Foreign-background cab drivers in Finland are facing increasing prejudice in Finland, Jari Kantonen, CEO of Taksi Helsinki, told tabloid Ilta-Sanomat. Last weekend, a customer using the taxi company’s app requested an ethnically Finnish driver. When a dark-skinned driver pulled up, the unhappy customer complained of poor service.
”Our ride-booking app will never offer the possibility to select a driver based on skin colour,” Kantonen told the paper.
He said racism towards his taxi drivers has grown in the past two years he has headed Taksi Helsinki, adding that racist feedback from customers is ”surprisingly common.” Most often it manifests in customers at taxi stands passing up drivers who don’t appear typically Finnish.
Two moms
As of April, a baby born in Finland can legally have two moms when a new law that recognises both women in same-sex partnerships as mothers from the moment their child is born comes into effect, reports regional daily Turun Sanomat.
The so-called Maternity Act originated as a citizens' initiative and was approved by Finland's Parliament last year.
To establish motherhood, the woman who isn’t pregnant must in the presence of her expectant partner notify the local maternity clinic (neuvola in Finnish) of parentage.
US approves Hornet sale
The U.S. Department of Defense has approved Boeing’s release of the EA-18G Growler—an F/A-18 Super Hornet variant to Finland, writes Tampere daily Aamulehti.
The Growler can provide tactical jamming, and is capable of disrupting and deceiving a broad range of military electronic systems, including radar and communication systems.