Category Archives: Finland

Finnish PM Sanna Marin cleared of misconduct over partying footage

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Official inquiry finds 'no reason to suspect PM of unlawful conduct or of neglect of her official duties’

An official inquiry has cleared Sanna Marin of misconduct after a leaked video showing the 36-year-old Finnish prime minister dancing exuberantly and drinking with friends and celebrities made headlines around the world.

Multiple complaints to the parliamentary ombudsman alleged that excessive alcohol consumption at the party in August would have made Marin, the world’s youngest head of government when she was elected in 2019, unable to carry out her official duties.

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Finland and Sweden call on Hungary and Turkey to ratify Nato applications

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Erdoğan demands action against ‘terrorist’ Kurdish militants as Nordic pair maintain united front

The prime ministers of Finland and Sweden have urged Hungary and Turkey to approve their countries’ applications to join Nato, but Ankara insisted it would not lift its objections without further extraditions of suspects it considers terrorists.

The two Nordic nations applied to join the US-led defence alliance in May, jettisoning decades of military non-alignment in a historic policy shift triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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Finnish MPs abolish need to see two doctors before abortion

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Pregnant woman’s request will be sufficient to obtain procedure without need for further reasons

Lawmakers in Finland have approved a legislative reform that will ease the process of getting an abortion in the country, which currently has the Nordic region’s strictest abortion law.

Finland’s 200-seat Eduskunta legislature on Wednesday voted by a wide margin 125-41 in favour of a law reform that will, among other things, abolish the need for approval from two doctors to terminate a pregnancy.

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Finland’s main parties back plans to build Russia border fence

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Structure would protect areas identified as posing potential risk of large-scale migration from Russia

Finland’s main political parties have backed building a fence along parts of the country’s border with Russia, with work on a short pilot section expected to start as soon as funds have been allocated, Finnish media have reported.

Neighbouring Norway, which also shares a border with Russia in the far north, on Wednesday said it had arrested a seventh Russian national suspected of illegally flying drones or taking photographs in restricted areas in recent days.

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UN rebukes Finland for violating rights of its children held in Syria camps

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Child rights committee says Helsinki must do more to repatriate those detained as relatives of suspected Islamic State fighters

A UN watchdog has accused Finland of violating the rights of Finnish children stuck in Syrian prison camps holding suspected jihadists and their families.

Adding to mounting criticism directed at western countries, the UN child rights committee said Finland had a responsibility to make serious efforts to bring the children home.

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Brad Pitt makes surprise debut as a sculptor at Finland art gallery

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Actor appears alongside Australian musician Nick Cave and British sculptor Thomas Houseago to reveal his first ever public art exhibition

Most know him for his blockbuster movies, chiselled cheekbones and high-profile relationships, but Brad Pitt can now add creating sculpture to his list of achievements after publicly debuting his first works of art in a lakeside museum in Finland.

The A-list Hollywood star unveiled the sculptures – what he called a “radical inventory of self” – at the Sara Hildén Art Museum in Tampere, a move that came as a surprise. It is the first time the “largely self taught” artist presented his sculptures to the public, the gallery said.

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Sanna Marin: Finland’s prime minister who just wants to be herself

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Controversy over her private life goes to the heart of the occasionally divisive leader’s appeal

The controversy embroiling Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin’s partying scandal threatens to derail what has appeared until now to be a charmed political career.

Marin, who when she became prime minister aged 34 was the world’s youngest elected leader, is a career politician whose rise through the ranks of Finland’s centre-left Social Democratic party appeared effortless.

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Porsches and Bentleys fill Helsinki airport as Russian tourists head to Europe

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Discontent grows over Finland’s visa policy as country becomes key transit route for Russian travellers

Porsches, Bentleys and other luxury cars with Russian licence plates are filling the parking garage at Helsinki airport as Finland becomes an important transit country for Russian tourists flying to Europe.

The EU shut its airspace to Russian planes after Moscow invaded Ukraine, forcing anyone who wants to travel to Europe to drive across the border or take a circuitous route using non-western airlines.

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Finnish PM Sanna Marin tests negative for drugs after party video leak

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Footage of Marin dancing and drinking with friends has brought 36-year-old leader’s judgment into question

Finland’s prime minister, Sanna Marin, has tested negative in a drugs test she took after a leaked video last week showed her dancing exuberantly and drinking at a party at which unsubstantiated reports claimed drugs may have been circulating.

The test was taken on 19 August and found no narcotics, the government said in a statement on Monday. It provided no details of what kind of test was used or what it screened for, but it said the prime minister would pay for it herself.

