Latest news with #AnneKauranen
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Finland completes first 35 km of fence on Russian border
By Anne Kauranen NUIJAMAA, Finland (Reuters) -Finland has completed the first 35 km (22 miles) of a 4.5-metre (15-ft) high fence it is building on its closed eastern border with Russia to stop migrants from crossing via the wilderness, the Finnish Border Guard said on Wednesday. Finland began constructing the fence, which will eventually cover 200 km (124 miles) of the border's total 1,344 km (835 mile) length, last year in response to migration via Russia through the border in 2023, which it believes was deliberately orchestrated by Moscow. "The main purpose of the fence is to control a large mass of people if they are trying to enter from Russia to Finland," the deputy commander of Southeast Finland Border Guard District, Antti Virta, told Reuters. In Nuijamaa, near one of the closed border crossing points, the scene is tranquil, with just the sound of birdsong to be heard on both sides of the new fence on Wednesday. But Finland has faced criticism, and not just from Russia, over the border closure and fence construction. After decades of peaceful relations with Russia, Finland joined the NATO military alliance two years ago in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, prompting Moscow to threaten Helsinki with retaliation. The same year - in 2023 - some 1,300 migrants from third countries such as Syria and Somalia arrived via Russia at the Finnish border to ask for asylum, until Finland closed all eight passenger crossing points to Russia indefinitely to put an end to the phenomenon. Russia has denied orchestrating the migrant flows. At the time, the Russian government said it deeply regretted Finland's decision to shut crossings on its border, saying it reflected Helsinki's adoption of an anti-Russian stance. Virtually no migrants arrived after Finland closed the border for passengers at the end of 2023, but the Border Guard defended the decision to build the fence. "The border barrier is absolutely necessary to maintain border security," Head of Operations Samuel Siljanen said. "From the Border Guard's perspective, it improves our ability to perform border surveillance, to act if there's some kind of disruption at the border or a border incident," he said, adding that the fence was needed to combat orchestrated migration. The European Court of Human Rights has asked Finland to justify the indefinite closure of the border. The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O'Flaherty, last year warned that Finland's temporary restrictions on asylum applications "would violate international obligations, including the prohibition of refoulement and collective expulsion". The fence consists of 3.5-metre high metal railings topped with a metre-high roll of barbed wire and it is equipped with cameras, sensors, loudspeakers and lights. It will be completed by the end of 2026, the Border Guard said.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Exclusive-Nordics and Estonia plan offline card payment back-up if internet cut
By Anne Kauranen HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Estonia are planning to roll out a system of offline card payments to provide a back-up if internet connections are lost, including due to sabotage, Bank of Finland board member Tuomas Valimaki said on Wednesday. The plan comes after the Baltic Sea region has suffered several instances of unexplained damage to critical undersea infrastructure in recent years, and as Western intelligence services have accused Russia of committing various acts of sabotage - a charge the Kremlin rejects. "The likelihood of major disruptions has increased because the geopolitical situation has changed worldwide. There is a war in Europe, and around that war, there is all sorts of hybrid influence and harassment, which may involve disrupting or cutting connections," Valimaki told Reuters, referring to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He said payments were a potential target because of their critical role in everyday life. Only 10% of people use cash as their primary payment method in Finland, central bank data show, making the country highly dependent on card payments. "Since card payments require functioning international data links, Finland must be prepared for interruptions. Many other countries are of course in the same situation," Valimaki said, adding Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Estonia were also planning to introduce offline card payments, and possibly other nations too. Valimaki said the plans were still being developed, but offline payments can involve using terminals that encrypt and store transaction data until an internet connection can be restored. Sweden's central bank told Reuters that it hoped to establish a system by July 1, 2026, that would allow Swedes to make offline card payments to buy essential goods in the event of disruptions lasting up to seven days. The central banks of Norway, Denmark and Estonia did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Last year, the Nordic region's largest bank, Nordea, was hit by an unprecedented denial of service campaign that lasted for weeks and at times prevented customers from accessing their accounts online. All of Europe should reduce its dependence on card payments, which are currently heavily reliant on U.S. companies Visa and Mastercard, Valimaki said. To provide an alternative, Finland will introduce a national system for instant payments in a few years, while offline payments will become possible for consumers next year, he said. "We may feel like we have options, to pay with debit or credit or with Apple Pay for example, but all of those function via the Visa and Mastercard infrastructure," he said, calling for diversification.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Exclusive-TikTok plans to build 1 billion euro data centre in Finland, spokesman confirms
