Finnair aircraft at Helsinki Airport on 3 September 2021. (Emmi Korhonen – Lehtikuva)

TRADE UNION PRO and Service Sector Employers (Palta) on Monday suspended their attempts to settle a dispute over the collective bargaining agreement for members of ITA, a Finnish trade union for aeronautical engineers that is part of Pro.

Pro on Monday revealed that the attempts were shelved because of insurmountable differences of view between the two labour market organisations.

Olli Luukkainen, the chairperson of the Trade Union of Education (OAJ), reacted at a press conference on the start of the school year in Helsinki on 5 August 2020. (Emmi Korhonen – Lehtikuva)

THE TRADE UNION of Education (OAJ) has warned that schools and kindergartens will likely have to be closed due to staff shortages if the omicron variant spreads through the population at the rate projected by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).

“Schools haven’t taken any precautions, nor have kindergartens,” Olli Luukkainen, the chairperson at OAJ, stated to STT on Sunday.

Illustration of the planet TOI-2180 b on NASAs website.

A UC Riverside astronomer and a group of eagle-eyed citizen scientists have discovered a giant gas planet hidden from view by typical stargazing tools.

The planet, TOI-2180 b, has the same diameter as Jupiter, but is nearly three times more massive.

Prime Minister Sanna Marin (SDP) spoke to reporters outside the House of the Estates in Helsinki on Tuesday, 18 January 2022. (Antti Aimo-Koivisto – Lehtikuva)

THE FINNISH GOVERNMENT on Tuesday concluded in its strategy meeting that the current coronavirus restrictions should largely be extended until mid-February.

“The exception to this is restrictions targeted at children and young people. Higher education institutions could similarly shift to hybrid models of instruction,” Prime Minister Sanna Marin (SDP) stated at the House of the Estates in Helsinki on Tuesday.

Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of Nato, talked at a press conference after the defence alliance’s foreign ministers had sat down to discuss the tensions between Russia and Ukraine in Brussels on 7 January 2022. (John Thys – AFP/Lehtikuva)

OVER A QUARTER (28%) of Finns are for and 42 per cent against the notion of Finland joining Nato, reveals a survey commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat.

The share of respondents who are supportive of the notion has jumped by eight percentage points since the previous iteration of the survey about two years ago – to its highest level, albeit by an only narrow margin, in two decades.

Students at the Tampere University.

Higher education students must pay the student healthcare fee on their own initiative using the OmaKela e-service. Kela does not bill students for the fee. The due date for the spring term is 31 January 2022.

Inspired by the growth of bones in the skeleton, researchers at the universities of Linkoping in Sweden and Okayama in Japan have developed a combination of materials that can morph into various shapes before hardening.

(Photo by IRANIAN DEFENCE MINISTRY / AFP) / / HO - LEHTIKUVA / AFP

A world-first study has revealed how space travel can cause lower red blood cell counts, known as space anemia.

Analysis of 14 astronauts showed their bodies destroyed 54 per cent more red blood cells in space than they normally would on Earth, according to a study published in 'Nature Medicine'.

The Finnish Immigration Service has conducted an extensive investigation into returning the funds remaining in asylum seekers’ Moni card accounts. So far, no satisfactory solution has been found.

Mika Niikko has written to Riaz Fatyana about the recent death sentence to Zafar Bhatti in Pakistan.

Mika Niikko, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Parliament of Finland has written to Riaz Fatyana, Chair of the Standing Committee on Law and Justice, National Assembly of Pakistan on the subject of the verdict of death sentence to Zafar Bhatti in Pakistan, who has been held captive since 2012 on accusations of sending blasphemous text messages.

The introduction of ethics classes in Germany as an alternative to religious education led to reduced religiosity in students’ later life. It also eroded traditional attitudes to gender roles and increased labor market participation and wages. These are the findings of a new study by the ifo Institute.

Cases of domestic violence in London rose sharply during the coronavirus lockdown of March 2020. This is suggested by an index, newly calculated by the ifo Institute, based on searches for certain terms on the internet. “This index shows an increase in cases of domestic violence that is seven times higher than that recorded by police statistics,” says Helmut Rainer, Director of the ifo Center for Labor and Demographic Economics.

LEHTIKUVA / AFP

A majority of Germans are in favor of deferring tuition fees and basing them on income, finds a new study by the ifo Institute. “More than 60 percent are in favor of charging tuition fees only after graduation and only if the graduate’s income is above a certain threshold,” says ifo researcher Ludger Wößmann. “In contrast, a slim majority opposes regular tuition fees.”

AFP headquarters in Paris.

Agence France-Presse, a global leader in digital investigation, has partnered with local media company and researchers to launch a website on Wednesday combatting disinformation in Hungary.

A voter prepares to cast her ballot at a polling station in an art school in Belgrade on January 16, 2022. LEHTIKUVA / AFP

Few pundits would have thought a year ago, that the German Social Democratic Party will become the biggest party again and that the next chancellor would be from its ranks. During the last French elections, the entire political party system collapsed, and an outsider, Emmanuel Macron, became president. And as if it were not enough, French voters doubled down: Macron’s newly founded party won the absolute majority in parliament.