Category Archives: Finland

Finnish school shooting suspect motivated by bullying, police say

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A 12-year-old boy is alleged to have killed a fellow pupil and seriously injured two others at Viertola school in Vantaa

A 12-year-old boy suspected of shooting and killing a classmate and wounding two girls of the same age at a school in Finland said he had been motivated by bullying, police have said, as flags flew at half-mast across the country.

Finland was in mourning after the 12-year-old was alleged to have arrived at Viertola school in Vantaa, a city north of the capital, Helsinki, armed with a handgun on Tuesday morning.

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Finland school shooting: 12-year-old arrested after fellow pupil dies

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Two other children seriously injured in incident in Helsinki suburb described by minister as ‘horrifying’

A 12-year-old child has died and two others have been seriously wounded in a school shooting in Finland.

The suspect, a fellow pupil, ran off after the shooting but was later arrested, police said. He was holding a licensed handgun owned by a close relative and admitted carrying out the shooting in an initial interview, they added.

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Weather tracker: cyclone warning in Australia while Finland freezes in -16C lows

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Meanwhile, South Sudan has ordered schools to shut amid extreme heatwave

A cyclone warning has been issued in northern Australia for coastal communities from the island of Groote Eylandt to the Northern Territory/Queensland border. Tropical Cyclone Megan, which developed in the Gulf of Carpentaria on Saturday, has been declared a category 3 cyclone by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Megan is forecast to make landfall on Monday, but has already brought gale-force winds and heavy rainfall to some areas over the weekend. Groote Eylandt was cut off after more than 400mm of rain in just 24 hours on Sunday.

There is a chance that Megan could strengthen further into a category 4 storm before making landfall, with the potential for damaging wind gusts of up to 125km/h. Megan is the fifth named cyclone in Australian waters so far this season, which is below the average of about 10 by this stage of the year.

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Sweden will complete its ‘long farewell to neutrality’ with Nato accession

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For Swedes it means a dramatic change of national identity, while the alliance gets greater control of the Baltic Sea

Just a few short months ago, Sweden’s Nato membership seemed a very long way from being a done deal. Having submitted its application to join in May 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it seemed at times as though Stockholm might be left hanging interminably. While Finland, which had applied to join the alliance at the same time as its neighbour, became a member at record speed last April, Sweden got stuck in a diplomatic quagmire.

Last summer a series of Qur’an burnings in Sweden inflamed ties with Turkey, making a “yes” from Ankara look unlikely and at times inconceivable. And as recently as September, Viktor Orbán’s government was embroiled in a public war of words with Sweden over criticism of Hungary’s democracy and teaching in Swedish schools. Late last month, after Turkey’s parliament had given Sweden the green light, the Hungarian prime minister was still pushing for negotiations in a public letter to his Swedish counterpart, Ulf Kristersson.

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Finland’s former PM to be new president after rival concedes

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Centre-right Alexander Stubb declares victory and is congratulated by Pekka Haavisto

Finland’s centre-right former prime minister Alexander Stubb will become the next president after winning an election runoff with rival Pekka Haavisto in the country’s most high-stakes presidential election in a generation.

Stubb, of the National Coalition party, declared victory on Sunday night and Haavisto, a former foreign minister and a member of the Green party running as an independent, congratulated him.

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Finnish presidential candidate surprised at renewed focus on his sexuality

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Pekka Haavisto says discussion about his being gay has increased since he made it through to the final round of voting

The Finnish presidential candidate Pekka Haavisto has questioned why his sexuality has come under such strong focus in the final days of campaigning before Sunday’s election as polls narrow with his rival, Alexander Stubb.

The 65-year-old former foreign minister, who if he wins would become Finland’s first Green and first gay president, said he had been surprised by the way his sexuality had become an issue of public interest in the second and final round.

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Not just luggage: Finnish airline invites passengers to weigh in for flights

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Finnair says trial is voluntary and will help estimate weight of planes’ cargo before takeoff

The words “overweight luggage” have the power to induce a whirlwind of stress and embarrassment for holidaymakers. But one airline is upping the stakes by inviting passengers to step on the scales too.

The Finnish airline Finnair started the voluntary weighing in policy at departure gates at Helsinki airport on Monday with the aim of enabling it to better estimate the weight of its planes’ cargo before takeoff.

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Centre-right party ahead in Finnish presidential election

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Liberal Green party is a close second and goes through to second round, while far-right Finns have been knocked out

Finland’s former prime minister Alexander Stubb and the country’s former foreign minister Pekka Haavisto have progressed through to the second round of the presidential elections, knocking out a rightwing populist candidate.

With all votes counted, Stubb, of the centre-right National Coalition party, had won 27.2% of votes, while the liberal candidate Haavisto, a member of the Green party who is running as an independent, had secured 25.8%, election officials said.

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Finland goes to the polls as border tensions with Russia rise

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All presidential candidates champion independence and country’s new role in Nato as relations with Moscow deteriorate

Finns headed to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president, an office whose importance has grown as tensions with neighbouring Russia have increased since the invasion of Ukraine.

While the president’s powers are limited, the head of state – who also acts as supreme commander of Finland’s armed forces – helps to direct foreign policy in collaboration with the government, meaning the changing geopolitical landscape in Europe will be the main concern for the winner.

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Finland’s ‘DJ’ candidate hopes to become the country’s first Green and gay president

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Pekka Haavisto, who is second in the opinion polls, is bolstering his campaign with club nights and music from the 60s and 70s

At a packed, dimly lit music venue in Helsinki, an attentive crowd dressed up for a night out sings sweetly along to musicians on stage in front of a kitsch image of a smiling 65-year-old man.