By Supantha Mukherjee and Anne Kauranen STOCKHOLM/HELSINKI (Reuters) -TikTok plans to invest 1 billion euros ($1.14 billion) to build its first data centre in Finland as it moves data storage for European users to the continent, a TikTok spokesman confirmed on Wednesday. The spokesman declined to give further details as he confirmed the plan revealed to Reuters by two sources familiar with the matter. Finland's Prime Minister's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. TikTok, owned by China-headquartered Bytedance, has been trying to address concerns over whether the Chinese government could access the data of European citizens who use TikTok. In 2023, it launched a new data security regime, nicknamed "Project Clover," with plans to invest 12 billion euros over 10 years amid growing pressure from lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic. Several countries, the European Parliament, European Commission and others have banned TikTok from staff phones due to privacy concerns, while the U.S. government has threatened to ban the app in the U.S. on national security grounds unless the company's U.S. assets are divested. TikTok has called the bans misguided, based on fundamental misconceptions. On its website TikTok says European user data is stored in a dedicated European data enclave, hosted across data centres in Norway, Ireland, and the U.S. Under Project Clover, TikTok's first data centre in Norway went fully online this month after work started in 2023. TikTok, which has over 175 million users in Europe, plans to announce more data centres in the coming years, sources said. Nordic countries have become attractive destinations for data centres for technology companies ranging from Microsoft to Meta as the colder temperatures reduce energy costs, alongside availability of cheap, emission-free electricity. "Finland is definitely one of the places where we're continuing to build out our infrastructure," Microsoft President Brad Smith said on Wednesday in Brussels. "First we have a lot of access to carbon free energy, and second, it's got good connectivity, so we are able to serve much of Europe from Finland," he said. More than 20 new data centres are being planned in Finland, amounting to some 13 billion euros in value and 1.3 gigawatts in capacity, Veijo Terho, chairman of the Finnish Data Centre Association said.($1 = 0.8801 euros) Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Finnish satellite operator ICEYE to provide data to NATO headquarters
By Anne Kauranen HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland-based satellite operator ICEYE is to start providing imaging data to the Situation Centre at NATO headquarters in Brussels, the company said on Friday. Privately owned ICEYE has grown rapidly in recent years and currently has a fleet of 48 Synthetic Aperture Radar satellites in orbit to observe the Earth, providing near real-time imaging. Its clients include Ukraine and other militaries. Its satellite constellation works by bouncing a radar beam off the surface of the Earth from approximately 550 kilometres in space to build a picture of what is happening on the ground from the pulses, regardless of weather conditions or daylight, the company said. ICEYE's announcement on NATO cooperation comes at a time when Europe is scrambling to boost its autonomy in space-based monitoring and communications, with the European Commission pushing forward delayed plans for a 10.6 billion euro ($11.13 billion) secure European satellite constellation. Officials say rapid expansion of Elon Musk's Starlink satellite constellation spurred efforts to shore up Europe's so-called "digital sovereignty". While ICEYE's satellites provide Earth observation, Starlink satellites deliver global internet coverage and enable communications. "We are proud of the opportunity to cooperate and support NATO users and decision-makers with data from the world's largest SAR satellite constellation, owned and operated by ICEYE," ICEYE's Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder Pekka Laurila said in a statement. "What the world has learned by observing the conflict in Ukraine is that future security of nations will be massively dependent on satellite constellations," ICEYE CEO Rafal Modrzewski told Reuters earlier.
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Finland's secret service says frequency of cable incidents is 'exceptional'
By Anne Kauranen HELSINKI (Reuters) - The frequency of cable incidents in the Baltic Sea has been "exceptional" in recent years, but state actors have more effective ways of performing underwater sabotage than by dragging anchors, Finland's intelligence service chief said. The Baltic Sea region is on high alert after a string of power cable, telecom link and gas pipeline outages since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and the NATO military alliance has boosted its presence with frigates, aircraft and naval drones. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. On Sunday, Finland released the oil tanker Eagle S, which is suspected of breaking a Baltic Sea power cable and four data cables late last year, but Finnish police have yet to provide conclusions in several ongoing investigations. Juha Martelius, the head of Finland's security and intelligence service Supo called the cable incidents "a secondary issue", despite describing their frequency as "exceptional" for the Baltic Sea in recent years. "The biggest concern regarding the Baltic Sea is that Russia's shadow fleet operates there and provides Russia with warfare capabilities by allowing Russia to sell energy to other countries that buy it," he told Reuters. 'Shadow fleet' refers to vessels used by Russia to move oil, arms and grains around in violation of international sanctions imposed on it over the Ukraine war. Russia has repeatedly denounced Western sanctions against Moscow's energy sector as an attempt to harm Russia's economy at the risk of destabilising global markets and said the country would press on with large oil and gas projects. In a national security review published on Tuesday, Supo said dozens of shadow fleet vessels sail through the Gulf of Finland to Russian oil ports weekly and that their ability to circumvent energy sanctions is of great importance to the Russian economy. "There are so many of these vessels in the Baltic Sea now that the likelihood of something happening is of course greater," Martelius said, referring to cable breaches and refusing to comment on ongoing investigations. Western countries should nevertheless take the threat against their critical underwater infrastructure seriously, he added. "I would like to separate the anchors, whatever is behind those incidents, from the fact that there is a real threat against underwater critical infrastructure," he said, adding state actors had more effective capabilities for causing subsea destruction than by dragging anchors.
