Tuesday, September 9, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

Sick leave due to mental health problems on the rise in Finland

Published 1 September 2024
– By Editorial Staff
According to the researchers "the true cost of lost workdays is likely to be even higher than our estimate".
1 minute read

According to the Finnish Social Insurance Institution (Kela), six million working days were lost last year due to mental health problems. These absences cost society more than €1 billion a year.

Mental illness currently accounts for more than one in three days of sick leave paid by the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela) in Finland. The annual cost of lost work effort exceeds one billion euros, which is an increase of almost half a billion euros compared to ten years ago.

– The true cost of lost workdays is likely to be even higher than our estimate, Mikko Rissanen, senior specialist at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, told Finnish national broadcaster Yle.

In 2023, almost six million working days will be lost due to mental health problems, which is the equivalent of 26,000 full-time employees being absent from work for a whole year. This is an increase of two million working days compared to a decade ago.

If short periods of sickness, which are shorter than the qualifying period for sickness compensation, are also taken into account, the total number of working days lost could exceed seven million, according to Kela.

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British cardiologist links royal family cancer cases to covid vaccine

The criticized covid vaccinations

Published yesterday 14:43
– By Editorial Staff
According to Aseem Malhotra, it is "highly likely that the COVID vaccines have been a significant factor in the cancer cases among members of the royal family".
3 minute read

The vaccine-skeptical cardiologist Aseem Malhotra caused major controversy when he assessed during Reform UK’s conference that experimental covid vaccines were “highly likely” to have been a significant factor behind cancer diagnoses among members of the British royal family.

During his speech at the party conference in Birmingham on Saturday, Dr. Aseem Malhotra delivered extensive criticism of mRNA vaccines. The British cardiologist, who is a close friend and advisor to the US vaccine-skeptical health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., spoke to delegates on the conference’s final day.

Malhotra argued that hundreds of studies have shown harm from mRNA vaccines and that these affect people’s genes in a damaging way.

— It may be a risk factor for cancer. Many other doctors feel the same way, he said from the stage at the conference venue, linking the same vaccines to illness cases within the royal family.

— It’s highly likely that the Covid vaccines have been a factor, a significant factor, in the cancer of members of the royal family, he continued.

“No one should have been injected”

During the 15-minute speech, the doctor also argued that the covid vaccine was significantly more likely to cause serious harm than the virus itself.

— What does that mean? It is highly likely that not a single person should have been injected with this.

Malhotra also directed criticism at the World Health Organization WHO, which he claimed had been “captured” by Microsoft founder and vaccine lobbyist Bill Gates. He called for the organization to be replaced by a better and more functional system.

— Nobody is immune to medical misinformation, he proclaimed during the speech.

“Dangerous extremism”

Several British cancer organizations have distanced themselves from Malhotra’s comments, including Cancer Research UK and Blood Cancer UK, which state that there are no controlled studies showing increased cancer risk after covid-19 vaccination.

Britain’s health secretary Wes Streeting has also reacted very strongly to the statements and demands that Reform’s party leader Nigel Farage distance himself from the speaker.

— When we are seeing falling numbers of parents getting their children vaccinated, and a resurgence of disease we had previously eradicated, it is shockingly irresponsible for Nigel Farage to give a platform to these poisonous lies, Streeting thundered.

The minister urges Farage to apologize and “sever all ties with this dangerous extremism”.

A spokesperson for Reform UK notes, however, that Malhotra was invited as a guest speaker and has the right to his own opinions – even if the party does not share them.

— Dr Aseem Malhotra is a guest speaker with his own opinions who has an advisory role in the US government. Reform UK does not endorse what he said but does believe in free speech, the spokesperson explains.

Cancer rates rising rapidly among young adults in Australia

Published yesterday 11:22
– By Editorial Staff
More young people in the Western world are being affected by cancer, and researchers don't know what is causing the rapid increase.
2 minute read

Prostate cancer has increased by 500 percent among young Australian men. This is just the worst example of a very concerning trend – cancer cases among 30-39 year-olds have risen sharply over the past two decades.

Between 2000 and 2024, about ten different types of cancer have increased among the younger adult population. The technical term for this phenomenon is early-onset cancer, and according to data from Cancer Australia, the federal government’s cancer agency, the figures are alarmingly high.

Among other increases, kidney cancer has risen by 85 percent, uterine cancer by 138 percent, liver cancer by 150 percent, pancreatic cancer by 200 percent, and prostate cancer has increased by 500 percent in this age group. Colorectal cancer has also increased by 173 percent, a type of cancer that is often detected late, making it harder to treat.

Cancer has traditionally been a disease of aging, and bowel cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, they all increase with age, says Dorothy Keefe, chief executive of Cancer Australia, to ABC and continues:

But over the last 20 years, there’s been a real – it’s small in absolute numbers – but it is a real increase in the number of younger adults developing these cancers.

The increase is also occurring in the United States, where more and more young adults are being diagnosed with cancer.