While the atmosphere would suggest fun club night rather than political campaign event, it is one of the last appearances of Pekka Haavisto, the man to whom the night is dedicated, before he runs in one of Finland’s most high-stakes presidential elections in living memory.

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Finland presidential frontrunner says its foreign policy is ‘existential’

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Alexander Stubb says Ukraine invasion spurred his candidacy, as far-right opponent gains ground before Sunday’s vote

Finland’s leading presidential candidate has said foreign policy and security are “existential” issues for the Nordic country, as it prepares to head to the polls for the first time since joining Nato.

Speaking on Friday at a breakfast event in Helsinki two days before Finland’s presidential election at a cafe named after him, Alexander Stubb, who was prime minister from 2014 to 2015, said he had thought he was finished with national politics. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had changed his mind.

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Finland reopens Russia border but shuts it again amid asylum row

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Helsinki accuses Moscow of orchestrated ‘hybrid operation’ that Kremlin denies after 36 people cross from east

Finland has reopened its border with Russia only to shut it again within hours, in the latest stage of a row over asylum seekers in which Helsinki accused Moscow of staging a “hybrid operation” on the EU’s most easterly edge.

After a two-week period of total closure of the border, two of the eight crossings on the 830-mile land frontier were reopened briefly.

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Finland closes entire border with Russia after tensions over asylum seekers

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Temporary closure comes after Finnish intelligence suggested Russia was helping asylum seekers reach the border

Finland has announced it is temporarily closing its entire border with Russia after weeks of tensions between the countries over asylum seekers that Helsinki has labelled a “hybrid operation” by Moscow.

With just 24 hours’ notice, the Finnish government said on Tuesday it would close Raja-Jooseppi in Lapland, its last remaining border crossing point with Russia, on Wednesday night.

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Geert Wilders’ victory confirms upward trajectory of far right in Europe

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Dutch general election results show how populist and far-right parties are advancing into political mainstream

Geert Wilders’ shock victory in the Dutch general election confirms the upward trajectory of Europe’s populist and far-right parties, which – with the occasional setback – are continuing their steady march into the mainstream.

There is no guarantee that Wilders, whose anti-Islam Party for Freedom (PVV) won 37 seats in Wednesday’s ballot – more than twice its 2021 total – will be able to form a government with a majority in the Netherlands’ 150-seat parliament.

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Estonia accuses Russia of weaponising immigration at Europe’s borders

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Arrival of hundreds of people at Finnish and Estonian borders claimed to be ‘fully state-orchestrated’ operation

Estonia has accused Russia of weaponising immigration on Europe’s eastern borders amid a rise in the number of asylum seekers trying to enter its territory and Finland.

Speaking during a meeting in Stockholm of Nordic and Baltic defence ministers, Hanno Pevkur, Estonia’s defence minister, claimed the hundreds of people who had arrived at the borders of the two countries in recent weeks were a “fully state-orchestrated” operation by Moscow.

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Sweden must join Nato soon to ward off Russian threat, says defence minister

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Exclusive: Pål Jonson unable to give timeline for completion of membership process but confident it will happen

Sweden must become a full member of the Nato military alliance “as fast as possible” to ward off the threat from Russia, the country’s defence minister has said, as impatience builds in Stockholm over its slow path to accession.

Pål Jonson said that he was unable to put a timeline on the completion of Sweden’s Nato approval process buthe was confident that Turkey and Hungary, the two remaining members left to ratify the country’s membership, would do so eventually.

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Rise in asylum seekers from Russia is Kremlin act of revenge, says Finnish president

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Sauli Niinistö says this is Russia’s response to Finland’s cooperation with US and vows to take ‘very clear action’

The Finnish president has vowed to take “very clear action” over the growing number of asylum seekers arriving from Russia, which he said appeared to be a Kremlin act of revenge for Finland’s cooperation with the US.

Sauli Niinistö’s comments come after the Finnish border guard reported steadily increasing numbers of asylum seekers arriving at border crossing points in south-east Finland in recent days.

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Baltic Sea faces ‘critical challenges’ on climate and biodiversity, report warns

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Audit finds ‘little to no improvement’ in health of sea between 2016 and 2021, as Swedish coastguard battles oil spill

The Baltic Sea faces “critical challenges” due to the climate crisis and degradation of biodiversity, a report has said, as Sweden’s coastguard battled to contain the impact of an oil spill off the country’s southern shore.

In the most comprehensive audit of its kind to date, experts at the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (Helcom) said on Tuesday there had been “little to no improvement” in the health of the body of water between 2016 and 2021.

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‘Pervasive and relentless’ racism on the rise in Europe, survey finds

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Poll of 6,752 people of African descent in 13 countries finds almost half have experienced discrimination

Racism is “pervasive and relentless” and on the rise in Europe, with nearly half of black people in member states surveyed by the EU reporting discrimination, from the verbal abuse of their children to being blocked by landlords from renting homes.

In every walk of life, from schools to the job market, housing and health, a survey by the EU’s rights agency of people of African descent found high levels of discrimination, with some of the worst results recorded in Austria and Germany, where far-right parties have been on the rise.

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Chinese ship is focus of investigation into damaged pipeline, Finland says

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Police focusing on Newnew Polar Bear cargo ship that was in the area when gas pipeline was damaged

Finnish police have said a Chinese ship whose movement coincided with the time and place of the suspected sabotage of a pipeline between Finland and Estonia that was damaged this month is now the focus of their investigation.

After a leak led to the shutdown of the Balticconnector pipeline on 8 October, Finnish authorities have been investigating the damage they say was caused by “external” activity.

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