Five Finnish citizens were among people removed and detained by Israeli authorities from an aid flotilla that included dozens of boats en route to Gaza, according to the activist group Global Movement to Gaza.
Helsingin Sanomat (HS) has reported that the organisation streamed live video of the detainments as they occurred.
There were roughly 500 people aboard 40 vessels in the flotilla, according to the paper. Israeli authorities began stopping the vessels on Wednesday.
Late on Wednesday Finnish time, Israel's foreign ministry announced that it had stopped several of the boats in the flotilla.
"Already several vessels of the Hamas-Sumud flotilla have been safely stopped and their passengers are being transferred to an Israeli port."
"Greta and her friends are safe and healthy," Israel's foreign ministry announced on X, referring to Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who joined the Global Sumud flotilla as it departed from Barcelona at the end of August.
Israel's foreign ministry attached a video to the post on X, showing Thunberg next to Israeli soldiers.
At the time, the campaigners taking part in the flotilla said they "want to break the illegal siege of Gaza".
Jussi Tanner, director general of consular services at the Finnish foreign ministry, confirmed on X that Israel had notified Finland via diplomatic channels that it had started detaining participants in the flotilla.
A vessel named Sirius was among the first ships to be stopped. It was carrying Finnish doctor Juha Pirhonen, who posted a video on Instagram, announcing that he had been "kidnapped" by Israeli forces, urging viewers to tell his government to "stop its complicity with genocide and bring me home safe".
Funding hesitance
Helsingin Sanomat also reported on Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo's (NCP) attendance at an informal EU summit this week.
Orpo arrived at the meeting on Wednesday with a funding request, according to the daily. He's seeking to tap EU frameworks to fund a planned 'drone wall' to protect Europe's eastern border. The protective network was proposed by EU President Ursula von der Leyen in early September, and discussed in Helsinki last week by Finnish officials and European Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius.
"I said that the commission should examine the entire current budget to see what could be omitted. There was no direct answer to this, but several speeches made [at the meeting] discussed the need to find funding in the short term," Orpo said, according to HS.
But Orpo's request did not receive full support, the paper noted. In sideline talks, official and diplomatic sources noted that EU countries have just agreed to set up a 150-billion-euro defence financing instrument, but distribution of those funds have yet to commence, according to the paper.
"Is now the right time to start talking about new financial instruments?" one source pondered.
The paper said a diplomat pointed out that most EU countries have already pledged to Nato's new defence spending targets — specifically, promising to devote 3.5 percent of their national GDP on defence.
Some of those funds could well be directed toward a drone wall effort, the diplomatic source told HS.
The funding topic will again be discussed at the next EU summit on 23 October, according to the paper.
Gas station wine
There was a long queue at a service station in Pori on Monday, but people weren't waiting to fill up on petrol.
Instead, according to newspaper Iltalehti, they wanted to get their hands on the alcoholic drinks being sold at a 70 percent discount.
According to regional paper Satakunnan Kansa, which first reported the story, "there was a long line of men standing in the checkout queue — one after another — with shopping trolleys filled with alcoholic products".
Iltalehti's article was among the most read news stories in Finland on Thursday morning, according to media tracking site Ampparit.
Shops and grocery stores can sell beverages with alcohol content of up to 8 percent.
The paper pointed out that the low-alcohol wine on sale was very likely the cheapest available in the country, with a 0.75 litre bottle of eight-percent white wine being sold at 2.67 euros apiece. Meanwhile, cans of the alcopop beverage lonkero were flying off the shelves at 82 cents each.
The paper noted that the reason for the wallet-friendly prices was not a happy one, as the petrol station was permanently shutting down and clearing out its remaining stock.
The station's shop closed the following day, according to Iltalehti.
The local gas station's owners announced news about the closure in a post on Facebook.
"We want to thank all our customers and stakeholders for their cooperation over the years. It is with a heavy heart that we announce here on Facebook that our operations will end on Tuesday," the post read.
Finland's Alcohol Act does not set any lower limits for the pricing of alcoholic beverages, but forbids volume discounts.
Last week, the All Points North podcast examined the trials and tribulations that foreigners in Finland can face when seeking out mental health care.
Listen to the episode via this embedded player, on Yle Areena, via Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
