DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ I moved from the US to Sweden after struggling with burnout. Now I have 6 weeks of paid vacation per year and rarely work overtime.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Hannah Towey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Now she rarely works overtime, gets six weeks of paid vacation a year, and got a free master's. In Sweden, if you work late, your boss might flag that your workload is too high, or that you're not capable enough to do your work within work hours. His company sponsored both of our residencies and work visas, so we had the ability to live and work in Sweden full time. I get six weeks of paid vacation every year and I use it allSweden's Annual Leave Act gives workers the legal right to take at least four weeks of consecutive paid vacation between the months of June and August. My company gives us six weeks of paid vacation per year, and I take all of it.

☆ Private jets get a bad rap. Jetex is trying to make them greener
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Rym Bendimerad | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Because they often travel shorter distances than commercial jets, private jets are generally less efficient, and their emissions per passenger are much higher. According to data from European non-profit Transport and Environment, private jets can be five to 14 times more polluting than commercial planes, and 50 times more polluting than trains. Yet the private aviation sector has seen considerable growth in recent years. EVTOL aircraft have a more limited range than private jets, and would be used for short flights around and between cities – which, in the future, could be an eco-friendlier option for the many celebrities who’ve been criticized for traveling short distances in their private jets. “We are seeing some really exciting innovations coming from private aviation,” said Dr. Kearns.

☆ This Town Made Tina Turner. She Made It Famous.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Rick Rojas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ms. Ewing lost touch, but she admired Ms. Turner’s resilience, particularly as she clawed her way back from her abusive relationship with Ike Turner. “Knowing you can have calamities but if you’re strong enough, strong-minded and have a strong will, you can make it to the top of the hill,” she said. Pam Stephens, a resident who attended the memorial, often cautions outsiders who know of the community only from “Nutbush City Limits” to temper their expectations. “There’s not even a stop sign,” she said, “unless you pull off the main road.”But the Tina Turner Museum, at her childhood schoolhouse, has given visitors another reason to exit the interstate. The refurbished white wooden building is filled with artifacts that Ms. Turner personally sent for display.

☆ Claire Chase Is Changing How People Think of the Flute
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Joshua Barone | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Something unusual happens when people speak about the flutist Claire Chase. They use superlatives that would seem reckless if they weren’t repeated so often. “It’s so difficult to talk about Claire,” the composer Marcos Balter said. “She’s so much more than a virtuoso flutist or a pedagogue. Earlier in May, she played Kaija Saariaho’s concerto “L’Aile du Songe” with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.

☆ AI music could revolutionize the industry — and this artist is leading the way
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Drew Austin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Despite this widespread apprehension, Holly Herndon — an experimental musician and artist — doesn't think AI is nefarious or will ruin art. Herndon's usage of AI shows a way forward for not just artists but also the rest of us. In her blog post announcing Holly+, Herndon said she envisioned a future where digitally created voices "soon become standard practice for artists and other creatives." While the project has yielded an ever-growing array of fascinating art, Holly+ also raises questions about the future of that art. (Anyone can use the Holly+ voice tool itself without submitting the output to the DAO, however.)

☆ Aibidia, a fintech helping multinational giants pay their taxes, just raised $14.2 million using this 10-slide pitch deck
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The Helsinki-based firm helps large multinationals automate and digitize their transfer pricing. Check out the 10-slide pitch deck it used to raise the round co-led by DN Capital and FPV Ventures. Aibidia, a fintech that helps multinational giants pay taxes globally, has raised $14.2 million in funding. Multinationals use transfer pricing to manage their tax exposures by moving transactions between subsidiaries, affiliates, or holding companies to reduce their overall tax burden globally. "The reason no one has done this before is the number of data points and its taxonomy," Leppänen said.

☆ China's carbon emissions to hit new record in 2023 on economic rebound. But they could peak soon, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Hong Kong CNN —China’s carbon emissions will likely hit a new record in 2023 on the back of an economic rebound, but a rapid expansion in green energy will enable its emissions to peak soon, a global energy think tank said on Friday. However, the emissions could peak soon, as China has accelerated its clean energy push and installed record amounts of solar and wind power capacity, the analysts pointed out. Coal production surged 11% in 2022 from 2021, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. This will lead to a sharp increase in bank lending and investment, particularly for manufacturing, transportation and energy production, they added. “When low-carbon power growth matches — and then exceeds — the annual increase in electricity demand, the sector’s CO2 emissions will peak,” they said.

