic Turnaround

Southwest Finland has seen a jobs boom in recent years, but it’s not in the sectors anyone could have predicted. Even ten years ago, few economists would have said that manufacturing would be bringing good jobs to Finland. The future…

Fake News? Hybrid Warfare’s New Helsinki HQ

NATO’s Secretary General and the EU’s Foreign Minister are among the guests in Helsinki today, at the official opening of the new European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats – or Hybrid CoE for short. Jens Stoltenberg and Federica…

Paving Paradise: Nature Lovers Battle Espoo Building Plans

Environmental groups, some politicians, and local nature enthusiasts are uniting in a bid to stop a pair of controversial building developments in Espoo, which they say could irreparably harm a wetlands site where rare birds and other animals live. There…

From Lohja To Rohingya Refugee Camp

Jaana Laine is expecting to see malnourished mothers, under-weight infants, and possibly an outbreak of cholera when she arrives at a refugee camp on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border today. It’s a far cry from the pristine hospital environment the Lohja midwife…

Parliament’s Delete Button: Transparency vs Media vs Privacy

Parliament’s Executive Director says that criticism of its practice of destroying visitor logs at the end of each day cannot be taken lightly. "It is still harming the parliament’s reputation, that has to be admitted" Pertti Rauhio tells News Now Finland. Rauhio’s…

Merkel’s Losses Are Finland’s Gain

The dust has barely settled on vote counting from yesterday’s general election in Germany, and diplomats, politicians and analysts in Helsinki and Berlin are trying to figure out what it means for the two countries. Some experts believe that a…

Latest News

Flags are flying to celebrate Finnish trailblazer Miina Sillanpää

Flags are flying across Finland today to celebrate the life and work of Miina Sillanpää, a trailblazer in politics, social mobility and rights. Sillanpää was…

Morning headlines: Thursday 1st October 2020

Two Covid-19 tests open up travel restrictions from high risk countries A new system of coronavirus tests opens up travel to passengers from high risk…

New Finnish robot drives to clean up the dirty business of street sweeping

A company from Kuopio has invented a new type of autonomous street sweeper that’s as powerful as a traditional truck, but has zero carbon…

“Unreasonable” – Reaction as journalist loses appeal in case with right-wing politician

The Court of Appeal in Rovaniemi today upheld the decision of a lower court to convict and fine journalist Johanna Vehkoo for insulting a…

Parliament committee approves citizen’s initiative on FGM

The cross-party Parliamentary Legal Committee has voted unanimously to approve a citizen’s initiative to ban female genital mutilation. Although FGM is already considered a crime…

Brexit Brits: Finnish permanent residence applications will cost €48

British nationals living in Finland who want to apply for permanent residence will be charged €48, according to the Immigration Service Migri. Anyone who has…

Double duty: PM to represent Finland and Sweden at EU meeting

Prime Minister Sanna Marin (SDP) is attending a special European Council meeting in Brussels on 1st and 2nd October – and rather unusually she’ll be…

WATCH: How coronavirus changed Finland’s population

Did you know that the coronavirus pandemic is already having an impact on Finland’s population? According to Statistics Finland the number of people in Finland…