Environmental toxins and childhood obesity

The increase puzzles researchers who cannot explain what causes it. While there are hereditary mutations that cause cancer, the younger patients do not carry these genetic changes. Researchers speculate that the increase may partly be due to environmental toxins in our surroundings.

We are exposed to a broad universe of synthetic chemicals … that our biology isn’t familiar with, and that has left a great deal of uncertainty, says Dr Christos Symeonides, who is an Australian pediatrician and also studies exposure to chemicals and microplastics.

The increase in childhood obesity is also seen as a possible explanation, as well as gut health. The proportion of cesarean sections has increased, for example, and this means that children do not receive the same microbiome as those born vaginally. This could potentially affect the development of their immune system, researchers believe.

We have lots of bacteria in our gut … and it’s that balance between good and bad bacteria that creates a healthy state, says Professor Gianluca Severi, senior cancer epidemiologist at the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) in Paris, France.

Stubb’s warning: “We will lose to the global South”

Published 3 September 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Finnish President Alexander Stubb warns that the Western world is losing influence to Asia.
3 minute read

As the SCO alliance brings together major powers like India, China and Russia, Finnish President Alexander Stubb sees how a new world order is taking shape. Finland’s president warns that the West’s response – punitive tariffs and confrontation – only accelerates the historic shift in power.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb is calling for a more “dignified” and cooperative foreign policy toward the global South. His message is particularly directed at the US and comes at a sensitive time – amid the harshest trade tensions in years between Washington and New Delhi.

— My message, not only to my European colleagues, but especially to the United States, is that if we don’t derive a more cooperative and dignified foreign policy towards Global South, the likes of India, we are going to lose this game, Stubb said.

The president pointed to the recently held summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Tianjin, where Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated alongside leaders from China and Russia.

— The meeting is a good reminder to all of us in the global west of what is at stake. We’re trying to preserve the remnants of the old order, he stated.

Close ties with Trump

Stubb’s statement carries extra weight because he is considered to have unusually good relations with President Trump, and the two bonded during a seven-hour golf round at Mar-a-Lago in Florida in March.

Trump has called Stubb a “young, powerful man” and said that: “we wanted to have you here because you are somebody that we all respect”.

Jan Hallenberg from the Swedish Institute of International Affairs tells news agency AFP that Stubb’s position is unique:

— Among small countries, there is no equivalent whatsoever. Stubb has gained unique access to Trump that no one else from a smaller European country has ever had.

In August, Stubb accompanied Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House for talks about the war with Russia.

Trump defends the tariffs

The warning from Finland’s president comes as the US has just imposed 50 percent punitive tariffs on Indian imports – half motivated by India’s oil purchases from Russia. The tariffs, which took effect on August 27, particularly impact India’s textile and diamond industries and are defended by Trump himself.

— We get along with India very well, but for many years it was a one-sided relationship… India was charging us tremendous tariffs, the highest in the world, the president said, highlighting how American motorcycle manufacturer Harley Davidson could no longer sell its products in India due to a 200 percent tariff on motorcycles.

— So what happens? Harley Davidson went to India and built a motorcycle plant. Now they don’t have to pay tariffs.

With India increasingly turning eastward and strengthening ties with China and Russia, Stubb’s warning seems to be about more than just trade volumes but about the West’s future political influence in a world where the balance of power is rapidly shifting.

Finnish horses will soon be required to have a companion

Published 27 August 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Horses need muzzle-to-muzzle contact.
2 minute read

Finnish horses will soon be required to have larger stalls and a companion present in the stable, according to a new regulation. The companion can be another horse, mule, or donkey.

Finland has decided to promote horse welfare with a new regulation. Horses should, for example, have better opportunities to move around in larger areas and have daily outdoor time. In newly built stables, the paddock must be at least 300 square meters.

Stalls must also be expanded for horses with a withers height over 170 centimeters, and stables must have natural light. Water must always be available and during winter it must be changed every six hours. Horses may not be without hay for more than six hours.

New requirements also stipulate that horses must have a companion on site that they can see, hear, and feel daily. Horses are herd animals and loneliness can negatively affect their health.

Particularly the fact that it is now clearly prescribed that equines may not be kept alone is, in my opinion, one of the most important reforms for improving equine welfare”, writes Terhi Simonen-Jokinen, a specialist expert at Finland’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, in an email to Finnish public broadcaster Yle.

Muzzle contact

The horse’s companion must be either another horse, donkey, or mule. However, donkeys must have another donkey as company in the stable. One detail included in the regulation is that horses must be able to have daily muzzle-to-muzzle interaction, something that horse owner Anna Tujulin, who owns 22 horses herself, considers particularly important.

There is research showing that this is even more important than them seeing each other. I have also seen stallions that during periods haven’t received that touch and they can quite quickly develop even aggressive behavior, she says.

The regulation also states that foals may not be weaned before six months of age, and that young horses under two years old must be allowed to live in herds.

The changes will take effect at the turn of the year.

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