☆ Breach of Mental-Health Records Challenges Nation’s Court System
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Catherine Stupp | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +4 min

Hackers posted naked photos of cancer patients online after a February cyberattack on Allentown, Pa.-based Lehigh Valley Health Network. Fifteen prosecutors will go through technical evidence and statements from around 24,000 patients whose data was exposed and some of which was published online, Finnish officials said. Prosecutors will spend an estimated 10 minutes reviewing each report to decide whether to use it in court, Mr. Vainio said. The logistics of a trial will be challenging because Finnish law requires courts to accommodate all victims who want to be present, Mr. Vainio said. Money, however, won’t address all the harms to victims, Mr. Vainio said.

☆ Review: After 55 Years, the Helsinki Philharmonic Returns to Carnegie Hall
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Joshua Barone | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Until Tuesday, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra hadn’t been to Carnegie Hall since 1968. Its chief conductor at the time was Jorma Panula, who was at the podium for that visit. Now, 55 years later, the group is led by one of his former students: Susanna Mälkki. Her tenure in Helsinki, where she has been the chief conductor since 2016, ends this season. In Los Angeles, Mälkki’s repertoire has been varied: a lot of well-shepherded contemporary music, but also insightfully transparent interpretations of the classics.

☆ Finland prime minister divorces husband
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

HELSINKI, May 10 (Reuters) - Finland's outgoing Prime Minister Sanna Marin has filed for divorce jointly with her husband of three years Markus Raikkonen, they said on Instagram on Wednesday. Marin and Raikkonen, who until recently worked at a venture capital firm, share a 5-year-old daughter. They married in 2020 while Marin was in office dealing with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Marin and her Social Democratic Party lost Finland's election for parliament last month, trailing the right-wing National Coalition Party as well as the nationalist Finns Party. Marin, 37, the world's youngest prime minister when she took office in 2019, is considered by fans around the globe as a millennial role model for progressive new leaders, even as voters at home opted for a new government.

☆ Italians judge Spanish pizzeria as the best in Europe
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Julia Buckley | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Enter 50 Top Pizza, an international guide run by Italians that produces a series of annual rankings rewarding some of the best pizzerias on the planet. The 2023 European list has just been published – and, according to 1,000 anonymous “inspectors” across the continent, the best pizza in Europe is in… Spain. The entity – a pizza guide, which has been ranking restaurants since 2017 – has separate listings for the 50 best pizzerias in the cradle of pizza. The best pizza was judged to be Panatieri's "Salsa de tomates cherry asados, mozzarella y holandesa de albahaca." Today this is not the case.”As for the Italy rankings, they will be revealed in Rome on July 12.

☆ Dutch PM says talks on F-16s for Ukraine progressing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

AMSTERDAM, May 4 (Reuters) - Talks on a potential donation of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine are progressing, Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Thursday during a visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to The Hague, but no decision has been made. Answering a question at a press conference alongside Zelenskiy and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, Rutte said "On the F-16's: no taboos." He said on Thursday said that discussions on F-16s would "take time" as did previous discussions on donating Leopard 2 tanks and armoured howitzers. "But at this moment the panzer-howitzers are in Ukraine, (and) the Leo 2s are being delivered to Ukraine," he noted. "So we will work on this diligently, on the F-16s, and clearly there is support in parliament for this government to work on that."

But until the Kremlin chose to publicize the incident around 12 hours later, social media footage of the incident had gained little attention. Moscow said the alleged attack took place in the early hours of Wednesday. Two “unmanned aerial vehicles” were intercepted and destroyed before they caused any damage or injury, the Kremlin said. Ostorozhno Novosti/ReutersShortly after the first media reports, another video appearing to show the moment a drone exploded above the Kremlin began circulating widely on social media. In the video, the apparent drone seems to fly towards the building’s domed roof, followed by what looks like a small explosion.

