Finnish media was dominated once again on Tuesday by news from Kabul and Washington, as the United States hands over Afghanistan to the Taliban and flees the country.
Overnight US President Joe Biden insisted in a televised address that his decision was the correct one, and that no other course of action could have prevented scenes of desperate Afghans clinging to planes as they evacuated the lucky few.
His speech was received with some scepticism by Iltalehti, which has an opinion piece headlined 'responsibility for the fall of Afghanistan lies with Biden, even if maybe it shouldn't'.
The paper points out that Donald Trump was the one who agreed a deal with the Taliban and continued to withdraw even as Taliban forces failed to follow its terms.
Helsingin Sanomat has an editorial noting that the abandonment of Afghans is a defeat for Finland too, after the country spent twenty years and nearly a billion euros on supporting western efforts in the country.
The paper concludes that Finland has offered to evacuate a small minority of the people who assisted Finns in the last two decades and are now at risk of retribution from Taliban forces.
"Hopefully at least this promise will be kept," writes HS.
Fully vaccinated must still quarantine
The more infectious Delta strain of Covid-19 has raised the level of concern among health authorities. Ilkka-Pohjalainen reports that in Vaasa, vaccinated people still have to quarantine after exposure.
This is despite THL's recommendation that fully vaccinated individuals no longer need to quarantine after exposure.
"Positive cases have also been reported in people who have received both doses. The Delta variant spreads as easily as chickenpox, so there will be a lot of infections regardless," Chief Vaasa Physician Heikki Kaukoranta told IP.
With current doses' protection waning six months after administration, Finland could see third doses introduced as soon as early 2022, the newspaper added.
Cottage sales boom drawing to a close
The hottest summer in a hundred years also saw a red-hot holiday housing market, Ilta-Sanomat (IS) reports, but it is now expected to cool down.
This summer witnessed a holiday home purchasing boom and subsequent spike in prices by 20 percent.
With a heavy majority of cottage-owners above the age of 60, it remains to be seen whether younger generations will be as interested in the city-life escapism to keep the holiday housing market alive, credit institution Hypo economist Juhana Brotherus told the paper.
