Clear News | Monday 19.1.2026

Customs dispute. Multilingual schools. Number of people with higher education. Weather.

Tariff dispute between Europe and the USA

First, world economic policy.

EU ambassadors have decided on possible countermeasures against the US. The ambassadors held an emergency meeting this evening due to President Donald Trump’s tariff threats.

Trump threatens European countries with tariffs if the US is not allowed to buy Greenland from Denmark. The threat also applies to Finland.

Customs duties must be paid on goods that are exported across the state border.

The EU is preparing to impose retaliatory tariffs on over 90 billion euros worth of US goods. EU leaders plan to discuss the issue at a summit on Thursday.

The diversity of languages in schools

News about different languages in schools.

Many schools speak multiple languages.

There are an increasing number of students in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area whose mother tongue is other than Finnish or Swedish.

The Kirsti School in Espoo currently has the highest number of foreign language speakers. They are 92 percent. The school has approximately 450 students. 55 different languages are spoken in the primary school.

- This school is pretty fun. Here you can also learn some new languages from other students. The teachers here are pretty good and the students too.

Principal Pauliina Pertamo-Bowker says that multilingualism has an impact. Many Finnish parents choose a school for their child where more Finnish or Swedish is spoken.

The number of people with higher education should be increased

Then about youth education.

Universities need more young people with vocational education. The national target is for 50 percent of the age group to have a degree from a university.

Finland’s goal is far off. The share of people with higher education is almost 10 percentage points lower than in other developed industrial countries.

Many people go on to higher education after upper secondary school. The goal is that vocational education will also lead to a university of applied sciences or other higher education.

Anna Sulavuori is studying food science and plans to alternate between work and studies:

- Yes, I’ll probably go to work in between. Maybe I’ll do graduate studies and work at the same time.

Weather

Still a weather forecast.

The weather is cloudy and mostly breezy in most parts of the country.

The temperature is below freezing throughout the country.