Newsweek in plain Finnish | Sunday 1.11.2026
A call to Putin. Sex crime trial. STT’s news operations. Brain injuries and insurance disputes. The popularity of Halloween.
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Stubb’s call to Putin
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President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre called Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: Emmi Syrjäniemi / Office of the President of the Republic
The big topic of the week has been the phone call between Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støren to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Stubb and Støre called Putin on Tuesday. They talked about the war in Ukraine and the peace talks, and conveyed messages from Ukraine to Putin. Ukraine and the US participated in the preparation of the call.
The call drew criticism from other Nordic countries. The Danish prime minister criticized the call for not being planned together with other European countries. The Swedish prime minister said he was not informed of the call in advance.
The impact of the call on the peace negotiations is still unclear.
Sexual Offense Trial
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Mira Luoti and Makwan Amirkhanin are public figures. The trial has been widely followed in the media. Usually, sexual crime trials are not public. Photo: Silja Viitala / Yle
The sexual assault trial of freestyle wrestler Makwan Amirkhan began on Monday in Espoo.
The prosecutor says Amirkhani forced musician Mira Luodi to perform a sexual act on the set of a television show in 2016.
The court heard from Luoti, Amirkhan and witnesses this week.
Amirkhani denies the charges. He says no crime has been committed.
The case will continue in December, and the court will issue a ruling later.
STT’s news activities
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The STT news agency provides news and images to newspapers, television and radio. Yle is also a customer of STT. Photo: Mikko Koski / Yle
The Finnish News Agency, or STT, will cease its news and image operations at the end of March.
STT provides news and images to many media outlets. STT has been operating for almost 140 years.
STT’s finances have been poor for a long time, and the difficulties increased when its largest customer, Sanoma, stopped using STT’s services.
Experts say that STT is important for reliable information and small newspapers. About 90 people will lose their jobs when STT ceases operations.
Brain injuries and insurance disputes
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Brain injury can cause fatigue and difficulty with memory and concentration. Photo: Cinefootage Visuals / Alamy/All Over Press
Yle has investigated nearly 100 insurance disputes regarding brain injuries. In these cases, there were often shortcomings in the initial examinations of the brain injury and patient information. Therefore, the brain injury may appear to be milder than it is.
A brain injury can cause long-term fatigue and memory and concentration difficulties, even if the doctor initially assesses the injury as mild.
Incomplete information can lead to lengthy disputes over insurance claims for brain injuries.
The popularity of Halloween
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Halloween is growing in popularity in Finland. That’s why sales of Halloween decorations are also growing. The yard of this house is decorated in a Halloween theme. Photo: Rosa Lehtokari / Yle
Halloween was celebrated over the weekend. It has become a big decoration festival in Finland.
Stores say they are already selling more Halloween products than Easter decorations. Halloween products include decorations, costumes and candy.
In the S Group, sales of Halloween products have increased by more than 50 percent in three years. The stores estimate that the popularity of Halloween products will also increase in the coming years.
This was Uutisviikko in plain Finnish. See you again, bye!