☆ Finnish daily uses shooter videogame to dodge Russia's press restrictions
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Anne Kauranen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat Editor-in-Chief Antero Mukka presents a secret room within Counter-Strike video game, where his paper has hidden news about Russia?s war in Ukraine in Russian, in Helsinki, Finland May 2, 2023. REUTERS/Anne KauranenHELSINKI, May 3 (Reuters) - Finland's largest daily Helsingin Sanomat on Wednesday took its struggle against Russian media restrictions to a popular online videogame to mark world press freedom day. In response to Moscow's laws restricting press freedom in Russia, Helsingin Sanomat began publishing some of its Ukraine and Russia related news in Russian last year, only to see access from Russia to its content quickly restricted. The map conceals a secret room where the paper hid images and texts detailing the cruelties witnessed by its reporters and photographers in Ukraine during the war. Reporting by Anne Kauranen, editing by Ed OsmondOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Factbox: Kremlin drone incident: What do we know?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

[1/2] A still image taken from video shows a flying object approaching the dome of the Kremlin Senate building during the alleged Ukrainian drone attack in Moscow, Russia, in this image taken from video obtained by Reuters May 3, 2023. Ostorozhno Novosti/Handout via REUTERSMay 3 (Reuters) - Here's a look at what we know about the alleged overnight drone attack on the Kremlin, and the questions it raises. Russia called the incident a terrorist attack and an attempt to assassinate President Vladimir Putin, for which it said it reserved the right to retaliate. "We don't attack Putin, or Moscow, we fight on our territory," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told a press conference in Helsinki. The incident comes at a moment of high tension and a potential turning point in the war, as Ukraine prepares to mount a long-anticipated counter-offensive.

The Ukrainian president cited prior examples of battlefield successes that were followed by Ukraine being granted new types of military aid. I would rather it was the other way round, as it would be easier for us, but it is like it is, and we are grateful for everything," the Ukrainian president said. "But we like your aircraft, just so you know Mr President," Zelenskiy quipped. "We need security guarantees today, while we are not in NATO," Zelenskiy said. A spokesperson for Zelenskiy in a statement said the Ukrainian government expected the summit to result in a joint statement.

☆ Nordea Q1 profit tops forecast as interest rates rise
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

HELSINKI, April 27 (Reuters) - The Nordic region's biggest lender Nordea (NDAFI.HE) posted a larger than expected gain in first-quarter operating profits on Thursday, on the back of rising interest rates and despite weaker Nordic currencies. The rise in results followed a similar trend among other Nordic banks such as Swedish rival SEB (SEBa.ST), which on Wednesday beat market expectations and reported higher net interest income. The bank saw its net fee and commission income decline 8% year on year to 765 million euros. Net interest income climbed 35% to 1.77 billion euros. Nordea said individual net loan losses remained low despite the Nordic economies slowing and kept its management judgement buffer unchanged at 585 million euros.

☆ Opinion | American Road Deaths Show an Alarming Racial Gap
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Adam Paul Susaneck | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +15 min

The year before, pedestrian deaths reached a 40-year high. Pedestrian and cyclist injuries tend to be concentrated in poorer neighborhoods that have a larger share of Black and Hispanic residents. Roosevelt Boulevard North Philly High Injury Network West Philly 3 miles Percent Black and Hispanic 20 40 60 80% Washington D.C. Oslo and Helsinki, which adopted Vision Zero in the 1990s, recorded zero traffic deaths in 2019, and Helsinki had just two pedestrian deaths in 2021. In Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington, pedestrian deaths have actually risen since the adoption of Vision Zero.

☆ Russia seizes more Western assets, narrowing options for company exits
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

President Vladimir Putin late on Tuesday signed a decree establishing temporary control of the Russian assets of the two European state-owned energy firms. The decree - outlining possible retaliation if Russian assets abroad are seized - showed Moscow had already taken action against Uniper's (UN01.DE) Russian division Unipro (UPRO.MM) and Fortum's assets. The European Union is looking at using frozen Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine. "Fortum's current understanding is that the new decree does not affect the title (registered ownership) of the assets and companies in Russia," the company said in a statement. Rosimushchestvo said more foreign firms' assets could come under temporary Russian control.

