News of Matti Nykänen filled front pages across Finland on Monday (Image credit: Lehtikuva)

INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES WERE DOMINATED THIS WEEK with news of the passing of legendary Finnish ski jumper Matti Nykänen, as much of the country mourned following his unexpected death on Sunday evening. Tributes to the troubled and controversial athlete poured in from across the world, with the New York Times dedicating a touching obituary to him.

Apartments in central Helsinki, where an average salary over over $4600 a month is needed to afford a one-bedroom apartment (Image: Lehtikuva)

THIS WEEK IT WAS REVEALED that the scale of undocumented refugees and asylum seekers in Finland is much greater than anyone anticipated. Recent reports have shown that as many as half of the 30,000 asylum seekers that entered Finland at the height of the refugee crisis may have “slipped underground”, with authorities having little to no details on their whereabouts or wellbeing.

This has been attributed to Finland’s notoriously strict laws on seeking asylum and gaining legal residency in the country.

(Image: Lehtikuva)

THIS WEEK FINLAND introduced wipe-sweeping proposals to its criminal justice system that would ensure that “sex without consent” and sex with underage minors will always be treated as rape. The ground-breaking proposals, similar to laws introduced in Sweden in 2018, have garnered widespread attention in the global press, particularly in the context of the burgeoning #MeToo women’s movement.

In other news, international media outlets have also begun their coverage of the Finnish general election campaigns.

 You may have heard that Finland has been rated as the happiest country in the world for 2018, so it might seem surprising that the World Health Organisation has also ranked Finland as the country with the second most depressive disorders per capita. Psychology Today takes a closer look at the relationship between happiness and depression.

In other news, the New York Times shines a spotlight on Finland’s Champions League-winning doctor, while the BBC reports that Finnish car dealers are less dismissive of electric vehicles than their Nordic counterparts.

"Olympic swimmer Ari-Pekka Liukkonen has been named as Finland's sports role model of the year. 2014 was a monumental year for Liukkonen as he came out in the build up to the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia to protest the country's position on LGBT rights.

''Finland is warming fast – faster than scientists ever predicted and at nearly twice the rate of any other country on Earth – according to new research from the University of Eastern Finland and the Finnish Meteorological Society. The researchers found that over the past 166 years Finland's average monthly temperatures increased by two degrees Celsius, whereas temperatures over the rest of the planet have increased by only .8 degrees Celsius on average.

"SHARK CAGE is a made-for-TV poker event produced by online poker giant PokerStars. The TV-show pits poker pros with celebrities and members of the general public in a series of single-table poker tournaments with the eventual winner taking home 1,000,000 dollars (more than 800,000 euros). The show also offers up a few twists and turns along the way like a 'shot clock' and a 'shark cage' concept, where a player spends time 'behind bars' if they fold the best hand on the river.

"Celebrations are taking place today across Finland, the beautiful Nordic country of lakes and islands as the 97th anniversary of the day Finns declared independence from Russia is marked. It took a further month for the Russians to acknowledge this formally in January 1918, but for the Finns, with a long history of being part of either Sweden or Russia, enough was enough and December 6th, 1917, is the day Finland left the Russian Empire and became independent.

"Finland's parliament narrowly approved a bill legalising gay marriage on Friday, 28 November after months of heated debate and controversy. Yes, you read that correctly. Finland, often regarded as one of the most inclusive and progressive countries in the world, has only now approved same-sex marriage for its citizens. In the US, by contrast, 35 states have already legalised gay marriage, with same-sex marriage bans recently falling in Arkansas and Mississippi.

"VERY FEW places in the world have given rise to truly global brands: Evian and Cadillac in France are two. But possibly the most famous of them all is Nokia in Finland.

Not that you would know it from visiting the town. The centre consists of a parade of rather bleak shops, an apartment block that would be at home in Soviet-era Estonia and the Bossburger 'meathouse'. This is the sort of town from which teenagers dream of escaping.