Helsingin Sanomat reports that Prime Minister Sanna Marin (SDP) will speak at the annual start-up conference Slush in Helsinki with a representative from her husband's private equity firm.
Marin is set to discuss the role of governments in creating an environment for innovation at the November event. The premier will be interviewed by Christian Miele, a general partner at Headline—the firm at which Marin's husband Markus Räikkönen is currently employed.
In an email, the PM told news agency STT that she intends to focus on European strategic autonomy from a technological perspective in her speech.
"I haven't considered it problematic to participate in the discussion, because the themes in it are general and the same ones that I have talked about on numerous other occasions. We are still evaluating participation from a conflict of interest point of view and will discuss the matter with the Chancellor of Justice," Marin wrote in her email.
The PM did not answer how she wound up participating in the event or whether she sees a conflict of interest in offering visibility to her spouse's workplace. Marin said that she discussed participation with her husband and that she has previously met Miele.
In January 2017, many media outlets reported that the state had promoted the Oulu-based Chempolis biotech firm, through investment by majority state-owned energy company Fortum. At the time, then-Prime Minister Juha Sipilä's (Centre) children owned shares in the company.
Marin, still an MP at the time, took to Twitter to react to the situation.
"Every day it seems more and more that Sipilä is not in politics to promote the interests of our country, but those of his inner circle," Marin tweeted in 2017.
Threat maker "harmless"
In an update on Thursday's violent threat made against the Eastern Uusimaa District Court, Iltalehti reported that police detained the individual behind the threat.
"The person has been spoken to and found to be harmless. The individual that made the threat has no connections to gang activity," the Eastern Uusimaa police confirmed in a tweet.
According to police, the threat was received by the court in an email on Wednesday night, and concerned the trial of rapper Milan Jaff, who was sentenced in the spring to 10 years in prison for several violent crimes and now faces further charges.
The proceedings of the criminal case will continue in court on Friday and next week.
Police have made a threat assessment related to the proceedings and special security arrangements will continue in place.
According to Timo Heikkinen from the district court's office, threats to the court are exceptional, though there was such an incident in December of 2021.
"These don't happen every year," Heikkinen confirmed.
Dip in demand
Oulu-based media outlet Kaleva reported that consumers are using far less electricity compared to a year ago.
In August, the availability of gas in Europe weakened significantly due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, forcing the price of electricity to skyrocket.
Now, electricity use has decreased by almost 14 percent since last year.
"The decrease is so large that it cannot be explained simply by temperatures or economic cycles," Finnish Energy (ET) CEO Jukka Leskelä told Kaleva.
In September, electricity consumption in Finland was the same as it was in June, when electricity consumption typically drops as it is bright and warm.
"Electricity users have done a lot to reduce electricity use and ease the increase in their electricity bills," Leskelä added.
In addition, the net import of electricity fell by 70 percent since last September.
The drop in imported electricity has been possible because domestic demand has decreased, while at the same time there is more domestic production. More wind power is constantly being produced and the nuclear reactor Olkiluoto 3 is set to start regular electricity production in December.
Would you like a roundup of the week's top stories in your inbox every Thursday? Then sign up to receive our weekly email!