☆ Russia’s war on Ukraine redrew the map of the sky – but not for Chinese airlines
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Xiaofei Xu | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

He told the newspaper that airlines flying over Russia were indirectly helping the Kremlin’s war effort. Safety implicationsVirgin's Richard Branson has called for a ban on Chinese airlines flying to Europe via Russian airspace. CNN has reached out to the three main state-owned Chinese airlines – Air China, China Eastern and China Southern – for comments. For now, Chinese airlines have yet to return to full pre-pandemic capacities. But as Chinese airlines gradually return to normal and the war in Ukraine continues to rage on, European airlines could potentially face more fierce challenges on routes between Europe and East or Southeast Asia, creating some interesting choices for passengers.

☆ 2 brothers got stuck for 2 days after American Airlines canceled their connecting flight and didn't offer any vouchers
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Derick Andrew and his brother were stranded in Dallas for two days after their flight was canceled. Two American Airlines passengers were left stranded for two days and had to pay for their own hotel and food after their connecting flight was canceled. The brothers, both 35, found out their flight got canceled when they got to Dallas Fort Worth International airport. "We were told unambiguously 'no,' that we would not get a refund for a flight canceled due to weather," Andrew told Insider. "I contacted AA through the app again and said regulation shows I should be reimbursed for the canceled flight and they said we could get a refund if we didn't rebook another flight."

☆ These are the 10 best destinations in the world for an eco-friendly vacation
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Celia Fernandez | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Rotterdam, Netherlands, is the best city for a sustainable vacation, according to a 2023 report from Kayak. Rotterdam, Netherlands Amsterdam, Netherlands Graz, Austria Trondheim, Norway Munich, Germany Helsinki, Finland Stockholm, Sweden Zurich, Switzerland Gothenburg, Sweden Vienna, AustriaRotterdam and Amsterdam, both in the Netherlands, took the No. The Netherlands city is the second-largest in the country and Europe's largest seaport. The city, known as "the Venice of the North," is now a designated UNESCO World Heritage site, thanks to its iconic canal district. The channels' design is considered an example of town planning that influenced the world for centuries, according to UNESCO.

☆ Lauri Markkanen: NBA star undertaking military service in Finland
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( George Ramsay | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Utah Jazz All-Star forward Lauri Markkanen is undertaking military service in Finland following the conclusion of his NBA season. He added that he doesn’t know exactly how long he will spend on military service over the coming months, explaining that he has the option to complete it across two summers. “I definitely don’t want it to affect the basketball part, so we’ll figure out how to do a combination,” said Markkanen. Markkanen starts his military service at the Finnish Defence Forces Sports School in Helsinki. CNN has contacted the Jazz and Markkanen’s representative for further comment on his military service.

☆ Russian spy ships suspected of gathering intelligence in Nordic waters, investigation finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Li-Lian Ahlskog Hou Allegra Goodwin Anna Chernova Vasco Cotovio | Li-Lian Ahlskog Hou | Allegra Goodwin | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Russia has a fleet of suspected spy ships operating in Nordic waters as part of a program for the potential sabotage of underwater cables and wind farms in the region, according to a joint investigation by the public broadcasters of Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. The investigation also said Russian ships appear suddenly following NATO exercises. One ship at the center of the investigation, the Admiral Vladimirsky, is officially used for underwater research expeditions, but is, according to the report, a Russian spy ship. A masked man emerged on the deck of the Admiral Vladimirsky, the ship at the center of an investigation that found a Russian fleet of suspected spy ships in Nordic waters. The investigation comes after Dutch intelligence officials warned Russia had tried to gain intelligence to prepare for the potential sabotage of critical infrastructure in their patch of the North sea.

☆ Factbox: Who is Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

April 17 (Reuters) - Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza was convicted of treason by a Moscow court on Monday and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Kara-Murza, 41, is a historian, journalist and opposition politician who holds Russian and British passports and studied in England at Cambridge University. He was a close associate of Boris Nemtsov, a leading opposition figure who was assassinated near the Kremlin in 2015, and continued to speak out against President Vladimir Putin despite the mounting risks. Twice, in 2015 and 2017, Kara-Murza suddenly fell ill in what he said were poisonings by the Russian security services, on both occasions falling into a coma before eventually recovering. Kara-Murza was arrested in April 2022, hours after CNN broadcast an interview in which he said Russia was being run by a "regime of murderers".

Search resuls for: "HELSINKI"

25 mentions found