Anyone who has spent any time in Finland during the summer will know that mosquitoes are a real problem. The blood-sucking creatures are abundant in the warmer months, particularly in the sparser-populated north and east.
That makes mosquito repellent a crucial part of anyone's armoury ahead of a trip to rural areas. there's just one problem, according to Iltalehti: it's now much weaker and less effective than it was before.
The reason is a 2013 EU directive that mandated swingeing cuts in the amount of DEET manufacturers are allowed to use. Since then the sprays available in Finland have been less effective, according to tour guides in Lapland interviewed by IL.
One said he didn't realise at first, until he found an old bottle at the bottom of a rucksack and found it much more effective than more recently-purchased product. Some tour guides further south haven't noticed a difference.
Tero Pylkkänen from Kainuu says he stays covered up when he's in the forest, and the current formula for repellent keeps unwanted insects away from his wrists, neck and face. But it's also a matter of perception: he spends a lot of his time in the wilderness, and so mosquitoes don't bother him as much as less experienced explorers.
Unrest in the SDP?
The Social Democrat Party has seen a boost in the polls since it left government, but many MPs remain unimpressed with leader Antti Rinne. While none will go on the record, his leadership style is said to be problematic, according to Helsingin Sanomat today. The paper profiles one much-discussed potential challenger to Rinne, Tytti Tuppurainen, but it's one of the nicer anti-Rinne interviews possible.
"Antti has kind eyes," says Tupparainen. "He has a good heart and he's honest."
In the ruthless world of politics this could be damning with faint praise, and indeed the Oulu MP notes that "Antti knows where he must improve". The issue, according to Tuppurainen, is a difference in vision. While Rinne is rooted in the world of class struggle and trade union activism, she sees the SDP as more about certain values, noting that she 'doesn't believe in class divisions'.
She has not made a decision on whether to run yet, and in the profile she points to her two teenage daughters as one powerful argument against such a move. There's plenty of time for a change of heart though, as the SDP conference is not scheduled until next February.
Olympic trips for ski sponsors
Ilta-Sanomat's sports section leads with a muck-raking piece about the Finnish Ski Federation's strip to the Rio Olympics. The federation will take sponsors to the summer games, paying half the costs for around a dozen representatives of partners who help fund winter sports.
As IS points out 'winter sports are rare at the summer Olympics', and the trip has raised some eyebrows in the sporting world. However the federation's communications director Jukka-Pekka Vuori robustly defends the trip, saying that it is part of a normal partnership intended to provide benefits for his organisation and will be a short, cost-effective four-day visit.
Vuori says that he has travelled "little and frugally" as a federation employee, comparing himself to other leaders who have travelled for three weeks and travelled business class.