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US Senate overwhelmingly approves Nato membership for Finland and Sweden

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In 95-1 vote, body supports ‘slam-dunk for national security’ after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

The US Senate delivered near-unanimous bipartisan approval to Nato membership for Finland and Sweden on Wednesday, calling expansion of the western defensive bloc a “slam-dunk” for US national security and a day of reckoning for Vladimir Putin.

The 95-1 vote for the candidacy of two European countries that, until Russia’s war against Ukraine, had long avoided military alliances took a crucial step toward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and its 73-year-old pact of mutual defense among the United States and democratic allies in Europe.

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The Uber files: how the leak prompted outrage across the world

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From Europe to India and the US, the revelations have fuelled anger from across the spectrum, from the drivers to politicians

The release of the Uber files has prompted a frenzy of reaction around the world, piling pressure on senior politicians, fuelling calls for a crackdown on corporate lobbying and drawing outrage from groups including traditional taxi drivers.

The fuse was lit with the publication of revelations from a trove of more than 124,000 documents about Uber spanning from 2013 to 2017, leaked to the Guardian and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and international media.

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Finland passes law to bolster border fence with Russia

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New era of tensions requires sturdier barriers than current wooden livestock fences, parliament decides

Finland’s parliament has passed legislation to build stronger fences on its border with Russia, as the country seeks to join Nato after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Finland reversed decades of military non-alignment by seeking membership of the military alliance in May, formally starting the process to join this week.

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Erdoğan gains from lifting Sweden and Finland Nato veto with US fighter jet promise

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Analysis: deal between Biden and Erdoğan is sealed in Madrid after Nordic countries vow to control support for Kurdish terrorism

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, immediately started to reap the rewards for lifting the block on allowing Sweden and Finland to join Nato when the Biden administration said it backed the potential sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey.

Speaking at a briefing call on Wednesday, Celeste Wallander, the assistant secretary for defence for international security affairs at the Pentagon, told reporters that strong Turkish defence capabilities would reinforce Nato’s defences.

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Russia condemns Nato’s invitation to Finland and Sweden

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Foreign ministry accuses Nato of ‘focusing on efforts to destabilise Russian society’

Russian officials have reacted angrily to Nato’s offer of membership to Finland and Sweden, calling it a “destabilising” effort that will increase tensions in the region.

“We condemn the irresponsible course of the North Atlantic Alliance that is ruining the European architecture, or what’s left of it,” Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters on Wednesday.

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Turkey lifts objections to Finland and Sweden’s Nato bid

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Ankara had previously blocked the Nordic countries from joining the alliance over concerns about arms exports and terrorism

A last minute agreement has been reached between Turkey, Finland and Sweden to allow the two Nordic countries to become Nato members on the eve of the military alliance’s summit in Madrid.

Nato said a trilateral deal had been reached at a meeting between Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President Sauli Niinistö of Finland and the Swedish prime minister, Magdalena Andersson, in the Spanish capital.

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Huge mystery spill detected in Baltic off Swedish coast

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Coastguard checking ships’ routes and says samples being sent for analysis

A massive spill of an unknown substance has been detected in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Sweden, the country’s coastguard said on Thursday.

Covering a surface area of 30 sq miles (77 sq km) in both Swedish and Finnish waters, the spill was detected on Wednesday in the Bothnian Sea.

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Russia halts gas supplies to Finland as payments row with the west escalates

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Russia cut off gas to Bulgaria and Poland last month amid an energy payments dispute sparked by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine

Russia has halted providing natural gas to neighbouring Finland, which has angered Moscow by applying for Nato membership, after the Nordic country refused to pay supplier Gazprom in roubles.

Gazprom Export has demanded that European countries pay for Russian gas supplies in roubles because of sanctions imposed over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, but Finland refuses to do so.

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Why has Erdoğan doubled down on threat to veto Nordic Nato bids?

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Analysis: By demanding extradition of alleged PKK members, Turkish president could have one eye on elections

After initial hesitation about the seriousness of Turkey’s objections, its president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has doubled down on his threat to veto Finland’s and Sweden’s applications for membership of Nato, saying there is no point in either country sending delegations to Ankara to persuade him otherwise.

On Wednesday, he also extended his demands from the two he outlined on Monday to 10, leading to claims that he is using blackmail.

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Turkey blocks early vote on Sweden and Finland joining Nato

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Move comes hours after the Nordic nations officially launched their bids to join the alliance

Sweden and Finland have formally submitted their applications to join Nato but Turkey blocked an early move to fast-track the Nordic countries’ requests, demanding they extradite “terrorists” and that the alliance respect its concerns.

The Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, accepted the two historically non-aligned Nordic countries’ membership requests, each in a white folder embossed with their national flag, at the US-led defensive alliance’s HQ in Brussels on Wednesday.

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