Newsweek in plain Finnish | Sunday 18.10.2026

Google. Fuel subsidy. Hazard notices. Homeless. Puppy live.

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Google deforestation

A large open area of land showing dug ditches, wet strips of land and surrounding forest.

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Google’s data center construction site in Muhos. Photo: Rami Moilanen / Yle

The technology company Google’s deforestation in Northern Finland has also been in the news this week.

Google has cut down hundreds of hectares of forest in Muhos and Kajaani. Google has cut down forests in areas where it wants to build data centers.

However, the law states that forests cannot be cut down until an environmental impact assessment has been carried out in the area. In Muhos and Kajaani, the assessment is still ongoing.

Google says it didn’t know it was breaking the law. Google also says authorities knew about the logging.

The Licensing and Supervision Agency has ordered Google to suspend work and wait until the permits are in order.

Fuel prices

A person refuels a car with a green fuel pump at a gas station.

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Fuel is now expensive. Photo: Ville Maali / Yle

Then the news about fuels.

The government has agreed on measures to help motorists who are suffering from rising gasoline and diesel prices.

Agriculture, forestry and the transport sector receive fuel subsidies.

Private car drivers will be helped with a reduction in vehicle tax. In addition, commuting expenses can be deducted more than before.

Helping motorists costs the state 60 million euros. The money is taken from road maintenance.

Hazard alerts to your phone

A person is looking at their phone.

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The hazard bulletin will soon be delivered directly to your mobile phone. Photo: Henrietta Hassinen / Yle

Then we will talk about the hazard announcements.

Authorities are starting to send hazard alerts directly to mobile phones.

The danger message is sent to all mobile phones in the danger area.

The new system is called FI-Alert and will be implemented at the beginning of November.

Homelessness is increasing

A woman sits, wearing shabby sneakers and a dirty bag next to her.

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The number of homeless people started to increase 2 years ago. Photo: Jani Aarnio / Yle

Then the topic is the homeless, that is, people who do not have their own home.

The number of homeless people is growing rapidly.

Last year, there were just over 4,500 people in Finland who did not have their own home. That is 20 percent more than the year before.

The majority of homeless people are men.

Experts say that the number of homeless people is increasing, for example, because the government has cut social security and housing benefits.

My own Puppies for Holland

A brown Lagotto dog lies on a blue mat nursing puppies.

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Yle’s Puppies will follow the lives of Hilka and her puppies this autumn. Photo: Yle Puppies

More news from Yle’s Pentulive program.

The Netherlands is starting to produce its own Pentulive program. Yle has sold the Pentulive program format to the Dutch Broadcasting Corporation’s children’s program.

The sale of the program format means that Holland will make a similar, but its own version of Yle’s Pentulive program.

In the puppy farm, the mother dog and her puppies are monitored around the clock for about 8 weeks.

This was Uutisviikko in plain Finnish. See you next week.